text:
"Who is going to turn on the LIGHT?'
My friend, mentor, and colleague, Ron Claussen, has some good thoughts on Epiphany on the blog section of his web site. A sampling:
On that first Epiphany, the LIGHT of the Star led these Gentiles to be filled with LIGHT at the manger so that they could reveal that LIGHT to the Gentile world, a world that was lost in darkness and sin. Look at our world. Don't wear blinders, don't try to hide from the fact that we live in a world of darkness, of sin, of depression and loneliness, a world where it is so much fun and so easy to serve Satan. I believe that right now, on this Epiphany or on whatever day you read this, our Heavenly Father is asking, Who is going to turn on the LIGHT?"
[For more about Ron, read here.]
"A prayerless soul is a Christless soul."
So said the great preacher, Charles Spurgeon, cited in a wonderful post from Bruce Armstrong at Ordinary, Everyday Christian. Spurgeon continues:
Prayer is the lisping of the believing infant, the shout of the fighting believer, the requiem of the dying saint falling asleep in Jesus. It is the breath, the watchword, the comfort, the strength, the honour of a Christian. If thou be a child of God, thou wilt seek thy Father's face, and live in thy Father's love.
Pray that this year thou mayst be holy, humble, zealous, and patient; have closer communion with Christ, and enter oftener into the banqueting-house of His love. Pray that thou mayst be an example and a blessing unto others, and that thou mayst live more to the glory of thy Master. The motto for this year must be, "Continue in prayer."
Thoughts on Faith and Politics from N.T. Wright
Wright is one of the most eminent of contemporary Christian theologians. Tod Bolsinger quotes him (and Andrew Jackson links):
Our Western culture since the 8th century has made a virtue of separating out religion from politics. When I lecture about this, people will pop up and say, "Surely Jesus said my kingdom is not of this world." And the answer is no, what Jesus said in John 18 is, "My kingdom is not FROM this world." That's "Ek tou kosmou toutou." It's quite clear in the text that Jesus' kingdom doesn't start with this world. It isn't a worldly kingdom, but it is for this world. It's from somewhere else, but it's for this world.
Happy Epiphany Day!
January 6 is the oft-overlooked Epiphany Day.
On the calendar of the Church Year, this is the day set aside to celebrate the arrival of the wise men (magi) from the East, who brought gifts of "gold, frankincense, and myrrh," hailing Jesus as the world's Savior.
Historically, Epiphany was the day on which many Christians exchanged gifts, something we've now pushed back to Christmas Day on December 25. (Friends of ours, when their children were small, were visited by Father Christmas on the night before Epiphany. He brought gifts for the children that night, which they opened on the morning of January 6. It always struck me that Father Christmas was shrewder than the red-coated guy with the fat belly. Unlike Santa Claus, Father Christmas apparently took advantage of the after-Christmas sales for these gifts opened by the children on Epiphany morning!)
The word epiphany is a transliteration of a word appearing in the original Greek of the New Testament. Epiphane means to shine upon. (To transliterate a word means to take it over into a new language, largely unchanged, maintaining the same meaning.)
On the first Epiphany, a star shone upon the place where the Christ Child was living, guiding the magi to Him. Matthew is the only one of the four Gospel accounts of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection to recount this event.
It's interesting to note that the first Epiphany occurred some time after the first Christmas, in spite of our penchant for collapsing the two events into one crowded night at a Bethlehem barn. According to Matthew, after Jesus' birth, Joseph and Mary and the baby took up residence in Bethlehem for awhile. Matthew tells us that the wise men found the child not in a barn, but living, along with his parents, in a house.
Another indication that some time passed between Jesus' birth and the events of the first Epiphany is the order given by Herod after the wise men revealed the nature of their mission in Judea. He ordered the killing of all males two years of age and younger. (You can read Matthew's account of the first Epiphany here.) It was apparently thought that the birth could have happened quite a bit before Herod personally spoke with the visiting magi.
On the church calendar, Epiphany comes at the end of the traditional, Twelve Days of Christmas. As the song of the same name reminds us, there was another tradition, particularly among Christians in the British Isles, of giving small gifts throughout this twelve-day period. (With five gold rings being an apparent favorite. I'm kidding.)
January 6 kicks off an entire season of the Church Year known as Epiphany. It runs until the beginning of the Lenten season. During Epiphany, the Gospel lessons recount the early manifestations of Jesus as God-in-the-flesh. In other words, they look at key moments when Jesus was shown to be "the Light of the world." Through Jesus, the pure, undefiled Light of God shines on the human race.
The Sundays that fall within the Epiphany Season are bracketed by two events in which the light of heaven shines in particularly notable ways:
Tomorrow--and today for those of us who have worship on Saturdays as well--the Gospel lesson will be about the Baptism of Our Lord. (This year, Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 will be the account read in most churches. By the way, as Pastor Brian Stoffregen points out, while there are only two accounts of Jesus' birth and its attendant events--like the first Epiphany--in the New Testament, there are six accounts of His baptism.)
On the last Sunday of the Epiphany Season, we will celebrate the Transfiguration of Our Lord. This remembers the time when Jesus, accompanied by His key disciples, Peter, James, and John, went up on a mountain and was transfigured before them, His appearance being dazzlingly pure, and Jesus was seen speaking with two Old Testament figures from centuries before, Moses and Elijah.
Epiphany is a great set-up for the Lenten Season. Lent, a time of spiritual renewal and preparation for Easter, ends with Good Friday and Holy Saturday, commemorations that remember, respectively, the day on which Jesus was killed and the one on which He lay dead in a Jerusalem tomb before rising on Easter Sunday morning.
Epiphany explains why the world spurned and killed Jesus. It does so by explaining Who Jesus is. We human beings are presumptuous, you know. Adam and Eve were lured into sin because they wanted to "be like God." Jesus wasn't killed because people didn't know He was God; He was killed precisely because humanity knew He was God and we human beings had a chance to bump off the competition, freeing us from the obligation to love God or love neighbor.
The events recounted in the Gospel lessons of the Epiphany Season make clear the legitimacy of Jesus' claim to be God, the very claim that caused the religious leaders of first-century Judea, the political leadership of the Roman Empire, represented by the governor, Pontius Pilate, and the masses from throughout the Mediterranean Basin gathered in Jerusalem on that fateful Passover weekend to want Him dead.
C.S. Lewis says that in the manifestations of His God-ness and the claims of Deity that Jesus makes about Himself, we are left with three choices:
We may decide that He's a liar.
We may conclude that He's a madman.
We may decide that He's telling the truth.
Epiphany presses us to accept the third choice. If that's the case, then we have little alternative but to join Thomas, the disciple who doubted Jesus, and fall down before Jesus and worship Him as our "Lord and God."
Happy Epiphany!
[I mean for this piece to be a companion to the first pass at considering this weekend's Bible lesson at our congregation. You can find it here.]
View from East Bay Street, Other Charleston Sites
All these pics, like all but the one in which she appears, were snapped by my wife. (I'm a terrible photographer.)
Rainbow Row, Charleston, SC
Jan is tired of church as usual...
and has some good ideas on how to mix up the pitches.
Proof That All People Can Learn to Live Together in Peace
This was snapped this past Thanksgiving, a few days after the Big Game. Pictured is the husband of one of our nieces. He's a big fan of a school to our north. I'm an alum of a different school, as you can see.
By the way, for the sake of setting the record straight, I was pulling for Michigan in the recent Rose Bowl game. I always root for the Big Ten in bowl games.
Yesterday, our county's commissioners declared January 8 to be Scarlet and Gray Day. That's an amazing thing because around here, in the east Cincinnati suburbrs, there aren't that many Ohio State fans. There are more backers of Kentucky, University of Cincinnati, Xavier, and even, Indiana University.
From Our Recent Charleston Trip
This photo was taken by a friendly fellow-traveler during our trip to Charleston, SC between Christmas and New Year's.
Pictured from left to right are my sister-in-law, a brother-in-law, me, my wife, my mother-in-law, and another brother-in-law.
Behind us, but not visible in the pic taken on a beautiful, sun-washed day, is Fort Sumter, the place where South Carolinian rebels attacked the Union forces there, the opening salvo of the tragic Civil War.
In Charleston at that time, there were important people who didn't want to see the Union dissolved. They included William Aiken, one-time South Carolina governor, whose home is preserved.
Living Water in a Graveyard...But It Doesn't Come from the Fountain
It's in words you'll find on the plaque set in the ground next to the drinking fountain in the graveyard at Saint Michael's Episcopal Church, Charleston, South Carolina. I love it! (The words are those of Jesus to the Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob near Sychar, found in John 4.)
Can't We Do Better Than This?
Several months ago, I reported on the relatively sad condition of the gravesite of one of the most important figures in US history, Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton is buried in the graveyard of Trinity Church in lower Manhattan, New York City.
During a recent trip to Charleston, South Carolina, I saw an even more shameful sight: The gravesite of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, a signer of the US Constitution, in the graveyard of Saint Michael's Episcopal Church.
Saint Michael's seems like an active parish with a commitment to prayer and ministry. I was impressed with the small sampling I got of the congregation's life while I was there. I also was extremely impressed with the generally good condition of the building and grounds. The members are to be commended for doing such a great job and for being so inviting to their community and to visitors like me. They clearly seem to believe that a church isn't a building, it's people who follow Jesus Christ and I think that's awesome!
But I was disappointed by the electrical box dwarfing the marker on Pinckney's grave. Pinckney was important not only as a signer of the Constitution, but as a respected and important figure from our country's early history.
It may be too much to ask churches, with their frequent shortage of funds, to keep up the graves of important historical figures. Across the country, many townships and other localities often take over the management of graveyards when churches can no longer afford the upkeep. (We had a reverse situation in my former parish where, in addition to the large cemetery contiguous to our building facility and grounds, we managed manage a township cemetery. The township indicated they didn't have the resources to take care of it and long before my time in that community, asked our church to take on the responsibility.)
But maybe some modest federal appropriation could be set aside to make sure that the graves of our Founders and Framers and other important figures from our history don't fall into shameful decreptitude.
The United States was the first country to decide itself into being. Thirteen disparate colonies decided to declare their independence and later, as newly independent states, decided to form themselves into what they hoped would be an indissoluble union devoted to the twin principles of American nationhood: freedom and mutual responsibility (or community). Other nations have usually come about through an evolution rooted on language, culture, or religion. Many have come into being by force of arms.
But the United States is rooted in certain principles and ideas to which free people--at first only white men of property--gave their mutual consent. From the time of our founding, we've been in often painful process of becoming the nation the Founders and Framers, partly in spite of themselves, envisioned. (Also see here.)
Because there's nothing inherent about the continued existence of the United States, nothing intrinsic to us as one race, religion, or clan, an awareness of our History is essential. Every generation must know how this country was, building on Lincoln's evocative phrasing, brought forth, dedicated to certain principles which, unless respected and kept, will cause the country to devolve to chaos.
Sadly, it seems that much of what passes for civic education in our schools and universities--and especially in our families--these days, is as decrepit and untended as Pinckney's Charleston gravesite.
Too many take this country for granted, failing to recognize the uniqueness of America and how important it is that we keep remembering what this country is all about. If we don't remember America's past, we are bound to lose its future.
On the brick wall outside Saint Michael's graveyard, there's a plaque noting that within the burial sites of both Pinckney and John Rutledge, another signer of the Constitution, can be found. You see the plaque pictured above. I was glad to see it. But can't we do better in remembering our past?
Pinckney's second cousin, Charles Pinckney, was another signer of the Constitution. He isn't buried at Saint Michael's.
[THANKS TO: John Schroeder of Blogotional for linking to this post.]
Labels: Alexander Hamilton, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Preservation
Clinton and "Experience"
