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Gwilym and the Athena Lever Machine
Ever wonder where the expression "pulling a shot" comes from? Maybe not, but this is where; pulling the lever of a piston driven espresso extraction. The first espresso to have thick and persistent crema, heavy body, and a tasteful balance between acidity and sweetness, came from the lever design. At a time when the Italian infrastructure was mostly demolished, (1940) cafes needed a way to bring water to the espresso machine (previously steam driven espresso) when there was no running water. The solution, designed by Gagia, ( still a name in espresso equipment today) was to put the water pump right at the point of coffee delivery.
Cosimo Libardo and Lou Barba of Nuova Simonelli, traveling with Gwilym Davies, are presenting the Athena lever machine in the USA this week. I attended the event in Washington DC at the Counter Culture Coffee training center.
It is basically the same type of low tech water pump you see in old cowboy movies where the thirsty character has to drive a handle up and down to make the water flow. Simple enough, right? It is simple, very simply, so simple it is almost stupid. Purely by accident, this innovation implemented so many serendipitously positive characteristics that it becomes mind boggling. Here is a short list:
-The first espresso ever extracted above 2 or 3 bars of pressure, the lever delivers an average of about 9 bars along a declining graph of pressure over time, resulting in the first crema
-Drawing super heated water from the boiler into the piston chamber brings the temperature down to an appropriate range, with a descending temperature throughout the life of the shot
-Soft, slow, and gentle pre-infusion at 0 bars of pressure, which you can time as long or as short as you like
If you think about all the technological advances since this 1940 design, (electric pumps, double boilers, mechanical and electronic pre-infusion, gicleur regulated soft infusion, and pressure profiling), all seem directed at reproducing what this simple device does in a natural way. Let's have a peek:
It does all these same things, but in a way that is slightly different than what we have become accustomed to. It stabilizes temperature, but not in a flat line sort of way. The temperature starts high and dramatically drops; as much as 10 degrees F. It pressurizes, but again not in a flat line. Pressure starts out a phenomenal 11 bars, and dramatically drops as low as 7 bars. It pre-infuses, but with 0 pressure. The differences are such that you can't apply what you know from electronic machines. Pre-infusion is long, the shot itself can run very long, and you have to really go out of your way to channel or over extract. In fact, watching Baristas work on it for their first time, I was struck by how difficult it was for them to allow the shots to run 40 seconds or more. Second nature for them was to terminate the shots before they were fully developed (thinking they had already over extracted). Once you get the hang of it, however, you find that the high temps and pressure at the beginning coupled with low temps and pressure at the end will result in brilliant acidity balanced by intense sweetness.
Nuova Simonelli bought the Victoria Arduino brand a few years ago, and have retooled the design to include a heat exchanger (it was drawing right from the steam boiler before) and some other small tweaks. Cosimo is very intent about studying all aspects of their equipment in a scientific way, designing and redesigning equipment with the production of great tasting espresso always in mind.
I have always been drawn to low tech and old fashioned ways of doing things. My fascination lies with how problems were solved in such simple ways before humans had developed the incredible tech boom of the last 50 or 60 years. I am in love with this machine and the simple technology on which it works. With a gas flame, you can run this thing entirely without electricity. Wrap you bicycle chain around the drive shaft of your espresso grinder, and you have the total package.


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New Toyota C-HR 2021 pricing and specs detailed: Update makes Hyundai Kona, Mazda CX-30 rival dearer
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Style is the new weapon in Kia's war to win back buyers from an avalanche of fresh small-car rivals. It starts with the Cerato hatch, a heavily rejigged small car with more performance options that arrives here mid-year with the aim of clawing back some average sales results.
The neat Cerato sedan and hatch currently on the market have been no match for heavy hitters Corolla and Mazda3, let alone its sister Hyundai i30. Even the more expensive Subaru Impreza outsells Cerato.
This time Kia reckons it's got it right. The Cerato, shown this week at the biggest US motor show in Chicago, arrives in Australia as a hatchback in July that follows the April launch of the sedan equivalent. It sits on a 50mm longer wheelbase and is lower and wider than the current hatch.
Boot space is up to 422 litres, bigger than the i30 (378), Golf (350), Corolla (280) and Mazda3 (340) but less than Holden Cruze's 445 litres. Looking more like a mini-Optima at the front - indeed the Cerato sedan is almost a shrunken copy of Kia's biggest Australian-sold sedan - the hatch repeats the crisp styling and signature lines of the company's chief designer Peter Schreyer.
It has all the performance looks to justify Kia's 150kW/264Nm 1.6-litre direct-injection turbo-petrol engine - only 5kW/16Nm off the bigger 2-litre engine of the Golf GTI - but we won't get it. Kia Australia has knocked back this sparkling engine in favour of retaining the current model's 103kW 1.8-litre multi-point injection engine and a perkier 129kW 2-litre direct-injection petrol four.
This upgrades the current 2-litre engine's 115kW/194Nm output. The turbo-petrol engine - the same as fitted to the Hyundai Veloster Turbo - is hoped to be used here late this year as Kia Australia plans to import the Europe-sourced Procee'd GT hatch. Annoyingly, the US market has nabbed the turbo-petrol for the Cerato five-door hatch and displayed it at the Chicago motor show this week.
Kia Australia is not talking money. But it's fair to say it will start around the same level - say, $19,990 - because that's where its rivals such as Corolla and Pulsar are starting. At that money, dependent on equipment levels for which Kia are renowned, it'll be a strong buy.
The 2-litre engine is also bigger than the others so there's appeal from a performance base. The elephant in the room is the excellent i30 from parent company Hyundai that shares the Cerato's platform. But there's Kia's industry crunching five-year warranty and capped-price service program with roadside assistance. Strong arguments. But we have to see the car in Australia and with its sticker price to make the final call.
In the flesh it's crisp and distinctive. It's a pleasing car to look at and that'll appeal to buyers who appreciate a head turn. But it's not outrageous and not dated in its lines, so it should age well and that'll hold value. The cabin is pretty and appears workable. The car will keep its three model line-up of S, Si and SLi. Again, the proof is in what it looks like when it lands here.
The 2-litre engine's direct injection improves performance and lowers fuel consumption. Kia gets unique suspension tuning for Australia - incidentally, Hyundai do likewise but by a different mob - so the Cerato hatch should hang on through the bends. The rear suspension is by torsion beam and though not as sophisticated as the multi-link set up of Holden and Opel, is economical and allows for a bigger boot area.
No news but it's expected to be a five-star car with six airbags. It's the standard safety gear that gets fitted to the Australian cars which is unknown. A rear camera should be the minimum with lane-change monitor and even low-speed auto braking being desirable. In this sector though, it's all about price.
A very appealing package that offers good space in a relatively small car. Nice to see some power upgrades in the 2-litre which should make it a fun drive. The car isn't on the road - or even a carpark - yet.
Kia Cerato hatch
Price: est from $19,990
Warranty: 5 years/unlimited km, roadside assist
Resale: 53%
Service Interval: 12mths/15,000km, capped price
Safety: 6 airbags, ABS, ESC, EBD, TC
Crash rating: 5-star
Engine: 1.8 and 2-litre 4-cyl turbo-diesel, 103kW and 129kW
Transmission: 6 spd manual or auto; front drive
Thirst: est. 7.3L/100km; 192g/km CO2
Dimensions: 4.3m (L), 1.8m (W), 1.5m (H)
Weight: 1385kg
Spare: Full size
Toyota Corolla
Price: from $19,990
Engine: 1.8-litre, 4-cyl petrol, 103kW/173Nm
Transmission: CVT; front drive
Thirst: 6.6L/100km; CO2 152g/km
Toyota Corolla - see other Corolla verdicts
Mazda 3
Price: from $20,330
Engine: 2-litre, 4-cyl petrol, 108kW/182Nm
Transmission: 5-spd auto; front drive
Thirst: 8.2L/100km; CO2 216g/km
Mazda 3 - see other Mazda 3 verdicts
Holden Cruze
Price: from $21,490
Engine: 1.8-litre, 4-cyl petrol, 104kW/176Nm
Transmission: 6-speed auto; front drive
Thirst: 7.5L/100km; CO2 179g/km
Holden Cruze - see other Cruze verdicts
Toyota Australia has increased the C-HR's pricing as part of an...
As part of an update, Toyota Australia has increased the pricing of the most...

