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ABOUT DAYS
Everything you need to know about DAYS
The latest DAYS news
Salem family trees
20+ years of DAYS recaps
DAYS and the Daytime Emmys
DAYS previews, teasers, and spoilers
The Scoop: This week's DAYS previews
DAYS Two Scoops commentary
Visit DAYS's Board
Days of our Lives' executive producer Ken Corday opens up about the NBC soap's 55th anniversary and his plans to make sure Salem sees a 60th anniversary, too.
Fans of Days of our Lives aren't the only ones who are thrilled that the NBC soap opera made it to its 55th birthday. The long-running series' executive producer, Ken Corday, says that he is also over the moon -- just like his parents, Ted and Betty Corday, would be if they were still alive to see how far the soap that they created has come.
"They'd be flabbergasted! My dad didn't think it would make it a year, and of course, he didn't make it a year, the show did," Corday shares with Soap Opera Digest. "My mom was thrilled when we hit our 20th anniversary and our 25th. Fifty-five is just incomparable. They would be proud. They'd be so proud of what everyone has done. The legacy continues."
As for what DAYS has planned to make sure that the show sees future anniversaries, the EP says that he doesn't plan to reinvent the wheel or do anything shocking in terms of the structure and storylines.
"It's an iconic show, especially for NBC and daytime drama. And if it ain't broke, don't fix it," he opines. "We'll stick with the formula and the families and the romance that seems to have worked for five-and-a-half decades."
RELATED: Jaw-dropping moment brings Camila Banus back as DAYS' Gabi
The show's continued success, Corday shares, is due in no small part to DAYS' various head writers over the years -- many of whom have honored what the fans love about the show while bringing it into modern times.
"You look at 55 years and you realize that a lot of our legacy characters [are still] on the show -- we still have Maggie [Suzanne Rogers], and Doug [Bill Hayes] and Julie [Susan Seaforth-Hayes], John [Drake Hogestyn] and Marlena [Deidre Hall], and so many other mainstays [who] speak to such a long run. That and the fact that there have basically been five head writers, one in every decade, who have changed the pace of the show and were able to move it up a notch or two," Corday says. "The real driving force behind any soap is the head writer and we've been fortunate to have some really great ones that were able to reshape the show in a positive way and water its roots with young story for the future. We're five generations deep now on the show and it's all flown by so quickly. Here's to 60!"
In case you missed the big news, DAYS is celebrating its 55th anniversary in a very special way: the show will be hosting its annual "Days of Days" fan event virtually for the first time ever -- and the exciting online extravaganza will be available to all fans, for free! To find out how you can attend, check out Soap Central's article about the fan event here.
Do you agree with Ken Corday that it's best to keep the same formula, families, and romance on DAYS? Or do you think the show would do well to make some changes? If you vote for changes, what would you like to see done differently? We want to hear from you -- and there are many ways you can share your thoughts.
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's DAYS FrontPage.
ICYMI: DAYS NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED
Daytime mourns the passing of OLTL, After Forever writer Michael Slade
Stars share how they love to celebrate the holidays
Martha Madison and Brandon Beemer back on contract at DAYS?
GH, DAYS actress dies
Lifetime holiday films made cheerier with soap stars


The following companies and organisations represent a sample of stakeholders committed to circular economy. We urge the Commission to take their statements into consideration and to respect their needs.
Circular economy has recently attracted a lot of attention, and we can now see the first steps in this process taking shape. At ChemSec, we see great potential for the circular economy and chemicals regulations to reinforce each other and boost recycling in a sustainable way, with safe and long- lasting products. As the essence of the circular economy has to seep through a large number of legislative proposals and committee decisions, we believe it is important that ambition levels are kept high in all areas.
The first legislative process to be negotiated in the transition towards a circular economy is the waste package.


All our pricing is done on an individual basis.
Very professional proprietor and very good menu options. High quality food, well and speedily presented. Managed vegetarian requirements well. Enjoyed by all!
Food was fantastic and Chris made everything run like clockwork.
Great communication from initial enquiry to setting up at the party.
Everyone commented on how great the food was.
Would recommend to everyone and definitely use again.


Commercial properties are located in Oba, Alanya. This region hosts business centers, new state hospital, shopping mall, market, pharmacy, restaurant, cafe and the other daily or social amenities. Oba Neighborhood offers you profitable investment opportunity thanks to the central location.
Sea view commercial properties are 1 km to the district center and Alanya Pier, 2 km to the beach, 41 km to Alanya Gazipaşa Airport and 126 km to the International Antalya Airport. Metro Shopping Mall and the new state hospital are 5 minutes walking distance away from here.
The commercial buildings in Oba have 5200 m² land area and 4500 m² construction area and consist of 120 commercial offices as well as 14 shops. This project has many building facilities such as a private car parking area, outdoor car parking area, mosque, generator, lift, children's playground, pharmacy, grocery, security and security camera system.
The commercial properties range from 60 m² and 300 m² with 3 workrooms and 7 workrooms. Commercial properties in Alanya have many high-class quality features like air-conditioning, wi-fi internet, fire alarm system and modern furnished.


Peel Sound is an Arctic waterway in Nunavut, Canada. It separates Somerset Island on the east from Prince of Wales Island on the west. To the north it opens onto Parry Channel while its southern end merges with Franklin Strait.


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Students back in school Sept. 10
B.C. students will be welcomed back to class starting Sept. 10, the province says.
It's part of an orientation week to give students and staff time to familiarize themselves with health and safety measures being put in place to stem the spread of the coronavirus disease COVID-19.
"Schools are going to look different in September," Education Minister Rob Fleming said in a statement. "Staff, students and parents need time to get familiar with all the new health and safety procedures that are designed to keep them safe and confident in their school settings."
School staff will meet with their respective health and safety committees on Sept. 8 to review health and safety protocols, and finalize plans and lessons for their learning groups.
Students will be back in school Sept. 10 to be assigned to their class, find out who is in their learning group, practice their new routines, and familiarize themselves with how to safely move from the class to outdoor and common areas of the school, the province said.
Most students will return to the classroom when schools re-open. Students will be organized into "learning groups" of 60 students in elementary schools and 120 students in secondary schools.
School districts have been given until Aug. 26 to finalize their respective return plans.
School District 60 Superintendent Stephen Petrucci says planning continues, and that he's confident the district will be able to draft a plan in line with the province's expectations.
Most elementary students are already grouped and learning under a cohort model, he said. The challenge, he said, will be to extend that to the middle and secondary students, particularly when it comes to course selection and core courses for grades 8 through 12.
Plans for busing are being developed, and the district expects a slice of of new funding to hire more janitors and custodians and buy more sanitization stations.
"The key piece here is all of the safety guidelines we saw in the spring will continue," Petrucci said. "We are confident that we can plan and open up our schools."
Email Managing Editor Matt Preprost at editor@ahnfsj.ca.
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The Alaska Highway News welcomes your opinions and comments. We do not allow personal attacks, offensive language or unsubstantiated allegations. We reserve the right to edit comments for length, style, legality and taste and reproduce them in print, electronic or otherwise. For further information, please contact the editor or publisher, or see our Terms and Conditions.
Sex case against former MCFD manager dismissed due to time delay
Sex case against former MCFD manager dismissed due to time ...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The date for the 2013 Marching Band trip to Orlando has been set. We will depart Friday, November 29th and return on Wednesday, December 4th.
During our stay, we will be rooming at the Embassy Suites in Orlando. Click here to visit their website.
The total cost of the trip will be between $700-$750 per student. The exact price should be narrowed down in the coming weeks.
-Hours of quality time with Mr. Smith, Mrs Martin, Mr Welker, Mr. Good, Mrs. Rak, and Mrs. Marsh. No monetary amount can be placed on this as it is priceless.


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Grimsby Town manager Michael Jolley full of praise after JJ Hooper's final day hat-trick
The striker ensured the Mariners ended their season in style by firing them to a 3-0 win over Forest Green Rovers
James Findlater
The win at Forest Green gave Michael Jolley his fourth win as Grimsby Town manager. (Image: Mark Hawkins / PRiME Media Images)
Michael Jolley paid tribute to hat-trick hero JJ Hooper after the striker fired Grimsby Town to a final day 3-0 win over Forest Green Rovers.
With their League Two safety guaranteed, the clash at the New Lawn looked to have had a typical end-of-season feel to it early on.
But once Hooper grabbed his first, the Mariners never looked back, and the 24-year-old rounded off the season in style with two more superb goals to give his side their third win in a row.
And Town boss Jolley reserved special praise for his frontman, and felt his hat-trick came as a just reward for his recent performances.
"JJ's a very capable player, and what players need often is confidence, they need to know they've got the faith of the manager and the players playing with them," Jolley said.
"We all believe in JJ, and we believe in all our players.
JJ Hooper celebrates scoring Grimsby Town's second goal during the Sky Bet League Two match against Forest Green Rovers at The New Lawn. (Image: Mark Hawkins / PRiME Media Images)
"I'm delighted for him today because he's put down a marker for what he wants to do for Grimsby, and hopefully he can be a big player for us in the future.
"What pleased me today was all the goals were slightly different – the first was a set-play, the second had build-up leading to it, so we're bringing different ways to try and score against teams, and I think that's going to be important for us in the future."
On the result, Jolley added: "I feel proud of the players. All the credit has to go to them.
Forest Green vs Grimsby Town recap score updates as Hooper bags hat-trick on final day
"We've said all week that we've done a good job in the last two months of the season in terms of working hard and doing the basics well, and today was just a further progression along that pathway.
"Massive credit to all the players and staff for what they've done in the last two months, and I think today was a nice way to finish it off."


Used vintage style clothing, military and civilian garments, 40′s 70′s 80′s vintage outfits and retro vintage objects, stage and vintage costume hire.
Classification and standardisation. These are the denominators that affect today's society and also the custom of dressing up and showing off It seems that it is from here that the need arises for some young people to regain their personal identity in the vintage style, so what better opportunity for a diverse mix of used and unused clothing or demilitarised military items. Military or civil garments are worn in their originality, or by varying the colour or shape, giving everyone a chance to tailor their look down to the finest detail. NOWAR possesses a wide range of vintage clothes: 70′s leather and suede jackets, fur coats, motorcycle jackets, dresses, shirts, and also branded scarves from the 40′s to 80′s. All of this vintage material enables significant design research and this is why we also offer our garments for rental, not only to designers but also for the theatre, filming shoots and commercials. Having a large amount of retro vintage material available, Prato receives costume designers from all over Italy. In addition to clothing, NOWAR offers a wide range of used items such as household linen, macramé and brocade curtains. We are also able to provide vintage objects, pillows and rugs for the preparation of parties and functions. Please contact us for any information. Fill out the form or call us on: +39 0574 815067 NOWAR will be at your disposal for any information or suggestions, together we will create your vintage style.


