text:
|Home > Entertainment > Film > Article
On the eve of an exhibition celebrating its mythology, Tony Davis asks fans why Star Wars still works on so many Princess Leias.
On the eve of an exhibition celebrating its mythology, Tony Davis asks fans why Star Wars still works on so many Princess Leias.
The brief was simple: speak to people for whom Star Wars is more than just a series of films - people for whom it is a way of life. The kind of people the rest of us are likely to be standing alongside at Star Wars: The Magic of Myth, which opens on Wednesday at the Powerhouse Museum.
Before long I made contact with a 36-year-old professional woman who goes to bed each night with a Jabba the Hutt plush-toy; a Sydney GP who has seen the original film hundreds of times; an advertising account director who quotes Yoda in his day-to-day professional life; and an astronomer who owes his career to George Lucas's 1977 science-fiction classic.
I visited other planes of reality with people who listed their religion as "Jedi" in the 2001 Australian census. But it was only when checking a few points with the museum itself that it became clear there was no need to venture to a far-off galaxy to find what I was looking for.
"I'm not an obsessive," the Powerhouse's curator of space technology, Kerrie Dougherty, protests. "I don't even dress up in costume."
Nevertheless, the facts and figures and minutiae she reels off suggests her interest is at least a little deeper than professional. "Well, yes, I have to admit it," she confesses with a knowing laugh. "I go right back to the beginning. On the first night - front row, 1977 - I was there. And when that original Star Wars movie first came out, my sister and I went on to see it 34 times before we stopped counting."
Few could deny the suitability of Dougherty's appointment as the curator of the 200-piece touring exhibition created by Washington's Smithsonian Institution. "I've been a space cadet since I was two," she says. "Actually, I think I was born a science-fiction fan."
If you seek an erudite view of the appeal of Star Wars, Dougherty is a good place to start. She stresses the exhibition focuses on the mythical and mythological underpinnings of the saga, rather than the film-making.
"Star Wars keys into the basic myths of our own society," she says. "It's the story of the hero we are all brought up with - King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table,
St George and the dragon - or any number of stories of the young man, usually a young man, who is suddenly swept out of ordinary life to go and do some incredibly heroic task and, if not quite save the world, then his own society."
The other thing, she adds, is that it's a very good yarn. "It has humour, it has drama, and some very strong characters. Even though they are stereotypes, they are very well portrayed, particularly in the original trilogy. And there's loads of absolutely great special effects, so it makes its world believable."
Dougherty lists The Empire Strikes Back as her favourite of the five films released so far. It's another she saw repeatedly on first release. "In the days before video, you could only commit it to memory by seeing it enough times to make it sink in. I've since bought every video format you can think of; standard and special edition and widescreen and whatever else." Committing them to memory has been less of a problem.
Colin Lim, a 33-year-old GP in Abbotsford, is also in danger of wearing out his tapes. Lim describes himself as a closet enthusiast but admits to watching the original film hundreds of times. "I am a child of Star Wars and 25 years on I am just as captivated by it as I was then.
"It's spawned a whole universe which has really opened up the imagination for a lot of people," he says, before adding in a sheepish tone, "though for myself in particular".
Lim defends the most recent two films, confusingly, for non-fans, numbered episode one and two (relegating the first three films to four, five and six). "Not everyone likes them, but I do. Though I guess if they slapped the name Star Wars on Question Time in the House of Representatives, I'd still love it."
Lim agrees that a term is needed for die-hard Star Wars fans, like Trekkie. "There's no standard term I'm aware of," he says, "though most dedicated fans would be proud to call themselves a Jedi."
Alex Burton, 29, who runs an IT company, certainly would be. He listed his religion as "Jedi" on the recent census form, alongside 70,000 other Australians. But Burton says it was in jest - he doesn't draw any particular personal or spiritual philosophy from the films. "I'm not that deep," he says with a laugh.
The threat of a fine and the belief we need an accurate census deterred another fan, Mike McPherson, from listing his religion as Jedi. "In the dream world I'm a Jedi Knight," says the 30-year-old designer and production manager, "but in the real world, I'm a Catholic."
McPherson is concerned too many fans are cross-referencing and looking for inconsistencies in the films. "People have got to enjoy the movies for what they are: entertainment."
Anton Roswell, a Sydney-based Kiwi, also wrote "Jedi" on a census form in New Zealand. "They kicked it back and I had to fill it out again.
"Because I'm in marketing I use a lot of quotes from Star Wars with my clients. Like Yoda's 'You must unlearn what you've learned'."
And what is the most obsessive Star Warsian thing this 30-year-old radio station account manager has ever done? "I know what I'd like to do: get some girl dressed up in the Princess Leia thing," he says, before adding: "Just joking."
Amid this fest of Star Wars positivism, I dare to suggest the most recently released film, Episode II: Attack of the Clones, was a heartless embarrassment packed with wooden acting, a trite plot and endless boring scenes of spaceships docking and undocking.
Roswell's answer is surprising.
"Yeah, you're probably right. The actors they used in it are just smiling, happy, good-looking figurines. Even though I've got the hots for Natalie Portman. But the best actor in Attack Of The Clones is Yoda."
There's another premier division Star Wars fan at the Powerhouse, Rebecca Bower. An assistant registrar, she works with documenting and storing the museum's collection. "I'm not as obsessive as some," she says, as they all do. "I don't go to premieres dressed as Queen Amidala, although I do fantasise about looking like Princess Leia in that nifty little bikini top, when she's Jaba The Hutt's slave.
"I've got a bit of a thing about Jabba. I have a Jabba The Hutt soft toy which I sleep with every night ... along with a Wookiee and C-3PO."
Bower says when the first Star Wars film came out she was 11 and she's been "obsessed ever since". She agrees there is a need for a similar word to Trekkie. "You could just call them strange weird persons. Or sad gits."
Though Star Wars fills many lives, Christopher Fluke claims the film actually changed his. "I can trace it back to when I was six years old, in 1978, when my parents foolishly gave me some Star Wars action figures.
"From there I became interested in space and astronauts and rockets, then in high school I discovered you could get a career studying the universe."
After seeing the original 70 or 80 times, Fluke is now an astronomer at Melbourne's Swinburne Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing. He, too, is prepared to vigorously defend the most recent two films. "I went into Episode 1 with a completely open mind and tried to enjoy it as a 10-year-old would enjoy it, rather than looking back with the life experiences I've had since the originals."
The Powerhouse's Kerrie Dougherty was also curator of the museum's 1997 Star Trek exhibition, though she says Star Trek is not up there with Star Wars and her other great passions.
Which are? "Doctor Who - I was a founding member of the Australian Doctor Who Fan Club in the mid-1970s - and I love the work of Gerry Anderson." Silence. "The guy who made Thunderbirds," she relays as my hesitancy becomes obvious, "and Captain Scarlet [and the Mysterons], Stingray, UFO, Space: 1999 ..."
Not that she's obsessed, please understand. She doesn't even dress like one of the girls from Space: 1999.
Printer friendly version Email to a friend
Also in Entertainment
Australian makes Booker Prize shortlist
I'm not married, says dethroned Miss Universe
Putting a sting in the devil's tale
Tim Hall finds his true voice
Rebel off to New York to hone comic craft
An honest look at the simple truth
Yoko sues Lennon's former aide
Nolte checks into abuse clinic
How TV twins have reaped the rewards
Prancing queens
Artists hold back donations because of tax ruling
It's a drain picking the top drop
Joe Cocker
Arte Povera - Art from Italy 1967-2002
|text | handheld (how to)
membership |
conditions |
Copyright © 2002. The Sydney Morning Herald.
|advertise | contact us


text:
Relative 'standards'
Funny, but we can't seem to recall very many instances of the liberal intelligentsia criticizing their own for incendiary comments about anyone or anything.
Even with an apology, a plethora of "progressives" continue to be up in arms over Rush Limbaugh employing the absurd to expose the absurd -- in this case, advocacy for at-whim government suspension of freedom of religion.
Only Kirsten Powers, a Democrat political analyst, had the intellectual honesty to document some of the more putrid remarks of the pundits of the left:
• Ed Schultz, who fancies the term "bimbo," once called talk show host Laura Ingraham a "right-wing slut"
• Keith Olbermann, who said commentator S.E. Cupp should have been aborted, has called Michelle Malkin a "mashed-up bag of meat with lipstick"
• Chris Matthews, in opposing Hillary Clinton's presidential bid against Barack Obama in 2008, called her a "she-devil," "Nurse Ratched" and "witchy"
• Bill Maher's characterizations of Sarah Palin cannot be printed in a family newspaper.
And, of course, Teresa Heinz Kerry was hailed by liberals as some kind of hero when her mouth runneth over.
We guess there are standards and then there are standards. Ahem.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Good morning from The Oval, as President Obama wraps up a three-day Western swing designed to promote his budget and his re-election prospects.
After waking up in San Francisco this morning, Obama will take Air Force One to Everett, Wash., to tour a Boeing production facility.
In public remarks, Obama will "discuss his blueprint for an economy built to last based on American manufacturing and the importance of promoting American exports," said the White House.
Obama later headlines a pair of fundraisers in the Seattle area before returning to Washington, D.C.
The president announced earlier this morning, via Twitter, that he raised $29.1 million in January.
In other news;
It's the third anniversary of the Obama stimulus bill, and USA TODAY's Richard Wolf and Tim Mullaney look at its emergency legacy.
Japan's ex-prime minister says the county was woefully unprepared for its nuclear crisis.
The presidents of Afghanistan and Iran are in Pakistan for peace talks.
Mitt Romney faces criticism from an excommunicated Mormon.
And it's a sad day for journalism: Anthony Shadid, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Middle East reporter for The New York Times, dies after an asthma attack in Syria. Rest in peace.
David's journalism career spans three decades, including coverage of five presidential elections, the Oklahoma City bombing, the 2000 Florida presidential recount and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He has covered the White House for USA TODAY since 2005. His interests include history, politics, books, movies and college football -- not necessarily in that order. More about David
Follow the Oval on Twitter: @The Oval, @djusatoday.
Also contributing to the Oval: Richard Wolf @richardjwolf; Aamer Madhani @AamerISmad