Senator Hillary Clinton is more openly plotting her campaign for President and is apparently talking about the "inexperience" of her two main rivals for the Democratic nomination in 2008, John Edwards and Barack Obama.
Edwards served one term in the US Senate and left.
Obama has been in the Senate for two years, although he did serve for a time in the Illinois legislature.
But Clinton's elective political experience consists of having been in the Senate for six years.
Ann Althouse writes, in consideration of the thinness of Clinton's Senate resume:
The only way she can claim significantly more experience [than Obama] is if being the First Lady is supposed to count (or if Bill is running for co-President). That will be an awkward argument. I'll be interested in see how she looks, trying to say that with a presidential face. A 1-term Senator promoting herself on experience and padding her resume with First Lady service? Is this how the first woman will make it to President? If it's a battle of the firsts, shouldn't we lean toward the first black President, if he is the self-made man, rather than the first woman President, if she needs to stand on the shoulders of her husband? Really, how does she come off diminishing him for inexperience?
It is presumptuous for her to denigrate Obama's experience, given that she has less experience as an office holder than he has.
The only way that argument will resonate with voters is if they think of "experience" in terms of years of public visibility. But it's precisely Clinton's years of public visibility that create her greatest problem as a candidate. After all that time in the public spotlight, she's viewed negatively by a daunting percentage of voters, so much so that Democrats are pining for other choices.
What's interesting about the three current front runners for the Democrats in 2008 is that all of them have thin resumes, at least at the federal level. But Obama, a veteran of the Illinois legislature has the most time in elective political office.
Public office experience isn't everything, of course. Lincoln had served about a decade in the Illinois legislature and one term in the US House and had no executive experience, something that showed at the beginning of his term. (Obama's resume in 2007 is almost precisely the same as that of Lincoln's in 1860.) Washington had spent time in the Virginia House of Burgesses and the Continental Congress. Eisenhower, though always a "political general," in the best sense of that term, had never held public office when he became president. Yet, history shows that their presidencies didn't turn out badly.
Conversely, some long-time officeholders were disastrous presidents. Franklin Pierce, Warren Harding, James K. Polk, and Richard Nixon, among others, are unlikely to have their images chiseled into the sides of mountains.
There probably is little way of knowing how experience is going to play out in a presidency. I nonetheless think voters take it into consideration and vote against candidates they think have too little experience. Steve Forbes, Pat Buchanan, Ralph Nader, Ross Perot, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and the 2004-version of John Edwards would probably agree with me on that. (Of course, each of those candidates had other "issues" that we could go into, but inexperience as elected public officials played a role in their rejection by voters.)
One footnote on inexperience: George W. Bush had been governor of Texas for five-plus years when he was elected President in 2000. It was the only elective office he'd held before going to the White House. Americans love to elect governors President. They count experience as governor as the second-best indicator of fitness for the presidency. Only being a general or a war hero has, historically, been a surer ticket to the White House; twelve of our presidents have been generals. But even that's far from a sure thing...just ask General Wesley Clark.
Labels: 2008 Presidential Election, Althouse, Edwards, Governors, Hillary Clinton, Obama
"Some people say that's too good to be true. Well, it's true. Archie is very special."
That's Steve Luke, speaking of his college teammate and roommate, Archie Griffin in a recent article. Griffin won two Heisman Trophies while playing at The Ohio State University.
Woody Hayes once said that Archie Griffin was a better human being than he was a football player. And that was saying something, because Hayes also said that Archie was the best football player he'd ever seen.
The source of Griffin's achievement, humility, and strength of character probably can be seen in this from his brother, Ray, himself a two-time All American at Ohio State:
"He would get up in the morning and would pray on his knees for 45 minutes before he went to school," Ray said. "I'm not exaggerating. He would be bobbing his head. He was having a strong conversation with the Lord, I'm telling you."
So, where's all this good press coming from, an article in The Columbus Dispatch. No, The Palm Beach (Florida) Post. Ohio State's Buckeyes vie for the national championship against the Florida Gators on January 8.
Archie Griffin is a tremendous human being. But I'm sure that he would say that has nothing to do with him and everything to do with the God he follows.
Only One Life Preserver Needed
[This is the latest of my columns written for the Community Press newspapers.]
A few years ago, a group of us rented and then paddled canoes down the Little Miami River. Although I've always had an irrational--probably neurotic--fear of water, I found myself enjoying our little adventure.
Then it happened, the thing I'd dreaded and that I'd convinced myself wouldn't happen: I got tossed from my boat.
Because of my fears, I never learned to swim. The first time I went into the drink that day--it happened several more times--I did exactly what anyone like me would do in such circumstances: I thrashed like a madman.
But after a few moments, I realized that for all my thrashing, which was doing me no good, I was nonetheless bobbing along in the water. My life jacket had turned me into a pontoon boat! I wasn't going to drown.
With a few strokes of my arms, I propelled myself back to the canoe and threw myself on board, soggy jeans, wet tennis shoes, and all.
I could have thrashed until my arms gave out. But I couldn't save myself. Only the life preserver did that.
You know, there are lots of things people try to depend on to save their lives, whether "saving their lives" means protection from futility, from hopelessness, or from cold, lifeless death.
But there's only one life preserver that can save us from these things.
I cringe when I hear people say at funeral viewings, "He must be in heaven. He was such a nice man." Or, "Look at all the great stuff she did."
It also bothers me to know that some people bank their lives on the sayings of some gurus or holy men.
Or that others believe that the latest fad, the flavor of the month, is the closest they can get to being saved from all that haunts us as human beings.
If we depend on any human being or any humanly-generated idea, to give us life, hope, purpose, or joy, we're fooling ourselves.
As I say, it's been revealed to us with complete clarity that there is only one life preserver that can give us these things.
The earliest Christians, the ones who had physically seen and touched the resurrected Jesus Christ, risked their earthly lives to tell others the good news that our life-killing selfishness--what the Bible calls sin--can be forgiven and that new life beyond the grave or the fear of the grave is a free gift to all who will trust Jesus Christ with their whole lives. This trust is what Christians call faith.
Once, when the first Christians were told by powerful people not to speak of Jesus again, they said that they couldn't comply with that order. They explained why: "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)
Like those first Christians, I believe that Jesus, the God of the universe Who became one of us in a single human life of love, grace, truth, and sinlessness, is the only life preserver, the one who gives life that lasts forever.
Jesus once told a grieving woman, ""I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die." (John 11:25-26)
In 2007, I invite you to let the God-man Jesus to be your life preserver. Let Him give you a life of joy that begins now and lasts forever. Allow Him to connect with you through the fellowship of a local church and a life in which you daily and deliberately depend on Him all the time. Jesus, the life preserver, will never let you down!
A Few Thoughts of Mitt Romney...
First Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
The Bible Lesson: Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
15As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16John answered all of them by saying, "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."
21Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 22and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."
1. We saw some of the verses that comprise this lesson just a few weeks ago. (See here and here.) That was on the Third Weekend of the Advent Season. Advent, as you'll recall, is the season of spiritual preparation...for the Christmas celebration of Jesus' birth and for meeting Jesus, whether in our daily lives, the ends of our lives, and the end of history.
The Gospel lessons for the second and third weekends of Advent each year deal with the ministry of John the Baptizer. John's ministry entailed preparing the people of Judea for the revelation of God's Anointed (Messiah means Anointed), Jesus.
Luke 3:15-17 was part of our lesson on December 17.
2. This year's Christmas season ends with Epiphany Day, which happens on January 6. That's the day on which Christians have traditionally celebrated the arrival of the wise men (the magi) mentioned in Matthew's narrative of Jesus' birth. You'll remember that they followed a star to the house in Bethlehem to which Joseph, Mary, and the child Jesus had briefly moved after the Savior was born.
The word Epiphany means shine upon. Of course, the star shone upon the world to announce the birth of Jesus. But more significant than the light of the star is how it revealed Jesus to be God in the flesh.
Epiphany Day kicks off a season in which the Gospel lessons appointed for each weekend deal with the events which revealed who Jesus was and is. The First Weekend after Epiphany's Gospel lesson always deals with the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptizer.
3. Interestingly, in Luke's Gospel, from which our lesson comes, there's no actual narration of Jesus' baptism. I hope to talk more about the peculiarities of Luke's telling of the story of Jesus' baptism tomorrow.
4. For some basic information on Luke's Gospel, see here.
Alec Baldwin on Gerald Ford
A generous appreciation of the thirty-eighth President...and a critique of all, Democrats and Republicans, bitten by the Presidential Bug.
(MID-POST UPDATE: Charlie Lehardy points out that Baldwin may paint with too broad a stroke. Charlie's probably right. But I do think that our presidential politics has taken an onerous road ever since the 1988 campaign, when Lee Atwater advised George H.W. Bush. Atwater later publicly repented for his savagery. But legions of political functionaries, from both parties, have mimicked him ever since. Often, good, public spirited candidates acquiesce to such gutter tactics, especially in federal and statewide elections. None of us is perfect, of course. But in the intervening years, too few have emulated the two gentlemen who vied for the presidency in 1976, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, who of course, became dear friends. At least at the presidential level in recent decades, ambition has seldom given way to decency or civility. It's a shame!)
Baldwin can be strident and over-the-top in some of his political comments. But several of his Huffington Post posts have been generous and fair. See Democrat Baldwin's take on campaign criticisms of Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger last fall.
A Great Book to Help You in 2007!
[This is a re-run post. But read on, please!]
My mentor, friend, colleague, and one-time parishioner, Ron Claussen, has written and published a book of devotions called What? God...You Want Me To Do Something?
Back when I was a new pastor, called to serve a church in northwestern Ohio twenty-two years ago, God blessed me big time: Ron was serving a neighboring parish composed of two congregations, each about three miles from me. The day after I arrived on the scene, he visted me and gave me the best advice on being a pastor I've ever heard. "Love the people," he told me.
Whenever I was disappointed that I wasn't proving to be the Lutheran version of Billy Graham, packing them in Sunday after Sunday, or when the grey winter skies, so prominent on the flat farmland that surrounded us, brought me down, my wife co-conspired with Ron. She called him and said, "Ron, it's time" and unaware of their conspiracy and amazed by his providential timing, I received a call from Ron, who asked, "Want to go out to lunch today?" Because of his listening ear and his solid Biblical counsel, I always felt better after those lunches!
The area where we served in northwestern Ohio included the most-heavily Lutheran county in the United States, Henry County. (The building facilities of the church where I served as pastor, Bethlehem Lutheran Church of Okolona, Ohio, set on the line between Henry and Defiance Counties.) We used to joke that you couldn't spit without hitting a Lutheran there and Lutheran church buildings dotted every hamlet and just about every other country road. Each congregation was close to being packed to the rafters on Sunday mornings. Because there were such strong ties among those churches and because unlike the rest of us, Ron had taken the time to figure out how everyone in a four-county area was related to each other, he was known and beloved by every member of every one of those churches. We pastors thought of Ron as our "bishop" and of ourselves as his assistants.
But it wasn't just the Lutherans who sensed the powerful presence of Christ and His love in Ron. Congregations of several different denominations facing pastoral vacancies harbored the hope that maybe they could cajole Ron into becoming their pastor. He also had an easy way of relating to non-believing people, an authentically friendly manner that earned their confidence and their trust.
