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New home sales post surprise rise
December sales top Wall Street's estimates after tumbling in November.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Sales of new homes rose 2.9 percent in December, a government report showed Friday, exceeding Wall Street's estimates.
The Census Bureau reported that the annual pace of new home sales increased to 1.27 million in December from 1.23 million in November, which was revised slightly lower. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast sales would slow to a 1.23 million annual rate.
While home sales gained ground in December, there are still signs suggesting a cool down in the real estate market, said Gus Faucher, director of macroeconomics at Moody's Economy.com.
"I don't think month-to-month fluctuations are that important. I think we are still going to see a gradual slowing in the housing market over the rest of this year and into 2007," he said.
Mortgage finance firm Freddie Mac said the average rate on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages eased in December to 6.27 percent from 6.33 percent in November, lowering the cost of buying a new home.
But rates are still up from an average 5.71 percent at the beginning of last year.
A general uptick in mortgage rates, along with weakness in economic growth and slowing existing home sales, are just some of the factors that point to an overall cooling in the housing market, Faucher said.
Signs of cooling
The Commerce Department said Friday that gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation's economic activity, slowed to an annual growth rate of 1.1 percent in the fourth quarter, down from a 4.1 percent rate in the third quarter.
Much of the nation's economic growth has been tied to the housing boom, which has created jobs in construction as well as spurred purchases of big-ticket household items such as refrigerators and washing machines.
Earlier this week, the National Association of Realtors reported the third straight month of slowing existing home sales. New home sales, while a small part of the housing market, are seen as a leading indicator of sales.
Weaker confidence among homebuilders and a gradual slowing in home price appreciation offer additional signs of the cooling trend, Faucher said.
Surveys from the National Association of Home Builders have shown a declining level of confidence among home builders, some of whom are even using incentives like free trips to Las Vegas to attract buyers.
The latest Census Bureau report shows median prices for new residences sold in December fell 1.5 percent from the previous month to $221,800. Half of the homes sold for more than the median, the rest for less.
The average home price declined 3.7 percent to $272,900.
There is some extreme home selling going on. Click here for more.

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<< Back to Culinary Masters 2016
Barbara Lynch salutes Patrick Campbell's refreshing way with the bounty of New England and the tenets of fine dining.
Barbara Lynch—a largely self-taught cook from the South Boston projects who went on to become the city's doyenne of fine dining—stepped to the podium at the St. Regis New York. She clearly savored the moment, but the focus of the evening was on a chef other than herself: her Robb Report Culinary Masters Competition nominee for the best rising culinary talent in New England, Patrick Campbell. "From the day he walked in looking for a job, he was brimming with passion for great food," Lynch said, and with that, Campbell emerged from the kitchen, clad in his signature checkered apron. Their mutual admiration was apparent.
Campbell, the inventive chef at Café ArtScience in Cambridge, credits Lynch with shaping his personal style—one that combines elements of classic French and Italian cuisine with modern techniques. His Culinary Masters Competition dinner began with simple canapés that emphasized the pure flavors of raw oysters, beef carpaccio, gently poached lobster, bluefin tuna, and buttered radishes topped with caviar. Increasingly complex plates followed, including an array of rabbit charcuterie, artichoke soup with a huge umami punch, luxurious langoustine-filled pasta, and a squab tour de force.
Off the Menu
See Patrick Campbell prepare parsnip cappellacci with green garlic puree, roasted porcini, morels, English peas, and Parmigiano.
After starting his career in suburban restaurants north of Boston, Campbell went to work for Lynch at No. 9 Park restaurant on Beacon Hill in 2005. He learned Lynch's signature dishes by heart, particularly the prune gnocchi with foie gras sauce—her most requested recipe. In 2008, Lynch promoted Campbell to chef de cuisine, entrusting the reputation of No. 9 Park to his hands as she focused on developing a new dining complex on the South Boston Waterfront. In a single building, she expanded her French-Italian balancing act with Sportello, a diner-style restaurant serving bowls of homemade pasta, and a craft-cocktail bar called Drink. Two years later, she opened the fine-dining establishment Menton to universal acclaim.
"It was an incredibly busy time for her, and she gave me tremendous creative freedom at No. 9," Campbell says. Once Lynch's new project took wing, Campbell struck out on his own. He left No. 9 Park to oversee the brasserie fare at Eastern Standard and then, on Halloween 2014, he opened his own restaurant: Café ArtScience in Kendall Square, the hip heart of Cambridge's biotech, robotics, and web sectors. David Edwards, a professor of biomedical engineering at Harvard and the restaurant's founder and co-owner, ensured that innovative technology was part of the mix—including vaporized drinks to be inhaled. But Campbell anchored the cuisine in a sprightly remix of local, seasonal ingredients, classical technique, and imaginative combinations. He graces roasted pumpkin soup with a fritter filled with goat cheese and inky huitlacoche, or pairs Peking duck with fried sushi rice, native beets, and wild Maine blueberries.
"I could eat Patrick's food every night," says Lynch. "That's why I selected him for this competition. I think he's brilliant."
Top Dish: Duet of Organic Squab
The high point of Patrick Campbell's menu was a skillful mélange of dark flavors presaging the autumn dining season. Campbell treated breast of squab as a crépinette, rolling it in a thin membrane of caul fat and roasting it medium rare to make a fork-tender morsel. He presented the succulent braised squab leg on the bone, inviting diners to pick it up and nibble the rich meat. A bed of chopped celeriac provided an herbal base, while sautéed diced Ginger Gold apples and a roasted cap of a matsutake, or pine mushroom, added sweetness, texture, and spice. A final flurry of shaved Italian white truffles—the first of the season—brought an irresistible earthy finish.
PATRICK CAMPBELL: As a young cook, I spent as much time as I could eating around the city at high-end restaurants. Hands down, No. 9 Park was the best meal I had and the restaurant that I most identified with. I wanted to work there.
BARBARA LYNCH: I was attracted to your passion and, as you grew in the company, you became an amazing leader. You really mentored a lot of cooks.
PC: I think I spent the majority of my time at No. 9 making prune gnocchi. [Lynch laughs.] I don't think you could find a more eloquent way to represent Barbara and her restaurant. It's a prime example of drawing from both French and Italian food, which is also a big part of what I do.
BL: Your cooking has both exacting technique and real heart. It's clear that you adore French cuisine, but you add interesting personal touches that reveal a mastery of Italian cooking and your New England roots. Your roast chicken developed a cult following almost immediately—it's that good. And your potato tart is unbelievable. It's both rustic and refined and so utterly delicious: mashed potatoes mixed with grated Comté cheese served in a buttery, flaky pastry crust and topped with truffles. I love that you don't shy away from unapologetically rich and layered flavors rooted in the classics. You make them seem right at home in a space that celebrates science and innovation.
PC: For the Culinary Masters dinner, I wrote the menu to showcase my strengths as well as products that I love to work with. I believe in providing a well-rounded, progressive dining experience, which is why I started with mostly raw canapés before moving onto the charcuterie of rabbit. Rabbit is probably my favorite protein, and I wanted to show its versatility in a composed first course.
