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Christians With Questions - 3
Christians With Questions Video
As In The Days Of Noach...
By Dr. Akiva Gamliel Belk
Dean of Jewish Studies
B'nai Noach Torah Institute, LLC
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As In The Days Of Noah, REALLY!
In my book God's Plan From The Beginning, I share this story. A few years back the Revi and I were on an interstate traveling. Our auto began to shiver and shake. The car would slow down then speed up. We were frightened. We were worried. We began to pray. The nearest average size town was over 50 miles away. Our car was over 15 years old. We tried to keep it up. We spent over $1,500 on maintenance and repairs in the preceding months. Regardless of our dedicated maintenance efforts our car was nearing the end. We knew this. Little did we know this would be the day when we said the traveler's prayer that morning. As we prayed, our car chugged a few times like a charging dog that would charge and stop then charge again. Our car slowed to perhaps 25 miles per hour on the interstate. The car chugged a couple more times then stopped running. We coasted to the side of the road. We were two seniors sitting in a broken down car at the side of the road. We checked to see if we had cell phone service. Revi called her son Anthony who is a mechanic. We knew we were in trouble. There was nothing he could do. He was willing to grab some tools, jump in his truck and drive to us immediately, but it would be hours before he could get to us. We are seniors, and we were very shaken by this incident. It was dangerous sitting at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. We asked The Creator to start our auto and allow us to make it to an exit ramp where we would feel safer. Revi turned the key. The car started. It would only go about 25 miles per hour. Thank God. The car chugged along for maybe a mile or two until we reached an off ramp. As we approached the stop sign at the top of the ramp, the car died. We were able to coast safely into the parking area of a gas station where we called a tow truck. When the tow truck driver arrived about an hour and a half later, he pointed out the oil trail our blown engine left on the pavement. He towed us to a dealership where we were able to make a deal for a new vehicle.
The salesman said our new auto would get about 26 miles per gallon in the city and about 30 miles per gallon on the highway. After the car had a few thousand miles, we began to check our in city driving and our highway driving. Why did we do this? It was to verify the accuracy of the salesman statement.
A while back I went for a walk. The route is a common walking route for neighbors. High school kids run this route after school. As I finished my walk, I was calculating the distance of the walk to be between 1.25 miles to 1.5 miles. At the end of the walk, I passed by a neighbor's house. The neighbor was outside. We talked a little while. My neighbor said that the route was a mile. Later I drove the route. Why did I do this? It was to verify the accuracy of my neighbor's statement.
There are some things we can verify if we choose to do so. I would like to ask you to verify everything I am about to share with you. Please check out the references. Please research every detail if you want to know The Truth.
Do you want to know if the Christian New Testament is really the Foreign Testament? Do you want to know if the Christian New Testament is Divinely Inspired? Do you want to know if Rabbi Jesus was truthful? Do you want to know if Rabbi Jesus spoke falsehoods? Do you want to know if Rabbi Jesus sinned? Do you want to know God's Plan From The Beginning?
Do you want to know the Truth?
Dear Reader we are going to do a VERY BASIC study that anyone can do. One does not have to be a scholar to know the Truth. Each of us can see... read... understand the text in this discussion.
In America, when an individual is a candidate for President of the United States of America they make many speeches. They travel in huge jets, on trains, on buses in limos, etc. and make speech after speech. Often what they say comes into question. Are they accurately stating the facts? Are they 100% truthful? Are they saying one thing here and something different somewhere else? Some business people began a website called factcheck.org. The purpose was to show when a candidate told The Truth from when they didn't. That is what our goal is here in Chapter 24 of Matthew. We are going to ask simply if Rabbi Jesus was Truthful or did Rabbi Jesus lie. You will be the jury. You will decide based upon the information provided.
As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
Matthew 24:37
Matthew 24:27 Rabbi Jesus said, "For as lightning comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man be." Jesus also said that just "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For as [it was] in the days [of Noah] before the flood [the people then] were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man." Matthew 24:37-39
Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. Luke 17:26
People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. Luke 17:27
Rabbi Jesus went out, and departed from the Holy Temple: and his disciples came to him to show him the buildings of the Temple. And Rabbi Jesus said to them, 'Do you see you all these things? Verily I say to you, 'There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.' And as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, asking,
'Tell us, when shall these things be? What shall be the sign of your coming? When will the end of the world be?' Matthew 24:3
Rabbi Jesus answered, 'Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am [the Messiah]; and shall deceive many. And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. Do not be troubled! All these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you ]the Jewish People] up to be afflicted, and shall kill you and you [the Jewish People] shall be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many of you shall be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations; and then shall the end come. Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in The Holy Place, (whoever reads, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! Pray your your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath Day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is [here is the Messiah], or there; don't believe it. For there shall arise false [Messiah's], and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say to you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. [27] For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is nigh: So likewise you will know when you shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say to you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and hour knows no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he comes shall find so doing. Verily I say to you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delays his coming; And shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he does look not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Matthew states that Rabbi Jesus said the following: 'But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the Angels in the Heavens. Only my Father knows. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood came and washed them all away, so it will happen the same way for the coming of the son of man.' Matthew 24:36-39.
Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man, Luke 17:26.
People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all, Luke 17:27.
As we consider these three quotes, we will discuss a variety of issues posed by these quotes. A number of questions immediately surface beyond the possible accuracy of what Matthew and Luke claim Rabbi Jesus said. Fortunately, we are blessed with additional sources to consider the historical evidence.
We can research what Rabbi Jesus said for accuracy. We are going to do this. It's not difficult to know the Truth!
One must research The Holy Scriptures to see if Rabbi Jesus is in agreement with what The Lord God Commanded. Study what happened in Noah's time. Determine if Rabbi Jesus comments are truthful. Research Rabbi Jesus comments. We should have some serious concerns about his claims.
I will prove NOTHING could be further from the truth. Why would a God of Love destroy a world where the inhabitants were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage? After all, The Lord God Commanded us to marry and to have children in Genesis.
Genesis 1.28
And God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.
God would not!! Our Creator said to Adam and Eve that they could eat from every tree in The Garden except the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil
Genesis 2.16-17
And the Lord God Commanded [Adam and Eve] Saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.
What is the point? Eating and drinking are not the issue. Fruit and grains are not prohibited to Adam and Eve. The exception was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Genesis 1.29
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, on which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food.
So making wine or other strong drinks are not prohibited. The Lord Gave Adam and his descendants the right to consume all products grown from the earth. That being the situation eating and drinking were not forbidden. Eating and drinking were fine. So there was nothing wrong or sinful with the people who were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage. Why were they destroyed? Why did Rabbi Jesus' use this as an example to imply they were doing something wrong? Why did he imply that eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage was the reason for the so called sudden destruction of the world?
Rabbi Jesus gave the impression that the people in the future who eat, drink, marry and giving in marriage will be destroyed without warning. Was this his intention? Was Rabbi Jesus saying people who live normal lives of eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage would be destroyed without prior warning? He said, it would happen as swiftly as lightning shooting across the sky from one end to the other. Rabbi Jesus implied that his coming would be swift! Let's consider a few important points. What were the people in Noah's day doing?
First, The Creator Forbids worshipping idols. Genesis 4.26 states, men began to call [idols] by the Name of The Lord. Our Sages point to the meaning of The Word הוּחַל Hu Charla that is related to חולין Chu Lin meaning to profane. They were worshipping idols!
Bereisheit 4.26
וּלְשֵׁת גַּם־הוּא יֻלַּד־בֵּן וַיִּקְרָא אֶת־שְׁמוֹ אֱנוֹשׁ אָז הוּחַל לִקְרֹא בְּשֵׁם יְהוָֹה: ס
Genesis 4.26
And to Seth, to him also there was born a son, and he called his name Enosh; it was then men began to call [idols] by the name of The Lord.
Second, We observe in Genesis 6.3 that The Lord Said in mercy, 'My Spirit shall not continue to judge [these evil] men forever. He is flesh...' The Holy Scriptures credit this comment to the Merciful Attribute of The Lord. The Lord in His Mercy is saying man has become so very evil that He cannot continue to look away from man's evil... man's sin... Man is NOT Spiritual any longer... man is only flesh... Then The Lord Said, '...his days will be a hundred and twenty years.'
Bereisheit 6.3
וַיֹּאמֶר יְהֹוָה לֹא־יָדוֹן רוּחִי בָאָדָם לְעֹלָם בְּשַׁגָּם הוּא בָשָׂר וְהָיוּ יָמָיו מֵאָה וְעֶשְׂרִים שָׁנָה: ד
Genesis 6.3
And He, The Lord Said, My Spirit shall not [continue to] Judge [the descendants of] Adam forever. Moreover, He is flesh. And it happened his days are one hundred and twenty years.
Third, we observe a sinful mixture of seed. Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin comments, regarding The B'nai Elohim {the sons of God / the angels of God} in Genesis 6.2. He states that they are the Nephilim meaning the fallen of Genesis 6.4. The Holy Scriptures states that the sons of God... that the Nephilim... that the angels had relations with the daughters of man, and this result was abnormal beings, giants. The Holy Scriptures Teaches against mixing seed. Observe what The Lord Commanded from the very beginning. The fallen angels rebelled against The Lord... Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin, Insights In The Torah - Bereishis (Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah Publications, Ltd. First Edition, 1991), pp. 44 - 46
Genesis 1.11-12
And God Said, Let the earth bring forth grass, herb yielding seed, and fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth, and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after its kind, and tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1.24
And God Said, Let the earth bring forth all kinds of living creatures, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their kind; and it was so.
Genesis 1.25
And God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps upon the earth after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
Noah and his grandfather, Mesushelach taught against interrelationships with the Nephilim. Many people of the earth heeded their instruction. The results were the Nephilim forcibly took the wives and daughters of those who heeded their message of religious purity. Eventually the entire world was corrupted by vile sin. Stealing was the root of the problem. Men stole everything. Nothing was sacred. Men stole the wives and daughters of others. The police and judges did the same. There was no justice. The Talmud, Se far HaYashar and the Drastic books discuss this subject.
Fourth, in Genesis 6.5 we observe that the Creator Saw man's wickedness increase on the earth and that his thoughts were only continually evil.
Genesis 6.5
And God Saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Fifth, God, Informs Noah He is going to destroy the entire world. That was God's last course of action. The Book of Hebrews states. 'By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to save his house; and in so doing he condemned the world.'
Peter states, God destroyed the disobedient. He stated. God was long suffering... God waited... God did not hurry to destroy the world. Noah preached righteousness. Noah warned the world... 2 Peter 2:5
'Which sometime were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.' 1 Peter 3:20
'And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;' 2 Peter 2:5
Dear Reader what is the point? Rabbi Jesus description of the days of Noach is not correct.If it is not entirely true what is it?
Rabbi Jesus said. 'For as lightning comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man be,' Matthew 24.27. Rabbi Jesus said. 'As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For as [it was] in the days [of Noah], before the Flood people were eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.' Matthew 24:37-39
From these verses I get the impression that these people were just eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. They were living normal lives based on Rabbi Jesus description. They were not doing anything wrong based on what Rabbi Jesus described! So again, I ask why did they perish? Rabbi Jesus gives the impression God is ruthless when in fact God is long suffering, kind, loving and merciful!!
Dear Reader, it does not matter what Rabbi Jesus was attempting to communicate if it was untruthful. Rabbi Jesus zoomed in on what God fearing and abiding people often do. They eat, drink, marry and have children. Why didn't Rabbi Jesus say anything about idol worship, stealing, the fallen angels, kidnapping, stealing mothers, stealing wives and daughters to rape them? Why didn't Rabbi Jesus say anything about the giants that resulted from Angels impregnating the daughters of men? Why didn't he mention the sin of mixing Angelic seed with human seed, man's evil, man's continual wickedness? The point is Rabbi Jesus stated people were marrying and giving in marriage. That is about as far from the truth as it gets.
Let's continue to consider the facts. Let's consider the historical facts. Let's consider what Christians themselves have taught about this subject.
235 From Creation
First, The world Rabbi Jesus described in Matthew and Luke is inaccurate!! 1,400 years before the flood, The Holy Scriptures Stated, 'men began to call [idols] by the Name of The Lord.' Sefar HaYashar says the name Enosh means man brought pain to their souls. Enosh means serious, mortal implying seriously ill or mortally ill. Sefer HaYashar (Hoboken, NJ: KTAV Publishing House, Inc., 1993) p.10
365 From Creation
Second, Sefar HaYashar states that just 130 years later over 1,200 years before the flood that Keinan the son of Enosh knew God was about to destroy mankind because of THEIR SINFUL LIVES. Not because they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. Sefer HaYashar (Hoboken, NJ: KTAV Publishing House, Inc., 1993) p.10
The wives of Lemech did not bear him any more children after he killed a man. Why? 'They knew God was going to destroy the earth by a flood because of the evil and corrupt ways humankind lived. Sefer HaYashar (Hoboken, NJ: KTAV Publishing House, Inc., 1993) pp.11-12
687 From Creation
Third, Mesushelach was born 969 years before the flood. The meaning of the name מְתוּשֶׁלַח Mesushelach is recognized by scholars to mean 'death and destruction'. Our Sages point to the first two letters of מְתוּשֶׁלַח Mesushelach. They are from right to left ת Tav מ Mem. They form The Word מֵת Mayt or Met meaning death. The second word in Methuselah's name is שַׁלַּח Sheh Lah Ach means to send, to launch, to dispatch. The Letter ו Vav is between these two Words. The Vav connects Met and Sheh Lah Ach together. Met Voo Sheh Lah Ach means 'When this child dies destruction begins.'
Fourth, Peter states, 'God spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly.' 2Peter 2:5 There are several points to what The Christian New Testament book of Peter states.
1.) Noah preached righteousness. Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Genesis 6.3 states that God waited 120 years.. God said in reference to the sinful people living in Noah's day, 'My Spirit shall not continue to judge [these] men forever since he is but flesh...'
Noah and Mesushelach were told by God to preach this message: Thus Says God. 'Repent of you evil ways and He Will Change His Decree against you.'
Genesis 6.3
And He, The Lord Said, My Spirit shall not [continue to] Judge [the descendants of] Adam forever. Moreover, He is flesh. And it happened his days are one hundred and twenty years.
1436 From Creation
According to Sefar Ha Yasher The Lord Required Mesushelach and Noah to preach repentance every day for 120 years leading up to the flood. Sefer HaYashar (Hoboken, NJ: KTAV Publishing House, Inc., 1993) p.16
Finis Jennings Dake, a Christian Bible Scholar, commentator and author states, 'God in His Mercy, Gave him [man] 120 more years in which to repent and conform his life to the will of the Creator..' Finis Jennings Dake, Dake's Annotated Reference Bible, {Lawrenceville, Georgia: Dake Bible Sales 10th printing, 1978) p 6
2.) Peter states that those that perished in the flood were ungodly. They were not a bunch of easy going nice people who were eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. They were ungodly! They were NOT righteous.
'And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;' 2 Peter 2:5
Fifth, Sefar Ha Yasher writes, five years before the flood The Lord Commanded Noah to build the ark. See Genesis 6.14. Sefar Ha Yasher says, 'After repeated warnings' to humankind God Spoke to Noah. Sefer HaYashar (Hoboken, NJ: KTAV Publishing House, Inc., 1993) p.18
Genesis 6.13
And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh has come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
1656 From Creation
Sixth, one week before the flood Noah and his family, are instructed to take all the animals into the Ark. Genesis 7.1-5. It was on this day that
Mesushelach died.
Genesis 7.1-6
And the Lord said to Noah, Come you and all your house into the ark; for you have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Of every clean beast, you shall take to you seven pairs, the male and his female; and of beasts that are not clean one pair, the male, and his female. Of birds also of the air by seven pairs, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. For in another seven days, I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth. And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him. And Noah were six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
What is the point?
Rabbi Jesus said, 'And they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. So shall also the coming of the coming of the Son of Man will be.' Matthew 24:39.
I have chronologically shown that the people living in Noah's time were warned of what was about to transpire. Especially the last 120 years when Noah was preaching. Then the completion of the Ark with the animals being gathered into the Ark and the death of Mesushelach. Then Noah and his family entering the ark. There is a difference between the claim Rabbi Jesus made, 'they knew nothing' and being warned for over 1,400 years, 1,200 years, 969 years, 120 years, five years, and seven days of the impending destruction. DO YOU GET THE POINT?
'By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as of yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the save his house; in so doing he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness...' Hebrew 11:7
So this was not ...as lightning coming from the east that was visible in the west as Rabbi Jesus indicated in Matthew 24:27. God's Judgment was a slow, deliberate process of warnings. It was not all of the sudden without warning as Rabbi Jesus said!!
Dear Reader in numerous examples I have shown many errors in Rabbi Jesus comment on Matthew 24:37-39. At the very least this should challenge us to ask why did Rabbi Jesus misrepresent the truth? Why did Rabbi Jesus state things that historically are proven inaccurate? One must at least consider how the Christian New Testament could not be considered Divinely inspired with so many errors?


