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Kurt Busch has championship hopes in move to SHR
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Kevin Harvick popped in for what he thought was a quick hello with a bedridden Tony Stewart.
Roughly a week after Stewart broke his right leg in a sprint car crash, Harvick was surprised to find his new boss' bedroom had been turned into an unlikely boardroom. The entire Stewart-Haas organization had gathered to discuss the potential signing of Kurt Busch.
They wanted Harvick's input on adding a driver who hadn't exactly endeared himself in the past.
Baggage aside, Harvick knew as well as anyone that Busch was still as good as it gets as a wheelman.
"I was the only guy who had ever worked with him," Harvick said. "I understood that in my opinion he's going to be good for the company, from a competition standpoint, to drive the performance of the race cars to be better. And that's why we are all here: to be fast and win races."
They were all in on Busch. Former rivals, Busch and Harvick were now the new guys at a suddenly crowded SHR shop.
If Harvick's arrival, after a career spent driving for Richard Childress Racing, brought euphoria to the shop and a shot in the arm to the fan base, Busch's arrival was a bit of a curiosity.
Busch was covertly courted by co-owner Gene Haas, the often overlooked "H″ in SHR, to round out a dream team of drivers that already included Stewart, a three-time Cup champion, and one of NASCAR's most popular stars in Danica Patrick.
Busch, Stewart and Harvick have a combined 95 Cup victories, four championships, and Patrick was the first woman to win the Daytona 500 pole.
Harvick filled departed Brickyard 400 winner Ryan Newman's spot in the lineup, and Haas made the call to add Busch and become a four-car franchise.
Busch's prodigious talent has never been doubted, with 24 career Cup wins and the 2004 championship etched on his resume.
But his personality has cost him major rides, deep-pocketed sponsors, and turned him into a journeyman driver at only 35.
His 2014 ride with SHR is his fourth team in four seasons, though he revitalized his career and led single-car outfit Furniture Row Racing into a surprising Chase for the Sprint Cup championship berth last season. He finished 10th in the standings and silenced doubters that he'd ever return to a deep-funded organization.
Busch was on pretty good behavior, and says his teams learned, "I wasn't such a bad guy after all."
"It's funny, you work with people and the first thing they tell you was, 'Wow, I expected worse.' Perception is reality," Busch said. "I had to work on that. I couldn't continue to fight it. I was about producing results on the race track and putting on a good show."
The 1-2 punch of big-race wins and a brash reputation intrigued Haas.
"The media made a big deal about some of these outbursts, but they all seemed reasonable to me," Haas said. "Hey, he's a passionate race car driver. If you stick a mic in front of someone whose car has just been broken, he's probably going to shove it right back at ya and I don't blame him."
Haas founded his organization in 2002 and brought Stewart aboard seven years later to infuse it with credibility, cash and championships.
While Stewart delivered, his trips to Victory Lane and the 2012 championship saw "Smoke" paraded around with his sponsors on his fire suit, not CNC machine manufacturer Haas Automation.
Busch was the one Haas plucked to represent his company and become the driver feted after taking the checkered flag — preferably starting with Sunday's Daytona 500.
"I think he's all about winning. That's all I want to do," Haas said. "Haas Automation has never been to the winner's circle and it's about time. We're going to do this and break that string, and once we break that string, boom, we're going to be moving forward."
Busch has teammates for the first time in three years, though he had plenty of help last year from Harvick. Furniture Row Racing had a technical alliance with RCR that included technology sharing, engineering, and research and development.
"He's very involved in looking at the information and trying to make himself better," Harvick said. "You feel like when you ask a question, you are going to get what he feels like is the honest answer.
"So from racing cars and pushing each other forward, it was good for me. We wouldn't have run as good last year if it wasn't for the 78 car pushing to make our cars better at RCR and trying different things."
Haas has an eye on different things as well, namely fielding an F1 team. He wants to double the profits of Haas Automation to $2 billion a year — a goal he believes he can only accomplish by tapping into the global market. Busch can raise Haas' worldwide profile by driving the No. 41 Chevrolet into Victory Lane.
"The guy can drop the dime and go play with the big dogs," Busch said. "He's got the coin to spend in Formula 1 if he wants to go and do it."
It's also a reason why Haas didn't blink when asked last month if he'd be interested in sponsoring Busch should he land a ride for the Indianapolis 500.
"He hasn't asked me," Haas said.
Harvick, Busch and Stewart give SHR are a legitimate shot at winning at every track on the circuit. Who knows? Maybe if Patrick can get a win (no matter what Richard Petty says), SHR could field four teams in the Chase.
"That is what the goal is every year," Stewart said. "Especially with this format, it could happen."


