text:
Alan Watson
M.A., LL.B., University of Glasgow
B.A. (by decree), M.A., D.Phil., D.C.L., Oxford University
LL.D., LL.D. honoris causa, University of Edinburgh
LL.D. honoris causa, University of Glasgow
LL.D. honoris causa, University of Pretoria
Dr. Pol. Science honoris causa, University of Palermo
Dr. of the University, honoris causa, University of Belgrade
LL.D. honoris causa, University of Stockholm
Comparative Law
Law in the Gospels
Western Legal Tradition
Alan Watson, former Distinguished Research Professor and holder of the Ernest P. Rogers Chair at the University of Georgia School of Law, is regarded as one of the world's foremost authorities on Roman law, comparative law, legal history, and law and religion. He retired from the law school in 2012.
A prolific scholar and master of more than a dozen languages, Watson has nearly 150 books and articles to his credit, and his books have been translated into countless dialects. Selected scholarship includes the revolutionary books Legal Transplants: An Approach to Comparative Law (1974) and Society and Legal Change (1977) as well as The Evolution of Western Private Law (2000), Jesus and the Jews: The Pharisaic Tradition in John (1995), Ancient Law and Modern Understanding: At the Edges (1998), Sources of Law, Legal Change, and Ambiguity (2d ed., 1998), Legal History and a Common Law for Europe (2001), Authority of Law; and Law (2003) and The Shame of American Legal Education (2005). Recent articles include "Law Out of Context" in The Edinburgh Law Review (2000) and "Fox Hunting, Pheasant Shooting and Comparative Law" in the American Journal of Comparative Law (2000). Watson was honored by his international colleagues in 2000-01 when two collections of essays were presented
in his honor: an American volume, Lex et Romanitas: Essays for Alan Watson, and the European volume, Ancient Law, Comparative Law & Legal History.
Watson regularly serves as a distinguished lecturer at leading universities in the United States and such countries as Italy, Holland, Germany, France, Poland, South Africa, Israel and Yugoslavia. He has attended several sessions regarding the development of a common law for the EU, including one in Maastricht in 2000, and, at the request of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), served as a member of the two-person U.S. team helping to revise the draft civil code for the new Republic of Armenia.
Watson holds seven degrees, including a master's and law degree from the University of Glasgow; a bachelor's (by decree), master's, doctor of philosophy and doctor of civil law degrees from Oxford University; and a doctor of laws degree from the University of Edinburgh. In 1997, he was elected Visiting Honorary Professor of Private Law at the University of Edinburgh, the highest honorary award bestowed by the Scottish faculty. Watson still serves in this capacity.
Watson is also an honorary member of the Speculative Society and serves as North American secretary of the Stair Society. He is an editorial board member for the Juridical Review, the Journal of Legal History, the Journal of Comparative Law, the Belgrade Law Journal, IURA, the European Lawyer Journal and the American Journal of Legal History.
Justinian's Corpus Iuris Civilis: Oddities of Legal Development; and Human Civilization, 1 J. Comp. L. 461 (2006).
Lord Mansfield: Judicial Integrity or Its Lack: Somerset's Case, 1 J. Comp. L. 227 (2006).
Jesus and the Samaritan Woman: A Coda, 1 J. Comp. L. 200 (2006).
A Monk's Musings: A Coda, 1 J. Comp. L. 204 (2006) (with Sandy Jardine).
Two Early Codes, The Ten Commandments and the Twelve Tables: Causes and Consequences, 25 J. Legal Hist. 129 (2004).
"Peritia Censeri" in Festschrift Summa Eloquentia, Essays in Honour of Margaret Hewett (Fundamina 2002).
A Common Private Law for Europe, 9 Maastricht J. Eur. & Comp. L. 329 (2002).
Legal Education Reform: Modest Suggestions, 51 J. Leg. Ed. 91 (2001).
Fox Hunting, Pheasant Shooting and Comparative Law, 48 Am. J. Comp. L. 1 (2000) (with Khaled Abou El Fadl).
Legal Transplants and European Private Law, Ius Commune Lectures on European Private Law 1 (2000).
Oaths, Curses, Ordeals and Trials of Animals, 1 Edinburgh L. Rev. 420 (1997).
Rights of Slaves and Other Owned-Animals, 3 Animal L. 1 (1997).
The Origins of the Code Noir Revisited, 71 Tul. L. Rev.1041 (1997).
Trade Secrets and Roman Law: the Myth Exploded, 11 Tul. Eur. & Civ. L. F. 19 (1996).
Roman Slave Law: An Anglo-American Perspective, 17 Cardozo L. Rev. 591 (1996).
Introduction to Law for Second-Year Law Students?, 46 J. Legal Educ. 430 (1996).
The End of Roman Juristic Writing, 29 Isr. L. Rev. 228 (1995).
Aspects of Reception of Law, 44 Am. J. Comp. L. 335 (1996).
From Legal Transplants to Legal Formats, 43 Am. J. Comp. L. 469 (1995).
Religious and Gender Discrimination: St. Ambrose and the Valentiniani, SDHI 315 (1995).
Prologomena to Establishing Pre-Justinianic Texts, 62 T.v.R. 113 (1994).
The Importance of 'Nutshells,' 42 Am. J. Comp. L. 1 (1994).
Seventeenth-Century Jurists, Roman Law, and the Law of Slavery, 68 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 1343 (1993).
Thinking Property at Rome, 68 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 1355 (1993).
The Scottish Enlightenment, Democratic Intellect and the Work of Madame Justice Wilson, 15 Dalhousie L. J. 23 (1992).
Partus ancillae and a Recent Inscription from Regium, __Labeo 335 (1992)
A Slave's Marriage: Dowry or Deposit, 12 J. Leg. Hist. 132 (1991).
Mandate and the Boundaries of Roman Contract, B.I.D.R. 41 (1991).
Roman Law and English Law: Two Patterns of Legal Development, 32 Loy. L. Rev. 247 (1990); reprinted in Il diritto privato europeo: problemi e prospettive. (Naples: , 1993).
Slaves Putting Themselves Up for Sale, ___ I.J.M.S.S. 175 (1990).
The Transformation of American Property Law: A Comparative Law Approach, 24 Ga. L. Rev. 163 (1990).
Some Notes on Mackenzies's Institutions and the European Legal Tradition, ___ Ius Commune 303 (1989).
Artificiality, Reality and Roman Contract Law, 57 T.v.R. 147 (1988); reprinted in Essays on Law and Religion: The Berkeley and Oxford Symposia in Honour of David Daube. (Berkeley, 1993).
I Governi, Il Potere e la Produzione Del Diritto, ___ Fondamenti 35 (1988) (Italian translation of Chapter 1 of Slave Law in the Americas).
The Structure of Blackstone's Commentaries, 97 Yale L. J. 795 (1988).
Sellers' Liability for Defects: Aedilician Edict and Praetorian Actions, 38 Ivra 167 (1988).
The Evolution of Law: Continued, 5 L. & Hist. Rev. 537 (1987).
Slavery and the Development of Roman Private Law, 29 Bullettino del Instituto di Diritto Romano 105 (1987).
Legal Evolution and Legislation, 1987 BYU L. Rev. 353 (1986).
Correspondence (letter to the editor), 7 Cardozo L. Rev. 641 (1986).
George L. Haskins, 134 U. Penn. L. Rev. 1 (1985) (with Morris S. Arnold, James O. Freedman, Covey T. Oliver, Louis H. Pollak, and Alfred W. Putnam, Jr.)
The Prehistory of Contracts with Especial Reference to Roman Law, ___ Saturae Robert Feenstra 37 (1985).
The Justice of the U.S. Constitution, ___ Int'l J. Moral & Soc. Stud. 21 (1985).
A House of Lords' Judgment, and Other Tales of the Absurd, 33 Am. J. Comp. L. 673 (1985).
Law in a Reign of Terror, 3 L. & Hist. Rev. 163 (1985).
The Future of the Common Law Tradition, 9 Dalhousie L. J. 67 (1984).
An Approach to Customary Law, 1984 U. Ill. L. Rev. 561 (1984).
The Evolution of Law: The Roman System of Contracts, 2 L. & Hist. Rev. 1 (1984).
Legal Change: Sources of Law and Legal Culture, 131 U. Penn. L. Rev. 1121 (1983).
Roman Slave Law and Romanist Ideology, ___ Phoenix 53 (1983).
The Notion of Equivalence of Contractual Obligation and Classical Roman Partnership, 97 L. Q. Rev. 275 (1981).
Society's Choice and Legal Change, 9 Hofstra L. Rev. 1473 (1981).
The Hidden Origins of Enorm Lesion, 2 J. Leg. Hist. 186 (1981).
Two Notes on Manus, ___ Major Viginti Quinque Annis 195 (1979).
La Mort d'Horatia, 57 Revue Historique de Droit Français et Etranger 5 (1979).
The Death of Horatia, ___ Classical Q. 436 (1979).
Comparative Law and Legal Change, 37 Campbell L. J. 313 (1978).
Two-Tier Law -- A New Approach to Lawmaking, 27 Int'l & Comp. L. Q. 552 (1978).
Legal Transplants and Law Reform, ___ L.Q.R. 79 (1976).
Personal Injuries in the XII Tables, ___ T.v.R. 211 (1975).
The Origins of usus, 23 RIDA 265 (1975).
Emptio, "Taking", ___ Glotta 294 (1975).
Si Adorat Furto, ___ Labeo 193 (1975).
Tignum iunctum, the XII Tables and a Lost Word, 21 RIDA 337 (1974).
Rescripts of the Emperor Probus (276 - 282 A.D.), 48 Tul. L. Rev. 1122 (1974).
Law of Actions and the Development of Substantive Law in the Early Roman Republic, 89 L. Q. Rev. 387 (1973).
Vespasian: Adsertor Liberatis Publicae, ___ Classical Rev. 127 (1973).
Private Law in the Rescripts of Carus, Carinus and Numerianus, 41 T.v.R. 19 (1973).
Ius Aelianum and Tripertita, ___ Labeo 26 (1973).
Roman Private Law and the Leges regiae, ___ JRS 100 (1972).
Illogicality in Roman Law, 7 Israel L. Rev. 14 (1972).
L'Illogicità Dei Giuristi Romani, ___ Studi Urbinati 65 (1971-72).
The Imperatives of the Aedilicean Edict, 39 T.v.R. 73 (1971).
The Original Meaning of Pauperies, 17 RIDA 357 (1970).
The Early History of Fideicommissa, ___ Index 179 (1970).
The Deveopment of the Praetor's Edict, ___ J. Roman Stud. 105 (1970).
Narrow, Rigid and Literal Interpretation in the Later Roman Republic, 37 T.v.R. 351 (1969).
D.28.5.45 (44): An Unprincipled Decision on a Will, 3 Irish Jurist 377 (1968).
Morality, Slavery and the Jurists in the Later Roman Republic, 42 Tul. L. Rev. 289 (1968).
Acquisition of Ownership by "Traditio" to an "Externeas", 33 SDHI 189 (1967).
Towards a New Hypothesis of the Legis Actio Sacramento in Rem, 14 RIDA 455 (1967).
Identity of Sarapio, Socrates, Logus and Nilus in the Will of C. Longinus Castor, 1 Irish Jurist 313 (1966).
D.184.108.40.206 (Ulpian 18 ad Sab.): The lex Aquilia and Decretal Actions, 17 Ivra 174 (1966).
