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18-year old patient, severe cranial injury following road traffic accident: collision between scooter and light vehicle, front impact, expulsion of helmet during accident.
Initial clinical examination:
- Glasgow = 7 at start of care, deviation of eyes to right, reactive, symmetric pupils.- Reduction in normal breath sounds over right pulmonary field,- Stable hemodynamics, blood pressure: 130/70 mmHg, heart rate: 69, oxygen saturation: 100%,- Soft, painless abdomen.
After intubation, degradation of hemodynamics, requiring massive intravenous fluid therapy.On the arrival of the emergency services, blood pressure: 80/40 mmHg, heart rate: 65, oxygen saturation: 100%. Instigation of Norepinephrine treatment for hemodynamic support and transfer to university hospital after intravenous administration of 2 l of colloids and 1.5 l of crystalloids.
The body scan is provided.
My report:
Encephalic space:
- Diffuse axonal lesions in the left frontal region and in the left semi-oval center.
- Left temporal extradural hematoma with air pockets associated with an extralabyrinthic fracture of the petrous bone.
- Left temporal petechial contusions.
- Deep, left medial temporal intra-parenchymatous hematoma.
- Moderate cerebral edema, no herniation.
- Right frontotemporal subcutaneous hematoma.
- Fracture of the middle stage of the base of the skull (and contact emphysema of soft tissues) with:• Fracture of the left temporal section extending to the left petrous bone with an extralabyrinthic trajectory (integrity of ossicular chain) and damage to the tegmen tympanii. Pneumencephalus at this point (osteomeningeal breach very likely);• The line then extends to the sphenoid via the anterior part of the carotid canal followed by the antero-inferior and right lateral walls of the sphenoid sinus (with hemosinus and intrasinus bone fragment).• And at the front, fracture of the posterior part of the vomer bone.
N.B.: left nasal packing- Cervico-dorso-lumbar spine: no posttraumatic bone lesions
Thoracic space:
- Cardiogenic pulmonary overload++ (thickening of the septa, ground glass opacities, gravity-dependant areas of opacification and edematous infiltrate of the mediastinum).
- Probable associated pulmonary contusions particularly in the upper left lobe and both inferior lobes.
- Minor bilateral pneumothorax.- No traumatic lesions of the mediastinal large vessels.
Abdominopelvic space:
- Signs of excessive filling (periportal edema, liquid effusion of the vesicular bed, perisplenic fluid layer);
- Right mediorenal deep laceration with contact hemoretroperitoneum, with no active bleeding or damage to the collecting ducts (no urinary extravasation at this delayed point in time).
- Hematuria with intravesical fluid line.
- No other posttraumatic lesions.
Craniocerebral trauma, Pulmonary edema, Renal injury
- Placement of an intracerebral pressure (ICP) probe; the pressure was initially elevated: administration of osmotherapy with use of vasopressor amines to maintain satisfactory intracerebral hemodynamics, normalization of ICP on the second day. Favorable progress with discontinuation of sedation on the 5th day, no sensorimotor deficiency observed, no cognitive or behavioral deficiency was reported.
- Posterior packing in the left nostril for persistent posterior epistaxis.
- Simple monitoring of the right renal injury with favorable progression.
Important points:
- The diffuse axonal lesions and the deep hematomas are shearing lesions and are situated in specific regions.
- The presence of air in an extradural hematoma is indicative of a probable homolateral fracture of the petrous bone.
- With petrous bone fractures, it is important to note whether it is trans- or extralabyrinthic, and report any damage to the ossicular chain and tegmen tympanii.
- Look for signs of hemodynamic overload (periportal edema, pulmonary edema, edematous infiltration of the mediastinum and/or subcutaneous fat tissues, etc.).
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You may be surprised: the research shows that people chose Bing web search results over Google nearly 2:1 in blind comparison tests. People are surprised because of how deeply the Google habit is ingrained in most searchers—they are responding based on their habits rather than the facts.
We built our Bing It On campaign to share these results with you and demonstrate that people can get better web search results on Bing than Google. With Bing It On, we're encouraging you to try Bing – whether you're a first time customer or an occasional visitor. You may be surprised at what Bing offers and how it can help you spend less time searching and more time doing.
How was the test conducted? An independent research company, Answers Research based in San Diego, CA, conducted a study using a representative online sample of nearly 1000 people, ages 18 and older from across the US. The participants were chosen from a random survey panel and were required to have used a major search engine in the past month. Participants were not aware that Microsoft was involved.
In the test, participants were shown the main web search results pane of both Bing and Google for 10 search queries of their choice. Bing and Google search results were shown side-by-side on one page for easy comparison – with all branding removed from both search engines. The test did not include ads or content in other parts of the page such as Bing's Snapshot and Social Search panes and Google's Knowledge Graph. For each search, the participant was asked which search engine provided the best results – "Left side search engine", "Right side search engine", or "Draw." After each participant performed 10 searches, their votes were totaled to determine the winner (Bing, Google or Draw, in the case of a tie).
When the results were tallied, the outcome was clear – people chose Bing web search results over Google nearly 2:1 in the blind comparison tests. Specifically, of the nearly 1000 participants: 57.4% chose Bing more often, 30.2% chose Google more often; 12.4 % resulted in a draw.*
Why did we think a blind comparison test of the pure web search results would be valuable? Because it is the best way to really test the quality of web search results where the majority of clicks occur – without the influence of the ingrained, habitual impact of the Google brand. Now you know there is a better alternative to Google.
You can take a similar test yourself at Bing.com. It's time to see what you've been missing.
- The Bing Team
*The overall sampling error rate for the study is +/- 3 percent at the 95 percent confidence level.
You can take the test yourself on http://bingiton.com
Not surprisingly, Google won for me. I took the test several times and Bing never won. Also, I went on Bing and it's site isn't as good as Google's.
So, Google search vs Bing, which is better?

subset: commoncrawl


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You've got that old brown-colored couch that you just can't part with. Give it a makeover then. No need for new upholstery though. Simple drape over a Dessert Sand alpaca throw. Its sunny yellow stripe will give it a pop of color and you'll fall in love with your couch all over again. There's that super soft and warm alpaca that will make sure of that.
Material - 80% Alpaca 20% Acrylic ONE SIZE - 45"x70"
HANDWASH in cool water. Air dry. Low setting on dryer for 10 minutes for maximum flufiness.
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blog: see what's going on shupaca: our story alpaca wool: the difference
retailer looking to carry great alpaca products? look no further....


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Zinger MS-1301-2 S manicure set with high quality nail care tools is crafted by Zinger.
Zinger has been offering high quality manicure pedicure sets and nail care instruments for 2 decades now and bringing the latest technology and manufacturing equipment to fulfil the most demanding customer's expectations.
Only high quality stainless steel is used to create this manicure set. Then the tools gain additional strength by treatment of high temperatures in a special furnace. After that all implements of the manicure set are hand sharpened and tested by skilful craftsmen. This makes the tools not only flawlessly sharp but also eliminates the need to re-sharpen for 3-4 years of hard use. With Zinger manicure set your finger- and toenails will always be neat and well-groomed.
Manicure set has a stylish genuine leather case and an attractive gift box. Leather case protects your implements and keeps them all in one place. Gift box makes Zinger manicure set a valuable and memorable gift.
The main benefit of our products is quality and affordability. The quality of Zinger manicure sets is competitive to the famous German brands like Niegeloh Solingen, Hans Kniebes, Sonnenschein Exclusiv and Hercules Saegemann. But the prices are surprisingly lower.
Buying our products you risk nothing as we offer 30 days money back guaranty if you change your mind!
MS-1301-2 S includes 7 manicure instruments:
- Nail scissors, curved, allows particularly precise nail cutting
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- Slanted tweezers
- Sapphire nail file
- 2 Cuticle pushers
- V-shape cuticle knife
Manicure set features:
- Number of instruments: 7
- Format: wallet
- Surface color of steel implements: polished silver
- Case: Genuine leather, brown
- Delivered in an attractive Zinger gift box
- Case size: 130mm x 80mm x 25mm


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Women's Metallic Gold Metal
$1,083 From Vestiaire Collective
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on partners' sites at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
Chanel gold metal necklaces. Good condition. Colour: metallic


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Learn How to Do Rihanna's Signature 'Cake Cutter' Dance
'Extra' caught up with Rihanna at the premiere of 'Battleship,' and the 'Where Have You Been' singer couldn't have been more excited for the film. She dished on how much better she's feeling since her sick scare last week as well as on how to do her signature "cut the cake" move inspired by 'Birthday Cake.'Rihanna was "very excited and very nervous" about her 'Battleship' premiere. "I can't wait for my family to see it," she said of the pre-summer blockbuster. "My little brothers are here," she added. "I don't know who I'll bring in the future, since this is my first one, but I wanted them to be a part of it."
When asked about the photo of her IV from when she was sick, RiRi responded, "A lot better. I took a couple days off just to rest and do nothing," she said. "Every time I'm sick I just keep working and working on top of it, so I never really recover. But I took a couple days off and I slept, and I feel a lot better right now."
After a few vignettes with her co-stars, 'Extra' came back to Rihanna — and to host Lopez, who asked for a tutorial on how to "cut the cake." Lopez, who's a trained dancer — remember his ballet moves on 'Saved by the Bell?' — was having a bit of trouble with the move. "You look like you're making a butterfly on the cake," Rihanna critiqued. "Cut it, cut it, cut it, cut it! I'm not gonna do it out here in this dress," she smirked. "Disrespectful!" Eventually, though, he got the hang of it. "What he did!" she laughed. "What he just did!"
To learn how to come and put your name on it, watch the clip below (to learn the dance, start at 2:05!).
Watch Rihanna on 'Extra'