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It was a few years ago, maybe three years ago, that it was brought to my attention that it had been quite a number of years since we had looked at the heart of the book of Romans, chapters 3, 4 and 5. And it was suggested to me at that time that going back to that text might be a wonderful blessing and benediction to the folks in our church who have not done that. We have so many new people and this is such the heart of the gospel that certainly that was a very important suggestion. Given all the other things that we were involved in, took a few years to get around to it, but we arrive there tonight, and gratefully so.
So open your Bible, if you will, to Romans chapter 3. And I want to begin reading at verse 9 and basically read down to verse 20...Romans chapter 3 verses 9 through verse 20.
What then? Are we better than they? Not at all, for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin. As it is written, 'There is none righteous, no, not even one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one. Their throat is an open grave. With their tongues they keep deceiving, the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight,; for in the Law comes the knowledge of sin.'"
It is universally true that people like to think of themselves as good, basically. But that is not the testimony of Scripture. The testimony of Scripture is that unequivocably the entire human race is evil, as the vernacular would tell us today, bad to the bone, corrupt to the core.
Men live with the consequent guilt of their wickedness. They don't like it. They don't want to face it. They try to eliminate it by adapting a more convenient kind of morality or by silencing their crying conscience.
Some years ago, a psychologist put it this way, "One of the most painful self-mutilating time and energy consuming exercises in the human experience is guilt. It can ruin your day, or your week, or your life if you let it. It turns up like a bad penny when you do something dishonest, hurtful, tacky, selfish or rotten. Never mind that it was the result of ignorance, stupidity, laziness, thoughtlessness, weak flesh or clay feet. You did wrong and the guilt is killing you. Too bad. But be assured. The agony you feel is normal. Remember, guilt is a pollutant and we don't need anymore of it in the world." And with that last statement, the article ended without a solution to get rid of it.
Admittedly we don't like it. Admittedly we wish we could get rid of it. But what is the means to relieve us of guilt? More importantly than living with guilt is living with the reality of future divine judgment. Guilt in a sense is that which we impose on ourselves. And that is not nearly so deadly as that which God will impose upon us. We can make our life in this world miserable by guilt. But God will make our life in the next world miserable by judgment.
Sin produces then a misery in this life and an infinite and eternal misery in the life to come. People try to deal with their guilt in many ways...alcohol, drugs, sometimes suicide, any kind of earthly diversion. But in the end, it's very hard to avoid because according to Romans chapter 2, all human beings have a Law written in their hearts, a Law of God written in the heart of every sinner. Not only do they have a moral sense that is part of being human, like the other senses, seeing and hearing and smelling and tasting. There is this sense of what is right and this sense of what is wrong that is built in to the whole human race.
But in addition to having that moral law written in our hearts, Romans chapter 2 says, we also have a mechanism called the conscience. And the conscience is activated when we violate that moral law that is written in our hearts and it accuses us. It really is a gift from God, the conscience is, because it's a mechanism by which God warns us that we're living in violation of His Law which has consequences in this life and even more consequences in the life to come. We are guilty because we are sinful. We feel guilty because we should feel guilty. We make life miserable for ourselves by our sin. As Seneca put it many years ago, "Every guilty person is his own hangman. And we put ourselves, as it were, on the block of judgment before God because of our sin. And yet we are left to ourselves, unable to do anything to remedy the problem."
As I just read to you, the whole world, according to verse 19, is accountable to God. And even though Gentiles and the whole human race have a law written in their hearts, and the Jews, he says in chapter 2, have the Law of God written down in Scripture, in neither case, either for the Gentile with the Law written in the heart, or the Jew with the Law written on paper, do they have the ability to take themselves out of that sinful condition, free themselves from that guilt in this life or the horrible judgment in the life to come, as verse 20 says, because by the works of the Law, no flesh will be justified in His sight. We have no capacity to change the sinful condition in ourselves. There is no way that we can do that.
Now before we get to chapter 3 and verse 9, Paul has already been dealing with the guilt of all men. He has let us know by now, if you studied the first section in the bok of Romans, you would be fully aware that all men are immoral...all men are immoral, all men are sinful, all men bear guilt, legitimate guilt for their sin, they feel the weight of that guilt and they stand under the judgment of God. Some guilty sinners are more moral than others. Some are more religious than others. There are pagan Gentiles and there are religious Jews. From the standpoint of morality and religion, we would say the Jews who follow the Old Testament prescriptions are more religious and more moral than outright pagans. But they have no more ability than those pagans to fix themselves. They have no more power, no more ability to relieve themselves of the guilt of sin and by some effort of their own to escape eternal judgment.
This is the bottom-line truth in the Christian gospel. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Nobody escapes.
Now when Paul comes to chapter 3 and verse 9, he makes his final argument about the sinfulness of all mankind and it is a classic presuppositional argument. He could have argued that sin is a reality because death is a reality. And that is a valid argument. "The wages of sin is death." And everybody dies. Therefore everybody is a sinner. And he does make that argument. He can argue from the standpoint of past judgments by God, such as God drowning the entire world...a massive judgment, incalculable. In fact, I mentioned this at the Shepherds Conference and somebody gave me a little e-mail from someone that said, I said somewhere between ten million to a hundred million, we have no idea. And somebody wanted to correct me and say, "It was at least six billion people that died in the Flood." We could find out perhaps in the future if we in heaven care to discuss matters of judgment, which is unlikely. But the world is under this massive kind of sinfulness. You could argue from history and from judgment. You could argue from death which comes to all men. But the strongest and the greatest argument for the sinfulness of man is Scripture...Scripture, the Word of God. What does God have to say? And that is precisely what you have in verses 9 and following.
You will notice in your Bible that the type changes when you come to verse 10. The section starting in verse 10 is introduced with the words, "As it is written..." and that is a reference to Scripture. And then you have a series of statements that runs from verse 10 down through verse 18. Every single one of those is a quote from the Old Testament. So this is God speaking through His divine revelation in Scripture on the sinfulness of sin. This is the coup de grace. You can argue from history. You can argue from judgment. You can argue from reason. You can argue from conscience. But the greatest argument is the argument of Scripture because here is the Word of God. So this is the pinnacle of Paul's presentation on which He calls on God to speak to all the world, sort of climbing the peak and surveying and summarizing all that he has said but now in strictly scriptural terms, powerful, it is convincing.
Now the paradigm here, or the motif if you like that word, is a legal one, it's a trial motif. The procedure in Paul's language here is judicial. It is the language of a courtroom. This is a trial. It has an arraignment. It has an indictment. And it has a verdict.
Let's begin with the arraignment. At this trial, the whole human race is brought before the eternal judge. The arraignment appears in verse 9. "What then? Are we better than they? Not at all, for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin." "What then?" simply means, "What is the case? How are you to understand the situation?"
Now remember, in the prior verses, Paul has shown that the Gentiles without the Law are guilty before God and the Jews with the Law are also guilty before God. The whole world is guilty before God, Jew and Gentile. And in themselves have no capacity to remedy the situation.
Now here he says, "What then? Are we better than they?" To whom does the "we" refer? He's already talked about the Jews. He has already talked about the Gentiles. He has said that the Gentiles have the Law of God written in their hearts. The Jews do have an advantage, chapter 3 verse 1. In fact, they have a great advantage, verse 2, because to them were committed the oracles of God, Scripture. So they not only have the Law of God written in their heart, but they have the Law of God inscripturated.
So he's already dealt with the Jews, and he dealt with the Gentiles. So who is this "we"? Must be somebody other than the Jews and other than the Gentiles. And I think the best answer is it is Paul and his readers....it is Paul and his readers, believers in Rome, and his companions. That's the "we". He uses "we" back in verse 8, "We are slanderously reported," speaking of accusations that were used against him. So I think "we" is referring to Paul and believers. And he is simply saying, "Because we're believers, because we're saved, because we belong to God? Are we somehow better than the rest of the world? Is this...is this reality that we enjoy called salvation a result of us being better than everybody else?" That's, I think, his argument here.
He is saying, "Because we are believers, are we therefore somehow more worthy? Are we somehow better than those who are condemned? Are we different? Are we special?" And the answer is very clear. "Not at all," verse 9, hupontos(??), all together no...no in every way. We are not better for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin and we are either Jews or Greeks...or Gentiles, Greek or Gentile being the same. We have already proven, already established that the Jews and Greeks are all under sin. That is to say, the entire human race is condemned before God. And that even applies to Paul, his companions and Christians. They belong to the same sin-cursed family. We are all under sin, hupo, preposition, under meaning under the power of sin, under the dominion of sin, to some degree, under the authority of sin, under the control of sin.
It's good for us to remember that though we are Christians, the fact that we are Christians is not a result of the...of our own lives being somehow better, somehow more worthy, somehow more pleasing to God, somehow more righteous or acceptable. In a Christless state, we're all the same. We are under the command, control, dominion, authority of sin. We are under the power of the prince of the air, Ephesians 2, we are children of wrath and we are all the same. So that is the arraignment. We are all called into the court and we are all arraigned. The arraignment is complete. Paul brings the whole human race there, Jew and Gentile. And just because you are now saved in Christ doesn't mean that you somehow escaped the reality of the sinfulness of humanity. We are all the same. We can all be brought before the judgment bar in the court of holy God to be arraigned before the Almighty as those without exception are all guilty sinners.
By the way, we don't cease to be guilty sinners either just because we've been saved. We're still guilty sinners.
From the arraignment, we move to the indictment. And the indictment comes then in verse 10. Here the case against us is given. The specific indictment, clear, precise. And by the way, easy to verify in human experience. Here is the testimony to the doctrine of the universal sinfulness of men and it is the testimony of God Himself, for as I said, every one of these statements is drawn out of the Old Testament. There are thirteen counts against men here, thirteen...four times the word "none" is used, three times the word "all" is used. So this is a comprehensive list. No one escapes the indictment. The list then is a collection of Old Testament quotes.
By the way, that was a very common rabbinic device. It was called a cheroz(??) which literally means a string of pearls. And the rabbis would string together pearls of truth that fit with one another. And here you have these pearls that go together in giving us Old Testament Scriptures that constitute a full necklace, if you will, of spiritual indictment. It begins then, "As it is written," a very familiar New Testament phrase that makes reference to the Old Testament. Our Lord used it, you remember, when He was being tempted by Satan. And when Satan came after Him, He said three times, "It is written...It is written...It is written," and then quoted the Old Testament.
It is also in what we call the perfect tense in the Greek. If you remember your English grammar, you might remember what that means. It is...the perfect tense identifies something that happened in past time with continuing effect, continuing significance. So we could read it this way, "It has been written...It has been written and it continues to be true." That's a perfect tense view of Scripture. It has been written, it was stated as true, it continues to be true. If you said something was in say the aorist tense or the imperfect tense, you might lock it in the past. If you put it in the perfect tense in the Greek language, permanent...it makes it permanent. It was said and it is continually true. Perfect tense then makes permanent what is said. The Word of God then is forever settled in heaven.
So this is God's Word on man's sin and the utter and total lostness of the world. Now as we break down the indictment, break it in to three parts, character, conversation and conduct. What you're like on the inside. What you say. And what you do. Those would be the three aspects of behavior which could be brought under indictment. This, I suppose you could say, in medical terms is a full examination of the sinner, beginning with the x-rays. Go inside and look at character, verses 10 to 12.
We find here that man is sinful at the core, in the heart, in the spirit, in the soul. "The heart of man," said Jeremiah seventeenth chapter, "is deceitful and desperately wicked."
So you have here a series of negative statements describing the character of all men. You will meet yourself here. First, in verse 10, "There is none righteous, no not one," taken from Psalm 14, the opening verses. There is none righteous, no not one. Righteousness simply means right, just, good. Righteousness also I might add, just as a footnote, is the theme in many ways of the whole book of Romans. The word appears in one form or another, at least 30 times. So this book is how to be right with God, how to be good in the sense that makes you acceptable to God, how to be declared just before God. And we learn right at the outset that there is none righteous. And unless someone say except me, the Holy Spirit says no, not you, not one. This righteousness is true only of God.
There is none righteous, no not one, nor can anyone make himself righteous. You have the same word translated down in verse 20 as justified, it's the same word as righteous, same root. And it says, "No flesh will be justified, or made righteous in His sight by the works of the Law." So no one is righteous and no one on his own can become righteous.
To break it down a little bit, no one is capable of pleasing God fully. No one can keep God's standard. No one can reach God's level of acceptable goodness. No one can be morally perfect. No one can be holy. And that is God's standard. Scripture says, "Be holy for I am holy." Repeated, repeated, repeated in the book of Leviticus and repeated again in the New Testament, be holy for I am holy, Peter says, or in the words of Jesus, "Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect." But no one is perfect. No one is holy. No one is righteous. And no one has the capacity to attain to that.
Now there is a relative human goodness. That is to say, not all people are as bad as all other people, and not all people are as bad as it's possible to be. There is in the goodness of God enough common grace in the world to make people good on a human level. So there is a kind of human goodness that theologians like to call bad good. In other words, it's bad people being good. But it's not good good, it's bad good, because its motive is something less than the glory of God. No one manifests God's perfect holiness and righteousness. No one meets the standard. In fact, in the pre-flood civilization, God said He was going to drown the whole world because all He ever saw in the heart of man was only evil continually. Does that mean nobody ever did anything good? Does that mean mothers didn't love their children? Does that mean they didn't feed the poor? Does that mean they didn't do acts of human kindness? No. It just meant that there was no one whose heart was righteous. It was impossible, it still is. No one meets the standard.
Then in verse 11 we have a second element to the indictment of the heart. "There is none that understands." There is none that understands. That's taken from Psalm 14:2, Psalm 53:3. Man has no true perception of divine reality. He wouldn't know what goodness was in its full perfection. He has no right apprehension of God. To put it in the language of Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:14, "The natural man understands not the things of God, to him they are foolishness." It is incomprehensible to the sinner what the righteousness of God really is. Romans 8:5, "Those who are according to the flesh set their mind on the things of the flesh. Those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. The mind set on the flesh is death. The mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. Then this...because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, it doesn't subject itself to the Law of God, it isn't even able to do so."
It does not understand. I cannot understand. It cannot comprehend. To just extend that a little bit and put it in to the practical zone where you will understand this. There is in the heart of every person, every unconverted person, ignorance of God, the truth about God. Listen, ignorance of a true understanding of His Word, but more hostility toward that of which he is ignorant. To say it another way, there is a basic hostility in every sinner to God that manifests itself in hostility toward the Bible. Do you ask yourself why there is such universal hostility against the Scripture? It is because sinners are all ignorant of God and take it even deeper, they are enemies of God. And there is a basic hostility toward the Bible that is true of all non-Christians. They are ignorant, and in their ignorance they are unable to understand and they don't like what they do understand.
Now men do have some natural abilities to grasp some things in Scripture. But when it comes to their indictment about their sinfulness and God's righteousness, and the glory of the gospel and the hopelessness of works and self-effort and all of that, they are hostile to it.
The Apostle Paul in writing to the Ephesians expands our understanding of this. He says, concerning non-believers, "They walk in the futility of their mind." They walk in the vacuum of their mind. They walk in the emptiness of their mind. Romans 1 says they profess themselves to be wise, and they're really fools. And then he says, "Be darkened...verse 18...in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them because of the hardness of their heart and they have become callous and given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness."