The Law of Citations and Classical Texts in the Post-Classical Period, 34 T.v.R. 402 (1966).
Iusiurandum in litem in the bonae fidei iudicia, 34 T.v.R. 175 (1966).
The Divorce of Carvilius Ruga, 33 T.v.R. 38 (1965).
The Origins of Consensual Sale: A Hypothesis, 32 T.v.R. 245 (1964).
Usu farre(o) coemptione, ___ SDHI 337 (1963).
D.12.1.32 and delegatio, ___ SDHI 285 (1963).
Some Cases of Distortion by the Past in Classical Roman Law, 31 T.v.R. 69 (1963).
Apochaturm pro uncis duabus, 10 RIDA 247 (1963).
Developments of Marital Justifications of Malitiosa Desertio in Roman-Dutch Law, 79 L. Q. Rev. 87 (1963).
The Origins of fiducia, 79 ZSS 329 (1962).
Contrectatio again, 28 SDHI 331 (1962).
Consensual societas between Romans and the Introduction of the formulae, 9 RIDA 431 (1962).
Acquisition of Possession and Usucapion per Servos et Filios, 78 L. Q. Rev. 205 (1962).
Two Studies in Textual History, 30 T.v.R. 209 (1962).
Actio Serviana and actio hypothecaria (A Conjecture), ___ Studia et Documenta Historiae et Iuris 356 (1961).
Contrectatio as a Requirement of furtum, ___ L.Q.R. 526 (1961).
Acquisition of Young in the ususfructus gregis, 12 Ivra 210 (1961).
Actio de dolo and actiones in factum, 78 Zeitschrift des Savigny-Stiftung 392 (1961).
The Form and Nature of acceptilatio in Classical Roman law, 8 RIDA 391 (1961).
Captivitas and matrimonium, 29 T.v.R. 243 (1961).
Acquisition of Possession per extraneam personam, 29 T.v.R. 1 (1961).
The Definition of furtum and the Trichotomy, 28 Tijdschrift vor Rechtsgeschiedenis 197 (1960).
Arra in the Law of Justinian, 6 Revue Internationale des Droits de l'Antiquité 385 (1959).
Res gestae, ___ Scots Law Times 101 (1957).
Animals, Property, and the Law, 7 Crim. L.F. 691 (1996).
The Human Measure: Social Thought in the Western Legal Tradition, 21 Ga. J. Int'l & Comp. L. 591 (1991).
The Rise of the Roman Jurists: Studies in Cicero's Pro Caecina, 85 Mich. L. Rev. 1071 (1987).
Sources of Law: Legal Change and Ambiguity, 3 Del. Law. 57 (1985).
The Institutions of the Law of Scotland, 27 Am. J. Leg. Hist. 214 (1983).
The American Law of Slavery, 1810-1860, 91 Yale L.J. 1034 (1982).
Justinian, the Digest of Roman Law: Theft, Rapina, Damage and Insult, 26 Jurid. Rev. 187 (1981).
Comparative Law: Law, Reality and Society, 2d. ed. (Vandeplas Publishing, 2008).
The Digest of Justinian, Rev. Eng. ed. (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008).
Comparative Law: Law, Reality and Society (Vandeplas Publishing, 2007).
The Shame of American Legal Education, 2d ed. (Vandeplas Publishing, 2006).
The Shame of American Legal Education (Dosije, 2005).
Authority of Law; and Law (Olin Foundation for Legal History, 2002).
Legal History and a Common Law For Europe (Olin Foundation for Legal History, 2002).
Society and Legal Change, 2d ed. (Temple University Press, 2001); Italian translation: Evoluzione Sociale e Mutamenti del Diritto (Dott. A. Guiffre, 2006).
Critical Studies in Ancient Law, Comparative Law and Legal History: Essays in Honour of Alan Watson (Hart, 2001) (with others).
The Evolution of Western Private Law. Expanded ed. (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001).
Law Out of Context (Georgia Press, 2000).
Jesus: A Profile (University of Georgia Press, 1998).
Ancient Law and Modern Understanding at the Edges(University of Georgia Press, 1998).
The Digest of Justinian, 2d ed. (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998).
Sources of Law, Legal Change and Ambiguity, 2d ed. (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998).
Society and Legal Change, 2d ed. (Scottish Academic Press, 1998).
Law, Morality, and Religion: Global Perspectives (Robbins Collection, 1996).
The Trial of Stephen: The First Christian Martyr (University of Georgia Press, 1996).
Jesus and the Law (University of Georgia Press, 1995).
The Trial of Jesus (University of Georgia Press, 1995).
Jesus and the Jews: The Pharisaic Tradition in John (University of Georgia Press, 1995).
The Spirit of Roman Law (University of Georgia Press, 1995).
Legal Transplants. 2d ed. (University of Georgia Press, 1993).
International Law in Archaic Rome: War and Religion (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993).
The Making of the Civil Law (China University of Politics and Law, 1992) (translated into Chinese by Li Jingbing).
Joseph Story and the Comity of Errors: A Case Study in Conflict of Laws (University of Georgia Press, 1992).
The State, Law, and Religion: Pagan Rome (University of Georgia Press, 1992).
Studies in Roman Private Law (Hambledon Press, 1991)
Legal Origins and Legal Change (Hambledon Press, 1991).
Roman Law & Comparative Law (University of Georgia Press, 1991).
Slave Law in the Americas (University of Georgia Press, 1989).
Failures of the Legal Imagination (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988).
The Evolution of Law, Rev. softback ed. (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989).
Roman Slave Law (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987).
La Formazione del Diritto Civile Moderno (Il Mulino, 1986) (translation of The Making of Civil Law).
The Evolution of Law (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985; European ed. Blackwells, 1985).
The Digest of Justinian (English translation editor) (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985).
Il Trapianto di Norme Giuridiche (Edizione Scientifiche Italiane, 1984) (translation of Legal Transplants).
Sources of Law, Legal Change, and Ambiguity (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984; European ed. T & T Clark, 1985).
The Making of the Civil Law (Harvard University Press, 1981).
Society and Legal Change (Scottish Academic Press, 1977).
The Nature of Law (Edinburgh University Press, 1977).
Rome of the XII Tables: Persons and Property (Princeton University Press, 1975).
Daube Noster: Essays in Legal History for David Daube (editor) (Scottish Academic Press, 1974).
Law Making in the Later Roman Republic (Clarendon Press, 1974).
Legal Transplants: An Approach to Comparative Law (Scottish Academic Press, 1974; American ed. University Press of Virginia, 1974).
The Law of Succession in the Later Roman Republic (Clarendon Press, 1971).
Roman Private Law around 200 B.C. (Edinburg University Press, 1971).
The Law of the Ancient Romans (Southern Methodist University Press, 1970).
The Law of Property in the Later Roman Republic (Clarendon Press, 1968; reprinted Scientia, 1986).
The Law of Persons in the Later Roman Republic (Clarendon Press, 1967; reprinted Scientia, 1986).
The Law of Obligations in the Later Roman Republic (Clarendon Press, 1965; reprinted Scientia, 1986.
Contract of Mandate in Roman Law (Clarendon Press, 1961; reprinted Scientia, 1986).
"Law and Society" in Beyond Dogmatics: Law and Society in the Roman World (Edinburgh University Press, 2007).
"Representatio in Classical Latin" in Representatio, Mapping a Key Word for Churches and Governance (LIT Verlag, 2006).
"Bacchanalian Rewards: Publius Aebutius and Hispala Faecenia" in Ex Iusta Causa Traditum: Essays in Honour of Eric H. Pool (South African Society of Legal Historians, 2005).
"Legal Culture v. Legal Tradition" in Epistemology and Methodology of Comparative Law (Hart Publishing, 2004).
"'Transformations of Law,' Justinian's Institutes 1.2 pr.,1" in Miscellany Four (Stair Society 2002).
"Three Texts for Jop" in Viva Vox Juris Romani: Essays in Honour of Johannes Emil Spruit (Amersterdam, 2002).
"Three Texts for Jop" in Festschrift Jop Spruit. (2001).
"The Spirit of Justinian's Law" in Iuris Vincula: Studi in Onore di Mario Talamanca. (Jovene, 2001).
"Ius naturale, ius gentium, ius civile" in Status Familiae: Festschrift fur Andreas Wacke. (C.H. Beck, 2001).
"Aequitas in the Time of Cicero" in Aequitas and Equity: Equity in Civil Law and Mixed Jurisdiction. (Jerusalem, 1997).
"Land Law Reform: A Comparative Perspective" in The Reform of Property Law. (Dartmouth, 1997).
"Private Law, Religion, and International Law in Early Rome" in Law, Religion, and Morality: Global Perspectives. (University of California Press, 1996).
"Leviticus in Mark: Jesus' Attitude to the Law" in Unity, Purity and the Covenant: Reading Leviticus. (Sheffield University Press, 1996).
"Chancellor Kent's Use of Foreign Law" in The Reception of Continental Ideas in the Common Law World, 1820-1920 (Berlin, 1993).
"Il diritto romano" in Storia di Roma (Rome, 1991).
"Roman Law" in Civilization of the Ancient Mediterranean: Greece and Rome (Scribners, 1988).
"Justinian's Institutes and Some English Counterparts" in Studies in Memory of J.A.C. Thomas (CITE, 1984).
"Enuptio gentis" in Daube Noster (CITE, 1974).
"Cicero, ad fam. 7.5.3" in Festschrift Klaffenbach, Klio 473 (1970).
"Drunkenness in Roman Law" in Sein und Werden im Recht, Festgabe U. Von Lübtow (1970).
"Some Remarks on the Dating of the actio Publiciana" in Estudios en Honor del Professor Sanchez del Rio (1967).
"Change to Third Person in Javolenus' libri epsitularum" in Synteleia Arangio-Ruiz (1965).
"Liability in the actio de positis ac suspensisUniversity of California Press, 1996" in Mélanges Philippe Meylan, 1, (1963).
Agriculture and Law in Rome of the XII Tables. Proceedings of the Société Jean Bodin, vol. 41.
Le XII Tavole: Cartteri di un'antica Codificazione. Conferenze Storico-giuridiche dell'istituto di storia del diritto e filosofia del diritto (Perugia) (1981).
The Rise of Modern Scots Law. La Formazione storica del diritto moderno in Europa: Atti del III congresso internazionale della Societa Italiana di Storia del Diritto, vol. 3.
Limits of Juristic Decision in the Later Roman Republic. Edinburgh University Inaugural Lecture no. 36, 1969. Reprinted with variations in Aufstieg und Niedergand der römischen Welt (CITE, 1972).
Legal History in Comparative Law (2 sound cassettes). (Recorded Resources Corp., 2001) (with others).


