text:
Life is a Gift from God
Scripture: Exodus 20:13
Track 6 of 10 in the Ten Commandments series
Sermon for Sunday, August 7, 2005
6th sermon in a 10-part series.
"Life is a Gift from God"
"Ten Words to Guide our Lives"
(Exodus 20:13)
1968 Dick Holler brought out a song that you may recognize. It's been sung by a variety of people. The lyrics go, "Has anybody here seen my old friend Abraham? Can you tell me where he's gone? He's freed a lot of people. But it seems the good, they die young." Three verses, one about Abraham, one about John and one about Martin. Three assassinated leaders in our culture. And this particular song writer was trying to help us get a handle on what happens when we kill people.
MURDER. . . . .it's the stuff of movies and music and mysteries. We're not surprised at all when we read in the paper about them. (There should be a slide coming up here with lots of them on there.) You can take and pick your choice which one is the worst or the least or the most surprising. They've been around for a long time. You'll find Cain up there, at least some artist's conception of him and a couple other Biblical characters. Maybe you'll be surprised by the presence, for example, of David. That should shock you just a little. A man after God's own heart, guilty of murder.
There are some others up there whose heinous crimes will mark them down as among the worst ever in history. There are some folks that are not up there. Probably just as well. Murderers!
It won't surprise you, I suppose, to discover that God is against it.
Exodus 20:13 Command Number 6, at least if you follow the list the way that we're following it. It's Number 6. Let me read that for you. It's pretty simple. "You shall not murder." Let's set it in it's context. You know where we've been. We've been walking through the Ten Commandments. Command No. 1 - I will not have any rivals. I am God and there isn't anybody else. Command No. 2 - Don't make graven images. Don't try to boil God down into someone you can control. Command No. 3 - Don't take the Lord's name in vain. Take Me seriously. Treat Me with dignity and respect. Command No. 4 - About the Sabbath. Trust Me, I will take care of you. Command No. 5 - The one we worked with last week. Honor your father and your mother. Learn how to submit to those over you, particularly to God.
There was a Sunday school teacher who had done her best that particular morning to teach Command number 5. Honor your parents. Obey your mom and your dad. Then she asked this question, "Is there a Commandment about how to treat your brother and sister?" And immediately one little child said, "Thou shall not murder." There is some connection here I suspect between Commandment No. 5 and Commandment No. 6. Don't MURDER!
Now, I want you to hear that clearly. Out of the thirteen English translations that I looked at, ten of them translated murder, not kill. Three of the older translations, maybe the one that you grew up on, translated. . .Thou shalt not kill. Unfortunately there are a number of words for kill in the Old Testament. This is not one of them. This is the word that is specifically relegated to one specific kind of killing and that is murder. It fits in to one rather large category. Don't kill people. But it excludes a variety of things.
This particular word is never used to talk about war. As important a topic as that might happen to be, particularly in light of yesterday. Some of you probably didn't pay any attention to that. It just passed by you. Others of you may have enough memory of this event that you were struck by it once again. For some of you it probably was a news item that arrested you. Yesterday was the anniversary, sixty years ago, that we dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. It was commemorated yesterday all over the world by those who thought it was the right thing to do and by those who thought it was the wrong.
There is a gentleman here in Quincy who has close connections to that particular event. He was interviewed on the evening news at least once during this last week.
But this word is not about that. That's an important topic, probably one we should entertain at some point. That's just not this word. Nor, is this word about capital punishment. That's not what's in here. There is a word for that in the Old Testament. It is used in a variety of places. It's not used here.
In fact, one of the Scholar's who writes about this particular word says in definition: Murder is the willful, premeditated taking of life. The law did, however, sanction killing as a defensive or punitive act and prescribed the death penalty for a variety of sins.
There are some things that this does include. When you say murder, the Old Testament was very clear that you not only had a responsibility not to take life intentionally, but, there were provisions made in case of things, that we have come to call in our legal system, manslaughter, accidental death. There was provision in the Old Testament for your personal responsibility for your property or your animals. For example, when you build a house, the instructions were very clear because they were all flat roofed structures, you were to build a parapet (a wall around the top of your roof) so that nothing could fall off and thereby injure someone on the ground.
If you owned a bowl for example, that's the illustration used in the text, and that bowl is responsible for killing someone, you, personally bear the responsibility for that death. And there were consequences to be entertained.
So when Moses presented this law to the people, Thou shalt not murder, there was a fairly wide range of things here. Manslaughter, taking responsibility for your property. There was provision in the Old Testament for a variety of what were called cities of refuge so that, if per chance, you were involved in a death, so that somebody just didn't come along and immediately seek revenge, you could flee to the city of refuge and in that city of refuge you could be guaranteed a trial. That way nobody could just avenge an "eye for an eye" or a "tooth for a tooth", a "life for a life" without there being some legal recourse.
Don't kill people. That's basically what this text says, intentionally or otherwise. I suppose we could move on with the rest of the service now because it's pretty simple. Don't go around murdering folks. That's what this text says.
The question is, why not? And it seems to me that in the answering of the question, why God so strongly prohibits murder is wrapped up in the things we've already said. We've sung it. We've read it and we've listened to it.
So let's go back to it. Genesis 1 You need to understand if you're going to understand this command and its implications for your life. You need to have some sense of how significant, how important life was. In fact, if you read your Bible, Genesis 1, 2 & 3 you'll become very quickly aware, life was intended to never end. Death was not part of the picture; any kind of death. There was a tree from which they could eat that was supposed to give them life forever. Unfortunately, as you know, that didn't work out very well.
But in Genesis 1:26 after having created all of humanity, or all of the animal and plant kingdom, He says in Genesis 1:26 "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. . . . .and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply". . . . . . Do you notice that the very first command given to man was to create life. God created us in His image and the very first thing He told us to do was reproduce who you are. Life had value! Had immeasurable importance and significance. Go over to Genesis 2:8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground - trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Right there in the very essence of creation is this statement "I want you to live". Life is important. Life has value.
Come over to Genesis 9 You don't have to wait until Genesis 9 before you discover that man has fouled things up but we'll go ahead and go to Genesis 9 because there's such a strong statement here about life. This is after the flood. All of humanity except for Noah and his family has been destroyed. He starts over with Noah.
Genesis 9:1 God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. Sounds a lot like that early command in Genesis doesn't it? The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything."
"But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for life of his fellow man."
"Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; (WHY?) for in the image of God has God made man.
Why does God value life so significantly? Because we were created in God's image. We have value just because we're human. Just because we are what God has made. Look at Psalm 139. We read just a piece of it earlier. Let's come back to the 139th Psalm and just read a bit more of that.
Psalm 139, you'll recognize it, I'm quite confident.
Psalm 139 O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. You notice how closely He pays attention to you.
You hem me in - behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
You can't ever be out of God's presence. That's His message. He cares so much about you that you can never go someplace and discover, "oh wait a minute, God's not here" 'cause He's everywhere you are and He's there before you get there.
He goes on to say, If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for the darkness is as light to you.
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made: your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. God knew you before you were you.
I don't know if you've been around the back of our building lately. But there are babies everywhere. It's a wonderful thing. It's marvelous! And God knows them all, every one of them. And He knew them before you knew that you had them. Because He knit them together. He values life.
I have mentioned this particular person to you before. His name is L. C. Sutton. He came out of the projects in Joliet. He was a young African-American that came to Lincoln to school whom I traveled with into the inner city of Hartford on a number of different occasions. I always wanted to take L. C. with me because the world that I grew up in was middle-class or sub-middle-class but white. I didn't understand.
And I have to confess to you that while I grew up on the poor side of the tracks, I am fully, completely immersed in middle-class culture. I know how to fix things. Do it my way and everything will turn out the way it's supposed to. Go get a job. Clean up the place. Do what your supposed to do. Quit misbehaving and life will be like it's supposed to be. You all know those rules.
Then I would get into the north end of Hartford; and, I would walk down Albany Avenue; and, I would walk past anywhere from 50 to 500 unemployed African-American men standing on the street. And I would go to the community center at either Charter Oaks or one of the other places and I would play with little black children. Demetrius was one of my favorites. A five year old who could walk us through the subdivision, literally walked us through the subdivision, and point out which houses you don't go in, which cars you do not pay attention to, which people you avoid. Five years old! I will never forget the statement that Beau made to me when one of our college students asked him what he wanted when he grew up. His answer was, "I just want to live to be seventeen." That's not an answer that I would have ever given.
I remember going to the maximum security prison, north of Hartford in Connecticut and I remember as L. C. and I were carrying on these conversations and I'm asking him to help me understand culture. I would ask this question, "How do we get people out of here?"
One particular day we were commenting on an event that happened in Cabrini Green in Chicago. Maybe you will remember the day that a ten year old boy threw an eight year old boy off the eighth floor of an apartment building because he wanted his coat. And I remember asking L. C., "How do we address this issue?" And his response has stayed with me forever. "Teach people that they are made in the image of God and have value."
I don't know how to say more significantly the importance of this 6th Commandment than to say, "Treat people as if they were made in the image of God because they have inherent value."
Gail and I just re-watched for probably the second or third time the movie Amestad about those slaves from West Africa who became a part of a supreme court decision in the early part of our country; and, here was the argument, were they or were they not property? Of course they weren't property! They were people!
Thou shalt not murder.
Well, that ought to be simple enough. Don't do it. Of course, none of you are thinking you will.
There was an attorney meeting with a widow. The fella had not left a will and so he was saying, " You know it's really important that we know the last thing that your husband said to you because that's the only way we're going to be able to process this case." And the wife said, "I really don't want to tell you." He said, "Well, we really have to know the last thing that he said." And she said, "It was between he and me and I really don't want to share it with you." And he said, "There is no way we can dispose of this case if you don't tell me." And she said, "Oh alright. The last thing he said to me was, 'You couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with that gun.'"
It's fairly obvious that we shouldn't shoot one another, right? Thou shalt not murder.
But is that the end of the issue? Well, ya know. . . Maybe one of the implications is that we take responsibility for things, like the way we drive.
If an Old Testament person had to put a parapet around his house to keep things from falling off maybe we ought to be responsible for the way that we handle those things that could injure other people.
Quite honestly, ah, I'm not taking a political stand here. I just happened to grow up during the days when atomic energy was hitting the scenes. I remember as an early teenager going to Arco, Idaho where the nuclear plant was and they were telling us about how this whole thing worked and how they were taking all of this nuclear waste and they were burying it out in the desert someplace because they were just really pretty sure that if you put it down in a salt pit that it would not cause any damage. And I remember thinking. . . . "pretty sure!" I think I'd like more assurance than "pretty sure". I mean it's not like it's going to last for a day or two and then, you know, it'll be gone. This stuff goes on for like, ever!
Could it be that maybe this text about valuing life says something about "Valuing life". Could it be that this is an issue that comes on the heels of the 5th Commandment for a very clear reason? Honor your father and your mother. Thou shalt not murder. And maybe we need to rethink the whole Oregon law about mercy killing. You know the word, it's euthanasia. Do you know the word? It's actually two words; "eu" and "thanatas". Eu means good. Sorry! It's a Greek word. Thanatas means death. The word euthanasia means good death. That's easy for you to say. If you're doing it to me. But you might want to ask me how I feel about it. Whether I think it's good. Maybe this command has something to say about that on some occasion.
Maybe this has something to say about the American perspective on (and you knew it was coming), abortion. In 1989, sixteen years ago, (I'm sure these statistics have changed. . . . .not drastically) your chances of being killed by a terrorist overseas somewhere were 1 in 650,000. Maybe it's worse than that now; maybe it's 1 in 100,000. I don't know. Your chances of being killed by a murderer in Baltimore were about 1 in 4,000. They tell me that's gotten better. It's not quite as violent there. But your chances of being killed in the womb were 1 in 3.
In American culture, we murder 1.3 to 5 million children a year. We haven't, in all the wars we've been in, lost that many of our soldiers. And we do it to ourselves every year.
'Course. . . . .okay . . . . .take a breath. That was heavy. We're not murderers, right? That first slide, that was murderers! Those mean, nasty people, like John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dalmer. I have another slide of another murderer I would like you to meet. He should be up there by now. And I have another one. It should be a mirror and I'm asking you to look in it.
Because the issue is not just have we physically taken someone's life. If that were all the issues that we had to face, that would be really rather simple, don't you think? Not a difficult thing at all.
But here's where the New Testament begins to come into play. Look over at Matthew 5 in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5:21 "You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment."
It's probably a good thing that I was an only child. I don't have to worry about being angry with my brother. My fear is that God is going to include cousins in that.
Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca, or [an Aramaic term of contempt]. . .is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.
Now Jesus is getting just a little too close to home, if you ask me.
Look at Romans 13. Paul recounts this particular command. Romans 13:8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law. The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." Look particularly at Verse 10. Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Love does no harm. . . . . .
Look at the little book of 1John clear at the other end of your New Testament. 1John 3:14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
For the New Testament the issue is the valuing of people. It's not the external act alone. The majority of us, probably 100% of us, having never been guilty of that, and will never be guilty of that, but the heart.
Some years ago, 1985, there were 96 Vietnamese boat people floating in the bay, not far from Korea, hoping to make land before a typhoon. They had been passed by 50 different ships who had just ignored them in the sea. The 51st ship was a Korean fishing vessel with a load of tuna and crew headed back to North Korea. It first went by the boat people ignoring their cries for help and then, the Captain, who's name I can't begin to pronounce, decided with his crew members, that they would take the risk of picking up those 96 boat people. So they turned their ship around and they did, they rescued them. A year ago tomorrow, August 8, 2004, 500 Vietnamese and North Korean relatives of those boat people gathered to say thank you to this particular Captain. Here was his comment. The man is now 62 years old. He, by the way, was fired for what he did. "I am human. And in that moment, the only thing I cared about was 96 lives."
Do you hear it? The man understood something about the basic value of humanity.
Why does God say, Thou shalt not kill? Because we matter. Because we're made in God's image and so we begin to value people.
As long ago as the middle-1600's, the church put together a catechism in the city of Heidelberg. That catechism in part reads like this.
Q: What does God require in the sixth commandment?
Answer: That neither in thoughts, nor words, nor gestures, much less in deeds, I dishonor, hate, wound, or kill my neighbor, myself or another: (a) but that I lay aside all desire of revenge: (b) also, that I hurt not myself nor willfully expose myself to any danger. (c) Wherefore also the magistrate is armed with the sword, to prevent murder.
Q: But this commandment seems only to speak of murder?
Answer: In forbidding murder, God teaches us, that he abhors the causes thereof, such as envy, (a) hatred, (b) anger, (c) and desire of revenge; and that he accounts all these as murder.
Q: But is it enough that we do not kill any man in the manner mentioned above?
Answer: No; for when God forbids envy, hatred, and anger, he commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves; (a) to show patience, peace, meekness, mercy, and all kindness, towards him, (b) and prevent his hurt as much as in us lies; (c) and that we do good, even to our enemies.
Because we value people, we treat each other with respect. See, even those that we have learned to love even though we don't like, He says you treat them with dignity and you treat them with respect. You value them for who they are and you respond to them appropriately.
So the next time you're in the grocery store and somebody cuts in front of you with their cart, or the next time you get in the line that says "twelve items or less" and they have 37 different things in their cart, quote to yourself the sixth commandment, Thou shalt not murder.
It often determines how we make decisions. Whether we are going to choose death or life. And I have, with the most absolute regard, sat with children who tried to figure out what to do with aging parents, appreciated the dilemma, but valued them for their choice of life.
And I've talked to the young couples, who, when a doctor says, "this child will not be normal", still chooses to give life. It helps us to establish our priorities.
See, when you value life and value people everything else falls into place. How you treat your children over a cup of spilled milk. And one of the things we will wrestle with over the next several weeks as we prepare for our September 11th celebration is that this piece of stuff that we built out here out of steel and brick and "stuff" is just that........."stuff" and we will never value it more than we value people who might use it.
The bottom line. . . . . How we think determines how we act!
Back in 1948 Richard Weaver wrote a book called Ideas Have Consequences. The way you think determines how you act. If you don't believe that, read a history book about Adolph Hitler; or read some old news clippings about Jack Kevorkian; if you don't believe that read the literature of Planned parenthood; or better yet, take a look at Mother Teresa. Because how you think, determines how you act. And when you believe that people have value; when you believe that people are made in the image of God and therefore have inherent worth, it will govern every choice you make in the treatment of people.
So, we come again, like we always do, to this question. How in the world did Jesus fulfill this command? Well, just read the Gospels and watch Him touch lepers. You knew the rule for leper, right? Complete ostracizing by everyone. If anybody came within a certain distance, you had to holler "Unclean" "Unclean" And Jesus walked up and touched them.
You know how Jesus handled this. When a woman caught in adultery was thrust at His feet and the cries of the self-righteous were, "The law says stone her." And Jesus said, "If you're without sin, you cast the first stone."
You know how Jesus handled this. In a culture where widows and children were absolutely powerless. He said, "Treat them with kindness. Bring them to me. I'll love them when no one else will."
How did Jesus handle this? This issue of life. He went to the grave side of His friend Lazarus and the shortest text in Scripture says, "He wept." He cried because He understood the value of people and how it hurt these people to lose a friend. Jesus understood the value of life.
So if that isn't a contradiction for you then let me try to help make it clear.
I'm standing in front of a table that represents death. So you walk all the way back to Genesis and "God made man in His image, male and female He created them. And He put a tree in the garden, a tree they called life." And man chose to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil instead. And so what did God do? He clothed them with the (do you know what it was?) It was the hide of an animal. And before we get out of the creation account, God has already started giving up life in order to create life of a different kind.
And when I come to this table, I come to a table that reminds me that God himself valued my life so highly, that He gave up the life of His own Son, so that I could be here. And when you come to this table and you hold in your hands, a cup and a wafer, understand God loves you so much that He violates His own command. He takes a life so that you can have life.
Father, we could not be more grateful than we are for what you have done. We don't know how to say thanks in any other way than to try to faithfully be your children and to value life. And so we come to a table that reminds us of a death that produced life and we celebrate here, the resurrection of Jesus and the promise of the resurrection of our own lives. We commit ourselves to treat life with dignity because it belongs to you. May we always remember that, as we gather at this place and think about your Son. In whose name we pray, and in whose name we celebrate this meal.


