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Revelation chapter 5, this will be the second in our series in this chapter and I've entitled this chapter, "A Vision of the Lamb...A Vision of the Lamb."
Filling in a little bit of background for you, Isaiah the Old Testament prophet was given the privilege of seeing ahead to the day when the curse on the earth would be reversed, when paradise would be restored, regained. And Isaiah said, "The day will come, for example, when the desert will blossom like a rose. The day will come when the waste places of the earth will be like the gardens of paradise. The day will come when the wolf will dwell with the lamb and the leopard will lie down with the kid, and the lion will eat straw like an ox. The day will come when children will play with snakes and they will not be hurt or destroyed by them."
And Isaiah in all of those terms was describing a restored earth, an uncursed earth. The Scripture goes on to say that human life will be long once again, and when someone dies at the age of 100, they will die as a baby. During that time to come when the curse is reversed, Satan will be chained, he will be bound, he will be out of the picture and righteousness and truth and peace will fill the earth and the glory of God will be everywhere. Christ will rule with a rod of iron and all the world will come and bow down and worship Him.
Isaiah was talking about a time when the whole of creation is redeemed from the curse that came because of the Fall. Now man has always dreamed about such a utopia, a perfect world, a perfect world of good, a perfect world of peace, a perfect world of love, a perfect world of justice, harmless world, a harmless universe where fear is unnecessary and joy abounds.
But no matter how he may dream of that kind of world, no matter how he may plan for it, no matter what human institutions he may invent or devise to attempt to achieve it, with all of his inventions, with all of his intentions, with all of his designs, with all of his efforts to cure human ills, the world just gets worse...worse and worse and worse and worse, more polluted and more polluted and more polluted. And the question keeps looming--who can bring back Eden? Who can restore paradise? Who can reverse the curse? Who can bring us utopia?
Well the monumental chapter before us answers those queries. There's only one person who has the right, one person who has the power to take back the universe from sin and from Satan's usurping rebellion. That one person is the main character in this chapter. He is the central person in this incredible vision.
Now chapter 5 really picks up where chapter 4 ended, at the throne of God in heaven. We noted back in verse 1 of chapter 4 that John was taken up to heaven. He was told to, "Come up here and immediately I was in the Spirit," he says, "and behold, a throne was standing in heaven." He was taken instantaneously into the heaven of heavens, the abode of God where God's throne is. And the experience of being at the throne of God, then, began in chapter 4 and the same scenario extends into chapter 5. We are in the same location in the same vision with John. The scene in chapter 5 is still the sky. The throne of God is still central. The cherubim are there. And the enthroned elders representing the raptured church are there. The ruby-diamond blazing glory of God is shining out through an emerald rainbow and bouncing off a clear crystal platform on which the throne is set. From the very throne of God comes lightning and thunder flashing. We see in that scene the Holy Spirit shining in seven-fold glory and everything around God, every being around God is offering Him worship. And so, chapter 4 ends with this glorious scene of the throne of God and all of both redeemed and raptured men and the spirits of the saints and the angels as well worshiping God.
Now as you come into chapter 5, some new action is introduced and a new central character is introduced as well. As you come into chapter 5, God Himself begins to stir and to move because He's starting now to judge the earth and universe. He's starting now to act against sin. So in chapter 5 John is still at the throne in his vision, but God begins to act. And the first thing He does is noted in verse 1, "I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne," that is God, "a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals." In the up-turned palm of God we see this little scroll. This is the title deed to the universe. God has it. It is rightfully His. It is the official document that grants the created universe to God by ownership.
Now the contents of this scroll are all sealed inside of it and a summary of it is written on the outside. The contents of the scroll will be known to us as we begin in chapter 6, where the Lamb breaks one of the seven seals and then another of the seven until all seven are broken and the scroll is fully unrolled, describing not the why of the universe belonging to God, but how He will take it back. Most of those kinds of official documents sealed like that, title deeds sealed like that, had inside a description of why the person designated possessed whatever the property was. This scroll doesn't have the why, it has the how. And when it's unrolled it doesn't tell us why God owns it, it tells us how He is going to take it over. it is a moot point about why He owns it since He made it. He is God.
And so, as the little scroll sits, as it were, on the up-turned palm of God, it contains the judgments by which God will in a very short time take possession of His created universe and restore it to a condition of paradise. These then are the judgments that will unfold from the scroll that begin in chapter 6 and run all the way through chapter 19 of Revelation.
Now the question that comes is this...God has the scroll in His hand, but who is worthy to enact it? Who is the executor of this document? Who is going to pull it off? We noted the first point then in this text is the search for the worthy one...the search for the worthy one.
Verse 2, "And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, `Who is worthy to open the scroll and to break its seals?' And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it. And I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it."
John is weeping because he wanted to see the world changed. He wanted to see the world rid of evil and sin. He wanted to see the Kingdom of God come. He wanted to see guilt and sin and shame done away with. He wanted to see Satan bound. He wanted to see Israel saved. He wanted to see Christ exalted. He wanted all of those things that had been promised. But no one came forward. And so he wept. But his weeping, as we noted last time, was needless because in verse 5 we read this: "And one of the elders said to me, `Stop weeping, your tears are unnecessary. Behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David has overcome so as to open the scroll and its seven seals."
We move then from the search for the worthy one to the selection of the worthy one. John knew that Jerusalem had been destroyed in 70 A.D., this is at least 25 years later. John knew that Judaism had killed the Messiah. John knew the Jews had been massacred and scattered. John knew that the new young church was being severely persecuted. John knew that there was no king to defend them on earth or to redeem Israel. And so he wept. Everything seemed to be going badly. Was there no one to change this? Was there no one to take the scroll and break its seals and take back the universe? And so, one of the elders tells him to stop weeping. Why? "Behold," what does that mean? Look.
He calls his attention to an emerging person on the scene. "Look, the Lion...Look, the root of David." No elder could redeem the universe. No angel could redeem the universe. But here is one who can. "Look." And he points to the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah. If you know anything about the Old Testament you know that that is a title for the Messiah, that is a messianic title. It's taken out of Genesis 49:8 through 10, one of the earliest titles for Messiah. The Messiah would come and the Messiah would be a Lion. Genesis 49:8 says, "Judah, your brother, shall praise you, your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies, your father's sons shall bow down to you, Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He couches. he lies down as a lion. And as a lion who dares rouse him up. The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until Shiloh comes and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples."
Judah is a lion. And Judah will produce a lion who will have the scepter and who will bring about the rule that shall cause all the nations to bow down. The Messiah then became known as the lion that would come from the tribe of Judah. Lion because of his fierceness, lion because he would come in strength and destruction and devastation. It speaks of the Messiah as a strong powerful menacing destructive and deadly personality. In fact, the Jews even in the time of Jesus expected their Messiah to be a lion. That's why it was so very hard for them to understand Jesus Christ. They expected the lion to come, menacing and destructive and destroy the Romans and destroy the Greeks and destroy the pagans. And that in part is why they killed Jesus because He was...He was not lion-like. There was nothing fierce about Him There was nothing devastating, menacing and destructive about Him. Quite the opposite. He insisted on going about healing everyone. And He insisted on not doing anything that would show any kind of political or military power.
Their Messiah would be a lion. And their Messiah would rip and tear and destroy the enemies. What they didn't realize was He was a lion, indeed He was a lion, but His lion-like judgment still waits for the right day. It is yet to come. But the Messiah was to be a lion from the tribe of Judah. You know as well as I do that the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ comes through the tribe of Judah. Jesus Christ was born, as it were, from between the feet of Judah, from that tribe He came forth. He is that lion, but His lion-like work awaits the moment anticipated here in Revelation 5.
He is also called in verse 5 the root of David. That is another messianic title. The Old Testament very clearly indicated that the Messiah would be a Son of David, that He would be an offspring of David, that His life would come from David. It says in Isaiah 11:1, "Then a shoot, or a root, will spring from the stem of Jesse and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him." And it talks about Him. "With righteousness He will judge the poor, He will strike the earth with a rod of His mouth and with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. And righteousness will be the belt about His loins and faithfulness the belt about His waist." And it tells us what I told you earlier about His kingdom, the wolf will dwell with the lamb, the leopard will lie with the kid, the calf, the young lion, the fatling together, a little boy will lead them. The cow and the bear will graze. Their young will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like an ox. The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra and the wean child put his hand in the viper's den, they will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. That's talking about His Kingdom. He'll come. He'll be a shoot out of David. And He will have the Spirit of the Lord on Him. And He will be righteous. And He will be just. And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth.
Every Jew expected that. They expected that when the root of David came, He would come with force, He would come with a rod. He would come in destruction. He would come in devastation. He would come and He would force the wicked of the earth to succumb to His authority. He would judge sinners. He would be from the royal blood of David. He would be out of the Davidic line. And indeed He was. The Lord Jesus Christ came from the line of David, both as to His father and as to His mother. Joseph was in the line of David and so was Mary. The genealogies that are given in the gospel record point out very clearly that Jesus Christ was born of the lineage of David. He was a righteous branch, a righteous root from Jesse, the father of David, David's line.
In the end of Revelation, chapter 22 verse 16, Jesus Himself says, "I am the root and the offspring of David." But because the prophecy in Isaiah was associated so much with destruction and so much with judgment and so much with devastation and then the setting up of His Kingdom where all of those things would take place that I read to you about how the animal kingdom would all of a sudden be friendly to each other, and all of those things would change, because they saw the Messiah coming in judgment and setting up this kind of very visible tangible kingdom and Jesus didn't do that, they didn't accept Him as their Messiah. O momentarily they did, momentarily in Matthew 21:9 on what we call Palm Sunday they said, "Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." But by the end of that week they had seen Him crucified, not as a victor but what appeared to them to be a victim. They had seen Him go through a mock trial and never assert any of His power. They saw Him played with and toyed with by the Romans as well as by the Herods, and they knew at least in their own minds that this doesn't fulfill our anticipation of what the offspring of David is going to do. This is no king. This is no shoot out of the royal line. This is no blue-blood. Why doesn't He take His authority and set up His kingdom as it's described?
