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Element's first connected car product, which combines telematics, connected cars, and antitheft features. The Element allows a driver to be connected with his car 24/7. Installation of Element allows remote car diagnostics, remote engine start, smart insurance, anti-theft protection, and many other useful features. We work with more than 10 insurance companies creating joint UBI products and customized scoring algorithms.
Element's the first Russian connected car product. It is the unique solution which combines possibilities of all existing products in such spheres as telematics, connected car, and antitheft. Element is ready to install in automobiles of any brand and class at any stage of the production cycle. It gives all drivers regardless of the cost of their cars to experience connected car abilities. Element change communication between the car and its owner doing it more easy and comfortable. Also, it influences on driving culture and safety on the roads.

Devices and Platforms Supported: Android , iPhone / iPad

App Categories: Lifestyle , Social and Networking , Tools and Utilities

Nominated for: 2020 Overall Awards
Silver Award
Best Mobile App of 2020

Price: Free

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Macy Meadows Squirts Sweet Juices At Casting

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A beautiful teen Macy Meadows fucking a huge dick at casting sessions. She is all but 45kg, but Macy takes the huge cock without any problems. Then he fucks her tiny pussy deeply in various position giving her a orgasm after orgasm. You are watching beautiful teen Macy Meadows rough sex with squirting orgasm.

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Free Census Data Essay Sample

Immigration and fertility have contributed to the demographic divide between the generations. Between 1990 and 2000, the rise in minorities account accounted for 98% of the growth within the child population. In around 2006, minorities were almost one-half of children under five years. In 20 years to come, these children will change the racial and ethnic composition of the country's workforce. Improvements in terms of health and modern medical technologies are lengthening the lives of individuals within the oldest age groups. Furthermore, minorities are most concentrated within the youngest age classifications and will not reach retirement age for numerous decades. If present trends go on, the minority share of the elderly population will reduce to 60% by 2050.

Worker shortages: census figures indicate that in industries and disciplines such as utilities, nursing and several skilled trades there have been shortages. There are various factors contributing to all this. Immigration is one of them. Much of this is dependant on government policies and practices. Another contributing aspect is that the current generation is moving away from hard sciences and skilled trades that the country has observed over the last ten years. Employers in these areas are finding it hard to employ employees many people have shied away from these fields.

In regard to technology, technology has evolved over the last ten years. Every succeeding generation has turned out to be more dependent on technology in their daily lives. For example, Baby Boomers grew up with dial telephones, Xers grew up with cordless phones and Millennials are growing up with wireless communications. The big difference in adaptation seems to be the degree of interest and dependence for each generation. Nevertheless, technology is a blessing since it has fasted most of the things. So whereas electronic technology has improved workplace competence for most tasks, it has negated competence for others.

For work/life balance, the current generation has always put in long hours because of their training and beliefs regarding paying dues and maintaining job security. This may be due to the current competition as compared to the last ten years. The current generation prefers long hours since it equates to self-worth as well as a sense of contribution. Regrettably, this dedication to the job has led into inequity between work and family.

When it comes to communication styles, younger generations are more detached in their communication styles. This big difference can be ascribed to the evolution of electronic technology. For instance, as generation X has come of age, they have found themselves within an environment that allows them to communicate in manner the older generations never had access to. For example, younger generations prefer e-mails while the older generation prefers communicating using a phone.

On education and development, matures and boomers have the same perceptions in that the training offered is supposed to contribute to the goals of the organization. In any case, you are learning on company time. These two generations have always had the long opinion, believing that training is a pathway to promotion and extra compensation. The older generation nevertheless has a more entrepreneurial attitude. They perceive training and development and a way of improving their versatility within the marketplace. They also view external training as an investment within their future with any employer, not only the current firm.

Over the generations, there has been racial and ethnic divisions increase, through temporarily. Individuals within their sixties had the same racial/ethnic profile as to those within their forties and fifties who in turn seemed comparable to those in their twenties and thirties. The disparity in the share of minorities did not go beyond five percentage points in succeeding generations. Nonetheless, by 2006, these generational differences had risen notably. Those within their forties and fifties are stuck between very diverse generations. Census predictions show that the racial/ethnic deviation might be an impermanent phenomenon. Over the nest twenty five years, the racial/ethnic variations between age cohorts are expected to somehow reduce as the number of minorities within the older age groups elevates. All the same, in 2030, approximately seventy percent of the population aged sixty and older is till anticipated to be non-Hispanic white, differentiating that age group from younger generations.

Income is most commonly measured through Census Bureau in terms of either household or entity. Personal income is fundamentally the result of scarcity. According to census data, the current generation has considerable high income when compared to previous generations. The most contributing factor to this is that live has become more costly and hence people are likely to work harder and seek higher paying jobs in order to be able to support the livelihood.

Education is another noteworthy difference among the generations. Most of the current generations are more educated as compared to the prior generations. Currently, tertiary education is mandatory for many middle class professions. There before, about 85% of the population had graduated from high school but the average people did not have a college degree even though they were likely to have attended college for a time and graduated high school. However, at present most of the young people have a graduate degree or bachelor's degree and over half of the population have attended college. In general, educational achievement currently serves as probably the most class feature and its being directly connected to both income and occupation. The fact that the current generation is more educated is what is making them to have higher income and better job opportunities as compared to previous generation since they are considered to be more skilled.


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Twenty-Nineteen Reads

(None of the links in this post benefit me in any way. They are simply to serve as quick access to the books I recommend.)

In 2018, I set a lofty goal for myself concerning the amount of reading I wanted to do.

I failed. Epically.

(WordPress says that’s not a word but IT IS NOW.)

This year has been different. With less time on social media and trying to be more intentional about my time, I’ve already read more books this year than I did in the past three years COMBINED.

This is where shame and embarrassment kicks in because I’ve always claimed to be an avid reader! (Also because you’re about to find out that I haven’t read a large number of books yet this year.) But I banish those feelings to bring you this blog post: a list of the books I’ve read this year, most of which I recommend, and a small review of each. I know many of my friends are, in fact, avid readers, so this is for them. I hope you enjoy reading both this blog post and the books you chose from it to consume.

The More of Less by Joshua Becker

Topic: Minimalism
Recommendation: 10/10

This book I actually began in the fall of 2018, after Joshua and I started delving into minimalism, and finished in January 2019. It should not have taken me that long to read it, because anytime I actually sat down with it, I ATE IT UP. It is a fairly quick read that is not bogged down with step-by-step plans and a million reasons why minimalism is the best lifestyle for any human.

Joshua Becker did not become a minimalist until his family of four lived in a large house full of stuff, with a large garage full of stuff. He is passionate and persuasive in his writing. The book includes many stories of people who de-clutered, downsized, or jumped off the corporate ladder to live simply. There are many tips and ideas on where to start, how to deal with the items you are really attached to but can’t figure out why, and what to do if you’re the only one in your family interested in minimalism. He also includes a section that walks through various ways advertisers subtly infiltrate our subconscious . . . something like that. That was one of my favorite parts of the book, and now I can’t look at a commercial or ad without thinking, “Ah yes, they are using that color or that layout to convince me to buy their product.”

The best part I think is that Joshua Becker is a Christian. Not only is he an excellent communicator who wants people to live more simply and intentionally, but he understands the bigger picture. Most prominent minimalists are not believers so even though much of what they say is scriptural, they don’t come all the way around. At the end of the day, to them, minimalism is about simplifying life so you can enjoy it as much as possible. But Joshua Becker connects all the dots. Minimalism is about simplifying life so you can make room for what is truly important: connecting with people, loving your family, and serving the Lord. The More of Less includes various passages and stories from the Bible.

If you are intrigued by minimalism, wondering what the big deal is, or are already taking steps to simplify your life, go read this book. It is a fantastic introduction if you are new to the concept of minimalism, and it also includes great steppingstones if you have already begun the journey.

If you’re interested in learning more about Joshua Becker or want some quicker reads about minimalism, you can find his blog here:

The Year of Less by Cait Flanders

Topic: Minimalism
Recommendation: 9/10

Joshua surprised me with this book for Christmas, and I absolutely loved it. Cait Flanders writes in a relatable, laid-back style, chronicling her year of living with a shopping ban. Each chapter covers one month of the year, in which she recounts challenges, realizations, and practical advice.

Reading this book was like becoming friends with Cait. She reveals some serious personal struggles both from her past and during the year that she gave herself a shopping ban. At times the book reads like a diary, with pain and growth and relationships and travels and life changes.

Cait Flanders often compares her problems with shopping and materialism to her struggles with binge-eating and alcoholism. She overcame the latter problems before the first chapter; but throughout the book, she recognizes that she maxed out her credit cards for the same reasons she ate mindlessly and drank frequently. I won’t give it all away here, but she makes some very poignant points that I think resonate with a lot of people.

The book does have a tiny bit of language (a handful of minor profanities, as far as I remember) and reference to intimacy but nothing that should keep one from reading this book, in my opinion. A great read that is easy to finish in a few days, weeks at most.

Here is Cait’s blog, although the last post is from last year because she’s doing more living than sharing:

Soulful Simplicity by Courtney Carver

Topic: Minimalism
Recommendation: 3/10

I picked this book up from the library while I was in the middle of the next book on this list, and finished it quickly for two reasons: the book I was in the middle of was HEAVY and felt like it had stopped moving, and I also didn’t really like this book but was determined to finish it. So I did.

Courtney Carver is the founder of Project 333 and continues to blog about living simply and intentionally. Her book Soulful Simplicity had some good thoughts about consumerism and materialism, and I really enjoyed the section about why shopping and owning things is so addictive. But there was a lot of spiritualism in this book. For example, she ended every chapter with reminding you to “Put your hands on your heart,” and “Listen to her” because your heart truly knows what is best for you. Much of the book was about taking care of yourself first and foremost, because you are the most important person.

No thank you. We already naturally “listen” to our heart and take care of ourselves because we are selfish people.

One of the chapters closer to the end – by the time I read it, I was fed up with the whole thrust of the book – is about her view of religion and how it applies to her personally. There was an excerpt from a sermon that was already not scriptural; but then she shared how she interpreted the sermon, which was even more bizarre.

All that to say, not every book you read is going to be a home run. This was one book that I kind of wish I hadn’t read because I could’ve been reading other, better books; but now, if you ever see this book or hear someone recommending it, you have something to go off.

The Gospel Comes With a House Key by Rosaria Butterfield

Topic: Hospitality (but not just the kind that you’re thinking of)
Recommendation: 9/10

God began working on my heart about being more hospitable a while ago. (Read: it’s been a long process of conviction and Him breaking down my issues with comparison and perfectionism.) I don’t remember how I heard about this book, but I knew I wanted to read it.

Rosaria Butterfield has one of the most interesting, incredible salvation testimonies I’ve ever heard. I won’t spoil the book by giving you the details now, but it was because of the love and hospitality of a pastor and his wife that she came to know Christ. Because of this and because she has studied this concept extensively in the Word of God, she is passionate about what she calls “radially ordinary hospitality.” This hospitality is not the have-friends-over-for-Thanksgiving, let-missionaries-stay-at-your-house hospitality. This kind of hospitality goes much deeper than that, and should be something we display and love with every single day.

This is a bit of a heavy read. Her writing style is unique and requires a lot of focus, but is absolutely worth it. Chapter two had me crying in a coffee shop. I seem to remember feeling like I was trudging through mud between chapters two and three, but I could’ve just gotten lazy or lost focus. Once I finished the selfishly-motivated Soulful Simplicity, I was ready for something meaningful and others-focused. I found it in this book.

Rosaria spends most of the book talking about why we should demonstrate this kind of hospitality and gives many stories of people it has personally impacted, including her own testimony. Her beautiful story-telling will move you to tears, and the way she talks about Jesus will make you want to know Him and love like Him more than you ever have before. Many of the philosophies and mindset-shifts she presents in the book impact my thinking every day.

This book will change your life if you let it. If you want a deep, ground-shaking, heart-tugging book to convict and challenge how you think about others, stewardship, and real love, read The Gospel Comes with a House Key.

How to Act Right When Your Spouse Acts Wrong by Leslie Vernick

Topic: Marriage/Relationships
Recommendation: 12/10 (I do what I want, it’s my blog post.)

The title of this book really throws some people. Often when I mentioned that I was reading it (which was a lot because it’s awesome and I was constantly reading it), I got a look that said, “You guys ok?” But listen to me right now: Every single person over the age of eighteen needs to read this book. And I mean everyone. But ESPECIALLY if you are in a relationship, engaged, have been married for any length of time, are having struggles big or small, or just want to be a better spouse.

Leslie Vernick is an experienced Christian counselor; so not only has she witnessed and helped with issues within many marriages, but she is also passionate about the Word of God. How to Act Right is packed full of examples of people she has personally counseled, as well as countless passages from scripture. You can feel her concern, her urgency as you read this book.

The reason I say that everyone should read this book is because the majority of the principles she writes about can and should be applied to most relationships in our lives. She writes of being slow to speak, quick to listen, and assuming the best. She encourages us to examine our own hearts before lashing out at our spouse when they do something wrong or something we perceive as wrong.

Her heart is that our marriage relationships – and again, most relationships in our lives – would bring glory to God and help us to grow in Christlikeness. THAT is the thrust of the book. Maybe your spouse is rude, or lazy, or sarcastic, or angry, or unloving . . . but we are not called to have a happy marriage. We are each individually called to be holy. Your unhappy marriage may be what God wants to use to draw you closer to Himself and make you more like Him.

A very sobering but encouraging book. It may sound heavy but truthfully it was not a difficult read. I have literally been telling everyone GO READ THIS BOOK. Again, if you go into it with a receptive heart and open mind, God can use this book to change your life. I will personally buy you this book (or lend you mine) because I am THIS SERIOUS about it. Go read it right now.

Sex, Jesus, & the Conversations the Church Forgot by Mo Isom

Topic: Sex and Purity
Recommendation: 7/10

Dude, Mo Isom does not hold back! I appreciate the candidness with which she shares about her past. Her writing style is a little tough sometimes (some too-long sentences or too many modifiers) but there is tremendous truth here that so many young people need.

The theme of the book is WHY sex is something we need to talk about, WHY so many people struggle with sexual sins (the root of the problem), and HOW the church should approach virginity, purity, and everything that comes with it. According to Mo, the church thought the family would talk about sex; and the family thought the church would talk about it. So young people have been left hanging in the middle, left to figure it out on their own or with the world.

I can’t really give you a reason I don’t give this book a 10/10. It just wasn’t necessarily pleasant to read – not because of the truths presented but I think because of her writing style. It is a great book, but I would hesitate to read it again because she writes in a very cluttered way. Still a great book.

QBQ! The Question Behind the Question by John G. Miller

QBQ! is really a movement about a concept that centers around personal accountability. I would not have picked up this book on my own, but my husband handed it to me before I left town for several days. “You could probably read this whole thing just during your trip to Greenville,” he challenged me. And gosh darn it, you better believe he was right! It is a small book with extremely short chapters packed with big statements that will make you stop and go, “Wow. Why has no one put it that way before? That makes so much sense!”

John G. Miller is straightforward in his writing. He has deep concepts he wants to present to you, and he gives them to you in the most direct way possible. When he writes of personal accountability, he is not speaking of the accountability that we would first think. This accountability could also be called responsibility. This little book is for people who, like me, tend to complain and wonder why so-and-so doesn’t get their butt in gear and get things done. It’s for the people who like to have pity parties and wish things were different, but don’t actually do anything to make those things happen. It’s for people who grumble and mumble to everyone but don’t stop and think, “What could I do to make this better?”

Thanks for reading this blog post! I hope you take some of these recommendations and they encourage or challenge you, or teach you something new. What book(s) do you think everyone should read?

5 thoughts on “Twenty-Nineteen Reads

  1. I always love book recommendations, thanks for sharing! 🙂 I read “The Gospel Comes With A House Key” earlier this year, and it is one of my favorite books ever.

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Tag: District boundaries

Salt Lake City and Rural Utah Have the Same Problem

A few weeks ago, the ABU Education Fund released a report addressing the negative impacts of gerrymandering on rural Utah. You probably have not read it, because that report was 20 pages long and full of information that only policy weirdos like us care about. With a fresh coat of tape on our glasses, we

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Tag: editorial

Editorial: Give mail-in voters one more day

Source: The Salt Lake Tribune One consequence of mail-in voting is that the act of democratic participation has a new and important partner, the U.S. Postal Service. And it’s a good partner. The ease of having a postal worker pick up ballots — and take them where they need to go to be counted —

Read More »

In our opinion: Deseret News on Better UTAH

Our efforts to bring balance and transparency to the Draper Prison move is starting to pay off. We were pleasantly surprised to wake up Sunday morning and read that the Deseret News Editorial Board has endorsed our position on the Draper Prison relocation bid. One close observer and critic of the prison relocation process is Maryann Martindale,

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Tag: partisan elections

Despite pending Utah Supreme Court ruling, Senate committee approves bill to have partisan elections for the state Board of Education

This article originally appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune. Read it in its entirety here. A Republican state senator has proposed allowing candidates for the Utah Board of Education — the elected panel that oversees the state’s public schools — to run under a political party. It’s an unexpected and contentious move that comes three

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A Writer's Journal

Through The Glass Darkly

20 thoughts on “Bedroom window #65

  1. leelotchka44 says:

    I enjoy the new pronunciation of tea:)

  2. festivalking says:

    Feels like a lovely dream that I can only dream of being in the tropics :)

    1. Thank you. Yes I agree. I always get tropical smelling soap in the winter for that exact reason. : )

  3. Ray Sharp says:

    Hi Betty. I like your haiku blog, and the way the pull-up bars stand black in this white wintery photo. And how your tree always frames the photo :)

  4. janineyork says:

    Sounds lovely.

  5. Tiara Winter-Schorr says:

    beautiful photograph and verse!

  6. sarahjaneprosetry says:

    And in the tropics
    On hot, sunny winter days
    We dream of the snow

    1. Beautiful! Thank you. : )

      1. sarahjaneprosetry says:

        I like to reply to haiku with haiku. It’s a quirk of mine. But really, how often do we get to correspond in haiku?

  7. Bluewayne says:

    If you must know i have a strong love for natur….pls more pics

    1. Thank you. I will. : )

  8. Libby says:

    Lovely blog, lovely photos, thanks for visiting mine and drawing me here.

    1. Your welcome, and thank you for visiting mine.

  9. JodetteP says:

    Lovely poem :) Great visual… I can almost taste the tea in my mouth, and that’s saying something, since I barely drink tea :D

  10. This is a beautiful Haiku’s.

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Peaty's Tubeless Conversion Kit - BFD Moto

Peaty's Tubeless Conversion Kit

  • $90.95

Peaty's Tubeless Conversion Kit

Peaty’s Tubeless Conversion Kit includes everything you need to run a fully optimized tubeless setup – Peaty’s RimJob Rim Tape, Tubeless Valves and Sealant. If you value more time spent on the bike and less time fixing punctures, this is the perfect set up.

Not just a few bits thrown carelessly in a bag! Peaty's Tubeless Conversion kits are beautifully laid out with easy to follow setup instructions. These conversion kits are available in a variety of configurations so that you can ride with the perfect tubeless set up whatever your discipline: road, cyclocross, XC, enduro, downhill – all good to go. Every conversion kit features a handy installation guide on the box, with QR links to step by step YouTube videos for each stage of installation – rest assured that the installation process will be slick and swift.

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  • 2 x 120ml Tubeless Sealant pouches (1 x 120ml for the 21mm Road/Cyclocross option)
  • 2x Tubeless Valves
  • 1x 9metre roll of RimJob Rim Tape which will approximately fit:
    • 5x 26" Rims
    • 4x 27.5" Rims
    • 4x 29" Rims
    • 4x 700c Rims
Processing Time: This item will leave our warehouse in 2-3 days.

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With a few weeks to go before the Aaron Sorkin penned Steve Jobs biopic hits the big screen, Universal Pictures earlier today released the second official trailer for the highly anticipated film about the Apple co-founder.

Notably, the film, naturally titled Steve Jobs, won’t be a traditional cradle to grave type of biopic. Instead, Sorkin, who knows a thing or two about storytelling, has crafted a film that will mostly focus on three of Jobs’ biggest product announcements, including the original Macintosh. Based on what we’ve seen so far in the two released trailers, the film will also touch a bit on how Jobs’ personal life helped shape his professional life and vice versa.

DON’T MISS: 10 more hidden features in iOS 9

Starring Michael Fassbender as Jobs and Seth Rogan as Woz, the film promises to deliver an intimate and intense look at the mercurial and at times controversial man who helped spearhead some of the tech world’s greatest innovations.

Steve Jobs now stands as the third film to focus on the life of the Apple co-founder, following in the footsteps of the critically lambasted JOBS — which starred Ashton Kutcher — and the recently released Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine.

Sorkin’s effort, though, is likely to be the most riveting of them all. When it comes to engaging and fast-paced dialogue, one would be hard pressed to find a man more capable than Sorkin. With credits like The West Wing, A Few Good Men and The Social Network to his name, Sorkin is better positioned than most in Hollywood to truly capture the vibrancy of Jobs’ personality on screen.

A life long Mac user and Apple enthusiast, Yoni Heisler has been writing about Apple and the tech industry at large for over 6 years. His writing has appeared in Edible Apple, Network World, MacLife, Macworld UK, and most recently, TUAW. When not writing about and analyzing the latest happenings with Apple, Yoni enjoys catching Improv shows in Chicago, playing soccer, and cultivating new TV show addictions, the most recent examples being The Walking Dead and Broad City.


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Will Ferrell returned to host Saturday Night Live for the first time since 2012 this past weekend, lifting the show to its highest ratings since last May. But despite Ferrell having been one of the most popular and successful cast members in the show’s history, the writers opted not to rehash his beloved sketches or reintroduce his silliest characters. There was no Celebrity Jeopardy!, yelling at kids to get off the shed or even a single cowbell.

What we did get was the return of Will Ferrell’s George W. Bush impression for the cold open at the beginning of the episode. Bush was possibly Ferrell’s most famous impression of all, so it only made sense to have him return to the stage to comment on the Trump presidency, which has significantly elevated his approval ratings.

“I’m suddenly popular AF and a lot of people are saying ‘man, I wish George W. Bush was still our president right about now,'” says Ferrell as Bush. “So I just wanted to address my fellow Americans tonight and remind you guys that I was really bad. Like, historically not good.”

He then goes on to remind us that we’re still involved in two wars that he started, that the economy crashed at the end of his presidency, and that Dick Cheney was a monster. And when it comes to the “fake news” media hating on a president, don’t forget that a reporter once threw his shoes at Bush during a press conference.

All in all, the cold open sketch was the highlight of a pretty decent night for SNL.

Jacob started covering video games and technology in college as a hobby, but it quickly became clear to him that this was what he wanted to do for a living. He currently resides in New York writing for BGR. His previously published work can be found on TechHive, VentureBeat and Game Rant.


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Where the world comes to study the Bible

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Is the claim correct that many early translations and writings of the church fathers show they are in support of the Byzantine text?

Many Byzantine priority/majority text/textus receptus advocates rely on Dean John W. Burgon’s massive collation of patristic evidence a century ago. Dean Burgon found over 85,000 quotations in the early fathers that he said used the Byzantine text. But Burgon used uncritical and late texts (copied in the middle ages) and made a number of assumptions about the fathers when they quoted the NT (for example, Ignatius and Irenaeus often wrote, ‘As the Lord said,’ without giving the book name. Burgon found the wording in Mark that was Byzantine—though the wording in Matthew was Alexandrian—and he then assumed that the patristic writer was quoting from Mark). This issue has been raised by numerous scholars over the years. Gordon D. Fee, who is probably the best patristic text-critical scholar alive today, has said that there are NO ante-Nicene fathers who quoted the Byzantine text. As well, there is a recent article in the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society that deals just with Burgon’s approach. The author found that it was terribly faulty.

As for versional evidence, there used to be, about 70 years ago, the dispute as to whether the Syriac Peshitta was Byzantine or not. This was coupled with issues related to its date. Burgon’s followers dated the Peshitta in the second century and defended the view that it was Byzantine. Others argued that it was fifth century and was non-Byzantine. After all these years, we now can come to a better perception than either side had: the Syriac Peshitta is indeed fairly early, sometime before the year AD 451. It may even be as early as the third century. But its textual character is not Byzantine. The earliest Syriac translation that is Byzantine is the Harclean version of the sixth century.

Others claimed that the Gothic version of the late fourth century was the earliest Byzantine text. But recent work in the Gothic version suggests that it is not Byzantine. I don’t think the work done is yet adequate to make such a claim, so I am not willing to entirely abandon the view that the Gothic may be the earliest Byzantine version. Nevertheless, it is significant that the more research that is done on the versions and fathers the less they look Byzantine.

The evidence is rather overwhelming. There are a few folks who would claim that the Byzantine text existed early in the versions and fathers, but their methods are flawed and they represent no more than about 1-2% of all textual scholars. But even if they could prove that the Byzantine text was early, this would not be enough: they would also have to demonstrate that it was the predominant text-form in the early centuries. On the other side, there are the vast hordes of textual scholars of all theological stripes who see no real evidence that the Byzantine text was early. Usually the argument against these scholars in fact turns on their convictions. You will notice that Byzantine/KJV folks argue along two lines almost all the time: God has preserved his text and since the Byzantine is the most amply preserved, it must go back to the original; and the scholars who are behind modern translations are either deceived or are themselves heretical. Thus, their arguments are anything but rational; they are usually emotional and ad hominem. Frequently, Westcott and Hort are maligned as liberal and heretical, even as occult leaders (a charge that is blatantly false). Two things are conveniently overlooked when such ad hominem charges are made: first, the textus receptus (which was the Greek text used by the KJV translators) was produced by a Roman Catholic humanist who, by the standards of the KJV advocates, should be labeled as far more heretical than either Westcott or Hort; and second, the character of men like Hort or Westcott really has nothing to do with our evaluation of the ancient evidence, nor does Erasmus’ character. No textual scholar today completely follows Hort’s approach; at the same time, the great mass of evidence found in the last century largely confirms his general direction and has certainly done nothing to give comfort to KJV advocates.

Related Topics: Textual Criticism

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text:
The front derailleur cable snapped on a friend's bike, she shifted it with her hand to a rideable position, and rode for a few weeks. She asked me for help replacing the cable, though when I replaced it, I realized it couldn't shift the cable onto the big ring, as the derailleur cage touches the inside of the larger chainring, instead of guiding the cable above it. [[EDIT: Touches the chainguard, as pointed out below]].

On visual inspection, it seems like the derailleur is installed too close to the chainring, and should be 1-2mm higher. The thing that seemed obvious to do, but very likely wrong, would be to unscrew the derailleur hanger at the frame, lift it 1-2mm, and reclamp it. But this is a 30 year old bike, where the derailleur surely has never been moved. I'm sure I'd be making things worse if I tried this.

Is it possible that the cage is bent somewhere else, and there's another way to adjust it? Photos attached.

Side view

Top view

  • If your friend needed to move the cage by hand to a rideable position, it might need some oil or spray lube in the pivots for starters. It should spring back to the small ring by default – Swifty Aug 27 '18 at 20:55
  • Did you mean raise the derailleur by 1-2 millimeters, rather than centimeters? The cage should actually clear the large chainring by about 2mm. – Argenti Apparatus Aug 27 '18 at 22:10
  • 1
    unscrew the derailleur hanger at the frame, lift it 1-2mm, and reclamp it – Daniel R Hicks Aug 28 '18 at 0:08
  • 1
    Surprisingly, the derailleur hanger had fallen slightly. Not that I can tell, but by elimination (the derailleur was perfectly straight to the chain, and not bent), that was the fix. – lilster Aug 28 '18 at 1:02
  • Could be there were two problems here. Some people run their bikes in the middle or little chainring all the time. I wonder if the cable snapping had nothing much to do with the FD being out of position. – Criggie Aug 28 '18 at 8:10

The derailleur cage is not interfering with the larger chainring, it's hitting the chainguard.

As you say, its unlikely the derailleur slipped down the seat tube a few mm. Seat tube clamp mounts hold on quite tightly, and if they do move you typically are able to see a line on the frame where dirt accumulated next to the clamp. The parallelogram links are pretty robust and don't typically get twisted or bent. The cage itself may get tweaked but you'd see scratches if there had been an impact.

The derailleur might just have rotated around the frame very slightly causing one end of the cage to contact the guard. You'll be able to see if this is the case because the cage will not be parallel to the chainrings.

If the derailleur has not moved I suspect that the cage is actually able to move far enough outboard to shift the chain to the big ring before it hits the chainguard. If it will not shift the chain, moving the derailleur up a millimeter or two so it just clears the guard will probably be just fine.

It's probably worth running through a full front derailleur setup process to make sure you have the limits set correctly. Park Tool has a great web page and video that walks you through the whole process step by step.

| improve this answer | |
  • Thanks, this sounds like good advice. I'll attempt and then mark as solved. – lilster Aug 27 '18 at 21:01

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LEGO 75118 Captain Phasma

  • $59.99

  • Buildable and highly posable Captain Phasma LEGO Star Wars toy figure features a spring-loaded shooter with extra ammunition, holster, metallic-look armor and a special real cloth cape with red trim
  • Move the limbs into any battle pose
  • Figure stands over 10" (26cm) tall
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text:
Shift-lab Collaborations > Shift (Shift-lab)

Shift-lab is a new collaboration between five book artists and printmakers: Katie Baldwin, Denise Bookwalter, Sarah Bryant, Macy Chadwick and Tricia Treacy.

Go to the Shift-lab website

This book project is Shift-lab’s inaugural book project as a collaborative group. Each artist created a book of identical dimensions with the theme of shift, a word that plays a fundamental part of our practice as artists and printmakers. Content ranges from an investigation of the diggings of the Erie canal, images of a shifting body during sleep, the translation of glyphs and grid systems, two perspectives in a conversation, and the physical shift in a page.

12 x 17 x 7.5 cm when contained in a box.


text:
Crazy Weather Trends? Or Simply Just the Weather...

Posted on December 17, 2019 by Kali Gillette

Avg Percip in Big SkyWinter hit October in full force! Big Sky received 53” of snow compared to the 27” we normally receive this time of year. On average, we end up with 300” by the middle of April, so if the snowfall kept on at this pace, we would be looking at a banner year.

Roscoe Shaw has been forecasting weather for Big Sky Resort for the past 15 years. Not as a public service, but rather for the resort to utilize in planning their internal operations. Needless to say, he’s seen a lot of trends, so we caught up with him to get his thoughts on what our incredibly snowy fall means for the upcoming winter.

The short answer, “The indicators are neutral, “ he says, “They’re not giving a signal.”

Weather trends are influenced by whether it’s an El Nino, or La Nina year, an odd oscillation in the ocean that goes back and forth. If it’s a La Nina year, there is more cool air moving over the ocean, generally resulting in more snow in Big Sky. If it’s an El Nino year, there is more warm air over the Pacific, resulting in less snow. “I like to say that the girl is good, the boy is bad,” Shaw jokes.

In all seriousness, he says, “This year it’s neither, it’s right in the middle.” Shaw explains that there is a mathematical model for forecasting snow and powder. “Granted, it usually only makes a 10% difference, and it’s only right 2/3 of the time,” he says.

“Just because it was snowy last month doesn’t mean it will be next month,” he says . “It doesn’t mean a thing. There’s no reason to think it will or won’t be a big snow year. Last year, March had very little snow, but overall, it was a really good year.”

As for the frequency of snowy years, it’s entirely random. “Some times kids born short, some times they are tall,” he laughs.

What he can say with certainty is that Big Sky is extraordinarily consistent compared to other areas. “A bad year here is still good,” he says. “The farther south you get in the Rockies, the more inconsistent the snow becomes. You can have awesome snow one year, and the next year have barely any.” He goes on to explain, “A couple of years ago, there were Utah and Colorado license plates all over town. They had very little snow there, so everyone gave up and drove to Big Sky.”

So what makes our snow so special? “Big Sky has as good of snow as you can get,” Roscoe says, “because it stays so steady and cold and dry, which leads to very good snow quality. Other areas may get more snow at times, but Big Sky’s is consistently good.”

Shaw came to Big Sky in 1995, “We just don’t have snow bad years,” he says. “That, and the fact that we have so much terrain with so few people is what makes Big Sky the best.”

Well said, Mr. Shaw.

Mountain Mall Remodel - Summer 2019

Posted on July 22, 2019 by Lindsey Bedell

Construction is well underway on the Mountain Mall at the base of Big Sky Ski Resort Village. The Big Sky Sotheby’s International Realty team was invited to get a sneak peek at the recent renovations. An open concept and new structural steel bring a much needed upgrade to the space, thus creating a natural flow for incoming and departing skiers. Grab a coffee before heading out to the slopes for the day, or sit down at the new Apres Bar after a day of adventure and enjoy the view of Lone Peak from the large picture windows.

You can expect expanded dining options in the new Mountain Mall that includes sushi, stone-fired pizza, coffee shop and breakfast stop, along with cafeteria-style food options. There will be additional restrooms and sitting areas added- both indoor and outdoor with views of Lone Peak. The large, beautiful fireplaces offer a feeling of solitude and create a place to warm up before heading back out to the slopes.

The construction will also offer the option to host an array of events and will boast a wedding venue, conference and events center and offer additional outdoor space to increase capacity to accommodate 750 people.

The option to enter through the lower level and use the changing area and rent day-use cubbies to store your belongings before hitting the slopes is a huge bonus! Take advantage of the new elevator that will take you to the central core of the building to access retail and restaurants; in addition to the elevator, a new staircase, accessible on the exterior, will be great for those people coming in from the slope side.

Jamie Daugaard, Centre Sky Architects and Rocky Mountain Rustics have been working hard to get this project up and running for opening day in November! We hope to see you on the slopes and enjoying this awesome new upgrade to the Mountain Mall!

Categories: Big Sky Culture

2013 First Quarter Big Sky Real Estate Report

Posted on February 28, 2014 by georgek

Subscribe To Our Emails And Stay Connected With What Is Happening In Big Sky & Bozeman Real Estate And The Communities Of Big Sky Country. We Will Let You Know About Local Activities And Events Throughout Our Great Area.

Real Estate Website Design, Development and Optimization by Organic Return
Sotheby's International Realty ® is a registered trademark licensed to Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC. Each Office is independently Owned and Operated.

Visit the Sotheby’s Auction House


text:
fatherlyFIRE. A re-introduction.

What is fatherlyFIRE? It is the true story of one son of an alcoholic’s search for stolen manhood. It’s a “series of dramatic remembrances” that represent my quest to answer a long left-dangling question for me, “What is a man?” It’s a summary of what my father taught me, mostly things I did not want to know. It is my story–the hole from which I crawled (and occasionally skid, trip, dive, fall, or slide back into). A very real hole, deep and dangerous, confirmed by academic research.

“Friendly fire” is a common military euphemism used to describe the horrible tragedy that occurs when through the chaos of war a soldier kills his or her own fellow soldiers by mistake, in the “fog of war.” When we hear about that, we’re sad, but we understand on some level that that can happen in the craziness of a war zone.

“fatherlyFIRE” is my own euphemism for an even greater tragedy, one that occurs not in a violence-expected war zone but in what is supposed to be the safest of places, a child’s home. In this scenario, a father inflicts crippling emotional, physical, and spiritual damage on his children as sure as if he were dropping smart bombs on their spirits, hopes and dreams. He may inflict this fire by accident or it may well be intentional. I experienced fatherly fire.

So I’m having a “now” day. Lurking in my pesky subconscious has been the increasingly intense urge to finish this. Finish what? My story. fatherlyFIRE. Here I go again. With a new, quite overly ambitious goal now set — to complete my book, fatherlyFIRE, by December 31st, 2018.

I was inspired (as is the case regularly) by my son Jonathan, who called awhile ago to discuss his upcoming weekend given to setting his five-year goals. He kindly asked my advice and I gave it, realizing I had not set any personal goals at all for 2018 let alone for the next five years. Two wise quotes sprang to mind. “He who aims at nothing hits it” and “a noble man devises noble plans, and by noble plans he stands.”

Still, dogged determination and SuperGluish stick-to-it-tive-ness are not among my many weaknesses. I will finish my book. Oh, it’s more than just started; I have at least 100 pages written. Today, I’m putting the thing back in gear. Fasten your seat belts.

The refreshed preface below and first chapter were first published on my fatherlyFIRE blog, but I think it all belongs here. I hope to publish a chapter here each month (interspersed with my normal goofy musings about bologna sandwiches, zebras, cricket-eating contests, and Fess Parker). We’ll see. Here begins fatherlyFIRE, Take 467.

Preface: Of Seahorses and Elephants.
I have fathered four wonderful children and had the privilege of being in the delivery room when three of them were born. Of course I know that with the exception of male seahorses, we men do not get to actually experience the miracle of pregnancy and birth. Still, at the risk of offending any female readers, I believe to some extent I became a seahorse in the gestation and delivery of this work fatherlyFIRE. And true to form, I gave birth to what first looked to me like a lizard, or at least something yucky. Yet today, some ten years later, I see my baby a little more clearly. Like most parents, I am very proud of my offspring; my actual children, of course, and this, the tale of my life.

fatherlyFIRE is my life story. No little eight-month gestation for this baby. They say the African elephant has the longest gestation period of any mammal…660 to 760 days. I beat that with fatherlyFIRE. It was “in the oven” for more than three years as a concept, with elements of it under construction for much longer. I guess for almost 50 years. They also say the elephant’s long pregnancy is “due to its enormous size and slow development.” I can certainly relate to that as fatherlyFIRE’s pregnant mutant seahorse/elephant poppa. It was not just something I wanted to do, it became something I had to do.

Today, I think of it in terms of Ron Pelias’ words, “what we decide to remember says who we are now” and “what we commemorate each day by the telling of our tales is our necessary history and our moral mandate.” These ideas are highly motivational and point directly to the heart of what I hope to accomplish by writing fatherlyFIRE.

fatherlyFIRE is or tries to be all that. In the end, though, it is intensely personal, an autoethnography, my “primary narrative” as Dr. Theresa Carilli might say, a series of stories of my experience identifying and dealing with the dominating impact of my alcoholic, abusive, and absent father throughout my life. A mission, perhaps. A mission that has not ended for me, a mission that continues today and will continue until I am gone. fatherlyFIRE is about my own personal legacy…what I will leave to my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. It is the story of how I have fought falling into the same patterns of my father and how sometimes I succeeded.

Yes, I bear permanent scars caused by the alcoholism of and subsequent abandonment by my father, and my own bad choices, but today see those scars as proof I’m a survivor. I can touch those scars and nod with recognition; I remember their source, but the pain is gone. I’ve made peace with my past but I have more work to do, though, more stories to tell, more information to uncover, process and present.

So today, as I think back over this my “pregnancy,” I have good thoughts. Oh, I do remember some times of pain in the labor process, as any pregnant male seahorse or long-gestating African elephant might. But I am very proud of what I’ve recorded here. Perfect? No, of course not. Actually, rather lizard-like. But that’s exactly the beauty of the story I tried to tell. It is about imperfection and pressing on anyway.

In the not particularly immortal words spoken by that eminent philosopher Rocky Balboa, “But it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward.” If you prefer something slightly more cerebral, that feller Henry Ward Beecher said, “We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but  by the distance they traveled to get there.” I say, “Amen!” to both.

My hope is the openness I offer here will prompt openness from others in response. Especially those who know similar pain and feel the same sense of being alone.

According to Sparkes, “On the whole, autoethnographers don’t want you to sit back as spectators; they want readers to feel, care, and desire. Autoethnographies can encourage acts of witnessing, empathy, and connection that extend beyond the self of the author and thereby contribute to sociological understanding in ways that, among others, are self-knowing, self-respectful, self-sacrificing, and self-luminous.”

As you read my words, I don’t want you to be a spectator on the sidelines watching some sad tale. No. As you encounter these words, I want you to “feel, care, and desire.” On with it.

6 thoughts on “fatherlyFIRE. A re-introduction.

  1. Bill, it’s so resonant. I was discussing your work with a student recently. If ever you want to speak to my class, please let me know. This work was s a masterpiece. I encourage you to send it to festivals.

    • So great to hear from you, Theresa! I would love to come catch up with you. Do you ever get up Schaumburg way? And I’m so honored by your kind words! Thank you! Speak to your class some time? Of course. I’m dying to talk to you about your advice on the ending of my play. You were so right!

  2. I very much look forward to following your story. So inspirational to reflect on ones life; past, present and future. Honesty and self reflection are powerful tools. Thank you for sharing.

    • Thank you, JoAn. I’m going to keep trying to make time to tell the story. It’s my story, my father’s story, your father’s story, and your story, too. My hope is that by telling it, it releases us all.

  3. Pingback: June Bug’s House | Bill Boggs Blogs

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text:
The Best Backyard

Trammel and Abrams, East Dallas

Big Boy in a Dallas Backyard

Big Boy in a Dallas Backyard

The statue was in the front yard, until the man made him move
Kip’s Big Boy Statue Gone From Abrams Road Lawn, Thanks to City Code Enforcers
…now he’s in the back yard, but sort of visible from the road.

Still, what a great backyard – imagine the picnics you could have with the Big Boy looking over your spread. You would be the coolest dude in the ‘hood.

I have such great memories of sitting around a table in a Kip’s Big Boy (or Shoney’s Big Boy, or Bob’s Big Boy – depending on the state I was living in) late at night… or early in the morning. Sitting around eating some greasy food, tired, talking – especially with people I knew really well, or people I had just met… or best of all, a mixture of both.

Where did the waitresses working in Big Boys at three in the morning come from? They were all the same – middle aged, rode hard and put up wet, brutally efficient. They were their own breed. Imagine the stories they could tell.

Late Night breakfast after three at a Big Boy, or any cheap diner in any town – that is an existence in an entirely separate dimension from the real world. As long as everyone at the table can cough up enough to cover the check – it’s impossible to imagine any troubles from the other hours of the day or the other places in your life being bad enough to intrude on that calm tired orgy of comfort food.

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text:
About Us

The company, BIOMED NV, was founded in 1984 by Rik and Juanita Hellemans. Inspired by Subhuti Dharmananda (ITM) and the late Dr. Hong-Yen Hsu (Sun Ten) BIOMED was the first company in Europe that put Chinese herbal formulas in the form of prepared products on the market. After Belgium and the Netherlands the market expanded soon  to other European countries. In 1998 activities were transferred to a larger location in Putte in the Netherlands where the distribution is handled by BIOMED BV. With over 35 year of experience and reliability in business, BIOMED continues to be a leader in the distribution of high quality and reliable food supplements. With a wide range of different products, excellent customer service and a dedicated sales team, the company is expanding its business further across Europe.


WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: text/plain

text: @conference {71476, title = {Analyzing the Hazard Evaluation Process}, booktitle = {International Workshop on the Application of Hazard Evaluation Programs for Chemicals in the Aquatic Environment}, year = {1979}, note = {(eds.)}, publisher = {American Fisheries Society}, organization = {American Fisheries Society}, address = {Waterville Valley, N.H}, abstract = {The chemical industry has experienced rapidly expanding growth over the last 75 years to the point where there are now approximately 2 million recognized chemical compounds and derivatives in existence with almost 250,000 new compounds synthesized each year. While providing numerous societal benefits, modern chemical technology has also brought about a marked increase in the number and variety of chemical pollutants ultimately entering natural surface waters. Recent estimates from the United States Environmental Protection Agency indicate that although the majority of these new compounds will not be commercialized, nearly 1,000 new chemicals annually have the potential for environmental release as a result of marketing, use, and disposal. As our understanding of the structure and functioning of the aquatic environment has grown, it has become obvious that the capacity of our rivers, lakes, and oceans to assimilate chemical wastes and toxic materials discharged into them is not at all infinite and that serious degradation of water quality is the inevitable result of misuse and mismanagement of this invaluable resource.}, keywords = {TOXINS}, author = {Dickson, Kenneth L. and Maki, Alan W. and Cairns Jr., John} }


text:
The Insider Secret on Mexican Brides Discovered

GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Earlier than COVID-19, Denisse Rodriguez was looking forward to a dream marriage ceremony at a lodge on the seashore in Puerto Vallarta with lots of of friends, however the realities of life throughout a pandemic have compelled the bride-to-be and fiance Martin Garcia to regulate their expectations. Choose web site in keeping with your purpose. This means you need to set your priorities at first and solely then select a courting web site. There are different options on-line, some platforms supply solely on-line chatting while others have an entire listing of services starting from the registration and ending with assistance during the true assembly with Mexican ladies. This half relies upon only in your inner motivation and plans.

When the day is over and there is a social gathering or a solemn occasion, Mexican girls use the services of a makeup artist. Mexican brides don’t simply use mascara with lip gloss. but in addition shadows, pencils, eyeliner, blush – all the pieces that makes girls brighter and emphasizes their individuality. Sadly, not everybody can afford the services of a make-up artist. If that is the case, girlfriends gather at someone’s residence and help each other with make-up and hair.

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Conf >mail buy brides like tough guys which can be their match however however manage these with the respect they deserve. Think about them like Tequila, pure Tequila within mexican brides for american men the occasion that you strategy it well is not going to make you having a hangover and it is the tincture regarding the Gods.

The assassins are mentioned to have been wearing bullet-proof vests emblazoned with the brand of the CJNG — vests which have shown up at plenty of cartel massacres in Mexico in latest instances. Mexico’s popular Blog del Narco now reviews that the CJNG has posted movies goading El Marro himself for running away from the marriage scene to avoid being killed.

On the location is in search of you all the best matches, configured to fulfill you. You simply must enter the search parameters (age, gender, education, passion) — after that, the positioning scans the entire database of Mexican girls. And you are viewing the proposed options. In the profiles of applicants, a number of photos are displayed, as well as your common pursuits and hobbies. Why wait? Meet women from Mexico who’re open, curious and prepared for brand new acquaintances.

Mexican women have change into fascinated and curious, which is the explanation why they fancy mysterious guys. Attempt to fuel her curiosity in your path by planning shock occasions or having her guess exactly exactly what gift you may have on her. Nevertheless, you’ll want to keep alert to whether you’re flirting or your Mexican gf desires to have frank discussion and begin your accountability. Remember about another effective instrument in the toolbox of flirt – the human physique language and touch. Make your Mexican bride believe she actually is the middle of your world additionally the girl that’s solely’ve ever desired to be with, along along with your work can be rewarded.

You possibly can simply discover them in the event you come to this country as a tourist. However in case you are in search of Mexican women for marriage then it is higher to get acquainted with Mexican mail order brides on the specialised websites. Whereas assembly women on the streets and at public locations in Mexico, there is a risk to discover a chick who is just not aimed at critical relationships.

As for clothes, most girls desire to put on skirts and dresses. Bear in mind only the traditional outfit, a flying dress with a print and flowers within the hair. After all, in a traditional outfit, girls do not walk around the streets but give choice to decorate and skirts. Some girls will be seen carrying jeans in essentially the most hellish warmth. They justify this with the truth that they really want to go in jeans even regardless of the scorching sun.

They’re cheerful and enjoyable-loving. Getting involved in a enjoyable routine is part of the lifetime of most native individuals. Even Mexican ladies from suburbs and urban areas will all the time take each likelihood to attend lessons and go to some beautiful locations. Once they find a reason to have some fun, they’ll all the time oblige. Also, this enjoyable-loving spirit will transfer to you in a matter of time, so you’ll realize how a lot your current way of life must be changed.

However, as any sincere man will let you know, with great passion comes…girls who are a bit loca. So your Mexican girlfriend shall be more bodily and emotionally passionate than you have ever experienced, but also a tiny bit nuts. Regardless that not all Mexican brides get married within the church, many do, and in these cases church’s dress code is to be followed. Because of this, brides could wear bolero jackets or shawls to cowl their bare shoulders.

The good factor is there are lots of reputable online relationship businesses which have each women and men’s pursuits at heart. They want the women’s safety protected, they usually want men to really feel safe that they aren’t getting scammed. Overall, they want to be sure that their status as a relationship agency stays respected, by having the highest success rate for relationships that work out as potential. Finding a real match on-line can happen, and it occurs day-after-day. Finding Mexican brides on-line is easy, and most people can do it proper from their computer or smartphone.

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Creators of the reviewed casino believe the first human settlement on Mars will entertain themselves with the bitcoin casino named after the Red Planet. With 1500+ slots, roulette and blackjack variants, the online casino attracts attention with a unique space exploration theme that seems to mix Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles and the latest Hollywood blockbusters. On every webpage, there are abandoned landscapes of the fourth planet, humans walking on the Martian ground in spacesuits, and also dust-covered slot machines that look seemed off there. The bitcoin casino offers lots of payment options, not only crypto but also regular moneys.

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John Calvin Abney - Safe Passage 12"LP (Black vinyl) - Black Mesa Records
Safe Passage 12"LP (Black vinyl)

Release Info

  • Catalog Number: BMR008
  • Release Date: 09/27/2019
  • Format: Vinyl
  • Color: Black
John Calvin Abney

Safe Passage 12"LP (Black vinyl)

Regular price $20.00

Safe Passage is the follow-up to 2018’s Coyote, which Rolling Stone Country called “dreamy folk with a good balance of sadness and sunshine.” From the start of Safe Passage’s gentle opener, Abney draws a line between himself and the expectations of others. “I just want to feel good,” he sings softly, setting the tone for the album’s cyclical narrative, a ten-song exploration of happiness and self-acceptance and grace. This introspection continues and bleeds heavy on the album’s lead single, “Turn Again." It’s a subtly catchy and elegant track written about the loss of a good friend and the self-sabotaging habits to which we all fall.

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Logic brick interference and particle system previewing

I wonder if I shouldn’t just make one big thread to ask questions so that I don’t end up spamming your forum guys. I’m happily working away now on my game which will be a platformer along the lines of Banjo and Kazooie ( Lots of collectables and different worlds ) and while I’m building all my art assets up like crazy now I keep running into what should be easy to fix problems that just need me pointed in the right direction or some tutorial that I can’t find.

It’s a bit like the proportional editing crap I had to deal with where I just can’t find a decent explanation about it anywhere :smiley:

First problem: Logic bricks! I have my logic bricks set up fine and have been able to do all sorts with them. I even have a lot more stuff planned for other projects but there’s one thing that’s stopping me get it done and that’s whenever I try to create more than one set of logic for an object connecting to keyboards.

This is an example of what I’m talking about, what happens to me is I make the first character etc. and have everything working, then when I try to make different vehicles and such have logic the logic automatically stays on and I can’t switch anything around, I’ll particularly need to be able to do this properly with cameras.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2KREEPuNDs - There are plenty of tutorials like this where the person using the engine is clearly having particles working in preview.

Second problem: Previewing particles, now I’ve read around on this already and supposedly the blender game engine doesn’t support it and after clicking around I’ve discovered that you can sort of get things working with billboards or actuators? I’d need some kind of tutorial to have that explained to me properly.

Thread moved from Blender & CG Discussions to Game Engine Support & Discussion forum

My bad! Didn’t think this was a technical problem or anything so I put it in general.

Please open one thread for one issue. Alternative you can have a single thread in the WIP forums.


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Norman Sas: Millions Plugged Into His Football Game

Forget Madden NFL 13. If you're a boomer, you know that the real deal was Electric Football, a tabletop game introduced back in the late 1940s, long before video games even were a daydream in the mind of Nolan Bushnell. We didn't need any fancy game consoles to have fun. All we needed was an electrical outlet and a space to set up the vibrating metal playing field. Pretty soon, 22 little plastic football players were jiggling all over the place, moving a little felt football up and down the field in a chaotic frenzy. It didn't much resemble the actual heroics of Johnny U. or Gayle Sayers, but on a rainy Saturday afternoon, it was the next best thing.

If Electric Football had a Knute Rockne, it was Norman Sas, the New York-based toy maker who invented the game. Sas, who passed away June 26 at age 87 in Vero Beach, Fla., was a U.S. Navy officer during World War II and earned degrees in both mechanical engineering and business from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. But his stroke of genius was finding a new use for a novelty invention developed by an employee of his father's struggling metal products company: a small electrical device that used vibrations to propel figures - at the time, toy cars or plastic horses - across a metal surface. Noting the rising popularity of football, which was starting to be televised in the New York area, Sas got the idea of using the gadget to stage contests between tiny plastic football players.

Over the next couple of decades, Sas kept working to make Electric Football more fun. With the help of industrial designer Lee Payne, he made the figures more realistic, and added little adjustable tabs that enabled the kids playing the game to better control the players' movements. Sas and Payne also attached a mockup of a football stadium to the vibrating table, for more atmosphere. The National Football League agreed to license the game in 1967, and it soon became a popular item in the Sears Catalog, our childhood's

Amazingly, even with the rise of video gaming, Electric Football has remained popular. The website of the Miniature Football Coaches Association lists scores of regional leagues across the nation. There's even now an iPhone app, Super Shock Football, that strives to simulate Electric Football's low-tech charm.

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With hundreds of articles on every retirement planning topic you can think of, peace of mind is just a click away.

Should I Take A Lump Sum Or The Annuity Payments?

Stan The Annuity Man

Question: I’m leaving my current job and have been given a couple of options concerning my retirement plan there.  Should I take the lump sum and move on, or should I take the annuity payment?
Eric G. from Fullerton, California

Answer: Great question Eric, and one that does not have a perfect “one size fits all” answer.  First of all, when you leave an employer, sometimes they offer you a lump sum option that you can transfer to a personal IRA to manage however you see fit.  Typically, they also offer a choice that would provide a lifetime income stream that you could set up for you and possibly your spouse as well.  Your situation seems that they have offered both options, which is a good thing so let’s take a look at a good way to make this once in a lifetime decision.

Taking The Lump Sum

This is the obvious decision if income is not needed immediately, or if you feel that you can manage the money better than a typical annuity transfer of risk strategy.  Don’t be convinced to buy an annuity for growth, because annuities are not growth products in my opinion.  Most agents disagree with me on this and point out variable or indexed annuity strategies for growth, but they are not living in contractual reality.

Too many times I see 100% of someone’s lump sum amount going into a deferred variable or indexed annuity as a one size fits all solution.  In most cases, it makes no sense to put all of you eggs into one basket, and this certainly applies to annuities.

Taking The Annuity Payments

If you need income right now, or want to set up a lifetime payment that includes a spouse, then you need to shop for the best guarantee available.  When a company offers a payment option, they are in essence offering a Single Premium Immediate Annuity payment guarantee.  The primary difference is that the company you worked for is backing up and guaranteeing the payment instead of an insurance carrier that would stand behind an immediate annuity payout.

I typically find that most companies guarantee a higher payout than if you rolled the lump sum to an outside annuity carrier and purchased a Single Premium Immediate Annuity.  This isn’t true 100% of the time, which is the reason you need to shop the company’s guaranteed payout amount with outside immediate annuity quotes.  It’s a real simple choice from there, because you just need to choose the highest contractual guarantee.

As a minor caveat to this easy contractual decision, you also may want to make sure the payout structure is what you want.  What I mean by that is some companies might offer a higher payout, but with no death benefit or cost of living increase.  Single Premium Immediate Annuities can offer 10 to 15 different ways to structure payouts and guarantees within the policy, and most companies only offer a handful of options.

Do Your Homework And Ask One Question

Like any one time decision, take your time and do as much homework as needed for you to make the correct choice.  The one question to ask yourself when presented the choice between taking a lump sum and an annuity payment.  That question is a very simple one….”What do I want to money to do, and when do I want that to happen?”

From that question and subsequent answers, you can conclude whether an annuity solution is suitable and appropriate for your specific situation.  It may or may not be, and always go with your own instinctual gut feel and not be influence by someone trying to sell you something.

I offer my congratulations to you that you even have the choice of receiving a lump sum or a lifetime payment.  Either way, you have won and have a choice that American’s would love to try to answer.

The “Ask Stan The Annuity Man” educational series is provided by a nationally recognized annuity critic and annuity consumer advocate.  Stan The Annuity Man has over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry, and is the author of the highly acclaimed book, The Annuity Stanifesto.

*If you have a question for Stan The Annuity Man, please send your question to  He will answer all questions directly, and might include yours in his next Annuity123 “Ask Stan The Annuity Man” blog.

Click here to see more of Stan’s educational articles.

About the Author:

Stan The Annuity Man is a nationally recognized annuity expert and annuity critic, and has been called the national consumer advocate for annuities… and a walking middle finger of annuity truth.  He is a weekly RetireMentor columnist for The Wall Street Journal’s, and is the exclusive annuity contributor for  His highly acclaimed book, The Annuity Stanifesto, is a top seller in its category, and is known as the go to resource for all things annuity.

Stan The Annuity Man has clients nationwide, and is considered one of the top independent annuity agents in the country.  You can learn more at

Annuity123 does not offer insurance, investment, or tax advice.  You should always seek the guidance of qualified and licensed professionals concerning your personal insurance, investment, or tax matters.  Annuity123 is simply a platform allowing retirement planning professionals to help educate the community on various retirement planning topics.  Annuity123 does not directly support or take responsibility for ensuring the accuracy of the content displayed in the articles themselves or any feedback that may get added in the Comments section from the community.

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Cochlear Implants as a Journey to Hearing: Gracie’s Story

Since Kathleen had experienced a healthy pregnancy, she and her husband Mike were expecting a healthy baby girl.

“Out she popped, and everything was perfect,” Kathleen recalls. “When she failed her newborn screening test, we weren’t that concerned. We knew that babies could fail that test for a number of reasons, even if they have no hearing problems.”

Baby Gracie

Two weeks later during a visit with her pediatrician, Gracie failed another hearing test. Her family was referred to Providence Speech and Hearing Center.

More testing provided a diagnosis: Gracie had severe to profound bilateral hearing loss. What hearing ability she did have would not be enough to allow her to speak and learn language.

“When I realized my daughter couldn’t even hear me tell her that I love her, I was a mess,” Kathleen recalls. “It felt like the world was falling apart in that moment.”

Gracie tried hearing aids, and although she was finally able to hear her parents say her name, the hearing aids were not enough to compensate for her hearing loss.

Since Kathleen is a special education teacher, she was already familiar with cochlear implants—surgically implanted devices that offer the hope of gaining the ability to sense sound.

“Deciding to pursue cochlear implants was a pretty easy decision,” says Mike. “We didn’t really give it a second thought. As a parent, you just want to give your kid every opportunity possible—especially the chance to hear.”

Gracie was thrilled to get cochlear implants.

The cochlear implant artificially stimulates the inner ear area with electrical signals, which sends those signals to the auditory nerve, letting a person hear. The surgery is safest in most children around one year of age.

Meanwhile, Kathleen and Mike had been teaching sign language to Gracie and her older sister.

A few months after Gracie’s first birthday, she underwent bilateral cochlear implantation surgery at CHOC Children’s Hospital with pediatric otolaryngologist (ENT) Dr. Nguyen Pham.

Gracie was excited and happy the day of her cochlear implant surgery.

“When I first met Dr. Pham, I felt like I had known him forever,” Kathleen says. “He answered every single question we had and was honest with us throughout the process.”

Gracie’s parents were thrilled that her bilateral cochlear implant surgery went perfectly.

Kathleen knew the benefits for Gracie outweighed the potential complications that come with surgery, but as a parent, she was naturally worried about her child’s well-being.

“Every time I saw Dr. Pham I was frantic, and he was always so calming. It was nice to have that reassurance,” Kathleen says. “Dr. Pham is a miracle worker.”

Surgery went perfectly, and Gracie spent just one night in the hospital. A few weeks later it was time to officially activate her cochlear implants.

Gracie was all smiles on activation day for her cochlear implants.

Even though Kathleen had faith the cochlear implants would work, but she was still anxious for activation day.

“Activation day was amazing and terrifying at the same time,” she recalls. “Everyone said not to worry, but I thought it might be too good to be true. I just kept thinking, ‘How could this little device be the thing that allows my baby to hear?’”

As soon as the cochlear implants were activated, Gracie’s face lit up and she pointed to her ears. Her parents let out a sigh of relief. When they took her home, they found the most joy in the small, mundane sounds around their house. Gracie could finally hear the front door open, the dog bark, and most importantly—her parents say I love you.

Before a child with cochlear implants will begin talking, they need time to get comfortable wearing their implants and undergo speech therapy. For Gracie, that time was just a few weeks. She still undergoes speech therapy twice per week, once at Providence Speech and Hearing Center and once at home.

To say Gracie is thriving is an understatement, according to Kathleen. Not only does Gracie talk and sing non-stop with her big sister Tess, but she mastered her ABC’s just shy of her second birthday. Her language skills now exceed most normal hearing children. Gracie loves going to Disneyland, and her family appreciates any opportunity to spread education about cochlear implants to inquisitive people they meet.

At Disneyland and other places, Gracie’s family appreciates any opportunity to spread education about cochlear implants to inquisitive people they meet.

Gracie’s family has much to celebrate this year, but there’s something a few years down the road that Kathleen is most excited for.

“I am excited for her to go to kindergarten at a typical school. You have all these visions of your kids growing up, and for me to just drop my daughters off at one school is a big thing.”

Meet the cochlear implant team

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  • Music to a Little Girl’s Ears
    Penelope Grand had normal hearing from the day she was born. She loved to dance to music and she was easily woken by noises. Her parents, Luci and Paul, anxiously ...

Music to a Little Girl’s Ears

Penelope Grand had normal hearing from the day she was born. She loved to dance to music and she was easily woken by noises. Her parents, Luci and Paul, anxiously awaited her first word. Then, when she was about 10 months old, something changed.

“We really knew there was something wrong when I went to get her out of her crib after her nap one day,” mom Luci says. “She was calling out and fussing, she wanted out of there, and I came into the room but she wasn’t facing the door. I stood right in front of her crib and I called out her name, I clapped, but I got no response from her.”

Genetics are the cause of roughly half the cases of prelingual deafness, even when symptoms don’t appear at birth, as in Penelope’s case. Hearing tests and an auditory brainstem response (ABR) test revealed that Penelope had developed profound hearing loss in both ears. She had become essentially deaf.

“We were devastated,” Luci says. “I was preparing to hear ‘mild to moderate,’ not ‘profound.’ The air sucked out of my lungs. I wondered why. She is so sweet and loving, why did she have to lose her hearing?”

cochlear implant

Penelope’s audiologist prescribed hearing aids, but she had no benefit from them. That made her an ideal candidate for a cochlear implant, a new treatment offered at CHOC Children’s in close partnership with Providence Speech and Hearing Center. A cochlear implant is a small electronic device that is surgically implanted under the skin behind the ear, and has an electrode that extends into the cochlea in the inner ear. The implant’s electrode directly stimulates the cochlear nerves that perceive sound.

Dr. Nguyen Pham, CHOC pediatric otolaryngologist and head and neck surgeon, performed two outpatient surgeries on Penelope to place a cochlear implant on each of her ears.

“A cochlear implant can be life-changing for a child,” Dr. Pham says. “Children who would have been in the deaf community are now joining the hearing community because of cochlear implants. It is essentially restoring nearly normal hearing in these children.”

A Sense of Sound Restored

Oct. 13, 2015, was a memorable day for the Grands. That’s the day Penelope’s cochlear implant was activated, amidst her family and a crowd of supporters from CHOC and Providence.

Penelope begins to hear at 0:06.

“The first moment we knew she could hear was, well, it’s hard to describe what that felt like: joy, pride, happiness, excitement,” Luci says. “The look on her face was beautiful. We must have rewatched that video a hundred times.”

A cochlear implant does not translate sound perfectly. Those who wear an implant hear sounds with a robotic, mechanical quality. Following the implant’s activation, Penelope’s team of audiologists at Providence fine-tuned the frequencies of the electrodes—a process called mapping—until they produced the optimal sounds for her ears.

Now, she is undergoing comprehensive speech and language therapy, a crucial step in helping her interpret the sounds she hears and learn to communicate. She also uses American Sign Language.

“We are in awe of her, how much she’s already progressed,” Luci says. “She responds to her name now when we call out to her. She finally said her first word, bye bye, and she can now say mom. She has begun to dance again. She also has started singing in the car with me along to the music. We realized that she is so smart and so very happy, and her potential is endless. We are happy and grateful every day that she had this opportunity.”

Learn more about the CHOC Children’s Cochlear Implant Program.

 The Cochlear Implant Program is generously supported by Wildcard Army, in memory of Nixon Wildcard Hunter.

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    When you arrive to the hematology and oncology unit at CHOC Children’s Hospital, there’s someone you won’t miss — and if you do, he’ll make sure you notice him.  Three-year-old Austin, a CHOC patient, is a ...
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    Every morning when she awakes, Sydney Amato begins her daily battle with her body. If she’s lucky, the 16-year-old will have gotten a handful of hours of uninterrupted sleep – dreaming, ...


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Art of the Gulf region is underexposed, cofounders of new online gallery say

When the United Arab Emirates native Asma Al Kendi first came to the U.S., a passport control officer in San Francisco asked her where her burqa was, says the cofounder of the new online gallery Gulfography.

Seaside Mosque by Asma Faisal

Seaside Mosque by Asma Faisal.

“The image of the Middle East that most people, who haven’t traveled throughout the region, have of us is oppressed women, violence, camels, and desert,” says Al Kendi, who earned a B.S. in computer science from Dubai Women’s College in 2010.

The “dominant media” is accountable for those misleading images, but reading the artist statements and viewing the photographs on Gulfography can counterbalance the stereotypes, says Al Kendi.

Among the realistic themes that surface on the site are the “universal issues” of loneliness, pining for the past, and “even more existential topics,” she adds.

“I think when you start to see people as more multidimensional and concerned with topics you can relate to, they become more human to you,” she says. “And when they become more human to you, a space opens up where understanding and real dialogue can exist. We need that on both sides—America and the Middle East—now more than ever.”

Shammi Samano, the cofounder of the site and a former college professor, says the idea came to her a few months after the closing of an exhibit of photographs by Emirati women that she curated closed in Dubai.

Stand Tall by Atiya Saif Al Marri

Stand Tall by Atiya Saif Al Marri.

“Even though these women were fairly new to the field, I found their work provocative, bold, and technically pretty advanced,” says Samano, who was born in Baghdad and moved to the U.S. at age 8.

In her three years as a professor in Dubai, Samano saw a lot of creative talent that wasn’t getting due attention, and the filmmakers and photographers she was working with were addressing “controversial and relevant issues that really needed to be heard and understood inside and outside of the region,” she says. “They just needed a space to showcase this talent outside of Flickr sites and their personal Facebook pages, where many emerging photographers start and stop.”

The art scene in Dubai–particularly Art Dubai–is “quickly developing, even exploding,” according to Samano, and galleries are proliferating. But many emerging artists still consider it an unrealistic dream to show their work publicly, she says.

“We want to provide a more accessible space for them to approach us, regardless of where they live or who they know—and the virtual space of a website was the perfect answer,” Samano says. “We chose to focus on the Gulf region because … there is very little representation of art from the Gulf in comparison to other parts of the Middle East.”

Asked about whether the popular perception that Muslims don’t make representational art is accurate, Al Kendi admits that there have been “a lot of opinions and rules” on the matter of the Islamic perspective on photographing human figures and creatures.

“Some have argued that it is prohibited, because it leads to the idolization of a representation of God’s creations. Others go so far as to claim that creating photographs of a human figure is equal to attempting to create life—something that only God has the power to do,” she says. “A small group of Islamic scholars claim that it is forbidden for a true Muslim to even argue about these rules.”

But as a Muslim, Al Kendi believes otherwise.

“Islamic teaching urges Muslims to ask questions and find the truth for themselves. Photography is not about creating anything; it is a mere representation of God’s creations and doesn’t inherently lead to the idolization of that creation,” she says.

Whether photography is is haram (forbidden) or halal (prohibited) depends upon the photographer’s intentions, she adds. “Many Muslim photographers find no contradiction between photographing human figures and creatures and being a good Muslim.”

Menachem Wecker


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Devart sponsored SQLSaturday Kharkiv 2019

For the past decade, Devart has been actively supporting SQL Saturday events including this year’s conference in Kharkiv, Ukraine. As usual, Devart was a Gold Sponsor of the event which was held on September 28 at Fabrika space.

Devart sponsored SQL Saturday Lviv 2019

We are delighted to inform you that Devart was a Gold sponsor of the SQL Saturday Lviv 2019 event that took place on September 21 in Lviv, Ukraine. Providing support and sponsorship for both, local user group meetups, and global industry-level events is an endeavor that Devart strives to stick to and keeps developing.

Devart sponsored SQLSaturday 857 in Kyiv, Ukraine

SQLSaturday is one of the largest free-to-attend IT events in Ukraine, and Devart was its Gold Sponsor this time.

We had a lot of new product to show, gave a lot of interesting talks and had many interesting productive conversations. (more…)