text:
On Jukebox Republic this week, Shirley Lin brings you on a whirlwind of some of the most relaxing songs you can find in Taiwan.
Tune into Classic Shorts to hear the story of how the Zhou dynasty began.
Classic idiom of the week- 愛屋及烏 (ài wū jí wū) or "love house and crows". It refers to a love for someone so strong that you love many things associated with that person.(more)
Kevin Kobe Lee, a video director/writer based in Taiwan, talks about what he and his partner want people to get out of the animation shorts that they produce at their ESL Studios, on In the Spotlight.(more)
During the 1920's, Taiwan's intellectuals came together. Their goal: to bring new ideas, knowledge, and values into Taiwan and diffuse them into Taiwan's society. Together, they led what's become known as the Taiwan New Cultural Movement, employing art, education, and entertainment in an effort to bring Taiwan into a new era. Though the Pacific War brought the movement to an end, the new culture of the 1920's and those who strove to spread it are still remembered in today's Taiwan. After years of preparation, a new museum devoted to the movement- the Taiwan New Cultural Movement Memorial Hall- opened this month in the same part of Taipei where it all started. Over the next two weeks, museum head Hsu Mei-hui will be walking us through the story of the movement. She'll tell us about its founders, its ideals, and its methods, and about the new exhibits meant to introduce the movement to new generations.(more)
Hints of Autumn have come to Taiwan, and as the weather slowly starts to cool over the coming months, people's minds will gradually turn to a reliable Taiwanese way of keeping warm. Taiwan's tectonically active place in the world near the meeting of plates gives the island an abundance of hot springs. Some are milky white, some rusty red, and some come straight out of the sea, but all offer a nice soothing way to get out of the cold, and- some suggest- even health benefits. Though the custom of bathing in them only became widespread a bit over a century ago, Taiwan's springs are today a tourist asset, a source of comfort in chilly weather, and, some research suggests, a source of healing too. My guest today, Chang Jung-nan, is a man who wears many hats. He is director of the Hot Spring Tourism Association, Taiwan, and, among other things, the author of books on Taiwan's hot springs, too. He joins us today to give us an overview of Taiwan's hot springs and Taiwan's hot spring culture.(more)
The former deputy chair of the Transitional Justice Commission, Chang Tien-chin, stepped down in mid-September following an incident that prompted fears for public confidence in the government's efforts to promote transitional justice. Chang's partisan attacks on the opposition Kuomintang candidate for New Taipei mayor were, in the words of the Presidential Office, "impropriate and damaged the commission's impartiality and fairness."(more)
Tune into Taiwan Today as Natalie Tso speaks to Lonely Planet writer Joshua Samuel Brown and his girlfriend Stephanie Huffman about their adventures in Taiwan and their new book Formosa Moon.
"Fitting in in Chinese" is a special series on Chinese to Go, which is jointly produced by the Chinese Language Center of Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages and Radio Taiwan International.
Episode 73
Vocabulary and short sentences
1 純
(Zhè shì bǎifēnzhībǎi de chún guǒzhī ma?)
Is this one hundred percent pure fruit juice?
2 辦公
do office work
(Lǎoshī de bàngōngshì zài nǎlǐ?)
Where is the teacher's office?
3 綜合式
mixed style
(Wǒmen diǎn yíge zònghé shì de shālā ba!)
Let's order a combination salad.
4 猜
to guess
(Nǐ cāi cāi kàn wǒ jǐ suì?)
Can you guess my age?
5 住家
family residence
(Zhè shì zònghéle bàngōngshì gēn zhùjiā de dàlóu.)
This is a mixed style building, combining offices and residences.
6 聰明
smart, clever, intelligent
(Cōngmíng fǎn bèi cōngmíng wù.)
Smart is as smart does.
7 工作室
(Wǒ xiǎng bǎ zhè jiān gōngyù gǎi chéng gōngzuò shì.)
I'm thinking of converting this apartment into a studio.
8 複雜
complicated, complex
(Bié xiǎng de tài fùzále!)
Don't think too much!
9 的確
certain, sure
(Nà díquè shì yíge hěn cōngmíng de zuòfǎ.)
That surely is a smart way of doing it!
10 鄰居
(Wǒmen qù gēn línjū dǎ yì shēng zhāohū ba!)
Let's go say "hello" to our neighbor.
老師: 你真聰明! 樓上是住家,樓下是工作室,一舉兩得。
(Lǎoshī: Nǐ zhēn cōngmíng! Lóu shàng shì zhùjiā, lóu xià shì gōngzuò shì, yìjǔliǎngdé.)
Teacher: You are really smart! Upstairs is the residence, and downstairs is the studio –two in one!
歐福: 德美,你很幸運找到這個透天的房子。找很久嗎?
(Ōufú: Déměi, nǐ hěn xìngyùn zhǎodào zhège tòu tiān de fángzi. Zhǎo hěnjiǔ ma?
Oufu: Demei, you were very fortunate to find this kind of multi-storey house . Did you have to look a long time?)
德美: 我的確找了很久,這比我原先租的辦公大樓方便多了。
Déměi: Wǒ díquè zhǎole hěnjiǔ, zhè bǐ wǒ yuánxiān zū de bàngōng dàlóu fāngbiàn duōle.
(Demei: I certainly DID! This place is a lot more convenient than the office building I was originally renting a place in!)
歐福: 我現在租的是綜合式的大樓,比較複雜。
(Ōufú: Wǒ xiànzài zū de shì zònghé shì de dàlóu, bǐjiào fùzá.)
Oufu: Right now I'm renting at a "mixed style"building, so it's a little … "complicated".
老師: 純辦公大樓比較貴,不過我猜德美這個透天的租金也不便宜。
(Lǎoshī: Chún bàngōng dàlóu bǐjiào guì, búguò wǒ cāi Déměi zhège tòu tiān de zūjīn yě bù piányí.)
Teacher: An office building that's purely for business is relatively expensive, but I'd bet that Demei's rent for her "toutian"isn't cheap, either!
德美: 老師猜錯了。這是一位老鄰居的舊房子,他算我很便宜。
(Déměi: Lǎoshī cāi cuòle. Zhè shì yí wèi lǎo línjū de jiù fángzi, tā suàn wǒ hěn piányí.)
Demei: Teacher, you've guessed wrong! It's an old house owned by an old neighbor, so he's renting it for a very low price.
老師: 哈! 那這真的是天時、地利、人和。你運氣很好哦!
(Lǎoshī: Hā! Nà zhè zhēn de shì tiān shí, dìlì, rén hé. Nǐ yùnqì hěn hǎo ó!)
Teacher: Ha ha! This really is an example of being the right person in the right place are the right time! Your luck is really good!(more)
Tune into Eye on China as Natalie Tso speaks with NTU International Relations Professor Yen Chen Shen about what the recent provisional agreement between the Vatican and Beijing means for the Catholic church in China.(more)
The album is to mark the 30th anniversary of the Wistaria Tea House recorded in 2011. The Wistaria Tea House, acording to the Wikipedia, is a historical teahouse near National Taiwan University in Taipei. The establishment is situated in a Japanese-style wooden house built in the 1920s.(more)
John Van Trieste and Shirley Lin excitedly share about some of the more raucous festivals being observed in Taiwan, on Status Update.(more)
Shirley Lin plays songs of gratitude for the opportunities in hosting, on Jukebox Republic.(more)
Tune into Classic Shorts to learn about the famous patriot in Chinese history, Yue Fei.(more)
Kevin Kobe Lee, a video director/writer, started off studying industrial engineering but realized that wasn't what he wanted. Find out on In the Spotlight what major he switched to in university.(more)
The island of Kinmen lies close off the coast of Mainland China. It is one of the island outposts that remained under the control of the Republic of China after the Chinese Civil War, when communist advance pushed the government across the sea onto Taiwan. But while Kinmen remained outside communist control, its position as a bulwark so close to communist areas made it a flashpoint, a place where the Cold War got hot more than once. From August 23, 1958 into October that same year, Kinmen came under an intense period of fire from communist positions. This period of conflict is known in Taiwan today as the 823 Artillery Bombardment, and this year, Taiwan is marking 60 years since it erupted. To coincide with this anniversary, the Armed Forces Museum here in Taipei is putting on a special exhibit on the bombardment, set to run into early December. Here with us this week to introduce this exhibit is museum director Colonel Lin Chien-ju. With military precision, she'll be giving us facts and figures about the fighting, and also explaining why this conflict was so important for Taiwan's history.(more)
The name of the mountain Lalashan comes from a word in the local Atayal language meaning "beautiful", and you only have to visit once to see how well the name fits. It's a place in the interior of Taoyuan in northern Taiwan, where fruit orchards and stands of ancient trees both grow, and dramatic sunsets and thick mountain mists are both regular parts of life. The air is clear and temperatures cool. Since 1986, the Lalashan Nature Reserve has protected all this beauty, leaving local trees and animals alone to thrive. On the line this week to tell us about the reserve is Yeh Tson-Fu, head of Taoyuan's Scenic Area Service Agency.(more)
The world's leading women's badminton player, Tai Tzu-ying of Taiwan, has added another title to her stellar career. Tai won the Chinese Taipei Open that ended on October 7th, recapturing the home title she won two years ago. The victory has made her the first Women's Singles player to join the millionaires' club; her prize earnings now amount to over US$1 million.
The Chinese Taipei Open is her seventh ranking championship win of the year. In late August, she took the gold medal at the Asian Games, Taiwan's first in badminton. She also won at various tournaments in Indonesia, Great Britain, Malaysia and China.(more)
What does Taiwan's government want to say to China? Find out as you tune into Taiwan Today as Natalie Tso speaks with one of Taiwan's top officials in charge of relations with China, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Chen Ming-chi.