He wasn't like a king and because He didn't act like a king they killed Him. Because He didn't act like a lion they killed Him. But now John sees Him step forth again. The elder says to him, "Look, the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David." You see Him? Now He's moving forth. Now He's going to act like a lion and now He's going to act like a king, like a monarch. He's going to come in fury. He's going to come ferocious, devastating, destructive. He's going to come in furious judgment against the nations of the world and establish His rightful throne. The elder says, "He has overcome, so as to open the scroll and its seven seals." This is none other than Jesus Christ. He is the rightful King from David's loins, both through Mary and Joseph. Joseph being His adopted father also in the line of David. He is the fierce lion with the power to destroy, the power to devastate.
He had told people when He first came that He could have done it if He had wanted to even then. He said, "If I wanted to I could call for a legion of angels to come to My rescue." But there was something to be done first. There was this whole matter of overcoming sin, overcoming Satan, overcoming demons, overcoming death, overcoming hell that had to take place. As Jesus moved toward the cross, in John 12:31 He said, "Now judgment is upon this world, now the ruler of this world shall be cast out." He knew when He went to the cross that He was starting what He would finish some day in the future. In John chapter 14 and verse 30, "I will not speak much more with you," He said, "for the ruler of the world is coming but he has nothing on Me." I'm going into combat with Satan and I will win.
In the sixteenth chapter of John and the eleventh verse, "The Spirit convicts of judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged." That anticipates the cross. The first thing Christ had to do before He conquered the nations of the world, before He came as a fierce lion, as a reining king, was to go into mortal combat with the usurper, Satan. Because it was he, according to Hebrews 2, that held the power of death which keeps all humanity in bondage all their life long. It was he who had usurped the rule in the world. It was he who has been running rampant with his demons over the earth.
But in His death and resurrection, He conquered Satan. He gave the fatal blow that Genesis 3:15 says would be the blow to the serpent's head. And there the sentence was passed. And there the overcoming was done. And there the one who held you captive to death all your life long, the one who owned you, as it were, and who would own you forever in hell has his power broken. There judgment was set on him and victory over sin and Satan and demons and death and hell was won. And He had to do that first. He had to win salvation. He had to deal a death blow to Satan and demons. He had to conquer death itself.
And the elder says, "This Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome." He has overcome. Colossians puts it in a marvelous way. "He delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the Kingdom of His beloved Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."
God used Christ to overcome. And John has already known the word "overcome." He used it numerous times, didn't he, in the letters to the churches as he was inspired to write those seven letters in chapters 2 and 3, "We are the overcomers because Christ overcame and we overcome in Him." We then become the recipients of His overcoming.
In Colossians chapter 2 verse 13, "And you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him." When He overcame, you overcame, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us. And has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. "When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them having triumphed over them through Him." Who are they? Demons. He triumphed over all of the demons and Satan himself. He conquered them at the cross. He conquered sin. He delivered us into His own Kingdom.
And so, it is essential for us to understand that He couldn't be the lion of judgment and He couldn't be the king of glory until He had first been the lamb. And now...by now John knows the overcomer...by the way, the verb "overcome," nikao, from which we get Nike, to overcome, to be the victor. By now John knows who he's looking for. And he's not disappointed when he turns to look, verse 6, "And I saw between the throne with the four living creatures and the elders, a Lamb standing as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth."
The elder who speaks to him says, "Look," and he looks at this amazing scene with a ruby-diamond glow coming off God through an emerald rainbow, bouncing off a crystal platform intermingled with flashing thunders and cracking lightning, through the magnificent four living creatures described in Ezekiel chapter 1 as like spinning wheels of light, through the twenty-four thrones upon which are seated the twenty-four elders and in the amazing glory and blazing splendor and majesty of this scene, his eyes are drawn in between all of this, he says, he sees a Lamb...a Lamb. He probably was looking for...what?...a lion, or maybe a king. But in the midst of the saints enthroned in the glorious cherubim in the mingled glory of God's presence, someone moves to the throne. Is it a lion? No. It's a lamb. It's not just the word for lamb, it's the word for a little lamb, it's the diminutive form, arnios(?), not arnion(?) but arnios which means a pet lamb, a little lamb.
That's very fitting, by the way. Do you remember your Old Testament history about the Passover? The Jew who was the head of the house had the task during Passover to select a lamb. It had to be a lamb offered as sacrifice to God. It had to be a spotless lamb, without a blemish. It had to be the perfect lamb, the best lamb. And before they sacrificed the lamb they had to bring it into the house. And you remember how long they had to keep it? Four days...four days that little tender lamb lived with the family, four days they snuggled and cuddled the lamb, four days it became the pet of the children and then it was violently slain. And God was sending them a message through that symbolism that the One who is the ultimate Lamb will be One who is precious. And the slaying of that lamb will be a sacrifice. It would have been no sacrifice particularly to bring in a strange lamb and slay it, but one that had become a pet. And John looked and he saw a little pet lamb...not a lion, but a lamb. But the lamb is the lion.
There are just a few references to Jesus as the Lamb in the other books of the Bible. I won't belabor it but if you go back to Isaiah 53 you will find there that Jesus is described as a Lamb before His shearers.
When you come into the New Testament there are only about four occasions prior to the book of Revelation where He is specifically called a lamb. In John 1, "Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world," being one of them. Another in John 1, the same chapter. Another in Acts 8:32 and then a more familiar one in 1 Peter 1:19, those words that tell us that He is a Lamb without blemish and without spot. But this term "lamb" then is only used concerning Christ about six times throughout Scripture, until you get to Revelation. In the book of Revelation alone it is used twenty-eight times...twenty-eight times. It's really a very key title for the Son of God in this letter.
Now this is not just any lamb, but you'll notice this lamb is standing. That's very important. What that means is it's on its feet...it's alive, it's moving. Here he sees Christ in the figure of a lamb on His feet and moving. But also a lamb standing as if slain. The lamb is bearing the scars from death wounds. The deadly wounds on the Lamb are still visible. But the Lamb is alive. The powers of earth and hell had come together to kill the Lamb by God's determined counsel. They killed Him in His last great conflict on earth. But He is alive. He is standing and He still bears the scars of His death.
You remember how even after His resurrection Jesus showed them the nail prints in His hands and feet and His side. The Lamb had death wounds but the Lamb was alive. And you might ask the question in your mind immediately, "Now wait a minute, you mean to tell me this Lamb is going to come out and enter into another battle with Satan? I mean, He's going to come out as a Lamb against a dragon? I wouldn't pit a pet lamb against a dragon, would you?"
And Satan is described in chapter 12 as a dragon. "You mean this lamb is going to come out against demon locusts and filthy foul hellish demon frogs and millions of world soldiers armed to the teeth to fight against Him? This little pet lamb? Is the Lamb up to it? Didn't He lose last time? Won't He maybe lose again?"
But such thinking is wrong. I've already told you He didn't lose last time, He won. The ruler of this world has been judged. The kingdom of darkness has had its power broken. The dominion of sin is shattered. The kingdom of darkness has been invaded and millions of souls have been taken captive into the kingdom of light. What He did on the cross cost Him His life, but He didn't lose. He disarmed the principalities and the powers. He descended into hell, as it were, and pronounced His triumph over them...says Peter. No, He didn't lose, He won and He'll win again. He'll win again. The first time He came as a Lamb He died. But He redeemed us. He redeemed us by paying a price that was necessary, because Peter says we could never have been redeemed by silver or gold, but only with the precious blood as of a Lamb unblemished and spotless...the blood of Christ. He came and He won. He defeated death. He defeated Satan. He defeated demons. He defeated sin. He defeated hell. The Lamb is up to the task because the Lamb is a Lion and the Lamb is the King of kings. It is His death as a Lamb that now qualifies Him to be a Lion and a monarch.
He stands and He stands alive. And He moves now toward the final conflict. Looking back at verse 6 again, it describes this Lamb in quite interesting terms. This, remember, is in a vision, almost indescribable. But it says He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits, or the seven-fold Spirit of God sent out into all the earth.
Now what does this mean? Well, animals had horns and in the animal kingdom a horn always represented power because that's what animals use them for...to exert their power in combat. Animals who have horns use those horns to inflict wounds on their enemies. And so a horn became the symbol of power in the animal world. Very often you find it so in the Scripture. Seven horns simply means seven being the number of perfection, completion that He was perfect power. He was the sovereign almighty, all powerful warrior. He was coming as a little pet lamb, but a very unusual one with seven horns, that is having perfect power, sovereignty, might. And then it says He had seven eyes. Again seven being the number of perfect or completion, this speaks of knowledge, understanding, omniscience. He could see and comprehend everything. He knows exactly what's going on. H e knows exactly what to do and He has the preeminent power to do it.
In fact, those eyes are described as the seven-fold Spirit of God sent out into all the earth. That most interesting description is repeated now for the third time. We saw it in chapter 1 verse 4, chapter 4 verse 5. The Holy Spirit three times now has been defined as a seven-fold Spirit. And I don't want to go back over all of the detail, we've covered it each time, but just simply to say it refers to the fullness of the Spirit. It goes back again to Isaiah chapter 11, that same chapter in which the Messiah is called the root of David, in which He is going to come in severe punishing judgment, in which He will set up a Kingdom where the lion will lie down with the lamb and all the rest of those things, that same chapter also describes the seven-fold ministry of the Spirit. He is the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of understanding, the Spirit of counsel, the Spirit of strength, the Spirit of knowledge, the Spirit of fear. All seven describe the fullness of the Spirit. Zechariah 4:2 discusses the fullness of the Holy Spirit in His power.
And so, here again this fullness of the Holy Spirit is mentioned. This time with reference to knowledge for judgment. The fullness of the Spirit in chapter 1 verse 4 was in relation to grace and peace. The fullness of the Spirit in chapter 4 verse 5 was the fullness of the Spirit in acting judgment. But here His fullness is the fullness of omniscience as He searches the earth for the criminals to be judged. So the Lamb comes forth, standing which means the Lamb is alive, bearing the wounds of its death, having ultimate power, complete omniscience by virtue of the fullness of the Holy Spirit sent out into all the earth to assess and to identify who is to receive the judgment.
