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Sunday School – 10:00 am
Worship Service – 11:00 am
Bible Study – 12:15 pm
Wednesday Bible Study - 6:30 pm
12859 Martin Road Spur
Northport, AL 35473
Originally Preached at Pinehaven Baptist Church in Columbus, MS on September 16, 1973
(Editors note: This sermon was transcribed verbatim from a recorded sermon of the late Elder Elvis Gregory. Every attempt was made to retain the actual words spoken by Brother Elvis on this wonderful subject)
The reading tonight – John 3:16. None of us needs our Bible for this verse – very familiar. We are using it as a text for our study as we continue to think upon the subject of "whosoever believeth". Here the Bible says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have [eternal life or]everlasting life". Now notice, if you will, the promise in that text is to "whosoever believeth". Again we remind you that oftentimes the word "whosoever" is so misused and misconstrued that it is even almost ironical and hilarious to hear some Freewillers and Arminians talk about the pronoun "whosoever". But remember it is a word that is active and "whosoever" standing alone means absolutely nothing unless it has a verb with it and the particular verb here is "believeth". And so the promise of our text (eternal life) with reference to justification belongs to the believer – "whosoever believeth".
In our past two studies we have noticed the promises of God's Word to the believer; finding out that the Bible indeed teaches that justification before God is completely and wholly a work of faith. It is a work of faith in that it is contingent upon the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, our Representative, who worked out a righteousness for us on the cross of Calvary. And now by a God given faith, we are justified before God – acquitted before His law by faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work.
There are those today who would add to the Word of God with reference to salvation in the sense of justification and say we have to do thus and though and this and that. But beloved, sinners are justified before God quickly, completely, and wholly by faith. For faith is a work and a gift of God to the individual sinner enabling him to see, to know and to believe on and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ who loved him and who died in his room and in his stead. For "whosoever believeth"…again there are so many who use this phrase in John 3:16 and Revelation 22:17 that make it say that whosoever believeth or will not believe will have eternal life – "whosoever" means everyone without exception. Oh no beloved! Every textlike John 3:16…like Revelation 22:17 is very limited – limited in fact to the believer. The Bible promises nothing to the unbeliever in the sense of blessings and salvation.
So beloved we have found 14 things in the Bible thus far that belong only to the believer – such as in salvation, justification of faith and on and on we could go. Tonight let's notice some further things that are ours by faith (those who have been brought to faith in Jesus Christ) – further blessings that they have which are by faith.
May I begin tonight by saying those who are saved are believers and they are those who believe with the heart. We found out that a fruit of the believer is justification or salvation. Now those who do in fact believe – believe with a heart to believe and of course this is in contrast to mental assent and mere mental belief in a historical Christ or in the historicity of the Bible. So beloved, those who are saved believe with the heart.
You recall the account in Acts Chapter 8 with the Lord who spoke to Phillip to go down into Gaza. And you remember that how he joined himself to a chariot wherein an Ethiopian was reading from Isaiah 53. And he took the same Scriptures and preached unto him Jesus Christ. And as they went on their way they came to a creek of water and the Ethiopian said to Philip, now "here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?" And Phillip said in verse 37, "If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest". Andthis man said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God". And as a result of that, he was baptized by Philip.
Now beloved, we find that in that Scripture from Isaiah 53, Philip had preached Christ unto the Ethiopian. And not only did he preach Christ, he preached also how those who were saved by Christ were to profess Christ in baptism. And thus, he followed through after the preaching of Phillip. But notice again, beloved, that a prerequisite to him being baptized in water was that he believed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And that he not only believe mentally, but that "if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest".
So beloved I do not want to minimize the mind with reference and knowledge of Christ. But that it is a fact as we all well know that we can with a mind – with mental assent – believe in the historic Christ. Or, we can believe what the Bible teaches about Christ. Thus we believe the Bible and therefore Christ is a fact and not a farce. I believed in Jesus Christ before I was saved, as far as believing that He was – that He was, as far as history was concerned. It revealed a character that lived by the name of Christ Jesus who claimed to be the Son of God. Being raised in a missionary Baptist home made me believe that. I believed that! I believed that those who believed it were honest and had integrity and would not lie. I believe them to be right. And by virtue of their testimony, I believed in Jesus Christ. But my friend, I did not believe with the heart. But there came a time when I did believe with the heart. When God enabled me, by his grace to see my sins and see my need of a Savior, I was brought to see Christ Jesus and I saw – I believed for the first time in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. It was a heart belief. It came from within; for it had been worked within by the power of God's Holy Spirit making the Gospel effectual.
For those who are saved believe with the heart. For we read, for example in Romans 10 and beginning in verse 8, "But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness" (and the righteousness here is the righteousness of God that is accounted to the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ). So"with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
So beloved, when one is truly converted and is a true believer, it is a heart belief. But mind belief only can be staggered. It can be changed. It can believe one day and disbelieve another. When one is made alive by the Spirit of God and the Gospel comes to them not in word only but in power, in the Holy Spirit, with much assurance, that is a heart belief and you can talk until you're blue in the face and never convince them that Jesus Christ is not the Son of God. My friend, that's the difference between a heart belief and a mind belief only. One who has believed with a heart has believed with a mind. But you can believe with a mind and not believe with the heart. And the difference is, one who has believed with the heart will always believe. There will never be any wavering with reference to who Jesus Christ is. But those who believe only with the mind, they will waver and they will differ in their view with reference to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here comes one – he is a great orator! He is a great talker! He is knowledgeable and he leads them away because they believe only with the mind. I can remember many times prior to my conversion how that I met men who said that they didn't believe in the Bible and they would put up some arguments and I could not argue with them. I didn't know that they might not be right. I knew what I believed. I thought what my father and mother believed – what other men and women who I believed and trusted in and knew to be honest – were right. But here was a man who seemed to have the evidence that they might be wrong. And I was led to believe at times, perhaps, could my father and could my mother…could that preacher have been wrong? Could these others be wrong? I want to tell you that since the time that I have been enabled to believe with the heart I have heard them speak and others deny but there was not one doubt in my mind as to who Jesus Christ was. He was my Lord and he was my Savior! He was real if they did not know He was!
Therefore, beloved, those who are saved are believers. But they are those who have been enabled to believe with the heart – there referring to their innermost being. It is the inner man that has been quickened and made alive by the Spirit of God and it is from there that we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And so beloved, those that are saved believe with the heart. You may not know what you want to know and certainly you do not. You may not know what you want to know about the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. But I want to tell you that if you have been saved by God's grace, you know that He is the Savior of those who believe. You know that He (and no one else) is the Savior of sinners and that He is indeed your Savior. So those who are saved by faith have believed with the heart.
May I say beloved, to the believer the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God. For those who are enabled to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Gospel is the Power of God. In Romans 1:15-16, Paul said, "as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein [that is in the Gospel] is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith." Now notice, beloved, to the believer – for those who have been enabled to believe with the heart, they believe and know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God.
Now may I suggest unto you, beloved, that the promise in that verse, Romans 1:16, is to the believer. The Gospel is the power of God unto "every one that believeth". Now I ask a question many times: Is the Gospel the power of God unto the unbeliever? No my friend, it is not! For example, in 1 Corinthians 1:18 "For the preaching of the cross" (What is the preaching of the cross but the Gospel of Jesus Christ?)…"For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish [the unbelievers] foolishness; but unto us which are saved it [the preaching of the Cross or the Gospel]is the power of God."
Now beloved, I do not want to minimize the Gospel nor do I want to leave an impression that the Gospel is unimportant. I do trust before I finish I will have told you that the Gospel is a must in order for sinners to be saved – in order for them to be saved in the sense of justification and have righteousness imputed to them from Almighty God. Therefore beloved the Gospel is the Power of God – however, unto the believer. That verse does not say…that verse does not say that the Gospel of itself has power to make believers! What it does say is that it is the Power of God unto believers. This verse of Scripture presupposes a believer.
Now my friends, I do not believe that sinners are saved apart from the Gospel! "For faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God." Salvation (in the sense of judicial justification before God) is by faith in Jesus Christ and is imputed when one believes. But my friends, the Gospel of itself and by itself has no power to make believers. Oh beloved, the Gospel is important. Because "how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how, shall [of course]they preach except they be sent?" And if they are sent then they are sent to preach repentance and remission of sins through the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
But at the same time beloved, the Gospel (while it is not within itself the power) has within itself the power to make believers. It is the means to faith. Without the Gospel there can be no faith. But may I suggest beloved that the power for faith is in the effectual call of the Holy Spirit of God. Unless the Gospel of Jesus Christ is accompanied with the life giving Spirit of God, the Gospel preached is foolishness. But my friend, when the Gospel is accompanied with the invincible and efficacious work of the Spirit of God, it is effectual and produces believers who are justified by their faith in Jesus Christ.
