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Truth Matters Newsletters – November 2009 – Vol. 14 Issue 11 – Does the Bible Support A Doctrine of Being Slain in the Spirit? Part 2 of 3 – by Rev. Robert S. Liichow
Discernment Ministries International
Does the Bible Support A Doctrine of Being Slain in the Spirit?
Part 2 of 3
By Rev. Robert S. Liichow
The "Ministry" of the Catchers
This phenomena has caused the need to develop a "new" ministry within the church, that of the Catcher. No matter where you go, whether it is to a revival service at Toronto, Pensacola or a Vineyard Fellowship you will encounter the ministry of the Catchers. This is an actual "ministry" within charismatic fellowships and people are trained in how to fulfill this duty (it is often done by the ushers within a local assembly).
A catcher is a man who stands behind those receiving prayer. Their job is to "catch" the people who are being slain in the spirit. The catchers job is to make sure the person being "blessed" does no harm to themselves or those around them. Charismatic congregations even have written guidelines for catchers:
Tips For Catching People:
1. Do not touch the person being prayed for, but reassure them that there is someone behind them.
2. You don't have to take a hold of their shoulders as if you are going to help God.
3. As the person moves down, move back and then facilitate their move.
4. Men- be careful when touching women.
5. Get them to fall back, not forward.
6. Catchers – ONLY catch, do not pray. Do not wave your hands only stand and be ready to catch.
7. Please do not push or pull anyone over. God does not need any help and it will ultimately backfire.
8. Do not hold anyone up by grabbing their shoulders or upper back.
Let me begin by asking a rhetorical question. If the power of God is knocking people down and placing them in an altered state of consciousness for the purpose of spiritually blessing them, then why do these churches employ the use of catchers?
The answer is quite simple —- if people are falling flat on their backs from an upright position they are very liable to hurt themselves or others.
We previously read that extremists explain this manifestation as being the result of encountering the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. If this is so, He is not mighty enough to see to it that those He sovereignty knocks down are unhurt by His blessing?
These churches employ catchers because: (1) they know people fake being slain many times. (2) They lack faith in their own stated beliefs. Obviously God is not big enough to safeguard His people.
In our former church along with the male catchers we had sisters who came along beside or behind the catchers with large sheets of material. Their ministry was to place these sheets over the women's legs and bodies. Why? Because many times when women would be slain in the spirit they would fall in very immodest positions.
We had events where when some unfortunate women fell their dresses would be hiked up their bodies quite a bit, and their legs would be splayed out at inappropriate angles. When the Lord choose to embarrass His daughters in this manner we had to be there to quickly cover up their shame. Does this really sound like something the Lord God would do to His daughters?
Not only can being slain in the spirit prove to be embarrassing to a woman, it can prove deadly as well. Mrs. Ella Peppard died as a result of someone falling on her who had been slain in the spirit.
The ushers quickly pulled her off the stage and sat her in a pew where she cried out in pain for 20 minutes….The woman's family alleged the ushers refused to call an ambulance because an ambulance would not look good at a miracle service. A lawsuit was settled out of court. Hinn says he never knew the woman was injured or he would have sought medical help.
According to charismatic theology the Holy Spirit will place women in morally embarrassing positions, and at times allow some people to be hurt and/or killed.
I know from past experience (I used to be a catcher) that when there was no one standing behind a saint receiving prayer nine times out of ten they would not fall down. This alone is proof to me that what is taking place is not a sovereign move of the power of God. There is a power involved at times but it is not of God.
The Historical Roots of the Phenomenon
I began by citing Stanley Burgess's definition in the first chapter and it is a good one except for one point – he says it is a relatively "modern" expression. His statement is not correct. People have been allegedly falling under the power in the United States since the early 1760's. It was a common expression among the Shakers. There were groups before the Shakers in Europe, which had this same manifestation:
The Convolutionaries
The extreme exercises of the "convolution Aries" startled Belgium and France. The grave of a young Jansenist clergyman, Francois de Paris, in the cemetery of Saint-Medard in Paris, because the scene of reputed marvelous cures. Multitudes flocked thither for healing. Strange bodily agitations seized the devotees. They fell in shakings and convulsions, threw themselves about on the ground, screamed, and assumed unusual and often unseemly postures.
The Shaker's
Later on in the mid seventeen hundreds in America the Shaker cult also had people falling under the power. Their bodily agitations or exercise were various and called by various names, as the falling exercise…The falling exercise was very common…The subject of this exercise would, generally with a piercing scream, fall like a log on the floor, earth, or mud, and appear as dead.
The Shakers were a cult group led by a woman named Ann Lee. Many of the manifestations which are common to charismatic extremism, were first practiced by the Shakers. Since the Shakers were a pagan cult the source of their manifestations could not have been the Holy Spirit.
The Shakers were very evangelistic in their zeal to propagate their false doctrines & practices. Shaker evangelists were involved with the Cane Ridge "Revival," and brought their manifestations (which they called "signs") with them and infected the meetings.
People Were "Slain" During the Cane Ridge Revival
It was during the Cane Ridge meetings that we see more examples of the manifestation of being slain in the spirit. The underlining is added for emphasis:
The scene to me was new and passing strange…Many, very many fell down, as men slain in battle, and continued for hours together in an apparently breathless and motionless state sometimes for a few moments reviving, and exhibiting symptoms of life by a deep groan, or piercing shriek, or by a prayer for mercy most fervently uttered…Then the woman who had first stated shouting let out a shrill of anguish. Methodist John McGee, seemingly entranced, made his way to comfort her. Someone (probably his Presbyterian brother) reminded him this was a Presbyterian church; the congregation would not condone emotionalism! Later John recalled, "I turned to go back and was near falling; the power of God was strong upon me. I turned again and, losing sight of the fear of man, I went through the house shouting and exhorting with all possible ecstasy and energy, and the floor was soon covered with the slain" people were falling in ecstasy.
This eyewitness of the Cane Ridge excess described the people falling in "ecstasy," but is this necessarily a good thing? Pagan religion has long been given over to ecstatic forms of worship (see 1 Kings 18:28). The Oracle at Delphi breathed in the fumes which rose from the ground and in an ecstatic state uttered prophecies which directed the lives of many people.
ECSTASY The state of being in a trance, especially a mystic or prophetic trance. The derivation of our word "ecstasy" (from the Greek ek, out plus stasis, state) suggests an out of body state (2 Cor. 12:2,3) or the state of being out of control.
From what I have personally witnessed and experienced being slain in the spirit is a condition in which the individual's normal rational mental state is suspended, and that person is for a period of time literally out of control. During the Shaker meetings and at Cane Ridge we find multitudes of people capitulating their volitional sensibilities over to an experience which was so great it physically overwhelmed them. However, it was also noted by the orthodox Reformed ministers at Cane Ridge, that a person simply getting slain was not a true indicator of spiritual regeneration, "They noted that some who "fell" had within six months gone back to the world."
The Ministry of Charles Finney
After the Cane Ridge revival the experience of being slain in the spirit became common in many revival meetings. One evangelist in particular whose revival meetings were patterned after the emotional excesses of Cane Ridge was Charles Finney. In many of his meetings people were slain in the spirit:
Before the week was out I learned that some of them, when they would attempt to observe this season of prayer, would lose all of their strength and be unable to rise to their feet, or even stand upon their knees in their closets.
The congregation began to fall from their seats in every direction, and cried for mercy. If I had had a sword in each hand, I could not have cut them off their seats as fast as they fell
Finney was not particularly concerned with scriptural precedent, he was interested in getting result and fostered the belief that revival was not a sovereign move of God's Spirit, but that revivals could be planned and worked up by the use of what he called new measures.
The Ministry of Maria Woodworth Etter
Being slain in the spirit was one of the ordinary signs in the ministry of Maria Woodworth-Etter (1844-1924) the trance evangelist.
Yesterday during the afternoon meeting the Lord Jesus bowed the heaven and came down. Many went under the power. Two women and a girl were struck down unconscious, and lay on the floor…The second woman lay unconscious for about two and one-half hours, with both arms raised to heaven. When she was recovering she sang praises unto God in the spirit."
Her ministry manifestations began in 1885, 21 years before the Azusa "revival." She received a spiritual renewal at a Friends meeting in 1879. Here is a woman, who received some type of spiritual power from a Quaker meeting. Keep in mind that the Society of Friends, the Quakers, were originally a non-Christian group (although many people unknowingly lump them in with Christian groups).
Maria would go into trances, people came to her while she was in a trance state and allegedly got "saved." She would lay hands on others and place them in a similar trance-state.
The Ministry of Aimee Semple McPherson
The practice of people being slain was not widespread in Pentecostal circles after Etter's death. It became more commonplace through the ministry of another woman minister named Aimee Semple McPherson (1890-1944). Sister Aimee was also a traveling evangelist and she too had people fall out under the power in her ministry—
One of these was a Sunday school teacher at the city's largest Protestant church. After Aimee touched him, he dropped to the floor trembling and speaking in tongues. The next day, the wife of a leading citizen had a similar experience, and scores of people came to the altar for counseling. The day after that, "Three were slain under the power and through speaking in tongues," Aimee said.
Aimee was very controversial to say the least. She is the Founder of the Foursquare Gospel denomination. She later died of a barbiturate overdose in 1944. To this day charismatic believers ignore the fact that she was a divorcee and most likely faked her own kidnapping in order to spend time in an adulterous liaison in 1926. Yet the power of God is supposed to have flowed mightily through during her life!
The Ministry of Kathryn Kuhlman
The next major figure whose ministry is responsible for making the practice of being slain in the spirit part-and-parcel of charismatic healing and miracles services was Kathryn Kuhlman (1907-1976).
Kathryn committed adultery with a married man, who left his wife and children to marry Kathryn. A few years later Kathryn divorced him and never remarried. She died of heart disease in 1976. I bring these distasteful facets up because it show some of the character of these mighty Pentecostal/Charismatic giants of the faith. I am not saying these people were not saved, nor that they did not sincerely repent of their sins. However, character does matter in ministry.
Apart from the well-documented healings, the most sensational phenomena associated with Kuhlman was "going under the power" (sometimes referred to as "slain in the Spirit") as people fell when she prayed for them. This sometimes happened to dozens at a time and occasionally hundreds.
Her ministry was international in scope. Well received by many Pentecostal's and the fledgling charismatic renewal movement of the 1960's.
I have witnessed Mr. Kenneth Hagin have a long line of people hold hands and he lay hands on the head of the first person and then the entire line fall down. I have personally seen Benny Hinn whirl around and "throw" a wave of anointing in his meetings and multitudes have fallen, as if shot on several occasions. As recently as August 1, 1997 my wife and I were at the Toronto Airport Church and we witnessed multitudes being slain in the spirit as John and Carol Arnott laid hands on people.
The Phenomenon Is Universally Accepted By Charismatic Christians Today
This experience is almost universal to all charismatic's. If you know any, ask them if they have ever been slain in the spirit and what it was like.
This practice and manifestation is accepted de facto due in large part to the following:
- The long history behind it, i.e. God has always done this.
- Their own subjective experience of it, they got "blessed."
- They have been taught that the Bible clearly teaches this is a legitimate experience of what takes place when God's power comes on an individual.
As with holy laughter today's revivalists strongest case is that of historical precedent. Yet when anyone takes an honest look at the history of this manifestation, they see a historical background of occultism (with the Shakers), aberrant mystics like Maria Woodworth-Etter, and ministers of dubious character such as Aimee McPherson and Kathryn Kuhlman. The historical case is not sufficient, nor will it ever be, to overrule the plain teachings of the Bible.
From an exegetical view point the revivalist have even less support. None of the texts they cite as "proof" for this practice can be legitimately applied. All of the texts have to do with divine encounters which were extremely important to the plan of God either for Israel as a nation or for the Church. It is not enough to locate texts which denote someone falling and then interpret them to refer to being slain in the spirit. All of their comparisons are at best apples-to-apples. None of the writings of the Early Church Fathers indicate any such manifestation as part-and-parcel of normal Christian experience, in fact, they never mention it at all. One would think that these writers would have recorded some evidence of this manifestation in their writings if it was a genuine experience given by the Holy Spirit, especially one that alleges to bestow ministry calls, visions of the Lord, emotional and physical healing. Yet the historic record of the Church for almost 1,700 years is totally silent on this matter.
As I have already stated the history behind this practice is extremely questionable at best. The earliest references we have of it in America come from the Shakers, a non-Christian cult of necromancers. The familiar spirits (demons) told the Shakers at the same time in their various communes that they, the spirits, were leaving the Shakers and going to visit the "world's people," and would do so by various manifestations. This did occur and many Christian sects, unsound in doctrine were open to such forms of enthusiasms, and this deception continues to this day. The practice of being slain in the spirit is less than four hundred years old, and has had only marginal acceptance at best in the past. However, this has changed in our time.
Now with rapid growth of neo-Montanism with the Church this practice is now a common, sometimes weekly experience for literally millions of people professing the name of Jesus Christ.
The sheer numbers of people submitting to an experience does not validate it as biblical. Truth is not determined by consensus. Truth is revealed to us by the written Word of God. The Westminster Confession of Faith states what the Christian's relationship to the Bible ought to be:
IV. The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed, and obeyed depends not upon the testimony of any man, or Church; but wholly upon God (who is truth itself) the author thereof: and therefore it is to be received, because it is the Word of God.
VI. The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man's salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men. Nevertheless, we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word:
God's Word along is the standard by which we live. His Word contains all things necessary for salvation, faith and life. These things are expressly set down in the Bible, or "by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture." This deduction however is not accomplished by violating the principles of hermeneutics and wresting the texts from their context in order to attempt to make them fit one's experience.
This is exactly what today's revivalists have done regarding being slain in the spirit. This experience is not mentioned once contextually in the entire Bible. Every text the revivalists site as proof of their non-biblical practice has been taken from it context and misapplied.
The revivalists have failed both historically and biblically to make their case that this manifestation is the result of the Holy Spirit or the glory of God coming upon an individual to such a degree their physical bodies cannot withstand it. And thus fall to the ground in some form of a trance-like condition. With this in mind we must seek other explanations.
Learned Behavior
There is an undeniable element of learned behavior with this phenomena. A minister gets up and preaches, towards the end of the message he or she will begin to make allusions to what people may see or experience while being prayed for. Often some of the texts we have considered will be sited to validate what the congregation will see or personally experience. The catchers are called forward and then an alter call is given. The first people are lined up with catchers behind them. Hands are laid on the people and some of them begin to fall into the arms of the catchers. The other people are observing this behavior. When their turn comes, they too fall down.
This is the basic pattern of ministry I have personally observed for over fifteen years, it was the pattern I also used while in full-time charismatic ministry. Although not done consciously, I and other ministers, were setting the state by psychologically preparing the people in advance. On the part of the people, they wanted to get blessed, they wanted a stronger "anointing" or deeper walk with Christ. Seeing others fall, they too fell. Many times I knew as a minister that people were simply "faking it." How? When people came up for prayer I would notice them quickly look behind them to make sure there was a catcher there to "catch" them when they fell. These fakers, came knowing in advance that they were going to fall, and they wanted assurance they would be caught. ♦
Copyright 2009 Robert S. Liichow
* Color-highlight and some bolding are not in the original book by Robert S. Liichow.