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Hello, The spec is unclear as to what should happen when a <p:xslt> step has a stylesheet requesting text output method. (<xsl:output method="text" />) While you would not normally want to do this, I was wishing to use an existing stylesheet with text output method and follow it with a <p:store> and I had hoped it would just do the right thing. Calabash didn't like that - and probably rightly so according to the spec. There is no mention of this case in 7.1.31 p:xslt <http://www.w3.org/TR/xproc/#c.xslt> or in 2.2.2 Non-XML Documents <http://www.w3.org/TR/xproc/#binary> and I would expect that it should. There are a couple of ways of addressing this issue IMHO. 1. 7.1.31 p:xslt specification could say that implementations must wrap any method=text output document(s) in <c:data> (preferred) 2. 7.1.31 p:xslt specification could specify that stylesheets with an output method of text are not permitted. (present situation made explicit) 3. some convoluted gymnastics in the spec (section 2.2.2?) to permit non xml output from p:xslt provided it only feeds into p:store step(s) (- a harder way of achieving the same as option 1 :-) ) And yes I solved my problem by changing the stylesheet to have XML output method, and wrapped the text in a <c:data> document element. But that now means I have two versions of the stylesheet, one for use in Xproc, and a separate one for use in our proprietary pipeline tool which uses text pipes. - hopefully I can decommission the latter before the duplication bites me where it hurts. BruceReceived on Friday, 19 February 2010 11:36:06 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.1 : Tuesday, 6 January 2015 21:03:06 UTC


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REAL ESTATE- $old
Louis J. Lopez III to Jaye C. Urgo, 1914 Tudor Court, Avon Park townhomes, $215,000.
Professional Foreclosure Corp. to Federal National Mortgage Association, condominium unit in Parkside at Eagle's Landing, $193,821.
Estate Preservation and Management Inc. to First Mount Vernon Industrial Loan Association, 2.0 acres on State Route 738, 3415 Morgantown Road, $897,500.
First Mount Vernon Industrial Loan Association to Jason M. and Candice V. Love, 2.0 acres at 3415 Morgantown Road, $897,500.
Johnie R. Muncy, trustee, to Federal National Mortgage Association, parcel, $214,733.
Lelia Anne Lawless to Nancy Lee Kozub, 2516 Smithfield Road, Canterbury Hills, $279,300.
R. Alma B. Williams to I&J Home Builders LLC, 1.0 acre in Albemarle County, $25,000.
Peter Runge to John H. Chappell, 119 Harvest Drive, Huntington Village, $193,000.
Connie C. Friend to Cheryl F. Stonehill, 72 Court Place, $206,800.
Wilma H. Spradlin to Steven L. Peters, 1.02 acres in Scottsville Magisterial District, $1,200.
Stephan Alan Via to Commonwealth of Virginia, parcel, $10,000.
Julian D. Thomas III to Lewis D. Houchens Jr., 0.19 acres at 3103 Red Hill Road, North Garden, $7,631.
Reichel Investments LLC to Starlight Group LLC, condominium unit at 237 Yellowstone Drive, Parkside at Eagle's Landing, $109,400.
Jeanne E. Anderson, trustee, to Richard L. Nicholas, 1129 Dryden Place, Ednam, $844,000.
Rebecca R. Blevins to James R. Thibodeau, 1.377 acres at 1135 Grove Park Lane, Walnut Hills, Earlysville, $598,000.
Benjamin Harris Holland to Justin H. Callihan, 1295 Amber Ridge Road, Highlands at Mechum's River, $305,000.
Bank of New York Mellon, trustee, to Ryan Spaniol, 4805 Mechum's River Road, Highlands at Mechum's River, $318,400.
Craig Enterprises Inc. to Robert G. Bryant, 1766 Old Trail Drive, Carriage Park, Crozet, $457,612.
Poplar Glen LLC to Benjamin B. Wells, 508 Tulip Tree Court, Poplar Glen, $355,000.
Lupos LLC to Daniel R. and Brooke Kelley Conkle, unit in Hessian Hills condominiums, 2417 Barracks Place, $133,000.
Andrew J. Borches to Marion L. Gould, condominium unit at 114 Hessian Ridge, Hessian Hills condominiums, $139,000.
William H. Lueckenbach to Michael D. Killian, 1819 River Inn Lane, Still Meadow, $490,000.
SHR9 LLC to Wendell W. Gibson Inc., parcel in Belvedere, $130,000.
Big Deal:
First Mount Vernon Industrial Loan Association to Jason M. and Candice V. Love, 2.0 acres at 3415 Morgantown Road, $897,500.


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Mission Motors is teasing the silhouette of its new Mission R race bike, which is set to go racing in 2011. While details are scarce on the Mission R's technical aspects, we've been told that the new design looks very promising, and is more palatable visually to a larger audience than the original Mission One. It doesn't take much for us to guess some aspects of the Mission R though, as Mission Motors was on-hand for Specialty Equipment Marketing Association show (SEMA) this week (you know that other industry trade show that's going on), with a bevy of announcements.
The most prominent piece of news from the San Franciscan-based company is that it is making available its proprietary electric drive system, which will come from a special group inside the company, dubbed MissionEVT, which is focused on bringing EV tech to other companies and applications beyond motorcycles.


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The link at ESPN.com's NFL landing page blares that Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III has a "very good chance" of playing on Sunday. That comes from a quote in the Associated Press blurb from coach Mike Shanahan, who added one more "very" when describing Griffin's status.
But here's the reality. By applying on Friday the "probable" designation to Griffin, the Redskins officially have said that there is a virtual certainty Griffin will be available for normal duty.
It's one of the most common misconceptions regarding the injury report. "Probable" doesn't mean that there's a 75-percent chance the player will play. It's much, much closer to 100 percent, and rarely does a player slide from probable to out.Actually, it's very rarely. Very, very rarely.But, hey, if folks only think there's a "very good chance" Griffin will play and not a virtual certainty, they'll keep checking ESPN.com for updates on his status.On further review, forget everything I just wrote. There's only a "very good chance" Griffin will play.


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For those of you who want to make their own sausage, here's my recipe: Chicago Style Italian Sausage Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method-------- ------------ -------------------------------- 5 pounds pork shoulder 5 tablespoons fennel seeds 3 tablespoons Morton Tender Quick 1 1/4 tablespoons black pepper -- coarsely ground 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes 2 teaspoons garlic powder 1 teaspoon sweet paprika 1 cup Pinot Grigio
I once saw a TV show in which Marc Malnati seemed very offended by the suggestion that deep dish sausage might contain fennel. I think sometimes Marc Malnati uses a little misdirection on TV to keep some of his secrets, but I didn't feel that way with the fennel comment.
Chicago's Italian sausage is well known for it's high fennel content. The only sausage maker that I know of in Chicago that does not use a lot of fennel is Bobaks.
Yeah, well Chicago deep dish is even more known for having cornmeal in the dough.
But something tells me you already know that Ryan.
I'm gonna defer commenting on that until people start calling me an idiot for helping spread the universe's most egregious pizza myth.(By the way, what does egregious mean?)
Look'in real good there Dino! Have you ever heard of the trick where you leave out the cutter wheel to get a courser grind?One of our members,"Meatballs", Ron is a home beer brewer and also knows his stuff about grinding meat. Check Cory's off topic hamburger grinding thread if you'd like....
Thanks for the tip and suggestions. I made that batch by myself. Talk about spinning plates
Tender Quick? Why not just regular salt? Italian sausage isn't usually cured, from what I understand, so why go the nitrates route? How does it differ?Thanks,Garvey
I am really curios about this stuff....particularly this "characteristic flavor" aspect you have mention several times.Is this type of curing salt used in all commercial sausage?
Curious why you use Mortons Tender Quick? I've never seen a fresh sausage that used nitrates and nitrites. Doesn't really seem neccesary from a preserving point with fresh, but maybe it would do something with taste and color.jb


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Drunken Cookery: The Pizza Edition
The Huffington Post recently pulled together 10 highlights from the SubReddit Drunken Cookery, which is exactly what the name implies: the fevered, late-night gastronomic masterpieces turned out by the inebriated. Pizza is an immediately obvious pairing to drunken cooking—it's delicious and quick, most of us keep some basic version of the components on hand, and it's been a classic companion to drinking since time immemorial. The above shot is #2 on their list, topped by deep fried pizza and followed by a pizza quesadilla. Check out the site for the full list!
So how about it—what Frankensteinian pizza creations do you have hiding in your past?
This post may contain links to Amazon or other partners; your purchases via these links can benefit Serious Eats. Read more about our affiliate linking policy.


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Inspired by the Kathy Ireland Home™ Americana Style guide™, Huntington Oxford is a transitional furniture design built with hardwood solids and veneers. This office collection is available in a traditional oak finish or warm burnish brown finish. Vertical fluting, dentil molding and light distressing add character and aesthetic appeal.
Huntington Oxford is a great addition to any home and will surely last for generations to come.
If you like this collection, you may also like the Huntington Oxford Entertainment Collection by Kathy Ireland? Home by Martin.


