text:
THE UK has offered assistance with investigations into the disappearance of a Malaysian Airlines plane with 239 people on board, Foreign Secretary William Hague said.
Mr Hague said it was "too early to speculate" on the significance of the presence on the flight of up to four passengers with suspect identities.
An air and sea hunt for wreckage from the Boeing 777 is continuing after it vanished from radar screens in fine weather en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing early yesterday morning.
No distress signal was sent by the pilots.
Among names on the flight manifest were those of an Italian and an Austrian - who were not on the flight but who had reported their passports stolen in Thailand, increasing fears of a terrorist connection.
"It is a terrible tragedy and our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of people awaiting for definitive news," Mr Hague told Sky News' Murnaghan programme.
"We have offered any assistance that we can give to the Malaysian authorities and of course we have been checking up on whether any British nationals were involved.
"We are not aware of any at the moment but we will continue that checking."
Asked about the significance of the suspect identities, he said: "It is too early to speculate about what that means.
"The UK will assist the Malaysian authorities in any way we can with any investigation if it is relevant to do so in any way."


text:
HANCOCK — Attention young folks planning on spending some time at the Snow Bowl over February school break: Middlebury Community Television will offer a fun activity for when you are taking a break from the slopes.
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While most cover singers in opera may never get on stage unless a member of the main cast is unable to perform, with the Opera Company of Middlebury covers are guaranteed one show per run. The cover cast of the OCM's recent run of Rossini's The Italian Girl in Algiers performed Friday, June 6, to a full house.
MIDDLEBURY — She's not quite 28 years old, but Jessica Pominville has been working in the movie business for around a decade — the movie rental business.
She managed three Blockbuster Video stores in Burlington, a Hollywood Video store, and a Movie Gallery outlet. For the past three years she's been working at Video King on Washington Street in Middlebury.
When Video King owner Terry Pellegrino decided to close his doors earlier this year, Pominville saw an opportunity.
ADDISON COUNTY — There was a day when renting out VHS tapes was almost as good as printing cash, said Terry Pellegrino.
Pellegrino, approaching 65, is known in Middlebury as the long-time co-owner of Video King, across the parking lot from Shaw's Supermarket.
Last week, Pellegrino, a Castleton resident who with another five family members has operated a string of Video Kings in Vermont for more than 25 years, recalled the golden days of the movie rental trade.
MIDDLEBURY — The Vermont Folklife Center will hold a workshop, titled "Crafting Community Video Projects," on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 25 and 26. The workshop will give participants the opportunity to create a short multi-media documentary project from start to finish.
LINCOLN — Vermont State Police "followed the Subway" to a Bristol resident they have charged with burglary in connection with an Aug. 1 break-in at the Lincoln General Store.
Police on Monday cited Josh Mayo, 21, for burglary for allegedly breaking into the Lincoln store through a side window. Once inside, authorities allege he stole around $305 in cash and $330 in cigarettes.
MIDDLEBURY — Addison County resident Jeanne Montross is organizing an effort to acquire the movie inventory from Waterfront Video's Middlebury store.
Waterfront Video recently announced it was closing its Middlebury store. Managers had announced a movie sale to the general public during the month of May, but Montross — with others — hopes to pull off a bulk purchase of the store's more than 16,000 titles and eventually make them available for loan to the community.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Executives at In-Shape Health Clubs, Stockton, CA, plan to remodel most of the company's clubs throughout California during the next year as it also begins construction on two new locations, the 30-year-old company announced.
Every year, company executives walk through all of their facilities to identify areas of improvement, but the changes being made in the next 12 months are designed to set In-Shape apart as the foremost destination for fitness and fun in the state, a release from the company stated.
"We're making these enhancements because we want our members and their families to have a safe, healthy, fun place to go any day of the week," Paul Rothbard, In-Shape's CEO, said in the release. "As our members work to improve themselves, so do we. We strive to provide the best that the industry has to offer in every market we serve."
Upgrades may include new equipment, new flat-screen TVs and artwork on walls; more windows to let in sunlight; modernized flooring, sound systems and other décor items; upgraded group exercise studios and new group classes. More extensive remodels at select locations may involve expanding cardio areas, adding indoor and outdoor pools, or otherwise adding amenities that members or the community have requested.
The first round of improvements is scheduled to begin within the next 30 days.
The company also has begun construction on two new clubs. Once open, the company's total number of clubs will stand at 49. One of the clubs will be the company's first in Ridgecrest, CA, while the other is its third in Orcutt, CA.
The company has also been in construction on three other facilities this year in California, including facilities in Suisun City, Bakersfield and Carmel.
In addition to new construction, the company was busy in 2011 purchasing clubs. In April, In-Shape acquired Ultimate Fitness in American Canyon, CA, for an undisclosed sum. In May, In-Shape purchased Elite Fitness in Salinas, CA, also for an undisclosed sum. While In-Shape builds a new space next door to the Elite Fitness location, members are using the Elite Fitness space, which has been upgraded with new equipment, flat-screen TVs, child care services and more group exercise classes. The new facility is expected to be completed this winter.


text:
San Francisco shows world how not to do Muni Wi-Fi
Vendors invited to write their own monopoly
Comment San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is the very model of a modern politician. A telegenic eunuch without any ready hinterland or beliefs, he presides by gesture and photo-opportunity. Policy is replaced by stunts, whose success is measured by publicity they generate; and political leadership means setting a gently optimistic mood music.
If this sounds familiar to United Kingdom voters, that's not surprising, as Newsom is cut from the same cloth as Tony Blair. Both are technocrats who view any substantial policy task as a question of process issue, or a set of managerial tweaks. (HP's new very model of a modern CEO, Mark Hurd, takes the same approach).
All this is important in the context of municipal Wi-Fi. With their passion for technocratic efficiency, politicians like Newsom and Blair need grand gestures - preferably grand gestures that don't cost the public very much in the short-term - and a municipal city-wide Wi-Fi network fits the bill perfectly.
Wi-Fi is a "basic human right", proclaimed Newsom back in August, as he announced the TechConnect municipal network. The venture has subsequently attracted worldwide attention because nearby Google is one of the bidders, and no corporation can bring the city more of the the magic pixie dust of fame than Google can, right now. Google has since won the contract to provide Wi-Fi for its home town of Mountain View, and before long it announced its ambition to do the same for one of the most celebrated and visited cities in the world.
However, San Francisco's TechConnect venture has done something hitherto thought impossible, and united progressives and conservatives in the city in mutual concern about the venture.
SF resident Kimo Crossman is a Wi-Fi advocate who has closely followed the progress of TechConnect. He wants municipal Wi-Fi, but not on any terms. Newsom's TechConnect is San Francisco's one and only shot to get it right, because it grants a vendor a long-term citywide monopoly, one that could be the worst of all worlds for citizens.
A poorly implemented municipal network that provides only slow, patchy coverage, and exposes the citizens to data harvesting, will nevertheless act as a powerful deterrent to more comprehensive 3G and 4G/WiMAX alternatives: a loss for everyone except the city-blessed monopolist.
The city has grand ambitions for the network.
These include, primarily, "outdoor and in-building access to the greatest extent possible for all municipal employees, residents", "greater efficiency for government service delivery", and "stimulate private investment, competition and consumer choice for broadband services".
As a bonus, the city "anticipates", that it will improve disaster response, improve public safety, and even "enhance healthcare through telemedicine and remote patient care." We can think which deep-pocketed lobbyist influenced this part of the proposal, but perhaps it was one with a new-found healthcare fetish.
That was the dream. What was the reality? An early sign that the bureaucrats tasked to TechConnect were making it up on the hoof came with the initial specification. This called for demanding requirements that TechConnect insisted were industry standards, when they weren't, for example roaming handover at 30mph.
The project attracted over 20 bids, some of which were entirely secret, while others, such as Google's, were 90 per cent redacted. Observers described the first meeting as "embarrassingly disorganized", and the scheme was excluded from the city's Open Government Sunshine Ordinance to protect the vendors commercially sensitive proposals.
Crossman noted how minimal standards floated in the city's initial Request for Information and Comments (RFI/C) were thrown overboard.
The city wanted 1Mbit/s throughput with coverage and 90 per cent coverage in high density apartments. These were drastically cut, and the release yesterday of the RFP confirms critics worst fears.
Crossman's minimal standards for a municipal Wi-Fi network don't seem unreasonable. He says that at a minimum, the network should provide "library/Bank-like privacy and security, disaster-proof communications for all, cell-phone-like coverage."
But in the rush to get San Francisco's muni network up and running, everything must go.
Vendors can write their own privacy policies - a relief to potential operators who want to saturate the city with advertisements.