The artichoke soup has been a guest favorite every time I put it on the menu, and enjoying artichokes in a soup is pretty novel for most diners. The langoustine ravioli was meant to show how much your pasta influenced me. I feel like it really showcases the fine line that we walked at No. 9 Park between French and Italian food. It's very indulgent and luxurious but has a very simple flavor profile. With the duo of squab, I wanted to show some technique, while I wanted to keep the dessert [chocolate–peanut butter pie and curried coconut panna cotta] a little savory and spicy. I'm not a fan of overly sweet deserts.
BL: What I loved about your dinner was that even though I gave you suggestions, you stuck to what you knew and what was comfortable. You have your style now.
PC: I'd characterize my food as ingredient-driven simplicity, and I learned a lot of that working with you. I think Boston is the best city in the world for a chef. We have some of the best from both land and sea.
BL: The signature dish now at Menton is butter soup: butter, shellfish, caviar, milk, and honey. I'm a New Englander, so I think we're spoiled with shellfish—we have pasta on the menu, but I never let go of my roots. Everyone is basically eating farm-to-table, and the closer you can source your products, the better.
PC: I think that farm-to-table is not really a food trend anymore—it's an expectation for a quality restaurant.
BL: Yes, but I think what will go away is the tasting menu. That has just gone out of control. A lot of people don't want to sit four and a half hours. People still love fine dining, but it's not just about the food.
PC: There has been an explosion of restaurant openings in Boston in the last two or three years. A lot of them are doing great stuff, but everyone has forgotten the formality of dinner. The service is very casual and the food just hits the table whenever it's ready. For me, it's a shame to see proper service go away. It's not that I ever want to feel like I can't speak over a certain volume or I can't enjoy myself. But I do hope that professionalism will become a trend again, and that people stop wearing plaids to serve me my bread course.


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To celebrate the Seattle Art Museum's 50th birthday, Dennis Oppenheim baked a cake. It blew up, just as he intended, but with more of a fizzle than a bang. The consternation it caused was a relief from the institutional well-wishing.
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Twenty-five years later, he's back with five 18-foot-high fiberglass traffic cones scattered around the Olympic Sculpture Park like giant Easter eggs. Unlike Easter eggs, which come and go in a morning, the cones will remain in place through the summer.
I saw them at the Scope Fair in Miami, and they also have held pride of place along Park Avenue in Manhattan.
Just as Seattle's not their first stop, the cake and the cones are not Seattle's only Oppenheim connection. SAM owns his "Caged Vacuum Projectiles" from 1979, which is rarely (ever?) trotted out. Now's the time, SAM. Seize the day. Baroque in its excess and hellish in its evocation of heavy industry, this sculpture is lord of all it surveys.
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Scrolling through the artist's first-class Web site (dennis-oppenheim.com), I noticed that Oppenheim was born in Electric City, Wash. CityTownInfo.com suggests that besides being small, Electric City is home mainly to Republicans who are heterosexually paired, which may not be the best base for an artist critic Eleanor Heartney says celebrates the "triumph of irrationality and chaos."
His is a carefully crafted chaos, but, granted, he walks on the wild side.
There's no wild side to the cones. I was surprised to learn they were his when I saw them in Miami. He claims they suggest "stay aware, beware, danger," which is ridiculous. At the fair, they were cute as buttons.
Formally, they borrow a play from Claes Oldenburg's book -- super-sized ordinary objects. Before I saw them in place in the park, I'd have said they add nothing to the formula. But what the cones lacked when lined up on a real street, they gain in a sculpture park. In no way do they belong, which allows their surrealist subtext to take over.
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Context matters. Beside Louise Bourgeois' father-son fountain, a towering cone is a loony chorus. It underlines the inherent tragedy in the piece and ridicules it. How much reaching out can one father and son do? Cut your losses and move on, says the cone.
Near Mark Dion's tree-in-a-hospital ("Neukom Vivarium"), another cone announces an intensive-care wing for nature.
Two cones keeping company with Alexander Calder's "Eagle" add pessimistic weight to the artist's flight aspirations. Cones are realists. That bird is going nowhere.
Finally, at the entrance to the Pavilion, a cone warns away the public. Don't bother coming in.
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Nobody says it's a good idea to take advice from a cone. Inside the Pavilion is Geoff McFetridge's giant and exuberantly saggy blue mural that extends into the room as a kind of demented schoolhouse.
The principal behind Champion Graphics in Los Angeles, McFetridge breached the wall between commercial and fine art with such ease it might as well have not been there.
Those are his title designs in the TV show, "Freaks and Geeks," and his doodle-like titles in Sofia Coppola's "The Virgin Suicides." Marc Jacobs picked up his designs for a clothing line, yet none of that is as impressive as his Pavilion installation. Among other things, it's a drawing that takes itself for a walk, which is cool for a building in a walking park.
Both Oppenheim's stop and McFetridge's go refuse to recede into the background. They insist on an encounter, reward the engagement and keep the park fresh for those who've already seen it.


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Mission -- Ministry Needs -- Staff -- Lessons and Studies -- By-Laws
Topic: Using This Sworn Enemy To Relate God's Plan Of Life Over Death To Us
Lesson PDF link: Dry Bones
Has anyone taking this lesson ever played the older school Super Mario Bros. series of games? Most people have (especially the people that would be 35 yrs and up).
In this lesson, we are studying the character from the Super Mario Bros. series (namely Mario 3 and Marioworld) known as "Dry Bones". I am confident that they loosely made him through the scriptures and he has a lot to say about the Bible just by looking at him.
"Dry Bones" is a sworn enemy of Mario and is in my opinion also a symbol of death in the game and in our spiritual lives.
If anyone ever goes hunting, they never want to run into an animal without meat if it is for food. "Dry Bones" in the game of Mario is a dead turtle that is mummified, but somehow it lives (without flesh of the living). In other words, with "Dry Bones", you get no food. He is common in fortresses and castles in the game series; in a very real sense he guards bosses and blocks the way.
In the spiritual sense, "Dry Bones" is a stumbling block to our goal of salvation.
We are going to look at a series of questions and look at God's plan.
The first question is: How did "Dry Bones" happen? In the spiritual all of us without Jesus are considered "Dry Bones". This came about when sin came into the world. Let's look at Genesis 3.
Gen 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which Jehovah God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of any tree of the garden?
Gen 3:2 And the woman said unto the serpent, Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat:
Gen 3:3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
Gen 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
Gen 3:5 for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil.
Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.
Gen 3:7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
Gen 3:8 And they heard the voice of Jehovah God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah God amongst the trees of the garden.
Gen 3:9 And Jehovah God called unto the man, and said unto him, Where art thou?
Gen 3:10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
Gen 3:11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
Gen 3:12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
Gen 3:13 And Jehovah God said unto the woman, What is this thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
Gen 3:14 And Jehovah God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
Gen 3:15 and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Gen 3:16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy pain and thy conception; in pain thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
Gen 3:17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
Gen 3:18 thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
Gen 3:19 in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Gen 3:20 And the man called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
Gen 3:21 And Jehovah God made for Adam and for his wife coats of skins, and clothed them.
