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I hope this becomes a full-fledged franchise, with new ideas in each new installment. Nintendo needs a shooter series to counter all the whole FPS stuff that makes PS4 and X1 sell like hotcakes. Just sayin'.
User Profile
The Italian Nintendo/Sony gamer
Male, 25, Italy
Italian gamer belonging to both the Nintendo fanbase and - to a lesser extent - the Sony and Xbox fanbases. Currently holding out for the Gameboy Advance's official VC debut on the 3DS eShop. [Warning: my Facebook page linked below is in Italian.]
- Joined:
- Wed 20th February, 2013
- Website:
- http://www.facebook.com/LeCimiciWebcomic
Recent Comments
I'm always mad at region-exclusiveness-related injustice, and despite us Europeans having many reasons to envy North America, I'm also annoyed at this happening to yankees. Good to hear this is seemingly approaching a resolution.
Given both Wii and WiiU felt "last gen" - according to detractors - in terms of sheer graphical power, the only gimmick the new console needs is a double leap forward with the processing hardware. If Nintendo beats Sony and Microsoft at their own game, then things are going to get really interesting.
Made my day.
I'm just as divided as the gaming industry itself.
The two things that should stay away from this system are LEGO and Pokémon.
Might consider this one.
Would buy this in a heartbeat.
On my 3DS, that is.
My plan, when I get my hands on Mario Maker, is - of course - to create entire levels based on a single gameplay concept. It served me well during my level-creating-and-sharing time on Mario Vs Donkey Kong: Minis March Again, and will do the same again with MM. We'll see.
I can see your point here, but it's kind of a vicious circle. All of us Nintendo fans are proud of Nintendo games, but then again there are people who would also want to play other titles as well on their Nintendo console without buying another one just for some non-Nintendo-exclusives (that is, multiplatform titles exclusive to non-Nintendo consoles). No one benefits from a narrow-minded "foxes and sour grapes" perspective (again, see @Damo's "we don't need GTA V" article), but then again people say Nintendo games are the only reason to get a Nintendo console... you can see how much of a vicious circle this is by checking out this very comment, as it's always the same thing over and over - non-Nintendo fans say they don't need Nintendo games, Nintendo fans say they don't need non-Nintendo games. Which is why third-party support, as you explained, doesn't come to Nintendo consoles at all (then again, there's also all the disgusting anti-Nintendo bias all over the gaming sites in the net, just check out some Gamespot and IGN reviews for the best Nintendo games in recent memory). It's... complicated, to say the least.
As for me, I'm settling with a WiiU and an Xbox 360 and I'm doing well so far.
Hopefully I'll get one, although as far as my phone goes my 3DS-less gaming needs are already covered with my Xperia Play.
As for the whole "Game Freak is developing for other platforms", just look up Click Medic and Pulseman.
There have been several of them, so far...
I suspect the fact this is free is a countermeasure to the inevitable, if small, backlash that's to be expected due to yet another Nintendo semi-exclusive (well, Steam aside - hence the "semi-") becoming available on another console with added extra (that is, Shovel Knight on Playstation consoles, with a cameo from - who else? - Kratos, Sony's alternative to Wolverine omnipresence-wise).
But maybe seeing this as damage control is mean thinking on my part. Whatever, freebies!
So, at the price of one MSF game, I get all four with two on each console? What a bargain! Count me in!
Not anytime soon, I hope. I'm still crossing my fingers for the Chocobo Tales rendition of The Prelude (if you haven't heard that version, look it up, you'll thank me later) and a few tracks from Chocobo Racing (Moogle Forest, Mt. Gulg, FFVIII Circuit and--screw it, the whole soundtrack from that game, damn you, Kenji Ito!!).
I have to admit I [sighs] essentially sucked it up (is it too much of a vulgar expression? Because that's what I did) and ultimately bought Kirby Fighters Deluxe last saturday.
However, this week, while Gunvolt is still MIA at the moment, there's one thing that made me rejoice:
Romancing SaGa: Beat Them Up! (Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call DLC)
Why, you ask? First, it's the awesome boss battle theme from the first SaGa; second, it's the same music that's more famous as the basis for the remix heard in the well-known fan animation, Michael Quest III. Look it up on Youtube, it's pretty fun.
So, yeah. Beat Them Up for me.
30 Great Games need to be removed? Man, that's a lot of Great Games you're willing to do without!
It came out as a price twenty times higher than its quality, and in a heartbeat, it disappeared. So, basically, a hit-and-run approach: truly a "troll game" indeed!
This. Also, the NintendoLife column ("Damian tells you why he doesn't need GTA V", or whatever it was titled) I just mentioned in my earlier comment? On the brighter side of things, the whole "foxes and sour grapes" approach I alluded to, well, it applies to Sony and Xbox fans as well. They all say that Nintendo's own IPs are "teh kiddie!!!11!!11", but truth be told, while not necessarily mature, said IPs are fun, which is all that matters, which is why those fans wish they had "teh kiddie" on their own consoles (remember that fan letter to get Super Smash Bros. on the PSVita a few months ago? Yeah).
Besides, I also own an Xbox 360, mostly in order to play the same "multiplatform" games that Nintendo consoles oh-so-casually happen to miss out on (hence the quotation marks) except I buy them only when they're on sale. Nintendo games are still the ones that deserve the heftier price tags.
As for Quorthon, I just hope he's not Pachterkid's successor.
Considering that Grand Theft Auto V didn't come out on Nintendo consoles (heck, NO GTA games have come out on Nintendo home consoles so far, and before you mention it, no, Body Harvest for N64 does NOT count) and was so much of an enormous success that @Damo had to write a column with plenty of foxes and sour grapes in order to cheer us up... yeah, you know where this is going.
Seriously, a sandbox game on the WiiU wouldn't have hurt in the slightest (especially if it's as tongue-in-cheek as Saints' Row is, given it's best known as "the antithesis to Grand Theft Auto"), but in the end the closest we got to this genre was LEGO City Undercover, which - in spite of its undeniable quality - basically was a morality-flipped GTA game with some platforming thrown in for good measure. Nintendo should have helped this game's development as they did with Bayonetta 2, but apparently not even the WiiU is enough for an actual sandbox game (on the other hand, the DS saw an actual GTA game in the form of Chinatown Wars, because money).
As for me however, I'm going to do the same I've already done with "Mario Vs Donkey Kong: Minis March Again!" on my 3DS: build entire levels around a single gameplay element. It's an easy trick to find out how creative you can get with a given tool, whether it is a springboard, a platform, a powerup, or in MvsDK's case, even an element that appears in one setting alone. Creativity over limits, basically.
Tubular is a special stage, which means it comes only after the Star Road itself.
"Actually free-to-play"
With just one word, you guys managed to deliver the best take-that at free-to-play I've ever witnessed. Kudos to you, @ThomasBW84.
Saw it yesterday, and while such commitment in making levels never ceases to amaze me, if there's moderation with zero tolerance on kaizo-like levels for online Mario Maker stages I will be infinitely happy. Cheap-hard level design does not equal good game design. Making difficult but fair levels is one thing, making cheap stages is just as much of a cheap shortcut towards recognition. Period.
Heck, even before Mario Maker was announced, the largest Super Mario World modding website - SMWCentral - has a strict "No kaizo" rule. And that should say a lot.
We're jealous of Japan, period. No need to state the obvious any further.
If only this game came out back when the 3DS was - before the WiiU - the subject of Nintendo-related doom 'n' gloom. Heck, if only games of the "big guns" variety (metaphorically speaking; pun not intended) come out before, consoles wouldn't struggle as much as they do. If Super Mario 3D World and New Super Mario Bros U swapped release dates, Rayman Legends would still be the console exclusive we were promised. But instead, the 3DS started off with - ugh - Steel Diver, and the WiiU had NintendoLand as a launch title. The DS, however? An enhanced remake of Super Mario 64, which didn't even need enhancements to begin with. And boy, did it show.
However, back on topic! This game looks amazing, which only helps as this is pretty much the FPS for Nintendo handhelds for the time being (Metroid Prime Hunters and Moon were released earlier, and this seems way more determined to provide the very same FPS experience seen on other consoles anyway.)
