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'Devotchka' sounds Russian to my ears, but it doesnt evoke any image in my mind. I just looked it up on Nadsat dictionary, wouldnt have guessed that.
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Hey, I am to write my MA thesis at university on translation of neologisms in the novel A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. I will compare two Polish translations published by the same translator. What I need is some feedback about connotations that come to minds of native speakers of English when encountering neologisms found in the book. Basically, what I need is a list of words, ideas that you have on seeing a word like "devotchka" - whether they are pleasant or not, whether you find the term offensive, colloquial, funny, weird, whatever.
I'll be VERY grateful for your feedback. Please write me a private message if you're interested in contributing to my MA project. I can send you the form via e-mail or in a private message reply.
Thanks very much in advance. Please let me know if you're interested.
'Devotchka' sounds Russian to my ears, but it doesnt evoke any image in my mind. I just looked it up on Nadsat dictionary, wouldnt have guessed that.
Words like bog & rot worked well IMO because of the association with both languages.
You chose an interesting subject! So did I, honestly:) I'm also writing my MA about translation of A Clockwork Orange (into Polish and Russian) and I'm almost finishing my thesis. If you still have any problems, contact me and I'll do my best


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In early September,
On August 24, 2009, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of
But the letter of apology is highly unlikely to address the most serious aspects of the repression. Do not expect the letter to say anything about helping to consolidate control of world agriculture and throw 1 billion people off of small farms. Don't look for the letter to mention the role of police in attempts to force genetically contaminated food on Africans with immuno-compromised health. And don't be surprised if the letter contains not a word about
The police apology will certainly misdirect attention onto its own illegal and repulsive behavior of May, 2003: warrantless entry into a home where a woman was subjected to "an unlawful and humiliating strip search," a second warrantless entry under the false claim of the building being condemned, and arresting several activists for "riding a bicycle without a license," a crime which did not exist. [1]
Under the FBI Eye
Preparations for the Biodevastation 7 Gathering started in 2002 when Jim Scheff, an organizer for the Missouri Forest Alliance, called to tell me that the WAF would be meeting in
Documents obtained by the ACLU under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) show that the FBI was deeply involved in scrutinizing many documents that I wrote for the event, including emails from my computer. The ACLU judged the FBI reports to be some "of the most troubling documents we received." [3]
A November 2005 cover letter from the FBI refers to "Subject: GATEWAY GREEN ALLIANCE/01012000 TO PRESENT," indicating that we had been in FBI sights for years. [4] Its first memo on "Counterterrorism" asserted that "The WAF was created to provide a continuing, neutral arena for the discussion of world agriculture…" Counterposed to the "neutral" WAF, the memo warned of "issue-specific terrorist groups…which oppose…the bio-engineering of plants and animals." [5]
What particularly worried authors of the memo was that "organizers from the Gateway Green Alliance, a local affiliate of the Green Party USA, have joined with member of the Organization for Black Struggle in St. Louis and are attempting to label the WAF as a 'forum on environmental racism' in an attempt to lure African-American groups." [5] (The authors probably meant to say "Biodevastation" rather than "WAF.")
The memo observed that "no specific threats of violence or unlawful protest have been received." But its authors were disturbed that "protest organizers" might be "able to successfully promote a racial element to the forum…" [5]
Other FBI counterterrorism documents listed frightening people who hoped to speak at
The FBI was most traumatized by information that "The May 2003 Biodevastation Gathering will be the cutting edge event defining links between racism and the biotechnology industry." Documents monitored by its sleuths uncovered plans for the event to "focus attention on efforts" to use "Food Aide as a weapon of narrow economic interests and to force genetically contaminated food on Africa." [5]
Luckily, the FBI did not stand alone in efforts to protect good citizens. FOIA reports confirm that the FBI had "been working with local police agencies to collect intelligence related to the WAF." [7] Not content to rely on local police, the FBI proudly documented collaboration with the private sector:
Corporate officials from Monsanto who monitor the Biodev website (www.biodev.org) allege that the speakers at the Biodev conference are against genetic engineering of any type, that they are outspoken critics of Monsanto and are extreme in their views. [7]
A Public Dialogue Cut Short
During weeks prior to Biodevastation 7, there were a few stories about the dangers of GMOs, but
Then, on the opening day of Biodevastation 7, the Mother of All Horrors occurred: There was an actual public debate on genetic engineering! The only
Not to worry.
Members of the Flying Rutabaga Bicycle Circus were arrested for the fictitious crime of "riding a bicycle without a license." About the same time, a building inspector nailed a "condemned" sign on a
Two hours later, police raided the Community Arts and Media Project (CAMP) building, which housed the
As I tried to make sure that speakers (minus Sarah Bantz) were there, that panels could start on time, and that lunches were on their way, I was called by one reporter after another. With the lurid drama rivaled only by stories of a
Police Chief Mokwa egged on the frenzy. He held a press conference to display the "weapons" seized during the raids: rocks, roofing nails, torches and Molotov cocktails.
By the next day, it became apparent that the rocks were paperweights; the roofing nails were to repair a leaky roof; and the torches were flaming batons of the Bicycle Circus. When the
Of course, throughout the events, the only potential violence discussed was that of demonstrators. When reporters asked me about potential violence, I never hesitated to point out that "There is a real threat of lawlessness when the WAF is controlled by Monsanto, a company that lawlessly trespasses on the land of farmers like Percy Schmeiser, criminally steals samples of crops and violently drops pesticide bombs on their fields to test if their crops are Roundup-resistant."
Reporters would tell me that that was not what was meant. They wanted to know if there was a threat of violence during the demonstration set for May 18. I always responded "Yes, there is a real threat of violence. When public safety is put in the hands of a police chief who has condoned the police murder of over a dozen black youth in recent years, the city should be concerned."
Predictably, the press had zero interest in reporting on corporate or state violence. Their prewritten script was to interview one side predicting that demonstrators would be violent and "balance" it with a few seconds of an organizer denying the charge.
Police Attacks
Police attacks on protestors were illegal, traumatic and disruptive to planned events. Kelley Meister wrote in detail of her ordeal. The night before her home was invaded, "police had been circling our house relentlessly, following my friends home, and harassing them on the street, and I had feared waking up to the police knocking down my door." [8] After breakfast the next morning, a police car pulled up.
Two police officers pushed past me to enter the house, and I asked if they had a warrant. When they said, "No," I stated that I did not give them permission to enter my house, and I again asked for a warrant. The officers told me that a warrant was not necessary because this was a condemned building. [8]
After being arrested and put in a police van, Meister
…watched many cops enter and exit our house, most notably, an officer carrying a piece of art ripped down off the wall from my room. The cops also stole many other people's personal items such as journals, posters, props for the circus and puppet shows, welding tools, roofing nails, and all of our bicycles that were in the building. The bicycles were eventually returned with slashed tires, but most of the other stuff that was stolen is either "missing" or being held as evidence. [8]
When allowed to return home several days later, she found
The house was trashed. In my bedroom, shelves had been disassembled or knocked over, boxes of oil paints and other art supplies dumped out, my large reading chair was on its side and in the middle of the room, personal items were smashed, and a pile of my clothes that had been dumped from a small cabinet… [8]
Meister and a housemate found "their clothes were drenched in urine," compliments of
What Corporate Media Didn't Report
By the second day of Biodevastation 7, the mania had died down. The Post-Dispatch was even mildly critical of what it called "pre-emptive" arrests. But the press never returned to a discussion of how genetic engineering threatens human health, pollutes the environment, and prepares for agro-business domination of
Two photographs from the Fall 2003 Synthesis/Regeneration illustrate the bizarre unreality of the police/media fantasy. The back cover has a photo of the main post office in downtown
Though the PATRIOT Act made crackdowns at events like Biodevastation 7 easier, such actions existed long before 9-11. The hysteria generated by police departments is reminiscent of "red scares" of the 1920s and phobic reaction to black organizing that white Americans have felt through the centuries. When Jamala Rogers of the Organization for Black Struggle introduced the Environmental Racism panel at Biodevastation 7, the police raids were at the top of the news. She commented that "You are seeing what black people in
One of the vitally important presentations that police raids knocked out of media attention was that by Mwananyanda Lewanika of
But that would have made
Marching Onward
By shifting attention to a manufactured threat of terrorism, the hysteria ensured that discussion of efforts to force GE corn on
The St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners claimed that the raids were a "mistake" even though police acted "with well intentions." [9] The 2009 apology spins the myth that the SLPD acted on its own volition.
But the FBI documents paint a very different picture. They suggest that the most likely course of events was:
A. The Monsanto/WAF/Allied Intelligence troika contacted…
B. the FBI, which contacted…
C. the SLPD, which pumped fantasies to…
D. the
Far from being the key culprit, the SLPD was targeted to take the rap. It was a pawn in a far bigger game of using genetic engineering to destroy small farmers across the globe.
Describing police activities during 2003 as "mistakes" continues the campaign of misinformation. Their attacks were no "mistake." They were a vital element in shifting the public eye away from what agribusiness planned for Africa, Asia and
Anyone who seriously believes actions by the SLPD were mistakes should let us know how often police departments invade offices such as Monsanto World Headquarters, piss on tuxedos of corporate executives, steal their electronic equipment, tell the press to print front page stories of corporate terrorists, and arrest corporate officers for possession of vitamin A.
If 100% of such police attacks are against those resisting corporate power and 0% of police violence is against corporations, then a reasonable person might conclude that the function of police is to protect corporate power. This is quite a bit different from accounts of the police being a neutral party that occasionally makes the "mistake" of "preemptive" attacks.
We should applaud each of the plaintiffs against the SLPD receiving $13,500. But rather than clearing the air, the police apology serves to further mystify the 2003 web of intrigues. For the corporations that move pawns around, the 2009 apology is merely a tiny step backward in their continuing march to subjugate world agriculture.
Don Fitz is editor of Synthesis/Regeneration: A Magazine of Green Social Thought, which is published for members of The Greens/Green Party USA. If you know of where to find a horde of 50,000 anarchists, please contact him at [email protected]
1. American Civil Liberties Union of
2. Daniel (digger) Romano. (August 31, 2009). Letter to the Editor,
3. American Civil Liberties Union of
4. Federal Bureau of Investigation. (November 15, 2005). Letter to Denise D. Lieberman, American Civil Liberties
5. Federal Bureau of Investigation. (April 9, 2003). Counterterrorism memo. Case ID No: 300A-SL-188478.
6. Federal Bureau of Investigation. (May 8, 2003). Counterterrorism memo. Case ID No: 300A-SL-188478.
7. Federal Bureau of Investigation. (April 15, 2003). Counterterrorism memo. Case ID No: 300A-SL-188478.
8. Kelley Meister. (Fall, 2003). Report from the Bolozone. Synthesis/Regeneration, 32, pp. 5–7.
9. Patrick O'Connell. (August 25, 2009). City police apologize for raids in 2003.
10. Mwananyanda Lewanika. (Fall, 2003). The real story behind the food crisis in