text:
DANTE TRAVELS EAST: Dante Cohen
Works in this show will range from small ink and watercolor paintings on paper to large Chinese calligraphy scrolls.
A Funeral for Victory, ink & watercolor on paper 2009, 8"x12"
- Dates:
- September 24th to October 23, 2009
- Hours:
- 8am to 4pm, Monday through Friday
- Artist Talk in the Gallery:
- Wednesday, September 30th, 3 to 6pm. Reception to follow.
Dante Cohen: Artist's Statement
I have been painting since the early 1980s. I spent several years in Taiwan and China studying traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy. That started me on the creative path I continue to pursue today. My paintings combine Chinese technique with western narrative content.
I think of my PCC Sylvania show as a celebration of the Chinese calligraphy and painting styles that I love. This is the first show where I have used Chinese calligraphy extensively. I have also incorporated several Chinese painting genres into the show. Several paintings are done in the landscape style. There are also examples of paintings inspired by communist propaganda art and Tibetan thanka paintings.
All the work is united by the medium; ink and watercolor on paper. All the painting is done with Chinese brushes made out of dog, goat and horse hair. There is no pen or pencil used in any painting. The Chinese painting technique does not allow the artists to paint over a mistake. Every line and mark on every painting is the expression of intent and physical movement.
Useful Emptiness, ink & watercolor on paper 2008, 8"x12"
Much of the work also exhibits my sense of humor and post-modern pre-apocalyptic sensibility. The Zen Buddhist tenet that reality and fantasy are the same is also prevalent in the paintings and the calligraphy. The idea that the human mind invents its own reality out of nothing has been inspiring to me as a painter. The characters kong (空) meaning empty and se(色)meaning form are incorporated into a lot of the artwork. The foundational Buddhist idea that emptiness and form are the same is very pertinent to a painter who is using form and emptiness on a white surface to create a separate reality or illusion.Dante Cohen
Dante Cohen: Bio
Dante Cohen was born in Lecce, Italy. He grew up mostly in NY State and moved to Portland around 15 years ago. Dante Cohen has been painting since the early 1980s. He has shown his work on both coasts, illustrated stories, and created book covers. Several years spent in Taiwan and China studying traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy started him on the creative path he continues to pursue. His paintings combine Chinese technique with western narrative content. Chinese brushes and paper are difficult to master but reward a painter by being an incredibly sensitive and responsive medium as one learns physically and mentally how to control them.
See more of Dante's work at www.dantecohen.com


text:
lots of promise - fail to deliver
View Single Post
Matty K.
Location: Georgia
Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 155
Mein Auto: 2014 750Li Black Sapphire
View My Garage
Point well taken. I think it is a natural phenomenon as the music industry grapples with digital delivery and its implications.
Regarding your question -
Because Sirius' sound quality is execrable. I'd rather listen to AM radio. With Web Radio you can get all the talk radio you can handle, which to me is the sole Sirius value proposition.
Spotify differs from Pandora and MOG in two basic ways: They have the most music (Spotify has the most period), and they let me listen to whatever I want, not just a station. I like and use Pandora as well, but it's a far cry from Spotify - except for iDrive integration
. I refuse to resort to BT and trying to use the smartphone interface.
MOG looks pretty good, but Spotify is the sweet spot for features I want. I have a huge music collection (well 270 Gigs, anyway), but I don't want to have to tote it around - and it's a drop in the bucket compared to the selection on Spotify or MOG. I don't have to buy the songs, I don't have to download the songs. I just load a playlist and play them.
2014 750Li Black Sapphire, Veneto Nappa, Lighting pckg, Executive pckg, Driver Assist Plus pckg, M Sport
Past: 2011 535i (8/2011 build) Jet Black, Black Dakota leather, Dark Wood, Convenience, Premium 1 & 2, SmartPhone, BMW Apps
2011 528i Alpine White
2005 X5 3.0i Jet Black
1995 540i Oxford Green
1972 2002 Ti, Alpine White
1982 320i 1.8l Graphit
1977 320i 2.0l Korall
View Public Profile
Find all threads started by mkossler
Find all posts by mkossler
View My Garage
Add mkossler to Your Ignore List


text:
6kw High Quality Gasoline Generator with Electric Start Engine
|FOB Price:
|US $280 / Set
|Min. Order:
|100 Sets
|Min. Order
|FOB Price
|100 Sets
|US $280/ Set
|Production Capacity:
|10000 Units Per Month
|Transport Package:
|Common Carton, Color Carton, OEM
|Payment Terms:
Request a custom order and have something just for you!Send Customized Request
- Model NO.: FS7500E
- Starting: Electric Start
- Power: 6kVA
- Air-Cooled, 4-Stroke, Ohv, Single Cylind: Advanced Technology, Delivers Reliable Power for C
- Easy Key Start, Easy to Assemble, Functi: with Famous Senci Alternator
- Low Noise, Easy Maintenance: Lightweight Compact Design, Easy to Carry and Oper
- Compact Design, Strong Structure, More E: Easy Maintenance and Longer Working Life
- Specification: CE, SONCAP, SASO
- HS Code: 85022000
- Output Type: AC Single Phase
- Phase: Single-Phase
- Standard: Standard
- Coupled with Senci Superior Quality Alte: Low Oil Alert Protects The Generator When Low Oil
- Big Fuel Tank, Longer Running Time: Quick Start, Low Fuel Consumption
- Auto Throttle, Varies Engine Speed Based: More Stable Power Output, High Efficiency and Low
- Trademark: FUSINDA
- Origin: Chongqing
AC Single Phase 6kva gasoline petrol generator with Senci 100% copper alternator
Fusinda Generator Features:
(1) 6000watts, Max 7000 watts, 110/120/220230/240V
(2) Power for emergency and home standby use
(3) Overload protection for safe running
(4) Compact structure and light weight
(5) Easy maintenance with brushless alternator electric ignition
(6) Long run time-up to 12 hrs
(7) AVR alternator provides stable voltage and current
(8) Emergency low oil warning
(9) Powerful commercial engine
(10) Electric start (Battery included) with Recoil back up
Why FUSINDA?
1.12 years of manufacturing experience in the field of general machineries
2. Professional engineers and test equipments to ensure the quality of each machine
3. Factory direct selling at competitive prices
4. OEM service is available
5. Fast and efficient delivery service
6. Strictly quality control system
7. Fast and good after sales service
8. One year warranty guaranteed
Quick Details
Place of Origin: Chongqing, China (Mainland);
Brand Name: FUSINDA,
Model Type:FBS6500E;
Starting System: Electric Start
Output Type: AC Single Phase
Speed: 3000 / 3600rpm
Rated Power: 6kw;
Rated Voltage: 110~240V;
Rated Current: 8.3A;
OEM: For optional.
Packaging Details: Common carton;Color carton optional
Delivery Detail: 25days
1: High efficiency and low noise, low fuel consumption
2. Strong and stable power output, THD<5%
2: Compact design, Strong structure, more endurable
3: Easy maintenance and longer working life
4: Super Competitive price, most reliable partner
|Rated frequency (Hz)
|50 / 60
|Rated output(kVA)
|Max. ouput (kVA)
|Rated voltage (V)
|Rated speed (r/min )
|3000 / 3600
|Phase NO.
|Single phase
|Power factor (cosφ)
|With brush
|DC12V output
|Net weight (Kg)
|Engine Model
|Engine type
|Single-cyinder,Four-stroke,Air-cooled, OHV
|Low oil Alert
|Starting system
|Recoil or Electric
|Fuel loading running time(h)
|Alternator Winding
|100% Copper
|Fuel Options
|Gasoline / Petrol