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The AlphaLISA® immunoassay kit for human lambda light chain enables the quantitative determination of human λ light chain in buffered solution and cell culture supernatants using a homogeneous AlphaLISA assay (no wash steps).
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AlphaLISA technology allows the detection of molecules of interest in buffer, cell culture media, serum and plasma in a highly sensitive, quantitative, reproducible and user-friendly mode. In an AlphaLISA assay, a Biotinylated Anti-Analyte Antibody binds to the Streptavidin-coated Alpha Donor beads, while another Anti-Analyte Antibody is conjugated to AlphaLISA Acceptor beads. In the presence of the analyte, the beads come into close proximity. The excitation of the Donor beads provokes the release of singlet oxygen molecules that triggers a cascade of energy transfer in the Acceptor beads, resulting in a sharp peak of light emission at 615 nm.
Most mammal IgG class antibodies, including those from human are composed of two heavy and two light chains. Such light chains can be of kappa or lambda types, with an expected ratio of 3 kappas to one lambda. Both appear to play the same function in antibodies. Free light chains are usually rare in blood. However, several types of multiple myelomas will secrete free light chains, which can then accumulate in organs such as the kidney and cause severe damage, with lambda chains being the poorest diagnostic.
Knowledge of the type of light chain generated is also important for the creation and production of therapeutic antibodies. Techniques used for purification, such as protein L or anti species antibodies, can have different affinities for the two chains. The lambda light chain AlphaLISA detection kit allows for the detection of lambda light chain in human sera, plasma, and cell culture supernatants.
|Assay Target
|Lambda light chain
|Assay Target Class
|Automation Compatible
|Detection Method
|Product Brand Name
|Shipping Condition
|Blue Ice
|Target Species
|Therapeutic Area
|Unit Size
|500 Assay Points
This manual explains how to run the AlphaLISA no-wash human lambda light chain detection assay.