As a parent, this moment has been on your radar, but now it's coming fast. Your baby is about to begin his or her senior year of high school. This is a very busy year and will fly by quickly. There's much to do. That also means it's time to start thinking about higher education opportunities and the application process. To help you and your senior, we've included some tips for the fall months as you move forward toward next year's college departure.
Request information and applications from prospective colleges, universities or technical/career schools.
Visit campuses to help evaluate schools.
Start a general search for scholarships and grants, research financial aid information from prospective schools so you're aware of any early deadlines.
Attend our free Financial Aid Seminar on Thursday, August 22 from 6 to 8 pm at our Adminstrative Headquarters.
Set a time to meet with school guidance counselors to determine college admission plans and to arrange proper testing (SAT, PSAT, ACT). Attend college fairs and meet with admission representatives to discuss career objectives and see if the school is recognized as being strong in this field.
Attend Financial Aid Nights offered by local high schools or Members 1st.
Evaluate early decision/early application admission requirements.
Start admission applications. You should apply to numerous schools so you have options if you are not accepted at your first choice.
Be aware of college admission application deadlines in order to submit application materials (applications, essays, transcripts and letters of recommendation) in a timely manner.
Research and begin applying for private scholarships and grants. Always double check the deadlines.
Check with schools regarding application procedures and availability of scholarships and grants.
You can also find resources about student loans and our Student Choice Line of Credit at www.members1st.org > Products & Services > Student Services. Our Specialty Loan Administrator, Tiffanie DeVan, is always ready to help you. You can reach her at (800) 283-2328, ext. 6017 or devant@members1st.org.


There's no longer a chance for any "frozen envelope" conspiracies, but perhaps the Knicks will call on Patrick Ewing as their good luck charm at the upcoming NBA draft lottery.
The former Knicks star and current Georgetown coach said Thursday that he's asked "all the time" about Duke's Zion Williamson or pending free agent Kevin Durant coming to New York. But did the Hall of Fame center also hint that he will represent the Knicks — who have a 14 percent chance at the first overall pick — at the lottery on May 14?
Knicks coach David Fizdale had Ewing address the team before a preseason game in Washington in October, making him one of several former franchise legends to do so over the course of the season.
In the league's first draft lottery in 1985, the Knicks wound up with the first pick overall and the chance to draft Ewing out of Georgetown. One of the most infamous conspiracy theories in sports alleges that the NBA fixed the results of the lottery to ensure Ewing would wind up in New York.


Just because OSHA delayed the requirement for employers to evaluate their crane operators until April 15, 2019, doesn't mean you can't be cited for deficiency. Hear how Morrow Equipment, a leader in the tower crane industry, is tackling this requirement head-on and learn the steps you need to take to be in compliance now.
Note: Log-in information to join the webinar will be emailed to all attendees 2 hours prior to the start time of the webinar.


This article describes the steps using Web Editor. If you are using the RoomSketcher App, see Draw a Yard, Garden, or Outdoor Area (App).
In the lower left, click Walls mode.
Click the Divider tool and draw the outline of your outdoor area. Make sure to draw a complete enclosed area (or you will not be able to add grass and other materials in the next steps).
When your outdoor area is complete, it will appear with a default flooring material. You can remove this to make it easier to see your outdoor zone.
Still in Walls mode, switch to the Select tool. Click on the outdoor zone to select it and click Properties.
On the Zone tab, next to Floor Material, click on the red X to remove the floor material.
Now remove the ceiling: Still on the Zone tab, click Advanced.
Use this technique to add paths, patios, garden areas, or even a swimming pool!
In Walls mode, click the Divider tool.
Use the Divider line to draw additional zones. Remember to draw complete enclosed shapes.
When you create additional zones, don't forget to turn off the ceiling in each new zone.
In Web Editor, switch to Materials mode.
Search for Concrete (or grass, gravel, soil, paving stone, water, etc.).
Click on the material to select it and drag it into the new zone.
Find garage doors in Windows, etc mode.
Add outdoor furniture using Furniture mode (tip: Search for Outdoor). You'll even find cars (search for auto), a bicycle, scooter and lawn mower.
To add a pool, create a zone with the Divider tool, and use Materials mode to add water. Select the zone and adjust floor height to change pool/water height.
a. In Furniture mode, search for Fence and drag it onto your plan.
b. In Walls mode, click one of the divider lines (that you added above) to select it, click Properties, then click the arrow next to Railing. Click a railing or fence to select it, then click OK. The divider line becomes a fence.
You can add soil to a zone, and then add plants.
In Materials mode. Search for Soil. Click on the soil to select it and drag it into the garden zone.
On the left, switch to Furniture mode.
Search for plant, tree or flower. Click on the item to select it and drag it onto the garden bed.
To make a plant bigger or smaller - click on the item, click Properties and change the height, width, and depth.


Below we will provide additional services that you can benefit if you choose to work with our agency. We promise to satisfy your requirements seamlessly.
Atlass Automotive provides a fast and cheap transfer to Henri Coanda International Airport in Otopeni or Baneasa airport. Whether you arrive in Bucharest in a location or a location in Romania we provide the best offers and good quality cars to enjoy all the comfort. Service airport transfer available with cars 5 seats, their price can vary depending on the car class you choose.
Shuttle service from the airport in Otopeni, You can travel to any destination, invoicing will be done depending on the number of kilometers, and the cost starts at 0,40 euro / km and will calculate the roundtrip. If you want to make a transfer airport rezerbvare you can write to rentacarotopeni85@gmail.com or contact us by phone at 0760193060. If you send us a written request, soon you will receive the confirmation emaill and the estimated cost of the airport transfer service depending on the number of kilometers. The final price including all taxes, the airport parking, road tax and road tax.
Procedure: the date and time, our driver will expect Otopeni airport with a sign with your name. Payment will be made upon arrival at the airport, in case there will be extra kms to those specified above, they will be charged extra.
renting a car transfer to and from Otopeni Airport.
renting a car to go to a special event.
In case you choose to rent a car with a driver no longer must pay the guarantee. The price for a 8 h is 45 euros plus the cost driver for kilometers.
Shuttle service as well as car rental with driver is available for tourists, for companies or businessmen.