text:
Best Of :: Sports & Recreation
Way out west amid the tract developments, strip malls and freeways of Houston's upper-middle-class suburbia is this hidden sliver of primordial bayou land, where you can wind back the geologic clock to the Cenozoic Era. On a typical hike or bike trip through the park's 12 miles of Buffalo Bayou-hugging trails, you'll see startled turtles sliding down sandy banks and water snakes lazing through slowly flowing, surprisingly pristine waters; you'll also hear the occasional splash as the bayou ripples when a hungry garfish surfaces to chomp an unlucky bug. The 500 acres of lush undergrowth are interspersed with occasional clearings; in one, you'll find a sundial where your own shadow will tell you the time. Even that primitive mode of timekeeping seems positively high-tech after an hour or two deep in the jungles of the park.
Any respectable hockey team needs an enforcer — especially in the minor leagues, where fisticuffs are much of the draw. Luckily for the Aeros (and speedy scorers such as Corey Locke and Krys Kolanos), they've got one of the best in six-foot-six ice-boxer Matt Kassian. Like many a good enforcer, Kassian isn't much of a skater, but his fists have gained him YouTube notoriety while clearing the way for Locke and Kolanos to attack the nets without worrying too much for their safety. Kassian racked up an impressive fight card of 20 this season, according to www.hockeyfights.com, no small feat considering he appeared in just 56 games. (Props are also due to mean-as-hell defenseman Mitch Love, who, while lacking Kassian's intimidating physique, managed to lead the AHL with 34 brawls.) Further cementing his reputation as a goon among goons, Kassian took home the "Sickest Beard Award" in the Aeros' post-season facial hair contest.
A reporter once questioned the "athleticism" of Philadelphia Phillie John Kruk. "I ain't an athlete, lady," Kruk growled. "I'm a baseball player." Many of the Astros fit that bill — you need look no farther than left field, where Carlos Lee stamps his pasture nightly, to see a classic example. Hunter Pence is one of the rare exceptions. Despite last season's sophomore slump, it's hard not to be excited about what the future holds for the Astros' young (at least by this aging club's standards) right fielder. The rangy native Texan has all the tools – power, speed, a sniper-rifle arm – and is still learning to harness them. And this year he is really coming into his own, with a career-year pace for home runs, RBIs, steals and runs scored.
The sights, the sounds, the smells — who doesn't enjoy a good bowl every now and then? Well, from 8 a.m. until midnight, Sundays through Thursdays, and 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays, you can get your bowl on at The Palace. Reasonable prices, automatic scoring and kid-friendly bumper-bowling make this alley a winner. Plus, we love the snack bar — great burgers, sandwiches, salads and pizza, not to mention beverages of the alcoholic (and nonalcoholic) variety. And, of course, Palace has good weekly specials and birthday specials. So what are you waiting for? Get on your bowling shoes and get going.
There's a certain kind of shock that comes when you luck into a friend's great Astros ticket and you look at the price. Fifty bucks? For a single night at the ballpark? But the truth is, you can have yourself a great night at Minute Maid Park and not put much of a dent in your pocket at all. (We do advise filling up before the game, though; some tickets are cheap, but hot dogs and drinks are another story.) There's always a slew of great offers on the team's Web site: Maybe it's buy an adult ticket for seven bucks, and two kids under 14 can get in free with you. Or maybe it's a ticket, hot dog, soda and chips all for $10. The point is, bargains are there to be had. "Sure," you scoff — you old scoffer, you — "But the seats are probably in the last row near the roof and in fair territory." To a degree, true, but not completely. And the fact remains that Minute Maid is about as easy as it gets when it comes to the time-honored tradition of "improving" your seat. There's the Home Run Alley standing room, of course; there's also typically a wide selection of field-level seats sitting empty. Wait a couple of innings and then look like you belong.
Rockets coach Rick Adelman had a great year, leading Houston to the second round of the NBA playoffs for the first time in 12 years. Still, you can't ignore Katy High School football coach Gary Joseph. In 2007, Joseph led the Tigers to a perfect season, capped with a state championship. Then he lost almost every starting player to graduation. When this year's team lost its initial two games for the first time since 1984, losing in the second week 47-0 against The Woodlands, it looked like the Katy dominance was done. But Joseph retooled the team, and after demolishing a team from Florida in a nationally televised game, Katy lost only once again. In December of last year, the team won the state championship, the first back-to-back titles in the school's storied football history.