The minimum bandwidth figures have been scrapped and replaced by an "as slow as you please" policy: vendors don't have to provide a floor for the free-to-all basic service. More worryingly, the winning bid need not provide a disaster-ready network for the city's emergency services, even though mesh Wi-Fi networks have real advantages when commercial cellular operations are KO'd.
As Crossman notes on his blog:
"The City of San Francisco's DTIS/SFPUC Departments released the Municipal Wireless TechConnect RFP without Needs Analysis, Feasibility Study, Financial Analysis and Inclusionary Process as requested by LAFCO."
Vendors will also be allowed to write their own privacy policies. A location aware Wi-Fi network has advertisers whetting their appetites, and there's nothing to stop the SF Muni Wi-Fi winner interrupting a VoIP call as you're walking past Starbucks with a special offer.
The city of San Francisco blesses a local private cable monopoly, and it's about to grant another.
But, hey! While Google's still in the bidding, that should be good for a few headlines.
Proposals are due on February 21.®
Local coverage
Kimo Crossman's blog
Rhymes with Di-Fi: San Francisco Chronicle
Wi-Fi: Who's in control?: San Francisco Bay Guardian


text:
The Bush administration said on Wednesday that it had credible intelligence suggesting that Al Qaeda is planning to attack the United States in the next several months, a period in which events like an international summit meeting and the two political conventions could offer tempting targets.
Attorney General John Ashcroft said at a news conference that intelligence reports and public statements by people associated with Al Qaeda suggested that the terrorist group was ''almost ready to attack the United States'' and harbored a ''specific intention to hit the United States hard.''
But some intelligence officials, terrorism experts -- and to some extent even Mr. Ashcroft's own F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III -- offered a more tempered assessment, saying, ''For the next few weeks we have reason to believe there is a heightened threat to the U.S. interests around the world.'' And some opponents of President Bush, including police and firefighter union leaders aligned with Senator John Kerry, the expected Democratic presidential candidate, said the timing of the announcement appeared intended in part to distract attention from Mr. Bush's sagging poll numbers and problems in Iraq.
The administration did not raise the terrorist threat advisory from its current level of elevated, or yellow, and the White House said Mr. Bush would not alter his schedule because of security concerns.
''There's no real new intelligence, and a lot of this has been out there already,'' said one administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. ''There really is no significant change that would require us to change the alert level of the country.''Continue reading the main story
Mr. Ashcroft said the government did not have any information about where the terrorists might strike, and he said there was ''extraordinary'' security being put in place for events like a summit meeting of international leaders next month in Savannah, Ga., the Democratic convention in Boston in late July and the Republican convention in New York in late August and early September.
Mr. Ashcroft called for greater public vigilance, especially in looking out for seven people sought by the F.B.I. who are suspected of being Qaeda members or sympathizers.
The names of six of the seven were publicly circulated by the authorities months ago, and officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said that they had no reason to believe any of the seven suspects were in the United States.
Asked about the timing of his new warnings about the suspects, Mr. Ashcroft said, ''We believe the public, like all of us, needs a reminder.''
Some intelligence officials said they were uncertain that the link between the fresh intelligence and the likelihood of another attack was as apparent as Mr. Ashcroft made it out to be. Officials at the Department of Homeland Security said just a day before Mr. Ashcroft's announcement that they had no new intelligence pointing to the threat of an attack.
Senator Richard J. Durbin, an Illinois Democrat who is a member of the intelligence committee, said in an interview that the committee had received no word of any new information of the type Mr. Ashcroft described. Mr. Durbin said that if there were credible new information about a possible strike, he believed the intelligence committee should have been told about it.
Other officials said they supported Mr. Ashcroft's warnings.
''I think he was right on the mark in terms of what Al Qaeda's intent is,'' said one counterterrorism official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The White House came under criticism this year for not acting more aggressively in August 2001 when Mr. Bush was informed that Al Qaeda was planning to attack the United States or its interests abroad. In issuing a high-profile warning this time, the administration appeared intent on insulating itself from any perception that it was not responding vigorously enough.
But the announcement also came after weeks in which Mr. Bush's political standing has been battered by events in Iraq and as his re-election campaign is seeking to portray Mr. Kerry as opposed to the USA Patriot Act, the law giving the government broad powers to combat terrorism.
Harold Schaitberger, head of the International Association of Fire Fighters, told reporters in a conference call organized by Mr. Kerry's campaign that he found the timing of the announcement to be ''politically convenient at best'' because it came after ''we see the president's approval ratings plummet.''
Mr. Kerry issued a statement in which he said he knew Americans had been ''struck by the seriousness and concern coming from this administration,'' but went on to attack the administration for not doing more to bolster domestic security.
Mr. Bush's campaign responded by saying that Mr. Kerry ''has played politics with homeland security throughout this campaign.''
Of the seven people Mr. Ashcroft asked the public and law enforcement agencies to watch out for, the only one whose name had not been previously released was Adam Yahiye Gadahn, 25, who officials said is an American citizen from California.
Mr. Gadahn converted to Islam and is believed to have attended Al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan several years ago, officials said. He is thought to have done translation work for Al Qaeda and was associated with Abu Zubayda, a senior Qaeda associate now imprisoned by the United States, they said.Continue reading the main story


text: The early years of Bethenny Frankel, the only child of legendary horse trainer Bobby Frankel, who walked out when she was 4, were filled with alcohol abuse, violent fights, an unhappily remarried mom, eating disorders, obsessive dieting and constant relocating. After graduating from NYU in 1992 with a degree in communications and psychology, she pursued acting in LA. When that didn't pan out, she dabbled in event planning and pashmina design. She returned to Manhattan in 2001, attended the Natural Gourmet Institute, founded health-conscious cookie company BethennyBakes, made it to the finale of 2005's "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart," wrote a monthly column in "Health" and joined Bravo's "The Real Housewives of New York City" as the token single girl in 2008. She didn't stay solo long. By season 3, her boyfriend/businessman Jason Hoppy became a show fixture and after dating less than a year, they were engaged and expecting. A lavish Four Seasons wedding, her "Housewives" spinoff and the birth of daughter Bryn followed in 2010. Meanwhile her food and lifestyle company, Skinnygirl, became big business, bolstered by four bestsellers she penned including "Naturally Thin" (2009) and "A Place Of Yes" (2011) and the $100-million acquisition of her line of pre-mixed low-cal margaritas by Fortune Brands. Her Hoppy marriage failed in 2012, but once again picked herself up with work launching her syndicated talk show "Bethenny."


text:
You can play some original Xbox games on your Xbox 360 console if you have an official Xbox 360 Hard Drive.
The following game list is final as of November 2007. No additional original Xbox games will be added to this list.
Note This is a list of titles that have been certified for compatibility with Xbox 360. The list is provided for informational purposes only and is subject to change without notice. To ensure the highest quality gaming experience, in the event an unforeseen technical issue is discovered after certification is completed, Microsoft reserves the right to remove any game name from this list.
[1] The North American versions of these games are the only ones supported on the Xbox 360 console.
[2] The Japanese version of this game is not supported on the Xbox 360 console.
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text:
Presentation: Thursday, October 27th, 11:45am
Mark Spencer founded Linux Support
Services in 1999 while still a Computer Engineering student at
Auburn University. When faced with the high cost of buying a PBX,
Mark simply used his Linux PC and knowledge of C code to write his own!
This was the beginning of the world-wide phenomenon known as Asterisk,
the open source PBX, and caused Mark to shift his business focus from
Linux support to supporting Asterisk and opening up the telecom market!
Linux Support Services is now known as Digium, and is bringing open
source to the telecom market while gaining a foothold in the telecom
Mark strongly believes that every technology he creates should be given back to the community. This is why Asterisk is fully open source. Today that model has allowed Asterisk to remain available free of charge, while it has become as robust as the leading and most-expensive PBXs.
The Asterisk community has ambassadors and contributors from every corner of the globe.
Mark Spencer holds a degree in Computer Engineering from Auburn University, and is now president of Digium, Inc. He has also led the creation of several Linux-based open source applications, most notably Asterisk, the Open Source PBX, and Gaim Instant Messenger.
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text:
Duncan well-rested for game in city where Spurs struggle
PHILADELPHIA — Spurs captain Tim Duncan will show up tonight at Wells Fargo Arena, site of the Spurs' Martin Luther King Day game against the 76ers.
Then he will wait to find out if his services will be required on the court.
"I just show up, and (Spurs coach Gregg Popovich) tells me what to do," Duncan said after serving as cheerleader-in-chief during a 98-93 victory over the Hawks on Saturday at Atlanta's Philips Arena. "I'll be ready to go if he allows me to play. So I'll show up and see what he says."
Of course, Duncan knows he will be in uniform and jumping center at tipoff, but he also understands the reason Popovich held him out of the second game in a set of contests on back-to-back days.
