text:
Part of work package 3 for SIGMA + was to establish a test site and characterise with existing technologies.
Contour map of the test site
A site was established on the University of Birmingham campus, outside the Civil Engineering building. A multi-utilities tunnel is known to be present under the area, representing a void approximately 2m by 2m in cross section, and between 1-2m below the ground surface.
A set of control points have been established to allow for repeat measurements later with a QT (or any other) gravimeter. These were also used to acquire a full topographical model of the site.
The site has been characterised for geophysical responses using the following technologies: Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), electromagnetic location (EML) and frequency domain electromagnetic (FDEM) ground conductivity mapping and conventional micro-gravity.
PAS128 compliant utilities survey of the test site
The Scintrex CG5 on the test site.
Electromagnetic Conductivity map of the test site
Gravity Data corrected with the Terrain Correction


text:
Gravel v. United States, 408 U.S. 606 (1972), was a case regarding the protections offered by the Speech or Debate Clause of the United States Constitution. In the case, the Supreme Court of the United States held that the privileges and immunities of the Constitution's Speech or Debate Clause enjoyed by members of Congress also extend to Congressional aides, but not to activity outside the legislative process.

History
On Tuesday, June 15, 1971, Senator Mike Gravel (D-Alaska) received a copy of the Pentagon Papers from Ben Bagdikian, an editor at The Washington Post. Over the next several days, Gravel (who was dyslexic) was assisted by his congressional office staff in reading and analyzing the report. Worried his home might be raided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Gravel smuggled the report (which filled two large suitcases) into his congressional office, which was then guarded by disabled Vietnam veterans.

On the evening of June 29, 1971, Gravel attempted to read the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record. A lack of a quorum, however, prevented the Senate from convening. As chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Public Buildings and Grounds, Gravel convened a meeting of the subcommittee and spent an hour reading part of the Pentagon Papers into the record. Prevented by his dyslexia from continuing, Gravel had the remainder of the Pentagon Papers entered into the record.

Gravel subsequently arranged to have the Pentagon Papers published by a private publisher. The publisher was Beacon Press, a non-profit book publisher owned by the Unitarian Universalist Association.

A federal grand jury was subsequently empaneled to investigate possible violations of federal law in the release of the report.  Leonard Rodberg, a Gravel aide, was subpoenaed to testify about his role in obtaining and arranging for publication of the Pentagon Papers. Senator Gravel intervened and asked a court to quash the subpoena, contending that forcing Rodberg to testify would violate the Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution.

A district court refused to grant the motion to quash but did agree to proscribe certain questions. The trial court also held that publication of the Pentagon Papers by a private press was not protected by the Speech or Debate Clause. The Court of Appeals affirmed the district court's ruling (although it modified the categories of barred questions). The United States appealed the barring of questions, and Senator Gravel appealed the ruling regarding publication.  The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari.

Majority holding
In a 5–4 ruling, the Supreme Court held that the privileges of the Constitution's Speech or Debate Clause enjoyed by members of Congress also extend to Congressional aides. Rejecting the reasoning of the court of appeals and substituting its own, the court declared that "the privilege available to the aide is confined to those services that would be immune legislative conduct if performed by the Senator himself." However, the Court refused to protect congressional aides from prosecution for criminal conduct, or from testifying at trials or grand jury proceedings involving third party crimes. The Supreme Court also threw out the lower courts' order permitting some questions and barring others, concluding that if the testimony is privileged then the privilege is absolute.

However, the Court upheld the district court's ruling regarding private publication. "[Private] publication by Senator Gravel through the cooperation of Beacon Press was in no way essential to the deliberations of the Senate; nor does questioning as to private publication threaten the integrity or independence of the Senate by impermissibly exposing its deliberations to executive influence."

Dissents
Associate Justice Potter Stewart dissented in part, concluding that the Court had too narrowly construed the protections granted by the Speech or Debate Clause.  Justice Stewart would have extended the protections of the clause to cover testimony before a grand jury about preparing for legislative acts as well.

In his dissent, Associate Justice William O. Douglas argued that the private publication was an adjunct of speech or debate function of Senator Gravel, and was therefore protected speech.  He further condemned politicians for excessive secrecy and the media for largely failing to challenge it:

In his dissent, Associate Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. disagreed with the majority's narrow construction of the Speech or Debate Clause, and defined a much broader conception of the right.  Brennan was joined by Justices Douglas and Marshall.

Significance
The case is considered a landmark for not only reaffirming the constitutional protections offered by the Speech or Debate Clause, but for narrowing it as well.

See also
List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 408
United States v. Brewster, a related case involving Senator Daniel Brewster

References

Further reading

External links

United States Constitution Article One case law
United States Supreme Court cases
United States Supreme Court cases of the Burger Court
United States administrative case law
United States grand jury case law
1972 in United States case law
Speech or Debate Clause case law