subset: commoncrawl


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East Lawn Funeral Home
Funeral Director/Embalmer Apprentice
Overview & Responsibilities:
SCI is certified as a Great Place to Work ® by the Great Place to Work Institute. In a recent survey, our associates said that their work has special meaning and is not "just a job". We currently have a full time opening for a Funeral Director/Embalmer, Apprentice at East Lawn Funeral Home in Bloomington, IL . This is the opportunity to be part of the Dignity Memorial® provider network and grow your career in the funeral, cremation and cemetery services business. For us, there is no greater responsibility than celebrating each life like no other and making a difference in the lives of people we serve.
This position interacts directly with client families during their time of need and is expected to assist the Funeral Director/Manager in creating and maintaining a premier level of client family satisfaction.
Requirements & Qualifications:
An ideal candidate has recently completed or currently enrolled in an accredited Mortuary Program
Desire for FT employment as an apprentice in a Funeral Director/Embalmer role
Excellent work history and good driving record
Ability to pass both the National Board exams and the State Funeral Board exams at the appropriate time
SCI Overview:
Who we are. What we do.
We're more than North America's largest provider of funeral, cremation and cemetery services. We are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sons and daughters who are devoted to the communities where we live and work. We are more than 20,000 dedicated individuals who provide caring assistance to families in need, honor veterans and public servants and deliver lifesaving programs to help keep children and seniors safe.
We operate under the umbrella of the Dignity Memorial network of 1,800 funeral homes and cemeteries. Dignity Memorial providers care for more than 300,000 families each year and understand the importance of thoughtful, personalized arrangements. We believe creating meaningful ways to pay tribute to a loved one begins with compassion and is shaped by the understanding that each life is truly unique. For us, there is no greater responsibility than honoring and preserving the story of one's life.
Benefits Options:
Health benefits (medical, dental, vision, life)
401K Retirement Savings Plan with company match
Vacation and sick time
Tuition reimbursement
Funeral discounts, and more
SCI offers advanced on-line training resources, career advancement opportunities in the largest organization in the industry, attractive benefits, and a wonderful community to serve with plenty of culture and personality. For additional information regarding our company, please visit our corporate site at www.sci-corp.com.
As used herein, "SCI" refers to Service Corporation International and its affiliated companies.
Equal Opportunity Employer, M/F/D/
East Lawn Funeral Home
James Houghton - email@example.com
Sydney Redmon - firstname.lastname@example.com


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Shrine - Ordeal 26.04.86 (2016)
- Details
- Published on Wednesday, 26 October 2016 16:33
Band: Shrine
Album title: Ordeal 26.04.86
Release date: 26 October 2016
Label: Cyclic Law
Shrine has returned with his third release on Cyclic Law. Shrine has always been a dark ambient artist who incorporates mind-bending soundscapes, field recordings, haunting voices, into his music. But never before has he brought the full project into such focus as he has this time around. With Ordeal 26.04.86, Shrine brings the music to a very specific focus, on a certain time, place, and event. Ordeal 26.04.86 covers the devastation that occurred at Chernobyl on that forsaken day of April in Soviet Russia. The nuclear meltdown that occurred at Chernobyl and would quickly leave the entire surrounding region, including the city of Pripyat, in a state of post-apocalyptic slumber, occurred on this day and would go on to be one of the greatest nuclear disasters to yet face our planet, with few incidents rivaling its magnitude.
Read a full review HERE


text:
Google dominates the online space. Google is often our homepage and the first place we go to when we open a web browser. We use Google Web Search when we're looking for something on the Web. We use GMail to read and write email. We use Google Maps to get directions or find the nearest […]
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Google's Trading Floor
Aug 30 2007


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Jobs, jobs, jobs at USCCA Delta Defense LLC
Author: Judy Steffes | Posted in Jobs, Washington County, West Bend No comments
West Bend, WI – One of West Bend's premier companies, Delta Defense LLC, is growing and needs great people to join the team! You may have seen the new Delta Defense building going up in West Bend or maybe you've simply seen us around town.
Over the next year, Delta Defense is looking to hire 20+ people including Customer Service and Sales professionals to join our award-winning company.
If you're looking for a fun, fast-paced and growth-oriented position, apply today.
Candidates interested in Sales and Customer Service positions should apply by clicking HERE.
Serious candidates only!