Gen 3:22 And Jehovah God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever--
Gen 3:23 therefore Jehovah God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
Gen 3:24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden the Cherubim, and the flame of a sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
The devil got us through Eve and then Adam to become "Dry Bones" while we are this way, we are considered sworn enemies of God.
However, there is hope, because in this unfortunate win for the devil's plans, God promised that it's not over. Look at this scripture again in Genesis 3: 15.
Gen 3:15 and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
This is a prophecy of Jesus saving us from being like Dry Bones in the very real game of life.
The next question is: What are the penalties of being "Dry Bones"?
The answers my friends are bondage and death.
First we will look at one of the most famous scriptures and I'm sure this is the namesake of the Mario enemy known as "Dry Bones"
Let's look at Ezekiel 37.
Eze 37:1 The hand of Jehovah was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of Jehovah, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones.
Eze 37:2 And he caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.
Eze 37:3 And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord Jehovah, thou knowest.
Eze 37:4 Again he said unto me, Prophesy over these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of Jehovah.
Eze 37:5 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah unto these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live.
Eze 37:6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.
Eze 37:7 So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and, behold, an earthquake; and the bones came together, bone to its bone.
Eze 37:8 And I beheld, and, lo, there were sinews upon them, and flesh came up, and skin covered them above; but there was no breath in them.
Eze 37:9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
Eze 37:10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.
Eze 37:11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.
Eze 37:12 Therefore prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, O my people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel.
Eze 37:13 And ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when I have opened your graves, and caused you to come up out of your graves, O my people.
Eze 37:14 And I will put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I will place you in your own land: and ye shall know that I, Jehovah, have spoken it and performed it, saith Jehovah.
Eze 37:15 The word of Jehovah came again unto me, saying,
Eze 37:16 And thou, son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions:
Eze 37:17 and join them for thee one to another into one stick, that they may become one in thy hand.
Eze 37:18 And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not show us what thou meanest by these?
Eze 37:19 say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his companions; and I will put them with it, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in my hand.
Eze 37:20 And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thy hand before their eyes.
Eze 37:21 And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, whither they are gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land:
Eze 37:22 and I will make them one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all;
Eze 37:23 neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will save them out of all their dwelling-places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.
Eze 37:24 And my servant David shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in mine ordinances, and observe my statutes, and do them.
Eze 37:25 And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, they, and their children, and their children's children, for ever: and David my servant shall be their prince for ever.
Eze 37:26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.
Eze 37:27 My tabernacle also shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Eze 37:28 And the nations shall know that I am Jehovah that sanctifieth Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.
At this time in scipture, Israel was in bondage and slavery because of turning from God (most likely scattered throughout Babylon). This is a prophecy of Israel coming back home and then later becoming a nation again. (Israel became a nation again in 1948). This prophecy also talks about Jesus' coming with talk of David's line ruling. This also tells us that Israel will be one nation (not Israel and Judah). Dry Bones will be no more eventually with this set of prophecies.
The next question is How close are we to ending Dry Bones' career of death?
This is unknown because we don't know when everything will be totally put back, but I can say how close we are in other ways.
In this Easter season, we remember how we got here and celebrate the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ as our ransom for sins.
Let's look at Matthew 27: 32-66
Mat 27:32 And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to go with them, that he might bear his cross.
Mat 27:33 And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, The place of a skull,
Mat 27:34 they gave him wine to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted it, he would not drink.
Mat 27:35 And when they had crucified him, they parted his garments among them, casting lots;
Mat 27:36 and they sat and watched him there.
Mat 27:37 And they set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
Mat 27:38 Then are there crucified with him two robbers, one on the right hand and one on the left.
Mat 27:39 And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads,
Mat 27:40 and saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself: if thou art the Son of God, come down from the cross.
Mat 27:41 In like manner also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said,
Mat 27:42 He saved others; himself he cannot save. He is the King of Israel; let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe on him.
Mat 27:43 He trusteth on God; let him deliver him now, if he desireth him: for he said, I am the Son of God.
Mat 27:44 And the robbers also that were crucified with him cast upon him the same reproach.
Mat 27:45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.
Mat 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Mat 27:47 And some of them that stood there, when they heard it, said, This man calleth Elijah.
Mat 27:48 And straightway one of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink.
Mat 27:49 And the rest said, Let be; let us see whether Elijah cometh to save him.
Mat 27:50 And Jesus cried again with a loud voice, and yielded up his spirit.
Mat 27:51 And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake; and the rocks were rent;
Mat 27:52 and the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints that had fallen asleep were raised;
Mat 27:53 and coming forth out of the tombs after his resurrection they entered into the holy city and appeared unto many.
Mat 27:54 Now the centurion, and they that were with him watching Jesus, when they saw the earthquake, and the things that were done, feared exceedingly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.
Mat 27:55 And many women were there beholding from afar, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him:
Mat 27:56 among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
Mat 27:57 And when even was come, there came a rich man from Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple:
Mat 27:58 this man went to Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded it to be given up.
Mat 27:59 And Joseph took the body, and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,
Mat 27:60 and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb, and departed.
Mat 27:61 And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre.
Mat 27:62 Now on the morrow, which is the day after the Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees were gathered together unto Pilate,
Mat 27:63 saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said while he was yet alive, After three days I rise again.
Mat 27:64 Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest haply his disciples come and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: and the last error will be worse than the first.
Mat 27:65 Pilate said unto them, Ye have a guard: go, make it as sure as ye can.
Mat 27:66 So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, the guard being with them
After everything, the Jewish leaders tried their best to prevent the resurrection of our Lord and these leaders failed miserably. We see in the next scripture we are going to look at, that there was a colossal failure in their plan.
Let's look at Matthew 28: 1-15.
Mat 28:1 Now late on the sabbath day, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
Mat 28:2 And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled away the stone, and sat upon it.
Mat 28:3 His appearance was as lightning, and his raiment white as snow:
Mat 28:4 and for fear of him the watchers did quake, and became as dead men.
Mat 28:5 And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye; for I know that ye seek Jesus, who hath been crucified.
Mat 28:6 He is not here; for he is risen, even as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
Mat 28:7 And go quickly, and tell his disciples, He is risen from the dead; and lo, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.
Mat 28:8 And they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring his disciples word.
Mat 28:9 And behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and took hold of his feet, and worshipped him.
Mat 28:10 Then saith Jesus unto them, Fear not: go tell my brethren that they depart into Galilee, and there shall they see me.
Mat 28:11 Now while they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city, and told unto the chief priests all the things that were come to pass.
Mat 28:12 And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave much money unto the soldiers,
Mat 28:13 saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.
Mat 28:14 And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him, and rid you of care.
Mat 28:15 So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying was spread abroad among the Jews, and continueth until this day.
To this day, most religions likely will teach the cover-up as fact and not lies and a cover up. The next thing we need to ask ourselves is Where do we go from here?