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text:
Marketing the Word of God
Ancient Asset Investment website today: down for maintenance.
It is saved, however, on archive.org. Just click on this link.
In his blog, Paul Barford has recently called attention to the "dedication events" listed in the Ancient Asset Investment webpage on "Gifting". I report here what I have found so far through the web on the basis of that list, some of Barford's notes, and new evidence. All the donations linked with Ancient Asset Investment and Scott Carroll I have been able to track down have the sponsors in common: Ken and Barbara Larson.
1) 31 March 2014, Bethel University, St Paul Minnesota. Dedication of a Torah donated by Ken and Barbara Larson. The Torah, about 89 feet long, is said to come from Baghdad and dates predominantly to the early 17th century, with later insertions. A lecture entitled "From Baghdad to Bethel: A Holy Legacy" was given by Scott Carroll, Ph.D., Director, Sr. Research Scholar, Manuscript Research Group. See among others: https://www.bethel.edu/events/torah-dedication and https://www.bethel.edu/news/clarion/articles/2014/April/bethel-torah
2) 4 September 2014, Multnomah University, Portland Oregon. According to the University blog, "Ken and Barbara Larson, from Bonita Springs, Fla., are giving a rare and valuable Torah to Multnomah University." They are said to be assisted by Ancient Asset Investment. A dedication ceremony has taken place at the beginning of this month:
http://www.multnomah.edu/blog/2015/02/06/mus-torah-unrolls-new-learning-opportunities-students/
According to the report, Scott Carroll gave a speech in this occasion: "The 89-foot scroll," Carroll said, "was composed somewhere in Eastern Europe during the Reformation…If this Torah could talk to us, imagine what it could say and what it's seen," said Carroll. "It was preserved through the Enlightenment and the Holocaust. Through a wonderful turn of Providence, it's in your community now."
3) 18 September 2014: Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, IL. A Torah scroll originally from Germany and dating to the late 1400s or early 1500s is donated by Ken and Barbara Larson: http://news.tiu.edu/2014/09/19/torah-scroll/
An interesting online article (Donald Libenson, in Capital Gazette, 21 October 2014) is shedding some light on the motivations behind Mr Larson's donation. It explains that Mr Larson "credited a friend who's an author and speaker with inspiring the gift. Larson described him as 'an apologist,' a defender of Christianity based on historical evidence and other philosophical arguments. 'He told me he had purchased an ancient Torah and he found it to be helpful in his speaking and teaching. Most people have never seen a Torah. (For each Torah we've donated) I have asked the faculty if they've ever read from one or touched one, and the answer was no.' " Later in the story we have also a report on the evaluation of the scroll: "it has been valued at more than $400,000".
4) 30 September 2014: The Master's Seminary, Sun Valley CA. The Facebook page of the Seminary reports on October 1: "Yesterday The Master's Seminary was given a Torah Scroll by Ken and Barbara Larson of Minneapolis. The scroll, originally crafted in the 18th century in Yemen is a unified work (not a combination of various scrolls merged into one)." A picture with Scott Carroll and the Larson is posted too. A recent donation of a 17th century Torah Scroll is recalled also on the Seminary's Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master's_Seminary
5) 8 November 2014: Veritas Evangelical Seminar, Santa Ana CA. "In the presence of 1500 attendees at its annual National Apologetics Conference, Veritas Evangelical Seminary received and dedicated a rare Hebrew Torah scroll. The donors, Ken and Barbara Larson, are passionate about Israel and the Bible, visiting the archaeologically rich nation four times."The source is an article on Christian News Wire (1 December 2014). The donation is also announced on Twitter.
6) 5 December 2014: Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas TX. The Facebook page of the Seminary reports on this date: "This morning Dr. Scott Carroll, Director and Senior Research Scholar for the Manuscript Research Group, donated a beautiful Torah scroll to DTS".
The scroll is paid for by Barbara and Ken Larson, as we learn from the presentation ceremony posted online:
Here Carroll explains that the scroll most ancient portions date to the "late 1600 early 1700". A section comes from Spain, but the scroll in the current shape seems to be from Morocco. Although the details remain vague – as always with our Indiana Scott – Carroll says that the Torah was brought to Israel by people constraint to leave their countries and once there it passed to local collectors with whom "they" – I guess he and Hillard – collaborate. In this way the manuscript went to the Larson, who are then introduced.
7) February 2015: Trinity Western University, Langley Canada. As reported in a local newspaper online: "A 450-year-old Torah scroll recently gifted to Trinity Western University (TWU) by donors Kenneth and Barbara Larson will give students access to an original Hebrew manuscript originating from Morocco. The 16th century scroll was presented by the Larson to mark their 50th wedding anniversary. The donation of the Torah was paired with funds for a Torah room in TWU's Alloway Library." The donation is also reported in the University webpage.
In conclusion, so far I have been able to count 7 Torah scrolls donated by Ken and Barbara Larson through the agency of Scott Carroll and Ancient Asset Investment to Christian education institutions in a short turn of time. Some of the stories attached to the scrolls look terribly similar, but it is impossible to verify details unless the institutions that have received these gifts will decide to check and enquire further. If I may, I warmly recommend them to do these checks because if Scott Carroll's knowledge of Torah scrolls pairs his knowledge of papyri, I see problems coming.
It would be interesting, among other things, to know how much the Larson have paid for the scrolls, and how much they have declared their value for in tax returns.
There are of course all the other issues related to collection and acquisition history of these scrolls, export licenses, and so forth so on besides ethical questions regarding the Jewish history of these objects, in some cases even their connection to the Holocaust. It may be all perfectly legal. But I leave the reader to think about this story and to decide if all this sounds ethical.
I personally do not need the law or academic associations policies in order to decide for myself.
This entry was posted in Collections, Scott Carroll, Uncategorized by Roberta Mazza. Bookmark the permalink.
22 thoughts on "Marketing the Word of God"
Victoria Harris on February 14, 2015 at 11:49 pm said:
I cannot comment on the issues and concerns being discussed here as they relate to the artifacts themselves, but I can speak about evangelical Christians, because my Dad was a minister and I grew up with these people in southern California. While my Dad promoted education and was a teacher, as was my brother (a theologian and professor who was at Claremont Graduate School with Craig Evans), many of the people I knew were uneducated and biblically illiterate, consistent with the stereotypes we are familiar with, including those depicted in films (e.g., Leap of Faith). My Dad placed great importance on education, but many did not, their value instead on experience (especially speaking in tongues) as evidence of spirituality. That for them was sufficient as tangible proof of their faith. But then they made a discovery: The original languages of the Bible, especially ancient Greek.
In the 1970s many evangelical preachers began incorporating New Testament Greek words into their sermons. This became trendy, and congregations interpreted such as evidence of a pastor's education and scriptural insight. Though most of these preachers never attended college, a large number never even finishing high school and ignorant about the parts of speech in English, they found that they could use koine Greek to impress, increase their standing as learned men and erudite biblical teachers. It was amusing to me that when I was in the Classics Department at Stanford, weekend visits to see a friend meant hearing a sermon on Sunday that included a lesson on the different kinds of love in ancient Greece, complete with the corresponding words depicting each.
Despite the bias that existed in most fundamentalist churches against intellectuals, learning a few Greek works whetted their appetites for knowledge. They wanted more. It became important for them to demonstrate that they were also experts on the history, culture, and language of the Bible, and soon evangelical (and unaccredited) colleges began to spring up, offering to those who never finished high school M.A.s and Ph.D.s. in biblical studies, including Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) degrees. Being able to include Greek in sermons and also call yourself "Dr." so-and-so was the ultimate status, and thousands of these easy-to-get bogus degrees were conferred, of course, for a fee. Those who like my brother got advanced degrees from places such as Claremont and Talbot Theological Seminary left the organization, most joining other (non-fundamentalist) Protestant denominations.
Fast forward present day, and many of these same people (some now more educated) have discovered that there are not only words from antiquity but also artifacts that can be leveraged from the pulpit and other venues to excite and bring new life to the faithful. The news that a fragment from the Gospel of Mark might have been found in a mummy mask caused shock and awe among these preachers and Christians, who exclaimed after hearing Craig Evans speak about it on YouTube that we could soon see at last "an original signature" from Mark and other New Testament writers. Joy unspeakable and full of glory!
I am a Christian. Though not evangelical, I do keep up with people I grew up with on Facebook and elsewhere. Many are good people, of course, but most have hardly changed, and their naïveté is palpable — Josh McDowell revered by them as a great mind and a great teacher. The good vibrations and excitations that he and others are offering to them, leveraging biblical archaeology, is just another phase in their (and his) evolution in Christian maturity. The truth is that the church organization itself is losing members, many churches being forced to close their doors (one now under way), and they are evidently hoping that archaeology and "real" artifacts that they can actually see and touch will spur a revival, bring people to Christ. While the jumbotrons, Powerpoint slides, and enhanced entertainment are helping some churches to grow and keep people coming back on Sunday, especially prosperity-gospel preachers such as Joel Osteen, other churches are struggling to keep their doors open. These artifacts represent a beam of light from the heavens through a darkening church door. Well beyond the feel-good part of Christianity, they are different from anything these people have ever experienced: Evidence. This is something to shout about — a spark to renew their faith, enhance their message, bring about revival. I have no problem with the wish and the Christian message; I do have a problem with the method.
Clearly, there are many factors other than promoting themselves as Christian apologists motivating Scott Carroll, Josh McDowell, and Craig Evans, also big dividends for people like Ken and Barbara Larson. I think the title of this latest post, "Marketing the World of God," sums it up. These people are doing just that, whether or not exploiting a black market, they are using artifacts to baa baa to black sheep they hope to convert to white and thereby increase the flock. Meanwhile, the sheep that remain are in awe and expectations high that we are closer than ever to moving past simple faith to find real evidence of God. As Roberta Mazza said, yes, there are merchants in the temple and "we have reached a new level." I expect that much destruction of artifacts will occur in the name of Christ. I do not believe that is what He had in mind. We are saved only by grace. That apparently is not enough for those like Scott Carroll. Once this most recent fragment from Mark is published, whatever the conclusions, it is certain that most Christians will take what McDowell and others have to say about it as the gospel truth.
Roberta Mazza on February 15, 2015 at 8:19 am said:
Thank you Victoria for posting, it is an interesting story on a context I do not know much about.
Victoria Harris on February 15, 2015 at 12:24 am said:
Correction, graph 3 (line 2): Greek "words" (vs. works)…
TomHennell on February 15, 2015 at 12:58 am said:
Paul Barford has tracked down Josh McDowell's booklet on 'his' Lodz Torah Scroll
https://s3.amazonaws.com/jmm.us.dte/Lodz+Torah+booklet.pdf
And also quotes from Kenneth and Barbara Larson, which strongly indicate Josh McDowell as the inspiration and pattern for their donations.
From Roberta's accounts, the stories seem to intersect in Israel; certainly that is where Josh McDowell records the Lodz Scroll as being located before he bought it. Reports of AAI sourcing scrolls from Iraq, Yemen and Morocco; would almost certainly imply their having been brought to Israel in the 1950s, when these Jewish populations were evacuated there. It seems most likely that AAI have acquired a stock of Torah scrolls sold in the 50s and 60s by immigrant Jewish congregations.
What also unites these Torah Scroll donations with their precedent in Josh McDowell's ministry, is the crass self-regard with which the entire history of Jewish witness, scholarship, persecution and annihilation is appropriated into the back-story for the Christian Bible.
Scott Carroll:
"If this Torah could talk to us, imagine what it could say and what it's seen, It was preserved through the Enlightenment and the Holocaust. Through a wonderful turn of Providence, it's in your community now."
Josh McDowell:
"The scroll survived several catastrophic events before making its way to McDowell, including the Black Death, The Reformation and the Holocaust.
"God's hand was guiding the scroll," he said."
Thank you Tom, your observations look right. I find the appropriation of Jewish history very disturbing too.
Jim on February 15, 2015 at 1:50 pm said:
Reblogged this on Zwinglius Redivivus and commented:
Great stuff, including the comments.
John d'auria on February 15, 2015 at 4:50 pm said:
In the light of evangelical Christian doctrine and behaviour [ I shall call it ] quite often, some of which has been described at this blog, these acquisitions of ancient Torahs are insulting to Jewish communities.
Victoria Harris on February 15, 2015 at 9:35 pm said:
Craig Evans and Josh McDowell are using these artifacts to create a sensation for Christians. A number of my friends know Evans and were at seminary with him (including my brother); and many follow him, and especially McDowell, on Facebook and elsewhere. All the while, of course, these men are promoting themselves and their books. One of them, a pastor, just posted a long quote by McDowell proving that this mummy mask fragment of Mark's Gospel predates anything in history, including copies of Homer.
From Josh McDowell's book, Evidence that Demands a Verdict: "Comparing the papyrus of Isaiah with the modern book of Isaiah it was found to be near to flawless in accuracy. No other book of antiquity can make that claim. The oldest copy of any book we have is The Writings of Homer (The Iliad and The Odyssey) and they are only 500 years old compared to 2000-year-old copies of the Old Testament. Those who say the Bible is inaccurate because it's been translated so many times do so out of prejudice, not honest scholarship."
Evans, McDowell certainly, and their supporters say the masks aren't museum-worthy, "are low-end," as though justifying destruction of Egyptian artifacts to gain "a first-century witness to the text of the New Testament … [which is] unprecedented." As Evans explained, "We dug under someone's face, and there it was … this fragment of Mark dating to the 80s." Enlisting great drama, both in words in body language in his talk to provoke excitement, Evans led people to believe he played a much greater role in the discovery and has far greater expertise than he in fact does as he "keeps inching [his] way toward ground zero, the autographs!" He did this not only in his talk last year but also in an interview with Life Science, which is posted on his Facebook page. Christians hearing about this are atwitter.
Evans meanwhile has had to respond on Facebook, clarifying that while many in the media are now attributing the find to him, he is not the one who discovered the fragments in the mummy mask. Since this post (on 20 January 2015), he has been silent, at least publicly. But his followers are not — well over 100 of them sharing the Life Science article — though he has since shut down further discussion on the topic. He has moved on… promoting "A.D. The Bible Continues," another TV mini-series produced by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, which premieres on Sunday April 5th. Evans was a consultant on their initial 2013 mini-series, "The Bible," and I gather was for this one as well.
As Daniel Wallace (Dallas Theological Seminary) and others continue to mention the existence of "a fragment from Mark's Gospel that is from the first century" during debates with people like Bart Ehrman about the reliability of the New Testament text, we can expect to hear about these apologists boasting about digging under someone's face to get closer to ground zero, here a timeline someone created to show their progress thus far. As this document asks: "Are you braced for the impact of the Green Scholars Initiative's work on newly discovered New Testament papyri?"
An excerpt: November 27, 2011 – Scott Carroll, known to be acquiring artifacts and manuscripts for the rapidly growing Green Collection, states on Twitter: "Finished exhibit and lectures in West Africa with over 21,000 registered. Now in Istanbul looking at a collection of unpublished papyri." Later the same day: "My eyes feasted on classical texts, royal decrees, and Biblical and Gnostic texts; nearly 1,000 papyri hidden in this private treasure-trove."
http://www.thetextofthegospels.com/2015/01/the-first-century-fragment-of-mark-this.html
Roberta Mazza on February 16, 2015 at 10:31 pm said:
Thanks Victoria, the timeline of Snapp is very useful but I totally disagree with his assumption that Gospels and literary texts are more important than all the rest (masks and cartonnage in this specific case). Usual Western-Classical-Christian mostly male arrogance believing all the other cultures are subaltern. Old stuff. They try to resist to a world that is already letting them all behind. Boooooring: Christian Western men I believe middle-aged or over.
Was only for information. Agree with your comments. Feel free to delete any of my posts, realize they do not add to the larger discussion.
My position on all of this is not about Christianity, it is about method, and I find what Craig Evans, Josh McDowell, and others are doing disturbing.
A long and informative article on the scroll donated to Trintiy School, Deerfield; from a Jewish perspective.
http://chicagojewishnews.com/2014/10/13/trinitys-torah/
Article quotes Carroll with more information on provenance, confirming that all the scroll come from a large private collection made in Jerusalem.
"He was involved in tracing the scroll's history, along with the donors, and while it was not possible to follow it through all of its 500 years, Carroll found that it came to the donors from a family in Jerusalem that has a large collection of Torahs. The donors, he says, "have a genuine appreciation of the Torah and want to share the experience. They feel and hope the presence of the Torah itself will motivate students and professors – will encourage and challenge them.""
Several rabbis are quoted; and concur in the view that, so long as the scroll is not kosher – that is so long as it is now defective or incomplete such as to render it unacceptable in synagogue worship – there is no objection to its being held by a Christian Church that will treat it with respect.
""If it were a kosher Torah, I would not feel comfortable having it displayed there. If it could be used ritually in a synagogue it might make a difference, but I wouldn't know that until I see it," he says. "Knowing their background as an evangelical school with an interest in the Old Testament I know they will treat it with respect."
My own reservations are twofold:
– firstly; that those of these scrolls that are Holocaust Witnesses – as some certainly are – should always be considered primarily as memorials to their murdered Jewish congregations. This is an ethical, not a legal question; it is not to do with who 'owns' them, but to whom they 'belong'. I do not demur from Roberta's principle "they are world cultural heritage whatever your religious affiliation might be"; in that sense they belong to us all. But I see a condition of that wider 'heritage', as being that they are always explicity acknowledged as forever 'belonging' to those who died. The terms 'Holocaust' and 'miraculous survival' can never be joined.
– secondly; the reported didactic use to which these artefacts are put is at best grossly simplistic; and at worst, actively misleading. The scribal protocols that governed the transmission of the text of the Torah in Judaism are not found in parallel Christian textual transmissions; the canon of texts that Christians recognise as 'scripture' do not correspond with those of rabbinic Judaism. There seems to be an act of prestidigitation here; as 'bible believers', certain strands of evangelical Christianity require minute attention to the exact transmission of scripture, and an absolute and universal distinction between the categories of 'scripture' and 'not scripture'; but the material evidence for both of these propositions in earliest Christianity is lacking. So they present a Jewish scroll abd Jewish practices instead; and hope the rest of us don't notice the switch.
Josh McDowell claims that both his Torah scroll, and his papyrus fragments are 'walking witnesses' to the reliability of the Christian scriptures, guaranteed through their divinely directed providential preservation. But the awkward truth for bible believers, is that they do not witness the exact same texts.
Roberta Mazza on February 16, 2015 at 1:15 pm said:
Yes, Tom many problems here (and in other recent collections btw). I am going to publish a guest post from one of the best scholars in this field. Just bear with me for a few days!
TomHennell on February 16, 2015 at 3:21 pm said:
Many thanks Roberta,
I look forward to reading the guest post.
One point specific to Torah scrolls, is that they do not all – in fact – witness an identical consonantal text (Torah scrolls are written without indications of vowel sounds). Yemenite Torah scrolls differ from those of other scribal traditions at fourteen points. So the Yemenite scroll supplied by AAI to the Sun Valley Seminary will have varied from the other six.
http://www.chayas.com/gevil/yemenscroll.doc.
Of course the Penatateuch of the Reformation Bible does not derive from the Torah scroll tradition at all; but rather from the vocalised Hebrew Masoretic Text printed in Venice by Daniel Bomberg in 1525, and then used by Martin Luther. Ironically perhaps, the best manuscripts of the Masoretic Text tend to agree with Yemenite Torah scrolls against the rest in respect of their underlying consonantal Hebrew; although Bomberg's printing of the MT Pentateuch was to be riddled with errors of its own – some of which found their way into Protestant Bibles.
"In the Yemenite tradition of orthography, there are fourteen differences found in the Torah scroll as compared to other traditions of writing found amongst other communities. The Yemenite practice follows that tradition bequeathed by Aaron Ben-Asher in his "Aleppo Codex" of the Pentateuch."
Roberta, I, too, look forward to your next post. Please delete mine if not germaine to the discussion, though you may find the Timeline (the attachment in my last one) of interest.
Larry Hurtado (New Testament scholar, University of Edinburgh) and his blog are the right source concerning both Dan Wallace and Craig Evans when it comes to a perspective on their debates and discussions on the Mark fragment — appealing to Christian apologetics clearly one agenda.
TomHennell on February 17, 2015 at 12:50 pm said:
Here is a link to the latest post on Paul Barford's blog:
http://paul-barford.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/todd-hillard-up-front.html
On Paul's blog is now a post from Todd Hillard (the founder and proprieter of Ancient Asset Investment) , in which he acknowledges poor choice of words on his website; and states that it has now been taken down for redesign. Todd has also added a briefer post to an earlier entry to Roberta's blog here. https://facesandvoices.wordpress.com/2015/02/11/there-are-merchants-in-the-temple-selling-and-buying-ancient-biblical-artefacts/
Some additonal points from the post on Paul's blog.
– AAI are not currently dealing in papyri; and have never handled papyrus fragments extracted from mummy masks.
– their main business is supplying Hebrew scrolls; specifically antique Torah Scrolls that have become 'pasul' (non-kosher) through deterioration, and so can no longer be used in synagogue worship.
– all their Hebrew scrolls are obtained in Israel; where they were 'probably' bought by Israeli collecters from immigrant Jewish communities evacuated to Israel in the early 1950s. Most are entirely undocumented before that date.
– their main clients are Christian seminaries.
– "From a purely business standpoint, we saw AAI opportunity to sell a product at a reduced price and still put food on the table for multiple families. For a personal standpoint, however this business is driven by the vision to place irreplaceable artifacts in the hands of those who can care for them and share them with the world again."
Personally, I can well see that Todd has found a gap in the market; and exploited it. The commisioning and creation of handwritten Torah Scolls is a pious act and religious duty in Judaism; which supports a substantial industry of scroll scribes – mainly in Israel. But there is an inherent tension between this industury, and the titual rules that bind its work, and the development of a Jewish market for the resale of antique Torah scrolls together with their conservation. Just because the rules are so strictly maintained, old scrolls must be constantly re-inked and repaired; to a degreee that is incompatible with conservation standards. It must follow that a new scroll is always better than an old one; as indeed scroll scribes always advise. Furthermore, some rabbinic rulings are doubtful whether scrolls that are 'pasul' can properly be displayed in a synagogue setting; and if displayed, whether they may be read.
https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/sites/default/files/public/halakhah/teshuvot/19912000/abelson_pasul.pdf
So it may well be that there are large numbers of antique scrolls in Israel that cannot now be used for synagogue worship, and may therfore be bought cheap; but whose antiquity is such as to generate additional interest in them from non-Jewish antiquaries, collectors and institutions. The very features which render the scrolls less valuable in Jewish use; may make them more valuable in non-Jewish hands – and by opening this alternative market, these features are preserved – where ritual law would have required them to be repaired. If Hillard can talk-up this potential non-Jewish market; then there is a substantial profit to be made, and a future assured for conserved historic antiquities.
My specific reservations about how Torah scrolls are being misapplied (in my view) remain – specfically in the reports of persentations lead by Josh McDowell. Todd would do well to remove Jash's 'poster-boy' status from the AAI website in my view.
Sever J. Voicu on February 17, 2015 at 1:13 pm said:
Ecco che cominciano a spuntare i verdoni… oppure possiamo supporre che il mediatore scientifico, preso da zelo mezzianico, si sia accontentato di un caffè all'in piedi in un bar di periferia?
Caramente (e grazie ancora)
Sever J. Voicu || via Benedetto XIV, 5 || IT – 00165 Roma ~~~~~~ Privé: TF +39)06.630.830 || Fax: +39)06.698.79.464 (per Voicu) Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana TF +39)06.698.79.454
Byron G. Curtis on March 27, 2016 at 2:21 am said:
I recently attended a Torah presentation (a decommissioned text) at a Christian seminary, like the others described on this blog, complete with a lecture by Dr. Scott Carroll, and the presence of the donors, the Larsons. I found no grounds for suspicion. Rather, I heard a meticulous description of this pasul Torah scroll complete with detailed photographs of the usual unusuals—enlarged letters, inverted nuns, brick-written passages, corrected letters, and the like. Dr. Carroll's descriptions were rooted in a firm knowledge of Jewish scribal practices.
The seminary community was encouraged to invite local rabbis and the local sofer to come and see the scroll, and to meet with faculty and students regarding it. Carroll urged the school to make it available annually at Simhat Torah for that especially joyful celebration.
The seminary library where it shall be kept is well equipped for housing the scroll, as it is the repository of a well-maintained rare book collection, which includes some rare printed Hebrew Bibles from the 16th and 17th centuries. One of the conditions of the gift was that the scroll be used in the curriculum. In that seminary, Hebrew is required, and the Hebrew professor is a (Christian) doctoral graduate of a rabbinical school. The students I met there seem eager for the opportunity.
In short, I observed no disrespect to the Jewish tradition; and nothing unethical about the exchange. Rather there was ardent interest honoring the tradition that created and preserved the scroll. The seminary now enters into the task of preserving it, and using it honorably. I hope to take my own Hebrew students there soon.
Dear Byron,
You are free to pay no attention whatsoever to ethical and provenance issues, although you may wish to know, for instance, that an Israeli man was recently arrested while trying to smuggle a Torah scroll from Yemen (http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/news/1.710855) and there is a flourishing illegal market of Hebrew and other manuscripts. You are also free to believe the stories Scott Carroll is easily selling around because the audience has no clue of what he is talking about. But may I ask you a question? Have you ever read a line published by Carroll in a scholarly journal on Torah scrolls, papyri or anything similar? I bet you have not. Would you attend a University course taught by someone who has never published on a topic? I bet you would not, so why are you so happy to sit down, listen and believe the stories SC is telling you?
Edward Smith on September 3, 2018 at 8:20 pm said:
It looks like some people are scamming the tax system. The value of a donation is it's Fair Market Value, not an insurance replacement value, which the appraisals seem to. Fair market value is the price a willing buyer would pay for them. Value usually depends on the condition of the item. Apparently there are hundreds of used and in poor condition of Torah's available for minimum prices.
In fact, purchasing one of these Torahs establishes the FMV at that purchase price.
As a tax accountant, I have dealt with these situations many times.
Pingback: More Early Christian Greek and Coptic Papyri in the Green Collection? | Variant Readings


