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Equity futures are down to flat this morning after being both below and above yesterday's closing price overnight:
The Dollar is higher, bonds are slightly higher, oil tried to go higher overnight but is now lower, and gold is up.
As reported previously by Chris Martenson, the MBA mortgage loan index dropped telling us what the index is!! Instead they simply report a plus or minus percentage for the week, thus obscuring the data. Charts become meaningless and so does the entire report. Yet the markets are going to react to the perception it creates. This is yet another statistic gone bad… I'll report on it today, but I may not in the future, and frankly, you have to wonder what they are hiding.
Here's econoday's short report, what else can you say when you can't see anything behind their "report?" Note that it rose simply on "increased demand for government loans:"
MBA's purchase index rose 1.0 percent in the Aug. 21 week boosted solely by the what the report said is increased demand for government loans. The gain marks the fourth straight for the longest streak since March. MBA is not providing index levels. The refinance index rose 12.7 percent for a third straight gain. Mortgage rates moved higher in the week with 30-year loans up 9 basis points to an average 5.24 percent.
The Mortgage Bankers' Association compiles various mortgage loan indexes. The purchase applications index measures applications at mortgage lenders. This is a leading indicator for single-family home sales and housing construction.
The durable goods orders for July rose 4.9% on a month over month basis, following a -2.5% number in June. Everyone and their brother was expecting this number to be positive on the cash for clunkers billions, and they were right:
Aircraft orders and auto orders made for a surge in the manufacturing sector during July, another key factor suggesting that the recession has already come to an end. New orders for durable goods shot up 4.9 percent. Excluding an 18.4 percent surge in transportation, orders still rose a strong 0.8 percent. Civilian aircraft orders rose more than six fold while motor vehicle orders, likely boosted by cash for clunkers, rose 0.9 percent. Capital goods orders were extremely strong, up 9.5 percent following a 5.7 percent drop in June. The report even includes an upward revision to the prior month's orders, to minus 1.3 percent from minus 2.2 percent. Details include big gains for primary metals, fabricated metals, computers & electronics, communication equipment, and even electrical equipment in a gain that hints at improving construction demand. Machinery orders did fall substantially but couldn't make a dent into the capital goods reading.
Note, once again, that they simply fail to mention the much more important (and horrific) year over year number that is still well below 20% beneath last year's readings.
Also, when you go from NO aircraft orders in a month to a handful, that's what produces a "six fold" increase in orders. I track that industry and do not see a structural turn around there at all.
So, was the billions spent on cash for clunkers worth it? What happens when the government money runs out? What if it never runs out, comrade?
New home sales come out at 10 Eastern today.
There was a small movement in the McClelland Oscillator yesterday meaning that a large price move is coming either today or tomorrow, direction unknown.
The short term oscillators are all in the middle of the range, but the percent of stocks above their short term moving averages is very high. The breadth of the market is stunningly BAD. Yesterday, as Karl Denninger pointed out, the 4 top volume stocks comprised more than 37% of all the volume on the NYSE. And those four companies were C, BAC, FNM, FRE. Two lying sacks of zombie bank excretions and two government infested bankrupt mortgage cookers. Now that's what you base a market rise on… IF YOU WANT TO GENERATE A CRASH. And that's where this market is headed and quick if they don't start letting the air out in a nice and controlled manner – and soon.
Did you catch the action in oil yesterday? Spike to $75 resistance and then collapse down to $71.25. Not a sign of health. Speaking of oil, don't think that just because demand has fallen and taken the speculative bubble out, that the concept of peak oil has gone away. The world's fourth largest oil field, for example, is the Cantarell oil field in Mexico. Below is its latest output chart. If that rate of decline continues, Cantarell will be pumped dry in just a couple more years, taking away the largest source of revenue for the Mexican government. So in the long run there are going to be supply issues to contend with, but in the meantime stockpiles are running way high and we get an update on that this morning (10:30 eastern) so watch the oil markets, they can pull around the entire equity markets for sure.
Two things caught my eye in the charts yesterday. The first is the VIX which created a long tail candle. Those types of candles can sometimes represent a bottom, like the one I highlighted that represented a top, so I think that's worth watching.
Also, the dollar (futures presented below) is scratching out an interesting pattern that looks like a descending wedge (so does the VIX). If that's what's happening, it could break higher and that would mean lower for equities. Again, worth keeping an eye on that formation to see what direction it breaks. Also, yesterday's candle is interesting and is potentially bullish for the dollar as well – let's see what today brings, right now the dollar is up pretty strongly.
The formation in the SPX over the past couple of days looks bearish to me. It can also be read as consolidation following a breakout though, and with the way the markets are being run, I would not (and did not) bet the farm on that. But you know... when it comes to playing in the Goldman Casino you just have to go your own way!


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JAKARTA - After years of being overrun by a racketeering mafia, drug addicts and prostitutes, Southeast Asia's biggest textile market is cleaning up its act in an effort to win back droves of shoppers.
Spread across several blocks in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, Tanah Abang market is a colourful whirl of activity that has attracted shoppers from across the region for centuries.
While glittering skyscrapers have shot up around the city centre trading hub, the market itself, which was founded in 1735 by a Dutch businessman, is a series of modest buildings in an area of traditional, red-tiled houses.
Traders looking for wholesale bargains and shoppers looking for smaller items haggle at myriad stalls on several floors in the market buildings, looking for everything from raw cloth to branded goods.
"There is so much variety under one roof and 20 to 30 per cent cheaper than in Kuala Lumpur. And fashionable too," said Malaysian shopper Mariam Ahmad, who makes an annual trip to the market to buy clothing ahead of the Muslim Eid holiday.
But the market's increasingly seedy atmosphere and traffic gridlock in the area caused by illegal street stalls were putting shoppers off. Vendors estimated customer numbers had fallen around 10 per cent in recent years.
Bag seller Desmawita, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, said that crime had been "getting out of hand".
"Two prostitutes pounced on one of my customers from Brunei while he was praying and he had to give them money before they let him go. He bought 29,000 bags from me but cancelled a five-year business deal."
Jeha, who sells traditional patterned "batik" shirts and goes by one name, added: "Even for us locals, Tanah Abang was scary.
"It was normal to see hundreds of needles used by drug addicts strewn along the back alleys. Gangsters would demand money and beat us up if we refused." Popular Jakarta governor Joko Widodo, who took power around a year ago, decided to tackle the issue.
In August, he pushed through a plan to relocate around 1,000 vendors who had been illegally hawking goods on the streets and were blamed for many of the market's problems.
They were moved to a refurbished building in the area, joining another 15,000 vendors working legally inside the market's original blocks.
The number of public order officers, who help police in keeping the peace but come under the authority of the local government, has also been dramatically increased.
With the vendors off the streets, the mafia-like gangs that demanded cash payments to rent out illegal lots have largely gone.
And the increased security has succeeded in frightening off many of the sex workers and drug addicts, vendors say.
"A Philippine customer was shocked when she came yesterday to see how orderly everything was. She said she would definitely return - that's good news for me," headscarf seller Rinaldi said.
However the change has not been without problems. Some vendors say that business has been hurt by the move from the street, where they could catch casual shoppers as they walked past.
Rahmat Hidayat, who sells dresses, said he had not made a single sale since moving indoors but previously he could make $50 to $80 a day.
"I make money from impulse buyers because I'm not selling household staples like rice. Nobody will climb three flights of stairs just to come to my shop," he said.
And while it is striving to change without losing its authenticity, some complain that the clean-up has wiped away the market's old character.
Gone are the noisy, streetside market stalls that used to spill across the main roads and fill up narrow alleyways.
"Please bring back the old Tanah Abang," said headscarf seller Andalusia, complaining there were fewer customers since the market had been spruced up.