Now we see then that apart from regeneration, justification is an impossibility. One is not saved without justification. But, without regeneration justification is an impossibility. And in the effectual call of God there are both aspects of salvation – spiritual life and judicial life and we have them both in the effectual call of the Word and the Spirit.
When we talk about the effectual call of God, we are talking about an invincible work – a work of God that really works bringing faith to the individual – the Holy Spirit taking the Word of God. Let me, for example, give you an analogy from the Scripture what I mean – that the Gospel by itself does not have power to make believers. It is the means to faith. But the power for faith is in the work of the Holy Spirit. Now for example, Paul said in 1Corinthians 1:18 "the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us who are saved it is the power of God." Now notice that the Gospel is preached indiscriminately. That is we do not select God's elect. The church nowhere is to select the crowd that it is to preach to. But we are commanded to preach the Gospel to every creature. But my friends the preaching of the Gospel for some is mere foolishness. Now why is it foolishness to one while it becomes the power of God to others? I want to tell you my friends that the thing that makes the difference is the work of the Holy Spirit of God! He works sovereignly! No one can dictate to him where He is going to work, when He is going to work or on whom He is going to work.
My friends, this says in short that when one is saved it is the work of God; not the work of the preacher; not the work of the program; not the work of anyone else. But it is the work of God. And I am not minimizing the Gospel! But notice now if you will, for example, in that same context, Paul says "we preach Christ crucified. Unto the Jews the stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness." Now my friends, showing you that the Gospel alone preached in Word only does not have power to give faith – does not have power for faith. It is the means to faith! No one will ever believe without the Gospel! But at the same time it has no power within itself to make believers. For example we said "we preach Christ to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greek foolishness". We preach it indiscriminately – to Jew and Gentile alike. But to one it is foolishness and to the other it is a stumbling block. "But to them who are called"…"but to them who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the Power of God and the wisdom of God". Now what made the difference? The calling… The call made the difference.
The Gospel is preached indiscriminately to everyone but the Gospel of itself, unaccompanied by the call of the Spirit, will be sheer foolishness. On the one hand, to the unbeliever it will be a stumbling block. But to those who are called…who are called by the Spirit, the Gospel becomes the power of God and the wisdom of God. It becomes their means for faith. My friends it reveals Christ in the Gospel and they have now grounds for faith. It is preached that Christ died, was buried and rose again and that sinners are saved by faith in him. They hear that. They are enabled to believe on Him. And the Gospel becomes the means of their faith by which they are justified. But the power for that faith was in the call of the Spirit of God.
Paul said, for example, in 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5 he said "Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God". How?"For our gospel came not unto you in word only". In short, the Gospel comes to many in word only. But it came to you "in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance". Beloved it was accompanied by a work of the Spirit of God and the result was faith in Christ and salvation thereby. So beloved to the believer and to the believer only is the Gospel the power of God unto salvation – to the believer only! The believer only is justified before God. Therefore beloved it must be to the believer only that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation.
And so let's never…never miss this point because here oftentimes many miss the mark and become rank Arminians in their Theology with reference to salvation. My friends, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit taking the Gospel and making it effectual, the preaching of the Gospel is in Word only. It doesn't mean we are not to preach it for I don't know and you don't know and we don't know when it's going to be made effectual for the salvation of the sinner and when it isn't. That's God's work and we can't do Gods work! It is our work to preach the Gospel indiscriminately. But you remember that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to believers only…believers only! Now my friends, I tell you that believers have something. They have something that the world knows nothing about…the world of unbelievers.
Thirdly, the believer only can please God. The believer only can please the Lord. Now I know this rubs the grain the wrong way many times for we have the idea that all men can in some degree, in some way, please the Lord. Now my friend, when an individual pleases the Lord, that means that the individual is going to be blessed by the Lord for the act that he does. And it is proven and an affirmation that we will receive blessings. But my friends the Bible declares in Hebrews 11:6 that one must believe in order to please God. For the Bible says, "without faith, it is impossible to please [God].For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him". Who is it that seeks the Lord? Well the first part of the verse tells us – why it's believers! "Without faith it is impossible to please [God]. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is". One will never come to God unless he believes that God "is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him".
My friends, there are those who say "I sought the Lord." I want to tell you the night of my conversion, I don't know what the term for it is but as far as I knew, I was seeking the Lord. I really was! I wanted to be saved. I wanted to be saved more than anything in the world. I had a fear of death and Hell. And I was, in fact, seeking the Lord…in my way. But let me tell you, that was the result of having been sought and found of God. That was the result of having been sought out by the Holy Spirit and found of His Gospel. My friend, the Lord had found the one who sought Him – but, not until he first sought us.
So beloved we have here, for example, in Luke 14 that the table was spread which is indicative of the Gospel feast - that we should preach unto all men indiscriminately and the Gospel of peace has been spread. "Go out" he says "and invite them to come". Well the Gospel does invite men to come and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ – to eat and to come and buy without money and without price. The Gospel feast is spread and free. Come eat and drink! My friends, the Gospel does that and the Gospel invites sinners to come. But my friends, they all began to make excuses. The Bible says they all began to make excuses. And finally the Lord of the supper said to his servant, "you go out unto the lanes and the city and the highways and the hedges and you compel them to come in that mine house may be filled". My friends, the Gospel (though it is preached indiscriminately by the Lord's people in his churches) in essence says come to Christ – eat and drink; be hungry no more and thirst no more. It's full and free. It is without money and it's without price. But my friends, the Gospel, unattended by the Spirit of God will go unheeded. Men will make excuses. Men will make excuses. But when the Spirit of our God, which is the Holy Spirit, goes out and compels men to come, they will come! And when they come to Christ, they are believers. They are believers! And they will please God in their coming and they who come to him will not be cast out.
So beloved, only believers please God. And it pleases the Lord for one to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. And coming to Christ is synonymous with believing on him or trusting in him. So beloved, only the believer can please God. The unbeliever in all that he or she does or says can in no wise please the Lord. That only belongs to the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone can please Almighty God.
Let me say further that only true believers know who Christ really is. Only true believers know who Christ really is! As I said a moment ago, I cannot remember a day when I did not believe that Jesus Christ was. So, oftentimes I would argue with many that didn't believe but I wondered if they might not be right and another be wrong. But my friends, those who have been truly brought by the Holy Spirit and the Gospel of Jesus Christ; my friends, they only know who He is. No one else does. You did not know who Christ was before you were enabled to believe on him and come to him. Until you were brought to Him, you did not know who He was. You knew the name Christ. You knew the name Jesus. You knew that they said he was the Son of God. You knew that they said this and that about him. But my friends, you…when you were brought to know Him…knew exactly who He was. No one had to tell you. The Holy Spirit of God through the Gospel introduced you to the One Who loved you, Who died for you, Who was dead and rose again.
My friends, the night I left Old Hurricane Missionary Baptist Church meetinghouse, no one had to tell me who Jesus Christ was. He was my savior! I knew that! I knew that! I knew that He died in my room and stead! I knew that He was alive! I knew that He was my Lord and He was my Savior! I couldn't tell you much else but I knew that. Only true believers know who Jesus Christ really is. Others talk about Him. Others lecture about Him. Others log His life. Others talk about the virtues of Jesus Christ. But only one who has been brought to believe on Christ really knows who He is.
In John Chapter 6, you will recall in verse 67 Jesus looked to those 12 after others – all others – had gone away and He said, "will you also go away?" Peter said "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life." Look what he said in verse 69. Notice now, "and we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." My friends, Peter knew who Jesus Christ was. And at least 10 others of those apostles knew who Jesus Christ was. Who is it that knows who Christ is? We believe and are sure. My friend, it's the believer only – one who has been brought to faith in Jesus Christ as his or her personal savior; only they know who He is. Only they are sure who He is.
Before my conversion it was second hand knowledge. I said He is because they said He is. But after the Lord revealed Himself to me as my Lord and Savior, I can say I believe and I am sure that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God.
I would like for you to remember in John Chapter 4, the woman had met the Lord at the well – Jacob's well. She went back into the city and told the men "there was a man who told me everything that I ever did. Is not this the Christ?" And the Bible reveals there how they believed on him because of the sayings of the woman. But they remained there for three days and preached - Jesus did. And then the inhabitants of that city said to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world." First they believed because somebody else said it. But now we don't believe in the Lord because you said it, we believe now because we have seen and heard it and believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world! So beloved, only true believers know who Jesus Christ really is. Others write about Him; talk about Him; even people sing about Him. But only true believers know who He is.