By defeating the Hawks without him, the Spurs received a bonus going into tonight's game — Duncan will be well-rested against a physical team that is trying to reverse a recent slide that threatens its playoff hopes.
Tonight's game is the Spurs' third in four nights and the first in another week in which they play four games. The NBA's schedule makers have crammed 43 Spurs games into the first 11 weeks of the season. That's a slate that is nearly as busy as the 60-game season the league crammed into four months after last season's lockout.
The frenetic early schedule was clearly a factor in Popovich's latest exercise in reducing the workload on his 36-year-old big man, who is on his way to his best season in years.
Duncan insists he still feels good physically, but he knows better than to argue when Popovich asks him to sit out.
"I never fight him," he said. "You lose every time."
Tony Parker did the heavy lifting against the Hawks, especially in the fourth quarter. He will be happy to cede a big chunk of the offensive load against Philadelphia to Duncan.
"Timmy will be back, and that will definitely help," Parker said. "If not, I may have to kill myself. He took a day off (in Atlanta), and I think that was a great move by Pop. He will be rested and full of energy against Philadelphia, and we're going to need all of that."
Even during the Spurs' best seasons, Philadelphia has been a tough place to find victories. During the past 12 seasons, they have won only three times in the City of Brotherly Love, including a 100-90 victory last season.
"In Philadelphia, for whatever reason, we have had a hard time finding a way to win," Parker said. "Last year, we won for the first time in a long time.
"... They have a great defense. They collapse the paint and contest things in the paint, so we're going to have to make shots.
"Hopefully, Danny (Green) and Gary (Neal) and Kawhi (Leonard) will make shots and open it up for me."
The Sixers' homecourt has not meant much to them this season — they have won only 11 of 20 games there. They are 2-2 at home since returning from a grueling seven-game road trip that covered two weeks and ended in San Antonio. In that game, the Spurs recorded a 109-86 victory in which neither Parker nor Duncan played in the fourth quarter.
Andrew Bynum, the All-NBA center acquired last summer from the Lakers, has yet to play a game for Philadelphia. Bothered by bone bruises in both knees, he only recently began doing some running in practices.
The Sixers gave up Andre Igoudala, Mo Harkless and Nikola Vucevic in that deal. Jason Richardson, who came to Philadelphia from Orlando, has been a starter in 33 games.
Twitter: @Monroe_SA


text:
Farm Beat: 5 percent ag loss figure doesn't tell whole story
If your kid came home with a 95 percent test score, you'd likely say, "Great job."
California will maintain that much of its agricultural output this year, despite the severe drought, according to a UC Davis study released Tuesday. But that's little cause for celebration.
That 5 percent loss is a statewide figure that masks the misery in places where the drought is especially bad – the west side of Stanislaus County, much of Merced County and many other locales.
And to maintain that 95 percent of statewide output, many farmers have increased groundwater pumping to make up for short river supplies. That is an accepted part of water management in this drought-prone state, but many experts worry about overdrafting.
The study, by the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences, projected a $2.2 billion hit from the drought this year. The state had $42.6 billion in gross farm income in 2012, the latest year on record, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
This year's near-normal output results also from fallowing some annual crops so the water can go to higher-value plantings such as almonds, walnuts and grapes. This will allow growers to take advantage of the current strong prices for these crops, but it means less alfalfa and other feed for dairy and beef producers. And if you own a horse, you know what alfalfa costs these days.
The report estimated that the drought will cause 17,100 people to lose their jobs on farms and ranches and at businesses that benefit from ag-related spending. That would add only a tenth of 1 percent to the unemployment rate in California, but it will mean plenty of hardship for farmworker communities.
"If you are one of the 17,000 people who is losing a job, it's really bad," said study co-author Richard Howitt, professor emeritus of agricultural and resource economics. He was speaking at a webcast news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
The report also touched on how the drought has affected the non-irrigated grazing land in the hills east and west of the Valley. Rain was scarce this past winter on grasslands that usually support beef cattle well into spring.
"A lot of our long-term ranchers have had to disperse their herds," said Karen Ross, secretary of food and agriculture for Gov. Jerry Brown. They have benefited from high beef prices, she said, but now they face the cost of rebuilding the numbers.
Farmers and ranchers take risks, and never more so than during a drought. They boost their well pumping in the belief that future wet years will replenish the aquifer. They sell off beef cattle early and pray for rain to restore the grasses.
It will fall again, as will the Sierra Nevada snow that is even more crucial to Valley agriculture. We just don't know when and how much.
Neither do the experts. The National Weather Service has detected signs of an emerging El Niño, a warming of Pacific Ocean waters near the equator that sometimes means heavy storms for California. "Sometimes" is the key word.
"Don't count on El Niño," said Jay Lund, director of the UC Davis center. "It's probably not relevant."


text: In ballet, a "pirouette" refers to a full turn on the toe or ball of the dancer's foot. In our Pirouette crystal stemware, two diagonal cuts create a dramatic presentation. Pirouette lets you enjoy the elegance of crystal anytime. The glasses are custom designed to enhance the flavors of fine wines and beverages, and are dishwasher safe for easy entertaining.


text:
Photographs by Evan Johnson
Children sprawl on the Morrison Bridge like a spilled box of crayons. Itâs 10 am on a Friday, and the Morrison opens, its great panels of
roadway swinging up and looming above the third-graders from North Clackamas Christian School.
The students lie on the asphalt, safely behind traffic barriers. When the bridge closes again, a red-headed boy with a Super Mario Bros. backpack rushes to the teacher and chaperones to report he had the best view ever.
"I got to lay on the bridge!" he says. "I got to lay on the bridge!"
Kids in Washington state visit the Space Needle, and on the coast they go to the Astoria Column. But when school kids learn about Portland's history—and the things that shape our city—they come to the bridges that cross the Willamette River.
It's all part of belonging to this place. To be a Portlander means falling in love with at least one of the city's bridges…
Our quiz about Portland's bridges can be found here.


text:
See the full list of hacks from UT Austin
Follow @hacku on twitter
What is this Hack... Day? Competition overview, special categories and prize info
Upload and view photos from your university's Hack Day and check out special videos
Back to the future! Check out HackU from days of yore
Rules were made to be broken, except for these ones.
Questions? Comments? How's our driving?


text:
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – This Saturday the Yale gymnastics team will compete at the ECAC Championships, hosted by Penn, in the final meet of the 2012 season. The competition is among seven teams: Brown, Cornell, Penn, Temple, Towson, William & Mary and Yale.
The Bulldogs are coming off of a fourth-place finish at a quad meet hosted by Towson. At the meet, Yale scored a team total of 189.325. Senior captain Mia Yabut tied for second on vault with a 9.775, which ties her for the fifth-highest score in Yale vaulting history. Yale struggled on the balance beam, with five of the six competitors counting at least one fall. Junior Tara Feld was a bright spot in the all-around competition, placing third with a score of 38.4. Yale has scored as high as a 191.175 this year, which would have put the team in second place at last year's ECAC Championships.
Last year at ECACs, Yale placed seventh with a score of 186.225. Cornell won with a score of 191.675, and Penn was second with a 191.175. Towson was third, Temple was fourth, William & Mary was fifth, and Brown was sixth.
Yale has faced Brown twice this year. On Feb. 4, the Bulldogs prevailed 190.275-189.675. However, at the Ivy Classic the Bears scored a 191.075 to Yale's 190.725.
Yale faced Cornell at the Ivy Classic, where Cornell placed second with a team total of 191.875.
The ECAC Championships will mark Yale's fourth meeting of the season with Penn. The two teams faced off in a dual meet at Yale on Jan. 28, and Yale fell 191.225-188.35. Penn won the Ivy Classic with a score of 192.65, and the Quakers again bested the Bulldogs last weekend at Towson, 191.55-189.325.
The meet will mark Yale's first and only encounter of the season with Temple. The Owls achieved their highest team total in school history earlier this season, scoring a 193.275. Last weekend the Owls faced William & Mary and won the competition 192.275-191.4.
Towson and Yale have already met twice this season, with the Tigers coming out on top in both competitions. Towson has hosted Yale two of the past three weekends. On Mar. 2 the Tigers won 192.85 to Yale's 187.95. On Mar. 16 Towson won 194.8-189.325.
William & Mary competed with Yale at Towson on Mar. 2. The Tribe placed second with a score of 190.325.
Competition is scheduled to begin at 12:00 p.m. at the Palestra at Penn.
Report filed by Margaret Greenberg '12, Yale Sports Publicity


text:
Seventy Years and Counting...
I can't stand it any longer, in only three more days the 1940 United States Census will be released. Oh the anticipation! I want to delve into it greedily. I have visions of massive brick walls tumbling, those bricks soon piling up. I shall build a monument with them - inscribe it with just those four numbers: 1940. Or maybe in Roman Numerals: MCMXL!! (How cool is that?)