subset: commoncrawl


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Last night I went for an easy three miler. It felt great and I wore my HATPHONES that I'm obsessed with. I did find a minor problem with them. You see, I have this ridiculous amount of hair that likes to flop all over in a high ponytail on my head. Wearing the hat means the hair has to stay in a low ponytail at the nape of my neck. This makes my neck sweaty and gross. Okay hatphones, I'm sorry, I still love you. After that I watched the Victoria Secret Fashion show. HOLY COW. This morning when I didn't want to get out of bed, I thought about those girls and my butt was up and going quick!
This morning I went for a 6 miler and finished in 50 minutes. It was pretty good, but man I was FREEZING! I wore a long sleeve shirt and leggings. Let me just tell you, these leggings are not running leggings, but fashion leggings from Target for like $5. I love them for both purposes, but the beginning of my run was quite chilly because I wasn't warmed up yet. I did use my mailbox as the finish line, I felt a little channeling of Pre. :) (If you don't know who Prefontaine is, pick up the gifts below, you will start using your mailbox too!)
Anyways, I am super excited to share with you guys that I am the ExtraOrdinary Runner of the month from Runner's Lounge! When Amy emailed me that I was chosen I was super shocked! If you lurkers want to read more about me in my Open Mic Interview that was posted today, then travel here RUNNERS LOUNGE BLOG WITH MY INTERVIEW!
If you haven't gotten the chance to read my story that won me the award and talks about why I run then creep over here. MY STORY OF WHY I RUN
Thanks so much Runner's Lounge! I am so glad that you guys exist too because it's nice to have all us crazies in one place, venting, and loving each other! If you aren't already a member there, go check it out. It's like a myspace-type website for runners and it's inspiring and super helpful.
For those who run, they know the pain, the hardships and training that you have to go through to finish a race. Everyone who runs has a special place in their hearts for athletes who are competing at incredibly high levels too, because we know how much goes into the sport. These gifts are inspiration in a little box.
Without Limits is the first running film I ever watched, and it was amazing. Seriously, AMAZING! The film follows the life of famous 1970s runner Steve Prefontaine from his youth days in Oregon to the University of Oregon where he worked with the legendary coach Bill Bowerman, later to Olympics in Munich and his early death at 24 in a car crash. If Steve Prefontaine doesn't inspire you, you might be dead. You can find this one right here.
Prefontaine is another great one that I've seen which is based on the life and times of Steve Prefontaine, one of the biggest, yet most tragic sport stars in America. Get it off amazon.com here.
Saint Ralph. Though I have never seen it, it's on my to rent list. Set in Hamilton in 1954, Saint Ralph is the unlikely story of Ralph Walker, a ninth grader who outran every one's expectations except his own in his bold quest to win the Boston Marathon. Ralph is a fatherless 14-year-old with a seriously ill mother. An unfortunate incident of self-abuse in the community pool inadvertently sets him on this road when, as penance, Ralph is conscripted to the cross-country team. Desperate to believe a miracle will bring his mother out of a coma, Ralph becomes a convert to the church of running, and determines to win the Boston Marathon. Pick up your copy from amazon.com here!
Running Brave is about the true story of a man's triumph over prejudice, pain and himself. Billy Mills, a North American Indian brought up on the reservation, destined against all odds to become the best distance runner in the world. Here is where you can find a copy.
Run Fat Boy Run is about a chunky, clueless guy leaves his pregnant fiancée on their wedding day only to discover – 5 years later – that she is his one true love. But in order to win back her heart, he looks to finish his first marathon while making her realize her new man is the wrong guy for her. I haven't seen this one either, but it looks interesting and funny. Get yours here. BUT!! One of my friends, Billy of LA Runner Fame, said this movie sucks and thinks that you should get this one instead (see below)!!
RunningForMyFather! On January 14th, 2007 composer Cody Westheimer lost his father, Dr. Eric Westheimer to a brain tumor. Faced with the biggest challenge of his life, Cody discovered running as a way to cope with the death of his best friend. Inspired by working on "ULTRA MARATHON MAN," a film about folk hero Dean Karnazes, Cody decided to begin training to run a marathon. Houston was where his dad was horn. The race was taking place on January 13th, 2008 – the eve of the anniversary of his father's death. The choice was obvious-the Houston Marathon would be the race Cody would enter to honor his dad. Follow Cody and his family as he travels through grief, pain and perseverance in his quest to run 26.2 miles. (Totally forgot about this one, and it sounds great! I think you can email CODY for more information. Sounds SUPER Inspiring!!!)
Also the Wonderful LA Runner suggested Spirit of the Marathon. Which looks like ANOTHER great pick. Spirit of the Marathon is the first ever non-fiction feature film to capture the drama and essence of the famed 26.2 mile running event. Filmed on four continents, the movie brings together a diverse cast of amateur athletes and marathon luminaries.As six unique stories unfold, each runner prepares for and ultimately faces the challenge of the Chicago Marathon. More than a sports movie, Spirit of the Marathon is an inspirational journey of perseverance and personal triumph; a spectacle that will be embraced by runners and non-runners alike. It's $26.20 and can be found here!
Thank you so much Billy!!! :)
Whenever you want to get out there and need some inspiration, just watch Prefontaine run, it always works for me. All these movies really allow you to appreciate the sport of running. Happy movie watching!


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Acoustic Learning,
Absolute Pitch research, ear training and more
Hello! I'm Chris Aruffo, your host here at Acoustic Learning. It's my goal to dispel the myth and the mystery that surrounds the phenomenon of perfect pitch (also known as absolute pitch), and to make it a skill accessible to anyone who wants to learn it.
To explore ways you can learn absolute pitch, click "Learn AP" or the research links above.
I've been playing Level 4 now for a while. Moving through the Small and Medium games was unexpectedly easy. Only the two new categories were featured ( and ) and it seemed blindingly obvious which category each tone belonged to. I even got two perfect scores on the Small game without much effort. This made it all the more perplexing when I started in on the Large game, where the three remaining categories were re-introduced, and suddenly I no longer had this same clarity. What's more, my perception of the lowest category () was still very weak. I decided to take a moment and figure out why I was making these mistakes, because by this time I felt I should know better.
The answer was height. I had come to think of as "the lowest" category-- therefore, when I heard a tone that wasn't "the lowest", I'd quickly assume that it must be the next-highest category (), and answer incorrectly. Likewise, on the opposite end, I thought of as "the highest" category, and when I heard a tone that wasn't "the highest", I'd suppose it must be the next-lowest category (), and answer incorrectly. And then, thirdly, because I could hear a very distinct "plunky" quality from the lower tones of the category, every time I heard a tone I could tell was in the upper half of the overall range, but lower than the highest category , I would guess unless I distinctly heard that "plunky" quality... and only after seeing that I'd gotten it wrong did I listen more carefully and hear that same "plunky" quality more subtly present. Once I paid attention, it was evident that I was making these same mistakes constantly, and always because of the height judgment.
I brought up the pitch-stats screen and saw quite clearly what height errors look like. They curve down toward the category boundary, because as a pitch moves toward the border, the pitch increasingly seems "high enough" or "low enough" to be part of the next category. I've marked them in red, below, to make them even more obvious.
I noticed, of course, that the other boundaries had the sharp drop-off indicative of categorical perception (that is, low , the division between and , and either side of ). And I quickly realized that my subjective experience of these borders was different. I have a clear sense of what , , and the lower part of sound like. Each of these areas has a characteristic sound. As I was playing the game, tones within these areas didn't really lose their characteristic sound until they got to the border. Once they passed the border, then they showed more of the other category's characteristic sound. As "abminor" described it in the forum, "[my perception] tells me this is like a color blend between the two categories but one color dominates, so I select the appropriate category based off that." Where I knew the characteristic sounds, I showed categorical judgment, and didn't make height errors.
So I no longer have to wonder whether the categorical perception being taught here is based on height. It can't be, because now I see that you can't form categories if you make judgments based on height. In fact, it suddenly seems obvious why and how chroma and categorical perception work together in absolute pitch judgment, which in turn explains why I was so baffled about how to learn categorical perception along a single dimensional continuum: that is, you can't. The "height" of a tone doesn't change from end to end. You can tell that one tone is higher or lower than another, and you can estimate approximately where a tone sits along the entire continuum of frequency values, but because "height" is a quality that can be detected along the entire range of sound, there is no reason why your mind should mark a particular frequency x as the divisor between any one area and any other area. So your mind doesn't do that. And it won't do that, no matter how much effort you put into training. But once your mind detects some quality that actually does change-- fundamentally, not incrementally-- from one area to another, then it becomes possible for your mind to mark a division between those changes. Chroma is an obvious candidate for that quality. So are scale degrees, for that matter. But height isn't.
With that in mind, I've altered my gameplay strategy. Because I know, now, that I have terrible trouble mistaking for , and the parts immediately above and below for , I no longer make it my goal to place these eggs into their respective bins. Rather, when I hear a tone that could belong to , , or , I make a mental guess at what category it belongs to and then set it aside. Gradually I build a big enough pile of eggs from a particular area that I can start sifting through them and finding the boundary, so that I can sort each of them into their respective bins without making mistakes. Being able to do this, by the way, is why the game is structured so you can randomly access the tones, instead of being presented with them one-at-a-time quiz-style. You need to be able to make comparisons, hear the similar qualities between the tones, and make judgments based on their similarities. Once you have formed an idea in your mind of what each category sounds like, you can compare the sounds you hear to that image in your mind, but until that image is clearly and solidly formed there's no other way to know except by comparing the sounds to each other.
In addition to all this, I had a sudden flash of insight about what it means to have "active" absolute pitch-- to be able to sing whatever pitch you want on demand. Having active absolute pitch means that you do not sing a pitch. You sing the quality that you associate with the pitch, and the correct pitch comes out automatically. Compare this to how you produce language sounds. You don't torture yourself trying to remember what the frequencies 240 Hz and 2400 Hz sound like together and then trying to make yourself reproduce those pitches. You just think "ee" and those frequencies are what come out. Likewise, I just now tested myself by singing the "plunky" quality I associate with the lower part of the red/yellow category. This happens to be middle C-- but I just sang it as a quality, without thinking of a melody, without thinking of a height, without even thinking of it as a pitch. Just remembered the quality, opened my mouth, and let it out. And wouldn't you know? It was a C. Not a perfectly-tuned C, no, because the category I'm learning is still rather broad-- but it was a middle C. This, in turn, answers the question I've been beating myself up about for years: when you're trying to identify or produce a pitch, how do you know that you've got it right? How can you confirm your pitch is correct, except by playing a "reference tone" and finding out? The answer is finally clear: because it matches the sound quality you've got in your mind. The sound quality is independent of height-- it's particular only to the pitch category that you're trying to identify (or produce). Therefore, once you have learned the sound quality of that category, then you will be able to identify (or produce) the tone, because no other category has that same quality. The critical element to success is whether the quality you've learned is in fact that essential quality of the category. If you have learned to estimate height, it will not work, because all pitch categories have height. If you have learned by trying to apply adjectives to pitches (mellow, twangy, etc) it won't work, because you become able to describe pitch qualities by being able to recognize pitches, and not the other way around. But once you can detect and distinctly recognize the sound quality that uniquely defines a pitch category... then, you can identify or produce a tone, and you'll know that you've done it right.