1 Corinthians 15 and 2 Peter 3: 1-13 have the answers.
1Co 15:1 Now I make known unto you brethren, the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye received, wherein also ye stand,
1Co 15:2 by which also ye are saved, if ye hold fast the word which I preached unto you, except ye believed in vain.
1Co 15:3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
1Co 15:4 and that he was buried; and that he hath been raised on the third day according to the scriptures;
1Co 15:5 and that he appeared to Cephas; then to the twelve;
1Co 15:6 then he appeared to above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain until now, but some are fallen asleep;
1Co 15:7 then he appeared to James; then to all the apostles;
1Co 15:8 and last of all, as to the child untimely born, he appeared to me also.
1Co 15:9 For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
1Co 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not found vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
1Co 15:11 Whether then it be I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.
1Co 15:12 Now if Christ is preached that he hath been raised from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
1Co 15:13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither hath Christ been raised:
1Co 15:14 and if Christ hath not been raised, then is our preaching vain, your faith also is vain.
1Co 15:15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we witnessed of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead are not raised.
1Co 15:16 For if the dead are not raised, neither hath Christ been raised:
1Co 15:17 and if Christ hath not been raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
1Co 15:18 Then they also that are fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
1Co 15:19 If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable.
1Co 15:20 But now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of them that are asleep.
1Co 15:21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; then they that are Christ's, at his coming.
1Co 15:24 Then cometh the end, when he shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have abolished all rule and all authority and power.
1Co 15:25 For he must reign, till he hath put all his enemies under his feet.
1Co 15:26 The last enemy that shall be abolished is death.
1Co 15:27 For, He put all things in subjection under his feet. But when he saith, All things are put in subjection, it is evident that he is excepted who did subject all things unto him.
1Co 15:28 And when all things have been subjected unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subjected to him that did subject all things unto him, that God may be all in all.
1Co 15:29 Else what shall they do that are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them?
1Co 15:30 why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour?
1Co 15:31 I protest by that glorying in you, brethren, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
1Co 15:32 If after the manner of men I fought with beasts at Ephesus, what doth it profit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for to- morrow we die.
1Co 15:33 Be not deceived: Evil companionships corrupt good morals.
1Co 15:34 Awake to soberness righteously, and sin not; for some have no knowledge of God: I speak this to move you to shame.
1Co 15:35 But some one will say, How are the dead raised? and with what manner of body do they come?
1Co 15:36 Thou foolish one, that which thou thyself sowest is not quickened except it die:
1Co 15:37 and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, but a bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other kind;
1Co 15:38 but God giveth it a body even as it pleased him, and to each seed a body of its own.
1Co 15:39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fishes.
1Co 15:40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
1Co 15:41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another star in glory.
1Co 15:42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
1Co 15:43 it is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
1Co 15:44 it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
1Co 15:45 So also it is written, The first man Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
1Co 15:46 Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; then that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is of heaven.
1Co 15:48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
1Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
1Co 15:51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We all shall not sleep, but we shall all be changed,
1Co 15:52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
1Co 15:53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
1Co 15:54 But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
1Co 15:55 O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?
1Co 15:56 The sting of death is sin; and the power of sin is the law:
1Co 15:57 but thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1Co 15:58 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not vain in the Lord.
2Pe 3:1 This is now, beloved, the second epistle that I write unto you; and in both of them I stir up your sincere mind by putting you in remembrance;
2Pe 3:2 that ye should remember the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and the commandment of the Lord and Saviour through your apostles:
2Pe 3:3 knowing this first, that in the last days mockers shall come with mockery, walking after their own lusts,
2Pe 3:4 and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
2Pe 3:5 For this they wilfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth compacted out of water and amidst water, by the word of God;
2Pe 3:6 by which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
2Pe 3:7 but the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
2Pe 3:8 But forget not this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness; but is longsuffering to you-ward, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
2Pe 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
2Pe 3:11 Seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness,
2Pe 3:12 looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, by reason of which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
2Pe 3:13 But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Dry Bones is promised to be one dead enemy. We won't have to worry about him anymore as believers.
The last question for this lesson session is What are we looking forward to?
Well, this was somewhat answered already, but here is one more scripture passage that will sum everything up.
Look at Revelation 21.
Rev 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more.
Rev 21:2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
Rev 21:3 And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his peoples, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God:
Rev 21:4 and he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more: the first things are passed away.
Rev 21:5 And he that sitteth on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he saith, Write: for these words are faithful and true.
Rev 21:6 And he said unto me, They are come to pass. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
Rev 21:7 He that overcometh shall inherit these things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
Rev 21:8 But for the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death.
Rev 21:9 And there came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls, who were laden with the seven last plagues; and he spake with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the wife of the Lamb.
Rev 21:10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
Rev 21:11 having the glory of God: her light was like unto a stone most precious, as it were a jasper stone, clear as crystal:
Rev 21:12 having a wall great and high; having twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:
Rev 21:13 on the east were three gates; and on the north three gates; and on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.
Rev 21:14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
Rev 21:15 And he that spake with me had for a measure a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.
Rev 21:16 And the city lieth foursquare, and the length thereof is as great as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs: the length and the breadth and the height thereof are equal.
Rev 21:17 And he measured the wall thereof, a hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel.
Rev 21:18 And the building of the wall thereof was jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto pure glass.
Rev 21:19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald;
Rev 21:20 the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst.
Rev 21:21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the several gates was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.
Rev 21:22 And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God the Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple thereof.
Rev 21:23 And the city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine upon it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp thereof is the Lamb.
Rev 21:24 And the nations shall walk amidst the light thereof: and the kings of the earth bring their glory into it.
Rev 21:25 And the gates thereof shall in no wise be shut by day (for there shall be no night there):
Rev 21:26 and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it:
Rev 21:27 and there shall in no wise enter into it anything unclean, or he that maketh an abomination and a lie: but only they that are written in the Lamb's book of life.
As I stated before, Dry Bones is beaten for believers, just like in Marioworld and Mario 3 there are ways to beat this sworn enemy. In Mario 3, you can beat him with an invincibility star (run into him while invincible) and kill him. In Marioworld, there's another way, which is a cape. If you whack "Dry Bones" with a cape, he is one dead enemy.
In our spiritual lives, we know that Jesus is our invincibility star or the cape against this powerful enemy of life.


text:
A California palate tastes Burgundy
The World of Pinor Noir is my best opportunity every year to taste Burgundy, so I try to go to the seminars that feature it. (Not all of them do.) This year I went to the Vintage Burgundy tasting hosted by the great, funny M.S., Fred Dame, who also is President of the Guild of Sommeliers (and had the pleasure of Larry Stone M.S. at my table, so I could pick his brains, which I did, even though it meant he spent so much time answering questions he was hardly able to enjoy his lunch!). I also went to Allen "Burghound" Meadows' Featured Burgundy Tasting. (I loved Allen's line, "Pinot Noir is not the message. It's the messenger.")