subset: commoncrawl


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Scott Smith, D.M.D.
Dr. Scott Wade Smith was born in Asheville, NC on November 24, 1961. He spent his childhood in Augusta, GA, where at the age of 10, he decided to become a dentist. Dr. Smith graduated from Butler High School in Augusta and attended the University of Georgia, obtaining his Bachleor of Science degree.
Cosmetic Dentist Loganville, GA - Dental Images
We are honored that you have chosen us to assist you with your dental care. Dr. Smith has been serving the Loganville area since 1988 and our office has continued to grow, just as this community has grown.
While always striving to stay up-to-date in our approach to dentistry, we are still a "small town" office that focuses on personal care and service. Our emergency number is Dr. Smith's cell phone, so he is always just a phone call away.
We would like to thank you for your confidence in us and look forward to serving you now and in the future.


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Quote from: Skull and Bones on December 04, 2011, 03:17:34 PMI know Kalil is the best LT prospect in this draft but can he play RT for awhile?i assume so, if not he shouldnt be a top prospect imo.
I know Kalil is the best LT prospect in this draft but can he play RT for awhile?
can Penn play RT? I don't think so.
But why cant penn play RT? If we draft the best LT on the board would Penn at RT be an upgrade over True? I was under the impression that the LTs deal with the premier DEs because its the QBs blind side. So if Penn can man the left fairly well, then IMO if we are high enough to get the top LT we could move Penn to RT and upgrade 2 positions at once. Only problem with drafting an LT that high is we already paid Penn like a pro bowl LT. Alot of money tied up in tackles even with the rookie wage scale.


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The courses prepare you for the following exams administered by the Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI):
- Professional in Human Resources (PHR) exam — focuses on the technical and operational aspects of HR management.
- Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) exam — focuses on strategic and policy issues relating to HR management.
Why get certified? Watch this HRCI video on the benefits of getting your PHR or SPHR.
Course Formats
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Meet in a classroom with an experienced instructor for up to 12 weeks. Class time is supplemented by independent reading and SHRM learning system online resources.
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Be part of an entirely virtual class that will provide a thorough review using the online learning program Moodle. You will interact with a cohort group and an experienced instructor. This online course includes all of the features and benefits available in the classroom and blending learning options as well as the flexibility to learn when and where it's convenient for you.
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Participate in the SHRM Learning System with your human resource colleagues to prepare you for the internationally recognized Professional in Human Resources (PHR) or the Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) designation.
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To obtain Web access, you must register online. Your username and password will be included in your registration confirmation; please print a copy for your records.


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This has happened a few times today to me when I clicked members' profiles. If I go back and click the profile again it works like normal however. Any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong?(I'm not actually logged out of DS so that's why it's confusing me.)-----You are borg.
Can you give me a link to click that will generate this screen?-----DS Bureaucracyâ?¢: Now providing organic, eco-friendly and sustainably produced Andromeda Timeâ?¢. Do the right thing for yourself and the environment today!
Well I could have if Mike(cooking mike) hadn't deleted. Um, It happens with random profiles. So I don't know if it's just something with the site or certain profiles. If it happens again I'll be sure to let you know. -----Are you the square root of 2? Because I feel irrational when I am around you.
Where did you see the link to the profile?-----DS Bureaucracyâ?¢: Every now and then, your opinion matters to us. Fill out the proper forms today!
Also, if this happens again, get me the URL that is displayed in your address bar. Thanks.-----DS Bureaucracyâ?¢: Our research has shown *conclusively that modfaggotry is a myth.
Oh, I only saved that part. I didn't think to save the whole thing. -----The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow. Do good anyway.
It did it again. THANK YOU DShttp://www.darkstarlings.com/display_profile.php?name=VentunoIs exactly what it says. All I did was click his profile. Is this any help?-----Blow it out yer ass![This post was last updated on September 2, 2010, 1:59AM by twisted_illusions.]
While we're at it, I'm getting those 404 error videos again eon when looking up posts by members in the search function. -----Blow it out yer ass!
Em: Give me some exact steps to follow so I can get the 404 page.Juri: You're just clicking the new mail notification link and getting the 404? Or are you going about it some other way? -----DS Bureaucracyâ?¢: Now expanding to meet the expanding needs of the DS Bureaucracyâ?¢.
I doubt it. Just annoying. It means you ahve to actually go through pages to find topics for now.-----Are you the square root of 2? Because I feel irrational when I am around you.
Thank youuuuu <3I am relieved.-----â?¢(A)bort, (R)etry, (P)anic?
Juri: Try it now and let me know if it works.-----DS Bureaucracyâ?¢: 1 out of 100,000 doctors agree: Benzene is good for you.
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School of Fashion and Textiles
Designing the future now
Egress showcases the talented work of emerging textile designers.
living the
Graduate lands gigs with American fashion retailers.
i-D magazine interviewed five RMIT fashion design stars of tomorrow.
Open Day
Don't miss the show.
Anna Pipkorn is set to realise her design dreams with one of Australia's most popular retailers.
Associate Professor Karen Webster brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to RMIT fashion.
School enquiries
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Casio Thermometer Digital-Analog
Nice hidden Function in this watch: 99
Hour Chronograph!
I will play with all the function normally when watch is new, just to squeeze the last out of them :-) One day I pressed down a button (I believe to remember it is the adjust button that you normally press with the thumbnail) while reading the elapsed time and realized that there is a two digit hour field displaying elapsed time up to 99 hours. Of course the manual does not mention about this and the designers probably did not tell the marketing, you know how it works :-)
By setting the thermometer about 5.5 degrees minus, you can actually measure environment temperatures quite accurately. Those minus 5.5 degrees are used to compensate the body heat of the wearer. Of course you will have to find your own threshold, an important factor is also how tight you wear your watches and whether the case back is permanently laying on your wrist skin.
The little aluminum rivet is the temperature sensor.


text: While not as Heavy as "dusk and her embrace" or as fast as "the principle of evil made flesh" this is some of the most beautiful music i have ever listened to in my opinion. "cruelty and the beast" tells the story of a one Elizebeth Bathory from the 1600's ( I apoligize if that isnt the exact time) Whom had a liking for virgin blood. It follows her from her Rise to her demise. Through Dani's lyrics the story is wonderfully told. This is an album, where I can find something special about every track. I feel they really had a goal to set for themselves as a band when they recorded this album and I believe they reached it. Now I hear many whom aren't fans of cof complain about the style of dani filth's vocals, are they a little odd and unique? Yes. Now onto my thoughts on the tracks. I will not explain the concept of the album because chances are you already know it. So i will just give my personal opinions. Once upon atrocity – 4/5 I really believe cof trys there best with there short insturmentals and they are usually worth a few listens Thirteen autumns and A widow – 10/5 The 1st song I heard when I bought this album it truly blew me away. Cruelty Brought thee orchids 5/5 Definetly a fan favorite and for good reason I love dani's style of vocals in this song. Beneath the howling star – 6/5 A beautiful song I love Sara's (backing female vocals) In this song Veuns in fear – 3/5 Probably the only cof insturmental I have not been able to get into. Desire in violent overture – 5/5 Another incredible song I lvoe the guitar in this one, it goes from a heavy solo and it becomes more melodic throughout the song. The twisted nails of faith – 5/5 I love the lyrics in this one has a very eerie violin intro. Bathory Aria – 20/5 Truly an epic if forced to pick a favorite song on this album it would be this song. Clocking in at over 11 minutes its truly beautiful and a masterpiece. Portrait of the dead countess – 4/5 A good insturmental sets the mood for the final song. Lustmord and wargasm( the lick of carnivorous winds) – 6/5 Incredible song beautiful intro. The final chapter in the incredible story that is "cruelty and the beast" DISC 2 ( BONUS CD) Now, onto the bonus cd. (NOTE: none of the these songs are involved with the story, unless you count the redone version of Lustmord and wargasm) Lustmord and Wargasm ( therelicking of cadaverous wounds) – 6/5 As good as the origional. Nothing to say about this that I haven't already said. Black Metal – 4/5 A good cover song Dani definetly did well here vocal wise. Hallowed be thy name – 20/5 Incredible iron maiden cover. Just incredible possiblly the best cover song I have ever heard. Sodomy and lust 4/5 A good Metal song not much else to say. Twisting further nails – 3/5 a DECENT remix of the twisted nails of faith. Seems to techno at points to be cof worth a listen though. In conclusion a beautiful album you will need to hear for yourself. Enjoy.