Snow Leopard natively supports exfat (aka FAT64), and so do recent versions of Windows. share Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Email Link Like + Quote Reply asweets, Oct 28, 2008 asweets macrumors newbie Joined: Oct 28, 2008 #9 Tinieblas said: ↑ I've got the Free Space When I select the free space option it tells me it cant unmount the disk. You can then put it on a memory stick moving it a different location and then put it back together again.
Reply dvkch says: May 8, 2010 at 8:24 am using NTFS on osx with Ntfs Mounter is very dangerous ! Before this I was only able to have about 1gb files on my USB. What's the current length and compression scheme (including bitrate, if applicable) and what will the file be used for?posted by Mayor Curley at 3:42 AM on March 14, 2011 As others With getting the HD version, you also get the SD one too.
If your external hard drive is formatted as FAT32, you are not able to transfer files that has more than 4GB On the Mac Operating System. They open and close so beautifully. Works fine for me! MacRumors attracts a broad audience of both consumers and professionals interested in the latest technologies and products.
Subscribe to the OSXDaily newsletter to get more of our great Apple tips, tricks, and important news delivered to your inbox! the MBP is running 10.5.1. What now??" on How to reset your Mac OS X password without an installer disc Apple Links Apple.com AppleInsider Daring Fireball Mac Rumors MacDailyNews Macworld Tags & Topics address book Even on linux you'd get a more explicit error message.
NTFS drives, on the other hand, can only be read (but not written to) by non-Windows systems. After several attempts it finally worked. Tags: disk utility, finder, mac, os x Tweet Solution to Finder "Error code -36" in 10.6 when copying folders Boot your Mac from CD, DVD, external drive, or USB flash drive I went out and bought a western digital passport essential drive to back the files up to but i keep getting the error message when attempting to transfer the file.
March 10, 2015 Python on a mac May 24, 2014 Don't say "ITunes" March 17, 2012 More Timesinks Needed November 13, 2011 Find me an MMORPG, MeFi! Got a tip for us? Only after I rebooted the server did the error go away... Reply dvkch says: May 8, 2010 at 8:24 am using NTFS on osx with Ntfs Mounter is very dangerous !
I've tried a few NTFS mounter type applications on the Mac and found them to be unreliable, especially when transferring a large number of files (Like my photo library). (For full My format options when doing 1 partition are as follows... 1. If you still need to connect it to Windows machines, there are complications. Well here you will find solution of all the discussed problem and you will also be able to recover the lost file.
For OS X, then I'm not sure what the best tool is - I'd consider Split and Concat. btw how do you deal with the self extracting .exe files for the samsung tv firmware updates with a mac? Windows does not read or write to HFS+ volumes unless software such as MacDrive is installed on the machine. So you can try the fragmentation of the file and then transfer it.
Regards. I move files between WinXP/7 and Mac all the time, and NTFS for Mac far better for writing to NTFS than the free NTFS-3G. Reply With Quote 05-12-2008,11:31 PM #2 AlyciaAnimation View Profile View Forum Posts Member Since Mar 04, 2008 Posts 477 What format is the external drive in? Formatting drives can be done in Disk Utility in Applications > Utilities.