"Our research suggests their shapes are possibly different," astronomer Noe Lugaz said.
Aug. 30 (UPI) -- New analysis of old data has undermined common assumptions about the shape of the sun's coronal mass ejections.
Coronal mass ejects, or CMEs, are large eruptions of plasma and high energy particles from the sun's atmosphere. They trigger powerful solar storms, which can disrupt power grids and satellite communication systems if they strike Earth.
An improved understanding of CME structures could help scientists more accurately predict space weather and protect satellites.
"Since the late 1970s, coronal mass ejections have been assumed to resemble a large slinky -- one of those spring toys -- with both ends anchored at the sun, even when they reach Earth about one to three days after they erupt," Noe Lugaz, research associate professor at the University of New Hampshire's Space Science Center, said in a news release. "But our research suggests their shapes are possibly different."
Current measurements of CMEs are limited, allowing for only a 30-to-60 minute warning before CME-triggered storms hit Earth. Scientists want to extend the warning period to two hours, and eventually a full 24 hours.
To better characterize the shape and structure of CMEs, scientists returned to a dataset collected by NASA's CME-probing satellite duo, Wind and ACE. Normally, Wind and ACE are side by side, offering scientists a single point reference. But between 2000 and 2002, the two satellites were separated.
The dataset offered scientists a unique opportunity to gain a two-point perspective.
New analysis of the old data suggests CMEs are not shaped like big, simple slinkies. The ejections are either significantly deformed slinkies, scaled-down slinkies or another shape entirely.
Scientists hope future multipoint observations of CMEs will help astronomers more accurately characterize the formation of coronal mass ejections and improve space weather prediction models.
Researchers detailed their analysis this week in Astrophysical Journal Letters.