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Learn about ALFI's plan for a sustainable food future at Setting Atlanta's Table: A Food System Summit. Topics of discussion include sustainable institutional food service, urban agriculture start-ups, bringing local food to communities, food system issues for health care professionals, and education and outreach. Registration is $36 by Oct. 22 and $46 after Oct. 22; fee includes lunch.


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Don't miss the rest of the WCCTC season:
2/9 - Irvine Zot Trot
2/22-23 - UCSD Tritonman
3/2 - UCLA IronBruin
3/8-9 - Stanford Treeathlon
3/23 - WCCTC Championships
4/4-5 - USAT Collegiate Nationals
Please read:
We are fortunate to have permission to swim, bike, and run on the private property of Pacific Shores. To minimize our impact on our hosts' property, we ask that you not preview the race course for any portion of the Treeathlon. Furthermore, we explicitly forbid marking the course in any way. Do not bring chalk.
Click on the image below to access the course map in Google Maps:
You can also click here to download the map in kml format and explore it in Google Earth.
The draft-legal course is slightly different. Click here to see it in Google maps or click here to download the kml.
See below for zoomed maps of each leg, as well as for maps of parking and the finish area/vendor exposition:
The Full Stanford Treeathlon is a sprint distance triathlon, which consists of the following three events:
500 Meter Open-Water Swim: A quick, lifeguard-supervised swim through a protected cove of the Port of Redwood City. The water temperature in February/March can be chilly (low 60s), and A WETSUIT IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED. Racers without wetsuits will be required to sign a waiver of liability for the risks involved. The swim will start in waves of approximately 5 minutes.
20 Kilometer Bike: Three fast and flat lollipop loops down Seaport Blvd and around a nearby office park loop.
5 Kilometer Run: Out and back along the bike course on Seaport Blvd.
Age 5 and under (Acorns): 0.5 mile bike, 0.1 mile run
(google map
.jpg map)
Age 6-7 (Pinecones): 1.2 mile bike, 0.25 mile run (google map | .jpg map)
Age 8-9 (Twigs): 2.4 mile bike, 0.6 mile run (google map | .jpg map)
Age 10-12 (Firewood): 3.6 mile bike, 1.2 mile run (google map | .jpg map)


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I am new to this site and would like to introduce myself. I became a fan of Inter when my favourite player of all time (Luis Figo) joined, and was lucky to see this team become the best in Europe during the Mourinho era. I have to be honest, I haven't been watching a lot of soccer for the past few years but recently started again and what would be better than joining a community of fellow Inter fans.
Forza Inter!


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Hello guys! It's my 1st post here on my new bloggie called: shotsbyiyah ♥♥
First, let me tell about myself: I have never taken any photography classes, and I am aware that my photos are not that great. I also do not own any DSLR. Yes, all these photos are taken from my Canon Powershot sd780.
I created this blog because I love taking pictures, especially the nature as my subject. It just makes me happy. Thank you for lurking. lol.


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September 11 Digital Archive: XML Document
Story:I was at my office with the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Emmitsburg, Maryland. When my husband called to say the first plane had hit, I immediately tried to get hold of our son, Matt, whose office was in tower one of the World Trade Center. Matt was working at home on Long Island, NY and not at the WTC. He was trying to find his best friend who was in tower two of the WTC and was eventually able to locate him hours later. However, Matt called me later to let me know that he was originally scheduled to be on the plane that went down in Pennsylvania. I told him that God had a special plan for him if he spared him twice.
Memory:My memory was of being in conflict - sorrow for those lost, fear for the future and joy that my child was safe.
Affects:Things have changed since September 11th. We as Americans care a little more about each other. I still have hope for the future - especially in my granddaughter, Madelyn - born to my son, Matt and his wife, Marla a little over a year and 3 months after September 11th.


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Product Description
The MIDI Shield board gives your Arduino access to the powerful MIDI communication protocol so you can control synthesizers, sequencers, and other musical devices. The MIDI protocol shares many similarities with standard asynchronous serial interfaces, so you can use the UART pins of your Arduino to send and receive MIDI's event messages.
The MIDI Shield provides an opto-isolated MIDI-IN port as well as a MIDI-OUT port. The MIDI Shield can be mounted directly on top of an Arduino, connecting the MIDI-IN to the Arduino's hardware RX pin and the MIDI-OUT to TX. Potentiometers are connected to analogue pins 0 and 1, and can be used to control volume, pitch, tone or anything else you'd like. Also connected on the shield are three momentary push buttons (connected to D2-4), a reset button and green and red status LEDs. The RUN/PROG switch allows you to program the Arduino over serial without having to remove the shield.
Pin usage: 3 digital pins(D2-4) and 2 analogue pins(A0-1)
Interface: TTL(TX/RX)
Size: 2.33x 2.10x 1.18″(60x 53.5x 30mm)
More Information
Basic Sample Code
Arduino Sample code
Library (05-20-2011)
Updated Library
Arduino MIDI Tutorial
Arduino project


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ResVival Review
What You Should Know
Click Here To See Our Highest Rated Review
ResVival is an anti-aging product. It claims to reverse the aging process. According to the sales website, you can get a trial bottle if you pay only shipping and handling. Unfortunately, there is no other information about the manufacturer and no specific information about the product given by the manufacturer. Some other sources list differing list of additional ingredients and miscellaneous information about the product. This product is not available in stores and can only be found through an online website that requests shipping and billing information to send a free trial bottle. This product sounds very suspicious.
List of Ingredients
Main ingredient: Resveratrol, the anti-aging supplement found in red grapes that is often cited as the reason for drinking a glass of red wine every day for health purposes.
Other ingredients (not from the manufacturer; some lists of ingredients conflict): acai berry, green tea, ginger root, Hawaiian noni.
Product Features
ResVival is an anti-aging supplement that claims to cleanse the body of bad toxins and help reduce weight. It also supposed to increase energy and stamina and refresh the skin due to the effects of antioxidants which strengthen muscles.
Additional benefits claimed by ResVival include reducing cholesterol and thus increasing heart health. It is also supposed to prevent cancer.
Detailed information about ResVival appears almost impossible to locate. The manufacturer does not have a website with product information, only a form for ordering the product.
- Free trial bottle for shipping fees only.
- All-natural ingredients.
- Antioxidants.
- No side effects.
- Does not contain caffeine like many other weight-loss or anti-aging supplements.
- Very expensive: about $80 per bottle of 30 pills (and that is supposedly on sale).
- Has unrealistic weight loss claims.
- Contains a lack of before/ after photos.
- Has no money-back guarantee.
- Has no free gift with purchase.
- Difficult to find official information or company website.
- Doesn't highlight the importance of healthy diet and regular exercise.
- No clinical research studies prove that resveratrol really promotes weight loss.
- Very likely a scam product.
ResVival cannot be recommended as a good product without more information from the manufacturer. The way the product is marketed looks very suspiciously like many other offers that turn out to be scams. The only way to get the product from the manufacturer is to order a "free" trial bottle and give your billing information so that they can charge you for shipping. This is always a dangerous route to take. If you want to try a resveratrol product, find a safer source before you lose money; but remember that there is no scientific research to prove the effectiveness of resveratrol as a weight-loss supplement.


