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A Book Review: Dobzhansky, The Biology of Ultimate Concern
Part Two: Other Issues between Science and Religion
This essay begins with a review of Th. Dobzhansky's book. Then in the second part, it launches into other issues between science and the religion through Kenneth Miller's Finding Darwin's God and Karl Heim's Christian Faith and Natural Science. Teilhard de Chardin's Future of Man and Barbara Brown Taylor's The Luminous Web also play a role, but are more in the background of my arguments.
Theodosius Grygorovich Dobzhansky, The Biology of Ultimate Concern, (London: Rapp + Whiting, 1967, 1969), 152 pages including a full bibliography and index.
Th. Dobzhansky (1900-1975) celebrates the synthesis of genetics and evolution in his work, The Biology of Ultimate Concern. He begins with the significance of human beings in "Humanism and Humanity" and continues with essays on the "Gods of the Gaps," "Evolution and Transcendence," "Self-Awareness and Death-Awareness," "Search for Meaning," ending with his essay on "The Teilhardian Synthesis." The foregoing are, respectively, his chapter headings. The title of his book, deriving from Paul Tillich's conception of "religion" as ultimate concern, is apt because Dobzhansky moves from biology and genetics to the evolutionary theological vision of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955). However, a critique is present alongside his admiration for the great Jesuit paleontologist.
Although Dobzhansky criticizes the "gods of the gaps," his theorizing that transcendent events occur during the course of evolution aligns rather well with God's continuous creation.[1] For Dobzhansky these transcendent events ascend with life and then with the emergence of self-conscious humans, who are distinct from animals in many ways, but especially in the awareness of having to die.[2] He argues that no animal buries its dead, (71) nor places weapons, food offerings (70), and decorations in the grave for the afterlife.[3]
For Teilhard the transcendent points in evolution, to use Dobzhansky's language, are the birth of life and the birth of thought. (I would add the birth of love in the new human being, Jesus Christ.) Teilhard then awaits the crossing of the collective threshold of thought on the way to the new human species formed in the image of Christ, the Omega Point of evolution.[4] Dobzhansky, although a thoroughgoing evolutionary biologist, remained a faithful son of the Eastern Orthodox Church. He witnesses to Christ at the very end of his book by means of a citation from Teilhard:
"To the Christian, for whom the whole process of hominization is merely paving the way for the ultimate Parousia [Christ's second coming], it is above all Christ who invests Himself with the whole reality of the Universe; but at the same time it is the Universe which is illuminated with all the warmth and immortality of Christ"[5] (pages 136-137).
Before expanding further on Dobzhansky and Teilhard, it is important to show the way the former makes his way through his argument which ends up engulfing biological evolution in the spiritually divine.
Dobzhansky's preface is named "Ad Hominem," but he is not referring to the fallacy in argumentation. Instead, he is arguing for the evolutionary transcendence of the [human being].[6] He pleads for a new Weltanschauung that integrates religious beliefs and biological evolution. He feels that the German word Weltanschauung is best understood by the Latin word, credo. He writes as a biologist and not as a philosopher or theologian, but he feels that "a coherent credo can neither be derived from science nor [be] arrived at without science" (page 9).
According to Dobzhansky, having an intellectual life with evolution and religion in isolated compartments can lead to ideological schizophrenia (115), which can rob our lives of their meaning."[7] "The significance and meaning of life and death have been among the principal problems of philosophy." (79) Dobzhansky castigates logical positivism, the so-called "science influenced," modern school of logical analysis which declared these questions meaningless (79-80). "Although science cannot claim to solve [these questions], it can perhaps furnish some information relevant to the speculation of philosophers," (80) and, he writes, it can help inform a theology esthetically satisfying and rationally persuasive as well (109).
After Copernicus, who was shown to be right by Kepler in 1609 and 1619 and by Galileo in 1610 and 1632, (95) the universe could no longer be considered geocentric, but for Dobzhansky, it could well be argued to be anthropocentric (page 7). He writes: "[The human being], this mysterious product of the world's evolution, may also be a protagonist and eventually its pilot. In any case, the world is not fixed, not finished, and not unchangeable. Everything in it is engaged in evolutionary flow and development" (page 7). The question comes to mind, could God be the pilot of evolution?[8]
Dobzhansky surprisingly claims that evolution is uplifting for human beings and feels sorry that Darwin used the term "Descent of Man" in the title of one of his two most important books, because evolution is really about the ascent of the human being and human transcendence from the animal state (page 3). He quotes Dostoevsky concerning the honor it does human beings that the existence of God and the idea of the necessity of God could be conceived by such dumb and irrational human beings during their long toilsome ascent from animality to humanity[9] (page 3).
In his chapter "Gods of the Gaps," Dobzhansky criticizes various attempts by those who look for gaps between natural events to accommodate God (23). What scientists cannot yet explain, he holds, will one day be explained, making it so much the worse for such a theology. Dobzhansky's argument proceeds by tracing the history of evolutionary science, leading him toward Teilhard's alternative theology. His discussion moves from mechanism to vitalism to the mind inside all things, variously called, hylopsychism, panpsychism, and panentheism[10] (27). He notes that vitalism emerged as a reaction to Cartesian mechanism. No longer were the universe and the body thought to be machines, (pace Descartes and Newton); a living force, even a divine force, was now thought to direct the development of organisms and hence evolution. Not yet aware of genetics, vitalists proved that no little human (Homunculus) was already preformed in the spermatozoa, but they posited a vital force that developed the embryo (16-17).
In continuing Dobzhansky's argument, some definitions become necessary. Ontogeny refers to the development of an individual organism, while phylogeny refers to the sustained change over a succession of generations of evolutionary development (36).[11] Epigenesis holds that a new body forms which was not present earlier as an individual (29).[12] The term "epigenesis" is used for ontogeny, while the term "genotype," the emergence of new genotypes, holds for phylogeny. A genotype can be defined as a group or class sharing a specific genetic endowment.
Thus ontogeny and phylogeny need to be kept distinct. For ontogeny, when the embryo is inside the mother, an individual does precede the new one and the genetic code operates like a blueprint replicating the body of the mother in the evolving baby. Dobzhansky theorizes that there are three steps working together in synthetic evolution for phylogeny. "[Natural selection] brings into existence real novelties – genotypes, which never existed before." (60-61) The position of finalism conceives God or Christ in eternity, preceding even the new human genotype. But Dobzhansky argues that complete novelty arises through the groping of evolution without the eternal God or Christ in whom human beings emerged, because ontogeny (the embryo in the mother) is not analogous with phylogeny (genotype endowed genetically for a new environment).
Dobzhansky argues against vitalism, the belief in an immaterial vital force at work in life (21-27). It was a position held when the work of genes and chromosomes was not yet understood. Gregor Mendel (1822-1884), who reported his ground-breaking experiments in 1865, founding the science of Genetics, was ignored until 1900. Dobzhansky argues that pan-psychism is an unconvincing approach for the problems involved in theorizing the origination of mind. He tries to face the difficult philosophical challenges for the position that the mind developed de nove (29). Everything in the universe, he continues, did not have to be infused with mind in order for mind to have come into existence. He states that we all know how our own minds were not what they are now. The first flickers arose sometime during childhood; it grew and took its present form by stages and gradations in the process of living (32).
Dobzhansky's resolution of the gods of the gaps proceeds by considering it wiser to view the all, as parts of the mysterium tremendum (25) e.g., Albert Schweitzer's "reverence for life," the [human] conscience, the existence of life, and indeed of the universe itself. "If we cannot bring God in at the end of science, God must be there at the very start, and right through it" (quoting C. H. Coulson p. 25). The question arises, If God must be there from the very start, why does he argue that complete novelty emerges by means of natural selection? Then Dobzhansky continues, (quoting Karl Heim)[13] "For faith gives us the strength which we need in everyday life, not when it is sustained by miraculous occurrences breaking through the order of nature…but only when one and the same occurrence, an occurrence of which we fully understand the natural causes…at the same time in itself appears to us as an act of God, which we receive directly from God's hands" (25).[14] With the latter resolution, Dobzhansky concludes "The Gods of the Gaps" with the words of the theologian, Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834), "Every event, even the most natural and usual, becomes a miracle, as soon as the religious view of it can be the dominant" (34).[15]
Darwin did not integrate genetics with his theory of evolution. In Dobzhansky's synthesis of genetics with biological evolution he presents three stages or steps that have to be considered as operating together. 1/ the production of genetic raw materials through mutations, 2/ the formation through natural selection and Mendelian recombination of genetic endowments adapted to survive and reproduce in certain environments, and 3/ the establishment of species barriers by reproductive isolation (page 121). Dobzhansky argues against orthogenesis, defined as evolution proceeding straight toward a fixed objective such as the human being (pages 117-118).[16] He also argues against finalism, which represents the position that God is directing evolution. Evolution is groping its way forward. ("Groping" is a term he borrows from Teilhard.) Dobzhansky continues that mutations in the first stage can be mostly detrimental to a species, while only the very few turn out to be helpful. Considering these stages of evolution, one could argue against Dobzhansky that all three working systematically together could add up to God's continuous creation. Through this groping and Teilhard's directed chance (see below) "God, the Creator of space, time, chance, and indeterminacy, would exercise exactly the degree of control that [God] chooses." to quote Kenneth R. Miller.[17]
Dobzhansky notes that the metaphor of a sieve through which mutations are sorted out for natural selection to fit a certain environment is not apt, unless it is seen as a regulatory mechanism of a cybernetic system (page 122). The definition that Webster gives for cybernetics brings to mind the idea of some intelligence at work, which is hidden in the term cybernetics. The definition of "cybernetics" is that human control functions are replaced by mechanical and electrical functions assigned to replace them. The question arises, How do these thoughtless and lifeless mechanical and electrical functions replace the human ones that have not yet come into existence? Cybernetics is a human invention. How could it have taken place before human intelligence devised these functions?
Dobzhansky argues that "Hereditary continuity makes organisms time-binding contrivances; the adaptations achieved in the past are not easily squandered. And yet, variation permits the accumulation of new information about the environments in which the species lives at present. This information is ordered and stored in the genes by means of natural selection; natural selection is a cybernetic process which responds to the challenges of the environments and transfers the responses to the genetic endowment of the species" (24). It is hard not to conclude, opposing Dobzhansky, that some intelligence ascends within the ascent of the species that is hidden in the concept of cybernetics.
Dobzhansky argues that natural selection produces creative acts and counters the random and chance nature of the mutations operating in the first stage. Natural selection has a cybernetic quality with feedback loops from the genetic endowments achieved, making these biological novelties possible (60-61). He writes that "In evolution chance is bridled by an anti-chance agency, which is natural selection responding to environmental challenges" (126). Whole organisms or individuals, according to Dobzhansky, select each other as natural selection moves into the third, sexual, reproductive stage (122).
Here a question arises about the distinction between natural selection as taking place "without having a will, intention, or foresight" (60) and whole organisms or individuals, who do have these dispositions, selecting each other. Perhaps two levels of description are involved, so the level for ontogeny has to be distinguished from that of phylogeny. Strengthening his argument for a gradual progression of intelligence in natural selection, Dobzhansky cites Teilhard who believed that higher organisms had discernible elements of creativity and freedom (126) and that Teilhard described the groping of evolution as directed chance (128).
