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Do you have a tripod? Do you use it?
I suspect that many digital photographers could improve the results that they get out of their cameras simply by attaching it to a tripod.
Over the next week or so here at DPS we'll take a look at the humble tripod and will cover why they're useful (read on in this post for more on that), how to shop for a tripod, the case for monopods and alternatives when you need a tripod but don't have one handy. I hope you enjoy this series.
I'm not a big fan of rules when it comes to photography (I'm a much more intuitive guy) but sometimes it's good to have them in the back of your mind as you shoot.
The 'rule' for whether it's ok to hand hold a camera when shooting has to do with two main factors, the shutter speed you're shooting at and the focal length of the lens you're using. Here it is:
Choose a shutter speed with a denominator that is larger than the focal length of the lens.
Shooting at these speeds means that the effect of camera shake that you have while taking the shot should be minimized in image you end up with.
Keep in mind that this is just a guide – a starting point if you will – to keep in mind as you shoot. It's a rule that was devised back in the days of film and these days most of us shoot with digital cameras that often have image stabilization which means you can use slower shutter speeds and that (unless you have a DSLR) don't have focal lengths measured in mm's which makes using it difficult. So take it with a grain of salt if you like.
Having explained this 'rule' to a number of new photographers I've been then asked on numerous occasions why anyone would need to use a tripod or monopod if they keep the rule in mind and always shoot at speeds faster than the rule requires.
The answer is that in many cases the rule will effectively eliminate noticeable camera shake – however on closer inspection of the images you end up with, especially when you enlarge your shots, you might still find evidence of camera shake despite a nice fast shutter speed.
While they can be a pain to carry around with you tripods are an essential tool to have if you want to take your photography to the next level. They help eliminate camera shake, enable you to use slower shutters speeds which in turn means you have the ability to choose a wider range of aperture – which opens up all kinds of interesting and creative possibilities.
In fact I'm surprised that more people don't use them – I'm not sure whether it's embarrassment (at hauling gear around), laziness (being put off by the thought of having to carry something else) or forgetfulness (leaving it at home) that causes it but many photographers don't use tripods – to the detriment of many of the images that they take.
Read the rest of this series at:
Can you suggest me. which tripod is very useful. because there are hundreds type of tripod. i don kno which 1 i should buy.
I am new to photography and am learning and practicing as much as possible, as I hope to make it a personal business venture at some point. I would really like to know what the rules (legalities) are for setting up and using a tripod in public places. Are there really permits to get and if so are they really necessary? Where is it ok and where is it not ok?
What about GorillaPod flexibile mini tripod. Check their website and I am sure you will be impressed.
I use a Manfrotto tripod, it is a little pricey, but a very high end deal without the high end price. The model i have has an almost pistol like grip.
Put off by the cost of buying a new, heavier than most, tripod. I bought a used, steel construction 'Schiransky' (sp?) tripod for £25 - $39 from my local camera shop here in the UK. I will add a, 'Ballhead' at some stage to make it easier to level up. No regrets at buying this tripod at all, it is very stable.
Oh, another trick, set your self fimer to 2 seconds to eliminate camera shake.
Can anyone tell me their experience with the following tripod alternatives:
(a) smal bean bag
(b) monopod
(c) gorrilapod
(d) Trekpod
(e) any other suggestions?
I see others just carry their cameras with the shortened tripods permanently attached and use that to lean on tables, balconies or just against their belts.
Good tips for using tripod. I like It.
I agree with someone else (can't remember who) about a post on how to choose a good tripod. I recently bought a Manfrotto but still not convinced it's the best buy for the money...any hints?
Oooh tripods, I have been "trouble-shooting" for a while until my brother came up to me recently and showed off his new setup...*Instantaneously in Love!* Dolica Proline 62" with Ball Head was his new toy which he scored for 40 dolla..so I researched where and how I could acquire one of these rare goodies...amazon hooked it up, as they were out of stock everywhere else..ritzcamera ran me around for three weeks with terrible communication and my money in their pockets without even carrying the product *hint hint*...I would souley suggest amazon and the specified tripod for all of your still-slow shuttered needs...Sooo Goood.. oh and the highest price you will find is probably like 60 US bills *and did i mention its reliable as many "pro-line" ;D tripod setups, especially with the ball head*
A quick query when using IS lenses on a tripod. I have read that you should? turn off the IS capability on the lens when using it on your tripod. Is that correct?
Thanks Annette
I don't like to carry more than necessary when I go out shooting, so I chose a light tripod with plastic legs and plastic bolts and screws for my first tripod. Wrong choice. The tripod was steady enough for my purposes, but as I do a lot of shooting in winter, the plastic cracked when I tried to mount the camera on tripod on -15 C and used some force.
Next one (Velbon Sherpa 200R) has all the crucial parts made of metal. It is sturdy but heavier, and I seem to "forget" more often now behind.
if you use a tripod -- and i agree with the author that more of us should -- a cable or other remote shutter release is really nice to have. It eliminates any camera movement caused by you pushing the shutter release button.
Two thoughts about tripods - I have found that Vanguard makes some of the best and affordable tripods available, (http://www.amazon.com/Vanguard-VT-560-Aluminum-Digital-Camera/dp/B00009RUCA). However, there is one caveat that I believe applies to almost all tripods - the mount. Pan and tilt, and ball type mounts just seem to have a bit too much movement after they are locked down. No matter how careful I am, once the camera is set and the mount locked, as soon as I let go, there is about 1/8 to 1/4 inch of 'shake'. I invested a bit in a Gimbal mount, (http://www.thecinecity.com/tcc/product.php?productid=21&cat=273&page=1), and it is rock solid. It locks down where you place it, and doesn't creep, squirm, or shake. It is probably the best mount for the money.
i am always unsure about tripods while going outdoors just because of the time it takes to screw and unscrew the camera on it .....and the time it takes to adjust the length .
Someone asked "what is a 'good' tripod?" I have a SLIK that I bought from Amazon for about $100. SLIK calls it their 'professional grade'.
Although I've seen heavier duty tripods, this one is very very good. It has an excellent head on it and the controls and locks are all very sturdy.
I met a guy in Hollister CA that as a hobby takes pictures of rock climbers at a great distance in Yosemite. When he saw the SLIK that I was using - he told me that he was impresed. He explained that with a remote control and a better tripod - he could drastically improve the quality of his pics because he would not have to touch the camera to get his shots.
Nathan Taylor
I really want to buy a Tripod, my dad says he got his for $10.
But I want a good one. And I don't even know where to start.
I have a Nikon Coolpix P50. It's little, and not a DLSR or whatever, but I want to learn to shoot with a Tripod.
Any suggestions?
I'm all for using a tripod. I never do landscape photography without a tripod. I also use it for wildlife and fireworks.
Manfrotto has come up with an extremely easy to use tripod (Neotec 458B) that you can setup in less than 30 secs. It has no levers, no screws or knobs. Just pull and push.
I have this tripod and love it even though it is a bit on the heavier side. Combine this with a manfrotto 322RC2 grip head and you are good to go.
In response to "The Mighty," https://digital-photography-school.com/blog/an-introduction-to-tripods/#comment-210:
One slightly breezy evening while I was doing some landscape photograhy of the sunset and moon I had my Canon 30D with an attached 400mm Sigma lens mounted on a typical $40 plastic tripod that I got at a department store. Under the circumstances I immediately realized I needed a much sturdier tripod, as I couldn't get one clean shot with the gusts of wind that kept blowing through. I anticipated the trade-off for a good tripod, besides cost, to be one that is somewhat heavy(ier). I spent time in comparing the Manfrotto Bogen (upwards of $300+) and the Amvona Dynatran (upwards of $200+). My purchase decision was based on my budget and I went with the Dynatran. Believe me, I don't regret my purchase and have quickly gotten over the fact that it's heavier than I was typically used to. Now I'm also prepped for portrait photography, sports, and whatever else.
(OK, the other reason I'm really happy about my purchase is because I patiently bid on my AT-828BL tripod with the ATH-918 head on eBay for $44 shipped from Amvona! ;-)
I went to the zoo recently. I didn't think that I'd need my tripod, and I wasn't looking forward to luggin' it around. But here's another tip: it's better to have it with you and not need it, than to not have it with you and wish you had brought it along after all.
Night shots without tripods are almost impossible... I love to take long exposure shots at night...
It's possible, too, to get a small tripod for your point-and-shoot digital camera that's easy to carry around daily. I invested in a 6-inch-tall tripod for my little digi that I can carry with me every day, and it's proved great for quickly setting up an impromptu shot that still requires a little extra stability. It only weighs a few ounces, and it was only around $8.00.
I haven't tried it with my DSLR, but I imagine as long as you didn't have a ridiculously heavy lens, it would work with that too.
Tripods seem studioish for me. I'll tote one when I know I'll be parked for a while or shooting really low light settings. As an avid hiker I opt for the stabiltiy of the resources around me a threaded treking pole & an object.
I use my tripod whenever I can. My Fuji s5600 only has a 1.8 inch LCD which doesn't allow the image on screen to show how sharp it really is. If I use the tripod I really get serious about the set up and am pretty sure it's sharp. How on earth would anyone use a lense longer than 200mm without using a tripod or self timer or bulb. Do yourself a favour..Go buy one.
I am for using a tripod, but what is a "good" tripod?
I have a tabletop tripod as well and it does come in handy for the shots where the camera is required to be placed in the corner. I have a S2IS and the LCD screen comes in handy.
I don't always use my tripod as I move too much when taking photo's. I will use it for portraits sometimes and when I am trying to get a specefic photo in one specefic spot.