Bride (and dear SW friend!) Stephanie shares her Merrimon-Wynne wedding!
If I had to choose one bride out of the hundreds we've featured who most closely mirrors our mission at Southern Weddings — creating a wedding day inspired by your love story's details, and celebrating not just the wedding but the marriage — let me say first that it would be a very tough competition. Y'all just get it, and we're so grateful for that!
BUT, that being said, today's bride, Stephanie, would be near the top of the list. You'll remember we asked her to share her wedding planning process earlier this year, and it's with great joy that I'm able to share her wedding to Rob today! I know you'll be as inspired by the meaning they packed into their celebration as you are by Steph's joy at tying the knot. Take it away, friend!
Thanks to Blue Ribbon Vendors Ally & Bobby for sharing these wonderful images with us!
Tell us your love story in one sentence. From the moment Rob and I met (online!), we knew we had something incredibly special and lasting; God perfectly orchestrated our relationship and its timing, and we were certainly worth the wait for each other!
Tell us all about the proposal! Everyone asks if I was expecting Rob to propose when he did. I did, and I didn't, all at the same time! There were only two things I had mentioned in passing to him about a proposal: I wanted it to be private, and I wanted to be totally surprised. On October 1, I worked a 12+ hour day in Chapel Hill at one of my weddings, then drove home to Raleigh. As soon as I pulled up to my home (yes, still wearing my vendor apron from the wedding, and yes, it was 11:50pm), I saw Rob outside waiting for me. He immediately came over and got down on one knee, pulled out a diamond ring, and said the sweetest things in the world. I was still in shock and a little speechless, asking him "wait, what?" a couple times as he told me how much he loves me, how excited he was to spend the rest of our lives together, and how much he wanted me to be his wife. By this point, I was shaking and crying (happy tears, of course!) and beaming! I remember saying "yes, yes, a million times yes" when he asked me to marry him. I'd always dreamed of what it would be like to be proposed to and get to share this news with loved ones, and it was even better than I had imagined.
Tell us the highlights of finding your wedding dress. Since we had a shorter engagement, at the very top of my priority list was finding a wedding dress. I have to admit that I have dreamed of going wedding dress shopping almost my entire life, and it was surreal to think that it was finally my turn to be the bride! I thought I found "the dress" at our first appointment (the second dress I ever tried on), and was about to place the order when I decided that I wanted to sleep on it. It turns out that I "slept on it" for over a week without giving the dress much thought, other than that it didn't feel very "me." Two weeks after my first appointment, all of our parents were in town to meet and to celebrate our engagement, and my dad was especially insistent that I needed to go try on dresses again that weekend. The night before our appointment, I couldn't stop thinking about the very first dress I had tried on two weeks prior. It turns out, that dress was the only dress I tried on at our second appointment, and it was THE dress!! As soon as I tried it on again, I literally could not stop beaming! And I mean, beaming. Seeing it and feeling it on me felt so perfect. When we FaceTimed my sister to show her again, all four of us were in tears (all happy tears!).
We easily decided on Raleigh as the location for our wedding, as it's home for both of us. We both loved the Merrimon-Wynne House, and we really didn't consider another venue. We had been to a couple events there together, it's my very favorite venue in Raleigh, we knew that it was the exact aesthetic and ambiance that we wanted, we had a large guest count of 200+, and little decor would be needed to bring our wedding design to life. It's also in the heart of downtown Raleigh, which was super important to us. 80% of our wedding guests (and 100% of our families) live out of town, so we wanted a venue in Raleigh. As much as we love our church that's only four blocks away, we knew we would strongly prefer a venue where we could have the ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception at one venue – and three separate spaces within that venue.
Did you decide to do a first look? Why or why not? We did not do a first look, and it was the perfect decision for us! Even as a wedding planner, I've known for years that I didn't want a first look, and when I asked Rob his opinion, he was very firmly anti-first look, too. Rob and I both very much wanted to see each other for the first time as I walked down the aisle to him. That moment was so sacred, emotional, joyful, and special, and it's one of the most vivid, happy moments from our wedding! We did decide to hold hands and pray around a door before our ceremony, which was one of the best decisions imaginable.
The ceremony was the most important part of our wedding day, and we tried to really focus on making it meaningful and reflective of our love – and most importantly, on Christ's love for us and for all. We wanted to infuse our personalities into the details as well as keep things reverent and holy. From our vows, to the song choices, to the wedding party prayer, to our pastor's homily, to serving communion together… we loved our ceremony and all that it symbolized. It was the perfect 74 degrees and sunny day for our outdoor ceremony (I literally prayed it would be 74 and sunny throughout our engagement!), and we said our vows underneath the sunshine, slight breeze, and a wooden cross adorned with Spanish moss and flowers.
What was your favorite detail from your wedding? We wanted our wedding, ultimately, to glorify God, to celebrate our love, and to celebrate all of our family and friends. I couldn't wait to see the Carriage House at the Merrimon-Wynne House transformed into our wedding reception, which truly was seeing all of my longtime wedding dreams come to life! Honestly, getting to become husband and wife with Rob and joyfully celebrate by being surrounded by our incredible family and friends was the very best part of our wedding, and it was truly perfect in every way!
What was Southern about your wedding? Everything?! Ha! Most importantly, our wedding focused on marriage, honoring our family and traditions, incorporating and honoring our loved ones who had passed away, Southern hospitality and a feeling of warmth, joy, and welcome. We displayed family wedding pictures on the mantles of the house, we included my grandmas' favorite flowers in my bouquet and our centerpieces, I carried lace from my mom's wedding dress around my bouquet, I borrowed my sister's veil, my grandma crocheted me a garter to wear on our wedding day, and we displayed marriage advice and wisdom that I collected from both sides of our families. We also had a custom leather Bible cover made by a friend with our names and wedding date, and inside, our guests wrote prayers, congratulations, and favorite verses on ribbon-adorned notecards as our guestbook.
I did a first look with my sweet daddy, and Rob and I waited to see each other til I walked down the aisle. My flowers were also very Southern, like the abundant dogwoods and Spanish moss we incorporated. Our venue is a gorgeous white historic Southern home, and it exuded Southern personality, very much setting the tone for our wedding day. And the size of our wedding party was most definitely Southern: we had 24 people in our wedding party! Our best friends are such a cornerstone in our lives, and we wanted to include and honor them as bridesmaids and groomsmen.
What was the hardest part about planning your wedding? I think the two hardest parts about wedding planning, for us, were budget and guest list. Our parents are so incredibly generous and gracious, and we had a sizeable budget (that we also contributed to). We tracked every penny and were super conscientious of what we were spending, as we wanted to honor the budget and stick to it. Many of the weddings and shoots that I have planned have much, much higher budgets than ours, and I tried very hard not to compare, especially since I'm surrounded by high budget weddings every single day. I wanted our wedding to portray us and be beautiful but at the price we were comfortable spending. And we knew that our wedding day was just day one of marriage, and we wanted our marriage to be even more beautiful than our wedding!
During our reception, we chose two of our favorite U2 songs for our wedding party and us to enter to. Our first dance was oh so sweet and special, and we swayed, twirled, and danced to Elvis' "Can't Help Falling in Love." At the very end of the reception, after our guests walked outside for our big exit, we had a private last dance to Ben E. King's "Stand by Me." It was so incredibly special to be held by my new husband as the very best day of our lives was beginning to wind down, thinking about every moment from our wedding, and relishing every single moment.
What did you serve for your wedding cake or dessert? Why did you choose it? We served a fairly traditional three-tiered wedding cake, which is honestly the best cake we ever had. We still receive compliments about it to this day, and I love swinging by the bakery to pick up cupcakes in our wedding cake flavors! I never would have said that Rob or I were "cake people" before our cake tasting and wedding, but our wedding cake was absolutely divine, and we still talk about it all the time! I wanted our cake to fit our design and be fun and unique, so we went with a dusty French blue buttercream icing, a soft texture, and a wreath of fresh flowers and greenery. We chose three different flavors for our three tiers: dark chocolate cake with mocha buttercream (Rob's absolute favorite!), strawberry with fresh strawberry buttercream, and vanilla with salted caramel fleur de sel. Heavenly, delicious, and such a statement!
What was one way you saved money or cut costs at your wedding? I like to think we did an excellent job at saving money and sticking to our firm budget! From the beginning, we prioritized what was most and least important to us as individuals and as a couple. This definitely came in handy throughout the wedding planning process, as we saved many, many thousands of dollars in various ways. It does help that I'm in the local wedding industry, which was very advantageous and wonderful. We got to work with the best of the best vendors, whom I already work with regularly and who were exceptional at our wedding. We chose to have all of our wedding (ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception) at one venue so we didn't need to hire transportation for our guests, we went with just beer and wine for our bar, we hired our favorite DJ instead of having a band, and we opted not to have a videographer (though we thankfully have our entire ceremony and toasts on film!). All of these decisions (and many more smaller ones) drastically impacted our savings, and we are both so glad we prioritized where we did so that we came in on budget and still had the wedding of our dreams!
What was your most memorable moment from your wedding day? I asked Rob to answer this too, and he said that seeing me walk down the aisle was the most memorable, magical part of our wedding day. He remembers thinking, "there's my wife!" – and I remember him waving to me as I approached him! Rob also said that our reception entrance was unlike anything he's ever experienced, as he was hit with a wave and roar of excitement and cheering as we entered our reception! I'm not sure how I can narrow down my most memorable moment from our wedding day, as every single moment is etched in my memory so vividly. Holding hands with Rob around a door and praying and talking together is definitely one of them! I remember Ally, our photographer and dear friend, coming over to me after I had put on my wedding dress and veil saying that it was time to pray with Rob. I was suddenly hit with overwhelming emotion: endless excitement, nervous, giddiness, and happiness! I started tearing up as I walked towards the door, and I couldn't help it as the tears rolled down my cheeks. Getting to hold my soon-to-be husband's hand, hear his voice, and pray together was incredibly memorable, touching, and sweet, and I was filled with peace and excitement. It was far and away one of my favorite moments of the day! Every moment of our ceremony is so vivid too, and I remember standing at the altar, facing my handsome husband, holding hands, and seeing his huge smile as we listened to our pastor. I literally heard birds chirping as we recited our vows with the softest breeze through my veil. I remember thinking that life couldn't get any more perfect in that moment – and how abundantly grateful I was to the Lord for all of it. Moments after our ceremony exit, we ran into the main house, and it was just the two of us for that brief minute as our bridesmaids and groomsmen walked back down the aisle. Our photographer Bobby also happened to be in there, and I remember twirling around with Rob, kissing him over and over again, excitedly exclaiming that we were married, and looking at our rings. I showed off my dress, and he said all of the sweetest things. It was also unbelievably surreal to be surrounded by the most loving, supportive, encouraging, and fun family and friends, all in one place – and to celebrate us! Our wedding day was just plain fun!!
Ally and Bobby, Cottage Luxe, Serendipity Designs, Stephanie Shaul Events, Bunn DJ Company, High Cotton Ties, and Teighla Norris are delightful members of our Blue Ribbon Vendor Directory!
Hooray!!! Thank you so, so very much for sharing our wedding day; it's truly such an honor to see it on Southern Weddings! Our wedding day was, without a doubt, the happiest, most wonderful, most fun day of our lives, and it was the best start to marriage we could have ever asked for. We're so grateful to our incredibly amazing family and friends, as well as all of our unbelievably talented vendors, for making our wedding so perfect and love-filled. It's so surreal to see our images shared, and it brings back the most vivid, joy-filled memories! And as perfect and beautiful as our wedding day was, marriage is ever better. All our love!!
Stephanie, what a gorgeous wedding! I love all the care and detail you and Rob put into your big day. So fun reading your wedding story and finally seeing all the stunning photos!
Wow! Congratulations on your wedding! :) Gorgeous gorgeous wedding.


text:
Die Rede Gottes () ist in der islamischen Theologie eines der Attribute Gottes. Als Rede Gottes gilt hierbei sowohl das den Propheten offenbarte Wort Gottes als auch das Schöpfungswort kun ("Sei!"), mit dem Gott die Welt erschafft. Das Verhältnis der Rede Gottes zu Gott selbst sowie zu dem offenbarten Koran ist eines der zentralen Themen  in der Auseinandersetzung zwischen den theologischen Schulen der Muʿtaziliten, Aschʿariten, Māturīditen und Hanbaliten. Einige muslimische Gelehrte vermuteten, dass die Rede Gottes auch namengebend für die Kalām-Wissenschaft war: Da sie eine der Hauptfragen gewesen sei, um die sich die Kontroversen dieser Wissenschaft drehten, habe man sie insgesamt danach benannt.

Koranische Aussagen
Der Ausdruck "Rede Gottes" (kalām Allāh) kommt an drei Stellen im Koran vor:
 Sure 2:75: "Seid ihr denn darauf aus, dass sie euch glauben, wo einige die Rede Gottes schon hörten, dann aber, nachdem sie sie verstanden hatten, sie verfälschten, und zwar wissentlich?"
 Sure 9:6: "Wenn Dich einer von den Beigesellern um ein Nachbarschaftsbündnis bittet, so gewähre es ihm, auf dass er die Rede Gottes hören kann."
 Sure 48:15, wo es, auf die Heuchler bezogen, heißt: "Sie wollen die Rede Gottes verändern."
Von großer Bedeutung für die späteren theologischen Diskussionen über die Rede Gottes war außerdem die Aussage in Sure 16:40, in der Gott selbst spricht: "Vielmehr ist unsere Rede (qaulu-nā), wenn wir irgendetwas wollen, dass wir zu ihm sagen: 'Sei!' (kun) – und dann ist es."
Daneben wird noch an zahlreichen anderen Stellen die Rede Gottes indirekt thematisiert. So wird in Sure 2:253 ausgesagt, dass Gott einige von den Gesandten den anderen vorgezogen hat und es einige unter ihnen gibt, zu denen Gott redete (wa-min-hum man kallama Llāhu), und einige, die er um Stufen erhöhte. Eine besondere Position unter den Propheten nimmt Moses im Islam ein, denn mit ihm soll Gott, wie es in Sure 4:164 (kallama Llāhu Mūsā taklīman) heißt, wirklich gesprochen haben. Deswegen hat er den Beinamen Kalīm Allāh ("Angeredeter Gottes") erhalten.