These arguments of Dobzhansky that bring some intelligence, creativity and freedom — rather than pure chance — into natural selection seem to anticipate the arguments for intelligent design that have arisen from probability theory. L. Stafford Betty, with Bruce Cordell in their essay, "The Anthropic-Teleological Argument," propose a law that "the significantly greater cannot come from the significantly less."[18] Dobzhansky opposes this thesis again and again, for example, writing: "the point so central that it must be pressed is that natural selection is in a very real sense creative. It brings into existence real novelties – genotypes which never existed before." (60-61) Because Betty and Cordell only consider chance at work and leave out the second and third steps of evolution, they calculate that it is overwhelmingly improbable that complex organs like the eye could develop from simple forms of life. Kenneth R. Miller, also a biologist who believes in God, demonstrates how earlier forms of the eye developed into more complex ones, refuting Betty and Cordell's argument.[19]
Thus Dobzhansky guarded against such arguments based on pure chance and probability theory alone. But transcendent events like the birth of life, the advent of the self-conscious human beings, as well as the origination of the universe with the Big Bang theory are marvelous breakthroughs that make the God who creates from nothing (ex nihilo) come to mind. They justify the wonder, awe, and faith of believers, when the religious view becomes dominant, to echo Schleiermacher; when the ultimate concern is the focus, to echo Tillich.
In the last chapter of his book, Dobzhansky uses Teilhard to arrive at his ultimate biological concern. Dobzhansky argues that Teilhard remains true to evolution, extending it prophetically and poetically. Thus the Christian mysticism of Teilhard takes evolution into the reaches of Christian spirituality.
Dobzhansky writes that "it is the totality of evolution that occupies Teilhard's attention almost exclusively." (119) He quotes Teilhard: "[Human beings are] the only form of life which need not accept the direction of evolutionary forces acting upon them, but can direct their evolution," (136) especially when spiritually matured after having crossed the threshold of collective thought. Teilhard envisions the entire living world as a single organism (119); the totality of living substance on earth or the unity of life as a supra-organism (119 and 131). The "thinking envelope," which he named the noosphere, "emerged from the biosphere, and it emerged earlier from the hydrosphere," (131) [meaning that all life emerged from the water] and "The noosphere is connected with other envelopes by feedback relationships" (131). Teilhard believed that this supra-organism would in turn become a new "organic superaggregation of souls" (131). Perhaps that is what Teilhard meant by crossing the threshold of collective thought.
According to Dobzhansky, because the position of orthogenesis, the theory that variations in evolution proceeded in a straight direction to the human being, is all about the causes of evolution — which do not concern Teilhard — it puts Dobzhansky into "the peculiar position of having to argue that, in spite of himself, Teilhard was not an exponent of orthogenesis." (119-120) There are other reasons that support Dobzhansky's contention: First, Teilhard's description of evolution as directed-chance as it groped its way forward. Second, human evolution is almost the only kind that interested him. He thought human evolution brought evolution as a whole into focus (119).
Dobzhansky writes that "directed-chance is a paradox, as well as Teilhard's apt insight that "in evolution there 'are so curiously combined the blind phantasy of large numbers and the precise orientation of an end pursued.'" (128) The blind phantasy of large numbers also applies to human beings converging for the next transcendent event in the evolution of the noosphere. Thus isolated and arrogant, self-asserting individuals, like Nietzsche's superhuman or Dostoyevsky's Grand Inquisitor are dangers and obstructions to the way forward (135). The "phantasy of large numbers" of human beings needs to participate in the unity of life, coming together in true unity.[20] No longer will evolution proceed with strife or competition. Competition will be for cooperation. What's more, the driving force of the evolution of the noosphere will be love. "Teilhard makes love the basic agent of evolution: 'Driven by the forces of love the fragments of the world seek each other so that the world may come into being'" (133-134). Perhaps this is what Dobzhansky meant in his "Gods of the Gaps," by saying that Teilhard attempted to speak of evolution in ontological images rather than of its phenomenological aspects (33).
After Dobzhansky uses the Teilhard citation to witness to the coming of Christ, the citation with which this book review began, he ends with the need for all human beings to take their next steps together, not as passive witnesses but as participants in the evolutionary process. Dobzhansky ends his book with these words of Teilhard: "The consummation of the World, the gates of the Future, the entrance into the Superhuman, they do not open either to a few privileged or to one chosen people among all peoples! They will admit only an advance of all together, in a direction which all together could join and achieve fulfillment in a spiritual renovation of the Earth."
Part II
For Dobzhansky's biology of ultimate concern, a large gap obviously exists between his thoughts and a theological tradition proper. Although he also struggles with the meaning and purpose of life and knows not a little philosophy, he remains a scientist, a biologist, who wishes to include biological facts, theories, and ideas of human interest in a Weltanschauung, that is, a religious credo (page 2). Dobzhansky's presentation of the evolutionary theology of Teilhard de Chardin at the end of his work is brief but significant. John F. Haught, a Catholic theologian of Georgetown University develops Teilhard's evolutionary theology further.[21]
However, going directly from biology to ultimate concern necessarily spells a shortcut through history and the humanities to the theological level of description. First let me use the words of Dobzhansky himself about crossing over these levels, especially when the transcendent points are involved. The important levels of description to be crossed and to bear in mind are the one from pre-history to history and from science to the humanities.
Dobzhansky notes that "phenomena of the inorganic, organic, and human levels are subject to different laws peculiar to those levels. It is unnecessary to assume any intrinsic irreducibility of these laws, but unprofitable to describe phenomena of an overlying level in terms of those of the underlying ones." (43) The move from pre-historical scientific durations of time to history is problematic, because our ten thousand years of recorded history lose their meaning, coherence, and significance dissolved in millions of years of scientific durations of time. An eco-collapse by scientists anticipating a recovery taking 65 million years is merely an apocalyptic scenario of the end of the world. If evolutionary theology posits the genotype of the formation of Christ as the children of God in a matter of several million years, what meaning, hope, and purpose could that possible give us for our historical future?[22]
Thus, to use Dobzhansky's own words, an underlying scientific level of description, in terms of evolutionary durations of time is unprofitable for describing the kind of time involved in our historical level of existence.[23]
In a related way the same principle holds true for the sciences of biology and sociology. Emil Durkheim argued convincingly that sociology has sui generis laws, rooted in but independent of biology.[24] The unique and different laws amount to the essence of the overlying discipline. Thus Social Darwinism is unsound as a science and Dobzhansky himself rejects it. It violates biological and sociological levels of description, importing the laws of biology directly into sociology. In a similar way, great distortion results from leaping from biological evolution through history to philosophy and the ultimate concern of theology.
The history of our religious traditions in general record the experience of extraordinary human beings who had theophanies, oracles, and revelatory relationships with God. To speak only of the Christian tradition, there is Abraham, who responded to God's call, gave hospitality to three angels and believed God's promise;[25] Jacob, the cheater, who became Israel in a divine wrestling match;[26] Moses' theophany before the burning bush that did not consume its branches,[27] the oracle that came to the prophet Habakkuk on his watch: "Look at the arrogant! Their spirit is not right within them, but the righteous live by their faith."[28] St. Paul quotes Habakkuk two or three times if we count the Epistle to the Hebrews.[29] It is Paul who ascended enraptured into the third heaven,[30] and Augustine and his mother Monica were enraptured at the window to their garden.[31] Near the end of his life, St. Thomas stopped writing after such an experience, compared to which all his words were like straw.[32] It was in struggling with Habakkuk's oracle in Romans that Martin Luther suddenly realized that God was not a wrathful judge condemning him, but that through grace and sheer mercy God justified him through faith, whereupon he felt himself reborn and going through the open doors of paradise.[33] Ordinary religious believers could add volumes to these recorded stories.
The scriptures, treasure troves of wisdom, to use Huston Smith's language, [34] are the record of God's speaking to our ancestors in a way that we cannot fathom in pre-history or in science, whose method continues in a fruitful, materialist and naturalist course. The caveat of Teilhard, who labels materialism and naturalism as truly pagan, warns that although they "in fact bring about an improvement in human living conditions, it is not well-being but more-being which, of psychological necessity, can alone preserve the thinking earth from the taedium vitae (disgust and weariness with life)."[35] Thus should the documents of the holy books be discounted and ignored, then "natural reasoning merely plays blind man's bluff with God, consistently groping in the dark and missing its mark."[36] It cannot know the loving and forgiving God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered, was crucified, died and rose again on the third day; nor experience the Holy Spirit, if un-open to the world of spiritual realities.
Even so, it is good to read the words of scientists, like Kenneth R. Miller, who have come to understand that the materialist method, so fruitful in understanding nature, when transgressing its bounds and becoming a Weltanschauung, does itself and religion a disservice. When scientists claim a materialist monopoly on all reality, they participate in scientism and not science. A materialist faith jeopardizes the enterprise of science itself, because it confuses faith and the materialist evidence required for the scientific method. In the same way, when religion forgets that it is about ultimate concern in the spiritual matters of morality, meaning, and the purpose of life and places itself on the same level as science, as a materialist enterprise operating with the scientific method, then it becomes a distortion of itself, easily refuted by scientific evidence, as Miller demonstrates.
Science did have to liberate itself from the clutches of wrong-headed religious authorities, who were incapable of making this distinction. Perhaps now the inevitable backlash is taking place. Thus some scientists assert that the universe at bottom has "no design, no purpose, no evil, [and is filled with] nothing but blind, pitiless indifference."[37] As the pendulum swings back on religion's transgression against science, there is "the chilling prospect that evolution might succeed in convincing humanity of the fundamental purposelessness of life."[38] Scientism masquerading as science dare not convince us that the universe is without purpose and say there is no meaning for life. Human laws and ethics are not the subject matter of science, and stepping out of bounds, science becomes scientism when it declares them baseless. In that way it obviously sins against religion, ethics, and the very fabric of human society. When such bleak statements of scientism are taken seriously, not only faith but even rationality itself becomes undermined. John F. Haught maintains that with them the scientific project itself becomes endangered and with science becoming confused with scientism, its statements stand self-contradicted.[39]
The question arises, if a scientist believes in evolution, then what kinds of understandings does he or she have for faith? Kenneth Miller, a biologist, argues for spiritual realities that are not to be erased by scientific materialism and naturalism. He takes issue with the skeptic David Hume. "To a believer miracles are more than 'violations of laws of nature,' as they were once described by David Hume. They reflect a greater reality, a spiritual reality, and they occur in a context which makes religious, not scientific, sense."[40]
In defending his faith, Miller argues that God's intentions can also be accomplished by means of natural laws and chance. He also cites Ian Barbour: "There can be purpose without an exact predetermined will."(238) Through evolution, Miller argues that God could have created "a creature who, like us, could know Him and love Him, could perceive the heavens and dream of the stars, a creature who could eventually discover the extraordinary process of evolution that filled His earth with so much life." (238-239)
Much like Martin Luther, Miller holds that "the continuing existence of the universe itself can be attributed to God. The existence of the universe is not self-explanatory, and to a believer the existence of every particle, wave, and field is a product of the continuing will of God." (241)
In an argument that may resemble a biologist looking for the "gods of gaps" in physics, Miller writes:
The indeterminate nature of quantum events would allow a clever and subtle God to influence events in ways that are profound, but scientifically undetectable for us. Those events could include the appearance of mutations, the activation of individual neurons in the brain, and even the survival of individual cells and organisms affected by the chance processes of radioactive decay. Chaos theory emphasizes the fact that enormous changes in physical systems can be brought by unimaginably small changes in initial conditions; and this too could serve as an undetectable amplifier of divine action. (241)
In this way, Miller, who is at the edge of the science of our day, finds ample room for believing in the sovereign majesty of God. He would not say, "God has the whole world in his hands," but, God has the whole universe in his hands, as "the Creator of space, time, chance, and indeterminacy." (242)
Another one of Miller's arguments for his faith revolves around the anthropic principle, i.e., that the structure of the physical universe seems mathematically designed for the sake of life. He writes, "The physical constants of the universe in which we live have to be favorable to human life, because if they were not, nobody would be around to observe them." (228) According to Stephen Hawking, "If the rate of expansion one second after the big bang had been smaller by even one part in a hundred thousand million million it would have recollapsed before it reached its present size." (227-228) Hawking felt that this clearly had religious implications, (229) because with the gravitational constant just that much smaller or larger "the dust from the big bang would have just continued to expand, never coalescing into galaxies, stars, planets, and us." (228) Thus, the four constants represent a fine tuning of the universe, making life possible.
Daniel Dennett takes an atheistic position against religious interpretations of the fine-tuned universe and argues that perhaps our universe spins out multiple universes and those passing through a black hole could conceivably have other constants (which is a theory first proposed by the physicist Lee Smolin).[41] By natural selection our universe then happens to have anthropic fine-tuning for life. Thus he argues that the anthropic principle would be arbitrary. (230) Miller counters that there could never be evidence for such an argument and Dennett himself gives unconscious credence to religion, because he argues that his explanation of the constants with a "multiplying swarm of universes," is "at least as good as any traditional alternative." (231) Miller finds Dennett's argument weak and far-fetched, because natural selection is not part of the physics of astronomy and it takes as much faith to believe in a swarm of multiple universes with different constants issuing from black holes as to believe in the religious explanation. (231)
Kenneth Miller openly confesses his faith in God, but asserts that as tolerant a place as academia is, it is not so for those who embrace religion. Academia just isn't prepared to accept those who take religion seriously. "The conventions of academic life," he writes, "almost universally, revolve around the assumption that religious belief is something that people grow out of." (189) Reasoning, finding meaning and purpose in life consonant with ultimate concern is thus not only up against the materialist and naturalist creed but also an academic bias that ends up blotting out the spiritual dimension of reality.
Kenneth Miller is a biologist like Dobzhansky and both were not theologians. In the first place, Teilhard was also not a theologian, but a scientist. In a now dated work, Karl Heim, a theologian from the University of Tübingen, Germany argues against trying to convince modern scientific people about the existence of God through such arguments from physics, whether they come from quantum physics, the uncertainty principle, or the anthropic arguments about the fine-tuning of the universe for life. More precisely speaking, however, Miller does not try to prove the existence of God with his arguments, so much as show how God could still be maintaining and continuing the creation of the universe.
Karl Heim, briefly, takes the primitive space and outdated universe that religion once inhabited and translates religious realities inhabiting the momentous physical universe scientifically conceived today that contains millions upon millions of galaxies down to the quantum physics at the molecular and atomic and subatomic levels. The Bible was written, of course, when everyone still believed that the earth was flat and the sun, moon, and stars rotated around the earth. Paradigm shifts in the scientific conceptions of the universe have gone from that of Ptolemy to Copernicus to Newton and to Einstein's. Heim situates Christian faith into today's scientific paradigm of the universe.[42]
Heim argues, however, that a non-objectizable space exists that objective science cannot access.[43] The "I and Thou," the will, and human relations are in this space to which science is oblivious. Following Heidegger, he understands the "I and Thou" as positions into which they are cast (their Dasein) in the here and now, which is also in this internal space. Even if the bodies of the "I and Thou" may be visible objects, they are not objects. He follows Kant and Fichte, who discovered the un-objectizable ego: it is a "fundamental optical fact that the seeing point (the ego) is itself not visible and as soon as a point becomes visible, it is no longer the seeing point."[44] Indeed, "The thinking subject cannot be objectivized." (51) "It is evident that this reality [our Dasein], [an ens realissimum, i.e., the most real of realities] belongs to a region lying outside of three dimensional space." (45)
Heim charts the non-objectizable points as 1/ the ego, the "I" who am cast into an existence, 2/ the Thou, who also wants to be a center of perception and life-initiative, as well as 3/ the will and even relationships, all of which abide in a space that is inaccessible to the objectivity of science. Heim uses panpsychism to uncover a within, a subjective space,[45] which Miller would call spiritual reality, to which science has no access and which has been almost totally eclipsed by the scientism of today that cannot in any way relate to this spiritual space.[46]
In a similar way to my contrast of scientific durations of time and historical time, Karl Heim notes that physical, scientific, objective time exists in a linear series of moments, t1, t2, t3 … tn, which can go backwards and forwards; while time experienced by a subject is in the molten now of a present, where the future is not yet decided and the concluded past becomes objectified and irreversible. Thus Heim charts out a personal but also cosmic space inaccessible to the objectivity of science. Then he posits a higher, completely other dimension in which God resides.
Heim substantiates the completely other dimension by an intriguing, imaginative, allegorical story conceived and written by an Englishman, Edwin Abbott in a book called Flatland: a Romance of Many Dimensions. According to Heim, Abbott wrote this geometrical romance thirty years before Einstein's theory of relativity. (129) The story tells about three kinds of beings living in different dimensions. The Lineland beings live in one dimension and only know a point moving in lines. Then there are the Flatland beings, who live in two dimensions, making them aware of all realities on the surfaces inscribed by length and width. Suddenly they are startled by Spaceland beings, who live in all three dimensions and whose contact with the Flatland beings seems miraculous and contradictory to them. (129-130) The analogy opposes our three dimensional space to the completely other dimension, in which God resides, from which we hear about the risen Christ walking on water, entering through closed doors to join his disciples, rising from the dead, etc.
Karl Heim uses the concept of space, because it is infinite for any dimension. He posits un-objectizable, internal as opposed to objective space in the universe. He posits that God is in a space with another dimension from ours, an eternal, divine space that we have no power to penetrate much like the Flatland beings versus the three dimensional Spaceland beings, breaking into their world from "above" them. What contact comes out of the higher dimension, has to be by God's initiative, by revelation, although personal communication is possible by prayer.
Just arguing from the objective space of science as Kenneth Miller does, for Heim completely misses the mark. It even endangers idolatry from a biblical perspective because of the resulting alien God-concept. Contact has to be initiated by God to us from divine space and as such, comes to us only as a gift. Along with this encounter a completely new world opens up for that person although it was there all the time. Such a person sees the whole of reality with new eyes. (192) Natural philosophy trying to conceptualize God and even scientist arguing from the anthropic principle do not become transformed in this way.
Heim quotes the poet Max Dauthendey, who had such an experience. Reading the New Testament thereafter, Dauthendey now felt that "Each of [Christ's] words is spoken out of the center of the universe," (189) that "The 'I' of the world is God and God is personal." (218) "Now God stands before me as a joy in the life of the universe. To know the personal nature of God is far more blessed than to know the festal nature of the universe. Someday I'll see God with my outward eyes, just as I have now seen him and recognize him with my inward eyes." (218)
This is the authentic faith to which Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, and the other prophets, Peter, James, and John, Paul and the other disciples, Augustine, Aquinas, Luther and the other reformers responded. Karl Heim situates this Christian faith in the present scientific paradigm of the universe and the spiritual reality of the completely other dimension out of which God still encounters us today.
Theodosius Grygorovich Dobzhansky. The Biology of Ultimate Concern. London: Rapp + Whiting, 1967, 1969.
Also by Th. Dobzhansky: Mankind Evolving: the Evolution of the Human Species. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1962.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. The Future of Man. New York: Harper Torch Books, 1964.
————————–. The Phenomenon of Man. New York: Harper Torch Books, 1959.
John F. Haught. Lecture Series "Science and Christian Faith." Philadelphia: Metanexus Institute and Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, 2006-2007. His lectures took place Dec. 6, 2006, Jan. 10, Feb. 19, April 25, and May 23, 2007.
John F. Haught Annotated Lecture Notes on Teilhard from Lecture May 23rd 07. http://peterkrey.wordpress.com/2011/08/28/john-f-haught-lecture-notes-on-teilhard-de-chardin-2007/
John F. Haught. Deeper Than Darwin: the Prospect for Religion in the Age of Evolution. Cambridge, MA: The Westview Press, 2003.
Kenneth R. Miller. Finding Darwin's God: a Scientist's Search for Common Ground between God and Evolution. New York: Harper Perennial, 1999.
Hilton C. Oswald, editor. Luther's Works vol. 19. Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1974.
Lewis w. Spitz, editor. Luther's Works, vol. 34. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1960.
Luthers Werke. Weimar Ausgabe vol. 19.
Michael Polanyi. Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy. New York: Harper Torchbooks, Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., 1964.
Donald Palmer. Looking at Philosophy, 4th Edition. New York: McGraw Hill, 2006.
Michael Peterson, William Hasker, Bruce Reichenbach, and David Basinger,editors, Philosophy of Religion, Second and Third Editions, (Oxford University Press, 2001 and 2007.
John K. Ryan, editor. The Confessions of St. Augustine. New York: DoubleDay & Company, Inc., 1960.
Huston Smith. the World's Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions. San Francisco: Harper Collins Publishers, 1991.
Karl Heim. Christian Faith and Natural Science. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1953.
Abbott, Edwin A. Flatland: a Romance of Many Dimensions. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1963.
Barbara Brown Taylor. The Luminous Web: Essays on Science and Religion. Cambridge, MA: Cowley Publications, 2000.
Mark Traugott, ed. Emile Durkheim on Institutional Analysis. University of Chicago Press, 1978.
Kurt H, Wolff, ed. Emile Durkheim, 1858-1917: a Collection of Essays. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1960.
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PARENT PAGE: Book and Film Reviews
Enriching Endnotes
[1] Dobzhansky puts the teaching of continuous creation into a nutshell: "Creation is an on-going process, not an event of the distant past" (page 113). The page numbers in parentheses throughout are from Dobzhansky's Biology of Ultimate Concern.
[2] Dobzhansky rehearses a catalogue of the ways the human being is distinct from an animal: "[Humans] are erect – walking – primates, with a brain large in relation to body size, hands fit for tool manipulation, tool-making, and for carrying objects. [Humans] engage in play, are capable of abstract thought, laughter, formation and use of symbols, of learning and using symbolic language, of learning to distinguish good from evil, [and able] to feel reverence and piety. At least some of these characteristics belong to the humanum." (53-54) Also see pages 64, 69, and 76.
[3] Dobzhansky writes that "A psychological abyss seems to separate Homo sapiens from all other animals" (130). The rudiments of consciousness are, of course, also in animals. According to Teilhard, however, they cannot know that they know something (130). Also see Teilhard's The Future of Man, pages 164 and 307.
[4] "For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so will all be made alive in Christ" (1 Corinthians 15: 22-23). Those who awake in Christ have become a new species. Thus St. Paul writes "Adam is a type of the one who was to come" (Romans 5:14).
Barbara Brown Taylor quotes from the book, Servanthood: Leadership for the Third Millennium, by Bennett Sims, who "speaks of Jesus as the prototype of an entirely new level of evolving humanity. As much as Jesus might have looked like any other homo sapiens (cunning humanity), Sims says, he was not. He was the firstborn hetero pacificus (peaceable humanity), who came to bring a new species of creature into being." The Luminous Web: Essays on Science and Religion, (Cambridge, MA: Cowley Publications, 2000), page 31.