I always have have both my Tripod plus my monopod in my ute. when i'm going to be using my long lens (100-400 ) then I will take the mono
I was using one and lugging it around all the time. But unfortunately I lost it by forgetting I donot know where on a trip. Yes I am a proponent of Tripod as I am poor in maths!
Good topic
While what you say is true, there is a vast improvement in (mostly telephoto) shots with a tripod, they a minute to set up and the spontaneity of people or animal shots is lost.
What do you think of the Image Stabilization built into lenses, and now camera bodies, 3-stop improvement?
I stopped bringing my tipod along, not because I'm lazy, rather because I do not stay in one place with my camera. Also, I am always turning the camera onto it's side while shooting, so it never fails, as soon as the tripod is set, attached, balanced the camera comes right back off and I miss the shoot I was wanting. I will lean on a post, vehicile or building when I need to hold steady. Love the Newsletters! Thanks.
Big fan. Big,....huge fan of using my tripod. I have some award winning photos that without my tripod, would be just OK pictures. I even have a little table top size tripod I take with me on occassion. But, by the same route, I have other award winners that were taken free hand. So to use or not to use a tripod, I suppose, is an individual choice. But if you haven't used one, try taking a really nice full moon picture at night without one. Then put the camera on a tripod and take the picture again. You'll be amazed at the results. Experiment with tripods. You might surprise yourself. I know I did.


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MOREHEAD, Ky. (Dec. 18, 2009) -- The ETSU men's basketball team is prepped for its final tuneup prior to the start of Atlantic Sun Conference slate, as the Buccaneers take on Morehead State Friday evening inside Johnson Arena.
The Bucs (5-6) will be looking to rebound from a disappointing 61-57 home loss to Ohio Valley Conference preseason favorite Murray State last Saturday. Meanwhile, Morehead State
ETSU continues to be without the services of senior guard Mike Smith (Vandalia, Mo.), and his status for the remainder of the season continues to be in question.
For more on Friday's game, click on the game notebook link above or read the game notes below.
Buc bits
The ETSU men's basketball team will be looking to bounce back in the win column when the Buccaneers face off with former Ohio Valley Conference foe Morehead State on the road Friday evening ... The Bucs have won four of their last seven games, including wins over SEC foe Arkansas on the road, 94-85, and the team's first conference win over the year 82-56 over North Florida ... However, the Bucs (5-6) have not fared well on the road this season, posting a 1-5 record ... Preseason All Atlantic Sun Conference pick Mike Smith (Vandalia, Mo.) remains doubtful for the Morehead State game after missing the North Georgia game, even though he has played in just four games this sesaon, he most recently posted a 14-point effort in the loss at UAB ... In Smith's absence, junior forward Tommy Hubbard (Boston) and junior guard Justin Tubbs (Trussville, Ala.) have stepped up their games � In fact, Hubbard has posted double-doubles in six of his last 10 games, which led his selection as A-Sun player of the week on Nov. 30 ... that week included a career best 32-point effort against the Razorbacks and a game-high 25-point effort in the victory over UNF ... Meanwhile, Tubbs posted a career best 29 points against CofC and 21 against Arkansas, to go with nine rebounds ... Currently, Hubbard and Tubbs share the team lead in scoring with 14.8 points per game.
The series against Morehead State
The Bucs and Eagles have met 50 times, with most of those games being played during ETSU's time in the OVC ... Morehead leads the series 26-24 and has won the last two meetings, including a 71-61 win over the Bucs last December.
Last time against Morehead State
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Dec. 30, 2008) - A post-Christmas swoon led to a bump in the road for the ETSU men's basketball team, as the Buccaneers relinquished a nine-point second half lead and fell to former Ohio Valley Conference foe Morehead State 71-61 inside Memorial Center ... Building a 42-33 lead over the first five minutes of the second half, the Bucs were not able to keep the Eagles down, as Morehead State produced a 14-2 run just minutes later to retake the lead, and then outscored ETSU 13-4 in the final three minutes to close out the contest. With the win, Morehead State snapped ETSU's current five-game winning streak, and the loss snapped a 19-game home winning streak against non-conference opponents for ETSU, a run that had spanned four seasons ... The Bucs were sluggish to start the game, as Morehead State built a lead of as many as six points at 20-14 on a 3-pointer by Maze Stallworth with just under 10 minutes left before the half. Morehead State then held the lead until the 5:46 mark, when a 3-pointer by Kevin Tiggs (Flint, Mich.) made it 26-24 in favor of ETSU. The Bucs would then hold the lead the rest of the half and take their largest advantage of the game when Courtney Pigram (Memphis) hit a pair of free throws with just 2.5 seconds left to make it 33-29 ... ETSU was able to remedy the slow start in many ways thanks to their defensive effort, as the Bucs held the Eagles to just 32 percent shooting in the first half and forced nine turnovers. Meanwhile, the Bucs hit on 48 percent of their shots from the floor. However, those good times did not last ... The Bucs opened the second half with a 9-4 run to take their largest lead of the game, but from there Morehead State used a 22-of-25 effort from foul line and out-rebounded the Bucs 41-28 to post the decisive statistics of the game and take the victory ... For the game, Morehead State's Leon Buchanan scored a game-high 23 points, while Stallworth joined him in double figures with 22 points, and Demonte Harper pitched in 12. Most impressive for the Eagles was forward Kenneth Faried's 17 rebound effort ... For the Bucs, senior guard Courtney Pigram (Memphis) matched Buchanan's 23-point effort, while fellow senior Kevin Tiggs (Flint, Mich.) had 21 on the night.
Last time out
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Dec. 12, 2009) - Despite overcoming an 18-point second half deficit and actually taking the lead late in the game, the ETSU men's basketball team could not get a basket when it counted in the final two minutes, dropping its first game at home this season in a 61-57 loss to Murray State Saturday afternoon at the ETSU/MSHA Athletic Center ... The Buccaneers suffered through their worst offensive first half of the season and trailed 36-20 at the break. However, ETSU outscored Murray State - the preseason favorite in the Ohio Valley Conference - by a 37-25 clip in the second half and had a chance at the end ... Those players included Micah Williams, who finished with a game-high 18 points, while freshman guard Bruce Grimm (Rochester, Ind.) came off the bench to score 11 points and dish out three assists in the second half. Meanwhile, Murry State got a double-double effort from Ivan Aska with 17 points and 14 rebounds, while Danero Thomas added 12 for the Racers as they improved to an impressive 8-1 on the season ... In the first half, the Bucs struggled out of the gate and never led. In fact, after pulling to within eight points a 19-11 with just over 10 minutes to go before the intermission, the Bucs looked on as the Racers outscored them 17-9 the rest of the way ... However, after Murray State scored the first basket of the second half on a layup by Aska, ETSU pulled to within 15 points at 42-27 over the next six minutes, and then went on a 18-11 run that made it 51-45 with five minutes left in the game ... After making a basket but then missing six straight foul shots, Murray State looked to be in trouble as the Bucs used a 9-0 spurt powered by a Jarvis Jones (Memphis) 3-pointer, as well as a steal and layup from sophomore guard Adam Sollazzo (Tampa), to make it 54-53 in favor of the Bucs with 2:06 left in the game. However, that would be ETSU's only lead of the contest, as Murray State answered by outscoring the Bucs 8-3 the rest of the way.
Smith's status still in doubt
Though he has played in four games this season and most recently scored a season high 14 points against UAB (12/4), senior guard Mike Smith (Vandalia, Mo.) continues to battle nagging injuries ... This has left his status for this week -- and the rest of the year -- still in doubt ... No decision has been made at this point on whether Smith will redshirt this season or whether he will attempt to return to the floor this year ... Smith has been out of practice the last few days.
Williams bringing more offense to the table
Junior guard Micah Williams (Manchester) has worked his way into the starting lineup thanks mainly to back-to-back strong efforts on the offensive end ... Against North Georgia, Williams posted a career high 22 points in leading the Bucs to the win, and he followed that effort with an 18-point night against Murray State ... Currently, Williams is one of three Bucs averaging double figures scoring this year with 10.4 points per game.
Hubbard steps up his game, averaging
Much has been written and reported about junior forward Tommy Hubbard (Boston) and his efforts to improve his offensive game, and those strides most recently led to being selected A-Sun Player of the Week one week ago ... Already considered one of the best defenders in the A-Sun, Hubbard posted a 32-point and 10-rebound effort in the win over Arkansas and dropped in another game-high 26 in the win over UNF ... He currently leads the Bucs with 14.8 points per game and 8.5 rebounds a contest ... while he has posted double-doubles in six of the last 10 games, his efforts began to pay off on the offensive end against Chattanooga back on Nov. 17 ... Setting career bests for points (26) and rebounds (13), Hubbard collected his first career double-double against the Mocs ... In addition, he hit his first 3-point shot in three seasons with the Bucs, and didn't stop there -- ultimately finishing with four long-range bombs on the night.
Record setting night from the arc for Bucs
Hitting on 11-of-14 shots from 3-point range against Arkansas, the Bucs put their name in a multiple of record books ... First, those numbers set a new school record for 3-point field goal percentage in a game with a 78.6 percent mark, breaking the previous record of 66.7 percent which had been done three times previously ... In addition, it was the best shooting effort in the "nation" this season for teams taking more than 10 shots in a game ... And it was the best percentage by a team in the A-Sun since Nov. 28, 1999 when UCF was 11-of-14 in a game against South Carolina state.
Tubbs getting it done for the Bucs
When junior guard Justin Tubbs (Trussville, Ala.) transfered out of the University of Alabama and came to ETSU, many expected the athletic guard to provide an immediate impact on the offensive end of the floor ... This has been the case ... Against Charleston, Tubbs posted a game high and career high 29 points in the Bucs win over Charleston (11/25) ... He followed that effort up with 21 points against Arkansas, and a game high 22 points in the loss to Tennessee ... currently, Tubbs has eclipsed double-figure scoring in six of the Bucs first eight games and is second on the team with 14.8 points per game.