Wenn Gott mit einem Menschen spricht, dann tut er dies nur auf ganz bestimmte Weise, nämlich entweder durch Eingebung (waḥyan), hinter einem Vorhang (min warāʾ ḥiǧāb), oder indem er einen Boten sendet, der ihm dann mit seiner Erlaubnis eingibt, was er will (Sure 42:51). Die Fähigkeit der Rede unterscheidet Gott von den Götzen, denn diese können nicht sprechen (Sure 7:148).

Problemfelder der theologischen Diskussion
Allgemein schlossen die islamischen Theologen aus diesen Versen, dass Gott eine Rede (kalām) besitzt und ein Sprechender (mutakallim) ist.  Wie sich aber die Rede Gottes zu Gott selbst und zu dem Koran verhält, ob die Rede erschaffen oder unerschaffen ist, ob sie hörbar ist oder nicht und ob es mehrere Reden Gottes gibt oder nur eine, war unter islamischen Theologen umstritten. Ausführungen dazu finden sich in fast allen Handbüchern zum Kalām sowie zu den "Grundlagen der Religion" (uṣūl ad-dīn).

Die Rede Gottes: erschaffen oder unerschaffen?
Zu den strittigen Punkten hinsichtlich der Rede Gottes gehörte die Frage, ob sie erschaffen oder unerschaffen ist. Allgemein wird den Muʿtaziliten nachgesagt, dass sie die Rede Gottes für erschaffen hielten, so wie sie auch die Erschaffenheit des Korans lehrten, allerdings gab es auch einzelne Muʿtaziliten wie Murdār, den Schüler von Bischr ibn al-Muʿtamir, die nur den Koran für erschaffen hielten, die Rede Gottes jedoch für unerschaffen.

Innerhalb des Lagers derjenigen, die die Erschaffenheit der göttlichen Rede annahmen, gab es noch feine Unterschiede. Die meisten Muʿtaziliten lehrten, dass Gott die Rede in etwas anderem als sich selbst erschaffe. Das könne ein  brennender Dornbusch sein wie bei Mose, oder die Luft wie bei dem Engel Gabriel.  Dschahm ibn Safwān, Dirār ibn ʿAmr (gest. 815) und an-Naddschār (gest. ca. 830) meinten, dass Gott seine Rede in Körpern erschaffe. Abū ʿAlī al-Dschubbā'ī und sein Sohn Abū Hāschim vertraten die Auffassung, "dass Gott ein Redender (mutakallim) ist, durch eine Rede, die er in einem Subjekt erschafft."
Andere Muʿtaziliten dagegen meinten, dass das Sprechen Gottes lediglich die Erschaffung der Wahrnehmung des Erschaffenen sei, so dass er hören könne. Die Erschaffung der Rede ist somit die Befähigung des Menschen zum Hören. Für ʿAbd al-Dschabbār ibn Ahmad ist dagegen die Rede eine von Gott erschaffene Handlung.

Zu denjenigen, die die Rede Gottes als unerschaffen betrachteten, gehörte Abū l-Hasan al-Aschʿarī. Er nahm in sein Glaubensbekenntnis den Lehrsatz auf, "dass die Rede Gottes unerschaffen ist, und Er nichts erschaffen hat, ohne zu ihm zu sagen 'Sei!' (kun)", so wie es in Sure 16:40 ausgedrückt wird. Die Rede Gottes kann seiner Auffassung nach deswegen nicht erschaffen sein, weil sie auch das Schöpfungswort einschließt, und dieses nicht durch sich selbst erschaffen sein kann. Wenn Gott nicht von Anfang sprechend gewesen wäre, wäre er stumm gewesen und hätte die Schöpfung und die Offenbarung nicht hervorbringen können. Auch der Zāhirit Ibn Hazm hielt die Rede für unerschaffen.

Nach dem Hanbaliten Ibn Taimīya (st. 1328) ist es die unter den Altvorderen (salaf al-umma) etablierte Lehre, dass die Rede Gottes unerschaffen ist. Sie sei herabgesandt, aber eben nicht erschaffen, gehe von Gott aus und kehre zu ihm zurück. Mit der Rückkehr der Rede Gottes, so erklärte Ibn Taimīya, ist dabei die am Ende der Zeiten stattfindende Entfernung des Korantextes aus den Koranexemplaren und von den Herzen der Menschen gemeint. In der Waṣīyat Abī Ḥanīfa, einer māturīditischen Bekenntnisschrift, die in der frühen Neuzeit häufig kommentiert wurde, wird die Unerschaffenheit der göttlichen Rede bekräftigt und gesagt: "Wer sagt, dass die Rede Gottes erschaffen ist, ist ein Kāfir hinsichtlich Gottes. Gott, den die Menschen anbeten, bleibt derselbe, und seine Rede wird rezitiert, geschrieben und memoriert, ohne aber von ihm getrennt zu sein."

Das Verhältnis der Rede zu Gott
Der Murdschi'it an-Naddschār (gest. ca. 830) lehrte, dass die Rede Gottes, wenn sie rezitiert werde, ein Akzidens (ʿaraḍ) sei, wenn sie aufgeschrieben werde, dagegen zum Körper (ǧism) werde. Die Vorstellung, dass die Rede Gottes ein Akzidens ist, wurde von verschiedenen Muʿtaziliten, so zum Beispiel an-Nazzām (gest. 846) und al-Iskāfī (gest. 854), übernommen.

Für andere Muʿtaziliten gehörte die Rede Gottes zu den sogenannten Attributen des Handelns (ṣifāt al-fiʿl), die im Gegensatz zu den Attributen der Essenz (ṣifāt aḏ-ḏāt) an die Zeit gebunden sind. ʿAbd al-Dschabbār ibn Ahmad betrachtete dementsprechend Gottes Rede als sein Handeln und meinte, dass man Gott auch nur deshalb als "redend" (mutakallim) bezeichnen könne, weil er ein "Macher von Rede" (fāʿil kalām) ist. Nach Abū l-Hasan al-Aschʿarī lehrten die meisten Muʿtaziliten, "dass die Rede Gottes sein Handeln ist, das er zu einer Rede gemacht hat, und dass es unmöglich ist, dass Gott immer ein Redender ist." Sie sahen die Rede Gottes also als eine Handlung an, die der Vergangenheit angehört.

Eine andere Position hinsichtlich der Rede Gottes nahm Ibn Kullāb (gest. 855) ein. Er meinte, dass die Rede eines der essentiellen Attribute Gottes ist, das ihm so inhärent ist wie das Leben und von Anfang an existiert. Für ihn die Rede Gottes weder mit Gott identisch, noch ist sie etwas anderes als er. Die gleiche Auffassung vertrat auch al-Aschʿarī. Er widmete ein ganzes Kapitel seines "Buches der Schlaglichter" (Kitāb al-Lumaʿ) dem Beweis dafür, dass die Rede Gottes zu den Attributen der Essenz (ṣifāt aḏ-ḏāt) gehört. Damit richtete er sich gegen die Muʿtaziliten, für die die Rede Gottes nicht zu den ewigen Attributen der Essenz Gottes, sondern zu den Attributen der Handlung gehörte. Al-Aschʿarī hielt die Rede Gottes im Gegensatz zu ihnen nicht für eine vergangene Handlung, sondern eine Handlung, die in Gott gegenwärtig ist. Auch al-Bāqillānī (st. 1013). und Ibn Taimīya (st. 1328) betrachteten die Rede als ein essentielles Attribut Gottes. Ibn Taimīya meinte allerdings, dass die Rede Gottes gleichzeitig ein essentielles und ein aktives Attribut sei.

Bei denjenigen, die die Rede für ein essentielles Attribut Gottes hielten, war umstritten, wie sie sich zu den anderen essentiellen Attributen verhält. Ibn Kullāb meinte, dass die Rede Gott in der Weise inhärent ist wie das Leben und auch nicht von dem Willen (irāda) oder der Allmacht (qudra) abhängig ist. Nach Ibn Taimīya ist dagegen das Attribut der Rede dem Attribut des Willens untergeordnet, weil Gott spricht, wann und wie er will. Für as-Saffārīnī ist die Rede das zweite der insgesamt sieben bestätigten Attribute (aṣ-ṣifāt aṯ-ṯubūtīya). Das erste dieser Attribute ist das Leben Gottes, die anderen fünf sind das Sehen, das Hören, der Wille, das Wissen und die Allmächtigkeit Gottes.

Das Verhältnis der Rede zum Koran
Die Vorstellung, dass der Koran die Rede Gottes ist, lässt sich schon früh nachweisen. Auf einem Grabstein, der wahrscheinlich aus dem Jahre 815 stammt, heißt es: "Der Koran ist die Rede Gottes, hinabgesandt und unerschaffen." Ahmad ibn Hanbal wird mit den Worten zitiert, dass der Koran die Rede Gottes, wohin auch immer er gesandt wird. Den Hanbaliten wird nachgesagt, dass sie alles, was sich zwischen den beiden Buchdeckeln befindet, alles, was rezitiert und gehört wird, Laute und Buchstaben, für die Rede Gottes hielten. Die Auffassung, dass der Koran die Rede Gottes ist, wurde auch von den Muʿtaziliten geteilt. Al-Dschubbā'ī zum Beispiel lehrte, dass Gott bei der Rezitation des Korans "eine Rede von sich im Subjekt der Rezitation neu erschafft". ʿAbd al-Dschabbār ibn Ahmad meinte, dass der Koran die letzte Rede Gottes an die Menschen ist, er jedoch weiter zu den Engeln spricht.

Ibn Kullāb wies dagegen die Auffassung zurück, dass der Koran die Rede Gottes sei. Seiner Auffassung nach war nur der Inhalt (al-maʿnā), der im göttlichen Wesen subsistiert, und auf den der arabische Koran hinweist, die Rede Gottes. Ibn Kullāb meinte zwar, dass die Rede ein essentielles Attribut Gottes ist, stellte jedoch in Abrede, dass auch die Laute und Buchstaben, die die Menschen auf Erden rezitieren, ewig sind, weil diese, wie er meinte, nur Ausdruck (ʿibāra) der göttlichen Rede sind, ihre lautliche, geschaffene Gestalt. Andere sagten ihm nach, dass er den Koran als die Abbildung (rasm) bzw. die Reproduktion (ḥikāya)  der Rede Gottes betrachtete.

