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"Lesson Eighteen: Unity through Family Prayer," Family Home Evening Resource Book (1997), 80
"Lesson Eighteen: Unity through Family Prayer," Family Home Evening Resource Book, 80
Lesson Eighteen
Unity through Family Prayer
Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings.
[Alma 37:37]
Help family members draw closer to each other and to the Lord through family prayer.
For those who take their real feelings and concerns to the Lord, family prayer can be one of the most unifying and strengthening parts of the day. This lesson is designed to help your family understand the rich blessings available through praying together and to help you discuss how you can reap these blessings more abundantly.
Consider the following story as you prepare for this lesson:
"One father, a quiet, unassuming man, found it hard to express his love for his family. At his wife's prompting they began holding family prayer, and it became an opportunity to voice what was in his heart. To their daughter, who had misinterpreted her father's manner as indifference, the experience was a revelation. His prayers were simple and sometimes clumsily worded, but to hear him say, 'Bless my lovely daughter to do good' thrilled her.
"A timid boy who thought of himself as a 'scaredy cat' felt new pride and self-esteem when his father and mother thanked God for their 'kind, gentle son.' And the boy's self-confidence continued to grow through prayer when even his little brother thanked Heavenly Father for his 'big, strong brother.'
"In preparation for a family outing in our own family, my husband asked the Lord to bless our family to get along and to enjoy each other's company. The preaching we had done had gone unheard, but that reverent prayer brought cooperation.
"Our teenage son was tense and sullen whenever we tried to discuss any problem with him. We decided it was important to plan the discussion when he would be most receptive, and that seemed to be at family prayer time in the mornings. It was then that the house was quiet and we shared a humble, sincere feeling. We found the tenseness eased when prayer preceded our discussions.
"During these quiet moments of family prayer, we are keeping in touch with each other and with our Father in heaven." (Ann H. Banks, "The Extra Blessings of Family Prayer," Ensign, Jan. 1976, p. 37.)
Bring a piece of paper and a pencil for each family member.
Draw a large version of the bridge shown in the lesson, and cut out the stones of the bridge so that the bridge can be put together like a puzzle. Have a sheet of colored paper and glue ready to put the bridge together at the end of the lesson. See the section "Family Prayer Can Strengthen Us" for instructions on using the bridge.
Have a colored pen or crayon.
Bring crayons and paper for younger children.
"Sweet Hour of Prayer" (Hymns, no. 142).
"Family Prayer" (Children's Songbook, p. 189).
How Close Do We Feel to Each Other?
Begin by briefly discussing the following questions and ideas:
Have you ever felt alone in a big crowd?
Relate an experience you have had—at a ball game, on a subway or bus, or in a large city—when you felt alone among a group of strangers or casual acquaintances. Let one or two family members relate their experiences.
Why did you feel alone even though there were other people around?
What makes you feel close to other people?
Conclude that knowing that someone else is interested in our problems, successes, and concerns makes us feel close to them.
Tell about a time when you have been among friends or loved ones and still felt alone. Perhaps you had a problem that you felt no one could help you with or a concern no one seemed to care about. Point out that even among the members of your own family—those who love you most—it is possible to feel alone. Express your desire that this lesson will help them find one important way to draw closer to each other and to Heavenly Father so that none of them will feel that they face life alone. (See D&C 88:62–64.)
Hand out a piece of paper and a pencil to each person. Ask each person to make two columns. In the first column, have them list at least five things they have been concerned or worried about during last week. Give them examples if necessary to get them started, such as taking a test, making friends at school, or starting a new job. In the second column, have them list at least five things that made them happy during the week. Collect the lists, and put them aside for use later in the lesson.
Family Prayer Can Strengthen Us
Place the stones of the bridge that you have drawn and cut apart, except for the keystone (the stone in the center of the bridge), in a pile on the table or floor. Ask everyone to imagine that they are standing on the banks of a deep, fast-flowing river with this pile of stones.
How could we use these stones to get across the river? (By building a bridge with them.)
Have someone try to put together the picture of a bridge on the table or floor.
Would this kind of bridge be strong and stable? Could we cross the dangerous river safely?
Point out that there are gaps between the stones and that a bridge like this would collapse.
What is missing from the bridge that would make it stronger?
Hold up the keystone. Explain that without this one piece, the other pieces of the bridge will not hold together, however strong they are individually. With the keystone, all the pieces can work together and support each other.
Write the phrase "family prayer" on the keystone with a colored pen or crayon. Then on each stone write the name of one of your family members.
How can praying together in our family be compared to the keystone in a bridge?
Read 3 Nephi 18:21.
When has family prayer helped us and made our family stronger?
After your family has discussed these questions, have them think about family prayer being a keystone as you, or someone else, tell Brent's story:
The Love of an Older Brother
"One of the greatest joys of my life came when my family was spiritually united in seeking the Lord's aid in my behalf, supporting me through a time of intense struggle. I learned by experience why the Lord placed us in sacred groups called families.
"When I was a junior in high school I contracted a kidney disease. Over the next few years my health gradually declined until my condition became critical. Despite the best medical care, the disease eventually destroyed both of my kidneys. …
"I learned a great deal during those three years on a kidney machine. My faith in the Lord grew as I watched his hand guiding my life. I was close to my family, and in spite of the machine I loved life more than ever before. I had never been so free, nor as happy. Yet, I yearned to be free of my mechanical companion.
"This goal, like so many others, became a family project. We often spent family home evenings and family interviews discussing alternatives to dialysis and the justifications for a transplant.
"I recall one memorable week when the family was all together. …
"During that week we spent a great deal of time talking about my health. We had all researched the possibility of a transplant, and each member of the family had personally volunteered to be my donor. …
"Then one evening a marvelous and unexpected event occurred during family prayers. My father was voice, and when the prayer was completed we all knew what was to transpire. With tears in our eyes we discussed our feelings. Yes, each had felt the same confirmation. We should go ahead with the transplant."
Explain that Brent's brother Craig gave him one of his kidneys. After the operation, Craig was very ill, and Brent's body was trying to reject the new kidney. Then continue with Brent's story:
"The medical reports indicated that I was rejecting the new kidney. It appeared that we had failed. Drastic medical measures were taken, but with little success. As it turned out, the most powerful aid of all was prayer. Etched deeply into my soul is the memory of many nights when family members knelt around my bed and one by one prayed to our Father in Heaven. I listened as my brothers wept, praying that I might live. Then, silently, none of us able to speak, we'd touch hands to say good-night. And they were good nights, for we each experienced the pure love of Christ.
"The kidney rejection was finally overcome; Craig, too, rapidly regained his health and strength. Today, my doctors report that I am one of the healthiest kidney recipients in history. …
"I can testify that one of the greatest joys of mortality comes when a family is spiritually united in seeking the Lord's aid and comfort." (D. Brent Collette, Ensign, Oct. 1981, pp. 42–44.)
In what way was family prayer like a keystone to Brent and his family?
Do you think Brent could have faced his long struggle with illness, no matter what the outcome, without the united prayers of his family?
Why was Brent able to feel such support from his family?
Point out that—
The whole family knew about Brent's problem.
They loved each other and wanted to help.
They prayed together.
They did all they could.
Explain that this helped to bring Heavenly Father's blessings.
Do you feel that other family members know and care about the concerns and joys you wrote down?
Show the lists you collected. Read one or two items from each person's list. Have the family guess who wrote each item you mentioned. Choose items that might not be easy to match with the person who wrote them. You might ask, "During the week, which one of us was concerned about this problem?" or "Who was happy about this during the week?"
A Two-Part Process
Suggest that effective family prayer is a two-part process:
We must be aware of each other's feelings and concerns (see 1 Peter 3:8–9).
We must talk to Heavenly Father about specific problems that are on our minds (see Alma 34:18–27).
What if Brent's family had not prayed specifically about his problem during the time of his illness? Do you think they would have known what to do and how they could help?
What difference did the family's prayers make?
Why can we get help by praying together as a family that we could get in no other way?
Point out that when we pray together about specific problems, Heavenly Father can show us ways to help each other that we might never have seen. Have someone tell the following story:
Sue Helps
Sue Crandall was concerned about her younger brother, Tim. Every morning they got on a small yellow bus that took them to school a few miles from their home. This was Sue's fourth year, so she was used to riding the bus. She even looked forward to the ride as a time to talk to her friends each morning.
But Tim felt differently. So far, after one week of school, he had cried every morning on the way to the bus stop. Sue's mother had been firm. "You'll get used to it, Tim," she'd say. "Soon you'll have lots of friends on the bus." But Sue could see her mother getting more worried each day as Tim got on the bus sniffling and wiping his red eyes.
Saturday morning, as the Crandall family knelt around the breakfast table, Sue's father said something that made Sue stop and think. Right after he thanked Heavenly Father for his beautiful children, he said, "Bless Tim that he will be able to make friends on the bus this week. And help us find a way to help him."
As the family ate their eggs and toast that morning, Sue thought long and hard. She realized that she had felt sorry for Tim all week, but she hadn't done anything to help. She'd sat with her own friends every morning as her little brother slumped silently on the first row of seats.
By Saturday afternoon, Sue had a plan. She asked her mother if they could pick up her friend Karen and her second-grade brother, Todd, on their way to the bus stop Monday morning.
Sure enough, by the time the children reached the bus stop on Monday, the two boys were so busy talking that Tim hardly noticed his mother drive away.
How did the prayer Sue's father offered help Tim?
Can we support each other if we are not aware of each other's concerns and problems?
Suggest that your family could be stronger and feel closer if your prayers together were more specific—if you prayed about the real feelings and concerns of each family member, as well as about group concerns.
Glue the bridge pieces together on a sheet of colored paper. Write the scripture from the beginning of the lesson under the bridge. Post it where your family can see it during the week. Suggest that during the week they make a special effort to pray about family members' concerns. Before each family prayer, you could have a discussion to find out needs and concerns. You might find that mealtime is a good time for this kind of discussion. During the next family home evening, discuss whether this has made your family feel closer.
Be sure to close this family home evening with family prayer.
Tell the family about a time when each of your children was sick or had a special problem. Tell them how you prayed for that child, how much you love him, and how thankful you were when your prayer was answered. Explain that Heavenly Father has great love for each of us. He always wants us to tell him about our problems and concerns so that he can help us.
Tell the story of Sue and Tim. Talk about how we can help each other better when we pray about our problems.
Pass out a piece of paper to each person. Have everyone draw a picture that will remind him of the lesson, such as a family praying or Sue and Tim on the bus. Have each person tell about his picture.
Close your family home evening with family prayer. In your prayer, express your love for each member of the family, and mention a special concern or need each has.
Most teenagers and adults will understand the feeling of being alone in a crowd. Let them discuss this feeling. Contrast it with the feeling of being with people who love them and are interested in them.
Many people—teenagers especially—are not always willing to tell others what their concerns are. As you introduce the activity of making two lists, you may want to discuss how you can overcome this embarrassment about sharing personal problems through keeping confidences and never violating a trust.
Use the bridge activity.
You may want to discuss in greater depth your own family's experiences with prayer. Recall how your prayers for each other have been answered. Help the family understand that some of the richest and most unifying experiences come when the family together seeks the Lord's help and blessing.
Use the story of Brent, and discuss it.
Accept your family's suggestions as to when, each day, they can spend a few minutes discussing each other's needs and concerns. Encourage them to be aware of these problems when it is their turn to offer family prayer.
Making Prayer More Meaningful
Give each family member a paper on which the letters f, a, m, i, l, y, p, r, a, y, e, r are listed down the left-hand margin.
Challenge the family to think of things beginning with these letters that they might do to make family prayer more meaningful. The combined lists will give your family a picture of their responsibilities for effective family prayers. For example, the lists might include f, feel humble and sincere; a, ask in faith; m, make a commitment to live as you pray; i, invite the Lord's Spirit to be with you; or l, love the Lord, family members, friends, and enemies.
Conclude by discussing other ways you can make family prayers more spiritual and rewarding, such as preparing by reading short scriptural passages or singing a hymn. Plan ways to make family prayer a highlight of the day rather than something family members want to hurry through so they can do other things.
The Essential Steps of Prayer
Teach family members the basic steps in proper prayer, using your own words:
Address Heavenly Father in hallowed terms, such as "Our Father in Heaven."
Express gratitude for past blessings.
Ask for needed blessings, both temporal and spiritual. (Include the needs and problems of others, and seek protection from evil influences.)
Close by saying, "In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." Each person adds a sincere "amen" as an indication of agreement and rededication.
Family members might add other ideas. Refer to the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:5–13) as you discuss these steps. Ask family members to watch for these steps in prayer at home and in church.
Praying for Others
Family members should be concerned for each other's welfare in their prayers. Review with the family the story of Alma's conversion (Mosiah 27). Discuss the importance and power of his father's faithful prayers in Alma's behalf. Stress that we should never give up on a loved one who needs our encouragement and support.
If a member of your family is facing some challenge, such as inactivity in the Church, a medical problem, an examination at school, going on a mission, going away to college, or facing a new job, help family members put Alma's example into practice.
To remind family members, you can post the following on a family bulletin board: "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (James 5:16).
Encouraging Regular Family Prayers
If you do not have regular family prayers, discuss family prayer and what it can do to increase family unity, love, and strength. You may wish to use one of the other suggested family home evenings on prayer to motivate your family to pray together. When they are properly prepared and want to have family prayers, make a plan for holding family prayer regularly.
If family members' schedules seem to interfere, read and discuss Luke 10:38–42. Discuss what our proper priorities should be. You may wish to appoint one family member to remind the others or to call them to prayer at the proper time. Or you may wish to have them post the scheduled time and place on cards in mirror frames or on bedroom doors as reminders. Plan ways to make your family prayers spiritual experiences.
Appreciating Family Prayer
Share the experience of Elder John H. Groberg during his three-month journey from Salt Lake City to Tonga as a young missionary (see Conference Report, Apr. 1982, pp. 75–79; or Ensign, May 1982, pp. 50–52). (If you do not have a copy of this address, check with your meetinghouse library.) Discuss how his family's prayers sustained him in a distant land when he felt frightened and alone. If family members have had experiences when family prayer has strengthened someone, have family members relate them. Explain how family prayer can be more effective through love and unity among family members. Have family members suggest ways that family prayer can increase family unity.
You may wish to conclude with excerpts from Elder Groberg's conference address:
"No matter what other inheritance you leave your family, give them the inheritance of knowing through experience that, forever, you will be praying for them and they for you. …
"I testify that time and space are no barriers to these righteous influences, and no matter where we are or what our situation is—even in the depths of discouragement, far from our loved ones—we too can feel and be strengthened by those soul-stirring words, 'and bless John or Jane or whomever on his or her mission,' for indeed life is a mission. We are all here on assignment to learn to love and serve one another; and we can't do this as well as we should unless we have consistent, fervent family prayer." (In Conference Report, Apr. 1982, pp. 78–79; or Ensign, May 1982, p. 52.)