When he became development director for the Filling Memorial Home of Mercy in Napoleon, Ohio, a Lutheran facility for severely and profoundly mentally retarded children and adults, churches and individuals from throughout our area became more deeply involved in volunteering and financially supporting the institution. On a bigger stage, Ron shared Christ's love and "loved the people." They, in turn, saw the Filling Home as a great way to share the love of Christ with those in need and, at the same time, support the ministry of a pastor they had come to revere. (One of the auxiliary blessings that flowed from Ron going to the Filling Home is that he and his wife and family joined the congregation I served as pastor!)
Ron has retired and now confined to a wheelchair as the result of being victimized by polio back in 1952, he still is loving the people. He has an active email ministry and has, as I've mentioned, written and published What? God...You Want Me To Do Something?
I heartily recommend What? God...You Want Me To Do Something? for you to help you grow in your life of faith. It's composed of 52 weekly devotional pieces that each conclude with a challenge to the reader to compose their plans for living the devotion over that seven day period. The devotions, in other words, are a lot like Ron: A terrific communicator of the Good News of Jesus Christ, his life has always nonetheless been his greatest witness.
With a new year just started, think of how you and all the people in your family who could use this wonderful book. Ron reports that some folks have purchased it to send to loved ones serving in Iraq, a great idea!
Getting your own copy of Ron's book will be a bit of a challenge. You can't, unfortunately, order it from Amazon. But the effort you take will be worth it. Here's how to get it:
(1) If you live outside of Ohio, send a check for $13.75 to Ramblings from Ron Ministries. (That's $12.00 plus shipping and handling.)
(2) If you live in Ohio, send a check for $14.50 to Ramblings from Ron Ministries. (That's $12.00 plus shipping and handling, plus sales tax.) For accurate record-keeping, please note your county of residence on the Memo line of your check.
(3) Be sure to note your return address on accompanying piece of paper.
(4) For every additional book, add 50-cents to cover shipping and handling.
(5) Mail your orders to: Ramblings from Ron Ministries, 24544 Kammeyer Road, Defiance, Ohio 43512.
There is nobody I respect more in pastoral ministry than Ron Claussen. He is the gold standard, as far as I'm concerned. Do yourself a favor and buy his inspiring book: What? God...You Want Me To Do Something?
And, no, I don't get a cut for talking about Ron's book. But I do get to play a small part in expanding the ministry reach of a great pastor and friend!
[UPDATE: Ron now has a web site, with a blog. The link is here.]
Wow! Fred Astaire Was Cool...
He won Ginger Rogers over with his dancing in The Gay Divorcee. (Back when gay meant, well, gay, as in numbers one through four here or as in this song.).
As implausible as it would be for mere mortals to win a girl with their dancing, it totally made sense with Astaire. Astaire was amazing! Mikhail Baryshnikov, one of the greatest dancers of all, once put it this way: "No dancer can watch Fred Astaire and not know that we all should have been in another business."
Some Reactions to Saddam Hussein's Execution
...more to come, maybe.
Hal, a Jordanian and a Muslim, says "good riddance" but finds the whole thing ghastly.
Steve Martin makes no comments about the execution itself, but satirizes any impulse toward eulogizing the Butcher of Baghdad.
Dean, who blogs at Hugh Hewitt's site, views the execution as an unmitigated triumph of right and says that Iraq and the world should thank the United States for the opportunity US capture of the former dictator gave the Iraqis to hang him.
[UPDATE: Marc Schulman, based on his reading of The New York Times' rundown of all that led to Saddam Hussein's execution, has some questions.]
[ANOTHER UPDATE: The Ambivablogger owns her ambivalent feelings about Saddam Hussein's execution:
I thought my feelings about this were simple -- he's an evil man, his continued presence is a provocation, good riddance -- but the more I read about it, the more complicated and strongly ambivalent...my feelings become.
Reading about European scruples and vapors about the death penalty, my gut instinct is that there is something barbaric and bloodthirsty about our majority American attitude toward it that is young and healthy, while there is something etiolated and vitiated about the sophisticated shrinking from wanting to see someone like Saddam pay the ultimate price. If anything, his death by hanging was too quick and merciful. A tyrant can take hundreds of thousands of lives, and ruin millions more, yet has only one of his own to pay.
...reading about the execution itself, how rushed and politicized it was, I see that it was not an act of justice in any sober sense but an act of sectarian revenge and triumphalism by the Shi'ites. Many in the execution chamber acted like vigilantes at a lynching...
Also make note of the varied reactions to Amba's post in the comments section.
Many different reactions continue to swirl around the execution of Saddam Hussein.]
All About the 'Get a Mac' Guys
Several years ago, we bought a Mac.
It happened because a friend of ours, an Apple enthusiast and a then-recently hired part-timer at the local Apple store, had been lobbying us to come over to the Mac side for a long time. He'd watched us struggle through one PC after another for several years and wondered why we kept putting ourselves through a constant succession of crashes, viruses, and easily-gobbled-up memory.
As I thought about it, I wondered why we kept hanging around in PC World, too.
So, we took the plunge and bought a modestly-priced Mac. I couldn't believe the difference! The Mac is incredibly user-friendly, packed with possibilities, loaded with more than sufficient memory, and thus far, insusceptible to viruses. I'll never buy a PC again!
Because I'm such a "true believer," I love the 'Get a Mac' ads featuring a Bill Gates-looking character known as the PC Guy and a jeans-wearing twenty-something who presents himself as Mac.
But who, I asked this morning, are the guys behind the guys?
As usual, Wikipedia had my answer. Mac is actor Justin Long, who has appeared in the TV series, Ed, and in the movie, Dodgeball. He's also set to play in a Die Hard movie, where he'll play a hacker.
PC is a really interesting fellow, a writer, a poet, and a humorist, sort of a next-generation Garrison Keillor, only hipper, with a liberal dash of Professor Irwin Corey thrown in. What's really cool is that he's also a blogger. His name is John Hodgman, author of The Areas of My Expertise.
An actor and a funny Renaissance man...and I'll bet they both were already using Apples before they got the 'Get a Mac' gig, making them both considerably smarter than me, though I'm learning.
[BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE: Below see the cheesy promotional video for John Hodgman's book...]
As You Begin the New Year...
check out my six-post series on goal-setting from a Christian perspective:
The news over the past few days has been grim in many ways. But as we begin a new year, I thank the readers of Better Living for showing up and for commenting in the past year. I also ask you to join me in praying for a new year in which people experience the peace, hope, and purpose God wants the entire human race to experience. God bless you!
Posted by Mark Daniels at 2:04 AM 10 comments:
Glen VanderKloot: Ending Strong, Starting Right
[My friend and colleague, Pastor Glen VanderKloot presented this message to the people of his congregation, Faith Lutheran Church of Springfield, Illinois. You can subscribe to Glen's daily inspirations by sending an email to olwf1@gliq.net, typing SUBSCRIBE in the subject line.]
Author Dr. David McLennon tells a story of his very first job in a small town general store. This was before malls and supermarket chains. At age thirteen he was hired as a handy boy. He would sweep the floor, bag items for customers, stock the shelves. On one particular Saturday, he recalled, he heard the owner say to one of the clerks, "It's that time of the year again. It's time to take inventory."
Dr. McLennon wrote that this was a word that had not yet entered into his vocabulary. When an opportune moment arrived, he went up to the older man and asked, "Sir, what is an inventory?"
Patiently the owner explained that it was a time when you made a list of everything that you had--from groceries on the shelves to wrapping paper and string. Still somewhat puzzled, the young McLennon then asked, "Why?"
The owner responded, "Well, it's easy to forget exactly how much you have each year. Every now and then you have to take an inventory just to see what all you have."
That little story sums up what New Year's is all about. It is a time when each of us needs to take an inventory of our life. Because it's easy to forget exactly how much God has given to us, we need to take an inventory, just to see all that we do have.
Taking inventory allows us to end strong and start right. This is what we always want to do: end strong, start right. These two go hand in hand.
Often we see a race in which one of the runners starts out very strong, yet be so weakened by the end of the race that he finishes far behind. One alone isn't enough. We need to do both: end strong, start right.
Ending strong. Jesus said, "Stay with it. That's what required. Stay with it to the end. You won't be sorry... (Mark 13:13 The Message)
We always want to end strong, especially at the end of life. We see a wonderful example of this in Stephen. He was one of the first deacons in the church. He also is one of the first Christian martyrs. As he was being stoned to death, he called out, "Lord Jesus, please welcome me!...Lord, don't blame them for what they have done." (Acts 7:59-60 CEV)
Stephen died as he lived - faithfully. He ended strong. Let us live our lives faithfully every day so that someday we can say along with St. Paul, "I have fought well. I have finished the race, and I have been faithful." (2 Timothy 4:7 CEV)
Starting right. One day a woman who was very depressed about the conditions of the world decided to go shopping. She went into a mall and picked a store at random. She walked in and was surprised to see Jesus behind the counter. She thought it was Jesus because he looked just like the images she had seen at church. She finally asked, "Excuse me, are you Jesus?"
He responded, "I am."
She asked, "Do you work here?"
Jesus replied, "No I own the store."
Now the woman was quite curious and asked, "What do you sell here?"
Jesus answered, "Just about everything. Feel free to walk up and down the aisles, find what it is you want and then come back and we'll see what we can do for you."
So the woman did just that. She saw that there was peace in families, no more war, no hunger or poverty, and no more drugs. There was harmony, clean air, careful use of natural resources, honesty in politics and government. There was no AIDS, cancer, hurricanes, tornadoes or flooding. There really was `peace on earth good will to all.'
By the time she returned to the counter, she had an incredibly long list. Jesus took the list, skimmed through it, looked up at her and smiled, saying, "No problem."
Then he bent down behind the counter and picked some things, and laid out a huge number of packets. The woman asked, "What are these?"
Jesus replied, "Seeds."
"But don't I get the finished product?" she asked.
Jesus answered, "No, this is a place of hope and dreams. I give you the seeds...
Then it is up to you.
It is up to you to plant.
It is up to you to nurture.
It is up to you to fertilize.
It is up to you to prune.
And it is up to you to harvest."
The woman left the store without buying anything.
As we begin 2007 God is giving us some great seeds. The rest is up to us. Remember God says:
I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life...loving the Lord your God, obeying him and holding fast to him; for that means life to you..." (Deuteronomy 30:19-20 NRSV)
That is how we end 2006 strong and start 2007 right.
Reflection Questions:
What seeds is God giving to me?
How will I use them?
How is my life going to be different in 2007?
Action Step:
This week take an inventory of your life and make a plan of action for 2007.
Start Out the New Year...
by watching an old movie. There are dozens and dozens to choose from on this site and they're all free.
Among the films I noted while perusing the site are the D.W. Griffith production of Abraham Lincoln starring Walter Huston, Charade, Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (with Peter Lorre), His Girl Friday, and The Last Time I Saw Paris with Van Johnson and Elizabeth Taylor.
A Sampling of 2006 Posts at Better Living
Last year, I went way overboard--which I tend to do--and published a series of "best of" posts listing a combination of my personally favorite posts and those that received the most hits in 2005. For each month, I listed between five to ten different posts!
This year, ripping off an idea from Ann Althouse, I pick one post from each month of the year, chosen solely because I like it. (Except for two months, for each of which I name a bonus post.)
January: Barry and I Were Right
February: Valentine's Day Thoughts
March: My Battle with Cliff Clavin Disease
April: What About 'The Gospel of Judas'?
May: The Connection That Brings Life
June: If TR Were Alive Today, He'd Be Blogging
July: Interpreting Lincoln's Second Inaugural Sermon
July Bonus: What's To Be Done When You're Not Into It?
August: The Lebanese War Subjected to an Armchair Historian's Analysis
September: David and the Well at Bethlehem
October: Why It's 'Reformation Sunday'
October Bonus: I Was Wrong
November: How to Overcome Worry
(Maybe I'll pick one for December in January.)
[UPDATE: Ali at Aliblog links to this post and goes on to list a post from her blog for each month of last year. I enjoy reading Ali's writing. My wife and I enjoyed meeting her parents and brother at a wedding celebration in northwest Ohio this past year!]
Proof That All People Can Learn to Live Together i...
Living Water in a Graveyard...But It Doesn't Come ...
"Some people say that's too good to be true. Well,...
First Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: Luke 3:...