subset: commoncrawl


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Actor Shia LaBeouf's arrest in New York City on Thursday has placed the actor firmly back in the glare of the public spotlight. A position the troubled star has courted, battled and rejected numerous times since he first came to prominence in the early 2000s.
LaBeouf is accused of disrupting the Broadway show "Cabaret" by yelling and smoking during the performance, and prosecutors say he later unleashed a tirade of expletives and a gay slur at police, saying "Do you know who I am?" The "Disturbia" star was arrested on disorderly conduct, harassment and criminal trespass charges.
Born in Los Angeles in 1986, LaBeouf first gained fame when he was cast in the Disney Channel series "Even Stevens" (2000-2003). Catapulted onto the Hollywood A-list via his starring role in the first three blockbuster "Transformers" films, the actor has courted controversy due to his offscreen antics which include numerous arrests, Twitter rants, red carpet stunts, accusations of plagiarism, and feuds with co-stars such as Alec Baldwin.
U.S. & World
The day's top national and international news.
LaBeouf is next due to appear in court on July 24 in connection to his latest brush with the law. In the meantime, check out his highs and lows – both personal and professional – in the gallery above.


text: Outstanding collection of twenty-two cards (out of just 32 in the set) from the R300 George C. Miller & Company set, one of the most unusual and rare issues of the 1930s, and one of the most artistically unique sets of any era. The collection is highlighted by eleven Hall of Famers, including Jimmy Foxx. This is an incredibly substantial group of R300. Cards from this set usually have to be collected one at a time due to their extreme rarity. Large groups are almost never seen. This near-complete set represents a very significant opportunity for collectors interested in completing this elusive issue, which has been an almost impossible feat for so many serious collectors in the past. Only a few complete sets of R300 have ever been assembled. The twenty-two cards represent exactly two-thirds of the set. All twenty-two cards have been graded by PSA: Three VG-EX 4: Dykes, Melillo, O'Doul. Eleven VG 3: Alexander, Bartell, Ferrell, Foxx (HOF), Frisch (HOF), Grimm, Grove (HOF), Maranville (HOF), Reynolds, Simmons (HOF), Warneke. Six GOOD 2: Averill (HOF), Berger, Dickey (HOF), Gehringer (HOF), Goslin (HOF), P. Waner (HOF). Two PR-FR 1: Cronin (HOF) and Stripp. This is a tremendous collection of cards from one of the rarest and most artistically stunning sets ever issued. Total: 22 cards. Reserve $2,500. Estimate $5,000+. SOLD FOR $7,703


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For Whom the Wedding Bell Tolls
My ex-girlfriend is getting married.
People I know have been getting married for the last few years. 2003 even featured the un-singlehood of two of my fraternity brothers. Thankfully, one eloped and one limited his wedding to family, so I have yet to see any friends fall in person.
My oldest sister got married when I was still in high school. It was 1994; I remember that because her wedding coincided with the Rangers and the Knicks both making the finals of their respective sports (which, for Rangers and Knicks fans, have not been respected since). While my brother-in-law's family was ethnically dancing, I was crouched in the coatroom with a walkman, listening to John Starks miss the three-pointer that would have given the Knicks their first NBA championship since 1973. That's the year my sister was born. I still say it's her fault.
My brother got married a few years later. I was a senior in high school, and tux-clad Steve decided to take his yearbook picture at the wedding. But we had a wedding photographer, so my classmates will remember me looking like Al Gore: a fake smile while leaning slightly to the left.
This year, two girls I went out with got married. Not to each other though, cause that'd be even weirder to deal with.
Sarah was a rebound date a few years ago; we went out a week after a girlfriend and I broke up. Despite our distinct lack of anything in common, I still had a wonderful time. But to be fair, at the times I'd have had a wonderful time with anyone who didn't just break up with me. She, on the other hand, having been single longer than six days, didn't think it was anything special.
Tammy was a fix up. I was friends with a number of her sorority sisters, and one of them decided we'd be good together. But not in the "you'd be good together" sort of way. More in the "you're both single and I want to live vicariously through you" sort of way. My friend was trying to help us, but Tammy and I just didn't gel. We ended up friends, and I was happy to hear she eventually found someone much more gelatinous than I.
Sarah and I, on the other hand, completely lost touch, and somehow didn't run into each other for two years. A week before graduation, I stopped to say hi to a friend who was talking with her. Neither Sarah nor I even recognized each other until we were "introduced." Now that's awkward.
"Oh, you two know each other?"
"Yeah, we went out once. But we forgot."
As odd as it was to have girls I'd gone out with get married, I never saw myself ending up with either, so it wasn't such a big deal. Also, I wouldn't want to be any grooms' tuxedo shoes.
I see what my brother and sister have, and there's a part of me that's jealous. But there's a much larger part of me that is way too young to worry about a mortgage. There's plenty of time for that later; according to the census, I've got 47.68 years left if I stay in New York, or just over 50 if I move to North Dakota. The life expectancy for a guy in North Dakota is pretty high, which is surprising since it you have to factor in all the people that die of boredom. The longest average lifespan in America actually belongs to Hawaiian women. So if you're into beaches and old chicks, there's your place.
I'm dealing with my ex-girlfriend getting married the same way I deal with everything: by making jokes and avoiding the issue. The issue being that a part of me wonders how things would have been different if we ended up together.
We dated for nine months, but had a nasty breakup. A very nasty breakup. But I'd still like to take this opportunity to wish her the best of luck in her new life. She will always be my first love. Unless I get my hands on a time machine so I can date Bridgette Wilson before she got famous. (Take that, Sampras!)
Kim, may you find happiness, and prosperity, and a low-interest rate mortgage. And may you do it all in Hawaii, where you will be able to live the longest life possible - very, very far away from mine.


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Jimmy Kimmel's 2014 Oscars Special Turns Viral Videos Into Awards Bait
Posted on Monday, March 3rd, 2014 by Angie Han
For the last few years, one of the highlights of the Academy Awards night has been what comes after the Academy Awards. Namely, Jimmy Kimmel's post-Oscar spoof of Hollywood filmmaking at its grandest. This year was no exception.
After knocking it out of the park two years in a row with Movie: The Movie and its inevitable sequel, he switched gears this year to bring us highfalutin Oscar bait trailers starring the likes of Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Ben Kingsley… based on the likes of YouTube classics "David After Dentist," "Keyboard Cat," and "Charlie Bit My Finger." Check 'em all out after the jump.