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Origin myths, since they are so powerful, can engender enormous practical problems. Abner Doubleday, as we shall soon see, most emphatically did not invent baseball at Cooperstown in 1839 as the official tale proclaims; in fact, no one invented baseball at any moment or in any spot. Nonetheless, this creation myth made Cooperstown the official home of baseball, and the Hall of Fame, with its associated museum and library, set its roots in this small village, inconveniently located near nothing in the way of airports or accommodations. We all revel in bucolic imagery on the field of dreams, but what a hassle when tens of thousands line the roads, restaurants, and port-a-potties during the annual Hall of Fame weekend, when new members are enshrined and two major league teams arrive to play an exhibition game at Abner Doubleday Field, a sweet little 10,000-seater in the middle of town. Put your compass point at Cooperstown, make your radius at Albany—and you'd better reserve a year in advance if you want any accommodation within the enormous resulting circle.
After a lifetime of curiosity, I finally got the opportunity to witness this annual version of forty students in a telephone booth or twenty circus clowns in a Volkswagen. Since Yaz (former Boston star Carl Yastrzemski to the uninitiated) was slated to receive baseball's Nobel in 1989, and his old team was playing in the Hall of Fame game, and since I'm a transplanted Bostonian (although still a New Yorker and not-so-secret Yankee fan at heart), Tom Heitz, chief of the wonderful baseball library at the Hall of Fame, kindly invited me to join the sardines in this most lovely of all cans.
The silliest and most tendentious of baseball writing tries to wrest profundity from the spectacle of grown men hitting a ball with a stick by suggesting linkages between the sport and deep issues of morality, parenthood, history, lost innocence, gentleness, and so on, seemingly ad infinitum. (The effort reeks of silliness because baseball is profound all by itself and needs no excuses; people who don't know this are not fans and are therefore unreachable anyway.) When people ask me how baseball imitates life, I can only respond with what the more genteel newspapers used to call a "barnyard epithet," but now, with growing bravery, usually render as "bullbleep." Nonetheless, baseball is a major item of our culture, and it does have a long and interesting history. Any item or institution with these two properties must generate a set of myths and stories (perhaps even some truths) about its beginnings. And the subject of beginnings is the bread and butter of this column on evolution in the broadest sense. I shall make no woolly analogies between baseball and life; this is an essay on the origins of baseball, with some musings on why beginnings of all sorts hold such fascination for us. (I thank Tom Heitz not only for the invitation to Cooperstown at its yearly acme but also for drawing the contrast between creation and evolution stories of baseball, and for supplying much useful information from his unparalleled storehouse.)
Stories about beginnings come in only two basic modes. An entity either has an explicit point of origin, a specific time and place of creation, or else it evolves and has no definable moment of entry into the world. Baseball provides an interesting example of this contrast because we know the answer and can judge received wisdom by the two chief criteria, often opposed, of external fact and internal hope. Baseball evolved from a plethora of previous stick-and-ball games. It has no true Cooperstown and no Doubleday. Yet we seem to prefer the alternative model of origin by a moment of creation—for then we can have heroes and sacred places. By contrasting the myth of Cooperstown with the fact of evolution, we can learn something about our cultural practices and their frequent disrespect for truth.
The official story about the beginning of baseball is a creation myth, and a review of the reasons and circumstances of its fabrication may give us insight into the cultural appeal of stories in this mode. A. G. Spalding, baseball's first great pitcher during his early career, later founded the sporting goods company that still bears his name and became one of the great commercial moguls of America's gilded age. As publisher of the annual Spalding's Official Base Ball Guide, he held maximal power in shaping both public and institutional opinion on all facets of baseball and its history. As the sport grew in popularity, and the pattern of two stable major leagues coalesced early in our century, Spalding and others felt the need for clarification (or merely for codification) of opinion on the hitherto unrecorded origins of an activity that truly merited its common designation as America's "national pastime."
In 1907, Spalding set up a blue ribbon committee to investigate and resolve the origins of baseball. The committee, chaired by A. G. Mills and including several prominent businessmen and two senators who had also served as presidents of the National League, took much testimony but found no smoking gun for a beginning. Then, in July 1907, Spalding himself transmitted to the committee a letter from an Abner Graves, then a mining engineer in Denver, who reported that Abner Doubleday had, in 1839, interrupted a marbles game behind the tailor's shop in Cooperstown, New York, to draw a diagram of a baseball field, explain the rules of the game, and designate the activity by its modern name of "base ball" (then spelled as two words).
Such "evidence" scarcely inspired universal confidence, but the commission came up with nothing better—and the Doubleday myth, as we shall soon see, was eminently functional. Therefore, in 1908, the Mills Commission reported its two chief findings: first, "that base ball had its origins in the United States"; and second, "that the first scheme for playing it, according to the best evidence available to date, was devised by Abner Doubleday, at Cooperstown, New York, in 1839." This "best evidence" consisted only of "a circumstantial statement by a reputable gentleman"—namely Graves's testimony as reported by Spalding himself.
When cited evidence is so laughably insufficient, one must seek motivations other than concern for truth value. The key to underlying reasons stands in the first conclusion of Mills's committee: hoopla and patriotism (cardboard version) decreed that a national pastime must have an indigenous origin. The idea that baseball had evolved from a wide variety of English stick-and-ball games—although true—did not suit the mythology of a phenomenon that had become so quintessentially American. In fact, Spalding had long been arguing, in an amiable fashion, with Henry Chadwick, another pioneer and entrepreneur of baseball's early years. Chadwick, born in England, had insisted for years that baseball had developed from the British stick-and-ball game called rounders; Spalding had vociferously advocated a purely American origin, citing the colonial game of "one old cat" as a distant precursor, but holding that baseball itself represented something so new and advanced that a pinpoint of origin—a creation myth—must be sought.
Chadwick considered the matter of no particular importance, arguing (with eminent justice) that an English origin did not"detract one iota from the merit of its now being unquestionably a thoroughly American field sport, and a game too, which is fully adapted to the American character." (I must say that I have grown quite fond of Mr. Chadwick, who certainly understood evolutionary change and its chief principle that historical origin need not match contemporary function.) Chadwick also viewed the committee's whitewash as a victory for his side. He labeled the Mills report as "a masterful piece of special pleading which lets my dear old friend Albert [Spalding] escape a bad defeat. The whole matter was a joke between Albert and myself."
We may accept the psychic need for an indigenous creation myth, but why Abner Doubleday, a man with no recorded tie to the game and who, in the words of Donald Honig, probably "didn't know a baseball from a kumquat"? I had wondered about this for years, but only ran into the answer serendipitously during a visit to Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. There, an exhibit on the first skirmish of the Civil War points out that Abner Doubleday, as captain of the Union artillery, had personally sighted and given orders for firing the first responsive volley following the initial Confederate attack on the fort. Doubleday later commanded divisions at Antietam and Fredericksburg, became at least a minor hero at Gettysburg, and retired as a brevet major general. In fact, A. G. Mills, head of the commission, had served as part of an honor guard when Doubleday's body lay in state in New York City, following his death in 1893.