It's quite an interesting note about the Holy Spirit, isn't it? Because when Jesus went away in John 14, 15 and 16, He said I'm going to send another comforter, didn't He? And I think we often assume that the Holy Spirit is nothing but a comforter, nothing but an encourager, nothing but a helper. Not so. First of all, in John 16 it tells us that He is a convictor. He will convict the world of sin. Now it tells us that He is really an executioner, that the Holy Spirit is going to be searching the world to identify the people to be destroyed, to assess the situation so that the Lamb can move out in judgment.
And then verse 7 says, and this is monumental, "And He came and He took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne." He is the Lamb. Here is the final monumental act in this heavenly scene. This is the thing that's been building since chapter 4 verse 1, since John arrived there in his vision. This is the great culminating act of human history. This is going to bring human history to its end. The goal of redemption is about to be reached. Paradise is about to be regained. Eden is about to be restored. The Lamb comes and takes the scroll out of the hand of God.
This monumental moment is also described by Daniel in Daniel chapter 7 and verse 13. Daniel was having a vision. He said, "I kept looking in the night visions and behold, with the clouds of heaven one like a Son of Man was coming and He came up to the Ancient of Days." Here He sees the second member of the trinity, one like the Son of Man coming up to God, the Ancient of Days, and He was presented before Him and to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom. Here is the same scenario. It just doesn't talk about the little scroll. But it says here comes the Son of Man, here comes the Lamb and He comes up to the throne of God and was given to Him dominion, glory and a kingdom. How extensive? That all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an ever lasting dominion which will not pass away and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. Daniel saw the same scenario minus the little scroll as the Lamb comes to take back the cursed universe.
That then brings us to the third element in this marvelous chapter. We have seen the search for the worthy One...we have seen the selection of the worthy One...verses 8 through the end of the chapter give us the song of the worthy One...the song of the worthy One.
The appearance of the Lamb as He moves to take the scroll, to redeem the universe and man causes praise to break out from everywhere, all over the universe. The praise begins to unfold in an escalating ascending crescendo of worship as the oratorio of redemption climaxes. In fact, in this scene all intelligent creation finally gets involved in the joyful praise. There were two majestic doxologies in chapter 4 and now there are three more added in chapter 5 to make a total of five great doxologies of praise to God and the Lamb because of the coming redemption. The paean of praise that begins to unfold here toward the Lamb rolls on, accumulating more momentum until the song of adoration is in the mouth of every living creature in the universe.
At least tonight we can see how the song begins. Verse 8, "And when He had taken the scroll," I mean, it's instantaneous, "the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb." The first thing is spontaneous worship. When He had taken the scroll...that is the monumental act that ignites the joy. Why? Because it means now it's going to happen, the end of sin, the end of Satan, what happened on the cross in terms of his sentence will now be executed. The glory of Christ will come, the Kingdom will come, Israel will be saved, the church will be honored and exalted. We will reign with Him, the curse will be reversed and all of that pent up anticipation that has been contained within the redeemed and the angels for millennia bursts out. And the four living ones who are the cherubim and the twenty-four elders who are the representatives of the redeemed church fall down before the Lamb.
It's kind of interesting because in chapter 4 it says the twenty-four elders fall down before the Lord who sits on the throne and will worship Him. They had been down once and now they're up and now they're down again. And interestingly enough and importantly, they ascribe the very same worship to Christ in chapter 5 that they gave to God in chapter 4. Don't let anybody suggest to you that Jesus Christ is not God. He is given the same worship in heaven as God is given. And it is worship only for God. In Revelation John fell down before an angel, and the angel said, "Get up, worship God." And if they are worshiping Christ the Lamb here, then they are worshiping God for it is He alone that heaven adores and worships in this way.
After His resurrection, after having borne sin on the cross and accomplished redemption, Jesus Christ was exalted to the right hand of God. He received the glory He had before the world began. He received back the fullness of unveiled divine glory and majesty which was veiled during the incarnation. Paul says, "God raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named not only in this age but also in the age to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet and gave Him as head over all things," Ephesians 1:20 to 22. God exalted Him. And so, there He has been in an exalted position in glory. But now He begins to move, to begin His work of reigning in His universe.
And until this moment comes, the Lord is not fully glorified. He is not fully reigning and ruling. Back in Psalm 2 the promise came. "I have installed My King," verse 6, "upon Zion, My holy mountain. Ask of Me," He says, "and I will give You...that is My Son...the nations as Your inheritance and the ends of the earth as Your possession and You will break them with a rod of iron and shatter them like earthenware." God is saying there's going to be a day when I give My Son His throne. And then He warns, "Worship the Lord with reverence, rejoice with trembling, do homage to the Son lest He become angry and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled." You better be ready when My Son takes His rightful place. You better be ready when My Son steps out to rule and to judge.
Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse writing a number of years ago on Revelation said this, "There are four things out of place in the universe. The church is out of place, she ought to be in heaven. Israel is out of place, she should be in the land that has been sworn to her and possess every part of it. The devil is out of place, he ought to be in the lake of fire but he's still roaming free. And Christ is out of place, He should be through with intercession and seated on His throne, reigning instead of upon His Father's throne interceding."
So here in the vision we begin to see all of these things that are out of place being put in the rightful place. The church is in heaven. Israel is about to be given back her kingdom and her land and salvation. The devil, to be bound and cast into the lake of fire. And Christ is about to reign.
They knew this. They knew it. And so it says in verse 8, "That after He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb." And that initiates immense worship.
We're going to describe that worship next Sunday night. It is thrilling but you'll have to wait till then to enjoy it.
Father, we thank You again tonight for this hour we've spent in Your Word and we're so grateful, so grateful words fail us for this glimpse of future glory. Sometimes we wonder if anything is ever going to change. Sometimes we may be even drawn into the argument of the scoffers of whom Peter spoke when he said, "They say where is the sign of His coming, for all things continue as they were from the beginning." Sometimes it seems as though the heavens are never going to split with Your coming. Sometimes it seems as though evil will always prosper. Sometimes it seems as if Christ will never get His due, His honor. Sometimes we wonder if He'll always be interceding and never reigning. And maybe we've wondered why so much is out of place. Why the church whose citizenship is in heaven has to be here. Why Israel who was promised a land doesn't have it. Why the devil who is a usurper is allowed to reign on the earth. And why Christ who is the King waits. But, Lord, we know the moment is coming and we will rejoice in anticipation of it even as all of heaven rejoices in that anticipation of the day in which You come, the day in which the Lamb takes the scroll and takes back the universe. To that end do we pray and say with John the Apostle, "Even so, come Lord Jesus." Amen.
This article is also available and sold as a booklet.
This sermon series includes the following messages:
Please contact the publisher to obtain copies of this resource.Publisher Information


text:
By On Sep 23, 2018 Wedding Decorations
No wedding feels truly complete without wedding decorations. However simple they may be, your decorations can turn a special event into the magical, once-in-a-lifetime celebration that you have always dreamed of. Now, wedding decorations dont come easy, they requires a lot of thought and deliberate preparation. So before you go out there and scout your wedding decorations, equip yourself with some basic décor knowledge.
Lighting is an essential element, as it enhances the atmosphere of the whole venue and makes all the decorations look alive. Have your lighting designer and decorator work together to add little touches of light here and there to make your decorations look amazing.
First things first, what should you decorate? You dont really have to decorate every single nook and cranny to make a huge impact, as long as you focus on these basic wedding decoration elements. Lets begin with the ceremony. The ceremony lies at the very core of a wedding, as its the moment when two lovers are united in the sacred bond of marriage. Such an endearing moment in one life should be completed with a breathtaking set-up, dont you think? So, be sure to not overlook these elements to create an alluring backdrop that complements your solemn vows.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Book Review: Unraveled: Obamacare, Religious Liberty, and Executive Powerpublished on Monday, October 24, 2016
The book is expertly divided into eight (8) sections making it easy to follow and comprehend. Given the limited knowledge I had about Obamacare prior to reading Josh Blackman's book I found section I-IV most useful for my purposes, as these sections gave an excellent overview of both legal and political issues related to Obamacare.
The first section "The Promise of Obamacare" discusses the birth of the bill and the legal issues that plagued it almost immediately. Part II "Conscience and Contraception" is probably one of the most interesting chapters with a focus on the controversial issues of abortion, contraception and the initial rejection of Obamacare by pro-life democrats.
Part III "shutdowns discusses Obama's difficulty with the implementation of Obamacare and the problems surround the HealthCare.gov. website, while Part IV focuses on the time period between October 1st 2013 and December 30ths 2013 with a deeper look at the technical difficulties surrounding HealthCare.gov including the fact that only six (6) people were able to register on the first day that the website was launched.
As a criminal defence lawyer and a human rights advocate for me the most fascinating aspect of "Unraveled" was the deliberation surrounding the freedom of religion debate including the case law that was reviewed in detail and helped shed light on the issue as a whole.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Obamacare, even those with very limited knowledge, as Josh Blackman has managed to write a book that is both detailed, comprehensive and at the same time easy to follow and understand.
I was provided with a copy of this book for the purpose of review.
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text:
SUV flips into creek, killing northern Missouri driver
A woman is dead after her sport utility vehicle flipped into a northern Missouri creek and became submerged.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol identified the victim as 67-year-old Patricia L. Borrok of Novinger.
She was killed Sunday morning when her SUV began sliding on Route K in Adair County. The vehicle went off the side of the road and overturned into the creek.
The Adair County coroner pronounced her dead at the scene a couple hours later.


text:
Moratorium being sought for marijuana dispensaries in Darien
The Planning and Zoning Commission is seeking a moratorium for medical marijuana dispensaries in town.