Sollazzo steps up on night ETSU honors Coy
Before the start of the Bucs' Homecoming game against Appalachian State (11/14), the ETSU community honored the memory of former center Seth Coy, who died in a car accident last summer ... His former roommate and friend, Adam Sollazzo (Tampa), now wears Coy's No. 43 jersey and against the Mountaineers he played inspired basketball ... Sollazzo set a career high with 13 points and hit two critical foul shots in the final seconds to get the win.
Bench play critical in win over Mountaineers
With only 21 points of offensive production from its starting five on Saturday, the Bucs got a huge lift from its bench against the Mountaineers ... All three ETSU players to reach double figures -- Adam Sollazzo (13), Justin Tubbs (11) and Sheldon Cooley (11) -- all came off the bench, and the Bucs got a total of 41 from the reserves as a whole ... With injuries costing the Bucs several offensive weapons, look for ETSU to continue to count on the bench.
Bucs offering families "value" for attending games
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Oct. 28, 2009) - With the considerable expense of entertainment options today and the difficult economic times faced by many local families, the ETSU Department of Intercollegiate Athletics in cooperation with Fun Expedition� Family Center of Johnson City are teaming up to make it more affordable than ever for families to attend Buccaneer basketball games during this 2009-10 season ... The Fun Expedition� Family Pack and the Fun Expedition� Family Zone will provide ETSU fans with a pair of options to make attending ETSU basketball games easier on the pocketbook. In fact, the program will offer tickets for free to children 10 and under (with the purchase of an adult ticket), while also offering discounts of more than 50 percent on packaged ticket deals ... Below are specific details of how each of these two programs will work:
-- Fun Expedition� Family Packs: These special family packs will contain 4 bronze level tickets (located in sections C and E), a concessions coupon for FREE popcorn, and a coupon from FUN EXPEDITION�. The total cost of one pack is $20, which is a savings of well over 50 percent on the regular cost of admission (reserved single seats are $10 each).
-- Fun Expedition� Family Zone: In addition to the family pack option, the Fun Expedition Family Zone will provide kids 10 and under a FREE Blue Level ticket (located in sections B and F) with the purchase of an adult Blue Level ticket. The free kids' tickets will be available to the first 900 fans, and these special family tickets can be purchased at the booth located between Memorial Center and Brooks Gym. Parents with more than two children will be able to get as many as four FREE tickets with the purchase of two regular-priced tickets.
Big questions surround Bucs entering 2009-10
With the loss of seniors Courtney Pigram and Kevin Tiggs -- one of the most dynamic offensive duos in the country -- the Bucs have a lot of questions to answer on the offenisve end of the floor this season ... Having averaged 78.1 points a game a year ago, which ranked 21st nationally in all of Division I play -- ETSU has lost 44.0 of those points to graduation when one includes now departed senior Greg Hamlin in that trio ... In addition to the losses on offensive, the Bucs' 13-man roster includes just eight players who have experienced actual floor time in college ... The other five players are either true freshmen, redshirt freshmen or walk-ons.
Big questions surround Bucs entering 2009-10
With the loss of seniors Courtney Pigram and Kevin Tiggs -- one of the most dynamic offensive duos in the country -- the Bucs have a lot of questions to answer on the offenisve end of the floor this season ... Having averaged 78.1 points a game a year ago, which ranked 21st nationally in all of Division I play -- ETSU has lost 44.0 of those points to graduation when one includes now departed senior Greg Hamlin in that trio ... In addition to the losses on offensive, the Bucs' 13-man roster includes just eight players who have experienced actual floor time in college ... The other five players are either true freshmen, redshirt freshmen or walk-ons.

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We realize this is the seventh Conan O'Brien post in two days. We're not going to apologize. The man created one of the funniest comedy sketches ever about a 1,001 HP super car. Apologize? Hell, we salute you, CoCo!
We hope he brings this same humor and zeal for ridiculous stunts using exotic cars to Fox. [Photobucket]


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My Fundraising Page
Oct 10, 2018
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Hope I did the right thing...
I was at the beach today and saw a little ball of fuzz run across the beach, of course with Nolie and her buddy not far behind. The poor little thing was probably scared to death. I cried as I saw it run into the crashing waves and cold waters of Lake Superior, I said a little prayer for the poor thing as I saw it bob in the waves for a few minutes and then disappear
But wait.... I walked a few feet down the beach and saw a sodden little clump of feathers on the beach, the little guy/girl had washed up on shore.
So, i picked up the little lifeless body, fearing for the worst but, after a big sneeze, the tiny thing started chirping
I had no idea what to do with the little thing, I was far from home, out on the beach with two dogs (who may have thought the little thing would make a nice snack) so I took the frozen little thing in my hand, held it close to my body for warmth and took it with me as we continued our walk back towards the car.
After about 20min, it's feathers started to fluff up and it stopped shivering. I opened my hand to give it a couple of puffs of warm air to get the final feathers fluffed and the little thing jumped from my hand and scampered off under a little spruce. Just at that moment I heard a call from a very similar sounding bird... so it gave me hope that it might be mom .
I have no idea if my little fuzz ball will survive but I will give a few more prayers for the little one
I think it was a baby Killdeer... given the shape of it's wings and little "squeeks"
A couple of pics for you (my thumb gives a size reference... it was about the size of an egg... but it had HUGE feet! )
and he/she grows big and strong
Magnolia (aka Nolie) - 6 yrs old, adopted May 3, 2009 - mixed breed monster mutt
R.I.P. Chloe - my first Golden girl - we said goodbye but you will always be here (1994-2007 adopted April 2000)
R.I.P. Molly - my Golden girl, who's causing havoc over the bridge now - (1999-2009 adopted May 2007)
and love for my "lost ones" - Misery, Clover & the girls (chickens)
Sounds like you did exactly the right thing, otter! I suspect the little one will do just fine and maybe has learned a valuable lesson about avoiding predators! (Run for cover on dry land! )
Cute little bugger!
"We are--each of us--dying; it's how we live in the meantime that makes the difference."
"It's not what you gather, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived!"
"Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle."
aw it's sooo wee! from us too!
Windy~Smoke~Buddy~Palomine~Fagan~Asker~Mickey Blue Eyes Venus
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated -Mahatma Gandhi
"We're the renegades, we're the people; With our own philosophies; We change the course of history; Everyday people like you and me"- R A T M
Aww, what a cute little thing. I'm sure its mommy will find him/her.
There are only two rules at my house: House rule #1. Cats rule. House rule #2. See rule #1.
Awwww, otter, you are a birdie . Momma bird is probably not far away and will offer her baby some cuddles and warmth as soon as they are reunited.
Cat maid to:
Jasper, male Ragdoll ?? (approx 10 yrs)
Rose semi feral, a cpietra rescue, female tabby (approx 7 yrs)
Sweet Pea RIP (2004?-2014)
Puddles RIP (1996-2014)
Snowball RIP (1991-2005)
In a cat's eye, all things belong to cats.-English Proverb
While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions. Stephen R. Covey
Mom was probably near. They don't like to leave their babies. A few times I had to fish baby goslings out of sewer drains. Mom was always near by watching and flying over head. Good feeling when they were reunited.
Hopefully the little guy will be ok. Because of you, u gave him a second chance.
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It has been a wonderful, encouraging time as we have gone through this little series on the anatomy of the church, which has recaptured for us, in this particular time, the foundational truths upon which Grace Church has been built through the years. When I started this many months ago, I didn't really know how long the series would go on the anatomy of the church. But we've seen such blessing from the hand of the Lord that we just felt like we oughta continue to do it. The Lord has given us growth, a better understanding of the church, tremendous enrichment of fellowship. And I can honestly say I don't know that there's ever been a time in the church when there was a more wonderful, Christ-honoring, God-honoring spirit than there is right now. You are so responsive to the Word of God, the fellowship and the ministries of our church, the giving. All those things by which we measure the church are so blessed of God, and I believe this is as we come to understand what the Word of God teaches about the church and as we conform to God's standard, He begins to pour out blessing upon blessing. And...and we've enjoyed that. And it's with a bit of reluctance that I...that I leave this subject, having experienced the goodness of God through these days. But I have to believe that God is equally good in the days ahead, and that this is foundation upon which we'll be able to build many wonderful things as we look ahead to what God has for us. But with regard to our series on the anatomy of the church, we...we come to the culmination of our discussion. We've gone through the skeleton, as it were. We've gone through the internal systems of the church, the spiritual attitudes that carry its life. And we've been talking about the muscles or the functions of the church. We come to the last one that I want to address in the series, and that is prayer. As you know, this is a special weekend time of prayer. We do that periodically here in our church, and...and we're just so grateful to God for the way in which you have responded to that and the way the Lord, in His grace, has answered our prayers. And it's fitting that we culminate the whole series with a discussion of prayer, because everything we do as a church, the formulation of our non-negotiable foundation structure doctrine, the...the spiritual attitudes that are generated in the life of the church, as well as the functions, as we exercise our spiritual muscles. All must be bathed in prayer. They all must be focused together and brought before the throne of God that we might know they are within His Will, and that we might experience His blessing. And so prayer is really the capstone that sort of covers everything, and I trust that we'll see it that way as we look at it during the day. This morning, as I was contemplating what I might do in terms of a text of Scripture, I...I was irresistibly drawn, and...and really sort of unequivocally drawn to a text of Scripture which, for me, formulates the essence of prayer better than any other one, and that is Matthew chapter 6 beginning at verse 9, in what is commonly known as the Lord's Prayer, but should be known as the disciple's prayer. If you wanna study the Lord's Prayer, you can go to John 17 and study His prayer as He prayed to the Father.