subset: commoncrawl


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27 June 2009
An Announcement
17 June 2009
On Monday, Cleveland Browns receiver Donte Stallworth reached a deal in his case regarding a DUI fatality he was found guilty of earlier this year. He made what was called a "substantial financial settlement" with the victim's family. You could say this was expected, considering he makes millions in the NFL. What was unexpected was that he will spend 30 days (yes, days) in jail. Thirty days, for a DUI fatality.
On the flip side, now former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick was found guilty of leading a dogfighting ring and spent nearly two years in jail. There were mass protest against what he did and about the vicious creulty to the dogs. The punishment fit the crime for the most part, although it remains to be seen how his comeback will go this summer.
Why, in 2009, do we not see protests against Stallworth's sentence? He drove drunk and killed someone, and yet people are glaringly silent. Vick killed dogs and people couldn't shut up about it. Have we reached a place in our society where we value the life of a dog more than that of a human? I would like to hope not.
More so, just because these men are professional athletes does not excuse them from due process of law or the full penalty under the law. If someone is found guilty of murder, the judge should have the right to throw the book at them, regardless of social status. A crime is a crime is a crime, and guilty is guilty. Why, in 2009, are we still debating this?
That's my take...
15 June 2009
The Vindication of Kobe Bryant
11 June 2009
Slow Rolling Tide
While the offense seems extremely minor, it goes back to the very basis of most NCAA violations and subsequent investigations. Student-athletes should not be receiving anything free of charge on behalf of the university or otherwise. In other words, they should not be paid, in monies or otherwise. While the receiving of textbooks does not certainly promote a competitive advantage on the field, a team utilizing a player who should be ineligible is cheating, plain and simple. Alabama's penalty involves the forfeiture of an unspecified number of wins, but they get to keep scholarships. Apparently, the NCAA did not believe that the offense was enough to warrant extensive punishment.
This begs the question regarding other high profile NCAA investigations, namely the one going on at Memphis. If the NCAA can find that Derrick Rose did in fact submit a forged SAT score, do you think the NCAA would respond like they did with Alabama? Certainly the wins and Final Four appearance would come out. Add to the Tigers dilemma the fact that Dozier admitted to cheating on his SATs, and you have a much bigger mess. While the NCAA legally has to treat the incidents as separate, they cannot help but look at them equally.
The connection between Alabama and Memphis is that they both used players who were ineligible. In the past, the NCAA would tack on post-season bans along with probation. Intrestingly, ever since the "death penalty" case at SMU, probations have been lighter and lighter. Auburn's mid-90s probation is the last that comes to mind that involved post-season bans. (The football team posted an unbeaten record in 1994, in the midst of probation.) Should the same not apply here also?
You could make a case that Memphis' violations are much more severe, but probation is nothing if it doesn't carry any teeth. Stripping wins is one thing, stripping scholarships and post-season eligibility is another. I would expect this to happen at Memphis, and subsequently USC and Tennessee for their violations. But the penalty issued to Alabama just seems too light.


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Posted by Editor on 01/16/11
The Nativo/Devinci mountain bike team from Montreal is traveling to southern Chile to compete against riders worldwide in the 2011 TransAndes Challenge Epic. Between January 24th and 29th, they will participate in one of the hardest mountain bike raids in the world. At 480 kilometres, 13000 metres of elevation gain, with endless hills and the amazing Chilean landscape and people, the TransAndes will offer a magnificent start of the 2011 racing season for François-Charles Dumas, Jacques Gagné, Pierre-Yves Nadeau and Benoît SImard.
Taking aim to test its custom cycling wear, the Nativo/Concept team has targeted the toughest of mountain biking races in 2011. The team will participate in the TransAndes Chile, TransRockies Canada and the Vuelta Conquistadores in Costa Rica. Our riders will also have the full support of the revolutionary Dexter frame from Devinci.
Return to Canadian Cyclist homepage | Back to Top |