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Belgian House of Representatives
Dossier COM/2011/0121
Proposal for a Council Directive on a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB)
Scrutiny date: 17/05/2011
Subsidiarity Concern:
Important information to exchange
No Veto
Information on parliamentary scrutiny
On April 23rd 2011, an information file was submitted to the Budget Committee.
On May 17th 2011, the Budget Committee adopted an opinion stating that the proposal complies with the principle of subsidiarity.
According to the Rules of Procedure of the House, this opinion is deemed to be that of the House.
|Linked files

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Thanksgiving holiday hours announced
November 14, 2001
The following hours of operation will be observed by Coastal Carolina University during the Thanksgiving holiday.
- Administrative offices
Administrative offices will be closed Thursday, Nov. 22 and Friday, Nov. 23. Specific offices and departments will be in operation as necessary. Regular hours of operation will resume on Monday, Nov. 26.
- Kimbel Library
Monday, Nov. 19 and Tuesday, Nov. 20: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Wednesday, Nov. 21: 8 a.m. to noon; Thursday, Nov. 22 and Friday, Nov. 23: Closed. Regular hours will resume Saturday, Nov. 24. For more information, call 349-2414.
- Recreation Center
Saturday, Nov. 17 to Saturday, Nov. 24: Closed. Regular hours will resume Sunday, Nov. 25. For more information, call 349-2802.