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Eva's Bakery
Eva Coombs was renowned for cooking with an abundance of both love and butter. Family and friends took any opportunity to stop by her home for nourishment and pleasure. Her great grandson, Charlie, was always by her side in the kitchen, and Eva's passion for French cooking and respect for ingredients transferred to her young apprentice. Chef /Owner, Charlie Perry, opened Eva, the restaurant, and Eva's Bakery Boulangerie in her honor.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Bush administration and Congress stepped up talks on an unprecedented $700 billion bank bailout Sunday as they battled the clock to prevent further financial market turmoil that risks hurtling the economy into a deep and damaging recession.
The plan for the largest-ever bank rescue would give sweeping powers to the U.S. Treasury to buy up toxic mortgage-related debt from financial firms, including U.S. subsidiaries of foreign banks.
- Follow the Money: What's in the Bailout Plan
- Check the US Stock Market Futures
Democratic leaders in Congress promised swift action, but also want to throw a lifeline to homeowners, not just Wall Street.
With the economy issue No. 1 in an election less than six weeks away, lawmakers are striving to get a plan in place by week's end, fearful that delay could send markets reeling.
"This is a new phenomenon for every major player in this place and there are no dress rehearsals. That is why the market is so jittery. This has to work the first time," said Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Equity Markets in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Altogether, the plan could end up costing $1.8 trillion. Click here for details
The bailout plan follows a wrenching week that transformed Wall Street with Lehman Brothers' failure, the agreed sale of Merrill Lynchand a government takeover of ailing insurer AIG .
It was also possible that within days one of the two remaining U.S. investment banks -- Morgan Stanley—would accept a partner.
Two key questions remained unanswered even after Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson appeared on four television talk shows to press his case for emergency action.
For Investors
- Is It Time to Buy Stocks Now?
- Measuring Risk in Volatile Times
- What the Experts Think You Should Do
- Is Your Money-Market Fund Safe? Find Out
- Slideshow: Biggest Chapter 11 Cases in US History
- Eight Tips for Investing in Hard Times
- Need Safety? Take a Look at Bonds
- What If You're a Client of Lehman, Merrill or AIG?
- Have an AIG Insurance Policy? Don't Fret
- How You Can Protect Your Money
What price will the United States pay for these toxic debts, which have spawned the worst financial storm since the Great Depression? When will it start buying them?
"I'm confident that the credit market will improve but it will improve slowly. It just seems a lot of details have not been answered yet," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer with Harris Private Bank in Chicago.
Paulson painted the proposed market intervention as a necessary evil, arguing the consequences of inaction would be so dire that the large burden on taxpayers would be worth it.
"This is not something that we wanted to do. This was something that was very necessary," Paulson said on the NBC Sunday program "Meet the Press." "We did this to protect the taxpayer."
Democrats, who control both chambers of Congress, began to swap proposals with the Treasury in a bid to ensure any rescue plan balances Wall Street's interests with those of Main Street, while putting checks on the nearly unfettered power the administration sought for the Treasury secretary.
"Democrats believe a responsible solution should include independent oversight, protections for homeowners and constraints on excessive executive compensation," said California Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House.
A list of proposed changes given to Treasury by the staff of the House Financial Services Committee sought limits on the compensation of executives of firms offloading assets, greater efforts to stem foreclosures, and oversight by the Comptroller General -- the government's main auditor.
"It's ... hard to tell the average American that we're going to continue to have foreclosures that destabilize neighborhoods and deprive cities of revenues they need, but we're going to buy up the bad paper," committee Chairman Barney Frank said on CBS' "Face the Nation." There was similar sentiment among Democrats in the Senate.
"We totally understand the gravity of the moment ... but you cannot just turn over $700 billion of taxpayer money and not insist that the taxpayer is going to be protected," Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd told reporters.
Dodd and New York Sen. Charles Schumer, a member of the Senate Democratic leadership, both said having the government receive warrants to buy equity in companies selling off assets could protect taxpayers.
"I'm looking at something, and I've talked to Paulson about this -- warrants that would put the federal government first," Schumer said on "Fox News Sunday."
Even as negotiations got under way, Schumer and Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl predicted lawmakers would quickly resolve their differences and were likely to pass a bill by week's end.
"The chances are better than 50-50 that we will get it done by the end of the week," Kyl said on Fox.
Paulson said the final cost of the bailout should fall well short of the $700 billion initial price tag since the government would be able to hold the debt until markets stabilize and prices recover.
"This is the least costly path," he said on CBS.
If the Treasury tapped its full authority, the bailout would put every man, woman and child in the United States on the hook for more than $2,000.
To cover the cost, Treasury asked Congress to hike the government's debt limit to $11.3 trillion from $10.6 trillion.
The administration and Federal Reserve have already taken several other emergency steps to try to prevent growing credit strains from engulfing the entire financial system and economy.
A $700 billion fund would push the total pledged to combat the crisis to $1.8 trillion, or $15,000 per U.S. household.
Initially, the Treasury proposed buying assets only from companies based in the United States, but Paulson laid out the case for a broader mandate to ensure credit was flowing.
"If a financial institution has business operations in the United States, hires people in the United States, if they are clogged with illiquid assets, they have the same impact on the American people as any other institution," he said on the ABC program "This Week."
The Treasury chief confirmed that hedge funds -- investment vehicles for the wealthy -- would not be eligible.
While aimed at mortgage assets, the administration's plan would even let the Treasury acquire assets from nonfinancial firms and assets not tied to mortgages if needed to promote market stability.
The plan was hatched amid grave concerns that other major banks could collapse and that credit markets were close to freezing, threatening the U.S. and global economy.
"We have a global financial system and we are talking very aggressively with other countries around the world, and encouraging them to do similar things, and I believe a number of them will," Paulson said on ABC.
Lawmakers said Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke had offered starkly grave assessments of the economic cost of inaction in private briefings.
"What they told us was the contagion here and the depression in the market was such that you were going to see a shutdown of the lending businesses not just on Wall Street" but for all Americans, Frank said on CBS.
Bernanke on Sunday was talking by phone and meeting in person with Treasury officials and lawmakers, while Paulson also was working the phones as counterproposals emerged.
Financial markets responded positively last week as news of a large-scale financial bailout spread.
Stock markets worldwide added more than $1.5 trillion in value Friday, the largest one-day advance ever and a sign of the vital importance of the plan to global markets and investor confidence.
It was still unclear, however, whether the bailout would be enough to pull the U.S. economy out of the doldrums.
"I won't bet against the American people ... We will work through this," Paulson said on NBC. "I wouldn't bet against the long-term fundamentals of the U.S. economy."
—Reuters and AP contributed to this report