[5] See Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Future of Man, (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1964), page 233.
[6] Because this book precedes the feminist changes in language, I have used the term "human being" where Dobzhansky uses the term "man."
[7] One of the main reasons for his writing this book is this: "A faith which stands in flagrant contradiction with well authenticated scientific findings cannot be right and one in accord with these findings may nevertheless be wrong" (page 109). Thus his search for a viable synthesis.
[8] N.B: Teilhard's hope was that in the process of hominization, human beings could become pilots of the evolutionary process. That God is the pilot of evolution resembles finalism, a position which holds that a supernatural force, meaning God, is guiding evolution (118). Although Dobzhansky would disagree with the finalist position that God is piloting evolution, I believe that it is in God that we are enveloped, because, as the Greek poet Aratus said, "In God we live, move, and have our being." (Acts 17:28)(See Karl Heim, Christian Faith and Natural Science, (New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1953), page 168.) Teilhard also points to God and Christ as the Omega Point for human beings. In Teilhard's words: "Christ… (is the Redeemer in the fullest sense) as the ultimate mover of anthropogenesis." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Future of Man., (New York: Harper Torch Books, 1964), page 281.
It is because of the great inefficiency, the waste and the many extinctions or dead ends during the course of evolution that Dobzhansky argues that God should not be named the pilot of evolution. That is a strong argument against those who argue that the way God created the world was through evolution.
What does Dobzhansky then find in Teilhard? How is God there from the very start of cosmological and biological evolution and also right through it, as Dobzhansky later quotes Karl Heim (1874-1958) of Tübingen wrote about faith and the natural sciences. (He did not hold that God controlled quantum events that science interpreted as random.) Dobzhansky does not tell his readers how this position differs from finalism. Teilhard believed, however, that God in Christ was not only the Omega but the Alpha as well (136).
[9] I'm using Dobzhansky's revision of Dostoyevsky's words.
[10] Dobzhansky describes the generalized panpsychism and panentheism of Charles Hartshorne: "God is, then, a superindividual, and all other individuals are [God's] constituent parts." God is conceived as the "cosmic organism." (28-29). Although Dobzhansky disagrees with him he later writes, "Hartshorne [is] a philosopher who is at least aware of evolutionary problems." (121)
This thought is intriguing because, as St. Paul said, preaching to the Athenians, you "search for God, and perhaps grope for him and find him – though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For 'In him we live and move and have our being,' as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we too are God's offspring.'" (Acts 27-28) Thus, as the universe is in God and illuminated by God, we are in God like an embryo inside the womb of its mother. Thus as the baby replicates its mother, Christ is the image replicating the new human being to come, as well as already having been the image in which the human genotype was formed. Not that preformation is involved, but rather God's creation out of eternity.
[11] There are two different kinds of changes in evolution. In anagenesis a biological species undergoes changes to adapt to environmental change, but continuing to be a single species. In cladogenesis, a single species splits up into one or more new species because of natural selection in different territories and their different environments (123-124).
[12] A dictionary definition: Epigenesis is opposed to preformation, because it holds that the embryo develops from successive differentiation from an originally undifferentiated structure.
[13] See footnote 7.
[14] This resolution resembles the Christological teaching that Christ was fully human and fully divine. Thus a fully natural explanation of nature does not preclude a fully spiritual one.
[15] In their essay entitled "The Anthropic Teleological Argument," in Philosophy of Religion, L. Stafford Betty with Bruce Cordell take an approach based on probability theory and the chance of evolution achieving the complexities found in organic life. They hold to a proposed law that the significantly greater cannot come from the significantly less. Differing from Dobzhansky's argumentation, they feel that the God of the gaps in the present circumstances of science now stands reversed. In their essay they write, "We found ourselves wondering if 'God of the gaps' may someday be used not by atheists to make fun of theists, but by theists to remind atheists of the facts," because "scientific gaps are not closing, but becoming ever wider and more unbridgeable by science alone." Michael Peterson, William Hasker, Bruce Reichenbach, and David Basinger, editors, Philosophy of Religion, Third Edition, (Oxford University Press, 2007), page 244. (In the Second Edition, 2001, it is page 227.) Their argument needs to be weighed against Dobzhansky's, who is, however, no atheist. He remained Orthodox although he did not believe in a personal God nor in the afterlife. But Paul Tillich denied the latter as well, banking completely on the creative act of God for his resurrection.
[16] Thus Dobzhansky argues that there is little chance that life as we know it could exist elsewhere in the universe (page 49, 64, 123, 127-128).
[17] Kenneth R. Miller, Finding Darwin's God: a Scientist's Search for Common Ground between God and Evolution, (New York: Harper Perennial, 1999), page 242.
[18] Peterson et al, Philosophy of Religion, edition 2, page 218, edition 3, page 235.
[19] "The human eye with all its marvelous complexity, could indeed have been formed by evolution, one step at a time, from a set of simpler but still functioning organs, shaped every step of the way by natural selection." Kenneth Miller, Finding Darwin's God, page 136.
[20] In a work not cited by Dobzhansky, Teilhard writes, "Opposing the individual to the group is a false habit of mind: The coming together of separate elements does nothing to eliminate their differences. On the contrary, it exalts them. In every practical sphere true union (that is to say, synthesis) does not confound; it differentiates. From The Future of Man., (New York: Harper Torch Books, 1964), page 55. Thus true unity allows people to be themselves as different as they may be with an internal bond of love, while uniformity takes away the internal bond and insists on being outwardly alike, even controlling a person's thoughts, insisting on the conformity of thought.
[21] The John F. Haught Lecture Series of 2006-2007 was sponsored by Metanexus Institute and Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, PA. His lectures took place Dec. 6, 2006, Jan. 10, Feb. 19, April 25, and May 23, 2007. See the URL of my "John F. Haught Annotated Lecture Notes on Teilhard" in my Bibliography.
[22] Scientific durations of time are very different from eternity, a quality of time capable of touching every past, present, and future moment.
[23] See Karl Heim's interesting contrast of scientific, physical, objective time and the time as experienced from the now by unobjectizable subjects as well as the now of the internal space of the whole Cosmos. I refer to his arguments below.
[24] Mark Traugott, editor, "Course in Sociology: Opening Lecture," in Emile Durkheim on Institutional Analysis, (Chicago University Press, 1978), page 50-51 and Kurt H. Wolff, editor, "Sociology and Its Scientific Field," in Emile Durkheim, 1858-1917: a Collection of Essays, (Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 1960), pages 364 and 367.
[25] Genesis 12, 18, 15:6.
[26] Genesis 32: 22-32.
[27] Exodus, chapter 3.
[28] Habakkuk 2: 4.
[29] Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, and Hebrews 10:38.
[30] 2 Corinthians 12; 2-4.
[31] John K. Ryan, editor, The Confessions of St. Augustine, (New York: DoubleDay & Company, Inc., 1960), pages 221-223.
[32] Donald Palmer, Looking at Philosophy, 4th Edition, (New York: McGraw Hill, 2006), page 140.
[33] Lewis w. Spitz, editor, Luther's Works, vol. 34, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1960), page 337.
[34] According to Huston Smith, "[when sifting the truths, which their institutions preserve, religions] become the world's wisdom traditions….They begin to look like the data banks that house the winnowed wisdom of the human race." Huston Smith, the World's Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions, (San Francisco: Harper Collins Publishers, 1991), page 5. In another place he quotes Justice Holmes, "Science makes major contributions to minor needs [while] religion, however small its successes, is at least at work on the things that matter most" (page 9).
[35] Pierre Teilhard, The Future of Man, page 281.
[36] Martin Luther in his Jonah Lectures (1526) writes that before John the Baptist pointed out that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, it was incredible to John's disciples that Christ was moving about among them. "Thus reason also plays blind man's bluff with God; it consistently gropes in the dark and misses its mark. It calls that God which is not God and fails to call him God who really is God. Reason would do neither one nor the other if it were not conscious of the existence of God and if it knew who and what God is. Thus reason never finds the true God….So there is a vast difference between knowing there is a God and knowing who or what God is. Nature knows the former – it is inscribed in everybody's heart; the latter is taught only by the Holy Spirit." Hilton C. Oswald, editor, Luther's Works vol. 19, (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1974), page 55. Weimar Ausgabe vol. 19: 206-207.
Barbara Brown Taylor in her book, The Luminous Web, has another poetic metaphor about what Luther is referring to: "when the measly lasso of my reason falls a million miles short of the living truth…" page 81.
[37] Kenneth Miller, Finding Darwin's God, page 171. Miller castigates such scientists.
[38] Ibid., page 187.
[39] John Haught's Last 2006-2007 Matanexus Lecture, May 23rd 2007, at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, PA.
[40] Kenneth Miller, page 240. The following series of page numbers in parentheses will designate pages from Miller's book, Finding Darwin's God.
[41] See Lee Smolin, "Fecund Universes," Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Smolin
[42] Barbara Brown Taylor in The Luminous Web, also situates her Christian faith in the new scientific paradigm of the universe the way Karl Heim is doing, but she does not chart the non-objectizable dimension, which science is unequipped to explore and which its method cannot research, as posited by Heim. Her approach is more mystical in a narrative that views the new edges of physics from her implicit stance on revelation. In one important way she goes farther than Miller and Heim, although not farther than Teilhard. She writes of the weak and strong forms of the anthropic principle: the former "states that since we are here, the universe must have been put together in a certain way." in the latter, "it says that the universe was bound to produce us, since our consciousness makes it possible for the world to exist." (pages 29-30) Further she writes, "it is difficult to miss the most stunning miracle of creation: that in us, the universe has become conscious." (page 42) and "In us, God has given all creation a voice." (page 43)
[43] Heim has not penetrated the scientific cult of objectivity. (Polanyi) Hegel points out that even objectivity is a subjective form of consciousness in that it is also thought. [See W.T. Stace, The Philosophy of Hegel, (New York: Dover Publications, 1955), page 263-264.] The Humanities have different kinds of objectivity appropriate to their disciplines and different from those of science, which violates its limitations by not recognizing them.
[44] Karl Heim, Christian Faith and Natural Science, page 36. The following numbers in parentheses are page numbers from this book.
[45] Heim seems to avoid the term "subjective." He may feel like many of that day who believed that physics had completely replaced metaphysics and the only task left for philosophers was to mathematize language for more precision in the service of scientists.
[46] Heim's explicit issue is scientific secularism, which, among other things, is the outcome of the materialism and naturalism of scientism.
Michael Polanyi wrote about what in theological circles we used to call the "cult of scientific objectivity." He writes: "Objectivism has totally falsified our conception of truth, by exalting what we can know and prove, while covering up with ambiguous utterances all that we know and cannot prove, even though the latter knowledge underlies, and must ultimately set its seal to, all that we can prove." Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy, (New York: Harper Torchbooks, Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., 1964), page 286. He continues, "Our objectivism, which tolerates no open declarations of faith, has forced modern beliefs to take on implicit forms." (288) (As noted above, Kenneth Miller also complains that academia is not tolerant of those who openly confess their faith in God in Finding Darwin's God, page 189.) Polanyi argued that our knowledge has to issue from beliefs, which need internal and external checking. But against scientism, "a creed inverted into a science is both blind and deceptive." (page 268)
From my point of view, the naturalism and materialism of scientism can eclipse the personal subject, the author of science and the free historical subject. Even a scientist, who focuses merely on the measurability of length, mass, and time, can be completely oblivious to being a human subject doing the measuring. And, furthermore, the hands are quite removed from the head and heart, as is instrumental from value rationality.