text:
We live in a time that places a high value on community. The European Economic Community, global markets, the global village, accords and governance--universal fraternity is the wave of the future. Consequently, Pope John Paul II's encyclical Centesimus Annus, with its emphasis on the human person in community, could be seen as simply following these current trends. For those not aware of its continuity with a living tradition, it appears to be an attempt to build bridges where there are none.
This encyclical, however, does indeed stand in continuity with the great tradition of Christian moral teaching. Further, its universal perspective, spanning all places and peoples, argues against the criticism that the pontiff has succumbed to the trendy globalism of our day. What sets it apart from the contemporary passion for community is how it sheds light on the ironies that riddle and, in many respects, embarrass the world community-building machine.
A distinct paradox is threading its way throughout the history of this century. On one level, we see concerted activity toward breaking down divides, abolishing borders, and fostering international cooperation. On another level, we see growing distrust between countries, the rise of nationalism, and the fracturing of societies into rich and poor, North and South, East and West. Our world is struggling stubbornly toward an ideal of community but is unable to attain it. Centesimus Annus' genius rests in its ability to address this failure and to lay out the conditions for authentic human community. In so doing, it provides principles that explain why the contemporary efforts to achieve community continually fall short.
Humanitarian Aid: Building the Community of Tomorrow?
Undoubtedly, the great "community builders" of our time are humanitarian aid and development programs. Governments of all developed nations have international aid budgets that, even if comprising a fraction of their total expenditures, total billions of dollars yearly. The United States Agency for International Development (usaid), for instance, has requested 7.3 billion dollars for its world wide humanitarian aid programs in 1999. Such programs have a clear "society building" objective; for instance, two of the five stated usaid goals are "promoting economic growth" and "advancing democracy." Humanitarian aid is seen as both an act of solidarity and an investment in the future. Beyond usaid, the United States appropriates other monies for international development (i.e., United Nations, World Bank, or International Monetary Fund contributions), and other governments have similar budgets. Meanwhile, the u.n. continues to call for increases in the percentage of gnp set aside for assistance to the international community.
At face value, this solution seems reasonable enough and has a long historical precedent. The reality, however, is that the old idea of humanitarian aid as a community builder has slowly been replaced by a paradigm of development that emphasizes family planning programs beyond all else. As such, family planning has become the core of the modern fight against poverty, injustice, and totalitarianism. Family planning, we are told, empowers the poor to better their economic situations, empowers women to become equal participants in society, and empowers societies to deal with problems such as poverty, overcrowding, and unemployment.
In theory, family planning concerns couples' decisions about their fertility and provides them with the means to do so. In practice, planning a family means limiting its size; thus family planning programs concentrate on supplying the Third World with condoms and contraceptives of every sort, sterilization, and abortion. Played out on a societal scale, planning families means controlling population growth.
The logic of this approach is rather straightforward: We live in a world of limited resources, inequitable access to these resources, and difficulty in providing educational and training opportunities. Reducing the number of people in the world relieves the competition for these resources and reduces the development burden by reducing the number of those dependent upon outside aid. We can be more effective, this approach argues, because we have less to do. It is a hard reality, but one demanded, we are told, by "responsibility" to future generations--and, ultimately, realism about our own.
This principle--that we fight poverty by eliminating the poor--stands in stark contrast to John Paul II's analysis of true human community. Contrary to this fundamental assumption, John Paul II writes in Centesimus Annus that "besides the earth, man's principal resource is man himself" (P 32) and that "man too is God's gift to man" (P 38). These two points are the fundamental insights of what John Paul II's calls an authentic human ecology. Lose sight of these truths, and you lose the path to building true and lasting community.
"The first and fundamental structure for 'human ecology' is the family," John Paul II writes (P 39). A development paradigm that focuses on family planning, in the sense spoken of earlier, cuts to the core of human community, for it does not focus on a mutual, loving, and self-giving relationship as the context for procreation but, rather, on severing the bond between sexuality and procreation. In sum, it pollutes the ecology of the family by introducing not only the methods but also the mentality of contraception.
Family Planning at the Cost of True Development
There is no need to elaborate here the links between contraceptive practice and mentality and the breakdown of the family. The consequences of exporting these ideas to the developing world will not necessarily be felt this year or next, but they will in a generation. With these consequences will come the slow disintegration not only of families but of whole societies. The family is the basis of community because, as John Paul II writes, it is the place where a person learns "what it means to love and to be loved ... what it actually means to be a person" (P 39). Without this experience, a person is unable to "enter into a stable relationship with another person" (P 39). People remain "individuals," unable to enter into the universal "brotherhood" that both motivates the humanitarian project and functions as its good.
What we have with this modern development paradigm and its family planning mentality, then, is a model that discourages the formation of the fundamental component of human ecology--the family. Because of this disposition, it neglects authentic human development, which John Paul II identifies as creation of "the proper conditions for human reproduction." The realities of contemporary practice confirm this assessment only too well.
What is more, family planning programs not only focus on restricting the size of families but also work subtly to eliminate them altogether. "Reproductive health," "gender equality," and "adolescent rights" (all explicit targets of family planning programs) are new euphemisms for the old cant and values of the sexual revolution. The world of the development paradigm explicitly espoused by, for instance, the International Planned Parenthood Federation or the various u.n. agencies and implicitly articulated by usaid is a world where "family" means any combination of two or more individuals; where parents have no rights over the education and upbringing of their children; and where contraception, sterilization, and abortion are the safeguards against unwanted consequences of this "freedom" that family planning programs are intended to foster. Traditional moral and religious values are seen as obstacles to this liberation and must be eliminated since they stand in the path of this new, universal self-awareness.
Individual country aid portfolios bring the point home starkly. In 1997, the total usaid development budget for Mexico was 17.8 million dollars. 12.9 million (72.58 percent) of this was spent on population activities, compared to $500,000 on health activities, and a mere $150,000 on economic growth. Mexico has a total fertility rate of 2.97 women per children (1997 est.), and a country-specific replacement fertility recently set at 3.3 because of infant mortality. The demographic realities of Mexico hardly seem to warrant spending more money on population control than on health or economic growth.
Consequences of the Family Planning Approach
Centesimus Annus describes the ultimate consequences of such undermining of the human ecology: lack of freedom, promulgation of the idea that children are a commodity that must compete with other commodities, and, ultimately, the spread of the culture of death (P 39). A brief look at international development programs confirms the truth of this analysis.
China and its brutal one-child policy have long been the example of what is usually considered family planning run amok. In the name of development, over two decades of parents have been denied the freedom to have the children they desire. Coerced abortion, sterilization, and contraception have become the official mechanisms of enforcing this policy; infanticide and gender-selective abortion are the unofficial mechanisms of policy compliance. Permission for second children may be bought, at a price often reaching the equivalent of several years' worth of salary. Children are reduced not only to commodities but to luxuries that cannot be afforded.
China, sadly, does not stand alone. Government-sponsored family planning programs of forced sterilization have been aggressively carried out in Indonesia, China, and, most recently, Peru. Thirty-eight countries, to date, are on record for the human rights abuses that occur within their family planning programs, and reports of new abuses in new locations continue to grow. Far from an exception, China is now only the most-obvious and best-known embodiment of the idea that a country's population is a liability to be controlled rather than an asset to be nurtured.
De-sanctified People, Destabilized Social Orders
Peru stands as one of the most recent cases in point, with a program that has led some to call it, "the China of the 1990s." In Peru, women are being pressured to submit to sterilization in order to receive necessary medical attention or to keep their children enrolled in nutritional supplement programs. Many who resist this pressure have been sterilized anyway while undergoing other medical procedures (such as a caesarean section delivery) or simply by strength of force. The death toll mounts as government health workers perform the procedure without adequate training and in unhygienic conditions in a scramble to meet the quotas set by government population policy and to keep their jobs.
The Peruvian government continues to deny responsibility for the deaths and human rights' abuses that result from this program. This denial illustrates well one of John Paul II's key insights: Our policy decisions give rise to social structures that can "impede the full realization of those who are in any way oppressed by them" (P 38). So, Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori did not, in instituting this program, target the freedom, existing children, and lives of Peruvian women, but the program he created does, for it encroaches upon the most intimate decisions that constitute a family. By instituting the program, Fujimori signaled the de-sanctification of individual dignity and the freedoms that argue against this arrogation of family rights. He set off a chain of events that is swiftly destabilizing the social order of his country.
A similar disruption is gathering momentum on the international level. As aid policies of developed countries place increased focus on family planning and population control programs, there is a growing distrust of these programs and a perceived "new colonialism" by the developed world. People in developing countries are dying of pneumonia, malaria, and dehydration--all of which take pennies per case to cure--for lack of vitally necessary drugs. Meanwhile, Third-World family planning clinics are bursting with condoms and mechanical and chemical contraceptives generously donated by bilateral and multilateral aid. The counter-productiveness of this approach from a development point of view is clear.
One African doctor has paired family-planning programs with aids, labeling them as the "twin scourge" that is depopulating Africa and consigning it to poverty "like none that we have ever known." A nurse from the Philippines testified during a Washington press conference that "of the twenty-five-plus million dollars [usaid] spends on population and health [in the Philippines], twenty-two million is for population activities, less than three million is for health services. Are you trying to help mothers in my country, or just stop them from having children?" As these testimonies accent, there is a growing distrust on the part of aid-dependent countries, but dependence on the aid they receive makes it impossible for these countries to effectively protest the programs that they recognize as detrimental to their social and economic orders. The combined experiences of exploitation and powerlessness only deepen the rift between North and South.
"Man ... Is God's Gift to Man"
If we look to Centesimus Annus for insight, two implications stand out clearly for the development community to learn. First, the way to build brotherhood is to emphasize the value of people, in word and in deed. Family planning as the means of development ultimately fails because it denies this value and thus espouses one of the anthropological errors John Paul II identifies as underlying mistaken views about the social order. "Man too is God's gift to man." The basis of a stable society is the acceptance of the other as "gift"--in the mutual self-donation of married love, in the procreation that is the natural result of that love, and in the solidarity of reaching out to the other in need.
Second, it is not enough to keep intentions pure. There is a natural order. When this order is violated, it is unavoidable that very specific consequences should follow. Arguments that these were not intended are simply disingenuous, and genuine surprise at unintended consequences is unable to repair the damage that has been done. If development programs continue to promote population control under the euphemism of family planning, no amount of high ideals can prevent the disintegration of the social order, and their efforts will be in vain.