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From our reviews correspondent over at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, James Rocchi.
Following up her debut "Me and You and Everyone We Know," Miranda July's "The Future" not only echoes the qualities (and quality) of that film but expands on them in rich and fascinating ways. An L.A. couple (July and Hamish Linklater) are intent on adopting a cat they rescued. They realize that when the cat is released from medical care in a month, their lives will change, be set, connected by responsibility and care to a future both unimaginable and wholly predictable. ("We're 35 now ... by the time the cat dies, we'll be 40 ... and 40 might as well be 50 ... and after that, spare change." "Spare change?" "Less than a dollar-- not enough to get anything you want …").
That deadline in place, the couple decide to take that one last month to see what the universe has in store, quitting their jobs and throwing caution to the wind, somewhat unprepared for what the wind will blow back to them. (Linklater's new rules for success are oddly intriguing and strangely fascinating: "I'm going to look for coincidences ... mistakes ... I'm going to listen to what people are saying -- especially if they're touching a doorknob.")
With their shocks of curls and deadpan demeanor, July and Linklater seem entirely too well-matched; as we see their comfortable tensions and agreed-upon disagreements, we get that they seem to feel the same way. As July notes, "I've been gearing up to do something incredible for the past ... fifteen years." Given a month to snap the fine line between stasis and comfort, July and Linklater wind up in places they, and we, did not expect.
Much like "Me and You and Everyone We Know," "The Future" is informed by July's interests and perspectives. July's characters again seem to be caught up in both the kindness and the strangeness of strangers; July also has an informed understanding of the primal absurdity of sex and want, and a keen appreciation for light and texture and the potential of film.
Unlike "Me and You and Everyone We Know," however, "The Future" dips into magical realism -- much of the film is narrated by Paw Paw the rescued cat; Linklater's early half-joke about having a superhuman power is later shown to be true; July is pursued by a suddenly animate inanimate object while she's caught in a dream world. And while "Me and You and Everyone We Know" presented a community of (mostly) likable eccentrics, "The Future" shows us deeply flawed people -- capable of selfishness, capable of wrong, capable of love. The net effect is a combination of Nicholson Baker's sharp flights of fancy (in general feel and in one very specific detail) and Raymond Carver's flat, unaffected conversations that are still cinematic, not literary.
Shot around Silverlake in Los Angeles, "The Future" is technically impressive as well. Nikolai von Gravenitz's cinematography turns July's idiosyncratic eye into cinematic images, and Jon Brion's score is quietly melodic and haunting. Linklater's unblinking comedy delivery is the perfect match to July's arch-but-sincere sense of human foible, and the third act's events take his character and performance to unexpectedly dark and rewarding places. (I can't quite explain Linklater's comedic effect, but if Judd Apatow ever makes a film inspired by Jean-Paul Sartre, Linklater should be on speed-dial.)
July's tone and tenor define the film, though, and while some will think "The Future" sounds impossibly precious -- That talking cat! Her wacky ways! -- the fact is that July always brings the film back to her characters, and how they are feeling, no matter how strange or surreal the circumstances around them may become. A scene where July, working a registration desk, is talking to her friends and they go from expecting pregnant to mothers to older mothers is a small but brilliant magic trick of a metaphor that builds to a devastating conclusion. Is it realistic? Absolutely not. Does it create real feeling? Absolutely.
July, of course, is a gifted visual artist, performance artist and short-story writer who earned justified acclaim in those fields before turning to film, and turned back to them after. But her films are not merely visual arts pieces with dialogue, performance-art pieces on celluloid steroids or short stories on the big screen; there are scenes here that burst with the full potential of cinema, and the entire film succeeds as a single story about the terrifying possibilities of life, the uncertainty of love and the certainty of the passage of time. July's film is both accessible -- it's loaded with laugh-out-loud lines and winning moments -- and cryptic -- there are tangled timelines, bizarre moments of movement and unexplained symbols -- but it is undeniably hers, and unmistakably the kind of idiosyncratic, individual and independent film Sundance was meant to, and should, support. [A-] -- James Rocchi
overrated | March 22, 2011 2:38 AM
Are we so uncomfortable with art as a culture that we can only tolerate a "few" people as making interesting art, and those people have to fit some kind of model- and even then we only seem to allow one or two people who fit that model to participate.
It all seems so deeply repressed, lazy, not very creative, certainly not revolutionary and silly.
guest | March 20, 2011 12:55 PM
"There is a singular voice for all of the characters in this film: July's. Although they are all on separate paths and journeys, they all seem to be cut from the same cloth, and the emotional tone stays the same throughout the movie. There is no growth or conclusive arch for any individual character, and it seems that the film is more focused on the journey than the destination, which works well for life, but can end up muddled when used in film."
Eric | January 24, 2011 8:03 AM
Hey, sj & minions, I'd be quite curious to hear your takes on the film. It's been getting pretty positive reviews, but the Sundance audience seems to live in its own universe sometimes. I assume you're interested in MJ since you went to the screening -- what didn't you like about it? Not trying to defend the film unseen, I'm genuinely interested.
Sj | January 24, 2011 2:42 AM
This was not the same film we saw apparently.
Will the fawning at sundance ever end?
Christopher Bell | January 23, 2011 11:15 AM
@Joe Clark:
MInions | January 23, 2011 9:30 AM
Overrated hipster Rom Com.
Joe Clark | January 23, 2011 9:01 AM
What exactly is a "Sundance '11"?
Isn't the short form of the current year '11?
Or is Miranda July leading a new vogue in mistaking opening single quotation marks for apostrophes?
(Can you actually type either of those yourself, or do you rely on the curiously-named smart quotes?)
Eric | January 23, 2011 5:35 AM
@Jeff. I thought Me and You *sounded* kind of precious and maybe even pretentious (and I have a very low threshold for precious), but I ended up seeing it, and found it hilarious and deeply affecting. So Miranda July is not someone I can dismiss so casually. If anyone has the talent to pull a film like this off, it's her.
Jeff | January 23, 2011 5:34 AM
I think she tries way too hard to be awkward and unique. Sounds very pretentious.
Katie | January 23, 2011 4:54 AM
ooo, sound so good.
On a separate note; I have an issue with playlist reviews:
I love playlist reviews because they are always so well written and incredible detailed; every slight with the film is justified, everything is illuminated - but oh, the spoilers!
Sometimes, it's like the while movie is given for free in the review, and for me, without having to work for it, it either hypes the film and sets it up the disappointment or spoils all the good parts and all the juicy bits in between and the film just sites there all rotten with swarming flies.
I've learned that it's always best to read a playlist review *after* watching the film. Then it's just a buddy jumping up and down with you about it! or b-tch fest! But with films like these, in my part of town, they take a while to become available and I slipped... damn it.
Clarol | January 23, 2011 2:52 AM
What was the name and artist of their song?
Bo | January 23, 2011 2:20 AM
Really looking forward to this.
PS - It's "Me and You and Everyone We Know," by the way. Not "You and Me..."


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E-Train Song and Mixtape Downloads
All songs and mixtapes are offered for download with the permission of the artist or a representative. If you have any questions or concerns please see our DMCA section.
E-Train ft. Jay Qwest & Rubydell - As Loud as You Want [Song]
Don't worry about the neighbors—when you're rocking with E-Train, you can be exactly As Loud as You Want. The West Coast DJ/producer's first Booth feature and latest single finds him serving up a...Read More


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Parents with a mental illness typically wonder whether it's best to disclose their diagnosis to their kids. On the one hand, you want to be open and honest. On the other hand, you may think that not saying anything protects your child. A parent's natural instinct to want to shield your child from any confusion or concern. However, according to research, not telling your child can actually have the opposite effect.
Research shows that if parents don't tell children about their mental illness, children develop misinformation and worries which can be worse than the reality, said Michelle D. Sherman, Ph.D, clinical psychologist and director of the Family Mental Health Program at the Oklahoma City Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Later, these kids also report feeling resentment toward their parents for keeping them in the dark.
"It isn't really a question of if you should tell them, but what and when," said Ryan Howes, Ph.D, psychologist, writer and professor in Pasadena, California.
"We all know kids are incredibly perceptive — if there's something going on, they'll know." Information decreases kids' confusion, said Sherman, who's also a professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.
So how do you broach the topic with your kids?
Before posting, please read our blog moderation guidelines. The comments below begin with the oldest comments first. Click on the last comments page to jump to the most recent comments.
Bebe Moore Campbell also wrote a great book for kids: Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry.
Just as you would tell your children if you had Cancer or a heart problem, you should tell them about your mental health condition. They are definitely going to find out from a young age; children are very perceptive. Plus they'll probably overhear relatives talking about it or you talking about it with your spouse. If they don't have the complete information (in an age appropiate way), their imagination will fill in the gaps and they may think you are very sick and going to die or will be carted off to a psych hospital! Or think whatever you have is contagious. It's best that they have some information and be reassured that you are getting help for your problem and that doctors and therapists are looking out for you.
However, one thing to keep in mind is that a young child WILL tell others. They have a hard time keeping secrets and showing discretion in disclosing information So I wouldn't tell anything to your 4 year old that you wouldn't be ok with them telling their close friend's parents, teacher or babysitter.
Also, if you have a serious mental problem, then its a good idea to have your children checked out too. I wouldn't be too paranoid, but maybe see if their pediatrician can evaluate their mental health at every appointment. Definitely get them help sooner whether then later, if a problem does arise. And of course, try your best to be open about feelings and worries and teach your child healthy ways to cope with them, so that they will be more likely to go to you their emotions get out of control.
Thank you very much for your article. As a father of four and living with mental illness but for a number years was on controlled it is refreshing to get the advice that your post.
I have always been very open with my children about my disorder and about my medications I take to help my disorders. for a while there were always asking if I took my happy pills… I think it's very important to the children understand that it's not their fault when mommy or daddy gets upset due to episodic issues with regards to a mental health issue.
Although I recommend talking to children at their level. I make sure as a parent that I take responsibility for my actions. I also make sure that they understand my actions or what I said or did was inappropriate.
I'm about to print out your tips in your post so that I can review them with my wife. Thank you
This is all well and good but if a parent does not recognise they have a mental illness (e.g. those with borderline personality disorder) it is very hard to tell the children, especially if their parents are no longer together.
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Save to My Recipes
Baked Penne with Farmhouse Cheddar and Leeks
Published: March 2009 Servings: 6
- 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
- 5 cups chopped leeks (white and pale green parts only; about 5 large)
- 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 3 1/2 cups whole milk
- 1 pound extra-sharp cheddar cheese, coarsely grated (about 4 cups packed)
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
- 2 large eggs
- 1 pound penne pasta
PREPARATIONView Step-by-Step Directions
Lightly butter 15x10x2-inch baking dish. Melt 1/4 cup butter in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add leeks; stir to coat. Cover saucepan and cook until leeks are tender, stirring occasionally, about 12 minutes (do not brown). Uncover saucepan; add flour. Stir 2 minutes. Add milk; bring to simmer, stirring often. Add cheese, mustard, and pepper sauce. Stir until cheese melts. Remove from heat. Season cheese sauce to taste with salt.
Whisk eggs in medium bowl. Gradually whisk in 1 cup cheese sauce. Stir egg mixture into cheese sauce in saucepan.
Meanwhile, cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain. Return to pot.
Stir cheese sauce into pasta in pot. Transfer to prepared baking dish. DO AHEAD Can be made 2 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.
Preheat oven to 400°F. Bake pasta until cheese sauce is bubbling around edges and some ends of pasta are golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes.
Let stand 15 minutes. Serve hot.
Unlike classic mac and cheese, which is thickened by a roux (a flour and butter mixture), this one uses eggs to make a rich, gooey custard. But be careful when adding the hot cheese sauce to the eggs; you'll need to whisk the sauce in slowly so that the eggs don't curdle.
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Advice from the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen
Farmhouse Cheddar and Stilton TerrineWalnuts, dried cherries, and sage are sprinkled between layers of Sherry-flavored cheddar and pungent Stilton. It's best to slice the apples and pears (which are served with the terrine) just before plating to prevent browning.
Cheddar and Cream Scones
White Cheddar Puffs with Green Onions