Die Auffassung, dass der Koran nicht die Rede Gottes ist, sondern nur ein Ausdruck davon, war auch die bekannte Lehre der Aschʿariten. Sie übernahmen die Unterscheidung zwischen der göttlichen Rede und dem Koran wahrscheinlich von Ibn Kullāb. Ibn Hazm gibt die aschʿaritische Lehre folgendermaßen wieder: "Gabriel ist nicht mit der Rede Gottes auf das Herz Mohammeds herabgekommen, vielmehr hat er etwas anderes gebracht, nämlich den Ausdruck (ʿibāra) der Rede Gottes. Nichts von dem, was wir in den Koranexemplaren lesen und schriftlich fixieren, ist die Rede Gottes." Der Aschʿarit al-Bāqillānī (st. 1013) hielt es für unzulässig, das, was man vom Koran rezitiert, als Rede Gottes zu bezeichnen. Al-Dschuwainī (st. 1085) meinte, dass die Rede Gottes zwar in den Koranexemplaren niedergeschrieben und in den Gedächtnissen der Menschen memoriert sei, jedoch nicht darin einkehre. Durch die Schriftzüge werde zwar die anfangsewige Rede Gottes zum Ausdruck gebracht. Das bedeute jedoch nicht, dass sie sich mit den Körpern verbinde oder in ihnen subsistiere. In verschiedenen Versen des Korans werde zwar ausgesagt, dass die Rede Gottes auf die Propheten herabgesendet wird. Mit Herabsendung (inzāl) sei hierbei allerdings gemeint, dass der Engel Gabriel die Rede Gottes, der sich an seinem Standplatz oberhalb der sieben Himmel befindet, erfasst, sodann zur Erde hinabsteigt und dem Gesandten das zu verstehen gibt, was er selbst am Lotusbaum der Grenze (sidrat al-muntahā) verstanden hat. Die göttliche Rede selbst bewege sich dabei nicht vom Platz. Al-Dschuwainī setzte sich stark von denjenigen ab, die behaupteten, dass das, was man bei der Rezitation des Korans höre, die Rede Gottes sei. Diejenigen, die diese Lehre vertraten, bezeichnete er als Haschwīya ("Abschaum").

Der Zāhirit Ibn Hazm (st. 1064) wies diese Auffassung jedoch heftig zurück und erklärte: "Der Koran ist die Rede Gottes im eigentlichen Sinn (ʿalā l-ḥaqīqa), nicht im übertragenen Sinn (lā ʿalā l-maǧāz), und derjenige, der das nicht lehrt, ist ein Kāfir." Beweis für die Richtigkeit dieser Auffassung war für ihn Sure 9:6 und Sure 2:75, die beide voraussetzen, dass mit der "Rede Gottes" ein geoffenbartes Buch gemeint ist. Hieraus schloss er, dass auch der hörbare Wortlaut des Korans die Rede Gottes ist. Insgesamt war er bestrebt, die weite Anwendbarkeit des Ausdrucks "Rede Gottes" aufzuzeigen. So schrieb er: "Auch wenn wir im Koran lesen, sagen wir, dass diese unsere Rede die Rede Gottes, im wirklichen, nicht im übertragenen Sinn. Und niemandem ist es erlaubt, zu sagen: Diese meine Rede ist nicht die Rede Gottes." Seine Ausführungen zu dieser Frage schließt er mit der Bemerkung ab: "Wir sagen, dass die Rede Gottes in unseren Herzen ist, durch unsere Zungen vorgetragen wird und in unseren Koranexemplaren fixiert ist, und wir sagen uns los von demjenigen, der dies mit seinem verdorbenen Verstand leugnet."

Auch für die meisten Hanbaliten stand fest, dass der Koran die Rede Gottes ist. So schloss zum Beispiel die Bekenntnisschrift des irakischen Hanbaliten Ibn Batta (st. 997) den Lehrsatz ein, dass der Koran "in allen Situationen und an allen Orten die unerschaffene Rede Gottes" ist. Die Berechtigung, auch das, was Mohammed den Menschen übermittelt hat, "Rede Gottes" zu nennen, leitet as-Saffārīnī aus der Aussage in Sure 9:6 ab, wo die Muslime dazu aufgefordert werden, Ungläubigen das Hören der Rede Gottes zu ermöglichen. Ibn Taimīya erklärte mit dieser Identitätsbeziehung auch die die unter den Altvorderen (salaf al-umma) feststehende Lehre, dass die Rede Gottes von Gott ausgehe und zu ihm zurückkehre. Mit der Rückkehr der Rede Gottes, so meinte er, ist dabei nämlich die am Ende der Zeiten stattfindende Entfernung des Korantextes aus den Koranexemplaren und von den Herzen der Menschen gemeint.

Der Hanbalit Ibn ʿAqīl (gest. 1119) meinte, dass der Koran die unmittelbare Rede Gottes sei, die Auffassung einer in Gott subsistierenden Rede lehnte er ab, weil es die Funktion von Rede selbst ist, das auszudrücken, was sich im Sinn befindet. Seiner Auffassung nach ist es unmittelbar die Rede Gottes, die gehört wird, wenn der Koran rezitiert wird. Er verwahrte sich allerdings gegen die Vorstellung, dass die Stimme desjenigen, der den Koran rezitiert, mit der Rede Gottes identisch sei, weil in dieser Stimme die Rede Gottes nur in einer fragmentierten Form erscheint. Derjenige, der die Rede Gottes mit der Rezitation des menschlichen Rezitators für gleichbedeutend hält, hat seiner Auffassung nach unzulässigerweise Gott mit seinen Geschöpfen gleichgesetzt. Mit dieser Einschränkung näherte er sich der Position Ibn Kullābs und der Aschʿariten an.

Bei den Māturīditen war die Meinung geteilt. Frühe Māturīditen wie Abū l-Yusr al-Bazdawī (st. 1099) unterschieden klar zwischen der Rede Gottes und dem Koran und meinten, dass der Koran nur im übertragenen Sinne Rede Gottes genannt werden könnte. Der Koran ist für sie nur ein Verweis auf die Rede Gottes bzw. eine in Buchstaben angeordnete Abschrift (nasḫ) davon. Spätere Anhänger dieser Schule wie at-Taftāzānī (st. 1389) waren dagegen davon überzeugt, dass Koran und Rede Gottes identisch sind. Die spätere Sichtweise spiegelt sich auch in der Wasīyat Abī Hanīfa wider, wo es heißt: "Wir bekennen, dass der Koran die unerschaffene Rede Gottes ist... Die Tinte, das Papier und die Schrift sind allesamt erschaffen, weil sie das Werk der Menschen sind. Das Werk des Erschaffenen (sc. des Menschen) ist nämlich ebenfalls erschaffen. Die Rede Gottes dagegen ist unerschaffen, weil die Schrift, die Buchstaben, Wörter und Verse allesamt Zeichen des Korans für das Bedürfnis der Menschen sind."

Das Verhältnis zu den anderen offenbarten Schriften
Nach der Auffassung späterer Autoren wie as-Saffārīnī sind auch Thora, Evangelium und die Psalmen die Rede Gottes. Die Rede Gottes ist allerdings hierarchisch geordnet: nach Ibn Taimīya (st. 1328) steht auf der höchsten Stufe die Fātiha, dann kommt die Sure al-Ichlās, hierauf folgen jeweils auf absteigenden Stufen der Koran, die Thora und das Evangelium. Manche setzten aber auch das Evangelium auf eine höhere Stufe als die Thora.

Der Māturīdit al-Bazdawī hielt es dagegen für undenkbar, dass die Rede Gottes arabisch oder hebräisch ist. Das Arabische und Hebräische sind lediglich Eigenschaften der in Buchstaben angeordneten Abschriften der Rede Gottes, nicht aber der Rede Gottes selbst.

Einheit oder Vielheit der Rede Gottes?
Der Muʿtazilit al-Iskāfī (st. 854) lehrte, dass die Rede Gottes an verschiedenen Orten gleichzeitig sein könne. Al-Dschubbā'ī meinte, wenn tausend Menschen den Koran an verschiedenen Orten rezitierten, die Rede Gottes ohne Einschränkung bei jedem von ihnen sei. Grundlegend für die aschʿaritische Lehre ist die Auffassung, dass Gott nur eine Rede hat und das, womit der Engel Gabriel hinabgekommen und was er in das Herz Mohammeds gelegt hat, nicht die Rede Gottes selbst ist, sondern nur deren Ausdruck (ʿibāra). Die Rede Gottes als anfangsewiges Attribut Gottes kann sich nämlich nicht vervielfältigen. Auch al-Ghazālī vertrat die Lehre, dass die Rede Gottes, die er als innere Lehre auffasste, nicht vervielfältigt werden könne.

Auch der Muʿtazilit ʿAbd al-Dschabbār ibn Ahmad (st. 1024) meinte, dass es nur eine Rede Gottes gebe. Seiner Auffassung nach konnte sie aber an vielen Orten gleichzeitig sein, so in den Büchern und in den Herzen der Menschen. Eine andere Auffassung vertrat der Muʿtazilit ʿAbbād ibn Sulaimān, ein Zeitgenosse Ibn Kullābs. Er meinte, dass die innere Rede eine Einheit ist, aber mit der Übermittlung an verschiedene Adressaten vielfältig wird.

Der andalusische Gelehrte Ibn Hazm wies die aschʿaritische Lehre von der Einheit der Rede Gottes mit Verweis auf zwei Koranverse zurück, in denen die Unbegrenztheit der Worte Gottes betont wird, nämlich:
 Sure 18:109: "Wenn das Meer Tinte wäre für die Worte meines Herrn, würde das Meer versiegen, ehe die Worte meines Herrn versiegen" und
 Sure 31:27: "Wenn auf Erden aus Bäumen Schreibrohre würden und wenn für das Meer, wenn es erschöpft ist, sieben Meere Nachschub brächten, so wären Gottes Worte unerschöpflich."
Deswegen hielt Ibn Hazm die Behauptung, Gott habe nur eine Rede, für eine große Verirrung.
Ähnlich betonte auch Ibn Taimīya die Vielheit der Rede Gottes. Sie kann seiner Auffassung nach entweder Information übermitteln oder einen Befehl beinhalten. In letzterem Fall hat sie entweder den Charakter eines Schöpfungsaktes (takwīn; im Sinne des Schöpfungswortes kun) oder den Charakter der Gesetzgebung (tašrīʿ). Die Rede Gottes ist insofern sehr vielfältig.