Ah, HAL, the dog mommy that's been breastfeeding us all with awesome game throughout the years. Excelsior!
"Flap off"? Oh my, the sheer audacity of that pun!
It seems today, that all you see, is violence on Xbox and sex on PS3!
If you can let me know as well, feel free to do so. I have a lot of digital games on my 3DS, and I'm worried for whenever I'll have to transfer 'em to the New model.
I kind of disagree with @KickButt_Gaming, and for one exact reason: I happen to own an Xbox 360 as well, and if there's one thing Nintendo needs to step up with, it's prices and sales. Not the graphics, mind you: I don't give an intercourse about either the Xbox One or the Playstation 4 having life-like graphics, because that's not what gaming is - and should be - about. However, the massive sale I've witnessed (and took advantage of) last weekend got me thinking: Nintendo's most recent discount was Super Mario 3D World, sold for forty euros instead of the usual sixty; last weekend's Xbox 360 sale allowed me to snatch Saints' Row The Third for less than five euros, which is eight times cheaper than the discounted price for 3D World and a mind-boggling TWELVE times considering 3D World's usual price.
Another comparison that comes to mind is the Club Nintendo rewards. While I have to admit that interesting offers ARE popping up as of late (such as the Super Smash Bros./Pokémon OmegaRuby-AlphaSapphire allowing users to snatch a free game), the most generous [generous towards customers, that is; I'm well aware of all the charity Nintendo's done this far, let alone the free DSis handed out during the latest Japanese earthquake] reward used to be an old title, usually sold for five bucks or more, given as a freebie. And when you see, again, the Xbox sales (seriously, those are a serious contender to the "Most ridiculously cheap game sales" award alongside the well-known Steam sales), and compare Halo 3 - not counting as a game, but rather as the Microsoft flagship franchise - to the first Super Mario Bros. game being sold at the same price, you can't help but admit that Nintendo needs to be a bit more courageous.
I used the word "admit" in the last sentence because I'm a proud Nintendo fan nonetheless: check out my user page, I still identify myself as a hardcore Nintendo fan because I know that Ninty still wins when it comes to the sheer amount of value seen in their IPs. However, the whole approach to prices (and the slow turn to digital that comes along) is something I can't defend, at least not fully - because saying Nintendo is right in everything they do would be just fanboyish and unobjective all the same. When a friend of mine - basically my Bizarro version when it comes to gaming, as he owns an Xbox One and I'm giving him my emptied Wii after transferring the older data towards my WiiU - says "Welcome to the new millennium, Nintendo" whenever it comes to my favorite company's approach to online, I can't help but nod.
Much like @Quorthon, I agree as well. If I had the money, I would not only buy every Smash amiibo, but also ask for other trophies in toy form as well. Cards, on the other hand? Everyone can print a Mario image on a card. Give us some actual Nintendo merchandise!
And the Most Fun-loving Company Award goes to Nintendo, yet again!
I'm crossing my toes as well... this and Mario Maker, alongside last year's 3DS Smash Bros title, might well be the longest-overdue games to be ever released by Nintendo.
Hopefully this one will EVENTUALLY be released in Europe too.
THANK GOD. There ya go, haters, Tingle isn't gay.
Now can we finally put the sheer stupidity of Tingle's hatedom to rest?
Smooth McGroove is just awesome. I fell in love with his music the second I heard his acapella renditions for the first time. And the Oath To Order, the way he sang it... goosebumps all around for what can be described as relaxing - if a bit sad perhaps - musical bliss.
Boy howdy, did I fall hard for that little detail. This dude knew where he needed to hit.
Thing is, I'm not even mad for Rayman not being in Smash. I'm mad because this guy likely expected the internet to laugh it off, as seen in the intro to his video (he even said he regretted showing that smug smile), after building expectations and using said expectations to promote his own channel. Again, the guy is talented, credit where it's due; however, said talent is going to drown under tons of hating comments. Way to go, troll, way to go.
As a huge Smash fan and as an admirer of the series' ability to gather several franchises (not to mention each one's own fandom), I won't comment on this fake leak. Most likely because the gruesome imagery going on in my twisted mind would get me banned in no time.
This guy is a mix of a troll and an attention seeker, using the smashers' hype to promote his own channel. I commented on his video that he used his talent to poke on a hornets' nest, and therefore had it coming. Heck, the top comment for the video is even his own "I'm scared..."; well, guy totally deserves such fear. Good luck to him, I guess.
Awesome to see that a Smash Bros voice actor - let alone the fourth announcer himself - is so in touch with fan projects (if we can call The Completionist and Did You Know Gaming just that, anyway) and the like, despite the man himself clearly stating in a video on his Youtube channel he couldn't just shout "Ridley!" in his announcer voice (still, that was due to the 50-fact Direct not having been shown yet).
A far cry from Shulk's VA (Adam Howden if I recall correctly) tweeting he was gonna voice a character but not telling who because he feared "his gonads would be cut off for telling" (paraphrasing).
You'll get to expand it at the right time.
I thought I'd chime in and ask you if just having a CN account does the trick or if I need anything else to get this gem I've been waiting way too long for. As far as our good ol' Europe goes, anyway.


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RubyConf*MI Videos Now on the Web
Well, this is some news I've been wanting to share for a while, but I've had to wait until everything was ready. During the summer, I spoke at RubyConf*MI, one of the first regional Ruby Conferences (I think San Diego held the only one earlier than the Michigan folks). At the time, they filmed all the presentations.
We spent some time discussing what to do with the videos, and finally decided to release them on Google Video. (They might still sell some DVDs, but I've not heard a confirmation yet.) Ever since that decision, I've been waiting for the videos to hit Google so I could announce it. And yesterday, they did!
You can find the whole list here (my presentation is this one). Go and take a look. RubyConf*MI was only $20 for registration, but if you missed it you now have an option to take part (well, sort of.)
I hope this catches on. I know that some Ruby Brigades have taken to recording (audio or visual) their meetings. Hopefully we'll see more and more Ruby presentations from group meetings or regional conferences showing up on Google and YouTube.
You're brave!
I'd never let a video of me be seen on the internet!
wow the video is good..thanks for sharing
Thanks for sharing your video. Although I couldn't read all the slides, it was very interesting, because you get an impression what's going on at such conferences. So I would appreciate to see more videos in future. Thanks.
does not work for me
Is the video hosted somewhere else? I can access the url video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7573341159820664371&q=RubyConf*MI
low resolution
It's great that these videos are being shared. But they are too low resolution too be easily watched. There's still information to be gotten from them, but the screenshots are usually unreadable.
If at all possible, please post higher-resolution videos. In the future, capturing the video being fed to the projector and combining it with video of the presenter would make a much better video overall.
Tools and Technologies for Scale and Reliability
by Linux Journal Editor Bill Childers
Sponsored by IBM
Scheduling Crontabs With an Enterprise Scheduler
11am CDT, April 29th
Moderated by Linux Journal Contributor Mike Diehl
Sponsored by Skybot
Trending Topics
Webinar: 8 Signs You're Beyond Cron
11am CDT, April 29th
Join Linux Journal and Pat Cameron, Director of Automation Technology at HelpSystems, as they discuss the eight primary advantages of moving beyond cron job scheduling. In this webinar, you'll learn about integrating cron with an enterprise scheduler.Join us!
|Not So Dynamic Updates
|Mar 30, 2015
|Users, Permissions and Multitenant Sites
|Mar 26, 2015
|New Products
|Mar 24, 2015
|Flexible Access Control with Squid Proxy
|Mar 23, 2015
|Solving ODEs on Linux
|Mar 19, 2015
|DevOps: Everything You Need to Know
|Mar 19, 2015
- Not So Dynamic Updates
- New Products
- Users, Permissions and Multitenant Sites
- Flexible Access Control with Squid Proxy
- Security in Three Ds: Detect, Decide and Deny
- Tighten Up SSH
- DevOps: Everything You Need to Know
- Non-Linux FOSS: MenuMeters
- Solving ODEs on Linux
- Android Candy: Bluetooth Auto Connect

subset: commoncrawl


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2015 Seven Lakes Soccer! Go Spartans!