May I confess further as we think about the blessings that believers have, that only believers receive answers to their prayers. Only a true believer can receive answers to prayer. In Matthew 21:22 Jesus said "all things"…"all things, whatever ye ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." To believers, He said, if you will just keep on believing that whatever you ask in my name ye shall receive. Who is it that receives answers to prayer? It is only a believer.
Now not every believer who has been justified by faith in Jesus Christ gets everything that he asks for. I don't want you to get that impression. Oftentimes we as true believers ask amiss and we do not receive because we ask amiss. We have to confess with the Bible that oftentimes we know not what to pray for as we ought. And so beloved it's not that we receive everything that we ask for. But those who do receive what they ask for are believers only. In other words, only true believers receive what they ask for. And so, beloved, what a wonderful time that we have as believers that we can in fact ask of our Lord what we will and receive of him, if we ask in accordance to His divine will.
And let's see further – to the believer all things are possible. All things are possible! Our Lord said in Mark 9:23 to a father who was very distraught because of the physical condition of his son; Jesus said unto him when he said Lord, heal my son. Jesus said unto him "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth" even the welfare and health of your son. And of course, the son was made whole in that the Lord cast out the demon. For those who believe…and what did his father say? "Lord, I [do] believe!" "Lord, I [do] believe! Help thou mine unbelief."
My friend, that does not mean that one believes with a perfect heart – that is to the point that there is never doubt or wavering. It isn't to the point that we believe as we ought. We believe to the saving of our soul and we believe to justification but oftentimes those who have been justified by the work of Jesus Christ are unbelievers. Oftentimes I know it is so – that I don't lay a hold of that, and believe with the heart and the mind the rest of it. I do not find it without the help of the grace of God. So beloved, like this man, that I do believe – "help thou mine unbelief". That should be the hope of every one of us – that we do believe and help thou our unbelief. We have unbelief many times as the children of God. But to the believer, all things are possible.
Finally tonight, the believer and the believer only is admonished to continue in good works – the believer only! The unbeliever is never admonished to work for the Lord. The unbeliever is never admonished to continue in a work because he is never convinced. He may be a Sunday school teacher. He may be a Baptist preacher. She may be headed for sisterhood but she has never been convinced of the work of the Lord until he or she has become a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so beloved, the believer only is admonished to continue in good works. "This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works" – Titus 3:8. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God.And so beloved, notice if you will, "these things are good and profitable unto men". Those that have believed in God and continue in good works are profitable. My good works will renown in the glory of the Lord here and will also renown to our rewards at the Judgment Seat of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And so beloved, tonight there are many innumerable blessings promised in the Word of God for those who believe – "whosoever believeth". My friends, not one word is used to one who has not been brought to believe of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now we have and may lay hold by faith. And may we ask for grace and faith that we truly might lay hold of the Word of God with the grounds for faith and belief in God's Word. Like Abraham, may we believe God's Word. God said to Abraham through thy son Isaac all the earth or should I say through thy seed in Isaac, through Isaac shall thy seed be called and shall be numbered as all the stars of heaven. And yet God said, Abraham, take thy only son Isaac upon the mountain and therefore offer him as a sacrifice to me. Now wait a minute, Lord. You said in Isaac I would be blessed. But, because God said it Abraham believed it. And therefore he set out to do exactly what the Lord said to do. Now God has said to Abraham that I will give you a Seed that comes from thine own body and through that Seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And therefore God said to Abraham take thy son, thy only son Isaac and offer him as a sacrifice unto me. And Abraham believed God. He believed it when God told him that though Isaac he would be blessed. He believed God! Abraham did not know what the Lord was going to do. But he did believe the Word of the Lord. What God says you and I can depend upon it too!
May God give us grace to walk like it…to talk like it…and act like it. If God said it, then I have to believe it too. So Lord, help me to believe that I might, like my father Abraham according to the faith, make my faith perfect by thy Word.
Shall we stand for a word of prayer.


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|Department of Magical Law Enforcement
|Organisation information
Policing and justice services for wizarding Britain
British Wizarding Government
The Department of Magical Law Enforcement is the largest department at the Ministry of Magic. Arguably the most important of the various departments, it is a combination of police and justice facilities, and is roughly the equivalent to the Home Office of Muggle Britain or the Department of Justice in the United States. All other departments are answerable to this one, with the exception of the Department of Mysteries. [1]
Main DivisionsEdit
The department is located on the second level of the Ministry of Magic, and includes the following divisions:
Auror OfficeEdit
An Auror is a highly trained specialist officer who investigate crimes involving the Dark Arts and apprehend Dark Wizards. According to Minerva McGonagall, the Auror Office takes in new recruits with a minimum of 5 N.E.W.T.s (with marks no lower than "Exceeds Expectations"). She suggests that Potions, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Charms, and Herbology N.E.W.T.s are the most appropriate for someone who aspires to be admitted to the training program. (A potential recruit will also have to pass "...a series of character and aptitude tests.")
Nymphadora Tonks mentions that two of the program's courses of study are "Concealment and Disguise" and "Stealth and Tracking" and that the training is hard to pass with high marks (a requirement). Aurors are the magical equivalents of Muggle counter-terrorism operatives and, during the First Wizarding War, Aurors were authorised to use the Unforgivable Curses on suspected Death Eaters; specifically, they were given the licence to kill, coerce and torture them.
Aurors significant in both the First and Second Wars include Alastor Moody, Nymphadora Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt, John Dawlish, Frank and Alice Longbottom, Rufus Scrimgeour, Gawain Robards, Proudfoot, Savage, and Williamson. In addition, Harry Potter joins the department at the age of 17 and is promoted to department head in the year 2007. Ron Weasley becomes a member of the Auror office as well.
Many of the Dark criminals first duel with the Aurors sent to arrest them before finally giving up their freedom. Aurors are also used to protect high-profile targets such as Harry, Hogwarts, and the Muggle Prime Minister.
Department of Intoxicating SubstancesEdit
The Department of Intoxicating Substances is a sub-division of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and is responsible for making regulations on the consumption of alcoholic beverages.
Improper Use of Magic OfficeEdit
This office, the Improper Use of Magic Office, punishes violations of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy. This includes underage witches and wizards intentionally using magic, which suggests that this office may be in charge of the Trace, permitting them to monitor the magic used by those under the age of seventeen. Mafalda Hopkirk worked in this office until at least 1998.
Misuse of Muggle Artefacts OfficeEdit
This office regulates the use of magic on Muggle objects and confiscates those which have been illegally bewitched. One of the laws they enforce is the prohibition on magically altering a Muggle vehicle with the intent to fly it. It was headed by Arthur Weasley until his promotion in 1996.
Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective ObjectsEdit
This office was created in 1996 by Minister for Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour, in response to the growing threat of Lord Voldemort and the rise of dangerous or dubious spells and products which claimed to provide protection against the Dark Arts. Arthur Weasley was promoted to head this operation. Its duties involved preventing the trade of fake and/or useless spells, potions and artefacts that appeared during the Second Wizarding War.
Wizengamot Administration ServicesEdit
An office which undertakes administrative and clerical duties for the Wizengamot. Its function seem analogous to Muggle court registries; this would typically include maintenance of court documents, hearing dates, judges' schedules, and the administration of legal proceedings.
Other divisionsEdit
Magical Law Enforcement PatrolEdit
The Magical Law Enforcement Patrol (formerly the Magical Law Enforcement Squad) is tasked with general law enforcement, like with the Muggle police. In the 1920s it was headed by Bob Ogden, who led a team to Little Hangleton to arrest Marvolo and Morfin Gaunt for crimes against both Muggles and the Ministry, since the House of Gaunt had avoided previous attempts at arrest.
Hit WizardsEdit
Hit Wizards comprise a team of highly trained wizards tasked with arresting dangerous criminals. The entry requirements include five O.W.L.s, one of which must be Defence Against the Dark Arts. The equivalent of a Muggle S.W.A.T. Team. Members have a personal bed reserved at St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.[2] In 1993, Cornelius Fudge suggested that only Hit Wizards should attempt to capture Sirius Black, an Azkaban escapee then believed to be a highly dangerous criminal.
Ministry of Magic Witch WatchersEdit
Ministry of Magic Witch Watchers are a special Ministry force that presumably is stationed at strategical places in search of fugitive criminals.
