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"Gravity" and "12 Years a Slave" tied for top honors at the Producers Guild of America Awards on Sunday night, beating front-runner "American Hustle" and throwing open one of the tightest Oscar races in years.
"Gravity" producers Alfonso Cuarón and David Heyman and "12 Years a Slave" producers Anthony Katagas, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen, Brad Pitt & Dede Gardner shared the Darryl F. Zanuck outstanding producer of theatrical motion picture prize. The tie is a first in this category in PGA history.
Producers Guild awards: An article in the Jan. 20 Calendar section about the Producers Guild of America Awards said wins by "Modern Family" and "Breaking Bad" echoed the results of the Golden Globes. Those wins echoed results of the Screen Actors Guild Awards. —
Also nominated were the producers of "Blue Jasmine," "Captain Phillips," "Dallas Buyers Club," "Her," "Nebraska," "Saving Mr. Banks" and "The Wolf of Wall Street."
The PGAs are a bellwether of the best picture award at the Oscars. The last time the Producers Guild of America and the Academy Awards differed on their top choices was seven years ago when "Little Miss Sunshine" won the Zanuck trophy and the Academy Award went to "The Departed." This year, the list of PGA nominees mirrored the Academy Awards' best picture lineup, announced on Thursday, with two exceptions: "Saving Mr. Banks" is out of contention for an Oscar, and "Philomena" is in.
Also winning PGA awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel were Peter Del Vecho for "Frozen" in the animated motion picture category, and Alexis Bloom, Alex Gibney and Marc Shmuger for "We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks" in the documentary motion picture category.
The television winners echoed the Golden Globes a week earlier: The comedy series award went to the producers of "Modern Family." The drama series award went to "Breaking Bad." The long-form TV award went to "Behind the Candelabra."
The live entertainment and talk award went to "The Colbert Report." "Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown," the celebrity chef's CNN travel series, received the trophy for nonfiction television, and the producers behind "The Voice" received the PGA award for competition television.
ESPN's "SportsCenter" won for outstanding sports program, "Sesame Street" won for outstanding children's program, and the trophy for digital series went to "Wired: What's Inside."
"Fruitvale Station" received the Stanley Kramer Award, given for raising awareness of important social issues. "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" director Peter Jackson, visual effects artist Joe Letteri and Weta Digital was presented with the Vanguard Award for achievement in new media and technology.
Walt Disney company Chairman and CEO Bob Iger received the Milestone Award, and James Bond film producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli received the David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Motion Pictures for their body of work.
Chris Meledandri, founder and chief executive of Illumination Entertainment and producer of the "Despicable Me" movies, received the Visionary Award for "uplifting contributions to our culture through inspiring storytelling or performace." Chuck Lorre, the writer-producer of "The Big Bang Theory" and "Two and a Half Men," received the Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television.


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News & Notes
Yokohama Oktoberfest Through Oct. 17Oct 01 (Fri ), 2010
Yokohama Oktoberfest on Now Through Sunday, October 17
My favorite Oktoberfest is now on, at Akarenga Soko in Yokohama. It's open from 11 to 9 pm on weekends and holidays, and from 12 noon to 9 pm on weekdays. After paying a 200 yen entrance fee, you can make your way through a number of stalls selling a huge variety of German beers until you find the stall that has a small selection of Japanese craft beers sold at lower prices. Enjoy the free live music from the stage, and join in when the snake dances erupt from the crowd.
Akarenga Soko is a collection of old brick warehouses, and is only a six-minute walk from Nihon O-dori station or Bashamichi station on the Minato Mirai line.
The best information is on the Japanese site at http://www.yokohama-akarenga.jp/oktoberfest2010/
(Courtesy of BrewsNews / Bryan Harrell)

subset: commoncrawl


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We'd like to thank everyone who submitted a caption entry in our contest.
Many submissions, particularly those about safety vests, made us laugh, smile or giggle at our office desks, probably to the surprise of anyone passing by!
All of these were handpicked by our talented panel of judges (a.k.a. CFCA employees), who heard the caption only when they were judging and not the author's name.
Everyone agreed that the contest was difficult, and the winner beat the frontrunner by only two votes.
Honorable mentions:
- "You might want to hoof it or youíll be late for your flight" ñ Catherine Kellerman
- "If he follows us home can we keep him?" ñ Barb Kellerman
And the one that won, based on the most votes:
(drum roll please)
"Come on down to PABLOíS USED BURROS and pick out your next ride! Special offer this Sunday, all certified used burros receive a 10 point safety check and a nose to tail 30km or 30hr warranty. (Taxes and delivery extra, hats and safety vests not included in this offer)." ñ Ken
As winner of the caption contest, Ken will receive a beaded Walk2gether bracelet and appreciation from the general CFCA community.
For any of you wondering what the story behind this caption really is, here's Paul Pearce, CFCA director of international programs, pictured right of the donkey:
"I think at the 20-kilometer mark (of Walk2gether), we always received fruit during our rest break of about 15 minutes.
"Kris (Paul's wife, pictured left) saw these three donkeys about 200 yards down a small dirt road and wanted to go say hi.†Two kept a distance, but the one in the photo walked right up to her and really enjoyed being petted.
"Kris is a complete animal lover and the many donkeys, llamas, alpacas and woolly Peruvian dogs can all tell as she made lots of friends along the way. Ö I believe the fruit (pictured with Paul) is an orange, mango and peach."


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Experimental Rock
Experimental rock or avant-garde rock is a type of music based on rock which experiments with the basic elements of the genre, or which pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique.
Performers may also attempt to individualize their music with unconventional time signatures, instrumental tunings, unusual harmony and key signatures, compositional styles, lyrical techniques, elements of other musical genres, singing styles, instrumental effects or custom-made experimental musical instruments.
Some of the earliest artists which could fall under the term Experimental Rock include Monks, The Mothers of Invention, The Velvet Underground, Fifty Foot Hose, Nico, Captain Beefheart, Silver Apples and others.
|$27 Snap On Face (United States)
© Boar 2011 - 2019


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Christmas Dog Gift Baskets - Holiday Pet Gift Basket
Because of the increased demand for our products during the holiday season; try to plan ahead. Many of the treats in our baskets are made in our bakeries and require time to be baked and shipped.
All dogs big and small should be able to enjoy the wonder of the winter holidays. Order early and your biggest problem will be keeping the Christmas gift basket a secret.
Bunny Easter Pail Vegetarian Dog Treats
Holiday Cheer Gift Box Dog Treats
Merry Christmas Dog Treat Tote
Uptown Dog & Owner Winter Gift
Warm Wishes For Dog And Owner Holiday Gift
Party Girl Holiday Dog Gift Basket
High Society Winter Pup Gift
Holiday Santa Tin of Dog Treats
Forever Buddies Holiday Care Package
Sporty Dog Christmas Gift Basket
Glamour Girl Holiday Dog Gift Basket
Holiday Barks & Wags Dog Gift Basket
Pooch Heaven Holiday Dog Treat Basket
Happy Munching Dog & Owner Holiday Gift
Just For Dogs At The Holidays Gift Basket
Holiday Sophisticated Dog Gift Basket
Holiday Wags Dog Gift Basket
Santa Paws Dog Gift
Holiday Doggy Bag Gift
Many Thanks Dog and Owner Holiday Gift Basket
Dog Gone Cute Christmas Gift Basket
Holiday Smiles & Wags Dog and Owner Gift Basket
Reindeer Treats Dog Gift Basket
Santa Biscuits Dog Gift Basket
Happy Hanukkah Gift Tote - Gourmet Treats
Pizza Pals Dog and Owner Holiday Gift Basket
Warm Wishes For Dog And Owner Gift
Gingerbread Men - Christmas Gift Tote Gift Box
As Santa makes his list of naughty and nice children, your dog is a shoe-in for the nice column. Allowing your pet to benefit from the Christmas season can be just as rewarding for you as for them.Take some time and consider all the different Christmas Gift Baskets Pampered Dog Gifts has to offer. We offer so many different styles of Christmas Baskets it will be difficult to keep your selection to just one or two. One of our most popular Christmas Baskets is the Holiday Doggy Bag. Along with the festive wrapping come oodles of treats just waiting for Christmas morning.
A more elaborate Christmas gift basket it is the Ultimutt Dog Christmas Basket. This basket is loaded with treats for every dog's palate. The Ultimutt allows for an abundance of flavor choices for each item included in the basket. With all these options you might want a little more explanation of what each treat is. If this is the case we will be happy to help.Pampered Dog Gift selection of Christmas Gift Baskets can really save your holiday gift giving dilemmas. We have all had a person on our gift list that has absolutely everything. If those folks who have everything happen to have a dog, choose a Holiday Dog Gift Basket that their pet would enjoy. Dogs are not difficult to buy for and this is something the recipient won't want to return.
Our website has an extensive collection of choices for Holiday Dog Gift Baskets. We have included on our website a magnifying option so you can take a closer look at what each basket contains. Our medley of baskets includes Hanukkah gift baskets, Dog and Owner Gift Baskets and the colossal Holiday Friends Forever Dog and Owner Basket.