I'll just briefly mention a few of the Burgundies that knocked me out:
Domaine Marc Roy 2008 Cuvee Alexandrine (Gevrey-Chambertin)
Domaine Jean-Marc Bouley 2008 Clos des Chênes (Volnay)
a trio of 1993s:
-Camille Giroud Corton-Perrieres
-Louis Jadot Bonne Mares
-Jean Grivot Clos de Vougeot
1997 Fourrier Vielle Vignes Griotte-Chambertin
Whenever I have the chance to taste great Burgundy my brain and soul are delighted. This isn't meant to be a treatise on what makes Burgundy great; it's to describe the way a California critic (me) reacts to Burgundy and then, as a followup, how I react to California Pinot Noir after tasting great Burgundy.
What is so enjoyable about Burgundy for me (who tastes maybe 800 California Pinots a year, ranging from 100 pointers to execrable) is that we get away from the fruit that characterizes 99% of California Pinot and venture in a land of acidity, tannins and earthy, mushroomy, funky things. (Speaking of funk, I asked Larry if he agreed that some people play "the Brett police," a sort of Gotcha! game to puff themselves up. He did.) These Burgundy wines taste so much drier. They are of course the polar opposites of California Pinot Noir, and clearly are very great. So tasting them, for me, is sort of like taking a vacation to a tropical paradise, when you spend almost all your time in the frozen north. It just feels really different and special.
So the Burgundies I mentioned above dazzled me (and it was amusing for Larry Stone to point out that Parker had basically trashed the 1993s that I, and everyone else I think who was present, so enjoyed. And when I repeated this story to The Burghound, the next day, he told me how he, Allen Meadows, had rated the 1993 Burgundy vintage highly. So I guess Parker got that one wrong.)
Following the Burgundy tastings, which were in the late mornings, WOPN opens their big white tents on the bluffs above Shell Beach for the walkaround tastings. I tried quite a few wines and, to tell you the truth, was disquieted, after all those Burgundies, by how overt the California Pinots were. All fruit. Not as complex, elegant or intellectual as the Burgundies. Not as challenging. I could almost begin to see why so many Master Sommeliers disparage–well, that's too strong a word, but something along those lines–California Pinot Noir.
Then I started thinking. Wait a minute, it would be pretty weird if I turned against California Pinot Noir just because, on the 5 or 6 occasions a year I get to try good Burgundy, I'm blown away. Not only do I have a lot invested in California Pinot Noir (not monetarily; I mean emotionally and reputationally), it would plainly be unfair to criticize it for being something it's not, or not being something else. California Pinot Noir is what it is. And then, after slapping myself across the head a few times, I came to my senses, and starting thinking even more about California Pinot Noir.
Yes, it can be very fruity. But once I was de-ensorceled (a word I learned from Gore Vidal) from Burgundy, I was able to return to an appreciation of California Pinot Noir in and of itself; and understood, once again, why my appreciation of it is so great.
There were many Cali Pinots served up this year at WOPN, but two provided, for me, a framework to more finely demarcate their evolving styles. There was Evening Land's Sonoma Coast (which Larry Stone, being company president, was pouring), a big, dark, rich, heady wine that defines the riper, more full-bodied style. And there was (among many others) the Copain 2009 Monument Tree, from Anderson Valley, made in a silkier, drier, more delicate but nonetheless equally powerful way you might almost call Burgundian. Both wines are magnificent, each according to its own nature. There is a time for each (see Ecclesiastes 3:1). I suspect a palate attuned to Burgundy might find the Evening Land too "Syrah-like" and prefer the Copain; but, as I've written here before, it's not right to put down a wine just because it doesn't meet your expectations of what it should be like, even though it may in fact be a very good wine.
Later, I had an interesting exchange with Larry Hyde's young son, Peter, who, with this brother and dad, have started a new brand, "Larry Hyde & Sons." (They don't yet have a website.) Thomas Bouley, the young scion of Domaine Jean-Marc Bouley, had earlier said, in replying to a question about quality, "For me, the natural is well done." Peter was criticizing adding water to reduce the alcohol level in wine, which is sometimes done here in California (and is not unknown in France, by the way). I said to him, "Well, the French add sugar; some people here add water. What's the difference, as far as "natural" is concerned?" I'm not certain I got an answer.
I doubt if California will ever make Pinot Noirs like the six I listed above. But why should it? Burgundy will never make a Pinot Noir like the Evening Land. And besides, California is just at the start of its long adventure with Pinot Noir while Burgundy, as The Burghound reminded us, has been at this for 2,000 years, if not longer. So, while I'm hardly prepared to say Burgundy's best days are behind it, or that Burgundy can only replicate what it's already done, I can guarantee you that California's best Pinot days are ahead.
In 1978, not lng after I started Connoisseurs' Guide, I took a long trip to France to build a stronger base for my role as California critic. Even today, now almost four decades later, we still, as your essay proves, tend to look to France for a model of what so many of our grapes can produce.
In Burgundy, I visited, among other places, Domaine Dujac, and was told by its owner and visionary creator, Jacques Seysses, that he wanted to make Burgundy that tasted of the grape, not just of the funk and complexity. His wines are still Burgundy, and they certainly have their share of local character, but they have fruit. And not just his.
They are not Californian and ours are not Burgundian, but they are both expressions of the grape and if Burgundies all tasted fruity and California PN all tasted funky, we would still be in the same place–with a different set of parameters against which to measure.
Besides, I remember Alan Meadows on the old AOL discussion boards having to admit that he mistook Dehlinger for Burgundy in a blind tasting. There may be a differences generally between Burgundy and CA, but there are similarities that make them part of the same family. And you are right. We ought be able to celebrate them both rather than sticking our noses in the air and saying, "Well, it's not Burgundy so it is a non-starter".
Hi Steve,
whatever about Californian Pinot Noir, what about those from Oregon?
They (in my limited experience of Oregon PN) are more akin to that Burgundian style, so much so that Drouhin, a successful Burgundy producer, has a major property there.
There actually is a wine region in the US producing balanced wines with fresh fruit aromas( not cooked or jammy), earthy and spicy tones and, yes, vibrant acidity. That region is the Finger Lakes region, where Pinot Noir has been grown since the 50's!
Well, look at the history of Burgundy. There is a long tradition there of doing well with the PN grape. I think it was a Monk by the name of Bernard who actually was concerned that the grapes he was cultivating and planting and nurturing actually produced a quality wine for the area it was grown in.
Now a long time later in the New World with advanced technology we make wine from the same grape types that became famous for quality wine long ago. From my perspective it is unfair to compare. There are poor quality wines from Burgundy just as there are in CA.
A sore point for me would be artificial pricing that one may find.
Just because a wineries production is limited does not automatically mean a higher price, particularly for a younger winery whose product is newer and the demand for it is artificially manifested.
Steve the flow of your discourse here confuses me. First you say it is a focus on fruit that defines California Pinot, then acknowledge – apparently favorably – that there is a continuum of sensory profiles among the Pinots produced in the State. Which is it?