text:
Spot Gas Price Summary
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A northeast Ohio company has plans to open one of the state's first third-party water treatment facilities to process flowback, brine and other wastewater that collects during the drilling process. Ohio favors injection wells to dispose of its oilfield waste, with nearly 98% of all brine water being disposed of in Class II injection wells. Iron Eagle Enterprises LLC, of Liberty Township is the first to receive a third-party permit. Plans call for constructing a 14,000 b/d, or 588,000 gallon, facility in Carroll County, where drilling activities have been robust. The plant is expected to employ as many as 50 people once it's operational. No completion date has been announced.
PDC Energy secured the first three permits in November to drill in Morgan County, OH, in one of the farthest moves west in the Utica shale play since Devon Energy Corp. explored its western fringes when development first got underway. PDC is the first to push farther southwest of Noble, Guernsey, Belmont and Monroe counties, where drilling activities have only recently started to increase. The company operates two wells in adjacent Washington County, and it holds most of its acreage in Guernsey County to the north.
Consol Energysaid the federal waiting period has expired on its $3.5 billion agreement with Murray Energy Corp. to sell subsidiary Consolidation Coal Co., which holds five of its longwall coal mines in West Virginia (see Shale Daily, Oct. 28). Proceeds from the transaction, set to close before the end of 2013, would be dedicated to the Marcellus Shale, as well as lthe Utica and Upper Devonian shales.
A valve leak that occurred last Friday at a water injection well in Bottineau County, ND, four miles northwest of Maxbass, was reported Monday to the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources (DMR), oil and gas division. A DMR spokesperson said initial data from Denbury Onshore LLC indicated approximately 50 bbl of oil and 300 bbl of brine were released and recovered on the Fossum B3 water injection well. All fluids were contained to the well site, according to Denbury. The oil and gas division sent a state inspector to the site on Monday.
Royal Dutch Shell plc will not proceed with its proposed 140,000 b/d Gulf Coast gas-to-liquids (GTL) project in Louisiana and will suspend work on the project, the company said Thursday. Shell said it has evaluated a number of development options for GTL on the U.S. Gulf Coast, using natural gas feedstocks. "Despite the ample supplies of natural gas in the area, the company has taken the decision that GTL is not a viable option for Shell in North America at this time due to the likely development cost of such a project, uncertainties on long-term oil and gas prices and differentials, and Shell's strict capital discipline," the company said.
Calpine Corp. has agreed to purchase a natural gas-fired power plant near San Antonio for $625 million as it continues to expand its portfolio in Texas. Houston-based Calpine said the combined-cycle power plant, with a nominal generating capacity of 1,050 MW, will be acquired from MinnTex Power Holdings LLC, a company owned by a private investment fund managed by Wayzata Investment Partners LLC of Minnesota. The facility is on a 110-acre site in Guadalupe County, about 30 miles northeast of San Antonio. "Guadalupe is an exceptional plant with an outstanding performance record that meets Calpine's high standards for operational excellence," said Calpine CEO Jack Fusco. "We strongly believe in the potential of the Texas market as electric demand increases and reserve margins tighten."
Nearly a decade after entering the U.S. natural gas trading market, Deutsche Bank said Thursday it is significantly scaling back its commodities business and will exit the dedicated trading desks for energy, agriculture, base metals and dry bulk. A special commodities group has been established to manage the wind-down of the businesses, and no material impact on Deutsche Bank's core competencies of financial derivatives and precious metals is expected, the company said. About 200 traders will reportedly be affected by the decision. The decision to scale back the commodities business is part of the company's "Strategy 2015+," an effort announced last year to strengthen capital ratio and create long-term value for shareholders.
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Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with nonstick foil and spray olive oil onto the baking sheet using your Evo Oil Sprayer.
Season chicken breasts with salt, pepper, and 1 teaspoon of italian seasoning.
Cook in a large pan over medium high heat for about 6-8 minutes until chicken is cooked through and juices run clear. Set chicken aside.
Whisk together melted butter and 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning. Brush over naan/flat bread. Sprinkle evenly with mozzarella cheese. Scatter chopped spinach over cheese. Add tomatoes and chicken. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Add optional basil and sun dried tomatoes. Sprinkle remaining 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning over the Parmesan cheese.
Bake flat breads 6-8 minutes until cheese is melty. Allow to cool slightly before serving.