So you take the indictment that's given here and then to Ephesians 4:18, they're ignorant, they have empty minds when it comes to understanding God. Their minds are darkened, again a perfect tense participle to show that this is a reality that came into existence when they were born and it continues to be the same. They are alienated from the life of God. They don't know God's truth because they can't know God. They are blind. They have no ability to comprehend because of their profound ignorance. And even though they are ever-learning, they never come to the knowledge of the truth.
He further says, following down in Romans chapter 3, "There is none who seeks for God." They don't know God. They are ignorant. They are evil. They do not seek after God.
You say, "Wait a minute. Doesn't the Bible say he that seeks finds, Matthew 7? Doesn't Hebrews say He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him? Doesn't...doesn't it tell us in Isaiah that if we seek with all our heart we'll find Him? Is that contradictory?" No...no, simply to say man does not naturally seek God. In fact, Romans chapter 1 verse 21 says the very opposite, "Though they knew of God, they didn't honor Him as God or give thanks, became empty in their speculations, their foolish hearts was darkened, professing to be wise they became fools. And then they turned the glory of the incorruptible God into an image of corruptible man or birds, four-footed animals, crawling creatures. And God gave them over to perverse sexuality, homosexuality and a reprobate mind."
So what they did know about God, not a saving knowledge, but what was perceivable to them by creation, the power of God, what was perceivable to them by the Law written in their hearts, the morality of God was the limit of it. And when they saw the power of God and the morality of God, they ran from it. That's the history of humanity. The only time the sinner ever seeks for God is when God first seeks the sinner. John 6 says, "No man comes to Me unless the Father draws him...unless the Father draws him."
But that really isn't the concept here that's being conveyed. When it says here, "No one seeks for God," it's not really talking about a salvation kind of seeking. It's not...that's not the point. It means that the center of our life is not God. That's what it's saying. No one is looking at life, as it were, to honor God, to glorify God, to make God the focus of life. No one really desires the full manifestation of the glory of God and all His wondrous perfections as the dominating objective of their life.
No one naturally adores God, longs for His sovereign majesty to be put on display. No one naturally wants to feed on His truth, live in His presence, obey His commands, pray to Him, trust Him in everything and declare His praise. That's what it's saying.
The opposite of Psalm 16:8 and 9 where David says, "I've set the Lord always before me," that's the view of the saint. That's the view of the believer who seeks after God in everything, not just in a saving sense but seeks the honor of God, the glory of God, the praise of God. That's not how men live. They are their own gods. And if need be, they manufacture gods out of their own minds, aided and abetted by demons. But naturally they do not put God at the center of their lives, even the religious people. It's a god of their own making, not the true and living God.
So this is a desperate condition. There's none righteous. There is none who understands. Their minds are darkened and empty. And there is none who focuses on God, who seeks for the honor and glory of God in all of life. Verse 12 then goes back to Psalm 14 and picks up something from verse 3, "All have turned aside." Or to put it another way, "They've all gone off the track, out of the path, no exceptions. All are deviate." They've all deviated out of the way, blinded by sin to the truth with no particular interest in the glory of God, they are all diverted by their lusts and desires out of the path of truth, out of the path of salvation. They literally have turned aside, ekklino. That's exactly what it means. They have fled, if you will. It's used of fleeing from wild animals. In one use in classical Greek the verb was used by Polybius for a group of soldiers who turned and fled in confusion in the midst of a battle, deserters. The whole human race has deserted the way of God. The whole human race has deserted the path of truth. Isaiah 53:6 says, "We've gone astray and every man has turned to his own way."
There's more. Go back again to the next statement in verse 12. "They have become useless together, collectively, no exceptions, useless." The Hebrew equivalent of this word is used of milk that's gone sour, what do you do with that? Pour down the drain. The human race is rancid. The human race can't serve its function. The human race is rotten and corrupt to be thrown away like salt without savor, or rotten fruit, or bad milk. They have no more value. They're good for nothing.
Homer uses this word in the Odyssey to refer to the senseless laughter of a moron. And by the way, Psalm 14:3 adds that man is filthy, or the marginal reading, "Stinking, putrid, to be discarded." And this is quite an anthropology, isn't it? I doubt that this is what they tell you in your anthropology class at UCLA, about how wonderful man is and how noble man is and how he has ascended through the chains of evolution to reach the apex. When the truth of the matter is he is base by definition written by God Himself.
Verse 12, again, "There is none who does good," same as verse 10. There's none righteous, not even one is another way to say it. "There is none who does good, there's not even one." And the word for good here, this, by the way, is taken from Psalm 53:3, this whole section moves between Psalm 53 and Psalm 14. The word has to do with moral goodness. This is the sixth indictment here, condemning the character of man. He doesn't do anything that is genuinely good. Some of man's character, here's your biblical anthropology, man is bad, ignorant, rebellious, wayward, useless. And we could stack up some adjectives that could even make it worse...rotten to the very core. And remember, this is universal. This is true of Jews and Gentiles. This is true even of believers.
So, the character is defined. Secondly, the conversation. Out of the abundance of the heart...what happens? The mouth speaks so we can learn about the heart by listening to the mouth. And here in verses 13 and 14 Paul quotes from Psalm 5:9, Psalm 140 verse 3, Psalm 10 verse 7, and he's now concerned with the mouth.
By the way, James 3:3 to 10 talks about the mouth being like a flame of fire, spreading a conflagration of corruption everywhere. Proverbs 10:32 says, "The mouth of the wicked speaks perverseness." Proverbs 15:2, "The mouth of fools pours forth foolishness. The mouth of the wicked...verse 28...pours ut evil things." So Paul introduces the conversation of the man which is so revealing of his character. His character might be under wraps until he opens his mouth. It doesn't take long. Verse 13, "Their throat is an open grave." This from Psalm 5:9..."Their throat is an open grave." That's frankly what we would call a gross picture. Nothing is more abominable in the ancient world than an open grave and a stinking rotting body putting out its staggering and unbearable stench.
Now we're not talking here about bad breath, we're talking here about something far deeper than that. The grave is open, and again it's a perfect participle, and it stays open. What comes from the inside, out the mouth is the same putrid rotten corrupt reality that has just been described as the character. Man's soul is dead in trespasses and sin and the putrid stinking decaying corpse emits a foul and filthy smell through the throat in the form of words.
So, with their tongues, they keep deceiving. This again from Psalm 5:9, tense indicates again a life habit, deceit, dolioo, the root idea is a fishhook, the fishhook is deceptive, the fish thinks lunch, the bait, you think lunch, the fish, you deceive the fish. That's dolioo. Psalm 36:3, "The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit." Psalm 52:2, "Like a sharp razor is the mouth, working deceitfully." I always remember a story of lady I read in the L.A. Times some years ago who was angry at a man and let him get close to her. And she had a razor blade between her teeth and sliced off his lips. He was rushed the emergency hospital. Psalm 57:4 says, "Their teeth are spears and arrows." Read Jeremiah 9, read Isaiah 59, the Old Testament is loaded about statements about the corruption of the mouth. And Isaiah recognized it, didn't he?, in Isaiah 6 when he was feeling the weight of his sin, he said, "I am a man with an unclean mouth and I dwell amidst a people of unclean lips."
It's not just unclean, it's deadly. Verse 13, at the end, "The poison of asps is under their lips." That's from Psalm 140 and verse 3, this kind of speech that comes out of the corruption of the heart between the lips that is so vile and so filthy and so corrupt is also destructive. It has a poison. And there's an analogy with a snake, the fangs of a deadly snake ordinarily lie folded back. They're folded back in the upper jaw. But when it throws open its head, they flip down so that the poison of asps is tucked under their lips until they're ready to strike, and then those hollow fangs flip out, drop down. When the snake bites, the fangs press a sac of deadly poison hidden under their lips, injecting venom through them like a needle into the victim. Words are deadly. There are many battles that are started over words in your house and beyond, even wars among nations have been started by what was said. Deadly.
It says then, continuing to look at the mouth, verse 14, "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness," taken from Psalm 10:7. Cursing and bitterness, cursing is literally a malediction against someone, to speak evil of someone. Bitterness, pikria, extreme wickedness resulting in vile speech against God and men. All you have to do is listen to the speech of the world, foul, bitter, angry, cursing, filthy, blasphemous, proud, lustful, violent, lying, deceptive, destructive. And the open grave simply releases the stench of the corrupt heart.
Well, that leads to the conduct in the arraignment...the conduct in verses 15 and following. We now know what the character's like, what the conversation is like in this universal indictment, and obviously the conduct will follow. Verse 15, "Their feet are swift to shed blood," taken from Isaiah 59:7. Men are murderers, they are killers from cannibalism to crime. It's just a part of life that men massacre each other. I don't need to give you the history of that, you know it, you see it. Here we are supposedly living in this advanced twenty-first century and there's just slaughter going on all over the world at a greater volume than ever because the weaponry is so much greater. There's travel warfare in the African continent that literally results in genocide as millions of people die unknown personally to the people who killed them. This is true of man, he is by nature a murderer because he is following his father, the devil, who Jesus said was a murderer from the beginning.
The history of murder, slaughter throughout the story of man's life is well-known to us. Ching SenChung(???) 1643 to 1648, a bandit leader in the Chinese Province of Schezwan is estimated to have killed 40 million people...just a footnote.
So goes the history of man. Verse 16, "Destruction and misery are in their paths." Destruction, suntrimma, literally a shattering into bits, cruelty, misery, meaning suffering distress. It's a word that is a kin to the word for wretched. The abstract sense of that word is misery, but it really means actual, painful, physical suffering. Men leave a trail of destruction and a trail of physical misery as they move through history...violence, bloodshed, devastation mark all human history.
And verse 17, finally, "The path of peace they have not known." We're not too good at that, are we? Humanity is not very good at getting the final peace, right? Jeremiah put it this way, they say, "Peace, peace, there is no peace." There is no peace for the wicked. Violence has taken the peace, men cannot attain peace whether it's quarrels in personal relationships, hatreds, fights, arguments, animosities, crimes, revolutions, massive wars, genocide...this is characteristic of man. He does not know peace. Robert Haldain(?) wrote, "The most savage animals do not destroy so many of their own species to appease their hunger as man destroys his fellow man to satiate his ambition, his revenge, his greed.
So the arraignment came in verse 9, then the indictment, thirteen counts dealing with character, conversation and conduct. But a good prosecutor will sum up his case and make it simple so there's one more essential. The sum of all these crimes rises out of a universal attitude in verse 18. This is what is behind it all, let's call this the motive. Every criminal has a motive. What is the motive for this kind of character? What is the motive for this kind of conversation? What is it that motivates this kind of conduct?
Answer: the motive in verse 18, "There is no fear of God before their eyes." There is no fear of God before their eyes. This is a key point. The transgression of the wicked says within his heart there is no fear of God before his eyes, that is Psalm 36:1 that Paul is referring to here. The transgression of the wicked, that Psalm says, says speaks in the heart, there's no fear of God before his eyes.
Why do men live like this? Why do they act like this? Why do they speak like this? Why do they think like this? Because they will not fear God. Proverbs 16:6 reverses it and says, "By the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil." Fearing God means having a respect for God. It isn't just the fear of His judgment, it's the desire to honor Him for His nature, His works.
Universally men do not fear God, they do not honor God, they do not glorify Him as God. Fearing God in Scripture is a synonym for being a true believer, a God-fearer. It describes that man or woman who has respect for God's holy person, work, word and will. It is not the idea of flight or panic or dread, but reverential respect, a sense of awe. What basically drives and controls who you are is your attitude toward God. In that sense, fearing God is the control of all behavior. It's the control of all speech. And it is the definer of all character. When you accept God as God and you come to worship God and desire to obey God and give Him the honor He is due, it is because your character has been changed and now you have a new motive and it effects your speech and it effects your conduct.
The Old Testament, by the way, is filled with the concept of fearing God on a negative side. Within this whole larger context of fearing God, there is definitely a negative element. Look, God wanted people to be afraid of Him, that's why He turned Lot's wife to a pillar of salt. That's why He threw Adam and Eve out of the Garden, drowned the world, sent snakes to bite the Israelites, swallowed Korah, Dathan and Abiram, killed Nadab and Abihu, sent fire down from heaven, at the call of Elijah consumed a hundred soldiers. God wanted to be feared as a judge. He drowned the Egyptian army, took the life of Eli and his useless sons, Hophni and Phinehas. He killed Absalom, David's rebellious son and powered Samson to slaughter the thousands of Philistines, demanded death for sins. There is to be a healthy fear of the righteous power of God and of His judgment.
But it's not only that. It's revering His holiness. It's honoring Him for His mercy and grace, giving Him glory. The bottom line is this, what is the motive for these crimes? Practical Atheism. At the root of man's problem of sin and unrighteousness is a practical Atheism, he does not fear God. All the previous evils, all the indictments rise out of the absence of that fear. He is motivated by a wrong attitude toward God.
Now that brings us to the final part of this court scene. We've seen the arraignment, the indictment and the motive, here's the verdict...here's the verdict. "Now we know...now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable." Or if you will, guilty before God.
What's the verdict? Guilty...guilty. The Law of God is the standard, the perfect holy Law of God. All men are under that Law and that Law finds them guilty. You know what the responsibility of a judge is? To bring to bear upon the person brought before his bench, the force of the Law. The judge has one responsibility, uphold the Law. And that's exactly what happens. The whole human race is brought before the tribunal. The judge says when measured against the holy Law of God, all of you who are under that Law have no defense, so that every mouth may be stopped.
What does that mean? What's missing in this trial? If you were putting this trial together, the one who uses a model trial, what's missing? The defense...there hasn't been any defense. There's been all prosecution, there's no defense. The reason there's no defense is there's no defense. Look, I was in court one time when our church and myself were sued for clergy malpractice. I was taken into the court in Glendale, this will be 1980, I think, or in the eighties, and there was a great case attempted to be amassed against us. And I sat in the court and in came the prosecution, the plaintiff and they laid out their whole case against us. And then it was our turn for a defense. And the judge stood up and rendered a summary judgment and said, "We don't need to hear a defense, the case of the plaintiff is not substantial," and dismissed the case.
So you have a summary judgment, only in the reverse. The judgment here is that the case for the plaintiff is so substantial there is no defense. So verse 19 makes that clear, "Every mouth is stopped and the whole world is guilty before God." There is no defense. Verse 20 says, "The reason we haven't got a defense is because by the works of the Law no flesh will be made righteous in His sight." All the Law does is produce the knowledge of sin. It just reveals how sinful man is. This is the picture of the whole human race on which the gospel then is built. I think sometimes we don't understand the glory of the gospel because we don't understand this. Now is the gospel more glorious or less? Far more glorious when you understand the predicament of the guilty sinners, such as we are. When you come to the end of this section in verse 20, if you're a sinner and you haven't heard this before, your heart is beating hard because you have just been indicted, there is no defense, your mouth is stopped, you're guilty before God, you can't do anything about it, you can't keep the Law, you can't live up to the Law and therefore your indictment stands and from your own perspective you are in a hopeless condition and you're left there at the end of verse 20.
And then in verse 21, t he glory of the gospel begins to burst on the scene. And if you come next Sunday night, I'll explain that to you.
Father, Your Word is so consistent, so powerful, so precious, so rich. We thank You for it. We understand the wretchedness that has been described as our wretchedness. This is a description not of somebody else but of us. Not of...not of pagans or just the Jews, but of us. It's a description of all before salvation. It's a disastrous condition in which sinners live. And in this condition they bear fierce guilt in this life, guilt that steals their joy, that makes them empty, hopeless, fearful, anxious and finds no remedy within themselves. It is in this horrible condition that the sinner becomes desperate enough to look for a remedy outside himself beyond him and by Your grace is drawn to the glory of the forgiveness provided in Christ. We thank You, Lord, that we have experienced that. We thank You for the testimonies we heard tonight of the transformation in the life of guilty sinners to joyous, blessed saints. Thank You, Lord, for that great miracle and for Your Word which lays it out so clearly. May we always remember as we share the gospel that there are many people who can't understand grace because they don't understand Law, who can't understand forgiveness because they don't understand guilt, who can't understand the joy of heaven because they don't understand the horror of hell. Help us, Lord, to give them the full message, to make the sinner aware of his guilt before we make him aware of Your provision. We glory in the gospel, we rejoice in it. We thank You. We know we are saved not because anything we've done but because of Your grace. We give you praise in Your Son's name. Amen.
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subset: commoncrawl