Administrative Registration DepartmentEdit
The Administrative Registration Department is responsible for the registration of the wizarding population. After the Fall of the Ministry of Magic, the Muggle-Born Registration Commission was created under this department.
Investigation DepartmentEdit
The Investigation Department was a subdivision of the Auror Office. It centred on investigation and tracking down dark wizards.
Senior PersonnelEdit
- Elphinstone Urquart: senior officer of the department in the 1950s; deceased husband of Minerva McGonagall.
- Justus Pilliwickle: former department head; one of the most notable on the post.
- Barty Crouch Sr.: former department head, demoted to head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation after his son's exposure as a Death Eater in 1981.
- Amelia Bones: former department head, killed by Lord Voldemort in the summer of 1996.
- Pius Thicknesse: former department head, subjugated by Yaxley and promoted to Minister for Magic.
- Yaxley: former department head, during the Death Eaters' control of the Ministry of Magic.
- Hermione Granger: after working with the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, she eventually took a position high up in this department
- Harry Potter: Head of the Auror Office from 2007.
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (First mentioned)
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (Mentioned only)
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (real) (Mentioned only)
- Daily Prophet Newsletters (Mentioned only)
- Pottermore (Mentioned only)
Notes and referencesEdit

subset: commoncrawl


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Point-Counterpoint: Is PRP Beneficial For Chronic Plantar Fasciitis?
Noting the literature and their own success with platelet rich plasma (PRP), these authors say PRP is an effective non-invasive treatment that can obviate further surgery for plantar fasciosis.
By Babak Baravarian, DPM, FACFAS, and Lindsay Mae Chandler, DPM
Plantar fasciosis is heel pain caused by deterioration of the plantar fascia, which occurs as a result of repetitive stress and chronic plantar fasciitis. This is the term used for the non-inflamed phase of plantar fasciopathy. It is much more difficult to treat plantar fasciosis when healthcare providers fail to recognize it as the non-inflamed phase of the condition.
In plantar fasciitis, there is adequate blood supply to the problematic area as well as an inflammatory response that happens to be painful. In plantar fasciosis, the fascia has a decreased or absent inflammatory response, a reduction in the growth/healing factors, and chronic scar tissue that prevents the healing process.
Treatments such as dry needling, extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT), monopolar capacitive-coupled radiofrequency, Coblation and platelet rich plasma (PRP) focus on increasing the inflammation response rather than suppressing it. When a patient presents with symptoms of plantar fascia pain for six months or longer, we must stimulate the inflammatory and healing cascade.
The basis of PRP technology is to provoke a supraphysiologic release of growth factors in an attempt to jumpstart the healing of a chronic injury.1 Increased concentrations of autologous platelets yield high concentrations of growth factors, subsequently leading to intensified healing of soft tissue on a cellular level.
Blood is comprised of red blood cells, white bloods cells, plasma and platelets. Platelets have a lifespan of seven to 10 days and aggregate at the site of an injury. The platelet is responsible for hemostasis, assembly of new connective tissue and revascularization.2 The ability to concentrate platelets and white blood cells within a fibrin clot at the injury site results in a controlled inflammatory response and the following proliferative healing response is the body's natural reparative mechanism. Platelets and white blood cells dominate the proliferative healing response by releasing growth factors, recruiting stem cells and supporting tissue regeneration.3
What The Research Reveals
There has been extensive research, both animal and human studies, with widespread applications revealing the efficacy and safety of PRP. Recently, there has been a focus in the literature on the beneficial effects of PRP for chronic non-healing tendon injuries such as plantar fasciitis and lateral epicondylitis.
Ragab and Othman looked at 25 patients who received PRP for chronic plantar fasciitis.4 In their prospective study, they had a mean follow-up of 10.3 months with patients' pain decreasing from an average of 9.1 to 1.6 on the visual analogue scale post-PRP injection. They reported that 88 percent of patients were completely satisfied.
Barrett and Erredge investigated the use of PRP for plantar fasciitis in nine patients.5 The authors used ultrasound of the fascia before and after treatment with the patients' pain scale determining the efficacy. They found that six of the nine patients achieved complete resolution of symptoms after two months. It took a second injection for one patient to have complete resolution. The authors noted that 77.9 percent of their patients had no symptoms after one year of treatment. They also concluded that ultrasound measurements of the thickness of the plantar fascia post-injection showed reduced thickness.
Aksahin and colleagues compared 30 patients treated with PRP versus 30 patients treated with corticosteroid injection.6 Over a six-month period, they found both groups of patients to have significant improvement in symptoms but there were no statistical differences between the groups. The authors felt PRP to be safer than corticosteroid injection with the same effectiveness.
Mishra and Pavelko evaluated 20 patients with chronic severe elbow tendinosis who had persistent pain for a mean of 15 months despite nonoperative treatments and were considering surgical intervention.1 The patients received either a single percutaneous injection of PRP or bupivacaine. After eight weeks of treatment, their results showed 60 percent improvement in the visual analog scale pain scores for the PRP patients versus 16 percent improvement for the bupivacaine patients. They concluded treatment with PRP reduced pain significantly in patients with chronic elbow tendinosis and one should consider PRP before surgical intervention.
A Closer Look At The Authors' Treatment Protocol
After six months of failed treatment or no treatment for plantar fasciitis, we deem the condition to be more chronic than acute. At this point, we present the patient with the option of performing more aggressive yet still non-invasive therapies. Our objective at that point is to stimulate an inflammation process at the insertion of the plantar fascia. The therapies we offer include: ESWT, monopolar capacitive-coupled radiofrequency, Coblation and PRP injections.
The PRP injection occurs in the office. We begin by collecting the blood from the patient's cubital vein. A centrifuge separates the platelets from the plasma, which can take five to 20 minutes depending on the speed of the centrifuge and the concentration desired.
We inject local anesthetic into the surrounding skin, soft tissue and fascia. With ultrasound guidance, we advance the needle within the fascia. Using a peppering technique, we inject the growth factors over the entire region, traumatizing the fascia to some extent to allow the inflammatory response to increase.
Following injection, the patient wears a controlled ankle motion (CAM) walker boot to provide support and decrease stress on the plantar fascia. The patient wears the boot for two weeks while weightbearing as tolerated and then transitions into a stability/motion control running shoe, preferably with custom orthotics. The patient also receives instructions not to ice the area or take any non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for the first two to three weeks post-injection.
In Conclusion
At the University Foot and Ankle Institute, we have seen promising results with the use of PRP in plantar fasciosis for decreasing pain, improving function, increasing activity and decreasing recovery time. In our institute, we have found that 80 percent of patients with plantar fasciosis improve to the point of having minimal to no pain following two consecutive PRP injections spaced one month apart in comparison to 50 percent improvement following the primary injection. Therefore, we advise our patients on the benefits of a second injection if the first yields only partial relief of symptoms.
We have concluded PRP therapy to be an excellent as well as a non-invasive measure for the treatment of plantar fasciosis, preventing many of our patients from progressing to further surgical treatment post-injection.
Dr. Baravarian is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the UCLA School of Medicine. He is the Chief of Podiatric Foot and Ankle Surgery at the Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center and Orthopedic Hospital, and is the Director of the University Foot and Ankle Institute in Los Angeles. He is a Fellow of the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons.
Dr. Chandler is a Fellow at the University Foot and Ankle Institute in Los Angeles.
1. Mishra A, Pavelko T. Treatment of chronic elbow tendinosis with buffered platelet-rich plasma. Am J Sports Med 2006; 10(10):1-5.
2. Sampson S, et al. Platelet rich plasma injection grafts for musculoskeletal injuries: a review. Curr Rev Musculoskelet Med 2008; 1(3):165-174.
3. Marx RE. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP): What is PRP and what is not PRP? Implant Dent 2001; 10(4):225-228.
4. Ragab EM, Othman AM. Platelets rich plasma for treatment of chronic plantar fasciitis. Arch Orthop Trauma Surg 2012; 132(8):1065-70.
5. Barrett S, Erredge S. Growth factors for chronic plantar fasciitis. Podiatry Today 2004; 17(11):37-42.
6. Aksahin E, Dogruyol D, Yuksel HY, Hapa O, Dogan O, Celedi L, Bicimoglu A. The comparison of the effect of corticosteroids and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) for the treatment of plantar fasciitis. Arch Orthop Trauma Surg 2012; 132(6):781-5.
For further reading, see "Platelet-Rich Plasma: Can It Have An Impact For Plantar Fasciitis?" in the November 2012 issue of Podiatry Today.