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The Globfather, Part Three
I hope that someday, when people describe a personal arc studded with hubris (and, potentially, taut pustules) they will describe it as crunchnerian.
Digital Foundry has put together a two-page assessment of the security concerns facing the Playstation 3 "in a world" where people at various points on the moral continuum have access to their private keys. I have been trying to come up with single way to express the problem, to compress its scope and scale into something you could comfortably wear on a pendant, but it's too big. I'm not sure it can be overstated.
What it means in actual practice is something different, though. Software for the Xbox 360 routinely outsells its PS3 equivalent, and that equipment is deeply compromised. Ask Infinity Ward how secure the 360 is. But there's still some voodoo involved in seizing the reins of that hardware. It's well understood and deeply codified voodoo, but there's still a rudimentary latch on the screen door. When the box literally cant distinguish between its creator and an unnamed third party, you've entered a new era.
After a pronounced and deafening Silence Phase, Sony has decided to make an official statement about how they control the vertical, but they can't tell you how. It reminded me of middle school, where a person might claim that they had an incredibly hot girlfriend, but you don't know her, because they met her at Summer Camp and she goes to school in Canada.
I've been trying to buy something from Apple's desktop variant of "The App Store" for two days now, and I've been unable to do so. Other people are apparently able to pull off this incredible feat, but just as with every other Apple Launch I exist in the part of the Venn Diagram where Nidhoggr, The Net Serpent and straight-up bad luck overlap. I was getting an Error Number whose designation was, literally, "@@errornum@@," which looks suspiciously like somebody's gamertag. Anyway, this story and the comments below it might have some succor for you.
(CW)TB out.


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Nigam Arora's technical analysis of the Apple stock price suggests it faces a few key days. At one stage Friday it was down at $558, from above $700 in September.
How ludicrous is this? Apple is a top performing company with plenty of room to grow. In the mobile space it is normal to count sales in the hundreds of millions. In computing you are big at 30 million units. Contrast with Nokia. At its peak, the Finnish company sold around 450 million phones a year. Mobile represents scale beyond the dreams of computer makers.
So Apple has upside - here's the story on the iPad Mini. And Apple has reinvented enterprise structures to facilitate extraordinary growth at low relative cost.
What's changed is sentiment. In the past what mattered was trader sentiment - that's why share prices go up and down - but what matters now is pervasive sentiment.
Eighteen months ago I wrote a few pieces here on Forbes about the relationship between specific sentiments and stock price. Here's one on innovation and share price performance.
I wrote about it six months ago too - suggesting that sentiment against Apple was turning. Last week I came back to the issue of public sentiment towards Apple. And shared with readers the view that part of Apple's problems stems from the broad spectrum of opinion forming around its performance. For a number of reasons anti-Apple sentiment has accelerated even as the company's performance improves.
Apple is in a fairly new place with sentiment - performing extremely well but getting nailed by opinion. It's not entirely new. Apple competitor Nokia lost its shine before it lost its competitiveness, taking criticism for its design shortcomings while it was a global powerhouse.
Nokia was poor enough at managing perceptions about its performance that senior management lost the right to manage. And that view is forming around Tim Cook, rightly or wrongly.
The flow of sentiment, and the management of reputation around it, is vastly different from PR, and the reason could be that sentiment analysis is now deeply embedded in trading systems as a buy/sell signal. Here's Chris Thomas from Media Measurement, one of those involved in developing sentiment analysis for trading.
"....automated sentiment analysis is viable commercially ONLY because of high frequency trading applications. Algorithmic trading is an anomaly in that it creates a feedback loop – it almost doesn't matter about the accuracy of the signal, as long as there is a definite pos or neg signal the signal drives the trades, the trades drive further moves in the same direction in terms of investor sentiment and the value lies in latency, who can act first to exploit the opportunity creates, so that's why sentiment analysis is a market at all."
In other words Apple's problems lie in the signals swirling around the market place, all quite detached from its PR machine that largely emerge from social media sources like blogs. We need to know more about the impact of online sentiments. They are clearly taking a toll on Apple right now. Just as clearly we have a misplaced emphasis on social media as a marketing tool when in fact its real impact might be on valuations.
The right way to deal with it - Cook has to up his game and become more of a peer in the community of people building their businesses around Apple.
Related on Forbes:
Follow me on Twitter @haydn1701
You might also like to read The Elastic Enterprise where Nick Vitalari and I analyze Apple's enterprise advantage.


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Sunshine "Scrip" Program
We believe in community involvement and supporting one another. One of our community fund raising opportunities is our "Scrip" Program. This program offers non-profit organizations and booster clubs a discount on Sunshine gift cards to use as an ongoing fundraiser throughout the year. By supporting the "Scrip" Program, you help raise much needed funds for our local groups and help keep business in town which helps create more jobs and more tax revenue for our schools and community!
Simply ask us where to get them!


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Transform your photos into one-of-a-kind, hand painted masterpieces!
by Helen Gerro
Mermaid Under The Sea by Helen Gerro - 8.000" x 3.875"
Archival Matte Paper
Rolled in a Tube
Assembly Charge
Mermaid Under The Sea poster by Helen Gerro. Our posters are produced on acid-free papers using archival inks to guarantee that they last a lifetime without fading or loss of color. All posters include a 1" white border around the image to allow for future framing and matting, if desired.
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All prints ship in durable cardboard tubes.
Fine Art America is one of the largest, most-respected giclee printing companies in the world with over 40 years of experience producing museum-quality posters and prints. All of our posters are produced on state-of-the-art, professional-grade Epson printers.
We use acid-free paper with archival inks to guarantee that your posters last a lifetime without fading or loss of color. All posters include a 1" white border around the image to allow for future framing and matting, if desired.
Posters ship within 3 - 4 business days in durable cardboard tubes.
Average Rating (4.93 Stars):
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June 18th, 2019
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June 18th, 2019
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June 18th, 2019
Mermaid laying on the sea bottom with flowing hair in the sea.
To purchase the ORIGINAL Paintings by Helen Gerro, Go to www.GerroCouture.com Gallery Boutique. Gerro Paintings available through PAY PAL. and Square. Recently seen in RSW magazine 3 top fashionistas of gulf coast, Cigar Magazine Cigar Art "The artictic inspiration of cigars" 5 page spread article in magazine the photos featured below. Also recently featured in Phassion Magazine 8 page Gerro Couture Designer Fashion. Art of women Gerro's art is known for Gerro's consistent signature look, "a celebration of women ." Helen expresses an indelible fascination of dramatic sensual distinctive looks with bold use of color and contemporary lines. Through her medium of choice which is acrylic, oil, and pastels, Gerro has maintained a timeless...
Our return policy is very simple:
If you're not happy with a purchase that you made on FineArtAmerica.com, for any reason, you can return it to us within 30 days of the order date. As soon as it arrives, we'll issue a full refund for the entire purchase price. Please note - Fine Art America does not reimburse the outgoing or return shipping charges unless the return is due to a defect in quality.
Fine Art America sells thousands of pieces of artwork each month - all with a 100% money-back guarantee. We take great pride in the fact that hundreds of thousands of artists have chosen Fine Art America to fulfill their orders, and we look forward to helping you select your next piece!
All posters ship from our production facility within 2 - 3 business days of your order.


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Hilights of the new MediaBox release:
The overall performance of the user interface has been improved again and the lists now feature transition effects and remember the position where you where standing in the parent folder when you go back. This is especially handy when browsing UPnP/DLNA servers.
The mplayer backend has been optimized and mplayer now plays videos generally a lot smoother than before. Playback of higher resolution videos (e.g. 640 x 480) is now also smoother by automatic downscaling.
Media indexing has been improved and runs faster. And if you don't like indexing of ID tags, you can always browse the filesystem to play your media, of course.
Music can now also be browsed by genre, additional to browsing by artist, by album, and by folder.
MediaBox can now be told to keep the display lit while playing media. Stop playing, and the device may enter powersaving mode again.
If you use the Nokia headset that came with the device, you can now use the headset button to pause/play and skip to the next or previous track. Do this by pushing the button once, twice, or three times, respectively. Do not press the button to quickly because the headset is bad at detecting consecutive actions, though. Half a second between clicks is just right.
Friday, March 6, 2009
MediaBox Media Center 0.96.4 released
Posted by Martin Grimme at 1:46 PM 4 comments:
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Homes for sale in Nocatee a new community in Ponte Vedra Florida
Home | Featured Listings | Open Houses | About Us | Our Agents | Contact Us | Active Listings | Search for Homes | Advanced Search | Map Search | Foreclosures | Mortgage Rates | Buyer/Seller Info | Real Estate News | Housing Wire | Sawmill Lakes | Marsh Landing | Fairfield/Azalea | Odoms Mill | Sawgrass Country Clb | Sawgrass Beach Club | Plantation Oaks | Sawgrass Players Cb | Ocean Grande | Serenata Beach | Old Ponte Vedra | The Woodlands | Nocatee | Del Webb - Nocatee | Oceanfront Condos | Marsh Harbor | Dolphin Cove | L'Atrium/Fidlrs Msh | Las Palmas | The Grove | Jacksonville Golf | Avondale/Rivrside Hm | The Plantation At Ponte Vedra, FL | Glen Kernan | My Blog
Copyright 2019 Northeast Florida Multiple Listing Service, Inc. All rights reserved. The data relating to real estate for sale on this web site comes in part from the Internet Data Exchange (IDX) program of the Northeast Florida Multiple Listing Service, Inc. Real estate listings held by brokerage firms other than Country Club Real Estate are marked with the listing brokers name and detailed information about such listings includes the name of the listing brokers. Data provided is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed. Country Club Real Estate does not display the entire Northeast Florida Multiple Listing Service, Inc. data exchange program database on this web site. The listings of some real estate brokerage firms have been excluded. Last updated on 2019-06-16.
Any use of search facilities of data on the site, other than by a consumer looking to buy, sell or lease real estate is prohibited. Based on information from Northeast Florida Multiple Listing Service, Inc that was updated on 2019-06-16. The Corporation does not guarantee and is not in any way responsible for, its accuracy. Data maintained by Northeast Florida Multiple Listing Service, Inc. does not reflect all real estate activity in the market.