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Make my house a house of prayer for the nations and do not make it into a market or a den of thieves.
It is one thing to recover expenses when charging for goods and services related to the Kingdom, but there is a lot of profit made through the sale of "spiritual" products. I believe we should be VERY careful about this. All we have, all our knowledge and insight and experience and resources are from God. Freely you have received, freely give. (Matthew 10:8b) It is also a severe indictment that the VAST majority of the income of the Church is spent on herself in one way or another. That is in addition to a tremendous amount of graft.


I have had the privilege of working with Kylie in MA and PhD level creative writing workshops. She is generous and attentive in her advice to writers. She manages a rare blend of gentle thoughtfulness and rigour, and has a gift of patient, kind intelligence.
Kylie possesses a unique ability to perceive a given writer's vision for a specific project, and to then tailor her guidance in that light. She is always sensitive, and has the highest degree of integrity and care. I trust her professionally and personally.
Kylie is an extremely wise and encouraging mentor. She brings her considerable experience of writing and the publishing world to her feedback, which is subtle and sure-footed, but always sensitively delivered. She's exactly the person you want on your team.
Kylie is a tactful and thoughtful editor and supportive mentor who helped me hugely when I was writing my first novel. I benefited greatly from her insightful and encouraging editorial suggestions. Kylie has a keen ear for the rhythm of language and a sensitive appreciation of character. Her suggestions were always given with the aim of making the work into the best version of itself it could be, and I felt that she understood and respected my vision for the novel. I gained great confidence from working with her and count myself lucky that she was one of the early readers of my manuscript.
Kylie was my mentor and editor when I wrote After Everything. She was patient, encouraging and nursed me through many early drafts, always offering the most constructive and creative advice in both plot and character development. She knew when something was not working, and more importantly, knew how to fix it. I couldn't have completed the book without her encouragement and I know I wouldn't have got a two book deal with Simon and Schuster in America without her help. In short, she was invaluable. And good fun as well.
It's a lucky writer who falls into the hands of Kylie Fitzpatrick. Astute, capable, experienced and with a fantastic intuition for drawing out the soul of a manuscript, Kylie is able - with great gentleness - to guide you in the right direction. I highly recommend her as an editor and mentor.


Fish with white wine from Tapenade Bistro.
Diot has been making French culinary magic on Fay Avenue in La Jolla since 1998. He said he gained decades of cooking experience working at Michelin-rated restaurants throughout regional France before moving to New York City, where he opened three successful restaurants. But after Diot and his wife, Sylvie, had two children, they decided to slow their pace by moving to family-friendly La Jolla and opening Tapenade.
Fresh, organic, high-quality ingredients are key essentials for every Tapenade dish. Diot said he plans the daily menu specials based on the season and what is available from his market suppliers. But many of Tapenade's signature dishes, like the popular wild mushroom raviolis, are always available. Summer menu favorites include potato and spinach gnocchi and scallops; and artichoke and eggplant lasagna with zucchini blossoms and orange sauce.
The fish du jour also changes by the season with fresh halibut and sea bass leading the summer choices. Summer fresh-fruit dessert specialties include Framboise Melba (raspberries with vanilla ice cream, raspberry sauce and whipped cream) and Clafoutis aux abricots (warm apricots with ice cream and almonds).
"Our bistro menu offers plates of small bites, like our seasoned lamb sliders with ratatouille, gruyere cheese, mint aioli and French fries," said Sylvie Diot. "A party of two or three people can come together in a casual way to share a few small bite plates, like our Moule Marinieres (steamed clams in white wine with shallot, garlic and parsley).
Tapenade is known for its signature plats du jour items, including Veal Osso Bucco, Rabbit Moutarde, Fish Bouillabaisse, Magret de Canard, Steak Tartare and other French delicacies.
Tapenade's recent dining room renovation presents a modern, elegant decor with Parisian flair that provides an ideal setting for special events, including corporate and family functions.


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Amputee Dancer Who Stunned World With London 2012 Paralympic Games Routine Dies
A double amputee dancer who performed a stunning routine at the London 2012 Paralympic Games opening ceremony has died age 56.
David Toole, who was last year made an OBE for services to dance and to people with disabilities, was confirmed by the Leeds-based Slung Low theatre company.
He died at the age of 56 in hospital in the city earlier this week.
Jenny Sealey, artistic co-director of the London 2012 Paralympics opening ceremony, said: "Dave was so many things, our darling, wonderful, opinionated, glorious, silly, funny, kind, sexy, loving and wise friend.
"The most unique and leftfield man ever and funny beyond words.
"And of course, an extraordinary performer and a unique brilliant dancer."
Posted By cheatmaster On 01:06 Mon, 19 Oct 2020

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I point out that the photo notice mails accepted or rejected are not sent regularly. Sometimes they arrive incomplete (example two accepted yes, but those rejected nothing).
Today, for example, the mail of two accepted and two rejected has not arrived and this for others too.