Chen speaks about the recent agreement between the Vatican and Beijing, China's increasing pressure towards Taiwan and the government's policy towards China.
Tune into Eye on China as Natalie Tso speaks with Hong Kong University Asst Professor of Journalism Masato Kajimoto about how to discern fake news.(more)
"Fitting in in Chinese" is a special series on Chinese to Go, which is jointly produced by the Chinese Language Center of Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages and Radio Taiwan International.
Episode 72
Chinese characters
德美: 我們老師常說「學而時習之」,聽習慣了,就常把習題拿出來複習。
(Déměi: Wǒmen lǎoshī cháng shuō "xué ér shí xí zhī", tīng xíguànle, jiù cháng bǎ xítí ná chūlái fùxí.)
Demei: Our teacher often says, "After learning, one must practice."After learning that saying, I frequently review the study guides.
歐福: 那個意思是像小鳥學飛,學會了以後要常常練習。
(Ōufú: Nàge yìsi shì xiàng xiǎoniǎo xué fēi, xuéhuìle yǐhòu yào chángcháng liànxí.)
Oufu: The concept resembles a young bird's learning to fly: after learning HOW, it's practice, practice, practice!
得中: 我對漢字有興趣的原因就在這裡。這個「習」字有趣極了!
(Dézhōng: Wǒ duì hànzì yǒu xìngqù de yuányīn jiù zài zhèlǐ. Zhège "xí" zì yǒuqù jíle!)
Dezhong: That is exactly the reason I'm interested in Chinese characters! The character "xi" is extremely interesting.
德美: 對!上面是小小鳥的羽毛,下面的「白」是天一亮,就要出來練習飛。
(Déměi: Duì! Shàngmiàn shì xiǎo xiǎoniǎo de yǔmáo, xiàmiàn de "bái" shì tiān yí liàng, jiù yào chūlái liànxí fēi.)
Demei: That's right! The top half represents the feathers of a little bird, and the bottom half, "bai", has the meaning of, "With the first rays of the sun, go out to practice flying."
得中: 有趣的漢字故事是講不完的,好好「學而時習之」吧!
(Dézhōng: Yǒuqù de hànzì gùshì shì jiǎng bù wán de, hǎohǎo "xué ér shí xí zhī" ba!)
Dezhong: There is no end to the number of interesting stories behind Chinese characters, so be diligent about "Xue er shi xi zhi!"
[Xí] xuéxí, fùxí, xítí, xíguàn:
1.1 活到老學到老,是最好的學習態度。
(Huó dào lǎo xué dào lǎo, shì zuì hǎo de xuéxí tàidù.)
"One is never too old to learn." is the best attitude to have about studying.
(Kè qián yùxí, kè hòu fùxí, shì zuì hǎo de xuéxí fāngfǎ.)
Previewing before the lesson, and reviewing after the lesson are the best methods of studying.
(Zuò wánle xítí, nǐ bāng wǒ kàn kàn, hǎobù hǎo?)
After I finish the exercise, could you look it over for me?
(Wǒ yǒu chī wán fàn chī tiándiǎn de xíguàn.)
I am in the habit of eating a dessert after my meals.
[Jià] jiǎngjià, yuánjià, jiàqián, jiàgé:
2.1 「講價」就是請賣方算便宜一點。
("Jiǎngjià" jiùshì qǐng màifāng suàn piányí yìdiǎn.)
"Haggling" is when you ask the seller to give you a lower price.
2.2 我們講的價錢是原價的一半。
(Wǒmen jiǎng de jiàqián shì yuánjià de yíbàn.)
The price we are discussing is half the original cost.
2.3 這個價錢太不合理了,一定要殺價。
(Zhège jiàqián tài bù hélǐle, yídìng yào shājià.)
The cost is too unreasonably high, so we have to talk the price down.
2.4 這是公訂的價格,我沒辦法算你便宜。
(Zhè shì gōng dìng de jiàgé, wǒ méi bànfǎ suàn nǐ piányí.)
This is the standard set price, and there is no way I can sell it to you more cheaply.
3. 【趣】有趣、興趣、趣事、趣味:
[Qù] yǒuqù, xìngqù, qùshì, qùwèi:
3.1 我在酒館看到一個很有趣的事情。
(Wǒ zài jiǔguǎn kàn dào yíge hěn yǒuqù de shìqíng.)
I saw something interesting in a bar.
3.2 看書是我的嗜好,寫作是我的興趣。
(Kànshū shì wǒ de shìhào, xiězuò shì wǒ de xìngqù.)
Reading is my hobby, and I am interested in writing.
3.3 旅行的時候,發生了很多趣事。
(Lǚxíng de shíhòu, fāshēngle hěnduō qùshì.)
Many amusing, interesting things happen while one is traveling.
3.4 這兩張畫有不同的趣味。
(Zhè liǎng zhāng huà yǒu bùtóng de qùwèi.)
These two pictures are interesting in different ways.(more)
A Root is a fusion ensemble that brings together instruments such as sheng, liuqin, piano, double bass and world percussions. A Root is composed of professional musicians from Yilan, northeastern Taiwan.
Peter Gibbon is a poet from Canada, currently based in Taipei. On today's Book of Odes, he talks about the benefits of being an editor as well as a writer, and reads three poems from his most recent chapbook.(more)
John Van Trieste and Shirley Lin introduce three rituals/celebrations that are more pertained to minority groups in Taiwan, on Status Update.
Photo uploaded to Wikipedia by user Bellenion. Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taivoan_people#/media/File:大武壠族夜祭立向竹儀式.jpg(more)
Jukebox Republic this week introduces two new artists Bae Lin of Taiwan and Mao Buyi from China.(more)
Tune into Classic Shorts to hear the stories of the beautiful women behind a famous idiom about how their beauty made the moon and flowers shy.
Classic idiom of the week - 閉月羞花 (bì yuè xiū huā) or "close moon shy flowers" describes someone so beautiful that she makes the moon and flowers shy away. (more)
If you've flown in or out of Taiwan's main international gateway, Taoyuan International Airport, over the last two months, you might have noticed a collection of maps on display in Terminal Two. Ranging over centuries from the early modern period to our own time, these maps include a common element- Taiwan. This is "The Imagined Island, Images of Taiwan, Taiwan Mambo", a curiously titled exhibit recently put on in the airport by the National Museum of Taiwan History. Just before the exhibit closed at the end of September, I managed to get in touch with the museum's Hsiao Hsuan-chu, who prepared the text that accompanied the maps. He joins us today to discuss the imagination that went into mapping Taiwan in the past, to introduce some of the maps featured in the exhibit, and to explain the dancelike way Taiwan has moved on maps over time.(more)
Tune in to In the Spotlight to hear Ben Schwall of Systems Technology Group talk about the reasons why he thinks it's best for his family to be in Taiwan while he works in China most of the time.(more)
Millenia after his lifetime, Confucius remains a figure of reverence in ethnic Chinese communities around the world. Here in Taiwan, Confucian temples recently marked the anniversary of the great teacher's birth with the customary ceremonies and with ritual dance and music not seen at other times of year. The pomp and circumstance is impressive to see, but even to someone raised here, the actual meaning of it all can be a bit opaque. To help clear things up, I've enlisted the help of Cheng Mei-li, of the Zuoying Confucius Temple in the southern city of Kaohsiung. Last week, she filled us in on who Confucius was, reduced his teachings down to the simplest terms, and walked us through the story of Confucianism in Taiwan. This week she's back to give us a general view of the intricate rites held in Confucius' honor- including recent changes that bring these rites more in line with contemporary values. First though, she gives us a tour of the Zuoying Confucius Temple.(more)
It's been more than nine months since Kuan Chung-ming, a leading economist, was elected president of National Taiwan University (NTU). The news came as a surprise to the former National Development Council (NDC) minister that the election committee chose him over seven other distinguished academics. That's because Kuan is not an NTU alumnus, nor did he seek the much coveted job.
An independent who is generally considered as having friendly ties with opposition Kuomintang (KMT) heavyweights, Kuan announced immediately that he would withdraw from all political activities. The mild-mannered scholar was originally planning to take up his post in February. But little did he know that the glory was short-lived and has been quickly turned into a nightmare.(more)
Should Taiwanese in China apply for the new resident card China is offering them? What benefits and risks may that entail?
Tune into Taiwan Today as Natalie Tso speaks with a top official in charge of China affairs, the Deputy Minister of the Mainland Affairs Council, Chen Ming-chi.
"Fitting in in Chinese" is a special series on Chinese to Go, which is jointly produced by the Chinese Language Center of Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages and Radio Taiwan International.
Episode 71
歐福: 我小的時候,想做老師。
(Ōufú: Wǒ xiǎo de shíhòu, xiǎng zuò lǎoshī.)
Oufu: When I was little, I wanted to be a teacher.
德美: 為什麼呢? 我覺得做老師比坐辦公室裡的職員辛苦多了!
(Déměi: Wèishéme ne? Wǒ juéde zuò lǎoshī bǐ zuò bàngōngshì lǐ de zhíyuán xīnkǔ duōle!)
Demei: Why? I think being a teacher is a lot harder than being an office worker!
老師: 話是沒錯,可是「教」是一種快樂的分享。
(Lǎoshī: Huà shì méicuò, kěshì "jiāo" shì yìzhǒng kuàilè de fēnxiǎng.)
Teacher: What you've said is true, but teaching is a pleasure.
歐福: 而且,教的同時,可以學到很多。
(Ōufú: Érqiě, jiāo de tóngshí, kěyǐ xué dào hěnduō.)
Oufu: Furthermore, while teaching, you can learn so much at the same time.