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My handsome husband was a bit put off by the idea of hiring a wedding photographer for our ceremony two weeks ago. It seems the idea of having a professional wedding photographer to capture the best moments of our day made him uneasy. I think he thought having someone with pro equipment snapping and flashing in his direction might make him more the center of attention than the title of bridegroom already conferred. Now for anyone who's been to my old site at http://www.giftsofthejourney.com you may have noticed that I've photographed a few weddings myself. It's one of the ways I earned my living in America and something I'll be doing here as soon as I am approved for work by immigration.
Let me show you what happens when you tell a woman who photographs other people's weddings that we'll skip that part of the wedding planning and just let our guests snap a few of us instead. Actually, I think I did pretty good job of letting go of my camera for the day….well almost.
I've been very fortunate to marry into a family of women who know how capture a good moment and with this many shutters snapping, you've got a good chance of getting something that works. John's idea though…the one where no pro photographer equals no posing for a bunch of photographs… well, toss that idea right out the window.
Almost everyone came with a camera of some kind. John's younger daughter was gracious enough to take control of some of my gear and she used my Nikon D200 like a pro.
Here's some of her work.
I have to thank Tina (T.R. Cross) for her work as well. She did a great job with my Canon Powershot G9 and a couple of other cameras that she happened to be handed from time to time.
Here are a few more photographers pressed into action for the day including John's firstborn who appears to be taking tips from Tina, but is quite handy on her own with a camera. The rest and there were more… seemed to have escaped being photographed with a camera in their hand.
Some mixed images from that day.
This is John's grandmother's knife that he saved from his dad's tool chest years ago where he'd been using it to open paint cans. John rescued it and cleaned it up and has been using it on a daily basis ever since. It seemed appropriate to me to use a knife with so many years of history to slice in our wedding cake and add a bit more memories to the old blade.
Last one…signing the registry book of weddings.


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A Motion to Strike to filed by government lawyers on September 17 criticizes the ACCG for arguing matters already decided by an appeals court last October. The prosecutors write:
Most of Claimant's responses to the Verified Complaint raise issues that were resolved by the Fourth Circuit in its 2012 decision. In particular, in its responses to the allegations in the Complaint, and in most of its affirmative defenses, Claimant seeks to challenge the underlying basis for, and the procedures used to draft and promulgate, the regulations and procedures implementing the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act (CPIA). Those issues have been resolved, and the Fourth Circuit's decision now represents the law of this case. Accordingly, the court is no longer concerned with, and Claimants may not re-litigate, why or how the applicable statutes and regulations were enacted. Nor are the parties or the court concerned with whether the defendant property should have been designated as archaeological material covered by those statutes and regulations. The only issue is whether these particular coins are so designated, such that they are subject to forfeiture in this proceeding.
Accordingly, the Government is moving to strike from the Answer any response or affirmative defense that challenges the forfeiture action on the ground that the statute and applicable regulations were not properly implemented. In addition, the Government moves to strike Claimant's attempt to re-litigate, by way of an affirmative defense, whether the Government is required to prove that the defendant property was first discovered in Cyprus and China, and to strike Claimant's attempt to assert an innocent owner defense on the ground that such a defense is not available in this case as a matter of forfeiture law.The government also charges the ACCG with being ambiguous, asking the court to order the trade group "to provide a more definite statement--or simply to withdraw--the responses" in last month's pleadings "that are so vague and ambiguous that the Government and the court are left to guess at the basis for Claimant's position, or even what that position may be."
On September 27, the ACCG submitted a Response saying that "the Guild respectfully requests that the Court deny the Government's Motion as moot."
The ACCG protests in a companion Amended Answer to the Verified Complaint that it should be allowed to relitigate the legal issues it lost in the appellate court:
In prior litigation between the parties, the Government represented to this Court that the Guild would be entitled to litigate the issue of whether the defendant property was "first discovered within" and "subject to the export control" of either Cyprus or China in the context of a forfeiture action. Moreover, in this litigation, the Government itself has put its own actions at issue by asserting that it complied with the CPIA's procedures in promulgating import restrictions.The ACCG proceeds to jump on the embargo bandwagon [see also U.S. v. Peruvian Artifacts] by repeating several times that the federal district court has jurisdiction to hear the case but that the "the Court of International Trade also has 'embargo jurisdiction' that may supersede that jurisdiction."
Accusations pepper the ACCG's pleadings as the trade group makes efforts to paint a picture of intrigue and wrongdoing within the U.S. State Department, writing:
Plaintiff s claims are barred in whole or in part because, on information and belief, mid and/or low level employees of the U.S. Department of State, working in concert with members of the archaeological community ideologically opposed to private collecting, engineered the imposition of import restrictions on coins of "Cypriot type" in potential violation of Government standards of conduct, particularly those relating to impartiality.
Plaintiff's claims are barred in whole or in part because, on information and belief, then Undersecretary of State Nicholas Bums ordered import restrictions on coins without regard to the procedures found in the CPIA as a "thank you" for receiving an award from Greek and Greek Cypriot lobbying groups that were working in concert with mid and/or low level State Department employees and/or members of the archaeological community ideologically opposed to private collecting.The Fourth Circuit in its decision last year gave examples of how government authorities followed the CPIA law with regard to Chinese import restrictions. The appeals court also joined with the lower federal district court, reiterating that the State Department "complied with the statutory requirements in placing import restrictions on Cypriot coins."
This post is researched, written, and published on the blog Cultural Heritage Lawyer Rick St. Hilaire at culturalheritagelawyer.blogspot.com. Text copyrighted 2010-2013 by Ricardo A. St. Hilaire, Attorney & Counselor at Law, PLLC. Any unauthorized reproduction or retransmission of this post is prohibited. CONTACT INFORMATION: www.culturalheritagelawyer.com