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A government takeover of one or both companies is among several options that have been considered by White House officials, according to a person familiar with the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity. Senior Bush administration officials are considering placing either or both firms in a conservatorship if their problems get worse, the person said.
The companies, which own or guarantee about half of the $12 trillion of U.S. mortgages, can count on a federal lifeline, said Republican Senator John McCain, and Democratic Senator Charles Schumer. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would have to post pretax losses and writedowns of about $77 billion before the U.S. would be compelled to start a rescue, according to estimates by Fox-Pitt Kelton and Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co.
``They must not fail,'' McCain, of Arizona, said yesterday during a campaign stop in Belleville, Michigan. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ``are vital to Americans' ability to own their own homes,'' he said at an earlier stop in the state, one of the worst affected by the surge in foreclosures.
From today's WSJ:
"They need a lot more capital," said John Paulson, who heads the hedge-fund manager Paulson & Co. that has made billions betting the housing market would decline. He pointed to "growing worries" about the deterioration of securities backed by mortgages as more homeowners default and home prices fall. Meanwhile, some high-profile bond investors snapped up Fannie and Freddie debt, believing the government would never allow them to default.
"Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are too important to go under," said Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York. "...If they need additional support, Congress will act quickly." But he added in an interview: "We're not at that stage. I hope and think it won't be needed."
A Treasury spokeswoman said: "As Secretary Paulson said today, we're not going to speculate about 'what ifs' on Fannie and Freddie. What we're focused on is legislative reform."
Marketwatch adds:
The Times said the administration also considered calling for legislation that provide an explicit government guarantee on the $5 trillion of debt owned or guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie. Such a move was seen as an unattractive option, however, because it would double the size of the public debt.
In addition, three options were suggested in the WSJ article:
In an email sent to clients Thursday morning, Beth Hammack, who heads trading in Fannie and Freddie debt at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., said she sees "many good options" falling short of the government taking over the companies. Among them, she said, would be a purchase by the Fed of some of their debt or mortgage-backed securities. A spokesman for Goldman, which is advising Freddie on possible ways to raise capital, said the views were Ms. Hammack's and not necessarily those of the firm.
If things get bad enough, said Bob Napoli, an analyst at the securities firm Piper Jaffray & Co., the Federal Reserve could make large, 10-year loans to the companies "to make it clear that they have enough capital."
Other possibilities might include the Treasury buying stock in the companies. In an extreme situation, the government might have to take over the companies in a transaction that might leave little or nothing for existing shareholders.
Option 1 (from the Marketwatch article) is a bail-out, but one that is a bit sly. The government is saying "we'll provide funding if X happens". However, my guess is the possibility of X happening is pretty high.
Option 2 (from the WSJ) is a bail-out of the direct kind, meaning one company takes on the distressed assets of another company.
Option 3 is an indirect bail-out with the Federal Reserve guaranteeing a steady supply of capital until the housing market recovered.
Option 4 is a corporate reorganization, plain and simple where company 1 buys a percentage of the stock of the second company.
Either option is a bail-out, make no mistake about it.
Now a bit of history.
First -- what exactly do these companies do? Basically, they provide liquidity to the mortgage market. The best way to explain this is to compare the mortgage market of 100 years ago and today. 100 years ago, you would go to your local banker and get a loan. If the banker thought you were credit worthy, you'd get a 30 year home mortgage. However, back then the bank would most likely own the mortgage for the entire life of the mortgage.
Fast forward to today. Banks don't keep loans on their books. Instead they sell them to investment banks, who then pool the mortgages into bonds -- either pass-through bonds or collateralized mortgage obligations (or CMOs). These in turn are sold to large, institutional investors like insurance companies, mutual funds etc...
Freddie and Fannie are quasi-public entities, meaning they have government charters but also raise capital from the private sector. In fact, many people who participate in the mortgage market have often felt that Freddie and Fannie have an unfair advantage because of their implied government backing. For years both institutions have said "no, we're not backed by the government." Now we know that's not true. Actually, we've always know that, it's just that now we really know.
Let's take a look at the charts.
Both charts say the same thing:
-- Prices are below all the SMAs
-- The shorter SMAs are below the longer SMAs
-- All the SMAs are heading lower
-- Prices are below the 200 day SMA
In addition, over the last few days both charts have fallen through major support on extremely heavy volume. Traders are dumping the stock as fast as they can. That should tell you something.
And this continues the downward saga of the financial sector in general:
Note the following:
-- Prices are below all the SMAs
-- The shorter SMAs are below the longer SMAs
-- All the SMAs are heading lower
-- Prices are below the 200 day SMA


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While having a conversation with another parent the other day, the talk went from the usual "your kid doesn't want to go to sleep at 9, mine neither" conversation to a much weirder one that I had not prepared myself to be having at any point in being a parent.
That kind of stuff they don't put in the handbook, so to speak, along with a handbook's worth of other stuff too, like "how to stop your kid from asking for McDonald's at every meal?"
I wondered how it had gotten there, and after a bit of backtracking, I realized that it was the fault of the good people at Walt Disney.
I love Disney movies, and have spent the better part of my life watching them over and over again. Being the oldest of five kids, I spent the better part of my youth and adolescence with a Disney movie on in the background; so much so, in fact, that I can tell you what was going on in my life at the time of each Disney film's release.
For instance, when the movie "Aladdin" came out, I remember that was the year that my brother brought home the chicken pox and all five of us kids were quarantined to the house, left with little else to do than watch that film over and over again. I still know every single word to "You Ain't Never Had a Friend Like Me."
"Finding Nemo" was the first animated film that my son had on repeat and could not get enough of, to the extent that a goldfish that we owned for the better part of six months before it's untimely demise was called "Dori."
I still cringe every time I see "Mary Poppins" as my brother, who is eight years my junior and whom I shared a room with, went to sleep watching the Julie Andrews musical every night for about two years. I have a weird phobia of Dick Van Dyke as a result, yet I did have a short-lived career as a chimney sweep in college.
So, with all that being said, I have to tell you that when my conversation with one of my fellow parents went to the little Disney Channel juggernaut called "Hannah Montana", I was less than thrilled to be chatting about it.
That coupled with the fact that she is the daughter of once mulleted country-singing one hit wonder, Billy Ray Cyrus, you could say that such a conversation was causing my "achy-breaky heart" to beat irregularly.
You see, my friend has daughters, and I a son, yet my son seems to have taken a liking to Hannah Montana the way that young girls get "twitterpated" over Justin Timberlake or middle-aged Delawarians get turned on by NASCAR's Dale Jr.
I guess I just didn't think that my five-year-old would already have some sort of celebrity crush, and what's even more troubling, is that I've heard teenagers and people in their twenties speak of her attractive qualities in ways that just gives me the creeps.
How can someone that Disney created into a superstar be so mass appealing to so many age groups, from the harmless five-year-old, to the creepy guy at the bar?
Perhaps Disney gets a free pass because it's the company that people think of first for quality family entertainment. Disney characters are timeless and for the most part harmless for your kids to want to pretend to be.
However, the pre-teen craze that has evolved from the Mickey Mouse Club that created Britney Spears to this "High School Musical" madness that has made Zach Effron into some sort of quasi-celebrity is something that the people at Disney should really look at and realize that they are selling something else to our kids that isn't timeless fairytales and a journey to a magical kingdom of imagination.
There is a difference between Cinderella and Hannah Montana, and the difference has nothing to do with being able to get small mice to make dresses and it is this: Cinderella doesn't have a cell phone and she can never enter rehab, and she doesn't have an image or a publicist.
What they are selling to kids these days, at least in these pre-teen shows is that it's perfectly normal to want glamorous things, and that rock stars and movie actors are the only people in this world worth emulating.
Disney movies are one of the only things that we can put on to block out the constant bombardment of infotainment in this celebrity obsessed world, in which the lifestyles of the rich and famous are a nightly trainwreck that we watch on the evening news and read about on "the john" in the glossy magazines.
Shouldn't it be a priority of the Disney corporation to stay true to what made them one of the biggest companies in the world, rather than just cash in and pollute the minds of our tweenagers and teeny boppers by just making sitcoms for kids with laugh tracks, product placement and pubescent sex symbols?
Adults have become so depressed by the routine of our mundane lives that we obsess over what celebrities had for breakfast. We would rather read about the negative things in a celebrity's life than deal with our own, and we live in a world where guys that hide in bushes and snap pictures of celebrities in their underwear (or without it in some cases) are the highest paid photo-journalists in the world.
I can come to terms with a lot of things in this world and put them in the Bruce Hornsby and the Range "That's Just the Way It Is" category, but if everything else has become a cross-marketed selling point to a larger demographic and even putting a smile on kid's face is something that focus groups of middle age "suits" deliberate on, why shouldn't I hold the people at Disney to a higher standard?
I've been saving for several years just to take my kid to Disney World because like London, you can't walk down the street toward the Magic Kingdom without hitting an ATM.
Perhaps they should do what they do best, and that is stick to animated family films that kids love to watch over and over until their parents find themselves singing "Hakuna Matata" in their Friday morning sales meeting.
And furthermore, Disney could also help out parents in other ways such as taking their movie figurines out of Happy Meals nationwide, thus appeasing every parent who cringes every time they $4.69 on Grade F meat for their kids so they can get the damned Happy Meal toy.
But then again, I'll probably just wait for Hannah Montana to go to rehab, and then I'll be justified in telling my son "No, No, No" when he asks to watch the Disney Channel.
Email me at [email protected].