text:
Survivor: Game Changers Episode 11 Preview: 'Reinventing How This Game Is Played'
Tom Santilli
Last week's episode of Survivor was heavy on "reshuffling" metaphors, but this week takes it a step further, with an episode entitled "Reinventing How This Game Is Played." There are now just 10 players left in the game as we enter the final month of Survivor: Game Changers…and there appears to be a lot more game to be played.
To get caught up before heading into tonight's new episode – you can access last week's Podcast and Interview with Debbie here. You can also read last week's recap here.
CLICK THE CONTINUE READING BUTTON FOR MORE!
Debbie was just blindsided last week in a move by Sarah that is sure to lead to some fall-out. She basically chose to side with Cirie, Andrea, Michaela, Aubry and Zeke, turning her back on Brad, Sierra, Troyzan and Tai. As I discussed on the Podcast, the game had led Sarah to this cross-roads and we'll have to see if it ends up being the wrong choice or the correct one for her game. I tend to think that she made the wrong choice and might have been better off eliminating big threats like Andrea (and Cirie!!!) and trying to make Final Six…and if you're going to flip, why take out Deb? Sarah did find a "Secret Advantage" that was literally right under Michaela, where she gets to steal another person's vote at Tribal, so we'll have to see if she can correctly use it. But one thing is certain: Sarah is now "on the radar" of everybody else and the others know that she is a big threat in this game.
Here is the synopsis of the episode from CBS:
"Reinventing How This Game Is Played" – One castaway's alliance reacts after one of their own admits to flipping, and another Survivor must decide if they should reveal their secret advantage in the game to a trusted ally, on SURVIVOR, Wednesday, May 3 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
Now to analyze this, the wording is a bit tricky, because it obviously suggests Sarah when it talks about "admits to flipping" as well as when it mentions "reveal their secret advantage." But the key phrase here is actually "and another Survivor," implying that this synopsis is referring to two different people. We forget that Sierra does have the secret "Legacy Advantage," so that portion might be referring to her, perhaps sharing the knowledge of her advantage with Brad, a "trusted ally"?
Sarah will surely still be at the center of things this week, but her move last week shifted the power – dangerously – back to Cirie and Andrea, who will most likely be looking to target Brad or Sierra this week. It will be interesting to see how and when the three hidden Idols – two in possession by Tai and one with Troyzan – will come into play. And then there's that matter of Sarah's Secret Advantage. Yes, just because the power shifted last week doesn't mean that any of these remaining players has a clear path to the end…but I say the same thing every week: These "game changers" better start getting worried about Cirie, before it's too late to do anything about it.
Remember to check out the Ponderosa Videos on CBS.com and I urge you to check back in here for my full recap/reaction to tonight's episode. You won't want to miss the newest edition of the FilmSurvivor Podcast right here at RealityTea on Thursday, where I will be speaking with the contestant (and fourth member of the jury) voted out of Survivor: Game Changers. The best way to get all of my Survivor coverage and movie reviews is to follow me on Twitter – @tomsantilli – or on Facebook.
TELL US – DID SARAH MAKE THE RIGHT MOVE? WILL AN IDOL BE PLAYED TONIGHT? WHO IS THE MOST LIKELY PLAYER TO TRY TO TAKE OUT CIRIE?
Photo Credit: CBS/Monty Brinton/Robert Voets/Timothy Kuratek/Jeffrey Neira
Kandi Burruss Was "Shocked, Angered, & Disgusted" By Phaedra Parks For The Rape & Drugging..
Dorinda Medley Explains Her Blowup At Sonja Morgan And Why John Mahdessian Is Laying Low..
Tags:Game ChangersJeff ProbstpreviewSurvivor


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*the questions are not asked in KLoSA, JSTAR, CRELES and CHARLS.
job during the next year?
During the past 30 days, how much of the time did you feel...lonely?
Financial Strain Currently I have ongoing financial strain. Which of the phrases on the card best describes how getting along financially these days? How would you describe your current economic situation?
Housing problems Currently I have ongoing housing problems. Does accommodation have any of these problem About how much money do you still owe on your house?
Alcohol/Drug Use Currently I have ongoing problems with alcohol or drug use in family.
Work Trouble Currently I have ongoing difficulties at work.
Care Giving Currently I have helping at least one sick, limited, or frail family member or friend on a regular basis. Do you (or your spouse) currently provide assistance to a relative or friend with any of the following personal tasks because they cannot do them by themselves: bathing, eating, dressing, walking across a room, etc?


text:
Missouri legislators weigh sports betting bills
Passage would legalize sports wagering in casinos and on the internet
Posted online March 18, 2019 | 5:02 pm
Lincoln Hough: Senate Bill 222 is a way to capture new tax revenue.
Missouri legislators are considering bills to legalize sports betting statewide after the U.S. Supreme Court last year repealed a federal regulation.
Missouri Senate Bill 222, filed Jan. 7, would modify the definition of "gambling game" to include sports wagering in Missouri and allow bets on professional and college games on an excursion gambling boat or over the internet to persons located in the state.
The bill, sponsored by Lincoln Hough, R-Springfield, had its first reading in the Senate on Jan. 9, followed by a second reading on Feb. 7, according to the Missouri Senate's website.
The Missouri Economic Development Committee voted to pass the bill on Feb. 26. It was scheduled to be debated on the House of Representatives floor for perfection on March 14, at which point it would get scheduled for a third reading. The bill will need a majority of at least 82 votes in the House before being sent back to the Senate.
There are four other similar bills – SB 44, SB 195, HB 119 and HB 859 – in front of Missouri legislators. SBs 222 and 44 are the only two on the calendar for perfection, where amendments can be added by House members, according to the Missouri Senate's website.
"I see some version of this gaming space moving forward this session," Hough said.
The recent Supreme Court verdict allows states to decide how to handle sports gambling on their own. Currently in Missouri, bingo, lottery, horse racing, fantasy sports and casinos are legal under Chapter 313 of the state statutes.
"This is an industry that is operating in the dark right now," Hough said of sports betting. "This is a way to bring it into the light and capture tax revenue."
Hough said revenue from a sports betting bill would benefit Springfield via funding for Missouri State University's equity funding model through the Council on Public Higher Education and Ozarks Technical Community College's planned Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Technology.
"It allows us to grow the overall revenue pie of the state so we can focus on other priorities, like education," Hough said of legalized sports betting.
At OTC, Chancellor Hal Higdon has said the state set aside $5 million in its fiscal 2020 budget for the center, and the college will seeking another $5 million during the next year's legislative session.
Hough said through his role as vice-chairman of the Appropriations Committee, he can provide a voice to lobby for public money to be disbursed to the Queen City for projects like the OTC center.
According to the language in Hough's bill, sports betting could be conducted with chips, tokens, electronic cards, money or "other negotiable currency." An area in approved licensed casinos would be designated for sports betting.
If passed, approved licensed facilities would be able to apply to the Missouri Gaming Commission and pay an application fee of $10,000 with a renewal fee set at $5,000 every five years.
If it's an interactive sports wagering platform, such as International Game Technology PLC (NYSE: IGT), there is an annual renewal fee of $5,000.
The license fees would go into a fund established for operation and investigation of companies partnered with casinos with tax revenue going into the Gaming Proceeds for Education Fund, said Ed Grewach, general counsel for the MGC.
There would be two types of applications, one for casinos and another for sports wagering operators.
"That would be a company that operates the sportsbook and provides hardware and software," Grewach said. "We would need to investigate the sports wagering operators who would contract with casinos."
Revenues received from the 6.75 percent tax on gross adjusted receipts would be deposited into the education fund, which is overseen by the state treasurer. The fund had a balance of $12.1 million in February 2019, according to a fund activity report from Missouri Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick.
Hough said other states were considered when crafting SB 222 and the Las Vegas tax rate of 6.75 percent was adopted for the bill.
For the internet component of SB 222, the MGC would test and monitor the software used by the casinos.
Bets would be placed at any of the 13 riverboat casinos in Missouri or from an online account through one of the casinos.
"The persons who want to open a wagering account would go to the casino and open an account, and could wager anywhere in the state of Missouri," Grewach said.
Another Senate bill
SB 44 is similar to SB 222 in how and where sports gambling would be conducted and with license fee costs, but it differs in tax rate. SB 44 would impose a 12 percent tax on adjusted gross receipts with a 2.5 percent administrative fee, according to the bill's language.
Through both bills, a Springfield resident could set up an account at any Missouri casino in person, then place bets back home in Greene County.
The biggest difference is SB 44's Missouri Video Lottery Control Act section, which would allow video lottery game terminals in bars, taverns, restaurants, fraternal organizations or veterans' organizations that have a liquor license, truck stops, convenience stores, liquor stores or grocery stores.
College fraternities and sororities would be excluded from having terminals.
The proposed lottery act would be similar to the current law in Illinois, where the Video Gaming Act was passed in 2009 and went into effect in 2012.
The Illinois law allows a maximum of five terminals at an establishment with a maximum wager of $2, according to its language.
SB 44 would allow five terminals per establishment with a maximum wager of $5.
Illinois receives 30 percent of the net terminal income from each of the 30,964 video game terminals at 6,773 locations, according to the Illinois Gaming Board, the entity which oversees gambling in the state.
Betting nationwide
The U.S. Supreme Court paved the way for states to decide how to handle sports betting in May 2018, when it struck down the 1992 federal law banning the practice after hearing the court case Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association in December 2017.
The case was in the legal system for nearly five years before being heard by the Supreme Court.
The state pioneer of sports betting is Nevada, which was exempt from the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 that prohibited sports betting. Nevada legalized all forms of sports betting in 1949.
According to the American Gaming Association, January 2019 was the first time wagers from the national sports betting market eclipsed Nevada with $503.1 million of all bets placed. Nevada reported $497.5 million in January, according to the gaming association.
"The demand for legal sports betting is abundantly clear, with the majority of legal wagers now being placed in markets that didn't even exist a year ago," said Sara Slane, senior vice president of public affairs for AGA, in a March 1 news release.
The AGA release states $998.8 million was legally wagered in January in seven states.
Nevada posted record results from sports betting in 2017 with $248.8 million in state revenue on wagers of $4.87 billion, according to the AGA's 2018 State of the States report.
According to ESPN reports, eight states have full-scale legalized sports betting: Nevada, New Mexico, Mississippi, West Virginia, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Delaware and Pennsylvania. Two states, New York and Arizona, recently passed a bill regarding sports betting while 29 states, including Missouri, have introduced bills that have not yet held a vote.
Missouri first attempted sports betting legislature in January 2018, with former Rep. Bart Korman, R-Warrenton, introducing House Bill 2320. Its last action was in April 2018 for a public hearing, according to the Missouri House of Representatives website. The bill was never scheduled for a vote.
Medical marijuana biz attracts entrepreneurs
Prime seeks damages in Amazon trademark dispute
Tobacco 21 refined by City Council
Day in the Life with Mary Lilly Smith
City approves applications for medical pot facilities
Springfield attorneys represent American in plane purchase
Galloway's office starts Greene County audit
Springfield promotes from within for deputy city attorney
City Beat: Council blocks historical designation at old CVS building