Sources are your research materials including documents, PDFs, datasets, audio, video, pictures, memos and framework matrices.
Coding is the process of gathering material by topic, theme or case. For example, selectin a paragraph about water quality and coding it at the node 'water quality'.
Nodes are containers for your coding—they let you gather related material in one place so that you can look for emerging patterns and ideas.
Source classifications let you record information about your sources—for example, bibliographical data.
Node classifications allow to you record information about people, places or other cases for example, demographic data about people.
Open Nvivo and open help tool (question mark, upper-right corner). Explore topics carefully.
Click economy node. List of references (node content) in sources will be generated. Explore it to see which sources include "economy node"
Coding comparison: two persons code same content and Nvivo calculates similarity of coding. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT for validity / reliability of your study.
You can get coding summaries, node summaries etc. reports by using this dialog. Quite nice for getting an overview of your nodes etc.


Enabling Love Staff and Board would like to acknowledge Ignite Consultants' for their hard work in researching and putting together a valuable report that will help us move forward over the next few years.
We as an organisation would like to acknowledge the following consultants : Isabella Scandrett, Laura Rogers, Thomas Sycamore, Ellie Crawford, Thomas Darry, and also Mentor -Haines Ellison, Project Manager Finn Shewell and Consultant Olive Dippie.
As a result of the report we will be considering changes for the benefit of Enabling Love members.
There will be more announcements coming in the near future.
As a result of the report we will be considering changes for the benfit of Enabling Love members.
Here is the promotional video from our launch night prepared by the fantastic guys at Innov8HQ & Nudge Marketing!
A big thankyou to all our supporters for an outstanding launch event for Enabling Love. Three news and channel 39 were there and we have copies of these news items for you to view below. As you will be able to tell it was a fun night.


text:
Murtha, Obama, and the Jews
Burt Prelutsky
In case you missed it, John Murtha said John McCain is too old to be president. Of all the lines I've heard during this political season, that's the one I enjoyed the most. If you're wondering why, it's because of all the consternation it must have caused many of Mr. Murtha's Democratic colleagues. There are, by actual account, 21 Democrats in the House as old or older than 71-year-old McCain. Charles Rangel is coming up on 78 and John Dingell is 81. I bet they gave Murtha an earful in the men's room.
As for the Senate, although Obama and Clinton are younger than McCain, 11 Democrats are older. Some are much older. Warner is 80, Inouye and Akada are each 83, Lautenberg is 84 and Robert Byrd is 90. I can just imagine what Ted Kennedy, 76, and Dianne Feinstein, who's just shy of 75, said when they got wind of Murtha's crack.
John Murtha, by the way is 76! He's just immature for his age.
In my lifetime, I have been aware of just a few cults that attracted major media attention. Mainly, they garnered a lot of ink because all of their members ended up dead. The first was the one led by Jim Jones down in Jonestown. That was the cult that managed to put Kool Aid on the front page. Next was David Koresh and his gang of wackos down in Waco. Third in line was Heaven's Gate, as big a flop as the movie of the same name. They were the folks who believed that if they dressed all in white and killed themselves, they'd be collected in a spaceship and be flown off to a better place. And who knows? Maybe they were. At least they saved themselves all that packing and standing in line that I associate with space travel. Still, inasmuch as all of these cultists managed to wind up as dead as doornails, it's hard to see the attraction. These days, we have the biggest cult yet -- the one led by the great and wonderful wizard of Oz, Barack Obama.
His followers would probably take exception to being regarded as cultists, but that's certainly how they strike those of us who are on the sidelines watching them file by like mindless zombies. The things that Obama says are so out of sync with reality that the only explanation for his having a following is that they're caught up in fanatical fervor.
For instance, he insists that he's the one person who can bring Democrats and Republicans together, but during his two years in Washington, not only hasn't he proposed a single bi-partisan measure, but he has the most liberal voting record in the Senate. Next, he claims he's the fellow who can bring blacks and whites together, but he attended a black separatist church for 20 years, soaking up 1,000 Sundays worth of Rev. Wright's verbal sewage.
But mention any of this to one of Obama's worshippers and you either get one of those blank looks popularized by the Stepford wives or you're called a racist.
That leads me to second a motion proposed by my wife. She thinks the word "racist" should be banished from the popular lexicon, along with the likes of chink, yid, wop, Polack and queer. People -- generally blacks and liberals -- toss the word around with impunity, labeling anyone who is opposed to affirmative action, entitlements based on pigmentation or even the prospect of Obama's being elected president, as a racist. I say that in the future anyone caught using the r-word should be treated exactly like someone who uses the n-word. If it means that liberals will be tongue-tied for a while until they learn to expand their vocabulary, so be it.
While checking out the ages of 535 senators and representatives in Washington, I made a discovery that saddened me as a Jew. What I found was that of the 13 Jewish people currently in the Senate, 10 are Democrats and one, Bernie Sanders, is a self-described Socialist. As bad as that is, the situation is even worse in the House, where 28 out of 29 Jews are Democrats. All I can say is, Eric Cantor, of Virginia, must be one lonely guy at the annual Jewish Republican mixer.
As a conservative, I don't mind Jews being the Chosen People. But when 39 of the 42 Jews in Congress are left-wingers, the problem, as I see it, is when Jews are the elected people.


text:
Q: how to count the numbers entered by the user I need to count the numbers entered by the user but i cant figure it out. all it can do is count the digits instead of the numbers entered. Im not allowed to use array, only looping.
Scanner in = new Scanner(System.in);

int count = 0;
int num = in.nextInt();
int a = in.nextInt();

while(num > 0 && a > 0)
{
    num /= 10;
    a /= 10;
    count ++;
}

System.out.println(count);

input: 2 2165 Expected output:2

A: Your code will definitely not count numbers.
This one definitely will:
Scanner in = new Scanner(System.in);

int count = 0;
int num;

while(in.hasNextInt())
{
    num = in.nextInt();
    num /= 10;
    count ++;
}

System.out.println(count);

This will count all entered numbers till a non-number is entered.

A: you don't need to use loops for that. your code is counting digits.

A: Scanner in = new Scanner(System.in);

int count = 0;
int inNumber = in.nextInt();
System.out.println("Enter -1 to stop");

while(inNumber != -1)
{
       inNumber = in.nextInt();
       count ++;
}

System.out.println("Count: "+count);