Jeremy Ginsberg, the director of Planning and Zoning, recommended that the commission obtain a moratorium at Tuesday night's Planning and Zoning meeting so that more research regarding the dispensaries can be pursued. However, Ginsberg was unsure of whether the town should seek a six-month or year-long moratorium.
"The prudent thing to do is to do what the other communities have done, to do more research and analysis before jumping the gun on this," Ginsberg said.
The moratorium, Ginsberg said, would allow the town to ask questions of the state and observe how other towns that are not seeking a moratorium react to the dispensaries. Planning and Zoning member Rich DiDonna supported Ginsberg's recommendation and suggested a year-long moratorium.
"This is all new. None of us have any experience in this," DiDonna said.
Ginsberg will present the commission with an amendment to the planning and zoning regulations at the February meeting.
More InformationFact box
The amendment will be subject to a public hearing and approval from the Representative Town Meeting.
"A lot of towns are responding in different ways," Ginsberg said.
Member Steve Olvany said he recalled reading Monday that Simsbury had "put out a welcome mat" for medicinal marijuana.
Several towns in the surrounding areas -- such as New Canaan, Westport, Ridgefield and Trumbull -- have approved year-long moratoriums to delay making any decisions regarding the dispensaries.
Some towns, like Branford and Simsbury, have allowed medicinal manufacturers and dispensaries to start moving into town.
Ginsberg said no one has expressed interest with the department in establishing a dispensary in Darien. Manufacturing of anything in Darien is not allowed because there is no industrial zone in town, Ginsberg said.
Medical marijuana became law in Connecticut in 2012. Only those with a debilitating medical condition and a doctor's prescription will be able to purchase it, and only doctors who have been certified by the state may prescribe it. All the dispensaries, their owners and all pharmacy technicians must be registered with the state.
Each dispensary must have one licensed pharmacist on site at all times, according to the legislation. Beginning Jan. 1, marijuana production facilities and dispensaries were allowed to open their doors for business.
There are 1,343 people eligible to purchase medical marijuana, with 337 of those residing in Fairfield County as of Nov. 18, according to the Department of Consumer Protection.
State regulations include distance requirements between marijuana-related businesses and schools and churches, and call for security for both growing and dispensing operations. Officials said they are among the strictest in the nation.
After proposals are accepted and researched, licenses for up to three growers and five dispensers will be awarded. By spring or summer, the first Connecticut-grown cannabis will reach dispensaries for patients who comply with the 11 eligible ailments.
As of Nov. 15, there were 27 dispensary applications and 16 production applications before the DCP.
Ginsberg said on Friday, Jan. 3, that he doesn't think the dispensaries will be a big issue for Darien, but that "the commission needs to understand it, discuss it and be aware of it."
email@example.com; 203-330-6583; @Meg_DarienNews


text: Hi David, If you want both good performance and reliability you might look at somebody like SoftLayer who will let you mix and match cloud and dedicated servers to meet your needs. Both they and Voxel have cloud servers that beat the pants off EC2. -J Sent via iPhone Is your e-mail Premiere? On Apr 1, 2011, at 9:51, David Dawson <david.dawson at gmail.com> wrote: > Mathias and Alexander, > > Thanks for both of your replies they were very informative and really have helped me to make my mind up, but to summarise: > > - If you want good predictable performance but you are happy to live with the risk of loosing some of your data ( in the event of a cluster failure where the number of nodes that fail > than your n_val ) then run with the local ephemeral storage in RAID 5 or 10 and take snapshots of the data periodically or run in dual DC mode with replication. > - If you want 100% assurance that your data is available and you are happy with unpredictable performance then use EBS. > - If you want 100% assurance that your data is available and also has predictable performance then Amazon EC2 is not the most optimal choice. > > In our scenario we are doing a equal amount of reads and writes, and will need to guarantee about 32K ops/sec from a RIAK cluster over a 2 hour period with minimal risks of a outage or drop in performance, hence I am guessing that maybe EC2 is not the right choice for us. We are going to look at Joyent as an alternative, that said has anyone else used other solutions e.g. RackSpace cloud? > > Dave > > > On 1 Apr 2011, at 14:21, Mathias Meyer wrote: > >> Hi David, >> >> Alexander already gave you a good rundown on EC2 and Riak, but let me add some of my own experiences running databases on EC2 in general. >> >> The short answer is, Riak is certainly successfully used in production on EC2, so nothing should hold you back from testing a setup on EC2. But there's a whole bunch of things you should keep in mind. >> >> First, it's probably a good idea to avoid using ephemeral storage as persistent storage. Even though it rarely happens, instances can crash on EC2 for any kind of reason, mostly a hardware failure of the underlying host of course. >> >> Cluster compute instances offer especially high CPU power, but what you really want is really fast and reliable storage I/O, persisted for eternity if need be. CC instances are certainly a lot better than any other instance in that terms of general I/O (see [2] for a comparison), but fall prey to similar limitations in terms of network storage I/O as other instance types, see below. >> >> The RAID 0'd ephemeral storage on the cluster compute instances may sound good in theory in terms of performance, but in practice it takes away data durability in case of a single disk failure. One disk fails, and the data on that node is gone. Depending on what kinds of seek your doing, an EBS setup may even turn out to be faster. See [6] and [4] for a comparison and some initial and extended measurements, and [7] for another comparison. But certainly, the cluster compute instance's ephemeral storage can achieve a good amount of throughput, see [5] for some pretty graphs comparing both RAID and non-RAID setups. >> >> As Alexander pointed out, multiple instance failures can make this scenario a real killer, though you end up with the same risks as running on raw iron servers. Both ephemeral storage and EBS don't make the problem of a proper backup disappear. You could e.g. run off ephemeral storage, relying on both Riak's replication and a good backup e.g. to an EBS volume or to S3. >> >> EBS on the other hand is prone to a large variance in network latency, making performance at any point unpredictable and unreliable. Every measurement you take is likely to be different an hour later. This may sound extreme, but it turns out to be a very big issue for databases where there's lots of disk I/O involved to read and write data, as is the case with Riak's Bitcask storage. >> >> You can increase the performance and reliability of EBS by using a RAID of volumes. Preferrably go for a RAID 5 or RAID 10 to add redundancy. There's mixed opinions on whether that's really necessary on EBS, with Amazon keeping the data redundant on their end as well, but in general, it's a good tradeoff between increased performance through striping and increased redundancy through mirroring. [1] has a good summary of when it's better to choose RAID 5 vs. 10. >> >> RAID 0 will obviously bring the best performance, it's certainly a valid setup. We've been running RAID 0 setups with 4 volumes, and got great improvements over a single volume. You're also likely to achieve more throughput on bigger instances with a setup like this. The caveat once again is that one corrupted volume is enough to make a RAID 0 setup unusable. >> >> Another crazy thought is to setup a RAID striping across a bunch of ephemeral drives and EBS volumes, maximizing throughput on both local and network storage. But know what you're getting yourself into with this kind of setup, especially when your write load is a lot heavier then the available network bandwidth can handle, a scenario where your network volumes will never be able to catch up with the local storage. >> >> All that said, EBS I/O sure is reasonably fast, but it depends on your particular use case and performance requirements. It's also worth noting that the I/O capabilities of EBS increase with the instance size. The bigger your instance, the more throughput you'll achieve (see [3]). Bigger instances tend to have better network throughput in general, with cluster compute instances obviously having some of the highest bandwidth available. >> >> All this turns out to be much less of a problem when data can be held in memory very easily, e.g. with Innostore, where you can read and write to/from cache buffers first and then have InnoDB take care of flushing to disk. >> >> Personally, I don't think you're overcomplicating things in regard to multiple availability zones, it's a good idea to do that, when highest availability possible is your goal, as when it's usually just a single availability zone that's affected by increased latency or network timeouts, but as Alexander said, you should think about having cross-datacenter replication in that scenario, as availability zones are data centers located in different physical locations. Usually they're not that far apart, but far enough to increase latency considerably. But as always, it depends on your particular use case. >> >> Now, after all this realtalk, here's the kicker. Riak's way of replicating data can make both scenarios work. When it's ensured that your data is replicated on more than one node, it can work in both ways. You could use both ephemeral storage and be somewhat safe because data will reside on multiple nodes. The same is true for EBS volumes, as potential variances in I/O or even minutes of total unavailabilities (as seen on the recent Reddit outage) can be recovered a lot easier thanks to handoff and read repairs. You can increase the number of replicas (n_val) to increase your tolerance of instance failure, just make sure that n_val is less than the number of nodes in your cluster. >> >> Don't get me wrong, I love EC2 and EBS, being able to spin up servers at any time and to attache more storage to a running instance is extremely powerful, when you can handle the downsides. But if very low latency is what you're looking for, raw iron with lots of memory and SSD as storage device thrown on top is hard to beat. >> >> When in doubt, start with a RAID 0 setup on EBS with 4 volumes, and compare it with a RAID 5 in terms of performance. They're known to give a good enough performance in a lot of cases. If you decide to go with a RAID, be sure to add LVM on top for simpler snapshotting, which will be quite painful if not impossible to get consistent snapshots using just EBS snapshots on a bunch of striped volumes. >> >> Let us know if you have more questions, there's lots of details involved when you're going under the hood, but this should cover the most important bases. >> >> Mathias Meyer >> Developer Advocate, Basho Technologies >> >> [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID#RAID_10_versus_RAID_5_in_Relational_Databases >> [2] http://blog.cloudharmony.com/2010/09/benchmarking-of-ec2s-new-cluster.html >> [3] http://blog.cloudharmony.com/2010/06/disk-io-benchmarking-in-cloud.html >> [4] http://blog.bioteam.net/2010/07/boot-ephemeral-ebs-storage-performance-on-amazon-cc1-4xlarge-instance-types/ >> [5] http://blog.bioteam.net/2010/07/local-storage-performance-of-aws-cluster-compute-instances/ >> [6] http://blog.bioteam.net/2010/07/preliminary-ebs-performance-tests-on-amazon-compute-cluster-cc1-4xlarge-instance-types/ >> [7] http://victortrac.com/EC2_Ephemeral_Disks_vs_EBS_Volumes >> >> On Mittwoch, 30. März 2011 at 18:29, David Dawson wrote: >>> I am not sure if this has already been discussed, but I am looking at the feasibility of running RIAK in a EC2 cloud, as we have a requirement that may require us to scale up and down quite considerably on a month by month basis. After some initial testing and investigation we have come to the conclusion that there are 2 solutions although both have their downsides in my opinion: >>> >>> 1. Run multiple cluster compute( cc1.4xlarge ) instances ( 23 GB RAM, 10 Gigabit ethernet, 2 x 845 GB disks running RAID 0 ) >>> 2. Same as above but using EBS as the storage instead of the local disks. >>> >>> The problems I see are as follows with solution 1: >>> >>> - A instance failure results in complete loss of data on that machine, as the disks are ephemeral storage ( e.g. they only exist whilst the machine is up ). >>> >>> The problems I see are as follows with solution 2: >>> >>> - EBS is slower than the local disks and from what I have read is susceptible to latency depending on factors out of your control. >>> - There has been a bit of press lately about availability problems with EBS, so we would have to use multiple availability zones although there are only 4 in total and it just seems as though I am over complicating things. >>> >>> Has anyone used EC2 and RIAK in production and if so what are their experiences? >>> >>> Otherwise has anyone used RackSpace or Joyent? as these are alternatives although the Joyent solution seems very expensive, and what are their experiences? >>> >>> Dave >>> _______________________________________________ >>> riak-users mailing list >>> riak-users at lists.basho.com >>> http://lists.basho.com/mailman/listinfo/riak-users_lists.basho.com >> > > > _______________________________________________ > riak-users mailing list > riak-users at lists.basho.com > http://lists.basho.com/mailman/listinfo/riak-users_lists.basho.com


text:
Swipe to the left
Posts tagged 'look alike art'
By krys December 7, 2011
Last week, Art Basel (pronounced Bah-zil, not basil, like the seasoning) returned to Miami for its tenth time. A popular annual art appreciation event that originated in Switzerland, Art Basel begun on November 30th for those with exclusive invitations, and celebrities such as Catherine Zeta Jones, Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer were in attendance. It became open to the public on Thursday, December 1st and I decided to go check it out.