This author says PRP is not the "magic bullet" it might appear to be for plantar fasciitis, emphasizing that physicians must have a strong grasp of biomechanics and equinus to treat the condition.
By Patrick DeHeer, DPM, FACFAS
The allure of a magic bullet for the treatment of any pathology, the simple solution for a complex problem, is intoxicating. The reality is this magic bullet simply does not exist. We want it to be true so badly but with time, evidence-based medicine often pulls back the curtain to reveal the "wizard" is in fact just a hoax at worst and a marginal treatment option at best.
This is in fact the case with platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and the treatment of plantar fasciitis. The success of fibroblast-derived dermal substitutes is based on the premise that there are living dermal fibroblasts seeded on to a scaffold, which one then applies to the wound. These living dermal fibroblasts are able to secrete growth factors, deposit matrix proteins and facilitate epithelial cell migration.
Plantar fasciitis is the most common foot pathology we as caregivers of the foot and ankle treat. The literature is damning for this not-so magic bullet of PRP and I believe that PRP is not the answer for plantar fasciitis.
The article that has done the most damage to the magic bullet of PRP for plantar fasciitis was by Lee and colleagues in Foot and Ankle International in 2007.1 Their randomized study compared two treatments, PRP and corticosteroids, over a period of one year for patients who met the inclusion criteria of having plantar fasciitis for a period of at least six weeks with maximal tenderness over the medial plantar calcaneal tubercle. Both groups received the same volume of injections and 1% lidocaine HCl (PRP 1.5 mL mixed with 1 mL of lidocaine, or triamcinolone acetonide 0.5 mL with 2 mL of lidocaine). The total number of patients in the study was 61 with blinded follow-up visits at six weeks, three months and six months. Researchers measured the outcomes by the visual analog scale (VAS) (subjective exam) and a pressure algometer to measure tender threshold (objective exam).
The results showed a baseline measurement of the VAS for the PRP group of 7.3 ± 1.8 initially, which decreased to 3.6 ± 2.6 at six months post-injection.1 Results in the steroid group were 6.9 ± 1.7 initially, which decreased to 2.4 ± 3.0 at six months post-injection. The tender threshold results (higher number is a better result) initially for the PRP group was 3.1 ± 1.2, which increased to 6.5 ± 2.9 at six months post-injection. For the steroid group, the initial measurement was 3.7 ± 2.0, which increased to 8.6 ± 3.1 at six months post-injection. Although all patients found both injections painful, there were no complications in either group. The conclusion from this article was "Intralesional autologous blood injection is efficacious in lowering pain and tenderness in chronic plantar fasciitis, but corticosteroid is more superior in terms of speed and probably extent of improvement."1
Aksahin and coworkers demonstrated similar outcomes in 2012.2 These authors concluded the following: "In this study, the effects of the corticosteroid and PRP injection in patients with plantar fasciitis were analyzed with clinical evaluation methods. Taking the possible regenerative effect of PRP into consideration, the results of the PRP injection group were expected to be more satisfactory in cases of plantar fasciitis since it is believed to be a regenerative process rather than an inflammatory reaction."
This study did discuss "potential" complications associated with steroid injections and that PRP injections are safer with similar outcomes.2 The authors did not discuss the cost of the procedure and overstate the complications of steroid injections, given the corresponding literature, which Aksahin and coworkers note shows relatively rare complications associated with steroid injections for plantar fasciitis.
Emphasizing The Multifactorial Nature Of Plantar Fasciitis
When evaluating the results of these studies, the question we must ask is: Is there is a role for PRP in the treatment of plantar fasciitis? Secondly, what role does the cost of PRP and blood draw and handling of the specimen play in the decision making process? In my opinion, the role of PRP alone in the treatment of plantar fasciitis is negligible.
I believe the reason for the outcome of this study is that plantar fasciitis is a multifactorial condition.2 Regardless of whether you think this an inflammatory versus a degenerative process, ignoring the biomechanical etiologies such as pronation syndrome, cavus deformity and equinus will not lead to consistent favorable outcomes. If there is an inflammatory condition, the reduction of the inflammation is critical to the successful treatment of plantar fasciitis. If there is progression into a degenerative process, the outcomes of this study indicate that, although the authors did not differentiate the acute inflammatory versus degenerative process, steroid injections are more efficacious than PRP injections.
The literature is replete with evidence-based medicine on the importance of equinus in the management of plantar fasciitis.3-10 Specifically, Digiovanni and colleagues say the tissue-specific plantar fascia stretching protocol for chronic plantar fasciitis can provide a long-term decrease in pain.3 Any treatment plan without equinus management when indicated by the diagnosis of equinus is an incomplete plan and the patient suffers.
There are similar findings regarding the role of biomechanical control in the treatment of plantar fasciitis.11-18 Fong and coworkers found a beneficial effect by combining rocker bottom soles and custom orthoses for patients with plantar fasciitis.11 Rome and colleagues found that for patients with plantar foot pain, orthoses provided a significant decrease in pain at four weeks.15
In Conclusion
The literature has demonstrated the PRP magic bullet to be at best an adjunctive treatment alternative to established treatment protocols for plantar fasciitis. The treatment of plantar fasciitis is based on an accurate diagnosis derived from the patient history and physical examination. One must implement all components of treatment in a coordinated, well-structured treatment plan. At worst, the use of PRP injections for plantar fasciitis is an expensive, somewhat labor-intensive, marginally effective procedure.
Please do not be seduced by the glamor of this false magic bullet. Instead, trust in your knowledge base of podiatric medicine, specifically biomechanics, in the treatment of the most common foot and ankle pathology.
Dr. DeHeer is a Fellow of the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons, and a Diplomate of the American Board of Podiatric Surgery. He is in private practice in Indianapolis.
1. Lee TG, Ahmad TS. Intralesional autologous blood injection compared to corticosteroid injection for treatment of chronic plantar fasciitis. A prospective, randomized, controlled trial. Foot Ankle Int 2007; 28(9):984–990.
2. Akşahin E, Doğruyol D, Yüksel HY, Hapa O, Doğan O, Celebi L, Biçimoğlu A. The comparison of the effect of corticosteroids and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) for the treatment of plantar fasciitis. Arch Orthop Trauma Surg. 2012;132(6):781-5.
3. Digiovanni BF, Nawoczenski DA, Malay DP, Graci PA, Williams TT, Wilding GE, Baumhauer JF. Plantar fascia-specific stretching exercise improves outcomes in patients with chronic plantar fasciitis. A prospective clinical trial with two-year follow-up. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2006;88(8):1775-81.
4. Bolívar YA, Munuera PV, Padillo JP. Relationship between tightness of the posterior muscles of the lower limb and plantar fasciitis. Foot Ankle Int. 2013;34(1):42-8.
5. Porter D, Barrill E, Oneacre K, May BD. The effects of duration and frequency of Achilles tendon stretching on dorsiflexion and outcome in painful heel syndrome: a randomized, blinded, control study. Foot Ankle Int. 2002;23(7):619-24.
6. Sheridan L, Lopez A, Perez A, John MM, Willis FB, Shanmugam R. Plantar fasciopathy treated with dynamic splinting: a randomized controlled trial. J Am Podiatr Med Assoc. 2010;100(3):161-5.
7. Davis PF, Severud E, Baxter DE. Painful heel syndrome: results of nonoperative treatment. Foot Ankle Int. 1994;15(10):531-5.
8. Cheung JT, Zhang M, An KN. Effect of Achilles tendon loading on plantar fascia tension in the standing foot. Clin Biomech (Bristol, Avon). 2006;21(2):194-203.
9. Maskill JD, Bohay DR, Anderson JG. Gastrocnemius recession to treat isolated foot pain. Foot Ankle Int. 2010;31(1):19-23.
10. Rompe JD, Cacchio A, Weil L Jr, Furia JP, Haist J, Reiners V, Schmitz C, Maffulli N. Plantar fascia-specific stretching versus radial shock-wave therapy as initial treatment of plantar fasciopathy. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2010;92(15):2514-22.
11. Fong DT, Pang KY, Chung MM, Hung AS, Chan KM. Evaluation of combined prescription of rocker sole shoes and custom-made foot orthoses for the treatment of plantar fasciitis. Clin Biomech (Bristol, Avon). 2012;27(10):1072-7.
12. Roos E, Engström M, Söderberg B. Foot orthoses for the treatment of plantar fasciitis. Foot Ankle Int. 2006;27(8):606-11.
13. Lee SY, McKeon P, Hertel J. Does the use of orthoses improve self-reported pain and function measures in patients with plantar fasciitis? A meta-analysis. Phys Ther Sport. 2009;10(1):12-8.