And the first layer of bricks - please God - will disclose where, and with whom, my grandmother Lutie A. Foote had secreted herself at the time of that census!
But, no index... No Index!?! Joshua put away your trumpet - most likely, for me at least, the walls won't come trumblin' down that fast! It won't happen at 2 AM on April 3rd, 2012, whilst I sit here at my computer, with only little Oreo the cat, to observe my Genealogy Happy Dance. I doubt that many of us will be dancing that quickly, not without an index. Are we spoiled, or what? We shall have to dust off our long unused skills, we shall have to search that census, state by state, county by county, city by city, and township by township. But we will do it - and we'll find time to assist in the indexing, too. We are, after all, Super Genies! We know our stuff. Oh fear not, names will be coaxed from those 70 year old pages. Marriages, births, deaths - the closets will spill forth with the skeletons!!
You can help speed up that index, ya' know. You didn't know? Well for Pete's sake (does anybody really know 'Pete Who'?) Go here: https://the1940census.com/
OK, I'll calm down now... But wait!! God help me, I am also a political junkie - and I will be needing this blog to: comment on the candidates, harangue anyone brave enough to take issue with my opines on the issues, postulate on who, what, where, and why I, and those who agree with me, have all the answers, to all the questions (whatever they be.) And just generally spend the period up to the first Tuesday of November, 2012 opening my mouth and inserting my Foote!
Hold on there... I hear you crying foul! Nay, I never said that I would write only on the subject of Family History and Genealogy. True, those are my favorite subjects, but, dear reader, I refer you to my original entry on this blog; 17 March 2011, paragraph number three, sentence number three, where I very clearly state, "...it's my computer and I'll write anything that I want to!"
And for today I want to write about the 1940 Census. I want to read the 1940 Census!
Seventy years! Will it always be that long, even now when all the world is within a 'tap' of our fingers? I protest, because I surely will not be here for the 1950 Census - which means I will not know the pleasure of seeing my own name listed in a census before the quests are done with, and I am gleefully communicating, one to one, with the real dudes and dudettes! Laughing and slapping my knee, declaring; "...that's a good one! no wonder I never found her, tee-hee."
Only 3 days... at what point should we start counting hours, I wonder? With this new (old) census I hope to turn over a new leaf - I will attempt to maintain consistency of installments on this blog. I will muse about my own family history and genealogy of course, I shall wax poetic on politics, yes - and with my fellow 'keepers' I will await, and record the revelations of the 1940 Census, those miraculous episodes of serendipity that require a chorus of... Hallelujah!


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Download on Beatport: //bit.ly/CLMD_BP
Cross-fading the Scandinavian sounds with today's oh-so-popular US electriconica, we find the boys of CLMD making their Trice debut with the rocking 'Fader'. And boy, does it taste like more.
A duo, of which one half resides in New York, US, and the other half in Norway's capital, makes up for a fine combination. CLMD, short for Carl Louis and Martin Danielle, has caught the attention of the big record labels.
By bringing original tunes with playful, genre-bending sounds with a punch.
Sit tight for 'Fader', this one might just be that long-awaited ID!
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Xbox SmartGlass is similar to My Xbox Live, but it offers new features to use with your Xbox 360 console.
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The language barrier between God and mankind
It is very important for mankind to become aware of the fact that there is a language problem between God and human beings. It is because God knows everything he needs to know about his plan and purpose for creating his universe and mankind but a human is born as a baby not knowing anything at all. The question that faces God and human beings is, how can God make humanity understand what he wants of them and how can mankind try to make sense of what God says to ensure they have understood the message of God properly before they act upon it faithfully so that plan and purpose of God could become fulfilled? People evolved their human language gradually over a very long period of time and the human babies still take years to learn their human language through their direct interaction with things and with each other in this environment called the world or the universe. The main point in this respect to realise is that God could not tell humanity anything at all in human language till people had invented and developed a human language. Even after having inventing and developed human language people could still not understand message of God till people developed a mechanism whereby they could make sense of what God intended to convey. It is because people can only know what they communicate to each other because they interact with each other but human beings do not interact with God at all as they do with each other so they could not understand message of God unless they developed a mechanism for understanding the message of God in their language. In other words God even if he uses a human language to communicate his message to them still will be conveying his own thoughts not human thoughts, so he will be using same words but not the very same meanings of words as people mean for each other when they talk to each other. Moreover people cannot know words they have not invented yet nor the meanings of words which they have not realised yet because they have not yet arrived at that stage of learning and knowing things. So God when he reveals his message become limited by what people at the time know. This makes very difficult for mankind to see point of view of God about things ie they cannot put themselves in shoes of God. This is why unless there is found a way around this difficulty the language barrier between God and humanity cannot be broken down. This is where my work on the Quran can be found very helpful by mankind because it begins from this point. It shows limits of philosophers and scientists as well as of people who claim to know deen of Islam regardless they claim to be Muslims or nonMuslims.
The problem of communication between God and human beings could be understood through realising the situation of a highly educated father with his newly born child. How can such a father convey his message to his newly born child? Father has to understand how his baby understands things and try to convey his thoughts to baby using baby language because baby does not know any other language. For conveying a highly complex and sophisticated message in baby language father has to wait till baby develops and grows to the stage where at he could make sense of message of his father in some way. This is why God had to give people time to develop and grow in knowledge before they could be sent his message. This is why human beings were given brains and senses as well as bodies and things to interact with in this universe in order to learn things just like we human beings give our children toys to play with and learn from their interaction with toys. The other main question people must ask themselves is why God created people as babies instead of fully knowledgeable grown up people? It is because God is a living being so as a living being he had the urge to express himself and to express himself he could only use his power of creativity so he ended up creating his creation and sending his revelation for human beings because he wanted someone with ability to appreciate his creativity out of choice and that is why he gave mankind ability to learn things by themselves so that interference from God remained to a bear necessity otherwise human beings could not appreciate God freely as too much intervention by God could undermine his plan and purpose for creating mankind. This is why message of God is the way it is. It is not a huge book containing detail of everything because human beings could not carry around a huge book or read it due to their very limited life span. This is why God had to do his best for sending people his message and people had to do their best to make sense of whatever they are given by God as his message. So it is a compromise between the best God could do and the best mankind could do. The idea that God can do anything because he has the power to do so therefore he has done this and that and the other is a nonsense. It is because no matter who does anything one is limited by one's own plan and purpose. If one does not follow through one's plan in order to fulfil one's purpose than all falls apart and one fails in one's objectivity. This is why even though God is powerful he cannot do things which ruin his plan and purpose. This is why a lot of things people say about God or attribute to God are nothing more than their self invented nonsense because it does not take into account plan and purpose fo9 God in context of real world realities. This nonsense is called make beliefs or different versions of religion and secularism. All this will be explained in detail as we go along and things will start making sense to those who wish to learn.
The next thing one has to ask oneself is, how can human beings overcome the language barrier between God and human beings? Before God could communicate his message to people they had to have a language in which God could communicate to them his thoughts. Since a human language is just words and meanings the question is, where did the words and their meanings come from? To understand the answer of this question one has to observe creation and see what God has brought about in this world. Long before he created people he created other things. He started with nonliving things and from that he brought forth or evolved living things and from the living things he brought about or evolved human beings. God created things and things were given certain properties by God for his plan and purpose. This is why we can see nonliving things are fully programmed but living things are partly programmed though some more than the others. The least programmed creatures are human beings who needed guidance of God to give them basis for their future development and progress. This is why people are created to self program themselves by way of explorations and discoveries with a little bit of guidance from God that gives them the basis or foundation to develop and grow from where they are ie from their natural state or stage of existence as human beings. Human beings have been endowed with great potential for development by God in order to be capable of serving his intended plan and purpose. The plan and purpose of God will become obvious when humanity studies the message in the Quran in detail. As for knowledge people learn things by observing and copying already programmed things as to what they do and how they do it and that way they learn how things interact with each other and fit in with each other which helps human beings develop rationally by reasoning things that are self evident as to how they are interlinked or interconnected or fit in with each other. This is how from obvious world people can become capable of looking into hidden realities in the real world and deduce things rationally and that way arrive at the right conclusions about things.