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Video: Maintenance Robots Climb Wind Towers
July 27, 2012
Operators and inspectors have traditionally gained access to massive wind towers and their huge blades by using cranes, bucket trucks, rappelling teams, or by inspecting blades with high-power telescopes. Two different remote-controlled climbing robots have been developed to make wind tower maintenance easier, cheaper, and safer.
Helical Robotics recently demonstrated its latest model, the magnetic HR 1000-LL (Light Lift) climbing robot, at the American Wind Energy Assn. 2012 Conference and Exposition in Atlanta. (See the robot in action below.) This model hauls 50 pounds to 100 pounds of video cameras, nondestructive testing equipment, robotic arms, and lifts all the way up a wind tower's shaft and can be controlled by a single operator.
The Helical Robotics' design is built to work on ferrous surfaces using the company's magnetic adhesion system. The robot's wheels are driven by electric motors that propel it up, down, and around the tower. Different models can carry payloads ranging from lightweight cameras to heavy industrial equipment.
The latest model, HR 1000-LL, self-aligns to a work surface, and is adjustable to between 0.030 inch and 0.25 inch from that surface. It measures 57 inch x 22 inch x 20 inch high, and weighs a total of 90 pounds to 145 pounds, depending on configuration. The robot gives wind tower operators and inspectors a real-time view of tower maintenance tasks from its onboard cameras. HD video can also be transmitted live to offsite personnel in a ground station using a custom-designed wireless bridge network.
Meanwhile, GE Global Research has been conducting tests with tower-climbing robots made by International Climbing Machines (ICM) on GE's wind turbines at a Texas wind farm. ICM's climbers are held to a surface with vacuum force. The robot platform consists of a vacuum chamber surrounded with a rolling locomotive seal, which lets them climb over uneven surfaces, surface contours, and surface obstacles.
The ICM robot is made of carbon fiber and advanced composites. Each weighs about 30 pounds and has a pull-off strength of more than 225 pounds. It measures 24 inch x 24 inch x 8 inch high, and travels at 2.5 inch to 3 inch per second. The robots have been used for inspecting and cleaning surfaces, spraying on coatings, and testing coatings for their integrity, as well as nondestructive testing and evaluation inspection. They can carry wireless HD video equipment to give operators on the ground a real-time view of the wind tower's blades from about 30 feet away. (Watch videos showing demonstrations of this robot here and here.)
For a better view of the blades, GE is developing a microwave scanner that the climbing robotic vehicle could carry. Microwave inspection would also let operators analyze the blade material's composition and integrity for early indications of possible breakdowns in the structure.
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We are a 'bricks and mortar' company, located at
59 Bluestone Circuit Seventeen Mile Rocks 4073
PO Box
PO Box 90 Archerfield BH 4108, Australia
Cheap Canvas Prints brings simplicity and low prices to having your photos printed on canvas.
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Here at Cheap Canvas Prints we provide a no-fuss way to get your photos on canvas, or if you prefer, your art on canvas. All our canvases are ready-to-hang meaning they are stretched around a frame with hooks at the back. Cheap Canvas Prints is just that - cheap! But don't think cheap means poor quality. We've scoured the globe to find the best materials for your canvas art prints, at the lowest price and have brought them together for you to take advantage of.
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Therefore, we're not going to bombard you with technical mumbo-jumbo about our professional printers and premium materials because that's the easy bit. What's more important is the staff behind the technology and the overall customer experience. It's our staff that ensure your image is looked at closely and adjustments are made to get the best possible results out of our specialised equipment.
You can be assured that your canvas will be printed with vibrant colours and fantastic detail that will last longer than your memory!


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So my birthday went really well. All the previous freaking out was unnecessary because when my birthday came and went, I still felt the same. LOL. Guess I was being childish. Celebrated with 11 of my closest friends at China Mood in Bustan and it was amazing. China Mood is my all time favourite restaurant and the company was amazing. Next morning a friend and I cooked brunch at her place for a group of friends and later went to another friend's place to watch the game. Saturday which was my actual birthday, we watched the game at a local cafe and I was surprised later with cheesecake and a candle. It was great.
So its a few days after my birthday and I think the gifts stopped coming in now. This is what I got so far:
* A Spa Package from a group of friends - 4.5 hours at Essence Spa. I cant wait. This was on my wish list and Im excited.
* A Massage from a friend from Essence Spa. I will bulk it with the spa package and spend the entire day there. LOL
* My favourite perfume Narcisso Rodriguez and the shower gel from Daddy.
* A Hyatt Privelege Card from my sister which includes a one night stay at the Hyatt and a whole bunch of other things.
* A One night stay at the Chedi from my brother. Actually it was the thought. He gave me the cash for it and Im still carrying it around. So I guess I can get myself the one night stay at Chedi or just use the cash for shopping or whatever.
* Other gifts from friends included Swarovski earrings, Escada perfume, Sayed Junaid arabic perfume and a bra and panty bags. LOOOL.
Im 30 and Im happy.
[GSN Suspected Spam] Re:
2 years ago


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Nikita Valentin / Palm island
Age: 35
Height: 5.64
Country: SLOVAKIA (Slovak Republic)
City: Bratislava
What makes Nikita so much fun to watch is her ability to role play. One day she may show up as the bluejeans and denim farm girl type, and the next day shes a totally different persona with her pink California beach Babe outfit. She dances differently depending on who you want her to be today!


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New contract offering opportunity to provide jobs for underserved communities, persons with disabilities and veterans
CHICAGO–(ENEWSPF)–March 18, 2013. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) today announced its contract with Chicago Lighthouse to handle more than 160,000 expected calls every year to its offices across the state. Approximately 25% of the staff is totally blind with the remaining staff being visually impaired. The call center, located at Chicago Lighthouse's headquarters on Roosevelt Road, is currently employing 20 people trained to route callers to the agency's licensing or enforcement offices. IDFPR licenses and regulates more than one million professionals and businesses in Illinois.
"This contract, which started on March 1, has already improved our ability to assist professionals who need to be licensed to work in Illinois," said Manuel Flores, Acting Secretary of Financial and Professional Regulation. "I am very excited about our partnership with the Lighthouse for the Blind; the department will now have a permanent, professional team that will enhance customer service to better serve the public."
The two-year, $1.35 million contract with the Chicago-based not-for-profit organization will provide assistance to licensed businesses and individuals customers calling 1-888-4REGUL8 (1-888-473-4858) with questions about obtaining a new professional license, finding authorized providers of continuing education, renewing a current license, handling a disciplinary action and other questions that have in the past been managed by temporary employees.
"We extend our deepest appreciation to the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation for this amazing opportunity to provide employment for many talented individuals who are blind or visually impaired," said Dr. Janet Szlyk, Chicago Lighthouse president and executive director.
IDFPR, created by merging several independent agencies, has experienced a massive growth in call volume over the past few years. The need for a dedicated call center has been a priority of the department for several years. After researching its alternatives, IDFPR decided to contract with Chicago Lighthouse, through Illinois' State Use Program, which is designed to provide long-term employment opportunities for people working in not-for-profit community rehabilitation facilities.
"I am delighted that DFPR has chosen to work with the Chicago Lighthouse, a renowned social service organization which we proudly approved for our State Use Program last year," said CMS Director Malcolm Weems. "This partnership underscores our commitment to empowering persons with disabilities and veterans, while also helping to reduce costs and expedite services to Illinois residents."
"We are very excited about this partnership with IDFPR and the Lighthouse. It will help further our mission of assisting individuals with disabilities in finding quality employment," said Illinois Department of Human Services Division of Rehabilitation Services Director David Hanson. "The unemployment rate for people with disabilities is estimated at over 70 percent, so jobs are critically important to this population."
The State Use Program was created by the 1983 enactment of the State Use Law. The program provides long-term employment opportunities for people working in not-for-profit Community Rehabilitation Facilities (CRF) by encouraging all state agencies to purchase products and services produced and provided by severely disabled people. CRFs pay wages that permit employees to reduce their need for state benefits, enabling them to become taxpayers rather than tax recipients. CRF employees also gain vocational training, long-term work experience and marketable job skills. These are significant aids in reducing high unemployment for the disabled community. At the same time, State of Illinois agencies that participate in this program are assured of high quality products and services at fair market prices, reduced administrative costs, on-time delivery and a central point of contact for assistance. All contracts are independently reviewed, evaluated and approved by the State Use Committee to ensure the finest quality and pricing available.
The Chicago Lighthouse, founded in 1906, is one of the nation's most comprehensive social service organizations. Housed under its roof are the oldest and most prominent vision care and rehabilitation programs in the U.S., a nationally acclaimed school for children with multi-disabilities, a world class employment services program, one of the few remaining clock manufacturing facilities in America, a veterans assistance program serving veterans in all 50 states and a radio station.
The Division of Rehabilitation has placed nearly 30 blind and visually impaired people into employment at Call In Centers through the Chicago Lighthouse since the start of this year. Persons who are blind or who have disabilities can discuss opportunities for employment by calling 1-800-843-6154. Many more positions will be available for fast and capable computer users. The Call In Centers serve the IDFPR, the Advocate Employee Wellness Program and the Illinois Tollway Authority.
Source: illinois.gov