text: Cities across the globe have seen unprecedented growth in recent decades. While revisiting a city after a period of time can reveal some surprising changes, the true extent of the expansion of some urban centers can only be truly appreciated from above. Way above. More From Landsat: Landsat's Most Historically Significant Images Earth as Art: 5 Most Popular Landsat Satellite ImagesThe Landsat satellite program is the longest continuous archive of images of Earth from space in existence. Run by the USGS and NASA since Landsat 1 launched on July 23, 1972, this record of the surface of our planet reveals invaluable insight for scientists and the public alike. A record like this is particularly useful for studying change and understanding the human impact on the landscape. In celebration of four decades of collection of irreplaceable data and incredible images, the Landsat team released these images of change in 11 cities and urban areas all over the world. Images and captions courtesy of NASA and the USGS. Above: Las Vegas, Nevada Over the years of the Landsat program, the desert city of Las Vegas has gone through a massive growth spurt. The outward expansion of the city over the last quarter of a century is shown here with two false-color Landsat 5 images (Aug. 3, 1984 and Nov. 2, 2011). The dark purple grid of city streets and the green of irrigated vegetation grow out in every direction into the surrounding desert. These images were created using reflected light from the shortwave infrared, near-infrared, and green portions of the electromagnetic spectrum.Dubai, United Arab Emirates When Landsat 7 imaged Dubai on July 6, 2000, the city was barely visible against the desert landscape. Long straight roads swept down the coast, and a single harbor jutted into the Gulf. Though it seems small in this image, the city was growing quickly as a trade center, oil producer and member of the United Arab Emirates. Between 1973 and 2010, Dubai transformed entirely. In this Landsat 7 image, taken on Oct. 6, 2010, dense gray city blocks are surrounded by plant-covered land, which is red. Artificial islands dot the coast. Dubai's growth is built on tourism, trade, and oil. Images and caption: NASA/USGSChandler, Arizona Over the last 25 years, Chandler, Arizona has traded its grid of fields for a grid of streets. Founded in 1912 on cotton, grains, alfalfa, and ostrich farms, brown and green irrigated fields still dominate the region southeast of Phoenix in this 1985 natural color image taken by Landsat 5. By 2011, the blue-gray streets in this Landsat 5 image have taken over. Chandler's economy has shifted from agriculture to manufacturing and electronics, and its population boomed from 30,000 people in 1980 to 236,000 in 2010. Images and caption: NASA/USGSPearl River Delta, China In 1979, China established two special economic zones around the Pearl River Delta, north of Honk Kong. This image, taken by Landsat 3 on Oct. 19, 1979, shows that the region was rural when the zone was established. Plant-covered land, which is red in this false-color image, dominates the scene. Square grids are agriculture. By Jan. 10, 2003, when Landsat 7 took this image, the Pearl River Delta was a densely populated urban corridor with several large cities. the urban areas are gray in this image. The region is a major manufacturing center with an economy the size of Taiwan's. As of 2010, the Pearl River Economic Zone has a population of 36 million people. Images and caption: NASA/USGSTokyo, Japan Tokyo is the world's largest metropolitan region, home to nearly 37 million people. During the past two decades, Tokyo's population has grown by more than 7 million. The city's growth has continued despite Japan's overall stagnating population, mainly due to a continued trend of centralization -- citizens moving out of the country and into the city. Landsat 4 collected this first false-color image of Tokyo on Feb. 2, 1989. The upper half of Tokyo Bay is the large water body visible in a dark blue. In the middle of the image, central Tokyo appears a deep purple just north of the bay. Twenty-two years later, Landsat 5, captured this second image of Tokyo on April 5, 2011. The urban reaches of metropolitan Tokyo have grown in both distance and density, as seen where the green color of the vegetation has turned to pink and purple shades of urbanization. A major expansion of Tokyo's Haneda Airport, can be seen south of the city, on land built out into the bay. The constant circular spot of green in the dense city-center, visible on both images, is the Tokyo Imperial Palace and its gardens. Images and caption: NASA/USGSTehran, Iran Between 1985 and 2009, the population of Tehran, Iran, grew from 6 million and to just over 7 million. The city's growth was spurred largely by migration from other parts of the country. in addition to being the hub of government and associated public sector jobs, Tehran houses more than half of Iran's industry. Landsat 5 acquired these false-color images of Tehran on Aug. 2, 1985 and July 19, 2009. The city is a web of dark purple lines, vegetation is green and bare ground is pink and tan. The images were created using both infrared and visible light to distinguish urban areas from the surrounding desert. Images and caption: NASA/USGS"Chicagoland," Illinois Forty miles west of downtown Chicago, the Fox River meanders its way through what has become the westernmost reaches of metropolitan Chicago, where the sprawling metropolis meets the hinterlands. While Chicago itself has seen a 7 percent population decline during the last decade, the population of its metropolitan region, "Chicagoland," has steadily increased. These two natural-color Landsat 5 images acquired a quarter-century apart, stand witness to the soaring growth of this region. Aurora, Illinois' second largest city, is the silvery-green region to the left hugging the Fox River, just south of the I-88 (North is to the right in this image); Carpentersville is found on the rightmost side, north of the I-90. From 1985 to 2010 a development explosion can be seen as the browns of pasture lands give way to the silvery-green suburban areas and large white-colored business districts spring up along and east of the river. A major expansion of the Dupage Airport appears in the middle of the 2010 image, and the circular-shaped region north of the I-88 and east of the Fox River, visible on both images, is the Department of Energy's Fermilab. (More verdant vegetation colors of late-summer are found throughout the 2010 image.) Images and caption: NASA/USGSIstanbul, Turkey Istanbul has been a bustling trade city for thousands of years. In this 1975 image, taken by Landsat, the city centers on the Golden Horn, the estuary that flows into the Bosporus Strait at the center of the scene. Shown in false color, the vegetation is red, urban areas are gray and water appears black. A bridge built in 1973 to connect the Asian and European sides of Istanbul is barely visible. By 2011, Istanbul's population had exploded from 2 million to 13 million people, and the city has gone through a dramatic expansion. This Landsat 5 image shows densely packed urban areas stretching along the Sea of Marmara and up the Bosporus Strait where a second bridge built in 1988 now crosses the water. Images and caption: NASA/USGSOntario, California Thirty-five miles east of downtown Los Angeles lies the city of Ontario, California. In 1881 two Canadian brothers established the town, naming it after their native province. By 1891, Ontario was incorporated as a city. the farming-based economy (olives, citrus, dairy) of the city helped it grow to 20,000 by the 1960s. Subsequently, warehousing and freight trafficking took over as the major industry, and the city's population was over 160,000 by 2010. The L.A./Ontario International Airport is now America's 15 busiest cargo airport. In these natural color Landsat 5 images, the massive growth of the city between 1985 and 2010 can be seen. the airport, found in the southwest portion of the images, added a number of runways and large warehousing structures now dominate the once rural areas surrounding the airport. In these images vegetation is green and brown and urban structures are bright white and gray. (Note there is a large dry riverbed in the northeast corner that is also bright white, but its nonlinear appearance sets it apart visually). Images and caption: NASA/USGSOuagadougou, Burkina Faso The landlocked western African nation of Burkina Faso experienced a 200 percent increase in urban population between 1975 and 2000. As a result, the area of the capital city Ouagadougou grew 14-fold during this period. These Landsat images show the city expanding outward from its center in the two decades between 1986 and 2006. On Nov. 18, 1986 the Landsat 5 satellite acquired this image of the capital. This false-color image shows vegetation in shades of green and gray, water in various shades of blue and urban areas in pink and purple. The runway of the city's airport can be seen as a long straight line that extends from the southwest to northeast south of the large lake, Bois de Boulogne. Two decades later, on Oct. 16, 2006 Landsat 7 acquired this image of Ouagadougou. Growth radiated from the city center in all directions. The green strip of vegetation north of Bois de Boulogne has been paved over and a massive new development including a large thoroughfare and traffic circle can be seen south of the airport. Images and caption: NASA/USGSSantiago, Chile Santiago, Chile ranks among the world's fastest going cities. Chile is South America's fifth largest economy with strong tourism and export markets. More than a third of Chile's population lived in Santiago as of 2009. Taken on Jan. 9, 1985 and Jan. 30, 2010, this pair of images from the Landsat 5 satellite illustrates the city's steady growth. the images were made with infrared and visible light so that plant-covered land is red. bare or sparsely vegetated land is tan, and the city is dark silver. in the 25 years that elapsed between 1985 and 2010, the city expanded away from the Andes Mountains along spike-like lines, which are major roads. Images and caption: NASA/USGS


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France is a Nation of Wizards, Bestows Immortality Upon Scientist
Nobel Prize winner Jules Hoffman was recently selected to become an immortal, beating out eight other fancy French candidates in a secret vote held last week.
Unfortunately, the "immortal" thing is neither as cool nor as insane as it appears at first glance. That's just the term used to describe members of L'Académie française, the body officially charged with defining and maintaining the standards of the French language.
Hoffman, whose Nobel Prize win was the subject of some controversy after a colleague claimed Hoffman took credit for much of his work, was awarded a much-coveted seat in the Academy upon the death of scholar and author Jacqueline de Romilly. De Romilly died this past December either of old age (she was 97) or of a stake through the heart (she was an immortal).
Previous members of the Academy have included scientist Louis Pasteur and Vichy France's Chief of State Philippe Pétain. (Though most immortals hold their seats for life, Pétain was forced to relinquish his following the whole cooperating-with-Nazis débâcle.)
While the Academy's rulings on what is and is not considered kosher within the confines of the French language are not binding on either the public or the government, it does publish a definitive dictionary and give 40 (mostly elderly) French citizens something to do with their time.
In honor of this story, here is a fun linguistic fact:
The letter "w" appears in French only in foreign words that have been borrowed into the language.
Par exemple: "le week-end" (in English: "the weekend").