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Strategy OverviewThe Gabelli Focus Five Fund is a concentrated, actively managed "best ideas" strategy launched on January 1, 2012. The Fund will invest in 25-35 companies of all market capitalizations, with the ability to allocate up to 50% of the portfolio in the five largest positions. The portfolio may have a considerable cash position from time to time. Investment ideas are thoroughly analyzed by members of the experienced team of 45 investment professionals in the Gabelli organization. Similar to many of the Gabelli Funds, the Focus Five Fund will employ our Private Market Value (PMV) with a Catalyst™ research methodology in defining the investable universe.
The Gabelli Focus Five Fund
Effective January 1, 2012, the Fund changed its name and investment strategy from "The Gabelli Woodland Small Cap Value Fund" to "The
Gabelli Focus Five Fund".
As a non-diversified mutual fund, more of the Fund's assets may be focused in the common stocks of a small number of issuers, which may make the value of the Fund's shares more sensitive to changes in the market value of a single issuer or industry than shares of a diversified mutual fund.
The Fund may invest in foreign securities. Investing in foreign securities involves risks not ordinarily associated with investment in domestic issues including currency fluctuations, economic, and political risks.
Investors should carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of the Fund before investing. The prospectus, which contains more complete information about this and other matters, should be read carefully before investing. To obtain a prospectus, please call 800-GABELLI or visit www.gabelli.com.
The Gabelli Mutual Funds are distributed by G.distributors, LLC., a registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA.


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Let's Talk About Sexo: Family and Sexual Politics in Online HIV Prevention Education
If you're like me, then at one point or another, you've found it difficult to discuss sex with your family. Regardless of how universal sex and sexuality are, it seems to be a topic that not many families can openly discuss. Funny, because most families are formed by generations of people having sex to produce offspring!
Nowadays, talking about sex also includes talking about HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and the importance of testing as part of a complete sexual health regimen. Though many families leave these potentially sensitive areas out of their conversations about health, it is now more important than ever that sexual health topics be broached in the family unit.
To address this issue, two HIV care providers -- Natalie Sanchez and Hilda Sandoval of AltaMed, the nation's largest federally qualified health center -- decided to bring prevention education into the 21st century with their online telenovela series, Sin Vergüenza. The telenovela chronicles the goings-on of the fictional working-class Mexican-American Salazar family -- from a newly-widowed grandmother to an out, loud and proud gay son Enrique.
Why don't you watch the last installment in the series right now? Don't worry, I'll wait!
Before you read the rest of this piece, make sure to watch Episode 4 of Sin Vergüenza. If you're hearing about this great series for the first time, catch up by watching Episodes 1 through 3 (in English or Spanish!) -- and reading the accompanying interviews!
Haz clic aquí para ver la telenovela Sin Vergüenza, capítulo 4, en español.
Those who are familiar with the series -- whether from its beginnings or a recent first-time viewing -- will see that there are some very recognizable family dynamics at work. While our families are often the people we love most, they are also often the most likely people to whom we lie. Families can be hotbeds of secrecy, deception and "sins of omission." Any different, and they wouldn't be families. Sin Vergüenza takes the age-old trope of family secrets and injects it with another complication: HIV.
Sin Vergüenza is, first and foremost, an exploration of the anxieties that come along with sexual relationships, how these anxieties are magnified when people refuse to speak about them out loud -- and the very real dangers that accompany silence. Every person in this close family unit is dealing with an anxiety around sex, whether it is infidelity, sexual orientation or empowerment. There are scenes when characters must combat these anxieties alone, and even more powerful scenes when the entire family comes together to face them together.
First, we have the grandmother character, Esther Salazar. Newly widowed and back on the dating scene for the first time in years, Esther is nervous about pursuing a romantic relationship with a male suitor with whom she plays bingo at the local recreation center. Knowing that the rates of STIs and HIV have been increasing among people 50 years of age and older, this situation reads as both very real and very refreshing. Sex is a real human need, and in the wake of the passing of a partner, many older adults are taking a second dip in the dating pool -- and last time they were in it, HIV was either nonexistent, or seen as only a gay, white, young man's disease. Having a heterosexual female character over 50 who's dealing with the effects of condom usage is a revolutionary and necessary portrayal, and I applaud the makers of Sin Vergüenza for creating this character.
Though the novela leaves the question of who has become HIV positive open until the very (bitter) end, that it could be abuelita is one of the most intriguing storylines. We see a woman of a certain age engaging in unprotected sex -- an extremely realistic plot point -- and then realizing that she thought that part of her life was over, but that she must negotiate condom usage with partners.
And what of the gay son? Surprisingly, Enrique is portrayed as least at risk for HIV out of the entire cast. A law student and community advocate, he's the most well-adjusted -- and the most trusting of his partner. The filmmakers fly in the face of almost every gay stereotype. The opening scene of the series shows that the family is much more accepting of the daughter's boyfriend than Enrique's, but after HIV makes its way into the fabric of the family tapestry, Enrique's boyfriend is the person who educates everyone around HIV, how to protect themselves and how to seek treatment. Implied in this is that not only do Enrique and his boyfriend speak openly about HIV and condom use, but that speaking openly about sex actually makes for a healthy relationship (Enrique's is the healthiest relationship represented). And, Enrique's boyfriend's knowledge of HIV finally enmeshes him into the family dynamic.
The youngest in the family, Christina, suspects her boyfriend, Hector, of infidelity. Coming out of a Latino family, one with a gay son (me!) and a straight daughter, I understand this family dynamic. When I came out to my family, I was told to watch out for HIV; and when my sister came of age, she was told not to get pregnant. I know many people out there who share a similar story. As such, Christina's struggle in the series is to find her voice to speak to her boyfriend about her desire to use condoms during sex. Subtly looming as a subtext may be the fear of domestic violence as a consequence of using her voice to negotiate condom usage with Hector. Where Enrique's relationship seems to succeed because of openness, that lack of openness seems to threaten the very foundation of Christina's relationship.
Christina also cares about her father's sexual health, and slips condoms into his jacket pocket, showing a strong generational problem with talking about sex. She cannot intervene on her boyfriend's infidelity and instead tries to intervene on her father's, in place of her mother's inability to do so.
César, the father, and Adriana, the mother, are the couple at the heart of the conflict. César is keeping his sexuality a secret from his wife and the rest of his family. Adriana believes her husband is cheating and is worried that she may be pregnant after she gets sick one day. Though she does not think herself at risk for HIV, she gets a routine HIV test from the doctor which comes back -- positive! Yes, the mother character is the one who gets HIV in this case. And, it is presumed that she received it from her husband, César, who we see is engaging in gay sex when his son sees him out at a gay bar.
This brings us to perhaps the most complicated part of the plot: Does Sin Vergüenza blame the "down low," or supposedly straight men having gay sex in secret, for the spread of HIV?
Though that may seem to be the case at first, truthfully, the series is an exploration of secrecy and the consequences of not talking about HIV. This series was adapted from real-life stories that people working at AltaMed encountered. Though the alleged "down low" has been proven not to be a major driver of the HIV epidemic in communities of color, to think that no heterosexual men in the U.S. ever cheat on their wives with other men is to be ignorant. In order to combat homophobic and misinformed remarks, people in the HIV community often dismiss the "down low" as hogwash. And indeed, the phenomenon is not so pathologically common as to warrant such rampant use of that stigmatizing label. But what is pathologically common in many communities , not just communities of color, is homophobia. The homophobia that can turn parents away from their out, proud gay children is the same force that may make it seem impossible for men like César to be open about their sexuality with their families.
The important note, and the overriding theme of Sin Vergüenza, is that while sexual health should be discussed openly in a family setting, as well as with your doctor, personal responsibility and the ability to speak up for yourself are steps on the road toward personal empowerment.
Does Sin Vergüenza lay blame on any one person in the series? No. In fact, the series is more an optimistic prevention tool than a rehashing of the blame game. It's based in hope that community members will begin to talk about HIV in both their family rooms and their doctors' offices. It's a step toward helping people find their voices. Perhaps it's a story about a couple, César and Adriana, who found their voices too late. It's not until the final moments of the series that we finally hear them open up and speak their truths, when really our truths deserve to be opened up, recognized and validated at every stage of our lives. And since the producers of Sin Vergüenza clearly recognize that not everyone is in a place in their lives where it's safe to be completely open, what better destination to suggest for their characters -- and their audience -- than one of sexual health and empowerment?
Mathew Rodriguez is the editorial project manager for TheBody.com and TheBodyPRO.com.
Follow Mathew on Twitter: @mathewrodriguez.