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The Karen are a very large hilltribe ethnic group mainly found in Northern Thailand and account for almost half of the entire hilltribe population. They live in many provinces along the Western border of Thailand and also further into Thailand. The Karen tribe originate from Burma and the Thai-Burmese border area. Over the past century they have moved further into Thailand to avoid political unrest. The Karen groups include the Padong and the famous "longneck" ethnic group symbolised by the tight bronze rings they wear around their necks. Karen settlements are normally at a lower altitude than other hilltribes - approximately 500m above sea level and often reside in valley areas. They don't often move location and many villages have been in the same place for hundreds of years. They are skilled at weaving, with the women weaving sarongs and dresses while the men weave large baskets for rice or cloths storage.
The Akha are believed to originate from Southern China or Tibet. Linguistically they belong to the Tibeto-Burman group and they are related to the Lolo tribes of Yunnan (Southern China). The Hani tribe in Yunnan province is very similar to the Akha. Most Akha are to be found in Northern Burma, North Western Laos and Northern Thailand; which would support the view that they migrated southwards from Tibet and China. Different Akha groups can be distinguished by their costumes and headdress with different tribes having different patterns on their coats and different shaped headdresses.
The Akha prefer to live at an elevation of over 1,000m. They practice shifting cultivation growing dry rice, corn, vegetables, peppers and beans and also rearing of livestock. They believe in all kinds of spirits and village gates can be found at the entrance to every Akha village at both ends which is said to protect the village from the many spirits outside. In one house you will find the whole extended family with a divide separating the men and women. The husband is monogamous and married couples with also have a smaller house apart from the large family house.
The Hmong groups are found scattered throughout many countries, including China, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand and can also be divided into sub groups, which can be defined by their different styles and colours of clothing. Hmong families are male dominated and after marriage the bride moves into the husband's house, the Hmong are also known to have several wives. They prefer to set their villages at high altitudes of 1000-1200m and practice shifting cultivation, moving great distances looking for better land. They grow mainly dry rice and corn and vegetables and they worship their ancestors and many other spirits. The village priest and shaman are very important in the village and their ceremonies bare some resemblance to the Chinese culture.
The Lisu are thought to originate from Southern China (and probably from Tibet before that), they first came to Thailand and Myanmar approximately 80 years ago and can further be divided into two smaller groups. They are part of the Tibeto-Burman linguistic group and their culture is closely related to that of the Chinese. At Chinese New Year they also celebrate their New Year making offerings to ancestor spirits and their village guardian spirit. The women dress in stunning costumes such as coloured robes with thin coloured stripes around the neck and upper arms.
When a Lisu man marries there is always a dowry to be paid for the bride, marriage are normally allowed only outside the clan and they practise monogamy.
The Lahu are believed to have originated in Tibet and then migrated down to China, Laos, Burma and Thailand. They can be further sub-divided into many groups and belong to the Tibeto-Burman linguistic group, amongst them the dialect of the Lahu Na is recognised as standard. Lahu when translated means hunter and indeed they are great hunters, with the men going off into the forest sometimes for many days at a time to hunt. Clan doesn't play a large part in Lahu villages and the headman has the most power with rules of the village being decided through a consensus. The Lahu like to stay mobile and if one doesn't like the rules of one village they would easily move and find another, this isn't seen as a problem as the villages are all considered as one extended family.
The Yao (Mien) are very similar to the Hmong and form part of the Austro-Thai linguistic group. Their culture is similar to the Chinese celebrating the same New Year and they use Chinese characters to record traditional songs and legends. Many Yao can also speak Yunnanese or Mandarin, they are found in Guangxi, Yunnan and Guangdong provinces of China, as well as Vietnam, Laos, Burma and Thailand.
Yao households normally consist of an extended family and like the Hmong; Yao men are allowed to take more than one wife. In the past, the Yao were highly mobile, always on the lookout for better land. The Yao set their villages at a high altitude and will not be situated beneath another tribe. The women are skilled at needlework and embroidery, with the men being great silversmiths again like the Hmong.
The Katu group is found mainly in Vietnam but also across the Laos border in the Provinces of Sekong and Savanakhet, they live in mountainous areas and belong to the Mon-Khmer division of the Austro-Asiatic family. Women bear responsibility for the household and the upbringing of the children, and for much of the agrarian work. Men are the decision-makers and have the authority in the house hold.
Alak and Laven
Again part of the Mon-Khmer branch of the Austro-Asiatic family. They live on the mountain slopes at an altitude of around 600m. They practice slash and burn agriculture, and the Alak group can be found in the south of Laos around the Bolaven plateau which straddles straddling the provinces of Attapeu, Champasak, Sekong and Salavan.
Alex Aziz has been travelling and setting up tours in South East Asia since 2000 with vast experience and knowledge of many on and off the beaten places he now spends his time between the UK and Asia. A relaxing break takes him trekking along the Ho Chi Minh trail or kayaking the rivers of Laos http://www.xplore-asia.com


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Most pundits expect the U.S. — a 100-1 World Cup longshot — to be on a flight home from Brazil on June 27, the day after their third and final futile group game against Germany that will supposedly ensure an inexperienced American squad progresses no further.
Pessimistic Mexican fans don't hold that much more faith in El Tri's chances either, considering an anxious qualifying campaign, injuries and players with questionable form in the run-in to the tournament.
In comparison, five-time winners Brazil may be saddled with plenty of off-field issues, but that's not expected to affect their style of Samba soccer on home soil. The host nation is the heavy favorite to win yet another title when the World Cup begins live at 1 p.m. Thursday on ESPN when Brazil kicks off against Croatia.
So why are we bothering to watch if the outcome is all but a forgone conclusion?
American television ratings are expected to be higher than ever for a sport with a bigger domestic profile than ever while companies spend more than ever in an effort to catch a slice of the massive amounts of money being tossed around.
The World Cup is more than the world's largest sports event.
The culmination of a two-year qualifying process has come down to 32 participating teams playing 64 games over the next month in a global party.
But soccer is merely a vehicle for the nationalistic, cultural and ethnic pride the World Cup truly embodies.
The sport becomes a reflection of a nation's psyche, embodying the hopes of its people on a planet-wide stage. It is the most democratic of games, providing freedom for the oppressed and an emotional investment for the disenfranchised. And it has morphed into a worldwide celebration of popular culture, music and art seen through the lens of almost three dozen different countries.
An over-the-top assessment? Perhaps, but don't tell that to Iranians or Greeks seeking a respite from political or economic turmoil, for instance.
No other international event brings together so many people for so long united by a love for a deceptively simple, yet elegant game.
Tournament sponsors recently complained about the focus on corruption, crime, price-gouging, unfinished infrastructure, strikes and other forms of social protests that have dominated headlines in the last few weeks.
And a surprising number of Americans remain blissfully unaware of the World Cup's magnitude and its far-reaching influence.
But in a nation of immigrants, soccer remains one of the few mass media events in an increasingly fragmented cultural landscape.
There will be more and larger World Cup game viewing parties in Southern California than ever before.
Major League Soccer will mercifully close up shop for the next couple of weeks, aware that it cannot compete with the scope of the tournament.
And aided by the evolution and growth of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media, the World Cup will become more ubiquitous than ever before.
For all the organizational nightmares, social upheaval and plain old controversy surrounding numerous elements of the tournament, the World Cup will rise above it all if history is any guide.
The World Cup isn't really a destination. It's an unfolding journey of hope and triumph, fear and fanaticism, loyalty and camaraderie.
And the final month-long, drama-filled climax is about to begin.
You won't want to miss the party.
Even if Brazil will win it all anyway.
For more World Cup and local soccer news, read the 100 Percent Soccer blog at www.insidesocal.com/soccer.