text:
(-) Remove Outcalt, Kenneth filter Outcalt, Kenneth
(-) Remove Friggens, Megan filter Friggens, Megan
Implications of climate change for bird conservation in the southwestern U.S
Future expected changes in climate and human activity threaten many riparian habitats, particularly in the southwestern U.S. Using Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt3.3.3) modeling, we characterized habitat relationships and generated spatial predictions of habitat suitability for the Lucy?s warbler (Oreothlypis luciae), the Southwestern willow flycatcher (Empidonax...
https://www.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/search?keywords=%22Generations%22&%3Bf%5B0%5D=author_facet%3A%22Iniguez%2C%20Jose%22&f%5B0%5D=author_facet%3A%22Friggens%2C%20Megan%22&f%5B1%5D=author_facet%3A%22Outcalt%2C%20Kenneth%22
Megan M. Friggens; Deborah M. Finch
climate change, bird conservation, Maximum Entropy, MaxEnt3.3.3, Lucy's warbler, Oreothlypis luciae, Southwestern willow flycatcher, Empidonax traillii extimus, Western yellow-billed cuckoo, Coccyzus americanus
PLoS ONE. 10(12): e0144089.
Occurrence of fire in longleaf pine stands in the Southeastern United States
A healthy understory commmunity is a key factor in maintaining the biodiversity of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) stands, and there appears to be a strong relationship between the occurrence of fire and the condition of the understory vegetauon. Generally, the understory is healthier in burned areas than in those not burned. TO assess the USC of...
Kenneth W. Outcalt
fire, Florida, Georgia, longleaf pine, North Carolina, Pinus palustris, prescribed burning, restoration, South Carolina, understory
In: Moser, W. Keith; Moser, Cynthia E., eds. Fire and forest ecology: innovative silviculture and vegetation management. Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference Proceedings, No. 21. Tallahassee, FL: Tall Timbers Research Station: 178-182
Niche partitioning in the cestode communities of two elasmobranchs
Several randomization methods have been used to investigate the influence of competitive interactions in shaping parasite community structure. Marine fish parasite communities have often been regarded as unstructured assemblages with little or no resource limitation and, therefore, not prone to competitive influences. In this study, null models were used to assess the...
M. M. Friggens; J. H. Brown
niche partitioning, cestode communities, elasmobranchs, marine fish parasite communities, Urobatis halleri, Leucoraja naevus
Oikos. 108: 76-84.
Restoring Southern Pine Forests Ecosystems: Plant Community Response to Mechanical Midstory History Reduction and Prescribed Fire on Sandhills at Fort Benning Georgia
Developed during periods of fire exclusion, dense midstory vegetation, that reduces understory plant diversity (competitive shading) and increases the risk of damaging Wildfire (fuel ladder from ground to canopy), has impeded restoration efforts to safely reintroduce prescribed burning in southern pine ecosystems. Our study evaluated the effects of midstory reduction...
Dale Brockway; Kenneth W. Outcalt; Becky L. Estes
[Abstract]. In: Abstracts, 88th annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America, August 3-8 2003, Savannah, Georgia. 46.
Decay of Fire-Caused snags in Ocala Sand Pine
Sand pine (Pinus clausa) scrub is adapted to, and regenerated by, periodic stand-replacement wildfire, which consumes the understory and kills the overstory. The heat of the fire opens the serotinous cones of Ocala sand pine (P. clausa var. clausa), releasing quantities of seed that reestablish the overstory,...
coarse woody debris, ecosystem management, fire in ecosystem management, Florida, Ocala National Forest, Pinus clausa, sand pine, snags
Pages 50-54 in K.E.M. Galley, R.C. Klinger, and N.G. Sugihara (eds.). Proceedings of Fire Conference 2000: The First National Congress on Fire Ecology, Prevention, and Management. Miscellaneous Publication No. 13. Tall Timbers Research Station. Tallahassee. FL.
Restoring longleaf pine wiregrass ecosystems: plant cover, diversity and biomass following low-rate hexazinone application on Florida sandhills
A longleaf pine wiregrass ecosystem in the sandhills of north central Florida, upon which turkey oak gained dominance following a wildfire, was treated with low rate (1.1 or 2.2 kg/ha) applications of the herbicide hexazinone during the 1991 growing season. All applications successfully reduced oak in the overstory and understory, mortality ranging from 83 to 93...
Dale G. Brockway; Kenneth W. Outcalt; R. Neal Wilkins
Sand pine (Pinus clausa) scrub is adapted to. and regenerated by, periodic stand-replacement wildfire, which consumes the understory and kills the overstory. The heat of the fire opens the serotinous cones of Ocala sand pine (P. clausa var. clausa), releasing quantities of seed that reestablish the overstory, while the understory regenerates by sprouting or from soil-...
In: Proceedings of Fire Conference 200, N.G. Sugihara, 50-54
Restoration of Longleaf Pine Ecosystems
Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) ecosystems once occupied 38 million ha in the Southeastern United States, occurring as forests, woodlands, and savannas on a variety of sites ranging from wet flatwoods to xeric sandhills and rocky mountainous ridges. Characterized by an open parklike structure, longleaf pine ecosystems are a product of frequent fires...
Dale G. Brockway; Kenneth W. Outcalt; Donald J. Tomczak; Everett E. Johnson
Biological diversity, bluestem grasses, disturbance, fire ecology, gopher tortoise, Pinus palustris Mill., red-cockaded woodpecker, wiregrass.
Vulnerability of species to climate change in the Southwest: terrestrial species of the Middle Rio Grande
We used a vulnerability scoring system to assess the vulnerability of 117 vertebrate species that occur in the Middle Rio Grande Bosque (MRGB) to expected climate change. The purpose of this project was to guide wildlife managers on options and considerations for climate change adaptation. The 117 species occur regularly in the MRGB during the breeding season, winter,...
Megan M. Friggens; Deborah M. Finch; Karen E. Bagne; Sharon J. Coe; David L. Hawksworth
climate change, southwestern riparian habitats, vulnerability assessment, Bosque, wildlife management, SAVS
Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-306. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 191 p.
The national Fire and Fire Surrogate study: effects of fuel reduction methods on forest vegetation structure and fuels
Changes in vegetation and fuels were evaluated from measurements taken before and after fuel reduction treatments (prescribed fire, mechanical treatments, and the combination of the two) at 12 Fire and Fire Surrogate (FFS) sites located in forests with a surface fire regime across the conterminous United States. To test the relative effectiveness of fuel reduction...
Dylan W. Schwilk; Jon E. Keeley; Eric E. Knapp; James Mciver; John D. Bailey; Christopher J. Fettig; Carl E. Fiedler; Richy J. Harrod; Jason J. Moghaddas; Kenneth W. Outcalt; Carl N. Skinner; Scott L. Stephens; Thomas A. Waldrop; Daniel A. Yaussy; Andrew Youngblood
delayed mortality, dry forests, forest management, hazard reduction, prescribed burning, species richness, thinning
Ecological Applications, 19(2): 285-304

