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SilentmurdrMember Since 07 Jul 2008
Offline Last Active May 04 2013 07:22 PM
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- Group Junkies
- Active Posts 174
- Profile Views 3829
- Member Title Junkie
- Age 25 years old
- Birthday December 9, 1990
Not Telling
Posted PedroMiguel on 14 April 2013 - 05:52 PM
Posted Kettu on 14 April 2013 - 06:22 PM
Posted coldeu on 14 April 2013 - 04:42 PM
windows 7 screen shot
Top secret post
#3785806 No MMR reset. REALLY?
Posted Pitiless on 03 October 2012 - 02:12 AM
#3760315 blizzard mistake[?]
Posted Saikx on 05 September 2012 - 03:39 PM
#3756267 Gladius 5.3 (working)
Posted firebunny on 01 September 2012 - 05:35 AM
Thanks to oppo for halp :>
Fixed all the 5.0 API changes, some UI messups.
Added code so targetbar updates on target change.
The to-do list is now as follows:
Add more spells/auras for detecting player specs (Any help in the form of spec-specific spell names would be greatly appreciated)
Post any issues here if you find them.
Updated with diminishing returns in Gladius from http://www.arenajunk...ating-the-list/
I will keep up to date with the thread and contribute
Added horizontal growth direction.
#3754461 Xandyn's Frost Mage PvP Guide
Posted ardnut on 29 August 2012 - 01:08 PM
(1.1) Talents and glyphs
(1.2) Abilities
(1.3) Macros
(1.4) Gear
(1.5) General playstyle
(1.6) Addons
(1.7) Streams
(1.8) Win trading
(1.9) Hacking your way to rank 1
(1.9b) Why photoshop skills are important in arena
(1.9c)How to DDos
#3753258 Garxz wintrades again!
Posted hertzuk on 28 August 2012 - 03:12 PM
AAAND Garxz is at it again:
were stuck on 2350-2400.
then this happens at 7 am:
leading to their team being added to the long list of teams traded to glad this season on misery, congratulations Garxz, you are awful.
Just thought I'd share.
#3753125 PROOF @hydrahacked
Posted Smygenv on 28 August 2012 - 01:52 PM
Posting for friend who cant post images
#3746971 Another win trader team
Posted Shadowtwist on 20 August 2012 - 01:12 PM
7 - 0 on main team ^
6 - 7 on alt team ^
Seems legit
#3740142 Problems with Mists of Pandaria
Posted Hynníx on 08 August 2012 - 12:38 AM
Hackattack3, on 08 August 2012 - 12:33 AM, said:
I would like to say fuck LFR and let the " realm experience " a bit how it used to be even tho the game changed a lot. As that wont happen cause ey we are dealing with Blizzard then id say you got a really good point even tho LFR shouldnt be as easy as its.
when speaking of old raids aswell this really deserves +++++++
#3739400 Problems with Mists of Pandaria
Posted Shrouds on 06 August 2012 - 10:12 PM
#3737746 Ziqo/Kalimist/Skoe RMP vs LSD2 Talkthrough
Posted Ziqoo on 02 August 2012 - 03:15 PM
#3738190 Forbes report about severe Activision/Blizzard problems
Posted WildeHilde on 03 August 2012 - 10:28 AM
Whenever we see a stock that has 74% of analysts rating it a buy and 26% of analysts rating it a hold we usually get interested in the company. Why is nobody selling? Is the company really that perfect? Can this be the dream stock that we have all been looking for our entire lives?
Probably not!
After looking into Activision Blizzard, Inc. (ATVI), we discovered an amazing looking company that is unfortunately almost completely sustained by the revenue it reaps from one game, World of Warcraft. When considering that the same company has a 60% majority shareholder (Vivendi) looking to sell its shares in the company you get the potential for a catastrophic situation. What if strong competition were to come into the MMORPG space (massively multiplayer online role playing game) and take market share away from World of Warcraft? How long would Vivendi wait before it starts jumping ship on the open market?
Short sellers beware, huge profits may lie ahead.
Vivendi (VIV:PA) is a publicly traded French company that has seen its shares steadily battered for the last three years. The shares have fallen from a high of 23.90 euros all the way down to a low of 12.70 euros, leaving shareholders very angry with management. Fearing for their jobs, management at Vivendi has decided to sell some of their equity interests around the world in an effort to boost their own share price.
Activision was their first logical candidate for sale. The stock has done virtually nothing for the past two years, usually trading in a tight range between $12.50 and $11.50. The only times that we have seen this company spike was when a new hit videogame was released, usually causing the stock to make a sudden 5% jump only to quickly trickle back down over the coming week. Not much can be said about this company in terms of dividends either; the common has a yield of 1.6%.
Vivendi originally tried to sell its majority ownership in the company for a 20% premium on the private market, but even the esteemed bankers at Goldman Sachs and Barclays could not find any takers for this deal. This clearly shows general pessimism regarding ATVI's future. Vivendi then lowered its premium target from 20% to 12% in an attempt to seek an interested party. This failed as well — clearly not a vote of confidence from the market.
So now we must ask the question, how long will Vivendi be willing to hold its stake in ATVI if the company's stock starts falling? Since management cannot find a buyer for their stake in ATVI on the private market, will they simply watch their company's share price decline along with Activision's? That seems unlikely.
So now the question becomes – what will cause ATVI's stock price to decline so sharply that it would force Vivendi to begin selling its majority stake in the company on the open market?
World of Warcraft (WoW) has helped ATVI maintain its stock price, with this one single game providing roughly 30% of the revenue for the entire company via its expansion packs and monthly payments. Subscription revenue alone totaled $1.2 billion both in 2008 and 2009, and an additional $1.36 billion in 2010. Corresponding costs (the overhead cost of maintaining WoW's virtual world) totaled a mere $404 million in the first two years mentioned, and $241 million in 2010. This means that WoW subscriptions have generated gross margins over 80% consistently. Since WoW has very high operating leverage any decline in revenue will have dramatic effects on the bottom line.
Guild Wars 2 is a fierce competitor that is creeping up on Activision's WoW title at the end of August 2012 that we believe many investors have not factored into their ATVI recommendations. Guild Wars 2 has already been ruled by many on blogs and discussion boards as superior to WoW just based on the experience gamers shared while playing the Guild Wars 2 beta. Competition seems to be coming in strong indeed against WoW. Guild Wars was developed by ArenaNet, which is owned by South Korean-based NCsoft.
To play Guild Wars 2, all you need to do is pay $60 for a copy of the game and you no longer have to pay any monthly fees. WoW requires an initial purchase of $60 and a payment of $15 per month just to play the game. Guild Wars 2 will has the potential to attract many of the new MMORPG players that have been stuck in limbo since titles like RIFT (developed by Trion Worlds founded by former Electronic Arts and NCsoft employees), AION (developed by NCsoft), and Star Wars failed to take-off and beat WoW. What we have now is an entire generation of gamers that tried to switch from WoW to a new MMORPG but found themselves exactly where they started due to lackluster titles being released. With the release of a new game that has better graphics and better gameplay than WoW, one would be hard pressed to find reasons why gamers would not make the switch.
ATVI acknowledges the risk of WoW experiencing greater competition, without specifically pointing to Guild Wars 2:
The bottom line here is that gamers like to start on level playing fields. Gamers love to save money. Gamers are always in a frantic rush to play superior games. These three factors are the main reasons why Guild Wars 2 will win over market share from WoW.
Let's examine what would happen to ATVI's business if WoW subscription and software sales were to decline by an estimated 25%. We believe this to be a conservative estimate because games like EA's new Star Wars MMORPG have had a significantly greater turnover than 25% in the first 6 months since the game was released.
This is a clear example of how bad games fail and how subscribers tend to voice their preference rather quickly and mercilessly. We estimate that ATVI's gross profit of the subscription business could drop to $779 million from the current $1.12 billion and software gross profit could drop to $75 million from $100 million if a mere 25% of current subscribers stop playing WoW. With the combination of these numbers, we project ATVI could experience a drop of up to $366 million in gross profit in the 6 months following the release of Guild Wars 2 at the end of August 2012.
The consensus target from analysts for ATVI is $15.59 for the current fiscal year. The stock is currently trading at 11.85x forward P/E. Given our projection that WoW will lose 25% of its subscribers to Guild Wars 2 in the current fiscal year we are looking at a potential $9 stock. Of course ATVI also creates beloved games such as Call of Duty, Starcraft, and Diablo, making the stock hard to short in the minds of many investors. We simply wish to remind readers that these games are merely one-time cash injections that tend to make ATVI go up on quarterly earnings, but investors can generally expect to see the company drop back to its lows within the same week. The fact is that ATVI's revenue and margins are completely being held up by WoW: If those go down, so does ATVI.
Now once the stock goes to $9, what do you think Vivendi is going to do? A company that has seen its shares fall by over 45% in the last 3 years is not going to just sit back and watch billions of dollars erode from their balance sheet. If Vivendi cannot find a buyer on the private market, and we are confident that they will be unable to do so, then management will begin selling their position in ATVI on the open market in order to avoid heavy losses. This is where the real money will be made. If we were to see Vivendi selling even 10% of their position on the open market the damage to the stock would be devastating.
Even though Vivendi is currently exploring several options to raise its stock price, we ask you to make a simple judgment call here. If you were Vivendi, would you not sell a company that is losing massive percentages of market share to its competitors? If you were on the management team of Vivendi would you honestly not cut your losses by selling ATVI when the chief game of the company suddenly begins failing to competition? Management departments at both firms have been warned and short sellers should stand ready to act after ATVI reports on August 2nd during afterhours. Let the bulls bid up the stock based on the record breaking Diablo 3 sales, it only helps to mask the coming fundamental problem of the business.