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Two Sunday nights ago we began to address the theme of sexual purity, a plea for sexual purity and I want to continue that tonight. I would invite you to turn in your Bible to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, there are a number of texts and Scripture that could be selected for this particular subject, but this one is particularly comprehensive on the one hand and pointed on the other.
1 Thessalonians chapter 4, let me read you from verse 3 down through verse 8, "For this is the will of God, your sanctification that is that you abstain from sexual immorality. That each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity but in sanctification, consequently, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you."
In their book entitled, The AIDS Epidemic, two medical doctors Glenn Wood and John Dietrich have written the following paragraph and I quote, "A society spends the most time and energy once the basic necessities of life are satisfied on what it deems most important. In ancient Hebrew and even American Puritan writings one can hardly read a single paragraph without encountering a reference to God Almighty. What items have replaced God in our communications media? Only sex, money and self love satisfy the time and energy requirements for what is sacred in our culture, these are the gods of a new age."
They're right, daily in our society we are brought to the place where we are asked to bow to these gods. We are bombarded with this encroaching sexual idolatry in particular. Recently I looked through a particular day's edition of the Los Angeles Times and I noted a scantily clad girl advertising the body beautiful on every page of the first section. That is the god of this culture and that god uses these advertisings and everything else to seduce us into the worship of that false idol.
The sexual revolution of course has been successful, successful in the sense that the rebels have totally overthrown traditional Christian values and morals, and they've brought this nation down into a new theology, and it is the theology of the God of sexual immorality. The basic tenets of that theology can probably be summed up something like this, since people are basically good they will use sex as a way to please others. However that's not true, the misuse of sex doesn't do good to others it destroys.
Secondly, they philosophy since sex is only a biological function like eating, or drinking, or sleeping, it's a necessity therefore that must be satisfied and restrictions are foolish because this is instinctive. The fact of the matter is that sex run rampant like that is only to be justified if there is no God and there is no law.
Thirdly, they might suggest philosophizing about it that since casual sex is merely a form of entertainment or a way to have fun or pleasure, it should be enjoyed recreationally with anybody any time, and of course the truth is we know it leads to exploitation, guilt, shallowness, loneliness and the dissolution of all meaningful relationships.
Further, they might suggest, these who are the high priests of the new theology of the god of sexual immorality that fulfilling sexual desire is the goal of life. The average married person, according to the latest reports that I've read, the average married person engages in sexual activity three times a week for a total of eight minutes. You better have something more in your relationship, eight minutes isn't very long.
Fifthly, these people might say that instant pleasure is to be desired over delayed gratification. You need to take your moment of pleasure because that's probably all you're going to get so live for the moment like an existentialist.
Number six, good sexual relationships mean you have a good relationship, so let's just live together, enjoying our sexual relationship because that is the relationship, and when we don't enjoy that anymore we won't have to get a divorce.
Then the suggestion comes to us more recently, have safe sex so you don't get a disease or a baby, and if you do kill the baby. Sex is our god and we will kill for him, and of course we know the result of this, and I don't want to go on because it's not even very edifying to talk about it, but the result of all of this is a totally destroyed family, a totally destroyed society, a totally devastated people, this is such a devastating sin that God required the death penalty for its committal. Originally God said if anybody does this, if anybody sins in the sexual realm whether it's fornication, adultery, homosexuality, bestiality, they need to die. Sadly today not only is the culture engulfed in this and willingly so, but the church is tragically unwilling to deal with it even when it occurs in the church, the church has bought some of the lies of the culture.
The church is tolerant of this, doesn't want to deal with it, doesn't want to discipline. We have embraced the Erosof our time with tolerance and that is tragic because if the church isn't the conscience of culture, what is?
Our culture has been shaped to this way. I don't want to get too bogged down in philosophy and history but when I was in college I was fascinated by human thinking and so I had the opportunity to take some advanced philosophy courses to try to see if I could sort out the depravity of the human mind a little better. I found that the influence of Charles Darwin and Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud and Fredric Niechy and Bertrand Russell and in more modern times Margaret Sanger who is the founder of Planned Parenthood, Earnest Hemingway, Havloc Ellis, Margaret Meade, Alfred King, Masters & Johnson, Hugh Hefner, and all the rest have succeeded in producing an atheistic, hedonistic, pleasure mad, anti-family, homosexual, pornographic, perverted society and mix in some drugs and alcohol and you get the modern culture.
The church has, as I said, just gotten very comfortable with this. It isn't willing to deal with it. Oh we might preach against it but we really don't deal with it. I think our church is very unusual in that we enact church discipline, straight forwardly and publicly, very often for sins like these.
Now lest you think that this is purely an American phenomenon I want to take you back to 1 Thessalonians because I want you to know that it wasn't any different in Paul's day. If anything, the world in Paul's day might have been worse, prostitutes, concubines, mistresses, homosexuals, pedophiles, transvestites, temple harlots, adulterers, adulteresses, they were everywhere. The Word of God to the church in Thessalonica and to all the churches in Paul's day and in our day makes it very clear how God feels about this.
Paul expresses it so clearly in the text I just read to you. A little bit of background, they were new Christians in Thessalonica; obviously, they had been saved out of a perverse and godless lifestyle. As Paul begins a section here in this Epistle, a section of exhortations, he starts it in chapter 4, verse 3 he starts it with this dominating idolatry of his day which was the same, sexual immorality.
In fact, in Paul's day there was no shame associated with it, no shame associated with sexual conduct. These new Christians had come out of a very acceptable form of immorality, very acceptable kind of lifestyle, there was no public shame, so Paul needs to deal with the issue and he needs to deal with it on God's terms.
Three simple questions we're going to address here. Question number one is the what question, what is the command? Verse 3 and this is briefly reviewing, for this is the will of God, your sanctification, your separation from sin. What I mean by that is that you abstain from sexual immorality. That is the general overall command that overshadows all the rest of what he is going to say in this section. You must be sanctified, this is God's will. Sanctified means separated, set apart from this kind of sin, sexual immorality. There are a lot of other things you need to be separated from and he covers those all the way down to verse 28 as he ends this Epistle in chapter 5.
It is possible for Christians to commit sins of immorality, we know that. Definitely it is possible for true Christians to commit sins of immorality. The Corinthians did and they were believers. I thank my God, 1 Corinthians 1:4, "Always concerning you for the Grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus and in everything you were enriched in Him in all speech and all knowledge," and yet later in the book he speaks strongly to them about sexual immorality.
Chapter 5 is a rather blistering indictment against the immorality that is among you, it is actually reported there is immorality among you and such immorality does not even exist among the Gentiles, the pagans.
Chapter 6 he talks to them about being involved with a prostitute. Chapter 10 he warns them about the people of Israel who because of their adultery suffered the chastening of God, so the basic command here is to believers in Thessalonica as it was in Corinth; you need to abstain from sexual immorality. It wouldn't do any good to say that to a non-believer, it wouldn't do any good for God to will the sanctification of people who weren't justified; it wouldn't do any good for God to command unbelievers to act in a fashion that is absolutely impossible for them. He's talking to believers here.
You say well I thought fornicators and adulterers and homosexuals, sodomites and people like that couldn't enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Yes that's true if that's their habitual life pattern. 1 Corinthians 6 makes that abundantly clear that if your habitual life pattern is in that kind of conduct you are not a member of God's Kingdom because neither fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate or homosexuals, etc., shall inherit the Kingdom of God.
Galatians 5 essentially says the same thing, different words, but the Apostle Paul says, "The deeds of the flesh are evident, immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, etc., etc., envyings, drunkenness, carousing, and I have forewarned you those who practice as a pattern those things do not inherit the Kingdom of God. In fact you come to the end of the book of Revelation in chapter 21 and as you have the last word from God and God says, "The cowardly, the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, and immoral persons will have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone." Chapter 22, the very last chapter in the Bible, verse 15, "Outside of the Holy City, outside of the new heavens and the new earth are the dogs and the sorcerers, and the immoral persons, and the liars." If that is the habitual pattern of your life you're not a member of God's Kingdom. That doesn't mean that Christians can't, on occasion, fall into those sins. The basic command is total abstinence. Sex is designed for a man and a woman in a marriage, period. Sexual relations were designed for a man and a woman in a marriage. Total abstinence outside of that is God's will.
Now that's the what question, what is the command? The immediate question that comes is the how question. How can I obey that command? We're living in a corrupt world with all of its evil influences and so were they. You say, well I was converted out of a life pattern, in our church we have people who have come to Christ and they've come out of a very wicked sexual pattern prior to their conversion. How can I deal with that? We are being incessantly bombarded by the culture, we are living with people who expect to engage in sexual activity, we live in a sex crazed culture that literally worships immorality and exalts it and mocks marriage and faithfulness. Furthermore, not only do I have to fight that, not only does it come to me through all the media forms of music and movies, and television and whatever, and now of course the dreaded internet, but it comes to me through my own memories recycling the iniquities of the past.
How do I abstain and maintain the sanctification that God asks? I'm going to give you several principles, here they come, number one. Don't let your body control you, don't let your body control you. This is what Paul says in verse 4, "Each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor. Each one of you," talking to believers, "Needs to know how to possess." The right translation of that or the best translation of it is to gain mastery over, to control. What is it that we need to get control of? His own vessel, his own vessel for purposes of sanctification and honor to God. You need to know that's , and it is often used, that Greek verb, in reference to knowing how that is to having the knowledge and the skill necessary to accomplish a desired goal. Have enough knowledge of yourself so that you are skilled in gaining mastery over your own vessel.
Now some have suggested that vessel means wife but that doesn't really make any sense because what does gaining control over your wife have to do with sexual purity? They make that connection because the same term is , used for vessel in 1 Peter 3:7, there 1 Peter 3:7 says, "You husbands live with your wives in an understanding way as with a weaker vessel." But that is not a necessary parallel just because the same word is used in another passage doesn't necessarily mean that that's the interpretative key and its really not an accurate parallel because this is not just an issue for men to control their wives, this is an issue for women as well. Whatever needs to be controlled here is for all Christians.
To see a woman as simply an instrument to be controlled which would be what this text would be implying if you interpret it that way, that the whole idea of married life is to get control and master your wife as if she were a tool, is demeaning to women, making her simply some kind of tool for a man's gratification.
It would make nonsense out of verse 5, "Not in lustful passion." I mean if it's talking about your marriage why not. Nothing wrong with having some kind of desire and passion for your wife, you're not supposed to be passionless, it just makes no sense to take the word and use it of women. It is used of all kinds of things; it's sort of a generalized word for tools and utensils and metaphorically for people.
It's used that way in Acts 9, 2 Timothy 2, 2 Corinthians 4:7, but here I think it can only be referred to one thing and that is your body, and that's the way it was used in some Rabbinic sources. The discussion here is not about marriage and how one is to manage his wife, it's about sexual purity, and everybody needs to know how to take of his body, controlling his body for holiness. That's the essential issue here. Know yourself well enough to know what is necessary for you to maintain mastery over your own body so that it is used in matters of sanctification and honor, that's the issue and it goes both ways.
If you're going to make , meaning the wife, then in this passage it's not limited to her and it could be reversed and it would say that a woman needs to gain mastery over her husband. It can't mean that, that would be contrary to the headship principles of Scripture. It's a simple concept; I don't know why people get confused, it simply means know how to handle your body. Get control of it, you know yourself; you know what you can expose yourself and what you cannot expose yourself too. You know where to go and with whom to be and what imbibe in order to make life more difficult. You know, I trust you know how to avoid devastating temptation.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 12, "All things are lawful for me," says Paul, "But not all things are profitable, all things are lawful for me but I will not be mastered by anything. I don't want to ever lose control." Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:27, "I buffet my body," it's the same spelling as buffet but it's a different idea, some of you are buffeting your body, that's not what this means. I buffet, that's one of those quirky English words that can mean two utterly differently things, one means to indulge your body the other means to beat it. "I buffet my body and make it my slave." Why? Because if I don't do that I might end up disqualified by sin.
So the first principle, and it's so very basic, is don't let your body control you. You exercise from your mind the control. Now you say well how do I do that? Well let me take you through a very simple explanation of that. Self control is the issue here. Developing self control is critical, an undisciplined person in general is going to have a hard time getting their spiritual life under control, but you have to do that. Romans 6:12, "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts. Do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness but present yourselves to God as though alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God." I think it starts there.
I think it starts with the recognition that everything about me spiritually and physically belongs to whom? To God. It is that affirmation, I am not my own, I have been bought with a price, my soul and spirit and body are God's. I cannot, therefore, take the members of my body and let sin reign over them so that they are presented as instruments of unrighteousness. I belong to God, everything I am belongs to God, and I must obey my King.
In chapter 7, verse 5, "While we were in the flesh," Paul says in Romans 7, "The sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death." Before you were a Christian, sinful passion ran your life and if you're not a Christian now it runs your life now. I'm not shocked at the way the world is going, I mean that's the way we would expect it to go because these people in the flesh, in an unredeemed condition, driven by sinful passions are simply doing what their sin dictates and bearing fruit that kills. But we have died and risen to new life, and with that new life came a new Lord and a new master. It starts with the recognition that I am not my own, I am bought with a price, I belong to God.
There's a second thing. Not only do I have to be aware of my new identity and to whom I belong, but I need to understand the power of the Holy Spirit in my life. Galatians 5:16, "This I say walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, the Spirit against the flesh, these are in opposition to one another so that you may not do the things that you please." That's what Paul was saying in Romans 7 when he said, "I do what I don't want to do and don't do what I want to do." "But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law; you've been literally liberated from the consequence of the law and the power of sin." He is saying, "Walk by the Spirit. Conduct your life in line with the Holy Spirit." The key to self control then is to understand to whom I belong and to yield the control of my life to the Holy Spirit. We don't have time to get into all the nuances of that. It's sufficient to say when you're a Christian the Holy Spirit takes up residence in your heart, you become the temple of the Spirit of God, He is yours, God plants Him in your life as it were, He is there, that is the work of Christ and the wonderful work of baptizing you into the body of Christ, at the same time the Spirit of God takes up residence in your life and He becomes the Divine agent that produces Godliness and sanctification in your life, and the key is to walk, that's a word of daily conduct consistently with the Spirit of God.