Jonny, once the user inputs -1, loop exits and it displays the count.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Some words about XKB internals.
The basic terms - codes and symbols.
Two parts of XKB and compatibility problem.
XKB state: current group number.
"Keeping in range" methods for group number.
XKB state: current modifiers set.
Shift level calculation. Key types.
What other data each keycode description has.
Keep group number in range method.
XKB state: control flags (XKB Controls).
AccessX. Additional services for physically impaired persons.
The main XKB module function is convertion of the pressed keys scan-codes to the symbol codes.
In the XKB documentation scan-codes are named keycodes and the symbols codes are named simply symbols.
Of course the "symbols" term doesn't mean printable symbol codes only (letters, digits, punctuation, etc.). This term includes "control symbols" (such as Esc, Enter, Backspace, etc.) and codes that can influence to state of XKB itself and so to other symbols choice procedure (alphabet switcher, Control, Shift, Alt, etc.).
First of all I should tell some words how scan-codes to symbols conversion occurs in the X Window System without XKB module.
The X-server itself doesn't converts keycode to symbol. When you press or release any key X-server keyboard module sends "message about event" (or simply event) to application.
Such message contains scan-code and "keyboard state" only. The keyboard state is bit flags set that reflects the state of "modifer keys" - Shift, Control, Alt, CapsLock, etc.
So namely application has to decide what symbol match to this scan-code when such modifiers are set.
Of course for this purpose application can use "keyboard map table" stored in the X-server that contain lists of all possible symbols for each scan-code. Usually application gets this table from the X-server at start time.
Of course nobody writes such scan-code interpretation procedure for each application. There are special subroutines for this purpose in Xlib library.
Remind that the Xlib is set of low-level procedures for communication between application and the X-server. And even application use only hight-level library or toolkit (such as Xaw, Motif, Qt, gtk, etc.) this library in its own turn use Xlib as base.
So Xlib procedures knowing scan-code and modifiers state from event message choose appropriate symbol from keyboard map table derived from server at startup.
And the XKB module too sends to application scan-code and own state only. But unlike old module XKB have more complicated symbols table, different modifiers set and some other components of keyboard state.
Therefore for right working Xlib must contain procedures that are "XKB aware". Of course X's that have server with XKB module also has XKB-aware Xlib.
So we can say that the XKB consists of two parts - module built in server and Xlib subroutines set that are part of each application.
But nobody forbids to use applications that was linked with old Xlib that doesn't know about XKB. It leads to "compatibility problem". XKB must be able to communicate with own Xlib and with old "non XKB-aware" Xlib too.
Of course such communication is not limited with messages about key press or release. Xlib procedures can send to X-server some requests (for example get symbols map) and commands (for example change some symbol placement in this table).
And even working with old Xlib XKB must react to such requests and commands to allow application work as correctly as possible.
What is simbols table that binds symbols with keycodes and modifiers state? Lets look for begining to "traditional" symbols table being used before XKB.
Like in many another keyboard modules it can be represented as simple two-dimensional table where each row corresponds to keycode and each column corresponds to modifier or modifiers combination.
First of all note that in the key press/release event only one byte (octet) allocated for modifiers. So there can be eight modifiers only. First three ones are named Shift, Lock, Control and all other are "unnamed" - Mod1, Mod2, Mod3, Mod4, Mod5.
In core protocol terms we can say that the Mode_switch choose one of two column groups (note that here "group" means not the same that the "XKB group" about which we will talk below). And Shift state choose one of two columns inside group.
Of course you know that the different group usually used for different alphabets and Shift choose small or capital letters inside one alphabet.
Also note that neither Lock nor Control don't paricipate in symbol choice. If these modifiers are active so special Xlib subroutines makes additional convertion for symbol after its choice.
Lets return to XKB module. You can see that the main disadvantage of traditional symbols table is its unflexibility. Though there can be up to 256 columns but only first four can be standardly processed and their dependence on modifiers hardcoded in Xlib.
Therefore one of the basic improvements brought by XKB is large flexibility in the table construction.
Enter key doesn't depend on any modifiers state so in table its row has only one column.
key with symbols '1' and '!' has in table two columns and column choice depends on only Shift state.
With such approach term "group" significantly change meaning. We can't define group as "pack of columns" becouse such pack size will be different for different keys.
It is very usefull to devide table into groups. First of all it makes easier to separate different alphabets in one keyboard map. Note that someone use two and more alphabets simultaneously. And strong bounds between alphabets allow to complete such parts independly.
And the second one is than more modifiers we involve to column choice then more complicated and difficult to understand keyboard map become.
So XKB design use radical approach - one keybord map can contain some (up to four) tables. And these different table in XKB has name "XKB groups" (or simply groups).
It is more correctly to tell not "some two-dimensional tables in one map" but "each keycode can have up to four one-dimensional tables - groups".
Some keys meaning (Enter for example) is the same for all alphabets. So they need not table division to separate groups.
Even inside one group (alphabed) different keys can have different number of columns. It means that the table width varies not only "from group to group" but also "from keycode to keycode". So it is more convenient to describe each separate group for each separate keycode.
And finally each keycode also has some other data (see below ) that doesn't depends on group number. So if we would have some "global" tables and would describe such data for the same key in different tables then this information could be inconsistent.
XKB keyboard map has keeps some one-dimensional tables of symbols for each keycode. Such table name is group.
Each group table can contain some columns - shift levels.
What one-line table is current is pointed by "current group number" (or simply group). X-server keeps current group number and reports it with keycode and current modifiers set in key event.
Column (shift level) inside group is chosen by current modifiers set.
Different keycode keycode can have different number of groups.
Different group of the same keycode can have different number of shift levels.
And finally I should say that the number of groups can be from 1 to 4 and number of levels can be up to 64.
Besides "symbols table" keycode can have bound "actions table". This table also can be devided to group sub-tables and levels.
Unlike symbols table that is used by application (X-server only keeps it) actions table is used by server itself.
This table cells contains pointers to XKB internal procedures that changes "XKB state" - current group, current modifiers set and internal control flags set.
More detaily about all possible actions you can read in Actions description.
It is important that if some cell (defined by group and shift level)in action table is filled with action so corresponded cell in symbols table must exist and be filled with symbol (usually it's "control symbol").
Note that the old keyboard module has not actions mechanism.
XKB keeps current group number in "internal state" table.
These variables values can be changed by actions bound to appropriate keys (keycodes).
Wrap - XKB devides sum to number of defined groups and takes rest. It's method by default.
Clamp - if sum is bigger than highest group it will be replaced with "last group number", if sum less than one the first group will be used.
Redirect - if this method is used it need in XKB state one another value defined - number "where redirect to" (or "what replace with"). If sum is out of bounds this additional value will be used. By the way if this value also is out of bounds XKB will use first group.
Besides group number variables "XKB state" contains variables for bit flags that are named modifiers. These flags changes own state when keys like Shift, CapsLock, Alt, Control, etc. are pressed or released.
As I said above old protocol also has modifiers set. Their names are Shift, Lock, Control, Mod1-Mod5. In dependence on their state Xlib choose symbol from symbols table and can perform some additional actions such as make control symbols from ordinar symbols, change small letters to capital ones and so on.
Also application can interpert modifiers in own way and so change own behavior.
XKB has more modifiers and thier behavior dependence on modifiers can be flexibly changed (not at start only but at work time too). But becouse of compatibility problem XKB needs to emulate traditional modifiers set for old client program (linked with old Xlib).
So traditional modifiers set in XKB have name real modifiers and names of each modifier are the same as in old standard.
And XKB also has 16 own internal modifiers that was named virtual modifiers.
Unfortunatly one part of compatibility problem is that the key event allocates only eight bits for modifiers. So there is not way to report all sixteen XKB internal modifiers to the application in key event message. And XKB needs to map own virtual modifiers to real modifiers even when it communicates with XKB-aware application. The only consolation is you can map to one real modifiers as many virtual modifiers as you want.
and since they are used for action choice so they influence to all that the actions do - group number calculation, other modifiers state changing and so on.
These variables values can be changed by actions.
And as for group there is term effective modifiers that is boolean sum (bitwise OR) of three mentioned variables. Of course since it is boolean addition XKB needn't any additional acts to keep sum in range.
XKB doesn't keep shift level like group number inside but calculates it from modifiers state every time when need it. And for each key level from modifiers dependence can be different.
To allow such flexibility XKB uses "key type".
Key type is some function (in mathematic meaning) that describes what modifiers need to be used for shift level calculation and what level match to certain modifiers combination.
And so each group sub-table for each keycode contains key type identifier.
When key is pressed XKB takes key type description from sub-table and useing this description and modifiers state as argument calculates cell number (what shift level means) symbol have to be chosen from.
I should note that though key type for each keycode sub-table can be changed flexibly XKB has "basic set" of key types and each keycode has any type as default. Therefore usually one needn't specify key types in keyboard map.
Since different keys can have different number of groups it can occur that the effective group value legal for whole keyboard map is too big for some particilar keys.
In such case effective group must be corrected especially for current key.
Possible methods are the same as "global" ones. By default Wrap method is used.
This variable consists of two parts - boolean flags and additional argument. In most cases additional argument is not needed but some flags assume additional numeric value. Of course argument meaning depends on flag meaning.
must this key be "lockable" (it means that after first press/release this key stay logicaly pressed and will be unpressed after next press/release.) Such locking can be performed by hardware or emulated by XKB module.
is this key the member of any radio group. For this flag additional argument means radio group identifier.
is this key the member of any overlay group There can be only two such group. What group is active in current time can be managed by one of two XKB control flags (names of flags are Overlay1 and Overlay2). So there are two flags in key behavior - "is it the member of the first overlay group" and "is it the member of the second overlay group". The additional argument means keycode which will replace this key keycode if the corresponded overlay group is active.
It is bit mask that defines what keycode related data is "specified explicitly" and must not be changed in some cases. The thing is that the X-protocol include commands that allow application change symbol_to_keycode binding in keyboard map inside X-server. Of course these commands changes symbols placement only but doesn't change other data such as action, key behavior or key bound modifiers.
To allow XKB to move this data at symbol moving there is special mechanism - symbol interpretation. Useing this mechanism XKB can move non-symbol data bound to keycode when application requests the symbol moving.
But in some cases such changes can be considered as unwanted. So exceptions set can protect keycode related data against such implicit changes.
If application uses special XKB-protocol requests this protection is unneeded.
First of all note that there are two variables for each keycode (modmap and vmodmap) one variable for real modifier and anoter one for virtual modifiers.
The real modifier is used for traditional modifiers set emualtion but virtual modifier can be used as argument for actions bound to this key.
I should say that the virtual modifiers set (base, locked and latched can be changed by appropriate action. Of course this action must has argument that describes what modifiers will be switched on/off. And if you describe such action you can specify modifiers names explicitly or refer to vmodmap (that means "set/unset modifiers bound to this key").
But modifiers in the "emulated traditional modifiers set" changes automaticaly at key press/release. You can guess that the "emulated modifier" for particular key is modifier keeped in the real modifier variable (modmap) of this key.
Also these two variable are used for the virtual_to_real modifier mapping. Remember that the virtual modifier has not any effect while it is not mapped to any real modifier.
Besides group number and modifiers set there is another one set of bit flags in XKB state. But in difference to group and modifiers that are distributed to three variables (base, locked, latched) this set occupate only one variable.
Control flags set contain flags that are used for switching XKB modes and isn't reported to application.
switching mouse events emulation modes.
and some other XKB properties.
XKB controls (like group number and modifers) can be changed by appropriate action bound to some keys.
You know that besides key keyboard has some indicator LEDs. These indicators management is XKB duty too.
XKB can have up to 32 indicators.
Of course keyboard has only 3-4 LEDs and so can show state of first 3-4 XKB indicators. These indicators have name "physical indicators" and all other are "virtual indicators". Virtual indicators state can be read from XKB and be showed by special programs (xkbvleds, mxkbledpanel).
Each indicator can be bound to some component of "XKB state" (modifier, group number or XKB control flag) and so indicator state will reflect state of own XKB state component.
And there are special XKB protocol requests that can be used by application to change some indicator state (to switch on/off). Note that I talk about possibility to switching on/off LED only but not about changeing keyboard state component bound to this lamp.
and finally, has this indicator "feedback". It means you can make indicator has influence to bound component and request to change indicator state will cause change of component state (modifer state or group number or control flag state).
As I already mentioned above, XKB needs to solve the "compatibility problem" working with application that aren't XKB-aware and that use traditional protocol requests.
Of course XKB can process such requests but the problem is that the XKB has some new terms and mechanisms absent in traditional protocol (core protocol). You guess that the core protocol requests doesn't deal with these mechanisms.
First of all XKB has more modifiers (and can change their behavior flexibly). Therefore XKB needs to support eight traditional modifiers and to map own modifiers to these ones (as I told above).
The second one is that the group number in the core protocol has another meaning. I already said that there are only two groups that can be switched by the Mode_Switch key and the current group in keyboard state can be reflected by one of unnamed (Mod1-Mod5) modifiers that is bound to Mode_Switch.
Thus in core protocol the current group (base/alternative group) indication needs only one bit and this bit is one of modifiers. But XKB for current group number delivering heeds two-bit field and in keyboard event this field placed separately from the modifiers set.
Also in old keyboard protocol standard each group consists of two levels exactly though each keycode can have up to 256 symbols. First four cells in keycode row are "two groups of two levels". All other cells application can choose in dependence on Mod1-Mod5 modifiers state in own way.
First of all convert own "group sub-table" to one row of traditional symbols table (to say honestly I still don't understand this action rules except simplest case such as "two group of two levels").
And the second one, to convert own group number to any real modifier state.
The last problem is that the old keyboard module hasn't actions that are main feature provide XKB behavior flexibility. It leads to problem when non XKB-aware program will request change of some symbol_to_keycode binding. Since such program even doesn't suspect that this keycode can have also some action bound, it's possible that the application will move "alphabet switcher" to another key but action that really do such switching will stay on old place.
To solve this problem XKB has table of "control symbols interpretation" (or simply interpretation table). This table connects symbols codes and corresponded actions. Of course only control symbols (such as Caps_Lock, Shift, Num_Lock, "alphabet switcher", etc.) presents in this table.
Besides symbols and actions itself each interpretation keeps some additional data that is "real modifier list" and "match criterion" (such as "any of modifiers", "all of modifiers", "specified modifiers only", etc.).
Every time at symbos binding change XKB searchs this symbol in interpretation table (note that the XKB also do it at X-server start time). If symbol is found XKB with symbol binding also perform corresponded action binding to the same position in keycode table. The additional data (modifier and match criterion) also can be used for seeking appropriate place for action.
Also interpretation can change some other keycode properties such as autorepeat and locking flags and virtual modifier (bound to keycode).
I should remind that the keycode can have "exceptions set" that protects keycode properties against such changes.
I should mention that though actions can be specified in keyboard map tables but to place all actions in interpretation table is "right thing". Since in this table each action is bound to control symbol (not to some position in keycode tables) and XKB moves action from interpretation table to keyboard map at configuration load time so it allow XKB to find most appropriate place for each action. Thus all symbols and actions will be bound to keycode in most correct way.
XKB module allow to unite some keys to one radio-group. It means that all keys states in such group depends on each other. At one key press all other keys become unpressed.
Of course pressed key will stay in pressed state until some other key of group will be pressed. The belonging of concrete key to radio-group can be defined in "key behavior".
In the same place you can specify one additional property for radio-group that defines possibility to release all keys simultaneously. Usual radio-group definition assumes that the one of keys always must be in pressed state. To release it you need to press any another key but in such case this second key become pressed. If radio-group has property "allow to release all keys" you can simply press logicaly pressed key one more time and this key (and all other from group) will become logicaly unpressed.
XKB allow to have up to 127 radio groups.
XKB allow some keys to have alternative scan-code (keycode). It means that in normal state when such key is pressed and keyboard generates its scan-code XKB use this scan-code in usual way. But when overlay mode is switched on XKB replaces this scan-code by alternative one ant then deal with this new code.
Such group of keys that has alternative keycodes is named "overlay group" (or simply overlay). There can be only two such group. The belonging of concrete key to overlay group and alternative keycode itself can be defined in "key behavior".
There are people who has limited mobility of hands (fingers) or need to use some devices to access keyboard.
It's impossible to press two (or more) keys at the same time (for example Shift+"letter"). To solve this problem XKB has StickyKeys mode. This mode change behavior of modifier keys and allow to press they in sequence instead of simultaneously. For example instead of Shift+Control+C one can press and release Shift key then press and release Control key and then press C key. Note that only modifier keys become "sticky". It means that after modifier key press the XKB waits another key press but when ordinary (letter) key press the XKB gnerates keyboard event.
On the other hand this mode itself can cause problem if modifier key was pressed by a mistake. Therefore StickyKeys mode has special delay time when the XKB waits another key. After this time expire key become logicaly unpressed.
Some user can accedentally "bounce" key when he press or release it. To avoid such "bounce effect" the XKB has BounceKeys mode. This mode means that after first physical key press this key become "insensible" and so will ignore other press/release at some time.
Some user can accidenally bump unneeded key while moving hand from key to key. To solve this problem the XKB has SlowKeys mode. In this mode each key is considered as pressed if it is physically pressed while some time. In the other words if you will press key and then release it quickly the XKB will ignore such short term press.
It can be hard or impssible to move mouse device. To solve this problem the XKB can emulate mouse events by keyboard. More detaily about this mode see below.
All these modes are performed by part of XKB module that has name AccessX. Each mode can be switched on/off by change of XKB control flags with the same names.
If Shift key is physicaly pressed and stay in such state more then 8 seconds the SlowKeys mode become active.
If Shift key is pressed sequentally five times the StickyKeys mode become active.
to set the same flag by pressing key with appropiate action. (by default such key absent but you can add it in keyboard map if you need).
On the other hand if one of AccessX modes is active but computer is used by different users this mode can disturb some people. Therefore the XKB has special option that allow automatically switch off AccessX modes if keyboard stay not in use long time. And StickyKeys mode (simultaneous key pressing emulation by sequental press) become inactive if you will press some keys really simultaneously.
This automatical deactivation (as the other modes) can be switched on/off by corresponded XKB control flag (AccessXTimeout).
And finally, AccessX has special mode of additional sound indication of all events such as several timeouts begin and end and LEDs switching. To allow users distinguish these events (especially when more then one AccessX mode is active) the XKB tries to make different sounds (in pitch and duration) for different events as far as hardware allow.
This mode as the other modes can be switched on/off by corresponded XKB control flag (AccessXFeedback). Also sound for separate events can be switched on/off seprately.
The XKB can emulate mouse events by keyboard. It means that it can be configured to produce events about mouse movement and mouse button pressing instead of key press events.
It can be done by corresponded actions such as "pointer movement", "mouse button press", "mouse mouse button choice".
In pointer movement action you can specify both coordinates or their changes. Coordinates can be absolute (it means that you spesify point on screen exactly) or realtive that means movement to some points to needed direction. Usualy there are some action with the same direction but with different distance values - one point, ten points, etc. These action can be bound to the same key but to different shift levels. It means that press such key alone you will get one-point movement but being pressed with Shift key the same key will cause more long movement per one key press.
In mouse button press action you can specify "repeat counter" besides button number. It means that by key one press you can produce double-click (or triple or more).
Also there is variant of such action that not only press mouse button but leaves it logicaly pressed after key release (as all Lock keys do) It means that with such action you can "press mouse button" then move pointer and then "release mouse button" by second press of the same key.
And finally, note that mouse can have up to 5 buttons and with multi-click and lockable variants it could happen that you will need many different keys for muse buttons. To reduce their number XKB has a default button term. To deal with this button there is special action that allow specify concrete button as default button or relative change of current default button number. Using last one you can change current default button in cycle by one key. And in all "mouse button actions" you can specify that this action is related to button that is default button in current time. (There is only one problem - to remember what button is default now :-).
Also there are two modes of mouse pointer movement - the simple movement and the movement with acceleration. At single press there is not difference between these two modes. But if you will keep key pressed and it begin to autorepeat so in normal mode pointer will be moved on the same number of pixels (on value specified in action arguments). But in accelerated mode size of one step will grow from step to step.
delay - delay (in milliseconds) between key first press and autorepeat first event.
interval - interval (in milliseconds) between autorepeat events.
maxspeed - maximum speed (in pixels per event).
timetomax - number of events after which speed become maxspeed. You can see that there is not explicit acceleration value. XKB calculates it from initial step size (specified in action agruments), maxspeed and timetomax.
curve - acceleration "curve factor". The thing is that speed can grow not lineary only. In general speed grows proportialy to X^(1 + curve/1000) function. Thus with curve=0 growth is linear but with another values (from -1000 to 1000) growth has some curvature.
By deafult accelerated mode is active.
Mouse emulation switching on/off and movement mode choice can be performed by two XKB control flags - MouseKeys and MouseKeysAccel.
I should note that by default all needed actions are described in the XKB configuration and are bound to NUMPAD keys. To switch on/off the mouse emulation mode you can use Shift+NumLock keys combination.
It can seems that this part has not relation to keyboard.
Moreover, for users of computers where keyboard, display and "speaker" are independent devices such combination can looks very strange. But since in some hardware bell is placed in keyboard and produce key_click sound at every key press so X's design consider that bell control is keyboard mode duty.
I should note that bell control presents in old (core protocol) keyboard module. With special requests to X-server application can change key_click parameters (tone, duration and loudness) and produce this sound when it needs.
The XKB module offers advanced bell features and allows not only cause click sound but play music fragment. Of course to provide such "music accompaniment" is too complex task for keyboard module. First aff all it needs some 'sound database' and the second it has to support many different hardware (sound cards).
Therefore XKB design assumes that there must exists special application ("juke-box") for sound play. And the XKB simply generates special event (instead og click sound) that can be delivered to any application as all other events. Juke-box has to say to X-server at start that it acceps some kind of events (in this case xkb bell-events).
Of course, if such music box presents its ability is not limited with bell sound with different tone/duration play. It would can play many music fragments from own database.
Therefore XKB bell events contains not sound parameters but simply some "sound name" (or "bell name"). And music box has to have some table where each bell name is bound to concrete music fragment.
So application working with XKB can request not simple bell but any sound specifying its name. Note that XKB doesn't perform any check of such sound names but simply retranslate them to juke-box.
Of course XKB not only retranslates "sound requests" from applications to juke-box but can request sound for own needs (when it changes own state).