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The hundred-foot white cross atop the Immanuel Baptist Church in downtown Wichita, Kan., casts a shadow over a neighborhood of payday lenders, pawnbrokers and pornographic video stores. To its parishioners, this has long been the front line of the culture war. Immanuel has stood for Southern Baptist traditionalism for more than half a century. Until recently, its pastor, Terry Fox, was the Jerry Falwell of the Sunflower State — the public face of the conservative Christian political movement in a place where that made him a very big deal.
With flushed red cheeks and a pudgy, dimpled chin, Fox roared down from Immanuel's pulpit about the wickedness of abortion, evolution and homosexuality. He mobilized hundreds of Kansas pastors to push through a state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, helping to unseat a handful of legislators in the process. His Sunday-morning services reached tens of thousands of listeners on regional cable television, and on Sunday nights he was a host of a talk-radio program, "Answering the Call." Major national conservative Christian groups like Focus on the Family lauded his work, and the Southern Baptist Convention named him chairman of its North American Mission Board.
For years, Fox flaunted his allegiance to the Republican Party, urging fellow pastors to make the same "confession" and calling them "sissies" if they didn't. "We are the religious right," he liked to say. "One, we are religious. Two, we are right."
His congregation, for the most part, applauded. Immanuel and Wichita's other big churches were seedbeds of the conservative Christian activism that burst forth three decades ago. In the 1980s, when theological conservatives pushed the moderates out of the Southern Baptist Convention, Immanuel and Fox were both at the forefront. In 1991, when Operation Rescue brought its "Summer of Mercy" abortion protests to Wichita, Immanuel's parishioners leapt to the barricades, helping to establish the city as the informal capital of the anti-abortion movement. And Fox's confrontational style packed ever more like-minded believers into the pews. He more than doubled Immanuel's official membership to more than 6,000 and planted the giant cross on its roof.
So when Fox announced to his flock one Sunday in August last year that it was his final appearance in the pulpit, the news startled evangelical activists from Atlanta to Grand Rapids. Fox told the congregation that he was quitting so he could work full time on "cultural issues." Within days, The Wichita Eagle reported that Fox left under pressure. The board of deacons had told him that his activism was getting in the way of the Gospel. "It just wasn't pertinent," Associate Pastor Gayle Tenbrook later told me.
Fox, who is 47, said he saw some impatient shuffling in the pews, but he was stunned that the church's lay leaders had turned on him. "They said they were tired of hearing about abortion 52 weeks a year, hearing about all this political stuff!" he told me on a recent Sunday afternoon. "And these were deacons of the church!"
These days, Fox has taken his fire and brimstone in search of a new pulpit. He rented space at the Johnny Western Theater at the Wild West World amusement park until it folded. Now he preaches at a Best Western hotel. "I don't mind telling you that I paid a price for the political stands I took," Fox said. "The pendulum in the Christian world has swung back to the moderate point of view. The real battle now is among evangelicals."
Fox is not the only conservative Christian to feel the heat of those battles, even in — of all places — Wichita. Within three months of his departure, the two other most influential conservative Christian pastors in the city had left their pulpits as well. And in the silence left by their voices, a new generation of pastors distinctly suspicious of the Republican Party — some as likely to lean left as right — is beginning to speak up.
Just three years ago, the leaders of the conservative Christian political movement could almost see the Promised Land. White evangelical Protestants looked like perhaps the most potent voting bloc in America. They turned out for President George W. Bush in record numbers, supporting him for re-election by a ratio of four to one. Republican strategists predicted that religious traditionalists would help bring about an era of dominance for their party. Spokesmen for the Christian conservative movement warned of the wrath of "values voters." James C. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, was poised to play kingmaker in 2008, at least in the Republican primary. And thanks to President Bush, the Supreme Court appeared just one vote away from answering the prayers of evangelical activists by overturning Roe v. Wade.
Today the movement shows signs of coming apart beneath its leaders. It is not merely that none of the 2008 Republican front-runners come close to measuring up to President Bush in the eyes of the evangelical faithful, although it would be hard to find a cast of characters more ill fit for those shoes: a lapsed-Catholic big-city mayor; a Massachusetts Mormon; a church-skipping Hollywood character actor; and a political renegade known for crossing swords with the Rev. Pat Robertson and the Rev. Jerry Falwell. Nor is the problem simply that the Democratic presidential front-runners — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Senator Barack Obama and former Senator John Edwards — sound like a bunch of tent-revival Bible thumpers compared with the Republicans.
The 2008 election is just the latest stress on a system of fault lines that go much deeper. The phenomenon of theologically conservative Christians plunging into political activism on the right is, historically speaking, something of an anomaly. Most evangelicals shrugged off abortion as a Catholic issue until after the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. But in the wake of the ban on public-school prayer, the sexual revolution and the exodus to the suburbs that filled the new megachurches, protecting the unborn became the rallying cry of a new movement to uphold the traditional family. Now another confluence of factors is threatening to tear the movement apart. The extraordinary evangelical love affair with Bush has ended, for many, in heartbreak over the Iraq war and what they see as his meager domestic accomplishments. That disappointment, in turn, has sharpened latent divisions within the evangelical world — over the evangelical alliance with the Republican Party, among approaches to ministry and theology, and between the generations.
The founding generation of leaders like Falwell and Dobson, who first guided evangelicals into Republican politics 30 years ago, is passing from the scene. Falwell died in the spring. Paul Weyrich, 65, the indefatigable organizer who helped build Falwell's Moral Majority and much of the rest of the movement, is confined to a wheelchair after losing his legs because of complications from a fall. Dobson, who is 71 and still vigorous, is already planning for a succession at Focus on the Family; it is expected to tack toward the less political family advice that is its bread and butter.
The engineers of the momentous 1980s takeover that expunged political and theological moderates from the Southern Baptist Convention are retiring or dying off, too. And in September, when I called a spokesman for the ailing Presbyterian televangelist D. James Kennedy, another pillar of the Christian conservative movement, I learned that Kennedy had "gone home to the Lord" at 2 a.m. that morning.
Meanwhile, a younger generation of evangelical pastors — including the widely emulated preachers Rick Warren and Bill Hybels — are pushing the movement and its theology in new directions. There are many related ways to characterize the split: a push to better this world as well as save eternal souls; a focus on the spiritual growth that follows conversion rather than the yes-or-no moment of salvation; a renewed attention to Jesus' teachings about social justice as well as about personal or sexual morality. However conceived, though, the result is a new interest in public policies that address problems of peace, health and poverty — problems, unlike abortion and same-sex marriage, where left and right compete to present the best answers.
The backlash on the right against Bush and the war has emboldened some previously circumspect evangelical leaders to criticize the leadership of the Christian conservative political movement. "The quickness to arms, the quickness to invade, I think that caused a kind of desertion of what has been known as the Christian right," Hybels, whose Willow Creek Association now includes 12,000 churches, told me over the summer. "People who might be called progressive evangelicals or centrist evangelicals are one stirring away from a real awakening."
The generational and theological shifts in the evangelical world are turning the next election into a credibility test for the conservative Christian establishment. The current Republican front-runner in national polls, Rudolph W. Giuliani, could hardly be less like their kind of guy: twice divorced, thrice married, estranged from his children and church and a supporter of legalized abortion and gay rights. Alarmed at the continued strength of his candidacy, Dobson and a group of about 50 evangelical Christians leaders agreed last month to back a third party if Giuliani becomes the Republican nominee. But polls show that Giuliani is the most popular candidate among white evangelical voters. He has the support, so far, of a plurality if not a majority of conservative Christians. If Giuliani captures the nomination despite the threat of an evangelical revolt, it will be a long time before Republican strategists pay attention to the demands of conservative Christian leaders again. And if the Democrats capitalize on the current demoralization to capture a larger share of evangelical votes, the credibility damage could be just as severe.
"There was a time when evangelical churches were becoming largely and almost exclusively the Republican Party at prayer," said Marvin Olasky, the editor of the evangelical magazine World and an informal adviser to George W. Bush when he was governor. "To some extent — we have to see how much — the Republicans have blown it. That opportunity to lock up that constituency has vanished. The ball now really is in the Democrats' court."
I covered the Christian conservative movement for The New York Times during the 2004 election, at the moment of its greatest triumph. To the bewilderment of many even in the upper reaches of his own party, Karl Rove bet President Bush's re-election on boosting the conservative Christian turnout, contending that Bush lost the popular vote in 2000 because four million of those voters stayed home. President Bush missed few opportunities to remind evangelicals that he was one of them — and they got the message.
I bowed my head in a good number of swing-state churches in 2004. I saw the passion Bush aroused among theologically orthodox Protestants. And I got to know many of the most influential conservative Christian leaders, most of whom threw themselves into urging their constituents to the polls.
Now, as the 2008 campaign heated up in the months before the first primaries, I wondered how the world was looking from the pulpits and pews. And so I went to Wichita, as close as any place to the heart of conservative Christian America. Wichita has a long history of religious crusades. A hundred years ago, Carrie Nation made her name smashing up Wichita's bars. More recently, the presence of Dr. George Tiller, a specialist in late-term abortions, has kept anti-abortion passions high, attracting Operation Rescue to Wichita for the Summer of Mercy protests in 1991. Two years later, a lone activist shot and wounded Dr. Tiller. Evolution, the flash point that split mainline and evangelical Protestants in the early 20th century, is still hotly debated in Wichita. The Kansas school board has reversed itself on the subject again and again in recent years.
At the same time, Wichita is also a decent proxy for plenty of other blue-collar but socially conservative places like Allentown, Pa., and Columbus, Ohio — the swing districts of the swing states that decide elections. A center of aerospace manufacturing, Wichita was a union town and a Democratic stronghold for much of the last century. But all that changed when the conservative Christian movement took root in its suburban megachurches three decades ago, turning theological traditionalists into Republican activists. That story was the centerpiece of the liberal writer Thomas Frank's 2004 book, "What's the Matter With Kansas?" He might have called it "What's the Matter With Wichita?"
I arrived just in time for the annual Fourth of July Patriotic Celebration at the 7,000-member Central Christian Church, where Independence Day is second only to Christmas. Thousands of people drove back to the church Sunday evening for a pageant of prayers, songs, a flag ceremony and an American history quiz pitting kids against their parents. "In God We Still Trust" was the theme of the event. "You place your hand on this Bible when you swear to tell the truth," two men sang in the opening anthem.
"There's no separation; we're one nation under Him."
"There are those among us who want to push Him out And erase
His name from everything this country's all about.
From the schoolhouse to the courthouse, they are silencing
His word Now it's time for all believers to make our voices heard."
Later, as a choir in stars-and-stripes neckties and scarves belted out "Stars and Stripes Forever," a cluster of men in olive military fatigues took the stage carrying a flag. They lifted the pole to a 45-degree angle and froze in place around it: a re-enactment of the famous photograph of the American triumph at Iwo Jima. The narrator of a preceding video montage had already set the stage by comparing the Iwo Jima flag raising to another long-ago turning point in a "fierce battle for the hearts of men" — the day 2,000 years ago when "a heavy cross was lifted up on top of the mount called Golgotha."
A battle flag as the crucifixion: the church rose to a standing ovation.
There was one conspicuous omission from the Patriotic Celebration: any mention of President Bush or the Iraq war. The only reference to the president was a single image in a video montage. Bush was standing with Donald Rumsfeld, head bowed at a grave in Arlington National Cemetery.
Every time I visited an evangelical church in 2004, it seemed that a member's brother or cousin had just returned from Iraq with reports that much greater progress was being made than the news media let on. The admiration for President Bush as a man of faith was nearly universal, and some talked of his contest with John Kerry as a spiritual battle. It would have been hard to overstate the Christian conservative leadership's sense of the presidential race's historical significance. In the days before the election, Dobson told me he believed the culture war was "rapidly approaching the climax, with everything that we are about on the line" and the election might be "the pivot point."
The morning after the Republican triumph, a White House operative called Dobson to thank him personally for his support, as Dobson told me in conversation later that day. He bluntly told the operative that the Bush campaign owed his victory in large part to concerned Christian voters. He warned that God had given the nation only "a short reprieve" from its impending "self-destruction." If the administration slighted its conservative Christian supporters, most importantly in filling Supreme Court vacancies, Dobson continued, Republicans would "pay a price in four years."
On that front, at least, Bush has not disappointed. President Bush's two appointees, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., have given Dobson and his allies much to be thankful for. Nor has Bush flinched from any politically feasible Christian conservative goal, even when it has been unpopular. He has blocked federal financing for embryonic stem-cell research and intervened to help keep Terri Schiavo on life support. But of course there were moments when the White House seemed to care more about Social Security reform, and in the end the culture did not change.
Today the president's support among evangelicals, still among his most loyal constituents, has crumbled. Once close to 90 percent, the president's approval rating among white evangelicals has fallen to a recent low below 45 percent, according to polls by the Pew Research Center. White evangelicals under 30 — the future of the church — were once Bush's biggest fans; now they are less supportive than their elders. And the dissatisfaction extends beyond Bush. For the first time in many years, white evangelical identification with the Republican Party has dipped below 50 percent, with the sharpest falloff again among the young, according to John C. Green, a senior fellow at Pew and an expert on religion and politics. (The defectors by and large say they've become independents, not Democrats, according to the polls.)
Some claim the falloff in support for Bush reflects the unrealistic expectations pumped up by conservative Christian leaders. But no one denies the war is a factor. Christianity Today, the evangelical journal, has even posed the question of whether evangelicals should "repent" for their swift support of invading Iraq.
"Even in evangelical circles, we are tired of the war, tired of the body bags," the Rev. David Welsh, who took over late last year as senior pastor of Wichita's large Central Christian Church, told me. "I think it is to the point where they are saying: 'O.K., we have done as much good as we can. Now let's just get out of there.' "
Welsh, who favors pressed khaki pants and buttoned-up polo shirts, is a staunch conservative, a committed Republican and, personally, a politics junkie. But he told me he was wary of talking too much about politics or public affairs around the church because his congregation was so divided over the war in Iraq.
Welsh said he considered himself among those who still support the president. "I think he is a good man," Welsh said, slowly. "He has a heart, a spiritual heart."
But like most of the people I met at Wichita's evangelical churches, his support for Bush sounded more than a little agonized — closer to sympathy than admiration. "Bush may not have the best people around him," he added, delicately. "He may not have made the best decisions. He is in a quagmire right now and maybe doesn't know how to get out. Because to pull out now would say, 'I was wrong from the very beginning.' "
Some were less ambivalent. "We know we want to get rid of Bush," Linda J. Hogle, a product demonstrator at Sam's Club, told me when I asked her about the 2008 election at her evangelical church's Fourth of July picnic.
"I am glad he can't run again," agreed her friend, Floyd Willson. Hogle and Willson both voted for President Bush in 2004. Both are furious at the war and are looking to vote for a Democrat next year. "Upwards of a thousand boys that have been needlessly killed, it is all just politics," Willson said.
The 16-million-member Southern Baptist Convention — the core of the evangelical movement — may be rethinking its relationship with the Republican Party, too. Three years ago, I attended its annual meeting in Indianapolis and tagged along as the denomination's former president and several of its leaders invited the assembled pastors across a walkway to an adjacent hotel for a Bush-Cheney campaign "pastors' reception."
Over soft drinks, Ralph Reed, the former Christian Coalition director then working for the Bush campaign, told the pastors just how far they could go for the campaign without jeopardizing their churches' tax-exempt status. Among the suggestions: "host a citizenship Sunday for voter registration," "identify someone who will help in voter registration and outreach" or organize a " 'party for the president' with other pastors."
Republicans should not expect that kind of treatment from Southern Baptists again any time soon. In June of last year, in one of the few upsets since conservatives consolidated their hold on the denomination 20 years ago, the establishment's hand-picked candidates — well-known national figures in the convention — lost the internal election for the convention's presidency. The winner, Frank Page of First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C., campaigned on a promise to loosen up the conservatives' tight control. He told convention delegates that Southern Baptists had become known too much for what they were against (abortion, evolution, homosexuality) instead of what they stand for (the Gospel). "I believe in the word of God," he said after his election, "I am just not mad about it." (It's a formulation that comes up a lot in evangelical circles these days.)
I asked Page about the Bush-Cheney reception at the 2004 convention. He sounded appalled. "That will not be happening with me," he said, repeating it for emphasis. "I have cautioned our denomination to be very careful not to be seen as in lock step with any political party."
Southern Baptists called their denomination's turn to the right the "conservative resurgence," meaning both a crackdown on unorthodox doctrine and a corresponding expulsion of political moderates. Page said he considered his election "a clear sign" that rank-and-file Southern Baptists felt the "conservative ascendancy has gone far enough."
Page is meeting personally with all the leading presidential candidates in both parties — Republican and Democrat. (His home state of South Carolina is holding an early primary.) But unlike some of his predecessors, he won't endorse any of them, he said.
"Most of us Southern Baptists are right-wing Republicans," he added. "But we also recognize that times change." For example, Page said Christians should be wary of Republican ties to "big business."
Elders like Dobson say the movement has been through doldrums before. Think of the face-off between the Republican Bob Dole and President Bill Clinton in the 1996 election. Dobson later said he had cast his ballot for a third party rather than vote for a moderate like Dole. But then, it was defeat that sapped morale; today, it is victory. Some younger evangelical conservatives say they are fighting just to keep their movement together. (Dobson told me he was too busy to comment for this article.)
The Rev. Rick Scarborough — founder of the advocacy organization Vision America, author of a book called "Liberalism Kills Kids" and at 57 an aspiring successor to Falwell or Dobson — has been barnstorming the country on what he calls a "Seventy Weeks to Save America Tour."
"We are somewhat in disarray right now," he told me, beginning a familiar story. "As a 26-year-old man, I heard there was a born-again Christian from Georgia running for president." Millions of evangelicals turned out for the first time in 1976 to vote for Jimmy Carter. But then, the story goes, his support for feminism and abortion rights sent them running the other way.
"The first time I voted was for Carter," Scarborough recalled. "The second time was for 'anybody but Carter,' because he had betrayed everything I hold dear.
"Unfortunately," Scarborough concluded, "there is the same feeling in our community right now with George Bush. He appeared so right and so good. He talked a good game about family values around election time. But there has been a failure to follow through."