Welcome to the Home of Seven Lakes Girls Soccer!
2014 Regional Finalists
2013 5A Area Champions
2012 5A State Finalists
2011 Region III Finalists
2010 5A State Semi-Finalist
2009 Region III Finalist
Way to go Spartans!
2015 Seven Lakes Signing Day! Congratulations Racheal, Junique, Caroline, Peyton, Emily and Katy!
Additional photos on the following link:
Spartans take down St. Agnes 3-0 in I-10 Shootout Championship
Varsity has high aspirations for 2015 season:
Seven Lakes 2015 season underway with tournament play as Katy ISD teams kick off the season:
SLHS is a member of the Katy Independent School District, this site is maintained by parents and does not necessarily represent the views of the school district.


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Ledges Golf Club
18 Mulligan Dr, South Hadley, MA 01075
0 people saved this
We are committed to exceeding our customers' expectations by providing optimal course conditions, exceptional customer service and outstanding amenities. We will succeed, while respecting the environment and returning value to our community.
Of Note:
- Amenities: Accessible Facilities
The Borscht Belt Comes Alive Again in Amherst
Growing up in New York's Catskills region in the 1980s and '90s, Marisa...
Search All Listings Here.


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Celebrity Central / Top 25 Celebs
Julia Roberts
Three of Hollywood's Most Famous Married Couples Celebrate July 4 Anniversaries
David and Victoria Beckham, Julia Roberts and Danny Moder and Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne all wed on July 4
American Horror Story Creator Ryan Murphy Offers Peek Inside His Beverly Hills Mansion
Located near the Beverly Hills Hotel, the house welcomed President Obama in June
Celebrity Anniversaries: Lasting Love!
Decades After Saying 'I Do,' These Superstar Couples Mark Milestones This Year. Here's to Happily Ever After
PEOPLE's Most Beautiful Past Cover Poll
J.Lo! Angelina! Julia! Drew! Which beautiful cover from the past was your favorite?
Three Reasons to See Mirror Mirror
Julia Roberts is royally evil as the Queen, according to PEOPLE's movie critic
Julia Roberts Frightens Her Kids – On and Off Set
The Mirror, Mirror star says she enjoys playing pranks on her children
Julia Roberts: Young Stars Should Be Allowed to Make Mistakes
"It's so awful, nobody gets a fair trial-and-error period that everybody deserves," says the actress
PEOPLE Review: Oscars Like Old Times – for Good and Bad
Billy Crystal's return atoned for recent dud shows, but lacked freshness
Mirror, Mirror Trailer Debut: Julia Roberts Trash Talks Lily Collins
The Julia Roberts film takes a lighter (and more comic) approach to the classic fairy tale
Julia Roberts Channels Her Dark Side for Snow White Film
"She brings an energy to the set unlike anything I've seen," says the young actress playing Snow White
Julia Roberts and Hillary Clinton Watched the Royal Wedding
"To relish the happiness of these two young people ... was very joyous," Clinton says
Julia Roberts: My Kids Love My Cooking
"They actually told me that I should open a restaurant," the actress tells PEOPLE


text: Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. lactis (Orla-Jensen) Weiss et al. (ATCC® 8000D™) Strain Designations: Genomic DNA from 39 E/K / Type Strain: no / Biosafety Level: 1 General Information Characteristics History Documentation Print Email Share Share this product Facebook Twitter Google+ Strain Designations Genomic DNA from 39 E/K Type Strain no Biosafety Level 1 Product Format dried Preceptrol® no Type Strain no Comments This preparation of high molecular weight DNA is appropriate for use in the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)* process and other molecular biology applications.*the PCR process is covered by patents owned by Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. Use of the PCR process requires a license. Name of Depositor ATCC Special Collection ATCC, DNA Basic Documentation Product Sheet Certificate of Analysis SDS


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Register with us or sign in
oh dear, not enough takers for the Garden Writing Course so it has been postponed till the spring! Looks like it will be taking more plants in out of the cold day on Saturday then.
My parcel from Mr. Fothergill arrived at 1.30 and by 2.30 my ten Pea Meteor plants were watered and planted and staked. It was a glorious job. The bees were buzzing among my late sown annuals in the same bed; the smell from the Alyssum was delightful; my plants looked perfect and showed no sign of having been near a postvan. So I rewarded myself with a corncob straight of the plant - really sweet and juicy while i took photos and then ran for the kitchen as it suddenly got cold and dark and I saw the huge black raincloud approaching. Gardening certainly keeps you fit.
Got hollyhocks and echinacea pricked out yesterday in the conservatory and plan to prick out poppies today and perhaps aubrieta. That will just leave the aquilegia and the solitary lavender to do tomorrow. Our October parcel for the Nation of Gardeners Trial for Mr. Fothergill is in the post so may come today. One year since we started and it is still very interesting and useful. We all have different obstacles to tackle - mine is my great age, the teenager his lack of experience, the new mother where to put the now very active baby , northern climate, busy schedules workwise, accidents to body parts,lack of space for all the tasks, - the list goes on and the solutions too. Someone should write a book about it.
I have just googled it and it is called Solandra maxima, common name Chalice Vine.
I am preparing a powerpoint presentation about my Golden jubilee Year and this is the picture I took 30 years ago in Nairobi which i think illustrates what a wonderful year it has been gardenwise. It is a climber with flowers as big as dinner plates that had scrambled up four stories of our hotel to the roof. It was very golden indeed.
GWRS. memorial garden sounds special - a lovely place for people to meet and remember. I am sure it will have a seat to sit and chat on.
Good to hear from you, Verdun. I will be at the Bot. Garden on Saturday next for a Writing Course but it is closed to the public on Saturdays now. Open Sunday to Friday inc.
So chilly this morning and the garden is very damp with quite a few puddles. Quite calm at the moment but forecast for today sys windy and risk of thunderstorms and the showers may be heavy so must get out now and bring a few more tender subjects into the conservatory plus 9cm pots and trays to put them in for the perennials needing potted on. That is one job I can do indoors.I am looking forward to the writing about gardening day school at the Bot. Garden on Saturday coming. I do hope it is a bit warmer then.
A bit nippy in the front garden this morning so I took pity on my aoniums and brought the in to the conservatory for the winter. I started with one little cutting about six years ago.
My platycodons are still flowering beautifully and I just love the pentagon that is their bud, here on the left.


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People across the borough have attended a candle-lit vigil in aid of a Armthorpe hit and run victim who is fighting for her life in hospital.
Over 50 well-wishers lit a candle outside the Mansion House at 2pm this afternoon for Danielle Stoton, who was critically injured in a collision with a car when she was walking home from a party in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Danielle, 18, is in a coma, and is receiving treatment for head injuries at intensive care unit at Sheffield's Royal Hallamshire Hospital, where parents Michelle and Paul Stoton are keeping a bedside vigil.


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Behold a new damage assessment from the credit crisis: The net worth of the median American household plunged 47% from 2007-2010.
So concludes a study by New York University's Edward Wolff. "The debt of the middle class exploded from 1983 to 2007," he writes, "already creating a very fragile middle class in the United States… [T]heir position deteriorated even more over the 'Great Recession.'"
Remarkably, if you throw out housing, the picture is even worse: Median nonhome net worth dived 59% between 2007-2010 and is indeed substantially lower than it was in 1962 — which is as far back as Wolff dared to look.
In Washington, Wolff's study is prompting a thorough reexamination of policies that larded down the middle class with so much debt over the decades.
Just kidding: The Beltway class is latching on to the part of Wolff's study that noted median net worth among "the 1%" grew 71% between 1983-2010, measured in 2010 dollars.
"Inequality skyrocketed as a consequence of the Great Recession," says the questionably named Center for American Progress, "taking resources away from middle class, minority and young families while the wealthy made significant gains."
The statistic is "almost ready-made for an Occupy Wall Street banner," notes a story at Salon.
Like it or not, here's another statistic of that ilk: Student loan delinquencies skyrocketed during the third quarter, according to new figures from the New York Fed.
As of June 30, less than 9% of loan balances were 90 days or more in arrears. As of Sept. 30, the number was 11%. That's bad enough. In the context of the last decade, it's frightening.