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Online: RP Unlimited Revived
Joined: Feb 15 2007Home page
Artist, Coder, Derp...
Samurai GunYou got one last chance to end it peacefull where everybody wins and nobody gets hurt.
Tuesday, 7:59 pm
Gyro GunI need to talk to you about the policy. Will there be anything to do with advertising your server on other servers without permission.
Mar 24 2013, 3:54 pm
Flynn SalvatoreI know you are a busy individual, but I would like to suggest or recommend something. I'm not entirely sure if this is the place to suggest, but here goes nothing. Your RPU is absolutely flawless, though with your upcoming updates, if you wouldn't mind adding a few more systems to it, to make certain RP's epic. http://www.byond.com/games/Sleinth/NarutoRPG <----- That link has an epic game, and many feats. But if you could 'code' a little of whats in it, into your RPU, such as battling system and such. Again, it all depends on the RP, you could always enhance this into something custom. I know you can, you have already added so much, and the lot of us, enjoy and love it. All i'm suggesting is, adding similar feats.
Mar 3 2013, 9:35 pm
AnthonyHawkinaMy Paypal is email@example.com . It is how we are accepting donations right now for all projects headed by me.
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Kail's Diary!
New puppy!January 17th 2013 5:07 pm
[ Leave A Comment | 4 people already have ]
Hi everyone. Exciting news! I'm bringing home a puppy on Monday.
Leave A Comment | 4 people already have
Everyone knows you gaave your heart to Khloe and Kail. Nice to hear you are opening your heart again!
so glad that you are able to save this little baby, heading over to send a PPR
We know how much you loved Khloe & Kail & you always will. I bet they are so honored to know you are giving another in need a loving, forever home!
Searching everywhere for information on CL. Our hero was just diagnosed. Our hearts go out to you ~ your girl Kail was lucky to have you.
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Archive for September 2008
New (yet not so new) techniques for managing complexity in projects
Over the last year or so I have written several posts on project complexity , most of which are based on papers published in trade and research journals. From my reading of the literature, it seems that most of the research on complexity in projects is aimed at answering one of the following questions:
Can projects be viewed as complex systems?
What makes projects complex to manage?
The first approach starts out with well-established concepts from the theory of complex systems and attempts to apply these to projects and project management. The second starts from the other end, using data to build models of complexity in projects. The two strands are complementary: one involves theory and concepts, the other empirical modelling. There is a third way – one that is purely pragmatic: it proposes practical techniques to manage complexity, on the basis of the demonstrated utility of these practices in a few representatives cases. In this situation, theories are too general to be applicable, and model building isn't possible because of the small number of data points. In this post I look at a paper by Christian Berggren, Jack Jarkvik and Jonas Soderlund entitled, Lagomizing, Organic Integration and Systems Emergency Wards: Innovative Practices in Managing Complex Systems Development Projects, that takes this third approach. I review the paper, emphasising the practices presented by the authors. I also draw connections between the practices suggested and those that are already well-known and accepted in the software development world.
The authors begin by pointing out that although researchers have recognised the need for flexible, adaptive approaches to project management, most of the work is "…overly general in character and lacks grounded suggestions for effective managerial practices…" To address this, they take a practice-based approach wherein they present three techniques that have been used in complex telecom systems development projects at Ericsson. The three practices address the need to reduce complexity, understand complexity and rapidly act on the consequences of complexity respectively. They are:
Lagomising: a top-down approach to redefining project goals and transforming expectations based on the simplest possible design to achieve the core product functionality. The term lagomising is derived from the Swedish word lagom, which (according to the authors) means just right.
Organic Integration: a visual technique to help everyone on the team develop a shared understanding of system capabilities or functionalities.
Systems Emergency Ward: A high-visibility forum for managing errors and making associated decisions.
I describe each of the techniques below, followed by some comments which draw connections between these techniques and those already in use within the software development community.
According to the authors, "Mainstream project management often portrays delivery on time and according to specifications to be the keys for successful project management. However, according to our experience, it is normally not possible to meet both delivery time and specified customer requirements." To this, I would add that customer specifications are often not entirely clear, leaving much open to interpretation by the project team.
The authors suggest that this issue can be successfully tackled via lagomising: a top-down driven reduction of specifications that does not involve the customer. Lagomising is not to be interpreted as a license to cut down on functionality (which obviously would not be acceptable to the customer). Instead, it is a simplification of specifications; paring down of unnecessary "fat", whilst keeping the essential functionality intact. The authors explain that another aim is to, "…drive down designers' interpretations of specifications from technical perfection to the simplest possible levels…"
To summarise, the benefits of lagomising are:
Clarification of unclear specifications.
Reduction or elimination of over-interpretation of specifications by the project team.
Addition of value by delivering useful functionality, albeit that which may differ somewhat from the original customer specification.
In absence of customer input, the task of lagomising falls to the project manager. As the authors state, "…project management takes on the task of delimiting scope, imposing non-negotiable constraints and reducing complexity…" Furthermore, since liberties have been taken with the original specification, it is imperative that the customer approval is obtained early in the game. Providing key functionality requested by the customer is retained, this should not be too hard. Any refinements and "nice to haves" (aka bells and whistles) should be postponed to the next phase.
Organic Integration
Organic integration begins with the premise that, "nothing is right from the beginning and traditional project plans are never sufficient." This is simply an articulation of the well-known conundrum faced by project managers working with complicated projects: much about the deliverables is unknown at the start, but traditional project plans require that everything be known. This contradiction is particularly stark when technologies involved are complex, new or changing.But problems remain even when everything is known – one often finds that initial certainties dissolve into a morass of uncertainties as the project progresses. The traditional approach to dealing with complexity is to decompose deliverables using a work breakdown structure, and then apportion work packages to individuals or sub-teams. Although this may be the only way to proceed in very large projects, it is generally hard to achieve such a decomposition because of the complex interdependencies between components. Furthermore, a consequence partitioning the work in this way is that the project team will lack a shared understanding of the whole system. Such a collective view of the system is important on complex projects.
Based on their experience, the authors suggest developing a collective view based on functionality rather than function. Put another way: the system should be viewed in terms of what it does rather than what it is made up of. This method of visualising the system, termed system anatomy, has been described in a paper by Lars Taxen and Joachim Lillieskold, published in the ALOIS 2005 Conference Proceedings (see page 38 of the document).
According to the authors, organic integration starts with taking a system anatomy view and then identifying and building basic functionality first. More complex functionality is built later in short iterations. At every step continual integration (with what has been build to date) and testing is carried out. Such an incremental approach towards complexity ensures that unforeseen issues and problems are flushed out in a manageable way. Learnings can be assimilated by the team, and the plan refined.
The suggested approach radically different from the work or product breakdown structures recommended by traditional methodologies. The system anatomy / organic integration approach attempts to develop a shared understanding of the system based on non-decomposable functional interdependencies. The resulting project plan does not have a cast-iron schedule. It is based, instead, on incremental steps that must be followed in order to achieve the total functionality of the system.
Systems Emergency Ward
According to the authors, the challenge of handling errors on any complex project is akin to that of "navigating in tricky and misty waters." This metaphor would be very familiar to those who have worked on software projects of any complexity: any changes to existing code runs the the risk of introducing regressions.
In Ericsson, this challenge is dealt with using an approach called Systemakut, which means System Emergency Ward. The basic idea is simple (and I suspect, is used in many shops): project managers and system specialists meet daily to discuss, prioritise and action all errors reported. The forum should include representatives from all relevant areas (sub-systems, specialisations or whatever) and management. The presence of management is important because it emphasises that error resolution is important in the big scheme of things. Since corrective actions may introduce new errors, the preference should always be to introduce the smallest number of changes possible, ensuring that these do indeed improve sytem capabilities.
On a related note, the authors also draw attention to the fact that, in the telecom industry, "new requirements are frequently added during the development time, and delivery time unstable. Nevertheless projects are required to deliver on short notice and still have complete knowledge regarding the usefulness, functionality and properties of the system delivered." A consequence is that a system in development must be tested regularly and under realistic conditions to ensure that it works as expected. Such a practice keeps regression errors under control. It makes a case for frequent system builds – a practice already in place in many software development shops.
Concluding Remarks
Having read this far, I'm sure many readers would be going, "Hey, we already do that." I have deliberately held back on commenting (well, almost!), but can't help but notice that elements of the practices described by the authors are routinely used by many software development teams. For example:
Some of the practices described in organic integration are already followed inIterative/Incremental approaches to software development
- The system emergency ward technique incorporates regular system builds, a practice recommended by some agile methodologies.
To be fair the authors do mention that, "Several novel methods such as Scrum and Agile Project Management have been suggested. In several ways, these methods have been driven by technological development and opportunities within the software industry…From a research-oriented perspective, however, relatively few of these new practices are based on well-founded empirical analyses." I'd say that's a fair summary of the status of these methods. But here's the problem – the practices proposed in the paper, being based on a small number of experiences in a single organisation, aren't based on "well-founded empirical analyses" either. So where does that leave us?
Here's the situtation as I see it: the practices are interesting and they work (as attested to by the authors and the experience of many agile development shops), but they don't have empirical backing (i.e. the claims haven't been quantified or validated by statistical studies). At this point readers may say, "So what? We don't care about proof as long as the practices work." And, you know what? I'd have to agree.
Berggren, Christian., Jarkvik, Jack, & Soderlund, Jonas., Lagomizing, Organic Integration, and Systems Emergency Wards: Innovative Practices in Managing Complex Systems Development Projects, Project Management Journal, 39 (Supplement), S111-S122. (2008).
The sneak, the subversive, the shirk and the self-promoter
The presence of a bad apple in a team can have a significant negative effect on collective performance and morale. Unfortunately, many managers fail to do anything about these folks until it is too late. Often this happens because they fail to foresee the rot that can be wrought by these individuals. In this post I focus on four types of "rotten apples" I've come across. Coincidentally, these characters are best characterised by nouns that begin with the letter S. Now, S also happens to be the symbol for entropy which in social terms is defined as, "a doctrine of inevitable social decline and degeneration." This is apt, as these folks can contribute to and even accelerate the decline of a team. So here they are, the sneak, the subversive, the shirk and the self-promoter1…
- The sneak: This is the guy who carries tales of your alleged wrong-doing to levels above. He's dangerous because he has the confidence of a senior manager, whom he regularly regales with stories of your incompetence. His version of events – which may or may not have any relation to the truth – is designed to make you, the manager, look as bad as possible. Unfortunately, because of his connections, one has to be careful when tackling the sneak.
- The subversive: Closely related to the sneak, the subversive is the revolutionary who foments turmoil within the team. He does this by spreading stories of an unsettling kind. These are crafted for shock value – for instance, one could be built around a rumour that the company is about to indulge in a bout of downsizing (and the project team are candidates) or that project funding is about to be cut. These folks tend to tone down their activities once they're aware that their penchant for stirring things up is known. So the best way to handle a subversive is to confront him.
- The shirk: This fellow is the teflon-man as far as work is concerned. He is seemingly able to avoid any tasks that require him to work at his full capacity. Yet, even though he is under-worked, he's always late in completing his tasks. He manages to get away with it by palming off the responsibility for the delay on to an unsuspecting team member – "I couldn't finish because Jake didn't give me X in time" (where X is just any old Xcuse) or even the odd force majeure. So one's stuck with the shirk because it's never his fault. The best way to handle the shirk is to give him work and monitor progress closely. This is one situation where micromanagement (as bad as it is) may actually be necessary.
- The self-promoter: This gent is always in the background when work is doled out, but right at the front to claim credit- more so when senior management's around. He thrives on accepting kudos for work that someone else did. In the unlikely event that he does something significant, you can be sure that the entire organisation will hear about it for the next few years. The strange thing is that this tactic quite often works. Through relentless self-promotion, the self-promoter rises through the corporate hierarchy much faster than his quieter colleagues. The self-promoter is best handled by giving him only as much attention as is his due – which isn't very much at all.
Managing teams implies managing people. However, most folks don't really need to be managed because they're competent at what they do, and go about doing their jobs in a generally diligent manner. The characters I've listed above are exceptions: watch out for them, manage them. You ignore them at your own peril.
1 Although the post refers to these folks using masculine nouns and pronouns, needless to say they can be of either gender.
A model of project complexity
The lack of a clear definition of project complexity has lead to much confusion amongst project management academics and practitioners regarding what makes a project complex to manage. A recent paper by Harvey Maylor, Richard Vidgen and Stephen Carver, entitled Managerial Complexity in Project-Based Operations: A Grounded Model and Its Implications for Practice, is a step towards changing this situation. In the paper Maylor and his co-workers present a qualitative empirical model which captures both structural (static) and dynamic1 elements of managerial complexity in projects. I summarise and review the paper below.
Background and Objectives
The authors make the observation that project management methodologies (as codified in the various "bodies of knowledge") contain what is deemed as accepted practice rather than best practice. The point being that there is never any proof offered that the practice in question is indeed the best, or even better than others. Such proof is impossible because methodologies are highly prescriptive and ignore context (i.e. the particular environment and quirks of individual projects). This dogmatic, "our way is the best way" attitude is inconsistent with the diversity of situations and factors that make projects hard to manage. Hence the need to develop a understanding of what makes a project complex.
It may thus be helpful to consider projects as complex adaptive systems. As a first step, the authors discuss various characterstics of such systems, in particular those that might apply to projects. I have covered much of this material in an earlier post, so my coverage here will be brief. The main points the authors make are as follows:
- The components of a complex system interact and produce outcomes that are unpredictable and nonlinear.
- One cannot understand a complex system by studying the individual components that comprise it.
- A complex system displays path dependence (i.e. dependence on history) and sensitivity to initial conditions.
- Adaptive systems can change and "learn" from experience.
There have been several models of project complexity proposed by researchers. Each of these propose various dimensions (or factors) that capture complexity. Some of these factors are:
- The number of physical elements of a project and their interdependencies. (Baccarini)
- Organisational, technical and resource complexity.
- Organisational and technical complexity, and structural and dynamic interactions between the two. (Xia and Lee)
Although earlier models have been useful, organisations have found that other factors (unaccounted for in existing models) contribute to managerial complexity in projects. With this in mind, the authors' aim to develop a comprehensive empirical model of managerial complexity in projects and thus answer the question: What makes a project complex to manage?
The Model
The model was developed through workshops that involved a large number of practising project managers. I will not go into details of research methodology here; please see the original paper for details. What is important to note is that the model includes input from a broad range of practitioners. With that said, I'll move straight on to a description of the model.
The model describes both structural and dynamic elements of managerial complexity. The authors find that structural complexity in projects comprises of the following broad dimensions: Mission, Organisation, Delivery, Stakeholders and Team. Following a distinctly academic penchant for acronymisation (to coin a term), the authors call their model MODeST, taking the first letter or two from each of the above dimensions.
The hierarchy below lists each of the above dimensions along with their sub-dimensions. Further, the lowest level of the hierarchy (sub-dimension level) lists representative questions that can be used to characterise each sub-dimension. (Note: Please see the paper for full details).
- Mission
- Objectives
- Is there a clear vision?
- Are the goals clear?
- Scale
- Long timescale?
- Large number of resources?
- Uncertainty
- Are there interdependencies with other projects?
- Are there interdependencies within the project?
- Does it involve new technology?
- Has the project been done before?
- Constraints
- Are there legislative or compliance constraints?
- Objectives
- Organisation
- Time
- Are there multiple timezones?
- Space
- Are team members colocated?
- Is there face-to-face communication between team members?
- Geography
- Are there multiple languages?
- Project / organisation fit
- Is there a mismatch between project team structure and organisational structure?
- Organisational change
- Does the project involve organisational restructuring?
- Time
- Delivery
- Administration