For the conservative Christian leadership, what is most worrisome about the evangelical disappointment with President Bush is that it coincides with a widening philosophical rift. Ever since they broke with the mainline Protestant churches nearly 100 years ago, the hallmark of evangelicals theology has been a vision of modern society as a sinking ship, sliding toward depravity and sin. For evangelicals, the altar call was the only life raft — a chance to accept Jesus Christ, rebirth and salvation. Falwell, Dobson and their generation saw their political activism as essentially defensive, fighting to keep traditional moral codes in place so their children could have a chance at the raft.
But many younger evangelicals — and some old-timers — take a less fatalistic view. For them, the born-again experience of accepting Jesus is just the beginning. What follows is a long-term process of "spiritual formation" that involves applying his teachings in the here and now. They do not see society as a moribund vessel. They talk more about a biblical imperative to fix up the ship by contributing to the betterment of their communities and the world. They support traditional charities but also public policies that address health care, race, poverty and the environment.
Older evangelical traditionalists like Prof. David Wells of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary near Boston argue that the newer approaches represent a "capitulation" to the broader culture — similar to the capitulation that in his view led the mainline churches into decline. Proponents of the new evangelicalism, on the other hand, say their broader agenda reflects a frustration with the scarce victories in the culture war and revulsion at the moral entanglements of partisan alliances (Abu Ghraib, Jack Abramoff). Scot McKnight, an evangelical theologian at North Park University in Chicago, said, "It is the biggest change in the evangelical movement at the end of the 20th century, a new kind of Christian social conscience."
Secular sociologists say evangelicals' changing view of society reflects their changing place in it. Once trailing in education and income, evangelicals have caught up over the last 40 years. "The social-issues arguments are the first manifestation of a rural outlook transposed into a more urban or suburban setting," John Green, of the Pew Research Center, told me. "Now having been there for a while, that kind of hard-edged politics no longer appeals to them. They still care about abortion and gay marriage, but they are also interested in other, more middle-class arguments."
Some rebellious evangelical pastors and theologians of the new school refer to themselves as the emergent church. Others who are less openly rebellious but share a similar approach point to the examples of Rick Warren and Bill Hybels. "What Warren and Hybels are doing is reshaping the perception of what it means to be a Christian in our country and our world," McKnight says.
Warren and Hybels are also highly entrepreneurial. Each has built a network of thousands of mostly evangelical churches that rely on their ministries for sermon ideas, worship plans or audio-video materials to enliven services. As a result, their influence may rival that of any denominational leader in the country.
Warren, pastor of the Saddleback church in Lake Forest, Calif., is the author of the best seller "The Purpose Driven Life." His church has sold materials to thousands of other churches for "campaigns" called 40 Days of Purpose and, more recently, 40 Days of Community. If more Christians worked to alleviate needs in their local communities, he suggests in the church's promotional materials, "the church would become known more for the love it shows than for what it is against" a thinly veiled dig at the conservative Christian "culture war."
Warren is clearly a theological and cultural conservative. Before the 2004 election, he wrote a letter to other pastors emphasizing the need to combat abortion rights and same-sex marriage. But these days Warren talks much more often about fighting AIDS and poverty. He raised hackles among conservatives last year by having Barack Obama give a speech at his church. And he also came under fire last year when he traveled to Damascus, Syria, where he implicitly criticized the Bush administration for refusing to talk with unfriendly nations.
"Isolation and silence has never solved conflict," he said in a press release defending his trip.
Hybels, founder of the Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago, is very possibly the single-most-influential pastor in America; in the last 15 years, his Willow Creek Association has grown to include more than 12,000 churches. Many invite their staff members and lay leaders to participate by telecast in Willow Creek's annual leadership conferences, creating a virtual gathering of tens of thousands. Dozens of churches in Wichita, including Central Christian and other past bastions of conservative activism, are part of the association.
As his stature has grown, Hybels has seemed more willing to irk Christian conservative political leaders — and even some in his own congregation. He set off a furor a few years ago when he invited former President Bill Clinton to speak at one of his conferences. And the Iraq war has brought into sharp relief Hybels's differences with conservatives like Dobson.
Most conservative Christian leaders have resolutely supported Bush's foreign policy. Dobson and others have even talked about defending Western civilization from radical Islam as a precondition for protecting family values. But on the eve of the Iraq invasion, Hybels preached a sermon called "Why War?" Laying out three approaches to war — realism, just-war theory and pacifism — he implored members of his congregation to re-examine their own thinking and then try to square it with the Bible. In the process, he left little doubt about where he personally stood. He called himself a pacifist.
Hybels traced the "J curve" of mounting deaths from war through the centuries. "In case you are wondering about this, wonder how God feels about all this," he said. "It breaks the heart of God."
At his annual leadership conference this summer, Hybels interviewed former President Jimmy Carter. To some Christian conservatives, it was quite a provocation. Carter, after all, was their first great disappointment, a Southern Baptist who denounced the conservative takeover and an early critic of the Bush administration. Some pastors canceled plans to attend.
"I think that a superpower ought to be the exemplification of a commitment to peace," Carter told Hybels, who nodded along. "I would like for anyone in the world that's threatened with conflict to say to themselves immediately: 'Why don't we go to Washington? They believe in peace and they will help us get peace.' " Carter added: "This is just a simple but important extrapolation from what a human being ought to do, and what a human being ought to do is what Jesus Christ did, who was a champion of peace."
In a conversation I had with him, Hybels told me he considered politics a path to "heartache and disappointment" for a Christian leader. But he also described the message of his Willow Creek Association to its member churches in terms that would warm a liberal's heart.
"We have just pounded the drum again and again that, for churches to reach their full redemptive potential, they have to do more than hold services — they have to try to transform their communities," he said. "If there is racial injustice in your community, you have to speak to that. If there is educational injustice, you have to do something there. If the poor are being neglected by the government or being oppressed in some way, then you have to stand up for the poor."
In the past, Hybels has scrupulously avoided criticizing conservative Christian political figures like Falwell or Dobson. But in my talk with him, he argued that the leaders of the conservative Christian political movement had lost touch with their base. "The Indians are saying to the chiefs, 'We are interested in more than your two or three issues,' " Hybels said. "We are interested in the poor, in racial reconciliation, in global poverty and AIDS, in the plight of women in the developing world."
He brought up the Rev. Jim Wallis, the lonely voice of the tiny evangelical left. Wallis has long argued that secular progressives could make common cause with theologically conservative Christians. "What Jim has been talking about is coming to fruition," Hybels said.
Conservative Christian leaders in Washington acknowledge a "leftward drift" among evangelicals, said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council and the movement's chief advocate in Washington. He told me he believed that Hybels and many of his admirers had, in effect, fallen away from orthodox evangelical theology. Perkins compared the phenomenon to the century-old division in American Protestantism between the liberal mainline and the orthodox evangelical churches. "It is almost like another split coming within the evangelicals," he said.
Wondering how those theological and political debates were unfolding in conservative Wichita, I sought out the Rev. Gene Carlson, another prominent conservative Christian pastor who left his church last year. He spent four decades as the senior pastor of the Westlink Christian Church, expanding it to 7,000 members. He was one of the most important local leaders of the Summer of Mercy abortion protests. He tapped Westlink's collection plate to help finance its operations and even led a battalion of about 40 clergy members and hundreds of lay people to jail in an act of civil disobedience.
Sitting with his wife in a quiet living room with teddy bears on the bookshelves, Carlson, who is 70, told me he is one member of the movement's founding generation who has had second thoughts. He said he still considers abortion evil. He called the anti-abortion protests "prophetic," in the sense of the Old Testament prophets who warned of God's wrath. But Carlson was blunt about the results. "It didn't really change abortion," he said.
"I thought in my enthusiasm," he told me with a smile, "that somehow we could band together and change things politically and everything will be fine." But the closing of Dr. Tiller's clinic was fleeting. Electing Christian politicians never seemed to change much. "When you mix politics and religion," Carlson said, "you get politics."
In more recent battles, Carlson has hung back. On the Sunday before the referendum on a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, Carlson reminded his congregation that homosexuality was hardly the only form of sex the Bible condemned. Any extramarital sex is a sin, he told his congregation, so they should not point fingers.
"We wouldn't want to exclude some group because we thought their sin was worse than ours," Carlson told me with a laugh.
Carlson is a registered Republican, though he now considers himself an independent. He volunteered that he now leans left on some social-welfare issues and the environment. He considers himself among the "green evangelicals" who see a biblical mandate for government action to stop global warming. The Westlink church is another member of Hybels's Willow Creek Association and a satellite location for telecasts of the annual leadership conference. Carlson said he admired Hybels for "challenging some of the sacred cows that we evangelicals have built."
"There is this sense that the personal Gospel is what evangelicals believe and the social Gospel is what liberal Christians believe," Carlson said, "and, you know, there is only one Gospel that has both social and personal dimensions to it." He once felt lonely among evangelicals for taking that approach, he told me. "Now it is a growing phenomenon," he said.
"The religious right peaked a long time ago," he added. "As a historical, sociological phenomenon, it has seen its heyday. Something new is coming."
These days, Westlink has found less confrontational ways to oppose abortion, mainly by helping to pay for a medical center called Choices. Housed in a cozy-looking white-shingled cottage next to Dr. Tiller's bunkerlike abortion facility, Choices discourages women from ending pregnancies by offering 3-D ultrasound scans and adoption advice.
Carlson's protégé and successor, Todd Carter, 42, said: "I don't believe the problem of abortion will be solved by overturning Roe v. Wade. It won't. To me, it is a Gospel issue."
The Rev. Joe Wright, the longtime senior pastor who built Central Christian to 7,000 members, was the third leading pastor in Wichita to step down at the end of last year. He is a tall, heavy man, and he embraced me in a sweaty bear hug the first time we met, at a local chain restaurant.
Wright, who is 64, had been another leader of the Operation Mercy protests. But unlike Carlson, he plunged further into conservative politics, eventually as a host of the radio show "Answering the Call," with Fox. They spent months together traveling the state and lobbying the Statehouse during the same-sex marriage fight.
Wright retired in good standing with his congregation, but he told me the political battle had taken a toll.
"On Sunday morning when I would mention it, there were people who would hang their heads and say, 'Oh, here we go again,' " he said. "And then, of course, some of them wouldn't come back."
Wright said he was worried about theological and political trends among young evangelicals, even in Kansas. "If we had to depend on the young evangelical pastors to get us a marriage amendment here in Kansas it never would have happened," Wright said.
He went on to say he was dismayed to feel resistance to his political sermons and voter-registration drives from younger associate pastors at his own church, some of whom moved elsewhere. (Some of his parishioners had already told me the same thing, separately.)
"Even in the groups I travel in and grew up in — the preachers who are from the same background I was in, who run in the same circles I ran in, who went to the same schools I did — I don't find many young evangelical preachers who are willing to stand up and take a stand on the hard issues, because they think they might offend somebody," he said.
"I think the Gospel is offensive, and I think the cross is offensive," Wright continued. "I think Jesus loved everybody and I think he loved the Pharisees, but he certainly told them how the cow eats the cabbage."
Paul Hill is one of the young associate pastors who left Central Christian after philosophical clashes with Wright. He took a band of young members with him when he started his own emergent-style church, the Wheatland Mission. "Even in Wichita, times have changed," Hill said. "I think people will hear the Gospel better when it is expressed not just verbally but holistically, through acts of hospitality and by bringing people together.
"In the evangelical church in general there is kind of a push back against the Republican party and a feeling of being used by the Republican political machine," he continued. "There are going to be a lot of evangelicals willing to vote for a Democrat because there are 40 million people without health insurance and a Democrat is going to do something about that."
With Wright, Carlson and Fox out of the spotlight, new religious leaders are stepping to the fore. When legalized gambling was proposed in the Wichita area this year, the pastor who took the lead in rallying other clergy members to stop the measure was Michael Gardner of the First United Methodist Church, a mainline liberal who supports abortion rights and jousted with Fox over the same-sex marriage amendment on competing church telecasts.
After decades when evangelical megachurches have exploded at the expense of dwindling mainline congregations, Gardner is poaching the other way. Each Sunday night he convenes an informal emergent church worship group of his own, known as Next Wichita. Several dozen people, mostly 20 to 30 years old, show up to break bread, talk Scripture and plan volunteer projects. "People in that age group are much more attracted to participatory theology, very resistant to being told what to do or what to think," he said.
Patrick Bergquist, a former associate pastor at a local evangelical church who as a child attended Immanuel Baptist, became a regular. "From a theological standpoint, I am an evangelical," Bergquist, who is 28, explained to me. "But I don't mean that anyone who is gay is necessarily going to hell, or that anyone who has an abortion is going to hell." After a life of voting Republican, he said, he recently made a small contribution to the Democratic presidential campaign of Barack Obama.
"Is the religious right dead?" Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council told me that question was the title of the first chapter of a new book he is writing with Harry Jackson, a socially conservative African-American pastor.
Perkins's answer is emphatically no — "we are seeing a lot of pastors coming back like never before" — but the 2008 election is the movement's first big test since the triumph and letdown with President Bush. And so far most Christian conservative leaders do not like what they see. Although all the Republican primary candidates, including Giuliani, spoke at the Family Research Council's "values voters" meeting last weekend, only the dark horses have consistent conservative records on abortion, gay rights and religion in public life.
Of these, Mike Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister before he became governor of Arkansas, stands out in the polls and in his rhetoric. At last fall's values-voters meetings, the other candidates focused on establishing their Christian conservative credentials. Huckabee dispensed with that by reminding his audience of his years as a pastor. Then he challenged the crowd to give more money to their churches and talked about education and health care. On the campaign trail, he criticizes chief executives' pay and says his faith demands environmental regulation. "We shouldn't allow a child to live under a bridge or in the back seat of a car," Huckabee said in a recent debate. "We shouldn't be satisfied that elderly people are being abused or neglected in nursing homes."
Huckabee told me that he welcomed a broadening of the evangelical political agenda. "You can't just say 'respect life' exclusively in the gestation period," he said, repeating a campaign theme.
But the leaders of the Christian conservative movement have not rallied to him. Many say he cannot win because he has not raised enough money. Perkins and others have criticized Huckabee for taking too soft an approach to the Middle East. Others worry that his record on taxes will anger allies on the right. And some Christian conservatives take his "gestation period" line as a slight to their movement.
"They finally have the soldier they have been waiting for, and they shouldn't send me out into the battlefield without supplies," Huckabee told me in exasperation. He argued that the movement's leaders would "become irrelevant" if they started putting political viability or low taxes ahead of their principles about abortion and marriage.
"In biblical terms, it is like the salt losing its flavor; it's sand," Huckabee said. "Some of them have spent too long in Washington. . . . I think they are going to have a hard time going out into the pews and saying tax policy is what Jesus is about, that he said, 'Come unto me all you who are overtaxed and I will give you rest.' "
Up to this point, though, most conservative Christian leaders are still locked in debate about which front-runner they dislike the least. Dobson's public statements have traced the arc of their dissatisfaction. Last October, he observed that grass-roots evangelicals would have a hard time voting for Mitt Romney because he is a Mormon. In January, he said he could never vote for Senator John McCain. More recently, Dobson panned Fred Thompson, too, for opposing a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. "He has no passion, no zeal, and no apparent 'want to,' " Dobson wrote in an e-mail message to allies. "Not for me, my brothers. Not for me!"
Finally, at the end of last month, Dobson was the foremost among the roughly 50 Christian conservative organizers who declared they would support a third-party candidate if the nomination went to Giuliani, who is their greatest fear. Some even talk of McCain — once anathema to them — as a better bet.
I could see why they were worried. Among the evangelicals of suburban Wichita, I found that Giuliani was easily the most popular of the Republican candidates, even among churchgoers who knew his views on abortion and same-sex marriage. Some trusted him to fight Islamic radicalism; others praised his cleanup of New York.
"There are a few issues we are on different sides of — a lot of it is around abortion — and he is not the most spiritual guy," said Kent Brummer, a retired Boeing engineer leaving services at Central Christian. "But to me that doesn't mean that he would not make a good president, if he represents both sides.
"What I liked about George Bush is all of his moral side and all that," Brummer added. "But somehow he didn't have the strength to govern the way we hoped he would and that he should have."
Democrats, meanwhile, sense an opportunity. Now the campaigns of all three Democratic front-runners are actively courting evangelical voters. At a White House event to mark the National Day of Prayer that I attended in the spring, Senator Clinton even walked over to shake hands with Dobson. Visibly surprised, he told her she was in his prayers.
All three Democratic candidates are speaking very personally, in evangelical language, about their own faith. What does Clinton pray about? "It depends upon the time of day," she said. Edwards says he cannot name his greatest sin: "I sin every single day." Obama talks about his introduction to "someone named Jesus Christ" and about being "an instrument of God."
Many evangelicals are not sure what to make of it. "Shouldn't we like it when someone talks about Christ being the missing ingredient in his life?" David Brody, a commentator for Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network, asked approvingly in response to Obama's statements.
Many conservative Christian leaders say they can count on the specter of a second Clinton presidency to fire up their constituents. But the prospect of an Obama-Giuliani race is another matter. "You would have a bunch of people who traditionally vote Republican going over to Obama," said the Rev. Donald Wildmon, founder of the Christian conservative American Family Association of Tupelo, Miss., known for its consumer boycotts over obscenity or gay issues.
In the Wichita churches this summer, Obama was the Democrat who drew the most interest. Several mentioned that he had spoken at Warren's Saddleback church and said they were intrigued. But just as many people ruled out Obama because they suspected that he was not Christian at all but in fact a crypto-Muslim — a rumor that spread around the Internet earlier this year. "There is just that ill feeling, and part of it is his faith," Welsh said. "Is his faith anti-Christian? Is he a Muslim? And what about the school where he was raised?"
"Obama sounds too much like Osama," said Kayla Nickel of Westlink. "When he says his name, I am like, 'I am not voting for a Muslim!' "
Fox, meanwhile, is already preparing to do his part to get Wichita's conservative faithful to the polls next November. Standing before a few hundred worshipers at the Johnny Western Theater last summer, Fox warned his new congregation not to let go of that old-time religion. "Hell is just as hot as it ever was," he reminded them. "It just has more people in it."
Fox told me: "I think the religious community is probably reflective of the rest of the nation — it is very divided right now. This election process is going to reveal a lot about where the religious right and the religious community is. It will show unity or the lack of it."
But liberals, he said, should not start gloating. "Some might compare the religious right to a snake," he said. "We may be in our hole right now, but we can come out and bite you at any time."