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- E-Text Editor (TextMate for Windows)
- TextPad
- Emacs, Vi(m), etc
- Visual Haskell
- Eclipse
- Notepad++
- The Haskell Platform is a combination of GHC and a set of blessed libraries
- WinHugs
- GHC: Special notes for Cygwin users - [1] [2]
- WinGhci A GUI for GHCi
Tools for compilation
- As some of the packages contain Unix/Linux specific scripts/commands, you need MinGW and MSYS to simulate a Unix environment. In some cases you need Cygwin instead. If you use msysgit on Windows already, all you need to do is add MinGW to your path.
- If you need to link to C-software, define an environment variable C_INCLUDE_PATH that lists the directories where the header files can be found. For linking the libraries you need to define an environment variable LIBRARY_PATH as well, listing the directories where .a and .lib files can be found. In case C++ software must be compiled, define CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH to list the directories with C++ header files.
- Packages are often delivered as a .tar or .tar.gz file, see How to unpack a tar file in windows
- Source files from Unix(-like) systems have lines terminated with Line Feed only; to convert them to MS-DOS format (as needed by Windows), use the
unix2doscommand (from the mingw-utils package). For more information, give command:
unix2dos --help
- To convert a set of files to MS-DOS format (note: this might damage binary files):
C:\MSYS\1.0\bin\find . -type f -exec unix2dos {} ;
- Note: the
findcommand included in MSYS is different from the MS-DOS
findcommand, therefore, you need to specify the entire path to this command.
- To work with/produce DLL files, you need dlltool.exe, from the mingw-binutils package and pexports.exe from the mingw-utils package. For more information see the dlltool manual and Stdcall and DLL tools of MSVC and MinGW
- GUI : wxHaskell - A binding of wxWidgets (formerly known as wxWindows) in Haskell. Note, see also wxHaskell/Building
- Win32 - low levelish bindings to Windows API. Comes with ghc and non-minimal hugs distribution. Win32 darcs repo
- HDBC-ODBC under Windows for database access.
- winerror: Error handling for foreign calls to the Windows API
Special tips and tricks for Windows
- Make sure your Haskell compiler (e.g. GHC) and tools are on your system path: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000549.htm
- GHCi: Using GHCi from a DOS box sucks. Using it from withing shell mode in Emacs sucks a lot less - do 'M-x shell' in emacs, then type 'ghci'.
- GHCi on Cygwin: When running GHC under a Cygwin shell on Windows, Ctrl-C sometimes doesn't work. A workaround is to use the rlwrap program to invoke ghci : In addition to proper Ctrl-C, you also get emacs (or vi) key bindings and command history across sessions, which saves you a load of typing.
- If a package depends (either directly or indirectly) on the
unixpackage, you cannot compile it on Windows
Direct downloads
Below a list of binary packages packages for Windows. To be sure you get the last version of each, it is best to download the source from Hackage and compile.
Alex 2.0.1 (obsolete) (website) ; Cpphs 1.2 (obsolete) (website) ; Darcs 2.2.1 for Windows without Cygwin ; Darcs 2.2.0 for Windows without Cygwin, with SSH support files ; Darcs 2.2.0 for Windows with Cygwin (website) ; Drift (website) ; GHC 6.10.1 (website) ; Haddock 0.7 (obsolete) (website) ; Hat July 2006 (website) ; Happy 1.13 (obsolete) (website) ; Hoogle June 2006 (obsolete) (website) ; HsColour 1.9 (website) ; Lambda Shell 0.3 (obsolete) (website) ; WinHugs September 2006 (website) ; cURL 7.19.4 (website) ;
CVS 1.11.22 (website) ; Python 2.4.3 (website) ; Scons (website) ; SVN 1.3.2 (website) ; TextPad 4.7.3 (website)
Shipping Installable Applications
* bamse lets you build windows installers for your Haskell app (MSI).


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NEW YORK -- Ever see a referee call a charge on a play you swore was a block? Or insist LeBron James took an extra step on his way to the rim?
If so, it's time to go to the videotape.
The NBA launched a video rulebook Thursday, a site where fans can watch clips of plays accompanied by explanations of the rules.
Stu Jackson, the league's executive vice president of basketball operations, said the rulebook, found at http://www.nba.com/videorulebook, would be "a place of reference for everyone with respect to how our games are officiated."
The site, which Jackson said was about 1½ years in the making and thought was the first of its kind, offers fans some of the same training officials get. Jackson said many of the approximately 150 plays included were previously used in referee development.
"It's very difficult unless you've played the game at a very high level, or better yet officiated the game at a very high level, to understand the complexity of our rules strictly by reading them," Jackson said during a conference call. "By adding a written explanation as well as video examples, it just gives the person time to gain more knowledge about the rules or context, and hopefully a little bit more data and therefore education."
The site features 11 sections, with Jackson figuring the ones covering block/charge and traveling would get the most usage because those were two of the hardest for officials on the court to call accurately. One clip shows James taking a third step, one more than allowed, after gathering the ball to end his dribble.
When a category is selected, a play or series of plays is listed. When one is picked, the video plays while a written interpretation of the rule appears on the side of the screen. The videos don't include volume, which in some instances likely prevented a broadcaster from hearing himself describe a call incorrectly.
Jackson said the league will try to keep the site current, updating it with additional plays that warrant explanation. Some of the videos might be familiar to fans, such as a couple of flagrant fouls from last season's playoffs.
The debut of the video rulebook comes at a time when NBA officiating is being watched closely and open to more criticism than usual. The league is currently using replacement referees while its regular staff is locked out during a labor dispute, but Jackson dismissed the notion that starting the site now was a bold move.
"Launching the video rulebook at this time made some sense just prior to the opening of the regular season, and doing so without anticipation that we'd be using replacement referees," Jackson said.
"Certainly officiating this game is very difficult, we all know that. And whether we're using replacement referees or our normal staff referees, they're going to make mistakes and that's true now and certainly will be true if the regular referees come back to work."
Jackson isn't worried about a call being made incorrectly in a game, then getting a rash of complaints from fans who knew it was wrong from watching a similar play on video.
"That's going to happen, we understand that," Jackson said, "but in our minds the best interest of the fans outweighs any potential miscues between what's called and what's on our video rulebook site."


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Smartbridge.com has posted the first part of a series of articles looking at rapid development with WordPress and the LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP).
As more and more people around the world have access to computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones, these users are getting connected to the internet, ready to jump into the virtual world of unlimited and unrestrained information. Websites today are the most popular tool to deliver this vast information to an ever increasing audience. Let's talk about choices when it comes to rapidly developing custom non-enterprise websites.
He starts by eliminating some of the language alternatives off the bat because of either their lack of quality CMSes or complexity. He then moves on to Open Source options, focusing in on PHP for its low learning curve and popularity. There's a brief comparison of Drupal and WordPress, but it's pretty high level. He's saving the good parts of WordPress for the next part of the series.


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Galatasaray have appointed former Italy manager Cesare Prandelli as their new coach.
The Istanbul outfit, who had held an "exchange of ideas" with former Manchester United manager David Moyes, were looking for a new coach after parting company with Italian tactician Roberto Mancini last month.
Prandelli resigned as Italy boss after the national team's 1-0 defeat to Uruguay at the World Cup that saw them exit the competition early.
A statement on Galatasaray's official website read: "Galatasaray football team's new coach Cesare Prandelli is coming to Istanbul this evening. Tomorrow morning at the Florya Metin Oktay (training) facilities, he will be introduced to the players and staff.
"Galatasaray will sign the deal tomorrow at 2pm (local time) at the Turk Telekom Arena."
The 56-year-old Prandelli, who had two years left in his contract with the Italian Football Federation, guided Roma and Fiorentina before replacing Marcello Lippi at the helm of the national team in 2010.
He led the Azzurri to the final of Euro 2012, where they lost to Spain, and a third-placed finish in last year's Confederation Cup.
Mancini led Galatasaray into second place in the Super Lig behind Fenerbahce and also won the Turkish Cup, but left after one season in charge.


text:
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From the newest supercars, amazing yachts, luxury homes and exquisite watches, to high-end hotels and resorts from all over the world and the latest trends in tech and fashion.
Do you want to be featured on Luxatic.com?
For partnerships, advertising or media inquiries, you can always contact us at contact[@]luxatic[.]com