California Pinot does not have to be fruit-driven, and I feel that it is intellectual laziness that manifests when gatekeepers pigeonhole wines in that way.
To my palate the consistent differences between Burgundy and California Pinot – across vintages and quality levels – have more to do with richness and minerality, rather than expression of fruit character.
As a Canadian and a Pinot Lover I find this debate fascinating. I thought for years I was a tiny minority on the outside of the outer pimple of someone's behind.
To hear American's talking about the challenges of growing the heartbreak grape in their homeland is heartening indeed. American Pinot is too often a one trick pony relying on nice fruit shame about the legs.
No it is not that Americans cannot make great Pinot you have ABC, Calera and St Innocent among many others who knock it our of the park.
The problem is not the minority it is th majority.
Compare and contrast your Pinot Noirs to the Pinot Noirs from Otago and Martinborough in New Zealand if you want to see how far you need to go. The kiwis have leap frogged ahead of you.
And they are not the only ones.
The wine lover in me loves to see such a debate as it will result in higher goals being set and dreams coming true.
Good luck to my American friends and long live Pinot Noir.


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RV Loan Calculator – Figure Your Monthly Payments!
Use this simple RV loan calculator to estimate your monthly payment for your motorhome, recreational vehicle, or boat online. Adjust any variable and quickly determine your financing options. Your monthly recreational vehicle or boat loan payment was never so easy to determine.
Learning About RV Financing Terms
RV interest rates are low, and some RV financing companies offer excellent loan rates. Search the internet for rates, plug one into the RV loan calculator and see what your monthly loan will be. Compare the interest rates of competitors. Looking for an RV financing company that specifically deals with recreational vehicle financing will have its advantages. RV financing companies have plenty of experience dealing in this specific type of financing and you will benefit from that knowledge.
What terms should you get for your RV loan? Use the RV loan calculator to instantly see the difference between a 10, 15 or even 20-year recreational vehicle loan. Your monthly payment changes quite a bit with a longer or shorter loan.
How much should you put down? Use our RV loan calculator to answer the following questions. How much difference would $2000 make in your monthly RV loan payments? What if you don't have a down payment for a motorhome? Should you put down a large down payment, or keep some aside for the costs of setting up a new recreational vehicle? You'll need linens, dishes, and other incidentals. The RV loan calculator can help you determine what kind of down payment you would like to make on your motorhome or boat.
Of course, the ultimate purchase price of your recreational vehicle or boat affects the monthly loan payment too, which is easily demonstrated by entering different purchase price amounts in the RV loan calculator. For many people, this is the bottom line. As you are looking at different RVs (or boats), you will surely be paying attention to the price in the window. But don't forget, prices can be negotiated. And the RV loan calculator can help you do that in a surprising way.
Getting the Best Price for the RV: Financing Tips
When it's time to start negotiating and financing, you may have a final purchase price in mind. But your salesman doesn't need to know that. Those experienced in the recreational vehicle business will confirm: tell the salesman what monthly payment you want for your loan, and stick to it. There are many ways to make sure you get the payment you're looking for, and lowering the purchase price of your motorhome or boat is one of the most effective. Use the RV loan calculator to determine your monthly RV loan payment amount, and save thousands of dollars!
Before you get carried away by that perfect recreational vehicle, motorhome, or boat, before you get too caught up in visions of lush highways and backroads beckoning you to explore, you need to have a clear financial picture in your mind. You know better than anyone what kind of loan you can afford. Use the RV loan calculator to help translate your costs into reasonable monthly figures. The RV loan calculator is so easy to use and you'll know going in what you want. And when it comes to negotiating a great price, that's a good thing.
If the loan's monthly payments are in a range you're comfortable with, you can shop with confidence. Focus your energies on selecting the right make and model for you, on comparing features and learning about what you really want in an RV (without wondering whether or not you can afford it). The RV loan calculator arms you with the knowledge you need to make an informed decision. When you use the RV loan calculator, you can enjoy the experience without all the worry.
After all, remember what brought you to this point to begin with. You want freedom, adventure, and a lifestyle to envy. You can have it. And an RV loan calculator is a great tool to get you there.
Read Great RV Financing Helpful Articles:
RV Financing Rate - How To Get A Good Low Percentage
RV Warranties Available for New and Used RVs
Can I Find Boat Financing?
I have Bad Credit


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Public policy is now more important than ever. We need community leaders who know how to use the legislative branch of state and local government to shape policies that will make their communities stronger and more just — and they need the knowledgeable and strategic support of philanthropists who can be partners in their work.
The Women's Foundation of California is excited to announce the launch of the Philanthropy and Public Policy Institute (PPPI), designed to build on the transformational success of the Women's Policy Institute (WPI). Since 2003, WPI has transformed the lives of over 400 community-based leaders. And those leaders have transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands more.
In 2017 we are expanding this program and making it available to foundation leaders and philanthropists. Just like the WPI, the Philanthropy and Public Policy Institute is a hands-on experiential learning program focused on capacity building and network facilitation. Participants will attend a three-day experiential Institute on May 9 – 11, 2017 in Sacramento where they will learn the ins and outs of policy advocacy work, connect with other funders committed to effective policy-based grantmaking and meet with policymakers and policy advocates to hear how this work is being done on the ground. Participants will also have the opportunity to attend the Women's Policy Institute Legislative Reception on May 9, 2017.
In order to share more details about this new program, we've recorded an informational webinar.
"Southern California Grantmakers is proud to partner with the Women's Foundation of California on the Philanthropy and Public Policy Institute. The Institute teaches the skills that today's philanthropy leaders need to leverage their resources for tangible, systemic impact in our communities." – Christine Essel, President and CEO, Southern California Grantmakers


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Here is a list of the services I professionally provide.
Intrepreneurship is by far my favorite. Large companies from non-web related industries interested in launching an innovative Software As A Service product in their industry often times need help navigating the complex fast moving tech market.
I have helped these types of companies put together a go to market strategy, recruit and train a team, and architect and launch a great SaaS projects.
To learn more about this service please check my Intrepreneurship page on ShipOrGetOffThePot.com
SaaS Architecture Consulting:
If you are looking to learn more about Micro Service Architecture and how you can use it to build an incredibly flexible product while simultaneously enabling your workforce to be more innovative please use the coupon code
schematical to get a free rough draft of my book on Micro Service Architecture.
Speaking and Writing:
Though I have been a web application architect for years I am just starting my career as an author and a speaker. If you are looking for a speaker or guest writer on the following topics please feel free to reach out to me:
- MEAN Stack
- Micro Service Architecture
- Running a Dev Team
- Startups and Entrepreneurship
- Any of my other passions I write about on Ship Or Get Off The Pot
Dev Team Training:
Do you have a team that needs help getting their technical skills up to spec? Need help getting organized so you can hit your stride? Need help figuring out a good strategy for how all the pieces work together? I can help. I have trained up and organized many dev teams. Check out the posts on shiporgetoffthepot.com or download my book (see above) for some free advice or reach out to me.