#3712408 Frost Mage PvP Guide
Posted Xandyn on 09 June 2012 - 08:44 PM
Xandyn has gotten many Rank one titles, played with all the big name players on both EU and US realms. He has played in many online tournaments as well as Blizzard Battle.net regionals in 2011. Recently he won the Yaspresents 3v3 tournament playing RMP.
His highest rating playing Warrior/Mage/Priest (Barburas/Zunniyaki) has been 3185 in the Vicious season, RMP (Khuna/Zunniyaki) – 3100, and MLS (Flubbah/Inflame) – 2800.
What to expect in the guide:
- Useful guidelines for both beginner and veteran Frost Mages
- Tips and tricks how to use your abilities and spells correctly
- Procs management and efficient damage dealing
- Common misconceptions of the Mage class
- Some tips for all classes, not only Mages (section 1.5)
(1.1) Talents and glyphs
(1.2) Abilities
(1.3) Macros
(1.4) Gear
(1.5) General playstyle
(1.6) Addons
(1.7) Streams
1.1 Talents
2/8/31 is the standard Frost Mage talent specialization that is applicable to most comps and is strong against most setups, however there are some tweaks you can make if you know what kind of teams you're going to be playing against:
If you are certain that you are facing a team that will tunnel you, especially Hunter/Warrior/Rogue comps, take a point out of Impact and get 2/2 Blazing Speed instead.
If you know you will face a team where you will have to Spell Steal a lot (MLS, Shadowplay, etc), you should put 2 points in Master of Elements and go only 1/3 in Burning Soul.
I strongly advice against using Shattered Barrier talent no matter what the case is, a controlled root will always be better than a somewhat RNG root. Piercing Chill is waste of talent points as well.
Glyph of Frostbolt (IMPORTANT: If you are facing a wizard cleave such as Shadowplay or MLS, it's a very good idea to swap Frostbolt glyph for Mage Armor glyph, since you should rarely cast Frostbolt vs these comps. Spell Stealing is very important vs Shaman wizard cleaves, thus the extra mana regen is amazing. Read more on that later on in the guide. In particular, I have used the Mage Armor glyph vs Team EG's Shadowplay in the Yaspresents tourney, and it helped me a lot.
Glyph of Frostfire
Glyph of Ice Lance
Glyph of Polymorph (Swap this to Glyph of Evocation, if you know you will be tunneling one target entire game, or if every bit of survival will help you against certain burst comps like RMP/KFC, etc.)
Glyph of Frost Armor (Swap this to Glyph of Blink, if you are against a wizard cleave setup, or you can swap this to Glyph of Evocation if you want to keep Glyph of Polymorph, either Evocation/Polymorph/Ice Barrier or Evocation/Blink/Ice Barrier if you don't need to sheep.)
Glyph of Ice Barrier (DO NOT swap this, this glyph is necessary.)
Glyph of Slow Fall
Glyph of Armors
Glyph of Arcane Brilliance
1.2 Abilities
In this section, I'll describe how to use your abilities correctly/efficiently, and what are the best situations to use them. A lot of important Mage gameplay is described in this part of the guide, so don't skip this!
Arcane Brilliance – Though often overlooked, is an extremely powerful buff that gives you extra damage, and should be recast a lot once dispelled. Get a comfortable bind for this and be able to rebuff it quickly when it gets dispelled from you or even your teammates.
Counterspell – This spell is mostly used as an interrupt, however I do not feel that is the correct way to use it in the current meta game. You're mostly better off on using this ability to silence someone for 4 seconds at a time of your choosing. Even a lot of Rank 1 Mages are always so eager to CS someone on cast, but rarely do they think beforehand if it's going to change anything in the game pace. Consider holding your CS in examples such as these: if the enemy Mage is casting a non-shatter Frostbolt, everyone on your team is 100% health, or the enemy mage is casting a Polymorph on you, which can be easily dispelled by your healer. Why would you waste the CS? Hold it and thus save the cooldown of CS and allowing you to use it in a time of your own choosing).
Usually it's much more powerful/beneficial to use the Counterspell in order to blanket silence. For example when Warlock pops Demon Soul/trinket macro, you silence him and dispel it before he can get any dots off or soulswap, rather than counterspelling on cast. Silencing the enemy Mage once he Deep Freezes someone in your team to prevent any Ice Lances/instants is also a very strong tactic. Silencing a priest/paladin after a CC chain is much better than saving it for an interrupt, and the list goes on. Do not think of this as an interrupt with a situational silence, it's a silence with a VERY situational interrupt. (I can easily say that only 30% of my CS's are used to interrupt an actual cast).
Evocation – When glyphed, use this if you're about to die and got nothing better to cast (i.e. nova, deep freeze). Keep in mind the first tick is instant so you can abuse this to get a free heal at a crucial situation.
Invisibility – You should use this when gates open, to get the opening Pet Freeze – Frostbolt combo. Good players will CS you on your Frostbolt, even if you cast it out of invisibility by using the Arena1/2/3 CS macro. If you are playing with a stealth class, you can prevent this by casting invisibility shortly before the gates open, so they can't know which Arena target you are, so they won't be able to spam the macro. Note that you can outrange Felhunter counter spell, as your Frostbolt has 40 yards range, whereas Felhunter has only 30 yards range. You can also use line of sight creatively not to get CS'd on your opening shatter. It's very important in the current meta-game to get the first shatter, as it can drop someone to 30-40% with it's ridiculous burst damage. Remember to use the on-use effect Trinket before your first shatter combo.
Mage Ward – Spam cast this against any caster teams, helps out your healer loads by absorbing damage.
Mana Shield – I can't tell you how much this ability is underrated and overlooked! This is just as good as Ice Barrier, but I don't see many Mages using this correctly! You should be SPAMMING this spell whenever someone is on you. Learn to use your novas/ice lances as well as spamming this spell meanwhile, as long as someone is going for you, you should be using this ON cooldown. It absorbs almost as much damage as Ice Barrier does, if used on cooldown. If you use Mana Gem/Evocation correctly, you will never have mana issues even when spamming this spell. Your mana pool on live servers is too large to go OOM with the armor mana regeneration you get.
A lot of people ask me, how I manage to survive more than other mages, when having so little resilience, and this spell is the answer, use it!
Mirror Image – I use this 99% of the time with my Ring of Frost. Say if you're going for an enemy healer and you use RoF + Mirror Images, it's going to be very hard for him to escape all the slows/snares and whatnot, I also like the fact that Mirror Images + RoF equals a mess on the enemy screen and it can confuse the enemy, even the advanced players. The extra slow from the Mirror Images can also act as dispel protection for Ring of Frost.
Polymorph – Do not attempt to cast this if you know the enemy team has an interrupt ready (Grounding, CS, Spell Lock, Wind Shear, etc). Cast this on the healer if you know they have no interrupts available and can't LOS (line of sight, pillar) it either. I usually use it together with Deep Freeze, wait until the enemy team uses counter spell, Deep Freeze their healer, and Sheep him.
Alternatively you can also use Pet Freeze/Nova and Blanket CS on the healer to keep him in place as you sheep, just do not attempt this if the enemy team has an interrupt ready for you, or you will waste your CS.
I see a lot of Mages casting a Deep Freeze on my healer, then proceeding to fake cast a Polymorph, but you are supposed to fake my counter spell before you use the Deep Freeze, or you waste the cooldown without getting your Polymorph off.
Also use Polymorph a lot when you want to get Cross-CC/Double CC (for example a healer is in a stun, while his teammate is polymorphed, or vica versa). Your job in RMP/MLS/FMP is to do a lot of damage AND setup double/cross-CC chains.
In competitive play, I have to setup a lot of cross-CC for my team, we lock down the enemy Healer, as I sheep or Deep Freeze someone else in their team. You can even create double CC situations alone, on your own: Sheep/Nova the DPS and then quickly Deep Freeze the Healer (use Deep Freeze Arena1/2/3 macros for this) before he can dispel the sheep! Double CC/Cross-CC is extremely strong vs good teams and is the key in getting ahead.
Slow Fall – Though you rarely have the globals for this, it is useful to toss on yourself before you use second Icy Veins, so it's less likely to get dispelled as Slow Fall is a magic buff. You can also cover your Ice Barrier/Mage Ward/Mana Shield with it, but I rarely use it because of the global trade-off.
Spellsteal – This is probably my most used spell after Ice Lance. This spell actually deals damage against any Shaman/Priest team, and you have to realize this in order to be a good Cataclysm Frost Mage. Riptide does a ridiculous amount of healing over time, and Power Word: Shield also absorbs 30k~ damage. Getting those spells dispelled is often equivalent to doing damage.
A lot of the time you have no Fingers of Frost proc to cast an Ice Lance, that's where you use Spellsteal. When dispelling a Riptide or a Shield, you are actually 'dealing damage'.
Avoid casting a cast a Shatter combo/FoF Ice Lance into a shielded target. If the enemy doesn't have many trash debuffs, just try to steal their shield. It's generally a good idea to clean off somebody from buffs against Priest/Shaman teams using Spellsteal, so that later on, when you are dealing burst damage and creating pressure, you will be able to dispel Riptide/Shield much easier.
My games usually go like this: Open with Pet Freeze Shatter combo and use the Frost Fire Orb, use up the FoF procs from the Frost Fire Orb, Frost Nova and Cone of Cold as many targets as possible, use up FoF procs again if any, and then proceed to strip their buffs off.
Fire Blast – Create a focus macro for this, when you are riding/tunneling a healer and your teammate gets juked or faked, it's very effective to use Impact stun to prevent the next cast from going off. Use it after stuns too, to create a longer lockout and holds targets in place.
Sometimes you can Frost Nova a healer, put RoF around them, and if they are slow to dispel/don't dispel, or are stuck in GCD, you can count on using Impact on them before to get them stuck in a full Ring of Frost.