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"The Brown Lady" of Raynham HallThis photo was taken in 1936 at Raynham Hall in Norfolk, England. This portraint of "The Brown Lady" is arguably the most famous and well-regarded ghost photograph ever taken. The ghost is thought to be that of Lady Dorothy Townshend, wife of Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount of Raynham, residents of Raynham Hall in Norfolk, England in the early 1700s. It was rumored that Dorothy, before her marriage to Charles, had been the mistress of Lord Wharton. Charles suspected Dorothy of infidelity. Although according to legal records she was buried in 1726, it was suspected that the funeral was a sham and that Charles had locked his wife away in a remote corner of the house until her death many years later.
His Favorite ChairRemember how Archie Bunker liked his recliner so much that he never let anyone else sit in it? Well, ol' Archie doesn't have anything on Lord Combermere. After being ran over by a horse-drawn carriage he died in 1891. A photographer set up a camera with its shutter open for one hour in the manor's library while the entire staff was off at Lord Combermere's funeral, some four miles away. When the plate was developed, the startling image of what looks to be a man's head and arm sitting in the chair was immediately noticed. Many of the staff said that the image looked very much like the late lord, and it happened to be sitting in Combermere's favorite chair in the library.
Freddy Jackson's ComebackFreddy Jackson was a mechanic in the Royal Air Force in World War I. Freddy Jackson's squadron served onboard the H.M.S. Daedalus. Freddy Jackson was killed in 1919 when an airplane propeller hit him. Two days later when the squadron assembled for a group photo, Freddy Jackson faithfully showed up, grinning behind the ear of a fellow comrade. Guess nobody bothered to tell Freddy Jackson that he was dead. His face was widely recognized in this photo by members of the squadron.
Stair Case Ghost of National Museum, Greenwich, EnglandRev. Ralph Hardy, a retired clergyman from White Rock, British Columbia, took this now famous photograph in 1966. He intended merely to photograph the beautiful staircase in the Queen's House section of the National Museum in Greenwich, England. Upon development, however the photo revealed a shrouded figure climbing the stairs, seeming to hold the railing with both hands. Experts, including some from Kodak, who examined the original negative concluded that it had not been tampered with. Its been said that unexplained figures have been seen on occasion in the vicinity of the staircase, and unexplained footsteps have also been heard.
Darn Backseat Drivers!In 1959 Mable Chinnery went to the cemetery to visit the grave of her mother, as any devoted daughter is apt to do. She took some photos of the gravesite and then turned and took this picture of her husband sitting alone in the car's passenger seat. The film was developed and this came out: somebody sitting in the backseat wearing glasses, clear as day. Mrs. Chinnery swore that the "backseat driver" was none other than her own mother... whose gravesite she was standing next to when she took the picture! Hmmmm... a live husband and a deceased mother-in-law looking over his shoulder: there's a joke here, I just know it.
What Do You Want On Your Tombstone?Back in 1996 Ike Clanton took this photo of a friend wearing western duds, in the middle of Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard. They swear that nobody else was in sight when they made this picture. Furthermore, some time later they tried to restage this picture with someone standing at the spot where the "mystery man" appears in the background. Ike Clanton says that it was impossible to take such a picture and not show the rear person's legs. Clanton said he wasn't so sure about Tombstone being haunted, but this photo made a believer out of him. There's so much ghostly activity going on in the famous town that Clanton's set up a special section of his website dedicated to Tombstone's population of yesteryear. Well worth checking out, if nothing else than for the sense of history that this excellent website conveys.
Come On Baby, Light My Fire
Of all the ghost photos I've seen (well, except for that one that I can't show at the present time), this one is hands-down the most eerie. Probably the most disturbing too. I didn't know about this one until a few months ago. Almost ten years ago, on November 19th, 1995, Wem Town Hall in Shropshire, England was engulfed in flames and burned to the ground. As firefighters tried to stave off the inferno a town resident, Tony O'Rahilly, took pictures from across the street using a telephoto lens on his camera. There, rather clearly in one of the photos, is what looks very much to be a small girl standing in a doorway, with the brightness of the flames behind her. No one ever remembered there being a small girl present on scene, much less in that close a proximity to the fire. The photo and the original negative were turned over to a photo expert who decided that the picture was 100% authentic: "The negative is a straightforward piece of black-and-white work and shows no sign of having been tampered with." Okay, so what's a girl ghost doing in such a big fire? Well in 1677 a fire destroyed many of Wem�s wooden houses. The fire was said to have been caused by a 14-year old girl named Jane Churm, who had been careless with a candle. Churm died in the fire along with several others, and her ghost is said to still haunt the area. Whether there's such a thing as ghosts or not, it must be said: if this is just a trick, an illusion of smoke and fire that happened to be captured on film, it's a zillion-to-one coincidence that it just so happened to appear in the form of a girl who also died in a terrible fire at the same location. But hey, stranger things than that have happened in this world, right?
Ghost of Bachelor's Grove Cemetery, ChicagoThis photo was taken during an investigation of Bachelor's Grove Cemetery near Chicago by the Ghost Research Society(GRS). On August 10, 1991 several memeber of the GRS were at the cemetery, a small abandoned garveyard on the edge of the Rubio Woods Forest Preserve, near the suburb of Midlothian, Illinois. Reputed to be one of the most haunted cemeteries in the U.S., Bachelor's Grove has been the site of well over 100 different reports of strange phenomena, including apparitions, unexplained sights and sounds, and even glowing balls of light. When developed, this image emerged: what looks like a lonely looking young woman dressed in white sitting on a tombstone. Parts of her body her partially tranparent and the style of the dress seems to be out of date.
"And the sea gave up the dead which were in it..."I first saw this photo over twenty years ago. It was the first "ghost photo" I ever came across and it still wigs me out to look at it. In 1924 James Courtney and Michael Meehan, two crewmen of the tanker S.S. Watertown, were accidentally killed by gas fumes while cleaning a cargo tank. The crew of the Watertown - on its way to the Panama Canal from New York City � buried the two sailors at sea off the Mexican coast. That was on December 4th. On December 5th the first mate reported that the faces of Courtney and Meehan were appearing in the water off the port side of the ship. Over the next several days every member of the crew witnessed the faces appear and disappear, including the ship's captain. When he reported this to his supervisors after docking in New Orleans it was suggested that he try to photograph the faces. Captain Keith Tracy bought a camera and the ship was soon underway again. Sure enough, the faces appeared, and Tracy took six pictures, then secured the camera in the ship's vault. The camera was not removed until it was taken to a commercial developer after docking in New York City. Five of the photos showed nothing unusual, but the sixth clearly showed what was said to be the faces of the two dead crewmen. No evidence of forgery or tampering of the film was ever discovered. The faces stopped appearing after a new crew was brought aboard the Watertown.
The Newby Church MonkReverend K.F. Lord took a picture of the altar at his church in North Yorkshire, England (why are the GOOD ghosts always found in England?) and this is what came out. The picture and the negative are said to have been thoroughly examined by photographic experts and they can't find any evidence that this was either a double exposure, or artificially altered. The "thing" is calculated to be standing nine feet tall, and no one's found any record of a monk that humongous ever being at Newby Church. Who is it? What is it? Trick of light or something else? Either way it's way too creepy to not mention on this list.
Ghost Child at CemeteryA woman named Mrs. Andrews was visiting the grave of her daughter Joyce, who died at 17. Andrews saw nothing unusual when she took this photo of Joyce's gravemarker. When the film was developed, Mrs. Andrews was astonished to see the image of a small child sitting happily at her daughter's grave. The ghost child seem to be aware of Mrs. Andrews since he or she is looking directly into the camera. Is it possible a double exposure? Mrs. Andrews said there were no such children nearby when she took the photograh and moreover did not recognize the child at all. It was no one she would have taken photograh of. She remarked that she did not believe it was the ghost of her daughter as a child.
London's St. Botolph's Chruch GhostIn 1982, photographer Chris Brackley took a photograph of the interior of London's St. Botolph's Chruch, but never expected what would appear on the film. High in the Church's loft, seen in the upper right hand corner of his photogarph, is a transparent form of what looks like a woman. According to Brackley, to his knowledge there were only three people in the church when this photograh was taken, and none of them were in that loft.
Church Minister GhostAccording to Brad Steiger's Real Ghosts, restless spirits and haunted places, where this photo was found, there was only one other photographer in the church beside the person who took this picture. Neither of them recalled seeing ghost or any flesh-and-blood person standing there who could account for this image. Because the figure is all in black, it has been theorized that the apparition could be that of the churuch minister.
Grandfather Ghost Standing Behind Grandmother"The lady in the color photo is my granny," she says. "She lived on her own until age 94, when her mind started to weaken and had to be moved to an assisted living home for her own safety. At the end of the first week, there was a picnic for the residents and their families. My mother and sister attended. My sister took two pictures that day, and this is one of them. It was taken on Sunday, 8/17/97, and we think the man behind her is my grandpa who passed away on Sunday, 8/14/84. We did not notice the man in the picture until Christmas Day, 2000 (granny had since passed away), while browsing through some loose family photos at my parents' house. My sister thought it was such a nice picture of granny that she even made a copy for mom, but still, nobody noticed the man behind her for over three years! When I arrived at my parents' house that Christmas day, my sister handed me the picture and said, "Who do you think this man behind granny looks like?" It took a few seconds for it to sink in. I was absolutely speechless. The black and white photos show that it really looks like him."
I don't need what might be a ghost's photograph to attest to this truth: when you're in love with that one special someone, nothing will stop you from being with that person. But it's still pretty nice to get a tangible confirmation of that every once in awhile..
Railroad Crossing Ghost in San Antonio, TexasA Strange legend surrounds a railroad crossing of San Antonio, Texas. The intersection of the roadway and railraod track, so the story goes, was the site of a tragic accidents in which several school-aged children were killed - but their ghosts linger at the spot and will push idled cars across the tracks, even though the path is uphill. Andy and Debi Chesney's daughter and some of her friends had recently been to the crossing to test the legend, and she took some photographs. Inexplicably, a strange, transparent figure turned up in one of the photos.
Source: knbc.com