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Can't restart apache via ssh Connecting via ssh (with Mobaxterm or PuTTY) to container Docker, on which is installed Ubuntu. User is sudoer (not root).
ssh version installed in the container
# ssh -V
OpenSSH_6.6.1p1 Ubuntu-2ubuntu2.10, OpenSSL 1.0.1f 6 Jan 2014

This command
# sudo service apache2 restart

return
* Restarting web server apache2

then remains stuck until CTRL+C or timeout. Apache is not restarted. No lines in apache error log.
Opening the console of the container via Portainer interface (user is root in this case), and restarting apache properly works.
# service apache2 restart
 * Restarting web server apache2

[ OK ]

What I'm missing?
Thank you

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


This winter I traveled to the Catskills, to show my girlfriend one of my prime stomping grounds when I lived in NYC. With two days, I picked Kaaterskill Falls as one of my destinations.
Although I missed most of one day of excellent skiing, driving around the local hills with fresh eyes reminded me of how special these mountains really are, and I wanted to experience them in a new way.
One big hole in my hiking resume has always been getting to the top of Kaaterskill Falls. Anyone that skis Hunter regularly has no doubt seen the throngs clinging to the sides of 23A getting back and forth to the trailhead. I wanted to be one of those people cursing the trail up to this iconic spot.


text:
Edwin Parker "CY" Twombly
One of the founding fathers of intercollegiate athletics at Washington & Lee University, Twombly coached W&L teams to more than 400 victories and guided the University's athletic progress for more than half a century.
W&L benefited greatly from Twombly's brilliance for 50 plus years, but he certainly could have had a career of on-the-field success as well. He pitched pro and semi-pro baseball for 19 years and his record included several no-hitters. Twombly signed with Chicago after graduating from Springfield College in 1921. That summer, he pitched for the White Sox of the American League and in the fall, began his career at W&L. He once had 20 strikeouts in a 7-inning game. Twombly played with or against Hall of Famers Walter Johnson, Tris Speaker, Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb.
Upon arriving at W&L, Twombly immediately took control of the swimming and golf programs and began a tradition of tremendous success. In 39 seasons as a swim coach, Twombly's teams posted a 122-49 record, including 4 Southern Conference Championships and a stretch of 5 unbeaten seasons. He finished his stint as swim coach with 11 consecutive winning seasons, including a perfect season in 1960, Twombly's last as Head Swim Coach.
Twombly was equally successful as the Generals' Head Golf Coach. His teams posted a record of 196-121-26 from 1926 through 1974. Twombly's golfers won 2 Southern Conference Championships and a half dozen State Titles. Twombly, who himself shot a course record 63 at the Lexington Golf and Country Club, coached several players who went on to play on the U.S. Walker Cup Teams. He also was one of the founding fathers of the Virginia Intercollegiate Golf Championships.
Twombly served as Athletic Director during 15 tumultuous years in the university's athletic history. It was Twombly's steady hand that guided W&L through its decision to do away with subsidized athletics in 1954. Twombly retired in 1969 although continuing to coach golf until his passing in 1974.


text:
Q: Directx control in browser plugin I have to insert a directx control to a firebreath plug in for a browser.
Can anyone post a sample how to do it? I have no knowledge in plugins...
10x

A: I don't have an example that I can give you, but I can tell you roughly what you need to do.
First, read this: http://colonelpanic.net/2010/11/firebreath-tips-drawing-on-windows/
That will give you an overview of how drawing works in FireBreath.
First, you set everything up when handling AttachedEvent.

*

*Create a new thread to handle drawing (your DirectX drawing must not be on the main thread)

*Get the HWND from the PluginWindowWin object (cast the FB::PluginWindow* to FB::PluginWindowWin and call getHWND())

*Initialize DirectX on the secondary thread with the provided HWND. Set up some form of render loop and make sure you can send it commands from the main thread.

*Handle the RefreshEvent (comes from WM_PAINT) by posting a message somehow to your render thread so it redraws when that event is fired.

*Make sure that on DetachedEvent you shut down your thread.