14. Martin JE, Hosch JC, Goforth WP, Murff RT, Lynch DM, Odom RD. Mechanical treatment of plantar fasciitis. A prospective study. J Am Podiatr Med Assoc. 2001;91(2):55-62.
15. Burns J, Crosbie J, Ouvrier R, Hunt A. Effective orthotic therapy for the painful cavus foot: a randomized controlled trial. J Am Podiatr Med Assoc. 2006;96(3):205-11.
16. Rome K, Gray J, Stewart F, Hannant SC, Callaghan D, Hubble J. Evaluating the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of foot orthoses in the treatment of plantar heel pain: a feasibility study. J Am Podiatr Med Assoc. 2004;94(3):229-38.
17. Landorf KB, Keenan AM, Herbert RD. Effectiveness of different types of foot orthoses for the treatment of plantar fasciitis. J Am Podiatr Med Assoc. 2004;94(6):542-9.
18. Hyland MR, Webber-Gaffney A, Cohen L, Lichtman PT. Randomized controlled trial of calcaneal taping, sham taping, and plantar fascia stretching for the short-term management of plantar heel pain. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2006;36(6):364-71.
Dr. DeHeer writes a monthly DPM Blog for Podiatry Today. To access it, visit http://www.podiatrytoday.com/deheerblog/feed .


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Some SEC documents filed on Thursday suggest that hedge fund selling contributed—perhaps greatly—to the precipitous decline of $AAPL throughout the December quarter, and by extension the early part of 2013. That's not too surprising, but what's more interesting to me is that it's a demonstration of an idea that's been kicking around in my head for a while.
That idea is this: Most people don't get Apple. At all.
That's the short version. The slightly longer version is that there was just as much ignorance about Apple, it's business model, and the value proposition of Apple's ecosystem when the stock was skyrocketing as there has been in this 30 percent downturn.
Let's look at Friday's hedge fund news, which was picked up by Fortune's Philip Elmer-Dewitt. Some 16 institutions and hedge funds sold off a million shares or more. The chart below shows that many of these institutions reduced their relative stake in Apple significantly.
Chart by The Mac Observer
That adds up to a lot of selling pressure in the middle of Apple's most profitable quarter ever. Millions of shares were added to the market, and even though the buyers were there to pick up these shares, economics 101 says that more selling pressure equals a lower price.
Something happened after $AAPL hit an all-time closing high of $702.10 on September 19th. Investor sentiment took a 180 degree turn, and from my viewpoint, there was a lot of FUD driving some of that sentiment.
There were reports of component orders and fears about declining demand for Apple's products had little or nothing to back them. There was also a lot of noise about Apple Maps and the poor rollout of that service, even though it turned out that people still bought iPhones as fast as Apple could make them.
My personal favorite was this fixation in some quarters that Apple had lost its innovation mojo because Tim Cook hadn't released a disruptive product after 14 months at the helm of Apple. I mean, seriously, that's just stupid and anyone saying that is merely showing their inability to research Apple's product timeline or exercise critical thinking skills.
More recently, we've gotten this new wave of pundits and critics who are prancing about yelling that for Apple to be successful, it must start doing what everyone else does. Cheap iPads, cheap iPhones, a broad product line...even open licensing has made a bit of a comeback.
Those of us who have followed Apple for a long time have witnessed this sort of thing forever. As Apple's stock rose, and rose, and then rose some more, it might have seemed like those days were gone, but—and here's my point—this same sort of ignorance about Apple has been prevalent all along.
Some Wall Street analysts were saying questionable things about Apple while the stock was climbing. In some cases, those stupid things took the form of "Buy" ratings, but it's a lot easier to ignore people who are right for the wrong reasons than it is when they're wrong for the wrong reasons.
The same is true for $AAPL investors. A lot of people bought shares of $AAPL on the way up not because they had a clue what Apple does or how it does it, but rather because everyone else was. This was true both at the retail level and the institutional level.
Indeed, at the institutional level, the pressure was even more intense. If you were a fund manager without $AAPL, you were nuts. $AAPL was such a powerhouse for so long—and remember that Apple Inc. is still the world's most valuable corporation—that owning shares was practically synonymous with window dressing.
That's kind of entertaining, too. Back in the early part of the last decade, some funds bought $AAPL during the quarter, but would then sell it off when it came time to report so that no one would see them owning the stock. This was the reverse of what may have happened in Q4 of 2012.
Lots of Factors
To be sure, there were many things that contributed to $AAPL's recent sell-off. Profit-taking, for instance was surely a part of it. There was a lot of money to be taken off the table, especially when $AAPL was flying high at $700 a share. Apple also missed Mac estimates, and it barely met iPhone estimates.
I also don't mean to imply that Apple is perfect and that the company should be trading at a gagillion dollars per share. There is a vast difference, however, between believing that Apple screwed up the Apple Maps rollout and selling the stock because Apple is on the skids as evidenced by Apple Maps.
As I Was Saying...
Back to the hedge funds and other institutions, the reason why they have so many shares of $AAPL to sell in the first place is because they loaded up on them on the way up. It's my opinion that there was a lot of bandwagon jumping in both directions. Ignorance fueled the rise just like it fueled the sell-off.
Most people don't get Apple. Wall Street is still largely steeped in the Microsoft era of open licensing and a focus on specs and rush-to-the-bottom pricing. Not understanding how and why Apple makes its profits, and why that model is sustainable, will absolutely have an effect on how you invest (or don't invest) in the company.
Apple raking in money hand over fist has had only a marginal effect in changing this. There are a handful of analysts who completely get it, understand it, and are tapped into Apple's supply chain in a way that gives them real insight on what to expect. There are another dozen or so—maybe a score—with a fairly good grasp of what's going on.
The rest are a bunch of bandwagon jumpers and leapers flailing about in ignorance, and there are some 54 analysts covering Apple right now. Think about that for a moment.
In the end, Apple is still the world's most valuable company, but the trajectory of the company's stock shows that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
*In the interest of full disclosure, the author holds a tiny, almost insignificant share in AAPL stock that was not an influence in the creation of this article.


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Netfa was Director of the Institute's Social Action & Leadership School for Activists (SALSA) from 2000 to 2010 and is now the coordinator for events of the other IPS projects. SALSA provided affordable workshops covering all aspects of grassroots activism.
Netfa holds a B.A. in History from the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) and has been a political organizer/activist since 1985. He served as coordinator of the Committee for Political Education at the Pan-African Resource Center (1985-1989) and has worked as a phone-bank fundraiser for the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES 1988-1990).
Netfa has been intimately involved with many movements, such as the 1986 International Peace Gathering in response to the U.S. bombing of Libya, the 1997 Advocates Plus Save UDC movement, and the People Before Profit Community Healthcare Project that was organizing DC residents to take their healthcare needs into their own hands. He served for many years as boardmember for Empower DC, as well as on the advisory board of M.O.M.I.E.S. TLC, was U.S. liaison for the Ujamma Youth Farming Project in Gweru, Zimbabwe, and a founding member and a lead organizer in the DC-Havana Sister City Project and the No War On Cuba Movement. He is an organizer in the International Committee for Peace, Justice & Dignity for the People, formerly the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5. Netfa is also a radio co-producer/co-host for Voices With Vision on WPFW 89.3 FM that airs Tuesdays from 9-10am. In 2011 Netfa was a recipient of the Washington Peace Center's Activists of The Year Awards and has been a workshop facilitator as part of the Educator's Collective for the Wayside Center for Popular Education, Train the Movement: A Trainers of Color Collaborative, and completed the "Amandla! Black Community Organizing Internship" of BOLD, Black Organizing for Leadership & Dignity.
His writings have been published in Black Star News (Ode To Black Women, Zimbabwe: Psychosis of Denial, What Happy Thanksgiving, Zimbabwe Election Deja Vu), Black Commentator (From Negro History Week to Pan-African Historical Context, Zimbabwe: More Than Complicity of Silence, Africa Advocacy & The Zimbabwe Factor), and Black Agenda Report (Zimbabwe And The Battle of Ideas), Pambazuka News, Global Research, and beyond. He also serves often as a commentator on radio and TV outlets.


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Second, EMSI is the company that produces the Career Coach tool and hosts it on secure web servers. When you are using the Career Coach tool, you are interacting with software that runs on EMSI's servers.