The media plays a significant role in politics, but households can choose not to consume political propaganda delivered through the media. This column uses evidence from Venezuela to show that households that support opposition parties are more inclined to switch away from, or tune out of, government propaganda delivered via the television. Higher-income households, which tend to have access to alternative channels via cable, are also less likely to consume propaganda. These findings have significant implications for politically polarised societies.


Rabbit antibodies against actin and tubulin were used in an indirect immunofluorescence study of the structure of the mitotic spindle of PtK1 cells after lysis under conditions that preserve anaphase chromosome movement. During early prophase there is no antiactin staining associated with the mitotic centers, but by late prophase, as the spindle is beginning to form, a small ball of actin antigenicity is found beside the nucleus; After nuclear envelope breakdown, the actiactin stains the region around each mitotic center, and becomes organized into fibers that run between the chromosomes and the poles. Colchicine blocks this organization, but does not disrupt the staining at the poles. At metaphase the antiactin reveals a halo of ill-defined radius around each spindle pole and fibers that run from the poles to the metaphase plate. Antitubulin shows astral rays, fibers running from chromosomes to poles, and some fibers that run across the metaphase plate. At anaphase, there is a shortening of the antiactin-stained fibers, leaving a zone which is essentially free of actin-staining fluorescence between the separating chromosomes. Antitubulin stains the region between chromosomes and poles, but also reveals substantial fibers running through the zone between separating chromosomes. Cells fixed during cytokinesis show actin in the region of the cleavage furrow, while antitubulin reveals the fibrous spindle remnant that runs between daughter cells. These results suggest that actin is a component of the mammalian mitotic spindle, that the distribution of actin differs from that of tubulin and that the distributions of these two fibrous proteins change in different ways during anaphase.
Copyright © 1977 by The Rockefeller University Press. RUP grants the public the non-exclusive right to copy, distribute, or display the Work under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ and http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/legalcode. Received for publication 5 January 1976, and in revised form 9 November 1976. This research was supported in part by grants BMS 75-3939 from the National Science Foundation and VC-154 from the American Cancer Society to J.R. McIntosh.


The Master's degree program at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism requires students in their first semester to report for a hyperlocal news website, such as Richmond Confidential or Oakland North. When graduate student Harriet Blair Rowan knew she would cover the politics beat for Richmond Confidential, she started researching the city of Richmond for story ideas.
Within the first few weeks of reporting in her first semester, Rowan appeared in a televised interview with Bill Moyer and in the middle of media blitz that included her work being showcased in The Los Angeles Times, Fusion, Huffington Post, Salon and The Nation.
Last October, she published a series of stories in Richmond Confidential about Chevron funneling millions of dollars into three separate campaign committees to back an ad campaign — one that was responsible for targeted politicians critical of Chevron, such as the Green Party's Gayle McLaughlin.
Her reporting began after she read in Contra Costa Times that Chevron had spent a significant amount of money on Richmond's election campaigns. She "followed the money" by researching campaign finance reports. She recalls sitting in the City Clerk's Office every week, waiting for new campaign reports to come out.
She soon discovered that the Richmond-based firm had provided $3.1 million to three different campaign committees and had used separate campaigns to make the totals appear to be less. She also noticed that it was outspending its totals in previous elections.
Having formerly reported for the Center for Media and Democracy, a non-profit independent news organization, Rowan had a basic understanding of working with campaign reports. In her hometown of Madison, Wisconsin, she covered "dark money" issues (tracking money spent in campaigns) and researched national campaigns finance reports.
Despite her experience, Rowan credits her public records class, a required course in the first-year curriculum, for informing her reporting. "The public records class gave me new skills to find more documents," she said. She also commends her instructors, Professors Robert Rogers and David Thigpen for guiding her reporting. Rogers had a good understanding about Richmond, according to Rowan.


This top has to be one of the cutest we've ever made. The shape, the soft cotton and the head-turning prints - all work wonderfully well together to create a summer essential that comes with a guarantee of compliments. Accessorise with lots of sunshine and an ice cream.


text:
Q: Sent and received data isn't the same size I have server in C++ writen with boost.asio and php client. when i send over small amount of data i get all the data but when i send long string i loose most of it.
Here is the part where i send data from my server, it says i have sent out 65536 bytes
void handle_write(const boost::system::error_code& /*error*/,
            size_t size/*bytes_transferred*/) {
        cout <<size<<endl;
    }
    void handler_read(const boost::system::error_code&, std::size_t size) {
        istream is(&buffer);
        string myString;
        getline(is, myString);

        Manager myManager(myString);
        string response = myManager.getResponse();
        boost::asio::async_write(socket_,
                boost::asio::buffer(response),
                boost::bind(&tcp_connection::handle_write, shared_from_this(),
                        boost::asio::placeholders::error,
                        boost::asio::placeholders::bytes_transferred));

    }

Here i make the string i will be sending
string getMap(string name, string pass) {
            if (name == "admin" && pass == "123") {
                string response = "";
                ConvertTypes types;
                response = types.intToString(MAP_HEIGHT) + " ";
                response += types.intToString(MAP_WIDTH) + "\r\n";
                for (int i=0; i<MAP_HEIGHT;i++) {
                    for (int j=0;j<MAP_WIDTH;j++) {
                        response += types.intToString(
                                worldMap[i][j].getHeight()) + " ";
                        response += types.intToString(
                                worldMap[i][j].getIsTown()) + " ";
                        response += string (1, worldMap[i][j].getTetrain())
                                +"\r\n";
                    }
                }
                return response;
            } else {
                return "";
            }
        }

On php side i read the sent data, stream_get_meta_data says i only received 8183 bytes of data.
print_r($this->socket->getStatus());

        for ($i=0; $i<$MAP_HEIGHT;$i++) {
            for ($j=0; $j<$MAP_WIDTH;$j++) {

                $this->response = $this->socket->readLine();
                $this->response = explode(' ', $this->response);
                echo "
";
                echo "$i $j
";
                print_r($this->response);
                echo '
';
                print_r($keyArray);
                $map[$i][$j] = array_combine($keyArray, $this->response);
                $this->response = $this->socket->readLine();
            } }

        }

A: You can send one large block via socket, but receiving side might get several blocks of smaller sizes, for example:
send    -> 10000 bytes

receive <- 3000 bytes
receive <- 2000 bytes
receive <- 4500 bytes
receive <-  500 bytes

this is only an example, TCP does not guarantee send and receive blocks will be the same size.

A: I've found a answer. I was sending data from server in unsafe way. When async_write gave up controll to something else rest of the data was lost.
You have to pass string to this class:
class shared_const_buffer {
public:
  // Construct from a std::string.
  explicit shared_const_buffer(const std::string& data)
    : data_(new std::vector<char>(data.begin(), data.end())),
      buffer_(boost::asio::buffer(*data_))
  {
  }

  // Implement the ConstBufferSequence requirements.
  typedef boost::asio::const_buffer value_type;
  typedef const boost::asio::const_buffer* const_iterator;
  const boost::asio::const_buffer* begin() const { return &buffer_; }
  const boost::asio::const_buffer* end() const { return &buffer_ + 1; }

private:
  boost::shared_ptr<std::vector<char> > data_;
  boost::asio::const_buffer buffer_;
};

and send this buffer not raw string. That way you don't loose data.