I also use this spell very often on Shadow Priests. Say it's a Shadowplay and you're training the enemy Shaman, Focus cast this on the Priest whenever available to interrupt his casts, Shadow Priests have the largest damage dealing spells in the game (Mind Spike, Mind Blast), so a simple focus Impact can save your team 50k health. Huge!
Frostfire Bolt – Use this proc whenever you have Brain Freeze up, HOWEVER, it is very important to never cast this if you know it won't benefit from Shatter. And what I mean by this is that you should only cast this if target is Frozen by a Nova or you have FoF proc up, otherwise it's a huge damage loss, since it scales so well with mastery/crit modifiers.
Frostfire Orb – This is hands down your highest damage ability. It's very important to utilize this spell correctly in order to deal more damage than any other Mage out there. This gives you INSANE procs (both FoF and Brain Freeze). Use this every 60 seconds, if you delay the usage of this, spell you lose TREMENDOUS amounts of damage, it's more important than anything else damage wise.
Make sure to use it on something that will give 100% uptime, because it's possible to run away from it, often the best target is an enemy pet. Use it on Water Elementals, Fel Hunters, or on rooted/stunned targets. You can Frost Nova a Warlock's pet, then use this on it. Also use it together with Ring of Frost to prevent enemies from kiting it. Don't forget to use it as soon as it's up! This spell lets you do an incredible amount of damage.
My first Frostfire Orb is cast on the healer if we open on him, because healer will be stuck in Cheap Shot, Kidney and Garrote, therefore he won't be able to run out from my Orb. I cast it on enemy pets otherwise, or when we Deep/Kidney someone, you can use also this sometimes to slow down/kite melee for a long time too.
Cold Snap – Try and time this ability intelligently: make sure you use Ice Barrier/Icy Veins/Novas and most importantly Frostfire Orb before using Cold Snap, but obviously don't die without blocking due to this. Ice Block is the priority for Cold Snap usage.
If you used your first Ice Block, try using all your cooldowns that you have left in the Frost tree, and then Cold Snap to reset them, then instantly use the cooldowns once again. That's the best management you can have, and that way you can get 2x Frostfire Orb, 2x Cone of Cold, 2x Deep Freeze, many Novas, crazy control and damage! Double Deep Freeze? Not only in Gameking movies. I've had countless of situations where I Deep Froze the enemy healer, then Cold Snaped and Deep Froze their DPS to save my teammates.
Don't get in a situation where you are very low health, and have to Cold Snap for a block, you risk of getting globaled or risk not being able to press the two buttons at once. Just use it before that situation occurs as there is no point saving it after cooldowns + first Ice Block has been used.
Cone of Cold – Also a very high damage ability (proc based), however mostly only used for kiting by Mages :(. Don't!
You can use this to get one Shatter Ice Lance on a Healer, or you can use this to and try catch as many targets with it to get massive Fingers of Frost procs (my style).
You should aim to use this ability on cooldown when slaying healers. Go on top the enemy healer, their DPS/pets will most likely be stacked together, and then Cone of Cold as many targets as you possibly can. This is very good vs pet classes especially.
One Cone of Cold can actually proc 2x Fingers of Frost if you hit many targets. The cooldown on it is ridiculously low, this spell and Frostfire Orb is how I manage to deal insane amounts of damage without casting, proc management using these spells is insanely important.
Try to always position yourself in melee range of your kill target. Even if it's a class such as a Rogue, you want to be in close range so you can Frostfire Orb/Cone of Cold without much effort. Of course you can play more defensively and stay back, but I rarely do this, simply because it's quite easy to kite/survive against melee if you know how.
Deep Freeze – If you're using this ability on someone offensively, to kill him, try your best to use it when the enemy lockouts/interrupts are down and you have a fast Frostbolt availible. Early Frost - Frostbolt is devastating in a Deep Freeze, the most damage you can do is Icy Veins – Early Frost Frostbolt & Frostbolt & Lance/Lance. But be cautious, you should try and make sure that you can actually cast before using it, or you will lose a lot of potential damage if you get locked out along with the Deep Freeze cooldown.
When I Deep Freeze, it is actually one of these rare situations where I do go for a cast, however I always make sure that the enemy has little ways to interrupt me. Force or fake their lockouts/interrupts before, then use the Deep Freeze, pop some Icy Veins and pew pew! Your teammates will be surprised as you kill a target by yourself.
You can of course use this ability and only spam Ice Lance into it, but it is way less damage and only good if you can't get the interrupts used easily and need the damage desperately. Ice Lance doesn't do that much damage without Fingers of Frost (FoF increases Ice Lance damage).
If you're using this ability to CC, you should still make sure that they can't interrupt you, so you can get the Polymorph off. It's NOT the time to fakecast during the Deep Freeze, do it beforehand unless of course you're just Deep Freezing without the intention to actually cast a Polymorph. (Deep Freeze & Ring of Frost or Deep Freeze & Fear is very good vs RMP or Shaman Teams).
A very efficient playstyle to master when you play RMP/MLS and go for the enemy DPS is to make sure your Priest/Warlock is somewhat close to the enemy healer (communicate), and then Deep Freeze their healer. This will ensure your Priest/Warlock can get an easy Fear on their healer without wasting his time, getting kited or dodged. This is very strong, and requires no casting whatsoever for a 13 second CC chain. You can do every 30 seconds, cool stuff.
Frost Nova – nothing to add here really, just make sure that you spam this ability on cooldown when training a Healer, Frost Nova and Ice Lance = free damage if Nova is not broken.
Frostbolt – I pretty much only cast this when Early Frost is ready, either in Deep Freeze or to get a FoF proc/slow the target from range. Don't bother with this spell too much, if you are rotating Frost Novas, Frostfire Orb, Cone of Cold, Spell Steal and Deep Freeze well, you should almost never have any GCDs/time free to cast this.
Ice Barrier – just use this on cooldown when someone is on you, nothing else to add here.
Ice Block – try to use this when you're at around 30-40% health, when someone is on you or you heavy DoTs on you.
You can also use it to avoid/prevent damage, however you have to be certain that the damage will actually come. For example if a rogue is using Cloak + Shadow Dance on you, it means that the damage will be pretty much unavoidable, unless you get Leaph of Faith by your Priest. If your healer wants to save cooldowns/mana, you can Ice Block the Shadow Dance, however ONLY if your healer is doing bad on mana/cooldowns, and there are of course more situations like this, not only Shadow Dance.
Don't use this to break CC, unless you are 120% certain that you won't get swapped to later on in the game and suffer badly because of it.
Ice Lance – this is your most important spell by far. I spam this forever and ever. Sometimes it's even worth to cast this when you have no Fingers of Frost or Shatter benefit available, imagine this in a situation:
You try to cast Frostbolt and you get interrupted by Wind Shear or you fake it.
You try to cast Frostbolt again, you get interrupedt by Warlock CS or you fake it.
You try to cast Frostbolt again, and it goes to Grounding.
You finally cast Frostbolt, you deal 10,000 damage.
This process takes a very long time, meanwhile in that time, you could have casted non-crit/non-shatter Ice Lance 4-5 times, and do around 25-17k damage, way more than your one Frostbolt would do. The moral of this is don't attempt to cast when it's not efficient to do so, especially if the enemy team has a lot of interrupts ready, unless of course you are trying to 'bait' or 'force' the interrupts so that your Healer could cast freely after.
I sometimes cast Frostbolt on the sole purpose of getting interrupted, so that I can after easily cast a Polymorph or so that my healer could heal without being afraid to get locked.
Icy Veins – 99% of the time I find myself using this out of Invisibility to deal early damage, simply because it saves so much time with the global cooldowns (global cooldown - a short cooldown on all your spells after you cast any spell, so you can't cast another one immediately after, usually it's 1.5s long).
Most likely at the start of a game you will find yourself casting a lot of instants, Ice Lance, Frostfire Bolt, Novas, Spellsteal (to clean buffs), this will likely cost you a lot of globals and time. Icy Veins reduces your global cooldown time, thus making it a great spell to use even when you don't plan on casting. The second Icy Veins (the one after the Cold Snap) is usually used when a kill situation is coming.
Ring of Frost – I use this in these situations:
- When we open on enemy healer, and I manage to catch their DPS in Novas/Pet freeze. I use Ring of Frost around the Healer once he's opened on, because he will have a hard time escaping the ring, and the DPS will have a hard time entering inside of the Ring to peel/help their healer using AoE CC such as Howl of Terror, Warrior fear, etc. Sometimes at the start of a game, I catch all the DPS/some DPS in roots next to their Healer while the healer is sapped/stunned, then I lay down a Ring of Frost on the DPS who is rooted and we proceed to kill their Healer. Chances are RoF will freeze the DPS and will prevent Healer from escaping fast.
- I am a big fan of using Frost Nova on a Healer, into Silence - Improved Counterspell, and laying down a RoF on top of them so it hits them, this results in 12 second CC, and the only possible way to escape it is to get Freedom or with Gnome racial. (Well, you can get dispelled as a healer by Shadow Priest too, but that's all).
- I also use it just to Deep and RoF the healer for 5+4 second CC chain, cool stuff, useful, but not as strong as Nova + Improved CS & RoF.
- I use Ring of Frost on top of a Smoke Bomb, to prevent people from entering it.
Summon Water Elemental – make sure to cast the first when you enter Arena, to have the lower cooldown on it, in case it gets killed.
1.3 Macros
I will talk about some good macros that a Mage should use in this section. Strongly suggest you to read this section, macros are very important to a good Mage's playstyle.
First off, I highly suggest to find binds for Targeting and Focusing arena1/2/3. This is extremely important, no matter what the case is, pressing a key will always be faster than clicking, and changing your Target/Focus fast is EXTREMELY important in Arena. I'd say it's completely necessary to bind Focus arena1/2/3 and VERY important to bind Target arena1/2/3.