text:
Bekker, Gina (2011) Human Rights News - Africa. Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, 29 (3). pp. 403-417. [Journal article]
Full text not available from this repository.
|Item Type:
|Journal article
|Faculties and Schools:
|Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Law
Faculty of Social Sciences
|ID Code:
|Deposited By:
|Dr Gina Bekker
|Deposited On:
|13 Jan 2012 15:43
|Last Modified:
|13 Jan 2012 15:43
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text:
Where's the results??
Where's the results??
Crickets!!! :-(
Didn't you hear those crickets! they told many secrets some of us didn't want out! I believe, since I am a cricket whisperer, they said: Today my friend, Today!... 8pmEST spammed across many sites! Like locusts in the Egyptian desert all over plants...haha! just messing! but soon. Tomorrow for sure but I heard that 8pm the cricket swarm with be barking!
The results are at Radar Roy's Web Site
can you see if this works Radar Roys Lidar Shootout Results | RALETC
well put them on here
Results are here, sorry
Motorcycle Mounts and Accessories
Also Join me at -
Twitter: RadarRoy
Facebook: Roy Reyer


text:
Jörg Stocker, attributed to
German, 1485–1512
Adoration of the Magi, c. 1510
oil on panel
196.4 x 136.3 cm
Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery; Gift of Lord and Lady Gort
Attributed to the German master Jörg Stocker, this magnificent Adoration scene, a highly popular subject in late Gothic and Renaissance art, reads like a delightful narrative. In the distant grounds, Stocker records the long journey of the Magi to the Holy Family in the stable, marked by the golden star. Serving as allegorical representations of the three known continents, Africa, Asia, and Europe, the Magi or Wise Men also personify three ages of humankind: the young, dark-skinned Balthazar (to the right), the middle-aged Melchior (to the left), and the grey-haired Caspar on bended knee. In his depiction of the sumptuous attire worn by the Magi, Stocker also showcases the city of Ulm's locally produced and famous silk and wool products. Stocker and his pupil, Martin Schaffner, represent the late Gothic painting tradition in Ulm, which was greatly shaped by the work of Martin Schongauer.
Gallery Hours
- Tuesday 11am-5pm
- Wednesday 11am-5pm
- Thursday 11am-5pm
- Friday 11am-9pm
- Saturday 11am-5pm
- Sunday 11am-5pm
- Closed Monday


text:
I normally give the fridge a bit of a once over every Thursday as it is my grocery shopping day. I throw out any leftovers, check use by dates and straighten things up so it is easy to unpack the groceries when I get home. I normally hate this job but the task was so much easier today as I have added some nifty roll out shelves to help organise things. I thought I would share them with you if you too are searching for a way to make this task easier.
So this is a pic of our fridge.
For a long time I have used three small pull out shelves on our top shelf to contain our spreads and condiments. They were very helpful as I no longer had to shuffle jars early in the morning to find the Vegemite or strawberry jam for toast.
Two weeks ago I found that Howards Storage World stocked deeper and wider roll out shelves as well. I purchased the medium size to store our yoghurt. Such a great idea as we all eat different yoghurt and they were beginning to take over a little bit.
And I got the largest to store our meat.
I particularly like the idea of this meat shelf as I am paranoid about cross-contamination as I keep my meat above my fruit and veg.
Some other containers I use in the fridge to keep things neat are clip-lock containers. I use these for everyday food items like cheese rather than letting them roam around in their bags. I also use these to store cut up fruits like watermelon and pineapple.
I also swear by Tupperware in the fridge too. When I buy cold cuts or olives from the farmer's markets, I put them in Clear Mates to make sure they stay fresh.
I also use Fridge Smart containers to hold fruit and veg that does not store neatly in the crisper.
I swear by using containers to organise in the fridge. They made things easier to find and keep clean. The whole fridge looks neat. Interestingly, they discourage our 3-year-old rummaging and making a mess when he is hungry. He seems to ALWAYS be hungry. Check back when both my boys are teenagers and I will show you how I use containers to organise my coldroom!
To see how I organise my freezer, have a look at this post.
Linking up with some of these fun parties
Monday: Singing Three Little Birdies, Add a Pinch, I should be Mopping the Floor, Polly Want a Crafter?, Cherished Bliss, The Gunny Sack, Skip to my Lou, Craftomaniac, It's so Very Cheri, Keeping it Simple, Creating Really Awesome Free Things, Between Naps on the Porch, Alderberry Hill, Its A Blog Party, A Pinch of Joy, Making the World Cuter, Mad in Crafts, Moms By Heart, Sew Can Do, Bringing Beauty, Sugar Bee Crafts, Tip Junkie, New Nostalgia, Ladybug Blessings, Permanent Posies, My Favourite Finds, Jillify It, How to Nest for Less, Watch Out Martha, Clairjustinexoxo, Inspired By Felicity
Tuesday: Coastal Charm, Today's Creative Blog, Not Just a Housewife, A Bowl Full of Lemons , DIY by Design, Funky Polkadot Giraffe, Home Stories A to Z, Hope Studios, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Organising Homelife, Raising 4 Princesses, Celebrating Family, Carolyn's Homework, The Blackberry Vine, The Kurtz Corner, Sassy Sites, A Little Tipsy, Gingersnap crafts, Time Warp Wife, These Creative Juices, The Thrifty Home, Its a Very Cherry World, Reason to Skip the Housework, Mommy by Day, Crafter by Night, Rook No.17, Cornerstone Confessions, Naptime Delights, Type A Decorating, A Diamond in the Stuff, Rae Gun Ramblings, Northern Cottage, Clean and Scentsible, Creatively Living , Kathe with an E, Ivy and Elephants, Romance on a Dime, Tales of a Trophy Wife, Creatively Living, The Real Housewives of Riverton, DIY Dreamer, Chronic Christian Crafter
Wednesday: Oopsey Daisy, My Girlish Whims, Uncommonly Yours, Creations by Kara, Raising Homemakers, The Thrifty Home, Twin Dragonfly Designs, A Creative Princess, Sugar and Dots, Seven Thirty Three, Fabric Bows and More, Someday Crafts, Handy Man, Crafty Woman, Night Owl Crafting, Passionately Artistic, Trendy Treehouse, Women Living Well, We are that Family, The Mommy Club , Raising Homemakers, Sew Much Ado, Somewhat Simple, 3 Four and Under, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Beyond the Picket Fence, Free Pretty Things for You, DIY by Design, Bloom Designs, Mom on Timeout, We Like to learn as we Go
Thursday: House of Hepworths Delightful Order Saved by love Creations Its a Keeper, Thrifty Decorating, The Frugal Girls, The 36th Avenue, Raising Mighty Arrows, Thrifty 101, A Glimpse Inside, Brambleberry Cottage, Bear Rabbit Bear, Michelle's Tasty Creations and Crafty Ideas, Shabby Creek Cottage, Goings on in Texas, Happy Go Lucky, Terpblog, Raising Oranges
Friday: The Shabby Nest, Chic on a Shoestring Decorating, At the Picket Fence, Whipperberry, French Country Cottage, Thirty Handmade Days, Creation Corner, Finding Fabulous, Stuff and Nonsense, Fingerprints on the Fridge Naptime Crafters, While He Was Napping, My Romantic Home, Bacon Time With the Hungry, Hungry Hippo, Kitchen Fun With My Three Sons, Remodelaholic, Happy Hour Projects, Simply Designing, Simply Sweet Home, Tidy Mom, Kojo Designs, Young and Crafty, Serenity Now , Life as Mom, At the Picket Fence, Tatertots and Jello, Craft Junkie Too, A Little Knick Knack, Blissful and Domestic, Maiden D'Shade, Petites Passions
Saturday: The Organised Housewife, Be Different Act Normal, The Girl Creative , Funky Junk Interiors , A Vision to Remember, Positively Splendid , Its Overflowing, Natasha in Oz
Sunday: Ask Anna, A Rosie Sweet Home, I Heart Naptime, Under the Table Dreaming, DIY Showoff, Nifty Thrift Things, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Homemaker on a Dime, DIY Home Sweet Home, Embellishing Life, Cherished Treasures


text:
Edward G. Robinson pursues a nazi war criminal named Franz Kindler. He thinks it's the kindly college professor played by Orson Welles. Only a dead man can link him to the crimes… or is it his own obsessions that will finally be his undoing. If you haven't caught this film, this is a keeper in the realm of public domain films.