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Van Roekel sounds alarm to House Appropriations Committee: Administration plan could have serious consequences in this economy
March 17, 2010
WASHINGTON— NEA President Dennis Van Roekel sounded an alarm regarding the Administration's trend toward more competitive grant programs in his testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health, and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies.
The federal government has long been an essential partner to states and localities to provide critically needed funds. However, Van Roekel raised a red flag because the Administration's budget places states in the position of having to compete for funds during one of the worst financial crises in decades. He pointed out that this scenario fuels a system that means some kids will win and some kids will lose.
The following are excerpts from NEA President Dennis Van Roekel's oral testimony:
"Fulfilling the promise and purpose of public education requires a solid foundation of resources.
"In that respect, the President's education budget is a mixed bag. While it correctly reflects an understanding that education fuels our nation's success by calling for an overall funding increase, those increases would not reach all students, districts and states.
"That is why I raise a real red flag regarding the Administration's trend toward more competitive grant programs. A dramatic shift away from formula grants could have serious consequences in this economy. Providing certainty to states and local school districts through formula-driven federal aid offers stability in an otherwise rapidly deteriorating fiscal environment."
Van Roekel's complete testimony and supporting documents are available at: www.nea.org/HouseEducationFundingTestimony.
NEA's principles for the reauthorization of ESEA are available at: www.nea.org/esea.
Follow us on twitter at www.twitter.com/NEAMedia .
The National Education Association is the nation's largest professional employee organization, representing 3.2 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators and students preparing to become teachers.
CONTACT: Samantha Kappalman
(202) 822-7823, email@example.com


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|In stock:
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Caffe Roma super crema coffee beans. Perfect for our discerning customers who enjoy a velvety smooth finish to one of our finest blends.
Carefully roasted to ensure the coffee maintains an excellent body with a thick, rich crema. Every cup is bursting with delicious flavour. Enjoy a smooth espresso or cappuccino with a rich deep finish.


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July 1, 2014
Bye Aperture, Hello Photos
Apple has announced that it is discontinuing Aperture and iPhoto development in favor of the Photos app with integrated iCloud Photo Library. We know that many of you are using those apps in combination with Pixelmator. While we might not be able to offer you a replacement app (at least right away), we want to do everything we can to help smooth the transition.
First, we are going to fully embrace the new Photos app. In fact, we can't wait to see it. When I first saw Apple announce Photos during the Keynote, I thought, finally there's a secure place to store photos and easily access them on all devices. iCloud Photo Library sounds super great. On top of that, Photos offers extensions, which means that developers like us can integrate some cool editing features and filters right into it. We already have some ideas for it.
Next, if you have any suggestions for tools or features that you're going to miss since Aperture and iPhotos are gone, write them down in the comments, or shoot us an email at email@example.com. We'll be very happy to hear your thoughts.


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1001 Main St Ste 200, Peoria, IL, United States
Medical Office Assistants perform delegated clinical and administrative duties consistent with Medical Assistant program education, training and experience. Works in both the clinical and front office functions of the practice providing clerical and assisting in the delivery of health care and patient care support activities. The Medical Office Assistant performs the duties described below in accordance with the specific needs of the practice.
Minimum of 6 months health care facility clinical experience or clinical education
Current American Heart Association HealthCare Provider BLS is required prior to start date of employment.
Will be required to take a base line medical terminology course within 180 days beginning employment.
Medical terminology
High school or GED equivalent
Basic computer skills with Microsoft Office and email.
Completion of a medical assistant program
Previous experience as a medical office assistant or CNA or equivalent, previous experience with an electronic health record, phlebotomy
Job seekers will be afforded equal opportunity regardless of their race, ethnicity, veteran status or disability status.
Experience the OSF culture and community by clicking here.
Job seekers will be afforded equal opportunity regardless of their race, ethnicity, veteran status or disability status.


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Senators Reintroduce Measure To Make Valles Caldera A National Park
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich reintroduced legislation today to transfer the management of the Valles Caldera National Preserve to the National Park Service (NPS).
Udall and retired Sen. Jeff Bingaman first introduced this legislation in 2010 in light of inconsistent funding, the need for infrastructure improvements and concerns that the Preserve would not achieve financial self-sustainability by 2015, as directed by the Valles Caldera Preservation Act of 2000.
"Millions of years in the making, the Valles Caldera is a natural wonder, rich in geology, ecology and culture," said Udall. "With its vast grass-filled valleys, forested hillsides and numerous volcanic peaks, the caldera means a great deal to the surrounding communities and tribes. Incorporating this landscape into theNational Park Service will preserve its resources and allow for public enjoyment by future generations. Additionally, I want to applaud the years of work that the Board of Trustees and Preserve employees have invested in caring for this unmatched natural resource."
"As someone who's spent time hunting and fishing in the Valles Caldera, I know well how incredible this area is. Families in New Mexico take their children to the vast swath just west of Los Alamos, they create memories, and learn about the rich culture this land brings to our state. But admission to this oasis has been limited," said Heinrich. "The Valles Caldera National Preserve Management Act would help protect the abundant natural resources of the Preserve while increasing recreational access for hiking, camping, hunting, and fishing for all New Mexicans. Making the Valles Caldera more accessible would improve the quality of life for all who visit, for all who benefit from the tourism dollars it brings, and for all who pass on New Mexico's outdoor traditions to their children in such a spectacular setting. This bill also ensures that traditional uses of the resources in the Caldera continue and that nearby pueblos' sacred sites remain protected."
A study requested by Udall and Bingaman in 2009 determined that the Valles Caldera met the high criteria for inclusion in the NPS, noting its significant national value and unique, unaltered geology.
The bill directs the NPS to take over management in a way that protects the Preserve's natural and cultural resources. Hunting, fishing and cattle grazing would continue to be permitted under the legislation. Additionally, the measure strengthens protections for tribal cultural and religious sites and ensures local tribes access to the area.
The first calls to bring the Valles Caldera into the NPS were in 1899. In four separate studies throughout the next century the Park Service found that the area was suitable for protective status under its management.
It wasn't until 2000 that Bingaman, retired Sen. Pete Domenici and then-Rep. Udall were successful in passing legislation to acquire the property for $100 million. The law established an experimental management framework where a Board of Trustees would manage the Preserve as a working ranch with public access, with the goal of becoming financially self-sustaining by 2015.