It should be clear to a person that unless people had a language and they developed it to a stage where at God could send his message to them they could not benefit from the revelation of God this is why God had to wait till people evolved from animal stage to human stage of existence. However even then God had to wait till people could make proper sense of his message in order to benefit from it. This is like some grown up person instils in mind of a young child some message to remember which can only make sense to the child when he has grown up and has reached the stage of knowledge required for its proper understanding. This is why human progress has been very slow due to interaction between people and other living and nonliving things as well as between people themselves. People have real problem in trying to make proper sense of message of God because it takes them a lot of time to learn sense of making proper sense of things provided they have had a deep and wide life experience about things about which message of God talks. If not then such people are little better than animals who have not yet developed to stage of humanity. This is why knowing how words came about and how they got their meanings becomes of vital importance to know because without knowing that mechanism people cannot develop a possible vocabulary which could introduce them to meanings of words which are used by God therefore people cannot develop a proper context of message of God without knowing such meanings of words used in the message of God. Unless human beings come to this stage of awareness about problem of language between God and mankind this problem cannot be solved. This shows how God is limited by being a God and how humanity is limited by being human beings in context of use of language. Since people cannot know anything beyond their time of development and progress and God talks about realities of things as they are so there is a huge gap between knowledge of God and knowledge of people. This is why people cannot be sure what the message of God actually means unless they come to know some basic rules of understanding the text of the message of God. Once they come to know the rules then they can be reasonably sure about understanding the message of God properly just like knowing formulas for mathematical expressions for solving the mathematical problems. Though people talk about detail of message of God but no matter how detailed message of God is it is still up to people to make proper sense of it and different people need different amount of detail for understanding it properly. Moreover God can only detail message up to a stage otherwise that will interfere with God given freedom of humanity due to God having a plan and an purpose for his creation that stops God from over doing things which could ruin his own plan and purpose for things. However some people being more able to make proper sense of message of God can detail his message for others to help them understand the message of God as it ought to be understood, though most people only try to confuse each other more and more due to being ignorant or illiterate or uneducated or untrained or unskilled or being unable to think properly themselves.
The idea of human language is of such importance to understand that without it even an atheist is unable to answer to himself any serious questions about existence of God in a logically consistent way. For example if one asks oneself is there a God, one cannot say there is no God because one cannot prove so no matter how hard one tries. Moreover it is impossible to prove a negative. This is why the real question becomes if there is a God then what is the proof? This question can only be answered by those who know the answer by saying God does exist and the proof is his creation and his revelation. However the question then becomes how do the creation and the revelation prove existence of God to mankind? They prove existence of God to mankind by people studying them both in detail in light of each other. This is where in comes idea of research and exploration and discovery. This is why people who are not interested in idea of studying things in depth and in width cannot know anything much about anything be it the universe or God or his revelation. In order to study the universe people must learn language to the best of their God given abilities. Likewise in order to make sense of revelation of God they must learn language of message of God which is very different from what people use with each other for communicating their ideas to each other. This is why they need to develop a dictionary that could help them understand message of God. So far all dictionaries written by people are only collection of some words that are brought about by people and their meanings used by people. This is not sufficient for understanding of message of God by people. So people who do not understand this problem of language between God and mankind their opinions are nothing more than their wishful thoughts that have no basis in reality. So those who dismiss the idea of existence of God unless they can explain logically consistently how they came to their conclusion of nonexistence of God they are simply talking nonsense. It is because they have no choice but to accept possibility of existence of God but if one accepts the possibility of existence of God then on ends up with a huge problem on one's hands which is one has to explain reason for creation and revelation of God in light of what mankind can clearly observe in this real world with their own senses. Not only that but one also has to explain how God could communicate his message to mankind in this world the way it exists and ensure his message was understood by mankind properly if thye chose to study it properly. So people who have no idea about such important questions and their relationship to each other whatever they say about God cannot be taken just on its face value. It is because if people cannot find a way or accept it whereby God could communicate his message to people then their acceptance of possibility of existence of God falls flat on its face due to break down in their logical consistency in their explanation, therefore whatever such people say about God cannot be trusted. All this will be discussed in great detail as things develop in this study of the Quranic message.
The difference between facts, theories and laws.
First of all words fact and theory both have various meanings which depend upon the context of their use or purpose. However in one respect facts are objects or things that are detectable with human senses either directly or with help of instruments ie real world realities are facts be they within our own reach or not. In this context theory means explanation that helps make sense of the things or facts or real world realities or objects. In the same context laws are those observed realities which repeatedly happen the same way or are made to happen the same way. It is a matter of if, then and always. Law means a way of doing something or a way of making something happen the same way. For example, if water is poured on the ground then it will flow downhill due to gravity. Since this will happen always therefore we can take it as a rule. If anything consumable is put in the fire then it will burn. Since this will happen always therefore we can take it as a rule.
Coming to theory of evolution. It is not a fact in the sense explained above because it is not a real world reality or an object but an explanation of some observed realities or objects. Whether this explanation is complete or incomplete depends upon facts or objects used in the explanation. The more the number of facts there are the better the explanation of the facts is because the increased quantity of things in the sample helps understand something better just like quality control sampling. The higher the sampling frequency the more likely it is that faulty goods will be caught and less likely that faulty goods will escape detection.
Since for Godless explanation of evolution samples so far collected or are available are not sufficient in numbers therefore it is not as good an explanation as is necessary or needed therefore to take it as a something water tight is not right. There are far too many gaps between things which clearly show they do not transform into each other smoothly enough rather they need more and more intermediary things to go between them. This shows steps or breaks or irregularities which lend support to God based idea of evolution rather than the Godless based idea of evolution. For example, big bang seems to be a controlled inflation of the universe or expansion of the time and space for serving some purpose rather than a random explosion which could have led to chaos instead of the fully functioning universe.
As for evolution based upon divine intervention there is more than sufficient evidence. For example, so many variations in each and every kind of things in ways that cannot be explained any other way than external intervention due to gaps between species of things. More than that the origin of things which did not exist is better explained that way only. That is, a thing which we accept has come into existence had to have a parent or originator otherwise it could not come into being. I am here due to my parents and the chain goes back but it has to stop at some point in time. If this does not stop then that leads us into infinity which is impossible for things that come into existence because before a child thing could come into existence its parent must first have to be there and if parents of parents are not there then how could their children come into existence? This being the case we have no choice but to except that ultimately there is something there which was always there which did not need a creator which brought the non-existing thing or things into being eg the universe and things in it. Since things need to be functional that come about otherwise they cannot survive this means they need designing and planning because allowing things to happen randomly is not going to produce any results regardless of length of time. You can break a glass bottle and let the pieces lie on the ground they will never become a bottle again regardless how long they are left lying there. This is why saying Godless evolution is a fact is wrong. It is not only about first cause but planning and designing as well. Unless there is some planning and designing involved in a project just a random knock or cause does not turn something into a perfect working model. If we say matter or energy is ever existing and has ability of intelligent designing then we are replacing one thing with another ie God for identical qualities of matter so where is sense in that? If God evolved things it still needs a lot of explanation eg what was purpose of God for creating things? How did he create them? How do they work to fulfill his objective? Etc etc. Idea of God can only be eliminated once we have better explanation than the one offered by the allegedly revealed scripture. However first we need to learn enough to understand this scripture that is said to be from God ie the Quran.
I blame our human ignorance for lack of our understanding of the allegedly divine scripture because I have my reasons to believe so. For example, to begin with we humans depend upon external physical realities for learning by interacting with them directly. It is because our minds create images of things or models which we see. As things are or they interact with each other we try to figure them out. Through this learning process we learn simple reasoning which becomes more and more complex and sophisticated as we learn more and more about things. This is why those who have wider and deeper life experiences have better understanding of things than those who have narrow and shallow life experiences. This is why people with wider and deeper life experiences can easily see logical connections and disconnections between things. This helps people to see what goes together and what does not. This is how we gradually become rational thinkers. However to think about abstracts is still another world to learn about and anyone who is not good at learning reasoning about real world realities certainly cannot be good in learning about abstract concepts because in that case one has to rely entirely upon reasoning to try and understand things.
Let me try and explain this in another way. Let say our bike has broken down and we need to repair it. Since bike is basically a physical thing with almost all parts visible to us we can easily find most of the faults in it just by physical visual examination of it which involves simple reasoning. The same cannot be said about our tv set when that breaks down. This time there are many more parts involved and a lot of things in it involve electricity which means electrons are not visible to us to see where they are going and how the fault is preventing them from working. It is easy for a mother to put on anti septic cream when her child slightly injures himself while playing in the playground, however if a person has internal pain due to something gone wrong inside then that cannot be easily diagnosed due to being invisible to the eye. So one has to arrive at a conclusion by reasoning things out, so we can see how visible things help us learn about invisible things. Therefore first stage of learning is to learn about what is visible and within our reach. Without first going through this stage of reasoning we cannot develop to go to the next stage of process of learning reasoning.
This is why just because we have managed to understand a little bit about real world realities it does not mean we can understand the scripture attributed to God. That is because to understand the scripture people need to especially prepare themselves as it needs a higher stage of learning reasoning by human beings. That is because it is word of God but in human language and the problem is in decoding it accordingly.