Now the question comes up how do I do that? How do I know what the Spirit wants? He doesn't talk to me, He doesn't say anything to me, how do I walk in line with the Spirit? Well the Spirit will give you the power to do what you otherwise could not do, but in order for the Spirit to do that there's a companion passage to Galatians 5 and it's in Colossians 3, it's also a companion to Ephesians 5, but let me just read it to you it says Colossians 3:16, "Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you." Now if you compare that with Ephesians where it says, "Be filled with the Spirit," this becomes a parallel statement. We know that because it says in Ephesians 5, "Be filled with the Spirit and if you do that you will admonish one another, you will sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, you'll be thankful and wives will behave as they should, and husbands as they should, and children as they should, and parents as they should, and servants or slaves as they should, and so forth and so on, and masters the same."
You have the same sequence of application in Ephesians 5, only the statement is be filled with the spirit, here the statement is, "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly." Those then are parallel truths; being controlled by the Spirit is the same as having the word dwelling in you richly." The difference is this; you must know the truth because the truth is the will of the Spirit. The truth is the mind of the Spirit as it is the mind of Christ, the mind of God, and than knowing the truth, being convinced of the truth, being committed to the truth, the Spirit provides the power for you to obey the truth.
I'll tell you really honestly, there is no way in your Christian life that you will be able to fulfill this command unless you understand that you must exercise control over your body and your body not exercise control over you. You cannot respond simply to every whim of the flesh, no matter how excited the flesh may become by the environment you're in. In order to do that you must gain control, in order to gain control you have to change your thinking. In order to change your thinking, you have to fill your mind with first of all the reality that you're not your own, you belong to God, He is your King, and your body and every part of your body is to be used as an instrument of righteousness. You must realize that to continue to think like that you must fill your mind with the truth of the Word of God so that that controls your thinking and in that controlling your thinking you literally free the Spirit of God to empower you from within to live according to the Word of God.
You can gain control, you're expected too, but it flows out of a knowledge of who you belong too and that every part of you is for the instrumentation of righteousness. It flows out of the reality that you know the Word of God and it controls how you think, and than the Spirit of God is released to empower you in the triumph over temptation, but it starts with having your mind and heart dominated by the great spiritual truths.
I think there's something else I need to throw in here. Having said all of that, you need to be smart enough to avoid those kinds of people, those kinds of places, those kinds of experiences which can culminate in sexual sin. It doesn't do you any good to know all of these right patterns on the positive side, and than to expose yourselves to all kinds of input that corrupts your thinking. Don't play with your desires, don't play with those emotions. Once you have begun to feel the things that God has designed, to culminate in sexual activity you are out of control. I'll say that again; once you have begun to feel the things that God has designed to culminate in sexual relations in a marriage you are out of control.
It's the undisciplined life, it's when you let your body tell you what you'll do and what you'll think. You can't feed it, you can't pamper it. I wish we had the time, and maybe we can do that next week, Proverbs chapter 2, Proverbs chapter 5, Proverbs chapter 7 warns the young man to stay out of the way of those who will put him in a position of severe temptation. Stay away from whatever plays with your sexual emotions. Whatever starts you down the path which God designed to culminate in the intimacy of marriage, whatever moves you on that path is beyond where God wants you to go.
The capper on the thought here, back to 1 Thessalonians, is that you are to conduct yourself in sanctification, separation that means, and honor Holiness and respect, Holiness and respect go together by the way. When you're pure you honor your body as God's instrument. You honor your body as a vessel of righteousness. You honor the Lord who is your King. You honor the church of whom you are a member. When you are sanctified you are honorable. Control your body so that it is holy and brings respect to the Lord, to His church.
It's as if to say that when you engage yourself in sexual sin you not only dishonor your body which is to be an instrument of righteousness, you would dishonor the body of Christ because you bring your pollution into that inseparable, indivisible, spiritual unity. Most of all you dishonor the Lord like David after his adultery said "Against thee, the only have I sinned," Psalm 51.
So the question is never this, and you have to tell this to people all the time. The question is never what can I do and get away with it? What can I do and not go "all the way"? How far can I go? That's not the question. The question is how can I honor my body so that it honors the Lord and it honors His redeemed church? That's a completely different question. You should never be asking the question how close can I get without getting burned? How far can I go without getting caught? How far can I go and not totally lose it, lose control? That's not the question, the question is how can I separate from sin so totally that I bring upon this vessel which is an instrument of righteousness honor? That I bring to the church of Jesus Christ with whom I am indivisibly connected, honor, and that most of all that I bring to the dear Lord of the church? Honor.
So the first principle; very simple, don't let your body control you. It's a matter of self disciple. You can't do it in a vacuum, it happens when you understand and you have the conviction that you're not your own, and that your body and every part of your body is designed by God to be an instrument of righteousness and when that is the dominating thought in your mind and heart, and when your thinking is controlled by the knowledge of the Word of God, you've hid it in your heart that you might not sin, and therefore you have given the Spirit of God the opportunity to energize that virtue and that Holiness.
Self control; I don't think this - it may start with a sort of a monumental sort of cataclysmic decision that you make somewhere in your life, but I think in order to maintain that it is the constant faithful participation and the truth of God's Word, it is the constant day in, day out, Sunday in, Sunday out saturation of God's Divine truth being poured into your mind and poured into your heart so that your thinking is literally controlled by the Word of God and your body is in submission to the truth you know, and therefore to the Spirit of God who is energizing that truth in your life.
So again I say the question is not how far can I go and get away with it? How close can I get and not get burned? The question is how can I master my body so that it is separated from sin and brings honor to itself as an instrument of righteousness to the church to which it is connected and to the Lord of the church which it represents?
Second principle; control your body is number one, number two don't act like pagans, don't act like pagans. This is the old "everybody's doing it" thing, not you. Verse 5, "Not in lustful passions like the pagans," the , the Gentiles who don't know God, the rampant uncontrolled desire, the passion for sexual gratification on any terms and on every terms, belongs to paganism.
Now those people knew exactly what Paul was saying, exactly. The Roman Emperor at that time we are told in many historical sources that people had wives to do the laundry and cook, they had concubines for sexual gratification; in addition to that there were prostitutes in the street. In addition to that the temples of false gods were filled with prostitutes; it was a great way to attract a crowd. The idea was that when you engage in sexual relationship with a high priestess, which was what those temple prostitutes were, you therefore are literally engaging the deity himself, the idea that you touched as it were the god through drunkenness, you touched the god through sexual immorality, you touched the god through the orgies that occurred in those terrible pagan temples.
You're different he says, the rampant uncontrolled desire and passion for sexual gratification that belongs to the unregenerate shouldn't be controlling your life, "Not in lustful passion." The word passion here is pathos, its excited emotion, its desire that has taken over and is driving behavior, an overwhelming, compelling feeling. Pathoscan be good; I mean we can feel pathosfor someone who is suffering where we're literally excited emotionally and uncontrollably fall into emotions about their sad condition, but here He's talking about lustful pathoswhere passion has taken over the control, where emotion is dictating. It's used here in a bad sense as it is in Romans chapter 1, verse 26 and Colossians 3:5.
Then the word epithumia, lustful, that is a word that really means out of control craving. Lust that feeds the passion, totally out of control, this is pagan. You can't do that, you can't follow the physical desire and wild uncontrollable passion that the pagans engage in. Its unthinkable Paul says to the these believers in Thessalonica; I don't care what your past life was like.
Galatians 5:24, "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passion and desires." You can't act like a non-Christian; they act that way because they don't have a choice. It's true; well don't they have immoral choices, yeah but they can only choose one kind of sin or another. Even their good is bad good, because it's motivated by something less then the glory of God. It is by ignorance that the unregenerate heathens sink so eagerly to such sins so that those who know God should never fall to such a shameful level. This is an immense grief. I think to anybody who has any love for the church and love for the things of God, to see Christian people behaving like unregenerate people, like non-Christians, like unbelievers is a shame, it is a shame to Christ whose name you bear.
We expect pagans to sink. We expect them to go the path of Romans 1. We expect them to know God and glorify Him not as God, we expect Him to become vain in their imaginations, empty in their thinking. We expect them to consider themselves wise when they're really fools. We expect them to create their own gods and than bow down to them. We expect them to sink to sexual immorality, Romans 1:24, "Homosexual immorality," Romans 1:26, "Reprobate mind," Romans 1:28. We expect them to act like the people on the Jerry Springer show or any one of those, we expect that. We're not shocked. That's what was going on in Thessalonica, that's what was going on in Corinth. The unsaved don't have any capacity to stop the slide. They're in ignorance. Some of them admittedly are restrained to one degree or another, I'm not saying they're all the same but they're restrained to one degree or another by a conscience that's been informed perhaps by religion or by morality. Even Muslims are a little hesitant to commit certain immoral sins because they fear that Allah may send them to hell.
There are certain restraints but that doesn't change the passions. The unconverted people are driven by their bodily passion, driven by their evil desires. But we know God, we have been transformed, we have become new creations, we're not like them. 1 Corinthians 6:15, "Your bodies are members of Christ. Shall I take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot?" That's unthinkable. Pagans have no thought of virtue and holy conduct and really truly glorifying God unless it's some false deity or some false conception of God. They're rather driven by their passions right into hell. You can't act like that. You who are Christ bride cannot be a harlot, cannot shame the name of Christ and spurn His love and grace. You can't act like the world acts. That is such a dishonor to God and to Christ, to His Kingdom.
Well thirdly, don't let your body control you. Secondly, don't act like the godless pagans, thirdly this is really important, don't take advantage of others. Verse 6, "That no man transgress," that's go over the line, "Cross the line and defraud his brother in the matter." Don't go over the line, who set the line? Guess; God set the line and He set in His law. "Don't exceed the limits," if you are using that Greek term in an athletic way you'd say don't go out of bounds, don't go too far, don't go where you're forbidden to go. What do you mean by that? Even defrauding his brother in the matter; defraud is a very interesting word. It means to selfishly, greedily gain something at another's expense, that's exactly what it means. It means to selfishly, greedily gain something at another's expense, . It means to take advantage of someone for personal gain and personal fulfillment.
The matter, what's the matter here? What does he mean? Don't defraud his brother in the matter; well what's the matter that He's talking about? What subject is His subject? Sexual sin; what does He mean? Don't take advantage of someone else for your own sexual fulfillment. Don't use someone.
Young people you need to be aware of the fact, and it's sad to think about, but there are Christian young people who would use you on occasion for their own gratification. If a young man says he loves you and therefore he wants to fulfill himself at your expense that's not love that's robbery, that's plunder, that's lust, that's defrauding, that's greedily gaining something at your expense. That goes on all the time. This is very straight forward and practical truth here. Don't ever let anybody take advantage of you and don't you ever take advantage of someone else.
I'll tell you how serious this is, Matthew 18. Matthew 18 verse 6 says, "If you're thinking of leading one of these little ones who believe in Me," that's a believer, "Into sin you'd be better off with a millstone or hang it around your neck and you will drown in the sea." Next time you go out with a young person on a date and you become tempted to defraud, to plunder, to rob his or her purity, remember the words of Jesus, "You would be better off drowned then to lead one of these little ones who believe in Me into sin."
Married people having affairs with other married people that is plunder, as the Old Testament says, when the Prophet confronted the sin that's taking some other man's sheep. That's stealing for sexual gratification from another person. That's unthinkable that you would do that to one of Christ's own, that you would do that to a brother, meaning a brother or a sister, in the family of God. Don't take advantage of somebody else. Don't plunder somebody's purity. Don't rob their virtue; don't take someone else's wife or husband.
Well, this is pretty insightful. This is what happens. So, the command is clear and so is the instruction as to how. Number one, don't let your body control you and I showed you the ways to gain that triumph. Number two; don't act like godless pagans driven by lustful passion. Number three, don't advantage of others.
"If you look not on your own things, but the things of others, if you consider other better than yourself." Boy, that would be - now gals, if you're looking for a husband, that's the kind of guy you want. Guys if you're looking for a wife, the kind you want is one who wouldn't ever take any advantage for self gratification, but would only desire what is loftiest and purest for you.
Well at this point one question remains in this text, and this is the why question. What is the command? How? We gave you the principles. Why? Somebody's going to say, well that's fine why should I obey this? Three compelling reasons. Reason number one, because of God's vengeance.
Middle of verse 5, why should I do this? Because the Lord is what? What does it say? "The Lord is the avenger in all these things." That is one strong statement. Deuteronomy 32:35 established it, "Vengeance is mine, I'll repay." Divine retribution, God punishes sin. "Let marriage," Hebrews 13:4, "Let marriage be honorable, keep it pure, keep that marriage bed undefiled for fornicators and adulterers God will judge," God will judge.
What kind of judgment? I suppose we'll never be able to know in every case. God's got a lot of ways to judge at His disposal and He can use any one that He chooses or any number that He would choose, but the promise is that a Holy God is going to judge.
Could you pray this prayer over your life? This is the prayer of the Psalmist in Psalm 94, "O Lord, God of vengeance, God of vengeance, shine forth! Rise up, O Judge of the earth." Do you feel confident enough that you could pray that prayer and not get hit in the vengeance? Well what would the vengeance be? It could be venereal disease, sexual sins, we well know, 1 Corinthians 6:18 says, "You sin against the body," and probably has reference to that. It could be a devastated marriage where the physical relationship and the personal relationship and the intimacy is destroyed, it could end up in divorce. It could be temporal chastening by disease, negative circumstances, the absence of blessing, trials, trouble, could be death, could be many things, many things.
He doesn't tell us. God has immense latitude in retaliating against those who defy His law. Remember He's talking to believers here; He's talking to believers here. God is the avenger in all these things. What are these things? The same as the matter that we saw earlier in verse 6, sexual sin, sexual sins. Sexual sin disregards God's law, disregards God's holiness, ignores and spurns His will, defies His commands, rejects His love, flaunts His grace and mercy, it's selfish, it's ungrateful and God is the avenger. Avenger means one who enacts or exacts judgment. The continual pattern of sexual sin will bar a person from heaven and consign his eternal soul to torment in Hell. An occasional sinful act in the life of a believer will bring about the vengeance of God in this life; chastening.
The dynamics of redemptive grace have delivered the Christian from a life of unbroken impurity. We've been washed, we've been sanctified so that sexual sin is unnecessary and it is inconsistent and it is intolerable to God. When it appears, He has every right to act in Holy vengeance.
Listen to Colossians 3:5, "Consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire." There's a good list, just consider the members of your earthly body as dead to those things. Why? Because verse 4 says, "Christ is our life." Those things in verse 5, "Immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, greed, it's on account of these things," verse 6 says, "That the wrath of God will come, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them, but now you also put them all aside."