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Please take a look at all the arrangements and more photos from the class here on our flickr page!
Berkeley, California
Please take a look at all the arrangements and more photos from the class here on our flickr page!
8 comments:
I had so much fun, Sarah & Nicolette! Thank you again for such a lovely class. My ranunculus with the big green tooth is starting to fade, and I am so sad to see it go. I don't think I've ever been this attached to a flower before. :)ReplyDelete
beautiful arrangement....and those fruit confections look delish!ReplyDelete
You're speaking my language with flowers and especially herbs! Great photos!ReplyDelete
I used to work in flowers and THESE are precisely the sort of designs I'd love to do - natural, organic, heavenly. So beautiful, I want to come to a class!ReplyDelete
marvelous. stunning. and a bit envious that i only heard about you delightful people this morning. will you be back in the bay area this spring?ReplyDelete
Beautiful, Beautiful arrangements! I love the natural simplistic style, keep up the good work!ReplyDelete
we got the card in the mail, thank you and it was our pleasure.ReplyDelete
josh & kristy


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You are hereHome | Learn About Wildlife | Defenders Magazine | Summer 2010 | Defenders in Action: Defenders Responds to Offshore Oil Disaster
Defenders in Action: Defenders Responds to Offshore Oil Disaster
The British Petroleum (BP) offshore drilling rig that exploded on April 20 dumped millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico in the following weeks. For sea turtles, fish, shorebirds, seabirds, corals, dolphins, whales and other wildlife that live part or all of their lives in the Gulf of Mexico, the unprecedented oil leak is catastrophic.
© Krista Schlyer / Defenders of Wildlife
In both size and impacts, the BP spill is one of the nation's worst environmental disasters, far surpassing the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska. It threatens at least 400 species, 19 vital wildlife refuges, two national marine sanctuaries and dozens of communities dependent on the gulf's multibillion-dollar fishing and tourism industries. The fact that the spill occurred just weeks after President Obama proposed expanding drilling off America's coasts dramatically raised the stakes for wildlife.
"In recent years, we've been lulled into believing something like this could never happen," says Defenders' President Rodger Schlickeisen. "Big Oil companies said, 'Look at our great safety record and even if something does happen, we have the means to control it.' We're seeing that isn't remotely true."
After revelations that the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service (MMS) granted BP's Gulf oil drilling operation a waiver from a full environmental analysis required by federal law, Defenders filed suit against the federal agency. MMS also exempted more than 20 new structures and exploratory wells from environmental review.
"This is unconscionable," says Defenders' attorney Sierra Weaver. "As demonstrated by the disaster in the Gulf, the magnitude of potential damage posed by risky offshore drilling operations is just too great to require anything less than close scrutiny by a competent and discerning agency."
In the days following the spill, Richard Charter, Defenders' senior policy advisor for marine programs, began working with the nation's top data analysts to predict the spill's path to help wildlife rescue response teams plan their work. And a team of Defenders staffers led by executive vice president Jamie Rappaport Clark traveled to the Gulf Coast, toured wildlife refuges and met with government officials to assess the potential environmental damage and coordinate Defenders' response.
"The worst thing about this is that it all could have been avoided," says Clark. "This is not a natural phenomenon caused by Mother Nature. This is caused by people. Something has got to change."
"Clearly this raises grave concerns for any expansion of drilling off our coasts in the future," says Charter.
Defenders was pleased when President Obama, in response to calls by Defenders and others, canceled exploratory oil drilling in Alaska's Beaufort and Chukchi seas, which had been scheduled to begin in July; suspended deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico; and canceled the sale of oil leases off the Virginia coast. Defenders has called upon President Obama and Congress to make these steps permanent.
Defenders has also been aggressively lobbying the U.S. Senate to pass comprehensive climate change legislation that moves the country away from its dangerous dependence on fossil fuels and addresses the impacts of climate change on wildlife.
"To win climate change legislation we should not have to compromise by allowing offshore drilling," says Schlickeisen. "This spill is a reminder about how important it is to have strong environmental laws. We plan to put the pressure on Congress and the White House to move away from our reliance on dirty, dangerous fossil fuels once and for all."
How You Can Help
Urge President Obama to Reinstate the Presidential Ban on Offshore Oil Drilling


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ReleasesBack to
Tina Brooks
The music that comprises Back to the Tracks was recorded in September 1960, months after the sessions for True Blue, but it sat on the shelves until Mosaic reissued it as part of their Complete Blue Note Recordings box, even though it was penciled in for release. Like Minor Move, Tina Brooks first session that stayed unreleased for over 20 years, Back to the Tracks is an excellent hard bop set, and it's hard to understand why it wasn't released at the time. Brooks leads a fantastic band featuring alto saxophonist Jackie McLean, trumpeter Blue Mitchell, pianist Kenny Drew, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Art Taylor through three originals and two standards. Each musician has opportunity to shine, but Brooks remains the center of attention. His style is remarkably fluid, capable of graceful, elegant turns on the ballads and clean, speedy improvisations on the up-tempo bop. Each of the five songs have breathtaking moments, confirming Brooks talents as a saxophonist, composer and leader. Listening to Back to the Tracks, it's impossible to figure out why the record wasn't released at the time, but it's a hard bop gem from the early '60s to cherish. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine


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In March, I traveled to Lima, Peru, with our Mercy College communications disorders program director, Helen Buhler, and a team of 27 physicians, surgeons, nurses, technicians and other SLPs. We were there as part Mercy College's partnership with Healing the Children, Northeast, which provides primarily surgical services to children in need in the United States and abroad.
Over the week we were there, 37 children had surgery; some had traveled for 7 days to reach the hospital. We SLPs worked on parent training, peer training and direct service delivery. Here are some excerpts from the blog I kept during our visit.
I cried when Dr. Manoj Abraham—a surgeon from Vassar Hospital—put the last stitch into the baby's lip.
On Friday, Helen, Marianella Bonelli—an SLP and Mercy alum—and I visited with all the parents on the ward. For those whose children had had a lip repair, we celebrated together, admiring their beautiful babies. For those who had their lips repaired but still would need palate surgery in the future, we also gave advice on helping the kids develop good speech habits now to establish good airflow from the mouth after the palate is closed. We worked directly with the kids who had newly closed palates and their parents, teaching about how to bring the sounds out through the mouth and not the nose. Needless to say, there were many therapy materials, toys and goodies passed around, ensuring we went home empty handed but the kids did not.
After speech rounds, we put on fresh scrubs and went to surgery. Dr. Abraham was operating on a baby with a cleft lip that went up into her nose all the way, and welcomed us to observe him.
He was putting this baby's nose together, carefully making it match the other side as much as possible. He worked some more on the deep layers of the lip, making sure it would be able to have free movement. Then he sutured the philtrum, the raised line that runs down from your nostril to the beginning of the red part of your lip. Suddenly, this baby had a sweet Cupid's bow of a mouth…a mouth that would pout and pucker, shout, whisper…
Even though it was my second time in the OR and I thought I was over it, I cried and cried. Writing this now, I'm crying again.
What a gift.
As I came into the speech office (a commandeered storage room), I saw Helen doing…arts and crafts?
Helen always says we do cowgirl therapy on these trips—shooting from the hip. When an 11-year-old girl with cerebral palsy arrived with very few spoken words, and those few only intelligible to her mom, Helen created an old school low-tech augmentative communication device. She used paper, a sheet protector and some of our speech materials to create a board with some basic vocabulary.
The mom was thrilled to have a way for her daughter to communicate some wants and needs to others in her life. Helen showed her how to create more pages for the board as the child mastered its use. The mom's eyes were shining—it was so obvious that the board would be implemented immediately.
Based on a quick evaluation, it was clear that the child understood a lot more than she could say, so we hope this is a way she can start to "say" something to the world at last.
We also worked with a four year old boy with hearing loss due to a malformation of the external and middle ear. He has had recurrent ear infections and had drainage from one ear. He was taking an assortment of antibiotics, and his mom had a thick folder of medical records with her. Although his audiological testing shows a hearing loss, he is not currently a candidate for surgery (Dr. Ryan Brown graciously gave him an exam on the fly to double check).
Helen spent some time with the mom, teaching about behavior management, and I taught her about sign language. I taught them three signs: "go," "more" and "eat." The kid chased me around the grounds of the hospital, as we worked our way over to our surgical consult, and I would only run if he signed, "go." We went from hand-over-hand to slight physical prompt, to following a model for the sign "go."
The mother was shocked at how positive our interaction was—he was laughing as he chased me. Soon, this kid will experience the power of controlling his world through communication.
Score one for the speech department.
Shari Salzhauer Berkowitz, PhD, CCC-SLP, is an assistant professor at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. She is an affiliate of ASHA Special Interest Groups 10 (Issues in Higher Education) and 17 (Global Issues in Communications Sciences and Related Disorders). Her research interests include cross-language and bilingual speech perception, multi-modal speech perception and integrating technology and instrumentation into the communication disorders curriculum.