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There are several commands available that allow you to check the status of your job, monitor execution of a running job, and collect performance statistics for your job. You can also delete a job if necessary.
Status of queued jobs
You can monitor the batch queues and check the status of your job using the commands
qstat and
showq. There is also a command to get an extremely unreliable estimate of the time your job will start. This section also addresses the question of why a job may have a long queue wait and explains a little about how job scheduling works.
Use the
qstat command to check the status of your jobs. You can see whether your job is queued or running, along with information about requested resources. If the job is running you can see elapsed time and resources used.
Here are some examples for user usr1234 and job 123456.
By itself,
qstat lists all jobs in the system:
To list all the jobs belonging to a particular user:
qstat -u usr1234
To list the status of a particular job, in standard or alternate (more useful!) format:
qstat 123456
qstat -a 123456
To get all the details about a particular job (full status):
qstat -f 123456
showq command lists job information from the point of view of the scheduler. Jobs are grouped according to their state: running, idle, or blocked.
To list all jobs in the system:
To list all jobs belonging to a particular user (-u flag may be combined with others):
showq -u usr1234
Idle jobs are those that are eligible to run; they are listed in priority order. Note that the priority order may change over time. Note also that jobs may be run out of order if resources are not immediately available to run the highest priority job ("backfill"). This is done in such a way that it does not delay the start of the highest priority job.
To list details about idle jobs:
showq -i
showq -i -u usr1234
Blocked jobs are those that are not currently eligible to run. There are several reasons a job may be blocked.
- If a user or group has reached the limit on the number of jobs or cores allowed, the rest of their jobs will be blocked. The jobs will be released as the running jobs complete.
- If a user sets up dependencies among jobs or conditions that have to be met before a job can run, the jobs will be blocked until the dependencies or conditions are met.
- You can place a hold on your own job using
qhold jobid.
- In rare cases, an error in the batch sysetm will cause a job to be blocked with state "BatchHold". If you see one of your jobs in this state, contact OSC Help for assistance.
To list blocked jobs:
showq -b
showq -b -u usr1234
showstart command gives an estimate for the start time of a job. Unfortunately, these estimates are not at all accurate except for the highest priority job in the queue. If the time shown is exactly midnight two or three days in the future, it is meaningless. Otherwise the estimate may be off by a large amount in either direction.
showstart 123456
Why isn't my job running?
There are many reasons that your job may have to wait in the queue longer than you would like. Here are some of them.
- System load is high. It's frustrating for everyone!
- A system downtime has been scheduled and jobs are being held. Check the message of the day, which is displayed every time you login, or the system notices posted on OSC webpage.
- You or your group have used a lot of resources in the last few days, causing your job priority to be lowered ("fairness policy").
- You or your group are at the maximum processor count or running job count and your job is being held.
- Your project has a large negative RU (resource unit) balance.
- Your job is requesting specialized resources, such as large memory or certain software licences, that are in high demand.
- Your job is requesting a lot of resources. It takes time for the resources to become available.
- Your job is requesting incompatible or nonexistent resources and can never run.
- Job is unnecessarily stuck in batch hold because of system problems (very rare!).
Priority, backfill, and debug reservations
Priority is a complicated function of many factors, including the processor count and walltime requested, the length of time the job has been waiting, and how much other computing has been done by the user and their group over the last several days.
During each scheduling iteration, the scheduler will identify the highest priority job that cannot currently be run and find a time in the future to reserve for it. Once that is done, the scheduler will then try to backfill as many lower priority jobs as it can without affecting the highest priority job's start time. This keeps the overall utilization of the system high while still allowing reasonable turnaround time for high priority jobs. Short jobs and jobs requesting few resources are the easiest to backfill.
A small number of nodes are set aside during the day for jobs with a walltime limit of 1 hour or less, primarily for debugging purposes.
Observing a running job
You can monitor a running batch job almost as easily as you can monitor a program running interactively. The
qpeek command allows you to see the output that would normally appear on your display. The
pdsh command allows you to monitor your job's CPU and memory usage, among other things. These commands are run from the login node.
qpeek (only for Ruby)
A job's stdout and stderr data streams, which normally show up on the screen, are written to log files. These log files are stored on a server until the job ends, so you can't look at them directly on Ruby. For Owens and Pitzer, you can read the log files during the job is running. The
qpeek command allows you to peek at their contents. If you used the PBS header line to join the stdout and stderr streams (
#PBS -j oe), the two streams are combined in the output log.
Here are a few examples for job 123456. You can use the
-e flag with any of them to get the error log instead of the output log. (This is not applicable if you used "
#PBS -j oe".)
To display the current contents of the output log (stdout) for job 123456:
qpeek 123456
To display the current contents of the error log (stderr) for job 123456:
qpeek -e 123456
To display just the beginning ("head") of the output log for job 123456:
qpeek -h 123456
To display just the end ("tail") of the output log for job 123456:
qpeek -t 123456
To display the end of the output log and keep listening ("
tail -f") – terminate with Ctrl-C:
qpeek -f 123456
If you're in the habit of monitoring your programs using
top or
ps or something similar, you may find the
pdsh command helpful.
pdsh stands for "Parallel Distributed Shell". It lets you run a command in parallel on all the nodes assigned to your job, with the results displayed on your screen.
Caution: The commands that you run should be quick and simple to avoid interfering with the job. This is especially true if your job is sharing a node with other jobs.
Two useful commands often used with
pdsh are
uptime, which displays system load, and
free, which gives memory usage; see also the
man pages for these commands. There are also options for
top that make it usable with
Since this is a parallel command, the output for the various nodes will appear in an unpredictable order.
Examples for job 123456:
pdsh -j 123456 uptime
pdsh -j 123456 free -m
pdsh -j 123456 top -b -n 1 -u usr1234
qstat command provides information about CPU, memory, and walltime usage for running jobs. With the
-a flag, it shows elapsed time (wall time) in hours and minutes. With no flag, it shows "Time Used", an accounting metric, in hours, minutes, and seconds. With the
-f flag, it shows resources used, with information aggregated across all the nodes the job is running on.
qstat -a 123456
qstat -f 123456
Managing your jobs
Deleting a job
Situations may arise in which you want to delete one of your jobs from the PBS queue. Perhaps you set the resource limits incorrectly, neglected to copy an input file, or had incorrect or missing commands in the batch file. Or maybe the program is taking too long to run (infinite loop).
The PBS command to delete a batch job is
qdel. It applies to both queued and running jobs.
qdel 123456
If you are unable to delete one of your jobs, it may be because of a hardware problem or system software crash. In this case you should contact OSC Help.
Altering a queued job
You can alter certain attributes of your job while it's in the queue using the
qalter command. This can be useful if you want to make a change without losing your place in the queue. You cannot make any alterations to the executable portion of the script, nor can you make any changes after the job starts running.
The syntax is:
options ...]
The options argument consists of one or more PBS directives in the form of command-line options.
For example, to change the walltime limit on job 123456 to 5 hours and have email sent when the job ends (only):
qalter -l walltime=5:00:00 -m e 123456
Placing a hold on a queued job
If you want to prevent a job from running but leave it in the queue, you can place a hold on it using the
qhold command. The job will remain blocked until you release it with the
qrls command. A hold can be useful if you need to modify the input file for a job, for example, but you don't want to lose your place in the queue.
qhold 123456
qrls 123456
Job statistics
There are commands you can include in your batch script to collect job statistics or performance information.
date command prints the current date and time. It can be informative to include it at the beginning and end of the executable portion of your script as a rough measure of time spent in the job.
time utility is used to measure the performance of a single command. It can be used for serial or parallel processes. Add
/usr/bin/time to the beginning of a command in the batch script:
/usr/bin/time myprog arg1 arg2
The result is provided in the following format:
- user time (CPU time spent running your program)
- system time (CPU time spent by your program in system calls)
- elapsed time (wallclock)
- % CPU used
- memory, pagefault and swap statistics
- I/O statistics
These results are appended to the job's error log file. Note: Use the full path "
/usr/bin/time" to get all the information shown.
The job accounting utility
ja prints job accounting information inside a PBS job, including CPU time, memory, virtual memory, and walltime used. This information is also included in the email sent when a jobs ends (if email is requested). While the job is running, the same information is available with the
qstat -f command.


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The Richard Tucker Foundation said on Monday that the mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard had won its award named after the American tenor. The award, which comes with a $30,000 prize, is conferred on singers who the foundation deems are about to plunge into major international careers, and it often makes good calls. Past winners include Angela Meade, Joyce DiDonato, John Relyea, Matthew Polenzani, Deborah Voigt and Renée Fleming.
Ms. Leonard, 31, has become a regular at the Metropolitan Opera, performing in a half-dozen productions. They include three Mozart operas: "Don Giovanni," "The Marriage of Figaro" and "Così Fan Tutte." She will be back at the Met in May with Poulenc's "Dialogues of the Carmelites," but not before appearing on "Sesame Street" later this month.