Third, Northumberland County Council ("the College") has contracted with EMSI for EMSI to make Career Coach accessible in a customized format. As part of EMSI's contract with the College, EMSI agrees to provide the College with aggregated, depersonalized demographic information gathered through the Career Coach tool. This allows the College to adapt to better meet the needs of its constituents. EMSI has also agreed to provide the College personal information, when you - the End User - register on Career Coach. In the event of such transfer, your information is protected by the requirements of federal law, as the College must handle the information in compliance with the requirements of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). To learn more about the FERPA, follow this link: http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html.
Fourth, Third Parties who provide services that are essential to delivering the Career Coach may be receive information that is entered into Career Coach. These Third Parties include financial institutions and payment processors when necessary for the completion or collection of payment, and companies who provide internet transmission and hosting services. EMSI may also from time-to-time make available aggregated, de-personalized demographic information, which is gathered through the Career Coach tool, to other Third Parties. Because of the ambiguous nature of this information, it would be impossible for any Third Party user of this data to relate it back to any End User to whom the data actually does relate.
You do not have to give us any personal information in order to perform any of the basic tasks on Career Coach - explore careers or degrees. We collect the following general types of information about you when you use the Tool: behavioral information, and indirect information. We also collect personal information and demographic information when you become a registered user of the Career Coach. Sometimes we collect combinations of all these types of information.
Personal information is information that can be used to identify you, or any other individual to whom the information may relate, personally. We do not collect personal information unless you choose to provide it to us. One example of personal information that we collect is your email address.
Demographic information is information that could not be used to identify you on its own. Thus, it is information that refers to selected population characteristics, such as ZIP or postal code, age, preferences, gender, race or ethnicity, occupation, career history, education, interests, and favorites, but does not associate that information with you, except as it is stored on EMSI's servers for purposes of your use of the Career Coach.
We also collect behavioral information regarding how you use the Tool, the areas of our site that you visit, what services you access (including what searches you conduct), and information about your computer hardware and software including your IP address, geolocation, browser and operating system type, domain names, access times, number of visits, and referring Web site addresses. This information is necessary for analyzing the use of resources, troubleshooting problems, preventing fraud, and improving our services.
Lastly, EMSI may collect indirect information about you. For example if you provide a title of "Mrs." we will assume you are female. Or if your email address ends in ".edu" we will assume you are a student.
We use the information we gather in the Tool for the purposes of providing our services, responding to any queries you may have, operating and improving the Tool, fostering a positive user experience and delivering the products and services that we offer to jobseekers and educational institutions. Our services include providing you with career and education information to aid in choosing a career or college major.
By registering as a user of the Tool, by managing your profile, you have consented for us to use your information, subject to local law, in the following ways:
By opting in when presented with choices, you have consented for us to use your information, subject to local law, in the following ways:
We disclose to third parties within your country and abroad your personal information, combined personal, demographic, behavioral or indirect information, as set forth below:
You are responsible for ensuring that your account credentials (your username and password) are kept confidential.
EMSI has implemented technical and organizational measures designed to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration or disclosure. Notwithstanding such measures, the Internet is an open system and we cannot guarantee that unauthorized third parties will not be able to defeat those measures or use your personal information for improper purposes. For security purposes, the information you enter in to the Career Coach should not contain any sensitive data that you would not want made available to third parties.
We also use cookies, web beacons, and Java Script to administer our site and deliver a personalized experience. For additional detailed information on each of these, please see below.
The Tool is not intended for, nor do we knowingly collect information from, children under the age of 13.
If we decide to materially change the substance of this Privacy Statement, we will, where required, contact you via the email address that you maintain in your profile. We will also post those changes through a prominent notice on the web site so that you will always know what information we gather, how we might use that information, and to whom we will disclose it.
Your data is submitted to Economic Modeling LLC, dba Economic Modeling Specialist International. (EMSI), and is hosted and stored in a database on servers situated in the United States owned and maintained by Economic Modeling LLC, a Delaware Limited Liability Company, whose principal place of business is at 409 S. Jackson Street, Moscow, Idaho, USA.
If, at any time, you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Statement or believe that we have not adhered to this Privacy Statement, please feel free to contact us by phone, email, or at the address above.
We will use reasonable efforts to answer promptly your question or resolve your problem.
A California resident who has provided personal information to a business with whom he/she has established a business relationship for personal, family, or household purposes ("California customer") is entitled to request information about whether the business has disclosed personal information to any third parties for the third parties' direct marketing purposes. In general, if the business has made such a disclosure of personal information, upon receipt of a request by a California customer, the business is required to provide a list of all third parties to whom personal information was disclosed in the preceding calendar year, as well as a list of the categories of personal information that were disclosed.
However, under the law, a business is not required to provide the above-described lists if the business adopts and discloses to the public (in its privacy policy) a policy of not disclosing customer's personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes unless the customer first affirmatively agrees to the disclosure, as long as the business maintains and discloses this policy. Rather, the business may comply with the law by notifying the customer of his or her right to prevent disclosure of personal information and providing a cost free means to exercise that right.
As stated in above, we do not share information with third parties for their direct marketing purposes unless you affirmatively agree to such disclosure. If you do ask us to share your information with a third party for its marketing purposes, we will only share information in connection with that specific promotion, as we do not share information with any third party on a continual basis. To prevent disclosure of your personal information for use in direct marketing by a third party, do not opt in to such use when you provide personally identifiable information on one of our sites. Please note that whenever you opt in to receive future communications from a third party, your information will be subject to the third party's privacy policy. If you later decide that you do not want that third party to use your information, you will need to contact the third party directly, as we have no control over how third parties use information. You should always review the privacy policy of any party that collects your information to determine how that entity will handle your information.
California customers may request further information about our compliance with this law by e-mailing EMSI's customer service department. Please note that we are only required to respond to one request per customer each year, and we are not required to respond to requests made by means other than through this e-mail address.
Emsi complys with the Privacy Shield framework. To view the full Privacy Shield document, you may download the document here.
Thank you for using EMSI's Career Coach.


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As I mentioned in the series preview the Cubs look to be finding a groove and riding the momentum of some nice wins lately. Tonight was pure domination from beginning to end as the Cubs had a 5-0 lead after two innings en route to a 9-1 victory, their third straight win. These wins are coming against good teams as well, and they held their own in their most recent losses against the Reds, and Cardinals. I'm not saying the Cubs are going to be contenders next week, but they are playing some of the best baseball they have played in the last three years. Okay, I know, that really doesn't take much, but watching this team every night I can see the change. Lost in the offensive awesomeness, say that five times fast, was the performance of Travis Wood. He was brilliant again, and is pitching like a true number one, this is the Travis Wood the Cubs' brass was hoping they got when they traded Sean Marshall to the Reds. Actually this is probably more than what they expected this soon, just outstanding.
At The Plate – The best offensive night for the Cubs this year, they pounded out fourteen hits and scored nine runs. They were an impressive 6-for-18 with runners in scoring position and had eight extra base hits, six doubles, a triple, and a home run. David DeJesus was 2-for-4 with a walk, a double, two RBI's, and two runs scored. Starlin Castro was on base all night going 2-for-3 with a walk, a double, two RBI's, and a run scored. Alfonso Soriano padded his slugging numbers in this one going 2-for-4 with his fourth home run of the season, a double, two RBI's and a run scored. Nate Schierholtz was 2-for-4 with a triple, and two RBI's, he is now hitting .299 on the season. Welington Castillo and Travis Wood also had two hits in the victory, both of Castillo's hits were doubles, what else is new, the Cubs lead the Majors in doubles.
On The Mound – Travis Wood was brilliant, what else can be said, he has been all year. Wood worked seven scoreless innings giving up two hits while walking three and striking out two. This was his eighth straight quality start to begin the season, he improved his record to 4-2, and lowered his ERA to 2.03 as well. Kyuji Fujikawa had another solid performance out of the pen tossing a scoreless inning while striking out two. Carlos Marmol worked the ninth inning giving up one run on one hit while striking out three.
Up Next – The Cubs go for their fourth straight win as Carlos Villanueva looks to get things back on track. The Rockies counter with Jeff Francis, first pitch scheduled for 7:05 PM CST, and the weather is supposed to be very summer like.