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Perrence and Scoutleaders Perrence and Scoutleaders P/E
Terrible Terrified Terrence Alone in McClymonds P/E
Daniel Pope What a Strange and Vulgar Thing E
Let's Party Hats! Hats! Hats! Let's Party Hats! Hats! Hats! P/E
God, You're My Savior (single) P/E
Preludes in Sculpture Earth House Installation P/E
Schwab The Charade EP E
P = Performer E = Engineer

subset: commoncrawl


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Peptide-membrane interactions of arginine-tryptophan peptides probed using quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring.
Permanent link to this recordhttp://hdl.handle.net/10754/596807
MetadataShow full item record
AbstractMembrane-active peptides include peptides that can cross cellular membranes and deliver macromolecular cargo as well as peptides that inhibit bacterial growth. Some of these peptides can act as both transporters and antibacterial agents. It is desirable to combine the knowledge from these two different fields of membrane-active peptides into design of new peptides with tailored actions, as transporters of cargo or as antibacterial substances, targeting specific membranes. We have previously shown that the position of the amino acid tryptophan in the peptide sequence of three arginine-tryptophan peptides affects their uptake and intracellular localization in live mammalian cells, as well as their ability to inhibit bacterial growth. Here, we use quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring to assess the induced changes caused by binding of the three peptides to supported model membranes composed of POPC, POPC/POPG, POPC/POPG/cholesterol or POPC/lactosyl PE. Our results indicate that the tryptophan position in the peptide sequence affects the way these peptides interact with the different model membranes and that the presence of cholesterol in particular seems to affect the membrane interaction of the peptide with an even distribution of tryptophans in the peptide sequence. These results give mechanistic insight into the function of these peptides and may aid in the design of membrane-active peptides with specified cellular targets and actions.
CitationRydberg HA, Kunze A, Carlsson N, Altgärde N, Svedhem S, et al. (2014) Peptide-membrane interactions of arginine-tryptophan peptides probed using quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring. Eur Biophys J 43: 241–253. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00249-014-0958-9.
SponsorsThis work was supported by an award to B.N. from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). The research was pursued within the SUPRA Centre of Excellence supported by the Swedish Research Council.
PublisherSpringer Science + Business Media
JournalEuropean Biophysics Journal
PubMed ID24743917
PubMed Central IDPMC4053608
Scopus Count
CollectionsPublications Acknowledging KAUST Support
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More than 150 entrepreneurs, business associations and media attended a recent event in Kyiv to present the key features and benefits of the 'Start Business Challenge' tool. The tool has been developed on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine by the Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO), within the framework of the EU4Business FORBIZ project.
One year on from its launch, the Start Business Challenge tool now features more than 100 online regulatory guides on how to open and operate micro businesses in the service and product sectors in Ukraine and provides a unique solution to the regulatory challenge the country has been facing.
The online support tool for entrepreneurs features regulatory requirements at national level and includes regulatory guides on opening and running a diverse range of popular micro businesses, such as language course providers, photo studios, web companies, nurseries, restaurants, taxi companies, mini bakeries, family medical practices, convenience stores, car washes, internet cafes, beauty salons, small hotels, solar charging stations and electric car charging stations.
Find out more