You need to do all initialization, drawing, and shutdown of the DirectX stuff on the same thread.  This needs to all happen on a thread that is not just the main thread (don't just use timers) because otherwise it'll mess up the browser rendering context on some versions of Firefox -- not sure why.
Anyway, hope this helps.
Edit: To pass parameters into the start of a boost::thread, should that be the threading abstraction you decide to use, simply pass it in as a parameter.
boost::thread t(&MyClass::someFunction, this, theHWND);

That will start the thread.  In actuality, you probably want to make the thread a class variable or something so that you can access it later -- remember that you'll want the thread to have stopped during the handling of DetachedEvent. For messages I'd probably use FB::SafeQueue, which is a threadsafe queue that is part of FireBreath.  Look at the sources for how to use it; it's pretty straightforward (stolen from a codeproject article, I think).
// Inside MyClass
void someFunction(HWND theHWND) {
    ...
}


Prior to forming Lapeze & Johns with his friend Keith Lapeze in 2014, Chris Johns worked for over 10 years as a trial lawyer for one of the most successful plaintiff attorneys in the country. Prior to that, he worked for two of the nation's largest and most prestigious corporate defense firms, where he defended companies in all areas of civil litigation, in both state and federal court.
Chris has tried scores of cases to verdict and judgment throughout Texas and the Gulf Coast, in both state and federal courts, securing extraordinary results along the way. A testament to Chris' dedication to his clients is the many referrals he receives from his former clients, as well as from other lawyers who have entrusted him with the handling of their clients' cases.
Chris was recently awarded a "superb" 10.0 AVVO rating, which scores attorneys based on their skills, experience, industry recognition, and professional conduct. He is also consistently recognized in Texas Monthly as a Super Lawyer and Top Attorney in Texas in plaintiff's personal injury litigation.


You've chosen a brand-new air conditioning system and you are ready to move forward with installation. So, what will you experience at the installation appointment?
Foremost, there are some steps you can do ahead of time to assist with the installation process. Make sure the area where the air conditioning system will be located is clear. This includes an open path so the installers don't experience obstacles when moving the equipment to the final spot. This includes clearing the yard of any tools, toys, sticks and leaves.
If you have pets, make sure they are in a kennel, crate or put in a separate area to help guarantee it's a safe environment for the technician and your pet.
One benefit of partnering with AirTech Heating and Air Conditioning, LLC on your air conditioning installation is that our professionals will take the time to walk you through your new system. It's recommended that you ask as many questions as you want while our technician installs your system. We recognize how large of an investment this is and how important the air conditioner is to your home comfort. Once the system is installed, the technician will perform testing to make sure it's operating correctly. We'll show you all the features of your new system and include recommendations on how to reach the optimum efficiency.
While the technician will review the features, we advocate that you take the time to look through the owner's manual to become more familiar with your system. And store your manual in a safe place for future reference.
We're here to help you, whether you have questions about your air conditioner after it has been installed or you simply need to schedule routine maintenance to make sure it continues to run properly–you can count on us. Give the experts at AirTech Heating and Air Conditioning, LLC a call at 479-226-8196 to make sure you are ready for summer!


They shall sing of the ways of the Lord.
Believer, do you recollect the day when your fetters fell off? Do you remember the place when Jesus met you and said, "I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; none of them shall be remembered against you."
Oh, what a sweet season it is when Jesus takes away the pain of sin. When the Lord first pardoned my sin, I was so joyful that I could barely refrain from dancing. I thought on my road home from the house where I had been set at liberty that I must tell the stones in the street the story of my deliverance. So full was my soul of joy that I wanted to tell every snowflake that was falling from heaven of the wondrous love of Jesus, who had blotted out the sins of one of the chief of rebels. But it is not only at the commencement of the Christian life that believers have reason for song; as long as they live they discover cause to sing in the ways of the Lord, and their experience of His constant loving-kindness leads them to say, "I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth."1 See to it, Christian, that you magnify the Lord this day.
New mercies shall new songs demand.


most side trails a mudfest with a wee bit of ice still at the bottom of hammerfell. main loop buff. a wet blustery one!
great class w kyle! deadlifts, then 3 x 4 min AMRAPs in teams of three. effective burn!
great class w mike. Hang Clean, Squat Cleans, Front Rack KB Carries. Okay - KB carries came easy enough but lifts are total work in progress for sure! I was planning to focus more on getting to the Metcon classes post the Open but kinda liking the challenge of figuring out these lifts so will also get in some CF classes. The consensus is it take years to nail the lifts - I am game to keep trying - the odd one you do correctly, feels so right!
ARK - gotta love when it is at cantebury!
another amazing morning on the trails with Roxy!
oh, that was hard after yesterday's CF. ackk!
a repeat w Roxy! Great trail conditions...and sunny!!
metcon w janet. lots of rowing and kb shoulder work. subtle but it sure added up! good one!
with Roxy - such a blast!


text:
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Soldier Rebuilds Life After Iron Triangle Murders
July 2, 2016 /0 Comments/in Military, Military Blog
By Debbie Gregory.
On May 9, 2006, Corey Clagett and his squad participated in Operation Iron Triangle in Thar Thar, Iraq. It was there and then that the 21-year-old U.S. Army private in the 101st Airborne Division said that he followed an order that would change his life forever.
Clagett's squad had been dropped by a Blackhawk helicopter on to a tiny lake island that was an al Qaeda controlled terrorist training camp. The rules of engagement were to kill all military-aged males in the area. When they caught three such men hiding in a house, using two women as human shields, Staff Sergeant Raymond Girouard, the squad's leader, ordered Clagett and another low-ranking member of the squad to let them go – and shoot them as they fled.
Clagett, who was released earlier this year after serving 10 years of an 18 year sentence at the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kan. recognized that that he had been given an unlawful order. But fearful of disobeying an order and the consequences if the detainees were released and able to provide information to al Qaeda, Clagett obeyed.
A criminal investigation into the deaths of the detainees eventually uncovered the events of that day, and Clagett was charged with the deaths of the detainees. He pleaded guilty to murder, attempted murder, conspiracy and obstruction of justice.
Supporters of Clagett and others in the "Leavenworth 10," the name given to a fluctuating group of men imprisoned at Leavenworth for actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, say the men were scapegoats for their superiors.
Their cases have garnered online petitions and brought together military veterans and legal students who believe justice is not always served in military courtrooms far removed from the heat of battle.
Clagett was paroled on March 31st. His case drew the attention of the University of Chicago Law School's Combat Clemency Project, which is petitioning the Army for a full pardon of his conviction.
While a pardon would not condone the shooting, it could help Clagett rebuild his life.
Clagett is now a community and veterans liaison with United American Patriots, a North Carolina nonprofit that helps service members who face injustice. The group helped Clagett win an early release from an 18-year sentence after learning the details of his case.
Do you think any part of this was fair?
Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve, and their families.
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Webdesign and web hosting are broad terms, plus they encompass many interrelated topics, and discussions. To ensure that us to possess a better understanding about both of these topics, it is essential that we have seen this is of the topics. The first is web design. Website design could be defines because the creation along with the arrangement of web pages in order that it forms just like a website. It is also over a book in which each one of the pages features its own information, document, text, video, sounds, images, design and strategy.
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Webdesign and webhosting was really a truly vital area of the package that one should look into picking out a webdesign company. Every company must have an online prescence to achieve out many purchasers using search engines like google like Lycos, Alta Vista, Google, Ask, Yahoo, Bing, Web Search, Netscape and much more. The web site design are required to follow or complement the rules supplied by the various search engines to ensure that the website to possess a greater ranking.
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Jatinder Singh: Quantifying Mass Murder And Why All Punjabis Should Demand A Truth Commission
In his reporting on KPS Gill's record, Hartosh Bal omitted events surrounding human rights worker Jaswant Singh Khalra
Jaswant Singh Khalra | Khalra was disappeared and murdered by Punjab Police after he uncovered illegal cremations and evidence of rampant extrajudicial killings
April 26, 2021 | 3.5 min. Read
When Simon Fraser University (SFU) planned a webinar on the Indian farmer's protest with journalist Hartosh Singh Bal, they seemed taken aback after an uproar from students and community members, despite knowing of an earlier cancelation of a similar webinar at the University of British Columbia (UBC) due to Bal's presence.
Bal is the nephew of KPS Gill, former Director-General of Punjab Police. A counterinsurgency by Punjab Police against an armed Sikh separatist movement in the 1980s-90s resulted in gross human rights abuses.
It was reported that Bal's relationship to KPS Gill was the overriding reason for the community protest regarding the now two canceled university events. However, it is Bal's repeated attempts to diminish the scale of the killings in Punjab which are most problematic - at least to me.
In his reporting on KPS Gill's record, Bal omitted events surrounding human rights worker Jaswant Singh Khalra.
Khalra was important to mention as he had been conducting field research on illegal cremations by the police and approximated that as many as 25,000 bodies could have been cremated across the State. This led to him receiving threats to end his field research.
On September 6, 1995, Khalra was abducted and then murdered by the Punjab Police. India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigated the mass cremations and in its final report, limited to the Amritsar district alone, listed 2,097 illegal cremations. They had missed an opportunity to survey the entire State and the true scale of what had befallen Punjab.
Bal stated that the 25,000 estimate was 'a complete fabrication'. He also based his conclusions on KPS Gill's tenure almost entirely on statistics provided by the Institute founded by KPS Gill himself.
He is not alone in making conclusions based on data that is open to question. Others have either exaggerated or downplayed the number killed in Punjab, whether by the insurgents or the police. Not knowing empirically the scale of abuse allows people to score political points against each other. Khalra was clear it was an estimate and wanted a full-scale investigation to ascertain the real figure of those killed.
I firmly believe Punjabis are owed a true account of what happened during that period, free from political influence and bias. Nothing short of a full truth commission conducted by an independent committee is required. A wholesale survey across Punjab, collecting testimonies and other data would allow us to build a database to understand the scale of the violence that impacted Punjab, and whatever lingering effects that are having on the citizenry.
The first requirement is the need for quality and comprehensive data. KPS Gill's institute may have captured those killed by the insurgents accurately, or exaggerated it, but one doubts they would have accounted for the number killed by the police, especially considering the evidence we have of illegal cremations.
Despite the sparsity of data for this period, some statistical analyses have been performed which show what the collection and analysis of quality data can have on investigating patterns of violence.
As early as 1991, by looking at the number of citizens killed by insurgents through newspaper reports, a Ph.D. found through time-series analysis that when a popular government facilitated the popular expression of grievances, levels of insurgency came down in Punjab. Conversely, periods of denial of popular expressions, such as President's rule, led to an increase in the incidence of insurgency.
A survey conducted in 1997 on Punjab police established unique patterns of torture practices. The information garnered from this survey allowed clinicians in the USA to determine genuine torture claims for Sikh asylum seekers.
In 2007, the long-term psychopathology in 116 Punjabi Sikh survivors of human rights violations was reported. The sampling had been obtained from the 2,097 in the CBI report. The authors found that chronic injuries sustained during torture and other forms of political violence were robust predictors of long-term psychopathology, even beyond the effects of the torture itself. Consistent with the literature on injury and PTSD, there was also a clear relationship between chronic injuries and PTSD among those tortured.
Finally, in a master's thesis, interviews with 45 women found that attempts to suppress militancy by the State led to incidents in which they were detained and tortured illegally by the police. The women concerned had to suffer a severe degree of torture of varying methods, which made many of them victims of medical and psychological disorders like depression, severe pain in the body, damaged muscles, and anxiety.
As you can see, important insights can be gained from the data analysed. If more quality data is collected, then there is much more analysis that can be done to truly understand the nature of violence that befell Punjab. A truth commission is needed, but doubtful considering the political climate in India. One of the few groups attempting to capture the data is ensaaf, which has created a visual map of at least 5,301 victims of enforced disappearances or extrajudicial executions.
Jatinder Singh is National Director for Khalsa Aid Canada. You can find him on Twitter at @jindisinghka.
Baaz is home to opinions, ideas, and original reporting for the Sikh and Punjabi diaspora. Support us by subscribing. Find us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook at @BaazNewsOrg. If you would like to submit a written piece for consideration please email us at editor@baaznews.org.