The Routledge background of Medieval Christianity explores the position of Christianity in ecu society from the center of the eleventh-century until eventually the dawning of the Reformation. prepared in 4 thematic sections and comprising 23 initially commissioned chapters plus introductory overviews to each part through the editor, this ebook presents an authoritative survey of a necessary part of medieval historical past.
Comprehensive and cohesive, the amount offers a holistic view of Christianity in medieval Europe, analyzing not just the church itself but in addition its function in, impact on, and tensions with, modern society. Chapters for this reason diversity from examinations of constructions, theology and devotional practices in the church to subject matters resembling gender, violence and holy battle, the economic system, morality, tradition, and lots of extra in addition to, demonstrating the pervasiveness and significance of the church and Christianity within the medieval global.
Despite the transition into an more and more post-Christian age, the historical function of Christianity within the improvement of Europe continues to be necessary to the certainty of eu background – rather within the medieval interval. This assortment may be crucial analyzing for college students and students of medieval experiences throughout a huge variety of disciplines.
In risky Voices Holst-Warhaft investigates the ability and that means of the traditional lament, in particular women's mourning of the lifeless, and units out to find why laws used to be brought to scale back those laments in antiquity. An research of laments starting from New Guinea to Greece means that this basically girl artwork shape gave ladies substantial energy over the rituals of dying.
This publication experiences a very important section within the historical past of Roman slavery, starting with the transition to chattel slavery within the 3rd century bce and finishing with antiquity's first large-scale slave uprising within the 130s bce. Slavery is a courting of strength, and to review slavery – and never easily masters or slaves – we have to see the interactions of people who communicate to one another, a unprecedented form of proof from the traditional global.
This selection of occasional writings by means of well known medieval pupil Margaret Wade Labarge considers an eclectic mixture of topics and concerns within the background of the center a long time. the numerous lives of medieval ladies, their energy and standing inside of society, are depicted via their very own writings; questions of medieval tradition are associated with these dealing with humanity in our time; trip, as skilled by way of the main prestigious ambassador and by means of the lowliest pilgrim, is explored; and the origins and stipulations of overall healthiness care are tested.
Never in history have the moral forces of so vast a society been so thoroughly concentrated and so effective. 1 Krey's vision of what historians call the 'papal monarchy' probably tells us more about his own moment in time than the days of Innocent III, about early twentieth-century hopes for peace following the trauma of the First World War than papal governance in the thirteenth century. Yet the idea of Christendom continued and still continues to resonate among scholars of the Middle Ages, not to mention philosophers, social scientists, politicians, and anyone else seeking the premodern roots of modern European civilization.
Although popes did not wield the material sword directly, they delegated that earthly responsibility to emperors and princes, revealing the universal latitude of their commission to safeguard God's Church. 'It is a watchtower', Bernard wrote about the papal throne, 'from it, you oversee everything though the office of your episcopacy.
Peter D. Clarke is Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Southampton, UK. He specialises in the history of the medieval papacy and canon law. He is the author of The Interdict in the Thirteenth Century: A Question of Collective Guilt (2007) and he has edited (with Patrick Zutshi) Supplications from England and Wales in the Registers of the Apostolic Penitentiary, 1410–1503, Canterbury and York Society 103–105 (2013–2015). Jonathan Elukin is Associate Professor of History at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut.