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The Land of This (此の国, Ko no Kuni) is a small country bordering the Land of Fire and Land of Rivers. The country no longer exists after it was attacked by Akatsuki on a war mission. The country was then taken over by the Land of That.
Several shops within the castle town are mentioned to be famous, these include:
- Ama-ama An, which sells bean jam cakes.
- Gito Gito Tei, which makes very rich tasting ramen of high quality.
- Neta Neta Sushi, which, as the name suggests, produces sushi.
- Kemu Kemu-en, which deals in Gyū-Kaku-style yakiniku.
- The daimyō of the country organises a food contest which consists of three phases. The local shops in the castle town provides the different courses for each phase.
- According to the anime, this is the country that Sasori mentioned conquering using the Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets.
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.


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Startups and longtime neighborhood staples have continuously shown their disapproval with a restaurant letter grade system that dishes out astronomical fines and window-posted ratings, often for deductions unrelated to food service and sanitation.
Until recently, restaurants in communities throughout Brooklyn and Queens have operated with minimal staff and found ways to squeeze by, however the newly proposed ban on polysterene packaging, or styrofoam, may be the final straw.
The bill, introduced by outgoing Councilman Lewis Fidler, would go into effect as soon as July 1, 2015, and place a ban on low-cost to-go containers and a number of containers which until now have been an affordable option for business owners.
According to an MB Public Affairs study titled the "Fiscal and Economic Impacts of a Ban on Plastic Foam Foodservice and Drink Containers in New York City," businesses in the city would ultimately incur a 94 percent cost increase in order to cover the conversion to plastics and alternative material.
In other words, for every $1 spent on plastic foam foodservice and drink containers, alternative options would cost storeowners a minimum of $1.94.
A cost that would essentially double for struggling businesses is an issue the city needs to find a solution for. According to the study, which sites the Department of Sanitation, paper product replacements also cannot be recycled and would also end up in the waste system.
While, yes, this change would ensure a cleaner environment, there are other alternatives.
For the sake of our small businesses, recycling styrofoam must be an option that is on the table. Business owners need programs to help save money and thrive, and if there is a way to make that happen, their hard-earned tax dollars should go towards this research.