老師: 一方面教別人你會的,一方面學習新的知識、看法,那是幸福,不是辛苦!
(Lǎoshī: Yì fāngmiàn jiāo biérén nǐ huì de, yì fāngmiàn xuéxí xīn de zhīshì, kànfǎ, nà shì xìngfú, búshì xīnkǔ!)
Teacher: On one hand, teaching others reinforces what you already know, while on the other hand, you acquire new knowledge and new ways of seeing the world. That's a blessing, NOT a hardship!
德美: 我覺得能做你喜歡的工作不但幸福,而且也很幸運!
(Dé měi: Wǒ juéde néng zuò nǐ xǐhuān de gōngzuò búdàn xìngfú, érqiě yě hěn xìngyùn!)
Demei: I think being able to do the work you enjoy is not only a blessing. It is, furthermore, great good luck!
1. …,而且…
…and also…
(Nǐ māma shì lǎoshī ma?)
Is your mother a teacher?
(Wǒ māma shì lǎoshī, érqiě háishì yí wèi hǎo lǎoshī.)
My mother is not only a teacher, but furthermore is a good teacher!
(2) 我的女朋友不但很漂亮而且聰明。
(Wǒ de nǚ péngyǒu búdàn hěn piàoliang érqiě cōngmíng.)
My girlfriend is not only pretty, but also smart.
2. 話是沒錯,可是…。
Huà shì méicuò, kěshì….
What you say is true, but…
(Wǒ juéde zài chāojí shìchǎng mǎi cài bǐjiào hǎo.)
I think shopping in the supermarket is better.
(Huà shì méicuò, kěshì wǒ háishì xíguàn zài chuántǒng shìchǎng mǎi.)
I'm still more used to shopping at the traditional market.
(Wǒ juédé jīntiān de kǎoshì tài nánle.)
I think today's test was too hard.
(Huà shì méicuò, kěshì tài jiǎndān yě méiyìsi)
If it's too easy, it isn't interesting.
3. …比…多了
…compared to…better than / more than…
(Chāojí shìchǎng bǐ chuántǒng shìchǎng gānjìng duōle)
Supermarkets are cleaner than traditional markets.
(Tā xiě de zì bǐ wǒ xiě de zì hǎoduōle.)
He writes characters much better than I do.
(…, yì fāngmiàn…, yì fāngmiàn….)
…on one hand…and / but on the other hand…
(Qù chuántǒng shìchǎng mǎi cài, yì fāngmiàn kěyǐ jiǎngjià, yì fāngmiàn kěyǐ xué zhōngwén.)
Shopping in traditional markets is better because / you can bargain / you can learn Chinese.
(Xiàtiān qù bǎihuò gōngsī, yì fāngmiàn kěyǐ chuī lěngqì, yì fāngmiàn kěyǐ guàng guàng.)
Shopping in department stores in the summer is better because, on one hand, you can enjoy the air conditioning, and on the other, you can window shop.
Taiwanese diplomat Su Chii-cherng recently committed suicide after facing much criticism over how the Taipei office in Osaka did not send tour buses to pick up Taiwanese travelers at Kansai International Airport which closed due to a typhoon. China had claimed to send 15 tour buses to pick up its citizens.
Hong Kong University Assistant Professor of Journalism Masato Kajimoto explains how this news was a distortion as all the buses at the airport had been provided by Japan. Find out more about the story on this edition of Eye on China.(more)
This week's Jade Bells and Bamboo Pipes features spiritual music much different from Buddhist chanting music. The album itself is called "Mantra of Hope: on Beikajei Beikajei Mohobeikajei Lazasamu Gadesoha(more)
Pete Gibbon is a poet from Canada, currently based in Taipei. On today's Book of Odes, Pete discusses coming to Taiwan and his attitude to line breaks.(more)
Tune in to Status Update to hear John Van Trieste and Shirley Lin chat about the special characteristics of certain Taiwanese rituals and celebrations on Taiwan Top Ten.
Shirley Lin talks about what good friendship means to her, through songs on Jukebox Republic.(more)
In August this year, President made an official visit to Paraguay and Belize and made brief stopovers in Los Angeles and Houston.
During the stopovers, President Tsai made an unprecedented visit to NASA facility in Houston, drawing criticism from China. But on August 21, Taiwan lost another ally, El Salvador. Taiwan condemned China's efforts in luring away Taiwan's diplomatic allies by using checkbook diplomacy since El Salvador is the fifth Taiwan's diplomatic ally to switch recognition to China since 2016 after Burkina Faso, the Dominican Republic, Sao Tome and Principe and Panama.
Washington also expressed concerns over the number of countries that switch recognition to China from Taiwan. On Sep. 7, the US recalled its top diplomats in the Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Panama over those countries' decision to recognize China.(more)
Ben Schwall is from the New York state and has been in Taiwan for 27 years. Tune in to In the Spotlight this week to hear about his fascinating life story and why he's here in Taiwan.(more)
Since 1914, when the first recording of Taiwanese music was made, Taiwan's recording artists have navigated decades of changing trends and politics. In this three-part series, we've been exploring the history of Taiwan's recorded music with expert Huang Yu-yuan, a researcher at the National Museum of Taiwan History. We've heard the story of recorded music's early decades here. We've followed the arrival of foreign musical styles, met some of the early recording artists, and even heard a few of the early songs people still remember. So far, our look back at musical history has seen us in the early 20th century, a period when Taiwan was ruled as a Japanese colony. This week, we arrive in 1945, the year both WWII and Japanese rule ended. At war's end, the Republic of China took control of Taiwan, and Taiwan's musical history entered a new phase.(more)
For millennia, Confucius has been a figure of veneration in ethnic Chinese societies around the world. In Taiwan, a tradition of reverence for the great teacher goes back several centuries, and over time, many temples to Confucius have been built here. In these temples, one of the biggest annual events takes place on September 28, when Taiwan marks Teachers' Day, a holiday meant to commemorate Confucius' Birthday. This is a time of year when lavish ceremonies are held to honor Confucius. But what's all this pomp about? Who was Confucius, and what do the solemnities around him actually involve? Here to tell us over the next two weeks is Cheng Mei-li of the Zuoying Confucius Temple in Kaohsiung, one of the places where visitors can come to see the rituals in action. Today, we start off the series with some history.(more)
Tune into Taiwan Today as Natalie Tso speaks with Mae O'Malley, the founder and Managing Attorney of Paragon Legal, an award-winning legal services firm providing corporate counsel on demand. Paragon Legal is one of the largest and highly acclaimed women and minority-owned legal services firms in the United States.
Mae resides in Taiwan with her husband and three boys and also shares why she chose to base her family in Taiwan while her firm is headquarted in San Francisco.(more)
This month, China has given people from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau who have lived in China for 6 months the option of having a residency card. Taiwan's government has warned Taiwanese of the risks of applying for this residency permit.
Tune into Eye on China to hear learn more about these cards and how China is trying to lure Taiwanese talent.(more)
This edition of Jade Bells and Bamboo Pipes features a selection of Guangdong Music produced in 1989 and released by Hugo Recording in Hong Kong in 1990.
John Van Trieste and Shirley Lin announce the most scenic stop ever on the Taipei metro system, on Status Update.(more)
Tune into Classic Shorts to hear the famous story of a man, his boat and his sword.
Classic idiom - 刻船求劍 (kè chuán qiú jiàn) or "mark boat seek sword" refers to the man in the story. It describes someone with rigid, limited and unwise thinking.(more)
David Chen of the Muddy Basin Ramblers was in the studio to talk about his band, their latest album and the Migration Music Festival, on Jukebox Republic.(more)
Mayumi Hu is an artist, hotelier and an advocate of social services especially in animal welfare. This week, she talks about the things that she loves about Taiwan and how she's helping with the strays, on In the Spotlight.(more)
Since 1914, when Taiwanese performers sat down to record their first gramophone records, Taiwan has grown a robust music industry. Through years of changing fashions, Taiwan's artists have kept creating work for the people of their time- and ours- to enjoy. People here have no trouble remembering the big songs and the big singers of the past. But when it comes to the lives of the stars, the ways music was recorded, and the places where people once listened to music, memories can get a little fuzzy. For questions about these forgotten parts of Taiwan's musical past, you need an expert. Luckily, we've found one in Huang Yu-yuan, a researcher specializing in recorded music at the National Museum of Taiwan History. In this three-part series, Mr. Huang is taking us back into Taiwan's musical archives, sharing the best-loved songs, and unwrapping the stories behind the music.(more)
Yushan National Park rises up in the middle of Taiwan's high central mountains. From its lowest point at around 300m above sea level, the park soars up to some of Taiwan's highest peaks. At the top of it all, at 3952m, is Taiwan's highest summit and the park's namesake, Yushan, or Jade Mountain. It's a place of varied climates with varied plants and animals. In last week's program, with the park's Lin Wen-he as our guide, we took at look at some of the local wildlife and natural history. This week, Mr. Lin is here to guide us again as we explore the area's indigenous culture, look back at the park's history, and see how strict conservation policies have boosted animal populations.(more)
Morris Chang, the retired founder of chipmaker TSMC, received the First Order of Propitious Clouds from President Tsai Ing-wen last Friday, making him the first businessperson to receive the honor.
The award recognizes his contribution to Taiwan's hi-tech industry. Chang founded TSMC, or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, in 1987. The company has since grown to the largest independent semiconductor foundry in the world. Chang, aged 87, retired in June after 31 years at the helm.
Under his leadership, TSMC's wafer manufacturing services changed the structure of the supply chain of the world's semiconductor industry. They also promoted the integrated circuit (IT) industry. Without TSMC, Chang once said, smartphones wouldn't have hit the market as soon as they did.(more)


text:
Sophomore and Junior Visits
Wednesday, March 28, 2018 10:30 a.m. - 03:30 p.m.