But this is the disciple's prayer when they asked to...how they should pray, Jesus taught them, and gave for us a model for all of our prayers. The words are familiar. They have been recited by you many times. They have been sung by you many times. They're very familiar words. Unfortunately, like so many things that become familiar to us, we substitute familiarity for understanding. And we hope this morning to get a grip on the depth and penetrating significance of the first part, in particular, of this prayer so familiar to us.
Verse 9, "Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed by Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen."
To launch our thoughts this morning, let me say at the beginning, prayer is worship. Nowhere is that more clear than in this particular prayer, which begins and ends with a concern for God. And in the center is a concern for self. First and foremost, we must understand that prayer is an act of worship...that the goal of prayer is not to gain anything for us, but to gain glory for God. In John's Gospel chapter 14, as he was saying his farewell to the disciples, they thought they were losing everything...And so he gives them a great promise in verse 13. He says, "Whatever you ask the Father...implied from verse 12. This is verse 13...Whatever you ask the Father in My name, that will I do." And Jesus, here, gives the great pledge of answered prayer. Then He says this: "In order that the Father may be glorified in the Son." And there you have the ultimate motivation for prayer: that God may be glorified. So again I say, prayer is not primarily a means by what...by which we get what we want, but rather a means by which He gets what He wants and deserves, which is supreme glory.
Prayer must begin and end with a concern for the glory of God...No matter how severe the exigencies. No matter how difficult the circumstance. The heart of the one praying should be occupied with the concerns of God before his own. Nowhere is this more graphically illustrated than in the case of Jonah, the erstwhile prophet who, in disobeying God's Will, wound up in the stomach of a fish. And when he was in the stomach of the fish in Jonah chapter 2, he prayed. And I think it's so interesting to see the essence of his prayer. Down in verse 7 of Jonah 2, this is what Jonah said. "While I was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to Thee, into Thy holy temple. Those who regard vain idols forsake their faithfulness, but I will sacrifice to Thee with the voice of thanksgiving; that which I have vowed, I will repay. Salvation is from the Lord."
He starts out his prayer with worship and praise and thanksgiving. Now, we could forgive him if he hurried to the petition, couldn't we? I mean it was a kind of a severe occasion...But it was in the nature of his own heart to come before God with a profound sense of reverence...with an understanding that God was to be adored and praised. And he starts out by saying, "My prayer came to You into your holy temple." He recognizes the holiness of God. And then he...he says, "Those who regard vain idols," thus setting God apart from all false gods. Then he talks about those who forget their faithfulness to God. And he says, "But I will sacrifice to You, and my sacrifice is a sacrifice of the voice of thanksgiving."
Here is this disobedient prophet sitting in the acid of a fish's stomach thanking God. "That which I have vowed, I will pay." What he means by that is "I...I vowed when I came to You, when I came to know You, when I gave my life to you, when I, by faith, entered into a relationship with You to honor You and to praise You and to glorify You, and I will do that, and I will extol You." And he says, "Salvation or deliverance is from the Lord." You're in charge. It's a prayer of worship. In Daniel's prophecy, perhaps one of the greatest prayers, if not the most instructive prayer in the whole Old Testament appears in Daniel 9. And Daniel is...made aware, by reading the Prophet Jeremiah, that the 70-year captivity of Judah in Babylon is about over. He knows the beginning time of it, and he knows the end is near. And from reading Jeremiah, he realizes that now is the time when God may be delivering his people. So he launches into a prayer in chapter 9, and it's a prayer of confession that God would forgive the iniquities of Israel. And this prayer, this repentant, pleading prayer asking for forgiveness starts in verse 5 and flows all the way down through the chapter to about verse 16. But before he ever gets into his petition, before he ever launches this plea for God to forgive, here is how he begins. Verse 4, "I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said, 'Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and loving kindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments."
Again, he launches into his prayer with an attitude of worship. The end of his prayer, you come down to verse 17, "So now, our God, listen to the prayer of Thy servant and to his supplications, and for Thy sake, O Lord, let Thy face shine on Thy desolate sanctuary." Meaning allow them to go back and rebuild the temple. "O my God, include Thine ear and hear! Open Thine eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called by Thy name...namely Jerusalem...for we are not presenting our supplications before Thee on account of any merits of our own, but on account of Thy great compassion. O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action!...Why?...For Thine own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy name." He's saying Your name, Your kingdom, Your people, Your city, Your temple, they're at stake. The passionate concern of Daniel, then, was to answer his prayer for God's own glory. For God's own sake. Jeremiah prayed similarly in Jeremiah chapter 32, he also, coming before the Lord with a passionate prayer, launches into the prayer...with praise. Jeremiah chapter 32...verse 16, he says, "I prayed to the Lord." And he's in a very dire situation at this time. Obviously his whole nation has rejected him. He launches into the prayer, and he says, "Ah Lord God! Behold Thou hast made the heavens and the earth by Thy great power and by Thy outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for Thee, who showest His loving kindness to thousands, but repayest the iniquity of fathers to the bosom of their children after them, O great and mighty God the Lord of hosts is His name. Great in counsel and mighty in deed, Whose eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, giving to everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds; Who has set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and even to this day, both in Israel and among mankind; Thou hast made a name for Thyself as at this day. Thou didst bring Thy people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and with wonders, and with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with great terror; and gavest them this land, which Thou doest swear to their forefathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey. And they came in and took possession of it, but they did not obey Thy voice or walk in Thy law; they have done nothing of all that Thou commandest them to do; therefore Thou hast made all this calamity come upon them."
Before he prays with regard to the calamity, he goes through all of that recitation of the character and the work of God. Now this is standard stuff, if you wanna go through the...the Old Testament and particularly noting the...the Psalms. This is the nature of the way the saints have always prayed. And now go back to the prayer that we're gonna be looking at in Matthew chapter 6, and you can see that, as Jesus teaches His disciples to pray, it starts on this same note where He begins with very familiar words to us, "Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed by Thy name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done." Three Thys there. We're concerned about You. We're concerned about Your glory, Your Kingdom, and Your will. All prayer sets God in His proper place. All prayer takes note of the fact that God is on the throne and that prayer is primarily worship before it is anything else. And that the only legitimate petition that I can pray for...with a pure and a true heart would be that petition that sanctifies God, that advances His Kingdom, and that fits His will. That's the priority. Any other prayer would be of self-concern...rather than the concern that ought to be directed at God. So the prayer begins, and...and ends by the way, look at verse 13, "Thine is the Kingdom, and the power and the glory for ever. Amen." The prayer begins and ends with this focus on worship. I want us to look at four elements of this particular emphasis that come through here in these opening verses. First of all is God's paternity...or God revealed as paternal Father. Verse 9, "Pray then in this way: Our Father who art in Heaven." Now that is a very important primary statement, very important. "Our Father who art in Heaven." That...that distinguishes God from all other deities. As you know, the gods of the nations, the gods of the invention of demons and men, move on a spectrum from indifference to hostility. None of them is ever identified as a loving, compassionate, tender-hearted, protective father who wants to nurture his children and meet all their needs. The best that can be said about the false gods in Israel would be that they were indifferent, and that Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, "Why don't you yell a little louder. He's probably taking a nap." The worst that could be said about them would be that they were like Molek, and you had to take your little infant baby and burn him to a crisp in a fire to placate the otherwise vengeful Molek. So anything from indifference or apathy all the way over to hostility, but no god of the invention of man and demons is a loving, protective, caring, nurturing, supporting, supplying father.
So we have here a brand new perspective...and it was not only new in the...in the pagan world, but it was actually new in the Jewish world, as well. In chapter 7, look at verses 7 to 11. Jesus teaching the Jews, says, "Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you." This, again, is a brand new approach. Whatever you ask, you're going to receive. This is very different than trying to placate some otherwise hostile deity or indifferent one. "For every one who asks, receive...receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, it shall be opened." That is a very, very broad series of statements...and the Jews would respond to this...in a somewhat different way than we would, because the Jews had no real sense of intimacy with God. Fourteen times in the Old Testament God is called Father. Never is He called my Father by any individual. Collectively, He's called our Father. But in every case of the 14 times God is referred to as Father in the Old Testament, it is collectively the Father of the nation of which He is identified. No one would be so brash, apparently, as to assume that God was in some way intimate with him. In fact, I suppose, by virtue of the severity of the Ten Commandments, and the warning not to touch the mountain, because God was there, and the fire and the smoke at Sinai, the people understood that they needed to distance themselves from God. Furthermore, they knew that when the temple was constructed, there was a veil placed between God's presence and the people, and nobody could ever go in there except the high priest, and that once a year. And if he hadn't cleansed himself, he could be killed in there. They put little bells on his garments when he went in so, in case he died, they would know it, because the bells would stop ringing. So there was a...a real sense in which God was teaching them about His utter separateness and otherness and holiness. And there was a certain fear engendered in them that I think, perhaps, they pushed further than God even intended, because they became...sort of superstitious about this, and they reached the point where they wouldn't even speak the name of God...which is known as the Tetragrammaton. Four letters in the Hebrew, and they wouldn't speak it, and so they substituted some kind of a...of a hybrid word, because they were...were unable to utter this word that was too holy to cross their lips. So they...they had to properly understand that God is separate from them. They had properly been taught that God is an absolutely holy God into Whose presence a sinner cannot enter except under very, very limited situations. They got that far and...and instead of...maybe moving in the other direction in devel...direction in developing...their personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the religion of Israel became...I...I should say their faith in God and moving toward Him, in faith, before the coming of Christ, their religion became apostate. And so it even distanced them more.