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The book came up in conversation in July. First published in 2005, a quick trawl of the likely suspects in Belfast (Faith Mission, Wesley Owen and Waterstones) proved that no one had it in stock. (Never thought to check the Evangelical Bookshop!)
But with a recent review in CCCI's Lion and Lamb, a copy of Ron Sider's The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience was retrieved from the outsourced reading list pile that Amazon so kindly keep in a Milton Keynes warehouse to save my bedside table from collapsing.
The main premise of the book is that Christians lack distinction from their neighbours. In fact the longer version of the book's title goes on to ask "Why are Christians living just like the rest of the world?" That includes those Christians who can be pushed into the researchers' category of being evangelicals. Their moral standards are as shoddy and scrupulous as the next person, and certainly the transforming power of God seems curiously absent from the majority of their lives. While the book's statistics are all US-based, I read little that would assure me that a similar Western European analysis would be any different.
It's a quite a short book, but deserves a careful read and a long review/reaction ... though perhaps more concise that I've managed!
Sider's view of the Christian position is crudely summarised in the book's introductory chapter:
"In spite of the renewal movement's proud claims to miraculous transformation, the polls showed that members of the movement divorced their spouses just as often as their secular neighbors. They beat their wives as often as their neighbors. They were almost as materialistic and even more racist that their pagan friends.
The hard-core sceptics smiled in cynical amusement at this blatant hypocrisy. The general population was puzzled and disgusted. Many of the renewal movement's leaders simply stepped up the tempo of their now enormously successful, highly sophisticated promotional programs. Others wept.
This, alas, is roughly the situation of Western or at least American evangelicalism today.
... With their mouths they claim that Jesus is Lord, but with their actions they demonstrate allegiance to money, sex, and self-fulfillment."
The book takes a look at divorce, discovering that people willing to tick the "born again" box are very average in their rate of divorce, nearly always happening some time after their conversion. In the southern US Bible Belt, the rate was "roughly 50% above the national average". Frank Keating (Governor of Oklahoma) pointed to "a scalding indictment of what isn't being said behind the pulpits".
The figures for materialism feel even worse. Patterns of tithing, generosity and justice for the poor seem to have gone out the window as household incomes have increased. Tithing amongst born again adults in the US dropped from 12% to 6% in the two years leading up to 2002. And by then, only 9% of "evangelicals" tithed. While there are many pockets of church-based social action, where is the evidence of Christians obeying God's call to have concern for the poor?
And so the comparisons and disappointment continue.
While some evangelical leaders have called clearly for racial reconciliation across the US, Sider goes on to suggest:
"Evangelicals may have some good biblical theology about the body of Christ, where there is neither Jew nor Greek, black nor white. But if they do not work out this theology in practice, such that white evangelicals welcome black neighbors and work to end racist structures, then ... the whole thing stinks."
Starting with the Gospels, Acts and on through the New Testament, Sider looks at the biblical vision. Jesus intended his followers to be distinct, and warned the disciples that society would hate them for being counter cultural. (John 15:19).
"Today, unfortunately, many people despise Christians, not for their unswerving obedience to Christ, but because of the hypocritical disconnect between Jesus's teaching and our actions. But precisely because Jesus expected his followers to live so differently from their neighbours, he could say that they would also be salt and light, preserving and even changing a corrupt, immoral world."
Materialism wasn't an option: "It is easier for a camel to go through their eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God" (Luke 18:25).
Being Christ's, being a Christian, wasn't to be about a single moment, but about an ongoing journey. A process of following and obeying. Relying on God's strength and guidance.
For the early Christians in Jerusalem "economic sharing was the norm" and was noticed by their neighbours. Noticing how the Hebrew leaderships had "neglected widows from the Greek-speaking minority ... they appointed seven deacons (their Greek names indicate they are all from the Greek-speaking minority!) to take charge of all the widows". Integrity and obedience quickly overcame racial and economic discrimination.
In Romans, Paul lists lots of patterns which would be found in Christ followers as they continued to be daily transformed: "giving generously to those in need", "blessing those who persecute you", "sharing others' joys and sorrows", "not repaying evil with evil", "love your neighbour as yourself" ...
1 Peter's call to "be holy in all you do" seems to have fallen a bit by the wayside.
Julian the Apostate (an emperor briefly between AD361–3) made "a grudging comment" having "tried to roll back several decades of toleration and stamp out Christianity".
But he was forced to admit to a fellow pagan that "the godless Galileans [Christians] feed not only their poor but ours also". [He] acknowledged that his fellow pagans did not even help each other: "Those who belong to us look in vain for the help that we should render them".
Sider wonders if cheap grace (reducing salvation to "fire insurance from hell") misses the point while
"slick marketers have offered eternal salvation as a free gift if you can just say yes to a simple formula ... eternal security ... no future payments, just simple verbal ascent ... deal specified nothing about life change". While forgiveness of sins was at the centre of Jesus' gospel message, "he formed a new community of forgiven sinners ... he challenged the rich to share with the poor ... he rejected the way society marginalized and neglected lepers, disabled folk and women ... he rejected the popular, Jewish revolutionaries of the time who were calling for armed rebellion against Rome."
Individuals, acting within community, agitating and practically making a difference in society. Doing stuff as well as talking about it.
As well as becoming materialistic, we have also become individualistic. The me is more important than the us.
"Sin is both personal and social, so overcoming evil demands both personal and structural transformation."
Sider returns to the subject of sin, pointing out that the sometimes forgotten community aspect.
"... the prophets make it perfectly clear that we sin both by lying, stealing, and committing adultery, and also by participating in unjust legal and economic systems without doing what God wants us to do to change them."
The adage that "God moves in one heart at a time" is only partly correct. Wilberforce did not feel constrained to convert each individual slave owner in order to end slavery. He took a systemic approach to bring about new laws as well as pointing out the sinfulness. Being communal beings, we need to work as and in community as well as dealing with individuals.
"If we grasp the New Testament understanding of the church, then we realize that the modern, evangelical reduction of Christianity to some personal, privatized affair that only affects my personal relationship with God and perhaps my personal family life is blatant heresy.
The church is a new, visible social order. It is a radical new community visibly living a challenge to the sexual insanity, the racial and social prejudice, and the economic injustice that pervade the rest of society."
This strikes me as being important.
Being countercultural means not being "a carbon copy" of the world. But instead to form a transformed community, faithful to Jesus and in stark contrast to the surrounding world. Also forming a community ahead of the rest of society, more tuned into poverty, housing, equal access to good education, racial tension, marital fidelity etc. A good place to start would be raising these issues from the pulpit, examining what God has to say about them in order to put them on the faith community's agenda.
The book finishes with a strong call to accountability and discipline. Haddon Robinson is quoted:
"Too often now when people join a church, they do so as consumers. If they like the product, they stay. If they do not, they leave. They can no more imagine a church disciplining them than they could a store that sells goods disciplining them. It is not the place of the seller to discipline the consumer. In our churches we have a consumer mentality."
If I find fault in the book, it is that occasionally it lapses into too easy stereotypes about sections of society. Even Darwin and his findings come across pretty one dimensional in their brief materialistic mention in the fourth chapter, not giving Darwin's wobbly faith any credit.
But the overall premise stands, and the book is worth a read. Why is there so little evidence of the transforming power of Christ when you look at the lives of Christians? Why is their salt so bland?


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AV Home Theater >
Audio Products > Channel Vision A4603R - 4 Input 6 Zone Matrix AV Controller - Rack-Mount
This item has been replaced with CV-A4623R
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A-4603 Instruction Manual
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Course schedule (including assignments)
A term project, worth 30 points. There are a wide range of possibilities, including both computer implementations and research papers. Computer implementations may involve extensions to JET, adaptation of JET to additional languages, adaptation to new extraction tasks (grammar and lexicon development), or even entirely new systems. The term project is due at the last class meeting. You should plan your project well in advance, particularly for more ambitious efforts (such as adaptation to new languages).
A final examination, worth 30 points.
To join this list, go to www.cs.nyu.edu/mailman/listinfo/g22_2590_001_sp08
Natural Language Understanding, James Allen (Benjamin / Cummings), Second Edition, 1995.
Computational Linguistics: An Introduction, Ralph Grishman, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1986.


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The Intel Developer Forum is going on in Beijing this week, and Intel is using the Beijing stage to reveal details of its upcoming Montevina mobile platform. One feature that Intel is hoping will make road warriors happy is the inclusion of support for WiMAX.
Montevina is currently targeted for the first half of 2008 and will be the successor to Santa Rosa, which is due to arrive next month. We touched on Santa Rosa last month, which will include support for Intel Turbo Memory Technology (aka, Robson), built-in 802.11n Draft 2.0 capability, support for vPro under the Centrino Pro brand, and Advanced Management Technology, all rolled into a new chipset.
Intel will support WiMAX and 802.11b/g/n on the same piece of silicon (called Echo Peak) with Montevina, but will also offer a WiMAX-only card. Montevina will still feature the Core 2 Duo CPU, but fabbed at the 45nm process and containing up to 6MB of shared L2 cache.
Intel had planned to bring support for High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) to Santa Rosa, which would have enabled laptops with that chipset to access many 3G networks out of the box and allow for seamless transitions between 802.11b/g/n and 3G networks. Those plans changed earlier this year, when Nokia and Intel decided that the potential return on investment from supporting HSDPA didn't justify the development effort.
WiMAX has been slow to get off the ground, but Intel apparently believes that WiMAX access will be widespread enough to justify supporting it. In the US, Sprint plans to begin offering WiMAX in early 2008 in a number of US cities.
Montevina will likely support 802.16e-2005, which is better known as Mobile WiMAX. Users should see average download speeds of 2-4Mbps, at least on Sprint's WiMAX network. Down the road, Intel will likely add support for 802.16m, or "gigabit WiMAX," which offers speeds of up to 1Gbps per channel, but the 802.16m standard is unlikely to be officially ratified by the IEEE before early 2009.


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Rooney is in the States for the week, doing some conditioning work at Nike's training facility. But the British tabloids note that rather than stay on Nike's campus, he's in the "strip club capital of the US." Where is that, pray tell?
Nike's facility is, of course, in Beaverton, Ore. Perhaps this comes as a surprise to our English friends, but Beaverton is not exactly a popular holiday destination. So Rooney is sensibly staying in Portland, just a few miles away.
Some enterprising scribe at The Sun picked up a travel guide and was struck with a case of the vapors when he learned that the men of Portland enjoy taking in a burlesque show now and then.
A tourist guide reveals: "With 63 breweries and brewpubs Portland has just overtaken Munich as the beer capital of the world."
It adds: "There are strip clubs on every corner too. It is one of the top party tourism destinations."
Another guide boasts that due to the unparalleled proliferation of strip joints, "you can satisfy any number of naked girl desires".
It also points out that local laws allow men to ogle exotic dancers while boozing and dining.
Let's just be clear here that The Sun's sole source for this story — which receives the coveted "exclusive" banner — is a Lonely Planet Pacific Northwest guide. Still, it's enough for them to fret over The Last Temptation Of Wazza, who's been known to have a weakness for hookers. Perhaps he'll demand a transfer to the Portland Timbers, who join MLS next year.