text:
Back pain coming to fore in NFL
Back injuries like the one that could have ended Steelers linebacker James Harrison's career are becoming an increasing pain for NFL players and teams.
Harrison, a Pro Bowl pass rusher who is entering the fourth year of a six-year, $51.75 million contract, had two surgeries in 2011 to repair a herniated disc in his lower back.
Spine (back), head and neck injuries accounted for 10 percent of all reported NFL injuries between 2004-09, according to an NFL Players Association report released last year.
"I believe that back injuries are more common now than they used to be in the NFL population," said Dr. Wellington Hsu, an assistant professor in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery and Department of Neurological Surgery at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. He co-authored a study of NFL linemen's back injuries that appeared in 2010 in the American Journal of Sports Medicine.
Returning to the lineup six months ahead of projections in 2011, Harrison tied for the team lead with nine sacks. But he acknowledged that he briefly considered retirement because of post-surgical pain.
"During training camp last year, it was like, 'I don't know if I can continue to do this,'" said Harrison, 34. "It could have actually ruptured to where I may not have been able to play again."
Former Steelers offensive tackle Marvel Smith wasn't as fortunate. He retired at 31 after undergoing two surgeries to repair a herniated disc in his lower back.
"I was fighting through it, trying to continue to play. But I didn't have to play financially," said Smith, who completed a six-year, $26 million contract in 2008, his final NFL season. "I was playing because I wanted to, but it wasn't to a point where I could play pain-free."
The Steelers have experienced more than their share of back injuries, say officials inside and outside the organization. Since 2007, Harrison, Smith and former fullback Frank Summers had surgeries performed for a herniated disc in their lower back.
Smith, who joined the San Francisco 49ers after not re-signing with the Steelers, retired before the start of the 2009 season — eight months after his second surgery. Summers, a member of the San Diego Chargers practice squad last season who has yet to sign with a team for 2012, has not played in an NFL game since his rookie season in 2009.
"The numbers that we had in a relatively short time, I think, is a little unusual," said Dr. Joseph Maroon, a UPMC neurosurgeon who has been the Steelers' team neurosurgeon since 1981 and performed the surgeries on Harrison, Smith and Summers. "I don't think there's anything about the Steelers and the way they practice or anything else. It's each individual's body."
St. Louis Rams team physician Dr. Matthew Matava, also the team physician with the St. Louis Blues, said that many back injuries with one NFL team in a relatively short span is not common. "We've probably done less than five (back surgeries)," he said of his 11 years with the Rams.
With the recent emphasis by the NFL on preventing concussions, no one is sounding the alarm on debilitating back injuries.
"I don't think back pain conditions are going to explode like concussions since the diagnostic methods are already pretty accurate and sophisticated. However, back pain will always be a fact of life for the NFL," Matava said.
The basics behind a back injury seem fairly simple: massive linemen often weighing more than 300 pounds slamming into each other with the intent of blocking for or attacking the quarterback and running backs.
There were 176 back injuries among 4,450 NFL player injuries in 2011, according to the official weekly report released by the league office. But back injuries and related problems have increased significantly enough over the past several years that medical experts are examining their origins in greater detail.
The 2010 study in the American Journal of Sports Medicine examined NFL linemen on active rosters from 1982-2009.
Of 66 players studied, 14 were treated without surgery and returned to play. Of the 52 players in the study who underwent back surgery, 42 returned to play in at least one NFL game.
Among the 42 who returned to play, seven players underwent a second surgical procedure, with six players again returning to action.
The Steelers' Smith is the only player among the seven who did not return to play after a second surgery.
"Offensive linemen are often in a two-point stance — they're in a squatting position. They put a lot of pressure on their disc," said Northwestern's Hsu.
Tough choices
The most common back injury is degenerative disc disease.
"It's a breakdown of the disc in association with arthritis in the lower back," Matava said.
The spinal column is made up of 26 vertebrae. Between each vertebra is a disc, a jelly-like substance that serves as a shock absorber.
A disc herniation occurs when pressure causes a disc to break, and a jelly-like substance squeezes out and sticks in the nerve.
"It causes intense pain and weakness. All the force is directed to those two discs at the base of your spine," Maroon said.
Harrison underwent his first magnetic resonance imaging in October 2010. He was diagnosed with a herniated disc in his lower back, and Maroon presented him with two options.
"Our first look, (Maroon) said he would have to do surgery because you could see on the screen the bulge was so far out," Harrison said. "The option was to get the surgery and be out (for the remainder of the season) or continue to go until you can't go no more and then hope everything holds up and get the surgery afterward."
Harrison played in every game in 2010 and led the Steelers with 10 1⁄2 sacks.
On Feb. 21, 2011 — 15 days after the Steelers' 31-26 loss to the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XLV — Harrison underwent his first discectomy to surgically remove herniated disc material pressing against a nerve.
"Surgically, you do the best you can to decompress the nerve, then hope the rest of the disc stays intact," Maroon said.
Nine days after the surgery, Maroon performed a second discectomy on Harrison.
"The second operation is unusual, but it's dictated by the MRI and the patient's complaint," Maroon said.
"He didn't get it all the first time," Harrison explained. "Too conservative."
Different outcomes
Maroon said he cautioned Harrison that the recovery following double back surgery would be 12 to 18 months. Yet Harrison returned to play in the 2011 season opener in six months.
Coach Mike Tomlin limited the star linebacker's workload in training camp and preseason games.
Smith said he wishes the Steelers had been as patient with his rehabilitation as they were with Harrison's.
He said he reported to training camp in July 2008 — seven months after his first discectomy — and was a full participant in drills.
"One thing I noticed with James, he didn't come right back doing everything,'' Smith said. "They brought him along gradually."
The Steelers would not make their training staff available for comment concerning Harrison and Smith.
Smith said his back problems may have begun in 2003, his fourth year in the league, when he missed 10 games because of a pinched nerve. He wore a neck support, which he suggested forced him into a lower blocking stance. That resulted in more strain on his lower back and less flexibility in his ankle, he said.
In 2005, Smith missed four games with two separate high-ankle sprains.
"The high ankle sprains are what I felt like led to my back problems," said Smith, who played the first 12 games in 2007 with a herniated disc.
After undergoing his first discectomy in December 2007, Smith missed the final 11 games in 2008 and underwent his second discectomy the December before the Steelers' 27-23 win over the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII. Smith got a second opinion from a California doctor who agreed with Maroon's recommendation before undergoing surgery.
"Marvel needed another operation because the disc wore out," Maroon said. "He had subsequent problems. There's always a risk."
In hindsight, Smith, who started 108 of 111 NFL games, won two Super Bowls and played in a Pro Bowl, said he would handle his situation differently and not be among players who played hurt as part of an unwritten team code.
"I tell guys all the time, 'To hell with the team,' " said Smith, who lives in Los Angeles and trains college linemen for the NFL Draft. "I would make sure I'm healthy before I go back on the field."
John Harris is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at email@example.com.


text:
Tulip Ego Laptop
This is the cutest laptop I have ever seen! It infuses women's love of handbags into laptop computers. It sells for $5000.00 at Barneys. If you think that's expensive, try the diamond-encrusted model that sells for $350,000. It has a handle so you can carry it around town like a purse. Although the white model resembles a George Foreman Grill, you can buy interchangable laptop skins to match every outfit!


text:
I see, well I play Instrumental songs.. well I'll give a sample of what types do I play "G5 2007 "Words" (Sorry I can't post the link. It won't allow me :| Just check it out on you tube if you have time so spare) :D
Yes I think It depends on the people using, But to be honest I am just starting to build my own setup.. My budget is none at the moment. but is there any cheaper but good in sound? I don't have ESP as well xD


text:
Interactive Bracket // Cornell Women's Hockey Home
Courtesy of Cornell Athletic Communications
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell women's hockey team advanced to its
second consecutive Frozen Four in style, matching an NCAA
tournament record for goals in a game in a 7-1 victory over ECAC
Hockey foe Dartmouth on Saturday afternoon at Lynah Rink. The
second-seeded Big Red improved to 31-2-1 on the season with a win
in front of 1,565 fans. Dartmouth's season came to an end with a
22-12-0 mark.
With the victory, Cornell will face Boston University (a 4-2 winner over Mercyhurst) in one national semifinal, while Boston College (a 4-1 winner over Minnesota) will meet either Wisconsin or defending national champion Minnesota-Duluth in the other game with the national title game on the line. The Big Red's 31 victories is the most by any Big Red hockey team, men's or women's, surpassing the 30-win men's hockey team of 2002-03 that advanced to the Frozen Four.
Chelsea Karpenko scored two goals and had an assist, while Catherine White (goal, two assists) also had a three-point day. In addition, three players had multi-point efforts as Cornell scored two in each of the first two periods and three in the third to win going away. In goal, Amanda Mazzotta made 20 saves and allowed just a shorthanded goal in picking up the win.
Dartmouth's Camille Dumais scored the lone goal for the visitors, while Margaux Shapiro and Geneva Kliman each had assists. Freshman goalkeeper Lindsay Holdcroft made 19 saves in the loss for the Big Green.


text:
You are browsing: EMU Australia
You are browsing: EMU Australia
EMU Australia£49.99£59.99Save £10.00
W10015-90 Jolie
EMU Australia£89.99£139.99Save £50.00
W10002-10 Stinger Lo
EMU Australia£89.99£139.99Save £50.00
W10002-90 Stinger Lo
EMU Australia£40.00£75.00Save £35.00
K10111-80 Ladybird
EMU Australia£80.00£145.00Save £65.00
W10835-10 Alba Mini Mini
EMU Australia£50.00
W10105-60 Tova
EMU Australia£95.00£185.00Save £90.00
W10843-10 Charlotte
EMU Australia Shoes
EMU Australia footwear has a fantastic heritage when it comes to manufacturing sheepskin and wool products. Although EMU footwear as we know it today was born just over twenty years ago, the company behind EMU is The Jackson Tannery in Geelong, Australia, was founded in 1977 and it produces some of the finest Australian sheepskin. This tannery was the first company to produce sheepskin boots on a commercial scale and over the years, they honed their skills and marketing to produce premium sheepskin footwear, thus EMU began.
EMU footwear is ideal for those who want to source high quality sheepskin products, as they use only the best products such as Australian sheepskin, Merino wool and the finest Australian leather and suede. As well as using these lovely products, they fuse a modern twist on sheepskin and apply new technologies to ensure their footwear is superior in terms of comfort and quality. EMU incorporate rubber outer soles with EVA midsoles to create footwear which is light yet durable, and mix this with inner fillers of foam and a cosy sheepskin lining to craft the ultimate sheepskin footwear.
Begg Shoes & Bags is an EMU Australia Stockist. So browse our online collection or pop into one of Shoe Shops to try on a pair. You'll love them on your feet!


text:
Welcome to WebmasterWorld Guest from 18.104.22.168
Forum Moderators: bill
Microsoft Japan has a page with information about various launch events across Japan beginning on October 22.
[microsoft.com...] (in Japanese)
They have events scheduled in the major electronics stores/chains. Not all of the events are on the 22nd though. Some are more conveniently scheduled on the weekends when more people can attend (the 24th & 25th).
I will try to drop by one of these events to see what's going on. I probably won't stay up until midnight as I've already got my copies of Windows 7.
Anyone going to stay up until midnight to get your copy of Windows 7?


text:
Wired 25: The Top 25 Albums Of 2012
15. Big K.R.I.T. – Live From The Underground
Krizzle's debut album under Def Jam wasn't a commercial success, but it doesn't take away from the album's quality. The rapper/producer made new fans on joints like "I Got This" and kept true to his original base with songs like "My Sub Pt. 2"


text:
Two brothers were arrested Sunday night for allegedly attempting to burglarize an apartment before being shot by the resident.
It happened at the Reflections Apartments, off Winkler Avenue and Solomon Boulevard, just after 4 a.m. Sunday morning.
Police say the male resident of the apartment stepped outside to smoke a cigarette with he was attacked by 27-year-old Ashanti Underwood and 28-year-old Jamar Underwood.