Stranger, The (1946)
CategoriesCrime Film Noir Free Classic Movies WWII
Readers Comments (7)
I saw this film on cable tonight…E.G. Robinson was superb as always. A thriller I had never seen before. Sit back and enjoy the ride…
Last night I watched this amazing piece of art. Welles at his best with the closeups and the long shots that define his style. The ending is a bit too long to my taste.
I think the style finds itself in German impressionist cinematography like all film noir, but Orson Welles does it very well.
No matter how many times I watch The Stranger it's always suspenseful. The acting was great. The young HG Wells reminded me a little of a young Vincent D'Onofrio. Thanks Kevin. 🙂
one sadness is that the evolution of tech in movies, has somehow made the art of acting less important. 'progress' I guess.


text:
Nova Scotia Power is the wire services provider for Highland Hill. They are responsible for ensuring that electricity reaches your home, and also read and maintain your meter
Moving to Highland Hill
Are you moving to Highland Hill and need to get electricity started under your name? First check that Nova Scotia Power provides electricity in your area at the regulated rate. Depending on where you live, your local utility may or may not be your regulated rate provider.
To find out whether Nova Scotia Power supplies your electricity, you can reach them by telephone at +1-800-428-6230
Starting Electricity Service in Highland Hill
To open an account for your electricity supply, you will likely need to provide the following information:
- Your full name and contact information (phone number, email address)
- The Highland Hill supply address (street address, postal code, city)
- Desired service start date
You may also be asked to provide some ID (such as your drivers licence number).
Nova Scotia Power Customer Service will be happy to answer any questions you might have about starting electricity service in Highland Hill, including questions about electricity rates or billing.
Making an Appointment With Nova Scotia Power in Highland Hill
If you need to have service reconnected to your property, to start up a new service line, or would like to move your meter, you should contact Nova Scotia Power at +1-800-428-6230 to learn more and to set up an appointment (if necessary).
Answers about Prices, Payments, and Bills at Nova Scotia Power Highland Hill
If Nova Scotia Power provides your energy supply, you can contact them at +1-800-428-6230 for any questions about billing, payment options, or rates. If you purchase your energy from a company that is not responsible for your distribution (such as an energy marketer), you should contact them directly.
Find out more about your energy supply in NS
Nearby communitiesAntigonishe Distance: 9.8km
Lake Uist Distance: 10.5km
Upper Washabuck Distance: 11.3km
Heatherton Distance: 11.3km
Lower Washabuck Distance: 11.5km


text:
Originally posted at UnemployedWorkers.Org.
Far too many American workers, stricken by the plague of long-term unemployment, find themselves at a place that now exists just off of 'Main Streets' in big cities, small towns and rural communities across the country. It's a frightening place of great distress, where help is sorely needed — call it 'Desperation Row'.
Every day we receive numerous stories submitted by workers through this website's 'Raise Your Voice' page. On a single day earlier this month we received dozens of such stories, several of which we'll excerpt here. Taken together, they offer a stark picture of lives in the balance, as the painfully slow recovery fails to reach those most in need and millions of jobless workers face the exhaustion of unemployment insurance benefits.
Patrick from Illinois writes:
I've been unemployed for 21 months. I'm 45 years old, married with 2 children 9 & 1 years of age. I was told over the phone by a staffing agency that employers are skipping over people who have been out of work more than 6 months. Now that makes me think that companies are skipping over me as well.
I worked for 24 straight years until I was laid off from my job. Now I face the prospect of losing everything in 2 months when my unemployment insurance will be exhausted.
Katherine from Florida writes:
My husband and I are in our mid 50's. We both lost our jobs in March of 2009. His unemployment insurance ran out in Dec 2010 and now I just learned mine has run out too. We don't know what to do. We are both educated — I have a Master's degree – but I find that most employers will not speak to you if you are unemployed. And finding new employment is so hard in Florida. Our health is suffering, and soon we will have to decide what to do. We are invisible because of our age, too young to retire, too old for college… Life as we knew it is gone. Now what lies ahead of us?
Carol from Massachusetts writes:
I have worked my whole life only to be where I am right now – that is an unemployed, 53-year old mother of two. And now I can't find a job. I never thought that I would ever be here. I am on the verge of losing my home and I'm being sued because I can't pay my bills. I don't know what to do or where to go from here. I have 4 weeks of unemployment benefits left — and then, I don't know……
Lonny from Washington writes:
I am a journeyman cement finisher with 33 years of experience. I was laid off in August 2008. My UI benefits ran out in March of 2010. I have diligently been looking for work in every state west of the Mississippi. I have sent out approximately 2,000 resumes with only a handful of responses. The employers that I have talked to on the phone have said that they are so overwhelmed with responses — they can't even begin to answer all of the applications or resumes. That's just made it harder for me to find employment. I and probably thousands more like me have been evicted from our residence and forced to either live on the street, to live with relatives who can't afford to have us there, or live in our vehicles. This is demeaning and depressing. People who have steady employment have absolutely no clue as to how rough it truly is. The public does not want to know the truth, and most of the news agencies don't have the guts to tell them the truth.
Jamie in Minnesota writes:
I am a 54 year old single woman with more than 30 years of experience in office administration and accounting positions. I lost my job in February 2008 after more than 9 years employment with a local government. My federal unemployment benefits were exhausted in February 2010. With no one else in my home and no other income coming in, I had no choice but to cash in my only retirement account to stay in my home. Since I have now been unemployed for just over 3 years, I rarely get called for an interview (last call was sometime last year). Now, my mortgage provider (US Bank), is pursuing foreclosure proceedings against me and unless I can sell my home before the sheriff's sale, I will lose my equity. My siblings are already helping their own children by taking them into their homes, so I will virtually be left homeless.
Ellen in California writes:
I am turning 65 years old. I have worked all my life. Now I find myself out of work going on 2 years and can't find a job. Employers do not want to hire older people, especially if you are unemployed. My unemployment runs out this month. Now what? I am still looking, of course, but so far no luck.
Don in Connecticut writes:
I am one of the millions of 99ers in this country that has lost everything, my home, my car, my savings, and I am about 2 weeks away from being homeless. I have been looking for a job for over 2 years now. In addition to my work experience, I have an education — something that has proven to be more of hindrance than a help. I have been on a number of interviews, most concluding in the very same way: "you are over qualified, sorry."
WE ARE SUFFERING, not only individually, but also as a nation, and ignoring the problem will not make it go away — it will, in fact, just make it worse.
Bonna in California writes:
I am a 66 year old woman who was laid off from my job at a homeowner association management company in May 2009. I have tried everything to find a job: networking, internet, newspapers, cold calling and nothing has landed me a job. I have been in the workforce for over 45 years and have experience in many positions in many fields, and still no interviews. I too must work to pay my bills, just like any other person. My husband had two strokes back in 1999 and has been disabled ever since. He currently resides in a nursing home in Riverside, CA and Medical says my income is too high as long as I am collecting unemployment, along with my Social Security and my husband's small disability check, so I have to pay a "Share of Cost" to the nursing home each month. This leaves me with little or no money for food or gas — and when my unemployment totally runs out in April I will have no choice but to file bankruptcy….
And Cynthia in Minnesota writes:
I am a single mother who worked for a utility company for almost 25 years, and then they just let me go in February 2009. I'm still unemployed even though my unemployment benefits ran out in December.
I have 2 college degrees. I'm starting to get interviews, but there are still too many others looking for the same job. My car needs work and most of the jobs I have been looking at are in the southern part of the metro area, where bus service or trains will not take me.
I want to work! I don't know how much more I can go before I have to give up my home.
There were many more such stories received that day; and more, unfortunately, every day. Few of us are very far removed from people who find themselves on 'Desperation Row'. In some cases, they are family members, our neighbors, friends — former co-workers. And, in too many cases, 'they' are us.
Researchers at the National Employment Law Project (NELP) recently estimated that during 2010 there were 3.9 million workers who were jobless when they received their final payment of eligible unemployment insurance. A report last December from the President's Council of Economic Advisors included a projection of roughly the same number of UI exhaustees during 2011.
Lest we forget, this devastation was not caused by anything like a natural disaster. No hurricane, no earthquake, no tsunami caused the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. This crisis, its mass unemployment, and its highest levels of long-term joblessness on record were caused by the lords of finance – by those at the top of the big banks and by Wall Street's investment kingpins. In their myopic and rapacious race to acquire ever more wealth, they caused the collapse which has wreaked such havoc in the lives of tens of millions of American workers. And it is the workers who have paid the price – not the lords of finance.
The latest data from the Labor Department shows that there were still 5 unemployed workers for every full-time job opening in January – the 23rd month that the job-seeker's ratio has been 5-to-1 or higher. Add the 8.3 million underemployed Americans working part-time jobs but wanting full-time work, and the job-seeker's ratio climbs to nearly 8-to-1. That means that for 7 out of 8 unemployed or underemployed full-time job seekers, there simply are no jobs.
Especially for unemployed workers, the difficulty of finding a new job is exacerbated by the pernicious practice of employers, recruiters and staffing firms discriminating against unemployed workers – to the point where the unemployed are summarily excluded at the outset from consideration for open positions. And it appears that this discriminatory exclusion is even more pervasive against those who have been unemployed for longer periods.
Despite the relative improvement in the labor market reflected in reduced numbers of layoffs, the improvements have failed in large measure to reach long-term unemployed workers. With the lack of sufficient job openings, the painfully slow rate of new job growth, and the discriminatory exclusion of unemployed workers in hiring – it's no wonder that so many workers have or will face exhausting all their eligible unemployment insurance benefits.