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Carl Sagan, the renowned astronomer and scientist, is awesome because he is not Bill O'Reilly.
This can be said about pretty much everyone, of course, but it is especially true of Carl Sagan.
Carl Sagan was an intelligent, articulate, critical thinker and skeptic. His rationalism was infectious. His calm demeanor was soothing. He never felt the need to argue with teleprompters.
The same cannot be said about Bill O'Reilly.
Carl Sagan wrote books about the virtue of science, the search for meaningful truth inside our universe, and the value of skeptical thought. He was agnostic, but also wrote about his own personal search for God, which he theorized could be described as anything from "the sum total of the physical laws that govern the universe" to something much more. But he was also smart enough to understand that the concept of God was something that could never be fully proven or understood.
The same cannot be said about Bill O'Reilly, who writes intellectually feeble books with divisive titles like Pinheads and Patriots and argues that the tides of the ocean prove the existence of God. Compounding his abysmal misunderstanding of scientific reasoning and critical thought, Bill O'Reilly also doesn't seem to have the intellectual capacity to understand that there is no way to prove that God exists, or that this should not be an issue to a person with faith. Faith doesn't need proof. That's the point of faith. You really shouldn't feel the need to embarrass yourself by revealing your utter lack of scientific understanding or logical reasoning in order to make a point that doesn't even need to be made in the first place.
Carl Sagan knows where the moon came from.
Of course, we understand that Bill O'Reilly probably does indeed know how the moon was formed, or if he doesn't, he would at least know how to Google it. But Bill O'Reilly seems to be wanting to make the point that you can keep asking the question of origin all the way back to the Big Bang and still not have an answer to "How'd it get there?" What started it all? Bill O'Reilly has a difficult time articulating that point, but Bill O'Reilly is also not smart enough to understand that this argument is a logical fallacy anyway. Because if you are going to argue that everything has to have come from somewhere, then don't you have to apply that same argument to God? Oh, everything has to come from somewhere except for God? Carl Sagan would would have given you an 'F' in debate, Bill O'Reilly. In fact, Carl Sagan wouldn't have engaged in such an unwinnable debate in the first place. Carl Sagan had bigger things to think about.
Carl Sagan predicted Global Warming, championed the search for extra-terrestrial life, correctly hypothesized the atmosphere of our local planets and their moons, won a Pulitzer, and introduced dozens of profoundly influential concepts into our scientific lexicon.
The same cannot be said about Bill O'Reilly, who doesn't know the difference between a falafel and a loofah.
Carl Sagan is also awesome because he is not Glenn Beck.
The same cannot be said about Bill O'Reilly, but that's another story.
Carl Sagan is effing awesome.


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The strong, sexy presence of Eva Mendes and the girlish perkiness of Cierra Ramirez can only go so far to make the forced mother-daughter dramedy "Girl in Progress" tolerable.
It's a coming-of-age story that knows it's a coming-of-age story — as in, our young heroine is well aware of the conventions of this kind of tale and goes out of her way to manufacture various rites of passage to expedite her transformation from innocence to womanhood. Ramirez's character, the teenage Ansiedad, literally creates a flow chart in her bedroom and spells out her strategy with her only friend (the sweetly nerdy Raini Rodriguez) — whom she'll soon cast aside, she declares, because it's a necessary step in the process.
Breaking down and sending up a specific genre is fine if the script is strong enough to get away with such cutesy self-reference, as in "Juno" and "Easy A." Director Patricia Riggen and screenwriter Hiram Martinez don't go far enough, don't dig deep enough with these characters. They play it too safe, which makes "Girl in Progress" feel like a slightly racier version of an ABC Family show — and the flat, overly bright lighting further makes it feel like forgettable television.
It certainly doesn't help that the two main figures are cliches. Mendes' Grace is the child in the equation, having given birth when she was just 17 and hopping from man to man and town to town ever since. Ansiedad — which means anxiety in Spanish — is the responsible one: Smart, studious and organized, she's left to scrub the sink full of dishes while her mom's out with her married gynecologist boyfriend (Matthew Modine, whose character doesn't have a single perceptible redeeming quality).
Do you think it's possible that, by the end, they'll both have learned some lessons and assumed their rightful roles?
Riggen cuts awkwardly and sometimes too quickly between potentially poignant moments and scenes of wacky humour, which undermines her attempts at emotional honesty. Meanwhile, supporting characters who were intended to provide depth merely feel like types — Modine's cold, controlling wife or the kindhearted Mexican immigrant who works alongside Grace at a restaurant. And in a painfully literal device, Ansiedad's English teacher (Patricia Arquette) just happens to be explaining the steps in a coming-of-age story as Ansiedad embarks on them.
It's maddening: "Girl in Progress" knows that every teen movie has to have a blowout bash where important events take place, and it can't even get the tone of that right.
This is being marketed as an ideal film for moms and daughters to see together on Mother's Day weekend. A long, awkward brunch sounds more fun — and more truthful.
"Girl in Progress," a Lionsgate and Pantelion Films release, is rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements, sexual content including crude references, and drinking — all involving teens. Running time: 84 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.
Motion Picture Association of America rating definitions:
G — General audiences. All ages admitted.
PG — Parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.
PG-13 — Special parental guidance strongly suggested for children under 13. Some material may be inappropriate for young children.
R — Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
NC-17 — No one under 17 admitted.


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One week from tomorrow, Sept. 27, the Miami Marlins host the Detroit Tigers in the first of a three-game series - the final regular season series for both clubs. Perhaps their promotion ought to be 'Heeere's Jhonny'.
With or without a promotion, the Tigers are likely to use Jhonny Peralta as their left fielder that night. Yes, that Jhonny Peralta.
The last anyone saw of Peralta, he was the Tigers' All-Star shortstop, batting .305 and driving in 54 runs in 104 games. Then came the hammer from the commissioner's office: Peralta was one of several players frequenting the Biogenesis Clinic in Miami and on Aug. 5 drew a 50-game suspension for the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
He will be eligible to play again Sept. 27. He will also be eligible for the postseason in the likely event the Tigers qualify.
But there isn't much chance he'll return to shortstop.
Just before the suspension, which everyone, including Peralta, knew was coming, the Tigers took part in a three-team trade that broughtrookie shortstop Jose Iglesias, who has been everything Detroit hoped to get and more. He is a serious candidate for Rookie of the Year and a Gold Glove award at shortstop as the season winds down. He's certainly not going to be benched when Peralta returns. If Peralta plays, it will probably be at another position.
The Tigers have a solid lineup, but if there's a weakness it is in left field, which .258 hitter Andy Dirks holds down. Peralta would probably be an improvement if he hits the way he did before the suspension. Of course, that brings up the next question the Tigers must contemplate.
Will a presumably clean Peralta hit the way he did when he was apparently using PEDs? There's no easy way to know, and the Tigers aren't going to have much time to figure it out. Still, since Peralta has been working out with the major league club, it is clear the Tigers hope to use him in some capacity once he regains eligibility, and left field appears the most logical choice.
The Texas Rangers have an even tougher decision to make with Nelson Cruz, another player who drew a 50-game suspension because of his association with Biogenesis. Cruz, a right fielder, hit 27 home runs and drove in 76 runs at the time of his suspension. Like Peralta, he played in the All-Star Game. Like Peralta, his replacement has performed well. Alex Rios is batting .289 and playing brilliantly in the outfield. But he is not the power threat Cruz is.
Unlike Peralta, he has not been working out with the major league club, but he has been permitted to use the team's spring training facilities in Surprise, Ariz.
However, that's not the biggest difference between Cruz's situation and Peralta's.
The Rangers had played three more games than the Tigers on Aug. 5, which means the 50th game of Cruz's suspension will be the Rangers' final regular-season game of the season. His first game of eligibility will probably be the Rangers' first postseason game.
In the Rangers' case, that would probably be the wild-card playoff game. There is also the possibility that the Rangersfinish the regular season tied for a wild-card berth and have to play a tie-breaking game to reach the postseason. In either case, Cruz's first game of eligibility is likely to be a one-and-done affair. Manager Ron Washington has to decide whether to juggle his lineup to make room from Cruz, who has a history of coming through in big games.
He could turn out to be a spark but also a rusty, out-of-sync player who needs time to reacclimate - time that would not be available. Like Peralta, it would be reasonable to ask if he is the same player if he is no longer using PEDs.
By the way, their current managers probably won't be the only ones asking that question.
Peralta and Cruz are both eligible for free agency and are expected to leave their current teams and try to sign elsewhere. Both players are in their early 30s, which means they have probably reached their peak and will naturally begin to decline. If they have been using steroids or other PEDs and are now drug-free, will that hasten the decline? Any club interested in making an offer to these players will have to ponder that question.
A lot of dollars ride on that determination. So will the futures of whatever executives make the decision.
A FEW STATISTICS (Wednesday's games not included): Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig has played in 93 games. His team has won 61 of them, which gives him a personal .656 win-loss percentage. ... Baseball's best clutch hitter is Allen Craig of the Cardinals, who is batting .454 with runners in scoring position. Overall, his average is .310. ... The White Sox's Adam Dunn is officially the hardest man to double in the major leagues, grounding into only two double plays in 583 plate appearances. Of course, the fact that he has struck out 180 times is a huge factor. ... Bartolo Colon of the Athletics and Justin Masterson of the Indians have each hurled three shutouts. ... Jose Fernandez of the Marlins is limiting opposing batters to a .182 average, the best in the majors. ... The Pirates are 60-38 in night games. They are only 27-26 in the daylight.
Hall of Fame voter Jay Dunn has covered baseball for The Trentonian for 45 years. Reach him at firstname.lastname@example.com