text:
by ETFguide | September 23, 2011 5:00 am
The behavior of financial markets along with world events indicate that Europe's financial crisis is (unfortunately) spreading. This is not a scare tactic, but an honest evaluation of the facts. Let's analyze some of the reasons behind this.
1. Europe's banks are undercapitalized. Last week, European banks in France and elsewhere needed an emergency cash infusion from a coalition of world central banks. The International Monetary Fund, in its "Global Financial Stability Report," estimates $408 billion in banks' risk exposure to toxic government debt from countries like Greece, Ireland and Portugal. Because Europe's crisis is moving so rapidly, even IMF is having trouble estimating the true liabilities for European banks. Just last month, IMF said it would take only $272 billion to cover banks' capital shortfall.
2. Banks still aren't properly managing risk. The global banking system is a mess because banks are deficient at underwriting and managing financial risk. The fact that European banks are overexposed to toxic sovereign debt is proof enough. Furthermore, UBS (NYSE:UBS[1]) is the latest poster child for incompetence when it comes to supervising its traders. It's never a good time to announce $2.3 billion in losses from bunk trades, but doing it during the middle of a credit crisis is surreal. How many other banks are at jeopardy for this same kind of nonsense?
3. Credit downgrades. We don't advocate putting implicit faith in credit ratings because history has taught us they are nothing more than financial opinions — and frequently, not very accurate ones. Still, a gander at the latest downgrading trend is troublesome. Intuitive observers will note this is not an isolated phenomenon, but a global trend. Sovereign debt from Greece and Portugal, after several downgrades, is now rated junk. Ireland has been downgraded, Italy was downgraded this week, and Japanese, along with U.S. debt, was lowered in August. The pace at which government debt is being downgrade is accelerating and reversing this trend won't be easy.
4. Too many cooks in the kitchen. One of Europe's problems in solving its crisis is bureaucracy. Between the Economic and Monetary Union, European Banking Authority and EU finance ministers, everyone has an opinion on how to fix things, but nobody can execute. Layered on top of this melting pot, are individual countries within the euro zone, each with its own distinct set of financial regulators with their own viewpoints. It's a conglomeration of confusion.
5. Poor enforcement track record. Financial regulators are prodigious at inventing new rules but much less proficient at enforcing them. In many ways, Europe's crisis is just like the U.S.' — a colossal failure by regulators to regulate. Rules are of no protection if they are selectively enforced or not enforced at all.
6. Over-concentration of financial power. The Oscar-winning documentary film "Inside Job" was too angry of a film for me and badly missed at articulating the fourth-grade antics of Wall Street's elite. Nonetheless, it explained how the U.S. financial services industry became too large too fast. What's changed since then? More assets and power have been concentrated in fewer surviving firms, which has increased everyone's risk should one of these institutions fail. The problem of "too big to fail" still hasn't be solved domestically or internationally.
7. Squandering public funds. Instead of letting troubled financial institutions or governments fail, regulators and quasi-regulators have thrown (and continue to throw) trillions of dollars trying to save them. In the U.S. it was a $700 billion bailout, and in Europe it's already topped $1 trillion. These headline bailout figures, which are being funded largely by taxpayers, probably are much higher than reported. While financial bailouts in the name of saving humanity or even a country are excellent devices for delaying the inevitable reckoning day, they don't completely stop its arrival. Furthermore, the financial liabilities associated with massive financial bailouts already have begun destabilizing the financial condition of world governments previously determined as "strong."
8. Global flood into "safe-haven" investments. Regardless of whether you believe in gold as an investment or not, its substantial rise has been fueled, in part, by the failure of governments to prudently manage their finances. As a result, money is flowing out of stocks and into assets deemed "safe" like U.S. Treasuries, gold, precious metals and Swiss francs. As a side note, I grudgingly use the deceitful phrase "safe-haven" because it suggests a false sense of security. In reality, no single investment security or asset class is technically "safe," no matter what persuasive marketers argue. Everything is subject to rises and falls at any given moment.
This article is brought to you by ETFguide.com. ETFguide is the information leader on exchange-traded funds because of its vendor-neutral approach and its progressive reporting style. Unique features include an ETF bookstore, a monthly e-mail newsletter and subscription-based ETF portfolios.
Source URL: http://investorplace.com/investorpolitics/euro-zone-debt-crisis-banks-imf/
Short URL: http://investorplace.com/?p=64985
Copyright ©2017 InvestorPlace Media, LLC. All rights reserved. 700 Indian Springs Drive, Lancaster, PA 17601.


text:
SUMMARY;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:OCC Dedication Service with Franklin Graham and Dennis Agajanian
DESCRIPTION;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:We are excited to welcome guest speaker Franklin Graham at all four weekend services on November 24-25. Franklin Graham has devoted his life to meeting the needs of people around the world while proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. The eldest son of Billy and Ruth Bell Graham\, he serves as President and CEO of Samaritan's Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Under his leadership\, Samaritan's Purse has met the needs of poor\, sick\, and suffering people in more than 100 countries and conducts the annual Operation Christmas Child shoebox project. =0A=0AWe also welcome one of the best acoustic guitar players of his time: Dennis Agajanian joins us as guest musician at all services November 24-25. You'll appreciate the style and gifting of this multi-award winning musician. Whether Dennis is playing Country\, Bluegrass\, Classical\, or Rock\, audiences often find themselves amazed by his musical ability.=0A=0AJoin us as we dedicate this year's OCC boxes to the Lord\, hear a powerful message from Franklin Graham\, and enjoy music from guest musician Dennis Agajanian. Service times are Saturday at 6:30 pm and Sunday at 8:00\, 9:30\, and 11:15 am at the Osuna Campus or Sunday at 11:00 am at Calvary Nob Hill and Calvary Santa Fe.=0A=0ACalvary Albuquerque is located at 4001 Osuna Road NE.=0ACalvary Nob Hill is located in the Lobo Theater\, 3013 Central Avenue NE.=0ACalvary Santa Fe is located at 1295 Clark Road in Santa Fe.=0A
UID:329520121125T013000ZOCC Dedication Service with Franklin Graham and Dennis Agajanian


text:
This week's guests are Princeton High School students Michael Gross, Sam Kelly, Myranda Houle and Clarissa Borst, shown holding a butter chocolate cake. Gross and Kelly are in back and Houle and Borst are in front.
All are seniors except Kelly, who is a freshman. The four were one of the six cake-baking teams in Sarah Schuppenhauer's family and consumer science baking class last week in which each team made a different cake. The cakes were a pound banana, chiffon lemon, butter chocolate, angel food, sponge orange and a butter cake with strawberry gelatin poured into holes in the cake.
The guest team's cake was the butter chocolate.
Gross is in the school production of "Peter Pan" and enjoys auto mechanics. He works part time at the Coborn's convenience store and his career plans are to become a choral instructor.
Kelly loves animals and plans to become a veterinarian. She likes playing video games and watching movies with her mother.
Houle would like to become a dental hygienist. Her No. 1 interest is her church. She also likes hanging out with friends, baking and art. She works at Cub Foods in Cambridge.
Borst, coincidentally, is originally from the Minnesota city of Clarissa. She enjoys traveling, spending time with friends, cooking, baking and four-wheeling. Her career interests are massage therapist and landscape designer.
4 oz. chocolate chips
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup boiling water
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup milk
5 oz. chocolate chips
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
4 cups sifted powdered sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place rack in center of oven. Grease two 9-inch round baking pans with shortening, dust with flour and set aside. Combine in glass bowl the chocolate chips and cocoa powder and pour the boiling water over the chips and powder. Stir until all is melted. Set aside to cool. In separate bowl whisk to combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside. Using the stand mixer, cream the butter and gradually add the sugar and continue beating until mixture is fluffy (about 3-5 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and melted chocolate mixture. Beat well to combine.
Add the milk and flour mixtures in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Beat only until the ingredients are incorporated. Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans and smooth the tops.
Bake 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean and the top springs back when lightly pressed. Remove from oven and place on wire cooling rack to cool 10 minutes. Loosen cakes from pans using a butter knife around the edges and turn out.
Prepare the frosting, starting with melting the chocolate chips in a heat-proof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (double boiler). Remove from heat and let cool. Place melted chocolate, milk, powdered sugar, salt and vanilla in the bowl of your stand mixer. Cut the butter in small pieces. Add the butter pieces to the stand mixer bowl and beat on low speed about 2 minutes. When the frosting starts to come together, increase the speed to medium and beat 2-3 minutes or until smooth. Scrape down sides of the bowl and beat on high 1-2 minutes. Layer and frost the cakes.