Bridgewater College will be holding group admissions sessions for sophomore and juniors from March 26-30 and April 2-6 at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Visit Bridgewater and learn about academics, student life, athletics, financial aid and admissions followed by a student-led tour of campus. The visit lasts approximately 2 hours.
Find out more on the Visit Bridgewater page.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
*Image is a representation of this item. Actual item may vary.
Material: 100% Stainless Steel
Tubing O.D. Size: 4in./5in.
System Type: Turbo-Back
TIP O.D. Size:
TIP Quantity:
Single/Dual: Single
Exit Position: Rear Side Exit
Features and Benefits:
MagnaFlow's PRO Performance diesel systems are our entry-level performance diesel system featuring a 100% stainless steel muffler and mandrel-bent stainless steel tubing. Optional diesel tips are sold separately.
MagnaFlow PRO Performance Diesel Exhaust comes with a Lifetime Warranty, Dyno Tested And Proven To Make Power, Performance Gains In Horsepower And Torque, Great Sound -Has A Smooth; Deep Tone, Easy To Install, Mandrel-Bent. All Welded. Built To Last.
V8 6.0L DIESEL, F250/350 Superduty, Crew Cab Short/Long Bed, Extended Cab Long Bed, Including Dually
5 in. Turbo-Back, SINGLE SYSTEM


text:
Animal Sculptures - Cockerel
These unique individual designs are traditionally hand crafted. The hardiness of their construction enables outdoor display whatever the conditions.
Colour options .. There are two colour options to choose from Aged Cotswold Stone and Moss. The weathered appearance of Aged Cotswold Stone and the patina of Moss highlights details from a distance, while the individual nature of each finish gives every piece its own unique character. Both finishes are available across the whole range.
Eastern Influence . Hands and Heads . Contemporary & Modern . Mythical . Candlesticks and Shells . Finials & Staddlestones . Obelisks . Plinths . Troughs, Urns & Vases . Stone Seating . Water Features . Plaques . Stone Animals . Sundials . Traditional Statuary . Gothic Creatures . Chess Pieces and Sets . Ridge Creatures . Marble Arte . Art of Stone
- Height 37cm (15in)
- Weight 10kg
- Delivered throughout mainland England and Wales
Stone garden ornaments are normally delivered within 28 days. For deliveries outside mainland England and Wales telephone +44 116 267 7091
- All stonework is for Kerbside delivery.
Browse the complete Lucas Stone range.
|Order form
Lucas Stone
Product Code: C5108
our price
small order note


text:
|2012-12-24, 05:05
|Link #1
lost in wonder forever...
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: edge of my dream in the land of twilight...ZzzZzZ
T568A-B Ethernet Cable general question
My house is wired with Cat-5e t568A ethernet cables to each room, however most of the ethernet cables I use on my router, modem, computers and switches are the T568B kind and so are the cables that are used to plugged into the outlets on center main network panel in the master bedroom. Everything works, but I was wondering if this will have some how affect my internet speed, stable, latency etc.
|2012-12-24, 06:14
|Link #3
blinded by blood
twisted pair is twisted pair is twisted pair.
Twisted pair is two solid-core copper wires twisted around each other. There are four sets of these in each standard ethernet cable.
Don't ever spend loads of cash on an ethernet cable with fancy names (just like you should never buy expensive Monster Cable crap either).
|2012-12-27, 19:24
|Link #4
temporary safeguard
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Germany
If you have 1GBit, or 10GBit network interfaces, they will sometimes reject old/very long cables (not even cat5e I guess), or badly installed wallplugs and switch to a lower speed.
But this will certainly not affect you internet speed, which should be magnitudes lower anyway. Unless you have a a direct fibre connection and your ISP is awesome, in which case I'm jaelous.
|2012-12-28, 09:19
|Link #5
Excessively jovial fellow
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: ISDB-T
Age: 32
T568A vs T568B isn't even a matter of cabling differences. Literally the only thing that differs between the two is the pair order on the connector, and since every consumer networking device bought in the last ten years has auto-MDIX it affects absolutely nothing whatsoever.
Last edited by TheFluff; 2012-12-28 at 12:23.
|2012-12-28, 16:02
|Link #7
temporary safeguard
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Germany
It matters for cross-over cables, if your hardware can not detect it.
I only saw those in use with old cisco routers we used as training machines in school.
There, you had to use one kind of cable to connect PC/clients with switches and another type to connect switches with each other.
I am not even sure which type the 'common' ethernet cable is nowadays.
|2012-12-28, 19:49
|Link #8
Excessively jovial fellow
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: ISDB-T
Age: 32
I remember having to keep track which ethernet cables were "straight" and which were "cross-over" at LAN parties in the 90's and early 2000's, but that was the last time it made any difference.
I believe "straight" is the only commonly sold version these days.
|2012-12-29, 16:46
|Link #9
lost in wonder forever...
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: edge of my dream in the land of twilight...ZzzZzZ
Cisco states that T568B is mainly used in commercial buildings while T568A is used mainly in residential buildings, but as to why they do this they did not explain or I haven't find an answer yet.
Hmm, maybe I'll just re crimp my ethernet cables so that they're T568A for the sake organization...
|2012-12-29, 17:06
|Link #10
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: In your bloodstream
Age: 68
Now that hub and switch manufacturers have moved the uplink/downlink logic into the devices themselves, crossover cables are fairly obsolete. If you have two computers you want to connect together for an ad-hoc network, or in certain older patch panel arrangments, they're still a valuable commodity.
|Thread Tools


text:
Summer is the perfect time to explore the limitless wonders of the outdoors. Investigate insects, cultivate a miniature garden, and even test the power of the sun with these exciting summer toys – ideal for teaching children important science concepts.
Butterfly Garden Set
4 years & up
Watch 5 caterpillars develop into beautiful butterflies in this intriguing observation station. Comes with a mesh pop-up habitat, feeding kit, care instructions, butterfly facts, and a coupon for butterfly culture.
Solar Science Kit
8 years & up
Purify water or cook an egg using foiled cardboard and the power of the sun. Construction supplies and complete instructions included.
Critter Cabin
This wooden, screened-in critter house allows children to observe bugs and butterflies. Sliding door on one end for easy access. Cabin has a handy carry strap.
Sprout and Grow Window
Transparent window allow students to watch as seeds germinate and grow into plants. Includes planter, soil, pea and bean seeds, and step by step guide.
Mining Excavation Kit
Dig and excavate pyrite, quartz and crystals with this exclusive 3 pack. Enough digging to keep your explorer busy for hours! Includes the gold, crystal, and quartz mining kits. Each kit includes tools, display cases, and much more!
Grades K – 3
The first and only ant habitat to be tested in zero gravity. It provides a total ecosystem for ants and uses a non-toxic blue gel which makes it easy to watch the ants digging their network of tunnels. Includes container, ant catcher, magnifier and activity guide.
Laser Pegs® Dune Buggy
7 years & up
This kit comes with enough pieces for kids to build many abstract models as well as a cool dune buggy. Requires 3 AA batteries. (Not included).
Live Frog Habitat
Learn about frogs as they live in their own pond. Watch them grow and become the classroom pet. Booklet about the care of frogs is enclosed. Includes mail-in coupon for one or two live tadpoles.
Creature Peeper
4 years & up
Keep your creature for a short time, then let it go. This bug viewer allows children to see the bug two ways, from the top or from the side. It is watertight, so children can view tadpoles or small fish. The peeper is escape proof and won't break or tip over. Great for show and tell. Comes with a beetle replica.


text:
After installation of a web agent, management of Policy Agent 2.2 for Microsoft IIS 5.0 is mostly performed by editing the web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file.
The following section provides details of how to perform various tasks by interacting with the web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file.
The web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file is a text file of configuration properties that you can modify to change web agent behavior. However, the content of this file is very sensitive. Changes made can result in changes in how the agent works. Errors made can cause the agent to malfunction.
This section describes the most important details of the configuration file, such as how specific properties can be modified to produce specific results. The topics described are typically those of greatest interest in real-world deployment scenarios. For a list and description of every property in the configuration file, access the configuration file itself located as described in Table 6–1. Also a list of the properties is available in this guide, at Appendix C, Web Agent AMAgent.properties Configuration File.
This section describes the following:
Locating the Web Agent AMAgent.properties Configuration File
The following table provides the default location for the web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file.Table 6–1 Location of the Web Agent AMAgent.properties Configuration File
Microsoft Internet Information Services 5.0 (Microsoft IIS 5.0)
Changing the web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file can have serious and far-reaching effects. When you make changes, keep the following in mind:
Make a backup copy of this file before you make changes.
Trailing spaces are significant; use them judiciously.
Use a forward slash (/) to separate directories, not a backslash (\). Perhaps unexpected, but this applies to Windows systems.
Spaces in the Windows file names are not allowed.
If you make changes to the web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file, restart the Microsoft IIS 5.0 server to make your changes take effect.
The web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file includes information for a variety of configurations, including the following:
fully qualified domain name (FQDN) map
Access Manager services
service and agent deployment descriptors
session failover
The configuration file also contains configuration information on advanced features, such as forwarding LDAP user attributes through HTTP headers and POST data preservation.
When you install a web agent, you can specify a failover or backup deployment container, such as a web server, for running Access Manager. This is essentially a high availability option. It ensures that if the deployment container that runs Access Manager service becomes unavailable, the web agent still processes access requests through a secondary, or failover, deployment container running Access Manager service.
Setting up failover protection for the web agent, requires modifying the web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file. However, you must first install two different instances of Access Manager on two separate deployment containers.