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Dr. Stephen D. Petersen
Associate Professor
- Phone:
- 716.286.8638
- Fax:
- 716.286.8308
- Office Location:
- Dunleavy Hall Room 355
Dr. Petersen joined the philosophy department in 2006, after a postdoctoral position at Kalamazoo College. He received his PhD from the University of Michigan. His specialties are in the philosophy of mind, epistemology, and the philosophical aspects of cognitive science. Related areas of interest include logic, the philosophy of science, and the philosophy of language. Dr. Petersen teaches Introduction to Philosophy, Ethics, Logic, Epistemology, the Philosophy of Mind, the Philosophy of Language, the Philosophy of Science, and Metaphysics.
Current Research
My research centers on a strongly naturalistic approach to good thinking. How can physical creatures - biological or artificial - think better? This involves issues in normative epistemology (what is it to think better?), philosophy of mind (what is it for a physical system to think in the first place?), and cognitive science (how do we humans manage to think well much of the time, and how might we teach machines to do it?). I also study related topics such as inference to the best explanation, formal models of simplicity, information theory, conceptual analysis, and the emotions.
Educational Background
PhD, University of Michigan, Philosophy AB, Harvard University, Philosophy and mathematics
Current Involvement
I'm also an actor; I have performed in Shakespeare in Delaware Park, and improvisational theater both here and in Toronto. I'm on NU's Green Committee, and contribute to charities for relieving poverty internationally.


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Has anyone here read Thomas Ligotti? He writes the sort of "weird" fiction that Lovecraft wrote, which aims to unsettle rather than shock or disgust. He's only written short stories and one novella, all of which are somewhat difficult to find (though not as difficult as, say, R.A. Lafferty's work).
His greatest strength, in my opinion, is a precise style of phrasing which manages to be evocative without drawing attention to itself (in the way that Lovecraft's use of certain favored adjectives can be).
For those interested, his short story "Nethescurial" (my current favorite, as it happens) is available free to read on his website, at the following link: http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=433


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WASHINGTON (AP) — Busier factories and growing optimism among consumers could help the U.S. economy withstand the drag from government spending cuts and tax increases this year.
Manufacturing grew in February at the fastest pace in 20 months, according to a report Friday from the Institute for Supply Management. And a survey from the University of Michigan showed that consumer sentiment rose last month to its highest level since November.
The two reports follow other data that show strength in job growth and the housing market. Americans even spent a bit more in January compared with December, despite a sharp drop in income that partly reflected higher taxes.
"Consumers are spending, confidence is rising and manufacturing activity is accelerating," Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors, said in a note to clients. "Just about all of today's reports point to an economy on the rise."
Businesses and consumers appear to be shrugging off changes in federal policy that will likely slow the still-weak economy.
In January, Congress and the White House struck a deal that allowed Social Security taxes to rise on most Americans. The deal also raised income taxes for the nation's top earners.
And across-the-board spending cuts are set to begin Friday. The cuts could reduce government purchases and lead to temporary layoffs of government employees and contractors. They're expected to shave about a half-percentage point from economic growth this year.
"Many Americans are tired of the political wrangling and bickering," Chris Christopher, an economist at IHS Global Insight, said. "A certain level of political crisis fatigue has set in."
The economic data Friday was mostly positive:
— The Institute for Supply Management said its index of factory activity rose last month to 54.2, the highest since June 2011. Any reading above 50 indicates growth. The report showed a jump in new orders, higher production and more hiring at factories. Manufacturing has grown for three straight months, indicating that factories could help the economy after slumping through most of 2012.
— The University of Michigan measure of consumer sentiment rose to 77.6, the second straight monthly increase. The rebound in consumer confidence, seen in both the Michigan survey and another survey from Conference Board, suggests that some consumers have begun to adjust to smaller paychecks.
— Consumers increased spending 0.2 percent in January from December but cut back on major purchases such as autos and appliances. Income plunged 3.6 percent, though it followed a jump in December driven by dividends and bonuses paid early to avoid higher income taxes. The increase in Social Security taxes also lowered after-tax income.
— Spending on U.S. construction projects fell in January by the largest amount in 18 months, the Commerce Department said. Still, that the decline followed a nearly 10 percent increase in construction spending in 2012, the first annual gain after five years of declines.
Investors seemed to focus Friday on the gains in manufacturing. Stocks rebounded after the ISM survey was released. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 35 points, overcoming an early loss of 116 points.
One reason for optimism is that the job market is looking better.
Employers have added an average of 200,000 jobs a month from November through January. That was up from about 150,000 in the previous three months. And a drop in weekly applications for unemployment benefits suggests that employers have stepped up hiring further in February.
Some employers are even willing to pay more: After stagnating since the recession ended, hourly pay has been rising faster than inflation for the past three months. If such pay increases continue, they will help blunt the impact of the higher Social Security taxes.
Follow Chris Rugaber on Twitter at https://Twitter.com/ChrisRugaber


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Amy Winehouse's second and final album, Back to Black, shot to the top of the charts on the news of her death Saturday, The Hollywood Reporter said.
The 2007, Grammy-winning album was already certified triple platinum before the young singer's untimely demise, but moved to the number one spot on iTunes shortly after authorities made her death official.
Meanwhile, the video for the album's hit single, "Rehab," shot to number ten on iTunes as well, as fans clamored to remember the troubled singer's brief if not solid body of work.
Critics praised Winehouse's voice for its deep and soulful overtones.