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We always have something new in the works. Here's what you need to know.
Recent Posts
That's a Wrap!May 3, 2012
Thursday marks the end of the 55th San Francisco International Film Festival, which featured three ITVS funded documentary films, including Bitter Seeds, The Invisible War, and The Waiting Room.The 55th San Francisco International Film Festival is closing tonight on a high note, celebrating their festival journey with.... well, Journey! After a…
Every Day Is a Holiday Celebrates Asian-Pacific American Heritage MonthMay 1, 2012
ITVS's Kate Sullivan Green sits down with Theresa Loong to talk about the documentary Every Day Is a Holiday, which begins airing on Public Television May 1. After finding her father's secret diary from the time he was a P.O.W., Theresa Loong knew she had a story to tell. In Every Day Is a Holiday, she documents her father's path from being a Chinese…
Crossover Premieres on FUTURESTATESMay 1, 2012
Directed by Tina Mabry the film will be available to stream for free at futurestates.tv and simultaneously on pbs.org. An online social screening of the short will take place here this Friday, May 4 at 11am PT / 2pm ET. In a future where schools are segregated by economic status, a struggling mother must decide whether to sell her own organs to give her…
A FUTURESTATES Double Header: Watch Charlie 13 and GunnyApril 25, 2012
The FUTURESTATES shorts will be streamed live through ITVS's new social video player starting on Thursday, April 26 at 5pm PT / 8pm ET with a screening of Charlie 13 followed by Gunny. Filmmakers Michael McMillian (Charlie 13) and Patrick Stettner (Gunny) will be chatting live to discuss their film and take your questions.Live Social Screening of Charlie…
Muslim Stories Marinate Hawaiian StyleApril 25, 2012
Filmmaker Justin Mashouf was one of six filmmakers invited to the Diverse Muslim Voices Exchange, hosted by the Doris Duke Foundation of Islamic Arts and ITVS. He offered BTB this roundup of the Exchange, held April 3-5, 2012 in Hawaii. Collaboration is the best teacher and earlier this month, my classroom was a recreated 17th century Mughal garden…


text: There's nothing quite as luxurious and evocative as the fragrant oils behind the aroma of new leather. So much so that some car makers now commercially produce 'Eau d Leather' to play on the olfactory senses of prospective buyers. No other product has been able to match the leather smell and the expensive feel of, say, a new Rolls Royce, and no other product is able to match that same evocative smell and luxury feel of the impressive range of leather bags and accessories from Byron Bay's Rugged Luxury, a leather company that epitomises the descriptive terms 'Australian' and 'Handmade'. As a youngster raised among horses and cattle on the farm on the Lachlan River at Forbes in the Central West of NSW, Rugged Luxury's owner/manager Jock Craigie was imbued with an appreciation of the fine qualities of leather saddles, accessories and work wear. And since joining his father and Rugged Luxury founder Steve and brother Ben in the family business a decade or so ago, Jock has seen Rugged Luxury itself emerge as a major brand in Australia's leather goods markets, as a major supplier of leather bags and accessories to several iconic Australian bush outfitters, luxury resorts, travel companies and tourist outlets. The product range reflects both practicality and contemporary design suitable both for everyday use and the boardroom. Rugged Luxury's Byron Bay factory is a tight knit operation, with Jock and his handful of lieutenants utilising the same handcrafting skills of the country's pioneering leather craftsmen as they cut, edge, glue, rivet, construct and stitch the best quality chrome tanned Australian cowhide into the impressive range of leather goods. Says Jock Craigie: "Leather is undoubtedly one of those natural products that is part of the essence of Australia. It was essential to the rugged endeavors leading to the settlement of the interior, because of its resistance to abrasion and wind. And its' aesthetic qualities - flexibility and stretch ability among them - make leather an aesthetic and useful accessory for travel and work, something that will last a lifetime.


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L'Officiel Living Magazine Feature
We were delighted to see our Running Arab Horse Sculpture featured in L'Officiel Living magazine in the Middle East.
A photo of the sculpture and a short piece about Stevenson Brothers Rocking Horses features in a 3-page spread about "what's hot and haute in London this season."
As well as Stevenson Brothers Rocking Horses, and the Arab Horse sculpture in particular, the piece mentions the new Salon Des Parfums at Harrods, shoe designer Emmy Scarterfield, The Ham Yard Hotel and designer Zaha Hadid. If you would like to read the full article or wish to enquire about the Arab Horse Sculpture, please email email@example.com for a copy of the 3-page spread.


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The New Zealand Tour Aotearoa is a challenging 3,000km 'bikepacking' venture from Cape Reinga to Bluff, which includes a combination of cycle trails, tracks and paths to highlight some of New Zealand's best scenery and quiet country back roads.
Graeme (Grimmy) Martin, along with 523 other riders across a series of seven waves, started out at the very top of the North Island and worked his way down through a series of designated photo checkpoints – all to raise funds and awareness for Hospice Waikato.
Grimmy and his wife Sharon, became involved with Hospice Waikato after two friends had received hospice care. "One of the reasons I chose to do this for Hospice Waikato was to raise awareness because I didn't really know much about the service before people we knew needed it," says Grimmy.
What began as a goal to raise between $5,000 - $10,000 soon exceeded expectations as their fundraising efforts raised close to $30,000 before he had started pedalling! However, there was still work to be done, and on the 24th of February Grimmy began his journey - the words 'Hospice Waikato' printed proudly on his t-shirt.
One of the main highlights, Grimmy explained, included the support he received from the community. As well as friends and family seeing him off at Cape Reinga, ringing a cowbell when he arrived in Kaiawa, and welcoming him when he reached Bluff at the end – many people whom he had not met before were offering their support. "As I was riding along a guy going the other way stopped and said, 'Are you Grimmy?' - he had been following the live tracking website. We stopped for a chat and he rode with us down the track for a couple of kilometres. No sooner had we said goodbye to him than we met another guy waving us down with two cans of coke and a packet of Tim Tams," Grimmy recalls.
However, it was not all smooth sailing. A few mechanical issues along the way and a slow leak in a tyre created delays, the bad weather meant parts of the track had to be closed, and the physical and emotional pressure weighed heavy on his shoulders. In the pouring rain Grimmy travelled the furthest he had done in one day - 164km, and on average, every day Grimmy climbed to an altitude of 1300m - the equivalent of climbing Mt Cook every three days.
Sadly, halfway through the ride Grimmy had to say goodbye to his travel companion of 14 days due to injury. "The following seven days were the hardest and I spent most of it on my own," says Grimmy. Regardless of these bumps in the road, his determination to complete the ride did not waver. "I knew every morning I just had to get up and get back on the bike. I tried to focus on one day at a time, but I never thought about quitting once," says Grimmy.
On the twenty-fourth day Grimmy pedalled his last few kilometres to the final point of the journey where, to his surprise, a number of family and friends were there to greet him and holding a large sign that read 'Hospice Hero. Rockstar Grandad'.
- Rachael Bish,
Hospice Waikato
From Hospice Waikato: Grimmy is certainly our hero. With approximately $38,000 raised to date we are in complete awe of him and the incredible journey he has undertaken in support of Hospice Waikato. Thank you to everyone who supported Grimmy throughout his ride, and thank you Grimmy - you are an inspiration to us all!


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Regular Meeting Minutes of Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Members present: Candi Moore, Chair, Larry Bicking, Vince Engel, Reed Fraley, Jurgen Pape, Kris Burkett, eand Bruce Cramer, Exec. Dir. The meeting was called to order at 7:08pm.
Public Comments: Keith Meyers joined us. Athena was welcomed as a new employee.
Minutes: Kris Moved to accept, and Jurgen Seconded that the minutes of the meeting be approved as submitted. Motion carried.
Financial Report: Reed brought up three important employee items. First, Workman's Compensation regulations state that board members for non-profits have to be covered. Originally only Bruce was covered. We also need to cover volunteers. Item two; we need to hire someone who understands benefit packages so that no future employee items are missed. Third, we have new HR issues with the hiring of a part-time employee. Reed seeks permission to investigate further what we may need to be doing in terms of employee regulation compliance. Reed is doing payroll currently. He proposed to expand the agreement with Sandra Lodge (who currently receives $1,400 to do the 9-90), to include payroll, compliance, etc. Larry expressed that keeping the check writing and bookkeeping separate is a good idea. Candi suggested that we also get some policies in place regarding employees. Kris seconded the motion that Larry made. Motion carried. In other financial business, Reed stated that we are behind last year on the balance sheet. We have a deficit of about $7,200 in contributions. We received $25,000 in March from the village for the 2012 management fee. Larry moved to accept the financial report, Vince seconded. Motion carried.
Executive Director's Report:
- Bruce said we are now transitioning from the sports season to the social season.
- The gas line that was going to be put in was delayed.
- Candi asked about the water from heavy rain in the buildings. Bruce stated that the only ones that had been affected were the laundry and barn.
- Also, the GSVA is going to rent a portion of the laundry for storage.
- We have a bid in for new computers and software totaling $4,400.
- The BIA is in both buildings this coming weekend, next Thursday the 30th and 31st. The Licking county chamber is doing an afterhours function next month, and the Granville Daffodil show will be here the 14th & 15th of April. The show 48 hours was here this month and used our space for an interview.
- In other news, we have interviewed six interns and will offer the summer internship to one tomorrow, Thursday, March 29th. Kris asked if we have a job description for the intern in place yet. Bruce stated that was something we have and will refine this season. Candi has requested for intern to research and make a list of grants, and time frames for grants.
Old Business:
- Art & wine event – we have a check and contract in hand. One representative from Rotary wants to perhaps have a concert, but we would have to staff and manage and we cannot take this project on. We will however handle set up for cars coming and going to protect property interest.
- Candi has a letter from the Village, giving us notice that they will continue the $25k, for management. We will need to however get approval before spending for any capital improvements.
- Master plan discussion – Keith Meyers joined us
- Keith has the master plan broken down into sections. He would like to insert more pictures for visual effect. He also wants to have the plans laid out on tables with sticky notes for people to add comments at the public meeting on April 10th. His comments on each section of the property are as follows:
- Front lawn- is the jewel of licking county
- Mansion – 2ndfloor would like to convert to additional meeting space. Return current unused spaces to large rooms to be utilized as galleries and meeting space. Compatibility is an issue. Would need to be access compliant on all levels, i.e. elevator.
- Field House – is our current economic engine
- Barn – structurally secured. What could be done there?
- Formal gardens- now part of revenue stream
- Community gardens idea – could be revenue stream. Will be broken into phases
- Larry suggested doing a past vs. future comparison so that we can remind people about the mission statement and how it has advanced.
- Life/Local – April 10th, Master Plan – Candi can chair, Kris, Stu, Jurgen will all be here. Press releases are out, flyers and posters are out, wants to have copies to the neighborhood associations and county commissioners.
New Business:
- Jurgen has bid analysis and planting plan for screen planning for west garden. Would like to see approval so that planting can take place this spring. Jurgen Moved to acquire 25 conifers $5,250 from Klauder, Vince seconded. So moved.
- We already have benches for donations for the Memorial Tree and Bench Program
- Vince talked about Experience Granville September 16th –
- Library is going to be here for experience Granville
- The Granville Fire Department would like to do a full display.
- We may try to get the helicopter again.
- If no food vendors come forward, then Vince is going to ask local charities to offer food.
Other: Ending notes included the question "What are our priorities?" "How do we create more revenue or benefit the community or both?" and finally, we need to seek grants to make improvement The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m.
- The next regular meeting is scheduled for April 25th