text: Beginning with the F-22A Raptor on the cover, the December issue of AFM includes fascinating exclusive coverage of warplanes in conflict: from the sophisticated French Air Force Rafales taking the fight to so-called Islamic State in Opération Chammal to the rugged L-159 ALCA that recently marked its second anniversary in Iraq.As well as catching up with the 1st Fighter Wing Raptors from Joint Base Langley-Eustis at RAF Lakenheath, other reports from the UK include a look at the implications for the country's air arms in the run-up to the latest defence review.A modern air arm is only as good as its training, a fact reflected in the work of the bi-national Advanced Jet Training School that schools Belgian Air Component jet pilots at Cazaux in southwest France, and the Luftwaffe's Fighter Weapons School, which provides demanding training for top Eurofighter pilots. Meanwhile, Air Power Association President Air Marshal (Ret'd) Greg Bagwell CB CBE looks at the challenges of providing future frontline pilots with operational readiness training tomeet the demands of fifth-generation fighters.Exercise Reports bring you the latest from Falcon Leap, an international paratrooper exercise organised by the Royal Netherlands Army's 11 Air Mobile Brigade, and Grifone 2017 in Italy, which focused on mountain search and rescue. AFM's correspondents continue their round-up of European maritime patrol aircraft fleets, looking at Greece, Ireland and Italy, and analysis of the People's Liberation Army Air Force concludes with an assessment of its latest structure and an up-to-date order of battle.The Royal Thai Police Aviation Division is undergoing modernisation, with several helicopter types being replaced, as Dino van Doorn investigates, while Stephan de Bruijn reveals how time looks to be running out for the Royal Netherlands Air Force's unique Gulfstream IV.