text:
Holland College
Prince Edward Island on Canada's east coast is home to Atlantic Canada's newest performing arts school, the Holland College School of Performing Arts (SoPA). Prince Edward Island and Atlantic Canada enjoy a culture steeped in the rich traditions of music, dance, and theater. That culture, along with excellent youth and secondary school programming, has produced students eager to pursue post-secondary education and training on their way to professional careers. SoPA provides an opportunity for students to develop their artistic skills, share their passion of music and dance, explore career options in the performing arts, and gain an understanding of the business side of the performance industry.
School of Performing Arts
Formed in 2010 in Charlottetown, SoPA is a unique partnership between Holland College and Confederation Centre of the Arts:
- With a 40-year history of teaching and learning innovation, Holland College has achieved international recognition for its competency-based curriculum and resulting graduate employment success.
- Confederation Centre of the Arts is an award-winning national arts center with the pedigree of one of the country's oldest musical theater festivals, the Charlottetown Festival.
SoPA combines the significant strengths and national reputations of these two well-established institutions.
Music Performance Program
SoPA's two-year music performance program trains musicians for the commercial music and entertainment industry. Students learn to interpret and perform many contemporary music styles such as rock, country, funk, R&B, jazz, Celtic, and world music while gaining a strong understanding of the theory, analysis, and influences of contemporary music styles. Learning the business aspects of a self-managed career in the music industry is a key component of the program. Students:
- benefit from a competency-based curriculum;
- learn with instructors who come straight from the stage and studio;
- perform in a unique environment, including the Confederation Centre of the Arts; and
- may choose to continue their post-secondary education at other colleges and universities.
SoPA music students enjoy musical success while still in the program. SoPA has partnered with Music PEI, the PEI Jazz and Blues Festival, and the East Coast Music Association (ECMA) for promotional and showcase opportunities. Also, music performance students have won and/or received nominations for Music PEI and East Coast Music Awards, including Jazz Album of the Year, Jazz and Blues Recording of the Year, and Male Solo Recording of the Year; bands featuring music performance students as members have wins and/or nominations for Album of the Year, Group Recording of the Year, New Artist of the Year, and Rock Recording of the Year.
Other Programs
In addition to music performance, SoPA offers two-year dance performance and theater performance programs and a one-year performing arts foundation program.
Holland College
The Holland College School of Performing Arts (SoPA)
140 Weymouth Street
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada C1A 4Z1
Phone: 1-800-446-5265
Email: email@example.com


text:
"Our Team Is Ready To
Improve Your Company's Marketing Success
Why do all the other "web services" companies begin their sales message
with claims about their unique internet skills, web page design services,
and other technology oriented ideas?
Don't they realize that the Internet is nothing more than another
vehicle for communication? Any effort a company makes to build or improve
it's Internet based marketing must first fully complement the company's
existing marketing methods.


text:
Thank you for working with us on our first dance for our wedding. You made the whole experience relaxed and even fun ~ an impressive feat for two total non-dancers! We really appreciated your gentle coaching and your patience. Our first dance went well ~ most importantly, we had fun doing it! Thank you!
Clara and Joel were very enjoyable to work with. While it was clear that they are experienced competitive dancers and teachers, they were able to work with a couple of inexperienced (and eager!) students to help us bring together an amazing first dance for our wedding.
The dance was very pseronal and appropriate for us; Clara made every effort to tailor our song choice and choreography to fit. We came away with a new appreciation for dance and also the accomplishment of having to work through a new challenge as a couple."
The dance was a great success! I don't know if it was the wine or the adrenaline, but we got through the whole routine without any errors, and everyone loved it. I think Tom was more proud of the dance than he was of the ceremony itself.
Contact us today for a free consultation!


text:
As reporting season wraps up this week, analysts and investors will turn their attention to post-mortems of what have been mixed results.
The two remaining heavy hitters to report this week are QBE Insurance Group and QR National, both due to present results today.
Throughout reporting season, companies with exposure to consumers reported lacklustre earnings while those in the resources sector performed strongly. Investors will see if the trend holds today, with Beach Energy, Murchison Metals and Grange Resources releasing half-year results.
With the last of the results trickling through, the price of Telstra shares remains under pressure. The company will be looking to appease retail investors by holding shareholder briefings this week across the capital cities. Chief financial officer
The Reserve Bank of Australia board meets tomorrow to decide on interest rates, but is expected to make no move.
On Wednesday, shareholders in AXA Asia Pacific Holdings will vote on the proposed $15 billion merger of its Australian and New Zealand business with AMP. The deal is widely expected to go through. AMP chief executive
The prospectus for West Australian Newspapers' $4.1 billion bid for Seven Media Group should be released on Thursday, marking the official start of WAN's efforts to sell the deal to its retail shareholders, who own about 50 per cent of the company.
There has been a good response in the institutional space so far, with $326 million raised early last week.
WAN shareholders will vote on the purchase on April 11.
Federal Environment Minister
Neptune Marine Services will hold a general meeting on Tuesday to vote on the contentious 3.6-for-1 entitlement offer at 5¢ a share, which closes the same day. Shares in the company have been in a trading halt since November after its banker, National Australia Bank, forced it to conduct the heavily discounted and dilutive equity raising to repay a loan.
The Australian Financial Review


text:
Book store readies for next round of 'Potter-mania'
By Doug Snover
The newest entry in the Harry Potter series of children's fantasy books, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," goes on sale Saturday, July 16, at one minute past midnight.
To celebrate its release, Changing Hands Bookstore will host a "Fire and Ice" party starting at 10:30 p.m. July 15, with fire dancers to heat up the summer night, $1 snow cones to cool things back down.
British author J. K. Rowlings' Potter books are a worldwide phenomenon, and midnight parties are commonplace for readers who want to be first in line to purchase the latest installment. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" is the sixth book in the Harry Potter series.
It's been more than two years since "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" came out in 2003.
The Changing Hands Bookstore's "Fire and Ice" celebration begins at 10:30 p.m. Friday, in the parking lot at 6428 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe.
As the clock strikes midnight, customers who pre-purchased the book will be given their copies and the sales frenzy will begin.
Changing Hands has about 1,000 copies of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" on hand. More than 300 have been pre-purchased. The hardcover book sells for $29.99.
Starting at 10:30 p.m., 'Fyrae' fire dancers will entertain the waiting crowd in the parking lot in front of the store. To help the audience cool down during the fire dancing, snow cones in various flavors will be served. A donation of $1 per snow cone is suggested. The store will remain open until 1 a.m. on July 16.
At 11 a.m. Saturday, a representative from the Phoenix Zoo will present "Care of Magical Creatures" to teach children and grown-ups interesting facts about snakes, owls, spiders and other different animals featured in Harry Potter books.
From noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Potter fans and customers can partake of various Potter-related games and activities, including casting your own charms and spells, tarot readings, and making your own potions.
At 3 p.m., local actor, director and BookPals volunteer Gene Ganssle will read the first chapter of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."
For every copy of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" sold July 16-31, Changing Hands will donate $6 worth of books to one of four charities. Customers can choose to donate to the Adult and Family Literacy Project, Children's Advocacy Center, Open Horizons Child and Family Development Center or the Maricopa County Juvenile Detention Center Libraries.


text:
Funny Women: Dawn French
November 1, 2010 at 10:58 pm 1 comment
I thought that with the gravity of my last post, and considering my impending Prozac moment with the end of the parade of readers that is otherwise known as Freshly Pressed, that it might be nice to write about something humorous. Thus, another Funny Women column, something I think I'll try to do at least semi-regularly.
Dawn French is a British comedienne of some heft. This is referring to her body of work as well as her body. She's a big girl, and she's not ashamed of it. Good for her! She says that her father instilled her with self-confidence as a kid, and she just always thought she was great just the way she is. I do, too.
French is one half of the comedy due of French & Saunders, a sketch comedy team starring herself and Jennifer Saunders. Saunders is perhaps best known to American audiences as being half of Absolutely Fabulous's duo. French is going to be best known in the States for The Vicar of Dibley, a Brit-com that was picked up in syndication by several American PBS stations. In this show, French plays the Reverend Geraldine Granger, a single, female Anglican pastor in a remote English country village. Let hilarity ensue.
Dawn French is also famous for kissing movie star hunks on television, usually for charity. She's kissed Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Hugh Laurie (from Fox's House TV show) and Hugh Grant. Nice work if you can get it.
But wait! There's more. French designs a line of women's clothing called Sixteen47, so named because forty-seven percent of the female population in the United Kingdom wear a size sixteen or larger. The point of the design house is to produce clothing that is flattering to fuller figured women.
I've included a link to her Wikipedia page and her imdb profile, so you can read more, and a link to some of her best work on French & Saunders, a parody of Catherine Zeta Jones. Click on the link. You'll thank me later.
Entry filed under: Celebrity, Entertainment, Humor, Television, Women's Rights. Tags: Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta Jones, Dawn French, French and Saunders, Jennifer Saunders, Johnny Depp, Vicar of Dibley.
1 Comment Add your own
Starring Dawn French…
[…] otherwise known as Freshly Pressed, that it might be nice to write about someth […]…
Leave a Reply
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed


text:
Hey everyone,
My waffle iron is terrible. OR I am just terrible at using it. It is an older (5-7 years?) Black & Decker 4-in-1 Wafflemaker. Has the sandwich, grill, and griddle attachments, too.
Anyway, every time I make waffles, they stick to death and when I cook 'em and I think they are done, I open it up and it's ripped into two pieces, stuck on each side. I always end up just making pancakes with the rest.
I have tried adding a load of oil, greasing generously. I have waited much longer in case they needed longer cooking, and much shorter for same reasons. I've tried different waffle recipes. I just think it might be the iron.
Any advice at all? I can't afford to go out and buy another waffle iron, but I really would like some homemade waffles!