Each year billions of dollars are ripped off from workers, through all sorts of little scams. It is very common apparently, when workers leave a job, for their employers to "forget" to pay for the last week or so of work. And employers scam billions of dollars annually by underpaying overtime hours. Whether lots of money is involved or not so much, it is still a fairness issue, and wage theft hurts the wage-earners, their dependents and the community. Checking online, I found several organizations fighting against wage theft nationally; it is a huge problem.
One new attorney working on this issue is in the Rio Grande Valley. I met him at the groundbreaking for the new South Texas Civil Rights Project (STCRP) office planned in Alamo. (Their current offices are getting too crowded at Cesar Chavez Road and Business 83.) The lawyer is Elliott Tucker, and he recently joined STCRP after graduating from Georgetown University and spending a year or so with another non-profit organization. I asked for an interview.
Braune: When I spoke to you at the groundbreaking, I was interested in your project and have since looked online and found that this is not a small issue at all. Could you please tell the readers a bit about what you are doing.
Tucker: I am the employment justice attorney for the South Texas Civil Rights Project, where my job is to find both legal and non-legal solutions to the rampant problem of wage theft in the Valley. In Hidalgo County and Cameron County, we offer monthly legal clinics for victims of wage theft. At these clinics we give a brief presentation on labor law, conduct a legal intake, and then provide legal orientation to the appropriate non-profit or government agency.
I am working closely with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, LUPE, and the Start Center. For instance, in close coordination with LUPE, I have developed a Justice of the Peace workshop which empowers workers to file their own small claims lawsuits. The goal of this project is to both empower workers through civic participation and also ensure that all victims of wage theft have legal redress.
Braune: What are the most common offenses you are expecting to find?
Braune: …a little later and a little later….
Tucker: Yes, and the second most common one is just as simple, paying the workers less than minimum wage.
Greed and ignorance are the driving force behind wage thefts. The range of excuses for non-payment runs the gamut from "But I didn't get paid either" to "You didn't do a good job." However, under federal and state law, an honest day's work deserves an honest day's pay. No excuses.
More disturbingly, in the Valley confused individuals feel that just because a worker does not have a social security number, they can pay that worker whatever they want. Oftentimes these individuals feel they are doing the worker a favor and get offended when the reality of the law comes barking. However, state and national law set the wage rate for all human beings, regardless of immigration status.
Braune: Do undocumented workers hesitate to come forward with complaints?
Tucker: Yes, but they should have far less fear. Although some build up unnecessary worries in their minds, there are a good number of protections in place if they do come forward.
Braune: What further developments do you envision? — Lawsuits? New state laws?
Tucker: My first goal is to educate low wage workers in the Valley about their rights, so all workers know the basic minimum wage and, if violated, know they have legal recourse regardless of their immigration status. Education is the key. However, education cannot open the eyes of the willfully blind, so I do anticipate lawsuits being necessary in the cases of extreme and systemic abuse.
As far as new state laws go, given the current political climate in Texas, I am not optimistic about new laws to address wage theft. Unless there is a fundamental shift in the political winds in Austin, I view my project as focusing primarily on education and litigation, not pushing legislative reform.


Cyprus (Republic of Cyprus) is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea, a member of the European Union since 2004. Republic of Cyprus is de facto partitioned into the area under effective control of the Republic and self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
Cyprus is a free-market, high-income, service-based economy positioning itself as a bridge between the East and the West: Cyprus has educated English-speaking population, and offers moderate local costs, good airline connections, and telecommunications.
Withholding tax rates in Cyprus are 0.0-0.0 %. Cyprus signed 51 double taxation agreements.
Cyprus signed the automatic information exchange agreement on 29 October 2014 and committed to start the automatic information exchange in September 2017.
Cyprus has FATCA agreement with the U.S. in effect since 02 December 2014 (Intergovernmental Agreement Model 1).
In 2012-2013 Cyprus underwent a financial crisis, largely resulted from Cypriot banks business model of attracting offshore money, large exposure to Greek government bonds, amid of big domestic real estate bubble. However by 2016, Cyprus benefited from an economic adjustment programme, during which it managed to emerge from recession, stabilise its financial sector, and consolidate its public finances while still remaining many challenges.


Hearts ... To all of Bluffton for once again being big-hearted to one of its own. Ted Huffman's always-generous nature was repaid Sunday when hundreds of his friends, neighbors and strangers stepped up to help him with medical costs from an emergency surgery. Whether it's someone everyone knows or someone no one knows, folks around here seem to lend a hand when there's a need. The same goes to everyone who turned out for the Red Cross blood drives in response to a critical need to refill blood banks depleted by many recent natural disasters across the country. Bluffton, you rock.
Darts ... To whoever in Southern Beaufort County angered Thor, the Norse god of thunder. A mind-boggling 800 lightning strikes perforated Bluffton and Hilton Head Island Thursday night, keeping our brave firefighters busy as a one-legged cat in a sandbox. And while we at BT spent the last few months issuing several requests for rain to whatever deities might be listening, we certainly weren't expecting anything of this caliber.
Hearts ... To the Bluffton Redfish swim team for its three-peat at the City Meet in Savannah. The annual challenge pits swimmers from all over the area against each other and it's not over until the last little fishy comes out of the water. Congratulations, and we look forward to more of the same in the future.
Darts ... To ageism. Though it's as old as well, the ages, we're darting the tendency of young people to see elders as, well, "old people." While a long, healthy life is a gift that comes with manifold blessings, being lumped into a group of any type of "those people" just stinks. We did it when we were young, too, thinking that those with gray hair were just different than other people. Will this plague of ageism end? Only time will tell.
Hearts ... To the employees, volunteers and supporters of the local Boys & Girls Clubs who keep doors open so children and teens have a safe, exciting and fun place in which to learn and grow. Thousands of adults are successful today because of what the clubs offered them in the past. Anyone else who wants to lend a hand in growing a proud community in the future is welcome to call 757-2845. Donations are always welcome but your time is invaluable.


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