text:
Social Sciences Major
Getting involved with activities and clubs on campus is a decision for which I am so incredibly grateful!
see all Ambassador profiles »
Communication Arts Alum
I moved to Raleigh, North Carolina to work for Cisco Systems as a Partner Relations Manager/Customer Contract Manager.
see all Alumni profiles »
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text:
Craig McElroy <craig(dot)mcelroy(at)contegix(dot)com> writes: > Core was generated by `/usr/local/pgsql/bin/postgres -D /pgdata01/data'. > Program terminated with signal 11, Segmentation fault. > #0 0x080b8ee0 in entrySplitPage () > #1 0x080baccf in ginInsertValue () > #2 0x080b81b7 in gin_xlog_cleanup () > #3 0x080af4ce in StartupXLOG () > #4 0x080c04ca in BootstrapMain () > #5 0x08186b2f in StartChildProcess () > #6 0x081889eb in PostmasterMain () > #7 0x0814ee9e in main () Hm, I wonder if this is explained by a bug already fixed in 8.2.5: 2007-06-04 11:59 teodor * src/backend/access/gin/: gindatapage.c, ginentrypage.c, ginget.c, ginvacuum.c, ginxlog.c (REL8_2_STABLE): Fix bundle bugs of GIN: - Fix possible deadlock between UPDATE and VACUUM queries. Bug never was observed in 8.2, but it still exist there. HEAD is more sensitive to bug after recent "ring" of buffer improvements. - Fix WAL creation: if parent page is stored as is after split then incomplete split isn't removed during replay. This happens rather rare, only on large tables with a lot of updates/inserts. - Fix WAL replay: there was wrong test of XLR_BKP_BLOCK_* for left page after deletion of page. That causes wrong rightlink field: it pointed to deleted page. - add checking of match of clearing incomplete split - cleanup incomplete split list after proceeding All of this chages doesn't change on-disk storage, so backpatch... But second point may be an issue for replaying logs from previous version. Teodor, can you comment on whether this stack trace looks like it could be related to that fix? Craig, can you retry your test scenario on 8.2.5? regards, tom lane
Next: From: Teodor Sigaev Date: 2007-10-25 18:05:45 Subject: Re: Problem with PITR Past Particular WAL File Previous: From: Scott Marlowe Date: 2007-10-25 15:33:03 Subject: Re: Suse Linux Postgres


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The Vikings season 2 premiere will find Ragnar (Travis Fimmel) and Rollo (Clive Standen) going head to head in an epic battle, and EW has your first look at their clash.
In the first clip, we see Ragnar and Rollo's armies getting ready to charge at each other head on. The second gives a much closer shot at the hand-to-hand combat between Rollo and Floki (Gustaf Skarsgard), a gifted craftsman whose designs for faster longships make Ragnar's desire to go west possible.
The Vikings returns to the History Channel on Thursday, Feb. 27, at 10 p.m. ET.


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Cuyahoga County OHGenWeb
Cuyahoga County is rich in biographical sketches from many sources. Listing each biography on this page was not reasonable, so we will share some sources of online bios and indexes to others. If you have links to share for more bios, please notify the webmaster.
If you would like to submit a biography of someone who lived in Cuyahoga County that you have written, please submit it to the webmaster as an attachment in Word or WordPerfect. Bios should at least include sources if not fully footnoted. Living people should not be included at all, and subjects should have been born at least 100 years ago. Photos or illustrations are acceptable, but must be pre 1921 or be your own work. Subjects do not have to be famous or rich. Expect some editing, and posting in PDF.
Sources of Cuyahoga County Biographies
© Cuyahoga County OHGenWeb 2013-15. All Rights Reserved.


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Today we will delve into two recent stock sales in order to illuminate what I consider to be the two most important elements of "sell discipline." For investors, both professional and individual, sell discipline is given immense verbal respect yet is rarely well implemented in practice.
In my opinion, selling is the single most difficult act in stock trading, because the best time to sell (that is, when the price is highest) is also the moment when the outlook is at its best -- earnings are growing robustly and appear to have years of growth ahead, management is executing crisply, the market opportunity appears open-ended with little strong competition on the horizon. Selling when conditions are lousy is easy ... and you are likely to get a very low price that reflects that lousiness. Selling at the top is very, very difficult, and it requires a true discipline that can take years or even decades to develop.
The first important element of a good sell discipline is embodied in the old saw, "Never get married to a stock." Of course, this means to not become emotional about a holding, Do not get attached in such a way that your emotions cloud the objective evaluation of the stock now.
Our case study today looks at two stocks that provided me exceptional returns and with which I would have been in love if I had allowed emotion to overtake judgment. After holding them for around a year, I sold them last week, with stellar results.
The two sales were Marathon Petroleum (MPC), the refining spinoff of Marathon Oil, a stock I purchased on May 14, 2012, and sold literally (and coincidentally) exactly one year later for a 109% gain, and my 2013 "dividend champion," HollyFrontier (HFC), which I purchased on July 10, 2012, and also sold last week for a gain of 30%. That gain is price change only ... I also collected dividends worth another 7.2% in seven separate declarations over that nine-month period.
The chart below shows the performance of both stocks compared with the price of oil (using the iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil TR Index ETN (OIL)). With performance like this, how could I ever sell these stocks?
The catalysts for the sales illustrate the second and to me single most important element of a sell discipline: You should be selling when the fundamental outlook is just "average" relative to other stocks. Outperformance is driven by fundamentals (meaning earnings) improving at a pace greater than expected by the market. (Do you disagree? Consider if the market could omnisciently forecast future earnings. Stocks would be priced to yield an "average" return against those earnings. The only way to "beat" the market is to guess better about the future actual results.)
The classic mistake in sell discipline is to begin selling when the fundamentals deteriorate, decline or are poor. At that point, you are too late! Every slot in your portfolio should contain a stock that you believe will perform better than expected and better than average. Any stock that is just "average" or unexceptional is a sale candidate, to be replaced by an exceptional, above-average name.
In this case, the estimate revisions turned from a strong upward trend -- meaning the market was progressively expecting better earnings performance than it had previously -- to a flat to down trend. Stock performance is highly correlated with estimate trends, and this flattening out was my signal to research why the outlook was suddenly no longer improving. (Keep in mind, it could be the fundamentals that are changing, or it could simply be that expectations have caught up with reality.) The charts below compare the forward-four-quarter EPS estimate with the stock price. You can easily see the recent change in tone.
Naturally, these red flags were the catalyst to do more digging and understand what was underlying the change in trend. Naturally, you do not want to blow out a stock if the trend change is due to very transitory reasons, or reasons not related to the fundamentals, such as an accounting change. So while you do not want to mechanically just sell, you most also research the trend change with a critical eye, letting "guilty until proven innocent" be your guiding principle. The estimate trend change should lead to a sale 90% of the time.
In these case, for both names the financial conditions for oil refiners are softening at the margin. For instance, when Marathon Petroleum recently reported first-quarter results, it hit gross margin per barrel of $7.92, down 14% sequentially, as crude differentials narrowed. (Crude differentials are the price differences from different sources of crude, such as Brent, Bakken, etc. The location of refining and delivery assets can affect the price a refiner pays for feedstock. Marathon Petroleum's assets are mid-continent and have benefited from new shale oil sources, but as price spreads narrow, the earnings advantage narrows.) Looking forward, crude capacity is set to increase seasonally, and that will further pressure margins.
The estimate trend change was the catalyst for my sell research, but as I mentioned, the most important idea is that every portfolio slot must contain the best name possible. A simple way to consider a stock is with the question: "If I were starting today with 100% cash, would I buy this stock?" If the answer is "no," you should be selling it today and buying the more attractive names. In this case, there is a long list of energy mineral names that have exceptional strong upward estimate trends and trade at attractive valuations. The table below illustrates the "menu" from which I could choose.
After some additional research, I ended up replacing Marathon Petroleum and HollyFrontier with Southwestern Energy (SWN) and Philips 66 (PSX). Southwestern is somewhat expensive at 19x forward earnings, but not out of the range I would consider for this growth-at-a-reasonable-price (GARP) portfolio. (The next-ranked name, EQT (EQT), was far too expensive for my tastes at 31x, even though the estimate trend was strong.) Phillips 66 is downright cheap at 9x, although that is the range at which most other downstream oil names trade. Although it is also a downstream name, I feel more comfortable in Phillips 66 because of the location of assets and because of its skew toward distribution rather than refining.
The lessons of this case study should be clear.
1.Don't let the emotional attachment of great past performance, love of a management or anything else prevent you from evaluating a stock coldly and objectively. It is a piece of paper, and it does not know you own it. When it is time to sell, sell it coldly, brutally and unemotionally.
2. Fill every slot in your portfolio with the most attractive names you can find right now, and if a name just becomes average -- so that you would not buy it if you were starting fresh -- then sell it immediately. Do not wait for the fundamentals to become poor. Stocks will go from great to average on their way to poor, so if the direction is not getting better, then it is by definition getting worse.