That's the past; it's now unnecessary, inconsistent, and intolerable to God. For a believer to commit sexual sin puts him in a place of having to give an account to the avenger. By the way, back to our text Paul says, "This is not a new warning." He says at the end of verse 6, "Just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you." I mean this is an issue folks, it has to be addressed. He's saying, "When I came and started the church there, I told you about this. This isn't something cute. This isn't something flippant. This isn't something shallow. This isn't something to be laughed at. This is something solemn." Paul was trying to get them to focus on a fear deepening reality. Sure he wants you to delight in God, but also to fear God. Don't take your sins lightly, God doesn't. If you do take them lightly, you're more easily led into them. God is the avenger. Poor David felt the vengeance of God, his saliva dried up, his blood flow was restricted, his body was in agony until he repented.
There's a second reason, not only because of God's vengeance, but because of God's purpose, because of God's purpose. Look at verse 7, "For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but for sanctification," or, "But to live in the realm of sanctification." "God has not called us," this is an effectual call to salvation as always in the Epistles. Every time you see call it is the effectual call of God to salvation, and He's simply saying, "God saved us to be pure, not impure. The very nature of God's calling is that He called us out of sin into righteousness. He justified us and sanctified us and that's a calling to Holy purity. He called us to holiness, He called us to purity, He called us to sinless life.
In fact, we've been joined to Him as one spirit," 1 Corinthians 6:17. "It's not for impurity, uncleanness, filthiness. God didn't call you to be filthy; He called you to be Holy. He called you and brought you into the state of sanctification, into the realm of sanctification, into the sphere of separation." That justification can never be separated from sanctification. The call to salvation can never be separated from the result of that call and that is sanctification, sexual sin is absolutely inconsistent with who we are. So we are to obey because of God's vengeance, we are to obey because of God's calling. Thirdly, we are to obey because of God's Spirit.
We could spend a whole message on this. Verse 8, "Consequently, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you." Somebody's going to say, "I don't like this. I don't like this. This is crowding me. I'm not willing to deal with these issues." But he says in verse 8, "Don't complain to me, call heaven. I didn't invent this. You're not rejecting man, but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you." Again this tells us he's talking to believers.
This is introducing a conclusion. There's a Greek word used here, , which introduces a conclusion. It's used only here in Hebrews 12:1. The conclusion is if you reject if you nullify, if you make void, if you annul, if you disregard, if you despise this, you don't have an argument with a human teacher folks. You don't have an argument with a religious system you are having an argument with God. "It is God who gives," that verb is a timeless Greek idea. God is the giver of a timeless gift the Holy Spirit, and He gave you the Holy Spirit and He put the Holy Spirit in you.
1 Corinthians 6 says it as well as it's said anywhere in Scripture, "Do you not know your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you're not your own? You have been bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body." To sin is to grieve the Holy Spirit; to sin is to quench the Holy Spirit; to sin is to do despite to the Holy Spirit. To live in sexual sin while being the temple of the Spirit of God is unthinkable. Sexual sin violates the Spirit's work, it violates the Son's work and it violates the Father's work. Not only did God call you to sanctification, but He gave you His Holy Spirit for the purpose of producing through obedience to the Word Holiness and sexual sin ignores and rebels against the Holy Spirit.
Well what is the command? Purity. Sex was designed for a man and a woman in a marriage. How do we do that? By gaining the mastery over our bodies so that they always pursue what is separate from sin and bring honor to that instrument of righteousness to the church, and to Christ Himself.
Secondly, we do not behave driven by lustful passion like pagans who do not know God and who will be judged for not knowing God. As 2 Thessalonians 1:8 says, "Retribution from heaven on those who don't know God."
Thirdly we don't defraud one another. That is, plundering, robbing, and raping their purity for our own fulfillment. These are the things that restrain us.
What motivates that? The Lord is the avenger. The purpose of God is very different, very opposite of that, for which purpose He has given us His Holy Spirit. What a great passage and you see how Paul just pulls it all together here.
This is a challenge, but you can't go before God and say, "God, you don't understand. I live in America in the 1990's." Yeah well God going to say, "I've got a few spirits of just men made perfect hanging around Me right now who used to live in Corinth and a few others who lived in Thessalonica." There's a lot of people who are going to occupy heaven who were saved out of a life of prostitution and a life of sexual immorality and a life of sodomy and homosexuality and they're going to be some transformed and changed pedophiles and transvestites and adulterers and fornicators, and that's how it is in the church of Jesus Christ everywhere. When the Lord justifies, the Lord gives the grace to sanctify doesn't He? He calls us to the standard of holiness.
We're here as a church to help. I think a lot of churches don't help because they don't teach the Word of God with power and conviction, because they don't create an environment in which we take seriously the truth of God, because they don't bring lives against other lives to produce accountability and care and mutual concern and stimulation to godliness. We're here to help. We're here to help you to deal with those issues in your life, to confront those issues, to gain triumph and victory by feeding you the Word of God, by providing every resource we can, by providing relationships that stimulate the right things in your life and lead you down the right path. But in the end, it's your own heart and whether or not the Word dwells richly there so that the Spirit is turned loose to empower you to fulfill that Word to bring that sanctification and honor which God desires. Join me in prayer.
Father, much more could be and probably should be said about this, but we understand Your Word. The issue probably is not that we need more information even though we could say much more. It's not a matter of more information; You have given us what we need, even in this passage. Lord the issue is our own hearts. May we guard our hearts for out of it are the issues of life. May we have as the driving passion of our hearts to fulfill Your will which is our sanctification and holiness. Make Your will, our will, and as we mature in the knowledge of Christ and as we grow stronger in Your grace, may we become more and more fixed on wanting what You want until our evil desires are overcome by the weight of the longing for holy things. We need forgiveness for our failures, for our sins, for our impurities, we know that that is in Christ, granted to us.
Give us victory over sin, give us penitent hearts. Help us when we fail, to run back to the path of virtue. Give us a deepening love for Your truth and may we feast on it every day so that it dominates our thinking, so that we view everything around us through Your eyes and Your mind, the mind of Christ which is ours because we've been given the Word, and lead us in the path of righteousness for Your own glory. We are, Father, Your children, we want what pleases You, we are in need of Your grace and Your mercy and Your forgiveness and Your strength and we know all of that is at our disposal if we are but obedient. Help us to pursue the truth, choose the right people, avoid the wrong experiences, and fulfill Your will even our sanctification and You will receive all the glory and the praise in Your Son's name, Amen.
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Why We Can't Pump Faster
According to the Oil Shock model, to first order the rate of depletion occurs proportionately to the amount of reserve available. Overall, this number has remained high and fairly constant (I consider 5% per year high for any non-renewable resource). It takes effort to extract it substantially faster than this, but because of oil's value -- they don't call it black gold for nothing -- we never have had a reason not to extract, and so it has maintained its rate at a steady level, OPEC notwithstanding. And because the extraction rate has never varied by orders of magnitude, we have little insight into what we have in store for the future. In other words, can we actually pump faster?
The following proportionality equation forms the lowest-level building block of the Shock model.
dU/dt = -k U(t)Any shocks come about by perturbing the value of k in the equation. Painfully stating the obvious, the values of k can go up or down. Up to now the perturbations have usually spiked downward, usually from OPEC decisions. In particular, during the oil crises of the 1970's, the model showed definite glitches downward corresponding to temporary reductions in the extraction rate imposed to member countries by the cartel (of which formed the original motivation and basis of the shock model).
The characteristic solution of the first-order equation to delta function initial conditions derives to a damped exponential.
U(t) = U0 e-ktwith extractive production following as the derivative of U(t) (the negative sign indicates extraction):
P(t) = -dU(t)/dt = k * U0 e-kt = k*U(t)This gets back to the original premise: "rate of depletion occurs proportionately to the amount of reserve available".
As Khebab has pointed out via the Hybrid Shock Model (HSM), this gives the behavior that production always decreases, unless additional reserves get added (the extrapolation of future reserves is the key to HSM). And if we reside near the backside of a peak and without any newly-discovered additive reserves, it will go only one way ... down.
Yet we know that plateauing of the peak will likely occur, at least at the start of any detectable decline. This will invariably come about from an increase in extraction from reserves. According to the shock model, this only increases if k increases. We can model this straightforwardly:
dU/dt = -(k + ct) U(t)Regrouping terms to integrate:
dU/U = -(k + ct)dtthis results in
ln(U) - ln(U0) = -(kt + ct2/2)
U = U0 e-(kt + ct2/2)
P(t) = (k + ct)* U0 e-(kt + ct2/2)
Notice how this gives a momentary plateau that soon gets subsumed by the relentless extractive force.
Instead of a 2nd order increase, we can try adding an exponential increase in extraction rate:
dU/U = -(k + a*ebt)dt
ln(U) - ln(U0) = -(kt + a*ebt/b)
The solution to this results in a variation of the Gompertz equation:
U = U0 e-(kt + a*ebt/b)
P(t) = (k+ a*ebt)U0 e-(kt + a*ebt/b)
The uptick of the plateau has now become more pronounced. Overgeneralizing, "we" can now "dial-in" the extension of the plateau "supply" by "adjusting" the extraction rate at an accelerating rate. I place air quotes around these terms because I have a feeling that (1) know one knows the feasibility of improved extractive technology and (2) it will eventually hit a hard downslope. Under the best circumstances we may prolong the plateau somewhat.
Conversely, assuming the conditions of a non-rate limited supply, oil producers can increase their output at the whim of political decisions. No one really understands the extent of this strategy; the producers who consider oil as a cash cow will not intentionally limit production, while those who emulate OPEC cartel practices will carefully meter output to meet some geopolitical aims. In this case, shareholders demanding the maximization of profit do not play a role.
So, what is the downside of increasing the extraction rate?
Answer: The downside is the downslope. Quite literally, upping the extraction rate under a limited supply makes the downslope that much more pronounced. The Gompertz shows a marked asymmetry that more closely aligns to exponential rise and collapse than the typical symmetric Hubbert curve.
A while back I discussed the possibility of reaching TOP (see The Overshoot Point) whereby we keep trying to increase the extraction rate until the reserve completely dries up and the entire production collapses. The following curves give some pre-dated hypothetical curves for TOP. The graph on the right shows the extractive acceleration necessary to maintain a plateau. At some point the extraction rate needs to reach ridiculous levels to maintain a plateau, and if we continue with only a linear rate of increase it starts to give and the decline sets in. Clearly, this approach won't sustain itself. And if we stop the increase completely, the production falls precipitously (see the Exponential Growth + Limit curve above).
In summary, this part of the post essentially covers the same territory as my initial TOP discussion from a few years ago, but I tried to give it some mathematical formality that I essentially overlooked for quite a while.
Do we ever see the Gompertz curve in practice? I venture to guess that yes we have. Not a pleasant topic, but we should remind ourselves that fast developing extinction events may show Gompertz behavior. Oil depletion dynamics would play out similarly to sudden extinction dynamics, if and only if we assume that oil production immediately succeeded discovery and the extraction rate then started to accelerate. Then when we look at an event like passenger pigeon population (where very limited dispersion occurs), the culling production increases rapidly and then collapses as the population can't reproduce or adapt fast enough.
As a key to modeling this behavior, we strip out dispersion of discovery completely, and then provide a discovery stimulus as a delta function. For passenger pigeons the discovery occurred as a singular event along the Eastern USA during colonial times. The culling accelerated until the population essentially became extinct in the late 1800's.
To verify this in a more current context, I decided to look at the vitally important worldwide phosphate production curve. Bart Anderson at the Energy Bulletin first wrote about this last year and he provided some valuable plots courtesy of his co-author Patrick Déry. At that time, I thought we could likely do some type of modeling since the production numbers seemed so transparently available. Gail at TOD provided an updated report courtesy of James Ward which rekindled my interest in the topic. Witness that the search for phosphate started within a few decades of the discovery of oil in the middle 1800's. Therefore one may think the shape of the phosphate discovery curve might also follow a logistic like curve. But I contend that this does not occur because of accelerating extraction rates of phosphate leading to more Gompertz-like dynamics.
The first plot that provides quite a wow factor comes from phosphate production on the island of Nauru by way of Anderson and Déry.
Note that the heavy dark green line that I added to the set of curves follows a Gompertz function with an initial stimulus at around the year 1900, and an exponential increase after that point. The total reserve available defines the peak and subsequent decline. The long uptake and rapid decrease both show up much better with Gompertz growth than with the HL/Logistic growth. This does not invalidate the HL (of which Dispersive Discovery model plays a key role), but it does show where it may not work as well.
Remember that all the phosphate on that island essentially became "discovered" as a singular event in 1900 (not hard to imagine for the smallest independent republic in the world). Since that time, worldwide fertilizer production/consumption has increased exponentially reaching values of 10% growth per year before leveling off to 5% or less per year. Google
"rate of fertilizer consumption" to find more evidence.
As a result, fertilizer trade increased from about 2 million tons in 1950 to about 40 million tons in 1986.Over this period, this rate compounds to 9% annually, clearly an exponential increase which menas that the phosphate component of fertilizer increased as well.
Then if you consider that most easily accessible phosphate discoveries occurred long ago, the role of Gompertz type growth becomes more believable1. No producer had ever really over-extracted the phosphate reserves in the early years, as we would have had no place to store it, yet the growth continued as the demand for phosphate for fertilizer increased exponentially. So as the demand picked up, phosphate companies simply depleted from the reserves until they hit the diminishing return part of the curve. The producers can essentially pull phosphates out of the reserves as fast as they wanted, while oil producers became the equivalent of drinking a milkshake from a straw, as sucking harder does not help much.
For worldwide production of phosphates, applying the Gompertz growth from non-dispersive discoveries gives a more pessimistic outlook than what James Ward calculated. The following figure compares Ward's Hubbert Linearization against an eyeballed Gompertz fit. Note that both show a similar front part of the curve but the Gompertz declines much more rapidly on the backside. The wild production swings may come about from the effects of a constrained supply, something quite familiar to those following the stock market recently and the effects of constrained credit on speculative outlook.
So we have the good news and the bad news. First, the good news: oil production does not follow the Gompertz curve as of yet and we may not ever reach that potential given the relative difficulty of extracting oil at high rates. The fact that we have such a high dispersion in oil discoveries also means that the decline becomes mitigated by new discoveries. As for the bad news: easily extractable phosphate may have hit TOP. And we have no new conventional sources. And phosphate essentially feeds the world.
Read the rest of Ward's post for some hope:
Perhaps the best way to frame the debate from here is to suggest that, like oil, the world has been endowed with a given quantity of "easy" phosphorus (e.g. rich island guano deposits in places like Nauru) that can be – and have been – mined quite rapidly, as well as a larger endowment of lower-grade phosphate rock. While the easy phosphate has passed its peak, the low-grade phosphate should be considered separately. Figure 3 shows an example forecast where the total area under both curves (equal to RURR) is 24.3 billion tonnes, but the "easy" phosphorus (purple) is 9 billion tonnes as in Figure 2. Assuming the production history is mostly related to easy phosphorus, the fitting parameters (a and k) for the "hard" phosphorus cannot be established. Therefore, the height and timing of the secondary peak are unpredictable.
1 For a quick-and-dirty way to gauge discovery events, I used Google to generate a histogram. I describe this technique here and here. For phosphates, the histogram looks like this:
Note the big spike in discoveries prior to 1900; recent large discoveries remain rare. Prospectors have long ago sniffed out most new discoveries.
Sulfur Gompertz, used in fertilizer production as well:
from http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2002/of02-298/of02-298.pdf, ref courtesy of TOD.