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Handrums is our new library featuring a wide selection of Drum Instruments released playing drums with hands, fingers and other body parts. As a result we obtained a drum sound with a marked raw and tribal character.
Handrums features two kicks, a snare, two low toms, two mid toms and one small tom. All multivelocity and with round-robins (up to five round robins). Depending on the kit part we used one single hand, two hands, fingers, elbow to get a complete sound menu. Also we added a nice selection of rolls and flames as a bonus.
Handrums is perfect for adding lively percussive sounds and drumming to a really wide range of styles, including Pop, Rock, Rnb, Hip Hop, and Cinematic/Action.
Audio Demos:
Not seeing the player? Click here
And this is a Video Walktrough of the included Multis in Handrums:
Please note: you need the FULL version of Kontakt 4.2.4 or above to use the product.
MBD (Marching Bass Drums)
MBD (Marching Bass Drums) is the new library featuring an accurately sampled marching bass drums. Eight different mallet striking techniques and two rolls, recorded each with round robins. The library features a main set and five designed patches with film scoring in mind.
The libraries features three separate mixable microphones Close, Overhead and Room, offering maximum flexibility, from way "roomy" to extremely dry.
Not seeing the player? Click here
"Grand Opening" and "War Drums" courtesy of Roman Heuser Roman Heuser's website
"From the deep" courtesy of Gabriel Kreps Click here to visit Gabriel's Soundcloud page
"Herd" courtesy of Blake Ewing
Click here to read more about Blake Ewing
Please note: you need the FULL version of Kontakt 4.2.4 or above to use the product.
Indie Drums: Phat Boy
Indie Drums: Phat Boy is the new library featuring an Hybrid Drum Kit recorded and mixed with an authentic indie tone in mind. Think fat and low-tuned with a raw yet very usable tone, well suited for a wide range of styles, from modern folk-songwriter to rock, funky and even electronica/industrial.
The library features a complete sampled drum kit, recorded and engineered in three different mix configurations: Flat (for using your own processing), Phat (mix has been pumped up to add a fat and bottom enhanced sound) and Saturated (mix has been overdriven to obtain a grungey and industrial tone).
For each three configurations you can mix Close, Overhead and Room microphones, to get your own best balancement, from way "roomy" to extremely dry.
Indie Drums: Phat Boy features both Full Playable Kits (two for each mix configuration) and Single Kit Components. You can change and combine Close, Overhead and Room microphones at single component level, for best flexibility.
The library includes also as a bonus a nice selection of Cymbal swells
Audio Demos:
Not seeing the player? Click here
Please note: you need the FULL version of Kontakt 4.2.4 or above to use the product.
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Beach stand sells organic, locally grown food
King's Kitchen: Southport Beach snack bar offers farm-grown, organic eats to sunbathers
FAIRFIELD -- Hunter Hill King wants to reinvent the beach concession stand and it looks like he's off to a good start.
In June, the 26-year-old Westport native took over the snack bar at Southport Beach, outfit it with tiki torches and stocked the kitchen with locally grown, organic ingredients. Called King's Kitchen, the pastel-painted shanty serves up grub like lobster rolls, tomato gazpacho and shrimp tacos with toasted coconut. No pre-packaged sandwiches. No bags of corn chips.
"We want to change the standard for concession stands," said King, who runs the gourmet food stand with his two brothers and a couple of friends. "People are being served such junk at these concession stands. I eat organic and I eat from local farms and I want other people to eat the way I eat because it's healthy, it's saving gas and it's helping the local economy. I'm passionate about it."
All the produce served at King's Kitchen comes from Riverbank Farm in Roxbury. All the meat and poultry is from Ox Hollow Farm, also in Roxbury. King stocks up on ingredients every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at farmers markets in Newtown, New Canaan and Westport.
The food is fresh, succulent and locally sourced. But it's not cheap. A six-ounce Angus hamburger goes for $9 and a lobster BLT costs $18.
King, however, said patrons so far have no complaints.
"People say our burgers are better than Shake Shack," he said.
The stand also serves fruit smoothies, milk shakes and ice cream.
At night, the stand, which is about the size of a food truck, offers dinner specials, candlelight dining and sometimes live music. Seating at picnic tables and Adirondack-style chairs staked in the sand is typically first-come, first-served, though King does take table reservations.
The food stand is accessible by vehicle only to Fairfield residents with beach passes through Labor Day. But King's Kitchen will stay open during September, when anyone can park in the beach lot.
"At the way this is going, we're not going anywhere," said King, who estimates he and his crew serve about 600 orders per week. "I'm telling everyone to tell the other concessioners to watch out, because we're coming for you."
King's Kitchen is located at 1505 Pequot Ave. in the Southport section of Fairfield. Lunch is served daily from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dinner is served daily starting at 6 p.m. The beach parking lot is accessible only to Fairfield residents from Memorial Day to Labor Day.


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POW Scripting Guide
Because fv and POW are written in Tcl, they are inherently scriptable. So long as one knows the necessary data structures and function calls, everything POW does can be controlled by a user-created Tcl script running inside of POW. This, however, is a formidable task. Plus, POW's internal behavior and data are subject to change with each new release.
To make scripting possible, then, a simplified (and hence limited) script interface has been added to POW. It consists of a small set of commands which perform the basic operations of creating and modifying graphs. Future versions should contain more capabilities.
Operational Summary
There are several ways to access POW's scripting commands. The simplest is to write a Tcl script which uses the commands directly and then execute it within POW's powCmds namespace. As POW has no file capabilities nor command console of its own, this currently can be done only if implemented within an application containing POW, such as fv. (See fv's Scripting Guide for details on executing POW commands within fv.) This scripting method is useful for implementing macros which can perform certain common operations at the user's request, such as setting specific graph options.
Alternatively, POW can be scripted by other programs, allowing those programs to make use of POW's capabilities remotely. These programs, however, do not need to be written in Tcl so long as they can communicate with POW. Currently POW supports XPA on unix platforms and AppleScript on MacOS for communication:
POW's scripting capabilities closely mimic the interface described in POW's Developer's Guide. In general, one first creates a data object from which either a curve or image is produced. One then creates a graph onto which a series of curves and/or images is placed. The graph size, position, and viewing region can then be modified as needed. Once plotted in a graph, curves and images can be displayed using different point shapes, line styles, or colormaps. In most cases, commands operate on the currently selected object (as appropriate).
Many scripting commands also can be used as inquiries. Inquiries and commands are implemented using the same syntax, differing only in that commands supply the necessary parameters to perform an action, whereas inquiries leave them off indicating POW should return the current settings. When used with XPA, inquiries must use the xpaget tool and commands the xpaset tool.
Command Summary
-open : open the region edit panel -close : close the region edit panel -wait : wait for region edit panel to close. Return save means data has been saved. Return unsave means otherwise
-open : open the x axis range edit panel -close : close the x axis range edit panel -wait : wait for x axis range edit panel to close. Return save means data has been saved. Return unsave means otherwise
The following commands will create a graph in pow and plot 2 curves in it.
create data d1 1 2 3 4 5 6 5 4 3 2 1 # Create data object d1 create data d2 1 4 9 16 20 16 9 4 2 1 1 # Create data object d2 create curve c1 d1 d2 # Create curve of d1 vs d2 create graph g1 c1 NULL # Draw graph containing curve size 200 150 # Resize graph to 200x150 calculate d3 'd1*2' # Calculate new data object create curve c2 d3 d2 # Create curve of d3 vs d2 add curve c2 # Add curve to graph bounds reset # Reset bounding box select curve c1 # Select first curve curve pFill Yes pColor Blue lDisp No # Set display options select curve c2 # Select second curve curve pDisp No lColor Red lStyle 20 # Set display options
Using XPA from a Unix shell, one would execute the above commands by doing the following:
xpaset -p pow create data d1 1 2 3 4 5 6 5 4 3 2 1 xpaset -p pow create data d2 1 4 9 16 20 16 9 4 2 1 1 xpaset -p pow create curve c1 d1 d2 xpaset -p pow create graph g1 c1 NULL xpaset -p pow size 200 150 xpaset -p pow calculate d3 d1*2 xpaset -p pow create curve c2 d3 d2 xpaset -p pow add curve c2 xpaset -p pow bounds reset xpaset -p pow select curve c1 xpaset -p pow curve pFill Yes pColor Blue lDisp No xpaset -p pow select curve c2 xpaset -p pow curve pDisp No lColor Red lStyle 20The -p option tells xpaset to not read any data from stdin. One can instead use stdin to send a series of Tcl commands en masse by putting all the POW commands into a text file and pass them to POW, using the command...
cat commands.txt | xpaset pow tclThis second method allows one to insert real TCL commands (providing access to the entire POW API) into the command sequence, whereas the individual xpaget/xpaset calls are restricted to the specific scripting commands.
Alternatively, if using AppleScript, the commands are...
tell application "fv" activate -- Because POW is available only as part of POW on Macs, the following -- line is needed to open POW's window, if it doesn't already exist do script "if { ![winfo exist .pow.pow] } { powInit .dummy }" do script "powCmds::create data d1 1 2 3 4 5 6 5 4 3 2 1" do script "powCmds::create data d2 1 4 9 16 20 16 9 4 2 1 1" do script "powCmds::create curve c1 d1 d2" do script "powCmds::create graph g1 c1 NULL" do script "powCmds::size 200 150" do script "powCmds::calculate d3 d1*2" do script "powCmds::create curve c2 d3 d2" do script "powCmds::add curve c2" do script "powCmds::bounds reset" do script "powCmds::select curve c1" do script "powCmds::curve pFill Yes pColor Blue lDisp No" do script "powCmds::select curve c2" do script "powCmds::curve pDisp No lColor Red lStyle 20" end tellNote that AppleScript will actually start fv if it isn't already running.
Now that the graph is created, one can make inquiries with the following commands using XPA...
xpaget pow bounds # Get the bounding box of current graph xpaget pow select graph # Get name of the currently selected graph xpaget pow position # Get position of the graph xpaget pow curve # Get display options of current curve xpaget pow version # Get pow version number... or, using AppleScript...
set x to (do script "powCmds::bounds") set x to (do script "powCmds::select graph") set x to (do script "powCmds::position") set x to (do script "powCmds::curve") set x to (do script "powCmds::version")... or, using an as-yet-missing interactive console...
bounds select graph position curve version
Additional examples of scripting can be found in the sample_scripts directory within the fv distribution.
Pages maintained by Bryan Irby Send bug reports or feature requests via the FTOOLS help desk.
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Last modified: Tuesday, 01-Aug-2006 14:44:00 EDT


text:
∿ ∿ ∿ ∿ ∿ ∿ ∿ ∿
You are standing in a few inches of sea water on a beach.
You are wondering whether the high tide is coming soon or it has just passed.
Therefore, you will write a code in MATLAB to analyze following data.
You followed the sequence of water lines left by several swash of waves.
The data array A contains the distances the water traveled past your feet during each upward swash of waves.
Your code will return 1 if the high tide is coming soon.
Your code will return 0 if the high tide has just passed.
Is there a reference, that I can use, for predicting high/low tide from the water line height? I don't want to construct a solution based on the test suite data.
I would love to see some better solutions than my cheat!
what about tide=A(1)<10 !
Lots of ways to get the right answer for this test suite...but I think this is one of the silliest.
3555 Solvers
1799 Solvers
1586 Solvers
Replace multiples of 5 with NaN
329 Solvers
216 Solvers


text:
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Some sort of Woolworths speaker explained any grocery store commenced trialling facts investigations looking at the selfserve checkouts recording.
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The girl claimed your procedures possessed concluded in a stop by identified theft in selfserve checkouts for you to fewer than Two hundred scenarios 7 days together with calculated it would help you save Woolworths much more than $1 trillion a year.