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I thought my friend Lynn would be thrilled to get the email. She wasn't.
It started out with a routine "fan mail" to Aish.com, forwarded to the staff. I skimmed it until something made me do a double take:
I love your website!!! It covers every subject. I love learning the history of our holidays, the spiritual part, the Rabbi's message, etc.
I ran into someone recently who I went to high school with who is a 'free range' minister without a church. He began to immediately try to convert me telling me about messianic Jews and then told me how many Jewish people are converting to become Messianic Jews. I felt attacked. These are my people. I told him I would never abandon my people and convert. He smirked at me and said, "you've been had." I argued with him vociferously.
In the end, he realized that he chose the wrong person to ever try to convert. I thank my family, my beautiful and beloved Hebrew school teacher, Mrs. Bulko…
Mrs. Bulko? Did she mean Lynn's mother, who died 25 years ago? Lynn's mother used to teach Hebrew school. Wouldn't it be amazing if this Aish.com reader was referring to the mother of my childhood best friend Lynn?
I was titillated with the prospect that 25 years after Mrs. Bulko's death, one of her Hebrew school students is still remembering her with appreciation. I quickly forwarded the email to Lynn with the note, "Is she talking about your mother?"
Lynn's response stunned me:
Probably. She mentions that she's from our area. I think my mother, however, would have been softer and more understanding that people have different beliefs.
Was he entitled to champion the cause of Jews only by first forwarding a video about blacks?
Different beliefs? The letter-writer was angry because a Christian missionary was trying to convert her, which she considered a betrayal of her "people." Must we Jews be soft and understanding when confronting people who want to convert all Jews to Christianity? The Mrs. Bulko I knew was a proud Jew who would have been just as defiant as the letter writer in the face of Christian missionaries. What was her daughter thinking?
Just the week before, my husband had had his own email shock. He had forwarded to his personal mailing list a YouTube video decrying the perversion of justice in the case of a Jew who has been sentenced to 28 years in prison for bank fraud. Bruce, my husband's best friend as a teenager, sent this scathing email in reply:
This kind of thing has been visited upon American blacks since "all men are created equal." Where was your outrage before a Jew was targeted? Your selective sensitivity is revealing, to say the least.
My husband felt slapped in the face. Was he entitled to champion the cause of a fellow Jew only if he first forwarded videos about injustices to blacks? What's wrong with "selective sensitivity" to one's own family, people, or nation?
When Balance Becomes Betrayal
Daniel Gordis, one of the most articulate voices in the Jewish world, became embroiled in a dispute during the recent Gaza war. With his two sons serving in the IDF and poised on the border of Gaza for an imminent invasion (that never took place), Gordis was deeply troubled by a missive written by Rabbi Sharon Brous to her congregation, which Gordis considered "even-handed" to the point of "betrayal." Writing in The Times of Israel, he declared:
Universalism, Cynthia Ozick once noted, has become the particularism of the Jews. Increasingly, our most fundamental belief about ourselves is that we dare not care about ourselves any more than we can about others...
This inability to distinguish ourselves from the mass of humanity, this inability to celebrate our own origins, our own People and our own homeland, I argue in my latest book, The Promise of Israel, is dysfunctional. Do we not care about our own children more than we care about other people's children? And shouldn't we? Are our own parents not our responsibility in a way that other people's parents are not?…
That an utterly universalized Judaism is almost entirely divorced from the richness of Jewish heritage and the worldview of our classic texts is bad enough. But on weeks like this, with hundreds of thousands of Israelis sleeping in bomb shelters and many millions more unspeakably frightened, it's become clear that this universalized Judaism has rendered not only platitudinous Jews, but something worse. It bequeaths us a new Jew utterly incapable of feeling loyalty.
The need for balance is so pervasive that even an expression of gut-level love for Israelis more than for their enemies is impossible. Balance has now bequeathed betrayal.
… As I read Rabbi Brous's missive, I couldn't stop thinking about my two sons, both in the army, each doing his share to save the Jewish state from this latest onslaught. What I wanted to hear was that Rabbi Brous cares about my boys (for whom she actually babysat when we were all much younger) more than she cares about the children of terrorists. Especially this week, I wanted her to tell her community to love my family and my neighbors more than they love the people who elected Hamas and who celebrate each time a suicide bomber kills Jews. Is that really too much to ask?
Concentric Circles
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of Israel, offered a paradigm that solves the universalist versus particularist conundrum. The paradigm describes concentric circles.
In the center of the circle is oneself. It is a psychological truism that the person who cannot love herself cannot love anyone.
It's easier to love the nameless, faceless victims of African famine than to love the parent who tells you how to run your life.
The next circle out is one's own family. A man I knew claimed to love all of humanity, but he didn't speak to his own father for 12 years and boycotted his father's funeral. It's easier to love the nameless, faceless victims of African famine than to love the parent who tells you how to run your life, the sibling who borrows money from you and doesn't repay it, the spouse who is always maddeningly late (or maddeningly punctual), and the son or daughter whose teenage rebellion starts at age 11 and continues till 23.
Love of your own family takes precedence once you understand what love really is. Love is not a feeling; it's a skill, like playing the cello or pole vaulting. Proclamations of love not borne out in action are like claiming to play Tchaikovsky's Cello Concerto in B Minor with your bow resting in your lap.
Nor can you play that virtuoso piece until you have spent hundreds of hours practicing bowing and fingering exercises. Family life provides the exercises necessary to master the skill of love. If you can't give up your Sunday golf game to spend time with your wife, if you yell at your child for breaking an expensive object, if you are too busy to call your mother on her birthday, then how can you possibly claim to love the thousands of victims of the Japanese tsunami?
The Jewish People
The next concentric circle is your people or group. For Jews this means the Jewish People. According to Kabbalah, all Jews share one group soul. In the not-so-distant past, all of us intuited this truth. Someone told me how, when he was a teenager in the late 1940s, he and his friends would ride in the back of a pick-up truck around Brooklyn. They would stop at every corner and make an appeal for funds to buy arms for the nascent Jewish state, two of them holding an Israeli flag like a sheet to receive the donations. "I never saw anything like it," he recounted. "People would empty their pockets. They threw in everything they had, without even looking at how much it was."
This same instinctive loyalty to the Jewish People manifested as tears and trauma every time Jews in Israel were killed by a terrorist attack. It also manifested as embarrassment whenever a high-profile Jew was convicted of a crime. Who of us didn't cringe over Bernard Madoff? Or feel pride when Elie Weisel won the Nobel Peace Prize? And none of us felt ashamed by that pride.
Assimilation has replaced "members of the tribe" with "citizens of the world."
Assimilation, however, has replaced "members of the tribe" with "citizens of the world." The difference between "members of the tribe" and "citizens of the world" is like the difference between having friends and having Facebook friends. What is gained in breadth is sacrificed in depth.
When I spent my junior year of college in India in the pre-Internet era, my friend Julie and I decided to go to Calcutta for Rosh Hashanah. After a 24-hour, third-class train ride from Varanasi, we arrived – grimy, disheveled, clad in jeans and Punjabi shirts – at Calcutta's last remaining synagogue as sunset ushered in Rosh Hashanah. The elderly congregants were the remnant of the Jewish community that had come to India from Iraq three centuries before.
What did we, two Jewish girls from Philadelphia, have in common with these Iraqi-Indian Jews who had never heard of lox and bagels? Yet they received us warmly and immediately set us up with accommodations and meals for the duration of our stay in Calcutta. What is remarkable is not that they took care of us, but rather that both we and they assumed that of course they would, because we belonged to the same mishpacha (family).
Jewish travelers to remote places throughout the centuries were always received by their fellow Jews with the same open arms. The poet Robert Frost famously wrote: "Home is where, when you go there, they have to let you in." If so, then the itinerant Jew, even in the most distant and foreign locales, always found a home when he presented his calling card as a member of the tribe.
Abnegating that particular religious/ethnic distinctiveness reduces us all to what Village Voice writer Paul Cowan lamentingly labeled, "orphans in history." Orphans are individuals without family, without roots, without a sense of their historical identity. This well describes the assimilated Jew, enamored of everyone, belonging to no one.
Is it possible to replace severed roots? Paul Cowan did. Raised by a father so intent on extirpating his Jewish identity that he changed the family name from "Cohen" to "Cowan," and did not allow his own devout father to ever see his grandson, Paul reclaimed his Jewish heritage when in his late thirties. He spent time with fellow Jews on the Lower East Side, sought out rabbis, studied Jewish texts, and adopted Jewish practices. Born as "an orphan in history," Paul Cowan died as a strongly identified Jew.
The Outer Circles
The next concentric circle, moving outward, is all of humanity. Feeding starving children in Africa takes priority over saving the whales. Bequeathing your fortune to make a home for cats when homeless people are sleeping outside in the cold is a distortion of true compassion.
The next circle out includes animals. Causing pain to animals is forbidden by the Torah. Experimenting on animals in order to develop a new cosmetics line is cruel. To kill a trespassing deer because he is eating your cherished petunias is wrong, very wrong.
The last concentric circle is every living creature. The sages prescribed painting the trunk of a diseased tree so that passersby would know to pray for its healing. But the person who lavishes more love on her prize orchid than on her elderly aunt has her priorities grossly distorted.
Asking if you can identify as a Jew and still love all humanity is like asking if you can love your mother and still love your pet poodle. Of course you can, as long as you love your mother more.
The sage Hillel, 2,000 years ago, proclaimed: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me?" Read: prioritize your love according to concentric circles. Hillel continued: "But if I am only for myself, what am I?" Read: Don't get stuck in the inner circles. The truth is that real love, like light, radiates outward. The more you truly love yourself, your family, and your people, the more you will love all the outside circles.
Particularism is not the opposite of universalism, but rather its training ground.
And the converse can be menacingly true. During World War II, the Germans painstakingly provided animal shelters for the pets of the Jews they had deported and murdered.
A person who skips the inner circles in favor of the outer circles does so at the peril of his own morality.
An aspiring pole-vaulter cannot start with a six-meter leap. He starts with leaping a couple meters, and, through practice, gradually works his way up. Love – a much more difficult skill than pole-vaulting, because it requires overcoming the gravitational pull of innate selfishness – is likewise a skill that must be practiced and gradually mastered.
A Jew who masters loving herself, her family, and the entire Jewish People is ready to go on to loving all humanity and beyond. Particularism is not the opposite of universalism, but rather its training ground.


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Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Imvros
On Monday, August 19, 2013, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew arrived in his native island of Imvros (Gökçeada). In his home village of Sts. Theodores, His All-Holiness inaugurated the reopening of a Greek primary school with an Aghiasmo service and with the first ringing of a bell since its closing in 1964. The newly restored and reopened school, which is also named after the village's patrons, Sts. Theodores, was granted permission to reopen by the Turkish Ministry of Education.
During his visit, His All-Holiness attended and spoke at a book launch event for Joachim Boutaras' new publication "Education in Imvros 1800-1964," and on Friday morning, he celebrated the Divine Liturgy for the Apodosis of the Feast of the Dormition in the Church of his village named after this great feast.
Among the many in attendance throughout this one-week trip were Metropolitans Kyrillos of Imvros and Tenedos, Chrysostomos of Myra, Barnabas of Neapolis and Stavroupolis and Pavlos of Drama, Protopresbyter Thomas Synodinos from the Archdiocese of Athens, Patriarchal Deacon Joachim Billis, Deputy Secretary of the Holy Sacred Synod, Mr. Lakis Vingas, representative of the minority institutions with the General Board of Foundations in Ankara, Ambassador Nikolaos Matthioudakis, Consul General of Greece in Istanbul, Ms. Lina Mendoni, General Secretary of Greece's Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, Ms. Anna Koutsomali, the founder of the school, Mr. Paris Asanakis, chairman of the Imvrian Association of Athens, Mr. Zorlos, chairman of the local Imvrian Association, and Greek journalist Ms. Anna Panayiotarea.
Source: www.patriarchate.org


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Elizabeth Perrin
This adaptation of a classic recipe comes from Eben Freeman, bartender of Tailor Restaurant in New York City.
- Yield
- Makes 1 drink
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (1/4 ounce) club soda
- 1 sugar cube (preferably rough-cut and unbleached*) or 1/2 teaspoon raw sugar, such as turbinado or Demerara
- Dash Angostura Bitters
- 5 tablespoons (2 1/2 ounces) whiskey
- 1 cup ice
- 1 (1/2-inch-thick) strip orange peel
- 1 (1/2-inch-thick) strip lemon peel
- *Rough-cut, unbleached sugar cubes can be purchased on amazon.com.
- In chilled cocktail shaker or pint glass, pour club soda over sugar cube. Using muddler or back of large spoon, gently crush sugar cube. Swirl glass until sugar dissolves, 20 to 30 seconds. Add bitters, whiskey, and ice, and stir until well chilled, about 20 seconds. Strain into chilled double old-fashioned glass. Squeeze orange and lemon peels over glass, making sure oils fall into glass; discard peels and serve.