Ist Gottes Rede hörbar?
Der Aschʿarit al-Dschuwainī meinte, dass unter den Muslimen ein Konsens darüber bestehe, dass die Rede Gottes hörbar (masmūʿ) ist. Als Beleg dafür verwies er auf Sure 9:6, in der explizit davon die Rede ist, dass Menschen die Rede Gottes hören sollten. Allerdings gab es mit al-Māturīdī (gest. 944) und al-Isfarā'īnī auch zwei islamische Theologen, die die Hörbarkeit der Rede Gottes explizit abstritten. Sie waren der Auffassung, dass die Rede Gottes lediglich eine Idee in Seiner Essenz ist, und Gottes Sprechen mit Mose nur die Erschaffung einer Wahrnehmung war, durch die Mose diese Idee verstand. Hinsichtlich des Korans meinte al-Māturīdī, dass Gott seine innere Rede Gabriel übermittelt und dieser sie Mohammed in arabischer Sprache übermittelt habe.

Grundlage für die Lehre der Unhörbarkeit der Rede Gottes war die Vorstellung, dass die Rede Gottes nur die Bedeutung (maʿnā) ist, die in der Nafs Gottes subsistiert (al-qāʾim bi-n-nafs). Diese "innere Rede" Gottes, von der die offenbarten Bücher nur ein Ausdruck sind, nannten die Aschʿariten auch kalām nafsī ("innere Rede"). Al-Ghazālī, der der aschʿaritischen Lehre nahestand, erklärte in seiner Schrift al-Iqtiṣād, dass die Rede Gottes nicht aus Lauten oder Worten bestehe, sondern als innere Rede Gottes anders als alle andere Rede sei.  Die innere Rede, so lehrte er, könne sich nicht durch erschaffene Laute oder Buchstaben außerhalb Gottes manifestieren, sondern nur offenbart werden. Auch Mose hatte nach al-Ghazālī die Stimme Gottes nicht wirklich gehört. Im Jenseits seien die Menschen jedoch imstande, Gottes Rede zu verstehen. Die Lehre von der Unhörbarkeit der Rede Gottes wurde auch von Fachr ad-Dīn ar-Rāzī (gest. 1209) geteilt.

Für die Muʿtaziliten al-Dschubbā'ī und seinen Sohn Abū Hāschim besteht die Realität der Rede dagegen sehr wohl aus artikulierten Lauten und geordneten Buchstaben. Die Schiiten stimmten mit ihnen darin überein. ʿAbd al-Dschabbār ibn Ahmad widmete einen ganzen Abschnitt seines Muġnī dem Beweis, dass Gott mit diesseitiger, hörbarer Rede spricht. Hanbaliten wie Ibn Taimīya hielten es für Häresie, zu sagen, dass Gott nicht mit Worten oder Lauten spreche.

Siehe auch
 Offenbarungsreligion
 Logos

Literatur
Arabische Quellen
 al-Ǧuwainī: Kitāb al-Iršād ilā qawāṭiʿ al-adilla fī uṣūl al-iʿtiqād. Ed. Muḥammad Yūsuf Mūsā u. ʿAlī ʿAbd al-Munʿim ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd. Maktabat al-Ḫānǧi, Kairo, 1950. S. 128–130, 132–137 Digitalisat
 Ibn Ḥazm: al-Faṣl fi-l-milal wa-l-ahwāʾ wa-n-niḥal. Ed. Muḥammad Ibrāhīm Naṣr; ʿAbd-ar-Raḥmān ʿUmaira. 5 Bde. Beirut: Dār al-ǧīl, 1985. Bd. III, S. 11–23.
 Ibn Taimīya: Maǧmūʿat ar-rasāʾil al-kubrā. Dār Iḥyāʾ at-tūrāṯ al-ʿArabī, Beirut, o. D. Bd. III Digitalisat
 Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī: Kitāb al-Tauḥīd. Ed. Fatḥ Allāh Khalīf. Beirut, 1986. S. 57–59. Digitalisat
 Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad as-Saffārīnī: Lawāmiʿ al-anwār al-bahīya wa-sawāṭiʿ al-asrār al-aṯarīya. Muʾassasat al-ḫāfiqīn, Damaskus, 1982. Bd. I, S. 132–141. Digitalisat

Sekundärliteratur
 Michel Allard: Le problème des attributs divins dans la doctrine d'al-Ašʿarī et de ses premiers disciples. Imprimerie Catholique, Beirut, 1965. S. 233–244.
 J. Bouman: "The Doctrine of ʿAbd al-Djabbâr on the Qurʾân as the Created Word of Allâh" in Verbum, essays on some aspects of the religious functions of words, dedicated to Dr. H.W.Obrink. Utrecht 1964. S. 67–86.
 Angelika Brodersen: Der unbekannte kalām: theologische Positionen der frühen Māturīdīya am Beispiel der Attributenlehre. Lit, Berlin, 2014. S. 315–389.
 Josef van Ess: Theologie und Gesellschaft im 2. und 3. Jahrhundert der Hidschra. Eine Geschichte des religiösen Denkens im frühen Islam. 6 Bde. De Gruyter, Berlin, 1991–97. Bd. IV, S. 614–618.
 Mohammad Gharaibeh: Zur Attributenlehre der Wahhabiya unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Schriften Ibn ʿUṯaimīns (1929 - 2001).  EB-Verl., Berlin, 2012. S. 286–303.
 L. Gardet: Art. "Kalām" in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition. Bd. IV, S. 468b-471a.
 George Makdisi: Ibn ʿAqil: religion and culture in classical Islam. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburg, 1997. S. 113–120.
 J. R. T. M. Peters: God's created speech. A study in the speculative theology of the Muʿtazilī Qāḍī l-quḍāt Abūl-Ḥasan ʿAbd al-Jabbâr ibn Aḥmad al-Hamadânî. Brill, Leiden 1976. S. 1–3, 35–39.
 A. S. Tritton: "The speech of God" in Studia Islamica 36 (1972) 5–22.
 Yusuf Şevki Yavuz: Art. "Kelâm" in Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm ansiklopedisi Bd. XXV, S. 194b-196a. Digitalisat

Einzelnachweise

Islamische Theologie
Vokabular des Korans

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
STEM Education: From inspiration to engagement and beyond
Feb 24, 2016 | People	by The GE Aviation Blog
By: Maureen Kerr, Chair of the Education Department at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum
The celebration of National Engineers Week is an opportune time to reflect on the role of engineering in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education. I am fortunate to work as an educator at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum where the exhibitions and collections surround me with engineering innovations from early flight through current planetary exploration, and where industry leaders, such as GE Aviation, partner with the Museum to support STEM education.
The 1903 Wright Flyer in the Wright Brothers & The Invention of the Aerial Age exhibition
As an educator at the Museum, I frequently hear from scientists, engineers, astronauts and other STEM professionals that a visit to the Museum as a child inspired them to choose their career path.
One of the most inspirational exhibitions, The Wright Brothers & The Invention of the Aerial Age tells the story of the 1903 Wright Flyer, the world's first successful airplane. The exhibition shows how the Wright brothers built a foundation for aeronautical engineering. A key to their success was the three-axis control system, which featured wing-warping for lateral balance, a moveable rudder, and an elevator for pitch control. Just as engineers do today, the Wright brothers refined their designs based on data gathered by testing aircraft in flight. On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the Wright Flyer became the first powered, heavier-than-air machine to achieve controlled, sustained flight with a pilot aboard, a major accomplishment that changed the world. The Wright brothers' story is just one among many inspiring accomplishments in engineering found in the National Air and Space Museum.
An Explainer (red shirt on the left) assists visitors with wind tunnel testing of a paper airplane design
Inspiration is an excellent start for Museum visitors, but as an educator my goal is engagement in the service of learning.
Our secret weapons for audience engagement are the Explainers. Explainers are highly motivated and enthusiastic high school and college students who work part time at the Museum. The human interaction that Explainers bring to the Museum's exhibitions and collections help visitors appreciate the significance of the artifacts, which are often marvels of engineering. Explainers can be found throughout the Museum. They facilitate learning on Discovery Stations with space toilets, airfoils, and other objects from the teaching collection. Explainers carry "pocket science" to captivate visitors wherever they are. In the Design Hangar, as pictured above, Explainers help guide visitors through an iterative design process. As much as Explainers give to the Museum visitor, they also receive a unique work experience with opportunities for learning and leadership. With support from GE Aviation, the Explainers Program will continue to thrive at the National Air and Space Museum's building in Washington, DC and expand to the Steven F. Udvar Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA, as well as reach beyond the walls of the Museum.
Explainers prepare to connect with a classroom in Cincinnati Public Schools
Although the National Air and Space Museum receives millions of visitors in person each year, we still want to serve those who cannot visit our building.
Fortunately, technology allows us to do this through websites and webcasts that touch many more people. One unique program, sponsored by GE Aviation, allows us to engage students in the classroom. This video conference experience combines the best of classroom learning with the best of Museum education. Students see real-world applications for the topics they are studying in the classroom. When the students are studying a topic, such as chemistry, our experts can share how they use chemistry to conserve artifacts in the Museum. In the photo above, the Explainers are getting ready to discuss spacesuit conservation. The students share their classroom projects with the Explainers, which in this case would be a light strip activity where students measure the impact of sunlight on dyes found in construction paper. The Explainers critique the students' findings and show them how their work is grounded in the work of professionals in the field. Through demonstrations and inquiry the Explainers enrich what the students are studying in the classroom. This exceptional video conference program would not have been possible without an amazing collaboration involving GE Aviation, Cincinnati Public Schools and the National Air and Space Museum. For almost two years the partners worked together to define, prototype and evaluate the program. The result is an outstanding program where students find inspiration to persevere in their studies and perhaps pursue a career in a STEM field.
Visit the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum online to learn more or watch the video below to hear directly from a student that has been forever impacted by STEM education.
Maureen Kerr is Chair of the Education Department at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, which includes locations in Washington, DC and Chantilly, VA. She oversees educational programming for one of the most-visited museums in the world. Maureen came to the Museum in 1994 with experience as a classroom science teacher and manager of national science education projects.
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New take on the Adidas Crazy BYW.
Pharrell's next sneaker with Adidas will be a a Crazy BYW to celebrate Chinese New Year.
The basketball-inspired lifestyle model is dressed in a traditional Chinese color scheme of red and yellow. The knit upper is also covered in a golden dragon scale pattern to further the theme. Complimenting the design is "Ambition" embroidered in white down the center of each foot—a trait that has become a signature across Skateboard P's various creations with the Three Stripes. The celebratory pair sits atop a podular Boost midsole for maximum comfort.
Expect the Pharrell x Adidas Crazy BYW "Chinese New Year" to arrive at select retailers like adidas.com in the coming months. In the meantime, take a look at detailed images below.


text:
O Global Game Jam (GGJ) é um evento internacional. Inspirado pela Game Nordic Jam, e criado por Susan Gold, Ian Schreiber e Gorm Lai, originalmente desenvolvido pela  IGDA que reúne os elementos de: criatividade, colaboração e experimentação. Em cada local, os participantes se reúnem para desenvolver ideias, formar pequenos grupos, criar novos jogos, que sejam  criativos, inovadores, para então apresentá-los aos seus colegas da comunidade global, tudo em um período de tempo de 48 horas. A partir de 2013, GGJ é gerido pela Global Game Jam Incorporated.  Em Janeiro de 2014, o GGJ gerou equipes em 485 locais e em 73 países, que ao longo do curso de um fim de semana criaram um total de 4,289 jogos. O Global Game Jam carrega uma marca registrada.