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What Your Favourite Action Movie Series Says About You
Pick Your Favourite Action Movie Franchise And We'll Tell You What Kind Of Man You Are
For a certain type of man, no-nonsense beat-em-ups like are the king of action movies, while others prefer ludicrous car chases or capes, whopping great muscles or witty put-downs, or just... guns – lots of guns.
No matter how worldly you are, however emotionally intelligent you might be, deep down, there's an unbreakable bond between man and the action movie. And your taste in explosive, big-screen testosterone reveals a whole lot about you as a man – who you are and how you see the world.
To prove it we take a look at some the greatest action franchises – and what they say about the man who watches them. Yippee-ki-yay.
The Franchise: The tale of the ultimate underdog. Six times. Seven, if you count Creed.
You Are: An admirer of true fighting spirit and determination. You're also a creature of habit, happy to watch the almost exact same film repeatedly, knowing full well Rocky wins every time – not always the fight, but always the moral victory and always your heart.
The Kind of Man Who: Turns every workout into a pretend mini training montage. C'mon, admit it – you've done it.
Likes: Music to get you pumped up.
Manly Lessons Learned From The Movies: Self belief. Winning comes in many forms. Steps = great cardio.
The Franchise: Double-o-ruddy-seven. James Bond! What else needs saying?
You Are: Appreciative of old school machismo – strong, steely, and positively dripping in sexual charisma. Whether you exhibit these traits yourself or not.
The Kind of Man Who: Adapts easily to change and is quick to forgive past sins (invisible cars, hopping across crocodiles, rampant misogyny… that sort of thing).
Likes: Fast cars, good suits, beautiful women, quality booze and smutty innuendo. All the traditional male pleasures.
Manly Lessons Learned: Fashion comes and goes, but there's no beating a man in a tux. Or a safari suit, for that matter.
The Franchise: Jean Claude Van Damme fights the baddie that broke his older brother's back, then younger sibling comes in to avenge him when even Van Damme can't be bothered to show up.
You Are: A connoisseur of the "art" of fighting. Probably a fan of MMA, you're in touch with man's savage side – that part of us that thinks that gentlemanly conduct is fine up to a point. After which every difference is best settled by kicking each other in the throat.
The Kind of Man Who: Wishes he could kick a tree in half.
Likes: Van Damme. Big time.
Manly Lessons Learned: Bros 4 eva. Doing the splits is the height of manly prowess.
The Franchise: Cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) wages a one-man war against terrorists in a skyscraper. Then an airport. Then New York. Then… oh, give it a rest, John.
You Are: A man of simple pleasures and proudly lo-fi.
The Kind of Man Who: Doesn't care for authority figures. Or smoking bans. Or new-fangled technology. I mean, why bother with fancy detonators when a good old fashioned punch-up will do?
Likes: Looking boss in a white vest.
Manly Lessons Learned: Shoes should be worn at all times on a building site. Men can bond over little more than a walkie talkie. Christmas is a time for family – and chucking wronguns out the window.
The Franchise: Liam Neeson is ex-CIA operative Bryan Mills. Don't kidnap his family members. He will find you.
You Are: Someone with a particular set of skills – either a deep appreciation of so-bad-it's-good irony or an inhuman tolerance for abysmal action movies.
The Kind of Man Who: Knows it's never too late to reinvent yourself.
Likes: Switching your brain well and truly off.
Manly Lessons Learned: It's entirely possible to triangulate your position from the sound of grenade explosions alone. It's entirely possible to cause mayhem and destruction in a foreign city, and still get through security at the airport without questioning.
The Franchise: Paul Walker and Vin Diesel steer a crack team of car thieves through multiple heists, hi-jinks and impossibly high-speed chases.
You Are: All bravado and pneumatic masculinity on the outside, but a secret lover of big sweaty bromances – all the boys together, admiring the size of each other's engine and glistening bodywork.
The Kind of Man Who: Always cranks things up to the next level. If you jumped your car between skyscrapers last week, you'll drive the bugger out of a plane this week.
Likes: Souped-up motors and muscle shirts.
Many Lessons Learned: Everything's better when The Rock turns up.
The Franchise: Daniel-san gets his arse handed to him repeatedly, but always pulls it back with some flouncy posturing in the final seconds.
You Are: No stranger to being an outsider or the brunt of the bigger boys' jibes. You prefer to take the spiritual path by occasionally balancing on one leg.
The Kind of Man Who: Never quite got over the whole 1980s nostalgia thing. Your DVD collection almost certainly contains The Goonies, The Breakfast Club and Teen Wolf. Fact.
Likes: Seeing how high you can kick your leg when everyone's out.
Manly Lessons Learned: Domestic chores equal nails-hard fighting skills
The Franchise: Black ops CIA agent Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) spends three films cracking skulls and trying to remember who he is. Then disappears and comes back. Or something.
You Are: A back-to-basics kind of chap – unimpressed with glitz, glamour, or gratuitous spectacle. A mini will be fine, thank you very much. You have a deep-rooted distrust of The Man and see the world through very real (albeit handheld cam-style) eyes.
The Kind of Man Who: Imagines how to use everyday household items as deadly weapons. Anyone got a biro?
Likes: Lightning quick blows and the sound of bones snapping.
Manly Lessons Learned: We all wish we were Bond, but deep down know we never will be.
The Franchise: Super-folk save the world. Repeatedly.
You Are: A bit of a geek. Which is fine, because swotting over comics is almost as manly as playing football these days.
The Kind of Man Who: Makes his girlfriend stay to the very end of the film credits, often for very little reward.
Likes: Nerdy banter. Plus, showing off that you knew loads about comic books years before they were trendy.
Manly Lessons Learned: Giant muscles and raw masculinity are so three decades ago. Sharp wit and self-aware humour is the mark of the modern hero. Especially when you've got super powers to back it up.
The Franchise: An arthritic smackdown between the dusty old icons of action's golden age.
You Are: Incapable of getting over the past.
The Kind of Man Who: Thinks bigger really is better. For you, it doesn't get better than explosions, massive guns, and biceps as big as your head.
Likes: Basking in the former glories of masculinity, when men were men and being able to punch a baddie through the wall was Peak Bloke.
Manly Lessons Learned: Sylvester Stallone turned out to be better than Schwarzenegger in the end. Who knew?
Kickboxer: Vengeance is in cinemas 30th September
Action Movies
James Bond
jason bourne


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Mars Global Surveyor Measures Pyroxene
Mars Global Surveyor made a measurement of pyroxene on the surface of Mars. Scientists looking at results from the Mars Pathfinder Rover's study of the rocks of Mars could not find evidence of pyroxene at all. Pyroxene is an important silicate mineral, and is part of the evolution of silicate rocks on Earth. If Mars could not manufacture pyroxene the way the Earth does, that would suggest that Mars and the Earth evolved differently.
This graph shows a strong indication of the presence of pyroxene in the surface minerals of Mars, however. The graph rises every time the spacecraft finds pyroxene on the surface. The finding of pyroxene will help scientists figure out how the crust of Mars evolved.


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Happy Valentine's Day to you all! I stumbled upon this darling idea for making conversation hearts and I am in love. I think these are darling and will be making them with my son today while his sister is at school. Your well wishes worked and our daughter has her sparkle back and feels great. Just in time to exchange Valentines. ……………..conversation hearts … images via less than perfect parents And a few of you saw my Instagram {@athoughtfulplace} photo and asked about our chair pulls. You can read about those here. The Valentine holders were altered from $1 bags from Target. They had felt totes and I simply cut the front off, detached the heart {it was glued} and re-glued it so it had an opening at the top. It is holding Valentines from Mommy and Daddy this morning. … And to my sweet hubby, I love more than grady loves mac n' cheese. You make life amazing. Enjoy your day, everyone.
Happy Valentines Day to you…enjoy your day making the sweet cards.
Happy Valentine's Day Courtney. So glad she was feeling better and able to enjoy the festivities at school. Love the watercolor hearts.
happy V-day! Love those ideas 🙂
http://www.writtenbysuzanne.com -
aaaaaaah, such a sweet message for R!
Happy Valentine's Day Courtney! XO
So sweet–hahaha—I love your message to your husband. 😉 Hope you guys have a great valentine's day!
Those little conversation hearts are the *best*! And I am baffled as to how I missed this cute little gem on Insta, I'm clearly on there WAY too much to be missing such important things (c: Happy Love Day!
I am in LOVE with the watercolor heart idea–how creative! So glad that your daughter is feeling better. My boys had that nastiness recently too, and it is no fun. Thank you for sharing your cute projects, as always! Happy Valentine's Day!
~Abby =)
Nice Info


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You have most probably already began the big spring cleaning of your home, and some of you may even think that they are done already. But the real question is – did you clean your carpets, rugs and mats properly too?
Vacuuming the carpets and rugs once or twice a week is a nice way of maintaining them relatively clean and safe, but do keep in mind that health experts and professional carpet cleaners recommend that all carpets and rugs need to be deep cleaned at least once a year, in order to ensure that the carpeting and the air at home is safe and clean. This period must be shortened for homes where there are allergic people, toddlers or pets.
The easiest and most efficient way to do that is to call your preferred professional carpet cleaning company Rochdale, who will offer you the best professional carpet cleaning solutions in accordance to the type of textile, as well as the specific stains or other problematic areas you may have on your favourite carpets and rugs.
An experienced carpet cleaner should be able to apply the most appropriate solution and deep cleaning and stain removal method with professional carpet cleaning company Manchester, in order to make sure that the carpet is cleaned safely, any stains are removed, any damaged parts are repaired and that the premises are safe for inhabiting by you, your children and your pets after the cleaning is over.
Do you still feel unsure about spending money on deep cleaning offered by your local professional carpet cleaning company Bury?
The reason why taking care of your carpeting is crucial for a full deep cleaning of your home or office, is that the pollen, dirt from your shoes or your pets' paws, as well as dead skin cells, crumbs and residue gets stuck deep inside your carpet and rugs. This leads to the growth of a number of potentially harmful germs as well as dust mites and other horrible little creatures in your carpet.
The only way to kill them off and get all the nasty stuff out is through deep cleaning – dry or wet.
If you have delicate and expensive rugs, you will probably get the suitable dry cleaning, while steam cleaning can be used for synthetic and other types of textiles, and can ensure that every single germ or other microorganism residing in your carpet or upholstery is gone.
It is recommended that you ask your favourite local professional carpet cleaning company Bolton whether it offers green and safe deep cleaning, in order to make sure that the home will be safe for all inhabitants.
The best way to ensure that all the dust mites are killed is to hire a professional carpet cleaning company Wigan to perform a deep cleaning of your carpets, rugs, upholstery, draperies and mattresses. For people with allergies, this process should be performed at least once in every six months and even more often, depending on the severity of their condition.
One of them, obviously, is to hire a professional carpet cleaning company Stockport to perform a nice deep cleaning of all of your rugs and carpets. In addition, it is a good idea to order deep cleaning of your upholstered furniture, curtains, bedding, mattresses, draperies and other soft furniture at home.
This requires that you give them special attention. Apart from the most obvious solution – to call your preferred professional carpet cleaning company Manchester, you can treat stains, damaged spots on your carpet and rugs with some simple and safe DIY cleaning tricks.