text:
*Let us now analyze some of the wrong answers discussed earlier in http://agniveer.com/5095/what-is-vedic-religion/ and understand some worth-knowing aspects of Vedic religion.
How is Vedic religion different from Hinduism?
Hinduism is another term for Vedic religion. Basically Hinduism refers to the philosophy that emerged from Hindusthan or Indian sub-continent that is built on foundation of universal humanism and pursuit of inner intellect.
Name does not matter. You may call it Vedic religion, Hinduism or simply Humanism. What matters is the essence. This essence is same for every human being – be he or she belong to India, or Zambia, or Sweden or Saudi Arabia.
One would still continue to be called Vedic or Hindu or true Human even if he or she has never visited India or read any Indian text but still follows the basic tenet of rejecting falsehood and accepting truth from personal life and is respectful to same spirit in rest of the world.
In short, Vedic Religion or Hinduism refers to the spirit of universal humanism.
Can one refuse to believe in 4 Vedas and yet be follower of Vedic religion?
Yes. And several reasons for this.
– There is not one single mantra in entire Vedas that even remotely say that only those who believe in 4 Vedas are following Vedic religion. Yes, there are mantras that explain and lead us to conclude that Vedic religion and content of the 4 Vedas – both refer to same thing.
– The 4 Vedas contain codes of higher levels of truth. They are like detailed texts of Physics that contain very obvious concepts as well as more subtle concepts that can be mastered only after thorough practice and understanding. They are the foundation or first source of this Vedic religion. But just as a student of Class 6 claiming to know Physics merely because he mugged up the Einstein Paper on Theory of Relativity (that can be easily downloaded from google) would only be a subject of our laughter, in same vein, if someone claims to believe in 4 Vedas without actually knowing what Vedas mean would be equally laughable.
Most people claiming adherence to Vedic religion today actually fall in this category. And that is why despite their tall claims, they remain in miserable state in terms of their strength and impact on society.
An honest smart Vedic follower would simply assert that if we logically analyze the available information, we can conclude that Vedas are not some random creations by certain human beings and instead contain storehouse of basic to most advanced level of knowledge. And if that not be considered, then every other theory would have blatant contradictions and confusions to an extent that it would be impossible to decide what is right and what is wrong. And hence we should endeavor to explore the meaning of Vedas.
But this would come ONLY as a conclusion of a thought process and not as a blind dogma to begin with.
– There may be several reasons – previous knowledge, past experiences, thinking capacity, preferences etc – that would color the thinking process of an individual and hence it would not be as obvious for everyone to accept Vedas as divine or ultimate texts, as it may be for a few of us.
– Swami Dayanand once said that not everyone can be scholars but everyone can be Dharmic (honest) for sure. So if one is honest to his or her best intentions by denying infallibility of Vedas, he or she is STILL Vedic. In fact they are MORE Vedic than those blind herds who follow Vedas simply because they were told so. Had such blind followers would have been born in some other location, they may well have become blind followers of some other texts.
– If believing in Vedas be necessary to be follower of Vedic religion, it would mean that those who could not get access to books of 4 Vedas due to geography or poverty etc can never be followers of Vedic religion. Thus Vedic religion becomes religion of ONLY the fortunate ones. And hence, the claim of Supreme in Vedas itself that the knowledge of Vedas is for all human beings regardless of gender or profession or birth goes wrong!
– In reality, the whole concept of 4 Vedas is that the knowledge within them is already within us in same manner as spokes are attached to center of a wheel. By exercising the powers of our mind smartly, we reveal the knowledge that already lies within us! Refer Yajurveda 34.5. So the study of 4 Vedas externally is also a way to unravel the knowledge within. One can do so by mugging up 4 external Vedas or shouting Kalmas asserting one's loyalty towards it. Or start with the most innate trait of rejecting falsehood proactively, keep gaining knowledge and performing worthwhile actions to build the basic foundation. And then guided by the inner voice, move ahead to master even the external 4 Vedas or whatever else is deemed necessary for achieving higher echelons of truth by a smarter soul.
In today's context, this later way is much more natural and practical for most of us. Even someone like Swami Dayanand had to follow this approach to be the most renowned scholar of Vedas.
– While many mantras of Vedas have fairly intuitive meanings that are easy to be grasped by most of us, yet all mantras do contain deeper meanings that can be unraveled only with further and further mind control. There is a mantra that states that just as a loyal wife only comes close to her husband, in same manner meaning of Vedic mantras are understood only by the deserving. So no one on earth can claim to have understood the Vedas properly. Everyone is just a preliminary student. And hence, no one is competent enough in first place to put precondition of allegiance to Vedas – the ultimate benchmarks – for someone to adopt Vedic religion. This would be as foolish as refusing someone admission in primary school because he did not admit that sin^2y + cos^2y = 1!
So yes, belief in 4 Vedas as divine or benchmarks of wisdom may be a natural conclusion for many of us. But this is NOT a precondition to be admitted to school of Vedic religion.
The precondition is only ONE – Accept truth by rejecting falsehood!
Can one refuse to believe in God and still be follower of Vedic religion?
Yes, and the reasons are almost same as above. Further there is an additional reason:
– Vedic God is different from God of Bible, Quran or Purans. Most people when they refuse to believe in God are actually refusing to accept superstitions in name of God as propagated in name of religion. The anathema of West against God is only for the God of Bible. This is justifiable because God of Bible has many contradictory properties and at times acts like a mortal human being. But Vedic God is different. In fact God may not be the right word to denote the Vedic concept of Supreme.
The Vedic concept is much more intuitive and natural – that there is a source of unchangeable laws of the world that govern this world and us. Physicists may simply call it Law of Nature. Now a smart Vedic follower adds a dash of positivity into this and says that this source of unchangeable laws is acting in a manner that we can enhance our happiness through right actions. We are neither left in lurch like orphans nor allowed to escape fruits of our action. So there is a well-founded optimism that the laws of nature ensure justice and support. We believe so because we see this very obvious in world around and in our innate tendencies.
But someone intellectual who was nurtured in a society that had completely different notions of a Supreme entity – an anthropomorphic entity, or a moody emperor, or a magician etc – may find such a God hard to digest. And it would be difficult for him to dissociate word God from this meaning and give it a new meaning in perspective of Vedas. For example, Arya is a very noble word. But in Germany, people would somehow try to link it with some sort of racism because of the Hitler episode. These words trigger certain emotions due to their previous associations and hence difficult for many to appreciate any new meaning easily.
Thus atheism is a natural and rightly-directed aversion of a truth-seeker from what his mind considers as unfounded notions. So in being atheist, he or she is STILL acting as a loyal follower of Vedic religion.
In other words, a truth-seeking atheist or agnostic or even a superstitious believer in some other notion of God is STILL a Vedic person, if he or she believes in these notions honestly after whatever experience, expertise, intellect that they possess at a given moment in time.
Yes. We have already discussed some reasons above. Let us add a few more:What about Havan, Sandhya etc? Can one be Vedic without adopting these healthy practices?
– Havan and Sandhya are very healthy practices but their nature and method is geography and time bound. Havan means burning useful products to purify environment. Sandhya is a form of meditation and self-suggestion to gain stronger spiritual powers. Now Vedas do not prescribe a specific method of conducting these. Their form and methods have varied over ages. So to associate Vedic religion with any such ritualistic practice would be against the very essence of Vedas.
– But yes, Havan and Sandhya are powerful techniques for a healthy mind, body and environment being practiced since ages. Depending upon one's intellect level and past experiences, one may take time to understand their significance and right customized method suited to one's own level. But till that happens, only a dogmatic mind would outcast such a person from Vedic religion. On contrary, dogmatics have no place in Vedic religion.
So while one can say that Havan, Sandhya, waking early, brushing teeth, exercising, proper hygiene are hallmarks of a rational well-intentioned person, one cannot deny admission to Vedic school to anyone merely because his background did not allow him to appreciate the benefits of these practices.
– Further Vedas contain hundreds of healthy recommendations for us all. I would say that Havan and Sandhya are among the least emphasized ones. Virtues like early morning routine, having a muscular strong body through strenuous exercising, not compromising an inch in matters of principles and morality, working proactively for uplift of nation and destruction of its enemies etc are more emphasized ones. So one can then choose another set of recommendations (like 5 mile jogging and 40 pushups daily) and start terminating Havan/ Sandhya compliant students from school of Vedic religion!
The simple point is that all these are next levels in specific subjects, but not entry-exit criteria for Vedic religion.
So you mean Arya Samaj is not necessarily follower of Vedic religion?
Arya Samaj etymologically means a society of noble persons. So from this perspective, all people who follow Vedic religion are also Arya Samaji.
Now Swami Dayanand Saraswati started Arya Samaj in late 19th century to unite intellectual people into worthy actions. Thus his criteria were not the most preliminary but a more intermediate level so that they could not only act as followers of right principles but as well be teachers of these principles. So all intermediate to advanced students of Vedic religion formed the Arya Samaj. He thus formulated a 10 point principles of Arya Samaj.
But he even attempted to attract the more basic students through a variety of means. He had in his various other ventures, even those people who did not adopt all the principles of Arya Samaj but yet were right-intentioned aka followers of Vedic religion. Thus his Paropkarini Sabha had even someone like Justice Ranade who was a noble person but not member of Arya Samaj as formulated by Swami Dayanand.
Cutting the story short, all those who sincerely understand and believe in 10 principles of Arya Samaj are undoubtedly followers of Vedic religion. They are in fact worthy lighthouse of society and they proved so by initiating various social reforms and freedom movement in India. Swami Dayanand wanted to address imminent needs of the society and Arya Samaj represents those eligible students of Vedic religion who had potential to act as torch bearers. Who possessed a minimal level of intellect, knowledge and dedication. Who could act as leaders of rest of the society.
But this does not preclude other noble souls who did not explicitly believe in 10 principles of Arya Samaj because of a variety of reasons, as discussed in previous sections, from being termed as great followers of Vedic religion. Thus all freedom fighters, social reformers, soldiers who sacrificed their lives for Mother nation are all proud examples of Vedic religion. All scientists who put their best efforts to unravel mysteries of nature through an honest thinking process were also great examples of Vedic religion.
Note that it is never that someone is either follower of Vedic religion or not a follower of Vedic religion. This is true for Christian or Muslim. One is either a Muslim or a non-Muslim. Christian or a non-Christian. But one can be Vedic in one aspect of life and non-Vedic in another. Further, the degree of adherence also varies from time to time. So Vedic religion is a light. There is hardly a place that has absolutely zero photons. But intensity of light may vary from place to place and time to time.
For sake of simplicity, we call those people as followers of Vedic religion who proactively invite this light of wisdom in their lives regardless of their existing darkness. Those who at least attempt to open their windows to sunlight regardless of how tight and jam it may be.
Coming back to Arya Samaj, in modern times, Arya Samaj has become a very confusing word. It does etymologically represent society of noble persons and there are many dedicated followers of 10 principles of Arya Samaj as laid out by Swami Dayanand Saraswati. They are indeed great examples of Vedic religion – the more advanced students! However they are individuals.
But there is also an institute or organization named Arya Samaj that runs through huge number of Arya Samaj temples and various organizational bodies etc. Who are very famous in Bollywood for supplying priests for scenes of marriage. And who earn a huge income through marriage of eloped couples. This spineless culture of Arya Samaj is nothing more than a mockery of the legacy of Swami Dayanand and anything but Vedic religion. They may do their Havans, Sandhyas and shout slogans of 'Vedic Dharma ki Jai', and hold public meetings attended by big-shots politicians and tycoons. But their intent is well observable from their tangible outputs. There is a fundamental Vedic principle that those who claim to have greater knowledge and capability should also deserve greatest punishment. Refer http://agniveer.com/4272/manu-smriti-and-punishment/.
Another principle states that the frauds should be respected not even by words. So this Arya Samaj – which is nothing more than a grand disorganized kitty party – deserves the lowest marks if one were to score the entire population on Vedic Dharma compatibility.
Our recommendation would be to stay away from kitty-parties if you sincerely want to transform your own life and that of society through adoption of Vedic Dharma or Vedic religion.
I do not agree to all that is written in Satyarth Prakash or in Agniveer site. I have my differences. I find another method of worship effective. Can I still be a follower of Vedic religion?
As we have said earlier, you have your right to differ or even counter not only Agniveer site or Satyarth Prakash – source of most of Agniveer concepts – but also the 4 Vedas. The ONLY criteria is that you should be doing so with genuineness and without bias. The reason to defend something should NOT be that we have been believing so for past several months or years, or because we have given a public statement in its favor, or because it forms basis of our profession, or because we may be ridiculed or punished if we change our stand. The only basis of defending something should be that we honestly believe that it is correct. And yet we should always have one door open for any change that may come tomorrow as we gather new information and process further.
This is a natural way that we all adopt to become mature. Or else, after our brains had fully grown up by age of 4, we would have remained as dumb forever! So Vedic religion is all about being in harmony with nature without bringing false ego in picture!
How is Vedic religion different from other cults or religions?
– All other cults come in package deals. You have certain core beliefs, some books, some prophets, some priests, some rituals and some prophecies. You have to either accept all or be out. Even if you in reality accept only a few components of the package, you still have to publicly announce allegiance to the entire package. So in a way, falsehood is promoted. You must announce your loyalty to what you can neither verify nor logically understand nor find reasonable or face exit.
Vedic religion is made to fit. You believe in only what you find logically sound, reasonable, intuitive and what you can understand right now. You can refuse to claim allegiance to any book, saint, belief etc and yet be Vedic so far you adhere to honesty.
– All other cults work on binary logic. Either you are one of them or an outcast. Vedic religion is not a cult. You are naturally Vedic. And as per your intents, you are less or more Vedic in various aspects of life. Its between you and the Supreme Force (whatever label you may give it – God, Ishwar, Laws of Nature etc) and no one has right to pass judgment on whether you believe in this religion or not.
– Vedic religion is inspired directly by the oldest text of the humankind – the 4 Vedas. It considers only eternal principles and leaves everything that is geography or time specific to wisdom of individual and society. Further, it does not even demand allegiance to 4 Vedas also. Ved means knowledge or enlightenment. So any approach in life that is knowledge seeking is Vedic religion.
– You cannot be a Muslim and Christian at the same time. But you can be a Vedic even though you are a Christian or a Muslim or a Hindu or a Jew or whatever.
– While all other religions mean blindly accepting certain sets of assumptions, Vedic religion means being enterprisingly honest.
So your Vedic religion has no basis, no benchmarks, no foundation. One can do whatever he or she wants and still be Vedic. Huh! It is better to be more disciplined by following a cult like Christianity or Islam.
This only reflects that we have become mental prisoners. A prisoner who has been kept in a dark cell finds the sunlight of freedom unbearable. There are true stories of convicts committing suicide because they found free life so uncomfortable. They could not even relieve themselves unless someone blew a whistle! Vedic religion is definitely not for the lovers of prisons. Its all about freeing yourself.
But Vedic religion is also not about being undisciplined. It is, on contrary, all about being RATIONALLY disciplined. So Vedic religion is not about succumbing to lust because you seem to find it most enjoyable in a particular moment and ultimate truth. It is all about applying the mind that has been bestowed to think of the consequences and perform a what-if analysis. What-if everyone in world starts becoming lustful like me. What-if someone becomes lustful for my own mother or sister. What-if the way I enjoy lust, someone else enjoys murder etc etc. And conclude that the truth is that one is the master of mind. That by mastering the mind, one can seek enjoyment in anything he or she desires. So as a smart master of mind, I shall seek far more enjoyment in whatever brings me long term strength, vitality and energy and not vice verse. I shall seek enjoyment in that in which even if all the people of world start seeking enjoyment, still the world becomes only a more beautiful and happy place.
This intellectual growth is far more disciplining than any cult-rituals.
How do I get started?
– You can adopt good rituals from any cult or society and still be Vedic. Being Vedic is no way contradicting to your being a Christian or a Muslim or an Atheist. Simply adopt the best practices and junk the rest. You already do so. Nobody in world can follow each letter of Bible or Quran. That is technically impossible. So you do already customize the books as per your own requirements. Take it a step further. Instead of performing this customization because that was inevitable, do a customization that best fits your needs.
Question everything ruthlessly and ask yourself – why do I follow this? Simply because I was born here, or I was socially adapated to believe so or there is something more? Keep eliminating whatever comes as a wrong answer. Whatever does not fit reason. And then you would have gradually come closure to truth – to a unique customized religion for yourself – specially made for you.
You can keep fine-tuning this tailor-made religion forever in life. Not only would it be a most enjoyable passion but also help you discover the true you. In process, you would have been following Vedic religion all the way.
So, you can start from whatever feels comfortable to you, and keep introspecting to have not only discipline but also elegance in whatever you do.
– Yet another way could be to collect common good points of all religions and reject the cult specific traits. For example, all religions talk of truth, peace, honesty, compassion etc. Grab these points together and this becomes a good starting point to have a customized religion for yourself that is lean and effective.
– For those looking for a ready-made alternative for discipline instead of too much of customizations to begin with, Arya Samaj principles would be a great beginning. Grab a copy of Satyarth Prakash or Light of Truth or contact us!
You can thus have a very rational template of disciplined routine that not only brings discipline but also adds to your health and intelligence. So simply download Satyarth Prakash or Light of Truth. Review it carefully, especially Chapters 7 onwards. Also review all articles on Agniveer. This would provide sufficient beginning material for you to start being a master yourself. If in doubt, contact us.
(Note: this is still only a recommendation and not a compulsion. The beauty of Vedic religion is that there is no compulsion and only enlightenment! All that these articles and Satyarth Prakash do is to compile logical analysis of many a common questions that come in our mind but we are afraid to ask.)
What benefits would Vedic religion give me?
This is same as asking what benefit would water give me or air give me. Your intellectual survival depends only upon your knowledge-enhancement. And for humans, happiness derived from knowledge-enhancements surpasses other forms of enjoyments far many times. It is because of this that humans could have build a civilization and did not waste time only in food, sex and sleep like other animals.
So Vedic religion will help you unlock those levels of happiness that you could never imagine before.
Vedic religion is all about using your will to achieve your goals. A follower of Vedic religion does not leave anything to destiny. You desire and achieve. You learn how to use power of mind to achieve whatever you want. Nothing apart from Vedic religion can teach you this skill better.
Vedic religion makes you totally fearless. You know that nothing except your own intentions can harm you. And you know that your intentions are under your own control. So no one is as daring as a Vedic person. No ghost, no jinna, no omen, no curse, no sight, no threat, no dracula, no witch, no horoscope, no palm-lines can affect him. He is fearlessness incarnate.
Vedic religion ensures you are always positive and futuristic. A Vedic person is never in guilt-traps. He knows that his present is reflection of his intents till previous moment. And his future is shaped by his present intent. He thus uses his present to enforce a positive intent and ensure a bright future. He never wastes time brooding the past or giving up in guilt-traps.
Vedic religion makes you enjoy your relations. You consider everything as a gift from Supreme Force in return of your noble intents so far. You attempt to improve all relations, sincerely love them and think well of them because that is the only way to bring happiness. You do worthwhile deeds for happiness of your family, society and world. And this brings even more happiness. Your happiness thus multiplies. The world becomes a heaven for you full of love and success.
Vedic religion helps you become a complete person. Because you operate at will-power level, you can easily transfer your skills in one area into another. You become an expert all-rounder.
Vedic religion helps you develop a natural resistance against committing stupid and foolish acts. You no more have to resist yourself from lust, greed, frustration, anger, jealousy because of fear of some miraculous power or incentive of greater enjoyments in future. On contrary, Vedic religion teaches you how these stupid acts are actually spies bringing greater trouble. You instead naturally incline towards much more healthy and much more enjoyable sources of short-term and long-term gratification. You no longer have to keep saying sorry and keep doing confessions. You simply enjoy more by acting more smartly by understanding why you should avoid falling in shit.
And above all, Vedic religion gives you ultimate peace and brings you in harmony with nature. You enjoy every moment thousand times more than you ever enjoyed before. Its an enjoyment full of enthusiasm, action, health and energy. Your sleep is peaceful, your waking is enthusing, your actions are dynamic, your thoughts are pure, you health is exemplary and your zeal is infecting on everyone around you. You become definition of peace and enjoyment.
I can keep writing. But its already there for you to experience RIGHT NOW! So what are you waiting for! Start your journey to become a Powerman immediately! All you have to do is to assert your proactive loyalty to the following.
'I promise to accept truth through a continuous process of rejecting falsehood every moment to best of my abilities in the most sincere manner.'
May you become live examples of the following verse from Rigveda by embracing this Vedic religion:
I have gained such tremendous powers that I am unstoppable by anyone on the planet. Just as powerful horses take away the chariots wherever they desire, I can achieve whatever I aspire for. I can easily destroy the mightiest of challenge that confronts me. I can change the course of history and set the greatest precedence for future. All this has happened because I have decided to follow the path of wisdom. (Rigveda 10.119)
If you are convinced that you would be a a loyal follower of Vedic religion, use the comment section to announce your assertion and inspire others. Remember the corollary that happiness multiplies by sharing!———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
This article is also available in Urdu at http://agniveer.com/common-questions-vedic-religion-ur/
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