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Medical certificates must clearly indicate a diagnosis and a prognosis and must be signed by a legally qualified medical practitioner. If the information provided is deemed inadequate, or if either the Benefits Office or the Faculty has reason to question the validity of such information, the staff member may be examined by a legally qualified medical practitioner arranged by the Benefits Office.
Staff are required to notify their Chair or Director without delay, in writing, when they must be absent for medical reasons.
The Chair or Director must forward the notification of absence to the Benefits Office, along with a Notice of Status Change form.
A medical certificate covering diagnosis, prognosis and expected duration of absence must also be provided by the staff member from the first day of absence. This certificate should be forwarded to the Benefits Office without delay. The Benefits Office determines the acceptability of the medical certificates and renders a decision on the leave.
While a staff member is on STD, replacement funds are available. Information can be obtained by contacting HR-Benefits at 514-398-6250 (ext. 094805).
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After 120 days of absence on an ongoing STD, the Benefits Office will send the staff member an application for LTD, with a copy to the Chair/Director. If the LTD application is returned promptly, notification of LTD eligibility is likely to be forthcoming prior to termination of STD benefits. In the event that STD benefits end prior to processing of the LTD claim, the staff member must be placed on an unpaid leave of absence, via a Notice of Status Change form, pending adjudication of the LTD claim.
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Disability leaves of longer than 3 months count as periods of authorized leave for reappointment and tenure purposes. Staff members may request a delay in their reappointment or tenure consideration. For details, see Reappointing Tenure Track Academic Staff and Tenure Consideration.


Home » Browse » Academic journals » Law Journals » The Journal of High Technology Law » Article details, "Embryonic Stem Cells: Marrow of the Dickey Matter"
This Note discusses the issues surrounding the United States' current research policy involving human embryos and the ensuing negative impact on stem cell research. The main thesis explores the differences between the United States and foreign legal policies concerning research on human embryos, analyzing how the variations affect the economic and scientific potential of stem cell therapies. It presents alternative legal guidelines that permit the use of embryos under specific circumstances, while accounting for the delicate ethical and moral issues involved with human embryonic stem cell research. Following these proposals is a discussion about the advantages of an administrative program similar to the HFEA, and the benefits of having this type of framework.


This presentation explores the world of beloved English author, Jane Austen, through the arts of her time. We'll see paintings that Austen herself would have seen; portraits of ladies, gentlemen, and handsome military officers painted by famous artists such as Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds. We'll view the English landscape through paintings by John Constable and J.M.W. Turner. We will also look at fashion, country estates and gardens, and the budding English porcelain industry. A perspective of Jane Austen's world will emerge, which will illuminate her life, her novels, and the fascinating time and place in which she lived.


Ever since, TCI Environment International NV specializes in underground storage and transportation of hazardous liquids.
Protection of the surface and groundwater is vital and to reach this objective we need a perfect sealing between our tank sumps and the pipe entries.
We can provide our customers "Easy Fit" fittings and booths together with inserts and donuts.


On April 25, BEIS and CECAN held a workshop bringing together members of the CECAN team with analysis and policy leads in BEIS, responsible for this £505 million programme. The workshop explored options for the development of an evaluation strategy for the programme; it is the first activity in the ongoing support CECAN will offer in this key policy area. The programme is made of many projects with diverse aims and contexts, and has key objectives around energy innovation, meaning there are many evaluation challenges.


Do you get appliances every year for Mothers Day? Even though a new toaster is nice, it isn't exactly what we were wishing for year after year. You may hope for a beautiful piece of jewelry, handmade picture from your little ones, or even a certain plant for your outdoor landscape. How do you "hint" around, especially when your kids are too little to drop some hints?
Gone are the days of magazine pictures conveniently stuffed for your partner to see or even things circled in the weekly store ads, there are some great tools that you can keep a "Wish List" throughout the year!
Pinterest – Make a Pinterest board. So easy and visual for anyone you share it with. You can see mine here!
Evernote or Springpad – Collect ideas or even write a list and save as a note. Write down stores you find items at, take pictures, and even put the aisle number. It can't get easier!
Store Wish Lists – Many stores have ways to register and create your own wish list.
Web Sites or Smart Phone Apps – The lists you make at the end of the year for your children can be used just as easily for you!
All of these options will make that blender a thing of the past… you just have to remember to send a link or message to remind them to check it!!
By the way… to my husband, if you are reading this… be sure to check out my Evernote Notebook labeled Kim's Wish List or my Pinterest Board. HINT HINT!


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2019 Baltimore Orioles home opener against the New York Yankees.
Getting called up to the majors is a big deal for a baseball player, but getting to the game was a challenge for one minor leaguer.
Chelsea Yourdon from Barnes and Noble sat down with Jason Powles for a NewsTalk about good reads on the shelves.
The Yankees' list of injuries is long and distinguished. Gilma Avalos reports.
Reuters NEW YORK ― The nation's best-known baseball team won big at Thursday's opening game at Yankee Stadium, defeating the Baltimore Orioles 7-2. But it was on Friday, roughly 10 miles..
CBS2's Steve Overmyer sits down with Yankees reporter Brendan Kuty to talk about the keys to the team's 2019 season.
The Yankees were trailing Boston in the seventh inning Wednesday night at the Stadium, and Mike Ford thought he might get the chance to walk up to the plate as a pinch hitter and see the dream come..
The Yankees used a portable fog machine and strobe lights as part of a celebration in their clubhouse after finishing their two-game sweep of the Red Sox on Wednesday night.