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Featured News - Current News - Archived News - News Categories
Behind the Screens with Joshua Maloni
It was epic.
It was dramatic.
It was the best episode of "The Voice."
When Team Adam battled Team Shakira in the "Knockouts," it was the Super Bowl-Academy Awards-Indy 500 of vocal competition shows.
Never before had so many top artists appeared in one episode. No less than 16 acts with a legitimate shot at winning "The Voice" competed head-to-head for a chance to advance to the live shows, which begin tonight (8 p.m., NBC).
>>Click here for photos and interviews with six of the performers


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Me in my studio: Spektre
Spektre sonics
Spektre are a techno duo comprising DJs/producers Filthy Rich and Paul Maddox, they specialise in "dark, sinister sounds mixed with twisted, haunting vocals and unnerving, atmospheric foundations".
The question, though, is what they use to make these brooding productions? We asked them to pick up their digital camera/screen grabbing software and show us…
NEXT: Ableton Live
Ableton Live
"Live is the central hub of both our studio and stage rigs. Its innovative workflow and creative sound design features are things we couldn't live without!"
Octave The Kitten
"An old and fairly uncommon analogue synth. Good for meaty basses, but incredible for weird sci-fi noises."
2C Audio Breeze
"Our go-to reverb plug-in. We also use its big brother Aether, but find ourselves reverting to the quick and simple interface of Breeze more often."
Dave Smith Poly Evolver
"Total badboy! We use the Poly Evolver for anything from silky pads to overdriven wavetable glitchiness. We're quite happy to spend an evening just programming sounds and sampling them out - beats watching TV anyway!"
Lennar Digital Sylenth1
"Our favourite software synth, which gets used constantly. Sylenth1 can turn its hand to pretty much any VA sound, but with the automation possibilities that software handles so well."
Akai APC40
"Our live control surface of choice. The APC40 simply puts Live at your fingertips, because nobody wants to see you poking at your laptop in a club."
UAD Roland RE-201
"We're big fans of spacey, dubbed-out delays and the UAD Roland RE-201 is a lovely recreation of one of the classics."
Liked this? Now read: Me In My Studio: Dub Fx


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Boko Haram Explains Why It Kills Christians, Desire for an Islamic Nigeria
Terrorist organization Boko Haram, which has been waging war on Christians and attacking churches in Nigeria for months, has come out with a statement making it clear that its goal is to eliminate followers of Christ from the region and establish an Islamic state.
"The Nigerian state and Christians are our enemies and we will be launching attacks on the Nigerian state and its security apparatus as well as churches until we achieve our goal of establishing an Islamic state in place of the secular state," Boko Haram stated in no uncertain terms in the statement published by the Osun Defender on Thursday.
"We are responsible for the suicide attack on a church in Jos and also another attack on another church in Biu," a spokesman for the group, Abul Qaqa, is said to have told reporters in the northeastern city of Maiduguri over the phone. The group was responsible for recent terrorist attacks, in which six people were killed and dozens injured after a suicide bomber detonated explosives outside a church in Jos and other Boko Haram gunmen opened fire at worshipers in a church in Biu.
"We launched these attacks to prove the Nigerian security wrong and to debunk their claim that we have been weakened by the military crackdown," the man added, referring to the Nigerian military fighting back against the group in recent times, managing to kill 19 terrorist gunmen in a shootout last week in the cities of Kano and Maiduguri.
Nigeria, which is largely divided along geographical and religious lines, with most Christians concentrated in the South and Muslims living in the North, has been unable to contain the violence aimed at churches. Boko Haram has killed hundreds of Christians throughout the past year, and despite President Goodluck Jonathan's promise to do all he can to push back against the group, they are still very active in the country.
"We will crush them. We will begin from tonight to take different measures, different approach in fighting Boko Haram and we must weed them out from the society," Jonathan said earlier this year.
The Islamic extremists have been increasingly vocal about their activities, and even warned journalists about forgetting to include their statements in stories covering their attacks.
"We are keeping tabs on all comments being made about us ... Let no one make any entreaty to us when we perfect our plan and start our operation, especially against journalists," Boko Haram said in a statement earlier this month.


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Windows 7 Feature Focus
Parental Controls and Family Safety
Note: Parts of this article were excerpted from Windows 7 Secrets Chapter 8, User Accounts and UAC. --Paul
In Windows Vista, Microsoft first offered parental controls that can be applied to your children's accounts to keep them away from the bad stuff online and off, and give you peace of mind that was previously lacking when the kids got on a computer. As in Windows Vista, Windows 7's parental controls are available on a per-user basis. And they're augmented by a richer set of functionality through the optional Windows Live Family Safety.
Tip: The parental controls functionality in Windows 7 is not available if your system is configured to access an Active Directory (AD)-based domain. That is, they are designed for workgroup-style networking only.
Built-in parental controls
To set up parental controls, you first need to configure one or more user accounts as standard user accounts; these are the accounts that your children will use.
Secret: Parental controls cannot be applied to an administrator-class account. They can be applied only to standard users. In addition, there?s another limitation. While it?s technically possible to configure parental controls on a system in which one or more administrators do not have passwords, doing so would be folly. Parental controls rely on the controlled accounts (your kids' accounts) not having access to administrator accounts. If one or more administrator-class accounts do not have passwords, your kids will be able to bypass any controls you set up. Thus, be sure that any administrator-class accounts on the PC have passwords.
Then, from an administrator account, you can configure parental controls. To do so, just type parental in Start Menu Search to locate and access the parental controls application. Then select the user to which you?d like to add parental controls. This will display the User Controls window.
You will most likely see a message in the parental controls control panel stating that web filtering and activity reporting are not available on this computer. In Windows Vista, these features were part of the built-in parental controls functionality. But in Windows 7, these features are now part of Windows Live Family Safety, which you must install and configure separately, as described below.
You can configure parental controls on only one account at a time. If you have three children to whom you'd like to apply identical parental controls, unfortunately you will have to repeat these steps for each of your children?s accounts.
Time limits
The Time Restrictions parental control provides a graphical grid that enables you to configure exactly when your kids can use the computer. By default Windows 7 users can use the PC on any day at any time, but by dragging your mouse around the grid you can prevent your children from using the computer at specific hours, such as late at night or during school hours.
The Game Restrictions parental control specifies whether your children can play games on the PC and, if so, which games they can access. By default standard account holders can play all games. Of course, you can fine-tune that setting using the screen shown here, which appears when you click Set game ratings.
Here you can set acceptable game ratings using the rating system enabled on your PC. The most common and default system (regardless of where you are in the world) is the Entertainment Software Ratings Board?s (ESRB). Additionally, you can block games based on content, using a surprising range of content types, including unrated online games, alcohol and tobacco reference, alcohol reference, animated blood, blood, blood and gore, cartoon violence, comic mischief, crude humor, drug and alcohol reference, drug and tobacco reference, drug reference, edutainment, fantasy violence, and about 200 others. It?s a long list.
Finally, you can also block or allow specific games, which is surprisingly helpful because many Windows games do not digitally identify their rating. The nice thing about this UI, shown below, is that parental controls sees which games are already installed on the system and enables you to supply a Caesar-style yea or nay.
Allow and block specific programs
This final setting lets you manually specify applications that you do or do not want your child to use. By default standard users can access all of the applications installed on the system. However, using the interface shown here, it?s possible to fine-tune what?s allowed. If you don?t see an application in the list, click Browse to find it.
Windows Live Family Safety
Windows Live Family Safety is a cloud-based service that extends the parental controls that are native to Windows 7 with a variety of web, email, and instant messaging protections aimed at keeping your children safe online. Windows Live Family Safety is installed as part of Windows Live Essentials, which can be found on Microsoft's web site.
Note: Windows Live Family Safety has changed pretty dramatically, and for the better, in the latest (2011) version of Windows Live Essentials. For this reason, that is the version I'll be covering here.
Configuring Windows Live Family Safety
When you install Windows Live Family Safety, you'll see it appear as the default entry under Additional Controls in the Parental Controls control panel. However, to start and configure this functionality, you must locate the Family Safety executable. As always, Start Menu Search is your friend: Type family to find it, then logon to your Windows Live account. The Family Safety application will appear
Select one or more accounts to monitor. Each monitored account must be linked to a Family Safety member name associated with your Live ID. In previous versions of Windows Live Family Safety, each of these members had to be a specially configured Windows Live account, though that is no longer required. (However, if you prefer to set it up that way, or are upgrading, it's still possible.)
Once Family Safety is set up for the (childrens') user accounts you wish to monitor, you can further configure each of its supported features--including web filtering, activity monitoring, and more--on the Family Safety web site.
Web filtering
Family Safety's web filtering capabilities help you determine which kinds of web sites each child can visit, using a plain English scale that goes from "allow list only"--where only those sites added to a white list will work--to "warn on adult," where all web sites are allowed but suspected adult sites will trigger a warning. You can also independently determine whether each child can download files from the web.
Regardless of which filter level you choose, you can add specific web sites (like facebook.com) to the web filtering list, and either allow (white list) or block (black list) each. Children that run afoul of unapproved site can send their parents requests, via Messenger or email.
Activity monitoring
Using Family Safety's activity monitoring functionality, you can monitor your children's behavior online, seeing which web sites they visit, which applications they run, when and how long they were online, and so own.
Contacts management
If you configure a child's account to use a Windows Live ID, which is a bit more complicated than the default set-up, you can optionally control who your child chats with (via Windows Live Messenger) and shares email with (via Hotmail). (As with web filtering, children must send their parents requests, via Messenger or email, before contacts are approved.
Parental controls integration
Family Safety also takes over for Windows 7's built-in parental controls, so you can configure those features via any web browser on any PC, instead of requiring you to physically logon to the same computer, as you would in the base configuration. These features include the time limits, game restrictions, and program restrictions discussed above. The web-based interfaces for these features work similarly to the local Parental Controls application.
But wait, there's more...
There's much more going on with Windows 7 user accounts, but you'll have to check out Windows 7 Secrets for the rest, including understanding the different account types, using User Account Control to protect your system, and more. The book is available now from Amazon.com and other booksellers. Click here to find out more about Windows 7 Secrets.