text: Congratulations to Meredi and Tim!! They were married on Sept 19th, 2015 in Twin Lakes, CO. There are 2 galleries of images from their wedding day. Click on images to view larger sizes. When you are finished viewing the images in this gallery, you can click on the "MerediTimWedding" link at the top of this page to return to the other gallery. Prints can be ordered directly from this gallery by selecting the BUY icon when viewing the image or images you want to order. You will be asked to choose the size, type of print paper or canvas and quantity. All prints are archival quality and printed at a top quality, professional laboratory in Minneapolis, MN (WHCC). Orders placed here are paid for online and go directly to the lab. The lab will ship your images directly to your home. All prints have a satisfaction guarantee. If you have questions, please contact me at firstname.lastname@example.com. Enjoy the photographs!Read More


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The obituary of Sarah Jane Wadmore in the January Passing of the Pioneers prompted me to find out more about a booklet she co-authored for the Portland Centenary in 1934, the Portland Pioneer Women's Book of Remembrance. I had previously read about it in newspaper reports from around the time.
A Google search led me to the State Library of Victoria website and it was pleasing to see it has been digitised and is available online. I was even more pleased that ggg grandmother Margaret Ann Diwell (nee Turner) was among the pioneering women of Portland as well as some of those I have featured in Passing of the Pioneers.
The booklet begins with a forward from Alice Frances Moss, a pioneer of women's rights. She was the first President of the National Council of Women of Australia and Chair of the Victorian Women's Centenary Council.
After an offering of appreciation to pioneer women, there is the story of Mrs Stephen George Henty, the first European woman at Portland, to whom the booklet was dedicated. She is often called Mrs Stephen George Henty, but let us call her Jane (Pace).
There are the recollections of Mrs George Godwin Crouch (Marianne Trangmar) spanning from 1840 to 1917. Then, a list of "Worthy Pioneers" compiled by Sarah Jane Wadmore. Included is one of my favourites, Rebecca Kittson (Mrs William Lightbody) and Mrs Fawthrop, Jane Rosevear, wife of Captain James Fawthrop the lifeboat captain.
Following is the story of Mrs Richard Charlton Hedditch and further on, a letter she wrote on Christmas Day 1848, to her parents in England. Another woman often referred to by her husband's name, she was Rachel Forward Read.
After some local poetry comes "Belles and Beauties of the Early Days". Those included are Misses Henty, Learmonth, Trangmar and Herbertson.
Finally is a list of Portland's Pioneering Women with women living in Portland prior to 1864 eligible. That's where I found Margaret. The Diwells lived in Portland for about five years from the time of their arrival on the Duke of Richmond in 1852.
Margaret appears as Mrs William Diwell and her daughter-in-law, Frances Webb, is also listed as Mrs William Diwell. Frances just scraped in as she was born in Portland in 1863 to John Webb and Margaret Smith, also listed. This is a useful list as some entries have notes and maiden names.
The oldest pioneer women, recognised separately, include Marion Nunn Jones, Emma Holmes, and Anne Beglan.
The photographs in the booklet are of Mrs Jane Henty, Mrs Marianne Crouch, Mrs Janet Laurie, Sarah Jane Wadmore and Mrs Rachel Hedditch.
The booklet also comes as an Archive CD book available from the Genealogical Society of Victoria.
Online book – Portland Pioneer Women's Book of Remembrance


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Attention everybody. Though he may not have any superpowers, I am nonetheless required to announce that Jameel will be turning 40 this saturday. That is all
Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael
Mazal tov!
that is so cruel.
Wait a minute, i thought his birthday was January 10th...what gives?
Happy Birthday!
Happy B-day!
happy birthday! like i said, you don't look old enough...
Happy birthday...you can make fun of me on Bet Elul....
Happy Birthday!
Superb, HH!
(Have a good one, Jameel!)
The big 4-0...I think that you should do something ala mid-life crises like buy a sports car or something. Oh well, no one has that kinda car there.
SO go shoot up some rocks instead with those guns.
HH - LOL! You rock :-)
Shabbat Shalom...
(and to everyone else, we'll see what comes up next week)
Mazal tov, and many more (ad meah v'esrim)!
40... I remember 40...looked a lot like 39, Jameel, don't worry. Just remember to keep breathing.
Mazal tov!
mazal tov
I had a tough time with 40, 50 was more fun, and 60 ... getting closer. I hope there will be lots of discounts.
Happy B-day!
Ours are coming up soon....
Happy birthday Jameel!
Happy birthday!
(long-time reader, first-time commenter)
Happy birthday Jameel!!!
happy belated 40th!
are those still your own teeth?
Ha ha!
tnspr569: Wait a minute, i thought his birthday was January 10th...what gives?
Jan. 21, IIRC...
Happy bDay!
I haven't any idea what 40 looks like because I am far younger than you. Nonetheless I wish you a very happy birthday.
Remember the great Muqata tradition, next meal is on you.
Mazel tov on reaching the age of understanding!
Ha! That's pretty funny. Mazel tov!
Happy belated birthday!
happy bday!
but i thought it was this friday, 26 of tevet.
how about a contest, when is j's real bday?
all the best faith
Happy belated birthday!


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Cavaliers shake things up with addition of Shaq
Never accuse Danny Ferry of playing it safe.
Sixteen months after blowing up a roster that took the Cavs to the NBA Finals, their general manager is at it again one month after a record-breaking season ended.
Only this time he's thinking big -- 'Big Aristotle' big, 'Shaq Fu' big – to find a superstar sidekick for LeBron James.
The Cavs added one of the NBA's all-time greats Thursday, acquiring 7-foot-1, 325-pound center Shaquille O'Neal from the Phoenix Suns. The Cavs traded away Ben Wallace, Sasha Pavlovic, a second-round pick next year and cash to get the 15-time All-Star and four-time champion.
"Trading for Shaq is a pretty unique opportunity," Ferry said during an afternoon press conference five hours before the draft began. "There's not many players in the world like him. I'm looking forward to see how he can positively impact what we're doing on the court ... in the locker room and what we do in general."
O'Neal gives the Cavs an inside presence they have not had in James' six seasons. In fact, even at 37, the Cavs have probably never had a player such as O'Neal -- the only active player from the league's 50 Greatest Players in NBA History chosen a decade ago.
They've added other NBA legends late in their careers such as Nate Thurmond, Walt Frazier and Lenny Wilkens. But none were the dominant player O'Neal has been, and he appears to have some diesel left in the tank.
"He is a force," Ferry said. "Always has been, still is. On the defensive end ... he's a wall that's around the basket and ... a tall, long wall. Offensively, he's a force in that he's going to get double teams. He's a good passer. He's a great receiver, meaning if you get in trouble you can throw the ball up to him and he's going to create the space to get the ball and either pass or finish."
This is a huge opening move by Ferry in his attempts to retool the Cavs after they won a franchise-record and league-best 66 games this past season.
But when Orlando put away the Cavs in six games during the conference finals with Dwight Howard overpowering them inside -- and the Magic's wings getting open jump shots because of it -- it became clear Cleveland needed to make some moves.
"This trade is all about our continuing focus to winning a championship," he said.
O'Neal becomes an instant low-post threat, while providing a presence on defense and a huge personality in the locker room and off the court.
After being limited to 53 games the previous three seasons by injuries, he averaged 17.8 points and 8.4 rebounds in 30.1 minutes a night last season. He played 75 games, his most in a decade. His scoring average was his highest since 2005-06. He shot a career-high and league-best 60.9 percent from the floor. His season was highlighted by sharing All-Star Game MVP honors with Kobe Bryant, his former Laker sidekick when they won three titles together.
"He was impressive last year and he continues to be that strong presence on both ends of the floor ... that can really change the game," Ferry said.
O'Neal, though, could not lead the Suns to a title in his season-plus there. They lost in the first round last year and failed to make the playoffs this year, as the Suns altered their run-and-gun approach for a time before returning to it late this past season.
"Phoenix played a different way when they had him and it was a drastic change," Ferry said. "... We're more of a halfcourt team. We play more of a tempo that fits Shaq's game."
The Cavs' pursuit of Shaq started near the trade deadline in February. Nothing materialized. The talks, though, resumed once the Cavs came up short of winning a title a month ago, and heated up in recent days.
"I was here late last night and late the night before," said Ferry, who negotiated with friend and former teammate Steve Kerr, Phoenix's GM. Ferry said the Cavs "probably had five or six things on the table the last week" with several teams. "And really over the last three days, there were three things ... that had a strong chance of happening."
But by Wednesday night, the Cavs settled in on O'Neal as their top priority.
"It was time to do the deal," Ferry said. "We'd talked about it a lot the last couple weeks."
But as big as this deal is, Ferry knows it's just a start to a busy summer. The Cavs can use another solid player up front, a shooter and more size on the perimeter. They also want to try to retain Anderson Varejao, who is expected to become a free agent next week.
With all that in mind, Ferry said, "there's still more that we need to do."
Canton Repository