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Since Ned Colletti was named Dodgers' general manager in late 2005, he's always been in a rush to sign free agents. One has to wonder why that is. It has cost the Dodgers a lot and is just a bad practice in general.
Here are all Colletti's major signings in November and December:
December 2005
Bill Mueller
Nomar Garciaparra
Rafael Furcal
Kenny Lofton
Brett Tomko
November 2006
Garciaparra (re-signed)
Juan Pierre
Randy Wolf
December 2006
Luis Gonzalez
Jason Schmidt
December 2007
Andruw Jones
Hiroki Kuroda
December 2008
Casey Blake (re-signed)
Furcal (re-signed)
December 2009
Jamey Carroll
November 2010
Kuroda (re-signed)
Jon Garland
Juan Uribe
December 2010
Rod Barajas
Vicente Padilla
Matt Guerrier
November 2011
Juan Rivera
Mark Ellis
December 2011
Chris Capuano
Jerry Hairston
Aaron Harang
Some of these signings were good: Furcal (both times), Garciaparra (first time), Lofton, Wolf (both times) and Kuroda (both times).
However, most of these signings were made in haste, either costing the Dodgers money by not playing the market and not playing young players or losing out to superior players. And the Dodgers haven't signed any elite players in this time period.
Colletti's refusal to trust -- or even give a legitimate chance to -- young players was apparent in 2007 and even today. In November 2006, he re-signed Garciaparra to a 2-year, $18 million contract without blinking. James Loney was fully ready to take over.
Pierre, being pursued by only the Giants in November 2006, was signed before the market could even play out. The Giants had reportedly offered him a contract in the neighborhood of $30 million over three years. Colletti, for some reason, felt compelled to give Pierre five guaranteed years and $14 million more.
Was Kenny Lofton's 2006 performance (.301/.360/.403) not good enough? It was better than anything Pierre did in his time as a Dodger, except when he was (rightfully so) a part-time player for the team in 2008. Yet, Colletti didn't even give re-signing Lofton a second thought. Curious, as Lofton was approaching age 40 and seemed to be right up Colletti's alley. I guess Pierre was more the player he was looking for. It's one of the only times Colletti has chosen a younger player instead of an older player.
With Torii Hunter, Andruw Jones, Aaron Rowand and Ichiro Suzuki all 2008 free agents (at the time of Pierre's deal -- Suzuki signed an extension with the Mariners later that season), Colletti couldn't possibly have waited for a better player? I know he eventually signed Jones (who busted) and Rowand got a ridiculous contract, but it's the principle of the matter.
The same thing happened when he signed Luis Gonzalez for the 2007 season. Ethier was ready to take over in left field, putting up a .308/.365/.477 as a rookie in 441 plate appearances. Instead, he and Kemp were forced to split time with the likes of Gonzalez and Pierre. The Dodgers won 82 games in 2007 and probably wouldn't have been much worse off getting Ethier and Kemp 500 at-bats.
I was actually on board with the Schmidt and Jones signings, so I can't be too upset about those.
However, jumping at the bit to re-sign Blake after his less-than half-season with the Dodgers was inexcusable. The Dodgers had Blake DeWitt, who, in hindsight, wasn't the greatest option, capable of playing third base until someone better came along.
The fact that he gave Blake three guaranteed years when the only team seriously in on him was the Minnesota Twins is a classic example of the market playing Colletti. It should be the other way around. Blake had a fine 2009 season, but was not great and riddled with injuries after that, which isn't exactly abnormal for a 36-year-old player.
A good -- or even somewhat competent GM -- would play the market and not get taken in by past success, irrational mistrust of young players and minimal postseason success.
Which leads us to one Juan Uribe. He was signed on Nov. 30, 2011 when there was absolutely no reason to sign a guy like that to a contract like that (3 years, $21 million). Once again, the Giants and Colletti were in competition for a bad baseball player, and the Dodgers, unfortunately, won again.
Colletti was also in such a rush to sign Guerrier that he inexplicably gave him a 3-year contract.
If that wasn't bad enough, the 2011 off-season might take the cake. We know the Dodgers weren't going to be in on Albert Pujols, but why was Colletti's priority to sign replacement-level players (Rivera, Ellis, Capuano, Harang) and guys who deserve minor-league deals only (Kennedy, Matt Treanor) over guys like Kuroda and Prince Fielder?
No one knows for sure, but Colletti's refusal to trust young players could be an explanation.
Rivera was signed when Jerry Sands is perfectly capable of taking the reins. Ellis was signed in lieu of using a combination of Ivan DeJesus and Justin Sellers. Capuano and Harang are expected to replace Kuroda's production, which likely won't happen. Those guys are decent options at the back of the rotation, but the money they're earning $6 million (total) this season -- $6 million that could have been used to re-sign Kuroda and go with a rookie (Nathan Eovaldi) or a non-roster invitee (a player who always seems to find his way onto the Dodgers).
The Dodgers have needed a real bat for years (not Jones, not J.D. Drew, etc.). Prince Fielder is available and the Dodgers don't even think twice about pursuing him. I know the ownership situation is a mess, but every guaranteed contract this off-season (save Rivera and MacDougal's) has an uneven split between 2012 and 2013.
The Dodgers have spent $18.75 million this off-season on nine players, none of whom couldn't have been replaced by minor-league talent or non-roster invitees (I'm OK with the Gwynn signing, though).
The Dodgers could have signed both Kuroda and Fielder (with deferred money, of course) and have been a better team. Instead, Fielder is still a free agent, Kuroda signed with the Yankees and the Dodgers are not any better right now (arguably worse) than they were at the end of the 2011 season.
It's easy to rip Colletti and call him a double agent (working for the Giants). We all know he isn't, but some of the moves really make you wonder. Then again, he "crafted" his trade under Brian Sabean, the undisputed king of signing over-the-hill free agents and not trusting young players.
Colletti's job hasn't been easy the last couple of years, but the misallocation of resources has never been more apparent. I mean, the Dodgers are still paying for the likes of Manny Ramirez and Jones, Kuroda's signing bonus ($1.5 million this January and $2.5 million next January) and just got done paying off deferred money and signing bonuses from Pierre's and Furcal's contracts. That, and striking out on free agents, has kept the Dodgers from being serious championship contenders.
The 2008 and 2009 squads had the talent to make it as far as the National League Championship Series. Running into a hot Phillies' team both years didn't help, but having the ability to add a key piece (Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay, etc.) would have gone a long way to bringing a championship back to Los Angeles.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Why is Ned Colletti in a rush to sign mediocre free agents?
Posted by Dustin Nosler at 5:05 PM
Labels: Aaron Harang, Casey Blake, Chris Capuano, Hiroki Kuroda, Juan Uribe, Matt Guerrier, Ned Colletti
2 comments:
My guess is because the team is for sale and they want to have all the pieces of the puzzle in place as soon as possible, with no big long term deals to players other than the "brand" players already in the organization like Kemp and possibly Kershaw.ReplyDelete
I've heard that theory. I don't agree with it, but it could have been the thought process. It still doesn't excuse the questionable transactions, though.ReplyDelete
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In 2020 there will be nearly 10 times as many Internet connected devices as there are human beings on this planet. The majority of these will not have web browsers. When it comes to the "Internet of Things", web designers and developers are uniquely placed to create, connect and produce innovative new ways for these devices to be used.
We are used to mashing up disconnected data sets, playing with APIs and designing for constantly moving standards in order to create compelling digital user experiences. "Old school" engineers are struggling to keep pace due to long processes for product and service design but as web creators we understand the value of rapid prototyping, user feedback and quick iterations. As developers, we play daily with a bewildering array of technologies that span networks, servers and user interfaces. As designers, we understand the nature of beautiful but usable technology.
These skills, and our innate understanding of how interconnectedness enhances and creates engaging user experiences, mean that web creators will be critical for the next generation of Internet enabled Things in our world. From a potplant that tweets when it needs water to crowd sourcing pollution data with sensors on people's windows and visualising it on Google Maps these are the new boundaries of the web creator's skills. Have you ever dreamt of sending your phone to the edge of space to take a picture of a country? Or how about a robot you can control via a web browser?
By exploring examples of things in the wild right now and delving into practical guidance for for getting started, this session will demonstrate how easy it is for web designers and developers to build Internet connected and aware Things.
11th–14th October 2011