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This startup offers virtual SIMs that block spam calls; can be used for ordering food, booking cabs
Sohini Mitter ( )
If you own an Indian SIM, chances are you would have received tonnes of spam calls since you began using a cellphone. That is because India is one of the top ten spam-hit countries in the world, as per Truecaller Insights.
Two years ago, India was the second-most spam-hit country after Brazil.
Simply put, the menace of mobile spam has affected Indians for years. And in the aftermath of increased digitisation, the problem has only compounded, with India averaging nearly 26 spam calls per month per user.
"With the rise of mobile payment systems and a growing middle class in the country, banks, fintech organisations, and telemarketing services are emerging as big spammers," Truecaller said in an earlier insights report.
Now, is there a long-term solution to the spam problem?
Hyderabad-based startup Doosra has come up with one.
Doosra founder is a serial entrepreneur, who's also founded Zippr and MediaMint
[Startup Bharat] This Ahmedabad-based SaaS venture wants to be the Zoho of virtual telephony
Origins of Doosra
Founded by serial entrepreneur Aditya Vuchi (who's also founded location intelligence startup Zippr and adtech firm MediaMint), Doosra is built on the concept of cloud telephony.
Until now, cloud telephony had mostly been restricted to the enterprise space, with startups like Exotel, CallerDesk, CallHippo, Knowlarity, and others catering to businesses. Doosra is among the first startups in India to bring the tech to the B2C space.
Founder-CEO Aditya tells YourStory, "Doosra was born out of personal experience. Some years ago, I was at a sports shop in the Bay Area and the store manager refused to bill me unless I gave him my mobile number. It was the store's policy to ask for mobile numbers while processing a transaction. Today, most businesses will take your mobile number to personalise their service. It has become a very important CRM tool. But, as a marketing guy, I was aware of how data could be misused and traded."
So, he wanted to develop a fix. The bootstrapped startup began ideation almost two years ago, and worked with India's leading telecom operators to create a customised "telecom stack" on the consumer side.
Doosra finally launched operations in May 2020, and released its mobile app in September. The Doosra app has crossed 10,000 downloads on Google Play Store, and has gained an impressive user rating of 4.9 out of 5.
Infographic: YS Design
Zoom mail after Zoom call? 2020's breakout tech startup is going beyond video meetings
How Doosra works and what it solves
Doosra offers a 10-digit virtual SIM to users that they can share on any product or service platform or at offline stores for transactional purposes instead of divulging their personal mobile numbers. The free virtual number can also be shared with acquaintances.
The 'doosra' number (secondary number) not only safeguards the digital identity of users, but also auto-blocks spam calls and messages and reduces fraud. Doosra does this by using Smart Call filters, which give users the power to choose the calls that can reach their phones.
On the Doosra app, users can create customised lists of 'Trusted Contacts' and 'Trusted Services'. Calls from these numbers are able to bypass the smart filters and get forwarded to the user's primary number.
All non-trusted numbers are classified as spam and automatically sent to voicemail by the app. Users, however, have the option of calling back any unknown number.
Doosra app auto-generates a 10-digit virtual number for users
The Doosra number can be shared at grocery stores, pharmacies, car dealerships, restaurants, shopping malls, delivery and ticketing services, dating apps, websites, networking events, and so on.
"Doosra gives you all the benefits of a publicly shareable number without the downsides of telecalling. You can use it everywhere except UPI," says the founder.
Even though the virtual 10-digit number is system-assigned, Doosra lets users customise their numbers.
This is because some people prefer to choose a combination similar to their primary number or one that resembles a significant date — birthdays, anniversaries, etc. "They find it easier to remember the number that way," Aditya shares.
[Tech30] How marine robotics startup EyeROV is improving inspection of offshore assets
Early growth and business model
The startup claims that its call volumes are growing 30 percent week-on-week. This is in line with Truecaller estimates that suggest spam calls peaked in the month of October after a drop during the lockdown.
Doosra stands to gain in such a situation, but it has to first acquire users.
It has tied up with Ola, Swiggy, Zomato, UrbanCompany, 99acres, OLX, and others to expedite adoption. Users can share their Doosra number with driver partners or delivery executives while availing these services. The transaction OTP will be sent to the Doosra app.
Doosra is a subscription-driven app and offers two plans
Aditya shares, "The latent demand is significant but educating people and aligning them on privacy is the key. Even though privacy is a niche subject, people are more aware now. They don't want identity profiling."
Doosra is a subscription-driven app where users can buy monthly minutes. It has two plans: half-yearly (Rs 499) and annual (Rs 699). Each plan offers 100 minutes of callback and unlimited voicemail.
In a few weeks, the startup will also roll out Doosra Pro, the premium version of its product that is likely to be priced "20 percent higher".
The founder says, "Subscription is the right way to grow this business. Mobile numbers are very sticky in nature. You tend to use the same number for years. So, we will keep adding new customer tools, build loyalty around the product, and get some scale before raising external funding."
Given India has a billion-plus mobile connection, Doosra is just raring to go.
Edited by Megha Reddy
HIGHLIGHTS NORTH 9 PM
Ind vs Aus: 'A very special day that I will remember always', says Sundar after heroics
Farmers will not be cowed down by NIA notices: Cong
New Delhi, Jan 17 (PTI) These are the top stories from the northern region at 9 pm.
Brisbane [Australia], January 17 (ANI): After heroics against Australia on day three of the fourth Test, India's Washington Sundar said it was a very special day and thanked his fans for all the love and wishes.
Company announcement 2/2021 (17.01.2021) Based on our preliminary and unaudited reporting, European Energy sees solid growth and raises its expectations for EBITDA in 2020. At the same time, European Energy foresees strong growth for 2021, as the company plans to initiate construction of solar and wind energy capacity for more than one GW and connect around 750 MW to the grid. European Energy is adjusting its expectations for 2020. Despite the Corona-crisis, European Energy has seen solid growth across various business portfolios. Consequently, European Energy now expects an EBITDA of around EUR 60 million in 2020, an increase from the previous guidance interval of between EUR 52-58 million. Profit before tax in 2020 is now expected to reach EUR 37 million which is in line with the expected EUR 35-39 million guidance. Despite the global pandemic's impact on most business sectors around the world, the growth potential of renewable energy has been strengthened throughout 2020, and European Energy expects to initiate construction of solar and wind energy capacity around the world of more than one GW in 2021 and connect 750 MW to the grid in 2021. For 2021, European Energy expects to reach an EBITDA level of EUR 80 million and a profit before tax of around EUR 50 million. European Energy will publish its annual report for 2020 on 28 February 2021. Further information: Jonny Thorsted Jonasson, CFO: jtj@europeanenergy.dk or phone: +45 5180 0000 European Energy aims to be a significant force in the global transition to a fossil-free society. European Energy utilizes wind and solar resources in combination with the latest technology to create value for partners and society as a whole. With industry expertise, local knowledge and innovative approach European Energy delivers world-class green energy projects. The company was founded in 2004 and is active in 18 markets with offices in 10 countries. This announcement has been made in accordance with the EU Market AbuseRegulation (Regulation (EU) no. 596/2014, as amended).
New Delhi, Jan 17 (PTI) The Congress alleged on Sunday that probe agencies such as the NIA have become puppets in the hands of the government and are now being used against farmers, who will not be cowed down by their notices.
BJP to organise 'Paribartan Yatras' in Bengal ahead of assembly polls
Kolkata, Jan 17 (PTI) With an eye on the forthcoming assembly elections in West Bengal in the next few months, the BJP is set to take out 'Paribartan Yatras' across the state, a senior party leader said on Sunday.
2,24,301 beneficiaries given COVID-19 vaccine so far; 447 cases of adverse effect reported: Govt
New Delhi, Jan 17 (PTI) A total of 2,24,301 beneficiaries have been inoculated with COVID-19 vaccine so far, out of which only 447 adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) were reported, the Union Health Ministry said on day two of the nationwide vaccination drive on Sunday.
Turkish transport ministry said ship had 12 crew members, including two Russians and 10 Ukrainians
Actor shared support for the transgender community following comments by JK Rowling
France discussing enhancing border control inside EU with member states
Paris [France], January 17 (ANI/Sputnik): Minister of State for European Affairs at the French Foreign Ministry Clement Beaune said on Sunday that France was discussing with other European countries measures to strengthen border control inside the EU over the spread of coronavirus.
Students in close contact with Covid-19 case can avoid self-isolating if they get daily negative rapid test result
Shahnawaz Hussain, Bihar minister Mukesh Sahni to file nomination for Council seats Monday
Bhagalpur/Patna, Jan 17 (PTI) BJP national spokesman Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, who has been fielded in a by-election to the legislative council in Bihar, on Sunday stated that he was looking forward to working for the party in the state.
Guesses have ranged from Doctor Strange to Hawkeye
While we still can't get our nails done in salons, pamper yourself with one of these impressive kits
Study pinpoints head trauma from intimate partner violence largely unrecognised
Washington [US], January 17 (ANI): A recent study has pinpointed on the scarce data, reports about concussions and head and neck injuries sustained due to intimate partner violence.
Music fraternity mourns demise of Ghulam Mustafa Khan
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], January 17 (ANI): Legendary Indian classical musician and Padma Vibhushan awardee Ghulam Mustafa Khan passed away in his Mumbai residence on Sunday afternoon.
Making a successful comeback after '10-ball' debut is a dream come true moment: Shardul
Brisbane, Jan 17 (PTI) India fast bowler Shardul Thakur had a nightmare of a Test debut in 2018 as he got injured after bowling just 10 balls but on Sunday said his dream came true after doing well with both bat and ball in the ongoing fourth Test against Australia here.
New Delhi, Jan 17 (PTI) Parts of north India remained under the grip of an intense cold wave on Sunday with night temperatures dropping below the 5 degrees Celsius-mark at some places and dense fog enveloping several areas.


I'm looking for somebody reliable and motivated to maintain the BML website, which will be at http://bml.danga.com/ as soon as I set it up, and http://www.bradfitz.com/bml/ (SO OLD!) will redirect there.
Basically, I want somebody to tar up a release of BML, compile the docs, and put it all together on a website, and keep it up-to-date, putting out new releases occasionally, dealing with user questions, etc.
Really, anybody would work, if you're reliable and could follow-through with the necessary people that know what you don't.