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You're throwing money away if your radiators aren't heating your home effectively - and are you sure your boiler is safe?
Excessive noise from your boiler shouldn't be accepted as just 'part of its character' - there may be a system blockage that could lead to potential pump failure or worse.
Call us at FlexiFlame and we can get all your gas appliances checked out. We'll restore your central heating to its optimum performance, carry out drain down or powerflush of your radiators to purge the impurities.
As with your cooker, fire, warm air unit, water heater or shower, we'll usually strip the appliance down and thoroughly clean it as a starting point.
As well as testing, servicing or replacing dated equipment, we'll ensure that you've got the proper ventilation in place, your gas is burning correctly, fit CO2 detectors in your home and complete all the other gas appliance safety checks.
Why not make use of our 10% discount on your next boiler, fire or cooker service? Simply book a service between June and September to get your discount.
And remember we offer a 24 hour emergency breakdown service for customers in the Tilehurst and Reading area for your peace of mind.


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Running Time: 100 min.
Release Date: October 14, 2011
DVD: January 31, 2012
Current rating:
based on 354 votes and 100 reviews
Rate Movie | Read all user reviews
Cast: Steve Martin, Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Brian Dennehy, Anjelica Huston, Rashida Jones, Rosamund Pike, Dianne Wiest, JoBeth Williams
Three friendly rivals (Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson), tired of being ruled by obligations and responsibilities, dedicate a year of their lives to following their dreams. Their big year takes them on a cross-country journey of wild and life-changing adventures.
David Frankel
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Producer(s): Stuart Cornfeld, Karen Rosenfelt, Curtis Hanson
Screenplay: Howard Franklin
Official Site: thebigyearmovie.com


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These are images that have been published for computer games, book covers, game modules and magazine articles.
If you are interested in hiring my talents for a project, contact me at email@example.com.
I hope you enjoy them.
Sometime in March of 2003, I was contacted by Siggraph to use one of my images for their promotion poster. They picked "Hot on the Trail."


text:
- Home
- Catalogue
- Current films
- Poker Face
Poker FaceMuch more than a game
Today is the worst day of Rai's life! He's just crashed the stolen car he was using to carry the money to pay off his debt to Mikima, the most dangerous capo in the Northern Hemisphere. An old friend from prison will help him to get the money if he can find a girl named Nora. To find her, Rai must confront compulsive gamblers, bent cops, traffickers, strippers and thieves…
Cast and crew
- Director:
- Carlos Therón
- Producer:
- Nacho Monge, Rafael Álvarez
- Writer by:
- Carlos Therón
- Actors:
- Julián Villagrán, Marta Torné
Technical Data:
- Year:
- 2012
- Lenght:
- 95 min.


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Now with more automatic detection!
If you're using a 21:9 monitor, then you probably noticed that most "21:9" videos on youtube (e.g. almost every movie trailer that exists) and netflix are actually 16:9 videos with letterbox encoded. That means you usually see black borders on all four sides. Ultrawidify aims to fix that.
By default, only Youtube and Netflix are enabled (because that's the only two I can test on). Other sites need to be enabled manually and aren't guaranteed to work.
Github's here: https://github.com/xternal7/ultrawidify
=== Features ===
* Can be enabled or disabled on per-site basis
* Crop video to fit screen (no stretching. Supported aspect ratios: 21/9 (1:2.39), 16:9, 16:10, one (1) custom aspect ratio)
* Automatic aspect ratio detection (can be enabled/disabled entirely or on a per-site basis, separately of the extension)
* [NEW in v3!] Stretch video to fit the screen (4 different approaches. Please note that this is experimental feature that hasn't been thoroughly tested)
* Supports Youtube theater mode
=== Known issues and limitations ===
* Unclear how extension handles sites with more than one video per page.
* Autodetection can sometimes be wrong
* DRM schemes prevent autodetection from working. Unlike with Firefox, there's no workaround for this issue that would work with Chrome and most Chrome-based browsers.
* That new stretching mode wasn't thoroughly tested yet. Issues may be present.
* Enabling extension everywhere (as opposed to whitelisted sites) could break some websites.
* Some keyboard shortcuts don't work for some reason (most notably: 'A').


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Stop dimmed lights flickering.
Dimming energy-saving lights is complicated – there's a lot of different technology built into modern bulbs.
That's why dimmed lights sometimes flicker or remain on – power trickles through. Bypass works with Nano Dimmer to remove the signals from your power line that cause low-watt lightbulbs to flicker.
Compatible bulbs.
There are a lot of different types of low-power light bulbs that your home may have; Bypass has been designed to work with most of them. It's been designed to stop most bulbs from flickering including static and dimmable LEDs and CFLs.
Dimmable LEDs
Dimmable CFLs
Tiny. Powerful.
Bypass invisibly installs near your light fitting taking up next to no space at all.
0 x 0 x 0 mm
(0.98 x 0.39 x 0.75 in)
Works with Nano Dimmer.
Bypass works with Aeotec's Nano Dimmer creating a complete Z-Wave solution for dimming lights. Find out more about Nano Dimmer here.
Where to buy Bypass for Nano Dimmer.
Bypass for Nano Dimmer is available for purchase at the following online retailers.
United Kingdom.
Amazon.co.uk, Vesternet
United States.
- Bypass.
- Quick start guide.


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Summer off!
This is where I'll be hiding...
So don't try follow me.
Photo by
A Guy Taking Pictures
I'm taking the summer off Teaching English in a Foreign Land to focus on my
. There comes a time in every wannabe novelist's life when they realise that unless they buckle down and get on with it, and put distrations to one side, then the novel will always be an unpublished novel. And with two kids to look after now time is precious, so blogging has to take a hit.
This doesn't mean you can't buy
my book
though. I know, shameless self advertising but that's the whole point of this blog.
I'll be back in September though hopefully. I'll still be posting from Intrepid Den, so keep reading. Have a great summer, see you again when term starts....
intrepid Den
summer off work


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Valtinson Tevan
Juab High Class of 2011
Personal Info
- Name:
- Valtinson Tevan
- Graduation Year:
- 2011
Memories of Valtinson Tevan
Are you Valtinson Tevan?
This page means someone is someone is looking for you. Register for free to let other alumni contact you and more:
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- Share photos and memories with other registered alumni
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text: Unicorn: definition: the moment when work feels finished and complete, when working ceases, and admiration of our own skills and dedication to our practice begins. This is the reflective period of making where we look back on our process, and how our studio practice has developed over time. It is the moment where we step away from the work feeling satisfied that our vision is fully breathing life.


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DW: How do you view the current political crisis in the Maldives, particularly the imposition of a state of emergency by President Abdulla Yameen and his defiance of last month's Supreme Court's ruling to reinstate opposition MPs and release political prisoners?
Mohamed Nasheed: As you are aware, President Yameen has arrested his vice president, his defense minister, the chief justice of the Supreme Court and other judges. Yameen has actually overrun the state. He ordered the military to occupy the parliament and declared a state of emergency, which continues.
What we are hearing now is that there are rifts within the military because Yameen has arrested a number of military officials as well.
While this is happening in the Maldives, we also heard that a ship with the Maldives' flag on it sold oil to North Korea ignoring the United Nations sanctions on the country. This ship was not only registered in the Maldives, but also funded by the Bank of Maldives. Japan's foreign ministry also announced that a Maldives ship was transferring oil to the North Korean regime on high seas. This shows that President Yameen is steering the country to a very dangerous path.
I am not surprised at this because Yameen did the same thing a few years ago with Myanmar, when the country was under international sanctions.
Are you planning to return to the Maldives and contest elections?
It is possible. I intend to go back to my country. I won't live the rest of my life in exile [in the UK]. I would like to return within the next few months.
But you know that you could be arrested upon your return.
It is likely that I will be arrested.
Last month, you asked India to intervene to resolve the crisis in the Maldives. You reportedly said New Delhi should send troops to the country. How did India respond to your request?
India is responsible for providing security in the Indian Ocean and also to the Maldives. We are in a very precarious situation at the moment. What is happening is that China is giving out high-interest loans to our country. By 2020, we have to pay off almost 40 percent of the government revenue to pay back the debt. If we are unable to do so, China would ask for equity and in the process we will have to give up our country's sovereignty. So we are falling into a death trap.
I feel that India, being the historical provider of safety and security to the Maldives, has a reason to be concerned about the situation.
Are you concerned about Beijing's growing influence on the Maldives under President Yameen's government?
What we are seeing is a clear land grab by China. Beijing is encouraging dictatorship in the Maldives and secretly promoting unsolicited contracts. These contracts are not transparent at all; there is no bidding process, no tenders. There is no democratic oversight.
What do you expect from the European Union regarding the resolution of this crisis?
We have been asking the EU to impose targeted sanctions on the regime's leaders. The European Council recently said it would impose sanctions if the Maldives government failed to comply with certain demands. It's been over a week since the EU Council concluded a meeting on this, but there hasn't been any action on this, despite the fact that President Yameen hasn't done anything to address the EU's concerns.
As president of the Maldives, you were very active in raising awareness about the negative impact of climate change on your country? Is the incumbent government doing anything in this regard?
We had a moral authority to speak about the climate change's impact on the Maldives. You need legitimacy to raise these problems. The current authoritarian regime doesn't have the moral and legal authority to address these issues. Instead of going for a carbon neutral plan, Yameen has approved oil drilling. Unfortunately, the president has given up on the environment issues.
Mohamed Nasheed served as the fourth president of the Maldives from 2008 to 2012. He was the first democratically elected president of the Maldives and one of the founders of the Maldivian Democratic Party. He currently lives in exile in the United Kingdom.
Full details are available at the link below:
Source URL: Google News


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Fun Outdoor Game Tutorials
When winter blows away and spring starts to peek through, I am always itching to get outside and play. I don't want to do one more board game or bowl of soup – I'm ready for sunshine! Nothing is better than having fun, entertaining options for family play in your own backyard. No travel time, no extra costs, and the kitchen is always close by.
Regardless of whether you have a tiny yard in a subdivision, or a thousand-acre ranch, there are plenty of options to use your outdoor space to the fullest and have some fun. Here are some of the family play spaces that I am eyeing for this year.
OK, this is my idea of a trampoline. Lovely, luxurious and oh-so relaxing with shade included! Of course, you can toss the pillows and let the kids have some fun too.
I love scrabble with all my heart, and the bigger the better. What a fun way to spend a summer's eve. Good luck with the triple word score!
Lawn checkers is a great idea because it's simple enough for kids to learn and classic enough for adults to enjoy. You can make your own board that is easy to roll up when you're done!
Remember Kerplunk? Well that classic game gets a whole lot better when you increase the size by about 1000% percent and you play outside. Use tomato cages, dowels and toy balls (I found mine on Amazon) to make this fun game!
How fun are these patriotic corn hole boards? They are easy to make, simple to use, and fun for everyone. For kids, they can enjoy the day just tossing the beanbags while adults can turn it into a cut-throat competition. Everything you need is in this tutorial.
This is arguably the most popular/trendy outdoor game in recent years. It's super easy to play, requires almost no instructions, and can be used for a few minutes, or a few hours. Best of all, you can make it yourself. Steer clear when it topples, you probably don't want 54 feet of 2×4 falling on top of you!
This idea might take a little more time, but the folks at Home Depot have provided everything you need to great your own Connect Four backyard game. This looks awesome!
Of course, you can never go wrong with a firepit. It's the perfect place to bring people together, relax after a long day, enjoy good food and good friends.


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Medtronic agrees to independent scrutiny of Infuse Bone Graft
Published date : 30 August 2011
Article date : 30 August 2011
Following scrutiny from a US senate committee, Medtronic announced this month that it would give data and $2.5m funding to Yale University to review the safety of their Infuse Bone Graft product. It had been alleged that Medtronic had failed to mention side effects of the product which is a recombinant bone morphogenetic protein 2 (rhBMP-2) used to stimulate bone growth after spinal surgery. The arrangement is intended to allow two fully independent assessements of the data and is unusual in that access to full patient data has been granted rather than the summaries which are normal practice.
For the press release from Medtronic, look here.
For an overview from the BMJ, look here.


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|Cargo Claims Specialist
Dublin, OH
|Send this Job to a Friend
|Post Date:
|XPO Logistics, Inc.
|Job Type:
|Full Time
|High School / GED
|6 months - 2 years
|Mailing Address:
Logistics done differently.
XPO Logistics provides cutting-edge supply chain solutions to the world's most successful companies and we're constantly looking for talented individuals at all levels who can deliver the caliber of service our customers require. As the Cargo Claims Specialist, you will assist customers in the claims process. On our team, you'll have the support to excel at work and the resources to build a career you can be proud of.
Pay, benefits and more.
We are eager to attract the best, so we offer competitive compensation and a generous benefits package, including full health insurance (medical, dental and vision), 401(k), life insurance, disability and more.
What you'll do on a typical day:
What you need to succeed at XPO:
At a minimum, you'll need:
It'd be great if you also have:
Be part of something big.#LI-LG1
XPO provides cutting-edge supply chain solutions to the world's most successful companies, including Disney, Pepsi, L'Oréal, Toyota and many others. We're the fastest-growing transportation company on the Fortune 500 list and we're just getting started.
We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, sex, disability, veteran or other protected status.
The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned to this classification. They are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required of personnel so classified. All employees may be required to perform duties outside of their normal responsibilities from time to time, as needed.


text:
Domains are like accounts with us, your domain is your main account and then you can add competitors and keywords to each account.
Having a business account allows you to have multiple domains under one login and can manage everything in one place. Business accounts entitle you to customize the amount of competitors and keywords.


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Black Dagger Brotherhood 11 - Lover at Last
Black Dagger Brotherhood 11 - Lover at Last
J.R. Ward
Qhuinn, son of no one, is used to being on his own. Disavowed from his bloodline, shunned by the aristocracy, he has finally found an identity as one of the most brutal fighters in the war against the Lessening Society. But his life is not complete. Even as the prospect of having a family of his own seems to be within reach, he is empty on the inside, his heart given to another.... Blay, after years of unrequited love, has moved on from his feelings for Qhuinn. And it's about time: it seems Qhuinn has found his perfect match in a Chosen female, and they are going to have a young. It's hard for Blay to see the new couple together, but building your life around a pipe dream is just a heartbreak waiting to happen. And Qhuinn needs to come to terms with some dark things before he can move forward... Fate seems to have taken these vampire soldiers in different directions... but as the battle over the race's throne intensifies, and new players on the scene in Caldwell create mortal danger for the Brotherhood, Qhuinn finally learns the true definition of courage, and two hearts who are meant to be together... finally become one.
Qhuinn, son of Lohstrong, entered his family's home through its grand front door. The instant he stepped over the threshold, the smell of the place curled up into his nose. Lemon polish. Beeswax candles. Fresh flowers from the garden that the doggen brought in daily. Perfume-his mother's. Cologne-his father's and his brother's. Cinnamon gum-his sister's.
If the Glade company ever did an air freshener like this, it would be called something like Meadow of Old Money. Or Sunrise over a Fat Bank Account.
Or maybe the ever-popular We're Just Better Than Everyone Else.
Distant voices drifted over from the dining room, the vowels round as brilliant-cut diamonds, the consonants drawled out smooth and long as satin ribbons.
"Oh, Lillie, this is lovely, thank you," his mother said to the server. "But that's too much for me. And do not give Solange so all that. She's getting heavy."
Ah, yes, his mother's perma-diet inflicted on the next generation: Glymera females were supposed to disappear from sight when they turned sideways, each jutting collarbone, sunken cheek, and bony upper arm some kind of fucked-up badge of honor.
As if resembling like a fire poker would make you a better person.
And Scribe Virgin forefend if your daughter looked like she was healthy.
"Ah, yes, thank you, Lilith," his father said evenly. "More for me, please."
Qhuinn closed his eyes and tried to convince his body to step forward. One foot after another. It was not that tough.
His brandy-new Ed Hardy kicks middle-fingered that suggestion. Then again, in so many ways, walking into that dining room was belly-of-the-beast time.
He let his duffel fall to the floor. The couple of days at his best friend Blay's house had done him good, a break from the complete lack of air in this house. Unfortunately, the burn on reentry was so bad, the cost-benefit of leaving was nearly equal.
Okay, this was ridiculous. He couldn't keep standing here like an inanimate object.
Turning to the side wall, he leaned into the full-length antique mirror that was placed right by the door. So thoughtful. So in keeping with the aristocracy's need to look good. This way, visitors could check their hair and clothes as the butler accepted coats and hats.
The young pretrans face that stared back at him was all even features, good jawline, and a mouth that, he had to admit, looked like it could do some serious damage to naked skin when he got older. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking. Hair was Vlad the Impaler, spikes standing up straight from his head. Neck was strung with a bike chain-and not one bought at Urban Outfitters, but the link that had previously motivated his twelve-speed.
All things being equal, he looked like a thief who had broken in and was prepared to trash the place on the hunt for sterling silver, jewelry, and portable electronics.
The irony was that the Goth bullcrap wasn't actually the most offensive part of his appearance to his fam. In fact, he could have stripped down, hung a light fixture off his ass, and run around the first floor playing Jose Canseco with the art and antiques and not come close to how much the real problem pissed off his parents.
It was his eyes.
One blue. One green.
Oopsy. His bad.


text:
Meet Florence B
WE'VE been captivated by the romantic, Victorian jewellery from new label Florence B. London-based Florence leaves no stone unturned in her search to find antique Edwardian and Victorian jewellery, which she re-works into new, unique pieces. This means that the collection features a delicious variety of materials - think, ivory and peach freshwater pearls, emeralds, sapphires, rubies and diamonds all embedded in gold. The pieces themselves are eclectic: there are anchors, bugs, bows and bees set into cocktail rings, long pendants and earrings. The pieces are exquisite, even Sienna Miller thinks so - she's a big fan of the jewellery. Visit www.florenceb.com for more information.
YOU SHOULD SEE: Sienna Miller's Style File...