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Potemkin, Prince Grigori Alexandrovich (1739-1791)
Prince Grigori Alexandrovich Potemkin: Russian statesman; born 24 September 1739 in the village of Chizhovo, Russia. As a member of the Chevalier Guard, he participated in the palace coup that ousted Peter III. By 1774 he had become a favorite of Catherine the Great, and for the next 17 years he was the most powerful man in the Russian Empire. Potemkin died 5 October 1791.
Potemkin was appointed governor general of New Russia by Catherine the Great with instructions to open and settle the newly acquired territory in the South. Potemkin accomplished this task by resettling Russian peasants and settling foreign pioneers, by founding cities (see Kherson and Ekaterinoslav [now Dnipropetrovsk]), developing roads, and planting forests and vineyards. The war with Turkey, which broke out in 1787, came inopportunely for him, but the acquisition of Crimea in 1783 was one of his achievements. Upon the suggestion of Count Peter Rumyantsev (1725-1796), a Russian general, Catherine sent George von Trappe as her plenipotentiary to invite foreign settlers, with an especial commission to the Danzig Mennonites, whose pioneering capabilities had come to the attention of the Russians in the Seven Years' War. As governor general of Little Russia Count Rumiantsev was much interested in agriculture, and in 1770 he had permitted the Hutterian Brethren, who had been designated as Mennonites by the immigration laws, to settle on his Vyshenka estate in the province of Chernigov. After Rumyantsev's death the Hutterian Brethren established a Bruderhof at Radichev. In other respects also the Hutterian Brethren were the forerunners of the Mennonites in settling in Russia.
Potemkin, whose colonizing achievements have been described by Theresia Adamczyk, in 1786 received in Dubrovna on the Dnieper Jakob Höppner and Johann Bartsch, the delegates sent by the Danzig Mennonites to examine the land offered by Catherine. In the spring of the following year the delegates were received at Kremenchug by Catherine in the presence of her dignitaries, and also, on the return journey, by Paul, the heir apparent to the throne. They had selected the region of Berislav, not far from Kherson, for settlement, but "on account of warlike events" (Heese) were compelled by Potemkin to settle in the Chortitza area in the district of Ekaterinoslav, the capital of which Potemkin was planning to make the center of the Black Sea region.
Adamczyk, Theresia . Fürst G. A. Potemkin, Untersuchung zu seiner Lebensgeschichte (dissertation, Berlin and Emsdetten, 1936): 28-49.
Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon, 4 vols. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe: Schneider, 1913-1967: v. III, 385.
Klaus, Alexander. Unsere Kolonien (translated into German from Russian by Jakob Töws, Odessa, 1887).
Leibbrandt, Georg. Sammlung IV. Leipzig, 1941: 3, note 1; 4, note 5.
Woltner, Margarete. Die Gemeindeberichten von 1818 der deutschen Siedlungen am Schwarzen Meer.
Author(s) | Benjamin H Unruh |
Date Published | 1959 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Unruh, Benjamin H. "Potemkin, Prince Grigori Alexandrovich (1739-1791)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 2 Mar 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Potemkin,_Prince_Grigori_Alexandrovich_(1739-1791)&oldid=146006.
APA style
Unruh, Benjamin H. (1959). Potemkin, Prince Grigori Alexandrovich (1739-1791). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 2 March 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Potemkin,_Prince_Grigori_Alexandrovich_(1739-1791)&oldid=146006.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, pp. 206-207. All rights reserved.
©1996-2024 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.


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Teamsters drop suit against AA transport workers
Aug. 19, 2013, Dallas, Tx. - The Teamsters dropped a bid to push aside another union and represent about 11,000 aircraft mechanics and other workers at American Airlines.
August 19, 2013 By Carey Fredericks
The Teamsters said Friday they were pulling out because of a government lawsuit this week to block the merger of American Airlines and US Airways. The union said that the lawsuit had thrown American employees in turmoil, and a representation fight between two unions wouldn't help matters.
The Teamsters had hoped to represent ground workers after American and US Airways merged, but lost on both fronts.
Last week, the Teamsters lost an election to represent 4,600 mechanics at US Airways. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers won with 58 per cent of the vote.
At American, the Teamsters challenged the Transport Workers Union, or TWU, to represent ground workers for the nation's third-biggest airline.
TWU President James C. Little said Friday that his union was "pleased that the Teamsters realized that this raid of TWU members at American Airlines was both wasteful and divisive.''
The TWU had accused the Teamsters of turning in forged worker-support cards in their bid to qualify for an election. The Teamsters union had denied the charge and asked for two delays until late August to respond to the claims.
The machinists' union and TWU joined forces to oppose the Teamsters by agreeing to share representation of mechanics after a merger between American and US Airways.
The merger was thrown into doubt this week when the U.S. Justice Department sued to block the deal, saying it would reduce competition and cause consumers to pay higher prices for travel. The airlines have vowed to fight the lawsuit.


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Electric carmaker Tesla Motors wants security researchers to hack its vehicles. In coming months, the Silicon Valley based high-tech carmaker will hire up to 30 full-time hackers whose job will be to find and close vulnerabilities in the sophisticated firmware that controls its cars.
"Our security team is focused on advancing technology to secure connected cars," a company spokesman said via email. The focus is on "setting new standards for security and creating new capabilities for connected cars that don't currently exist in the automotive industry. The positions are full time, and we will have internship opportunities as well."
Tesla's cars are among the most digitally connected vehicles in the industry with the battery, transmission, engine systems, climate control, door locks and entertainment systems remotely accessible via the Internet.
So the company has a lot at stake in ensuring that the connectivity that allows its vehicles to be remotely managed doesn't also provide a gateway for malicious hackers.
Security researchers have already shown how malicious attackers can break into a car's electronic control unit and take control of vital functions including navigation, braking and acceleration.
In 2013, two researchers at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) showed how they could take control of a vehicle through the controller area network (CAN) used by devices in a car to communicate with each other. The researchers showed how attackers could send different commands to a car and cause it to brake or accelerate suddenly or jerk its steering wheel in different directions.
In that study, the researchers needed physical access to the CAN bus to carry out the attack. However, researchers have noted that similar attacks can be carried out wirelessly by accessing the CAN bus through Bluetooth connections, compromised Android smartphones and vehicle tracking and navigation systems like OnStar.
Such concerns have begun gaining wider attention with the federal government's plans to require all vehicle manufacturers in the U.S. to incorporate vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications capabilities in all light vehicles over the next few years.
The goal is to have a standard in place that would allow vehicles to automatically exchange information, such as speed and location data, with each other, with a view to avoiding collisions.
In a notice in the Federal Register this week, the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration (NHSTA) said it was seeking comments on the privacy and security implications of V2V technology.
"Some crash warning V2V applications, like Intersection Movement Assist (IMA) and Left Turn Assist (LTA), rely on V2V-based messages to obtain information to detect and then warn drivers of possible safety risks in situations where other technologies have less capability," the agency noted.