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Plugging the Leaks was created to support people in communities to take a different approach to local economic development, one that can have a greater, more sustainable impact on their local economies than traditional regeneration initiatives.
Plugging the Leaks goes further than simply getting more money into the local economy through tourism, inward investment or funding. It re-generates the local economy from within, and takes advantage of the resources that a community already possesses.
- A Different Approach
Why Plugging the Leaks is important.
- A Communities Taking Action
To transform their local economy.
- Public Sector for Public Benefit
Making public spending work harder.


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Obama's Second Term – The World Awaits Much Needed Leadership on Climate Change
"We want our children to live in an America that […] isn't threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet." Many still remember this brief, yet hopeful and encouraging moment during Obama's acceptance speech after his re-election in November. Observers hoped that Obama and his administration would bring much needed leadership from the top in addressing climate change issues during the UNFCCC COP18 Summit in Doha. Yet, the conference is now done and dusted, and the United States was again among the array of developed countries to block the progress with an unwillingness to commit to collective mitigation and adaptation goals. In fact, the second largest emitter has since scored not one, but four of the Fossil of the Day "Awards" civil society doles out after each day of the negotiations for its lack of cooperative will. The optimism has thus been shattered, and the world is left to re-examine the possibility of potential leadership from the Obama administration in climate change policy.
Why is leadership from Obama so important?
First, we need to recognise that we are in a critical time of transition. Under the UNFCCC convention, the current framework governing mitigation efforts, the only global legally-binding treaty is the Kyoto Protocol, will ends its first commitment period at the end of this year. Although the second commitment period will run from 2013 to 2020, it is now clear that this framework will only capture around 15 percent of the global emissions, and thus cannot adequately provide a solution to contain global temperature rise. On the adaptation side, the Long-term Corporative Action platform, which was established as part of the Bali Action Plan in 2007, will also conclude its work in 2012. A new convention which covers both mitigation and adaptation, called the Durban Platform, is set to be drafted and negotiated by 2015 to come into effect by 2020.
This means that the world only has three years to come up with a workable, equitable and readily implementable convention concerning all parties. The time is swiftly ticking out. To move forward, there needs to be much more faith, trust and ambition, and much less empty talk, finger-pointing and reluctance to move. Here, the leadership of the US is especially important, as it will not only sent out a positive signal to the world that a historically recalcitrant nation is now ready to take responsibility, but also exert enough pressure on other major emitters to follow suit. However, taking positive leadership on the negotiation table is not possible without a different mandate from the Obama administration, as the negotiators are after all mere diplomats, not decision-makers.
Why haven't Obama and the US taken leadership in Doha?
The reason is actually quite simple: the position and priority of climate change on Obama's agenda list is not high. Climate change was neither a banner issue during Obama's first term, nor a prominent feature of his 2012 campaign until the very end. The tide-turning event, as we all know, was Hurricane Sandy in November. The devastating impact of the storm and its potential link to climate change enabled (and to some extent propelled) Obama to campaign for climate change to capture this newly sparked sentiment among voters.
But it has only been a few weeks since climate change made it on to Obama's "bucket list." So even if Obama wishes to go full throttle ahead with this issue, there is simply not enough time for the administration to formulate a concrete policy plan to back up any promises at the international level. Furthermore, the administration is still fretted by many more pressing issues: the fiscal cliff, Syrian unrest, and perhaps now gun-control discussions, just to name a few. So it was not completely unexpected that no new mandate was given to the envoys, and no new commitment was seen in Doha.
However, although the position of the US delegation remained the same in Doha, the world saw a glimpse of hope through the positive signals Todd Stern, the US's lead negotiator, sent out during the conference. In his statement, he said that President Obama recognises that [the US] should do more, and [the US] intends to do more". He also stressed that the US is willing to engage in discussions concerning equity and "Common But Differentiated Responsibility", a principle the US has previously fought vehemently to reinterpret so as to include commitments for major developing countries like China and India. As an optimist, I would interpret this as a hint that the United States is intending to be more open-minded and flexible to demonstrate global leadership on climate change, and it is just a matter of time when the administration builds enough capacity to take concrete actions.
What should Obama do to move ahead as quickly as possible?
I consulted with Samantha Smith from WWF and David Waskow from Oxfam, on this issue while in I was in Doha. Here are a few suggestions they made:
- Bully Pulpit strategy: Aside from Sandy, other extreme weather patterns that have recently rampaged through the US and caused extensive physical and economic damages could all be used to Obama's advantage in gaining support on the climate change issue both at the voter and congressional level.
- Power of the Secretary of States: The Secretary of State is a potentially powerful and influential position. During her term, Hillary Clinton was a strong proponent and advocate on many of her "banner issues" such as women rights. Thus, if Obama is able to pick a successor with strong voice for climate change (or instate this voice into him/her through leadership), there will be a stronger drive within the administration across multiple levels. It is now clear that US Senator John Kerry, a strong believer and proponent of climate issues, has been tapped to succeed Clinton. From here, the collaborative leadership effort between the Whitehouse and the State will play a vital role.
- Introduce "bite-sized" sectorial mitigation policies: Rather than trying to push through a comprehensive policy framework such as an Emissions Trading Scheme, the more sector-specific policy standards regulating, for example coal power plants and building efficiency, are likely to be more palatable and sellable in the Congress.
- Utilise external platforms: Many non-governmental platforms, organisations and entities are powerful and can mobilise resources and lobbying power very quickly. Just like working with stakeholder entities in the natural gas industries on fracking issues, the Obama administration can partner with relevant platforms in fields include but not limit to forestry and clean tech, to push for mitigation and adaptation policies.
All in all, I feel that if Obama's commitment to combat climate change is genuine and sincere, his administration would be very capable of gathering the support and resources needed to drive this vision forward. There is thus still hope that the US will shift its position in the multilateral climate talks, before it is too late to lose the future of our planet to the "destructive power of a warming planet".
Image credit: Deborah Zabarenko


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Good news, "Chuck" fans: Vik Sahay, aka Lester Patel, now will be part of the "Chuck" reunion panel at Zachary Levi's Nerd HQ Thursday outside San Diego Comic Con International.
But there's bad news, too: Tickets have sold out for the panel featuring Sahay, Levi, Adam Baldwin, Mark Christopher Lawrence, Mekenna Melvin and Yvonne Strahovski.
But there's still hope for Chucksters. As part of Warner Bros. special Extra at Comic Con festival, fans and special surprise guests (I'm going to guess some former "Chuck" cast members) will be doing a table read of a "Chuck" episode at 5 p.m. Thursday at the festival, which will be at Bayfront Park between the San Diego Convention Center and the Hilton San Diego Bayfront hotel.
And you never know. Maybe some former "Chuck" cast members will be hanging around Nerd HQ during its operating hours between 9 a.m.-2 a.m. Thursday through Sunday.
Check out the Nerd HQ events at the Nerd Machine website. Tickets for other panels still are available. All proceeds will benefit Operation Smile. While you're at Nerd HQ, check out the first playable demo of the new "Tomb Raider" video game. It's exclusive to Nerd HQ.
Check out the Extra festival at the WB's Comic Con site. It runs Thursday through Sunday as well.
To see what's up with Vik Sahay--he just wrapped a werewolf film called "WER" in Romania--visit his Facebook page.


text: TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) - A government official says Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan was kidnapped by gunmen from a hotel in Tripoli where he resides. The abduction early Thursday comes amid anger among Libya's powerful Islamic militant groups over the U.S. special forces raid on Saturday that seized a Libyan al-Qaida suspect, known as Abu Anas al-Libi. Several groups accused the government of colluding in or allowing the raid, though the government denied having any prior knowledge of the operation. Hours before the abduction, Zeidan met with al-Libi's family late Wednesday. The official says gunmen broke into the luxury hotel in downtown Tripoli where Zeidan lives and abducted him and two of his guards. The official spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.


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Actually legal research is starting to be outsourced. Anyone who can read english can do legal research.
TOTALLY agree with Reasoning number 2, not so with number one. Congressmen will pass laws that get them reelected, whether they were lawyers or not. Once you are in congress, your ass as a politician is on the line, not as a lawyer. Lawyers losing their jobs is not going to get much sympathy from constituents. But yea, I agree with your overall argument because of number 2.
But outsourcing has been going on for decades. The REASON it is such a hot topic right now is because white collar jobs ARE being outsourced. That scares people, and makes people wonder whether the legal field could also be subject to outsourcing. I also don't agree with people not wanting to be represented by a non-American. Where do you exactly draw the line there? I am a minority, would you not want to be represented by me, though I consider myself an American? How would I be different from some dude in another country that speaks perfect English and has a solid grasp of American laws? Personally, I would want somebody to represent me that can win my case. Pure and simple, I don't care if it's a talking ape.
I'd probably draw the line at the fact that you actually live here in the US. If something goes wrong, accountability at the very least seems more available with an attorney in the States than someone overseas. =P
I am way not smart enough to explain this, but I also think it has something to do with our system of laws and our legal system. Kind of hard to outsource legal jobs.


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Apple Retail Store Iowa Address, Phone Number, Timings- toll free helpline number, fax number, and all other information like comments and reviews are available here. As this post, we are here to provide you contact information of Apple Stores in Iowa.
Here, we are providing all important information like how to contact Apple Retail Store Iowa Department, how to get Apple Retail Store Iowa customer support, etc. We are here providing information something through this post and something through external links. You can find here Apple Retail Store Iowa Number, Apple Retail Store Iowa Address, Apple Retail Store Iowa Map Location, Apple Retail Store Iowa Operation Hours, Apple Retail Store Iowa Email, Apple Retail Store Iowa Services, etc.
How to contact Apple Retail Store Iowa Department
The store department team is avaialble to help you all time, you can get customer support through several ways including visit at office, phone number, as well as email. You can use any one option for your any type of query, complaint and feedback.
List of Apple Retail Stores in Iowa
There is 1 Apple store in Iowa. Apple deals in almost all Apple products and services which include Apple iPhone, iPad, iPod, Wathes, Mac, Laptop, Desktop, iTunes, TV, apple id, etc. Below, you can check all details of stores, through which you can contact with the store department for your need.
Contact Details of Apple Store in Jordan Creek West Des Moines Iowa:
Address: 101, Jordan Creek Parkway,
West Des Moines, Iowa 50266, United States
Phone Number: +1-(515)-440-9900
Timings: Mon – Sat:10:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m., Sun:11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
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Locate Apple Sales and Service Locations
Website: www.apple.com
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Style # 214989
With peplum flare, drawstring at the waist and military-chic color palette, this bebe jacket is sure to take your weekend style to the next level. Try yours over a flirty summer dress and a pair of sandals.
- 100% lyocell
- Center back to hem: 21" (53 cm)
- Metal snaps
- Dry clean
- Imported
- Model is 5'9" and is wearing a US size S
April Utility Jacket is rated out of 5 by 3.
Rated 5 out of 5 by Butterfly from Great Purchase! Bought this April Utility Jacket in a med... Fits true to size. Material wise very soft, you can wear it up or down...it goes well with a pair of jeans or a dress pants... Love it!!
Date published: 2013-06-01
Rated 5 out of 5 by michellecwchan from matches with everything! I love this 'military peplum' jacket. Wore this jacket to work on a friday, then changed into another outfit at night that also matched the jacket! wore it again during the weekend during the day and night (with a floral tulip skirt)...all in all, this jacket seriously matches everything! love it and given that its on the pricier side, i think i've already gotten my money's worth!
Date published: 2013-05-29
Rated 5 out of 5 by jody817 from I love the color, it fits like a glove. Great jacket. I love the color, it fits me perfectly. It can be used casual or dressed up. It has a nice feel to it. And the best I got it with a $50 off coupon. I have been shopping Bebe's for many years. They never let me down.
Date published: 2013-05-25


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I hope I can post this so it actually makes sense. I am having a problem with BlackIce on my development server. My dev server is running win2k pro, and is a little short on memory (256). Now it would appear that I have some weird kind of memory leak because about every 3 days or so I get an error message from BlackIce saying something like "Memory can't be read......". The box basically goes south on me and has to be rebooted.
I check with the vendors 'knowledge base', and they said there are some problems with BlackIce running on machines with limited memory and to resolve the problem, the following line should be inserted into the blackice.ini file on the box with the problem.
Insert: tcp.maxconnections=5000
Now, this is where the problem is, I go to edit the file (blackice.ini) and it fails, file is read-only. I go in and change the permissions, giving the admin account full control of the file (the whole directory for that mater) and try it again, it fails, file is read only. I get to a command prompt. check the Attrib values and make sure they are all removed. I make sure blackice isn't running by killing the service and try the edit again, it still fails, file is still read-only.
My question is, what the heck am I missing. How do I get this file out of it's 'read-only' mode.
All suggestions are greatly appreciated.


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An Introduction to Merit Badges
From MeritBadgeDotOrg
You can learn about sports, crafts, science, trades, business, and future careers as you earn these merit badges. There are more than 100 merit badges. Any Boy Scout may earn any merit badge at any time. You don't need to have had rank advancement to be eligible.
Pick a Subject. Talk to your Scoutmaster about your interests. Read the requirements of the merit badges you think might interest you. Pick one to earn. Your Scoutmaster will give you the name of a person from a list of merit badge counselors. These counselors have special knowledge in their merit badge subjects and are interested in helping you.
Scout Buddy System. You must have another person with you at each meeting with the merit badge counselor. This person can be another Scout, your parents or guardian, a brother or sister, a relative, or a friend.
Call the Counselor. Get a signed Merit Badge application from your Scoutmaster. Get in touch with the merit badge counselor and tell him or her that you want to earn the merit badge. The counselor may ask you to come and see him so he can explain what he expects and start helping you meet the requirements.
When you know what is expected, start to learn and do the things required. Ask your counselor to help you learn the things you need to know or do. You should read the merit badge pamphlet on the subject. Many troops and school or public libraries have them. (See the list of Current Merit Badge Pamphlet Revision Dates posted on this system.)
Show Your Stuff. When you are ready, call the counselor again to make an appointment to meet the requirements. When you go take along the things you have made to meet the requirements. If they are too big to move, take pictures or have an adult tell in writing what you have done. The counselor will ask you to do each requirement to make sure that you know your stuff and have done or can do the things required.
Get the Badge. When the counselor is satisfied that you have met each requirement, he or she will sign your application. Give the signed application to your Scoutmaster so that your merit badge emblem can be secured for you.
Requirements. You are expected to meet the requirements as they are stated -- no more and no less. You are expected to do exactly what is stated in the requirements. If it says "show or demonstrate," that is what you must do. Just telling about it isn't enough. The same thing holds true for such words as "make," "list," "in the field," and "collect," "identify," and "label."
The requirements posted on this system might not match those in your merit badge pamphlet because the pamphlet may not have been recently revised.
Source: 2007 Boy Scout Requirements (33215)


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Donovan off US roster for Scotland, Austria
CHICAGO (AP) — Landon Donovan has been left off the U.S. roster for exhibition games at Scotland and Austria because of a lingering ankle injury.
Donovan played poorly against Jamaica in a World Cup qualifier Oct. 11 and was dropped for the match at Panama four days later. While he returned to the field for the Los Angeles Galaxy on Oct. 20 and appeared in all three of the team's playoff games, he did not score any goals.
Goalkeeper Brad Guzan and defenders Edgar Castillo and Clarence Goodson also are hurt and were not included in the 23-man group announced Monday by the U.S. Soccer Federation.
Defender Eric Lichaj was selected for the first time since Jurgen Klinsmann became coach. Lichaj has not played for the U.S. since the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup final.
The Americans play Scotland on Friday at Glasgow and Austria on Nov. 19 at Vienna.
Potential conflicts for Seattle's Clint Dempsey, Brad Evans and Eddie Johnson and the Galaxy's Omar Gonzalez were eliminated when their teams were knocked out of Major League Soccer's playoffs last week
"The results in MLS wound up fitting in with our roster plans, so we didn't need to call in any guys who are still in the playoffs," Klinsmann said. "There are some injury issues that now give other players the chance to step up."
Midfielder Brek Shea was included despite making just two appearances for Stoke this season, both in the League Cup.
The roster:
Goalkeepers: Bill Hamid (D.C.), Tim Howard (Everton, England), Sean Johnson (Chicago)
Defenders: DaMarcus Beasley (Puebla, Mexico), John Brooks (Hertha Berlin, Germany), Geoff Cameron (Stoke, England), Brad Evans (Seattle), Omar Gonzalez (Los Angeles), Eric Lichaj (Nottingham Forest, England), Michael Orozco (Puebla, Mexico)
Midfielders: Alejandro Bedoya (Nantes, France), Michael Bradley (Roma, Italy), Mix Diskerud (Rosenborg, Norway), Fabian Johnson (Hoffenheim, Germany), Jermaine Jones (Schalke, Germany), Sacha Kljestan (Anderlecht, Belgium), Brek Shea (Stoke, England)
Forwards: Jozy Altidore (Sunderland, England), Terrence Boyd (Rapid Vienna, Austria), Clint Dempsey (Seattle), Aron Johannsson (AZ Alkmaar, Netherlands), Eddie Johnson (Seattle), Chris Wondolowski (San Jose)


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Russia denied game-winning goal, Oshie scores 4 in shootout
When they thought about this idea of NHLers playing in the Olympics, of what the Winter Games could look like with the best hockey players in the world in their country's colours (neon, Slovenia, really?), it looked something like this.
Sixty-five minutes of two high-speed trains colliding in front of a thunderous crowd — the Bolshoy Ice Dome actually rumbled at one point — and, finally, American T.J. Oshie rummaging near the bottom of a bag of sublime shootout moves to ruin the afternoon of Russian president Vladimir Putin.
And this is still just the preliminary round.
Oshie shot six times in the shootout and scored four times, the last giving the U.S., a 3-2 win over Russia with Putin on hand for the first big game of the Olympic hockey tournament.
"It was awesome. Whatever type of game you want to explain it as," said American forward Joe Pavelski, "it was that."
After the teams slugged their way through a 2-2 draw after regulation — Pavel Datsyuk had both Russian goals, the American power play had both of its and Russia had a would-be winning goal disallowed — the shootout that followed made this an epic afternoon.
The U.S. now has five points atop Group A while the Russians have four. (With a win over Finland on Sunday, Canada has the potential to finish with the best record in the preliminary round and get the most favourable seeding for the elimination round.)
"That may live in infamy, what happened there," said American forward David Backes said of the shootout.
Oshie's success in the shootout was one reason why he was put on the American team. He leads the NHL this season with a 70% success rate in the shootout (7-for-10). U.S. coach Dan Bylsma sent out Oshie (who scored on Russian goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky), James van Riemsdyk (stopped) and Pavelski (stopped). The Russians countered against American goaltender Jonathan Quick with Evgeni Malkin and Datsyuk — both stopped — and Ilya Kovalchuk, whose goal kept the shootout drama going.
Under IIHF rules, after three shooters, there are no restrictions on who can go to centre ice.
Bylsma is no dummy.
He knows the stats and he stuck with Oshie.
The Russians countered with the heavyweight tag team of Kovalchuk and Datsyuk.
It went eight rounds deep with both sides having three goals before Oshie ended it, again starting the way he did each attempt— slowly winding to his right and then cutting into the middle. He ripped a shot through Bobrovsky's legs and it was over.
"I was just trying to think of something else I could do, trying to keep him guessing," said Oshie. "I had to go back to the same move a couple of times and I was glad it ended when it did. I was running out of moves there."
Backes, Oshie's roommate with the St. Louis Blues, stood on the bench and thought: "Better him than me.
"(Shooter) No. 8, they might have started to look to somebody like me in a situation like that (in the NHL). And I'll tell you what: It wouldn't have been that pretty," he said.
"You get to see the full gamut of the guys' moves. Datsyuk, Kovalchuk, same thing. Kovalchuk rips the one high glove and then all of a sudden he does that little fadeaway flipper shot. I don't know how you do that, but I might practise that on Monday. It's just one of those things where it's fantastic to watch for the fans."
Oshie was cool throughout. Backes was asked if his friend has a slow heartbeat.
"No, he's got a fast heartbeat," he said. "Somebody asked me what kind of dog he would be if he was a dog. I said he's a Jack Russell terrier. He needs his attention directed or else he gets into a little mischief and he needs it guided.
"Today it was all functioned and funnelled in the right way. He does some amazing things when it is."
Might not many dogs have involuntarily relieved themselves in that situation?
"He's a well potty-trained Jack Russell terrier," said Backes.
Saturday's shootout will go down in Olympic lore, along with the winning shot in 1994 that saw Sweden's Peter Forsberg beat Canada's Corey Hirsch with an outstretched deke that made the Swede famous.
Hirsch, like the rest of the hockey world, was watching Saturday.
"Ummmm…..," he tweeted, "Can we stop talking about Peter Forsberg goal now?"
Maybe for a little while.