Then follow the instructions in this guide to about installing the web agent. The web agent installation program prompts you for the host name and port number of the failover deployment container that you have configured to work with Access Manager. The following property in the web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file, stores the failover deployment container name:
Set this property in order to store failover server information. Given the values in the following list, the property would be set as shown in Example 6–1.
Name of the primary Access Manager host.
Name of the first failoverAccess Manager host.
Name of the second failoverAccess Manager host.
Name of the domain.
Default port number
com.sun.am.policy.am.login.url = http://host1.example.com:58080/ amserver/UI/Login http://host2.example.com:58080/amserver/UI/Login http://host3.example.com:58080/amserver/UI/Login
A failover server name is configurable after it has been set during installation. When configuring this property, note that a space is required between each Access Manager login URL.
Each web agent maintains a cache that stores the policies for every user's session. The cache can be updated by a cache polling mechanism and a cache notification mechanism.
A web agent maintains a cache of all active sessions involving content that the agent protects. Once an entry is added to an agent's cache, it remains valid for a period of time after which the entry is considered expired and later purged.
The property com.sun.am.policy.am.polling.interval in the web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file determines the number of minutes an entry will remain in the web agent cache. Once the interval specified by this property has elapsed, the entry is dropped from the cache. By default, the expiration time is set to three minutes.
In this mode, cache entry expiration still applies. In addition, the web agent gets notified by the Access Manager service about session changes. Session changes include events such as session logout or a session timeout. When notified of a session or a policy change, the web agent updates the corresponding entry in the cache. Apart from session updates, web agents can also receive policy change updates. Policy changes include events such as updating, deleting, and creating policies.
Web agents have the hybrid cache update mode switched on by default. This is triggered by the property com.sun.am.notification.enable in the web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file, which is set to true. When the property is set to false, the web agent updates its cache through the cache polling mechanism only.
Restrictions due to firewalls, as well as the type of deployment container in use, might not allow notifications to work. In such cases, notification is turned off.
The web agent sets a timeout period on its cache entries. After its end of life, the cache entry is purged from the web agent's cache. The web agent does not refetch the cache data. The next attempt to access the same entry from cache fails and the web agent makes a round trip to the server and fetches it again to populate the cache. This lazy method of cache updating keeps the web agent cache performing optimally and reduces network traffic.
In a normal deployment situation, policy changes on the server are frequent, which requires sites to accept a certain amount of latency for web agents to reflect policy changes. Each site decides the amount of latency time that is acceptable for the site's specific needs. When setting the com.sun.am.policy.am.polling.interval property, set it to the lower of the two:
The session idle timeout period
Your site's accepted latency time for policy changes
The not-enforced URL list defines the resources that should not have any policies (neither allow nor deny) associated with them.
By default, the web agent denies access to all resources on the deployment container that it protects. However, various resources (such as a web site or an application) available through a deployment container might not need to have any policy enforced. Common examples of such resources include the HTML pages and .gif images found in the home pages of web sites and the cascading style sheets (CSS) that apply to these home pages. The user should be able to browse such pages without authenticating. For the home page example, all these resources need to be on the not-enforced URL list or the page will not be displayed properly. The property com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.notenforced_list is used for this purpose. Wild cards can be used to define a pattern of URLs. Space is the separator between the URLs mentioned in the list.
There can be a reverse, or "inverted", scenario when all the resources on the deployment container, except a list of URLs, are open to any user. In that case, the property com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.notenforced_list.invert would be used to reverse the meaning of com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.notenforced_list. If it is set to true (by default it is set to false), then the not-enforced URL list would become the enforced list.
The following are examples:
Scenario 1: Not-Enforced URL List
com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.notenforced_list.invert = false
com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.notenforced_list = http://host1.example.com:80/welcome.html http://host1.example.com:80/banner.html
In this case, authentication and policies will not be enforced on the two URLs listed in the notenforcedList. All other resources will be protected by the web agent.
Scenario 2: Inverted Not-Enforced URL List
com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.notenforced_list.invert = true
com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.notenforced_list = http://host1.example.com:80/welcome.html http://host1.example.com:80/banner.html
In this case, authentication and policies will be enforced by the web agent on the two URLs mentioned in the notenforcedList. All other resources will be accessible to any user.
If feasible, keep this property set to false as such:
com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.notenforced_list.invert = false
A value of false reduces the chance of unintentionally allowing access to resources.
The com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.notenforced_client_ip_list property is used to specify a list of IP addresses. No authentication is required for the requests coming from these client IP addresses.
In other words, the web agent will not enforce policies for the requests originating from the IP addresses in the Not-Enforced IP Address list.
The property com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.do_sso_only is used to specify if only authentication is enforced for URLs protected by the web agent. If this property is set to true (by default it is set to false), it indicates that the web agent enforces authentication only, without enforcing policies. After a user logs onto Access Manager successfully, the web agent will not check for policies related to the user and the accessed URLs.
Web agents in Policy Agent 2.2 can personalize page content for users in three distinct ways as described in the following subsections:
Providing Personalization With Policy-Based Response Attributes
Providing Personalization With User Profile Attributes Globally
Web agents in Policy Agent 2.2 support a feature where a user's session attributes are fetched and set as headers or cookies. The following property responsible for this task:
This property can be set to one of the following values:
When set to NONE, no session attributes are fetched and the com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.session.attribute.map property is ignored. With this property set to either HTTP_HEADER or HTTP_COOKIE, the web agent fetches session attributes. Use the following property to configure attributes that are to be forwarded as HTTP headers or cookies: com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.session.attribute.map.
The following content is from the web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file. The text has been reformatted for this section. This section illustrates how the com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.session.attribute.map property maps session attributes to headers or cookies.
Session attributes are added to an HTTP header following this format:
The value of the attribute being fetched in session is session_attribute_name. This value gets mapped to a header value as follows: http_header_name.
In most cases, in a destination application where http_header_name appears as a request header, it is prefixed with HTTP_ and the following type of conversion takes place:
convert to upper case letters.
converts to underscore "_"
as an example, converts to "HTTP_COMMON_NAME."
com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.session.attribute.map = successURL | success-url, contextId | context-id
The session attribute is forwarded as a header or a cookie as determined by the end-user applications on the web container that the web agent is protecting. These applications can be considered the consumers of the forwarded header values. The forwarded information is used for the customization and personalization of web pages. You can also write server side plug-ins to put any user session attribute and define the corresponding attribute name and mapping in the preceding property to retrieve the value.
Header attributes can also be determined by Access Manager policy configurations. With policy-based response attributes you can define attribute-value pairs at each policy.
Web agents in this release set policy-based response attributes as headers or cookies based on configuration. All subjects that match this attribute set obtain this attribute.
The following is a new property that has been added to the web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file to control this functionality:
This property can be set to one of the following values:
The following example shows this configuration property with the default setting, which is HTTP_HEADER:
com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.response.attribute.fetch.mode = HTTP_HEADER
Attribute mapping is available for response attributes. Therefore, the format of policy information can be mapped to the format of a header or a cookie. The below property is used for this type of mapping:
Unlike profile attributes and session attributes, where only the mapped attributes are displayed as headers or cookies, by default, response attributes are set by the agent as headers or cookies based on the setting of this property:
If a response attribute map is specified, then the corresponding attribute mapped name is fetched from the map and its corresponding value is displayed as either a header or a cookie based on the setting of the above property.
Web agents in Policy Agent 2.2 have the ability to forward user profile attribute values via HTTP headers to end-web applications. The user profile attribute values come from the server side of Access Manager. The web agent behaves like a broker to obtain and relay user attribute values to the destination servlets, CGI scripts, or ASP pages. These applications can in turn use the attribute values to personalize page content.
This feature is configurable through two properties in the web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file. To turn this feature on and off, use the following property from the web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file:
This property can be set to one of the following values:
When set to NONE, the web agent does not fetch LDAP attributes from the server and ignores the com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.profile.attribute.map property. In the other two cases, the web agent fetches the attribute.
To configure the attributes that are to be forwarded in the HTTP headers, use the following property:
Below is an example section from the web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file, which shows how this feature is used:
# # The policy attributes to be added to the HTTP header. The # specification is of the format # ldap_attribute_name|http_header_name[,...]. ldap_attribute_name # is the attribute in data store to be fetched and # http_header_name is the name of the header to which the value # needs to be assigned. # # NOTE: In most cases, in a destination application where a # "http_header_name" shows up as a request header, it will be # prefixed by HTTP_, and all lower case letters will become upper # case, and any - will become _; For example, "common-name" would # become "HTTP_COMMON_NAME" # com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.profile.attribute.map = cn|common-name,ou| organizational-unit, o|organization,mail|email,employeenumber|employee-number,c|country
By default, some LDAP user attribute names and HTTP header names are set to sample values.
To find the appropriate LDAP user attribute names, check the following XML file on the machine where Access Manager is installed:
The attributes in this file could be either Access Manager user attributes or Access Manager dynamic attributes. For an explanation of these two types of user attributes, see Sun Java System Access Manager 7 2005Q4 Administration Guide.
The attribute and HTTP header names that need to be forwarded must be determined by the end-user applications on the deployment container that the web agent is protecting. Basically, these applications are the consumers of the forwarded header values (the forwarded information is used for the customization and personalization of web pages).
To ensure appropriate user experience, it is necessary that the users access resources protected by the web agent using valid URLs. The configuration property com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.fqdn.default provides the necessary information needed by the web agent to identify if the user is using a valid URL to access the protected resource. If the web agent determines that the incoming request does not have a valid hostname in the URL, it redirects the user to the corresponding URL with a valid hostname. The difference between the redirect URL and the URL originally used by the user is only the hostname, which is changed by the web agent to a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) as per the value specified in this property.