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text:
The novelties of the month
Languages and Dialects
Home/Languages and Dialects/Turco
Introduction (Turkish)
By Giuliano|2019-12-11T22:03:55+01:00December 23rd, 2012|Turco|0 Comments
The first burgeoning of the present day Turkish state does not go back far beyond Dante's time, after Turkish people of the Seljuq dynasty, which came from lands to the north of the Caspian Sea and Lake Aral (in present day Kazakhstan), had started their gradual conquest of Anatolia, detaching it from the Byzantine Empire and founding their sultanate there. In 1243 the Seljuq sultans were, however, forced to succumb to the advance of the Mongols and became their vassals, remaining as such during Dante's [...]
Teksoy – 1998
Edizioni, Turco
By Giuliano|2019-12-11T22:03:56+01:00December 23rd, 2012|Edizioni, Turco|0 Comments
Translation in blank verse by Rekin Teksoy (Istanbul 1928 – 2012), Turkish jurist, film critic and writer. First edition published at Istanbul in 1998. Illustrated by Sandro Botticelli and Gustave Doré.
Timur – 1955
Prose translation by Feridun Timur, Turkish dantist, professor at the university of Istanbul. First edition in three volumes published at Ankara in 1955 (Hell) and in 1956 (Purgatory and Paradise).
Copyright © Giuliano Turone | Privacy Policy | WebSite Website Box