Why do we need higher stage of learning reasoning to understand the scripture? It is because without scripture there is nothing to tell us with reasonable certainty regarding origin of the universe and ourselves, how things came to be what they are, what is purpose of all this and how things are supposed to work to fulfill any purpose if there is one? Such things are beyond our senses that is why the need for guidance. However just because we can read a scripture does not mean we can understand it properly or we can follow it faithfully. This needs knowledge about things that a scripture talks about otherwise we cannot understand it. What sense can a baby get when a politician starts talking to him about politics? Absolutely none. Since scripture is mainly for peace and harmony between people at its basic level so that they could then together concentrate on higher objectives rather than fighting with each other and losing the sight of higher goals therefore it needs full attention for our proper understanding of it to benefit from it.
This is why we cannot be right in dismissing things out of hand till we have done our bit properly regarding the scripture. Divine scriptures were not needed if we were already fully programmed like robots. Scriptures are needed because we have been programmed a bit and a bit we must program ourselves like self learning robots. In short God has designed us to find out God but by our own sense of creativity and effort that is why we must discover the scripture and the creation for ourselves.
As for the objective of deen of Islam, it is to fulfill the purpose for which Allah has created this universe and mankind in it. I have yet to explain in detail what that purpose is or why Allah bothered to create the universe and us human beings in it. So anyone interested in detail study of the scripture should carry on reading what I am going to explain about it so that one could come to know it.
Just to help people keep in mind, Allah created things because he being a living being decided to express his existence and that he did by way of creation and revelation. Why revelation? Because he wanted to create a creature called human with a limited free will so that it could appreciate his existence and ability of creativity out of choice with a little helping hand from God himself through his guidance. This means deen of Islam is not something that is fully worked out set of instructions like a flow chart for each and every person rather it only gives guidelines to use for figuring out rest of it by ourselves in light of those guidelines and real world realities. This si the main reason for people consulting each other regarding matters of deen of Islam.
To appreciate God to that degree humanity has to reach a level of knowledge all by itself to be able to understand the scripture properly because it has been created knowing nothing at all but with brains and senses and bodies that can help it achieve that objective with help of God's revelation and creation by interacting with them.
This is the starting point of deen of Islam ie the purpose why God created things including human beings and why human beings have been left on their own by God to learn things by themselves through direct interaction with things after being created knowing nothing at all. This is why God advises a way of life for mankind that could help them fulfill the purpose for which God created human beings.
What is deen of Islam? It is a way of life which if understood properly and followed faithfully by mankind can lead them to blissful, dignified and secure life in this world and any effort by anyone made in that direction will be rewarded both in this life as well as in the life to come. Any people who will reject and oppose that way of life will end up in painful suffering in this life by hands of each other as well as in hereafter because whatever way of life people will invent and adopt by themselves will never lead them to blissful, dignified and secure existence instead it will always lead them into conflicts and wars with each other because no way of life people will ever be able to invent and follow that could be free of concept of personal gains at the expense of each other. This is why deen of Islam will take over humanity in due course completely ie after a lot of conflicts and fights with each other people will gradually come to realise that they have no way of life to live by other than the way of life whereby they could live with each other as a united, peaceful, progressive and prosper human community ie an ummah.
What is the way of life about whereby Allah wants people to live? It is about living for each other and not living at the expense of each other. It is because personal vested interests at the expense of each other lead people into all sorts of harmful and destructive divisions and conflicts with each other sooner or later. That is how comes about rivalry and animosity which leads to hatred between people that turns into conflicts which lead to unending wars between people.
Why must people live for each other? It is because they have been created to depend upon each other. Some have been created with much more advantages as compared to others only to work together as one single human family ie they have been created for purpose of complementing each other and not for taking undue advantages of each other. Why must anyone work for anyone else instead of oneself? It is because all human beings belong to God and everything also belongs to God so all things must be used according to his guidance so that his purpose could become fulfilled. If people will not do so then because all people are not created equal therefore those better off will try and take undue advantage of the disadvantaged and so the conflicts will start which cannot be ended till people do what God says ie use his provisions according to his wishes to ensure well being of all people. This is why in deen of Islam there is no right for anyone to rule over others or to buy or sell anything because nothing belongs to anyone to do so. People have right of use of things from God but only if they use them according to guidance of God not otherwise. This is why there is no ruling class or money lending business elite or priestly class in actual deen of Islam. All these are tricks and mechanisms for using masses abusively by cleverest among them.
The objective of deen of Islam is very clear which is to unite mankind for their own good to ensure well being of mankind. Now when you want to unite people you not only need goals and guidelines but a program as well. This is why the Quran not only gives a program for accomplishing the stated goals but also guidelines for formation of a constitution and laws to go with it so that people could organise and regulate themselves as a proper human community according to them for accomplishing the stated objectives. This is why goals, guidelines, program, constitution and laws all have to be consistent with each other so that the whole thing could work smoothly like a machine. This is what deen of Islam basically is in a nut shell.
All human invented ideologies are based upon pyramid scheme for power through manpower or wealth or fooling people in the name of God through various versions of religion or secularism which present a very odd and twisted concept about God over which people waste a lot of time in arguing with each other endlessly as is very much obvious from the debates on various discussion forums.
The difference between deen of Islam and mazhab
To understand the Quran one has to know the difference between the mazhab and deen of Islam and the way to understand the Quran properly. Why? Because till people realise what mazhab is and why it is what it is they cannot have the idea of what deen of Islam is and why it is what it is.
Mazhab is basically result of natural human thought processor. As we know we human beings are born not knowing anything about the real world and its realities. All we are born with is brain and senses and body to make sense of the world in which we are born and things in it including ourselves. In my writings I explain why God has created us the way he did or the way we are. When we start struggling in this word from our births till our deaths we find out many things about this world that we knew nothing at all about. All this leads some of us who have paid enough attention to things to question our origin and purpose and functioning etc etc. This is where at we get stuck because we cannot go any further from here. This is human thought and that is called mazhab=religion ie we think there has to be a creator of all this we see before us. Whether there actually is a creator or not we have no way to find out for sure so we turn to various practices to find out the best we can. This is what we call spiritualism. As people want to know if there is a God or not and if there is one how to reach God to ask him questions we have in our minds so this leads mankind into different directions so people do all sorts of things in order to get near to God as they think better for themselves. This gives birth to many different ideas and practices which we call religions or versions of religion. However no matter what people think and do in the name of God they cannot know anything about God for sure because God is not within their reach through their brains and senses. At this stage people who wish to take undue advantage of each other in the name of God do so therefore people end up divided into many religions and sects within those religions. This is all a mazhab or religion is from the beginning to the end.
Now the deen of Islam aspect of this equation is God getting in touch with humanity. Since people cannot get in touch with God but God can so he gets in touch with mankind through his revelation eg in this era it is the Quran that is God's revelation. This is the fundamental difference between deen of Islam and mazhab. It is a case of people looking for God and God looking for people and when the two meet that is when the connection becomes complete. Think it as if you want to get to the top of a mountain but you cannot on your own so someone drops you a rope from there to help you get there but you can only use that rope if you could rise to the height needed for you to see and catch the rope. However to get to the top of the mountain one has to be able to use the provided rope properly otherwise one is in danger of falling off and breaking one's neck.
The rope itself does not do anything to get you on the top of the mountain, it is because your creator and sustainer has a purpose in mind for creating you and that purpose does not allow him to make the rope do everything for you to get you to the top of the mountain instead he wants you to make your own effort as well in getting to the rope and using it properly. It is God and man working together that can help humanity succeed in accomplishing the purpose of God that is assigned to humanity by God. This is the main reason mazhab is very different from deen of Islam. This explains what is going on around the world in the name of mazhab and deen of Islam ie why there are soofies and mullahs and this and that and all claim to have something to do with Islam. This is like you have to travel from one place to another but you have to use various modes of transport to get there. You may start walking then take a bus and then get into a ship and then into a plan etc etc to reach your destination. What is going to help you make your journey without problems is your best preparation for it. If you think you can get from a to b without needing any preparations then you will be prone to losing your way at many point along the way either by sticking to a particular mode of transport not knowing when to get off one thing to get onto another. This is what religions and sects are about and that is why people are lost in them because they get into this journey without making necessary preparations ie without educating themselves about finding out the truth in this regard. This is why confused people have so many make beliefs and do all sorts of ritual acts in order to please God as they think. This is why it is very important to understand proper concepts about God so that we do not have wrong expectations about God and from God. This is the main reason getting to the revelation of God and making proper sense of it becomes vitally important otherwise we could end up believing all sorts of wrong things and doing all sorts of wrong things in the very name of God thinking them to be right and proper. Such a thing then could become a barrier in our path when it comes to searching for guidance from God.