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If you've tried this recipe please rate it!
Eat and Enjoy!
Traditional Greek food as cooked by Greek mothers!! Delicious and easy recipes!!
Oh my is that scrumptious looking. I copied and pasted the recipe, gonna have to try them, Nice job.
I just love this!! mmm
I love this. I'm going to have to try making it myself. Thanks for the recipe. :o)
reading this makes me hungry, this looks sooooooo yummy. I'll try this one, thanks :)
Hmm this looks great! Although there's a shop nearby my home that sells this... I've got to try to make it myself one day :) instructions copied!
Amazing!! Like they say here: 'you can wake me up at night to invite me for eating this!'
Great, thanks for the recipe!
Can I use honey im place of syrup? honey
In reply to your question, Anonymous, the thing with the syrup is that it is absorbed into all the layers ofthe sweet. If you use honey, it won't be absorbed. You could water down the honey, I suppose, but it really wouldn't be the same.
I really must try to make this!! I've used philo dough for apple streudel...but some of your tips here would even help me make that better!! Yummm! Thanks!
This sound great, I am definitely going to try it. Thanks AB
sound delicious!! Thanks for sharing
i love baclava! thanks kor sharing this! :)


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Noise From The Soft Top of Roadster Sport
Noise From The Soft Top of Roadster Sport
More elegant than masking tape? I doubt that's possible ....
I actually had the same noise. The tech told me to put grease or vaseline (yes, vaseline) in the grooves. It actually worked for a while until the metal starts to rub again. I'll try the masking tape method - sounds like it should work!
BrianH, Masking tape comment was truly funny.
Electrical tape might look a little sleeker, what with it being all black and shiny.
I'd go for duct tape myself... But do it cleanly.
"Nothing says poor workmanship like wrinkled duct tape"
-Red Green
Masking tape to "mask" a noise? Funny.
Road noise. My other toy is an SLK so I have been a little amazed at the wind noise at cruise speeds. Is this because there is no engine noise and therefore the outside mirrors are more noticeable? I know the windows must be adjusted for different tops but this car has always had a soft top. Any one else notice the mirror wind noise or should I try for maintence adjustment?
My Roadster even after both noise reduction kits is far from "quiet" especially at highway speeds. I have heard similar from many other Roadster owners and posts. I have to be below about 65 to use the bluetooth in-car phone and often slow to 60 or the ambient noise is a bit too much.
But in talking to Lotus owners my car is quiet in comparison so I guess your baseline matters a lot.


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The Oil and the Glory
Why Saudi is now in play
Oil prices are going through the roof today, and gasoline prices at the pump will follow, as we get the first regime-rattling news in a major oil-producing state. What's happening is that the sketchy news out of Libya makes the country look like it's on fire – Col. Muammar Qaddafi may be spending his last ...
Oil prices are going through the roof today, and gasoline prices at the pump will follow, as we get the first regime-rattling news in a major oil-producing state. What's happening is that the sketchy news out of Libya makes the country look like it's on fire – Col. Muammar Qaddafi may be spending his last days in power. And even though no oil supplies have been disrupted, traders are engaging in some casino behavior and bidding up prices to new two-year highs. Here is some video:
Look for more of the same going forward if — as seems as likely as not — unrest strikes Saudi Arabia. That is because Saudi is the linchpin of global oil prices, satisfying a full 10 percent of total global demand, and possessing by far the majority of the capacity to produce much more in the case of an emergency — such as if Libya's 1.6 million barrels a day of oil production abruptly is taken off the global oil market.
We keep hearing that al-Saud rule is safe (and the al-Sabahs of Kuwait, along with the al-Thanis in Qatar). But retaining power is only one metric for oil price stability. The chink in the Saudi armor is its oil-saturated, Shia-dominated Eastern Province. Here is Dharan, the headquarters of Saudi Aramco; the humongous 5-million-barrel-a-day Ghawar oilfield; the 800,000-barrel-a-day Qatif and Abu Safa oilfields; the gigantic Ras Tanura oil port; and the Abqiaq processing center. Because of all this, the king has nailed down every movable part in the province with overlapping protection — private Aramco security, Interior Ministry forces, the National Guard, and the military, all of them manned largely by Sunni personnel and loyal to the royal family.
Even so, if the Shia population does start protesting, we will see the oil market's version of pandemonium.
Greg Priddy, a global oil analyst at the Eurasia Group, a New York-based political risk firm, tells me that there is "a definite threat of a spillover" of trouble. "I won't be surprised if there is unrest in the Eastern Province," Priddy told me over the weekend.
Why does Priddy say that? Quite apart from Shia unhappiness, the Eastern Province is linked to Bahrain by a 16-mile-long causeway. Today, there's relative calm in Bahrain as the opposition puts together a united front for negotiation with the ruling al-Khalifa family. But there has been on-again, off-again Shia unrest both in Bahrain and the Eastern Province, and Bahrain's upheaval could reignite and be contagious. Saudi Arabia is sufficiently worried to publicly vow to step in "with all its capabilities" to make sure that Bahrain's 229-year-old monarchy doesn't fall.
Trouble could also flow into Saudi from Yemen. Yemenis have been rising up against President Abu Abdullah Saleh. If an outpouring of refugees from Yemen into Saudi Arabia results, and they decide to put down roots, they could "destabilize the Saudi government because you would have a population group demanding political rights who don't see themselves like you," says Priddy.
Frank Verrastro, director of energy and national security at the Center for Security and International Studies in Washington, told me that, should it become clear that unrest is spreading from Bahrain, the Saudis will cut off the causeway. "That said," Verrastro continued:
unrest in the east, (were it to occur) proximate to critical facilities at Abqiaq, Ras Tanura and nearby production, would undoubtedly send oil prices rising for two reasons: 1. [Saudi Arabia] has the bulk of the globe's spare capacity (which is the "buffer" being counted on to offset any other disruptions); and 2. As the world's largest oil resource holder and exporter, any real protracted threat to supplies is a huge deal globally.
So trouble in Saudi Arabia no longer seems notional. Libya makes it more plausible.
Update: Here is an interview that I gave to Lisa Mullins at The World today.


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Today we head to the Tuscany region of Italy. We stayed at a BB Firenze Centro. It was a very modern hotel. That night we all took a walk to Il Gatto E La Volde where one of the main dishes of this region is spaghetti and meatballs. They were definitely not your typical spaghetti and meatballs, it contained a slightly spicy sauce but it was honestly delicious. At the end of the meal they gave us all a shot of limoncello for a cheers to good health. Tonight we would go to the Red Garter bar where we sang karaoke all night! At first it was very intimidating singing in front of everyone but after a couple drinks, everyone becomes a rockstar! Our trip manager broke the ice and sang first, then a group of guys tried to be the Backstreet Boys.
The next day we walked back to the center of town and watched a leather demo at Leonardo's Leather and Gold. I honestly learned a lot of facts about leather since Florence is known for it. They are also known for their puzzle rings. The puzzle rings were created by men who suspected their wives of cheating. Once they take the ring off it falls into 4 connecting pieces that have to be put back together. However, it is very difficult to put back together if you don't know how. It took me about an hour an a half to get it the first time even after being shown twice. Although it was difficult, the ring is probably my favorite souvenir from my trip. I like showing it off and telling people the story behind it.
After the demo we had a local guide give us a walking tour of the city center, showing us the Ponte Vecchio, the Duomo and the fake David statue. There is definitely a lot of shopping to do in this area. I did get some fake leather for gifts and for myself since it was a lot cheaper and I did not want to spend that much money.
Tonight we headed to this beautiful area that overlooked the entire city. It was breathtaking !! With Contiki you can opt into buying a group photo so this was where we went to take it. After taking the pictures we took a short bus ride to a restaurant with another beautiful view. They gave us a delicious sangria that I honestly could have drank every day for the rest of my life. For the main course we had a glazed pork and risotto with zucchini.
After dinner we headed back to the center of town we went to one of the most popular night clubs in Florence, Space Disco. I am not a club person, I've never been clubbing, I'm not a very social butterfly however I had such an amazing time. Since it was a Tuesday night it wasn't very busy the only group of people that were there were our tour group of 40 people. It was such a different environment for me but I felt so much more comfortable with these people since they were becoming my new friends. It was a chance to let loose and get to know everyone even more.
The next day we took a trip to the town of San Gimignano, which is a medieval town in Tuscany. We spent a couple hours shopping (and eating of course). There were also some areas with amazing panoramic views of Tuscany. Every single part Tuscany was beautiful, there was not one bad view. After San Gimignano, we drove to the Chianti region for a wine tasting at Tenuta Del Palagio. We were given 4 different types of wine to try, mostly red wine. We were also given a variety of jams/jellies, cheese, oils and bread to try. The Chianti reserve wine was their most popular wine, although it didn't tickle my taste buds like the Rosa Rosae and for only 6 euros a bottle I couldn't go wrong.