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Digital billboards in Hennepin and Ramsey Counties will be a new way to warn motorists about tornado warnings.
The billboard warnings are a joint venture of the counties, billboard owners ClearChannel Outdoor, and the National Weather Service. The system is getting up and running this week on 31 digital billboards in the two counties.
Under the system, the National Weather Service will be able to override a billboard's digital programming to flash tornado warnings for 15-minute increments.
The National Weather Service says 9 percent of people killed by tornadoes in the U.S. between 1985 and 2008 were in their cars.
The hope is to eventually extend the system to all 47 ClearChannel digital billboards in the Twin Cities area.


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YOTEL announces first hotel in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia: YOTEL will open its first hotel in the research and innovation district of Oxagon in NEOM by 2025.
Saudi Arabia: YOTEL will open its first hotel in the research and innovation district of Oxagon in NEOM by 2025.
EMEA: Accor has appointed Paul Stevens as COO for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, responsible for the group's premium, midscale and economy division.
Italy: Hotel franchising company Wyndham Hotels & Resorts has launched its Dolce brand in Italy with the opening of a 207-bedroom hotel in Milan.
India: Softbank-backed hospitality chain OYO is said to have confidentially submitted a "pre-filing" document for its long-anticipated initial public offering [IPO].
EU: Boutique hospitality group Sircle Collection will launch a lifestyle brand, Sircle Hotels, later this year with two hotel openings in London and Milan.
UK: Luxury hotel The London EDITION will launch a monthly series of Sex Talks in partnership with Emma-Louise Boynton.
The Netherlands: Hospitality company Zien Group has appointed Jens Gmiat as head of operations and Ruben Satink as chief financial officer.
UK: Property developer Fragrance Group has appointed management company RBH to manage three hotels that are expected to open in the next six months.
Worldwide: Hospitality brand and travel operator, Preferred Travel Group, has appointed four team members across its global and regional leadership teams.
Israel: Tel Aviv-based guest experience platform Duve is planning to release its latest innovation for guest experience management, DuveAI.
Worldwide: Luxury brand Viceroy Hotels & Resorts has partnered with Out & Equal Workplace Advocates (O&E) to provide LGBTQ+ leadership development and diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) training.


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The Risks of Romney's Anti-China Rhetoric
The presidential candidate says he wants to take "counteraction" against Beijing for its trade policies, but U.S. China-hands are skeptical.
The presidential candidate says he wants to take "counteraction" against Beijing for its trade policies, but U.S. China-hands are skeptical.
Mitt Romney's investment-banking background and free-market message would seem to make him the candidate of choice for America's business community. Except when he talks about China.
The Republican presidential hopeful sounds more like a card-carrying union member than a former CEO when he outlines his White House agenda for China, urging tariffs and downplaying the threat of a trade war. He extended his tough talk recently to the pages of The Wall Street Journal in a piece epitomizing the protectionist rhetoric he's deployed for much of his presidential campaign.
"Unless China changes its ways, on day one of my presidency I will designate it a currency manipulator and take appropriate counteraction," Romney wrote. "A trade war with China is the last thing I want, but I cannot tolerate our current trade surrender."
Politically speaking, Romney has good reason to attack the economic relationship with the world's largest country. The issue resonates with the conservative activists his campaign has struggled to attract.
But the approach has also tarnished his reputation in the business community. Private-sector leaders aren't panicking quite yet about a leading GOP contender sounding like a Rust-Belt Democrat, but there's a palpable nervousness among them that Romney isn't an ally on what they consider a crucial economic issue.
"It doesn't make a huge amount of sense," said Bill Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council. "I don't know why anyone would think that on the first day in office, the most important thing to do is to stick it to the Chinese."
Even Romney allies have blasted Romney's position as oversimplified. Jon Huntsman, the former U.S. ambassador to China, who endorsed Romney after exiting the presidential race last month, criticized him during an appearance on MSNBC last week. "When it comes to China, I think it's wrongheaded when you talk about slapping a tariff on day one," Huntsman said. "That pushes aside the reality, the complexity of the relationship."
The political reality is something else entirely. A May 2011 survey by the Pew Research Center found that the most conservative part of the electorate, the 11 percent of registered voters it calls "staunch conservatives," is by far the most eager to apply economic pressure on China. Seventy-nine percent want to "get tough" on China instead of increasing cooperation. That's a dramatic 30 points higher than get-tough sentiment among the "Main Street Republicans" who account for 14 percent of registered voters.
"Republicans tend to have more negative views about China, and the conservative base in particular tends to have negative views toward China," said Richard Wike, an associate director of the Pew Global Attitudes Project.
The politics have shaped not only Romney's views but those of the Republican Party as a whole, which has lurched leftward on free trade with China. That helps explain the thinking behind ads like Michigan GOP Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra's controversial Super Bowl spot, which linked too much U.S. domestic spending (and borrowing from China) with a rise in China's global dominance.
The timing of Romney's anti-China piece in The Wall Street Journal wasn't an accident. It came during Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping's visit to the United States. It also came during a critical time for his campaign in Michigan, where he faces a fierce challenge from former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum in the Feb. 28 primary. In a state where employment has been hollowed by the decline of the manufacturing industry, tough talk toward China seems a sure political winner.
The business community for decades has watched presidential contenders routinely use free trade with China as a political punching bag, only to preserve the same policies once in office. But Romney's campaign is giving them pause.
According to one Washington lobbyist who works on U.S.-China relations, and who requested anonymity in order to speak candidly, Romney's continued hammering on the issue -- he has mentioned it frequently for months -- has raised concern among private industry leaders that this is more than rhetoric. "He has clearly staked out a position," said the lobbyist, who backed Romney in 2008.
Romney's stand also doesn't sit well in free-market circles, where some dispute the idea that China's currency manipulation has wreaked havoc on the U.S. economy. That a former CEO would lend credence to the theory shifts the public debate leftward, said Derek Scissors, a research fellow who focuses on Asia at the conservative Heritage Foundation. "I've had members of Congress say to me, 'You know, Romney thinks you're wrong,' when I'll make argument that the exchange rate doesn't affect us," he said.
Challengers to a sitting president usually attack incumbents as soft on China, putting Romney -- who calls President Obama a "supplicant" to China -- well in the mainstream. But Scissors said there's a difference this year because Obama, who imposed a tariff on tires imported from China, is already farther to the protectionist left on China trade than any recent president. "Republicans have made a choice that even though President Obama is ambivalent about free trade and on the protectionist side, we're going to move even farther" in that direction, he said.
Harming trade with China would have huge reverberations across the U.S. economy. According to the Census Bureau, China was America's second-largest trading partner in 2011, behind only Canada. It accounted for 13.6 percent of all trade. In other words, billions upon billions of dollars are at stake.


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Nas - Hustlers (Feat. The Game)
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SACRAMENTO (AP) — The state game commission on Wednesday declined to intervene in a controversial coyote hunting contest, although members did ask for a legal opinion on whether the board has authority to regulate contests in the future.
Hunters are set to fan across Modoc County on Saturday and Sunday to see who can kill the most coyotes in a contest sponsored by a gun club. The winner will get a silver belt buckle.
Animal welfare advocates argued before the Fish and Game Commission that the hunt is inhumane, and wanton slaughter is contrary to scientific wildlife management practices that show the predators play an important vermin-control role in the ecosystem.
"It's ethically indefensible and suggests wildlife has no value other than targets in an outdoor shooting gallery," said Camilla Fox, executive director of Project Coyote.
Fish and Wildlife Director Chuck Bonham said it's legal in California for hunters to kill wildlife that causes crop or livestock damage.
The board took no action because the hunt was not on the agenda. However, newly elected commission President Michael Sutton asked staff to clarify the board's authority to regulate the contests.
Fox said after the meeting that it's an open question whether coyotes to be targeted along the California border with Oregon have caused damage.
"It's a question the department should be looking at. How often is damage demonstrated?" Fox said.
A letter previously sent to the agency said 20 organizations want to protect a wolf known as OR7, which became the first in the state in nearly a century when it wandered across Oregon and into California a year ago. They fear other wolves could be in the area.
Opponents of the coyote hunt fear that participants won't be able to readily tell the difference between a coyote and a wolf.
OR7 is larger than a coyote, but because it mingles with coyotes, animal advocates wrote letters and collected petition signatures asking the state to call off the coyote hunt.
The gray wolf is a federally protected species in California, and wildlife authorities are in the process of determining whether state protections should be offered as well.
Bonham said wildlife officials will be at the hunt to educate participants about the physical differences between a wolf and a coyote.
The ability to hunt predators is important to ranchers, said Margo Parks of the California Cattlemen's Association. She said coyotes are responsible for $4 million in damages annually.
"OR7 is a poorly disguised excuse to further chip away at hunting rights," she said.