Let us suppose a person has made necessary preparations and he gets to the revelation of God ie you have the Quran in your hands which claims to be a guidance from God for mankind. From here on another journey starts and that is how to make sense of the text of the Quran or Hadith or any written text be it about history or anything else. This again needs a lot of preparation and the foundation for this purpose is to know what is the original human language, how words came about and how they got their meanings. Why is all this important to know? It is because if we do not know these things then we cannot be sure about human language itself never mind any message of anyone for anyone in any language. It is because without knowing these facts about language we could accuse each other about making up things by ourselves as we go along. To make sure this does not happen these facts are absolutely necessary to know. Since the Quran is merely a text or a collection of written words and nothing more unless we agree its words have a firm foundation and certain concretely established meanings by way of various mechanisms we cannot talk about it or anything else for that matter. This should make absolutely clear to a person looking for guidance from God why such a person has to know certain basic facts about human language clearly before sitting down with the scriopture to make sense of its text.
The other main reason for knowing the very first human language is because without it God could never communicate his message to mankind. In fact one can try and communicate a message to someone else without using any form of human language, one will soon realise what I am talking about. One can try and disagree with me on any of the points I have explained here so far but I do not think one can. Human languages are human inventions but God wanted to use human language to communicate his message, which means he meant to convey his own ideas as they were about things because he knows them in reality. For example, there is a big difference in God using word human and a human being using word human. It is because God knows each and everything about a human being but not a human being despite being a human being oneself. This is why a language that has ability to accommodate message of God has to be used therefore God becomes limited by this fact just like a grown up becomes limited by talking to a baby in baby language. A baby cannot use a higher math's book. So there arises need for God to wait till baby has become a gown up human being and has a lot of experience with real world realities by interacting with them directly which help him learn things. This is why we provide our kids with toys because we think they will help them learn things by playing with them. God has created a lot of things in this universe for the very same reason that people interact with them to learn from experience with them and then once they have enough knowledge then they sit down with book of God and try and make proper sense of it and once they have it then work according to its guidance.
This is why God needed to use an original human language to express his message for mankind which could not be mistaken by learned people in the human world for anything that did not fit his purpose. Any period bound language could not express message of God because no human generation was ever capable of knowing all at any point in time in human history. This is why a language had to be chosen by God that was flexible enough to be understood by all for ever after the message of God was revealed to mankind. Such a book in this era is only and only the Quran as we shall see when we get into detailed study of the Quranic text.
The Quran explains throughout itself what deen of Islam actually is and what it is not. Moreover the Quran is an interactive book because it is for human beings who have been created with ability to self program themselves just like self programming robots. So people who have prepared themselves well should have little problem in understanding its message properly. So people who think God should spoon feed them or do all the work and leave nothing for people to do need to think what they are asking for and why or is there any sense in it at all, because whoever does anything does it for himself so does God. We cannot force our will on God because it is his will that is supreme. Therefore we should not ask God for things that make no sense in the context in which we ask if we sit and think over it. Can one therefore see how the Quran proves to be a book of science and philosophy, society, politics and economics? It is because it is book of guidance and not a book of complete instructions for each and every person to each and every minute detail. It contains only and only what was essential for mankind to know so that they could find their way to purpose of God for creating them. The foundation of deen of Islam is its name ie a way of life which is capable of leading mankind to blissful, dignified and secure existence in this very world which will be rewarded in hereafter as well. Word ISLAAM is from root SEEN, LAAM and MEEM. These letters are same as in Hebrew. Word Islam means same thing both in Arabic and Hebrew and various other ancient languages as well.
Why is it of vital importance to know about origin and development of human language?
It is because to know the message of God properly is not possible without knowing such facts. If people did not invent ways of communicating with each other then they could not explain anything about anything to anyone because they had no way to communicate with each other. The original human language was body language which gave rise to sign language or gestures. The sign language was coded with sounds and pictures and that is how people came to speak, read and write what they wanted to convey to each other. This was the origin and development of human language which became more and more complex with time due to people discovering many things generation after generation. Why knowing this information is of vital importance for people in order to make sense of message of God? It is because message of God is communicated through words and words have meanings. How did the words come about and how did they get their meanings is therefore very important to know for proper understanding of the message of God.
The other main reason for which knowing such information is of vital importance is because God knows things as they are as he has brought them about but people do not because they are born into this world knowing nothing at all. Although people are born knowing nothing at all but they have been bestowed with brains, senses, bodies, things to sense and interact with in order to learn. The learning process begins with observations of real things as to what they are and how they work and then questioning about them and then trying to answer those questions. Once people have learned sufficiently through their deep and wide life experiences through interaction with real world realities then they are ready for undertaking study of the message of God. This is why people who do not prepare themselves for understanding the message of God properly remain confused all their lives and they cannot follow the revealed message of God faithfully no matter how hard they try. This is why just reading the book from God without knowing some important facts is a useless exercise because the message is sent for a set purpose and that purpose cannot be fulfilled till the message is first understood properly and then followed faithfully. This is the main reason the Quran forbids people from following each other blindly like sheep. It repeatedly tells mankind do not follow even your own very ancestors if they have not learned things that are of vital importance for humanity as a proper human community. This is how the Quran emphasises importance of intellectual integrity. If one's ancestors did not learn sense to be sensible people then it is better that a person oneself learns sense to be a sensible person and not be like one's ancestors ie a foolish person.
Deen of Islam is therefore not a personality cult as most people assume it to be. It is a program for God set goals for mankind to accomplish according to his provided guidelines. This is why deen of Islam is about organising and regulating humanity into a proper human community otherwise its set goals cannot be accomplished by mankind according to its provided guidelines. The main reason people must not follow anyone blindly is because no one knows all things other than God and people cannot understand message of God unless they go about it the way they should as explained. If people will not try to know message of God as explained then they can never make proper sense of it ever. If people will fail to make proper sense of message of God then they cannot benefit from its presence. This is why people must make a real good effort for knowing the message of God properly so that they could ensure their own well being as well as of each other both in this life as well as in life to come.
As explained, the message of God is mainly a set of goals with a program for mankind to accomplish according to his provided guidelines for a constitution and laws so that people become a proper human community through organising and regulating themselves. As long as there is no purpose there is no need for any constitution or law but if there is one then there arises need for a constitution and laws because then all that is there or is done has to be according to some sort of foundational values or rules or chaos will become inevitable and that means the mission or purpose or objective will remain unaccomplished. It means when there is no law then anyone can do whatever one likes but once there has come about a law then that law has to be followed by all involved or things based on that law will not materialise. This is why even the law giver has to remain consistent with his provided law or all his promises based upon that law will mean nothing at all. This is why when there is a law then there cannot be any personality cults because persons come under the law be it by their own choice. This is why laws of nature are consistent and constant and do not go through changes once God has set them up for set up systems to operate. This is why guidelines given to mankind by God for forming constitution and laws do not go through changes because they are permanent and that is because goals set by God for mankind to accomplish are also permanent. This is why deen of Allah was always the very same from the beginning till the end. Unless people take these like basics as foundation they cannot make proper or complete sense of the scripture sent by God or the real world realities no matter how hard they try.
God, a proven fact or a mere fiction?
People are born knowing nothing at all so generally most of them remain ignorant, illiterate, uneducated, untrained and unskilled therefore are very limited in their thinking and doing things. That results in false interpretations of divine message because people are not used to organised or purposeful thinking that leads to sure results. There is nothing wrong with being ignorant because that is natural state of human existence but man is created with ability or potential to learn so remaining ignorant is a crime against God and humanity. That is because an ignorant person is of no use to himself or for that matter to anyone else. Knowledge is power and if one does not have this power then one is powerless or weak and unable to do anything much.
Courage comes from knowledge and ignorance only breeds fear. It is through fear of the unknown man has taken forces of nature and other powerful things as his gods. However it is all a process of growing up. Man is born a baby and grows biologically, psychologically and sociologically. From the day God brought things to existence all has been evolving and has reached the stage that we observe today. It was a very long journey and it will remain a very, very long journey till we reach the stage that God has chosen for us to reach. A human being though begins as a single cell the potential placed within this cell is so great that man has yet to realise it for so many generations to come. It is like a huge tree that grows from a tiny seed bit by bit over a period of time.
The Quran has nothing to do with religion and blind faith. It is a book which deals with all necessary information that humanity will ever need for its guidance. The Quran is the only book in the world of its kind as a proof of existence of God and his program. A book that acts as guidelines for a manifesto, a constitution and a set of laws or legislation. In order to know all this from the Quran itself one has to educate oneself to the level whereby the Quran begins to make sense. After all no book is written without any purpose in mind of its author nor anyone does anything aimlessly. Anything that just happens without any intent and effort is taken as a mistake not a motivated act to some end. Even if someone kills someone by his mistake it is still a mistake and not a first degree murder.