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Subdeacon Stephen Kerr
Reader Jude (Marty) Hobbs
Tikhon (Eric) Hamrick, Acolyte
|- Matins
|- Mass
|- Deacon's Mass/Silent Prayer
The Orthodox path for converting others to Christianity is one of example and teaching rather than coercion. During the first centuries, as the power of government was being exercised to coerce people away from the faith, the example of faithful Christians brought about the rapid spread of the church throughout the world.
Even after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, missionaries whose zeal led them to pagan lands were careful to win people to the faith by showing the love of Christ in their lives. This method was followed by numerous saints whom we venerate – from St. Patrick in the 8th century, Ss. Cyril and Methodius in the 9th, to Ss. Herman, Innocent, and others who came to North America in the 19th century, and St. Nicholas (whose mission in the 20th century was to the Japanese). All these laborers in God's vineyard did so through holy example and persuasive teaching. In the 8th century, a group of English nuns, led by the Abbess Lioba, was called to engage in this kind of mission among the pagan Saxons.
Lioba was born in Wessex around the year 700. She was sent to the convent of Minster-in-Thanet to be educated and later entered Winborne Abbey under Abbess Tetta (the king's sister). There the bright young girl excelled in classical studies and especially in knowledge of the Scriptures, the writings of the Fathers, and the decrees of the councils. Along with the other nuns, Lioba developed skill in manuscript copying, which the nuns sometimes executed in the style of imperial documents, writing in gold letters on purple velum.
Lioba's relative (probably a cousin on her mother's side of the family) was the priest Boniface, who in 722 was consecrated to be a missionary bishop to Saxony, Thuringia and Hesse. Lioba was greatly interested in this effort and she began a correspondence with her cousin, offering her prayers for the success of his mission.
Establishing his "headquarters' in Mainz, Bishop Boniface began the arduous task of preaching Christianity to the local people. Some years later, recognizing the need for the "anchoring" presence of monastics and remembering Lioba's interest, he wrote to the Abbey at Winborne requesting the assistance of mission-minded nuns. Thirty nuns, under Lioba's direction, willingly left home, family, and all that was familiar to share in this missionary endeavor.
A monastery was established for the nuns at Bischofsheim on the River Tauber and there, following the daily pattern of manual work (in the kitchen, bakery, brewery, and garden), study – and above all, prayer – established by St. Benedict, the nuns began to convert others through their example and teaching. Just as the custom had been in England, girls were sent to them to receive a basic education and the nuns looked after families in need. Their example of daily prayer had a positive effect on the local people and many – community leaders and clerics – came to Abbess Lioba for counsel and encouragement. "Daughter" monasteries were founded as the convent filled with local girls taking monastic vows.
Abbess Lioba, as well as the other nuns (such as St. Walburga, who became the Abbess of Heidenheim) maintained a correspondence with their founding bishop. About 150 letters to and from St. Boniface have been preserved and attest to the piety and love of St. Lioba and her companions as they persevered in their mission despite the emotional distress of being so far from their homeland.
In 754, as St. Boniface departed for further missionary work in Friesland, he wrote to Lioba, commending to her the care of his monks at Fulda in the event of his death. He expressed a desire that, at her death, she be buried with him in the tomb at Fulda prepared for him. St. Boniface did indeed receive the crown of martyrdom shortly thereafter and Lioba often visited his shrine in the monastery at Fulda.
After a long and faithful life of 80 years, St. Lioba passed from this life to the next and was buried near the high altar in the monastery at Fulda, honoring her cousin's request. Within fifty years of her death, she was included in the lists of saints in German liturgical books. When Rudolf of Fulda wrote her "life" in 837, he declared of this saintly woman that "she taught by example in patience and love toward others." May we, through the intercession of St. Lioba, be Christ's missionaries in this same way.
The history of our salvation is a story of preparing the way, of laying groundwork, of taking advantage of right conditions and making the best of others: God gave Moses the law to prepare a particular people for giving his Son; the prophets gave those people the expectation of a Messiah, the faith and obedience of one of those people – Mary of Nazareth – prepared her to become the Theotokos, the Mother of God.
This same process continued as Christianity spread through the centuries and throughout the world. The Apostles, and particularly St. Paul, took advantage of the Jewish knowledge of one God and made use of Greek philosophical ideas in persuading people of the truth of Christianity. Later missionaries took advantage of "ripe" conditions and laid further groundwork for the conversion of pagan peoples.
This task was especially difficult as Christianity was brought to the outer reaches of the Roman Empire, to people whose assumptions and expectations were completely different. Much tolerance and charity had to be exercised, and patience and wisdom were especially required. St. Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury in the 7th century, was one who possessed these virtues and who used them to promote the faith among the Anglo-Saxon people.
Born in Tarsus (the city of St. Paul's birth), Theodore was raised in the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the Greek-speaking Mediterranean world. He was well-educated, with wide interests. He had become a monk and knew the traditions of the desert fathers. He was living in Italy, perhaps in a monastery under Adrian (or Hadrian), the African abbot of a Neapolitan monastery, who introduced Theodore to Pope Vitalian.
When the English priest Wighard, who had been chosen to be Archbishop of Canterbury and had come to Rome to be consecrated, died suddenly while in Rome, Pope Vitalian turned to Adrian as his next choice. The abbot begged off from this assignment, but agreed to accompany Theodore when the Pope chose him. At the age of 65, Theodore was ordained sub-deacon through all the orders to Bishop and began his journey to England. In addition to Abbot Adrian, he was also accompanied by the much-traveled English abbot, Benedict Biscop, the founder of the monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow, who was in Rome to acquire books, icons and relics. They spent time with the Bishop of Paris before arriving in England in the year 669.
What this educated Greek monk found when he took up his duties at Canterbury was a people still largely pagan, and those who were Christian were divided by different traditions. Many people had not yet converted to Christianity and for many who had, the religion of their Scandinavian ancestors still had a strong hold on their beliefs and actions. These aggressive, war-like people valued the traits of bravery and strength in battle. They lived by the rule of the "blood feud", demanding a life for a life. Their marriage customs required that a man marry the widow of his closest kin (even a step-mother). Their myths and legends glorified fierceness and revenge. [Even Anglo-Saxon Christian priests and monks maintained such an attachment to their myths that the Synod of Cloveshoe in 747 had to enact a canon forbidding the reading of Scripture in church in the same manner as the poets recited the sagas.]
The traditions of those brought to Christianity by the Irish differed enough from those with Gallican or Roman background that much ill-will and mistrust existed among them. The Synod of Whitby, in 663-4, had rejected the Celtic manner of determining the date of Easter, but other divisions had not been resolved: the Irish custom of "wandering" bishops without diocesan boundaries conflicted with the Gallican and Roman desire for an orderly division of responsibility and Episcopal oversight. The Gallican monastic practice of large groups of monks living in community with a rigid community life excluded the tendency among the Irish monks to live the hermit life. Hereditary property customs were carried over into the passing on of the positions of abbot and bishop. The relationship of monasteries to bishops varied from group to group.
With the wisdom of Solomon, and following the example set by St. Gregory the Great with his missionaries to this land, St. Theodore achieved conformity to Christian principles and unity among the people. He encouraged chieftains to accept monetary payments ("wergeld') instead of a life for a life, making some progress toward the Christian ideal of forgiveness. The archbishop established and reorganized dioceses and their boundaries, diplomatically following the boundaries of kingdoms. He allowed different monastic traditions to be followed in different monasteries, and it is probable that both he and Abbot Adrian had some influence on the decoration of churches and knowledge of the lives of saints from other parts of the world.
In the midst of this difficult administrative and evangelistic work, St. Theodore founded a school at Canterbury for the education of monks and clergy. Here were taught not only Scripture and theology, but also Roman law, meter, music (theory as well as chant), poetry, astronomy, mathematics, medicine, and the computation of time. Greek was taught as well as Latin (rare in the West at this time).
St. Theodore was of the Antiochian school of Biblical interpretation and passed on this literal (rather than allegorical) approach to Holy Scripture to numerous students. Here, his Mediterranean birth was of great value. [An 11th century manuscript, believed to contain Theodore's scriptural commentaries, gives descriptions of Middle Eastern plants and animals mentioned in Scripture. How helpful that must have been to monks living in this northern European island!]
St. Theodore faithfully carried out these diverse duties for 21 years before falling asleep in the Lord on September 19, 690. There were no miracles reported of him; none of his original writings still exist; but his memory lives on as one who reconciled differences among his people and who, through his contribution to that society prepared the way for others to continue the work of converting Anglo-Saxon England. May almighty God give us grace to learn from him to further our work.
Sources: The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England, Henry Mayr-Harting; A History of the English Church and People, St. Bede the Venerable; The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Hugh David Farmer.
The process of bringing Christianity to a pagan world was a slow, arduous one. Our liturgical calendar is full of celebrations for those who accomplished this task – from the holy Apostles and their disciples, to the numerous martyrs during the persecutions in the early days of the church, and to the missionaries who traveled far from home to bring the light of Christ to pagan peoples. In his Edict of Milan in 313, the Emperor, St. Constantine, made Christianity a legal religion, but centuries later, pagan practices still thrived in many nations, so the work was still being done.
The Merovingian Franks were among those who stubbornly held on to violent and perverse ways of living even after they had been baptized and claimed to be Christians. St. Lambert of Maastricht received the crown of martyrdom as a consequence of this.
Lambert (or Landebertus) was born around 636 into a devout Christian family and instructed in the faith by his uncle Theodard, who was Bishop of Maastricht. The Merovingian rulers at this time were constantly embroiled in family feuds and political intrigue; in the midst of this, Bishop Theodard was murdered and his nephew called to replace him. Soon, however, Lambert was ousted in favor of another candidate. The bishop spent his seven year exile at the Abbey of Stavelot, where he led the life of a humble monk. An illustration of this is the story of a night when the Bishop, arising for his prayers, accidently dropped his sandal, disrupting the monastic silence. He spent the rest of the night praying outside in the snow, performing the expected penance, unbeknownst to the other monks. When a change in political power occurred in 681, Bishop Lambert was allowed to return to his see in Maastricht.
Bishop Lambert joined with St. Willibrord, a missionary who had come from England in 691, and the two labored together for the conversion of the people of the surrounding area, not only to the faith but also to a Christian way of life. The Bishop preached against adultery, even though one of those most guilty was Pepin of Herstal, the Mayor of the Palace who had allowed his return from exile. Bishop Lambert condemned his putting away of his lawful wife in favor of a mistress, so the woman's family sought revenge against him. On a visit to a small village outside Lieges, St. Lambert was attacked and murdered on the 17th of September in the year 709. His body was taken back to Maastricht for burial. Soon, miracles were reported around his relics, and the people asked for a church to be built over the place of his martyrdom. St. Lambert's successor, Bishop Hubert, had the church built and translated the saint's relics there.
We often hear the age in which we live described as "post-Christian" and the evidence for reversion to pagan beliefs and practices is certainly convincing. Living a Christian life of love, patience, kindness, and sacrifice is much more difficult than putting ourselves first. Following the disciplines of the Church (attendance at Liturgy, daily prayer, confession, fasting) is extremely inconvenient when it would be easier to just do what would feel good. This was true for those kingdoms where conversion was slow and difficult and it is true once again for us in our day. May we pray for the strength and conviction of the saints of God and may we ask for the intercession of St. Lambert.