In the face of this acute and widespread human crisis, not much has yet been done. There is a bill – HR 589 – the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Expansion Act of 2011, which, as we have reported on previously, would add 13 more weeks of benefits eligibility to EUC Tier I and make those benefits retroactively available to those who have exhausted their eligibility. While the bill now has 74 co-sponsors, the new House majority has displayed little interest in even bringing it up in committee.
But the depth and scope of the needs facing 99ers and others exhausting unemployment benefits are so great that a truly robust, targeted and comprehensive set of initiatives is what's required. We need an innovative approach that combines income support and assistance, training and personalized job placement services, appropriate incentives for employers, an end to discriminatory hiring practices affecting unemployed workers, and most importantly good jobs with good pay that will help workers recover the lives and livelihoods they've lost.


text:
Dan Holler
Class of 2005
Major/Minor: Political Science
Serving as Communications Director for Heritage Action for America, Dan Holler spends his working days promoting Heritage policy recommendations, analyzing legislation, pitching news stories, and dissecting congressional news coverage. He is also a constant presence on conservative talk radio show around the country.
But he got his start in politics as a political science major at Washington College, where he was active in the College Republicans. He also played a crucial role in establishing the college's chapter of the Maryland Student Legislature, which is a statewide simulation of the legislative process in Maryland.
While a student at WC, Dan took advantage of several internship opportunities. He interned with the Maryland Governor's Summer Internship Program, writing a policy paper for then-Governor Ehrlich on the budget deficit and legalized slots. He also served as a legislative intern with the Maryland General Assembly as part of the department's formal internship program, which often brings political science students to Annapolis during the annual legislative session each spring, which takes place from January to April. As Dan says, "Internships are particularly valuable when searching for a post-college job and WAC provided numerous opportunities to find and participate in those internships." It was an internship that Dan completed with the Heritage Foundation right after graduation that led to his current position.
Dan praises the "intimate environment" provided by Washington College and notes that "classroom debate was frequent and always welcomed—one of the benefits of small classes." He liked that political science professors frequently tied the subject matter into current events, allowing students to apply the lessons to the current political environment. "More so than any other department," he says, "the Political Science department challenged me (and those around me) not only to achieve a high level of academic success, but also in my political beliefs and personal ambitions."


text:
Original Research has not revealed much information about the early life of James STEVENSON. Secondary sources suggest that James was born in 1720 or 1721 in North Belfast, Ireland to Scotch-Irish parents and that he immigrated to Maryland and married Sarah KELLY (O'Kelly), daughter of John KELLY, also of Ireland. It is also suggested that James and Sarah migrated to Rowan County, NC in the 1770's. The children are all purported to have been born in Maryland and their birth years are suggested as follows: Margaret (1756), Annie (1758), Agnes Nancy (1758), James, Jr (1760), Sarah (1762), Jane (1764), Mary (1766), and William (1768).[1]
Original research has not substantiated James' wife's name but has substantiated that James and his wife lived for a time in Maryland and had 8 children: Nancy Agnes, Margaret, James, Ann, Mary, Sarah, Jane, and William.[2] Some of the children's birth year's have been confirmed. According to the 1850 census, Margaret was born 1755, Sarah was born 1762, Mary was born 1765 and William was born 1768.[3] According to James, Jr.'s gravestone, he was born in 1746.[4] This year, however, seems much too early to match with the ages of the other children. Some secondary sources list James, Jr,'s birth year as 1760. This year fits much better with the ages of the other children. All four of the children found on the 1750 census are listed as being born in Maryland.[5] Since this includes the oldest and the youngest, it is probable that all of James' children were born in Maryland. James and his family migrated to Rowan County, North Carolina sometime between William's birth in 1768 and the marriages of daughters Nancy and Margaret which both took place in Rowan County in 1775.[6]
James and his wife's oldest son James, Jr. served in the Revolutionary War. He is buried in Vashti Cemetery in Vashti, Alexander County. A modern grave marker has been erected noting his military service. The grave marker reads: "James Stevenson Pvt Col Locks NC Comp Rev War May 27, 1746-Sept 3, 1828 Col. Ben Cleveland's Com'd King's Mt and Guilford Cthse Seige at Yorktown".[7]
Three of the Stevenson daughters married Lackey men. Nancy Agnes married William Lackey in 1775, Margaret married Thomas Lackey in 1775 and Ann married George Lackey in 1780.[8] Tradition says that these three men were brothers. Revolutionary War Pension records confirm that Thomas and George were siblings and circumstantial evidence suggests that William was also a brother.[9]
In 1788, the section of Rowan County where the Stevenson family lived became Iredell County. James and his wife continued to live here and are listed on each federal census from 1790 to 1820 as living in Iredell County.[10]
James died some time after the 1820 census was taken and before the inventory of his estate was done in August 1820. James' will was written July 26, 1817. He willed that "Wm Lackey and his wife Nancy take the negro woman Nell and her child and one hundred dollars…Thomas Lackey and his wife Margaret shall have one negro woman named Mary and her child and one hundred dollars…my son James Stevenson shall have the tract of land on which I now live of three hundred and thirty-eight acres and one negro man named Jack and all the notes held by me on him at this time…George Lackey and his Ann shall have one negro man named Ned and one hundred dollars…John Arrington and his wife Mary shall have one negro girl named Hannah and one hundred dollars…David Milligan and his wife Sarah shall have four hundred dollars, John Buttram and his wife Jane shall have one negro man named Simon and one hundred dollars…my son William Stevenson shall have one negro woman named Milly and her child named Raria (sp?) and one hundred dollars". James willed that the balance of his estate be "divided into two equal parts and one part be equally divided between my two sons and the other part equally divided between my six daughters each to share alike". James appointed his two sons James and William as executors of his last will and testament.[11]
The inventory of James' estate was taken August 14, 1820. The personal property sold at the estate auction included: 1 scythe, 2 mattocks, 1 falling axe, 1 spade, 4 hoes, 1 single tree, 3 sickles, 3 barrel, 1 oven, 1 pot rack, 1 skillet and spider, 1 plough and stock, 1 wheel, 1 shovel plough, 1 cotton wheel, 1 cheek reel, 1 ploughshare and rod, 1 flax wheel, 2 side leather, 1 dry hide_,_ 6 cows, 4 calves, 3 bulls, 5 steer, 7 heifers, 4 horses, 1 mare, 4 lots of hogs and 5 lots of sheep, 1 wagon, 2 books_,_ 4 lots of corn, 1 box of nails, 1 salt barrel, 1 churn flaxseed, 1 bed, 1 keg, 1 table, 6 spoons, pincers and knives, 4 yards cloth, 1 lot of tallow and candles, 1 pair stockings, fodder, 1 lot of flax, 1 lot of straw, 4 lots of wheat, 6 lots oats, 1 lot rye, 54 pounds of Bacon, 1 iron wedge, 1 bar iron, 1 lot wool, 1 smoothing iron, 1 double tree, 1 pair hams and chains, 1 pair gears, 1 dung fork, 1 pitch fork, 1 tea kettle, 1 hatchet, 1 bull, 1 lot sheep, 2 lots of hogs, 1 lot flax, 1 saddle .[12] The total amount of James' estate after the division for the will was $4,397.21 ¼.[13]
James Stevenson was a slave owner. On the 1790 census, James is listed as having 2 slaves. Their names, ages and sex are not indicated.[14] James is listed on the 1800 census as having 8 slaves and on the 1810 census as having 5 slaves.[15] When James wrote his will in 1817, he left 10 specific slaves to members of his family: Nell and her child, Mary and her child, Jack, Ned, a girl Hannah, Simon, Milly and her child named Raria (sp?). The inventory of James' estate taken August 14,1820 names an additional nine slaves: "one negro boy named Israel, 1 negro man named Luke, 1 negro boy named John, 1 negro girl named Liza, 1 negro woman named Poll, 1 infant negro child of Poll, 1 negro woman Ibbi and her child". Some of the slave children named in the estate were possibly the unnamed children mentioned in the will.
The slaves not left to family members in the will were hired out during the settlement of James' estate. On March 22, 1820, Luke was hired out to George Lackey, Jr., John was hired out to Nancy Lackey, Poll was hired out to James Stevenson and Liza was hired out to James Lackey. On May 27, 1820, the slaves were hired out again, this time for one year. John went to Nancy Lackey for 28 dollars. Israel went to Alexander Lackey 2.25 dollars. Liza went to James Stevenson for one dollar. Poll and her child went to Joseph McClain for 13.25 dollars and Luke went to Henry McClain for the largest sum of 57.25 dollars.[16] James' estate record does not include information on what happened to these slaves after their time of being hired out was completed.
James' wife died sometime after the 1820 census was taken. A family history sketch written by the couple's great-grandson places her death as a few months after James died. The same sketch gives James' age at his death as 99 years and 9 months. [17] James and his wife are supposedly buried in the old Vashti Cemetery outside Hiddenite, NC. This scenic cemetery, located on Old Vashti Road, has numerous graves. All but one of the graves are marked with un-inscribed fieldstones.[18] The only inscribed stone is a modern headstone erected for James Stevenson, Jr., which records his military service in the Revolutionary War.
There is purported to be an un-located Stevenson family history sketch written in 1892 by a grandchild of James Stevenson, Jr. There is an excerpt of the sketch available on the website for "Stevenson, Arrington and Tucker Families".[19] "Altho our forefathers came to America from Belfast, Ireland they wre doubtless originally from Scotland as they were all Presbyterians. James Stevenson, my great-grandfather was born in Belfast, Ireland. He was fully six feet tall and a man of the finest form. His early life was spent in the English Navy. When he came to America he settled on the Eastern Shore of Maryland where he married Sally Kelly, an Irish ladt, and between 1755 and 60 he came to North Carolina and settled in the upper valley of the South Yadkin (now Alexander County) where he entered 640 acres of land, the full amount allowed by the Government. He made a fine selection. The land was very fertile and the surrounding mountains furnished fine range. He found ready sale for all products of the farm and stock, as immigrants were constantly coming in and selling around him. These immigrants had sold out and moved from other states and brought with them but little exvept the cash realized from such sales. He invested most of his money in negroes, who were at the time brought into this country by nothern men for sale. He died in 1820 aged 99 years, 9 months. My great-grandmother died a few months later".[20]
Footnotes for James and Sarah


text:
Plugins & <object> - Illegal?August 28, 2003
Via Slashdot come news that Microsoft has lost a court battle against what appears to be a small, opportunistic company called .