- Is project reporting accurate, adequate and does information get to people who need it?
- Is project data collection accurate, true and complete.
- Decision Making
- Is there effective governance of project decision making?
- Are too many levels of management involved in decision making?
- Change management
- Is the change management process cost effective?
- Is it flexible?
- Project processes
- Are project processes defined, standardised but not overly bureaucratic?
- Is there a clear responsibility for tasks and deliverables?
- Project management methodology
- Is there a common methodology used throughout the project?
- Resources – Human
- Are human resources shared across projects?
- Who controls human resources for the project?
- Does the project manager have control over resource selection?
- Resources – Technology
- Does the project have tool support?
- Resources – Financial
- How flexible is the project budget?
- Administration
- Stakeholders
- Stakeholder Identification
- How many stakeholders are there?
- Are there any unidentified stakeholders?
- Support for project
- Do stakeholder groups interfere with the project?
- Do stakeholders have sufficient time for the project?
- Do they respond to project needs in a timely manner?
- Relationship basis
- Is the relationship between the project and stakeholders contractual?
- Experience
- Do the stakeholders have realistic expectations of the project?
- Do they have domain experience?
- Do they have project management experience?
- Power
- Do the stakeholders have power to make decisions.
- Key stakeholders
- Is there senior management support?
- Sociopolitical
- Are there hidden agendas or unsurfaced assumptions?
- Do stakeholders have conflicting priorities?
- Are there any conflicts between requirements of different stakeholders?
- Interdependencies
- Are there interdependencies between stakeholders? (e.g. between suppliers)
- Stakeholder Identification
- Team
- Project staff
- Do team members have sufficient prior experience?
Does the project involve multiple technical disciplines and languages?
- Are the team members knowledgeable and competent in all aspects of the project (business, technical and project management)?
- Are the team members motivated?
- Do team members have sufficient prior experience?
- Project manager
- Is the project manager an effective communicator?
- Does the project manager have authority?
- Group
- Are there cultural differences between team members?
- Are there personality clashes or is there any rivalry within the team?
- Does the team have a shared vision for the project?
- Project staff
The above dimensions and sub-dimensions characterise the structure of managerial complexity in projects. However, that isn't all: the authors mention that many workshop respondents emphasised that elements (i.e dimensions) that make up the model interact thereby "multiplying" managerial complexity. This is one aspect of dynamic complexity. The authors also note that interactions can occur within a single element – for example, within interdependencies between suppliers and stakeholders. Analysis of the data showed that there is a dynamic element corresponding to every structural element of the model. Further still, dynamics of an individual structural element can be affected by interactions with other structural and dynamic elements. That is, the dynamics of one part of the system can be altered by other changes in other parts. The model thus captures structural, dynamic and interactive aspects of managerial complexity in projects.
The authors report that workshop participants also recognised their own role in adding to managerial complexity. For example, a project manager who fails to recognise task dependencies in early stages of a project contributes to complexity down the line. Project managers are thus, " key actors embedded within the conceptualisation of the complexity of their projects rather than external observers." The authors suggest that this indicates that many elements of managerial complexity can in fact be tamed by proper management. That, arguably, is what a project manager's job is all about.
Implications and Discussion
The authors observe that projects are ubiquitous within organisations. Yet, current project management practices as codified in well-known methodologies fail to account for variations in context between projects. Managerial complexity varies with (and is defined by) a particular project's context – for instance, a project may have several stakeholders with conflicting requirements whereas another may have only one stakeholder. The model developed by the authors describes managerial complexity using five dimensions and several sub-dimensions. These structural elements can change in time and also interact with each other, so the model is also capable of describing dynamic complexity in projects.
To illustrate expand on the last point of the previous paragraph, consider stakeholders – the "S" in the MoDest acronym. The authors point out that, "from an organisational theory perspective, a project can be seen as being constituted from the entire set of relationships it has with itself and with its stakeholders." Project managers need to understand not only the power and legitimacy of each of the stakeholders, but also the relationships or interactions between them. Moreover, the relationships between stakeholders evolve in time – i.e they are dynamic. Similarly, the other four dimensions of the model also display dynamic behaviour.
This dynamic behaviour is merely a restatement of the obvious: in projects things change, sometimes rather quickly and unexpectedly. Standard project management practice offers techniques such as risk management, configuration management and change control to manage these. However, the authors suggest their data shows that, "the nature of change considered by existing approaches is limited and that such programmatic responses may be inappropriate." They go on to state, "Such dissatisfaction with traditional requirements engineering and command-and-control project management strategies has lead to an interest in agile project management approaches." These statements will ring true for those who have been burned by the limitations of traditional project management methodologies. Agile techniques embrace change; traditional methodologies seek to control it (and do so unsuccessfully, one might add). The implicit acceptance of change in agile methodologies make it consistent with the dynamic model of managerial complexity proposed by the authors.
The paper describes an empirical model of managerial complexity in projects. From my (admittedly incomplete) reading of the literature, the model is more comprehensive than those that have been proposed heretofore. Further, it captures structural, dynamic and interactive aspects of elements that make a project complex and hard to manage. The model challenges current practice as embodied in traditional, "big-bang" approaches to running projects, but is consistent with Iterative/Incremental methodologies which form the basis of agile techniques.
The authors end with a brief description of some areas for further research. Some of these include:
- Refining the dimensions of complexity and finding the key drivers of each.
- Determining whether compexity can be quantified.
- Exploring the possibility of managing complexity.
We are still a long way off answering these questions, and thus developing a quantitative, controllable understanding of project complexity. Yet, the model presented provides at least a partial answer to the question: What makes a project complex to manage?
Maylor, Harvey., Vidgen, Richard, & Carver, Stephen., Managerial Complexity in Project-Based Operations: A Grounded Model and Its Implications for Practice, Project Management Journal, 39 (Supplement), S15-S26. (2008).
1 See this post for more on structural and dynamic complexity.
The calculus of project teams
Calculus is an important part of the mathematical toolkit of scientists and engineers. I'm sure some of my readers have (perhaps, not so fond) memories of many (perhaps, not so entertaining) hours spent in learning calculus during their late high-school / early college years. Calculus has two main branches: differential calculus and integral calculus. The first branch deals with a mathematical technique called differentiation, which enables one to calculate the variation of a quantity with respect to another – for example, change of distance with respect to time, aka speed. The second branch deals with integration, a technique to compute the net (or summed) effect of small variations – for example, speed*time, summed up over all time slices, yields the total distance travelled. As the examples suggest, the two techniques are the inversely related. In this post I draw an analogy between these operations of calculus and two somewhat opposite, or inverse, things a project manager has to do in order to ensure the smooth and effective functioning of a team.
Project teams consist of individuals, each with different skills, aptitudes and personalities. Yet the team has to function as a unit, pulling together, ensuring that every individual's effort contributes to achieving the team goal. In order to do this, the project manager has to employ the inverse techniques of team differentiation and integration as I outline below.
It's a given that no two people are the same. Yet many managers deal with all their team members in exactly the same way. This is a mistake. One has to tailor one's management approach to suit individual personalities and quirks. But even before this, one has to take the time to understand what makes each individual tick – knowledge, skills, professional interests, approach to work, career aspirations etc. This isn't always easy to elicit (no, a questionnaire won't work!). One has to get to know people one-on-one, taking time to talk to them in different situations and contexts. Over time one builds up a picture of the things that make them different and unique from everyone else on the team.
Why is this important? Well, if you really understand the folks who make up your team, you'll develop a feeling for what they will be able and willing to do on a project. You'll get a sense for their strengths and weaknesses, both technical and otherwise. This is knowledge that is useful in all stages of a project, but particularly so in times of crisis.
Differentiation, in essence, boils down to developing individualised work relationships with each team member. All the outstanding project managers I have known have been able to do this effortlessly, and in a non-intrusive way. I reckon this (not so common) skill is one of the important factors that sets the brilliant apart from the run-of-the-mill project manager.
A few words of warning though: Although the best way to get to know people is through conversation, remember to be sensitive to differences in personality, and also to avoid topics that may be construed as personal. Further, be genuine – there's nothing worse than false interest or bonhomie; and it shows a mile away!
Differentiation is one aspect of team management, the other is integration: i.e. integrating diverse personalities and skills into a coherent team. Most mainstream theories of team development are built around Tuckman's four-stage forming-storming-norming-performing model. In brief: the first stage corresponds to team formation; the second to debates / confrontations between individuals on the team; the third to settling down and development of trust; the fourth to working on the task that the team has been charged with. The project manager has a supervisory (I prefer the word, integrative) role in all four phases, but especially so in the first two.
In an ideal situation the project manager has had a chance to get to know team members prior to team formation. If so, through differentiation, he or she already knows the strengths and weaknesses of each individual. The project manager can thus match project requirements to individual skills and aptitudes to come up with an optimal team. Once the team is formed, the project manager can facilitate project discussions, armed with a good sense for who might be able to contribute in specific areas. Furthermore, he or she will also be able to defuse conflicts or mediate disagreements between team members more effectively than would have been the case without this knowledge.
In mathematics differentiation and integration are the basic operations of calculus. In this post, through analogy, I have discussed the importance of the two techniques in the context of project teams. Much like the engineer who has to master differentiation and integration, the project manager has to be adept at both techniques of the calculus of project teams.
Blended project teams and client-vendor trust
Many projects are run as collaborative efforts between customer and provider (or vendor) organisations. It is well accepted that such co-creation involving both parties is an effective way for service organisations to enhance acceptance of the services they provide. It is a common practice for IT service providers to locate their consultants at client sites for the entire duration of the project. In this period consultants and client-side employees work together in blended teams. It is clear that the (provider-side) project manager plays a critical role in such projects because he or she is at the interface, or boundary, between two organisations. A recent paper, by Sheila Simsarian Webber, entitled, Blending Service Provider – Client Project Teams to Achieve Client Trust: Implications for Project Team Trust, Cohesion and Performance, published in the June 2008 issue of the Project Management Journal, investigates the effectiveness of such teaming from the perspective of trust between the project manager (as a proxy for the supplier) and the client. I review the paper below.
Background and Objectives
Interestingly, most of the research on co-creation or co-production has focused on bringing the customer into the service organisation rather than the other way round. That's strange (to me at any rate) because the latter situation, in which provider-side employees are placed in client organisations, is way more common in IT projects. Placing employees within client organisations gives the service provider ongoing opportunities to understand a client's business better, and thus foster long-term relationships with them. However, this works only if there is trust between the two parties. The project manager (as a proxy for the provider) plays a key role in developing this relationship. In the paper, the author provides empirical evidence that the use of blended teams creates a more trusting relationship between the client and project manager. Further, the research also shows that gaining the client's trust has the side effect of improving (intra-team) team trust, cohesion and performance.
Before proceeding any further, it is worth defining what is meant by trust. Following Mayer, Davis and Schoorman, the author defines interpersonal trust as the willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or control that party. Researchers have identified two dimensions of interpersonal trust: affective and cognitive. The first is based on emotional bonds and the second on notions of reliability, dependability and competence. Trust among business partners involves both types of trust. In the case at hand, it is important that the client not only believes in the project managers competence, but also that he or she cares about the client's business (i.e. has an emotional bond with the client). Blended teams provide more opportunity for interaction between the client and provider and hence the basis for the author's first hypothesis:
Hypothesis 1. Blended project teams will have greater client trust (than non-blended teams).
Katz and Kahn proposed that an organization be considered as an open system that interacts with its environment. If this is so, it is important that boundary relationships – i.e. relationships at the interface between an organisation and its environment (which could be another organisation) – be managed effectively. The open system concept has been applied to teams as well. Further, earlier research has demonstrated that managing relationships outside team boundaries is important for knowledge transfer and team success. In the case of project teams, managing external relationships is generally the responsibility of the project manager. In the present case the main external relationship (from the perspective of the provider) is the one between the project manager and the client. Based on research by Amy Edmondson , which suggests that boundary spanning relationships affect team trust, cohesion and effectiveness, the author proposes the following as her second hypothesis:
Hypothesis 2. Client trust in his or her direct project manager will be positively (or directly) related to team trust, cohesion or performance. That is, as client trust (in the PM) increases, so does team trust, cohesion and performance.
Finally, as a follow-on to the second hypothesis, the author suggests a that there is a stronger positive correlation between client trust and team trust, cohesion and performance if the team is blended. This leads to her third hypothesis which is:
Hypothesis 3. The relationship between client trust and team trust, cohesion and performance is stronger when teams are blended (as compared to non-blended teams).
Results and Discussion
The author surveyed 31 IT project teams (20 blended and 11 non-blended). Data was collected from project managers, their primary client contacts and project teams. Project managers reported on background information, nature and duration of project and whether or not the team was blended; clients were surveyed for an assessment of trust (cognitive and affective); and teams were asked about team trust, cohesion and performance. I won't discuss specific metrics used by the author – please see the original paper for more on these.
The research results vis-a-vis the above hypotheses can be summarised as follows:
1. Clients tend to have greater (cognitive and affective) trust in project managers who are a part of a blended team.
2. The client's cognitive trust in the project manager has significant positive implications for the team's (internal) cognitive trust and has marginally significant positive implications for the team's affective trust. Interestingly, the client's affective trust in the project manager has significant positive implications for the team's cognitive and affective trust. This seems to suggest that emotional trust between the client and the project manager carries more weight than perceptions relating to competence and reliability.
3. The results around the third hypothesis are even more interesting. The data suggests that there is a relationship between client trust / team trust, cohesion and performance and whether or not a team is blended. However, this relationship isn't as hypothesised: it turns out that when the client does not have much cognitive trust in the project manager, a blended team has significantly less cognitive team trust than a non-blended team. Similar results hold for team performance: when the client does not have much affective trust in the project manager, a blended team will show significantly lower levels of performance than non-blended teams. Why should this be so? I suggest it is because non-blended teams, due to the lack of interaction between client and provider side team members, are shielded from the politics of the client-project manager relationship. In blended teams, on the other hand, co-location of team members and managers, and the resulting opportunities for informal communication, means that a sour relationship between the client and project manager can quickly translate to breakdown of team relationships.
The results lend empirical backing to the importance of client relationship management for project managers. Specifically, for blended teams, the research shows that trust between the project manager and the client is directly related to team trust and performance. Furthermore, blended teams tend to be more negatively affected than non-blended teams in cases where the relationship between the project manager and client is not good. This, again, highlights the critical role of client-project manager relationships for blended teams.
Although many of the results discussed in the previous may seem evident to professional project managers who work with blended teams, the research is interesting because it lends empirical support to such "obvious" notions. Having said that, the conclusions drawn by the author should not be overstated, particularly because of the small sample size and limitations imposed by the survey methodology (for example, the data did not capture the nature / scope of the project and other factors which may have an effect on the conclusions). Further, the research does not consider factors such as organisational culture and constraints, which may have a significant effect on the functioning of blended teams and the development of trust between employees from different organisations. In view of these limitations the results can be regarded as suggestive, but by no means definitive. Nevertheless, the paper is of interest to project managers and senior executives who work in service and consulting organisations.
Webber, S.S., Blending Service Provider – Client Project Teams to Achieve Client Trust: Implications for Project Team Trust, Cohesion and Performance, Project Management Journal, 39 (2), 72-81. (2008).