Participantes
Os participantes do Global Game Jam são de todos os níveis e de vários campos. Todos, de desenvolvedores de jogos profissionais à educadores e  artistas e designers são todos convidados a participar.  Uma vez que o Jam começa, os participantes trazem as suas ideias do jogo, antes, lançando essas ideias entre si e formando equipes para trabalhar juntos em um mesmo projeto.

Organização dos Eventos

Os grupos que desejem hospedar um site Jam terão de cumprir determinados requisitos. A sua localização deve ter acesso à Internet para todos os envolvidos, acesso a recursos de desenvolvimento, tais como  IDE, possivelmente pré-instalado no local, um coordenador do evento, bebidas e acesso à comida nas proximidades, um relógio público com o horário de acordo com a localização e segurança para os pertences.

Em cada local, o Global Game Jam é executado continuamente por 48 horas em cada fuso horário, começando às 17:00h na data de início e terminando às 17:00h dois dias mais tarde. A programação recomendada inclui um curto período de planejamento e criação da equipe, seguido por tempo de desenvolvimento, até às 15:00 do último dia. As últimas horas são reservadas para as equipes apresentarem a sua criação para as outras. No entanto, os sites não são obrigados a seguir esta programação.

No início, aos participantes do evento é dado um tema, tais como "extinção" no Game Jam de 2011. Os participantes são convidados a criar um jogo que de alguma forma se relacione com este tema. Além disso, os participantes recebem uma lista de "conquistas", também conhecidas como diversificadoras. Estas conquistas são projetadas para impulsionar o desenvolvimento criativo através da adição de um único ou limitante fator para seu projeto de jogo. Exemplos incluem: "ambas as mãos atadas atrás das minhas costas", em que um jogo deve ser concebido para ser jogado sem as mãos do jogador, ou "Picasso vive", em que a arte do jogo deve ser em um estilo  cubista.

Eventos passados
O primeira Global Game Jam foi realizado a partir de 30 janeiro à 1 de fevereiro de 2009, em 53 locais de todo o globo. Durante o Jam, 1650 participantes criaram 370 jogos.

O segundo Jam expandiu ainda mais em 2010, aumentando para 138 locais e resultando em 900 jogos feitos por 4.300 criadores.

O Game Jam 2011, que ocorreu de 28 a 30 de janeiro, reuniu 6.500 participantes em 169 locais e que criaram mais de 1500 jogos no total.

O Game Jam de 2012 ocorreu de 27 a 29 de janeiro, com mais de 10.684 participantes em 242 locais (em 47 países). Foram criados 2209 jogos. De acordo com um comunicado de imprensa de 2 de março, o Global Game Jam é reconhecido como o maior do mundo pelo Guinness Book of World Records.

O GGJ 2014 foi realizado de 24 a 26 de janeiro em 485 locais de 73 países.

Temas dos Eventos
 2009 - "Enquanto tivermos uns aos outros, nós nunca estaremos longe de problemas".
 2010 - "A chuva na Espanha cai principalmente na planície" e "Decepção".
 2011 - "Extinção".
 2012 - "Uma imagem de Ouroboros".
 2013 - "Som de um coração batendo".
 2014 - "Nós não vemos as coisas como elas são, vemos como nós somos".
 2015 - "O que nós faremos agora?"
 2016 - "Ritual".
 2017 - "Ondas".
 2018 - "Transmissão".
2019 - "O que 'lar' significa para você".

Propriedade Intelectual
Todos os jogos produzidos são criados de acordo com a licença Creative Commons Share Alike 3.0 livre não comercial, e enquanto ela continuar sendo a propriedade intelectual de seus criadores, o Global Game Jam mantém a capacidade de usar qualquer jogo como material promocional.  Como parte disso e como parte da licença, cada jogo é arquivado, juntamente com o código fonte de muitos jogos digitais, no site do Global Game Jam.