Dev For Hire:
On rare occasions when you're stuck against a tight timeline I have been known to help with last minute development. I do charge a premium for rush jobs but if you are in a pinch and need some help feel free to reach out to me


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Why crews will soon set Fontenelle Forest on fire
Out of the ashes, organizers are hoping to create new life.
Crews will soon set ablaze 20 acres of the Fontenelle Forest on fire.
The effort is the beginning of a 50-year restoration project to grow new oak trees in a century-old forest reserve.
Video: Why crews will soon set Fontenelle Forest on fire
Out of the ashes, organizers are hoping to create new life.
"Right now, there's not enough sunlight getting to the soil for our acorns to grow up into big oak trees," restoration biologist Michelle Foss said.
Wild animals used to eat the problem causing plants.
"Bison, elk, deer," restoration biologist Matt Miller said. "They would've grazed this area pretty well."
Instead of planting more trees, the experts said they need to burn the forest.
By burning off the bad plants, the idea is that an oak-filled grassland will return.
But one fire won't do the trick. Crews will need to burn the forest every year, for 50 years.
"A woodland burn is very low flames," Moss said. "It's low intensity. It's low heat, and it moves very slowly."
A series of informational meetings are being held for concerned residents.
"I live on the edge of the forest, and I don't have any really concerns," Al Reyer said. "I just want to see what they're doing."
To keep the fire contained, crews established firebreaks.
"I think they will be very good at controlling it and doing it safely," Carol Teske said.
Fontenelle Forest will hold three more meetings about the Oak Forest Restoration Burn.
Representatives from the Bellevue Fire Department will be at the meetings to answer questions.
Here are the dates and times for the next meetings:
October 30 at 6:00 p.m.
November 5 at 6:30 p.m.
November 7 at 10:00 a.m.
For more information: http://www.fontenelleforest.org/


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Our Team
Sonali Saluja, MD, MPH
|Sonali Saluja: Sonali Saluja, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, is the director of the Gehr Center for Health Systems Science and Innovation. Dr. Saluja is a health services researcher and is board certified in Internal Medicine. She completed her residency at Providence Portland Medical Center and a fellowship in General Internal Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Her research aims to uncover systemic causes of health inequities and provide plausible strategies that lead to a more equitable healthcare delivery system. Her work has examined the implications of the Affordable Care Act on healthcare utilization and affordability and the disparate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on minoritized and low-income groups. Dr. Saluja received a KL2 award to understand barriers to primary care for patients in the safety net. Additionally, she has examined community-based interventions such as patient navigation to improve connections to primary care and care manager-led motivational interviewing to increase COVID-19 vaccination rates. Dr. Saluja developed and directs the Health Systems Science curriculum at the Keck School of Medicine and now co-directs the Health Justice and Systems of Care curriculum. Dr. Saluja currently sees patients at LAC+USC hospital where she teaches and supervises residents and medical students..
Cameron Kaplan, PhD
|Cameron Kaplan: Cameron Kaplan, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine, is a health economist and health services researcher whose work focuses on the impact of health policy and insurance benefit design on healthcare utilization, health outcomes, and disparities. Dr. Kaplan received his PhD in economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2011. Following his Ph.D., Dr. Kaplan completed a two-year post-doctoral program in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the University of Pittsburgh. He most recently joined the Gehr Center faculty from the University of Tennessee health Science Center in Memphis. He is currently the principal investigator of two large research grants. An R01 from NIA examines the impact of the Medicare prescription drug donut hole closure on medication adherence and health outcomes. A research scholar grant from the American Cancer society examines the impact of premium surcharges for tobacco uses in the ACA health insurance exchanges on enrollment.
Albert Farias, PhD, MPH
|Albert Farias: Albert Farias, PhD, MPH Assistant Professor of Clinical Preventive Medicine is a health services researcher who is devoted to helping eliminate racial/ethnic disparities in cancer outcomes by furthering our understanding of how evidence-based cancer prevention strategies and treatment are delivered within the health care system and how that influences patient adherence. His research not only identifies health care inequalities but identifies health care-related factors that explain racial/ethnic disparities in cancer outcomes. To carry out tdis research, Dr. Farias applies a variety of complex methodologies and analytic approaches. His research has focused on the use of cancer registry and medical claims data such as the SEER/Medicare-linked data and more recently the use of the rich SEER/Medicare/CAHPS-linked dataset to identify health care inequalities in patient reported outcomes and health care experiences. Dr. Farias possess a PhD in health Services Research from the University of Washington, a Master's in Public health from Columbia University, and a BS in Biology from UCLA.
Michael Cousineau, Dr.PH
Senior Adviser
|Michael Cousineau: Michael R. Cousineau, DPH, is a researcher at the Gehr Center and a Professor of Clinical Preventive Medicine in the Departments of Family Medicine and Preventive Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the USC Price School of Public Policy. He attended University of California, Berkeley and received his doctorate from the UCLA School of Public health. Dr. Cousineau studies health policy, the determinants of health care utilization for low-income populations, models of health insurance coverage, health care disparities, effectiveness of outreach and enrollment systems for public insurance programs, the operation of safety-net providers including community health centers and public hospitals, and health needs of vulnerable populations including the homeless and immigrants. Dr. Cousineau teaches health policy in the Masters in Public health Program at USC and in the Keck School of Medicine. He has published in health Affairs, Medical Care, health Services Research, the American Journal of Public health, and Academic Medicine.
Barbara Turner, MD, MSED, MACP
Senior Adviser
|Barbara Turner: Barbara Turner, MD, MSED, MACP is a Clinical Professor of Medicine and a practicing general internist with over 30 years of experience in health disparities research and community-partnered research. In 2010, she established the Center for Research to Advance Community health (ReACH) as a partnership between the University of Texas (UT) health San Antonio and the UT School of Public health (UTSPH). Her research has focused on health disparities through administrative database studies, randomized trials, and implementation & dissemination projects. She has been principal investigator (PI) on four federal- and state-funded projects to implement Hepatitis C Virus screening and management in diverse primary care practices. Dr. Turner has over 175 peer-reviewed publications and editorials from research funded by the NIH, the Agency for health Care Research and Quality (AHRQ), Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ) Foundation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Substance Abuse and Mental health Services Administration, and the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). Dr. Turner has served as Regent of the American College of Physicians (ACP) and President of the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM). In addition to working with the Gehr Center, Dr. Turner edits the Internal Medicine volume of Dynamed, an online medical textbook.
Todd Schneberk, MD
|Todd Schneberk is an assistant professor of clinical emergency medicine and an assistant program director of the Los Angeles County+USC Emergency Medicine Residency program. He completed his residency in emergency medicine at LAC+USC Medical Center and subsequently earned a fellowship in health policy and research at UCLA. His research and advocacy interests include social determinants of health, immigration status as a health barrier, opioid use disorder and leveraging the Emergency Department to address upstream factors affecting the health and stability of vulnerable populations.