text:
A Mobridge couple is scrambling to prepare their business for this weekend's ice fishing tournament after smoke damaged much of it.
A small fire Friday caused extensive smoke damage at the Wrangler Inn, one of the few lodging places in the area. Owner Jeff Jackson isn't sure how but says the fire started under a stairwell near a side door.
"Timing was not really good," Jackson said. "The cleaning crew said this was a three to four-week process to get this cleaned up and ready to go."
That was one week before the 13th Annual Mobridge Chamber Ice Fishing Tournament. With smoke damage affecting the bar, restaurant and 35 of the facility's 60 rooms, its owners are doing what they can.
"Been in business 38 years and have no experience with a fire," Jackson said. "But we're finding out a lot. The cleaning crew has been awesome to work with. They're doing everything they can."
A crew of anywhere from 14 to 18 people is tackling the project and has been since Sunday. Cleaners are focusing on halls and close to 30 of the 35 damaged rooms. Owners will seal off the bar, restaurant and remaining rooms.
"Our concern is to get as many beds available as possible by Thursday and Friday," Jackson said.
That's because other hotels and motels in the community are booked. Still, owners are working on alternative plans as they clean.
"The support from the community has been awesome, has been great. We've had people calling us offering a home that's empty or they've got extra beds in their home. It's been great," Jackson said.
This would have been a big weekend for the Jacksons' restaurant and bar as well, but they say they can't afford to put time into preparing that space.
"There are other places in the community where they'll be able to find places to eat and so forth," Jackson said. "Beds are a premium."