What is Quran? Centuries back in time an Arab by name of Muhammad claimed he was a messenger from Allah. People asked him for a proof of his claim so he gave them a book namely the Quran as evidence to prove his claim. That is the book we are going to talk about and see if that claim was true or false.
Before we begin examination of the Quran in some detail, it is necessary for people to know the difference between self evident facts and proven facts. Then it is also vital to realise the difference between testimonial proven facts and theoretically proven facts.
God is not a self evident fact, that is because we humans cannot detect God by our senses directly or indirectly through instrumentation etc but the universe is self evident fact and all that which exists in it because it is detectable by human senses even if by use of instrumentation if not today may be at some stage later.
The Quran is testimony of God therefore it needs to be examined as a testimony just as we examine the testimony of a witness in a court of law to see if it is true or false. However before we can properly examine any testimony of any witness we need to understand it properly because without understanding what a witness is saying we cannot judge whether what one is saying is true or false. If a witness only spoke French language and the examiner only spoke Persian language then things will not workout till one of them learns the language of the other, the same goes for subjects under discussion ie if one person talked about biology but other could only understand physics things will still not work out till one of the persons comes to know the subject the other is talking about. Likewise a child or a baby minded person cannot understand grown up or educated person's terminology. Since no one does anything without any purpose in mind neither one testifies without knowing why one is testifying, so knowing the purpose of the Quran also becomes of vital importance. However once testimony is found to be sound ie without contradictions within and with respect to related self evident facts then it has proven reliable or true. This is called testimonial proof ie reliable testimony of a witness. One has to remember that one cannot add anything to the testimony of a witness from oneself nor can one take away anything from it, it has to be examined as it is and a person has to come up with one's own explanations to accept or reject it depending upon the fact the explanation offered is a sound one are not. So the Quran has to be examined the way it is given to mankind without saying what should or should not be in the Quran. If the Quran is found lacking in anything objectively only then it could be proven false but then we will have to prove that it does lack in necessary information regarding its stated purpose. That is if the Quran states that it is for this or that purpose but when we examine it, it does not serve that purpose then it surely proves itself false but on the other hand if we find that it serves its stated purpose fully then the Quran has proven its worth fully so it cannot be denied what it claims to be ie word of God.
Coming to theoretical proof, it is a best personal explanation of available evidences or clues. This is needed because something that happened did not happen before our eyes ie it happened in our absence and that there is no any witness to it either upon whom we could rely to tell us about it. That is because we arrived at the scene late and found only whatever clues were left behind to make whatever sense we could from the clues. For example, we are walking along a road and come across a dead body. There is no one there to tell us what happened to this person so all we can do is see whatever clues are there and come up with an explanation. It could be a murder or natural death or suicide or an accidental death etc etc. So whatever clues we find will help us decide what to make of this situation.
So one can see that theoretical proof is not as strong as witness based proof and witness based proof is not as strong as something that happens right before one's own eyes. That is how far it is possible for humanity to reach the truth about any matter including existence of God.
This also proves the point that if there is a testimonial proof from God then to fall on blind faith is a false idea and is misleading and this idea must have been implanted in human mind by those who wanted to mislead mankind ie the imperial priesthood. It also proves the idea of versions of religion coming from kings and their priests not God to serve their purpose. Islam is deen not religion. Islam is all about brotherhood of mankind based upon testimonial proof whereas religion is a matter of divide and rule using blind faith for following priests and kings. That is how mankind have been used abusively in the name of God and religion. This is why kings and their priests perverted the messages of God to subvert mankind from deen of Allah but they did not succeed in doing that however they succeeded in making fools of ignorant people. The result is a world that we see all around us today. In order to change this situation for the better we all must learn and educate ourselves and each other to save ourselves from abusive use of each other.
So all people must learn the Quran properly to examine it as a manifesto and program from God for mankind to accomplish some goals according his provided guidelines. The basic goals set by the Quran for people to accomplish are unity, peace, progress and prosperity for mankind. The world in which we are born is only a lab for our experimentation to learn through trials and errors till we have become good enough to be one day managers of the universal factory of God. This process needed to be the way it is because we are supposed to learn from working of this universe and make changes to it to make it suitable for our own living in it ie make it compatible with our existence through interactions within this universe. This is why we are provided with all necessary information and raw materials. This will become clearer as I explain the purpose of creation.
It is important to concentrate on logic and evidence as well as consistency and how they combine to prove existence of God positively. If we ignore this relationship between logic, evidences and consistency then we cannot prove anything at all because then we want everything to happen before our very eyes or as far as we are concerned nothing happened at all eg a murder has not taken place just because it has not happened before our own eyes. It shows how flawed is our thinking in that case because we are denying the very principle that is accepted by all wise people in the world whereby they decide all such matters for which there is no direct evidence at all. After all what is TOE about? Yet almost every scientist worth the name accepts it as a theoretically proven fact.
The other way to look at positive proof of existence of God beside testimonial proof is rational proof. It is a self evident fact that this universe is there. This universe was not always there is also an observed reality. This means it was created, why? Because unless something that changes with time is not created by something that does not change with time it cannot come about. Nothing can come out of nothing ie there has to be something that brings about something ie God has brought about this world. How is that possible?
Since we are here and we know that we are not here permanently so something has bought us here but the question is what brought that thing about? The answer is that thing was not brought about by anything because that had to be there always otherwise we end up with an unending chain of creators, which is impossible. Why is it impossible to have an unending chain of creators? It is because then before each creator could create anything the creator himself needs to be created by its creator. Take this chain to infinity and you will see that in that case nothing gets created, we are not supposed to be here in that case. Let me explain it by an example.
I ask you to help me with some money, you tell me that I need to borrow it from someone else to give it to you but that guy tells you the same and so the story goes on for ever and ever, tell me will I ever get the money I asked for? No, never. It is because each guy keeps going to another guy for borrowing the money so this chain of borrowing does not end so that I could get the help I need. Likewise if each creator needed another creator then when will any creator be there to create anything because creation could not be there at all as a result? Since creation is there therefore it had to have a creator that was always there.
Why the creator created this world and sent his revelation? Because creator wanted to express himself. Anything that exists and is lively has the impulse to exert itself ie it wants to be known as a living being. You have urge to be known if you exist and you are a lively being.
Tell me how would you introduce yourselves? Through your actions that show creativity on your part. God could not express himself unless he was being creative because nothing can. The other problem for urge of expression is that you need to be appreciated by something else that is capable of appreciating you as a creative being. In order to express himself God ended up creating this world and to be appreciated by something he created mankind in it. Something that is free to think ie has its own mind and has ability to show its own creativity given the tools and raw materials as well as a chance to prove itself. God has provided all tools and things of need for man to learn in this factory of God through experimentation ie trial and error till man becomes perfect enough to one day manage his universe for his own good. A time when human potential will become fully unfolded before man and that is the time when man will realise how great creator God was that he created such a wonderful thing called man who himself is such great creator as the handy work of God. That is how one day God will be pleased with what he has created and man will also be please with what he has done with his God given abilities and tools and this is how God will praise man and man will praise God in real sense not by paying lip service to God by not doing anything that shows human creativity.


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Ultimate Slant Tweezers
Ultimate slant tweezers with a contoured grip for extra control. Read More
Item No: 23030
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High quality, anti-corrosive, Japanese stainless steel with contoured grip for control. Designed to grab every hair, every time. Includes storage tube.
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Always store tweezers within the protective tube provided & Keep tweezers dry. Even stainless steel can rust if wet.
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Just to start off your Friday with a smile and prepare you for that last meeting or your weekend shopping ... Last week, we first mentioned San Francisco-based photographer Kurt Brown—previously profiled HERE and HERE—has created his first book of photography of the male physique, Man Volume 1 and showcased some of the new images of model Kairon John.
One of the other models is Daniel Norell, the stunning Swedish-Trini muscleboy and Rod 2.0 crush object whose sculpted body has been obsessively documented on these pages. Daniel is captured in a several photo shoots in the Pacific Ocean, the desert, and, in Los Angeles. The one below is one of our favorites.
"I broke my record with Daniel, shooting about 1,150 photos in one day with him," Kurt tells Rod 2.0. "There are a LOT of great photos," that will be included in Man Volume 1, he adds, including some chosen by the model himself.
If you're looking to stuff the stockings of that special someone over the holidays, or, to add to your coffee table book collection, Kurt Brown's Man Volume 1 is now available. The oversized book measures 8" x 10" and includes 200 plus pages of color and black and white images.
You May Want to Read ...
Daniel Norell's Big Blast [R20]
Duane Cramer in "The Advocate" [R20]
Daniel Norell: Comp Card [R20]
Daniel at the Pool 1 and 2 [R20]
Daniel, Daniel, Daniel [R20]
More in the Daniel Norell Index