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Bad truck brakes blamed for Nevada Amtrak crash
An inattentive trucker with a history of speeding violations driving a tractor-trailer with faulty brakes was the probable cause of a fatal collision with an Amtrak train that left six people dead in northern Nevada last year, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded Tuesday.
On a 5-0 vote, the panel also agreed that the weakness of passenger car walls likely contributed to the number of deaths and more than a dozen injuries after the truck skidded 300 feet into the train at a rural crossing on June 24, 2011. It recommended new strength standards be developed.
NTSB investigators said the truck driver apparently didn't notice the train because he was fatigued as a result of inconsistent sleeping patterns, was suffering from ankle pain or possibly could have been checking messages on his cellphone. But the panel decided there wasn't enough evidence of any of those things to include in the formal probable cause finding issued during a hearing in Washington.
Board members also ruled out the possibility the crossing guard gate or warning lights malfunctioned after time-lapsed photography showed the gate fully extended four seconds before the crash. Monitoring equipment also indicated the warning lights were flashing and the gate in place 18 seconds before the collision when the truck was still 900 feet away from the crossing.
The truck driver, Larry Valli, 43, was killed along with the train's conductor and four passengers.
NTSB chairwoman Deborah Hersman said Valli had plenty of opportunity to see and react to the lights.
"This accident could have easily been prevented if the driver had acted appropriately or the motor carrier had acted responsibly in maintaining the vehicle," she said.
Officials for the owner of the truck, John Davis Trucking Co. of Battle Mountain, and their lawyer did not immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Investigators said they weren't able to find any immediate relatives of Valli.
The California Zephyr bound from Chicago to Emmeryville, Calif., was three hours behind schedule when it left Salt Lake City on the day of the crash.
It was going 77 mph in northern Nevada's Forty Mile Desert and approaching the crossing at U.S. Highway 95 north of Fallon when the engineer noticed that a semi-truck hauling two open empty trailers didn't seem to be slowing for the oncoming train, according to the NTSB's preliminary findings.
With the whistle blaring, the engineer initiated the emergency brakes about 450 feet from the crossing. Rubber skid marks on the highway show the truck driver hit his brakes 300 feet from the tracks but skidded nearly the length of a football field into the side of the train, investigators said. If the brakes had been properly maintained, the truck should have stopped within about 230 feet of braking, they said.
Valli, of Winnemucca, had been talking on a cellphone earlier in the day, the NTSB said. He was not talking on the phone at the time of the crash, but he did receive a call a few minutes before that and, while he didn't answer it, it's possible he could have subsequently been checking his voice mail, investigators said.
Board member Robert Sumwalt said he found it "phenomenal" that the driver didn't react to the crossing warning sooner.
"I cannot imagine barreling down the highway at 60 mph and wait until you are less than the length of a football field before applying the brakes," he said. "This accident could have been avoided if the driver would have applied brakes 1.4 seconds sooner or if John Davis Trucking would have maintained the brakes as they should have been maintained."
The truck embedded in the side of a crew car, which ultimately was destroyed by the fire that also charred a passenger car behind it.
The children of the conductor, Laurette Lee, 68, of South Lake Tahoe, Calif., are among those who have sued over the crash, naming Valli and John Davis Trucking as defendants.
NTSB investigator Jennifer Morrison said 11 of the truck's 16 brake drums were worn beyond limits. She said tests conducted by the Nevada Highway Patrol also found nine of the 16 brakes were out of adjustment or inoperative, but she said the patrol didn't use the proper test guidelines so it was not possible to tell for sure if those results were entirely accurate.
Those conditions might not have been obvious to the driver, who likely would not have known his brakes were faulty unless he'd been required to make a quick stop before, she said.
However, NTSB also discovered the warning lights and anti-lock brake system had been deliberately disconnected and the wiring gathered in a loop for an unknown reason.
The NTSB found Valli had been cited for 11 speeding violations over the past 10 years but less than half were known to John Davis because the firm only checked his Nevada background. The probe also determined Valli had 30 different employers over the past 10 years but didn't include at least two that had terminated him on his John Davis application.
As a result, the board recommended Tuesday that commercial motor carriers be required to conduct and document investigations into driver histories for the 10 years prior to their application for employment.
Among other things, the panel also recommended the development of side-impact worthiness standards to minimum encroachment into rail cars and requiring passenger rail car doors to be designed to prevent fire and smoke from moving between cars - although they acknowledged fire doors would not have made a difference in this case.
The passengers killed in the accident were: Cheuy Ong, 34, of West Jordan, Utah; Francis Knox, 58, and Karly "Annie" Knox, 18, of Seward, Neb.; and Barbara Bell, 60, of United Kingdom.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid commended the investigative team for providing "insight into the causes of the tragic collision."
"Today, as we reflect on the accident, my thoughts go out to the family and friends of those individuals who lost their lives in the collision and to those who were injured," he said in a statement. "The recommendations set forth today by NTSB will go to improve transportation safety and I look forward to receiving a full briefing on the investigation's findings in the near future."
Associated Press reporter Ken Ritter contributed to this report from Las Vegas.


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For a bit, The Amazing Race finale seemed like a two-team race between eventual winners Rachel and Dave, and Brendon and Rachel. But then the Big Brother duo took a cab instead of going on foot to a helicopter. "That was awful," Rachel tells TVGuide.com. "It was the $1 million mistake that you don't want to make. If it was any other leg, it wouldn't have been that bad because those are about survival; the goal is to win on the final leg." The pair finished in third, but not before having another one of their notorious meltdown fights. Where there more meltdowns that we didn't see? Find out below. Plus: Get their side of their feud with Vanessa and Ralph.
Amazing Race's Rachel and Dave: It was a relief to win after our mistakeHow far behind Art and JJ were you?
Rachel: I don't really know. We've heard it was like 20 minutes. But we were so focused on running our own Race that we weren't really paying attention to them or the time. It's crazy because in Hawaii, I feel like we did a week of vacation fun in one day, so it was so exhausting.
Brendon: We knew we were last. At that point, I think all of the teams were just exhausted. I was just like, "Let's just finish it. Even if we're in last, let's finish it. We made it all the way through."How much time did you lose in the cab?
Brendon: Probably 20 minutes. ... Then our cab dropped us off at the wrong spot [for the second Roadblock], so we lost even more time.Rachel: It was hard. After we made that mistake, we both felt like we had just kissed $1 million goodbye. We both want to be as good as we can for the other one and we're also individually competitive. ... That's why I lost it on Brendon. We started going at each other because we were so frustrated. When we got in the helicopter, we realized that we had to focus. Brendon: We said before, "If we make a mistake, just keep going because you never know what's ahead or who's stalled." [Rachel and Dave] made a huge mistake! We don't know what could've happened if we didn't take the cab. I said if we didn't and our taxi had dropped us off in the right spot at the second Roadblock, we might have beaten Dave and Rachel. You never know. The problem is there are so many variables on The Amazing Race. So many things are determined by other people and that's, I think, the hardest pill to swallow.I think everyone who's seen Big Brother was expecting at least three spectacular meltdowns a leg from you, Rachel, but we didn't see that many. Italy was your biggest one. Were there more that they didn't show?
Rachel: [Laughs] No. I didn't lose it that much. But everyone relieves stress in a different way and I cry! Brendon: There weren't any other meltdowns. If there were, they most likely would've shown them. The worst one was in Italy. We just hit a wall that leg. After that, we got it together and we were bickering here and there like everybody else. Let's talk about your friends, Vanessa and Ralph. I just talked to them and Vanessa said your feud started because you didn't agree with her liberal political views and that Rachel said to her, "Oh, so you kill babies?" [Ed. Note: Check back Thursday for our interview with Vanessa and Ralph.]
Rachel: What?! She said I said that? That's insane! I did not say that.
Brendon: Wow. Well, apparently Vanessa is just like she is off the show as she is on the show. First of all, if she's saying that you said that in response to her being pro-choice, we're both pro-choice, so I don't understand that. I don't even think we talked about that. If we did talk about it, we never said that.Rachel: Yeah, that makes no sense. I can't believe she's saying I said this. Anyone who knows me or has seen me on Big Brother — they film us 24/7 — know words like that would never come out of my mouth.Brendon: But I can tell you how it started. It started before we even raced. Rachel and I were meeting and talking to the teams at the airport, which is what all the teams do. Rachel heard Vanessa say to Ralph, "Oh, that girl's staring at me" and blah, blah, blah. It wasn't even that Rachel did something; it was just that Rachel was there. I think that Vanessa is really one of those girls who wants to be the prettiest girl in the room all the time. If there's another pretty girl, she's gonna want them to get knocked down or not get the attention. I think that's what it was with her. It would go away and come back. The watermelons — it was really bad. In Europe, we sat down with them, had a beer and it was all cool. Then it started up again later. And it was all her, not Ralph. Even when we had that whole mat thing with them and shook hands afterward, I was like, "She's being super fake."
Amazing Race's Art and JJ: We don't care if people think we're jerksAnd she made that nose job comment.
Rachel: That was just mean. I know I said stuff about her too and I own up to that, but nothing I said was as mean as that. Like, cattiness — I get it. We were on Big Brother. People are gonna be mean and hateful, but it's a different kind of dig when you're making fun of people's appearance. OK, I have a big nose, but you don't have to rub it in my face. It's super mean, catty and b----y.Brendon: I'm thinking, "If she's gonna go there, let's start ragging on each other's genetics." Let's just go to the fundamental core. Why did you let it get under your skin so much?
Rachel: I shouldn't have. But when someone's constantly in your face and constantly talking about you behind your back and you're in a competitive situation, you let them affect you when you shouldn't. Maybe that was their strategy to throw people off their game by being mean. I think Vanessa is one of those girls who wants to get attention. She's just mean to be mean. You don't have to be my best friend or like me, but you don't have to constantly dig at me and make fun of me and talk about me. It's just unnecessary. What did it have to do with the Race? The Amazing Race is not that kind of game. It wasn't like she was trying to get allies and get me evicted or voted off an island. If that were the case, then I would at least understand.Art and JJ weren't very fond of you either.
Brendon: [Laughs] They were probably the two people we talked the least to the entire Race. So for them to have the hatred they had for us was comical to me. We don't know if it's Big Brother or whatever. When we got into at the airport with Vanessa and Ralph — it was just between us two teams — they were behind us and wanted to jump in and start talking smack to us. No one else wanted part of it, but they did. I think that says it all. If I weren't part of a fight, I wouldn't join in when it has nothing to do with me. I might try to stop it, but I wouldn't join in. When we started interacting with them, I felt like these were two guys who got picked on in high school, became border patrol agents to become tough and carry guns and to be able to tell other people what to do and boss them around.It seemed like you had good relationships with other teams. Nary and Jamie told you and Bopper and Mark they were federal agents.
Rachel: Yeah. Vanessa and Ralph, and Art and JJ were the only ones who didn't like us. At the end, we formed a really close bond with Rachel and Dave. As you guys saw, we worked together when we were in Japan. I think we had good bonds with the teams. Once people got past the whole "You guys were on Big Brother," it was fine. People on the Race and some fans seem to not like teams who come on from other shows. It happened with the Survivor team and the other Big Brother teams. Did you say yes right away when they asked you to do the show?
Brendon: Rachel always said yes right away. I always said no right away. ... I was like, "Hold on. I've got my PhD. Let's stop and think about this and us." I told Rachel, if we're gonna go on The Amazing Race, I don't want us fighting all the way through and them airing it. We put ourselves in these situations voluntarily, which is insane to think about, but I don't want this to be the downfall of our relationship. If it's gonna mean us giving up a chance to win $1 million, then fine. Our relationship's more important. You see how easy it is to get into a fight with a significant other. You put yourself in that situation, you have to be willing to take a risk, but you also have to say that at the end of the day, no matter what happens, we're still gonna be together. We're still engaged and we're still best friends.Rachel: Yeah, that's the most important thing. When I lost my cool on Brendon in Hawaii, watching it back, I was so embarrassed. But we have to remember that in that moment, we were under so much stress and we have to remember that we're still best friends. If we have other opportunities, like when this came up, we have to remember that we come first. That's what's gonna keep us healthy and strong.
Amazing Race's Mark and Bopper: Our friendship is deeper than any situationWhen I talked to Phil, he said you guys are like rocky road ice cream. Do you agree with that or do you think you're another flavor?
Brendon: I like rocky road, so I'm good with that. [Laughs] ... The truth is, Rachel and I both realized on Big Brother that we're very emotional people, so when you put us in situations like this, we have a hard time maintaining and controlling our emotions every single second of every single day. When we get caught up in the moment, we get caught up in the moment. I know that annoys some people, but it's just who we are. We tried not to say things that were below the belt or something that we would regret later. We're passionate people and with passion comes emotion and sometimes we got overemotional. Sometimes the overdramatic expressions that Rachel makes are out of control!Rachel: [Laughs] I'm really trying to control my emotions better. But I like rocky road too!How are your $500 extensions doing, Rachel?
Rachel: [Laughs] Oh my God! If I had known that [third place] was $10,000, I think I would've shaved my head.Brendon: Yeah, she says that!Rachel: Yeah, I say that! [Laughs] It's so hard because I'm getting married and I didn't want to just shave my head. I was thinking about my wedding and my extensions and all these things. And it really wasn't necessary for us to do the Fast Forward because we knew Mark and Bopper were so far behind. We knew that if we left right away, we still had a chance to catch up with everyone. It probably would've given us first place, but I would've done it if it was seriously the only thing that was gonna keep us in the Race. What are you up to now? Any more reality shows?
Brendon: I need a break from reality television! I really do. I try to tell Rachel every time. Every reality show adds one more year to my PhD. We're excited about getting married. That's what we're focusing on. We're getting settled in L.A. We're looking for a house and ideally we'd love to get married and move into our first new house together. I think we're ready to have a normal relationship that isn't a spectacle.So no special on your wedding?
Brendon: Exactly! Watch — we'll say this now and three months later we're getting ready to be filmed. [Laughs]