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Ubisoft will release a Rayman title – thought to be Rayman Legends – on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in February 2014.
CEO Yves Guillemot discussed the game during the publisher's Q2 financial results last night, simply stating: "Rayman next-gen is coming in February."
Guillemot didn't go on to confirm what the title may be but, given the time frame, a next-gen port of Legends appears to make most sense.
Rayman Legends released on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Wii U and PC in August following a lengthy 9 month delay. The game had originally been due to launch on Wii U back in November 2012.
Source: Ubisoft H1 FY 2013-2014 Sales and Results


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Business Intelligence
Are your BI reporting end users getting weary of cutting and pasting data? Is compelling business evidence languishing in databases? It's time to rethink your data visualization tools.
IT'S ONE THING TO manage the use of data; it's another thing to use data to lead transformative change at your institution. The latter requires more than the raw numbers; it demands that you tell a story. Transformative change not only requires that the case you make for change draws upon the evidence found in the systems that run your institution, it also requires that you present that evidence in a dramatic or, at least, compelling way that will leave a lasting impression in the minds of those who must make decisions. Communicating or presenting information to drive change is one of the most important outcomes of a successful business intelligence (BI) initiative. How clearly you can demonstrate the evidence you have found often can make the difference between a case for change gone bad, or defining a wholly new strategic direction for your organization.
Get Visual
Often, however, complex information must be presented in a very short amount of time to audiences such as the president's cabinet, dean's committee, or board of trustees. To make your case effectively, you will need to present your evidence quickly and with a high degree of impact. Since most people are visual creatures, it would stand to reason that you should represent your data in a visual fashion. One way to do this is through the use of an info-graphic. You've seen these artistic, highly detailed charts and graphs before: tracking pop culture in The New York Times, analyzing a blog post in Wired magazine, or even imparting cheeky news analysis in USA Today.
Today, you don't even need an annual report designer to make this kind of statement: A new breed of visualization software is emerging to help campus businesspeople produce more compelling representations of their evidence and provide greater access to the information for intended audiences. At the same time, traditional BI software vendors are adding new features to their suites to make it easier for end users or decision-makers to tell their stories.
Before that story can be told, understand that with the use of any new tools or features, there are two challenges inherent: First are the everyday associated issues of presentation, collaboration, and sharing. We've all heard the horror stories about spending hours cutting and pasting figures into Microsoft Excel, and linking the resulting chart to PowerPoint just to create a basic "numbers" visualization. Then there's the challenge of deciding how best to present the data. Which approach will get you closer to the "beautiful evidence" espoused by data visualization guru Edward Tufte?
Dynamic Visualization Options for External Audiences
Increasingly, institutions have found that they must share information with audiences outside of the campus administration. In an effort to be transparent to prospective students, parents, and the community at large, institutions have begun to publish facts and sometimes detailed statistics about institutional outcomes. Most of the time, these "accountability" websites are dotted with Adobe Acrobat PDF documents containing text and a few simple charts. Sometimes the sites contain static HTML pages with graphics that have been lifted from a BI software program and pasted into the page. Either way, production of these pages involves many steps. But wouldn't it be great if your charts and graphs on the web were updated automatically at the end of each academic term, when the data are refreshed?
Google Chart API. If you are willing to put your trust in one of the most ubiquitous names on the web, check out the recently released Google application programming interface (API) designed for presenting charts and graphs on any web page. The new service allows developers and technically inclined administrators, using a well-documented set of parameters, to pass a data set to a web service hosted on Google's servers. The result: a number of chart or graph types available for use, ready to be embedded on a website of your choosing.
Why not simply use the web-based portals provided by any one of the major BI vendors (such as Business Objects, Cognos, or SAS), to display such information to the public? Unfortunately, most vendors employ "per user" licensing models that make such a solution cost-prohibitive for most institutions. But a service such as the Google Chart API gets around this costly limitation and can help you unlock specific information for eyes beyond the campus gate.
Low-cost software. If the idea of a hosted service does not appeal to you, there are low-cost software options available to help you present appealing web visualizations to broader audiences. Take a look at amCharts: For $425, you get an enterprise license to produce simple, yet truly impressive dynamic charts and graphs. With a tool like amCharts you can, for example, provide a real-time, self-updating graph to institutional alumni and friends, depicting progress toward a particular fundraising goal. Since the graph is dynamically updated on a regular basis, it can even demonstrate momentum and encourage more participation from active donors.
Powerful Data Visualization for Internal Eyes
Though these examples of real-time web-based visualizations may spur site visitors into action, the real challenge for higher ed administrators is internal change. Here again are new approaches in desktop software that make it easier for users to produce high-impact data visualizations, and simultaneously overcome the challenge of distribution of data across the institution.
Intuitive and user-friendly. Tableau Software, for one, takes data that have been structured for multi-dimensional reporting and provides a drag-and-drop style interface that helps end users intuitively create a variety of sophisticated visualizations. The company emphasizes the unique visualization query language (VizQL) as the key to helping "people with little or no training see and understand data faster than ever, and in ways like never before." To help end users share their reports, a free "reader" is available for download, or a server version can be purchased for publishing to the web.
Look again at Excel. One tool that can't be ignored when it comes to the distribution of information and visualizations is Excel. Maybe you've sneered at the relative blandness of graphs produced through Excel's chart wizard, but the fact is that the product is ubiquitous—so ubiquitous, in fact, that nearly all of the major BI vendors have produced add-ins and special interfaces to surface information through Excel. Most recently, Business Objects released a new product, Xcelsius 2008, which uses Excel as the presentation engine for dashboards and dynamic data visualizations, taking advantage of Excel's pervasiveness, and so easing the distribution of data. Take a look!
The 800-pound gorilla. Then, of course, there is Microsoft. Many institutions have already made significant investments in Microsoft technology for a variety of reasons, and yours may be one of them. Once you have upgraded to the latest versions of Microsoft's SQL Server 2005 and Office 2007, you may be surprised to find that you already own an enterprise-class business intelligence engine. Moreover, did you know that Microsoft has placed considerable emphasis on the communication aspect of data analysis and has improved the visualization features significantly? With true integration between Excel and PowerPoint, users will be able to produce great-looking boardroom-ready reports that are updated automatically when the source data are refreshed. And, just in case you doubt Redmond's commitment to business intelligence, Microsoft has recently unveiled several updates to its core technologies to support business intelligence and improve data visualization, including an all-new version of SQL Server (2008, to be released in the third quarter of the year) and its dashboard and performance management solution, PerformancePoint Server.
The Last Word
While each of the tools I've highlighted has the potential to make an end user's high-quality data visualization job much easier, make no mistake: Despite their ease of use, BI visualization solutions are not plug-and-play. It will be important for institutions to carefully consider business intelligence and data warehouse solutions that provide open and expandable information architectures, in order to leverage the types of visualization tools I have presented here. With the right framework in place, one or more of these tools will likely be the perfect complement, helping your key campus decision-makers to make the case for a change that propels your institution toward greatness.
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On PHPBuilder.com there's a new tutorial posted about combining PHP and Ajax to move large XML data around via a web interface.
A simple way to transfer XML documents onto a server is to use an Ajax-driven Web interface to upload the files. However, this approach won't work for huge XML files because Ajax doesn't support uploading of files that large. In this article you will learn an innovative solution for transferring huge XML documents on the server via a Web interface using Ajax and the GET method.
Their method takes the XML and puts it in a string then breaks it up into chunks to make it easier to transport. These chunks are then sent via an Ajax request and pushed into an XML file. Full code is included for the tool and a few screenshots of their example in action.


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Beautiful elephant musical box made from beechwood, carefully chosen for you as a keepsake piece, available with a raw ear or hand painted in a gorgeous range of colours.
This elephant plays the sweetest, softest tune when hand wound on the back. Plays almost three minutes of tune when fully wound.
Dimensions 9 cm high x 13 cm long x 4 cm wide.
More than just a piece of decor, its the perfect musical treat for a room.
Elephant music boxes are made from quality beechwood with your choice of raw or hand painted ear.
WARNING: CHOKING HAZARD. Contains small parts inside. Not suitable for children under 3 years. This item is not a toy and is intended to be used by adults and as a decor item.
Note - As we use timber, the texture will vary from each product, and the elephant pictured. Each is individual and has its own knots, finishes and natural wood features which makes them unique.