text:
James Chapter 3 (1611 Bible)
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1 My brethren, bee not many masters, knowing that we shall receiue the greater condemnation.
2 For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.
3 Behold, we put bittes in the horses mouthes, that they may obey vs, and we turne about their whole body.
4 Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driuen of fierce windes, yet are they turned about with a very small helme, whithersoeuer the gouernour listeth.
5 Euen so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things: behold, how great a matter a litle fire kindleth.
6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquitie: so is the tongue amongst our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell.
7 For euery kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind.
8 But the tongue can no man tame, it is an vnruly euill, ful of deadly poyson.
9 Therewith blesse wee God, euen the Father: and therewith curse wee men, which are made after the similitude of God.
10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing: my brethren, these things ought not so to be.
11 Doeth a fountaine send foorth at the same place sweet water and bitter?
12 Can þe figtree, my brethren, beare oliue berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountaine both yeeld salt water & fresh.
13 Who is a wise man and indued with knowledge amongst you? let him shew out of a good conuersation his workes with meekenes of wisedome.
14 But if ye haue bitter enuying and strife in your hearts glory not, and lie not against the trueth.
15 This wisedome descendeth not from aboue, but is earthly, sensuall, deuilish.
16 For where enuying and strife is, there is confusion, and euery euill worke.
17 But the wisedome that is from aboue, is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easie to be intreated, full of mercy, and good fruits, without partialitie, and without hypocrisie.
18 And the fruit of righteousnesse is sowen in peace, of them that make peace.
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View All James Chapter 3 Comments...
Anonymous's James Chapter 3 comment about verse 11 on 6/09/2014, 10:23pm...
You can not walk with God and walk in anger or decit. Attitude and fortitude shall keep you on the right path. The love of God will guide and protect you.
Debhora's James Chapter 3 comment on 5/02/2014, 1:52am...
Can you please clarify James 3 2 . Especially " Man offend not in word , Same is a Perfect man ". Does it mean that we should keep up our word promise to others.
Melinda Gresham's James Chapter 3 comment about verse 3 on 2/22/2014, 10:26pm...
The bits in horses mouth cause pressure to sensitive mouth of the horse The pressure cause the horse to obey and can direct guide the body even to turn around if that s what the rider wants the horse to do However man does not have a small bit in his mouth controlled by God or anyone else but God created man a speaking spirit with his own will to make his choices in speech speaking with the tongue The words can speak life and or death to situations from the same small tongue and can come from the same all speaking spirits Summary The small bit s in the horses mouth is are directed by the rider and controls the horses bodily action while the small tongue in the mouth of man is directed by his own will and is sometimes uncontrollable The horses bit is a controller while the small tongue of man is uncontrollable
PASTOR BLISS NYIRENDA's James Chapter 3 comment about verse 1 on 2/22/2014, 8:23am...
James 3 1 urages the teachers preachers of the word to be serious with what they are talking about seen that they are feeding the right food to the church of God see Acts 20 28 Church was purchased with His own blood God We must serve with trembling heart
Betty Asantewaa Arthur's James Chapter 3 comment on 1/14/2014, 1:09pm...
BSP's James Chapter 3 comment about verse 8 on 10/22/2013, 12:14pm...
This verse is so true. There is no one who has been able to have perfect control of his or her tongue. We all say things that we later regret or say without even thinking. This is another sad consequence of the sin tht we inherited from our ancestors Adam and Eve.
Ciscokid's James Chapter 3 comment on 10/09/2013, 10:54pm...
5Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!
The tongue can no man tame. This is why God choose tongues as evidence of receiving the Holy Ghost in Acts. To prove that ONLY God can tame the tongue.
Rae's James Chapter 3 comment about verse 16 on 8/13/2013, 4:23am...
I am surprised that so few ministers ever speak about the evilness of envy, emulation and rivalry in churches. It is one of the worst sins yet the least talked about. It pervades in christian circles, hence the need to address. It is very destructive and insidious.
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