Referências

Ligações externas
 Site oficial

Desenvolvimento de jogos eletrônicos
Eventos anuais


text:
In 1950, Alan Turing's famous article "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" was published, which proposed what is now called the Turing test as a criterion of intelligence. This criterion depends on the ability of a computer program to impersonate a human in a real-time written conversation with a human judge, sufficiently well that the judge is unable to distinguish reliably—on the basis of the conversational content alone—between the program and a real human. The notoriety of Turing's proposed test stimulated great interest in Joseph Weizenbaum's program ELIZA, published in 1966, which seemed to be able to fool users into believing that they were conversing with a real human. However Weizenbaum himself did not claim that ELIZA was genuinely intelligent, and the Introduction to his paper presented it more as a debunking exercise:
Each student learns and absorbs things at a different pace and requires a specific methodology of teaching. Consequently, one of the most powerful advantages of getting educated by a chatbot is its flexibility and ability to adapt to specific needs and requirements of a particular student. Chatbots can be used in a wide spectrum, be it teaching people how to build websites, learn a new language, or something more generic like teach children Math. Chatbots are capable of adapting to the speed at which each student is comfortable - without being too pushy and overwhelming.
In 2000 a chatbot built using this approach was in the news for passing the "Turing test", built by John Denning and colleagues. It was built to emulate the replies of a 13 year old boy from Ukraine (broken English and all). I met with John in 2015 and he made no false pretenses about the internal workings of this automaton. It may have been "brute force" but it proved a point: parts of a conversation can be made to appear "natural" using a sufficiently large definition of patterns. It proved Alan Turing's assertion, that this question of a machine fooling humans was "meaningless".
If you visit a Singapore government website in the near future, chances are you'll be using a chatbot to access the services you need, as part of the country's Smart Nation initiative. In Australia, Deakin University students now access campus services using its 'Genie' virtual assistant platform, made up of chatbots, artificial intelligence (AI), voice recognition and predictive analytics.
Conversational bots "live" online and give customers a familiar experience, similar to engaging an employee or a live agent, and they can offer that experience in higher volumes. Conversational bots offer scaling—or the capability to perform equally well under an expanding workload—in ways that human can't, assisting businesses to reach customers in a way they couldn't before. For one, businesses have created 24/7/365 online presence through conversational bots.
In a traditional application, the user interface (UI) is a series of screens. A single app or website can use one or more screens as needed to exchange information with the user. Most applications start with a main screen where users initially land and provide navigation that leads to other screens for various functions like starting a new order, browsing products, or looking for help.
With the help of equation, word matches are found for given some sample sentences for each class. Classification score identifies the class with the highest term matches but it also has some limitations. The score signifies which intent is most likely to the sentence but does not guarantee it is the perfect match. Highest score only provides the relativity base.
Chatfuel is one of the leading chatbot development platforms to develop chatbots for Facebook Messenger. One of the main reasons of Chatfuel's popularity is easy to use interface. No knowledge of programming is required to create basic chatbot. People with non-technical background too can create bots using the platform and launch on their Facebook page.…
Die meisten Chatbots greifen auf eine vorgefertigte Datenbank, die sog. Wissensdatenbank mit Antworten und Erkennungsmustern, zurück. Das Programm zerlegt die eingegebene Frage zuerst in Einzelteile und verarbeitet diese nach vorgegebenen Regeln. Dabei können Schreibweisen harmonisiert (Groß- und Kleinschreibung, Umlaute etc.), Satzzeichen interpretiert und Tippfehler ausgeglichen werden (Preprocessing). Im zweiten Schritt erfolgt dann die eigentliche Erkennung der Frage. Diese wird üblicherweise über Erkennungsmuster gelöst, manche Chatbots erlauben darüber hinaus die Verschachtelung verschiedener Mustererkennungen über sogenannte Makros. Wird eine zur Frage passende Antwort erkannt, kann diese noch angepasst werden (beispielsweise können skriptgesteuert berechnete Daten eingefügt werden – "In Ulm sind es heute 37 °C."). Diesen Vorgang nennt man Postprocessing. Die daraus entstandene Antwort wird dann ausgegeben. Moderne kommerzielle Chatbot-Programme erlauben darüber hinaus den direkten Zugriff auf die gesamte Verarbeitung über eingebaute Skriptsprachen und Programmierschnittstellen.
Interestingly, the as-yet unnamed conversational agent is currently an open-source project, meaning that anyone can contribute to the development of the bot's codebase. The project is still in its earlier stages, but has great potential to help scientists, researchers, and care teams better understand how Alzheimer's disease affects the brain. A Russian version of the bot is already available, and an English version is expected at some point this year.
We need to know the specific intents in the request (we will call them as entities), for eg — the answers to the questions like when?, where?, how many? etc., that correspond to extracting the information from the user request about datetime, location, number respectively. Here datetime, location, number are the entities. Quoting the above weather example, the entities can be 'datetime' (user provided information) and location(note — location need not be an explicit input provided by the user and will be determined from the user location as default, if nothing is specified).
Human touch. Chatbots, providing an interface similar to human-to-human interaction, are more intuitive and so less difficult to use than a standard banking mobile application. They doesn't require any additional software installation and are more adaptive as able to be personalized during the exploitation by the means of machine learning. Chatbots are instant and so much faster that phone calls, shown to be considered as tedious in some studies. Then they satisfy both speed and personalization requirement while interacting with a bank.
Rather than having the campaign speak for Einstein, we wanted Einstein to speak for himself, Layne Harris, 360i's VP, Head of Innovation Technology, said to GeoMarketing. "We decided to pursue a conversational chatbot that would feel natural and speak as Einstein would. This provides a more intimate and immersive experience for users to really connect with him one on one and organically discover more content from the show."
Previous generations of chatbots were present on company websites, e.g. Ask Jenn from Alaska Airlines which debuted in 2008[20] or Expedia's virtual customer service agent which launched in 2011.[20] [21] The newer generation of chatbots includes IBM Watson-powered "Rocky", introduced in February 2017 by the New York City-based e-commerce company Rare Carat to provide information to prospective diamond buyers.[22] [23]
The fact that you can now run ads directly to Messenger is an enormous opportunity for any business. This skips the convoluted and leaky process of trying to acquire someone's email address to nurture them outside of Facebook's platform. Instead, you can retain the connection with someone inside Facebook and improve the overall conversion rates to receiving an engagement.
Businesses are no exception to this rule. As more and more users now expect and prefer chat as a primary mode of communication, we'll begin to see more and more businesses leveraging conversational AI to achieve business goals—just as Gartner predicts. It's not just for the customer; your business can reduce operational costs and scale operations as well.
Creating a comprehensive conversational flow chart will feel like the greatest hurdle of the process, but know it's just the beginning. It's the commitment to tweaking and improving in the months and years following that makes a great bot. As Clara de Soto, cofounder of Reply.ai, told VentureBeat, "You're never just 'building a bot' so much as launching a 'conversational strategy' — one that's constantly evolving and being optimized based on how users are actually interacting with it."
Just last month, Google launched its latest Google Assistant. To help readers get a better glimpse of the redesign, Google's Scott Huffman explained: "Since the Assistant can do so many things, we're introducing a new way to talk about them. We're them Actions. Actions include features built by Google—like directions on Google Maps—and those that come from developers, publishers, and other third parties, like working out with Fitbit Coach."
Today, more than ever, instant availability and approachability matter. Which is why your presence should be dictated by your customer's preference or the type of message your business wants to convey. Keep in mind that these can overlap or change depending on your demographic you wish to acquire or cater to. There are very few set-in-stone rules when it comes to new customers.
Smooch acts as more of a chatbot connector that bridges your business apps, (ex: Slack and ZenDesk) with your everyday messenger apps (ex: Facebook Messenger, WeChat, etc.) It links these two together by sending all of your Messenger chat notifications straight to your business apps, which streamlines your conversations into just one application. In the end, this can result in smoother automated workflows and communications across teams. These same connectors also allow you to create chatbots which will respond to your customer chats…. boom!
Endurance is a companion chatbot that uses neurolinguistics programming (better known as NLP) to have friendly conversations with suspected patients with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. It uses AI technology to maintain a lucid conversation while simultaneously testing the human user's ability to remember information in different ways. The chatbot encourages the user to talk about their favorite activities, memories, music, etc. This doesn't just test the person's memory but actively promotes their ability to recall.
3. Now, since ours is a conversational AI bot, we need to keep track of the conversations happened thus far, to predict an appropriate response. For this purpose, we need a dictionary object that can be persisted with information about the current intent, current entities, persisted information that user would have provided to bot's previous questions, bot's previous action, results of the API call (if any). This information will constitute our input X, the feature vector. The target y, that the dialogue model is going to be trained upon will be 'next_action' (The next_action can simply be a one-hot encoded vector corresponding to each actions that we define in our training data).
The term "ChatterBot" was originally coined by Michael Mauldin (creator of the first Verbot, Julia) in 1994 to describe these conversational programs. Today, most chatbots are either accessed via virtual assistants such as Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, via messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger or WeChat, or via individual organizations' apps and websites.[2] [3] Chatbots can be classified into usage categories such as conversational commerce (e-commerce via chat), analytics, communication, customer support, design, developer tools, education, entertainment, finance, food, games, health, HR, marketing, news, personal, productivity, shopping, social, sports, travel and utilities.[4]
I argued that it is super hard to scale a one-trick TODA into a general assistant that helps the user getting things done across multiple tasks. An intelligence assistant is arguably expected to hold an informal chit-chat with the user. It is this area where we are staring into perhaps the biggest challenge of AI. Observe how Samantha introduces herself to Joaquin Phoenix's Ted in the clip below:
When we open our news feed and find out about yet another AI breakthrough—IBM Watson, driverless cars, AlphaGo — the notion of TODA may feel decidedly anti-climatic. The reality is that the current AI is not quite 100% turnkey-ready for TODA. This will soon change due to two key factors: 1) businesses want it, and 2) businesses have abundant data, the fuel that the current state-of-the-art machine learning techniques need to make AI work.
Speaking ahead of the Gartner Application Architecture, Development & Integration Summit in Sydney, Magnus Revang, research director at Gartner, said the broad appeal of chatbots stems from the efficiency and ease of interaction they create for employees, customers or other users. The potential benefits are significant for enterprises and shouldn't be ignored.
According to the Journal of Medical Internet Research, "Chatbots are [...] increasingly used in particular for mental health applications, prevention and behavior change applications (such as smoking cessation or physical activity interventions).".[48] They have been shown to serve as a cost-effective and accessible therapeutic agents for indications such as depression and anxiety.[49] A conversational agent called Woebot has been shown to significantly reduce depression in young adults.[50]


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Cedric Johnson worked as the Gamecocks' first-team quarterback for the first time Monday night, but not before spending some time with The Star for a story later this week on what the junior quarterback is all about. "I want to win," he said. "I'll do whatever it takes for us to win."
Even though Johnson will start in the Liberty Bowl, head coach Jack Crowe expects Matt Hardin will play in the game, although there is no script for when the fifth-year senior will go in. Johnson had been going in on the third series behind Hardin the last two games.
While the Gamecocks worked with a new starting quarterback, word comes that they're likely to miss senior receiver Taurean Rhetta Saturday. Rhetta impacts so many areas on the team, and if Hardin had quit after his demotion, he would've been the next option behind Johnson. Purely opinion here --- but likely a popular one --- it's more important to have Rhetta available for the OVC games down the road than for a game against a FBS (the old I-A) opponent the Gamecocks aren't likely to win.
Another opinion, the coaches who play in the Football Championship Subdivision and Football Bowl Subdivision (FCS, FBS) don't even call it that. Do we have to? You know what we're talking about when we call it I-A and I-AA.
There is good news on the injury front. The Gamecocks are expecting to have center Tyler Ogletree back in practice and head coach Jack Crowe expects him to play some against the Tigers. Some is the operative word, like about five or six plays. You can read more about the offensive line and Ogletree's impact on it later this week in The Star.


Drug combination designed to prevent mother-to-fetus transmission of HIV does not show increased pre-term risk.
Recently we took a close look at the progress that has been made in the overall percentage of people diagnosed with HIV who have achieved viral suppression in the United States. The overall results showed improvement but hid the fact that some populations are at risk of being left behind. We saw this among youth and people who inject drugs and, sadly, we also see it among transgender women. In this blog we'll examine the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) indicator that is used to monitor the progress of viral suppression among transgender women.
Transgender women are disproportionately impacted by HIV. A 2013 report found that about 22% of transgender women were living with HIV in the United States. Black/African American transgender women are more likely to have HIV than transgender women of other races and ethnicities.
Transgender women often experience rejection from family and friends. The stigma and discrimination experienced by transgender women can lead to unemployment, poverty, homelessness, mental health problems, substance use, and other adverse conditions. All of these contribute to the many health-related disparities experienced by transgender women and are important challenges to address in order to provide HIV care and treatment.
Why Focus on Viral Suppression?
While recent scientific studies have not focused specifically on the impact of viral suppression on transgender women, they have shown that taking HIV medications to achieve and maintain viral suppression improves the health of people living with HIV. Studies have also shown the prevention effectiveness of viral suppression to reduce the risk for sexual transmission of HIV. This means that people living with HIV who take HIV medications daily as prescribed and achieve and then maintain an undetectable viral load for at least six months have effectively no risk of sexually transmitting the virus to an HIV-negative partner.
Modeling of various prevention strategies has shown that increasing viral suppression among people living with HIV may be the single most effective strategy for preventing new infections and ending the epidemic in the United States.
The NHAS indicator for increasing viral suppression among transgender women in HIV medical care is slightly different from the other NHAS viral suppression indicators. This indicator measures viral suppression among transgender women who are receiving HIV medical care through the Health Resources and Services Administration's (HRSA) Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program. The other viral suppression indicators measure viral suppression for all people in the United States who have been diagnosed with HIV, using a different data set from CDC. NHAS uses the HRSA Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program data for this indicator due to the limited availability of data about the overall population of transgender women living with HIV in the United States.
The data for the transgender women viral suppression indicator comes from the HRSA Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Services Report (RSR), which is the primary source of annual, client-level data reported by more than 2,000 grant recipients and subrecipients of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP). RSR data are published annually by HRSA in the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Annual Client-Level Data Report.
79.0% of transgender women in RWHAP HIV medical care were virally suppressed in 2016. That means that we have exceeded our 2016 target (74.7%). Even though the result (79.0%) exceeded the 2016 target, it was below the national average of 84.9% for Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program clients.
Great improvements have been made in the percentage of transgender women who are virally suppressed. In 2010, the percentage was 62.2% and has increased nearly 17 percentage points to 79.0% in 2016.
We are moving in the right direction, but still have a way to go toward reaching the NHAS 2020 target of 90%.
Long-standing disparities represent significant challenges to preventing new HIV infections and achieving health equity in the United States. There is a lack of data available about transgender women, which limits the ability to effectively provide appropriate patient-centered healthcare. We need to improve already existing methods and identify new methods to collect data in a way that will assist us in providing efficient, effective, and impactful services to all transgender women with HIV. We need to work toward creating a future that does not allow stigma, discrimination, and violence against transgender women or any other person. We need to work toward creating a future where new HIV infections are rare, and when they do occur, each and every person regardless of their gender or gender identity has access to and gets the full benefits of culturally competent HIV care and treatment to achieve and maintain viral suppression, and, ultimately one day, can be cured. We stand at a moment where a huge battle can be won in the fight against HIV and we must make sure transgender women are not left behind as we continue to make progress on our national goals.