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Character creation
* Use the latest White Box rules (PDF link)
By-the-book, with these changes:
* Max hit points at first level
* Fighters get a +1 BHB at first level
* Keep encumbrance simple, as per the rules, assume your 'standard' equipment weighs 10 lbs., to this add any armor and weapon weight and any coins at 10 per pound
* Fighters only get +1 to-hit and damage (melee or hand-hurled weapons) for a STR of 15+, all classes get -1 to-hit/dmg for STR of 6-, and +/- 20lbs carry capacity for the same values.
* A DEX of 13 or higher gives anyone +1 to-hit with missile weapons, 8 or less is -1 to-hit.
* Spell-casters get an adjustment of +/- 1 to the target's saving throw vs. spells, when it applies, for INT (magic-users) or WIS (clerics) of 15+ or 6-
* Holmes scroll rules - M-Us and Clerics can create scrolls of spells they know for 100gp per spell level and 1 week's labor
* M-Us begin play with a spell book containing all 1st level spells. Anything else must be found or bought. Clerics do not have spellbooks, they just pray for spells each day.
* Dwarves can see in the dark up to 60 feet, assuming no other light source brighter than moonlight is nearby.
* All players speak common. Clerics also speak their alignment language (law or chaos), which is more of a limited language used for religious ceremony. Other languages as per the rules, including the additional language for every point of INT above 10. I'll get a list you can choose from if needed.
* Halflings of average or higher intelligence (9+) can speak Gnome and Elvish.
* Bind wounds: Any character can bind wounds of another after a combat. This cures 1d4 HP, but can only be done once per day per PC.
* 0 HP is unconscious, death at -level HP unless another player binds wounds immediately after combat.
* MUs can use the dagger or staff as a weapon.
* Halflings and Dwarves cannot use two-handed swords or polearms.
* Elves get +1 to-hit with any pulled bow