"Nearly all student loans — 93% of them last year — are made directly by the government," The Wall Street Journal points out.
"The real fallout from the student loan crisis will hit in mid-2013, four years after the volume of government-funded student loans surged," our macro strategist Dan Amoss wrote in August . "Like the infamous option ARMs (adjustable-rate mortgages) during the housing bubble, these loans have precisely timed fuses: Four years after the loans are made, borrowers must start making payments."
"Within a handful of years," he amends his forecast now, "U.S. taxpayers will be on the hook for over $100 billion in student loan defaults."
Then again, what's $100 billion in a "real" national debt of $86.8 trillion?
Officially, the national debt stands this morning at $16.3 trillion. But as we've long pointed out, that number does not include future liabilities for Social Security and Medicare.
Different people come up with different numbers when it comes to the true national debt: Former comptroller general and I.O.U.S.A. protagonist David Walker reckons it's $71 trillion. Boston University's Larry Kotlikoff's number crunching comes up with a figure three times as big, $222 trillion.
The $86.8 trillion figure comes from former congressmembers Christopher Cox and William Archer, writing in an Op-Ed posted yesterday at Yahoo Finance.
"Were American policy makers to have the benefit of transparent financial statements prepared the way public companies must report their pension liabilities," the duo write, "they would see clearly the magnitude of the future borrowing that these liabilities imply."
Contra Messrs. Cox and Archer, they do: The Treasury Department issues an annual Financial Report of the United States Government — every year during the week between Christmas and New Year's, to make sure as few people as possible see it.
Dave Gonigam
The preceding article was excerpted from Agora Finacial's 5 Min. Forecast. To read the entire episode, please feel free to do so here.
Dave Gonigam has been managing editor of The 5 Min. Forecast since September 2010. Before joining the research and writing team at Agora Financial in 2007, he worked for 20 years as an Emmy award-winning television news producer.
That's ridiculous. The stock market was still way down in 2010. Bring this study to today and most people's net worth would be down 5%, not 47%.
Actually the rise in the market will have very little effect on these numbers. This is median net worth, not average. The vast amount of the market is owned by the people at the very top, their rising worth won't change the median. Rising housing prices is much more likely to improve the median net worth. I suspect though, this number will take quite a while to rise again, when people lost jobs they ended up liquidating their assets to keep going it will take a long time to replenish those assets.
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As the business publication Quartz reports, "Cisco projects video to represent 71% of all mobile data traffic by 2019, up from about 55% last year, and representing the bulk of mobile traffic growth."
Bill Bonner writes with his mouth wide open… staggered by the shabby immensity of it… a tear forming in the corner of his eye. Yes, he's looking at how the US economy, money and government have changed since President Nixon ended the gold-backed monetary system in 1971.
There may be a long trip to India in your future if you have hepatitis C. That's because the Indian Patent Office recently rejected Gilead Sciences' application for a patent on Sovaldi. You may remember Sovaldi, the nearly miraculous "cure" for hep C that was approved by the FDA a little more than a year ago.
Use what analogy you will: a car, a clock, a chemistry experiment... the point remains that the Fed believes it can control the economy. Indeed the Fed will stop at nothing to realize the goals of its dual mandate" to maximize job growth and maintain price stability. But, as Jim Rickards expalins, that conceit always ends in disaster. Read on...
Last week, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee debated repealing the 40-year-old ban on the U.S. exporting crude oil. Byron King explains why, contrary to popular opinion, such a move would benefit you at the pump...
The median forecast of the 76 economists Bloomberg surveyed undershot the actual total by 75,000. And the highest estimate was still 49,000 short. Not even close guys. Try again next month.


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Open Source Remote Sensing Effort
Wouldn't you like to fly through space like Peter Pan and view the earth from above, explore another country, and find out what exotic places are like while never leaving your own home? That is what satellite and aerial images from space can provide for you. The technology exists to do this, but it would take thousands of technologists to develop the programming capabilities for the average global consumer to access such a "View of the World". This has long been a quest for governments and researchers around the globe. The problem is satellite and aerial images are geospatial data and contain more raw data and information than can be easily dealt with.
Everyone is fascinated with images from space which provide close up views of earth. Whether the image is used to study the commodities market for agriculture or provide outstanding graphics to help us catch the bad guy in a spy novel or a stunning backdrop for a James Bond movie, we all want to see more. Today's satellite and aerial technology allows us to see the earth from space with increasing detail. Typically, scientific applications of this earth imagery are making their way into the commercial world through real estate offices, investment banks, flight simulators and even the placement of wireless signal towers. Several new high-resolution satellites will be added this year to provide images where one pixel will represent one square meter of the earth's surface. Earlier satellites provided only 28- and 10-meter resolution. This much resolution means even more data to manage.
How can the average consumer take advantage of this exotic information from space? Until now, he couldn't, but ImageLinks, Inc., of Melbourne, Florida, a division of AGIS, is changing all this with a web site for open-source development of remote-sensing software. Mark Lucas, the chief technical officer of ImageLinks, Inc. struck a harmonious chord among programmers worldwide when he opened remotesensing.org. Remote sensing is the term used to refer to images collected by remote cameras and other sensors from space. These cameras are located on satellites and high-altitude airplanes.
Only with the advent of the Linux operating system could an open-source project like this be considered. Linux provides the software for porting applications and a platform for development. Without Linux, Mark Lucas might not have been able to propose the adoption of the open-source development model for the remote-sensing software industry.
remotesensing.org is currently consolidating existing open-source remote sensing and GIS tools as well as developing new libraries and applications. Currently, three separate development efforts are at the site:
LIMP, the large image manipulation program, is headed up by Valient Gough and will evolve into the centerpiece for subsequent image processing applications. Val is the author of OrthoVista and works for StellaCore Corporation.
GeoTIFF is led by Frank Warmerdam for the development of the leading commercial standard for geospatial tiff files. Frank was the chief architect for PCI's ImageWorks, GCPWorks, GeoGateway technology and most of the existing GeoTiff code. He works as a contract developer.
DEMtools is led by Brian Maddox and is a collection of conversion programs, libraries and tools for handling the topographic elevation data sets used in remote sensing. Brian works as a computer scientist for the USGS Mid-Continent Mapping Center.
With over 250 exceptional programming contributors and business specialists, Mark Lucas stated:
We have really made a big hit in the remote sensing community. There are thousands of people in this industry who just don't have the resources and technology to develop the software applications and algorithms alone. But with hundreds of us working together, we will be able to develop the keys to unlock the data to make it easy to access and view by the average (or unscientific) global consumer. Whether the consumer just wants to see a picture of his own backyard or view the deforestation of the Brazilian rain forest or the B-9 iceberg near the South Pole, he will be able to do this, and it won't cost him thousands of dollars for the software.
Open-source software development enables the development of software algorithms without spending thousands of dollars for commercial applications. Open-source software development speeds up the development time, produces high-quality code and allows for the maintenance and distribution of the software to be completed by users from around the world on the Net. The tools and source available at remotesensing.org will be released under an open-source license and the absolute beauty of this is that it's free.
Also, remotesensing.org provides a place for open communication between academics, government organizations, entrepreneurial developers and the business community. It has long been a problem to establish communication between these diverse groups. remotesensing.org has already begun to bridge these gaps as is demonstrated by the highly influential participants eagerly sharing their ideas, along with valuable code. This prestigious group of participants consists of NASA engineers, well-known remote-sensing business specialists, developers from well-known software companies and progressive student programmers at leading universities around the world.
The site already has a well-established program for development. ImageLinks, Inc. created and hosts remotesensing.org. Current work includes:
Collecting changes
Helping authors synchronize their work
Operating discussion forums (mailing lists and newsgroups)
Coordinating bug lists
Keeping track of and publicizing "work in progress"
Providing "roadmaps" to the code and projects based on the code
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1 typical slice of ham (40g) contains Calories 50.8 3%, Fat 1.8g 3%, Saturates 0.6g 5%, Sugar 0.3g <1%, Salt 0.7g 12% of your guideline daily amount
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Author Archives: Ben Greenberg
Can The Jewish People Find Common Ground?
Can the Jewish people find common ground? Is there enough that brings together all the varied different ways of being Jewish to find a shared destiny and shared future? Our differences these past few weeks have come in sharp high definition. The elections in Israel that secured Benjamin Netanyahu more time as Prime Minister. The speech by Netanyahu to the U.S. Congress shortly before the elections in Israel. The heightened public disagreement between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu that continues to escalate. The recent J Street conference in Washington D.C. where the President of Hillel, Eric Fingerhut, withdrew from attending because one of the chief negotiators for the Palestinians, Saeb Erakat, would be in attendance. These incidents and many more have brought the question of where is the Jewish common ground to the fore.
All of the recent controversy surrounding the relationship between American Jewry and Israel and the discord within the American Jewish community on Israel does not even begin to touch the longstanding divides along denominational and religious lines. Is there Jewish common ground between a convert to Reform Judaism and someone who identifies with a denomination bound by halakha, Jewish law? Is there Jewish common ground between a person who is Jewish through patrilineal descent and someone who is Jewish through matrilineal descent? Is there Jewish common ground between a person whose Jewish identify is defined by culture and one defined by religion?
I was part of a conversation a few months ago among a very diverse set of Jewish participants in which one person made the assumption that all the people present could at least resonate with the notion that the Land of Israel, if not the State of Israel, has played and continues to play a central role in Jewish thought, belief and communal identity. This assumption was also proven wrong as this too was not a value shared by all people in the conversation.
A month ago I offered the thesis that one can view the Jewish community through the lens of minimalists and maximalists. The minimalists are those who seek to construct a Jewish world around them that only looks like them and desire conformity as a central value. The maximalists want to foster a diverse Jewish community and want to cultivate a Jewish space where varied expressions and points of view are welcome. I made the point that minimalists and maximalists can be found in every Jewish movement and transcend denominations. There are Reconstructionist minimalists just as there are Orthodox maximalists.
Yet, the notion of the maximalist still rests on the idea that when one drills down to the core there is a Jewish common ground to be found. There are some shared principles, shared language and shared ideas that enable the creation of a place where all the difference can meet. The Midrash presented an early formation of this idea when it offered the idea that the Sea of Reeds was not split into a single path for all the Jews to march through but rather twelve separate paths, one for each tribe. Each tribe took their own path but they all arrived on the same dry land and there was one Jewish common ground.
What is our Jewish common ground today? Can we find values, ideas and language that we can use to construct a Jewish shared space? If not, what does that portend for the Jewish future?
Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy
Will There Be One Jewish People?
I have been thinking a lot again recently about the correspondence between one of the great Orthodox luminaries of the 20th century, Rabbi Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg z"l and Professor Samuel Atlas z"l, a leading thinker of his time at Hebrew Union College, the flagship academy of Reform Judaism. In particular, one line from a letter Rabbi Weinberg wrote to Professor Atlas in 1957 has provoked much thought for me:
"I see that in the end there will be a split in the body of the nation."
Rabbi Weinberg was referencing an upcoming Congress for Jewish Studies in Jerusalem in which there was great controversy over who was or was not invited. In the letter Rabbi Weinberg makes note that the Haredi community both simultaneously poured fury on those who chose to participate and were furious more Haredi rabbis were not invited to participate. It is in that context that he makes his stark and devastating prediction that there will indeed be a split in the Jewish people.
Was he right? If so, where are the fault lines in that split?
Much has been written about various divides within the Jewish community. There are the well known denominational divisions between the Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, Renewal and Orthodox. There are the differences between historic ethnic communities; Sephardim and Ashkenazim, Persians and Yemenites, Bukharians and Syrians. Perhaps less well known in larger audiences are the current disputes within Orthodoxy between various sectors, left and right; Modern, Centrist, Open, Yeshivish and Chassidish.
Yet, what if the split Rabbi Weinberg predicted would come was not a split along denominational lines or ethnic communities or even something internally within Orthodoxy but was a meta-divide happening across the entire spectrum of those people who are committed to Jewish peoplehood and Jewish identity? (A separate but important conversation is the place of the large and growing percentage of Jews who are opting out of the Jewish community entirely.)
I recently attended and presented at Limmud New York for the first time. I have participated and presented at two other Limmud conferences but had not had the chance prior to attend the New York Limmud. Throughout the Shabbat and weekend in the hotel surrounded by hundreds of Jews from all backgrounds, all types of Jewish practice and Jewish ways of living, it occurred to me that the split Rabbi Weinberg was so afraid of was a split between what I am calling the maximalists and the minimalists.
The maximalists are those people who seek to maximize their definition of the Jewish people. They seek to engage in conversation and dialogue with as many Jews as possible and be part of the broadest Jewish community (see this thought-provoking article by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo on a related topic from 2014). The minimalists are those people who seek to narrow the definition of the Jewish people to the most particular definitions of Jewishness. They seek to maintain a Jewish community that is as homogeneous as possible.
Minimalists and maximalists transcend denominational, ethnic and ideological lines. There can be Orthodox maximalists and Reform minimalists and vice versa. At the most recent Limmud NY weekend one could find Jews in payos and bekishes and Jews with nose rings and tattoos. This dynamic is not one concerned with theological difference or denominational integrity but rather about one's outlook on Jewish peoplehood.
When one conceives of an impending split in these terms one can see two vibrant but distinct communities evolving. On one hand there is the community of Jews who attempt to learn from each other, share in Torah study and build bridges to each other while on the other hand there are micro-communities within a larger community of Jews who value ideological purity and communal conformity above all else. Both of these visions of the Jewish people are thriving. Both are competing for the heart and soul of the Jewish people.
Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks in reflecting on his career as Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom in 2013 published a pamphlet entitled A Judaism Engaged With The World and in it he lays forth the powerful idea that:
"In the twenty-first century, Jews will need the world, and the world will need the Jews. We will not win the respect of the world if we ourselves do not respect the world: if we look down on non-Jews and on Jews less religious than ourselves. Nor will we win the respect of the world if we do not respect ourselves and our own distinctive identity. Now more than ever the time has come for us to engage with the world as Jews, and we will find that our own world of mind and spirit will be enlarged."
Rabbi Sacks powerfully articulates in this pamphlet an Orthodox approach to a maximalist Jewish community. Indeed, Rabbi Sacks continues to be an inspiring figure for this approach. The language he uses to express his ideas is an Orthodox language, the ideas are rooted in Orthodoxy and this pamphlet would look different if it was written by a Conservative or Reconstructionist rabbi. This is because, as said earlier, the divide between the minimalists and the maximalists is not a denominational divide. There are Orthodox maximalists, like Rabbi Sacks, just as there are Orthodox minimalists. So too, there are Conservative maximalists and Conservative minimalists.
In this era of two competing trends for the Jewish people, let us commit ourselves to the trend of Jewish maximalism so that we will find "our own world of mind and spirit will be enlarged." We cannot decide for others what kind of Jewish community they seek to create. We cannot prevent others from isolating and presenting narrower and narrower definitions of who is in and who is out. However, what we can do is demonstrate the joy of a Jewish people that is broad and diverse, that welcomes the many and learns, celebrates and lives together. If we do so in a compelling fashion, perhaps and just perhaps, we can maintain a single Jewish people into the future.
Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy
Let Rabbis Lead!
Last month Rabbi Yamin Levy (note: I studied with Rabbi Levy when I was a rabbinical student at YCT Rabbinical School) wrote a thoughtful article, The Rabbi and His Board. In the article he details the challenges and opportunities for rabbis and the board of directors of congregations. The relationship between a rabbi and the board can be a delicate and highly orchestrated dance of vision, power and politics. A peculiar aspect of how American Jewish congregational life is organized is that the rabbi is simultaneously a "spiritual leader" of the congregation and an employee of the board of directors. How should congregations organize their leadership? Who sets the vision? Who articulates the synagogue's goals and direction?
In many synagogues throughout the country it is the board of directors who set the vision. it is the board of directors who lead and articulate the goals and directions of the congregation. The rabbi is sometimes a minor partner in that process but more often simply an executor of the desires of the board. I submit that this system is entirely ineffective. It needs to be turned on its head.
It is the rabbi who studied for years Jewish law, ethics, history and philosophy. It is the pulpit rabbi who has dedicated his or her life to the professional leadership of synagogues. Synagogues term their rabbis "spiritual leaders" but the meaning behind that title is often empty and void. It is time to fill that title with purpose, leadership and direction.
This is not to say that rabbis should act autocratically. It is not in the best interest of the rabbi to be a dictator. All the best research in leadership teaches that the vision and direction of a leader is best implemented when it is done collaboratively and through consensus building. However, the person seeking consensus should be the rabbi for their vision from the board and not the reverse. It is the rabbi who envisions, who sets the goals and who leads. It is the board who empowers the leader they hired to actually lead.
This not only makes the most sense from a practical point of view, the rabbi is the trained professional with the expertise and the board are volunteers representing other professions and different training. It is also makes sense from the perspective of Jewish values. Just as one stands for a Torah scroll there is a mitzvah to stand for a Torah scholar. The Talmud (Makkot 22b) expresses bewilderment of people who stand for a Torah scroll but not for a Torah scholar. The honor and respect we invest in the Torah and its scholars and rabbis is due to the wisdom, values and direction the Torah imparts for us in the way we lead our lives. Would it not make sense to give true leadership to the rabbis, the Torah scholars of our communities, who we invest so much in financially, personally and organizationally? Once again, not as autocrats but let them be the vision makers and articulators of goals and let them build the consensus and actualize that vision.
In an era of increasing challenge for synagogues to remain relevant to a new generation of Jews and boards are struggling with decreasing membership and under-utilized buildings, one piece of advice would be: "Let rabbis lead!"
Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy
Can Synagogues Be More Like Starfish?
Membership is lagging, we haven't been able to convince the preschool families to join the synagogue and sales in the gift shop are down. What are we to do? Blame the rabbi!
Members are not receiving their donation thank you letters in a timely fashion, the receptionist is not always friendly on the phone and the office forgot to print my great-uncle's yahrtzeit in the weekly newsletter. What are we to do? Blame the executive director!
People make mistakes and that includes the professionals of synagogues, whether the rabbi, executive director or preschool director. A letter can wait in the outgoing mail box for too long. A receptionist might be having a bad day. It is natural to feel frustrated when bad things happen and to want to locate the person who is at fault. When our synagogues attempt to operate as a command-and-structure type of organization individuals will look up the chain of command and point the finger at the highest link they can reach.
However, most of our synagogues nowadays do not operate with strict hierarchies. The decision making of our congregations has evolved to a more a distributive fashion yet the way we communicate about our synagogues has not evolved with it. There are few synagogues where the current mode of operating is the senior rabbi says "jump" and the only question the rest of the staff and board of directors have is "how high?". Staff, clergy and lay leadership operate in a collaborative and cooperative mode. We know this from experience and we know this intuitively but when things begin to break down and mistakes are made we revert to viewing our system as a solid command structure and view the source of the problem solely in the lap of one individual. Why?
I believe part of the problem is that we have not fully embraced our new way of operating. Is it made clear in the vision statement of the congregation? Is it communicated in board meetings? Is the membership informed of how the synagogue operates? When something goes wrong do board members point the finger at any one individual or do they look at it through a systemic lens?
There are so many advantages to distributive decision making. The starfish, a vulnerable creature to predators, can lose a limb but still function because it does not rest all of its functioning in one place. As we enter 2015 the landscape for synagogues is still a vulnerable one. The case for synagogue membership is a hard sell for many people. Many synagogue facilities remain both under-utilized and in need of major repair work. The place of the congregation in the fabric of modern society is less and less obvious for vast segments of the American Jewish population. Our synagogues are like starfish: beautiful, complicated organisms that are deeply vulnerable.
The time has arrived to not only transition to a more starfish-like way of operating — a distributed, holistic and balanced power structure, but to assertively and clearly communicate that to our membership. When something goes wrong, and something will always go wrong, the challenge is not to look for which clergy, staff member or board member to blame, but to understand how the system as a whole can operate better in the future. A Starfish Synagogue is a healthier synagogue and a healthier synagogue is a more attractive place for people to pray in, socialize in and ultimately become members of.
* Inspiration for this blog post comes from The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom
Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy
Synagogues: Begin With Why
"Thank you for visiting our website. We are a vibrant congregation with daily and Shabbat services. We offer young adult programming, empty nesters and seniors groups, adult Jewish learning opportunities and many other exciting programs. Please contact our membership director to schedule a time to visit our congregation."
This is a fictional welcome message on a synagogue website. However, messages like this can be found all over the Internet. They can be found in introductory pamphlets and can be found printed in weekly and quarterly newsletters. This fictional message expresses WHAT the synagogue does. It offers services and a lot of programming. Yet, it fails to express WHY the synagogue does what it does.
In the well regarded book Start with Why by Simon Sanek (watch a TED talk Simon delivered on the topic) the point is made that all too often our businesses and organizations sell themselves to the wider community with primarily what they do or what they produce. Apple makes excellent computers but that is not why they are the industry leader in personal electronic devices. They don't market their iPhones as simply great phones or their Macbooks as simply great computers but rather they invite the consumer to "think differently" and to join them in fighting against the status quo. Their first and primary message is why they do what they do and only after conveying "the why" do they tell you "the what" it is they actually produce.
What would it looks like for our synagogues to put forth their why before their what. Why do you exist as a synagogue? What is it that you believe as an institution? Why do you have daily services and adult educational programming and Bnai Mitzvah lessons? Imagine a welcome message that looked something like this:
"Thank you for visiting our website. We are a congregation that believes in the vitality of the Jewish people. We believe in working towards a better world and cultivating personalities that are deep with spiritual intention and Jewish wisdom. We do that by offering daily services and adult educational opportunities. We offer empty nesters and seniors groups because we are committed to building the fabric of community that connects one person to another and breaks down the walls of loneliness and isolation. We would love for you to visit our community. Please stop by or send an email to our staff to schedule a time to come by for a conversation on how you can join us in impassioned Jewish living."
Jewish communal life organized around the why can be a powerful vehicle for Jewish engagement and revitalization of our synagogue and institutional Jewish world.
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Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy
Jewish Identity: Asking the Wrong Question
I have been thinking a lot about Jewish identity recently. How do we define our own connection to Judaism? What unites us and what divides us? In what ways do the modes we use to define ourselves become off putting for someone exploring the Jewish community? These are tough questions and with no easy answer. Yet, there is one thing we could begin doing that would make a big impact.
All too often when we are meeting a new person in the context of a Jewish communal event (e.g. college Shabbat dinner, Jewish young adult group, etc.) our question is: What kind of Jew are you? Are you Reform? Are you Orthodox? Do you affiliate with a particular type of synagogue? Perhaps we are asking the wrong question. Instead of attempting to determine how a person Jewishly identifies, we should want to know how they do Jewish. This point was made to me recently by a colleague. As a community we have become too focused on how a person is Jewish and not on what they do Jewish.
This focus on the how is strange considering we are traditionally a religious community defined by our actions more than our beliefs. We are commanded to perform mitzvot. In fact, there is a well known midrash, rabbinic homily, that has God declaring that in a choice between rejecting belief in Him and forsaking the Divine commandments, rather the people keep the commandments. What we do becomes more important than what we believe.
Creating more opportunities for meaningful Jewish engagement that focus on doing Jewish can become a catalyst for further involvement in the Jewish community. Avoiding the questions of Jewish identity can create safe spaces for people to be who they are while still embracing a full spectrum of Jewish actions. The time has come to stop asking how are you Jewish and begin to invite people to do Jewish.
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Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy
Yom Kippur is Finished: Will Your Seat Be Empty Until Next Year?
The majesty and transcendence of the High Holidays are behind us. Rosh Hashanah with its coronation of God and Yom Kippur with the liturgical immersion into the Holy of Holies of the Holy Temple has passed. The machzorim, the special prayer books, have been put back into the storage rooms. The shofar has been put back on to the shelf and the grocery stores will stop ordering extra quantities of apples and honey until next year. That seat you spent so many hours in at synagogue (or the seat that you purchased but barely saw during these past two weeks) will also resume its normal life of being unoccupied. The cushion will resettle, the indentations will be erased and dust will begin to collect. Yet, it doesn't have to be that way.
What would happen if you didn't let your seat at synagogue go unused this new year? What would happen if you came back and visited that seat when no ticket was needed to sit in it. The machzorim are put away but in their stead you will find the siddur, the year round prayer book. Do you believe your experience during the next round of High Holidays would be different if you were more than an annual visitor?
People sometimes compare the High Holidays to the Superbowl. No matter if you are a fan all year or even know the rules of the game there is something captivating about tuning into the game on the big day and knowing you are joining hundreds of millions of other people who are doing the same thing. The comparison has a point but it also falls short.
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are not built like the Superbowl. They are not built with an easy ability to tap into with no prior experience or knowledge. There are no multi-million dollar commercials in the midst of the service or professional athletes facing off against each other. Instead there is the sublime poetry and prose of the prayers. There are the melodies, some very old and some very new, that are meant to enter our heart and soul and move us in a religious experience. There is the introspection and reflection that finds its peak during the High Holidays. This is not the sort of thing that can be readily experienced at its fullest with no prior background. The ticket you purchased gains you entry into the building and a seat to sit on but if that is the only time you sit in that seat all year you very will might find yourself unable to access the moment you have paid for and craving to find some of its relevancy in your life.
So this year let us find time to fill that seat throughout the year. It's alright to dip your toes in gently and build as time progresses. Build familiarity with the rhythm of Jewish ritual and prayer. Stretch those muscles of introspection and reflection. By doing so you may find that the next Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur will be an entirely different experience. Your seat will recognize you, the cushion will not be dusty, the prayer book will be an old friend and the melodies will penetrate your heart and lift you in soulful meaning.
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is finished for the year but your seat will not be lonely for the next eleven months. Shanah Tovah, a good, sweet year of meaning making and spiritual growth to all.
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The Destiny of the American Jewish Community: Assimilation or Isolation?
In the great story of humanity there has always been the forces that compel us to assimilate amongst each other and those that urge us to maintain our differences. When we collapse the contours that are the map of the human family into one straight path our journey becomes simple and uncomplicated. Yet, what do we give up when we venture down the path of assimilation?
When we turn our attention to the Jewish community we find these polarizing forces very much at work. This dilemma has presented itself at numerous junctures in history. Whenever the larger environment was hospitable to Jews, the tension between blending in and maintaining community surfaced.
I would argue that the answer to this question lies between the extremes. In the 19th century European Jewry gave rise to multiple approaches to emancipation. One approach asserted that with a more tolerant society the time has come to withdraw to the most particularistic parts of our selves.
Alternatively, in the first platform of the Reform movement composed in 1885, it was declared: "We recognize in the Mosaic legislation a system of training the Jewish people… and today we accept as binding only its moral laws… but reject all such as are not adapted to the views and habits of modern civilization." Similarly, the early members of Reform hopefully declared that their era was "the modern era of universal culture of heart and intellect."
On one hand, we encounter the forces that would have us all live in complete isolation from the world and on the other hand a movement whose foundation is an embrace of assimilation. Like in so many instances the solution rests in grappling with the liminal space in between the parts.
The answer cannot be assimilation. The four millennia-long journey of the Jewish people has produced ideas worth perpetuating along with a people that can carry forward those ideas. Jews are not a people of monuments but rather a people of ideas. Our greatest contribution to the progressive development of humanity does not exist in architecture but in the shaping of the moral intellect. The very beginning of our people finds itself in a call to "go forth." The map of Jewish experience is shaped by experiences of exile and return, of reaching the promised land only to find ourselves shortly thereafter sitting by the waters of Babylon.
The birthright of the Jewish people is the very ability to live with ideas, to grapple with ideas, to test and retest the contours of moral reasoning. It is the challenge to "go forth" and to discover a touch of the Divine in the spaces we live in and the bodies we exist within.
Yet, this need to perpetuate and grow the legacy must be counter-balanced with engagement. No community exists absent other communities. What are we afraid of? Are we afraid that a tradition that survived the tumult of nearly four thousand years will wither in the face of dialogue? Do we lack that much self-confidence in the vitality of this great experiment initiated by Abraham, continued by Moses and then the Sages and thinkers of every era? A Judaism that exists only for itself fails to exist to its full potential.
When one looks at the results of the 2013 Pew Forum study on the American Jewish community one finds, broadly speaking, two growing and competing trends in the American Jewish landscape. There is an ever-increasing rate of disaffiliation. The "universal culture of heart and intellect" that the early Reformers described has no apparent need for a particularistic identity.
The other trend is a growing rate of Ultra-Orthodoxy. This is the Orthodoxy that argues the answer to modernity is to retreat. In 2012 CitiField was filled with 50,000 members of the haredi community pledging their resistance to the Internet.
These are disturbing trends. What will be left of those who occupy the space in between the parts? What will be left of those who exist firmly planted in the ideas and traditions of Judaism while extending a hand to the world beyond our borders? I am neither a sociologist nor a prophet so the answer to that question will be revealed only by time. What I can do is declare that retreat is not the solution. That liminal space is the birthright of the next generation and all future generations of the Jewish people.
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Jewish Learning Beyond New York: Jewish Learning Everywhere With @OpenSinai
When I was in my final year of rabbinical school I had a remarkable opportunity to spend a weekend in a very small Jewish community in the deep south. It was a beautiful experience with a warm and engaged community and yet I left understanding that there exists a profound inequality of resources and access to Jewish opportunities depending on geography, ability to travel and other factors. I had spent most of my formative Jewish educational life in New York City, one of the largest hubs for rich Jewish learning and growth. I was fortunate to have access to some of the top educators anywhere in the Jewish world. This is not the case for many Jews throughout the world.
What can we do to address this inequality gap? Thankfully with constantly improving technology and the emergence of an entire e-learning sector there now exists the opportunity to put forth a Jewish digital learning platform that is uniquely a Rabbis Without Borders experience. The learning experience will merge Jewish wisdom in all of its depth with openness and pluralism. The educators will be borderless, coming from all walks of life and life experiences. The technology will enable seamless integration of multimedia and real time conversation not just one-directional from the educator to the students but between the educator and the students and between the students themselves.
It is precisely because Rabbis Without Borders pushes its rabbinic participants to think in new ways and to conceive of new tools for bringing Jewish wisdom public that this project is beginning to bear fruit. I was so fortunate to be in the second cohort of the Rabbis Without Borders program when Rabbi Irwin Kula, Rabbi Rebecca Sirbu and Rabbi Brad Hirschfield urged us to consider the blending of technology with tradition and to reflect on the egalitarian access to learning that new media can provide.
It is therefore with great excitement that I am able to share the beginning of a new initiative: OpenSinai.com.
OpenSinai.com is about offering Jewish learning everywhere. It is not about blog posts or articles but about facilitating real-time classes utilizing the best in digital learning technology that allows for meaningful conversations. No matter whether someone lives in the heart of New York City and is looking for a radically pluralistic borderless Jewish learning space or lives in a small community in the Midwest and is looking for Jewish enrichment, OpenSinai.com aims to provide those classes that fills that need.
We are in the beginning stages of the project and each week brings new developments. Visit the website, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and join our e-mail list to get the latest updates and find out when the first classes will be live. If you are an educator thinking about what it would mean to teach in this new space find out more on the website. If you are thinking about this project let us know what you think and get involved and help make it a reality. Let us continue to close the gap between big Jewish centers and Jewish communities throughout the world so that the small southern Jewish community I visited several years ago and all Jews everywhere can grow and deepen their spiritual, religious and intellectual lives.
Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy
What We Need This Tisha B'Av: Respectful Disagreement
The world is in chaos. An airplane with more than 300 people shot down over Ukraine. Hundreds of thousands of people killed in Syria. A fundamentalist Islamist regime has swept through large swaths of Iraq and initiated mass torture, murder and exile of Christians and other non-Muslims. A war between Israel and the terrorist group, Hamas. The exodus of thousands of children from Central America to the United States and the humanitarian crisis along our southern border. The daily deaths of young people from gun violence in our urban centers.
All of these events and even more not mentioned have yielded endless discussions and debates. How to address each conflict? How to handle the humanitarian crisis of Central American children? Who is right? Who is wrong? One can see people vigorously discussing these matters during Shabbat lunches and online through social media. Oftentimes, these discussions become accusatory and disrespectful. We believe so strongly in our position that we become personally offended when one disagrees with us.
The time has come to recommit ourselves to respectful disagreement.
This coming week we will mark the 9th of the Hebrew month of Av. The day is the moment when the Jewish people mourn our losses as a people: The destruction of the Temple (both the first and the second); the exile from our land; the Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades, the Holocaust. We engage in a full day of intensive mourning rituals and powerful liturgy meant to evoke the indescribable horrors in our hearts and minds.
One of the most powerful pieces of liturgy is the Arzei HaLevanon, in which the deaths of some of the brightest, most profound Torah leaders of the Jewish people are recorded in agonizing detail. This is read twice in the Jewish calendar: Once on Yom Kippur and the second time on the 9th of Av. There are slight differences between the two readings. Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik zt"l understands the disparities to indicate a difference between the purposes of the two readings. On Yom Kippur we recount their loss in order to inspire repentance while on the 9th of Av we recount their loss in order to simply mourn what we have lost.
What did we lose? Our tradition teaches us that "Torah scholars increase peace in the world." Maimonides understands this to mean that learning Torah brings more peace into the world than any other pursuit. How is that possible? When one opens up any page of Talmud one will discover it is full of disagreements and arguments!
Perhaps it is because it is not that we argue that is the problem. There will be differences of opinion. People will see things from different vantage points. It is how we argue that is the issue. The very best of the Torah sages, including and most notably the ones we mourn for on the 9th of Av and on Yom Kippur, reflected the very highest ideal of how to hold opinions and disagree with others. They modeled respectful disagreement. On the 9th of Av we cry over their loss. We cry over their horrible deaths and we cry over our failure to live up to the model they set forth.
We are in dark and difficult days. We are inundated with different viewpoints and perspectives thanks to social media and we cannot shy away from these conversations during our social gatherings. This 9th of Av let us reflect on not how to disagree less but how to better and more respectfully disagree.
Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy


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Allergic reaction
I started using OTC Natural Progesterone cream a couple of months ago and around the same time became quite ithcy on my arms and around my mid section. I attributed it to dry skin, since winter was setting in. But about 2 weeks ago, when my doctor switched me from the OTC and put me on a proper dosage (I was just using a dab before, not even a quarter teaspoon), the itching got worse. I even notice some hives. I am sure this is an allergic reaction. I took a Benedryl today during an especially bad attack and within an hour, the itchiness went away. Has anyone ever experienced this. And if so, what can you do? Since I'm using Estriol vaginal cream, I really need to take some progesterone to protect the uterus. Any ideas or suggestions?
Karen, allergies to progesterone are very possble. Some women are even allergic to the progesterone made by their own bodies. This is more common in women who have other autoimmune problems.
Do a google search (www.google.com) using progesterone and allergic skin reactions as your search terms. You'll find a wealth of sites that discuss with problem.
Last summer my gyno put me on progesterone pills for 12 days to try and stop my bleeding. It didn't work, but I did break out in nasty hives all over my body while we were on vacation at the beach (went there 2 days after I started taking the pills). I went to the family doctor when we were home and he said it was sun poisoning (I've never had it in my life) since I'd been at the beach. Now I'm wondering if it really was an allergic reaction since the benadryl gave me some relief.


text: I've ate breakfast at Knight's a couple of times and I have always enjoyed the food and service. I thought I would try lunch with a friend and it was not as good. The service was great as usual and the food was good but not "knock your socks off" must come back. I think I will stick to... read more


text: Spend two-and-a-half hours seeing the city in a really unique way. Cruise the streets with a Seattle music fan and see where it all started for some, and ended for others. Take in and check out the places where your favorite bands paved their way. You'll get to see the first place Pearl Jam played, the bar where Nirvana was kicked out of their own album release party, the Jimi Hendrix statue, all the important clubs and theaters; spots from the movie, Singles; the home where Kurt Cobain died, and more. The tours are small on purpose so you can ask questions and take lots of photos. Book online.


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Local and foreign medical teams prepare to board a Philippines air force C-130 transport plane in Manila, Philippines today in search of victims in the areas devastated by Typhoon Haiyan. Haiyan, one of the strongest storms on record, slammed into six central Philippine islands on Friday leaving a wide swath of destruction and scores of people dead. (AP Photo/Wally Santana)
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Any hope we will get version 1.19 here?
Takes the first game's beloved triad - the powerful knight, the swift rogue, and the crafty wizard - and puts them into an all-new adventure filled with more action, more puzzles, and the introduction of online support for the series's popular cooperative 3-person gameplay.
4 comments by TKAzA on Sep 30th, 2014
If you have ever wanted to mod Trine or develop your own epic platform adventure you can now do just that.
Whilst there is little supporting documentation at the moment, the Frozenbyte guys have given the full in house tools they used to make the games, here's what they say.
The Frozenbyte Editor is a very diverse tool. This is what we use to make games like Trine and Trine 2, and it's based entirely on our own technology. You can now edit existing maps, make new maps and do all kinds of things with it. If this sounds like fun, go a head and play with the features and experiment!
So did we make an easy-to-use version for everyone to enjoy? The answer to that is…not really :) Instead we've opened a wiki page and provided some very basic instructions on how to use our editor. It's an open wiki after you've registered, so anyone can edit and post information, and we hope that people will start to share their knowledge with everyone. We'll also be updating the wiki ourselves and tracking that all the instructions are correct and up-to-date.
So what are you waiting for follow these instructions and jump in.
Instructions for Installing Trine Enchanted Edition Editor
Instructions for Installing Trine 2 Editor
Working on a Trine or Trine 2 mod / total conversion or addon, feel free to submit them to the listing & promote your hard work to the world.
Any hope we will get version 1.19 here?
You can play it on steam
Here is not Steam, but Desura, Its stupid to sell steam keys on desura and ask customers install steam.
The problem is: I bought it here on Desura. Is there a way to get a Trine 2 steam key from Desura?
I dont really know, but It seems like they are lefting behind the non-drm version of the game.
I bought it at humble bundle store and they give me the steam key, but i dont know if you can claim the code whether desura or frozenbyte.
It is pretty shame :(
I got a key from FrozenByte, how can I play it on Linux ?
Desura doesn't accept my key and the official website only let me download the game on Steam or AppStore with links, but I am on Linux !!!
I don't know why, but I can play the 1.19 trine 2 linux version on steam (linux beta), but on desura, you can only play 1.16.
I don't know which version can you download from the humble bundle store page, but I suspect it's going to be 1.16
If there is the 1.19 already, I guess you could be able to grab it from Desura and the humble bundle store. It's my humble opinion.
Latest news on the Expansion: "Most likely beginning of next year for the Linux / DRM free Goblin Menace." - Frozenbyte.com
I dont know why, but you can play the 1.19 linux version on steam (beta linux), instead the Desura's 1.16 version
They need to update the non-DRM versions. The one on Steam uses Steamworks.
Fedora 17_x64 if you got problem to start with optirun bin/trine2_linux_32bit
This worked for me:
cd trine-2/lib/lib32/
cp * /usr/lib
Don't do this.
Highest Rated (5 agree) 10/10
The original was a gem, and the sequel is even better!
Dec 13 2011, 2:08pm by Gaberman
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text:
Rock Crystal
By Adalbert Stifter; Elisabeth Mayer (Translator); Marianne Moore (Translator)
(Pushkin Press, Paperback, 9781901285277, 75pp.)
Publication Date: January 2005
Other Editions of This Title: Paperback, Paperback, Paperback
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This seemingly simple fable of two children lost in an icy landscape is eloquent in its innocence but is implicit with the fragility of life and the inevitability of death. This quasi-fairy tale speaks of village life in the high mountains but is also a parable of belief and faith. Rock Crystal is a Christmas story and a story about the heart of the ice, the crystal.