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For those of you who are not aware of the concept of a One Name Study may I suggest that you head over to the Guild of One Name Studies homepage for a breakdown of what they do.
I had dealings with Guild Members long before I joined myself, indeed I had some very useful advice regarding my PARRY problem from the member researching this particular surname. I joined the Guild at Who Do You Think You Are this year but I wasn't overly sure about registering a surname. It's a daunting task, especially when you consider it is a WORLD WIDE study. I've been collecting information about the STEERS family, trying to find out how they appeared in Hull in the late 1830's whilst living in London. In order to try to do this I was collecting all the information I could about STEERS around that time frame, so in my wisdom (?) I gave serious consideration to undertaking this study.
Then last week, whilst on holiday my OH proposed. So STEERS will be my name soon enough and I decided that yes, I did want to do this. So I've registered the surname with the Guild. I've set up my Guild Profile (although it is a little sparse) and I've started this blog to chart my journey. I won't however be neglecting my own parental ancestry and I'll still be posting about this on my other blog but I thought it best to separate the two.
So welcome to my new blog & my new adventure (in more ways than one!)


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My First Triathlon
One advantage of competing on a team is that when accounting for a mediocre performance you can always throw one of your comrades under the bus – sometimes literally!
Ha, ha! That's a joke.
But it does help to spread the blame, however subtly:
"Well, we would have done better, except our swimmer developed a cramp."
"Next time we'll line up a runner who doesn't crap out on the hills."
"We were right up with the leaders when our bicyclist got a flat." (Actually, that really happened to a teammates on a relay team I competed on years ago, but that's a whole other story).
However, when going solo there's nowhere to hide and you're forced to offer sappy excuses to save face, including the lamest of all: "I was just using it as a training run."
I've competed as both an individual and on teams in countless races in various sports, including running, kayaking, canoeing and cross-country skiing, and even have entered such oddball contests as wood-splitting and ax-throwing at a logging festival, but for one reason or another never got around to racing in a triathlon – until last Sunday.
My buddies Spy and Mary persuaded me to join them at the seventh annual Ocean State YMCA Triathlon in Westerly, R.I. which begins with a half-mile swim in the Atlantic Ocean near Misquamicut State Beach, followed by a 16-mile bike ride and finishing with a 3-mile run. As far as triathlons go, this is fairly moderate; by contrast an Ironman consists of a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and full 26.2-mile marathon.
For true masochists there are double-Ironmans and even quadruple Ironmans.
As my father used to say, "I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid." (Or was it the other way around?)
Anyway, there I was with more than 150 other wetsuit-clad swimmers, staring at 4-foot crashing waves while waiting for the start, and wondering if I hadn't gotten in over my head – literally as well as figuratively.
"Blaaaat!" The horn sounded, and we were off.
In low tide we floundered like beached porpoises until finally punching through breaking surf, and then began thrashing toward the first of three orange buoys marking the course.
Someone kicked me in the face; another smacked me in the ribs. The start was more like a rugby scrum than a swimming race. Soon, though, I was stroking steadily and surged past the first buoy. Peering over my shoulder I was pleased to see I wasn't in last place, but probably where I belonged in the middle of the pack.
A little more than a quarter-hour later I tumbled to shore and then tried to peel off the wetsuit while running, which is as clumsy a maneuver as it sounds.
If I ever compete in a triathlon again I'll have to practice my transitions. Serious racers can switch from one event to another in seconds; I could have finished the first seven chapters of "War and Peace" in the time it took me to slip on my riding shorts, socks and shoes, and guzzle a liter or so of water.
I am not a fast bike rider – never have been, never will be – and let's just say I managed to finish the second leg without resorting to training wheels. I kept pace with a guy in a tie-died T-shirt while men and women in Lycra whizzed past.
I managed to redeem myself marginally in the run and accomplished the same two goals I have in every race: 1) finish; and 2) have a smile on my face.
Spy and Mary were cheering at the finish line, and after refueling with bananas and bagels we grabbed boogie boards and headed toward the surf.
We made one short detour to the awards ceremony, where Spy's team won first place, and Mary also copped a gold medal in her division.
I was about to leave when the announcer called my name. Somehow I had earned the bronze medal for a third-place finish in my division.
I've learned this much about competition: It always pays to enter a race with a lot of divisions. Next time I'll try to find one with a kayaking-mandolinist-organic gardener division.
"Well, we all picked up some hardware!" I gushed as Spy, Mary and I loped through the sand. "Makes it all worthwhile."
Reader Comments
Time lapse: North Stonington wood pavilion raised in five hours
Highlights: New Fairfield 18, Stonington 5 in Class S girls' lacrosse final


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OTTAWA — The lack of diversity among medical school students is producing a pool of doctors that is unlikely to meet the health needs of all Canadians, the group representing the country's future doctors warned recently.
Representatives from the Canadian Federation of Medical Students brought their message to Parliament Hill where they met with over 100 MPs and senators and called on the federal government to help increase the number of students from rural areas and low-income families.
The medical school population doesn't match the Canadian population, the students say, and the federal government should create a task force to explore solutions such as the ones implemented in countries like Australia and the United States. Medical schools in those countries were offered financial incentives by the government to increase the enrolment of low-income and rural students and they also subsidize some costs of entrance exam and application fees.
"The system is extremely imbalanced and there is a lack of students from rural and low-income areas applying for medical school," said Harbir Gill, a member of the CFMS who helped organize the lobbying day. "We're talking about systematic problems about how we recruit medical students."
Admission requirements place a heavy emphasis on academic achievement and extracurricular activities but students who have to work part-time may not be able to dedicate as much time to those activities as others, according to the group, and students from rural areas may not have as many opportunities for extracurricular activities as those in major cities. The high costs associated with even applying for medical school, not to mention the high tuition fees if accepted, are other reasons these students may be less likely to pursue medicine.
"This is not about fairness but about urgently fixing our health-care system," said Gill, following his meeting with Conservative MP Ted Menzies, who is parliamentary secretary to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.
Increasing the number of graduates from low-income and rural areas would help alleviate the ongoing shortage of doctors in those areas, according to the medical community.
"We know that the strongest predictor of a doctor practicing rural is a rural origin," said Dr. Karl Stobbe, president of the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada. Doctors who grew up in a rural community are 2.5 times more likely to practice in a rural community, and similarly, ones from lower-income backgrounds are more likely to serve low-income patients, a study from the organization has found.
Approximately 22 per cent of Canadians live in a town with less than 10,000 people and those people are served by about 10 per cent of Canada's doctors.
"We do have a nationwide doctor shortage in both urban and rural communities, but it's twice as acute in rural Canada as in urban," said Stobbe, who practices in Beamsville, Ont. "The most powerful recruiting tool is getting rural kids into medical school. That works better than anything else."
Stobbe says at least 20 per cent of successful medical school applicants should be from rural areas and he supports the students' call for a task force to help make the issue a priority.
The students say the MPs they met with Monday were receptive to their cause.
"Clearly the MPs believe that this is an important issue because we have over 100 meetings this year as opposed to the 40 we usually get," said Ijab Khanafer, vice-president of communications for the student group. "The total success will be determined in the years to come but today, so far, has been an absolute success."


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Missing Truckee man, 32, found dead at Sierra reservoir
The Associated Press
TRUCKEE, Calif. — A missing Truckee man has been found dead at a Sierra Nevada reservoir.
Police say the body of 32-year-old Nathen Johnson was found Friday near his boat in Stampede Reservoir.
He was reported missing Tuesday and his last known cellphone activity led police to the Truckee-area lake.
Investigators say while the cause of death is under investigation, they do not suspect foul play at this time.


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What is ADR?
Alternative dispute resolution refers to ways of settling civil disputes outside the courtroom.
This generally means arbitration and mediation courses selected by opposing parties in disagreement who would rather avoid crowded dockets, potentially higher costs, and drawn-out litigation.
Arbitration is a simplified version of a trial. A dispute is submitted to a third party for a decision, which may be binding or non-binding (advisory). In either case, the arbitrator a neutral person or panel of neutral persons hears each side's presentation of evidence and arguments, then makes a determination in favor of one or the other. The disputing parties must agree in advance that the arbitrator's decision (typically an award) is final. And, unlike arbitration through the courts, ADR programs can arbitrate cases involving any amount of money in question.
Mediation is a process for resolving disputes with the aid of a neutral person, in this case an attorney trained in negotiation. The mediator's role involves identifying the issues in question, and exploring and negotiating settlement options by meeting with each party privately or both sides collectively in the same room. (All information is held in confidence by the mediator).
It is not the mediator's job to decide the outcome; the parties in the dispute and their counsel must agree to any resolution. Mediation is an even less formal alternative to litigation than arbitration, as agreements approved by either party or counsel are not binding.
Frequently Asked Questions (810 KB)
Arbitrator Mediator List (359 KB)
Arbitrator/Mediator Biographies (550 KB)
Arbitration Request Form (14 KB)
Arbitration Agreement Form (209 KB)
Arbritration High/Low Form (28 KB)
Arbitration Baseball Form (30 KB)
Mediation Request Form (14 KB)
Mediation Agreement Form (25 KB)


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Rounded Powder Brush
A rounded powder brush for a smooth and even complexion. Read More
Item No: 23585
Product Actions
- The ultimate brush to distribute a sheer wash of powder for a smooth and even complexion
- Its wide natural bristles absorb loose and compact powders quickly and distribute them for light to medium coverage
- Dab brush into the powder and tap gently so that the powder penetrates into the bristles.
- Sweep the brush over the forehead, nose and cheeks.
- Finish with the chin, not forgetting the neck and décolletage.
Use the Artiste Brush Cleaner to gently cleanse and condition your brush.


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Necromicon Image Gallery
Various images of Andre at the Necromicon Conventions of 1984 and 1985.
Note: if you find an image that is dated or labeled wrong and can supply some semblance of proof ~ please notify us and we shall correct it as soon as possible. The notes we are going by are a little hard to understand.
Place pointer over image for file name.
~ click on each small image and then scroll back up to see it in the larger window.


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IAPAC Lauds National HIV/AIDS Strategy, Urges Adequate, Unwavering Funding, Accelerated Implementation
Statement by José M. Zuniga, President, International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care
The International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care (IAPAC) lauds the Obama Administration for launching a National HIV/AIDS Strategy that, in its strategic framework and if adequately funded, can help achieve significant progress in the US response to its HIV epidemic. Reducing the number of new HIV infections and increasing access to care, treatment, and support for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) have proven to be important components of any national response to HIV/AIDS. In coupling these two components with that of reducing HIV-related health disparities -- especially in relation to women, communities of color, and most at-risk populations (MARPs) -- the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, if implemented at an accelerated pace, is an effective prescription against a disease that has been allowed to run rampant from coast to coast for the past decade.
By underfunding prevention, care, and treatment programs; and by basing public health decision-making on ideology versus science, the US Government has in the past failed to embrace its own standard for countries of the global South to adopt sound, evidence-based national HIV/AIDS strategies. That is what makes today's announcement of a National HIV/AIDS Strategy -- one that outlines a more coordinated national response and involved all stakeholders, including PLWHAs -- so pivotal to stemming a tide of human devastation and unnecessary death in the United States.
The milestones laid out in the National HIV/AIDS Strategy are also greatly welcome. They infuse our individual and collective efforts with a sense of accountability to achieve measurable results that will help save and enhance the lives of countless Americans at risk for and living with HIV/AIDS. There exists a reservoir of commitment and experience that must be harnessed to achieve these milestones within a quicker timeframe. Through almost 30 years of heart-wrenching suffering due to as well as incredible strides made against this insidious disease, we have a ready army of seasoned advocates -- public health experts; clinicians and allied healthcare and laypeople providers; AIDS service organizations; community- and faith-based organizations; academic institutions; and professional associations -- that can help to accelerate implementation and thus allow for more quickly achieving many of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy's objectives. As President Barack Obama has said, "The Federal government can't do this alone, nor should it." The 5,000-plus US members of IAPAC stand ready to follow President Obama's lead in implementing the National HIV/AIDS Strategy.


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The Myth of "Avoiding the Appearance of Evil"
1 Thess. 5:22: "Abstain from all appearance of evil."
It is possibly the most misunderstood, misused verse in the entire bible. We've all had it said to us and we have probably said it to others. It's usually applied when we feel someone isn't actually sinning, but we believe that some unidentified lurking spy could misconstrue our behaviour as sin because it "looks bad."
However, this verse, as it appears in the KJV, is a poor translation, and has NOTHING to do with freedoms and liberties that could be misinterpreted as evil.
Here's the 1 Thess. 5:22 in Greek put into transliteration:
apo pantos eidous ponèrou apechesthe
The word eidos, based on meaning and context, is actually best translated as "forms" or "kind."
In every other widely used translation besides the OLD KING JAMES version, 1 Thess 5:22 reads something like this: "Abstain from all forms of evil." This has nothing to do with appearances. It's referring to actual evil, in whatever form it manifests: stealing, lying, fornication, adultery, greed, etc. Whatever form it comes in, avoid it!
Here's how the verse reads in the most used translations:
1 Thessalonians 5:22
New International Version: Avoid every kind of evil.
New American Standard: Avoid every form of evil.
New Living Translation: Avoid every kind of evil.
English Standard Version: Abstain from every form of evil.
Contemporary English: Don't have anything to do with evil.
New King James: Abstain from every form of evil. (NKJ remedied the older version's poor translation)
American Standard: Abstain from every form of evil.
Darby Translation: Hold aloof from every form of wickedness.
Holman Christian Standard Bible: Stay away from every form of evil.
New International Reader's Version: Stay away from every kind of evil.
Worldwide English: Have nothing to do with any wrong thing.
The Old King James isn't technically wrong, but being that most of us do not utilize old English, we misread it. It's use of the word appearance more accurately means..."avoid evil whenever it makes an appearance." The context of the word is as occurrence, not outward appearance.
Not only is the appearance of evil version misread, it's taken out of context. Read the verse within the context in which it's placed:
1 Thess. 5: 19-22
Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast to what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.
The Message puts this verse in even simpler terms.
19-22 Don't suppress the Spirit, and don't stifle those who have a word from the Master. On the other hand, don't be gullible. Check out everything, and keep only what's good. Throw out anything tainted with evil.
Paul isn't even writing about specific lifestyles or what constitutes as grey areas or liberties for Christians. He's instructing on how to respond to prophecy. The text basically means: don't despise the gift of prophecy, but don't buy into everything either. Therefore, TEST ALL prophecy-keep what is good, and disregard what is evil (a valuable lesson to take heed to with today's abundant batch of false prophets). Clearly, this verse has nothing to do with how a believer may or may not appear to another person.
But for the sake of argument, let's pretend for a moment that "avoiding the appearance of evil" meant trying to avoid appearing evil to other people.
Exactly whose perspective of evil are we trying to cater to here? Believers, unbelievers, or both? How about the bezillion sects within believers: Catholics, Protestants, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Pentecostals, Calvinists, Charismatics, Mennonites, Amish, Seven Day Adventists? Are we trying to avoid appearing evil to people belonging to different religions: Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Taoists, Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Scientologists, Christian Scientists? How do we chose? Is it the ones that are most convenient for us? Is it all of them? You can see how this can quickly delve into legalism, the squelching of Christian freedom, and more obviously: IMPOSSIBILITY.
Eyes viewing life through the lens of perversion will undoubtedly pervert everything and anything. People who look for evil everywhere, find it, whether it exists or not. There are small pockets of Christians (the perverted pure) that taint nearly every activity, situation, scenario, and object.
Let's make a little list of just some of the things that appear evil to different groups, shall we?
Drums, guitars, dancing, swimming, co-ed colleges, co-ed anything, women in pants, women speaking in church, bright-colored clothing, worshipping on Sunday instead of the OT sabbath, playing cards, movies, plays, any other music beside hymns, alcohol, virgin drinks (because someone could think it's alcohol, gasp!), glass bottles (because they look like the same bottles alcohol is served in), guns, coffee, tattoos, piercings, spanking children, speaking in tongues (one could think you are demon possessed), home-schooling, chewing gum, beards, facial hair, long hair on men, jeans, bowling, eating at a restaurant with a bar in it, cigars, going into a Blockbuster or Movie Gallery, etc. etc.
The list is endless of objects and activities that appear evil to different denominations of believers. We all know it is completely impossible to abstain from the appearance of evil. We can't even abstain completely from that which is actually evil, let alone innocent liberties that could possibly appear evil if someone was walking by and squinting....
The real issue is that JESUS appeared evil ALL the time, especially to religious people. He ate and drank (wine, not grape juice, baptists), he turned water into wine to keep the festivities going for people who had been drinking all day, hence the accusations of being a wine-bibber and glutton. He hung around with tax collectors and prostitutes and went into places deemed "unclean." He didn't perform the ceremonious hand cleansing rituals. He didn't follow the man-made religious traditions of the sabbath. He was with the woman at the well all alone, a Samaritan no less. People accused Jesus of being demon possessed because of how he appeared.
The misused version of this verse only heightens our already unhealthy fixation on appearances and superficial piety instead of true substance. The terms of what appears evil are usually defined by those who are offended with a particular activity that can't be classified as real sin, thus it appears evil. The whole thing breeds suspicion, judgmentalism, and even idolatry. When we start assigning more power to inanimate objects or activities than they actually possess, it can turn to a form of idolatry. Drums are not evil in and of themselves. Can they be USED for evil? Absolutely. However, they can also be used for good. Is alcohol evil in and of itself? No. But when people abuse it by drinking too much of it, the sin is the person getting drunk, not the alcohol.
Most of the time, people unknowingly misuse this verse with the VERY BEST INTENTIONS, because they desire to appear their very best, so they can lead people to Christ. It's actually very admirable, but usually ineffective. One thing people in the world are good at is spotting phoniness, even good-intentioned phoniness. The Bible says people will know us by our love, not by our ideal personas (which are false representations, no matter how you spin it). In an attempt to show how separate we are from the world, we kill the common ground of humanity, which is essential for loving people to Christ. Totally abstaining (or pretending to abstain in public) from things that are harmless in moderation or completely innocent only strangle the joy out of Christianity, and the world can see that, too.
If someone has a personal conviction about an object or an activity, then they should ABSOLUTELY ABSTAIN, not because it may look bad to someone else, but because it tempts that person to actually sin. If you know someone has a drinking problem and cannot have a drink without getting drunk or wanting to get drunk and you have them over for dinner, don't serve alcohol, not because it looks bad, but out of respect and love for the other person. We shouldn't hide our liberties, if we drink with dinner, or go to a movie, or play cards, or whatever. The problem with always trying to cater to various people's views of evil is that one, it is impossible and two, it usually backfires. We end up creating a disconnect between who we are in public and who we are in private, creating the plastic Christian image that makes us completely unrelatable to the very people we are trying to reach. Plus, secrecy gives birth to sin and can transform something innocent very easily into actual sin. The stumbling block warning is not a suggestion to keep our liberties a secret from one another, as if to lead others to believe that we never drink, dance, play cards, or whatever. We don't have to cater to people's judgmentalism, but to our brothers' and sisters' weaknesses and personal convictions-honestly and openly. Big difference. When we keep our liberties a secret in the name of "avoiding the appearance of evil," we compromise the unity, transparency, and accountability (not to mention honesty) within the body of Christ and that isn't good for anyone.


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Our new garden clubFlowers, Trees, Lawns, Infrastructures, Maintenance & anything else!
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Our new garden club
Our tiny village, no shop,no pub, only a very small church, phone box and post box, plus a hut where free range eggs are sold, had its inaugural garden club meeting a few weeks since. Tonight we are having our second meeting, where we can take plants, cuttings, seeds, etc for exchanges. The cost is one pound per head towards church funds - where we are meeting, and shall be using electricity.
This is a new venture for the village, so we are looking forward to it.
Years ago, there was a village hall, where dances, wedding receptions, and other events took place. This had to be pulled down, and it would appear that since then, the community spirit has dwindled somewhat.
Re: Our new garden club
not sure how I missed this post
... these still exist?
that sounds like a great idea - some seed packets have far too many seeds and the number of times I prune back a plant and think they'd make good cuttings but there's only so many I'd want
Hope it keeps going
Re: Our new garden club
Thanks LL. Yes, we still have a phone box, but without a phone. There is some talk of the possibility of using it as a mini-library. Personally I think that the books will get damp and musty.
It is our last meeting tonight, unless someone offers the use of a large-ish room. We use the church, and the heating, which is counter productive as we are raising funds towards the building of a new extension. We shall re-group in the spring.
Tonight we are taking pears, leaf mould, and seed catalogues.
So long since my initial post, but there is interest among the attendees. Unsure if I put this on, but we had a morning out in a resident's pumpkin field before the weather changed. So many different varieties of pumpkins. We walked the adjacent field, looking at their wild flower area, and ended up watching different butterflies on the banks of a small stream. Quite a magical morning.
Re: Our new garden club
Nearly didn't have our last meeting, the founders had forgotten, and OH had to pop round and remind them. Much hilarity when they walked in. We re-group in February, when OH has been asked to give seed sowing demonstrations!!!
Re: Our new garden club
I like the Library idea. There's quite a few about.
Here's one
Re: Our new garden club
Interesting, Richard, thanks for putting it on. We can buy our phone box for one pound also, but have then to maintain it. I am unsure how the books will fare in damp and cold weather.
Re: Our new garden club
Interesting spreckers.
Original phone boxes seem to sell up to around the £2,000 mark!
Most of which are not restored.
Re: Our new garden club
Good community spirit you've got there, Spreckley. When villages lack facilities the residents have to do it for themselves. We still have a phone box, with a phone. Yes, buy your phone box, I have seen some super mini libraries housed in them.
Re: Our new garden club
Purchasing the phone box will be up to the Parish Council, so we will see. No Garden Club until next February now.
Re: Our new garden club
If the Box is in Situ so no transportation etc. is required I'd imagine you'd get a good deal.
Whatever, these wonderful relics of our past should be kept, especially in a position where they've always stood.
I hope the Council come up with something.
Good luck with it.
Re: Our new garden club
Thanks, Richard. Can't remember when the next Parish Council meeting is due, but OH is Vice Chair, so we'll know the outcome. The phone box had been desperately needing a new coat of paint, now this has been done, it looks smart, though no longer in use.
Re: Our new garden club
2017 update on our village garden club. This year we have opened our gardens up to members.
We have had some really interesting tours. One member has a large greenhouse, which was originally the cover over a swimming pool at another residence in the village. Her son is running a market garden business from it, using computerised technology to plant up. I was in the throes of a chest infection and missed this one, but can go and have a look round any time.
I missed the second visit to people who moved into the village a couple of years since, and inherited a wilderness, with sandwich trays stuffed in the hedge gaps, and very little gardening undertaken by the previous owners. I recently had my garden tour there, and was amazed at the difference. They have a paddock, with newly planted trees, beautiful flower beds, hens, a well kept pond, and much to be admired. Every time I went past their home with my dog, the couple were clearing and gardening like mad.
Other tours have been equally interesting, one was to our garden this summer, thankfully OH's hard work paid off, with some help from me, and the evening was fine and dry after several very wet days. By jiggling furniture around we managed to squeeze nine people into our front room. Three members were unable to attend, which was just as well.
We shall shortly be having our last meeting with a barbecue at a couples' home, and that will end our 2017 meetings.
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Like Beverly Sills, Jan Peerce, Helen Traubel, Lawrence Tibbett and so many others of the period, Merrill always had one foot in popular entertainment, especially Broadway, radio and TV. Today we think of opera singers as almost exclusively opera singers, but that was not really so at that time. Actually, I think the case could be made that opera and opera singing are at their healthiest and probably most popular—at least in this country—when they exist in the company of the popular arts. That cozy relationship was shattered for good, it seems, not by opera singers and opera enthusiasts, but by the extraordinary developments, post-Elvis, of a rock-driven American popular culture that simply has nothing at all in common with traditional arts like opera. It wasn't opera's fault. But that is another story, and another blog!
There is no good reason I can think of to waste your time or mine with a mini-biography of Robert Merrill. If you're reading a blog like this, it's safe to assume you already know a lot about opera singers. Merrill was so well-known that a simple glance at Wiki will tell you anything you may not already know about this popular American baritone. A trivia point—you may not know that he was a very accomplished semi-pro baseball player, and paid for his musical education at the beginning with money he made pitching in a semi-pro league! There is always something more to people: like the fact that Roberto Murolo, the grand master of Neapolitan song and song history, actually paid his way through college as a championship swimmer:-) You just never know.
It's all about Merrill's voice. His was one of the smoothest, most elegantly and easily produced of baritone voices. Here is an absolutely classic rendition of "Some Enchanted Evening" that shows very well the perfection of his singing technique:
Now how is that for smooth! Absolutely perfect singing, as best I can judge. I am reminded of a conversation I had many years ago with Daniel Ferro, at Juilliard, one of the world's outstanding voice teachers. He compared Merrill's technique to the automatic gear-shifting of an expensive luxury automobile. He said you never notice the shift between registers; it is so smooth that it is like a perfect, steady progression. I don't think it can be said better.
Such smoothness and exemplary legato immediately suggest Valentin as a near ideal French role for Merrill, and indeed he was superb in such repertoire. Here is the much-loved aria "Avant de Quitter ceux lieux" in a live 1955 performance:
Again, the words that first come to mind are "smoothness," "legato," and "tonal consistency," all accompanied by a remarkably in-line transition to the upper register. It often comes as a surprise to realize that Merrill is sometimes singing Gs and even Abs as though they were part of the middle of his voice!
Finally, the one baritone aria that even those who know nothing of opera will know, Figaro's ultra-famous "Largo al factotum," staple fare of concerts, anthologies, singing textbooks and even cartoons!
Absolutely excellent! This cannot be faulted. I would call it a classic rendition—completely free of the extraordinary idiosyncrasies so frequently visited upon it by lesser talents. The Italian diction, which frequently gets muddled in the mouths of Americans, is pretty clean and clear here; as always, the register transitions are perfect, and the tonal consistency is absolute. That's the kind of singing that guarantees a very long career! And that indeed is what Merrill had—long, distinguished, profitable, and—not merely coincidentally—a lot of fun!


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CHOP and BGI to Offer Next-Generation Sequencing
Published on in CHOP News
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Published on in CHOP News
October 25, 2012 — The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and BGI announced today that the BGI@CHOP Joint Genome Center will begin to offer clinical next-generation sequencing (NGS) services at CHOP through the hospital's Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in a CAP/CLIA-compliant environment.
The Clinical Laboratories Improvement Act of 1988 (CLIA) established quality standards for all laboratory testing to ensure the accuracy, reliability and timeliness of patient test results regardless of where the test was performed. The College of American Pathologists (CAP) Laboratory Accreditation Program is widely recognized as the "gold standard," since it meets or exceeds CLIA requirements and serves as a model for various federal, state, and private laboratory accreditation programs throughout the world.
Supported by CHOP's and BGI's excellent infrastructure and extensive experiences in NGS services, the BGI@CHOP Joint Genome Center was established in November 2011 under the partnership between CHOP and BGI to focus on discovery of genes underpinning rare and common pediatric diseases using next-generation sequencing.
Robert W. Doms, MD, PhD, pathologist-in-chief and chair of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at CHOP, said, "The BGI@CHOP Joint Genome Center, operating under the umbrella of the CAP-certified Molecular Genetics Lab at CHOP, plans to launch clinical exome sequencing in the near future."
Catherine Stolle, PhD, director of CHOP's Molecular Genetics Laboratory, added, "This CAP-compliant NGS facility will enable us to rapidly expand into clinical NGS tests for diagnosis of specific diseases including heritable disorders and pediatric cancer."
"BGI has been offering NGS and NGS data analysis services in a research setting since 2007," Dr. Jun Wang, executive director of BGI, said in a statement. "By working together with the CHOP Pathology Department, we will be able to leverage our NGS expertise to help clinicians better diagnose and treat their patients. BGI will also be able to extend our services to support new drug development and pharmaceutical clinical trial studies in compliance with CAP and CLIA standards."
At present, the Joint Genome Center is equipped with five high-throughput sequencers with the permanent space under renovation, and plans to scale up to 20 sequencers. The center has embarked on a number of projects with CHOP researchers, including an NIH-funded research grant to explore the use of NGS in a clinical diagnostic setting (co-led by Ian Krantz, MD, and Nancy Spinner, PhD). The Center's service portfolio includes human whole exome sequencing, targeted sequencing, whole genome re-sequencing, specialized applications such as ChIP-Seq and RNA-Seq, and NGS data analysis.
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the first pediatric hospital in the United States. Through its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric healthcare professionals and pioneering major research initiatives, Children's Hospital has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide and its pediatric research program is among the largest in the U.S. In addition, its unique family-centered care and public service programs have brought the 516-bed hospital recognition as a leading advocate for children and adolescents.
BGI was founded in Beijing, China, in 1999 with the mission to become a premier scientific partner for the global research community. The goal of BGI is to make leading-edge genomic science highly accessible, which it achieves through its investment in infrastructure, leveraging the best available technology, economies of scale, and expert bioinformatics resources. BGI, which includes both private nonprofit genomic research institutes and sequencing application commercial units, and its affiliates, BGI Americas, headquartered in Cambridge, MA, and BGI Europe, headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, have established partnerships and collaborations with leading academic and government research institutions as well as global biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, supporting a variety of disease, agricultural, environmental, and related applications.
BGI has a proven track record of excellence, delivering results with high efficiency and accuracy for innovative, high-profile research: research that has generated over 200 publications in top-tier journals such as Nature and Science. BGI's many accomplishments include: sequencing one percent of the human genome for the International Human Genome Project, contributing 10 percent to the International Human HapMap Project, carrying out research to combat SARS and German deadly E. coli, playing a key role in the Sino-British Chicken Genome Project, and completing the sequence of the rice genome, the silkworm genome, the first Asian diploid genome, the potato genome, and, more recently, the human Gut Metagenome, as well as a significant proportion of the genomes for the1000 Genomes Project.
For more information, please visit www.genomics.cn or https://www.bgi.com/us/.
John Ascenzi, public relations, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 267-426-6055, firstname.lastname@example.com
Joyce Peng, PhD, marketing director, BGI Americas Corporation, 626-222-5584, firstname.lastname@example.com
Bicheng Yang, public communication officer, BGI, +86-755-82639701, email@example.com


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When I was a kid, Penn State football Head Coach Joe Paterno visited our living rooms Monday nights in the fall with his own television show on the local PBS affiliate in Hershey. Football and PSU were pretty big parts of our young lives back in the late 1960s and early '70s, and this was must-see TV.
Coach Paterno — wearing a white shirt and black tie and sporting those trademark Coke bottle-thick glasses — would analyze film of the game, pointing out how one guy or another missed a block, or how another guy followed his block. He infused these lessons in fundamentals with little asides about some of the values and principles that the game was supposed to represent — things like sacrifice, teamwork, loyalty, winning with grace, losing with dignity and doing the right thing at all times.
In our young, impressionable eyes, this man was a football god.
When Joe's own sterling, six-decade coaching career came crashing down around him two months ago, at about the same time he was diagnosed with lung cancer at age 85, I was reminded of my own dad, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease. Both men, because of health problems and advanced age, were simply unable sometimes to understand what was going on around them, or so it seemed to me watching Paterno age on TV over the years. In recent times, the sainted coach sometimes seemed too befuddled to even function on the sidelines. As Harrisburg Patriot-News columnist David Jones put it in his excellent August 2010 story about the legendary coach, "Paterno sounded very much like something he never was — an old man," Jones wrote of Paterno's presentation at a press conference in Chicago that summer.
Come last November, with Paterno and everyone in the football program potentially implicated in the scandal created after child molestation charges were brought against former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, Penn State trustees believed it was best that Joe just leave, instead of retiring at the end of the season as he had planned.
In the minds of board members, however, Joe's continued involvement with the football program was untenable, and the week before the season's last home game against Nebraska, PSU trustees unceremoniously canned the coach, not in person, but by phone. By this time, Joe's limited but critical role in the scandal had been revealed — that in 2002, he knew about an incident of sexual impropriety between Sandusky and a boy enrolled in Sandusky's nonprofit group, the Second Mile, and that he'd reported it to school officials but not to police.
After that revelation came to light in testimony given by Paterno to a grand jury investigating the Sandusky case, the legendary coach's participation in a program that he personally built — 46 of 61 years as head coach with 409 wins, two national titles, 24 wins out of 37 bowl appearances and two appearances in the Rose Bowl — was no longer wanted.
Unfortunately, even with Coach Paterno's death on Sunday due to complications related to lung cancer, questions — like what more Joe knew, when he knew it and what he and other coaches did about it — remain. Meanwhile, Sandusky, who started at PSU in 1969 and helped Joe win both of those national titles, one in 1982 and the other in 1986, remains free on bail, girding for what promises to be a lengthy, emotionally grueling and potentially embarrassing trial.
Watching the Nebraska game on TV, Beaver Stadium was packed beyond capacity, sending much love to the beleaguered coach, who did not attend, but also unstated messages to prosecutors in the Sandusky affair. Yes, these were merely fans, but many at that game could also be viewed as potential jurors or family members of jurors. And on this day, just by their presence at Beaver Stadium, these people actually "voted" in a peculiar but powerful way, not in support of Sandusky, but to preserve both football and the legacy of beloved Joe Pa.
People were on their knees outside of Joe's house the morning of the game against Nebraska. Were they praying for him or for the victims of his longtime defensive coordinator? Maybe people were praying for the future of football itself at Penn State. If it was to win the game, apparently no one was listening, as the Cornhuskers pulled out a 17 to 14 win later that day.
It appears some of those prayers may actually have been heard, though, at least for those hoping the mess made by Sandusky and others would just go away, because a response to this calamity by the NCAA, which governs collegiate sports, and the state, which funds the school, has been conspicuously missing thus far. In fact, to the consternation of many who consider Paterno a part of an alleged criminal cover up, Pennsylvania's Republican governor, Tom Corbett, last week ordered all flags flown at half-staff to honor Paterno's memory.
Personally, like my dad and brothers, I loved Joe Pa. How could you not? That such a spectacular career of service, dedication and sacrifice could be laid to waste by one blunder, albeit a colossal one, gives all of us reason to pause in our own life's dealings. But let's also remember that Joe is hardly a hero here, for the first time in his life and at the end of his life, and that's another terribly sad part of all this in the eyes of people who believed in all the noble things that football under Joe Paterno was supposed to represent.
In this case, Joe did not do the right thing for the right reasons and then make the ultimate sacrifice by falling on his sword and resigning. It appears Joe actually did wrong things, perhaps running interference for the wrong people out of misplaced loyalties, and was permanently benched for failing to comply with a formal order to retire.
In the end, Joe was stripped of all his deific adornments and returned to his original status as a human being — a man who, like all men, made mistakes.
In a statement given prior to his firing, Paterno told NPR all that was happening as a result of the crimes allegedly committed by Sandusky and his not doing more about it "is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more."
As do we all, coach.


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