This is a required configuration property without which the deployment container may not start up correctly. This property is set during the web agent installation and must not be modified unless absolutely necessary to accommodate deployment requirements. An invalid value for this property can result in the deployment container becoming unusable or the resources becoming inaccessible.
The property com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.fqdn.map provides another way by which the web agent can resolve partial or malformed access URLs and take corrective action. The web agent gives precedence to the entries defined in this property over the value defined in the com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.fqdn.default property. If none of the entries in this property matches the hostname specified in the user request, the agent uses the value specified for com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.fqdn.default property.
The com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.fqdn.map property can be used for creating a mapping for more than one hostname. This may be the case when the deployment container protected by this agent is accessible by more than one hostname. However, this feature must be used with caution as it can lead to the deployment container resources becoming inaccessible.
This property can also be used to override the behavior of the web agent in cases where necessary. The format for specifying the property com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.fqdn.map is:
com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.fqdn.map = [invalid_hostname|valid_hostname][,...]
invalid_hostname is a possible invalid hostname such as partial hostname or an IP address that the user may provide .
valid_hostname is the corresponding valid hostname that is fully qualified. For example, the following is a possible value specified for hostname xyz.domain1.com:
com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.fqdn.map = xyz|xyz.domain1.com, xyz.domain1|xyz.domain1.com
This value maps xyz and xyz.domain1 to the FQDN xyz.domain1.com.
This property can also be used in such a way that the web agent uses the name specified in this map instead of the deployment container's actual name.
If you want your server to be addressed as xyz.hostname.com whereas the actual name of the server is abc.hostname.com. The browser only knows xyz.hostname.com and you have specified policies using xyz.hostname.com in the Access Manager Console. In this file, set the mapping as com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.fqdn.map = valid|xyz.hostname.com.
The cookie reset feature enables the web agent to reset some cookies in the browser session while redirecting to Access Manager for authentication.
This feature is configurable through two properties in the web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file.
Enable Cookie Reset
com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.cookie.reset.enable = true
This property must be set to true if this web agent needs to reset cookies in the response while redirecting to Access Manager for authentication. By default, this is set to false.
Cookie List
This property gives the comma-separated list of cookies that need to be reset in the response while redirecting to Access Manager for authentication. This property is used only if the Cookie Reset feature is enabled.
Cookie details must be specified in the following format:
For example,
com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.cookie.reset.list = LtpaToken, cookie1=value1, cookie2=value2;Domain=example.com
The cross domain single sign-on (CDSSO) feature is configurable through three properties in the web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file. To turn this feature on or off, use the following property:
com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.cdsso.enable = true
By default, this property is set to false, and the feature is turned off. To turn on CDSSO, set this property to true.
Set the URL where CDC controller is installed by specifying the URL in the following property:
The following is an example of how this property could be set:
com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.cdcservlet.url = http://host1.eng.example.com:58080/amserver/cdcservlet
The third property, com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.cookie.domain.list allows you to specify a list of domains in which cookies have to be set in a CDSSO scenario. This property is used only if CDSSO is enabled. If you leave this property blank, then the fully qualified cookie domain for the web agent server will be used for setting the cookie domain. In such a case, it is a host cookie and not a domain cookie.
For more information on CDSSO, see Sun Java System Access Manager 7 2005Q4 Technical Overview
The property com.sun.am.policy.am.userid.param allows you to configure the user ID parameter passed by the session or user profile information from Access Manager. The user ID value is used by the agent to set the value of the REMOTE_USER server variable. By default, this parameter is set to UserToken and is fetched from session attributes.
It can be set to any other session attribute. Another property determines where to retrieve the value, from user profiles or from session properties.
Example 1: This example demonstrates how to set the user ID parameter with session attributes:
com.sun.am.policy.am.userid.param.type=SESSION (this is default)
com.sun.am.policy.am.userid.param=UserToken (UserId, Principal, or any other session attribute)
Example 2: This example demonstrates how to set the user ID parameter with LDAP user profile attributes:
com.sun.am.policy.am.userid.param=cn (any profile attribute)
For resources on the not-enforced list, the default configuration does not allow the REMOTE_USER variable to be set. To enable the REMOTE_USER variable to be set for not-enforced URLs, you must set the following property in the web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file to TRUE (by default the value is FALSE):
com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.anonymous_user.enable = TRUE
When you set the value of this property to TRUE, the value of REMOTE_USER will be set to the value contained in the following property in the web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file:
By default, the value of this property is set to anonymous as follows:
com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.anonymous_user = anonymous
This feature can be used to enhance security by preventing the stealing or hijacking of SSO tokens.
The web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file contains a property titled com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.client_ip_validation.enable, which by default, is set to false.
If you set this property value to true, client IP address validation will be enabled for each incoming request that contains an SSO token. If the IP address from which the request was generated does not match the IP address issued for the SSO token, the request will be denied. This is essentially the same as enforcing a deny policy.
This feature should not be used, however, if the client browser uses a web proxy or if there is a load balancer somewhere between the client browser and the agent-protected deployment container. In such cases, the IP address appearing in the request will not reflect the real IP address on which the client browser runs.
This section describes how to reset the shared secret. The web agent stores the shared secret in the web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file.
If you are only interested in resetting the shared secret, not the agent profile name, continue reading this section. If you are interested in creating or updating the agent profile in Access Manager Console and then updating the same credential information in the web agent, see Chapter 4, The Relationship Between the Agent Profile and Web Agents in Policy Agent 2.2. The steps described in that chapter are comprehensive, integrating the simpler steps described in this section.
The chapter mentioned in the preceding paragraph also provides a useful explanation of the process and terminology related to the credentials used by web agents to authenticate with Access Manager. Refer to that chapter for more information.
This section specifically describes how to change the shared secret in web agents. The following situations might require you to reset the shared secret:
You entered the shared secret incorrectly during web agent installation.
You have been using the default shared secret, which is the amldapuser password, but this password has since been changed.
The value for the property com.sun.am.policy.am.password in the web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file is set with the encrypted shared secret during web agent installation. Therefore, if the shared secret is entered incorrectly during installation, the preceding property is assigned an incorrect value, preventing the web agent from authenticating with Access Manager.
To reset or change the shared secret, use the encryption utility to encrypt the shared secret and then set the value in the property as explained in the following task description.
Go to the following directory:
Execute the following script from the command line
cryptit shared-secret
where shared-secret represents the password, that along with the agent user name, allows the web agent to authenticate with Access Manager. The default value of the shared secret is the password of the Access Manager internal LDAP authentication user. This user is commonly referred to as amldapuser.
Copy the output obtained after issuing the cryptit shared-secret command and paste it as the value for the following property:
Restart the deployment container and try accessing any resource protected by the agent.
If the agent gets redirected to Access Manager, this indicates the above steps were executed properly.
Various properties in the web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file can be used to enable load balancing. Edit the properties that apply, according to the location of the load balancer or load balancers in your deployment, as follows:
Load Balancers in Front of Both the Web Agent and Access Manager
When a load balancer is deployed in front of Access Manager and a web agent interacts with the load balancer, the following properties must be edited:
com.sun.am.naming.url com.sun.am.policy.am.login.url com.sun.am.load_balancer.enable
This example illustrates property settings in the web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file that can be used to enable load balancing:
com.sun.am.naming.url = LB-url/amserver/namingservice com.sun.am.policy.am.login.url = LB-url/amserver/UI/Login com.sun.am.load_balancer.enable = true
where LB-url represents the load balancer URL. The following example is a conceivable load balancer URL:
In many cases, when a load balancer is deployed in front of the web agent only the following property must be set:
com.sun.am.policy.agents.fqdnMap = valid|LB-hostname
where LB-hostname represents the name of the machine on which the load balancer is located.
However, if SSL-termination or a proxy server is used in the deployment, all the following properties in the web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file should be set in addition to the preceding property:
com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.override_protocol com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.override_host com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.override_port com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.agenturi.prefix
This example illustrates how properties can be set to enable load balancing when the protocol, hostname, and port number of the load balancer differ from that of the web agent. However, if the load balancer and the web agent share one of these characteristics, such as the protocol or hostname, then the respective property would be left blank instead of being assigned a value of true.
com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.override_protocol = true com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.override_host = true com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.override_port = true com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.agenturi.prefix = LB-url/amagent
where LB-url represents the load balancer URL. The following example is a conceivable load balancer URL:
This scenario is simply a combination of the scenarios described in the preceding sections. See Load Balancer in Front of Access Manager and Load Balancer in Front of Web Agent.


text:
3 Comments
Girl, 4, Filmed Driving A Car Down A Busy Road! Watch Her In Action!
The tot used stilts to operate the pedals and even managed to overtake other cars during her daredevil joyride, which took place in Jinan, China.
The incredible video, posted on YouTube, was filmed by the girl's mother, while her dad sat in the back of the car, barking instructions at his daughter! Should the parents be prosecuted?
Calling her Jia Zheng, the dad tells his daughter to, "Concentrate! Be careful when passing other vehicles," before calling time on her adventure, ordering her to "stop the car. Let daddy drive."
She's definitely a skilled driver and is better behind the wheel than many adults — but this little girl should never been allowed to drive a car, let alone on a busy road. She's just four!
And why was she not wearing a seatbelt?
Watch the video and tell us what you think, HollyMoms? Is it hilarious — or horrifying?
- Thugs Smash Brick In 4-Year-Old's Face, Leaving Her Unconscious! How Horrible!
- Mom Discovers Her Twin Boys Have Different Dads — On The 'Maury' Show!
- The Heartbreak Of Jack Ives — The Tallest Five-Year-Old In (Possibly) The World!