Susanne Hempel, PhD
Faculty and Director of the Evidence-Based Practice Center
|Susanne Hempel is a professor of research preventative medicine at USC. Before joining USC, she was a senior behavioral scientist at the RAND Corporation and a professor at the Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School. She is the codirector of the Southern California Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC), leading contracts for the Agency for healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Psychological health Center of Excellence (PHCoE) and other federal agencies, and she holds an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) to provide the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) with evidence maps, topic briefs and topic refinement. She carries out systematic reviews in health care research and metdodological projects aiming to improve evidence syntheses. She teaches systematic review metdodology and applied psychometrics. Prior to joining RAND, she worked at the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD), University of York, United Kingdom. She earned her PhD in psychology from the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany.
Alissa Maier, MPH
Project Manager – Quality and Population health
|Alissa Maier, MPH is the project manager for Quality and Population health at the Gehr Family Center for health Systems Science and Innovation in the Department of Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. She has spent most her career working on chronic disease prevention and management programming at national nonprofit organizations. Her passion and interest in quality improvement inspired her to join the Gehr Center team. She holds a BS in Psychology from the University of Dayton and an MPH with an emphasis on health Education and Promotion from the University of Cincinnati.
Aneesa Motala
Program Administrator, Southern California Evidence Review Center
|Aneesa Motala is a Program Coordinator at the USC Gehr Family Center for health Systems Science & Innovation, where she also serves as program coordinator for the Southern California Evidence Review Center (ERC). She supports and manages numerous project teams consisting of literature reviewers, data programmers, principle investigators and co-principle investigators, and statisticians to produce systematic reviews, updates to prior reports and meta-analyses. Ms. Motala's background is in mental health, working with marginalized populations, and youth development. Prior to USC, she spent 11 years at the RAND Corporation as a policy analyst and 4 years in Bulgaria serving as a Peace Corps volunteer for the youth Development program working with the Roma youth. Ms. Motala earned her B.A. in Sociology from the University of California in Santa Barbara.
Danica Tolentino, MS
Administrative Assistant
|Danica Tolentino is it the Administrative Assistant for the Gehr Family Center for Health Systems Science and Innovation, where she also assists the Southern California Evidence Review Center. She supports all the faculty and staff of the Gehr Center in various areas, including, scheduling, research, and budget management. She holds a BS in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Exercise Science and a MS in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Adapted Physical Activity, both from California State University, Northridge. Prior to working with the Gehr Center, she provided wellness and personal training services to senior living communities. Her specialty in working with individuals with disabilities and passion for improving the quality of life of marginalized communities inspired her to join the Gehr Center.


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Finding appropriate ways of financing sanitation for urban poor communities remains a key challenge. Approaches like output-based aid (OBA) are attracting enormous interest, and rightly so. However, OBA models aren't appropriate for all contexts, and other approaches also need to be explored.
This report assesses the feasibility of a financing model, Progress-Linked Finance (PLF), designed to incentivise and support water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) service providers to meet the needs of poor urban residents in a financially sustainable manner. Under the PLF model, international financing institutions (potentially including multilaterals, bilaterals, and foundations) would enter into commitment agreements with urban WASH service providers, notably utilities and municipalities.
In very simple terms, PLF can be summarised as an agreement of the following type: "If the service provider can demonstrate 3 years from now that they have met conditions A, B and C in relation to financial viability and pro-poor commitment and capacity, the financing institution will provide a grant or loan of amount X for WASH scale-up". In reality, agreements would likely be more complex, for example entailing a series of agreements involving a number of financing institutions. Central to the model is positive incentivisation coupled with rigorous verification that conditions have been met.
On the basis of desk analysis and wide-ranging interviews with urban WASH financing experts, this initial assessment finds that the PLF concept is broadly feasible. This report explores different variants of PLF, and suggests various ways in which the concept might be put into practice.
This Discussion Paper is co-published by Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) and the Overseas Development Institute (ODI). This paper is presented at this stage as a basis for sector debate, and should not be considered a definitive statement of the views of either WSUP or ODI.


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Another cycling store turned coffee store, eh? What's different about this one I hear you ask?
That was of course our first question too and, as it happens, this might be the first business of its type to do things in reverse, adding to its now seven branch strong chain of coffee shops with Velo Cafe. The growth may not stop here, either, we're told.
"The park here at The Level has been massively rejuvinated in recent times, so we had to enquire about the space," explains co-owner Nigel Lambe. "I, like others within the business, just so happen to be a cyclist too. As we all know, the amount of cyclists down south is swelling given our terrain alongside a great seafront, but there's also a massive influx of long distance riders from London frequently in the area. A hub for good food and cycle repairs seemed logical."
Already the choice of the likes of Upgrade Bikes (see the cover of BikeBiz's July magazine), among others, for photoshoots and events, the bright, spacious building is increasingly bringing in corporate business from within and outside the cycling industry.
"We've 20 staff in this branch alone and over 100 on the books across our seven shops, so we're ready to cater for events of all shapes and sizes. Some of your readers may already have been in for the Brighton Big Dog afterparty, or the event we held as part of the Tour of Britain. We've had DJs, book signings and all sorts going on in here, as well as our usual in-house catering. We've even managed a six-course silver service dinner."
It's not all about the events that turn a profit though, explains Lambe.
"We're one of many British Cycling affiliated cycle clubs in Brighton, but our five weekly shop organised rides are all about fun, not competition. Since we opened we've seen curious first timers come in, get bitten by the bug and now you'll find them off in the hills challenging Strava times. Our sales of nutrition goods, espresso aside, do seem to be rising as a result."
It's not uncommon for as many as 90 riders to show up on a weekend morning pre-ride, according to Lambe, the business benefits of which will be obvious to all. As much as a third are female too, bucking the trend for male dominated rides. Furthermore, Velo Cafe will have staged its first mountain bike meet ups by the time you read this, potentially adding another chunk of business.
With such a large and still growing pool of locals, you'll see a VeloCafe team in the next RideLondon event. Made up of cyclists from all backgrounds, but none professional, the goal is to raise £10,000 for the Rocking Horse Appeal, the official fundraising arm of the Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital.
Though bike sales are not part of the business model, within the cafe you'll find some interesting bikes suspended from the ceiling, including the Dolan used by the now Rapha Condor JLT sponsored Felix English en-route to a stunning surprise victory against Chris Hoy in the 2010 track championships in Poland. A Brighton local, English used to train just down the road at the still widely used Brighton velodrome.
The non cake and coffee related sales have been picking up, with local clothing specialist Morvelo having designed the shop's jerseys, now widely seen around the South. There's the usual repair items too, but like many other retailers, the margin is coming from the workshop, says Lambe.
"We don't have any ambitions for bike sales just yet. It's largely inner tubes and nutrition goods, as well as the odd branded up water bottle as far as physical item sales go. Something that has resulted in a few extra sales has been our free basic bike maintenance classes for beginners. They'll often grab a bite to eat while they're here."
So, what does the future hold for the Brighton business?
"The first Velo Cafe has been such a success that we've plans for a second opening this year and further expansion going into next year," concludes Lambe. Perhaps it's the espresso, but there's certainly no sign of the business resting on its laurels.