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- small(ish) A6 sized card
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UK orders should arrive within 1-3 working days once shipped. For overseas orders, delivery can vary from 5-15 workings days depending on how far you are from the UK. More info can be found on our delivery and returns page.


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Square Mounted Aluminum Print
Aluminum prints? That's pretty #METAL. These aluminum prints are created with heat transfer dye-sublimation technology, resulting in photo quality images with insanely crisp colors. At 1/16" thick, these prints are as sleek and lightweight as they are durable, water-, and bend-resistant. Complete with a ready-to-hang wire or saw-tooth hook on the back.
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Is there a Study Guide available for the Westminster Confession of Faith? Is the Westminster Confession of Faith available in Modern English? Thank you.
Yes and yes. I highly recommend as a study guide The Westminster Confession of Faith for Study Classes by G. I. Williamson (Presbyterian & Reformed Pub. Co.), available in paperback. It currently retails at $16.99.
In 1993 the General Assembly of the OPC approved a "Modern English Study Version" of the Westminster Confession of Faith (as adopted by the OPC) which was carefully prepared by our Committee on Christian Education and published by Great Commission Publications.
This Westminster Confession of Faith with Parallel Modern English Study Version is presented in paperback with the official OP text of the WCF on the left-hand page and the parallel modern English text on the right-hand facing page. With the "legal" text are also footnotes giving the Biblical support for the points of the Confession (also adopted by a General Assembly).
Please note that the Westminster Confession of Faith with Parallel Modern English Study Version is also available in HTML format on the OPC website. You'll find the Confession here and a "Preface" here.
Both of these books are very useful, and both can be obtained from Great Commission Publications in Suwanee, Georgia (800-695-3387): http://gcp.org.
"Questions and Answers" is a weekly feature of the OPC website. The answers come from individual ministers in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church expressing their own convictions and do not necessarily represent an "official" position of the Church, especially in areas where the Standards of the Church (the Scriptures and the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms) are silent.
The questions come from individuals like yourself. If you have questions about biblical and theological matters, you are invited to send them by e-mail by using the "Pose a Question" link on the OPC home page or by clicking here.
At least one new question is posted each week, so there should always be something new here for you to read. (For those people who would like to look at previous questions and answers, they will continue to be available as well.)
The purpose of the OPC website's "Questions and Answers" is to respond to biblical and theological questions. Matters of church discipline, disputes, or debates go beyond the scope of our work. We recommend that you present your concerns in these areas to the appropriate judicatory. In most cases this will be to a local pastor, elder, or session. We do not want the website to replace personal involvement in, or commitment to, the local, visible church.
While we will respond to every serious questioner, we are not bound to give a substantive answer to every question, should we deem the question to be beyond the scope of our purpose or our own ability to answer.
You will receive an answer by e-mail. Please be patient as many of our respondents are busy pastors. The response to your question may take up to two (2) weeks. Some of the questions submitted will be chosen to be posted here, along with the corresponding answers.
Note that the "Questions and Answers" posted on the site have been editedall personal references are removed, Scripture references or from some source may be added, and sometimes portions are expandedto make the questions and answers more useful to a larger audience.
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- Mittwoch, 11. Dezember 2019
- Ort Bahnhofshalle Weimar, 99423 Weimar
- Kontakt https://www.radikaler-regenbogen.de/index.php/event/ausstellung-transpeople-of-the-world/
- Aufrufe : 6505
Manuel Ricardo Garcia – Exhibition: Trans*people of the World
is an international project about Trans*people worldwide. I travelled the world for many years and took pictures of 50 Trans*people in their home cities – I portray each of them as special and beautiful in their own distinct ways, with their individual pride and strength, but also their vulnerabilities. Some of them live in countries where there is a trans* movement, others live in countries where they have to fight a terribly exhausting battle every day of their lives to survive.
I am Manuel Ricardo Garcia, a two-spirit and queer FTM of color. I am a Trans*activist and Photoartist from Europe, founder of the Munich Trans*-and Inter*convention, the biggest Convention in Europe, Autor of the book "Transmen of the World", winner of the Pride Photo Award 2011 – Amsterdam, founder of the QTPOC group "Beyond Color." I am the rolemodel and developer for Trans*gay people of the biggest safe sex campagne IWWIT in Germany. I am a facilitator, a healer, a teacher for Empowerwork for POC's & spiritual work and all transtopics. I am currently based in Munich and I have family in Chihuahua Mexico. "I am dancing to the beat of a different drum".


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Fifty Shades of Black is a 2016 American comedy film directed by Michael Tiddes and starring Marlon Wayans, who also co-wrote and co-produced the film. The film is a parody of the 2015 erotic romantic drama film Fifty Shades of Grey, and was released theatrically on January 29, 2016.
Hannah (Kali Hawk), is an unattractive college student who goes to interview wealthy entrepreneur Christian Black (Marlon Wayans), at his Black Enterprises office building for her roommate's school newspaper. Despite the fact that he made his money through shady means (and a stint as a male stripper), she falls for him, but soon discovers he's not the romantic type.
On June 3, 2015, it was announced that Open Road Films had acquired the US distribution rights to the yet-to-be made film for $5 million.
Principal photography on the film began August 11, 2015 in Los Angeles.
Fifty Shades of Black has grossed $11.5 million in North America and $6.6 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $18.1 million, against a budget of $5 million.
The film was released in North America on January 29, 2016, alongside Kung Fu Panda 3, The Finest Hours, and Jane Got a Gun. The film was projected to gross $10–11 million from 2,075 theaters in its opening weekend. The film grossed $275,000 from its Thursday night previews, $2.3 million on its first day, and $5.9 million in its opening weekend, finishing 10th at the box office.


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Note: Please continue coverage of V1280 Sco until further notice. - Elizabeth O. Waagen, 13 April 2020
May 11, 2018 : Dr. Frederick Walter (Stony Brook University) has requested AAVSO assistance in monitoring V1280 Sco (Nova Sco 2007).
February 7, 2007
IAUC 8803 announces a new nova in Scorpius, independently discovered by Y. Nakamura and Y. Sakurai. The position is
and the unfiltered magnitude is about 8.3 (T. Krajci, 2007-02-06).
Spectra indicate blue color, no emission blueward of 540nm, but Halpha emission with P-Cyg profile.
Report observations to the AAVSO as: 9999+99 V1280 Sco. Please be sure to indicate what you used for comparison stars.
Thank you for your astronomical efforts and contributions!
February 16, 2007
Event: Very Bright Nova in Scorpius
This nova, discovered at 9th magnitude 12 days ago, has brightened dramatically in the past few days to 3rd magnitude, becoming one of the brightest novae in the past several years. It has gained the attention of the professional community and will be observed by numerous satellites, including Chandra, Swift, and INTEGRAL.