text:
Despite IBM's claim that Lotus Live is a true contender, in the eyes of most companies who are considering cloud-based applications Google Apps and Office 365 are the only games in town. Given Microsoft's difficulties in achieving its SLA, it's worth looking at the SLA record of its major competitor. And some interesting facts come into focus if you look at the information presented in the Google Enterprise blog.
First, in 2011 Google decided that they would exclude planned maintenance from the calculation of downtime. Scheduled maintenance has always been the get-out clause for services providers but now Google says that all downtime counts when they calculate SLA. Google further claims that they are the first major cloud provider to eliminate maintenance windows from their SLA. By comparison, the latest version of the Service Level Agreement for Microsoft Online Services (dated June 1, 2011 and available here) says that "Downtime means the total minutes in a month during which the aspects of a service specified … are unavailable, multiplied by the number of affected users, excluding (1) Scheduled Downtime…"
It seems that Google has created a competitive advantage in how it measures its SLA. However,counting scheduled downtime or not in the measurement of an SLA really doesn't matter if real outages occur. In this respect, Google goes on to state that Gmail achieved an SLA of 99.984% in 2010 for both consumer and business users. In human terms this means that Gmail was unavailable for approximately seven minutes per month. I doubt that real-life people noticed the seven minutes as some of this time will have accumulated through glitches that occur for a few seconds at a time (the Internet, as we all know, is prone to glitches) and some of the time will probably have happened when users were asleep.
In fact, outages really only become bothersome when they last longer than the length of time it takes an average user to go and get a cup of coffee, or whatever is your beverage of choice. The logic here is that users will recognize that a problem is happening and put it down to their PC, local network, local IT, or something else and then go and get a drink. If the problem persists after they return refreshed and ready to work then they get annoyed. On the other hand, if service has been resumed then they are happy. The two outages suffered by Office 365 in August and September 2011 resulted in a total of circa 330 minutes downtime (if you were one of the users affected by both outages) demonstrates the unwanted attention and stress that flow from extended outages that fail my "is it time for a coffee" test. For those not close to a calculator, 330 minutes is equivalent to roughly 47 months of outage at the 99.984% level.
Microsoft hopes that Office 365 will deliver better reliability than BPOS and that it won't have to refund users with the kind of 25% credits for monthly subscriptions that it's been forced to pay for the two incidents to date. Even though it's been off to a bad start, I think that Office 365 will prove to be much more reliable over the long term. And if it does, then Google won't be able to point out salient points such as:
Comparable data for Microsoft BPOS® is unavailable, though their service notifications show 113 incidents in 2010: 74 unplanned outages, and 33 days with planned downtime.
I have not been through the BPOS data to validate Google's claim but I imagine that they wouldn't make such an assertion without covering themselves with chapter and verse.
In terms of 2011 performance, in a September 27 article about their new status dashboard for Google Apps, Google state that they achieved an SLA of 99.99% for Gmail in the first six months of the year, or about five minutes downtime per month. I assume that this is measured against their new SLA calculation including scheduled downtime so this is really a terrific performance.
Gmail isn't perfect and it has its ups and downs too. The disappearing inbox syndrome suffered by some 20,000 users on 28 February 2011 (a software update was later blamed) is an example of where Google has run into choppy waters. However, you can't argue that Google has set the pace for SLA delivery for cloud email and application suite services and that Office 365 has work to do to get close to Google's record.
Cloud email still only occupies a small but growing portion of the overall market. Customer faith and trust that cloud-based solutions really work will increase over time as performance demonstrates the worth and reliably of the solutions allied to some of the attractive financial aspects that salespeople invariably focus upon. Office 365 has started poorly and Microsoft now has to focus on achieving its 99.9% SLA target for the last quarter of 2011, then the first six months of 2012, then for all of 2012, and on into the future. And once it has a truly unapproachable record of delivery, the other strengths of Office 365 such as class-leading clients, user familiarity with the Office applications, and the potential of SharePoint will make it an even fiercer competitor than it is today.


text:
atque haec celamus nos clam magna industria,
quom rem fidemque nosque nosmet perdimus,
ne qui parentes neu cognati sentiant;
quos quom celamus si faximus conscios,
qui nostrae aetati tempestiuo temperent,
unde anteparta demus postpartoribus,
faxim lenonum nec scortorum plus siet
et minu' damnosorum hominum quam nunc sunt siet.
Text is that of W.M. Lindsay
I am confused as to the general purport of the last 5 lines, but my current translation reads:
"And we conceal these things secretly with great industry,
When we ourselves destroy our wealth and ourselves,
so that neither our parents nor relatives may in some way perceive it;
If we should have made which ones, when we conceal these things, accomplices,
who may temper our age at the right time,
whence there may be in the end property for our heirs,
I would have made it so that there would be more of pimps and not whores and that there would be less of abominable men than there now are.
Can anyone explicate to me where I have gone wrong in my translation? Unfortunately I have not been able to locate a serviceable commentary on this play.


text:
It's been years since George Barna and I released Pagan Christianity. Joe Miller caught up with George and me, giving us our first exclusive interview years after the book came out (the book released in 2008).
Here's the interview. (Note: Reposting this interview is not permitted. But you are free to place a link to it on your blog or share it on Facebook or Twitter via the share buttons below. Click here to review our copyright policy.)
Before we get to your current life, can you tell us, what has been the most enduring and positive legacy of your book, "Pagan Christianity?"
George Barna: The book has helped many people to open their minds to the fact that the organized, localized, congregational form of ministry commonly known in the west as "the church" is a human construct that was neither dictated by God nor described or found in the Bible. In that sense I think the greatest legacy of the book, based primarily on Frank's extensive research, is giving people an awareness of the truth about the history of the modern local church body and the tremendous possibilities for more meaningful ministry experiences and expressions.
Frank Viola: One of the most enduring qualities (and effects) of the book is that it has given millions of Christians permission – biblical and historical permission – to question cherished church practices and traditions in the light of God's written Word. It has effectively driven many believers – including pastors – to reexamine the way they practice church in view of New Testament principles and church history.
Since I have a very high view of Scripture, I count that as a positive thing. It's also given many Christians a new appreciation for those believers in the past (like the Anabaptists) who dared to challenge the religious establishment of their day on the basis of Scripture. In this regard, the Reformation has never ended, including the Radical Reformation of the Anabaptists.
As John Stott famously said, "The hallmark of an authentic evangelicalism is not the uncritical repetition of old traditions, but the willingness to submit every tradition, however ancient, to fresh biblical scrutiny and, if necessary, reform." I believe the local church is highly important to God and His purpose. Our book merely demonstrates that the local church has (in many cases) been redefined and reinvented outside of scriptural lines. Thus restoration is needed.
I wonder if there are things you wrote in that book that do not reflect your thinking today. Is there one thing you can point to in your current writing or ministry that reflects the biggest change from the man you when you wrote the book?
Frank Viola: With respect to the content and research, I am more convinced today than I was in 2008 that what we wrote was accurate. Part of that conviction is based on the fact that thousands of reviews and critiques tried to refute the book, yet none of them were successful in discounting it. Instead, many critics had to resort to personal attacks and/or misrepresentations. We dedicated an entire page that answers questions, objections, and critiques to the book.
With respect to writing, I'm a perfectionist when it comes to my own work. Thus one of the worst punishments that can be inflicted upon me is to force me to look at one of my books after it's been published. I immediately see all the flaws and weaknesses. That said, I would do three things differently:
(1) I would have announced in the beginning, all throughout the middle, and at the end that Pagan Christianity is not a stand-alone book. The book is only the first part of a fuller argument. As such, it doesn't seek to solve the problems we address. It only deconstructs. In the original release of the book, this was stated in some of the footnotes and in a big advertisement at the end for the upcoming constructive sequel, Reimagining Church. But many people missed these announcements despite that it's been repeated all over the Web. The recent printings have a new preface in it that makes this point loud and clear.
(2) I would have added more "Question and Answers" sections to some of the chapters. But we were limited by page count.
(3) I would have removed all the exclamation (!) points. Not too long ago an exclamation point denoted emphasis and passion. And that's how I've always read and used them. Today, however, it denotes anger in the minds of some readers. There's no anger in the book at all, but some people read anger into the book due to several exclamation points that we used for emphasis. So I'd probably remove those if I wrote the book today. Hindsight is 20/20, of course.
George Barna: It's not repudiation or change of content from what we wrote, but my primary focus has shifted away from corporate religious structures and behaviors to the means of personal life transformation that God uses to enable us to become who He intended us to be. That's a natural progression for my work if you assume that religious institutions are not supposed to have a stranglehold on people's faith experience and expression.
Can you summarize for my readers what you have been doing since the book came out in 2008? Where have you been and what have you been writing that we should know about?
George Barna: In 2009, I sold the Barna Group to David Kinnaman. That has freed me up to write a more diverse range of books and other pieces about the Christian life and experience, including some books I have written for others. The most significant book I have done recently – perhaps ever – is Maximum Faith, which took six years of research, identified the process by which God transforms people's lives, and describes what we can do to get on board with His process.
I have also had some involvement in the 2012 presidential campaign, have invested a lot of time in family challenges (addressing some serious health issues facing our three daughters), have been much more heavily involved in playing music, and will soon start writing my first novel.
Frank Viola: Up until recently, I was busy establishing and working with organic missional churches in the trenches. In 2012, however, I changed the focus of my ministry to the other aspect of my calling for a season to Jesus studies and the gospel of the kingdom of God. As such, I've been speaking at various conferences and churches (of all types) on these themes.