text:
our american adventure; or: what we did on our (winter/spring) vacation
I think it's safe to say we've done a ridiculous amount of travel over the past couple of years, especially with one or two small children. Do you remember when we were in Washington DC? Boca Raton? Berlin? The Netherlands? Toronto? Glengarry? Sainte-Adele? And so on, and so on. Rose has even (also) been to Calgary and Winnipeg, if you can imagine. It's hard not to feel completely spoiled. Or quite mad, really.
Recently, we spent nearly a week driving around with the girls for the sake of a final bit of adventure prior to the end of Christine's maternity leave (which isn't even the final, given we're soon off to Toronto for the sake of Christine's April 13th BookThug launch). We did the same mad trip with baby on the East Coast near the end of her prior maternity leave, as well; a trip twice as long as this one, but a bit easier to manage, given we'd only one child's schedule to consider. Really, this trip was prompted by a New Year's Eve sale at the hotel in Burlington, Vermont we'd stayed in at the end of our prior maternity leave trip, when we told ourselves: "End of March. We'll have money by then, right?" Everything else was planned around a date we'd scheduled some three months prior.
This was a purely social trip, attempting to see a couple of friends on the American side: Lea Graham, Geoffrey Young and Marthe Reed (I'll get to them in a bit). There were thoughts about working some of Christine's genealogical on this trip, but we'd neither the time for her to properly research prior to leaving, nor the opportunity to get to where we really would have had to get to (further east/south: coastal, etcetera). We shall have to figure that out for another trip, later.
We were admittedly nervous about crossing the border, with incredibly mixed feelings about even wishing to be allowed through. Is theirs a country we currently wish to support? And yet, we can't abandon those people we know and like down there. We crossed, but the uncertainties continue, to be sure.
Tuesday, March 28, 2017: Given we were heading east, past Montreal, to cross for the sake of Burlington, Vermont, we thought it might be good to begin with a quick morning trip to see my father on the homestead, en route. We'd aimed to leave the house early enough, but, of course, managed to not even get to his house until nearly noon. Despite packing the day before, we still aren't functioning well enough to go from thought to function less than a few hours with the two girls, but we'll get there.
And why did I not take any pictures at the farm? God sakes. Well, my father seemed well enough. I think he appreciated our visit. We even saw the old hired man he had for years, when I was growing up (Jack McCourt, whose daughter went to school out there with Nicholas Lea).
From the farm, we headed back on the 417 and into, through and past Montreal without stopping. We hit the hotel at Burlington, Vermont by dusk, and unpacked ourselves into a sprawl into our room. For the sake of easing Rose into sleep-mode in our single room, I took wee Aoife out for a stroll near our hotel, and saw some rather lovely lights along the cobblestone street. We picked up postcards, saw plenty of bumper stickers for Bernie, and Aoife waved at all the passersby from her ring-sling.
Christine had borrowed a tent-like sleeping unit for the baby, which Rose quickly made her own. She was very happy there.
Wednesday, March 29, 2017: Ours was a hipster hotel, where the staff were all young, wore (local) flannel, and the men wore beards. Basically, every male working there looked like Ottawa poet Chris Johnson. Once breakfast in the restaurant, we walked the two blocks to the Echo Lake Aquarium and Science Center. Once my brilliantly clever wife noticed how much admission was, she clued in to the fact that Canadian family memberships can often be transferred, so she purchased a $90 Family Membership to various Ottawa museums and science centres, which allowed us to walk into Echo for free (we would have literally paid more than half to get in, as compared to a membership that now allows us into Ottawa's Museum of Nature, Science and Technology etc for free for a full damned year).
At the butterfly room, no one mentioned that they are HUGE and they will LAND ON YOU. I cared little for this. Once they came near, I was out of there. Rose and Christine were less wary.
The space was actually pretty cool. Rose was quite happy to stick close to the children's area for most of our visit, and ran around various corners alongside dozens of other parents (most of the women there were pregnant, I noticed) with boatloads of small children.
There was a weekly children's corner reading, which Rose listened to, but bailed before they could work on their craft. She went back to a pirate ship she designated a fairy ship. By that point, Aoife was awake, and she and I spent time in the small contained area for pre-walking children. Aoife absolutely loved it, and laughed and waved at everyone and pointed and played with soft toys for quite some time [she's inches close to walking fully on her own; note the small scratch on her nose from when she was scurrying along the bed in the hotel, and slipped by the nightstand, the night prior]. I was tempted to nap, but there were too many people around to really get away with such.
Post-museum, we made back up the hill for some lunch, and so Christine could visit that Vermont Flannel shop she loves. And then we returned to the hotel (Aoife and I made a wee side-trip for the sake of the Post Office), where we crashed. Hard. Or, at least, Christine and I did. The children were (still) a bit more energetic.
On the walk back from the post office, I saw a sign that made me realize that Ethan Allen's homestead was only a six-minute drive from our hotel, but closed for the season, which was a bit disappointing. I was curious, given the connection I'd recently discovered between him and my birth mother's family (our ancestor was defeated by Allen, which prompted the move north of the border during the American Revolution). I was curious: I'd read a bit on my ancestor, which suggested that Allen was a rather unpleasant individual, but I was amused to see that the website to his own homestead museum basically says the same thing. Geez, just how bad was this guy? Didn't help, I'm sure, that one of his main associates for a time was Benedict Arnold. Jerk.
After a wee rest (and cartoons), Christine had a far better suggestion: did you know that Ben & Jerry's original factory was nearby? AND DID YOU KNOW IT HAS TOURS?!?
We drove the twenty minutes, and I was enthralled. We took the tour! We took many photos! We had ice cream! We visited the gift shop!
I mailed at least three postcards from there, that said, only: "We are at Ben & Jerry's original factory in Vermont. Jealous?"
Thursday, March 30, 2017: After breakfast, we left the hotel and aimed ourselves the four-and-a-half hours straight south from there towards Kingston, New York, where our pal Lea Graham lives. I've known Lea for more than a decade now, having been introduced to her via Dennis Cooley, and I've been able to publish a number of her pieces, including a chapbook and even a collaborative chapbook we did some ten years or so ago, but I've barely seen her in years.
Heading south along the highway, the gps directed us straight west across Lake Champlain, where we ended up at a ferry terminal before landing, half an hour later, across the shimmering water. Given the gloomy grey of our first two days, it was nice that the sun was out for such a drive through unfamiliar territory, and the girls seemed amused at the sparkly lake water.
We drove and we drove and we drove, wandering numerous windy back-roads throughout New York State once we crossed, uncertain of where the hell the gps was taking us. We drove, with full awareness that we were dealing with two children with opposing schedules: one, for nursing, and the other, for occasional (and seemingly random) bathroom stops (usually without much notice).
At one of those stops, we discovered the highway pit stops that included areas to simply drive over and use one's cellphone ("text stops"), as well as small buildings with washrooms, dozens of tourist flyers, and a handful of coin machines for food and drink. While these were all well and good, it did make me wistful for the array of On Route stops along Highway 401 in Ontario. I mean, really.
I took photos of Rose at one, during one of those bathroom stops. It was nearly half a dozen photos before she wasn't fully sticking out her tongue (and then she would laugh). She's three, after all.
Once at Lea's (see my recent Touch the Donkey interview with her here), we were barely there five minutes before poet Claire Hero [below left, listening to Lea explain something or other] arrived for a pre-arranged "poet dinner" (poet and publisher Ryan Murphy, a poet I'd published and interviewed for Touch the Donkey, had also been invited, but his schedule wouldn't allow for such, unfortunately). It was grand! Conversation and babies and only a wee bit of chaos. Also, pre-arranged, I brought a box filled with chapbooks, books and other ephemera for Claire (and one for Ryan as well), and she was kind enough to trade for a copy of her first book.
The children were a bit wound up after the long drive, but slept better than I might have thought.
We stayed up late with drinks and conversation and drinks. And conversation. [And, once home, Lea announced that she's a poetry title forthcoming with Salmon Poetry, who is also releasing a second of mine come next spring; hooray!]
Friday, March 31, 2017: The following morning was a bit hazy, which included coffee, and the children playing quietly (or not quietly, depending). There was coffee. And Lea took Rose outside, briefly (in the rain pouring buckets) to assist with the refilling of the bird-feeder (which she enjoyed).
From there, we aimed for the ninety-minute drive east, to Great Barrington, MA, for the sake of visiting poet and former The Figures publisher Geoffrey Young (see my recent interview with him here; see the recent chapbook I produced of his here). I hadn't met Young yet, but we'd been in mail and email conversation (exchanging books/chapbooks, etc) for some fifteen years at least (thanks to Ken Norris, given our shared Artie Gold interest), so I'd been looking forward to that. Still, given the prior day's drive had been a bit hard on the young ladies, we thought we should only do Gt. Barrington as a day-trip, to help reduce the potential drive for the following morning to Syracuse, New York.
The gps took us up and around and everywhere. In the pouring rain, we passed the (closed for the season) boyhood home of W.E.B. du Bois. And, a sign that could drive fear into the heart of any wayward traveller: "pavement ends" (fortunately, this did not last long). Where the hell were we going?
We made it for lunch, and found Geoffrey to have a fantastic energy, especially for someone over seventy years old. We talked non-stop (including Rose) and went through his huge house absolutely filled with the most stellar array of artworks from dozens of visual artists. There was so much to take in! And, for the sake of our ongoing exchange of above/ground press titles for The Figures backlist, he filled a box of some FIFTY TITLES for me. Absolutely incredible. I now have more Clark Coolidge titles, for example, than I ever imagined possible.
After a couple of hours there, we were back in the car towards Kingston, and Lea's house, where the evening was far quieter than our night prior.
Saturday, April 1, 2017: We slowly figured ourselves out with coffee, breakfast-for-the-kids and more coffee, and the flurry of packing without leaving anything before heading west again for Syracuse, New York, and the poet/publisher Marthe Reed. More than a couple of times we had to stop again for the sake of the children, including one of those "text stops" so Rose could use up some energy, and Aoife could nurse.
I'd originally met Marthe through the reading Stephen Brockwell and I had attempted in Louisiana, when she was kind enough to host us in Lafayette at the University. Since then, they'd moved here, where she and her partner both teach, which has allowed them to even come to Ottawa twice for the sake of a visit (including the launch of her above/ground press chapbook, After Swann, and her appearance at the ottawa small press book fair).
After the flurry of travel and adventuring, we appreciated the quieter evening, although Rose was rather wound up, and took some time to calm down. Both girls appreciated very much that Marthe pulled out some bins of toys leftover from their two children (both grown), set for some time into dusty storage. Once opened, the toys were well-utilized.
And: Aoife even teased with some small stretches of solo-walking (only her second day of such, over the week prior).
Sunday, April 2, 2017: Before heading north towards the border, we took a stroll into the graveyard across the street from their house, in part for the sake of their two dogs, and for the sake of our Rose, who happily ran around through and into the puddles. We kept having to explain that she couldn't take any of the flowers, of course.
They were such kind hosts! Such kind hosts. But oh, how we longed to be in our wee house.
The girls and I hit a Barnes and Noble before leaving town, as Christine managed a store a few doors over for a couple of items she can't get on this side of the border. I was happy to collect a recent issue of Jubilat, and Fanny Howe's The Needle's Eye (Graywolf, 2016), Claudia Rankine's The End of the Alphabet (Grove Press, 1998) and Bernadette Mayer's Works & Days (New Directions, 2016). I've long been a fan of Howe and Rankine, but really haven't read nearly enough Mayer. I'm hoping to get into these books soon.
In the bookstore, I was amused that George Saunders has his own table under the "local authors" banner (I hadn't realized he lived nearby, but everyone has to live somewhere, right?). I wanted to say something smarmy about that, given he's been on multiple major media outlets for his new book, but everything I'm hearing speaks to the attention being well-deserved. And it is good for bookstores, especially big chain ones, to be acknowledging local. And I hear that he's, on top of everything else, super-nice.
Ah, well.
A couple of hours later, we made it across the border, and I had to keep reminding myself which set of numbers on the speedometer to pay attention to. In Kingston, Christine hit an outlet mall on their FINAL DAY, and the girls and I set down for lunch at some burger place. What was it called? Harper's Burger Bar. Right. Rose coloured, and Aoife made noises at people sitting nearby. Christine met us, and then she and Rose wandered back to the outlet mall. Aoife and I found a used bookstore, and a copy of Ken Belford's The Post Electric Cave Man (Talonbooks, 1970). Shouldn't that guy have a big selected poems at some point?
Of course, we thought we'd been a bit longer in Kingston than we'd intended. Turning the gps back on in the car, it couldn't see us in the parking lot, and wasn't able to understand where we were until I pulled the car onto the street, which, of course, was in the direction opposite than where we were heading. The gps found us, and turned us right onto The Tragically Hip Way, a block-long stretch named after the infamous band.
Ah, I said, that's okay, then.
What do you mean? asked Christine.
Well, it means we're ahead by a century.
Labels: Aoife McLennan, Christine McNair, Claire Hero, Geoffrey Young, Glengarry, Lea Graham, Marthe Reed, Rose McLennan, Ryan Murphy, travel report
whew! Sounds wonderful. Books, conversations, children, coffee...
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Immortal Throne offers some really good high-level content for established Titan Quest fans, while retroactively adding meaningful improvements to the original game.
Titan Quest joins Nintendo Switch on July 31st, 2018.
The PC action-RPG arrives on all current home consoles next March and will be available in standard and Collector's editions.
Titan Quest celebrates its 10-year anniversary with a surprise updated version.
The recent rash of independent-studio closures comes amid months of record-breaking retail sales; but what do billion-dollar revenues mean to someone who's lost their job?
Titan Quest developer shuts down game-development operations after failing to find financing for its next project.
Sony's online-game hub relaunches; online-focused conference keynoted by lead FFXI dev; Titan Quest dev appoints prez, hires designer.
Check out invisibility and dungeon crawling in this gameplay clip from Titan Quest: Immortal Throne.
It's a beautiful day for a battle in this gameplay clip from Titan Quest: Immortal Throne.
Kill evil demons with fireballs in this gameplay clip from Titan Quest: Immortal Throne.
Check out the mood on this level in this gameplay clip from Titan Quest: Immortal Throne.
It's green pastures and raining fireballs in this gameplay clip from Titan Quest: Immortal Throne.
Demo of Geometry Wars for Windows Vista arrives alongside Titan Quest patches galore.
Find out what you and your Titan will be returning to quest against in this developer interview.
We pull up a chair and sit down with Titan Quest: Immortal Throne to see what's in store for the first expansion to THQ's mythology-themed dungeon crawler.
Check out the new expansion for Titan Quest, Immortal Throne.
Learn more about the underworld, the vast new region that's at the core of this upcoming expansion for Titan Quest.
Development of Immortal Throne expansion to THQ's action role-playing game complete; game ships to stores March 5.
Titan Quest is an action role-playing game set in ancient Egypt and Greece.


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text:
Q: Spring WebFlux how to get objects from two flatMap's I am sure this has been already asked but I can't really describe it and search for it. I hope it gets clear what I try to accomplish from the following code:
userRepository.findAll()
  .flatMap(u -> commentRepository.findByUser(u.getId))
  .flatMap( // here i get of course the comment object but i also need the previous user object )

A: You can chain the second flatMap internally with the commentRepository.findByUser(u.getId) and then perform the desired operation inside that internal flatMap
This will look like :
 userRepository.findAll()
            .flatMap(u -> commentRepository.findByUser(u.getId).flatMap(comment -> {
              // operation on comment
              // operation on u
              // return result
            }));

You may also want to return the final result of the whole chain above, in order to maintain the chaining.

A: You need to use zip, so in next flatMap you will get tupple with item from findAll and then findUser.
  userRepository.findAll()
      .flatMap(u -> Mono.zip(Mono.just(u), commentRepository.findByUser(u.getId)))
      .flatMap(tuple-> tuple.getT1() || tuple.getT2()  )

A: Did you try this?
userRepository.findAll()
  .flatMap(u -> {
    List<Comment> commentsByUserId = commentRepository.findByUser(u.getId);
    commentsByUserId.flatMap(// rest of the code)
    // code
})


Research has shown that where an amputee goes for rehabilitation can make a difference in their recovery. Brian Center Southpoint offers a comprehensive amputee therapy program that addresses all aspects of recovery from wound care to mobility training and even support groups and community resources.
Individualized training for specific patient goals to allow them to return to activities they desire to do.
Why Choose Brian Center for Amputee Therapy?
The days following an amputation are critical for setting the amputee on the right path towards rehabilitation. Brian Center has a very experienced wound care nurse to ensure new amputations are well cared for throughout the recovery process.
Brian Center works closely with Britany Stresing, CPO and owner of LimBionics of Durham. Brittany is a nationally renowned prosthetist/orthotist and has been awarded the title of Fellow of the American Academy of Orthotists and Prosthetists, the highest title in her profession. Britany assists in caring of the residual limb and then designs and creates a prosthetic limb to specifically meet each patient's individual needs. You are walked through the prosthetic process, step-by-step, to create a custom prosthetic, designed just for you!
We understand that amputations are a difficult event to go through, and we never want you to go through it alone. We also understand that no one knows an amputation process like another amputee. At Brian Center Southpoint, we have individual peer visitors that are available to provide one on one conversations from one amputee to another, helping to answer questions and provide support.
With our Amputee Therapy Program in Durham, NC, our patients become apart of ABLE(Amputees Believing in a Life Empowered), a certified support group by the Amputee Coalition of America that meets once a month at Brian Center Southpoint. It is open to anyone who has lost a limb, may lose a limb, family members or friends of an amputee, or healthcare providers wishing to advise those with amputations on ways to improve their quality of life. We believe in empowering members with knowledge and positivity in order to help meet their goals and improve their lives.
We are committed to helping our patients return to activities they previously enjoyed. This includes providing patients with resources for adaptive sports, community activities and referrals for services such as vehicle modifications and specialized adaptive equipment.
Our therapists have had extensive training in amputee care. The rehab team provides compassionate and skilled therapy to strengthen the patient and allow them the most opportunities to return to the lifestyle they desire. Patients can be seen in both the inpatient and outpatient setting to provide improved continuity of care.
Want to learn more about Amputee Therapy at Brian Center Southpoint?


As innovators and pioneers in Geo-Productivity Software, we, the team at MapAnything, believe Where Matters. As such, we are continually looking to for forward thinking and collaborative individuals to join our fast growing company.
Do you enjoy building long-term relationships with customers all over the US? Do you enjoy technology? As the Sales team, here at MapAnything, our key mission is turning potential customers into happy clients. We rely on our account executives to show the value of MapAnything's products through their product knowledge and superb demonstration skills. Converting mere interest into confident and decisive action is what we do.
The Product team defines and delivers MapAnything's innovative geo productivity tools. We turn ideas into working software. On the Product team, you get to work with customers, sales, developers, and executives to define the vision for the company's future success.
This is a description of the Engineering department telling you how cool we are and how badly you want to work here.
More likely than not, when kids choose what they want to be when they grow up they will say things like "professional soccer player", "doctor", "astronaut", "ballerina", but rarely, will they say a "Client Success Manager". Luckily for them, Client Success is quickly becoming a sought after position in the tech space.
Here at MapAnything, our Client Success team has grown from two employees to twenty plus in record time. With that growth comes building a team that is filled with unique experiences, personalities, stories and expertise, that blend into a success-based vision where customer satisfaction is paramount. Join the team that works hand in hand with our customers to deliver and support geo-productivity solutions to every day business problems.
At MapAnything, we understand that it's the individuals on our team that matter the most. As such, we strive to create and maintain a comfortable and supportive work environment, while encouraging creativity and productivity. At a company like ours, teamwork is highly championed as well as a healthy work/life balance. It is our job to ensure that every MapAnything employee feels lucky and excited to be a Mapateer!
In Finance, we support a fast-moving company with timely, accurate and detailed solutions that help drive company growth. Our team manages all financial aspects of the company while monitoring key software-as-a-service metrics, delivering ongoing and month-end analyses and reports, and communicating financial and other performance data to our investors and board of directors. Finance team members love numbers, show impeccable attention to detail, and are never satisfied with the status quo.
The MapAnything Legal Department is responsible for overseeing the negotiation and execution of all contracts with our customers, vendors and strategic partners. We also work closely with our Product Development team to ensure compliance with applicable privacy and security laws for our various product offerings. The foundation of the legal team is an open door policy that encourages all employees to utilize the company's in-house legal resources to address any questions or concerns they may have.
On days when MapAnything's CEO is traveling for business, flip flops and related casual attire is encouraged.


Are your kids looking for something fun and exciting to do on a Friday night? If so, we've got just what you need. Apex Cheer & Athletics offers Parents Night Out which is a great place for the kids to come and have a blast while you enjoy a wonderful night out or just some quiet time at home without the kids. All parents night outs have certified instructors who offer hands on spotting and instruction throughout the night.
Activities include: Instruction on new skills or perfecting your current skills, open gym play, structured games, double lane bounce slide, in-ground trampolines, blow-up bounce house basketball, and much more. Our staff will ensure that all in attendance have a fun, safe time.
All participants must wear socks to jump on the trampolines.
All participants must fill out the Apex Participant Release and Waiver form in order to participate in Parents Night Out events. Download the Apex General Waiver.


The aim of the present study was to examine the relation between decoding and segmental and suprasegmental phonology, and their contribution to reading comprehension, in the upper primary grades. Following a longitudinal design, the performance of 99 Dutch primary school students on phonological awareness (segmental phonology) and text-reading prosody (suprasegmental phonology) in grades 4 and 5 and reading comprehension in grade 6 were examined. In addition, decoding efficiency as a general assessment of reading was examined. Structural path modeling first showed that the relation between decoding efficiency and both measures of phonology from fourth to fifth grade was unidirectional. Second, the relation between decoding in grades 4 and 5 and reading comprehension in grade 6 became indirect when segmental and suprasegmental phonology were added to the model. Both factors independently exerted influence on later reading comprehension. This leads to the conclusion that not only segmental but also suprasegmental phonology contribute substantially to children's reading development.


text:
Bridge Department Announces Promotion of Jason Rogers, PE, and Addition of Mitchell Dobres, PE
We are pleased to announce that Jason Rogers, PE, has been promoted to Vice President of WBCM's Maryland Bridge Department. Over the past several years, Mr. Rogers has taken on greater responsibility in managing the day-to-day operations of the Bridge Group. In this new position, Mr. Rogers will take on full responsibility for the Group, including its development and growth.
Mr. Rogers possesses more than 14 years of experience in management, design, analysis, rehabilitation, and inspection of transportation structures for various state DOTs as well as Federal and local agencies. Since joining WBCM in 2014, Mr. Rogers has served as manager of WBCM's bridge inspection program and has served as Project Manager and Structural Engineer for various multi-discipline transportation projects involving bridge design and replacement. He received a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2005. Mr. Rogers is a registered Professional Engineer in Maryland and Virginia. Mr. Rogers graduated from the American Council of Engineering Companies Maryland (ACEC/MD) Leadership Program in 2017.
We are equally pleased to announce the addition of Mitchell Dobres, PE, as Chief Engineer for the Maryland Bridge Group. In this capacity, Mr. Dobres will be responsible for project management, technical oversight, and quality control for all design projects within WBCM's Bridge Department. Mr. Dobres has more than 21 years of experience as a structural engineer focused on bridge and highway infrastructure design. His experience encompasses structural design, including new design and remediation, condition inspections of bridge and ancillary structures, and project management. Mr. Dobres earned a Bachelor of Science as well as a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park. Mr. Dobres is currently a registered Professional Engineer in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Outside of work, he is active in the community as a member of the Sykesville Baseball Board of Directors and as a youth baseball coach and umpire.
Senior Vice President Mike Izzo commented, "The leadership of Jason and Mitch will allow for our continued dedication to quality Bridge work as we continue to expand our services."
Mr. Izzo assumed leadership of the Maryland Transportation Division in 2019, which includes the firm's Bridge, Highway, Traffic, Environmental, Water Resources, and GIS departments. He will remain involved in active bridge projects and will continue to provide technical and management oversight of the Bridge Group in support of Jason and Mitch.