So when Jesus came on the scene, the Jews were at a great distance from God...and they wouldn't speak of God as Father. They wouldn't even use God's own name because of the seriousness of it. Jesus comes into that environment. Seventy times, He refers to God personally. And every time calls Him My Father, with one exception. That is on the cross when He Himself being separate from God was bearing the just wrath for our sins said, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Instead of saying Father. Because He was feeling the alienation. In all the prayers of Jesus in the gospels, He used Father, and He brought a new intimacy. In fact, it was that very intimacy that He kept claiming with the Father that led the Jews to kill Him, wasn't it? In the end, it was the fact that He continued to say that He and the Father were One. And He continued to celebrate this inimy...intimacy with the Father that caused them to become hostile toward Him, turn Him over to the Romans for the actual execution.
In the world around Israel, there was the same kind of attitude toward God. No god in the pagan culture, as I mentioned a moment ago...a moment ago was a father, a loving, caring, supporting, supplying father. In fact, the two dominant philosophical viewpoints of that time, which encompassed their...their view of deities were Stoicism and Epicureanism. Any of you have studied the western civilization or have studied philosophy or advanced philosophy have...have wandered through this particular area of thought. Let's talk about that for a moment. The Stoics, first of all, the two great pre-Christian philosophies by which men lived in the Greco-Roman world, the first of them was Stoicism. And the Stoics said that the one essential attribute of God was opethea, from which we get apathy in...in English. But, when we say apathy in English, we usually mean someone who is indifferent when they need not be or should not be. In other words, we use it in a negative sense. We would say a...someone is apathetic, that means they're indifferent to something they ought not be indifferent to. They're disinterested in something they ought not to be disinterested in. But that is not what it really means in its root meaning in the Greek. It's come to mean that in English. The Greek word opethea means the inability to feel. The inability to experience anything. Any feeling at all. And the Greeks said that the one thing that is truest about God is He can't feel anything. He cannot experience anything...by way of feeling. And here was their basic logic: The Stoics said this, simple logic, if a person can experience a feeling of joy...if a person can experience a feeling of grief, if a person can experience a feeling of love, if a person can experience a feeling of hate, it means, then, that someone else can affect him. Right? They could make you happy, make you sad, make you love, make you hate. And, they concluded, that, therefore, man would be affecting God...And as the Greeks saw it, no man had any power over God. And, therefore, God, to avoid being at all influenced by man, was opethea. It was, essentially, His nature. He was passionless, emotionless, and utterly indifferent by nature. No capacity to feel anything. I would say that's quite different than the God of the Bible, wouldn't you? Into that environment comes a God who feels compassion, love, tenderness, Who weeps through the eyes of a prophet, and weeps through the eyes of His Son. A God Who says a merry heart does good like a medicine. A God knows how to love. A God who knows how to hate. Very different. A God who is a loving, compassionate, caring Father, Who brings children into His own spiritual realm and pours out unending blessing upon them, and who is sorrowed by their sin and who rejoices over their righteousness. Secondly, the Epicureans, who were also the dominant sort of pre-Christian philosophy of the time, identified their main view of God around the word ataraxia. Ataraxia. That meant...does mean in the greed...serenity. It means complete serenity or complete calm. And the argument of the Epicureans was that if God was involved at all in the affairs of the world, He couldn't stay serene. Who could? The affairs of the world are too troublesome. If God at all got involved in the affairs of the world, it would trouble Him, and if it troubled Him, He wouldn't be God. So the gods had to be utterly and totally detached. They were ataraxia. Unmoved, uninterested, uninvolved, unaware...
And against that background comes the New Testament teaching that God is involved and very aware...feels every small issue of life personally. When His children hurt, He hurts...and sends the angels, as Matthew 18 says, to their aid. In modern times, we have these kinds of philosophical views of God. The deists believe that God was some force that wound up the universe, and it's unwinding and He's gone away and has nothing to do with it. That was major theology in the early part of the founding of America. James Stewart quotes two lines from a poem of Thomas Hardy. Thomas Hardy asks what could possibly be the use of prayer when we have no one to pray to, whom...except whom he defines as the "Dreaming, dark, dumb thing that turns the handle of this idle show." Well, you couldn't get too excited about...having a God who was a dreaming, dark, dumb thing.
Voltaire, his verdict on life, quote "A bad joke. Bring down the curtain. The farce is done." H.G. Wells, in one of his novels, paints a picture of a man defeated by the stress and strain and tension of life. His doctor wisely told him the only hope of retaining his sanity was to give his life to Christ. "'What?' said the man...H.G. Wells writes...that, that, that up there having fellowship with me? I would as soon think of cooling of my throat with the Milky Way or shaking hands with a star." An indifferent, apathetic, uninvolved force. These are the verdicts of mankind, but these are far afield from what the Bible has to say. Our God is a loving Father, and all prayer begins with that recognition. We're not going in there trying to wake up God like the Baal prophets were doing. Nor are we going in there trying to...to...to somehow satiate His lust for blood by burning our children in a fire. We're going to a God who is our Father; and, with intimate love, longs to give the best that He has to His beloved children. And in Matthew 7, the passage that I started to read earlier, Jesus says this about a man. "If a...if a son comes to a father and asks him for a loaf of bread, will he give him a stone? If he asks him for a fish, will he give him a snake?" How much more your Father, who is good, will good gifts to His children when human fathers, who are evil, give good gifts to their children. If a human father can be so loving and compassionate, how much more loving and compassionate is our divine Father? And we can be as intimate with God as to call him Abba. Romans 8:15, Col...Galatians 4:6. Abba means poppa. It's a term of endearment. It's a term of intimacy. We don't have to go in there trembling and shaking and quaking. We have a loving Father, and we can say to Him, "Abba."
Now that settles a lot of issues. That's where all prayer begins. You are going, not to try to get God interested in your life, not to try to stop Him from harming you, not to try to awaken Him to the fact that you're there. You're going to a loving, caring Father. That settles a lot of issues. First of all, it settles the issue of fear. Completely settles the issue of fear. God is there, loving, receiving, not threatening. Put that against the background of the most famous Greek legend of all Greek legends. The legend of Prometheus. Have you read Prometheus Bound or Prometheus Unbound? Somewhere in your education, perhaps, you did. Prometheus was a god in the pantheon of Greco-Roman gods. And all of this, of course, is fantasy. Prometheus was a god, and it was in the days before men possessed fire. And when men didn't have fire, life was very comfortless. You couldn't cook anything, and you couldn't get warm. In pity, Prometheus took fire from heaven, because there was fire up there with the gods. And he gave it as a gift to men. Well, Prometheus really sorta slipped up and, in being good to men, he was immediately the object of vengeance by the other gods. And according to Greek mythology, Zeus was so upset that he had done this good for man...that he took Prometheus, and he chained him to a rock in the middle of the Adriatic Sea, where he was tortured with the heat and thirst of the day and the cold of the night. And then Zeus prepared a vulture, and the vulture went down and tore out Prometheus' liver. Prometheus had an unusual liver, however. It kept growing back. And so in incessant, unrelenting torture, he tore it out and it grew back. He tore it out and it grew back. He tore it out and it grew back. And that's the way the gods treated somebody who wanted to be kind to man. It's against that background that we understand that when the Scripture talks about God as a loving Father, we're talking about a very, very different thing. That settles the matter of fear. We approach a loving Father, Abba, Father knowing that, because we're in Christ, we have nothing to fear. It also settles the matter of hope. Settles the matter of hope. You know, one of the things I always looked to my father for as a child was the future. Is that not true? My future was totally in his hands. I wasn't gonna have another meal if he didn't provide it. His job was my source of life. His choices controlled my life. Where he lived, the patterns of life. The money he provided determined my education, the direction of my life. The values that he taught me, the principles that he taught me unfolded and became my future. Fathers are really in charge of futures, aren't they? And it settles the matter of hope.
I know as a father myself, you know, in talking to my own children, there are times when you have to say, "Well, just look ahead. Things will be better." Times when you say, "Hey, this is what we're gonna do in the future." And you fill your children's hearts with hope about some wonderful reality to come, or about the fact that some pain in the moment will pass, and there's a...there's a better tomorrow coming. Part of a father's role is to create a future, and God has created a future for His children. And the promise of that future is bound up in this statement. Very simple. God is able to make all things work together for good, to them that love Him. Settles the matter of loneliness, too. I'm God's beloved child, and He will never leave me, and He will never forsake me. And the Old Testament says he's a friend that sticks closer than a brother...That settles the issue of loneliness. I don't need to feel lonely. I can always go to God, and He's always there. I'm never alone...
It settles the matter of selfishness, too, this statement. Because, you know, as much as He is my Father, I'm not His only kid. Says, "Our Father." It's very important that the prayer is that...it chooses that particular pronoun. Because when I say, "Our Father," I immediately embrace all the rest of His children. Whatever it is that I wanna bring before Him, I have to take into account that there's a whole lot of other children involved in this, as well. Something wonderful about big families. Something wonderful about learning that your father is not just your father, but he's a lot of other kids' father, too, and they need him and resources from him and however he deals with you has to be, in some way, in concert with how he deals with all the rest.
The very word "our" ends exclusiveness. It puts me in a family. It settles the matter of resources, too, this statement. Because it says "Our Father who art...where?...in Heaven."...I suppose a little kid might think it was pretty good if he could say..."My father works at the toy store." Wow. Better yet, "My father owns the toy store." That would...that would be a premium. Well, my Father owns the universe and that settles the issue of resources. Whatever I need, He supplies, right? I have all things that pertain to life in godliness. I've been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. It also settles the matter of obedience. One thing I learned as a child, and one thing I taught my children as a father, is that father is to be obeyed...Even Jesus obeyed His Father, didn't He?...So when I pray, "Our Father who art in Heaven," I have settled in my heart the matter of fear. He is my loving, beloved Father who cherishes me and loves me...Settles the matter of, not only the matter of fear, but it...it settles the matter of hope. There's a future for me. My Father will take care of my future. Settles the matter of loneliness. I'm never alone. Settles the matter of selfishness, as well, because He's got a lot of other children, and He has to take care of all of us. And I can't put my needs over others. Settles the matter of resources. My Father, He lives in Heaven, and He has everything in the universe at His disposal. It settles the matter of obedience. And, finally, number seven, it settles the matter of wisdom. Now, they used to say father knows best. And when I was a little boy and I wanted to know anything about anything, I asked my dad, and I grew up thinking he knew everything about everything. In fact, when I married my wife, Patricia, she grew up believing her father knew everything about everything, too. And she had a lotta difficulty trying to believe that I knew anywhere near as much as her father. And you know what? I'm thankful for that. It's a great legacy. Settles the matter of wisdom, doesn't it? I can go to my Father, and I can get the right answer to everything. So when you start out with understanding the paternity of the Father, the Father's paternity, you start out understanding prayer, removing fear, providing hope, removing loneliness, removing selfishness, providing resources, commanding obedience, and dispensing wisdom, now you're beginning to get the...the picture here...This is all about putting God on display...Every time you pray "Our Father," you know you're not...you're not lost in the crowd. You're His. Secondly, God's priority. Understanding the foundation of prayer takes us to a second statement here: "Hallowed by Thy name. Hallowed be Thy name." This identifies the essence of the first request. Here it is. The first request is a request that God's name be hallowed. It's a tremendous statement. A. W. Pink wrote, "How clearly then is the fundamental duty in prayer set forth here. Self, and all its needs, must be given a secondary place, and the Lord freely accorded the preeminence in our thoughts, desires, and supplications. This petition must take the precedence, for the glory of God's great name is the ultimate end of all things. Every other request must not only be subordinated to this one, but be in harmony with and pursuance of it. We cannot pray right unless the honor of God is dominant in our hearts. If we cherish a desire for the honoring of God's name, we must not ask for anything...which would be against that goal." What does this petition mean? We used to say it all the time. "Hallowed by Thy name," and I think we probably think it means long live the king or something like that. Just sort of something you say. Well, the word name is full of meaning. It stands for the whole character of a person. And in the ancient mind, name was all that you were. Stood for nature, attributes, character, personality. God said in Exodus, "I am that I am, and I am is My name. My name is who I am." So the...the first petition in your prayer is, "Father, Father, may Your person, Your identity, Your character, Your nature, Your attributes, Your reputation be hallowed." That's my first request. God, I want You glorified. That's what David was...was agonizing over in Psalm 69:9 when he said, "The reproaches that fall on You have fallen on me, and zeal for Your house has eaten me up. When somebody dishonors You, God, I feel the pain...he says."
His name is to be hallowed. What a name he has. Elohim, the Creator, El elyon, these are Hebrew names in the Old Testament. El elyon, God Most High. Jehovah, I am. Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide. Jehovah Nessia, the Lord our banner. Jehovah Rafa, the Lord that heals. Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our peace. Jehovah Ra'a, the Lord my shepherd. Jehovah Sidkanu, the Lord my righteousness. Jehovah Sabbaoth, Lord of hosts. Jehovah Shamma, the Lord is present. Jehovah Magadischem, the Lord sanctifies you. And the greatest of His names, the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him, all the fullness of the godhead dwells. The name means all that He is. A hymn writer, years ago, said, "O, could I speak the matchless worth. O, could I sound the glories forth which, in my Savior, shine. I'd soar and touch the heavenly strings and vie with Gabriel while he sings in notes all most divine. I'd sing the character He bears and all the forms of love He wears. Exalted on His throne in loftiest songs of sweetest praise, I would to everlasting days make all His glories known."
That's desiring God's name to be hallowed. Now, when we say hallowed, usually goes along with the word hall. We talked about hallowed halls like old buildings. At some university somewhere, the sort of cloistered places. What we might think of long robes, dismal chants, haloes, musty, dim churches, cathedrals, morbid music, tired traditions. It's not what hallowed means. It's the word hadgeadzine, hadgeadzine. Means to separate. Treat as sacred. That's what it means. To treat as sacred. It is a...it is to treat the name of God as sacred. It is to come before God with reverence and a godly fear. It is a balance to Abba. And, you know, there's a lot of familiarity in Christianity today with God. And, without balance, there's too much familiarity. Without an understanding of the awesomeness and the holiness of God who is approached in a somewhat flippant way. We can come with the intimacy of a child saying, "Poppa," but at the same time, recognizing the greatness of our Father.
The Jews were very sensitive to this, in fact, and whenever they did in their prayers refer to God as Father, they immediately balanced it off...They were very afraid of sentimentalizing God, and we should be, as well. And whenever the Jews prayed and used the term Father, it was quickly somewhat mitigated by something else. For example, here are examples of their prayers, their typical standard, traditional prayers. "O, Lord Father and Ruler of my life. O, Lord Father and God of my life. O, Father, King of great power, Most High Almighty God." Or the Shemina Ezra, which is 18 prayers. They have a...a common sort of Trinitarian beginning with...three statements. "O, Father, O Lord, O King." Always wanting to balance out that Father concept. On the ten penitential days at the time of the Day of Atonement, when they celebrate, they prayer what is known as the Albinumilkanu. "Our Father, our King. Our Father, our King." They say that 44 times. They are concerned that God be reverenced. That's been in their tradition. And when you come to God, you come as a loving father, yet recognizing you're dealing with a holy God, and you come with an attitude of great reverence. Let's go a third component of prayer and a second priority. The first is to understand God's paternity. The second is to understand God's priority, that we are concerned about His glory, His reverence, His honor, His fear, His holiness, and we wouldn't ask for anything that would, in any way, violate that or compromise that. Now we come to a second petition, God's program. Not only God's priority personally, but God's program. Verse 10, "Thy Kingdom come." The first petition is to...be directed at God's glory. God, I want You to be glorified and honored and exalted, and Your name to be separated from sinners and set apart and treated as sacred in this. And, secondly, I want Your Kingdom to come. My highest interest is in Your enterprise, not my own. As concerned as I am about my family or my ministry or my job or my education or my career or whatever it is, my problems, my illnesses, the first priority is for Your Kingdom. Whatever exalts Your name, whatever glorifies You, and whatever advances Your Kingdom, that's what I pray for. The Talmud, the Jewish Talmud, the rabbis wrote this, "Prayer, that prayer in which there is no mention of the Kingdom of God is no prayer at all. That prayer in which there is no mention of the Kingdom of God is no prayer at all." Those three little words, "Thy Kingdom come," are very rich with meaning. Thy answers the question whose is this Kingdom. It's Yours. The word Kingdom identifies the realm. What is this Kingdom? It's the sphere of salvation where God rules over the souls of those who put their trust in Him. That's what it is. Whether you're talking about in an Old Testament era, whether you're talking about in the New Testament area...or era...or the coming Kingdom of Christ on earth, the Kingdom in its broadest sense re...referred to here is the sphere of salvation. And so the prayer would go like this: God, You do whatever advances the Gospel. Whatever brings about salvation. Whatever brings sinners into Your Kingdom. Whatever enlarges Your Kingdom, You do that. You might have a desire in your heart for a very specific answer to your prayer. But before you get to the specifics of your prayer, you start by saying, "God, what concerns me is Your Kingdom. Whatever is best for the advancement of Your Kingdom, and whatever is going to glorify Your name, that's my petition. That's my petition." Now, that's the stuff that prayer is built on. It starts at that point. How does His Kingdome come, that last word. It comes through conversion. When somebody puts their trust in Jesus Christ, they come into the Kingdom. Secondly, it comes through sanctification. Not only justification, salvation, but sanctification. Because, as believers grow and mature, they enrich the Kingdom. Romans 14:17 says, "The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit." So when you pray "Thy Kingdom come," you could say, "God, I want You to do whatever saves souls and whatever matures Christians. I wanna bring You my petition, but I want You to answer it in whatever way is going to advance Your Kingdom through the salvation of lost people and the sanctification of Your people."
Thirdly, His Kingdom comes in its literal form in the earthly return of Jesus Christ. And you can pray for that also. "Thy Kingdom come, oh, God, Thy rule O Christ begin. Break with Thine iron rod the tyrannies of sin." You can pray that. You can sing the hymn, "Jesus shall reign where ere the Son does His excessive journeys run. His Kingdom spread from shore to shore till the moon shall wax and wane no more." We can pray for the coming of Christ. Like John, we can say, "Even so, come Lord Jesus." We can be looking for the glorious appearing of our God and Savior. We have every right to do that. We can say, "Lord, we want You to do this if it advances Your Kingdom through the salvation of souls. We want You to do this if it advances Christians through their progressive sanctification. We want You to do this if it will bring Christ to establish His Kingdom on earth. Oh, the joy to see the reigning, Thee, my own beloved Lord. Every tongue, Thy name confessing, worship on, or glory blessing brought to Thee with one accord. Thee, my Master and my Friend. Vindicated and enthroned unto earth, remotest nations glorified, adored, and owned." You can pray for that. That the Kingdom would come. That the power of sin would be shattered. That Christ would rule over this sin-cursed world.