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Your current filters are…
by David Eaves
by Idan Gazit
The open-source world is and always has been focused on code; attention and respect doled out in exchange for patches. As a result, many open-source projects want for design love but don't know how to secure it. We scare off potential contributors from the many fields beneath the aegis of "design": user experience, user interfaces, usability, interaction design, information architects, graphic design, typography, and other roles assumed by the authors of our markup and styling.
Django can be a model citizen among open-source projects in changing these attitudes and coaxing contributors out of the woodwork—not just for the benefit of the framework, but for the constellation of 3rd party apps which make Django great. Other FOSS communities have made efforts that we can learn from, and the fight to change perceptions is less uphill than you might think.
This talk will cover:
• Misconceptions of "Design." What is design, and what do designers do?
• A brief trip down memory lane, and how Django came to be relatively designer-friendly.
• "I don't get it: what is the BDesignFL role?"
• Process and tools: How can Django better engage designers, for core's benefit and for the benefit of your projects. How can we help these contributors get over the "suck" threshold?
• What parts of core are ripe for love from designers? What 3rd party projects?
United States United States, Portland
5th–8th September 2011


text: WASHINGTON - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack joined South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds in signing an agreement that will improve water quality, reduce soil erosion, aid flood control and enhance wildlife habitat in the state's James River Watershed. "The USDA is proud to collaborate with the South Dakota to protect and conserve our natural resources while improving the quality of life in our communities," said Vilsack. The goal of South Dakota's Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) is to enroll up to 100,000 acres of eligible agricultural land located in the James River Watershed. The establishment of the South Dakota CREP will help restore prairie pothole wetland hydrology and surrounding upland buffers along drainages leading into the James River. The project will improve water quality, provide wildlife habitat and enhance recreational access on agricultural lands located in this watershed. Eligible producers interested in enrolling acreage in the South Dakota CREP must offer a minimum of 40 contiguous or nearly contiguous acres, as determined by the Farm Service Agency (FSA), which may consist of a combination of land offered for enrollment into CREP and adjacent non-CREP acres in order to meet the 40-acre minimum block-size requirement. The 40-acre minimum requirement may be waived for beginning, limited resource or socially disadvantaged farmers or ranchers. The acres offered for CREP must meet the specific conservation practice requirements of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to be eligible under CREP. An additional requirement of the James River Watershed CREP is that producers enrolling eligible acres in CREP must also enroll the applicable acres in the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Walk-In Area Program for hunting and fishing access. Producers enrolling acreage under CREP will be eligible to receive the current weighted-average rental rate for the three predominant soils on the eligible acreage. Some conservation practices will qualify for additional incentives such as a 20 percent rental rate increase, Practice Incentive Payment (PIP), and a Signing Incentive Payment (SIP) of $100 per acre. The acreage enrolled in CREP will also be eligible to receive an annual payment from the state of South Dakota equal to 40 percent of the weighted-average rental rate for acres enrolled under CREP. The total cost of the South Dakota CREP over the life of the project is estimated at $161.4 million for a total enrollment of 100,000 acres. Sign up for this voluntary program is expected to begin Nov. 23, 2009. Farmers and ranchers will be able to apply for this program at local county FSA offices. FSA will administer the South Dakota CREP project on behalf of the Commodity Credit Corporation, working with the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service, South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department and other state CREP partner agencies.


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The Planetarium features scenic and astronomical photography by a variety of professional and amateur artists,
including the amazing
work of the world famous
RL is the current producer of "Keystone Astronomers at Large," a television production
dedicated to the non-serious side of astronomy.
Another Keystone Astronomer featured in
this gallery is RL's sidekick astronomer,
B.P. Snowder
Some of RL's images can be seen on the set of the television production "Babylon 5." For more
about that, and to see other great prints from RL's portfolio, be sure to visit the
Babylon 5 Collection.


text:
AcE feat. Jaden & Willow Smith: 'Find You Somewhere' Video! (Exclusive)
Check out the brand new video from AcE (aka Trey Smith) featuring his siblings Jaden and Willow for their song "Find You Somewhere," provided exclusively to JustJared.com!
The video was directed by their mom Jada Pinkett Smith. We love seeing the family collaborate together!
PHOTOS: Check out the latest pics of Willow Smith
Make sure to follow everyone on Twitter! @treysmith0011 @OfficialWillow @officialjaden @jadapsmith @justjared
WHAT DO YOU THINK of the "Find You Somewhere" video from AcE, Willow, and Jaden Smith?
AcE feat. Jaden & Willow Smith: 'Find You Somewhere' Video! (Exclusive)


text:
Gingered Banana Bread
|Eggs, Nuts, Dairy, Fruits
|Day Part
|Breakfast, Lunch, Snack, Dinner, Dessert
|Menu Part
|Side Dish
|Cuisine Type
Banana proves to be a very perfumed ingredient that gives baked goods a delicately attractive and sweet taste. Enhancing everyday banana bread with ginger creates something delightful, without shocking the palate. Serve with tea or coffee.
3⁄4 cup light brown sugar
1⁄3 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
1⁄3 cup sour cream
1 1⁄2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground ginger
1⁄2 tsp. salt
3⁄4 cup chopped pecans
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 9 x 5-in. loaf pan.
- Beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix inbananas and sour cream.
- In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda, ginger, and salt; add to banana mixture and stir until just combined. Stir in 1⁄2 cup pecans.
Spoon batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle remaining nuts on top. Bake 60-70 min., or until skewer inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely. Slice to serve.


text:
Expect a mash pit, not a mosh pit, at this weekend's Music Hack Day in London. Over 200 people will come together from the UK and across Europe for what the organizers call "the best industry to hack on, with the cleanest APIs and the most enjoyable content."
The event will mix independent developers with cutting edge music services working together. Companies attending the event include Last.fm (our Last.fm API profile) and BBC Music (our BBC Music API profile), among others.
Several of the companies attending plan to launch or expand API offerings at Music Hack Day. Songkick founder Ian Hogarth says he is "excited to see how our rich dataset on gigs and live music can be used in new and innovative ways." Songkick will be previewing their new API this weekend (our new Songkick API profile).
Web services based around music often face legal difficulties due to licensing restrictions. Legal digital music APIs help bridge the gulf between innovation and copyright issues. Music mashups have long been in the top ten types of mashups on Programmable Web. We list 58 music APIs and hundreds of music mashups and applications.
There is no central event blog, but you can follow Music Hack Day on Twitter for updates. They have planned final presentations for Sunday, so expect some complete applications to come from this weekend of hacking.


text:
MasterChamber wrote:
Sad.. but true probably predictions.. But Remorsefully entertaining.
Combine the two names and you get the answer: Harrymort
Pathos Street wrote:Voldemort and Snape are the two main characters that will die.
Orleron wrote:I think it's a fun idea if you can idiot-proof it. Problem is God always builds a better idiot.
DanishPastry wrote:I predict another HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY ending.
(which sadly doesn't mean the death of H. Potter)
Gurky's BOOM theory wrote:Oh.... ! I must Stress this.
'tis ... not a Boom.
*Looks to everyone seriously.*
'tis a BOOM.
Nay, 'tis a BOOM !
Perhaps even a BOOM! !
Moonyju wrote:If Harry doesn't die.. then one of the main characters will. I remember reading somewhere something about that, looooong ago. Rowling has made it clear that the series would have a determined number of books (the last chapter of this last book having been written, more or less, years ago) and that that would be it. No intention of continuing the series...
... nothing says she can't start a parallel series though. From what I've read anyway. *shrugs*
DanishPastry wrote: Wtf, "Damar Ogdem's Corpse"! That can only mean... HE HAS ASCENDED TO GODHOOD!!11
MasterChamber wrote:prediction.. Vald and Potter. Dead.. story over.. no book 8... FINISHED!
Now to go to watching E and see how the child actors of H potter crashed and burned and resorted to drugs and sex to try and cope with life and how Herminy will be a porn star. How Harry hit a fat lady at his security guard job, and how Malfoy is directing pictures now that no one wants to see, unless they don't tell any one he had a hand in it, till it's over. Oh and like all RED HEAD child actors, (Danny Bonaduce for example) Ron Weisly has temper flairs, does a reality show where he unloads his frustration with both barrels and ends up in rehab... Just like most of the other child stars before them..
Sad.. but true probably predictions.. But Remorsefully entertaining.
Registered users: Akai, Bing [Bot]


text:
INGRAM email@example.com_current.manitoulin_expositor 2004-01-14 published
Eleanor Gene HANNAH
In loving memory of Eleanor Gene HANNAH who passed away peacefully at home with her children at her side on January 10, 2004.
Born February 27, 1923, daughter of Hazel ORR and Herb EADE.
Loving wife of Joseph (predeceased September 9, 1999).
Loved by her children Garry (Verna) of Little Current, Lynda (Tim O'HALLORAN) of Espanola, Ron (Nicole) of Whitefish Falls, Keith (Evelyn) of Espanola, Sandra (Joe KALINOWSKI) of Elliot Lake, Marlene (Ray LABELLE) of Fort McMurray, Carol of Little Current, Joe (Peggy) of Espanola. Predeceased by infant daughter Donna (1945). Loving Nana of many grandchildren and great grandchildren. Predeceased by grandchildren Bev INGRAM and Andrew HANNAH and great grandchildren JOCELYN and Summer KALINOWSKI. Loving sister of Lois MORPHET (Ed predeceased,) Richard EADE (Lorene), Harry EADE (Helene), Shirley MASSICOTTE (predeceased.) Survived by sister-in-law Victoria SELLARS of Toronto. Predeceased by in-laws, Jack SELLARS, Rita and Lloyd JOHNSTON, Paddy and Irene HANNAH, Eleanor and Evan WHITE/WHYTE, Andy HANNAH, Clifford and Audrey HANNAH, Glenn and Babe HANNAH. Eleanor enjoyed gardening, quilting and outings with the Channel View Drop In Centre. Her
greatest joy was her family and she took pride in all of their accomplishments. She was greatly loved by her family and will be sadly missed but lives on in the hearts of all. Visitation was held on Monday, January 12, 2004. Funeral service was held on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 all at Island Funeral Home. Burial in Mountainview Cemetery.
I... Names IN... Names ING... Names Welcome Home
INGRAM - All Categories in OGSPI


text:
By Kornel Pracki
Robert Lewandowski's agent has dismissed reports that Manchester United are in pole position to sign the Borussia Dortmund ace.
Stories emerging on Wednesday claimed that one of the Poland international's representatives had declared that the only interest in Lewandowski from Old Trafford.
|Coral offer 5/2 for a German club to win the Champions League
"Bayern Munich? I know something but no further details. In June we'll see, but [a move to] Juventus is just a rumour. Nobody at the Italian club has talked to me."
However, Maik Barthel, another of the Pole's entourage, rubbished the reports.
He told Goal.com: "No, those are not our words. We never had contact with that paper."
Lewandowski has scored 21 goals in 31 games this season for die Schwarzgelben but they sit 15 points behind Bayern as they look to retain their Bundesliga title.
Follow Kornel Pracki on


text:
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