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One game into a season is not the time to make sweeping statements or a realistic prediction on what a campaign will hold for a team. But Saturday's opening day victory for Watford over Bolton Wanderers did highlight a number of positives.
1) Juan-derful - One display does not make a career and time will ultimately tell whether Juan Carlos Paredes will cut it in English football. But as debuts go, Paredes' was very, very good and the excitement surrounding his arrival may have been justified.
The 27-year-old was dynamic and provided a constant outlet on the right side. He has explosive pace, like the two other leading candidates for the right wing-back position, and also sent in several dangerous crosses.
The Ecuador international almost grabbed a stunning debut goal early into the second half when he rattled the crossbar and the only downsides to his first outing in the yellow of Watford appeared to be fitness related - despite Beppe Sannino's claims he was 100 per cent fit.
There was at least one occasion where Paredes was woefully slow at tracking back after an attack and he failed to get back into position as Bolton had a man unmarked at the far post. Fortunately it didn't amount to anything.
And, whilst Paredes played the whole 90 minutes, he arguably should have been taken off after going down with cramp with 18 minutes to go.
He carried on but minutes later the final substitute was used and in the end he was unable to run so Fernando Forestieri had to fill in at right wing back. Thankfully the game was out of sight by that point but it didn't help the Hornets' defensive structure and organisation.
As with all debutants who have a good game, he was awarded the man of the match award - in this case arguably deservedly.
It is easy to get carried away but, based on Saturday's performance, Paredes could become a crucial player for the Hornets this season.
2) Captain Fantastic - Gino Pozzo may well be thinking that even an offer of £10m-plus is not enough for Troy Deeney.
The 26-year-old became the Golden Boys' official captain in the summer and led from the front admirably against Bolton. It wasn't just his goal. Deeney held up the play, linked well with his team-mates and worked tirelessly for the team.
Like all players, Deeney wants to play in the Premier League and if he continues to perform like he did at the weekend, and remains at Vicarage Road, then the Hornets will have a superb chance of getting there next summer.
When I asked one highly-respected broadcaster for his views on the game so far at half-time, the first thing he said was: "Watford have to keep Troy Deeney". It is a view that may well be shared by the Pozzos and the club's hierarchy.
3) Goals, goals, goals - Watford are blessed with attacking options. Troy Deeney and Matej Vydra rekindled their partnership effortlessly on Saturday and both were on the score sheet.
Fernando Forestieri also netted after coming on as a late substitute while strikers Mathias Ranegie, Odion Ighalo and Diego Fabbrini didn't even feature against the Trotters.
Almen Abdi looked dangerous when he ventured forward, Lewis McGugan is always a threat from set-pieces and from distance while Gabriele Angella can pop up with goals.
In the summer Gabriel Tamas stated with certainty that Watford will always score goals this season and the emphasis should be on defensive solidity. He was proved right against Bolton.
4) Summer camp - Beppe Sannino has spent a large proportion of his pre-season working on Watford's defensive organisation and that was evident during Saturday's match.
Bolton enjoyed some good spells in the second half and the Hornets' fitness appeared to play a part as the visitors applied late pressure but for a large part of the game, the Golden Boys were cruising defensively. Tougher opposition will surely follow but it is a positive sign for the future.
5) A signing of the summer - A huge factor in the Hornets keeping a clean sheet was free transfer Heurelho Gomes. As well as being a vocal presence who was happy to command his area, the Brazilian dealt with any meaningful effort on goal and made a couple of superb stops. His also endeared himself to the Vicarage Road faithful with his passionate celebrations after each goal. He looks likely to be one of the Championship's signings of the summer and if he maintains that level of performance, he is also likely to become a fans' favourite at the Vic.
6) Spoilt for choice - Watford were able to brush aside Bolton with ease and they did so with Ikechi Anya (injured), Craig Cathcart (injured), Keith Andrews (ineligible), Cristian Battocchio, Sean Murray (injured), Diego Fabbrini and Odion Ighalo not even in the squad, let alone the starting XI. All of those players would arguably start for a large number of Championship clubs.
The Golden Boys' strength in depth is incredible but the downside is Beppe Sannino will have a tough job on his hands keeping them all happy.


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West Valley City • City manager Wayne Pyle announced Friday that an internal audit of the police department's now-disbanded narcotics unit unearthed a number of problems, including mishandling of evidence, booking evidence without proper documentation as well as the possibility of missing drugs and money.
Pyle said during an afternoon news conference that seized items were improperly accounted for, such as loose change or a CD in a seized vehicle, and that officers kept "trophies" from drug busts and used them as training aids, and to keep for themselves.
Pyle said officers also improperly used confidential informants, some of whom may have been undocumented immigrants.


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Market participants, bull and bear, are all running around like chickens without heads. Folks who sold out are changing their minds and frantically buying back in. Even those taking profits are freaked out by the sums they are realizing. In this hectic environment, where do we turn for focus, for measure, for calming effect?… Who you gonna call?…
Well, he's back: Froogle Scott has re-emerged bearing a comprehensive guide to being sensible about a vital aspect of Vancouver housing: 'Fixing-It-Up'. Amidst the helicopters, the lawsuits, the line-ups, the panic-buying, it's precisely what we all need to set our feet on the ground again. Those of you who don't know Froogle, we recommend you put aside the better part of an evening and read through his Chronicles… the remarkable story of a Vancouver couple buying and renovating a Vancouver house. That'll put the current episode into context, even though it also stands extremely well on its own. We'll be posting 'Part 9' in 10 (yes, ten) sub-parts, over 5 weeks. It'll also be available as a pdf download thereafter.
Froogle's perspective stands in stark contrast to the prevailing fast-and-loose Vancouver RE ethos. He approaches houses as artefacts that matter to us as humans. He cares for quality, and is aware of history; he pays attention to the bones of houses and the souls of the people who use them.
We are grateful to him for sharing this all with us. We're also very pleased that he continues to use this blog as a conduit for publishing his work. Here's the first of the ten sub-episodes, Part 9a.
Careful with those powertools… – vreaa
Part 9a: So You Want to Buy a House and Fix It Up? Thirty Suggestions for Survival
Those fateful words . . .
My wife and I learned a lot of things the hard way during the renovation of our house. If we had to do it again, there are definitely some things we'd do differently.
Let's assume there is a significant correction in Vancouver real estate prices over the next few years, or even a crash — similar to what's happened in a number of American cities, and in a number of other countries. Let's say it's on the order of 35 to 50 percent, which would be huge, and catastrophic for a certain segment of those who currently own houses and condos. And yet, even with an event of this magnitude, the fixer uppers pictured above would still be in the $200K to $300K range. Add a 50 or 75 percent premium for a similar place on the West Side, like the Kitsilano house above — the cheapest house in Kits on the 31st of August, 2010, the day I gathered this sample of properties from RealtyLink. In other words, still expensive by national standards, assuming price deflation in Vancouver would be accompanied by some degree of price deflation in other large Canadian centers. In a comment on a local real estate bear blog, 'Renting' put it succinctly: "A million dollar home in Vancouver is a piece of shit. At 60% to 70% off it will still be a POS and will still be priced higher than buying a POS anywhere else in the world." ("NYC Condos for 80% off," Vancouver Condo Info, November 11th, 2010 at 1:57 pm. While I agree with the key point Renting is making about pricing, I don't completely agree with his assessment of quality, and have more to say about it later.) The majority of new houses, or houses with good quality renovations, would still be in the $300K to $800K range, depending on the size and quality of the house, and the location. Still beyond the means of many people, especially if lending is tightened because of societal debt problems (Credit Crisis II), and wages stagnate because we're in a recession. In the City of Vancouver, and the more expensive surrounding suburbs, the notion that prospective buyers currently sitting on the sidelines will just waltz into perfect houses in the aftermath of a crash probably isn't very realistic. There would be a few, with large amounts of cash, for whom this could be the case. But for many, home ownership would still entail buying something sub-optimal and fixing it up — those fateful words…
Regardless of what happens with the local housing market, the character of Metro Vancouver's housing stock is what it is. There are large numbers of older, smaller, tired, even dilapidated houses, with outdated décor and finishings. They were built in an era of more rudimentary building codes, in a time when basements weren't designed to be lived in, when heating a house was relatively cheap, so building envelopes were less critical. Many of these houses have been 'remuddled' — made worse, and often ugly, by amateurish renovation and remodeling. Occupying the next rung up the property ladder are 1970s Vancouver Specials, but even these houses are now 30 to 40 years old, and will be starting to have the problems associated with age. Many people will find themselves considering houses that require a lot of work, not because they really want these particular houses, but because they want to own rather than rent, and it's what they can afford.
With that in mind, I've compiled thirty suggestions for survival. (I wish there were fewer…) I'm not a renovation expert, but I am someone who, along with my wife, lived through a difficult renovation, and I have thought quite a bit about the process. I'm also drawing upon the experience of friends and neighbours who've undertaken majors renovations, and kindly shared a range of information, from practical matters to financial details.
I'm not trying to persuade people one way or another when it comes to buying or renovating a house. I'm sharing some insights that may make the process less fraught if you do embark on a renovation, or confirm you in your decision to avoid renovating, or perhaps even ownership, altogether. If you're someone who intends to own a house eventually, in Vancouver or elsewhere, but you're waiting until prices make more sense to you personally, you can treat the waiting period as a great time to learn at your own pace about houses and fixing them up, rather than acquiring information piecemeal in the panicky fashion I was forced into because I was doing it on the fly, mid-renovation. (Note to self: plan better next time. If there is a next time…)
First, some of the positives
When I look over the suggestions I've compiled here, it occurs to me that any sane person might run screaming from the prospect of undertaking a major renovation. It isn't my purpose to scare people or turn them off. I'm trying to provide a realistic account of what it takes. And what it takes runs completely counter to the magic-wand renovations that happen in the space of a week on reality TV shows. Most of these TV projects are a combination of redecorating and light renovation, which is fine for what it is, but it distorts the true nature of major renovation — applying makeup versus major internal surgery.
My neighbour 'M', a renovation veteran along with his wife 'S', thought I should mention some of the positives, the reasons why some people are willing to undergo the difficulty of a major reno, and suggested some of these positives himself:
• You're preserving a piece of your city's architectural heritage in an age of disposability, in which a knock-it-down, throw-it-up ethos, and bigger and newer, mask the often cheap and shoddy.
• You're preventing older and often superior materials, such as the dense, strong Douglas fir in the frames of older Vancouver houses, from being needlessly destroyed and dumped in a landfill.
• You have the opportunity to control exactly what happens with your house, and you can ensure that everything is done to your specifications, and done right.
To which I would add:
• Incremental renovation may allow you to afford the size and type of house you want, in the area you want. Even if house prices come down dramatically, a good quality new or fully renovated house may still be beyond your reach in the areas you favour. With a fixer upper, you may be able to at least gain entrance to specific neighbourhoods.
• You're going to learn a lot about houses, depending on the extent of a renovation and your involvement with it, knowledge that will serve you very well as a homeowner and home maintainer in the years ahead. If at some point you sell and buy a different house, you'll really know what to look for the second time around.
• You're going to feel the satisfaction of creating something good, a feeling from which too many have become disconnected in a profit-driven world.
A word about condos and townhouses
My experience is primarily with detached houses, so that's what I write about here. However, Vancouver is a city that has been rapidly and aggressively condo-izing — in the core, and in various pockets across the metropolitan area. For many Vancouverites, real estate prices, with or without a crash, dictate that home ownership means condo or townhouse ownership, at least as an entry point to the market, and often beyond. Although a number of my suggestions apply fairly exclusively to resale houses, some of them are also applicable to condos and townhouses.
1. Think about the renovation before you buy the house, not after
If you're planning to buy a house, and your budget puts you solidly in fixer-up territory, prior to making an offer, you should think about the particular renovation possibilities and constraints that apply to any house you're considering. If you're planning a major renovation, you should find out what zoning and building code regulations apply, and how these might affect your plans. Over the years, many houses have had unpermitted extensions, additions, and large decks added, which increase the square footage of the house beyond the maximum allowable, or extend the structure too close to the property line. You don't want to buy a house only to find out that your local building and development department requires you tear down a third of it as part of making any improvements.
Your forward thinking at this stage need only be general. Is the house easily and legally expandable? Is the interior layout reasonably close to one that suits your lifestyle, or will it require extensive, and expensive, changes? Are the house's various systems — drainage, plumbing, electrical, heating, and so on — near the end of their life, requiring tens of thousands of dollars to bring them up to modern standards? More subtle and detailed renovation requirements will only emerge after you've lived in a house for a year or more, during all four seasons, and discovered the shortcomings that most affect you.
Thinking in vague terms about 'fixing it up' is risking disappointment, frustration, and expense. Much better to know in broad terms how you're going to renovate the fixer upper you're about to purchase, what the municipality will allow you to do, and roughly how much the renovation will cost. That kind of knowledge requires educating yourself, which you can do well in advance of entering the market, and probably getting expert help, which I discuss in more detail below.
2. Look for the lines
Houses are basically boxes, or assemblages of boxes, with roofs, if they aren't flat, that are typically some version of a pyramid or triangular prism. Some assemblages are more pleasing to the eye than others. Learn about the most common styles of houses in Metro Vancouver — the Edwardian box, the Edwardian builder, the Craftsman, the California bungalow (Craftsman bungalow), the Voyseyesque cottage, 1920s and 30s builders specials, post-war and 1950s bungalows, 1970s Vancouver Specials, on so on. Go for walks in the neighbourhoods you're considering and look at lots of houses — both fixer uppers and nicely renovated houses that appeal to you. Over time, your eye for the lines of a house, and for the lines of a particular style of house, will develop. You'll be able to more easily distinguish the lumpish, the ugly, and houses with the distorted lines of poorly designed additions, from those with aesthetically pleasing lines, even if the lines have been somewhat obscured by the subsequent application of stucco, or vinyl or asphalt siding. Ideally, you want to get good at spotting the fixer upper with good lines, and good potential. This skill will allow you to quickly work your way through long lists of houses on real estate sites, and spot which houses may be modest diamonds in the rough, and which aren't worth the bother. I say modest, because according to my architect neighbour, all the true diamonds in Vancouver have already been plucked, and fully renovated, and command full price.
An example of a modest diamond could be the builders special in the Willingdon Heights neighbourhood of Burnaby, the first house in the picture above. It holds good possibilities and would probably be a good candidate for raising, and pouring a new foundation, because in addition to creating a full-height lower level, raising would make it look more elegant, rather than top heavy. Our neighbours M and S raised their 1922 builders special, a house almost identical to the one pictured, and the result is very good. A rear addition can also be easily integrated with the existing roof lines of this style of house — as people on our block recently did with their builders special, again, with good results.
Compare these possibilities with the remuddled Lynn Valley house above, which would be hard to do much with, without significant alteration of the existing lines. Here's a good example from another major reno that recently kicked off in our neighbourhood, a similarly proportioned house that's hard to expand without radical alteration of the existing lines. In this case, the entire second storey had to be lopped off.
And then there are the outright bad lines. The East Vancouver house pictured below was listed in the fall of 2010 at $649K. The original house may have been a small cottage, forming the center portion of the current structure, with poorly integrated front and rear additions added later. The net result is a messy jumble with an unappealing roof line. Although it's priced $50K higher than the Willingdon Heights house, it's probably a tear-down (although the original center section may hold some heritage value), whereas the Willingdon Heights house isn't necessarily.
New houses can also have bad lines. For example, this Burnaby horror show looks like it was conceived by a first-year architecture student after a heavy night out at the campus pub.
Paying for the gigantic twin pillars perhaps didn't leave enough for twin stair railings. Might it be possible that, coming home drunk, one could fall from either the left or the right side of a set of stairs?
You can change the lines of a house, but it costs money — often lots of it — that could be spent on other renovation items, like systems replacement. Why not start with good lines, or easily expandable lines, to begin with?
3. Consider various styles of house
At different points growing up, I lived in a couple of hundred-year-old character houses in Victoria — one, a beautiful, half-timbered Craftsman (rented), the other Italianate. I always felt that if I eventually bought a house, it would be a character house that I'd fix up. I hated post-war bungalows, the kind that were covered with pinky-brown, beer-bottle stucco. Whenever I pictured one of these houses, it was raining, and the stucco was sodden.
Now the thought of renovating a character house, the ongoing maintenance burden, the heating bills for a large space, fills me with dread. I like looking at beautiful character renovations on the street, but I don't want to own one. Or at least, I don't think I do. Occasionally, when I go inside one, I'm struck by the sense of serenity and comfort.
My wife grew up in an early model Vancouver Special, probably built in the 1960s. Growing up, she hated Vancouver Specials — their depressing uniformity, their raw, immature, unadorned feel, the utilitarian approach to home ownership taken by their occupants, in her Trout Lake neighbourhood primarily other members of the Chinese community. Ironically, she felt these houses expressed a lack of community. In contrast to my feelings about stucco bungalows, my wife loved them. The Italians and Portuguese — around Trout Lake, more settled, earlier waves of immigrants — lived in the bungalows. With mature gardens, lower profiles, and less obvious uniformity, these houses felt cozy to her, more like comfortable homes.
In 2003, my wife and I bought a post-war, stucco bungalow. During our house hunting period I underwent some kind of conversion. I wanted a character house, quickly realized they were well out of our range, but also realized that I now liked 1950s bungalows. I'd come to appreciate their solidity, their low, horizontal lines, their quiet practicality. The one we bought is an early model, built immediately post-war, in 1946. I prefer the more generous, more spacious versions that evolved with increasing North American prosperity in the 1950s. However, I'm reasonably content.
The one type of house my wife and I agreed we hated, and wouldn't consider, was a 1970s Vancouver Special, or any of the more recent variants. Now, seven years later, and in the aftermath of battling headroom issues in our basement suite during the renovation, the wheel has turned again. We might consider a Vancouver Special, were we ever to move. (I do have one reservation, which I explain in the section on seismic upgrading below.) The characteristics that originally made Vancouver Specials attractive to working class and immigrant families on the East Side, and elsewhere in the city, are still attractive today to an even more diverse demographic: maximum, or close to maximum, square footage for the lot size; open layouts; big rear decks, often covered; a full-height lower level, making installation of a rental suite, or setting up a separate area for teenagers, much easier; and a minimum of architectural adornment, which although bland, means less maintenance and upkeep. Add to these original enticements a price point that can be significantly lower than a renovated character house or a new house. For these reasons, Vancouver Specials remain popular, are shedding some of the stigma long associated with their utilitarian nature and prosaic form, and renovating them in interesting or unexpected ways has become somewhat trendy.
Lance Berelowitz, in Dream City, had this to say about Vancouver Specials:
"There is a certain irony in the fact that while the Vancouver Special has long been an affront to the Vancouver architectural establishment, that same establishment frequently finds itself designing and living in equally kitsch architectural clichés and is increasingly involved in replicating a new pseudo 'Heritage' aesthetic for housing. The pitched roofs, cutesy wood detailing and fake-traditional architectural geegaws are now the de rigueur language of contemporary residential design. It almost makes the Vancouver Special seem refreshingly honest in comparison."
Classic 1970s Vancouver Special in the Renfrew neighbourhood, East Vancouver
The houses don't change, it's we who change. The way we see things evolves. The more you expose yourself to a full range of house styles, and analyze their benefits and drawbacks in relation to your particular situation, the more options and flexibility you'll have. Most of us have emotional responses to different styles of houses, unanalyzed, probably rooted in childhood experience, and it's often these emotional responses that drive our purchasing decisions, rather than a careful weighing of the appropriateness of this functional object we're buying.
Some common Vancouver house styles, 1900 to 1980
[Further resources/reading]
To read more about Vancouver house styles throughout the 20th century, see the following:
Exploring Vancouver, by Harold Kalman (later with Ron Phillips and Robin Ward). Vancouver: UBC Press, 1974, 1978, 1993 (three editions).
British Columbia Houses: Guide to the Styles of Domestic Architecture in British Columbia, by Graeme Chalmers and Frances Moorcroft. Vancouver: UBC, 1981.
Vancouver and Its Region, edited by Graeme Wynn and Timothy Oke. Vancouver: UBC Press, 1992.
Dream City: Vancouver and the Global Imagination, by Lance Berelowitz. Vancouver: Douglas and McIntyre, 2005.
The Story of Dunbar: Voices of a Vancouver Neighbourhood, edited by Peggy Schofield. Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2007.
"House Special", The Vancouver Courier, 11 Sep, 2009. Story related to Vancouver Heritage Foundation 2009 tour of renovated Vancouver Specials.
"Heritage tour of Vancouver Specials shows why they are special", The Vancouver Sun, 5 Oct, 2010. Story related to Vancouver Heritage Foundation 2010 tour of renovated Vancouver Specials.
"Your Old House Encyclopedia", Vancouver Heritage Foundation. Once it goes live, this will be a fantastic online resource for identifying and learning about specific styles of Vancouver residential architecture. The advertised launch date of summer 2010 has obviously come and gone. I sent the Vancouver Heritage Foundation an email asking when they expected the online encyclopedia to be available, and they told me Spring 2011. Nothing yet. If you're interested, I guess the best advice is to bookmark the link, and periodically check back.
Coming soon: Part 9b: So You Want to Buy a House and Fix It Up? Thirty Suggestions for Survival – Suggestions 4, 5, 6, & 7
Stay tuned. -ed.


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Knowledge, Information, and Expectations in Modern Macroeconomics:
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Edmund Phelps, Insider-Economists' Insider
Introduction by PAUL A. SAMUELSON
Of Arms and the Man we Virgilians gather here to sing. Lest the keynote speaker steal in his overture the best tunes of the seminars that will appraise and praise the Ned Phelps feats of arms, my function now is to talk of the scholar himself as a person in his times.
In politics you know you are getting old when you hear yourself saying repeatedly, "I gave him his first job." Let the record show that Ned Phelps's rise to scientific fame owed nothing to interventions by me. However, that was not because of lack of trying on my part. When Phelps was a bright senior at Amherst, I lectured there solely in order to recruit him for MIT. His case was a no-brainer lay-down hand. But Ned was one of the fish that got away. And it was Yale's good fortune that he went there. One cannot deny that his was a good choice, for out of the ashes of Old Eli's glory in the days of Fairchild, Furness, and Buck--an interlude between the Gibbs and Irving Fisher era--Jim Tobin gathered to New Haven the refugee Cowles clan and many more. Eclectically, Ned learned from them and from the Fellner-Wallich-Triffin crowd too, and what he borrowed from his elders, he paid back at golden compound interest.
In no time at all he became known for golden rule theorems, for the Phelps-Koopmans permanent inefficiencies, for optimal intertemporal stochastic programming, for models of endogenous technological change, and for the concept of a natural rate of unemployment defined at the point where the algebraic rate of inflation passes from being permanently minus to permanently plus.
You might say this was Picasso's classical period. I knew of his innovations well, and not only because Solow and I were pedaling in the same bicycle marathon. Often I was a free rider boosted ahead by Ned's windbreaking lead efforts. Truly Phelps has been external-economy. Thus, my much-cited 1969 paper on optimal intertemporal portfolio programming opportunistically used the Bellman-Beckman-Phelps recursive techniques to analyze what defines the best qualitative asset-portfolio mix of the Phelps 1962 aggregate saving. It was not plagiarism but it was horning in on a created public good there for the taking.
The biography of a Phelps illuminates the nature of scientific advance and of innovators' behavior. Physics or mathematics or botany or anthropology, all of them are group efforts--you might call them overlapping generations of clique efforts. On the Midway at the University of Chicago, there stands a statue depicting Time, the work of Sculptor Lorado Taft (Senator-Professor Paul Douglas's father-in-law). It portrays the stationary figure of Time, before whom draped figures of succeeding generations pass from left to right. Etched in the marble base is the legend that I paraphrase from imperfect memory. "Time passes, you say? Ah no. Tis we who go."
The inner history of economics is a bit like that. Into the main ring of the circus each of us enters from the left and departs from the right. But it is not a simply ordered sequence ABC . . . XYZ: The better image is that of each epoch's chorus of scholars: Smith, Malthus, Ricardo, and the two Mills in the prime classical age. Then, in Victorian times, Jevons, Menger, Walras, Marshall, Pareto, Slutsky, Wicksell, and Cassel. Contemporaries of my teachers were Pigou, the Clarks, von Bortkiewicz, Keynes, Knight, Young, Viner, Schumpeter, and Hotelling--followed by the 1900+ vintages of Hayek, Haberler, Leontief, Hicks, Lerner, Kaldor, Robinson(s), Robertson, Tinbergen, Frisch, Ohlin, and Meade. Never are the hall lights so dimmed that a previous chorus can be replaced in one fell swoop by a new set of singers. Rather, imperceptibly new voices come on stage while old ones quietly slip off, humming ever more softly as they first linger and then fade away.
This construct enables me to place today's birthday boy in his generation. For a surprisingly long time most of our productive economists had their roots in the pre-World War II epoch. This is true of Tobin, Modigliani, Alexander, McKenzie, Arrow, Kaysen, Baumol, and Solow--to say nothing of Methuselahs like Bergson and me--and all of us had a head start over graduate students of the post-1945 years--the hot breath of ingenious youth at first burned less scorchingly on our necks.
But of course that could not last. The 1950s began with the Beckers, Ecksteins, Jorgensons, Grilicheses, von Wiezackers, Diamonds, Fishers, and Phelpses, all of whom were still singing soprano when the Pearl Harbor attack took place, and soon to come were the invading hosts of the Halls, Gordons, Stiglitzes, Mertons, Dornbusches, Fischers, and . . . but now I must stop because a countable infinity is still an infinity and a lunchtime speech is of finite duration, however boring it may become.
Returning to our rags-to-riches Horatio Alger, Jr., hero, Phelps established his credentials in the easy micro and macro of Hicks-Dantzig-Debreu: Santa Claus domains of convex sets and the differentiable calculus of variations. Would he advance into the unpromising lands of increasing scale returns, asymmetric information, lumpinesses, and all those other imperfections undreamed of in the philosophies of the equilibrium mongers?
The answer is a resounding, Yes. To sum up my hagiographic panegryic, I shall steal a few lines from Philippe Aghion, who "sees Phelps's contribution [to economics] as basically one project: to introduce imperfect information and knowledge, imperfect competition, and market frictions into macroeconomics"--and, I would add, into microeconomics as well. To polish Max Planck's dictum: Science does progress funeral by funeral--as the chorus of Phelpses and Stiglitzes explicates those many ways that palsy can afflict the invisible hand of Smith, Say, and Lucas.
File created: 8/7/2007
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text:
- Prep:
- 15 minutes
- Cook:
- 10 minutes
- Serves:
- 4
- Roll shrimp in mixture of Tony Chachere's Cajun seasoning and flour. Pan sear shrimp in butter until crispy.
- Melt butter in separate pan and add cream. Slowly add flour until mixture thickens. Add fresh spinach and cook until wilted.
- Squeeze lemon juice and freshly grated lemon zest. Spoon onto plate and garnish with cooked shrimp. Serve immediately.


text:
MARIO BALOTELLI will soon be hardening his nuts in vinegar.
The Man City striker had a game of conkers with a neighbourhood lad after
stopping to ask a group of kids and dads why they were shaking a horse
chestnut tree.
Local dad Phil Parkinson said: "I was with my 11-year-old lad when Balotelli
pulled up.
"We tried explaining to him what the game was but he didn't seem to get it.
"Then when one of the boys pulled out a pair of conkers, he wanted to play.
"The lad split his conker to pieces and Mario kept laughing.'"
Mario might add conkers to his pad's stash of water pistols, fireworks and
remote-controlled cars.


text:
What Do You Think Are The Dimensions Of This Cake?
Decorating By dewdee Updated 7 May 2013 , 9:19am by Cake Cake Cake
Hi there, my niece has asked me to make a cake something like this for her first Communion. I'm just wondering what do you think the dimensions of it are? I what to replicate the look of the taller tier on top of the shorter tier? Is it a 9 x 4 on the bottom and a 6 x 5 maybe on top or am I totally off?
1 reply
Yes I think you are right!


text:
WORRIED horse riders have raised concerns over the condition of ageing bridleways in Benfleet.
Residents say numerous bridleways have been in constant use for more than 40 years, but due to lack of maintenance have fallen into disrepair, creating dangers for riders and horses.
Julia Burch, 46, of Badgers Way, said the paths need to be resurfaced as they easily flood and trees surrounding the bridleways need cutting back, so riders can see where they are going.
Ms Burch said: "Benfleet has a huge horseriding community and these bridleways are constantly used. They haven't been touched in years. No one is resurfacing them and it's making them impossible to use.
"Work needs to be done to fix them. They aren't only used by horses and riders, but cyclists and walkers – making it dangerous for everybody.
"It is like an accident waiting to happen. They are that bad."
Damien Stone, general manager at Braeside Equestrian Centre, in Great Burches Road, said: "The bridleways are neglected; the surface floods, but goes rock hard in the sun. It is dangerous for horses and people."
Riders are also worried about the future of some bridlepaths as they surround areas earmarked for development under the local plan.
Lynne Marriott, 46, of Almar Close, said: "The bridleways need to be sorted out. They need to be discussed as part of the local plan. Castle Point Council needs to pay more attention to the equestrian community. The council is very aware of these problems, but it seems as if it is choosing to ignore it."
Norman Smith, Conservative councillor for Boyce ward, said he was willing to meet residents bver bridleways.
He said: "In terms of future bridleways, they will be considered in the consultation process of the draft local plan. I ammore than happy to meet residents to discuss plans and existing bridleways."
An Essex Highways spokesman added: "These are unmade roads and being bridleways would not receive the same standard of maintenance as the highway network routes where our main aim is to ensure the safe movement of people and goods; this would not apply to an unmade road.
"Nevertheless, the concerns of residents are appreciated and we will arrange for an inspector to visit carry out an assessment."


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Musicians in the Dallas Symphony Orchestra won't get a raise again this season, extending a salary freeze into a fifth year.
The Dallas Symphony Association and members of Local 72-147 of the American Federation of Musicians agreed over the weekend to a new two-year contract, to take effect Oct. 1. In the wake of the association's multimillion-dollar deficits the last two years, the new contract maintains current pay scales through the 2011-12 season and adds only a 1 percent raise in 2012-13.
The base salary for DSO musicians is approximately $90,000. Principal players are paid more.
With the economy hurting orchestras' ticket sales, contributions and endowment income, deficits have been showing up around the country. The legendary Philadelphia Orchestra has even filed for bankruptcy. Musicians in a number of orchestras, including the Fort Worth Symphony, have been hit with salary cuts.
Scott Cantrell


text:
The New York World is following the money from Washington to New York, as billions of dollars of storm recovery and rebuilding funds authorized by Congress flow to the region. We'll be posting regular updates about how the money is (and isn't) being spent
Cooperation needed from utilities, state and Congress
Experts testify utility giant needs to fix short-circuits in its operations, from stormproofing to staffing
New York road and rail construction grinds on, as federal overseers shift focus to Sandy relief
Pledge of $569 million follows report that 11 billion gallons of sewage flowed following Sandy
While politicians talk multibillion-dollar sea walls, Staten Islanders consider low-cost ways to protect New Yorkers from the next Sandy
City Planning Commission considers opening lower Manhattan plazas to music, food and more in a bid to boost Sandy recovery
A lot depends on your financial situation, whether you reside in a house or an apartment building, and where you live.
Request to federal government comes as part of proposal for spending $1.7 billion on storm recovery
Small Business Administration loans bail out shore residents surprised to learn policies paid far less than needed


text:
Möchtest du als deine Standardwährung festlegen oder nur für diese Sitzung behalten?
I was amazed last week during the inauguration of the new Club Tower at the InterContinental Costa Rica. The rooms are beautiful and luxurious and the spa is just wonderful. The new gym is unique. You will not find something similar in Costa Rica. I am looking forward for my next trip to stay in one of the new rooms. Congratulations!!!
My son gave his Mother and I a trip to Costa Rica for our 50th anniversary present. We started out at the Real Intercontinental. As a former Pan Am employee, who frequented the Intercontinental Hotels (then owned and operated by Pan Am), I can say with certainty.......the Real has maintained the class and luxury that I.H. was always known for. The maintenance is excellent; the sevice impeccable; and the acommodations luxurious. Not to mention excellent cuisine in the restuarants. We enjoyed every minute of our stay. Thank you to the management and staff of the Real Intercontinental, San Jose, Costa Rica. James A. & Norma Byers
I was very happily surprised by service: at frontdesk, at restaurants, event organization overall... everyone willing to help, and very friendly. A couple of highlights: the sushi restaurant is very good quality and reasonable prices...the beds are very comfortable...\nThe hotel is also strategically located close to all hotspots in town, the Escazu and Santa Ana areas...I highly recommend it!\n
This is a beautiful hotel with an extremly relaxing and luxurious pool setting. We used all the amenities including the gym, pools, spa and restaurants. The waiters, waitresses and spa employees were the nicest I think I've ever encountered at a hotel. Their professional and friendly service continued all week long! Which is why we were extremly shocked to witness the unprofessional and unaccomodating managment staff. We had to wait 2 hours for our room to be ready even though they gave us a specific check in time. Then for the 11:30am scheduled checkout they called us at 6:00am becuase they could not run our credit card on the restaurant tabs (we prepaid for the hotel). That was frustrating being woken up on our last day of vacation when we had a long day of travel ahead of us. Lastly, my husband stepped out of a restaurant to speak to a manager because the table next to us had a child that was standing next to us scream singing and pounding thier feet dancing along with the father. It was our anniversary so we went to the very expensive adult restaurant within the hotel but ended up having to leave our dinner becasue we could not even have a conversation. The manager did nothing.
We stayed overnight after flying in late and left after lunch the next day. This place is not that close to the airport and the most direct way there involves some winding around back roads. So you either will get charged by the taxi to go all the way into San Jose and back out on the highway or you see some local scenery that will make you worry the driver is trying to rip you off. Price is reasonable by US standards but a little high compared to other options in the area. Figure in the price of the taxi and relative distance from airport and downtown. It is located next to a big mall and business area, but that was not why we were visiting CR. The room was fine. Comfortable and all the usual amenities of a nicer hotel. Unfortunately, smoking is allowed in the open lobby, so smoke permeates to the upper floors. Water is generally safe to drink in CR, but just to remind you, there is a little sign in the bathroom that tells you they filter the water. No need to pay for the bottled water in the room. Staff were the high point of the stay. Front desk was very helpful and was able to exchange money at a good rate. Concierge helped us change our car rental reservation from the airport to the downtown location and made sure we got there. This last part was important because they do not believe in street addresses in CR (instead, they say something like '200m east of McDonalds on Paseo Colon').
This is a great hotel with a beautiful lobby, very comfortable guest rooms and a good selection of restaurants. The staff was very quick to respond. My only complaint is that it could be anywhere in the world; it doesn't have any local Costa Rican flavor.


text:
Highlights Highlights / Clip
Theo wants the freedom to date other girls.
Rudy learns the consequences of not following the rules.
The Huxtables take Elvin through some family highlights.
Rudy's friend Carolyn sleeps over and disrupts Cliff.
Vanessa sneaks out to see her boyfriend, Jeremy.
Bledsoe currently stars in TV sitcom Guys With Kids.
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