But those are the elements of the Kingdom. Whatever it takes to save souls. Whatever it takes to encourage Christians. Whatever it takes to bring the King to set up His Kingdom. Do that. That's the centrality of prayer. God's paternity, God's priority, God's program. Last point. God's purpose. Verse 10, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." There's one place where God's will is always done. Where is it? In Heaven. And that's the point. Do it here like it's done there. Do Your will. And when we say that, are...are we just...is that just bitter resentment? I think maybe it could be for some people. Is it just like Omar Khayyam once wrote, "But helpless pieces of the game He plays...speaking of God...upon this checkerboard of night and days, hither and thither moves and checks and slays, and one by one, back in the closet lays." That was his definition of God. Is this some bitter resentment about a God who controls our destiny over which we have nothing to say and about which we can do nothing? Is this bitter resentment? No. How about passive resignation? Is it just sort of saying, "Oh, well, I give. I can't do anything about it." Is that it? "You've conquered me. I'm vanquished." Or maybe it's theological resignation. Maybe it's our...maybe it's our Calvinism gone wild...We...we just...we just realize God's so sovereign that we just figure, "Yeah, He's gonna do what He's gonna do." It's like the little girl. She was asked by her father if she wanted to go for a walk. She said no. He said, "But it's such a lovely day out. I...I just wanna take you for a walk." And she said, "I don't wanna go for a walk." So he went over and sat beside her and extolled the virtues of exercise. And then the virtues of fresh air. And then the virtues of conversation. And so she went on a walk, and he turned and said, "Now, aren't you glad you came?" She said, "No, you're just bigger."...
Is that...is that...is that hyper-Calvinism? Is it just because God's bigger and sovereign and in control? Or is it because we passively resign ourselves to a fate we can't change? Or is it a form of anger? I don't think any of those things. I think when we say "Thy will be done," it's an expression of great confidence and great faith that God never makes mistakes. I can trust Him. I can trust Him with everything. I can say to Him, "You do Your will," and I'll trust it...
In the days of the covenanters in Scotland, covenanters had taken the position against the Catholic system. They were branded as heretics, and they were being tortured and killed. Marvelous piece of history of people who had come to true faith in Christ and were paying with their lives. The government was executing the covenanters and torturing them with the most savage kind of cruelty. Their leader was a man named Richard Cameron, about whom I have occasion to read. And every time I read, I'm so moved by his life. Many would say he's the greatest of all the covenanters. And wanting to get to him, they...they took his son. His son was a little boy, and, according to the biographer, was a beautiful lad with particularly beautiful and deft hands. Skilled with his hands. A very young boy. And so they cut both his hands off, put 'em in a bag, and sent them to his father, Richard Cameron, in an act of astonishing cruelty. And the biographer says Richard recognized them at once. "They are my son's," he said, "my own dear son's. But it is the Lord's will, and good is the will of the Lord. He has never wronged me." That's not hyper-Calvinism. That's not passive resignation to fate. That's not resentment. That's confidence. Isn't it? You never worship God more faithfully than when you put your confidence in Him in the darkest hour. Yesterday, I did a...a seminar in Chicago for the Biblical Counseling Center there, and preached all day, and between one of the sessions and the next one, a man sat down beside me and put his arm around me, and he...he said, "Just wanna take a few minutes to tell you how much the ministry of Grace To You and books and tapes have meant in my life." He said, and his wife was with him, lovely couple, about 40, I would think. And he said, "God...God gave us ten children." And then he began to cry. Tears came down his eyes, and he said, "But some time back, we had a car accident, and six of them were killed...And we had a large van to carry them all, and I was standing in the street, and these kids were all around everywhere. And my wife was there with me, and I went over, and I embraced her," he said, "and what came out of my mouth was this," he said, "Honey, God has prepared us for this. God has prepared us for this." Then he said to me, "I wanna thank you for the part that you had, as God used you through the teaching of the Word to prepare us, because," he said, "at that moment, we trusted God."
...And he...tears were coming down his eyes, and he...he said, "I'm still a pastor, and I still serve the Lord, and I can honestly say I trust God. And I trust His will. And my children are with Him." And that's, though it's a heartbreaking thing in this world, it's unimaginable to think of losing six of your children in one accident. But, you know, that man must have an awful lot of credibility in his church when he stands up and tells people to trust God. Prayer is worship before it's anything else. Now, if you've done all that, and you have any time left, you can say, "Lord, I'm hungry. Could you give me some bread? Lord, I'm tempt...I...I'm...I'm...I'm sinful. Could you please forgive me? And, Lord, hang onto me, will You? Don't let me get into temptation I can't get out of." And when you've said that, you can go back to where you started and say, "For Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory for ever. Amen."
Let's pray. Father, we do trust You...and we know that's where all prayer begins...We just know You're our loving Father. We just want Your name to be glorified. We just want Your Kingdom to advance and Your will to be done. And we trust You no matter what that means...And we know that You're gonna give us our daily bread, because...we've never seen the Lord's people begging bread, and You will supply all our needs according to Your riches in Christ Jesus, and You will give bread for our food. And we know that You will forgive all our sins, because You promised to do that in Christ. And we know that You will never lead us into a temptation that could overwhelm us and destroy us, because You keep us, and You protect us...and You are able...to keep us from falling and to present us faultless...in glory...And, Father, we wanna pray the way You taught Your disciples to pray and make Your concerns our concerns. And ask You only to do that which fulfills Your will, advances Your Kingdom, and lifts up Your name. Teach us to pray like that. In Christ's name. Amen.
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A "Gem" of a Meteor Shower
by Joe Rao on
If you missed out on last month's Leonid Meteor Shower, don't fret. What potentially will be the best meteor display of the year is just around the corner, scheduled to reach its peak during the overnight hours of December 13-14: The Geminid Meteor Shower.
If the Geminids occurred during a warmer month, they would be as familiar to most people as the famous August Perseids. Indeed, a night all snuggled-up in a sleeping bag under the stars is an attractive proposition in summer, and many campers on vacation often independently "discover" the Perseids. On the other hand, it's hard to imagine anything more bone chilling than lying on the ground in mid-December for several hours around midnight, looking up at a clear sky that has brought radiational cooling and plummeting temperatures since sunset.
But if you are willing to bundle up, this coming Sunday night into early Monday morning will be when the Geminids are predicted to be at their peak. And depending how dark your location is, and how much of the sky you can see, meteors may streak into view that night at an average rate of one or two per minute. The Geminids are—for those willing to brave the chill of a December night—a very fine winter shower, and usually the most satisfying of all the annual showers, even surpassing the Perseids.
Studies of past displays show that this shower has a reputation for being rich both in slow, bright, graceful meteors and fireballs as well as faint meteors, with relatively fewer objects of medium brightness. Many appear yellowish in hue. Some even appear to form jagged or divided paths.
These meteors appear to emanate from a point near the bright star Castor, in the constellation of Gemini, hence the name "Geminid." The track of each one does not necessarily begin near Castor or even in the constellation Gemini, but it always turns out that the path of a Geminid extended backward passes through a tiny region of sky about 0.2 degrees in diameter (an effect of perspective). In apparent size, that's less than half the width of the Moon. As such, this is a rather sharply defined radiant as most meteor showers go; suggesting the stream is "young"—perhaps only several thousand years old.
Excellent Viewing Conditions
Unlike the case this year with the August Perseids, this year's December Geminids will not be hindered at all by moonlight. On Monday morning, the Moon—a narrow sliver of a crescent, just two days before New—will come up over the east-southeast horizon soon after 5:30 a.m. for most locations and will pose very little, if any interference for meteor watchers.
Best of all, Earth is predicted to be passing through the densest part of the Geminid swarm at around 5:00 GMT on December 14. That means that much of Europe and North America will be in excellent position to catch the absolute peak of this display, which should persist for more than several hours. Keep in mind that regardless of where you live, the very best time to watch for the Geminids will come at 2 a.m. local time on Monday morning. At that hour, the constellation Gemini will appear almost directly overhead.
Late Sunday night on through early Monday morning, a single observer blessed with a dark and unobstructed view of the sky might average as many as 60 to 120 meteors per hour —one to two meteor sightings per minute.
Watch for Earthgrazers
Generally speaking, depending on your location, the star Castor begins to come up above the east-northeast horizon right around the time evening twilight is coming to an end. As Gemini is beginning to climb the eastern sky just after darkness falls, there is a fair chance of perhaps catching sight of some "Earth-grazing" meteors early on Sunday evening.
Earthgrazers are long, bright shooting stars that streak overhead from a point near to, or even just below, the horizon. Such meteors are so distinctive because they follow very long paths nearly parallel to our atmosphere. As Gemini climbs higher into the sky, however, these very long paths will become much shorter.
The Geminids will appear noticeably more numerous in the hours after 10 p.m. local time, because the shower's radiant is already fairly high in the eastern sky by then. As was already noted, the best views come at around 2 a.m., when their radiant point will be passing very nearly overhead. The higher a shower's radiant, the more meteors it produces all over the sky.
Because Geminid meteoroids are several times denser than the cometary dust flakes that supply most meteor showers and because of their relatively slow speed with which they encounter Earth—22 mi (35 km) per second—Geminid Meteors appear to linger a bit longer in view than most. As compared to an Orionid or Leonid meteor that can whiz across your line of sight in less than a second, a Geminid meteor moves only about half as fast.
Slow rise . . . rapid decline
The Earth moves quickly through this meteor stream producing a somewhat broad, lopsided activity profile. Hourly rates begin to slowly increase on December 10, when hourly rates will be about one-quarter maximum rates.
After Sunday night, their intensity should drop off more sharply: rates on Monday night/Tuesday morning will have diminished to about 30 to 60 per hour. Yet, there is good reason to keep watching for Geminids even after their peak has passed, for those "late" Geminids, tend to be especially bright. And renegade late stragglers might be seen for a week or more after the night of maximum activity.