text:
Bayete Adventure Camp is South Africa's leading training centre for any leadership camp, adventure camp, team building and nature camp for schools and other groups. Different program modules are presented by highly trained facilitators.... (Read more)
South Africa's next property development boom will be experienced in the Waterberg Bushveld, according to guru's in the property industry, especially as a result of its location close to Gauteng and the relative affordability of its properties. Buyers are already flocking to the area and,,,,, (Read more...)
The two books Spotter's Guide to Birds of the Bushveld and Spotter's Guide to Birds of the Lowveld, the first in a national series of bird books and the only books that is required for bird watching in the Bushveld and the Lowveld, are selling well. A practical DVD and CD with bird calls are also....(Read more and view...)
|Lover's of the Bushveld can now buy their own property such as a holiday or retirement home, or even a caravan stand, in the new and modern Kammaland Estate and obtain free access to the resort's swimming pools and other amenities. With low monthly.... Read more...)
|Buy the best selling all new SAPPI Birds of South Africa with innovative talking pages here - you can hear the actual bird calls from the pictures just by pointing the amazing Callfinder to each picture! Enter the next level of bird watching in South Africa now (view more...)
|The popular books "Bushveld Encounters" and "Oom Vaaljapie vertel...." by prominent Bushveld author H. L. van Niekerk can be viewed here and ordered....
Eugène Marais, scientist and author, is one of South Africa's and the Waterberg's most distinguished personalities. A new book has just been published highlighting his work and impact on especially the Waterberg and Pretoria. View here and order...)
School calender for 2014 (view...)
e-mail your comments and suggestions to us Hint: Click Ctrl F5 to refresh with the latest info & changes!
Copyright & Disclaimer


text:
I am SO excited! I get to give away ANOTHER Silhouette CAMEO!
But, this is going to be FAST. We have less than 12 hours before I announce the winner!!
So RUN, not walk to enter {or sit in your computer chair}! HA!
I love my CAMEO! You will too!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
P.S. The Silhouette Black Friday Sale is still going on by the way! It's an awesome sale. I'll put the details below.
Check out the sale HERE.


text:
"The journey continues," Gilford Mphugela said, sinking back into the driver seat of the Toyota Land Cruiser. He had spent the past 75 minutes skillfully navigating treacherous mountain roads, where torrential rains had cut deep ruts that threatened to swallow the truck's wheels. The six Partners In Health and Malawian Ministry of Health (MOH) employees crammed in the back of the vehicle cracked jokes and shared laughs along the way, but when the vehicle tilted or the tires spun on a steep incline, everyone held their breath. In the weeks prior—during the peak of Malawi's rainy season—the vehicle had gotten stuck several times on this same road and the team had to turn back. But today was hot and dry, ideal for the Nsambe mobile clinic to reach patients in Chawe, among the most remote regions PIH works in Malawi.
Before reaching Chawe, though, we had to make a pit stop at a small health facility run by the MOH and Christian Health Association of Malawi (CHAM). Here we picked up Elias Issack Okhoma, a health surveillance assistant working with the MOH. He piled a few boxes of vaccines into the back of the truck then wedged his way into the last remaining seat. The journey continued, as Mphugela promised, across another bumpy stretch. Mphugela worked the clutch as the truck climbed the winding path, his feet dancing across the pedals with the grace of a NASCAR driver. He pointed out the window toward a lush range of mountains, noting that we were near the border of Mozambique. A few huts specked the ridgeline, otherwise brush and tall grass dominated the landscape in every direction.
After another 20 minutes, a small hollowed-out brick building came into sight. Outside, a crowd of approximately 200 mothers and children milled about. As the truck rolled to a stop, everyone merged into a snaking line. The team unloaded the truck and swiftly set up shop in the building. Inside, each member of the mobile clinic was responsible for a small station serving a very specific function, from patient registration to vaccine administration to HIV testing and counseling.
"Our mobile clinics are designed to offer general consultation for all type of diseases in adults: antenatal services for pregnant women; immunization and growth monitoring for children under 5; family planning for women of childbearing age; HIV testing and counseling; malaria rapid test; and typhoid rapid test," explains PIH/APZU Clinical Director Dr. Junior Bazile.
Aaron Mapwelemwe, a PIH/APZU pharmacy assistant, provides antimalarial medication to a mother and her child at the mobile clinic in Chawe, Malawi. In the rainy season, cases of malaria soar.
PIH's Malawian sister organization began running the current version of the mobile clinic to Chawe at the end of October 2013. While there is the small health facility operated by CHAM and the MOH in the region, not all patients can reach it or afford the nominal consultation fees—200 Malawian Kwacha (approximately 50 U.S. cents). Though it's a small sum, it could mean the difference between receiving health care for the poorest and most marginalized patients.
The mobile clinic to Chawe, which goes out every Tuesday, is always a mix of PIH and MOH employees. It has helped deliver care to more than 2,100 patients since it began operating at the end of October 2013. "Partnering with MOH has been key. Because we are here to support and supplement the MOH, we want them to take the lead in such activities and we can help in identifying, filling, and fixing the gaps," Bazile says.
The mobile clinic has helped deliver care to more than 2,100 patients since it began operating at the end of October 2013.
Mobile clinics are only one part of the primary health care services to which all Malawians are entitled. They complement our strategic objectives of delivering health care, accompaniment, and socio-economic support to people in their communities and providing technical and financial assistance to MOH. They help link other active case-finding efforts carried out by village health workers and clinicians to the Neno District Hospital.
"We have been conducting mobile clinics in collaboration with MOH since we started operating in Neno," Bazile says. "However, the weekly mobile clinics in Chawe have opened our eyes to how great the needs of the community are, and they have enabled us to go one step closer to the poor in that neglected part of Neno District."
Elias Issack Okhoma, a health surveillance assistant working with the MOH, prepares to vaccinate a child during clinic hours in Chawe, Malawi.
After a few hours of steady work, Aaron Mapwelemwe emerged from the brick building and took a seat on the edge of the road. The sun was directly overhead, baking the dirt surface. "This program, this mobile clinic, is a relief to the community. Without this program people would have died. Some patients have to walk hours to get care at the district hospital," he said, gesturing toward the mountains and a narrow dirt path. "They might sleep on the side of the road at night or take a short cut through the wilderness. There are ferocious animals out there. And the people are already sick. With this clinic, everyone is free to access quality health services."
Mapwelemwe is a pharmacy assistant who's been working with PIH/APZU since 2007. Within the mobile clinic, he's responsible for stocking and dispensing an array of medications, from hypertension and epilepsy drugs to antimalarials. On this particular day, Mapwelemwe has dispensed several packets of antimalarial drugs—during the rainy season, malaria rates soar in PIH's catchment area—and medication for children with persistent coughs.
All said, 195 patients were seen by mobile clinic staff that afternoon.
The line of mothers and children dwindled. Mapwelemwe's bags and boxes of medications were packed into the back of the truck. We all squeezed into our seats. And once again Mphugela was back at the helm, ushering us down the same rutted road.
For Mphugela and Mapwelemwe and all the other staff who venture out on mobile clinics each week, the journey continues.


text:
Events & Attractions
The cost of entering both haunted houses is just $15. Only one haunt is $10. VIP "jump to the front of the line" access is available for $25. Please remember that your ticket price goes to the renovation of Crete T.J. Sokol Hall, a historic registered building. Tickets are available at the ticket booth next to the building during the hours of the haunt.
Register for a chance to win a FREE TV and Blu-Ray Player*
*Available only with Combo Pass. Rules apply, please ask our ticket booth for details.
Caution: This video contains profanity.
About Us
We are located just 30 minutes from Lincoln on the corner of 12th and Norman in Crete, NE. All proceeds from the haunt fund the renovation of Crete TJ Sokol Hall, a Nationally Registered Historic Place.
Crete TJ Sokol is a 501c4 non-profit organization. Terror on 12th Street and Bone Shaker are the main fundraisers to restore the TJ Sokol Hall, a historically significant building on 12th & Norman in Crete. We have been haunting for the last twenty years. We started as a can drive and over the years we have grown to be one of Nebraska's elite haunts. We have the best volunteers in the business.
If you would like to be a vendor at the Halloween Festival, please contact email@example.com. If you would like to volunteer at the haunted houses, please check out the Monsters Wanted section.