I've also been burdened to help the poor more and develop relationships with those who don't know Jesus. In addition, I've forged relationships with pastors and others in different types of ministry. My convictions on the unity of the body of Christ are quite strong. To my mind, Christians should join arms in the greater cause of God's Kingdom no matter what their convictions are about church structure or form. Cooperation without compromise is where I pitch my tent.
Another major focus of mine right now is my blog, Beyond Evangelical, which is geared to serious Christians in their 20s and 30s (though we have some older and some younger readers). My blog subscribers belong to all types of church structures and denominations.
With respect to writing, following the release of Pagan Christianity, I wrote three other books as constructive follow-ups: Reimagining Church (the companion volume to Pagan), From Eternity to Here, and Finding Organic Church. Pagan Christianity really can't be fully (or properly) understood without these other volumes, as it's not a complete work on its own.
Following that was over ten books listed on my books page.
I regard the new titles on that page to be my best and most important contributions to date.
From my experience on the West Coast, men and women in their late teens and early twenties have lost their bearings. Even those who are attracted to religion, gravitate toward groups that are disconnected from the foundations of our historic Faith. Overall, the Church has not been effective in bringing young people to the Gospel. What must we do differently to usher in a Jesus revolution among America's youth?
Frank Viola: Based on my talks with 20-somethings from all over the country who aren't Christians, two things come to mind:
(1) That Christians would treat one another the way they want to be treated. I've written extensively on this, but the fact is, Christians (especially evangelicals) are viewed as being judgmental, condemning, narrow-minded, harsh, and legalistic in the eyes of many young people. Just look at the kinds of awful things Christians say to and about one another online and it becomes patently clear why they feel this way.
(2) Taking the time to get to know young people, hang out with them, and love them as people rather than as projects. At the same time, don't compromise our distinctiveness as believers while we befriend them. It seems that many Christians have a struggle knowing how to love people without selling out to the world system on the one hand, and keeping people at a condemning distance on the other.
George Barna: I do not believe that problem is limited to young people or to individuals living on the west coast. I would attribute it to the gravitational pull of cultural forces, especially through the media. The effect of contemporary media content and media-driven calls to action has been facilitated by ineffective leadership by the Christian church in response to these challenges. At the same time the role of the family has eroded significantly during the past four decades, making the media and public policy much more powerful in directing people's thoughts, perceptions, and responses. Children are now being raised with a completely different set of authority figures, core values, and expectations than has traditionally been the case, leaving them defenseless against the onslaught of new and unfortunate ways of perceiving and responding to the world.
So, you ask what we must do differently. The needed changes are deep and complex, and will take decades, not weeks, to implement. First, a significant body of Christians must be united in this battle to restore biblical principles to the center of our experience. Second, we must be committed to a long-term investment of resources: time, energy, power, relationships, money, and so forth. Third, the family must reclaim its rightful place at the center of child development, accepting assistance from others in the community of faith, but not abdicating its role as the anointed leader in child development. Fourth, we must embrace and support new models of faith experience and expression, to remove existing obstacles to people integrating their faith into every dimension of their lives. Fifth, we need to set maximum transformation as the objective of our life, and work toward that result. That would include the creation of different forms of community among believers than currently prevail, and a new set of and measurement process related to transformational metrics.
From all of your travels over the years, who have you met that inspires you the most in both who they are and what they do in their service to Christ?
George Barna: Matthew Barnett, pastor of the Dream Center, is the real deal. His passion for helping people is contagious. Francis Chan seems to be authentic in his quest for genuine spiritual growth. Mike Huckabee is the best model I have encountered of someone who is able to take his or her faith into the political arena, and impact that arena through the uncompromised application of biblical principles. John Saucier, a little-known evangelist and discipler of young people and professional athletes, has been an inspiration to me through his consistent effort, willingness to be bold and creative, and devotion to the word of God.
Frank Viola: It's been the largely "unknown" Christians who are gathering together in various cities, who are hungry for more of Jesus, and who are learning to live by His indwelling life together. Especially those who have a heart for the poor, the oppressed, and the hurting in their neighborhoods. These Christians don't return evil for evil and know the secret of losing when under attack and being gracious toward those who misunderstand and misrepresent them.
They are the salt of the earth in my judgment. Many of them are humble, of meager means. When I meet such believers, I walk away having seen my Lord. And I thank God that the song I've been singing for many years is taking visible shape in some quarters. I've also been impressed and inspired by the Millennials who make comments on my blog posts.
Lately, because I have been teaching college and seminary students here in California, I have been writing about the changing world of Christian Education. I hope this is not too far out of your area of expertise, but do either of you have some insight regarding what is good about Christian Education today and what needs to change?
Frank Viola: We have an entire chapter on Christian education in our book (Chapter 10). In it, we discuss where Christian education came from, including the origin of the seminary and the Bible college. On a personal level, I have a special passion for young men who are called to the Lord's work. I think that many seminaries and Bible schools have wonderful teachers in them. And as far as traditional teaching methods go, they are quite good.
But as I've argued in Finding Organic Church, I believe the best way to educate and train others is to duplicate what Jesus did in Galilee and what Paul did in Ephesus. Jesus and Paul both trained younger workers in a hands-on way. It was on-the-ground, real-life, intentional mentoring that went on for years. And it was done in a real-life ministry context. I wish more older servants of God would begin to do this. (Many of them whom I respect have no concept of it.)
Right now, the typical young person who is called to the Lord's work sees the seminary as the only option for ministry preparation. In short, while the typical seminary is good at what it does, I've met scores of seminary graduates who admitted that they didn't get the kind of training that ministering to people with real problems demands. Nor did they learn how to minister and unveil Jesus Christ to others. Billy Graham once said something priceless about this very issue.
George Barna: No comment.
Finally, let me ask a broader question about the world as you see it. Based on your experience and research, what would you say is the greatest social, political, or theological challenge facing the Church today in the West. What is the Church doing well and what does the Church need to do better in confronting that challenge?
George Barna: The encouraging reality is that when God's people set their mind on something, they often prove they can meet their goals. For instance, churches generally measure success based on attendance, raising money, constructing buildings, operating programs, and hiring staff. Over the past two decades, Christian churches in the US have been effective at meeting those goals. We are better at marketing, and event planning and execution, than ever; raise more than $60 billion annually for domestic ministry; have extensive, valuable, and expanding real estate holdings; and continually introduce new programs that we fill with hopeful students. By church criteria, our churches are successful; unfortunately, Jesus didn't die to fill auditoriums, buy land, promote programs, or hire religious professionals. If we take His death and resurrection seriously, our criteria need to relate to life transformation that produces discernible and meaningful spiritual fruit.
So discussing the major challenges facing the western Church is not a simple matter. There is no single greatest challenge; there is a multi-faceted group of serious challenges that need to be addressed. Among those, as noted earlier, are the need for better leadership that is devoted to fulfilling a God-provided, biblically-consistent vision; the need for Christians to possess a biblical worldview to serve as the basis of their choices and behaviors; the need for Christian families to be more aggressive and better equipped in the moral and spiritual development of their children; the need to radically manage media and technology for the benefit of the nation rather than that of shareholders; the need for different models of ministry to facilitate more genuine spiritual experiences and expression; and the need to create and deploy better metrics regarding life transformation.
Frank Viola: I don't think we can lump everyone or every fellowship into the same basket. Some are ahead of others in some areas, and vice versa.
Speaking in regard to the Christian population as a whole, four great challenges come to mind:
(1) the pervasive problem of Christians trafficking in slander against other Christians without blinking. Many Christians are bold in slandering others while few Christians are bold in defending others or rebuking slander when it's happening. Jesus was clear that if we have an issue or concern about someone, we should go to them directly. Treating others the same way we wish to be treated appears to be rarely observed today among God's people, even though it was Jesus' summary of the Law and the Prophets.
(2) the inability of many Christians to disagree without being contentious and to carry on civil and gracious dialogue. Rick Warren spoke about this not terribly long ago.
(3) the problem that many Christians are either libertine or legalistic, knowing no other alternative.
(4) the fact that Christianity has largely been about ideas, causes, and issues, rather than about the Person of Jesus Christ. (Jesus is often relegated as a footnote, a mascot, or a stamp.) What Len Sweet and I wrote in Jesus Manifesto about this is still very much needed today, I feel.


text:
Recall Details
A propellant with an incorrect specification may have been used during assembly of the side curtain airbags. As a result, one or both side curtain airbags may not deploy in the event of a crash, which can increase the risk of injury. Dealers will inspect and replace the side curtain airbag assembly as necessary to correct this concern.
Our Quick Take
In the event of a crash, one or both of the side curtain airbags may not deploy.
What Should You Do?
Nissan will notify owners of affected vehicles beginning February 27, 2012. There are no symptoms related to this recall. If don't receive notification and you feel you should have, please contact your dealer. It's helpful to have your vehicle identification number (VIN) handy when you call.


text:
Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud
Dr. Michel Floyd: Michel has spent his entire career in Silicon Valley in a succession of technology and business leadership roles. Most recently Michel was Global CTO at YouGov Plc, a global opinion research company based in London. In that role he helped integrate a large number of acquisitions in different parts of the world. He built up a world-class development team distributed from Germany to Alaska to Peru. His accomplishments include releasing an interactive, 14 country brand tracker which is both the company's fastest growing and most profitable product.
Before YouGov Michel was EVP & CTO at Knowledge Networks (subsequently acquired by GfK). There he focused on technology, operations, and driving business efficiency throughout the company. He had P&L responsibility over $13M in revenues and also served as interim CEO.
Michel earned his SB, SM, and ScD degrees in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from MIT. He has participated in two IPOs and numerous acquisitions, primarily on the buy side. He has been awarded 4 patents.
Dr. Floyd is also on the board of directors of VLAB, the Silicon Valley chapter of the MIT Enterprise Forum.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *