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Tag: New Providence
October 27, 2022 by Mike Pavlichko
Road Trip: Some Big Central schools have a much longer drive than others to get to their first round playoff games
Going on the road is a challenge in high school football unlike any other, with all the logistical concerns that go along with it in terms of equipment, the size of the team, plus the bands and cheerleaders.
But for some schools, it's a longer bus ride than others thanks to the NJSIAA's playoff system, which abandoned pre-determined traditional geographical "sections" in 2018.
For that one year, rather than four sections in each group and the top eight in each making the playoffs, the NJSIAA took the top 16 teams in the North and South halves of the state in each group, but broke them up by Northing number. That at least resulted in the eight northern-most schools being together in a section, and the eight southern-most schools being in the other.
But in 2019, it shifted to the more admirable idea of "snaking" each 16-team field into two sections, regardless of geography, potentially resulting in long distance travel, particularly in the South groups. With fewer schools, its a geographical area that includes the southern two-thirds of the state in some cases, putting schools like Hunterdon Central of Flemington and Delaware Valley of Alexandria in "South" sections.
The result? Better bring a briefcase full of cash to pay for gas and tolls.
Here are the six longest trips – all over an hour – for Big Central teams playing on the road in the playoffs:
Elizabeth at Phillipsburg (1 hour, 10 minutes – 62 miles): This actually would have been one of the longer trips even before the playoff changes, in years where both were in the same playoff section, North 2 Group 4 or 5, and sometimes they were in the same playoff section. At least the bus driver should know this route, pretty much a back and forth straight shot down Route 78. Their last regular season meeting was at Williams Field in Elizabeth, a 19-6 win for the Stateliners. The last time the Minutemen went to Maloney Stadium was in 2013, a 41-19 loss to P'burg.
Montgomery at Northern Highlands (1 hour, 23 minutes – 62 miles): It's either the back roads up to the 202-206 circle or sit through all the lights on Route 206 through Hillsborough at rush hour, then after that, a long trip up Route 287, getting off onto Route 208 and heading to Allendale. Hey, if it worked last year, stick with it; it's the same matchup in the same place as last year for the Cougars. Dom Savino and I recall that trip well, when we went to cover Woodbridge in the North 2, Group 4 title game in 2019 (our last broadcast on terrestrial radio, and before the pandemic). It's a long haul, but if you're a fan, leave an hour early and stop at the Allendale Bar & Grill for a nice sandwich and beverage before kickoff.
New Providence at Willingboro (1 hour, 26 minutes – 78.9 miles): It's further than Montgomery's trip, but not much longer since it's just about all highway driving, but it does require getting to the Parkway, then hopping on the Turnpike at Interchange 11 and taking the straight shot down to near Philadelphia. The Pioneers actually played Willingboro last year in the regular season, but the game was at New Providence. This one's a long ride.
Somerville at Seneca (1 hour, 33 minutes – 64.6 miles): The way the Pioneers' season was going up until two weeks ago, with a new coach and having won two straight games, they wouldn't care right now if they played their first-round game in Baltimore at 9 am Saturday. But, they will have one of the longest trips in the state in the first round, going all the way down to Seneca. Where's that, you ask? We had to look, too. It's off Route 206 in Tabernacle. Aren't you glad we cleared that up? Seriously, though, it's a little more than halfway down 206 between Bordentown and Hammonton on Carranza Road. (Go about eight more miles to see the Carranza Memorial in honor of the "Lindbergh of Mexico, but make sure you have plenty of gas – read about it here.)
Johnson at Pleasantville (1 hour, 37 minutes – 103 miles): Forget the trip, this will be the Crusaders' first-ever opponent hailing from South of Exit 91 on the Parkway. In the COVID-year, when Johnson managed just four games, they took a trip to Point Pleasant Beach, but that's the furthest they've gone. Luckily, it's a short trip to the Parkway, then up and over the Driscoll Bridge and a long haul down to the AC area.
Delaware Valley at Oakcrest (2 hours, 7 minutes – 107 miles): This is a mammoth trip. Even though it's just four more miles than Johnson's trip to Pleasantville, it's another half-hour. Why? Well, the Terriers have to take a lot of back (but very scenic) roads to get to Route 31 alone, then head south down to the I-295 loop, go all the way around Trenton, then South on Route 206 through Hammonton (I've been on 206, it's the road that never ends!) and onto the Black Horse Pike. Whew! It's quite the haul, but it won't matter if Del Val comes out with a win. No one would blink at that bus ride back!
Should 4th-seed Manville win its opening-round playoff game over 5th seed Shore – which will be just the Mustangs' second-ever home playoff game – they would face the winner of the 8/1 game, featuring 8th-seed Penns Grove and top-seed Woodbury. If they Penns Grove (2-7) pulls the monumental upset over Woodbury (6-2), Manville would get the Red Devils at home next Friday night. But should the Thundering Herd take care of business, Manville would play on the road at 10:30 am, which is the listed start time on the Woodbury Athletics sports schedule site for next week, against opponent "TBA." One would hope they'd move that game a bit later if they wind up facing Manville, since it's a 60-mile, one-hour, 40-minute drive down from Somerset County. To safely get there 60-90 minutes before game time, they'll be getting on the bus at 7 am. Ouch!
Big Central Delaware Valley Elizabeth HS Football Johnson New Providence Phillipsburg playoffs
October 20, 2022 October 20, 2022 by Mike Pavlichko
South Group 2 Playoff Analysis: Delaware Valley, New Providence could host a playoff game, or end up near the bottom
Cutoff Weekend is less than 48 hours away, and Central Jersey Sports Radio is taking a look at every team in the Big Central to see where we think they'll land in the playoffs.
We're not looking at too many tiebreakers just yet, and even adding the few residuals to be had can make for infinitely more possibilities – although there are none up for grabs from any Big Central opponents at this point – so we're not doing those either. But we are looking at where we think teams will fall in the top 16. Tune in to our Playoff Projection show Saturday at 6 pm on Central Jersey Sports Radio for all our unofficial pairings.
Below is our analysis, with each team's current ranking in the UPR standings noted.
(Click here for official standings on Gridiron New Jersey)
Top Seeds: It looks like three teams are vying for the top two positions, and the two top seeds in the sectionals: Point Pleasant Boro, Rumson-Fair Haven and Raritan. Of those, Raritan is the only team not playing a multiplier this weekend. Point has St. John Vianney and Rumson has Red Bank Cahtolic. Raritan takes on 0-7 Holmdel, and the 5-2 Rockets should win that one easily. Haddonfield is the fourth team, taking on 0-6 Sterling, and while they stand in third at the moment, the multiplier effect means they won't be a factor regardless of what they do. Assuming they and Raritan win, if Point and Rumson both lose to their multipliers, we believe the finish would be Raritan No. 1 and Point Boro No. 2, with Haddonfield third and Rumson fourth. If Point wins and, they'll finish first, followed by Raritan. If Rumson wins, they'll take Point's spot, followed by Raritan. If both win, it's Rumson No. 1 and Point second.
There will be a quiz later.
#7 New Providence: If the Pioneers beat Middlesex (4-3) at home Friday night, they could finish as high as No. 6, even if Delaware Valley – which is right behind them but has winless North Plainfield this week – wins. How? They need Gloucester City to lose, and either Willingboro or Pleasantville to lose. If Gloucester City wins, and either Pleasantville or Willingboro loses, we think the Pioneers finish seventh. And if all three win, we believe New Prov. is eighth. In any of those circumstances, they start the playoffs at home. If the Pioneers lose, we think the best they could do is a tenth place finish, and if all breaks wrong – unlikely, but mathematically possible – could end up as low as a 15. That would put them against top-seed Raritan or Point Pleasant Boro in the first round.
#8 Delaware Valley: With a win, and a Del Val loss, they could end up as high as sixth, if Willingboro, Gloucester City, Pleasantville and Cinnaminson lose. IF just those first three lose, they could end up seventh. And they may not be guaranteed a top eight finish if some of the others win as well. A loss, and they could end up at No. 16 if everything bad that could happen comes to fruition.
Last year, New Providence visited Del Val for a first round playoff game with Charlie Barth leading the Pioneers to victory. He's at Rutgers now, but this year the tables could be turned. There's a scenario where Del Val could finish 9th and New Providence 8th, which means the Pioneers would host this year.
For that to happen, Del Val and New Providence would both need to win, and the following: wins by Johnson, Gloucester City, and Pleasantville, as well as a loss by Willingboro. There could be other possibilities, too.
#11 Johnson: If the win, the Crusaders could finish as high as 11, we think, even with losses by Delaware Valley, New Providence, Willingboro and Pleasantville. With a loss, they could drop out completely, with a lot of teams bunched up. The deciding factor – due to discrepancies in power point average and OSI – could be two teams way above and below them if they lose and drop to 16. A Middle Township win over Pleasantville could boot them, as could a Delran win against Camden Eastside, which is the less likely of the two. So, for ALJ, it's a "win and get in" scenario; that'll take care of everything.
Big Central Delaware Valley HS Football Johnson New Providence
UNOFFICIAL: Group 2 Playoff Standings Update
Bernards moves up, and Spotswood is eliminated in the playoff chase, according to Central Jersey Sports Radio's unofficial calculations of playoff standings after Friday night's Week 7 games. Here's a closer look:
Bernards' win over New Providence Friday night helped the Mountaineers move up one spot in the standings into 8th place, the cutoff for getting a guaranteed first-round home playoff game, at least pending the rest of Saturday's game action.
The main question is this: Will a win over 3-4 Governor Livingston be enough to keep them in the top eight?
The first and third teams had a little juggle at the top of the standings, even though all three teams won to improve to 7-0. It's now Westwood, Rutherford and Caldwell, as Westwood and Caldwell flipped places from last week.
Spotswood would have needed to win its final two games of the season – over Johnson and JP Stevens – to make the playoffs, and even then might have needed some help. But a loss to the Crusaders cost them Friday night, so the Chargers are eliminated.
Elsewhere, going top down, Delaware Valley and New Providence hold in 8th and 9th, still in play for a home game in the first round, except that the Terriers are a bit more in play.
That's because the Pioneers lost Friday night to Bernards, but that's a "good" OSI loss that kept them steady. Del Val plays at Hillside Saturday. A win over a very highly-ranked Comets team could solidify a top-eight finish. We'll have to see where everything shakes out this weekend with the other games yet to be played before we start running scenarios.
Johnson appears to be in, and a solid bottom eight team.
But can Roselle get in? They beat a "weak" Bound Brook team Friday night, and dropped from 16th to 17th – tied with Haddon Heights – as a result. Next week's game at 0-7 Belvidere doesn't do them any favors here, either.
Bottom Line: Del Val has a better shot at a top eight finish than New Providence, but it's still in play for both. Johnson is in and should start on the road. Roselle is going to need some help and likely won't control its own destiny next week.
Bernards Delaware Valley Johnson New Providence Roselle Spotswood
October 6, 2022 October 5, 2022 by Mike Pavlichko
Group 2 playoff analysis: Bernards falls despite win, Del Val and New Providence make gains
Same result on the field, different directions in the playoff standings. That's the upshot of Week 5 play when it comes to North and South Group 2, as we head into the final three weeks before Cutoff Weekend. Here's a closer look at both supersections.
NORTH 2 (Click here for official standings)
It happened with power points too, so this in nothing unique to OSI or the whole UPR system, but despite a Bernards win last Friday night over North Plainfield, the Mountaineers dropped from third to seventh in the latest standings. Why? Despite a 5-1 record, that fifth win didn't amount to much, since North Plainfield is 0-6. That was a 9-point value for power points.
And yet, with residuals from their other opponents they've beaten, Bernards actually rose in power points. It was North Plainfield's OSI that killed them, falling from a 53.52 to a 50.8 as a result.
Otherwise, Westwood (5-0) sits atop the supersection at 5-0 with a UPR of 1, holding a decent lead over Caldwell and Rutherford (both also 5-0). Bernards is the only team in the supersection from the Big Central
SOUTH 3 (Click here for official standings)
Haddonfield and Rumson-Fair Haven are 1-2 in this section, with little separating them from each other (1.4 UPR vs. 1.6) but a decent distance to the third place team, Point Pleasant Boro (3.4 UPR). And Raritan (from the Shore Conference) is even further back at 5.4 UPR.
This week saw a big gain for Delaware Valley (4-1), as the Terriers picked up a 53-6 win at Bound Brook. The winless Crusaders – who have scored six points each in two games this year, and that's all – didn't help the cause, teams ahead of them – like Willingboro and Monmouth – both lost and helped make up for it. Ultimately, they went from tenth to seventh, while New Providence (3-3) with a win over Johnson (4-1) moved them from 14th to ninth. Unfortunately for the Crusaders, they dropped from 11th to 13th.
Del Val is a good bet for a top eight seed and first-round home game gauarantee with a UPR of 6.8 and the ninth place Pioneers holding a 10.4 UPR. That's a lot of ground for them to make up, even with Bernards on the schedule – that's a tall order.
Johnson, meanwhile wityh a 13.8 UPR and the 17th place team 4.8 UPR points behind them, looks to be in the playoffs if they get back on the winning track. A loss to Hillside at home Friday won't hurt them, but dropping a game against Spotswood next week or at South River on the Friday of Cutoff Weekend will, severely.
Dayton, in 19th, is likely out of contention, even if not mathematically eliminated. With Spotswood and Metuchen on the schedule, it's doubtful even a sweep of their last three games – South Hunterdon is sandwiched in between – could help make up enough ground.
Bernards Big Central Delaware Valley HS Football Johnson New Providence NJSIAA playoffs
September 27, 2022 September 26, 2022 by Mike Pavlichko
Group 2 playoff analysis: Bernards benefits from big win at Del Val, while Terriers drop
With high school football season at its midway point, it's time to start taking a look at the playoff picture, with Cutoff Weekend just four weeks away. Here's a look at Group 2 teams in the Big Central Conference, and where they stand:
NORTH (Click here for official standings)
The only Big Central team here is Bernards, whose game Friday night at Delaware Valley was billed as a boon for whoever won. It was the Mountaineers, 17-14, and they jumped from eighth place to third with the victory over the Terriers; it was a solid Strength Index and power points game. OSI went from 49.01 to 53.52, while power point average climbed from 10.75 to 12.80. That puts them behind leader Westwood (4-0, 1.6 UPR) and Caldwell, owner of the state's longest winning streak, now at 19, dating back to their last three games of 2020.
Caldwell may not lose again this year, and the SI of their last four opponents are all 67 or higher. Bernards, on the other hand, has winless North Plainfield and Bound Brook, plus Governor Livingston and New Providence. The Highlanders have won three straight since starting 0-2. If they can continue that run, it'll help the Mountaineers.
We don't think they're a solid top four team yet – which would mean they'd be a 2-seed in either section and guaranteed home field at least through the sectional semifinals – but if they run the table, they at least have a shot at it. It depends who can come up from behind on them. Bernards has a 3.6 UPR, but at 3.8, Ramsey (4-0) is right behind them. Rutherford, though, in fifth, is a healthy 2.8 UPR points behind Bernards.
SOUTH (Click here for official standings)
Little surprise here that Rumson-Fair Haven is in familiar territory, atop the supersection. It could be surprising when you look at their 2-2 record, until you realize one of those losses is to a multiplier, in Donovan Catholic. And since they also play Red Bank Catholic – another multiplier – on cutoff weekend, well, you can just sew it up right now for the Bulldogs. (Is that fair? Definitely not, but that's a rant for another time.)
The highest-ranked team here is Delaware Valley, which dropped from third to tenth after Friday night's home loss to Bernards, its first of the season, leaving them 3-1 on the year. And they've still got Hillside to go, with the Comets' powerful run game. Likely bet that the Terriers will make the playoffs, barring a collapse, but they may be hard-pressed to get a first-round playoff game out of it – unless they can knock off Hillside, Saturday afternoon road game the week before Cutoff Weekend, October 15th.
Johnson is right behind Del Val, at 4-0, having a nice year so far, with a UPR of 11, one full point behind the Terriers, who have a 10 UPR. They're at New Providence this Friday night, with the Pioneers in 14th with a UPR of 15. That's a big game for either team, and a loss could relegate whoever's on the short end of the stick to bubble status, though likely on the inside – and it's more harmful to New Providence than the Crusaders.
Dayton is in a 16th place tie for the final playoff spot with Haddon Heights. The Bulldogs are 2-2, while the Garnets are 3-1, both with 16.6 UPRs. Dayton will need to keep winning, and have a middle of the road schedule the rest of the way.
They play their next three on the road, and the games get progressively tougher – at Highland Park this Friday night, at Spotswood the following Saturday, and at South Hunterdon on Friday, the 14th – before coming home to face Metuchen the Friday night of Cutoff Weekend. They might have to win out.
The next question is: What about Spotswood? The Chargers are 4-1, their best start since 2016. Can they pick up enough power points and OSI value to get in, even if they go 4-0? The jury is still out and it's probably too early to tell. JP Stevens is their final opponent – yes, Group 5 JP Stevens – and that will at least soften the blow from the Hawks not having won a game yet this season. (They've lost 27 straight, in fact, the second longest streak in New Jersey at the moment.)
Will it be enough? Stay tuned.
South River – despite a 2-2 mark – sits in 24th place, and would be hard-pressed to make a dent. Then again, their last three games are at Delaware Valley and Governor Livingston, then home to Johnson. Should they win at least two of those, maybe – maybe – they have a shot. Check back in a couple of weeks.
Bernards Dayton Delaware Valley HS Football Johnson New Providence playoffs South River Spotswood
November 11, 2021 November 11, 2021 by Mike Pavlichko
This Week in the Big Central – Episode 12: The Semifinals 2021
On Episode 11 of "This Week in the Big Central," driven by Mark Montenero and his team at the world-famous Autoland, it's the most in-depth look you'll find anywhere on the 14 conference teams still alive in the state playoffs
Mike Pavlichko is joined by Dom Savino for quick look back at the first round, then a team by team breakdown of every Big Central school's sectional semifinal matchups, plus St. Thomas Aquinas' opening round Non-Public B game against St. Joe's of Hammonton.
Coaches and players are featured throughout, including a detailed breakdown of Friday night's Big Central Game of the Week driven by Autoland, featuring second-seed Bernards and third-seed Haddonfield in the Central Jersey Group 2 semifinals.
Autoland Bernards Big Central Conference Charlie Barth Colonia Cranford Edison high school football Hillsborough Hillside New Providence North Brunswick Phillipsburg playoffs Ridge Sayreville Somerville Union
November 7, 2021 November 11, 2021 by Mike Pavlichko
Instant Replay: (5) New Providence 35, (4) Delaware Valley 13 (South Group 2, First Round)
Xlow to listen to the "Big Central Game of the Week" driven by Mark Montenero and his team at the world-famous Autoland from Friday, November 5, 2021.
It's an opening round playoff game in the South Jersey, Group 2 section.
Fifth-seed New Providence got three touchdowns from senior runningback Charlie Barth en route to a 35-13 victory over 4-seed Delaware Valley to improve to 8-1 on the season.
The Terriers fall to 7-3.
New Providence moves on to play next Saturday at top-seed Pt. Pleasant Boro in the sectional semifinals.
Mike Pavlichko and Dom Savino call the action from Tapp Webb Memorial Field in Alexandria Township, NJ. Scroll down to listen.
Big Central Charlie Barth Delaware Valley high school football New Providence playoffs
New Providence runs Barth, runs him again, then runs him some more, en route to 35-13 playoff win over Del Val
Charlie Barth rushed 43 times for a career-high 326 yards en route to a playoff-opening win over Delaware Valley, 35-13 in Alexandria Township, as heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio
In the Big Central Game of the Week driven by Autoland, Barth also scored three touchdowns as the fifth-seed in the South Group 2 section advanced.
The win improves the Pioneers to 8-1, while the Terriers drop to 7-3.
Barth was impressive from the get-go, but not just on offense.
In fact, when Del Val got the ball to start the game and was marching downfield, Barth picked off a Jack Bill pass in the red zone to give his team the ball for the first time, leading to his first score of the game.
And Barth feeds Barth, who was named the Autoland Player of the Game, and will receive a custom football at the end of the year.
Barth accounted for 326 of his team's 343 rushing yards and 355 yards of total offense.
His three TDs also gave him 70 for his career.
The 35 points also marked the first points New Providence has ever scored against Del Val, which had won the only two prior meetings by virtue of shutouts.
The Pioneers will move on to play top seed Pt. Pleasant Boro on the road next Friday night at 7. The Panthers beat 8th-seed Monmouth 34-14 Friday night at home.
Click below to hear postgame reaction from Central Jersey Sports Radio's Mike Pavlichko on the field with the Pioneers:
Senior runningback/linebacker Charlie Barth
Head coach Chet Parlevecchio, Jr.
Big Central Charlie Barth Chet Parlavecchio Jr. Delaware Valley high school football New Providence playoffs
November 5, 2021 by Mike Pavlichko
New Providence up for an opening round road challenge against a Big Central foe with a big receiver
Charlie Barth is the player everyone who plays New Providence has to gameplan for.
May have tried to stop or contain him, but few have succeeded.
But on the other side of the field Friday night, it'll be a big receiver the Pioneers will have to stop when 5th-seeded New Providence (7-1) visits fourth-seed Delaware Valley (7-2) in a South Group 1 opening round playoff game
It's the Big Central Game of the Week driven by Autoland, with kickoff set for 7 pm in Frenchtown, and pregame at 6:45.
Mike Pavlichko and Dom Savino will call all the live play-by-play, which you can listen to live – and for free – by clicking here.
That huge target is 6-foot-7 receiver Logan Blake, a senior hybrid wide receiver and tight end.
Blake has 47 catches for 609 yards and ten touchdowns on the season, amassing 24 in his three-year varsity career.
Throwing the ball to him, more often than not, is Jack Bill, a great junior signal caller who was thrown for nearly 1,500 yards this season, with 14 touchdowns.
But Del Val face a challenge of its own in Barth, who can run the ball on offense, and stop the run on defense from his linebacker position.
Barth led the Big Central with over 115 tackles and scored 25 rushing touchdowns in last year's COVID-shortened season, and was named Central Jersey Sports Radio's Two-Way Player of the Year when the season was all over.
This year, he's rushed for 1,300 yards and 21 touchdowns, but hasn't been the entire focal point defensively for head coach Chet Parlavecchio Jr.'s team.
This will be just the third meeting between the schools, with New Providence yet to score in the short series.
Del Val won the first meeting, in Frenchtown, 35-0 in 2016, then won at New Providence 40-0 in 2017.
Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko speak with New Providence head coach Chet Parlavecchio Jr. about the 2021 season and the matchup with Del Val:
Big Central Charlie Barth Delaware Valley high school football Jack Bill Logan Blake New Providence playoffs
Terriers will need to tame Barth to continue best season under Haughey, advance in playoffs
Delaware Valley has done practically nothing but win the last few years under Mike Haughey, but the one thing that's missing is a state championship.
The quest for a title begins Friday night when the 4th-seeded Terriers (7-2) open the South Group 2 playoffs at home against 5th-seed New Providence (7-1).
It's the Big Central Game of the Week driven by Autoland, with kickoff set for 7 pm in Frenchtown.
Mike Pavlichko and Dom Savino will call all the action, with pregame starting at 6:45. Click here to listen live.
Del Val boasts an outstanding quarterback in Jack Bill, who's just a junior, but has thrown for nearly 1,500 yards this season, with 14 touchdowns.
It helps that he has a big target, and by big, we mean big.
Logan Blake, who's a hybrid wide receiver and tight end, is 6-foot-7. He'll play tight end if Haughey needs a blocker, and will line up wide if Bill wants to throw it to him.
But Del Val also will face a defensive challenge from a New Providence team led by linebacker Charlie Barth, who "also" is an outstanding runningback.
Barth led the Big Central with over 115 tackles and scored 25 rushing touchdowns in last year's COVID-shortened season, and has amasssed over 1,300 yards and 21 touchdowns in 2021, while stepping off the gas a bit defensively.
This will be just the third meeting between the schools, and the Terriers have shutout the Pioneers each time.
They won 40-0 at New Providence in 2017, and 35-0 at home in 2016.
Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko speak with DelVal head coach Mike Haughey about the 2021 season and the matchup with New Providence:


Morfit joined the ValueAct Capital in January 2001. Prior to that, he worked in equity research for Credit Suisse First Boston. He is a director of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International and a former director of Advanced Medical Optics, Inc., C.R. Bard, Inc., Immucor, Inc., MSD Performance, Inc., and Solexa, Inc.
In December 2016, Morfit catalyzed a tribute to Carrie Fisher at Lucasfilm Yoda statue by dropping a bouquet of flowers and a personal note. The site became a citywide meeting point for grieving Star Wars fans.
^ "Mason Morfit Joins Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) Board Of Directors". ValueWalk. March 12, 2014. Retrieved September 22, 2014.
^ Popa, Bogdan (March 12, 2014). "Microsoft Appoints ValueAct Capital President as Board of Directors Member". Softpedia. Retrieved September 22, 2014.
^ "Activist investor Morfit leaving Microsoft's board". The Seattle Times. September 19, 2017.
^ "ValueAct Team | G. Mason Morfit". ValueAct Capital. Retrieved September 22, 2014.
^ Pereira, Alyssa (December 28, 2016). "Tributes to Carrie Fisher appear around San Francisco". SFGate. Retrieved January 5, 2016.
This page was last edited on 24 January 2019, at 07:41 (UTC).


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Lots of people choose to use a money deflation, particularly individuals who need to save. Despite the criticism and skepticism, a cryptocurrency coin may be better suited for some applications than others. Monetary solitude, for example, is amazing for political activists, but more debatable when it comes to political campaign funding. We need a secure cryptocurrency for use in trade; if you're living paycheck to paycheck, it would take place as part of your wealth, with the remainder allowed for other currencies. Ethereum is an unbelievable cryptocurrency platform, yet, if growth is too fast, there may be some problems. If the platform is adopted quickly, Ethereum requests could improve drastically, and at a rate that exceeds the rate with which the miners can create new coins. Under such a scenario, the whole stage of Ethereum could become destabilized because of the increasing costs of running distributed applications. In turn, this could dampen interest Ethereum stage and ether. Uncertainty of demand for ether may result in a negative change in the economic parameters of an Ethereum based business which could result in business being unable to continue to run or to cease operation. The physical Internet backbone that carries information between the different nodes of the network is currently the work of a number of firms called Internet service providers (ISPs), including firms that provide long distance pipelines, sometimes at the international level, regional local pipe, which ultimately links in families and businesses. The physical connection to the Internet can only happen through any of these ISPs, players like level 3, Cogent, and IBM AT&T. Each ISP operates its own network. Internet service providers Exchange IXPs, owned or private firms, and sometimes by Governments, make for each of these networks to be interconnected or to transfer messages across the network. Many ISPs have agreements with providers of physical Internet backbone providers to offer Internet service over their networks for "last mile"-consumers and businesses who want to get Internet connectivity. Internet protocols, followed by everyone in the network makes it possible for the data to stream without interruption, in the right location at the right time.
While none of these organizations "owns" the Internet together these firms decide how it works, and recognized rules and standards that everyone remains. Contracts and legal framework that underlies all that is happening to discover how things work and what happens if something bad happens. To get a domain name, for instance, one needs permission from a Registrar, which has a contract with ICANN. To connect to the Internet, your ISP must be physical contracts with providers of Internet backbone services, and suppliers have contracts with IXPs from the Internet backbone to attach to and with her. Concern over security problems? A working group is formed to work on the issue and the solution developed and deployed is in the interest of most parties. If the Internet is down, you've got someone to phone to get it fixed. If the difficulty is from your ISP, they in turn have contracts set up and service level agreements, which regulate the way in which these issues are solved.
The advantage of cryptocurrency is that it uses blockchain technology. The network of nodes the make up the blockchain is not governed by any centered firm. No one can tell the miners to update, speed up, slow down, stop or do anything. And that is something that as a dedicated promoter badge of honour, and is identical to the way the Internet works. But as you comprehend now, public Internet governance, normalities and rules that regulate how it works present constitutional problems to the user. Blockchain technology has none of that. For most users of cryptocurrencies it's not crucial to understand how the procedure works in and of itself, but it is essentially vital that you understand that there's a process of mining to create virtual money. Unlike currencies as we understand them now where Governments and banks can only choose to print unlimited numbers (I 'm not saying they are doing thus, only one point), cryptocurrencies to be operated by users using a mining software, which solves the sophisticated algorithms to release blocks of currencies that can enter into circulation.


text:
Q: active data in django inlineformset_factory I have a brand table that contains active and inactive record of brand. I have created bill using inlineformset_factory that contain brand. It display both active and inactive brands in formset.
I want only active brands in form.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


After the harsh Winters we tend to experience, I like to make things bright and cheery again during the Summer. Our backyard is filled with a rainbow of colors from the berry bushes that give us fresh, beautiful fruit to the gorgeous flowers that bloom year after year. I leave a pop of color almost everywhere in the backyard! It's our happy place during the Summer!
When we're hanging out on the deck, you'll often find my husband lounging in his favorite chair while I'm sitting at our outdoor table reading or writing. A good Summer table is never complete without fresh fruit to snack on and a cold drink to quench your thirst. Today I'm combining both of those things by sharing an easy terracotta coaster DIY project that turns a terracotta saucer into a watermelon painted coaster.
And if you're looking for more watermelon inspiration, try this watermelon lemonade or this watermelon fruit pizza with balsamic glaze.
Make sure your terracotta saucer is free of dirt before painting. Then, paint a coat of white paint on both sides of the saucer. Allow to dry completely.
Paint the bottom of your saucer lime green. This may require 2-3 coats to cover completely. Allow paint to dry.
On the front of your saucer, only paint the top and inner rim lime green. Allow to dry.
Paint the remaining portion of your terracotta saucer in neon pink. Allow paint to dry completely before adding watermelon details.
Use your white paint marker to create stripes around the inner rim of the saucer. Allow to dry.
Use your black Sharpie marker to create "watermelon seeds" inside of the saucer. Allow to dry completely before placing a drink onto it.
Terracotta saucers are very inexpensive at garden centers and home improvement stores. Make a few of these coasters for your backyard gatherings or take them to your next barbecue as a gift! If you plan on leaving these coasters outside, I would suggest adding a clear coat to seal and protect them.
This terracotta coaster DIY isn't just limited to drinks, either. You can use them as a trinket dish as well, or let them serve their original purpose and use them to brighten up a plant!
HOW DO YOU BRIGHTEN UP YOUR BACKYARD DURING THE SUMMER?
Those coasters are so stinking cute!!! I have to make them for the summer time.
Thanks so much! I hope you enjoy making your own!
So cute. My daughter loves to paint pottery. This would be a good project for her.
The coaster and clip are super cute!
Thanks so much! I'm so glad you like both projects!
Adorable! I loved that it was a coaster!! So perfect for Summer entertaining.
Ah! How adorable! I'm totally making these.
Hello Ashley! I've seen your post on the Monday Funday link party. It's quite funny because I've posted a frutiy DIY too with watermelon in it. I like your idea!
Hi! It's Jessica. I'm so glad you like this idea! I'll definitely be checking out your fruity DIY, as well!
These are so cute! I love watermelon decorations! I have a bunch of those flower pot bottoms left over from another project. I will have to use them.! Thanks for linking up to Small Victories Sunday Linkup!
What a fun, fun idea! This definitely will wash away the winter blues and usher in summer!
I invite you to share this idea at my link party at http://grandmaideas.com — my readers would love this idea. It would be something that they could easily do with their grandchildren. Grandmas are always on the lookout for ideas like this!
Absolutely! The neon colors will definitely brighten up your Summer table! I'll be sure to check out your link up. Thanks!
what a perfect and original idea! I love it. Thanks for linking at the best of the blogosphere!
Thank you, thank you for sharing this at my link party! I really appreciate it.
Anything watermelon of course screams summertime – very sweet.
I hope you'll visit my blog & leave me a message to let me know you've been. I've found you through Chicken Chick's Bloghop this week.
This is so cute! I love all sorts of coasters and I've actually made some out of terracotta saucers too. I'm thinking of making some more, yours are such an inspiration!
This is so cute. I will have to make some of these. Thanks for linking up with us at Family Joy Blog Link Up Party this week.
So cute and Bright!! Love it. Thank you for sharing with us at #HomeMattersParty. We would love to have you again this week.


Anthony Ceballos (the son of a mother enrolled with the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe) received his BFA in Creative Writing from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 2016 he was selected to be a Loft Literary Center Mentor Series mentee. His poetry has been featured in Yellow Medicine Review,Midway Journal, Sleet, Writers Resist, and upcoming from Great River Review. He lives, breathes and writes in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He can be found penning staff recommendations at Birchbark Books and Native Arts.


Special award – Freakishly good award for hip hop. Clean and good formations.
Special award 'Pretty as a Picture' Judges said they loved this group and every time they moved formations they made such beautiful pictures!
Beat of the Wild received Entertainment Award 12+under!!!


The firm represents individuals and families in wrongful death cases and handles claims under California's workers compensation laws.
The Law Offices of Mauro Fiore, Jr. is built on principles. The firm's goal with every client is to recover the maximum compensation for injuries sustained. The firm does not charge fees or costs until compensation is recovered.
A member of the California State Bar since 1998, attorney Fiore is well known and highly regarded, throughout Los Angeles County, for his skills and success as a personal injury lawyer. Over the course of his career, he has resolved over 40 million dollars in personal injury claims. He is an active member of the Eastern Bar Association of Los Angeles County, American Trial Lawyers Association, the California Applicants' Attorneys Association, and the Consumer Attorneys associations of California and Los Angeles.
The firm has a team of bilingual investigators who are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to protect your rights. The team will come to your home or to the hospital to take photos and gather evidence to support your claim. Contact the Law Offices of Mauro Fiore, Jr. to schedule a free initial consultation. The firm offers evening and weekend appointments upon request.


text:
Eastmain – rzeka w Kanadzie
 Eastmain – osada indiańska w prowincji Quebec

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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The Sopranos — Season 2
The first season of The Sopranos not only emerged as a surprising critical and commercial success, it became ground zero to HBO's explosion of high-quality programs that only just now seem to have dried up. And as much as Buffy and -- to go back even further -- Twin Peaks popularized the idea of serialized arcs over standalone plots in television, The Sopranos proved that television could be as cinematic and ambitious as film if it really explored a story. It was the kind of unpredictable hit that set up lofty expectations and incredible pressure for a follow-up, a suddenly the writers, who just assumed they'd get the one season and no more, now had to scramble to build upon their world.
Unfortunately, the second season suffers from a noticeable sophomore slump. Don't let that dissuade you, however; it is no means mediocre T.V., nor is it even an unworthy continuation of these characters. It's just a bit of a slip backwards into some distracting asides and more standalone episodes.
At the end of the first season, Tony Soprano managed to thwart his uncle and mother's attempts to whack him, and he got the satisfaction of the Feds raiding Uncle Junior and his mother having a stroke from the stress of knowing that her son was onto her. It was a bizarrely happy ending in that sense, offering us the complete-yet-open ending that is the hallmark of a series that doesn't know if it's coming back (see: Dollhouse season 1 finale).
Season 2 picks up a few months after the events of the finale: Dr. Melfi, now known as Tony's therapist by other members of the DiMeo crime family, has gone into hiding at her client's urging. As a result, Tony now self-medicates, but the lack of pressure from his uncle and mother ensures a calmer Tony with or without anti-depressants. Then Sal "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero re-emerges after a months-long absence.
Last season, Tony's cop informant, the late Vin Makazian, mentioned that Pussy was an informant for the FBI, and the gangster sent Paulie to see if this was true. But he disappeared just when the mob was about to concretely confirm or deny that he was a rat. Tony questions Pussy about his whereabouts and even pats him down, but ultimately welcomes his old friend back with open arms. Soon, however, we learn that Sal is indeed an informant, setting up the main conflict of the season.
Also adding some stress back into Tony's life is the return of his sister Janice, a neo-hippie who left the family 20 years ago to find herself and of course wound up in Seattle. She doesn't know about the bad blood between Tony and Livia, but she does know about her mother's health troubles and wants to do her part. Janice might easily have been a one-note character, but she quickly becomes one of the standout people in this little world, and we see her transform over the course of the season from the hippie we meet into a Mafia woman through and through.
Her return coincides with the release of Riche Aprile, the late Jackie Aprile's brother, after 10 years in prison. Richie is impulsive, greedy, vain and, above all, ruthlessly violent. One of the first things he does is beat up an old partner who owes him some money, leaving him a paraplegic. Richie used to date Janice in high school, and the two rekindle their relationship, much to Tony's chagrin. Tony knows that Richie's demeanor is simply too unbalanced, and that his actions will warrant even more attention from the authorities, even on his "legitimate" businesses.
While all of this is enough to fill a 13-episode season, Chase and the other writers naturally tackle these three lines all at once to create a more immersive experience as opposed to tackling each arc separately, but none of these lines is big enough to stretch out over the entire season without repetition. We learn that Pussy is a rat early on, which takes out a lot of the potential mystery and significantly reduces the amount of time you can make his story interesting. We know that a rat is doomed no matter how much some gangsters might love him, so really all you can do is count down the days until he gets caught.
Richie's relationship with Janice is constantly evolving and interesting, but his actions quickly get stuck into a pattern of swindling someone out of money, beating that person, getting reprimanded by Tony, plotting to kill Tony for the outrage of being told what to do, repeat. He's proof that sadists, while perhaps the most fun role for an actor, must be well-written; otherwise they're just two-dimensional bores.
The fact that these stories make up the meat of the seasonal arc and not simply subplots leaves a lot of free time, which the writers fill with subplots, some distracting, others fascinating. Christopher cleans himself up and has a go at screenwriting. In the excellent "D-Girl," he shops his Mafia-based script around Hollywood and even swings an on-set visit with Jon Favreau, in the best self-dramatization of a celebrity you'll find outside of a pure comedy. Chris also shacks up with an executive responsible for getting scripts greenlit, only for her and Favreau to ultimately mine Chris' script and his mob anecdotes for their own film. It's a clever juxtaposition of two deceptive, amoral industries, only one of which is actually outlawed. It also has the best Big Pussy scene of the season when he wears a wire to A.J.'s confirmation and ends up talking to the boy -- who is undergoing a strange, hilarious obsession with existentialism -- about what a great man Tony is. He may be a big thug, but he understands the irony of lecturing this boy about remaining loyal to his father when he's spying on the man himself, and soon the lug breaks down in tears in the bathroom.
Tony's trip to Naples, however, adds nothing to the story. He goes there to lay low and to establish ties with the distantly-related Camorra family in order to sell stolen cars abroad. They get a lot of gorgeous shots of the landscapes, but the only purpose the episode serves is to bring a vicious soldier named Furio Giunta back to Jersey -- his role in the season is fairly small, which works because anything bigger and he'd have just looked like another Richie -- and for Tony to flirt with Annalisa, the acting boss of the family. It's not a bad episode or anything; it just has no point.
The best subplot, however, concerns a man by the name of David Scatino, played by Robert Patrick of Terminator 2 fame. A compulsive gambler, Scatino tries to get in on one of Tony's poker games, and Tony backs him after initially refuses. He loses and owes a lot of money to Tony, who receives recompense by basically taking everything from the man, including his son's car. Scatino serves to show that Tony will exploit anyone, even family friends -- young Eric is one of Meadow's close friends, and his wife gets along with Carmela -- for the sake of monetary gain. At one point David asks Tony why he even lent the money, and Tony mentions that it's simply in his nature, even referencing the story of the frog and the scorpion. Patrick plays David brilliantly, and he conveys as much with his brief screen time as many of the main characters.
The season climaxes in its penultimate episode, "The Knight in White Satin Armor," in which, yet again, someone plots to whack Tony and Janice and Richie's relationship comes to a shocking end. But the real treat is "Funhouse," in which Tony finally stops denying that Pussy is an informant through a series of food poisoning-induced hallucinations. You know where Pussy's story will end, but Chase handles it with care, and the result is a major highlight of these early seasons.
All in all, season 2 squanders is storylines by telling us too much too soon and then drawing out a conclusion, and not in a way that maintains interest. Yet it makes the best of a bad situation, like Buffy's fourth season, by delving into the characters like never before. We see Melfi slowly come undone in seclusion, stopping just short of violent outbursts and even admitting something approaching sexual attraction to Tony to her therapist (played marvelously by Peter Bogdonavich). Janice's transformation from new age love child to cold, conniving mobster is a highlight. And through it all Tony and his family continue to grow and pull apart, come together and stretch out again.
Those moments of character development, combined with some great execution here and there (chiefly with the subplots, "D-Girl" and "Funhouse"), make the second season of The Sopranos a success, if a muted one. And for all its flaws, I'm eager to see where it goes next.
Labels: Edie Falco, HBO, James Gandolfini, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Lorraine Bracco, The Sopranos
Sopranos 2. sezon Türkçe dublaj July 17, 2017 at 5:52 PM
Sopranos dizisinde 2. sezonda neler oldu görmek isterseniz yukardaki linke tıklamanız yeterlidir. Haydi bakalım bekleme yapmayın :)
Burn Notice — Season 1
Lost — Season 4
Chuck — Season 1
Y tu mamá también
The Late Shift
Winter Light (Ingmar Bergman, 1963)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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African Profile News
Algerians mark one year of protests with fresh demonstrations
Issued on: 14/02/2020 – 23:38 Modified: 14/02/2020 – 23:38
EYE ON AFRICA © FRANCE 24
For the 52nd consecutive week, thousands of Algerians have taken to the streets to call for a complete overhaul of the ruling elite. It's been a year since the protest movement began. Also, the commission looking into the bloody attack on protesters in Sudan last year has finished gathering evidence from witnesses. More than a hundred people were killed when security forces opened fire on a sit-in in Khartoum last June. And the seventh edition of the Kinshasa Book Festival kicks off this Friday, but access to books remains difficult in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Source: France 24
Dozens killed in attack on Burkina Faso church
Libya migrant crisis: A humanitarian emergency


Undercarriage repairs can make up almost 50% of overall maintenance costs on a piece of construction equipment, which means it's that much more important to properly care for pieces of crawler machinery. If you're looking to extend the undercarriage life, here are a few tips that you should keep in mind and in regular practice.
The U.S. has the second largest construction market in the world, coming in at approximately $900 billion. A large part of that is the equipment used by construction crews every day on the job, but sometimes even they need upgrades. One of the most important things for a construction vehicle to have is tire traction.


Showing results by narrator "Daniel G. Amen MD"
This children's book is based on a true story as experienced by Dr. Amen himself. One day while watching a penguin named Fat Freddy take part in a stunt show at a local amusement park, he is astonished to see the penguin perform so well. Frustrated by his own son's behavior, Dr. Amen decides to talk with the trainer after the show to find out how she got the penguin to follow all of her directions.


A hypoallergenic, fragrance free clear wax for all skin types. Heated at low temperature, this microcrystalline wax is gentler than other clear waxes. Designed with speed waxing in mind, it's applied very thin and allows you to cover large areas. Effective on fine and short hair with a single application leaving the skin smooth with no residue. Berodin Wax is the leading depilatory wax in the industry and is for professional use only.


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The 1976–77 Algerian Cup is the 15th edition of the Algerian Cup. MC Alger are the defending champions, having beaten MO Constantine 2–0 in the previous season's final.

Round of 64

Round of 32

Round of 16

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

Match

References

Algerian Cup
Algerian Cup
Algerian Cup


ONE certainty about taxes is that almost any break the Government decides to give comes at an uncomfortably high price.
Consider, for instance, the 1997 legislation providing substantial cuts in the tax on capital gains. Congress, in its usual disregard of Tax Code intelligibility, decided not only to add more rates but also to redefine what constitutes a capital gain.
There are five different tax rates on capital gains -- and more to come -- depending on the type of asset and how long it was held. As a result of this fresh complexity, Schedule D for capital gains and losses has swollen to 56 lines and takes 4 hours 19 minutes to complete -- compared with 3 hours 41 minutes last year, according to the Government estimate of taxpayer burden.
''A lot of people will try it by themselves and then give up as soon as they get to page 2, where you actually figure the tax,'' said James W. Royle, supervisor of the H& R Block office in Wayne, N.J. Many taxpayers who had not been required to use Schedule D must now do so to report capital gain distributions from mutual funds, he noted.
The fund problem is magnified because of three possible benchmarks for figuring the cost of shares sold. And even if you did not sell, you need to factor in the length of time the fund held assets that produced the distributed profits.
In the 1099-DIV statements, some fund families are reporting dollar amounts to be taxed at the short-term, midterm and long-term rates. Others are combining the last two and advising shareholders of what percentage is attributable to each, leaving the calculation to the taxpayer.
Even members of Congress seem shamed by their tortured handiwork. Some are proposing either eliminating the new 18-month holding period for long-term gains or recapping the rate at 28 percent. Others want to abolish the tax on capital gains, the radical solution preferred by Bill Archer, the Texas Republican who heads the House Ways and Means Committee. ''For 16 million Americans, capital gains have become a capital headache,'' Mr. Archer said, lamenting the new 18-month holding period demanded by the Clinton Administration in return for the cut in the top gains rate.
The maximum rate for long-term gains has been cut eight percentage points, to 20 percent, for profits from sales after May 6, 1997. For people in the 15 percent tax bracket -- those with income less than $42,350 on a joint return -- the gains rate in most situations is 10 percent. The old rules apply to sales before May 7.
For determining the holding period, the key date is July 29. Sales before then -- it is generally the trade date, not the settlement date, that counts -- qualify for long-term treatment if the asset was held at least a year and a day. However, if it was sold on or after July 29, it must have been held more than 18 months to qualify for the new 20 percent and 10 percent rates.
ASSETS owned 12 to 18 months and sold after July 29 produce what the law, but not the Internal Revenue Service form, calls ''midterm'' gains taxed at 28 percent (15 percent for those in the 15 percent bracket).
The fifth rate, 25 percent, applies to profits resulting from real estate depreciation. The new gains rules do not apply to profits from coins, antiques or other collectibles.
While 1997 transactions cannot be undone, the newly effective provisions -- as well as those that kick in after 2000 -- suggest a current strategy. The idea, specialists say, is to exploit the growing tax advantage of capital gains by maximizing them, converting ordinary income where possible.
For example, said Thomas J. Jackson, a partner in the Chicago office of Deloitte & Touche, executives with stock options are considering quicker exercise -- resulting in recognition of ordinary income -- to get the clock started so future sales of appreciated shares will be taxed at the lower gains rates.
Similarly, investments in growth companies, which typically reinvest profits, have become even more appealing compared with more conservative stocks that generate high dividends.
But the new law, specialists say, does not seem to have prompted any wholesale revival of the tax shelter industry, which was based on leverage and on transforming ordinary income, now taxed as high as 39.6 percent, to capital gains. That business was dealt a heavy blow in the 1986 tax overhaul.
''It would be extremely difficult to come up with a scheme that would do that because of all the loopholes that were plugged,'' said Gideon Rothschild, a partner in the New York law firm of Moses & Singer.
OF course, even in 1997, some investments produced losses, and these can be used to offset profits within each tax category and then across categories. In what Kevin McCormally, the executive editor of Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, called a ''surprisingly taxpayer-friendly'' decision, the Government decided to allow such losses to be applied first against the gains facing the highest tax rate.
An important exception to last year's legislative tradeoff of lesser rates for greater complexity is home sales. For most people, taxes on capital gains realized when they sell their homes have simply been abolished, along with the little-observed requirement for lifelong record-keeping.
Now, couples filing jointly may generally exclude gains of up to $500,000 on a main home sold after May 6, 1997, provided they lived in it for two of the last five years; single people may exclude up to $250,000. The benefit is prorated for shorter periods.
This rule replaced the one-time $125,000 exclusion for those 55 and older and the longstanding rules under which taxes were deferred only by rolling over profits into a new home, a requirement that necessitated keeping records on every home owned. Now taxpayers start anew with each home -- but should keep records at least three years after the due date of a return.
If you are lucky enough to find your house now approaching the $500,000 profit threshold, Mr. Rothschild suggested selling it and perhaps moving into your vacation home, or even swapping homes with your neighbor. ''You'd get another $500,000 exclusion'' after two years, he said.


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United Health Services of Georgia v. Alexander
On June 12, 2013, Doris Alexander was admitted to PruittHealth-Forsyth nursing home, formerly known as Heritage Healthcare of Forsyth. On or about that same date, Carol Alexander, Doris Alexander's daughter, signed a nursing home admission agreement and other documents, including an optional arbitration agreement naming her mother and the nursing home as parties. The arbitration agreement provided that it was voluntary and not a precondition to admission to the nursing home, that the parties waived the right to a jury trial and instead agreed to have any future disputes between them resolved by binding arbitration, that an arbitration decision would be final and unappealable, that the agreement was governed by the Federal Arbitration Act and not by the Georgia Arbitration Act, and that the patient/resident could revoke the agreement within 30 days of signing it. Carol Alexander signed the agreement on the line designated for the signature of the patient/resident. Doris Alexander was not present when her daughter signed the arbitration agreement, Carol Alexander never showed or discussed the arbitration agreement with her mother, and Doris Alexander never signed the agreement herself.
Doris Alexander remained a resident of the nursing home until she died on February 27, 2014. On May 5, 2015, Jeanette Alexander, another of Doris Alexander's children and administrator of her estate, filed a lawsuit against United Health Services of Georgia, Inc., and other defendants, asserting multiple causes of action, including claims for negligence, wrongful death, and medical malpractice. Based on the arbitration agreement, United Health and other defendants filed a motion to dismiss or, alternatively, to stay proceedings and compel arbitration. After a hearing, the trial court denied the motion, finding that there was no valid and enforceable arbitration agreement because Carol Alexander did not have the authority to sign the arbitration agreement on her mother's behalf. The defendants' application for interlocutory appeal was granted, and this appeal followed.


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Mohamed Ali Eltaher
Mohamed Ali Eltaher (Arabic: محمد علي الطاهر; 1896–1974) was a Palestinian journalist and newspaper editor.[1]
Portrait of Eltaher, 1955
Nablus, Beirut Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
1974 (aged 77–78)
Palestinian-Egyptian
Muhammad Ali al-Tahir
1 Early life and career
2 Newspaper editor in Egypt
3 Marriage
4 Self-exile
Early life and careerEdit
Eltaher was born in Nablus to father Aref Eltaher and mother Badieh Kurdieh, and was one of seven siblings. His family belonged to the Jaradat clan, which was spread throughout northern Palestine. In his childhood, he attended a local kuttab (Qur'anic school), but when he moved to Jaffa, he was often absent from his regular classes and did not graduate.[2]
Eltaher moved to Egypt in March 1912, first arriving in Port Said before settling in Cairo. A Beirut-based newspaper, Fata Al Arab, published an article penned by Eltaher that warned against the Zionist movement's intention to build a Jewish state in Palestine. On 15 September 1915, he was arrested by Egyptian authorities at the request of the British who maintained de facto control over the country as a consequence to his involvement in anti-imperialist activities. Two years later, he was released. Elather continued to write articles detailing Levantine grievances at the division of the Ottoman Empire's territories by the British and French following World War I and at the Balfour Declaration which called for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. To provide an income for himself, he opened an olive oil store in Cairo's al-Hussein neighborhood near al-Azhar Mosque which imported and sold olive oil from Nablus. The store would gradually become a meeting place for nationalists from Egypt and other parts of the Arab world.[3]
Newspaper editor in EgyptEdit
Political and religious figures attending a reception for Eltaher (standing) at the Continental Hotel in Cairo. From left to right: Shaykh Mohamed Sabri al-Din of Hebron, Shaykh Ibrahim Tfayyesh of Algeria, Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Hassan al-Banna, Egyptian Army Chief of Staff Aziz Ali al-Misri, Egyptian politician Abdel Rahman al-Rafei
In October 1924,[4] Eltaher founded and became the chief editor of the Cairo-based Al-Shura newspaper. The newspaper was banned from circulation in 1926, provoking Palestinian protestations to Egypt. In 1931, after having been allowed to re-circulate a few years prior, it had its license revoked by the order of Prime Minister Ismail Sidqi Pasha.[5] The newspaper promoted Arab nationalism and anti-imperialist struggle throughout the Arab and Islamic worlds and Sub-Saharan Africa, and had correspondents in Arab countries as well as in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Zanzibar.[4] During his time in Egypt, Eltaher was a strong supporter of the Egyptian nationalist Wafd Party.[6] He traveled throughout the non-Arab and Islamic world to raise awareness and support for Arab anti-colonial struggles. His international profile earned him the description of "Egypt's ambassador to the world" by Wafd leader Makram Ebeid. Eltaher cultivated close relations with the pan-Islamist Shakib Arslan of Lebanon and with the Palestinian nationalist al-Istiqlal party.[7]
In 1936, a book he wrote about the 1936 Arab revolt in Palestine was confiscated by the authorities while it was still in the process of being printed. Eltaher later published the Al-Shabab newspaper in 1937, but it was closed down by the authorities soon after. Two years later, he established the Al-Alam Al-Masri newspaper under a publication license transferred to him by the license's owner Abd al-Qader al-Toumi. Both Al-Shabab and Al-Alam Al-Masri had the same general theme of Eltaher's original newspaper Al-Shura.[4]
MarriageEdit
Eltaher met his wife, Zakiyah Bizri, in 1938 at a resort in Hammana, Lebanon. They married on February 23, 1939. She moved to Egypt, but was expelled back to Lebanon in 1941 when the government was unable to locate Eltaher following a prison break.[8]
Self-exileEdit
Syrian and Palestinian leaders meeting Quwatli at the presidential palace, 1955. From right to left: Sabri al-Asali, Fares al-Khoury, Sultan Pasha al-Atrash, Shukri al-Quwatli, Eltaher, Nazim al-Qudsi, Amin al-Husayni and Muin al-Madi
The 1948 Arab-Israeli War, in which Palestine was carved up by Israel, Egypt and Jordan, left Eltaher angry at the loss of his homeland, particularly due to his insistent warnings against Zionist ambitions in the country prior to 1917. He blamed the Arab defeat on collective Arab incompetence, treason by certain Arab officials, and injustice.[9] Eltaher was arrested and incarcerated at the Huckstep Internment Camp on the orders of Prime Minister Ibrahim Abdel Hadi in July 1949 for publishing his criticisms against various Arab and Palestinian leaders for their performance during the war. He was released a month later by the new prime minister, Hussein Sirri Amer.[10]
Following the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, which toppled the monarchy, Eltaher had a tense relationship with the officers who led the country thereafter. Under President Muhammad Naguib, Eltaher's newspaper Ashoura was stripped of its publishing license. As relations worsened with the coming to power of Gamal Abdel Nasser, who suppressed many of Eltaher's Wafdist friends, Eltaher left for Syria at the invitation of its army chief-of-staff in April 1955.[11]
He lived in self-exile in Damascus until 1957. During that time, he was well-received by Syria's nationalists and enjoyed the company of politicians such as President Shukri al-Quwatli, former president Hashim al-Atassi, and government minister Nazim al-Qudsi. However, as the influence of the Syrian military intelligence bureau over the government grew under Abdel Hamid Sarraj, a strong supporter of Nasser, Eltaher's writings against the Egyptian leadership, pressure was put on him to discontinue his publications. Feeling his safety was in jeopardy, Eltaher left Syria for Lebanon, and like his departure from Egypt, he never returned to Syria.[12]
^ Uwaysi, p. 21.
^ Biography of Mohamed Ali Eltaher: Early Life, Eltaher.org, retrieved 2015-06-09
^ Biography of Mohamed Ali Eltaher: To Egypt, Eltaher.org, retrieved 2015-06-09
^ a b c Biography of Mohamed Ali Eltaher: Eltaher's First Newspaper, Eltaher.org, retrieved 2015-06-09
^ Sulaiman, p. 51.
^ Matthews, p. 84.
^ Hoh, Anchi (2017-06-16). "An Arab Nationalist Survival against All Odds: Muhammad 'Ali Eltaher | 4 Corners of the World: International Collections and Studies at the Library of Congress". blogs.loc.gov. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
^ Biography of Mohamed Ali Eltaher: Frustration at the Fall of Palestine, Eltaher.org, retrieved 2015-06-09
^ Biography of Mohamed Ali Eltaher: Huckstep Internment Camp, Eltaher.org, retrieved 2015-06-09
^ Biography of Mohamed Ali Eltaher: The Free Officers Movement in Egypt, Eltaher.org, retrieved 2015-06-09
^ Biography of Mohamed Ali Eltaher: Damascus, Eltaher.org, retrieved 2015-06-09
Eltaher, Mohamed Ali (2007), Biography of Mohamed Ali Eltaher, The Estate of Mohamed Ali Eltaher || Source materials referenced through Eltaher's books, newspapers, and correspondence deposited with the United States Library of Congress, African and Middle Eastern Division
Matthews, Weldon (2006), Confronting an Empire, Constructing a Nation: Arab Nationalists and Popular Politics in Mandate Palestine, I.B.Tauris, ISBN 9781845111731
Sulaiman, Khalid A. (1984), Palestine and Modern Arab Poetry, Zed Books, ISBN 9780862322380
Uwaysi, Abd al-Fattah Muhammad (1998), The Muslim Brothers and the Palestine Question 1928-1947, I.B.Tauris, ISBN 9781860642142
Eltaher Collection at Library of Congress
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mohamed_Ali_Eltaher&oldid=1052750768"
Last edited on 30 October 2021, at 22:02


text:
Musicland Studios: Machine-Made Music from Munich
Peter Silverton
Like Berlin, Munich is the cosmopolitan capital of a more parochial hinterland, but, unlike Berlin, postwar Munich seemed oblivious to the Iron Curtain—less than 100 miles (60 km) away. The city's concerns were commercial and artistic. The centre for German pop music television, it was also home to Musicland, the only major recording studio in the 1970s between Paris and Tokyo, used by such stars as the Rolling Stones and Elton John. Like all major cosmopolitan cities, Munich drew talent from around the world. Enabled by the development of the synthesizer, electro-disco was dreamed up at Musicland in the mid-1970s by producer Giorgio Moroder (an Italian synthesizer player), his partner Peter Bellotte (an Italian guitarist and lyricist), and Donna Summer (an American vocalist).
While other German musicians such as Kraftwerk and Can experimented with the avant-garde and ironic possibilities of machine-made music, the Musicland crew fused the synthesizer's precise, unearthly rhythms with the blatant eroticism inspired by "Je t'aime moi non plus" (1969)—the groundbreaking hit for Paris-based Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin. Summer's "Love to Love You Baby" (1975) was the first international hit made in Munich—nearly 17 minutes of simulated orgasm that both musically and conceptually prefigured the next two decades of dance music. By the end of the 1970s, the Moroder-Bellotte-Summer partnership was based in Los Angeles, where Summer became the "Queen of Disco," and the production duo brought their aseptic sound to records by Blondie and a series of movie soundtracks—American Gigolo (1980), Flashdance (1983), and Top Gun (1986)—that helped define a style of hyperprofessional, emotionally detached '80s pop.
Munich, city, capital of Bavaria Land (state), southern Germany. It is Bavaria's largest city and the third largest city in Germany (after Berlin and Hamburg). Munich, by far the largest city in southern Germany, lies about 30 miles (50 km) north of the edge of the Alps and…
Iron Curtain, the political, military, and ideological barrier erected by the Soviet Union after World War II to seal off itself and its dependent eastern and central European allies from open contact with the West and other noncommunist areas. The term Iron Curtain had been in occasional and varied use…
Rock, form of popular music that emerged in the 1950s. It is certainly arguable that by the end of the 20th century rock was the world's dominant form of popular music. Originating…
The Rolling Stones, British rock group, formed in 1962, that drew on Chicago blues stylings to create a unique vision of the dark side of post-1960s counterculture. The original members were Mick Jagger (b. July 26, 1943, Dartford, Kent, England), Keith Richards (b. December 18, 1943, Dartford), Brian Jones (b.…
Donna Summer, American singer-songwriter considered the "Queen of Disco" but also successful in rhythm and blues, dance music, and pop. An admirer of gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, Summer sang in church and later in clubs in Boston. At age 18 she joined the German production of the musical Hair.…


"Fighting the good fight", "finishing the course" and "keeping the faith" have all become well-known. Perhaps this trifecta of famous phrases is not surprising since Paul meant it to be memorable.
This is the last chapter of the last letter he wrote. Tradition has it Paul was beheaded in Rome in AD67 and here is the epitaph he chooses for himself. He's a fighter, a runner, a perseverer. As he approaches the end of his life he inspires us towards the same.
Paul is writing to his spiritual son Timothy, passing on the baton of gospel work. Crucially, Paul was the last of a dying breed. He had met with the risen Christ and been an eye-witness of His glory. Soon there would be no-one left on earth who could say that.
So as the church's last foundational apostle, how does Paul encourage the next generation? Chapter 2 gives a sense of his burden.
Paul knows that his eye-witness testimony will not die out with him. In verse 2 he envisions four generations of gospel ministry. From Paul to Timothy to Timothy's trainees to their trainees. On and on it goes until it reaches you and me.
But, of course, it doesn't stop with us. We too will commit this gospel message to others. And they to others, and so on. The saying is true: "God's grace always runs downhill." It applies to proclamation too. In fact grace and proclamation are almost synonyms.
From Christ's exaltation and the Pentecostal outpouring, there has been a gospel flow which has reached even us. Now we are caught up in its movement.
As I say this, though, I might be conjuring up the wrong kind of imagery – fountains and babbling brooks and floating along. Paul's imagery is much more robust. How does it feel to be gripped by this gospel and pass it on? Like a soldier, like an athlete, like a farmer.
Today let's think about the soldier: enduring, obedient, single-minded. For a soldier, all of life is channelled into the task in hand. There might long periods when the soldier is not "at the front", but they are always battle-ready.
At the end of it all, though, there is a goal. Beyond the discipline and gruelling hard-work there is victory.
From the outset, the victory is given. But there's still a fight and it lasts till the day we die. One day, though, the fight will be fought. Peace will reign and all of Christ's soldiers will rest.
One of the most pervasive myths of the modern world is this: We think we know what we want. We think we know what's best for us. And we think we ourselves are the best judges of these matters.
The truth could not be further from this common misconception.
The natural state of the human heart is to be estranged from Christ our Wisdom. And in that perverse condition our desires are completely twisted. We hate the Fountain of Living Waters and we love the pit of curses and death.
Therefore what do we look for in our moral and spiritual guides? The truth? Never. Not naturally. Instead we look for leaders who will tell us what we want to hear.
I don't think Isaiah is imagining that the people are articulating these words. I'm not sure any Israelite was literally saying "speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits." It's just that they would not put up with God's word, they reacted angrily to the truth of the gospel but warmly to the "smooth things." At an unspoken level they had struck a deal with the false prophets – "Tell us what we want to hear, and we'll give you an eager audience." In every age people have found such a deal attractive.
Therefore we must question this myth of the modern world. We do not know what is good for us. As the Proverb says "Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out." (Proverbs 20:5). We don't know ourselves very well. We don't know what we need. We need The Man of understanding to tell us the truth. We need truth to come to us from the outside. The kind of truth we would never conceive ourselves.
The truth that says we are utterly lost and damned in ourselves but completely loved and redeemed in Jesus. The truth that leaves our own desires and schemes out of the equation but takes up our cause anyway. The truth that puts us to death on the cross and raises us up in resurrection.
Don't trust your natural itches. Don't pursue the lies that puff you up. Listen to the truth from beyond. It will burst your bubble but, then, it will give you a hope you could never have dreamt of. The truth from which we flee is the most extreme but wonderful news in the world. It's far worse than we'd ever feared – but far greater than we'd ever imagined.
Here's a verse of the bible which everyone knows. Except that they don't.
As a placard it's pleasingly reductionist. If we're looking for radical solutions (remember "radical" means going to the "root") then money is an obvious target. It's simple then to focus on the financial system as the source of our woes – and, hey, biblical support just adds weight. For some anyway.
This hit home with him. We'd just been chatting about the "fat cat bankers" who walked past St Paul's every day. He'd been wistfully spinning a tale of these bankers' imagined lifestyles. The protestor was unemployed, living in a tent, but he realised he was just as capable of a love of money as any pin-striped City worker.
He'd been plotting the demise of the global financial system. He'd been speaking of "expropriating" the wealth of the 1% to build a better world. But what if "money" wasn't exactly the problem? What if the "love" of money was the radical evil at the heart of us all?
There's no 'new world order' that can get to the heart. No fat cat tax can fix the affections. If we're looking for "roots" we need to go deeper than money. We must get to the heart.
Some coveted after [money, and]… have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Money has every chance of becoming a competing god in our lives. In Paul's language, it's something that can "tempt", "ensnare", enflame "lust" and make us "covet". But money itself is not the problem. It's the love of money that is so dangerous.
Sharing the wealth is part of what Paul charges. But that's only part. Notice the true riches Paul directs us to? The living God gives us richly all things to enjoy. Money promises to give us… freedom, comfort, protection, provision. But money can't really deliver on those things. And if we trust in "uncertain riches" they will prove a snare.
Instead, look to the unsearchable riches of Christ, who is given to us so freely and so fully. He is Heir of the cosmos and shares all things generously with us. One day – in "the time to come" – He will show us our inheritance here on the renewed earth and it will take our breath away. In the words of Isaiah we will see the King in His beauty and a land that stretches afar (Isaiah 33:17).
How can money hold a candle to Christ?
Anyone who's really loved (or feared) knows that the heart is not the only emotional organ. Some of our greatest loves and our greatest fears are felt a little further south – in the guts!
So while we might be used to speaking of a sinking heart, the Scriptures are comfortable speaking of churning bowels!
And John describes a loveless Christian who has "shutteth up his bowels of compassion." (1 John 3:17).
What would it mean to be refreshed in this way? Well Paul speaks of a change that has already happened to the Christian. It's foundational to our emotional renewal.
The Christian is elect of God (that is, chosen – choice in the Father's eyes). The Christian is holy (that is, special – set apart as His own). The Christian is beloved (that is, a child of the King and dearly loved).
Notice in all these things that Christians are what Christ is. Christ is the original and eternal Elect One. Christ is the original and eternal Holy One. Christ is the original and eternal Beloved Son. And, by faith, we come to share in His status and life.
Therefore, says Paul, since we are such a people, let us put on His bowels of mercies. Here is one more way we will share in Christ's life – to share in His stomach-churning love. You see it is Christ who loves with a visceral, gut-wrenching passion.
Let me explain. There is a verb form of the Greek word for "bowels". It means, most basically, to be moved in ones bowels, but the KJV translates it more idiomatically as "moved with compassion." This word is used only in the Gospels and only to describe the emotional life of Jesus.
In addition to these Gospel accounts there are three characters in Christ's parables that are said to be moved with compassion: The King of the Unmerciful Servant, The Good Samaritan and The Father of the Prodigal Son. We've seen previously how each of these are a pictures of Christ Himself. It is Christ's character to be moved with pity in His innermost parts. Churned up inside. Profoundly stirred towards mercy and love.
And not only does Christ share with us His standing before the Father, He shares with us His "bowels of mercies." When we love our brothers and sisters we are participating in Christ's love for them. We are "moved with compassion" in the name of Jesus. That's why Paul is able to say that he longs after the Philippians "in the bowels of Jesus Christ." (Philippians 1:8) Paul loves with the very love of Jesus.
So please don't think me rude, I'm only being biblical, but how are your bowel movements? You know what I mean. Are your bowels of mercies straitened and shut up? Or are you moved with compassion?
Return to the Lord Jesus by faith. See His compassion – perhaps read one of the Gospel stories from the quotes above. Allow yourself to be moved once again. As a chosen, holy and beloved child of God, Christ's compassion is yours.
We can often feel besieged by worries. Demands seem to threaten us from every side. We dare not step out into our calling lest we be crushed by pressures too great for us.
Some of us respond by shutting down. "There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets" we cry, bolting the door against such dangers (Proverbs 22:13). Others of us raise a war cry and run into battle, confident of our own powers. Paul has a different approach.
Paul doesn't tell us to squash our many fears. Instead he invites us to view them as "requests". Did you realise that all of your worries are actually requests? Requests which so often go unexpressed. Requests which God Himself is eager to hear.
What does this assume about ourselves and about God?
First, it assumes that we're not very good at discerning our many desires… let alone expressing them… let alone addressing them to God. But, second, it assumes that we have a God who is intimately concerned for our many troubles. As the Lord's Prayer teaches us, we have a Father who is not only interested in His kingdom coming but also in our daily bread.
Therefore, of course we pray "with thanksgiving." We are grateful for a Father so kind and so powerful that He attends to our every supplication.
Here is something unknown to the world. Not just stress management but a peace that "passeth all understanding." No mere trick of the mind can deliver what Paul offers here. There can be no earthly explanation of this peace. It's beyond our wit and wisdom. Because this is a peace that wages war on our fears.
So this is the reversal of our fears. Right now you may feel besieged by worries. But there is a cavalry. There is a greater force to call on. "Through Christ Jesus" you have perfect access to a generous Father. So then, turn your problems to prayers and know: it's His peace that besieges you.
William Tyndale gave us the word, "likeminded", but what gives us the reality?
On the internet it's easy to find "people like us". No matter how specialist our interests might be, the online world is so large, any subgroup at all can find "likeminded" members.
But what about in the local church? What about in face to face community where people of all ages, races and cultures are called together by the Spirit? How can we find unity there?
Notice how important singleness of mind is to Paul. But how will it come about?
You and I did not choose to be born. The eternal Christ did! He made up His mind to take flesh. This is incredible. Because if I ever did have the choice to be born, I would not have chosen what Jesus chose. If I was in the form of God, surrounded by the worship of heaven, in the direct presence of my Father, I would not have chosen the birth, life and death which the Son of God determined for Himself. Jesus chose a life of "no reputation", of service (slavery even), humility, obedience and death – even the godforsaken death of the cross.
When we see the baby in the manger, it's like watching a man falling. He has come from the highest heights. And on Christmas morning we see Him heading down, down, down, from heaven to earth, and eventually to hell on that cross.
Because of the crib and the cross, therefore the Father says "Have the crown!" What is crowned is the self-emptying love of the crib and the cross. The Father vindicates suffering love as the true display of divine glory. He vindicates the suffering Servant as the true LORD of heaven and earth.
And one day everyone will bow the knee to Jesus, the LORD. They will do so because He poured out His life to death.
One day the whole world will recognise what the Father has declared in exalting Jesus to His right hand: The sacrificial Servant is LORD. Humble, self-abandoning love is enthroned as the very heart-beat of deity. The mind of the Servant is the mind of God.
We are a fractious bunch, we humans. But here's the solution. The Christian has their thinking completely reoriented by the mind of Christ. Humility is greatness, service is glory, but sacrifice is divine. When we really think like that we will esteem each other better than ourselves.
You see the saying from today's picture is wrong. Or at least it needs recalibrating by the gospel of Christ. But the reality is this: Humble minds think alike.
The order is important. First we learn our true position in Christ – raised, forgiven, adopted, beloved and inheriting the cosmos. Then we learn how to walk out into the world on that basis. Finally we learn how to stand against Satan's attacks, knowing that we already hold the high ground.
As far as Nee was concerned, all our problems in the Christian life stem from a failure to appreciate our seatedness. When we try to walk before we have sat, we fall down! We imagine that Christianity consists of performing certain duties or cultivating certain characteristics. Yet our new life really has been given to us in Jesus.
Paul is aware that anger is a reality in our daily communication. If we're not tempted to daily anger, perhaps we are not walking with our brothers and sisters in close enough communion!
Anger arises when our desires are thwarted (James 4:1-3). Most often our desires are inappropriate, but sometimes our desires are good and proper and therefore their frustration involves a righteous anger. In such situations we are to "be angry and not sin." The anger is not to be suppressed but addressed. And addressed quickly.
In the Bible, days end at sunset because each day is a microcosm (a little world). Each day begins in darkness (at dusk), but the light triumphs over the darkness. If that is the story of the world, then it must be the story of our lives. Darkness must not have the last word in our relationships. We must end with the light of grace and reconciliation.
Therefore Paul exhorts us to sort out our quarrels before the day is out. In this way we will be imitators of God. His final word to the world is not wrath but mercy. Notice how Paul grounds all our human acts of reconciliation in God's great reconciliation in Christ.
Sit in that truth – Christ has loved us and given Himself for us. We are at peace with the living God, though it cost Him everything to secure it. Now walk by that light.
What is the message of Christianity for the world? If you could boil it down, what is the proclamation of the church? Paul has a wonderful summary in Ephesians 3:8.
John Wycliffe translated it: "the vnserchable richessis of Crist".
How do we feel about the super-rich? Envy? Contempt? Fear? Well Christ has "unsearchable riches". He's not just "the 1%," He's the 0.000000000000001%. What do we feel about His fabulous wealth?
Actually Paul feels brim full of joy and gratitude. Because these riches are riches of grace and mercy. Christ is not only stinking rich, He is a profligate philanthropist, as we shall see.
Let's trace through Paul's use of "riches" in Ephesians.
These divine riches are not drawn down without cost. The astonishing mercy of Christ is purchased with His own blood. Yet, in His grace, He pays this ultimate price for our freedom and forgiveness.
God is rich and will be known as rich.
Here is a wonderful truth: God even has riches that awaken us to the riches that He's already bestowed! Talk about grace upon grace.
What a day of sumptuous opulence! What overwhelming prosperity we will enjoy when we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ of the whole cosmos. To cap it all off, that day will be the day that the Lord inherits us, His saints. How incredible – the riches that will flow when Christ returns!
Christ is the storehouse of the Father's overflowing bounty. We are beggars, more than destitute in our sins. Yet, through Christ, we have been adopted as heirs into that eternal royal Family.
We call on an "Abba, Father" who is mind-blowingly rich and who, literally, loves us to death! Does that change the way you approach your day today?
Maybe your earthly father had short arms and deep pockets. Or long arms and shallow pockets. Or crossed arms and closed pockets.
The saying is instantly recognisable as religious. Even if few people know where it comes from, most will assume it's biblical. And they'll assume that they know what it means.
Perhaps we think it's the Bible's version of Karma – a conditional, performance-based spirituality where the books will all balance and justice will have the last word. Therefore, Look out sinners – a man reaps what he sows.
But actually Paul's letter to the Galatians (from which our phrase comes) radically subverts this way of thinking.
He begins the letter by pronouncing a deadly anathema on anyone who denies or perverts the gospel of grace (Galatians 1:6-9). Even the Apostle Peter gets a blast from Paul when he forgets the truth of our gracious justification (Galatians 2:11-21). Paul is at pains to show that true righteousness has never been won by moral obedience but only by faith alone (Galatians 3-4). It is Christ who earns our salvation through His life, death and resurrection – not us. We are incapable of producing the life of God. The "flesh" we have inherited from Adam (our old nature) cannot work righteousness – though it constantly tries to do so. One of the characteristics of the "flesh" is its desire to self-justify. The flesh loves to live under the law in order to boast in its moral abilities. But no, Christ works righteousness for us, without any assistance from us. Then, wonderfully, we are "clothed in Christ" as the Spirit unites us to Him (Galatians 3:26-4:7).
Therefore a Christian is someone who has their flesh from Adam, but their Spirit from Christ. While the flesh produces Adam-like sin and death, the Spirit bears Christ-like fruit in our lives (Galatians 5).
Therefore Paul exhorts us to live in accordance with the truth. We ought to walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh. That is, we ought to dwell on Christ's performance and not our own. We ought to be about Christ's doing and not our own.
It turns out that Paul isn't affirming a Christian Karma after all. Actually he's speaking against it. You see the way of the flesh is the way of earning, performance and self-glorification. But Paul says – that is a perishing path. To invest in that is to invest in corruption itself. There is an organic union between flesh and death. To sow on this soil reaps exactly what you'd expect.
Yet there is another kind of life. And it's not life 'under the law.' It's not about getting your just deserts. The way of the Spirit is the way of grace. He is always bringing us the things of Christ (John 16:15). To 'sow' to the Spirit is to invest in the gospel word and live by this truth from beyond ourselves. So, again, there is an organic union, this time between the Spirit and life. There's no sense of reward or earning here, it's just natural that dwelling in Christ and He in us will bear good fruit.
This is the truth of our position – filled with the Spirit, united to the Son, calling on the Father. Receive that sure reality by faith and you are sowing on very fertile ground.


The scientists that place doubt in the existence of ether have no scientific basis for their theories. Indeed, they just play with words, with terms, because instead of the term ether they use the term "radioactivity" or a "magnetic field," etc. So, these other terms neither take away from nor give to the reality of ether. In any case, their doubts, analysis, and change of terms will only serve them to study that which is called ether. Most of the time, people fight only for the question of terms of words, etc. Yet, in the final analysis, what counts are the facts, and the facts are facts.
With their powerful telescopes Russian astronomers have discovered worlds in a protoplasmic state. These protoplasmic worlds have come from the ether. We can accept, by simple logical induction, that there are ethereal worlds. Maybe some scientists will not be pleased with the term "ethereal." However, the term is of the least importance. The importance is the fact.
Before becoming protoplasmic, every world is in an ethereal state. The great Hindustani scientist Rama Prasad stated that everything comes from the ether, and everything returns to the ether. If protoplasm emerges from within the ether, then we have to accept that the ether is in the vital depth of everything that exists.
The Asian mystics consider that the ethereal body (vital depth) of the human body has four classes of ether. This does not appeal to the Western scientists. Nevertheless, when the Western scientists study the ether, no matter what name they give to it, they then will have to accept by simple analysis and by their own experience the reality of the four ethers of the Asian mystics.
Thus, the ethereal body of a human being has four ethers: chemical ether, ether of life, luminous ether, and reflecting ether. Each one of these ethers has its function in intimate relation with the whole organic economy.
The chemical ether is related with all the processes of organic assimilation and nourishment.
The ether of life is related with the reproduction processes of the race.
The luminous ether is related with the processes of sensory perception.
The reflecting ether is intimately related with the faculties of memory, imagination, willpower, etc.
The vital body controls the whole motor vessel nervous system and is the seat of life. Each ethereal atom penetrates inside each physical atom and makes it vibrate. If we definitely extract the vital body from the physical body of a person, this person inevitably dies. It is totally absurd to suppose, even for a moment, that chemical-physical organisms can survive without the vital body.
The very atheistic, materialistic Russians, after having studied the matter profoundly, have become more prudent, acknowledging the vital depth of living matter.
The scientists who are exploring the human organism are getting closer to the ethereal body. They will detect it inevitably and soon they will be able to condense it with some kind of ectoplasm to study it in a laboratory.
All the functions of our organism, all the caloric activities, reproduction, combustion, metabolism, etc., have their base in the vital depth.
When the vital body weakens, then diseases of the physical body appear.