Here's the macro I use for Target/Focus management:
/focus [mod:alt,@arena1][] %f /target [nomod,@arena1][] %tMake three of these macros, change arena1 to arena2 and arena3 on each. Change [mod:alt] to your preferred modifier: [mod:ctrl, mod:shift, mod:alt].
I prefer to use binds: 1, 2, 3 to Target arena1/2/3 and binds: alt 1, alt 2, alt 3 to Focus arena1/2/3.
If you are going to bind/use both Target and Focus arena1/2/3, make sure you use the same bind with a modifier for Focus and Target. I highly suggest to use a very comfortable/fast and horizontal bind setup for this, such as 1 – 2 – 3. F1/F2/F3 is crap unless the F's are close to your numbers (on some keyboards). Invest time in configuring your binds so that you have the space for this.
I am a big fan of Arena1/2/3 macros, which I will list below, in an importance order.
Deep Freeze – Arena 1/2/3
Polymorph – Arena1/2/3
Counterspell – Arena1/2/3 (it's very important to have this to be able to Counterspell an opener cast from a Druid or a Mage. Say a Druid casts a Cyclone out of his Stealth or a Mage casts a Frostbolt out of Invisibility, if you spam CS arena1/2/3 you will get his cast locked.
The way this works is like this: when the game starts, you will see 3 frames, then Mage goes invisible, and you see that Arena 3 frame is gone, so that's is the Mage's frame. Spam your Arena3 CS and you will get his first Frostbolt locked instantly, because the first spell he will cast is a Frostbolt!
Fireblast – Arena1/2/3 (okay, this is hardcore, but I like to be super efficient, I have trained my binds very well and use them all with great comfort, I don't suggest using this one).
The reason why you use arena1/2/3 macros:
- It's easier to execute cross-CC or double-CC. I've talked about before, when you press Polymorph - arena3 and then spam Deep Freeze arena 1 as you do it, you will end up sheeping one person and Deep Freezing the other guy instantly after that!
- Sometimes you can't afford to swap your Focus to somebody you want to Sheep/Deep/CS, because you need to look out for some particular debuff/cast on your current Focus. For example, you don't want to lose your focus on Shadow Priest vs Shadowplay, because in the case Shadowpriest pops his burst (wings, trinket, orb) you want to be able to Deep Freeze/CS him and Spellsteal his wings as soon as possible, but you might not notice this happening at all if you swap focus to the Warlock of Shadowplay to sheep him. You just gain more controlled awareness if using arena1/2/3 macros.
/cast [@arena1] Polymorph /cast [@arena2] Polymorph /cast [@arena3] Polymorph
Change Polymorph to Deep Freeze or Counterspell for the other spells.
My binds for arena1/2/3 spells are setup like this:
My caps lock is modified (using http://code.google.com/p/keymapper/) to work as CTRL, so my CTRL does nothing, and my Caps Lock works as CTRL instead. I love Caps Lock position more than CTRL position on keyboard.
Caps Lock QWE – CS Arena1/2/3
Caps Lock ASD – Deep Arena1/2/3 (notice how close Caps Lock is to ASD)
Shift ZXC – Fireblast Arena1/2/3
Shift ASD – Polymorph Arena1/2/3
There is one more important macro that works kind of like arena 1/2/3 macro: Remove Curse player/party1/party2. This is to dispel your Curse of Tongues/Bane of Agony, and to dispel Hex from your teammates quickly!
/cast [@player] Remove Curse /cast [@your healer name] Remove Curse /cast [@your DPS name] Remove CurseAvoid using Party1/2 in the macro and use the real name instead, as the party number gets swapped around randomly when you join arena, so it's not always the same.
My binding for this is similar to the arena1/2/3 binds – it's Caps Lock 1/2/3.
Ice Block macro, you will want to have set up just like this:
/stopcasting /cast !Ice Block^ for the actual Ice Block
And then to cancel Ice Block quickly, have this:
/cast Ice Lance /run UIErrorsFrame:Hide() /dismount /cancelaura Invisibility /cancelaura Hand of Sacrifice /cancelaura Ice BlockThis is used because you want to be able to cancel your Ice Block fast sometimes. However it's a VERY bad idea to put the cancelaura Ice Block macro in the actual Ice Block macro, because if you are a button basher like 99% of WoW players you will accidentally cancel it and get yourself killed.
Burst Macro:
#showtooltip icy veins /use icy veins /use 10 /use 13Just typical stuff really, 13 = trinket slot 1, 10 = your gloves engineering enchant. I have a separate bind for the on-use trinket, gloves and Icy Veins, however I also have a bind for all-in-one, new mages or mages who lack binds, can easily use the all in one macro above :).
Make a Focus Fireblast macro for stunning the heals/big burst casts:
/cast [@focus] Fire Blast
Pet freeze / summon pet macro:
#showtooltip Freeze /dismount /cast [pet] Freeze /cast [nopet] Summon Water Elemental /petattack
I have my pet set on passive, and whenever I shatter someone my pet will attack it. This is a very efficient/easy way to control your pet. I also have pet follow and pet move bound. Pet follow to call my pet back in case of CC, and pet move to take Hunter Traps with my Elemental or to LoS/kite with my elemental if it is getting killed. Some new Mages may want to put /petfollow in their Polymorph macro so the pet stops attacking automatically once you Sheep to prevent any breaks on it. I prefer to just have a separate bind for pet follow though. It just became a habit for me to mash my pet follow whenever Khuna calls a Blind or whenever I sheep someone.
You can use this to unsummon your pet
/script PetDismiss()It's not very much useful anymore, however,before some patch, you were able to resummon your pet to reset Pet Freeze cooldown. Can I mention how much I loved this? A lot! Yeah :(. It set a very good Mage apart from a good Mage, rotating your cooldowns along with resummon of the pet was a huge damage increase. Using this technique I would never run out of FoF procs, it was insane, damn you Blizzard! (for nerfing the skill-cap, however the damage nerf was deserved :D)
However that put aside, this is STILL useful to have sometimes when;
- Your pet is stuck in some bad position and someone like a moonkin is charging an eclipse on your pet
- Your pet is stuck in some bad position and warlock is dotting him up for a soulswap
Spellsteal macro & Spellsteal Focus:
/cast Spellsteal /cancelaura Hand of Sacrifice /cancelaura Mana Shield
/cast [@focus] Spellsteal /cancelaura Hand of Sacrifice /cancelaura Mana Shield
And then lastly Focus sheep, Focus Deep macros:
/cast [@focus] Polymorph
/cast [@focus] Deep Freeze
1.4 Gear
My guide to gearing a mage in S11 - click to view.
My offensive RMP gear on live armory.
My offensive RMP gear on live different char armory.
offensive RMP gear on Arena Pass, Undead, armory.
Offensive RMP gear on Arena Pass, Human, armory.
DEFENSIVE RMP gear on Arena Pass, Gnome, armory. I'm only Gnome to counter KFC. Notice the Blazing Speed 2/2. For defensive gear just use Human and change medallion for on-proc resilence trinket.
It's a no secret that I'm a huge fan of PvE gear and offensive gearing for Mage. This is because I feel like for RMP you only need the Resilience to survive during the time of Hypothermia debuff. If you don't die without getting to use second Ice Block, then you all good resilience wise for RMP. It's of course very situational, I just prefer to run low resilience.
This depends a lot on your healer, you can't run low resilience with an average Healer, you can't run low resilience with average RMP with little CC, or an average Rogue. You need a very good team to pull it off. You also need to be an experienced Mage player to run low resilience. Practice your survival with higher resilience before you dip lower.
HOWEVER, for MLS/FMP I strictly recommend only using full resilience gear, similar to my Gnome gear on Arena Pass setup. You want to be tanky for MLS and you want to have long games and win by outlasting the enemy team.
1.5 General playstyle
Now that you've got a solid understanding of your abilities, your macros are set, and you have a good idea on how to gear, I may as well give you few tips on general playstyle, I can't tell you much however, because most has been covered in the abilities (1.2) section. Knowing how and when to use your abilities contributes a lot to your playstyle, hence why a lot of it is written there.
Remember one thing when playing Mage; the way Cataclysm is and the way Mage talents/mastery scaling is – your role is OFFENSIVE caster DPS. Even when gearing defensively, you are only doing that so that you can play more offensively without taking as much damage/being more safe.
You contribute the most to your team by dealing incredible burst damage. Damage is the most important aspect of this expansion, the more you can do the better you are. Remember every CC you cast, every spell you cast, should be directed towards offensive play.
There are situations where you have to peel to save your teammates, but it's not your primary role. Taking spells like Avenging Wrath (Paladin wings) is super important, but don't forget the fact – the more offensively you are able to play, the more of an use you are. Spend the least amount of time possible peeling for your teammates.
Be efficient with your peels/defensive play. Don't just Polymorph when it will get dispelled instantly, that's just wasting your time. There is huge difference between effective and useless/wasted CC. Don't waste your time casting useless CC that will get dispelled, when your team needs a peel/help your first job is to CC the enemy healer, then peel with sheep/novas on the DPS. Use Deep Freeze/CS on the healer to prevent dispels when you have to help your teammates in emergency situations.
The only times that you should peel without CCing the healer first is when you know 1 second free window will save your team mate.
Let's say Warrior is using Recklessness on my Priest and my Priest gets Throwdown at 30% health. I would sheep the Warrior even if it's get dispelled. It helps my priest survive right there, whereas if I went to CC the Healer first and then after went for the Sheep on the Warrior my priest probably would have died during that time.
However the most effective peeling/control you can have is double CC/cross CC. Utilize this, remember to Deep/CS the healer and then Sheep/Nova the DPS. Blind/Fear the healer, Sheep /Nova/Deep Freeze the DPS. Work on your double, even triple CC. Control is the key in getting ahead if you can't do enough damage.
Don't fall too much into the casting business. The less you cast the more effective you are. A Mage has a lot of tools and abilities that allow you to almost never have to cast in order to deal damage. Use this to your own advantage as instant damage is unstoppable/unpreventable damage and can't be expected as easily.
Remember – the closer you are to your kill target, the more damage you will do because you will able to use Cone of Cold and Frost Nova offensively to get extra Fingers of Frost procs or Shatter Ice Lances. You will also be able to pull off better Frostfire Orbs, and that's your primary damage ability.
If you play with a Rogue, Cone of Cold root is A LOT of help for your Rogue, especially when he is getting kited by the healer. It can give him enough time to catch up on him.
Therefore we can sum up that the closer you are to your enemy, the more offensive and effective you are. And offensive is the key to playing Mage.
If you have nothing to do, just Spell Steal your kill target, it's extremely helpful when you have all your cooldowns down / are out of procs / can't cast due to interrupts.
During any free globals make sure you clean yourself from Curse of Tongues, even if you're not planning to cast, the GCD (global cooldown) reduction is far too heavy and you need to dispel them.
Be unpredictable with your Counterspell, CS the very start of the cast, later, CS at the very end, after that CS in the middle of the cast, then blanket CS even, just to confuse the living hell out of your enemy. Tthis will give you an advantage if you are facing the same enemy over and over again, or having a long game.
Don't bother fake casting too much, it's overrated. Cast spells if you have to until you get locked, after you get locked spam instants on the school you didn't get locked on (so if you're locked on Frost – spam Spellsteal, if you're locked on Arcane – spam Ice Lance/Novas). Most average/good players are too ready for fake casting anyway and you can sit and fakecast for a really long time.
Look at this way: you are facing a good player, you fake cast and he falls for it, you win some time because of this. You fake cast again, he doesn't fall for it anymore, then you fake cast again, he doesn't fall for it again, then you go for real cast and he CS's you full, and you're doomed, and you've wasted so much time. I can almost assure you if we were to do an analysis about which player will cast more spells during a game, the one who fakes or the one who just goes for the casts – the one who just goes for the casts will win by far.
Only fake cast if you are certain you will get CS'd. Always let your team know that you got spell locked. Let your healer know he can free-cast. Even if he's using Interrupt Bar or another similar addon, sayiing it out loud is still bringing it to his awareness.
Use your Deep Freezes to allow your Priest or Warlock to get an easy Fear on the Healer, Deep Freeze the Healer, let your Warlock/Priest walk up to him and Howls/Fears him. Ask your Priest/Warlock beforehand if he's able to get to the healer fast enough though, as you don't want to waste a Deep Freeze.
Make sure to use your Novas, Deep Freezes, Counterspells, Rings of Frost to create a window for your teammates to get easy crowd control, don't use use them for yourself.
Communication is a big key of Mage gameplay, so be able to communicate well. Call out only stuff that's important, talking nonsense or irrelevant stuff just makes your teammates ignore you as time goes by. Your teammates will react much more to your words if you call out only important/useful stuff, but if they realize you call crap and random stuff all the time they will just ignore it and their brain won't even pay attention to your voice anymore, because it's just useless information.
I can't tell you how much mentality/communication changes as well. Play cheerful music, music that gets you pumped when you play. It helps a lot!
Always have a game-plan down. Say you are playing on a Battlegroup and only facing certain comps, so talk to your teammates and find out what's the best way to beat those said comps. KNOW beforehand the game what you have to do. If you know what to do before the game starts you can spend less time trying to figure things out and more time actually playing the game well.
The biggest issue beginners in WoW Arena face is brainlag, or not knowing what to do. Find out before the match starts what's your plan, if the said plan doesn't work, change it and keep trying stuff out. Losing is not bad as long as you improve your strategy, so just have an open mind, if you don't know what to do at all, Google for strategies or check Arenajunkies.com. Trial and error works well, but the important part is to have a gameplan/target choice down as soon as the game starts.
If you don't want to be confused with your spell rotation in arena, I'll tell you what I cast the most:
Frost Nova, Cone of Cold, Pet Freeze, Deep Freeze and Cone of Cold all are spells that generate you procs or allow you to shatter someone with an Ice Lance or Frostbolt, rotate these spells well to do instant damage.
I use Ice Lance and Frostfire Bolt the most as they are my primary damage abilities, however I do use Frostbolt too when I Deep Freeze, Pet Freeze combo or when I have absolutely no novas/snares left at my disposal and there is nothing to Spellsteal either.
Just rotating your Pet Freeze, Cone of Cold, Frost Nova, Frostfire Orb and Deep Freeze can allow you to cast only instants for a long while, but still do insane damage. Once you run out of procs, go for some Spellsteals or some Sheeps/Frostbolts.
Don't get lost in the game, that's by far the most important thing.
I can't suggest/tell you much more, it comes down to practice and experience as well. 2v2 is the best way to learn the game if you're a totaly new player. Play with a chill team mate you enjoy spending time with, and practice your stuff, then move on for 3v3. That's how I started, played 1600-2000 or so 2v2 games. It really isn't that hard playing WoW, it doesn't require immense talent - it requires determination and good attitude.
1.6 Addons
Addons are VERY good if you aren't a top notch, Rank 1 player. Even if you are one, AddOns like Gladius and OmniCC should be used. Do not follow what the Tournament Players do, we use no AddOns because of LAN tournament rules. If you don't intend to be in a LAN tournament any soon, play with AddOns as they enhance your awareness or at least allow you to be more aware without losing your gameplay ability.
Later on, as you improve take off 1 by 1 AddOn, because they should only be used as you improve, when you feel like you're competing with Rank 1 players, take them off and you'll become even better.
Debuff Filter – This is a very good addon if you're having trouble seeing important buffs/debuffs on your focus/target. What it does? It creates 4 anchors on your screen with your target buffs/debuffs and focus buffs/debuffs, you can place the anchors anywhere, and you add debuffs/buffs you want in there by typing in /dfilter. Here's a screenshot on how it looks/works, click to view.
Bartender4 – A very good way to improve your cooldown management is to have only the spells that have a cooldown shown on your actions bars, and then making your action bars as small as possible so that your eye can capture cooldowns with less.
PitBull4 – They're pretty looking frames, definitely my favorite.
Aloft – The best name plates addon out there.
Gladius – This is a necessity until you are a tournament player, GET THIS!
OmniCC – This is a necessity for Mage until you are a tournament player, GET THIS!
TellMeWhen – you can track your party cooldowns with this, pretty good if your team communication sucks, which is likely :D
ShieldMonitor – I LOVED this one for such a long time, shows your ice barrier/mana shield/mage ward absorb, you will never waste your shield absorb with this by overstacking it. GET THIS! Here's how it looks like, click to view.
Afflicted – I prefer this to Interrupt Bar because it does the same, but has a better UI and lets you track more stuff than just interrupts. Setup one anchor for interrupts and another anchor for important cooldowns, though don't overdo it, use it for only the most important stuff.
LoseControl – This is good if you aren't that good at watching your debuffs. It creates a big anchor on your screen so you can see easier/clearer when you get CC'd.
Power Auras – GET THIS! Necessity, until you become a tournament player, you want to make an aura for Fingers of Frost, and include the STACK and TIMER on it, original Blizzard Power Aura doesn't show the time left OR the stack count on Fingers of Frost. This is very, very useful for damage/proc management. Create an aura for Brain Freeze too.
Also make 2 auras for Hex on both your mates, put your healer Hex icon to the left of your screen, your DPS hex to the right of your screen. Helps you Decurse faster.
You can also make an aura for when you healer is Deep Frozen and Scatter Shot, to easily interrupt the Sheep/Shatter or to be more aware of Scatter into Trap to take it for your healer better. Those are just some cool ideas of what you can do with this, but I like the stack/timer display on Fingers of Frost proc the most. Use my contact info at the bottom of the guide if you need help setting up this AddOn, or just read How To Use in the AddOn page.
That's all for addons. I know you're going to ask if I use them, the short answer is: no I don't.
The long answer is, I use Gladius sometimes. It depends on how important my games are. In regionals I used insane amount of scripts to manipulate what all of these AddOns do, it's possible, just requires a lot of scripting.
I feel like I should do whatever I can to enhance my LAN tournament play, however I can also play flawlessly without any AddOns or scripts, and if you intend to play LAN tournaments any time soon, you should learn to as well.
1.7 Mage streams
I can only suggest one stream if you want to learn more or if you want to see what I describe in this guide being done in action.
Watchmeblink – US Mage stream click to watch.
I can't recommend any other streams of Mage at this point, since I don't see any good Cataclysm Mages around anymore, at least not ones that stream.
I will start streaming competetive Arena very actively upon June 1st, so look forward to that, it will be on AtheneLive own3d.
About the author:
I'm Xandyn, known as the Mage in Khunas/Zunniyakis RMP. This guide guide for Frost Mage PvP was written as a way to give back to the community.
I've acquired various rank one titles, played with big names all over the EU and US realms, also played in many online tournaments, as well as Blizzard Battle.net regionals last year. Recently I've won Yaspresents 3v3 tournament, playing as RMP.
My highest rating playing Warrior/Mage/Priest (Barburas/Zunniyaki) has been 3185 in the Vicious season, RMP (Khuna/Zunniyaki) – 3100, and MLS (Flubbah/Inflame) – 2800.
Contact me
Skype: xandynx – I check this Skype everyday from 6 to 9 PM CEST/CET, so add me if you have any questions or just want to chat, I love talking to people that aren't annoying.
You can also PM me on AJ.
I am not a fan of elitism and I respond to everyone as much as my time allows me to do so, that being said make sure to contact me if you have any questions!
I hope you liked the guide and can find an use for it. I tried my best, English is not my first language however, but I just felt like contributing a little to the community. If you have any criticism or suggestions, again PM on AJ or add on Skype. I will update this Frost Mage PvP Guide as soon as Mists of Pandaria, the new expansion is out, so keep this bookmarked.
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Since 2001, HBO has given football fans a unique chance to pull back the curtains and watch their favorite NFL teams, coaches and players in action.
Hard Knocks the hit sports reality show has taken on a life of it's own in recent years. Now with the news that the Cincinnati Bengals will be returning as the featured team for 2013, it got me thinking:
"How fantastic would it have been if the Minnesota Vikings were being profiled instead?"
With so many intriguing offseason storylines to explore, this exclusive look into the Vikings franchise would have given us all a healthy dose of "must-watch TV".
Now without further delay, start the slideshow below and check out five reasons why the Minnesota Vikings should have been on HBO's Hard Knocks this season.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Poopdeck
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Tis Feb. 14, Valentine's Day, and that means two things. Well, more than that, of course, but here at Team Pirate, we've got two things on our mind.
First, gather with your loved one around the cozy glow of the computer screen and give a look at our youtube video, "Wooing Wenches." Even if you've seen it before (and we hope you have) you'll get a real, warm romantic feeling as you watch Mad Sally show Ol' Chumbucket the way to a wench's heart. It'll certainly put you in the mood for ... well, something.
Second, it's a day to offer huge congratulations to our friends (I'll bet lots more people call them that now) Loren Hoskins and Kevin Hendrickson, of our favorite six-piece pirate rock band, Cap'n Bogg & Salty.
They've hit the very big time!
Beginning today, Feb. 14, the Disney Channel will feature the work of Loren and Kevin (Cap'n Bogg and First Mate McGraw in the band, but they have new pirate personae for the show) in it's new series, "Jake and the Never Land Pirates." The two have long been Disney fans – it's one of the things that first brought them together, and there's nothing like the band's version of "Part of Your World," nothing. You have to hear it to believe it. So this is the culmination of a dream for them on several levels.
The network describes the show as "a music-filled interactive treasure hunt that introduces a crew of kid pirates ... and follows their Never Land adventures as they work to outwit two infamous characters, the one and only Captain Hook and Smee, from ... 'Peter Pan.' Each episode features two adventures as Jake and team and their lookout parrot, Skully, sail on the good ship Bucky, miles from their Pirate Island hideout on a lost treasure hunt. Along the way, they model teamwork, problem-solving and physical activity as they learn to maneuver around Hook and Smee, earning gold doubloons as they conquer tasks including crossing a muddy swamp, swinging on vines and sliding down waterfalls."
Now here's the best part – "The series features original 'pirate rock' music performed by The Never Land Pirate Band – comprised of Loren Hoskins and Kevin Hendrickson, whose animated alter egos, Sharky and Bones, pop up to sing pirate ditties throughout every episode. The pirate rockers also provide the title track, 'Jake and the Never Land Pirates,' and the musical score. Each episode concludes with a live action music video featuring The Never Land Pirate Band performing a song including 'Talk Like a Pirate.'"
You can bet Cap'n Slappy and meself can't wait to hear *that* one!
The show will air daily at 8:30 a.m. as part of the Disney Channel's "learning focused programming block for kids 2 to 7." Which to us sounds like, "don't let the nippers know we're teachin' 'em somethin' while they're havin' a wee bit o'fun!"
Congratulations and three cheers, boys! It couldn't happen to two nicer guys. (Well, Slappy and I are pretty nice guys and we certainly hope it could happen to us, but you know what we mean.)
Seriously, they deserve every bit of success they get.
And keep a weather eye out for the next issue of the Poopdeck, coming soon. Two publishers have sent us copies of new books coming out for the middle school set, and they're both really good. I'll have reports on them for an installment of "Ol' Chumbucket's Book Club" in the next week or two.
So share the video above with someone you love, and tune in to "Jake and the Never Land Pirates." No matter how old you are, it's never too old for a little pirate-based edumacation.
Until then, fair winds and following seas!
- Ol' Chumbucket (editor)
Web site and contents © Mark Summers and John Baur, 2002-2014
Web design by Pat Kight/aka jezebel


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If you've ever used a faja, then you know that it sucks in every chicho you have and makes you look slimmer and more streamlined. Sometimes, though, you want to give the faja itself a rest but don't want to lose the shape it gives you. Thankfully, that's where faja belts come in!
You can keep that curvaceous slim figure while using this cute and stylish solution! Trust me you won't even miss your faja!


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NEW DELHI: Concerned over slow economic growth and waning confidence of both domestic and international investors, economists in their pre-budget meeting with the Finance Minister urged to make this budget a policy budget rather than only a statement of account.
They said that budget should be used as an instrument for restoring the confidence of the investors, said a finance ministry official. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that the government is hopeful that by the end of March, the head on inflation would be between 6 and 7% while the growth rate may be around 7% plus.


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Study - God's Inheritance
Those Whom God Will Inherit
Ephesians 1:4-5
Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before Him in love, predestinating us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.
Ephesians 1:11-12, 18b
In whom also we were designated as an inheritance, having been predestinated according to the purpose of the One who works all things according to the counsel of His will. That we would be to the praise of His glory who have first hoped in Christ .That you may know what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.
The phrase, 'to be holy' (1:4), must apply to each part of our being - spirit, soul, and body. Regeneration is 'to be holy' in our spirit, sanctification is 'to be holy' in our soul, and redemption is 'to be holy' in our body. Paul says in 1Thessalonians 5:23, "And the God of peace Himself sanctify (or 'make holy') you wholly (completely, holoteleis)" - which is followed by the extent - "and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete (entirely, holokleron)."
God made a choice (predestinated, proorizo) in eternity to have a corporate group of people as His inheritance (Eph. 1:11). Coupled with that choice for an inheritance was the desire that His inheritance would match Him in life (have the sonship, 1:5) and in nature (be holy, 1:4). This desire was also His in eternity: "predestinating us unto sonship" (v. 5), referring to the "eternal counsels of God" (Lightfoot), and "chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy" (v. 4), which also means "from all eternity" (Lightfoot).
Meaning of Inheritance
Old Testament
The Hebrew word for 'inheritance' is nahala from nahal, to inherit or possess.
The revelation of God's inheritance is firstly seen in the OT when God took His people out of Egypt. Both in the books of Moses, in the Kings, and throughout the Psalms, this same theme is repeated. In addition to God's people being His inheritance, the psalmist also adds to God's inheritance (LXX, kleronomia) the holy temple and the holy city, Jerusalem (Psa. 79:1). Zech-ariah (2:12) includes the holy land in God's inheritance.
Other examples of inheritance in the OT are as follows: Israel is God's people and His inheritance (Deut. 9:26, 27, LXX, kleros). He took His people out of Egypt that they could be His inheritance (Deut. 4:20; cf. Deut. 9:29 and 1Kings 8:51, 53). Jacob is referred to as the lot (LXX, meros) of God's inheritance (LXX, kleronomia) (Deut. 32:9). Jacob is God's people and Israel is His inheritance (Psa. 78:71).
New Testament
The Greek word for 'inheritance' is kleronomia (Eph. 1:18; 14X in NT) or kleros (Acts 26:18) from kleronomos (Gal. 4:1; 14X in NT), an heir, which is from kleroo (Eph. 1:11), to inherit.
In the NT, only the saints are mentioned as God's inheritance (Eph. 1:18), but the saints are typified as the temple. It is from Christ, typified as the land, that we enjoy His unlimited riches to be made constituents of the city, New Jerusalem.
Besides the glorious inheritance we saints have in store, F. F. Bruce notes that God, too, has an inheritance. He says,
We must not overlook the fact that His people constitute an inheritance for God, His own possession, in whom He will display to the universe the untold riches of His glory. We can scarcely realize what it must mean to God to see His purpose complete, to see creatures of His hand, sinners redeemed by His grace, reflecting His own glory (40).
Witness Lee points out the importance of God's inheritance, related to His glory, in the New Testament and the need for the Lord to gradually dispense His divine nature into us:
We, the saints, are God's inheritance. What we are by nature, however, cannot be God's inheritance. God does not desire to inherit our nature, our flesh, our natural being. He desires to inherit all that He has wrought into us of Himself. Therefore, whatever God has wrought into us of Himself becomes His inheritance....It is God Himself within us that constitutes His inheritance among the saints. In this inheritance there are the riches of His glory (Ephesians, 15:137, 138).
Lee further relates holiness, sonship, and inheritance. He says,
(The saints need to) know Him as the One operating in them to make them holy, to constitute them the sons of God and to cause them to become the inheritance of God....God will work within us to make us worthy, precious, and valuable, a unique treasure in the universe as an inheritance for Him . God is the treasure, and He is working Himself as the treasure into us that we may become a treasure to Him (Ibid., 17:147, 148).
God is working in us day-by-day to perfect His inheritance. Lee notes,
He is transforming us metabolically, making us a particular treasure to become God's private possession, even God's heritage, God's inheritance (Eph. 1:11). God wants to inherit something. He wants to inherit those who were once sinners and who have become a treasure .We are expecting to be glorified, and God is also expecting to see that we are glorified. Then He will have a complete treasure. This may seem like a dream, but one day this dream will be fulfilled (The Issue of the Dispensing, 30).
The New Jerusalem
Witness Lee points out how the matters of holiness (holy), sonship, and inheritance are all brought together in the New Jerusalem. He says,
The New Jerusalem will be the embodiment of holiness, a composition of the sons of God, and a mutual inheritance for God and man. Moreover, the New Jerusalem will have the glory of God, which is the glory of God's inheritance, the riches of the glory of His inheritance among the saints (Ephesians, 17:148).
-James Reetzke
Bruce, F. F. The Epistle to the Ephesians. Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell, 1961.
Lee, Witness. Life-Study of Ephesians. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1984.
______. The Issue of the Dispensing of the Processed Trinity and the Transmitting of the Transcending Christ. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1993.
Lightfoot, J. B. Notes on the Epistles of St. Paul. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1895. Reprint 1957.
© 2003 The Church in Cleveland


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Yad Vashem has begun broadcasting videos in Farsi.
The Israeli Holocaust memorial museum, which already has an Arabic YouTube channel, has launched the service in a bid to educate Iran's population about the Nazis.
The videos will highlight the atrocities of the Second World War and the genocide of six million Jews to a population whose president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has publicly questioned the Holocaust.
A leading Iranian opposition figure has compared the behaviour of his government with that of the Nazis during the Holocaust.
Mir-Hossein Mousavi said of the Iranian government, led by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: "They've surpassed Goebbels in telling lies."
He told an anti-government website: "Levelling accusations and telling lies is part of their ossified faith."
Last week, Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, abruptly fired his foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki. Even by his low standards of etiquette, the event was unprecedented, leaving aghast even traditional supporters of the president.
Mottaki was visiting Senegal to mend relations in West Africa after Iranian weapons shipments had been seized in Gambia. The shipments were understood to have been the works of Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).
Venezuela views its Jewish community as "foreign" rather than Venezuelan and wants to replicate Iran's treatment of Jews, according to notes in a cable sent from the US embassy in Caracas and released by WikiLeaks.
The correspondence, sent following a meeting with members of the Confederation of Israelite Associations of Venezuela (CAIV), reveals that the community believes "the horizon is dark" for Jews in Venezuela and that antisemitism is "government-sponsored".
There was a farcical ending to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit last week to Lebanon.
Hours before his departure on Thursday, he had one last meeting, at the Iranian embassy in Beirut. His local ally, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, emerged from his hideout bringing him, as a tribute, a rifle supposedly taken from an Israeli soldier during the Second Lebanon War. But it was a sham. The rifle was an AK-47 Kalashnikov - not a weapon used by Israeli forces.
Israeli officials have criticised a visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Lebanon's border with Israel.
Mr Ahmadinejad addressed thousands at a stadium in Bin Jbeil on Lebanon's southern border, an area of the country where Tehran-backed terrorist organisation hizbollah is a key influence.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad started his two-day visit to Lebanon by praising Hizbollah, the terrorist group backed by Iran, for standing up to Israel.
The president was due to make a provocative trip to Lebanon's border with Israel during his brief stay.
The Iranian president has arrived in Lebanon for a two-day tour.
Israeli officials expressed fears that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will give Tehran's Shia ally hizbollah a boost and use the opportunity to attack Israel.
According to the Arab press, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is planning to end his tour of Lebanon by symbolically lobbing a rock at Israel over the border fence.
The thinking, presumably, is that this would be a great PR coup - that the image would cement Mr Ahmadinejad's reputation as the Islamic world's foremost opponent of the Jewish state. But would it really?
The Israeli government is worried that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to Lebanon next week could signal the start of an escalation on its northern border.
Mr Ahmadinejad is scheduled to arrive on October 13 for a two-day visit. His itinerary includes a tour of towns and villages in the south of Lebanon where heavy fighting took place between the IDF and Hizbollah during the Second Lebanon War in 2006. According to some reports, the Iranian president may even take part in symbolic stone-throwing towards Israeli soldiers on the border.


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Game 6 tonight, 6:00 p.m. at Rexall Place
Monday, 05.1.2006 / 8:03 AM MT / Edmonton Oilers
Edmonton Oilers
It's been nine years since the Edmonton Oilers have had an opportunity
to wrap up a series on home ice but tonight the
team can do just that. With a 3-2 series lead over Detroit, the Oilers can eliminate the Detroit Red Wings with a win on home ice. Tonight's game goes at 6:00 p.m. MDT and can be seen nationally on CBC.


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Love & Care Ministries: Nearly two decades of help
ABILENE, Texas - The organization behind Mission Thanksgiving has a long history of helping those less fortunate, and they're not slowing down.
Pastor Mark Hewitt, founder of the ministry, began his work eighteen years ago.
Then, he was just serving 5 meals a day out of the back of a pick-up truck.
Today, he's the Executive Director of a group that serves more than 900 meals to the homeless and needy of Abilene.
Two years ago, the ministry would see between 65 and 70 people each day but the shaky economy has led to an increase in need.
Everyday the ministry helps to provide between 130 and 150 people with food or clothing.
Even with all the good they do, they still have their sights set on the future.
"We're dreaming about a possible shelter, some housing out there that we can create for the working poor or even the homeless that we need to help get on their feet", says Hewitt.
Mission Thanksgiving is the largest event put on by Love & Care Ministries.
Food donations received at last year's event lasted for six months.
Over 18,000 articles of clothing are given away each month.
Clothing donations from 2011's event lasted 10 months.


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We arrived in the evening with our 2 small children. The check-in was smooth, but the room was wrong... twice. We had reserved a King Executive Suite. Our first room was a king... no suite. It was also a non-smoking room that smelled of smoke from the moment we walked in. After a couple of calls to the front desk, we were moved a few rooms down the hall. The smell of smoke was gone, but it was still not a "suite". After having dinner, I went to the front desk and inquired as to why our room was not the correct type... The room type we booked was "unavailable". We were not told this upon check-in. And I had to ASK to have our rate reduced. They were going to charge us the "suite" rate for a standard king room...Not upfront w/ the truth... Not helpful... Not planning to stay there again...
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Noise from leaf blowers 'gets to the nerves'
As a retired school teacher I like to spend my hours painting and gardening outdoors. There has been one big hindrance to my enjoying these activities--leaf blowers.
At some time every day, I hear the sound of leaf blowers at one of the many surrounding properties that utilize this service to "scrub" the ground, robbing it of its natural mulch and soil enriching capabilities, covering nearby plants with dust.
My biggest complaint, however, is the noise. The grinding, penetrating noise of a leaf blower gets to the nerves! Lawn mowers and weed whackers don't seem to have the same maddening effect. Even if the leaves must be removed, say on walkways or pavement, perhaps a leaf rake and broom could be used?
I just read the Weekly-News article titled "Town council mulls story poles, leaf blowers at Aug. 5 meeting." So, it is an issue! I, like another reader, "never complained because I didn't think it would do any good." I wonder how many other people (especially those who stay at home during the day) feel the same way.
Veronica Gross
Los Gatos
Town does not need to accept Templar Sports
Please use this as an opportunity to remind our Los Gatos mayor, Barbara Spector, and the entire town council that we are not resigned to accepting the cancer in our community that is Templar Armaments.
They got into our town using the deceptive business name of Templar "Sports" when they do not offer a single piece of equipment that can be used in any of our town school's organized sports programs. And it was an obvious deceptive move on their part, because all the paperwork they had filled out for the state and federal ATF used the more definitive and appropriate business names of Templar Armaments or Templar Amory. This initial intentional deception should alone be grounds enough not to renew their business license. Reference the new town ordinance, page 7, Section 14.13.060 c 2: "Suspension or revocation of permit"; "misleading"; "material omission of fact."
The citizens of the town do not need or want a gun store in our presence, which was demonstrated by the fact that all businesses in town that used to carry such wares either went out of business, or stopped offering them as one of their available products. There simply wasn't a market for them.
But the Internet changes all that because a business can now survive without dependence on a local clientele.
Which leads me to a point regarding the new ordinance. On Page 2, Section 14.130.015, "Definitions". The definition for "Retail Sales of Firearms" should not include or encompass "Internet transactions" since:
1--Such retail sales and transactions should require a separate specific Internet sales permit, since regulation and enforcement of Internet sales are unique, technical, complex, difficult, costly and well beyond the town's resources to monitor or enforce. The recent incident that occurred in Los Gatos involving an Internet chemical sales firm, MechChem, illegally making shipments for over a decade of flammable and toxic substances is a perfect example. To make the situation even worse, many of the shipments were international to boot. Do we want to enable a potential international arms dealer here by simply giving them a pass on Internet sales as part of the town's business licence package?
2--Internet sales, and volume sales, go hand-in-hand with large inventories. Templar's merchandise includes ammunition and other explosive offerings, which become increasingly dangerous as quantities increase. Internet buyers typically want to handle a gun before purchasing it, but ammo is another thing. It's a commodity that customers don't have to visually or manually evaluate, so large the potential for large volumes is high.
As if this isn't enough, their last minute inclusion of the word "repair" to its business licence permits a legal loophole for Templar to deal in the installation of "bullet buttons," a gun modification enabling the use of removable high-capacity ammunition clips. Even its chosen business name of "Templar" is reprehensible and repugnant since it is also used by the Templar Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
Michael Glow
Los Gatos


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Am I making the right choice? OR nurse but might move on.....
0 Well, I am an OR nurse and have been for over five years now. I love my job but have become disillusioned with management (in my defense it has been an issue with our department...worst turnover rate in hospital...can't keep anyone). I have found another job and will start in about a month but it is in LTC (they loved me and want to fast track me into management). I just don't know what to do. I fear I will be bored to tears in LTC (though the pay and benefits will be very good). I love and hate my current job but just can't stand it anymore. Will I miss the excitement of the OR? I don't know. I am so confused!0Apr 18, '13 by eatmysoxRNLeave on a good note so maybe you could return if you really miss it. The best thing about nursing is so many options. I say go for it and see what happens. Best of luck!
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Leviticus Current Hot-Button Issues And Cultural Debates In Practice
Getting Biblical in Daily Life
Gay Rights
Okay, let's just get right to it. We're going to lay out a few possibilities for interpreting Leviticus when it comes to gay rights:
- Many religious conservatives argue that Leviticus is proof that God hates same-sex sex. Making gay marriage legal would violate God's law and the law of nature. Translation? So much for America. Just like Israel in Leviticus 26, we're toast.
- Others, however, believe that conservatives are reading Leviticus wrong. They say that the books limits the ban on same-sex sex to a particular time and place: Leviticus is meant just for Jews, not anyone else; or the New Testament made the laws in Leviticus obsolete.
- Another approach limits the scope of the ban to a particular kind of same-sex sex. For instance, some believe that the law against men lying with men like with women is just referring to a specific pagan temple ritual. Others read the ban on men lying with men as a reference to male rape, a direct follow-up to the incest laws that keep men from using sex to dominate other family members.
- Of course, conspiracy-minded Shmoopers might say that all this textual interpretation stuff is a smokescreen for the real truth: a race of evil ancient aliens who use sex laws to enslave humanity for their own nefarious purposes (source).
We're not going to call out any one interpretation as right or wrong—even the seemingly goofy ancient aliens theory is a callback to Gnosticism, which sees God as a being who uses law to keep people from achieving the spirit's true potential (source). While we won't take any sides, we will do what we do best: literary analysis.
Taking a Closer Look
There are a few things to keep in mind when trying to figure out what's going on here—and everywhere else in Leviticus, for that matter. First, as playwright Harold Pinter writes, "The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there." Or as the old saying goes, presuming that it's easy to understand things written 2,500 years ago can make a Pres out of U and Ming… whatever that means.
So without any presuming, here are a few details to consider (and agree with or toss out with the bathwater) about the language of Leviticus:
- The law against men lying with men might not necessarily condemn both parties; it might only prohibit the person doing the, um, penetrating.
- Leviticus makes no direct mention of a woman lying with a woman, while the law against bestiality expressly states that it applies to both men and women.
- It also makes no direct mention of other man-with-man expressions of affection, such as kissing and, well, you know. Likewise, it makes no direct mention of love, chaste relationships or, for that matter, marriage.
- Another principle to consider is that definition can make a difference. Words such as "abomination" and "unclean" don't necessarily mean disgusting and immoral. Their meaning at the time might actually be closer to "something to avoid" or "ritually impure." The significance of certain actions may not be as obvious as it seems.
- With regard to claims that certain practices are banned because they were common practices in pagan religions, it's always a good idea to double check. Was gay sex really a temple ritual? Were babies really sacrificed to Molech?
- Finally, bad sex in the Torah isn't always just about bad sex. It can also be about taking another person's property, interfering with a contract, causing women to fight with each other, disrespecting one's elders, mixing or leaking certain bodily fluids, committing an act of violence, exploiting the weak, or setting up a scene for an episode of Girls.
Whatever you believe, we think your argument will be much stronger if you back it up with textual evidence. We know that means actually reading Leviticus, but we bet you'll enjoy it more than you think.
Discrimination is all over the place in Leviticus. Heck, even the burnt offerings discriminate: they can only be made with a male animal, while a peace offering can be made with either a male or a female animal.
Okay, so the burnt offering situation may not seem all that problematic to female animals. But there are a few other discriminatory rules that don't involve saving someone from the knife.
- Priests are men—only men.
- Women are supposed to have babies, but periods and birth each make women unclean.
- Using female slaves for sex is no big deal, even if the slave is going to marry another man.
- There's no mention of any problem with a priest's son pimping himself out, but a priest's daughter best not sleep around.
- People with any kind of visible medical issue, from skin problems and size differences to paralysis and crushed testicles, can't approach the altar.
- When setting the prices for buying back someone who has been dedicated to the service of God, Leviticus 27 sets the value of a woman or girl substantially lower than of a man or boy.
Does all of this mean that God is a cosmic Don Draper, cool to folks in the past but an offensive relic in the modern workplace? Are these rules just a spiritual metaphor for the importance of being holy? Or are they still applicable today?
Whatever your point of view, it's probably a good idea not to be too smug about our modern superiority. In U.S. law, it continues to be legal for certain religious groups to discriminate. Workplace discrimination rules carve out exceptions for religious organizations, which means that churches, synagogues, and mosques don't have to hire women, gay men, the disabled. or humanities majors.
The Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice Debate
Leviticus loves it some life. Obey God and he will give his covenant people life in abundance. Disobey and watch things die. The same goes for sacrifice and purity laws. In a weird way, the rules governing sacrifices and blood are both designed to promote a profound respect for the value of life.
What does this mean for contemporary debates on abortion and contraception? Is the concept of life in Leviticus the same thing as the concept of life championed by those who want to ban abortion? Are the washing and sacrifice rituals triggered by leaking penises and the ejaculation of semen signs that God hates any form of sexual activity outside of procreation?
Or is something else going on here?
American Taboos
Reading Leviticus can feel like watching a National Geographic special about previously uncontacted tribes. The sacrificial rituals seem archaic and irrationally violent. The laws for daily life seems totally out of place. The idea that some things are taboo seems completely out of touch with modern science, let alone modern life. (A woman with her period out in public? The horror!)
But are these ideas as primitive as they seem?
While Leviticus is a relic of an ancient people with a far different cultural vocabulary from our own, there are aspects of its culture that are fundamentally human. And, thanks in part to the role that the Bible has played in shaping America's law and social norms, peculiarly American.
To understand how, consider a few examples of American laws and behavior that reflect principles similar to those at work in Leviticus.
- We have our own taboos about food that is an abomination to eat. Don't believe it? Try going to a restaurant and asking for cat sushi, dog steak, or horse burgers.
- Organic foods are a way to avoid the perceived pollution of foods with preservatives and other unnatural modifications. At the same time, putting wax coatings on fruit and coloring meat and fish are ways that people try to separate food from the impurity of decay.
- Today's vegetarians and vegans exhibit a respect for life in animals that is similar to the reason for sacrifices in Leviticus.
- Drug laws demonize a different kind of natural abomination. America is in the midst of a generation shift, in which many young voters don't see any sense in drug laws, especially when the drugs aren't proven to be seriously harmful. What they're sensing is how in the U.S., drug laws reflect a sense of impurity or defectiveness.
- Consider the notorious commercial in which an actor compares your brain on drugs to a cracked egg frying in a pan. What made this image so powerful was the way it made drugs seem like something that took the brain from whole and pure (that's the white shell) to broken and fried in a dark pan.
- A number of countries don't have a minimum drinking age, and for most, it's well under 21 (source). The U.S., though, has a long history of viewing alcohol as a contagion that threatens the community and corrupts youth. Nadab and Abihu now would be underage drinkers in America.
- Like the laws in Leviticus, dress codes promote group unity and teach order by imposing rules that draw lines between school (or office or wherever the code is in place) and the rest of life. The different clothes worn by teachers and administrators reinforce their authority. It's a lot like how the priests were ceremonial robes mixing linen, wool, and golden thread, but the regular Israelites can't mix fibers.
- The same goes for style trends, where wearing the wrong thing can make a student a ritually unclean outcast.
- At the opposite end of the clothing spectrum are nudity taboos. Not every Western country thinks that toplessness is inappropriate, especially with respect to beaches, TV game shows, and daily newspapers.
Whew. And these are just a few examples of a desire to separate American society from such things as (alleged) defectiveness, cliquishness, disorder, and violence. Regardless of whether you agree with the rules, there's no denying it: American ain't so different from Leviticus-day Israel, after all.
Concentration of Wealth and Power
"Proclaim liberty unto all the land, and unto all the inhabitants thereof."
In the hokey 1950s Ten Commandments movie, producer/director Cecil B. DeMille makes Leviticus 25:10 the official slogan of American free enterprise. But is Leviticus really God's Capitalist Manifesto?
In context, Leviticus 25:10 is about the Jubilee, the holiday where, every fifty years, property goes back to its original owner and slaves get released to go home. In other words, God requires Israel to dissolve private contracts in order to keep individuals and families from using business to acquire excess wealth and power.
Does this make God the charter member of Occupy Israel? Do the core principles of the Jubilee provide a workable basis for progressive legal reform today, such as Bono's campaign for an international debt relief? We'll have the answer to these and other hot button political questions… never.
Sorry, but this is one to Shmoop amongst yourselves.


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Procurador General Cooper busca reembolsos para compradores de viviendas estafados
AG Cooper seeks refunds for ripped off homebuyers
Tips for smart back-to-school shopping (1)
Learn about upcoming events in your area sponsored by Attorney General Roy Cooper and the North Carolina Department of Justice.
The department sponsors consumer awareness events around the state through Victims and Citizens Services.
We are also able to offer presentations on identity theft, keeping kids safe on the Internet and more. Contact us at 9001 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-9001 or phone (919) 716 6780.
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Collection of reflections about wonderful events, awesome images, unforgettable experiences, helpful tips, precious memories, bits and pieces of many interesting things. Just a personal blog, cool :)
Such a beautiful flower and so a wonderful poem.
Have a nice weekend :)
Thanks so much :)
Wishing you too the same.
Thanks for sharing both this beautiful flower and the wonderful poem.ReplyDelete
You are welcome George :)
Have a nice weekend.
I love the flower and the poem both! So beautiful!ReplyDelete
Ixora coccinea ( jungle geranium / flame of the woods / jungle flame) is commonly found in South India. In malayalam, our mother tongue in Kerala, its known as 'Chethippoovu' (Chethippoo). This is a 'pooja pushpam', means a sacred flower used for rituals in temples in our place.
Thank you for the beautiful review about the poem :)
Beautiful flower and a wonderful poem!ReplyDelete
Thanks Birgitta :)Delete
Boa tarde,
Linda flor com cores muito belas, poema magnifico.
Hello :)
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No word verification here ! This blog is very much user friendly; even you can post as someone anonymous !
Will visit your blogs / websites too as soon as possible :)