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|>> Archive: Warmwater Gamefish Flies Freshwater Bass, pike, muskie?!?
|Topic Review (Newest First)
Field testing this past weekend was partially successful. Fly action in the water was exactly what I wanted. 2-3 surface bulges before fly saturates and then suspends ~6" below the surface. Nice side-to-side wiggle on a steady retrieve and long fibers didn't seem to tangle too much.
Don't false cast too much if using a 8 or 9WT to cast these beasts. Wind resistance on the dry fly makes accurate casting a decent challenge even in light winds.
Now, if only I could find some fish!
|Dble Haul
|That's a fine step by step, and a fine fly. Thanks for sharing.
Magnum Diver in Perch Coloring for Big Pike
I'm definitely in cabin fever mode and was day dreaming about large post spawn pike after ice out. Needed a couple more large pike streamers so came up w/ the following pattern w/ a 9" overall length. Gonna work on a sucker version next.
Hook: Mustad 3407, Stinger, or equivalent in Sz1-4/0, Tied the above on 1/0.
Thread: GSP 100 in Chartreuse. I love GSP thread for spinning deer hair, just don't use 50 denier as it cuts thru the hair like a razor blade.
Hair: Sexy hair or you favorite long fiber synthetic.
Head: Spun Deer Hair
Colored Features: Orange, Yellow, Black, and Red Sharpies.
Start by tying in thread at the hook point. Tie in 5" long tan or white colored fibers both above and below hook shank.
Next, tie in 6" long chartreuse fibers on the top and 3" tan on the underside
Next, tie in 7" and 8" long green fibers followed by 7" dark brown fibers on the top side of the hook shank. Note - only the green is shown in above picture.
Next, tie in green bucktail on the top and yellow bucktail to form a nice transition from the deer hair head to the synthetic body. Note - only the green bucktail is shown in picture above.
Next, spin dark green deer hair for the head.
Next, trim the deer hair into a diver head.
Finally, trim the synthetic fibers to the desired silhouette, and finally use colored sharpie markers to add the final details (red gills, black stripes, yellow to brighten the tan belly, and orange for the anal/pectoral fins of the yellow perch.
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Thirty-two years ago, I gave birth to our first-born, blonde-haired, 8lbs.14oz. son, whom we named Kevin Daniel. He was such a good baby and the thrill of his parent's hearts. Yesterday marked his Birthday. We are SO proud of the man our son has become and marvel at what a great Da he is now. How did te time fly by so quickly??
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Our First Born Son...
Posted by Faye at 1:01 PM 2 comments
Friday, August 21, 2009
What a gas!!
This gave me such a great laugh....and I'm sitting in the library and had to supress my laughter so I wouldn't disturb others. Maybe one of you can use a good belly laugh today :)
I was in the pub yesterday when I suddenly realized I desperately needed to fart. The music was really, really loud, so I timed my farts with the beat.
After a couple of songs, I started to feel better. I finished my pint and noticed that everybody was staring at me.
Then I suddenly remembered that I was listening to my iPod.
Posted by Faye at 12:00 PM 3 comments
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Cut & Perm
This is my Mother-in-Law. My son, who is 6'7" went to visit his Grandma and took this picture because she just got her hair cut and permed. I mention my son taking this pic because I had to chuckle at the angle it's taken.....she is SO much shorter than her grandson :)They both live in Southern B.C., so we appreciate how he pops in to see Mom and takes her out for coffee. She lives in a Senior's Manor, so it's wonderful that he takes her out and about, since she can't drive anymore ad her world is pretty much shrunk to a few block radius. Looking great Mom!!!
Posted by Faye at 3:07 PM 1 comments
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Let your hair hang down....
Spending time with our Grand Daughter is such a pleasure. She is growing up SO fast and we have great fun. Sunday we took her to the park and had a picnic lunch. Of course, playing on those play stations is tremendous fun and strength building (for her...I could never hang off those darn monkey bars anymore...haha)Now, my idea of fun is seeing who can swing he highest :P
Posted by Faye at 3:57 PM 1 comments
Thursday, August 13, 2009
28 Years Ago....
.....this handsome young man came into our lives. It's David's Birthday today and we greatly miss him. He brought so much love and laughter into our lives, an example of God's love in the big bear hugs he gave and his gentle spirit.
David, we miss you :)
Posted by Faye at 12:15 PM 1 comments
Friday, August 7, 2009
Old Dog = New Tricks??
Soooo....yesterday and today were dedicated to helping Mom pick out and buy a laptop computer. Hubby, who is such a computer Geek, set it up for Mom and then we took it over there this aft and introduced Mom to the World Wide Web! This is the dawning of the age of technological birthing for Mom, who can't seem to figure out her DVD player, handle 2 remote controls or manage to make more than a phone call with her cell phone. It's going to be an interesting ride for us...never mind Mom.....what did we get ourselves into?? Ack!
In setting up programs for Mom last evening, we were green with envy. Her new computer is Sweet!! It's sleek, sexy, 17" screen for some high resolution color. We are so happy Mom has this computer so we can all stay in touch with Mom more closely with e-mails and pictures :)
Posted by Faye at 6:21 PM 3 comments
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Hump Day?..Wordless Wednesday?..
....whatever you call Wednesday, I'm with Maxine...any day this side of tth flower bed is a good one.....so I choose to celebrate all the days of the week :)
Posted by Faye at 4:53 PM 1 comments
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Celebrating Our Province
We've entered the month of August, when temperatures can reach new heights, shimmering off all surfaces, distorting them into one huge blob of hot! Here August came shaking ang booming in on thunder storms, cooling the muggy air and allowing us to sleep through thte night and wake up refreshed. The lightening was Nature's fireworks, and prettier than any other firework show I'd ever seen. The sunshine is back, the sky filled with cotton-ball clouds and a gentle breeze setting my wind chimes singing it's song.What a wonderful start to this new month :)In BC we enteer each summer month with a Long Weekend - August boasts B.C. Day - celebrating 151 years :)
"The British Columbia Day Act was first introduced to the Legislative Assembly in 1974. The aim of the Bill was to create a statutory holiday on the first Monday in August to recognize the pioneers in the province and the act gained royal assent in 1996."
~Time and Date.com
Posted by Faye at 1:50 PM 1 comments
Saturday, August 1, 2009
August, with its clouds of scented blooms,
August, with its great stacks of giant clouds,
August, with corn plants standing like rows of soldiers,
August, with watermelons, full and heavy, dozing in the sun,
August, remember swimming in the lake?
August, and its lightening laced sky,
August, and shimmering memories hanging like drops of dew,
August, the bountiful, August the full,
August, blessed harvest of memories,
Posted by Faye at 3:12 PM 0 comments


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I really need to get to Mercedes-Benz of Beverly Hills! I bought a new 500 SL Mercedes-Benz in 1997 and fifteen years later it still has less than 50K miles.
It is a car I very much love but over the years many small irritating problems have occurred. It's been my habit to take it to independent Mercedes-Benz mechanics that at best fixed the problems and at worst caused new problems. No doubt some problems are occurring due to the age of the car and I know many are due to the lack of sophistication and knowledge that independent Mercedes-Benz mechanics have.
One example, I took my car in for an unrelated repair and when the car was returned my heater didn't work. There was no question the heater worked before the independent dealer unrelated repaired. When asked what the cost would be I was told it would cost "a lot" but he couldn't define the exact cost as he said it was an electrical problem and I would be charged hourly. He took absolutely no responsible for the cause and effect reality.
That is just one example of the shoddy workmanship I have received which is the reason I am moving all repairs needed for my wonderful Mercedes-Benz to the best authorized dealer around: Mercedes-Benz of Beverly Hills. Although the charges would appear higher, in the long run, the cost will be much less due to the fact they know what they are doing!!
After bringing my car in for one repair I won't have two or three more things broken when I pick-up the car. Problems will be fixed and fixed right the first time, not only saving money but saving the aggravation that comes when you know things have not been done properly and when you feel you've been ripped off. I'm sad it took, so long for me to realize that the highest quality car not only deserves but requires the highest quality maintenance and service.
Here is the list of the accumulated problems I will be getting repaired at Mercedes-Benz of Beverly Hills:
1) The most pressing problem is the engine hesitation when accelerating.
2) The heater does not work.
3) The internal brake light, the seen in the bottom of the back window, is missing the lens which somehow disappeared after a service with the independent mechanic.
4) The passenger mirror is wobbly and loose.
5) The driver's side window does not seal properly when the door is closed.
6) The dash lights don't come on.
7) The air condition takes a while start.
8) The radar bumper units don't work properly
9) Windshield wipers on the lights
10) And whatever else a certified real mechanic will find.
I look forward to adding my experiences as my 500 SL Mercedes-Benz gets transformed from limping back to luxury.
Learn more at http://www.bhbenz.com/