Stay warm and "Shower" with a Friend
I brought this up this point earlier, but certainly it should be addressed again: Make sure you're warm and comfortable. Likely your local weather will be more appropriate for taking in a hot bath as opposed to a meteor shower! Meteor watching in December can be a long, cold business. You wait and you wait for meteors to appear. If they don't appear right away, and if you're cold and uncomfortable, you're not going to be looking for meteors for very long!
The late Henry Neely, who for many years served as a popular lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium, once had this to say about watching for the Geminids: "Take the advice of a man whose teeth have chattered on many a winter's night—wrap up much more warmly than you think is necessary!" Hot cocoa, tea or coffee can take the edge off the chill, as well as provide a slight stimulus.
It's even better if you can observe with a friend. That way, you can keep each other awake, as well as cover more sky. Give your eyes time to dark-adapt before starting.
Asteroid or Dead Comet?
A final point to note are that Geminids stand apart from the other meteor showers in that they seem to have been spawned not by a comet, but by 3200 Phaeton, an Earth-crossing asteroid. Then again, the Geminids may be comet debris after all, for some astronomers consider Phaeton to really be the dead nucleus of a burned-out comet that somehow got trapped into an unusually tight orbit.


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Senior Speaker Evan Lamb
President McCullogh-Lovell, Mr. Nicyper, Governor Shumlin, assembled professors and trustees, assorted guests, family, and friends, it is an honor to speak for the class of 2013, and I hope you'll indulge me for a moment while I take this opportunity to say we made it!
We climbed this whole mountain, folks, and the best part is that ten, fifteen, twenty years from now, this is going to seem like a day hike. But for right now, we've climbed a mountain, and from the summit, we feel powerful and vibrant, and Base Camp looks so tiny from up here. While it's only been four years since I met the other folks on my Bridges trip, that equates to a little less than one-fifth of my life. In that time, I've wriggled through caves too small to fit through with a full lung of air; mastered the art of biking over ice and snow; crashed several bicycles into the side of the dining hall at full speed; sweated bullets through the Seminar in Religion, Literature, and Philosophy; whipped up an apple pie during a power outage; fenced and won a few bouts with a martial arts master; exhausted myself to the point of hallucination in order to complete assignments; gotten lost on the Town Trail in the middle of the night without a flashlight or a shirt; been evicted from two buildings on campus; and somehow managed to come out of it with no broken bones and a completed Plan of Concentration. Now, as you may not have guessed from my clever use of a fraction earlier, I'm not a math student, but I'd bet money that every senior here has a laundry list of Marlboro experiences just as impressive as mine, if not more so. We've invested a lot of personal energy into our time here, and for me, every bruise, busted joint, and late-night hallucination has been worth it. Marlboro College, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for making it so.
I'm grateful, in particular, for this opportunity to speak for and to the class of 2013. Our graduation certainly represents the end of an era. I'm talking, of course, about the Era of Too Many People With The Same Name. In just a short time, the plurality of Evans will be a memory, and Evan Sachs, Evan Lorenzen, and I will never be confused again. Sam Auciello, also graduating, will leave Sam Bass and Sam Judson to duke it out over name rights, and Noah Farlee, also graduating, will be extracted from the surplus of Noahs, although I'm not sure Noah Bedford or Noah Woods ever took a class with Noah Farlee, as was the case when I wound up in an electronic music class with Evan Lorenzen and Evan Sachs that one year. Prospective parents, take note: coordinate so this doesn't happen again. Perhaps it's because there are so many people here who share a common marker of identity, or perhaps it's because I've met some of my most treasured friends and allies in my time here, but I feel very attached to this group of people, all of you enrolled at Marlboro, who have come to graduate or witness your fellow students graduate today. At this time, which feels so much like a parting of ways, I encourage you to celebrate how close we've become, to feel the strength of our interconnectedness, and to know that the bonds we've formed are truly valuable.
Take a moment to remember some vivid Marlboro presences from previous years. Everyone wearing a gown right now can rattle off the names of a few people they met at or in connection with Marlboro who changed their lives. Emily Kimble, Charlie Schneeweis, Simon Moody, and Courtney Kansler all jump to my mind. I can't imagine where I'd be without the Marlboro students, faculty and staff who were with me when I was a freshman, and whenever I bring them up in conversation and am answered with "who's that?" I am struck with the strangest feeling, a mix of nostalgia and sadness for those who have never met the people who brought such joy into my life. I hope that the class of 2013 has left its impact such that we are remembered so. I know for a fact that Paul Nelsen and Jerry Levy, both retiring after many years of service, and Ken Schneck, who is off to explore new opportunities at Baldwin Wallace University, will leave a lasting reverberation of presence that will affect Marlboro for years to come.
Right now, I'm standing at the top of my own personal mountain, and it feels like a tiny apotheosis. But the practical, survival-oriented part of my brain knows that the future looms tall in front of me, and to speak frankly, I am terrified of it. Soon I will come to the parts of the world that need fixing, and I will need to find shelter and sustenance to keep going. But I'm anything but alone. And now that I've proved myself to myself, now that I'm hearing "I told you so" from those people who once said "you can do it," the next step isn't looking so shaky, and I can turn to face the future, look back over my shoulder, and tell all of you in my best action-movie voice, "Let's do this."
I'm about as much a fan of quotations in general as I am of student loan debt, but I would like to end with a short saying from Henri-Frédéric Amiel, a Swiss philosopher whose words have stuck with me for a long time. I hope you will take them to heart as we celebrate today and wish godspeed to the Class of 2013.
"Dear Friends, We know that life is short and we do not have much time to gladden the hearts of those who travel with us. So be swift to love, make haste to be kind."


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Is TPP To Blame For The Continuing Delay In Passing New Zealand's 2008 Bill That Excludes Software Patents?
from the beginning-to-look-suspicious dept
As Techdirt reported a couple of years ago, a hard-fought campaign in New Zealand to prevent software patents being granted there seemed to have paid off, with a Patents Bill explicitly excluding them that came with the following commentary:
We recommend amending clause 15 to include computer programs among inventions that may not be patented. We received many submissions concerning the patentability of computer programs. Under the Patents Act 1953 computer programs can be patented in New Zealand provided they produce a commercially useful effect. Open source, or free, software has grown in popularity since the 1980s. Protecting software by patenting is inconsistent with the open source model, and its proponents oppose it. A number of submitters argued that there is no "inventive step" in software development, as "new" software invariably builds on existing software. They felt that computer software should be excluded from patent protection as software patents can stifle innovation and competition, and can be granted for trivial or existing techniques. In general we accept this position.
But that victory may turn out to be hollow:
Despite having been in the Parliamentary process since 2008, the Patents Bill still languishes well down in the Order Paper (No 47 as at Monday April 2), and is awaiting Parliament's consideration of the Commerce select committee's report, followed by the Bill's second reading.
Although New Zealand's Commerce Minister Craig Foss tried to explain this delay in terms of "the size and complexity of the Bill and the pressure of other legislation," there is a growing concern that something more sinister is happening:
there have been rumours that the Bill has been deliberately held back as potentially relevant to concessions that may be made as part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.
The TPP agreement is believed to require signatories to grant software patents. If the New Zealand government passed the Patents Bill in its current form, and then signed up to TPP, it would be faced with the prospect of needing to amend the legislation almost immediately -- and to justify its actions to the New Zealand public. The fear is that the current delay is so that it can sign TPP and then claim that it is "obliged" to remove the exclusion on software patents, before passing the Patents Bill.
Foss's staff passed that part of our query on to Trade Minister Tim Groser's office. Groser did not directly address the rumour and replied simply: "Progress on the Patents Bill is dependent on the wider legislative programme."
If that happens, it would be an appalling example of how international trade agreements like TPP, drawn up behind closed doors with no input from the public, can then be used simply to override the democratic decisions arrived at through long and careful national debates.
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Filed Under: new zealand, software patents, tpp


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First Home Ivy Game Of Season
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Ivy League season is nearing the halfway point, and the Yale men's soccer team still hasn't played an Ivy home game. That will change on Saturday when Penn comes to town. Kickoff on Alumni Day at Reese Stadium is slated for 3 p.m.
It's been a frustrating few weeks for the Bulldogs, who have been playing well in most aspects of the game but have struggled to score. Yale (3-7-3, 0-2-1) stayed with No. 16 Cornell for much of last Saturday's game before the Big Red scored three times late and then dropped a hard-fought 1-0 decision to Lehigh in the final non-conference game of the season on Tuesday.
Peter Jacobson, Jenner Fox and Scott Armbrust all share the team lead with three points (1 goal, 1 assist). Goalkeeper Bobby Thalman leads the Ivy League with 58 saves and is second with an .829 save percentage and five shutouts.
The Bulldogs beat the Quakers 2-1 in overtime last year in Philadelphia. Charlie Paris '12 scored the game-winning goal 4 minutes, 37 seconds into the second extra period.
Penn (2-10) has lost four straight games, including a 3-1 decision at Dartmouth last Saturday.
With 23 goals in 12 games, the Quakers feature a potent offense, which is led by Travis Cantrell, who has scored six times. Duke Lacroix and Stephen Baker each have five goals. Max Kurtzman has seen a majority of the time in the Penn goal and has a 2.44 goals against average.
Penn at Yale – Saturday, 3 p.m.
Live Stats | Yale All Access Video
Yale Statistics | Penn Statistics
Report filed by Tim Bennett, Yale Sports Publicity
Be the first to know what's going on with the Bulldogs -- Follow @YaleAthletics on Twitter, become a fan of Yale Athletics on Facebook!.


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This formula is the Base Case. It consists of two parts, a test identifying the non-inductive case and the conjecture to prove.
(IMPLIES (ENDP A) ; Test (:P A B C)) ; ConjectureWhen we prove this we can assume
and we have to prove the conjecture for
A is empty