The suit contested that Microsoft's use of embeddable technologies (plug-ins, essentially) violated a patent granted in 1998. The W3C convened an ad hoc meeting which resulted in a new public forum on the issue, and a recommendation that the web community begin thinking of potential ways to deal with this.
The upshot of the ruling is that embeddable technologies, everything from applets to plug-ins to the
<object> tag, will be under scrutiny for patent violation. As Ronaldo Ferraz put it, HTML supported the <object> tag by that point, so how come Microsoft couldn't come up with examples of prior art?
People have been saying for years that the U.S. patent system is broken. Interesting to think that it took a lawsuit to prevent the
<img> tag from being deprecated in XHTML 2.0.
Reader Comments
"Interesting to think that it took a lawsuit to prevent the tag from being deprecated in XHTML 2.0."
You mean we have something to *thank* Microsoft for?
I don't believe I just said that…
IANAL, but I do know that the prior art defense is not nearly as strong as a defense as the tech community thinks it is. I think we can assume that MSFT had a throng of very intelligent lawyers on a case they ended up losing half a billion dollars on.
Abolish software patents, extend drug patents.
I dunno about thanking MS… maybe we should be thanking Eolas… although I dunno how big a deal depreciating the IMG tag is… Does anyone have any concerns/thoughts on how this will effect such things as SWF's (FLASH files),Shockwave, or Applets? Will the end user (designer/developer) suffer from this ruling, or just the browser companies (and I use the word JUST loosely, due to the trickle effect- is this a threat to the life/development of Mozilla)?
Props to Eolas, though. If you have a patent, you really should defend it. That's why you spent the time to get the patent in the first place- ownership of concept/product. It'll be interseting to hear the W3C's conclusion.
Utterly ridiculous. Really.
"Utterly ridiculous. Really."
Very much so. Software patents are a joke. Make sure not to miss the page I linked 'Eolas' to - the very bottom ("a final note") contains another little absurdity that nicely characterizes this company. Hence my usage of the word 'opportunistic.'
It would seem to me that as they only got the patent in '98, and embedable elements such as plug-ins were around WAAAAAAY before that, MS could probably win on an appeal, if they found a judge who is even halfway tech-savvy. (Not that I'm rooting for Microsoft… but here I am.)
THAT seems to me to be one of the big issues here. More and more courtroom brawls over patents and copyright involve relatively new, and sometimes bleeding-edge technology, and I'm not convinced the judicial system, as a whole, has enough of a clue about it to make valid judgements, without even considering Joe Q. Public on a jury.
I mean, to get to the position in a federal court where most of these battles take place, your average judge has to have gone to law school… what, at least 25-30 years ago? None of this existed then. And just how many of them keep up with current technology, let alone case law about it? My fear is that by the time lawyers that have grown up with this technology get to the bench, there'll be so much BAD case law on the books, it'll be impossible to get out of this quagmire.
i wouldnt put to much emphasis on this. although the concept would be great for xhtml 2.0, we all must remember the outcome of compuserve and .GIF files.
It's interesting to note that the patent was filed in 1994, and it says that the embedded objects might be images, sounds, video, etc. However, Tim Berners-Lee WorldWideWeb browser, which was developed in 1990, was already able to embed images. Also, according to a document[1] found in the W3C site itself, it was able to interact with other kinds of embedded documents as well. By Eolas' claim, it seems that even the <img> tag would be a violation of the patent in modern browsers. Its terms are so broad it probably even touches what Ted Nelson wrote about hypertext systems back in 1965.
The stylized e is as silly as the patent? I don't think so. Trademarks are a whole different ballgame from patents, and something that's a strong part of your visual identity SHOULD be protected. There's certainly a line to be drawn—I think Google's C&Ds to gewgle.com were quite silly, for example—but for something as important as a logo, isn't important for designs (even obvious ones like the e) to be exclusive to the original designers?
(PS — I think the patent is moronic, of course.)
Extend drug patents? Are you mad? Drugs protected by patents bring with them artificially high prices resulting in third world countries being unable to afford them, dispite the fact that they can easily be manufactured at a fraction of the cost. Sorry, very ot :-)
Eric, do you understand that pharmaceutical companies spend HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS (about 119million per year combined) on R&D, BILLIONS on marketing, BILLIONS in lobbying, and rake in TENS OF TRILLIONS of dollars on the drugs they produce. They have one of the highest profit margins in the industry and together spend more in marketing in a year than Anheiser Bush, Nike, and Coca Cola combined. Governments other than the US have put strict controls on the prices knowing how these companies are gouging their US customer's. US customer's continue to pay such exhorbatent prices for drugs that people must often choose between getting a medication and how much food they can buy. Not to mention the hardship that drug patent's cause for third world countries with high disease rates. There's no plausible argument for extending drug patents.
Now software patents are reaking havoc like drug patents have been. It's the rampant abuse of the patent system, the inability of the patent office to deny patents, and the failure of the courts to protect the public good from fraudulent patents. Patents have essentially become a license to print money. Get a vague enough patent passed through the system, a good lawyer, some C-n-D's get passed out and let the cash roll in until someone big enough stops you. Then on to the next patent.
We need major reform of the patent system but there's no imputus in the government for that change to occur. The patent system helps drive business and business is so significantly entrenched in the government through all those high priced lobbyists that it's unlikely we could get any significant patent reform that didn't INCREASE the rights of businesses and extend the patent law well outside of the public good.
What if - MS wanted to loose this lawsuit? Think abut it for a moment… MS has all the money to pay royalties/licences… but OpenSource competitors don't, by nature… So what happens if this continues? MS looses some money, but can continue, the OpenSource competition looses everything. So maybe this outcome was accepteab�e for MS?
Just a thought…
How is it possible for Eolas to "invent" something which is then used by companies like Microsoft and the former Netscape, withouth them paying the license fees?
"First demonstrated publicly in 1993, this invention lifted the glass for the first time from the hypermedia browser, enabling Web browsers for the first time to act as platforms for fully-interactive embedded applications."
They also claim to have trademarked the phrase "invented here." (see copyright lines in the footer of every page)
Watch out Al Franken.
"By Eolas� claim, it seems that even the tag would be a violation of the patent in modern browsers. Its terms are so broad it probably even touches what Ted Nelson wrote about hypertext systems back in 1965."
Don't read their press releases. Read the patent. Reading the patent, I think that the <img> tag as typically implemented is not in violation.
The patent covers *one* method for embedding *programs* in a hypertext browser. Anything that does not embed programs, or does so without using the method named in the patent, is not restricted by this patent.
Presented with evidence from both sides, a jury has ruled that Microsoft has used the patented invention without authorization. We shouldn't assume that other programs infringe the same patent just because they have similar features. The programs and the patent will need to be studied by legal and technical experts to determine that.
I lack the training and knowledge to read the patent and understand its implications. The patent is written in legal code, just like software is written in computer code. Neither can be fully understood without significant study, and reference to manuals and examples.
I agree that most software patents are overly broad and should not be granted, and that this Eolas patent is a likely example. But please, don't make assumptions about what's covered by the patent without even trying to read the patent and the related laws. Then you're just as guilty as a judge who rules on software without understanding the software or its technological context.
Sorry, I didn't mean to hijack the discussion, I was merely trying to point out that software patents aren't the only thing wrong with the system. Anyone curious about drug patent extensions can find many better places to discuss via Google.
"I lack the training and knowledge to read the patent and understand its implications. The patent is written in legal code, just like software is written in computer code. Neither can be fully understood without significant study, and reference to manuals and examples."
So do I, which I forgot to point in my comments. I read the patent, but I don't claim to understand it fully. I guess I should just wait for the W3C conclusions. :-)
This is ridiculous.
On an aside:
Eolas means "knowledge" in Irish. hah.
Michael Doyle sounds like an Irish guy to me.
Patent laws in relation to software are crazy the world over:
"If you can do currency conversions, file customs electronically, or calculate air, sea or truck freight, then you must obtain a license from us,"


text:
(Phoenix, Ariz. - July 23, 2010) In another strike against human smuggling into Arizona, Attorney General Terry Goddard today announced the sentencing of a leader of a smuggling organization, Rosalio Palacios, 28, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, to seven years in prison.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Christopher Whitten also ordered him to pay a $46,000 fine. Palacios, who was living in Phoenix, had pleaded guilty to five felony charges: participating in a criminal syndicate, illegal control of an enterprise, human smuggling, illegal use of a wire/electronic communication, and fraudulent schemes and practices.
Palacios was believed to be a ringleader of an organization that smuggled several thousand illegal immigrants in the past several years from Mexico to drop houses in Phoenix and then on to various parts of the United States at up to $1,800 per person. The investigation and prosecution of Palacios resulted in the dismantling of this human smuggling organization, its leaders and its members.
The organization also served as an independent contractor to other human smuggling organizations, as well as providing maintenance of vehicles used to transport illegal immigrants. Palacios was also involved in using one or more members of the organization to obtain fraudulent motor vehicle titles for vehicles used to transport illegal immigrants.
The substantial prison term is notable because Palacios did not have a prior criminal history in the United States. This investigation was conducted by the Financial Crimes Task Force, involving members of the Phoenix Police Department, Arizona Department of Public Safety and the Immigration & Customs Enforcement Bureau (ICE). The case was prosecuted by Assistant Attorney General Theodore Campagnolo.
Attached is a photo of Palacios. For additional information, contact Press Secretary Molly Edwards at 602.542.8019.