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Whack-a-Bubble: an Arkanoid clone on CD-i
>> Monday, February 4, 2008
We present you: a CD-i review by Tom Lenting! "Whack-a-Bubble is a colorful but poor looking Arkanoid clone; Arkanoid is Break Out with the ability to shoot the bricks. The bricks have been replaced by bubbles. Though colorful the graphics are plain and a little pixelated. The sound is alright with a suiting relaxing melody than didn't get on my nerves too rapidly. The control works fine, but the gameplay doesn't offer anything more than you can find in common freeware, shareware or even online Flash-games. Besides the regular 'arcade challenge', there are some additional options like three difficulty settings, beat the clock and your high scores are saved in a nice overview. It is also possible to play the game with two players in 'head 2 head'."
I have to add that I don't agree with his score and arguments. For one, this was available as a budget title for 10 euro's, a small detail Tom seems to forget. Personally I find Whack-a-Bubble a very rare and nice two-player game which plays a bit like Pac-Panic. I admit, Whack-a-Bubble is not as polished as Philips' Pac-Panic, but it definately has its charme. Want to know a little about the history of the developers behind Whack-a-Bubble? Read our story here. More of Tom's review? Read here!


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Malaysian MPs have approved changes to a crime-prevention law that opponents fear could be abused by authorities to hold people without trial for years and negate the prime minister's pledge to protect human rights.
Opposition leaders and international rights activists have criticised prime minister Najib Razak's administration for introducing the changes less than two years after abolishing laws that had occasionally been used in past decades to hold political dissenters without charge.
Najib has defended the amendments as necessary to combat organised crime. He assured Malaysians that "no one will be victimised" and that authorities would follow a clear procedure and not use the law for political purposes.
Earlier this week Najib said the changes were crucial to tackle an increase in organised crime, insisting that crime "has frightened the public and if the government doesn't act, more people will become victims".
Malaysians have been concerned in recent months over robberies and high-profile public shootings of targets including businessmen.
Parliament's lower house passed the changes to the Prevention of Crime Act early on Thursday after a heated debate. The changes must be endorsed by the upper house and the country's constitutional monarch before they can take effect, but they are unlikely to encounter resistance at those stages.
The changes would allow a panel comprising at least one former senior judge to issue two-year detention orders that can be subsequently renewed against suspects deemed to have committed serious criminal offences.
Najib has rejected criticism that the changes give the government powers similar to the Internal Security Act, a decades-old law that has been repealed but once allowed the home ministry to detain suspects indefinitely without charge. That act had mainly been invoked against militant suspects in the past decade, but political opposition members have also been held for allegedly threatening national security.
"Malaysia is taking a huge step [backwards] on rights by returning to administrative detention practices much like the draconian Internal Security Act," Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement on Thursday.
"By doing so, prime minister Najib is backing methods that do little to curtail crime but threaten everyone's liberty," Robertson said.
Lim Kit Siang, an opposition MP who has previously been held for months on separate occasions under the Internal Security Act, said the approval of the amendments marked "a black day for Malaysia".


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I have many people to thank – a couple hundred thank you notes to write, which I will start next week, I promise.
People have been so generous, and I will go into more detail in a future post about that, but I just wanted to break this recent silence with a heartfelt thank you for all the prayers, Masses, donations, book purchases, gifts and helpful words.
The entire life of a good Christian is in fact an exercise of holy desire. You do not yet see what you long for, but the very act of desiring prepares you, so that when he comes you may see and be utterly satisfied.


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