Game Highlights:
Wood's scoreless outing
DeJesus two-run single
Schierholtz two-run triple
Cubs turn two to end the fifth
Castro turns two
Castro's two run double
Travis Wood helps himself with a double
Alfonso Soriano launches one out onto Waveland


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Area items of interest
MIA/POW flag designer honored
Even the threat of rain did not dampen the spirit of the employees of Field Controls for the ceremony to recognize Newton Heisley. The designer of the POW/MIA flag, Heisley was honored Sept. 18 at the local plant for the sharing of an image that would become a symbol in American culture and a token of shared concerns that all �Missing in Action� and �Prisoners of Wars� be recovered. Patrick Holleran, president of Field Controls of Kinston, accepted a portrait of Heisley, a brief story about the idea he had for the famous flag and a poem entitled �Remember.�
Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 892 and the North Carolina State Council of Vietnam Veterans of America presented Field Controls with a POW/MIA flag and reminded those in attendance to never forget the commitment to �Bring our men home!�
�Our intention is to fly this POW/MIA flag every day from this point forward in honor of its significance to Field Controls and the Heisley family and in remembrance of the profound impact of this ceremony,� said Holleran.
Diabetes screenings are free
PINK HILL � Vidant Duplin Hospital�s Community Health Services is offering a free diabetes screening from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Friday at the Pink Hill Wellness and Education Center, 301 S. Pine St.
November is National Diabetes Awareness Month and this screening is in honor of that special designation. Join in the work to create awareness and prevent diabetes.
For more information, call the center at 252-568-2425.
Greene Holiday Market vendors needed
SNOW HILL � A Holiday Market will be held at the Elaney Wood Heritage Farmers Market from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 1, and vendors are welcome to sign up. A vendor space costs $10.
Items that can be sold at the market are: Christmas decor, artwork and paintings, basketry, beadwork, books, candles, ceramics and pottery, clothing and accessories, handbags, handmade quilts, fiber arts and products, herbal and body care products, jewelry, leather, toys, pet products, photography, woodcrafts, recycled art, live wreaths and Christmas trees.
For more information and to reserve a space, call the Greene County Cooperative Extension Service at 252-747-5831.
Get holiday ideas, recipes
The Neuse Extension and Community Association is presenting a holiday workshop from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday at the Lenoir County Cooperative Extension Office, 1791 Hwy. 11 S. in Kinston.
Presenters Tammy Kelly and Trudy Pickett will share new decorating ideas and recipes for the holidays. A registration fee of $15 includes basic materials for a tabletop tree.
To reserve a space, call 252-527-2191.


text:
Google has recently announced its own public DNS server, responding at IP address 22.214.171.124 and 220.127.116.11 (how nice). Also, they released Namebench, a Python tool to compare DNS performances.
Namebench basically determines your current DNS setup, some DNS you could use according to your ISP and geographic region, and tests them against also, of course, Google Public DNS.
Each DNS server is tested on the resolution of the most popular 10,000 site names, according to Alexa web survey. Each DNS test is done in parallel with the others, so network latency spikes are more evenly distributed.
I gave it a try, to meausure how fast Google DNS server is, how well my ISP performs and how good is the local DNS I'm using.
Namebench produces a lot of data, in the sake of clearness I show here only the graph of the response time, trimmed to the first 200ms of response time: each resolution taking more than 200ms is out of the graph.
In all the graphs, you see that almost every DNS does a lot of caching: cache plays a role in reducing to almost zero the response time, and after a cache miss the response time increases almost linearly, as the DNS server must perform a recursive query to give the answer to the client.
I made three run of Namebench, to see how much the cache plays a role for my local DNS server, which is the standard BIND shipped with Fedora 11, configured as a caching nameserver, without chrooting.
On the first graph, you could see that my local DNS resolves about 10% of the requests extremely fast: these requests get an answer from the local cache or require little interaction with external (root) DNS nameservers. All others requests require some network interaction, and the response time increase linearly. Take into account that all the graphs are for responses requiring up to 200ms, so there are not the unlucky interactions where my local DNS take 1800ms to give an answer: the local DNS has the worst performances in these (rare) cases.
The second graph is for a run made immediately after the first, to see the effect of local DNS cache filling: about 25% of the requests are now satisfied by the cache. In this run Namebench has replaced UltraDNS with the DNS of the University of Basilicata, Italy.
On the third graph, the cache for the local DNS plays the same as the second run, so there is a cache saturation effect. The local DNS is not suffering from memory saturation, so there is not point in increasing the local cache size by the max-cache-size directive.
There is something more in the graphs. Response curves have the shape of a constant (near zero) time for some of the queries, which means that the caches are massive, then the responses time grow linearly as the data in the cache are expired and the queried name server must contact the authoritative name servers doing a recursive query. Also:
- Google Public DNS has a cache hit for almost 50% of the requests, and for a cache miss the response time is dominated by the network time (from the DNS server point of view, i.e. the time it takes to do a recursive query) but this time is almost constant;
- OpenDNS response curvers are initially linear, which could means that the network path for reaching OpenDNS servers is not as optimized as Google's path, but after that the cache is here to do its job;
- My ISP DNS (labeled as Wind2-IT) has usually good performances, probably more because the network path is its friend, it's entirely possible that the cache is not so big;
- Local DNS suffers when, to fulfill a request, has to made some recursive queries, as these are usually carried over UDP and the local router is not higly optimized for UDP NATting (educated guess).
It is important to stress that the tests are made over the list of the 10,000 most popular websites: it's probably the only way to have a benchmark of the general use, but if you visit just some a bunch of sites (as it's usually the case) you must consider how much these results could apply to your environment. Also, these websites are all treated equal, while clearly popularity plays a role every time you deal with a cache.
These benchmarks have shown that my current setup (a local DNS) is the best, but when a cache miss occurs, and there are a lot of recursive queries to be made, the local router (and it's UDP NATting function) is the bottleneck. Nothing to worry about, but an interesting sight to get.
Generally speaking, it's fair to say that Google Public DNS is quite a good infrastructure, a fierce competitor both to an ISP DNS provided (which has the big benefit of the network latency) or OpenDNS (which is now several years in place).
Filed under: network, dns, google, namebench, opendns, performances, ultradns


text: Job Discussion Forums :: View topic - Has anyone attended Center For Teacher Development? Get TEFL Certified & Start Your Adventure Today! Job Discussion Forums"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World!" FAQ Search Memberlist Usergroups Register Profile Log in to check your private messages Log in Has anyone attended Center For Teacher Development? Job Discussion Forums Forum Index -> Costa Rica View previous topic :: View next topic Author Message SusmiharaJoined: 24 Oct 2010Posts: 4Location: San Antonio, TX Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 2:21 pm Post subject: Has anyone attended Center For Teacher Development? Any experiences with CFTD? It is one of the courses I'm looking into for May/June 2011. As I understand, it's a newer school but seems to be pretty well connected, as well as their assistance with 3 interviews and with Visas for students who successfully complete their course. There are quite a bit of choices in courses but I've not read too many experiences with CFTD. Thanks in advance for any feedback! Back to top laura ticaJoined: 09 Nov 2010Posts: 1Location: costa rica Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2010 9:54 pm Post subject: Center for Teacher Development Costa Rica I took the CFTD TESOL course in May, and I've been working teaching English in Costa Rica since then. The school is very nice. Since it was the cheapest program I found anywhere, I expected it to be terrible. Incredibly, it was as nice as I could have imagined. Furthermore, the other participants I spoke to had nothing but wonderful things to say about schooling, employment, and "life support" from the school. My instructor was also delightful. She has a masters in language (not sure which focus, specifically, though I believe something to do with language acquisition). The groups at CFTD are small and the program is internationally accredited. One of the best options in Costa Rica! Back to top SusmiharaJoined: 24 Oct 2010Posts: 4Location: San Antonio, TX Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 1:08 am Post subject: Thank you so much for your response Laura Tica. I'm still investigating but narrowing down my choice! Appreciate the feedback! Back to top Display posts from previous: All Posts1 Day7 Days2 Weeks1 Month3 Months6 Months1 Year Oldest FirstNewest First Job Discussion Forums Forum Index -> Costa Rica All times are GMT Page 1 of 1 Jump to: Select a forum Where to Begin----------------General DiscussionNewbie ForumCurrent Events ForumTechnology ForumOnline Teaching Forum Africa Forums----------------General Africa Forum Asia Forums----------------CambodiaChina (Job-related Posts Only)China (Off-Topic)Hong KongIndiaIndonesiaJapanMalaysiaPhilippinesSingaporeTaiwanThailandGeneral Asia ForumVietnam Caribbean Forums----------------General Caribbean Forum Europe Forums----------------Czech RepublicFranceGermanyGreeceItalyMacedonia and the BalkansPolandRomaniaRussia & C.I.S.SpainTurkeyUkraineUnited KingdomGeneral Europe Forum Latin America Forums----------------ArgentinaBrazilChileColombiaCosta RicaMexicoMexico (off-topic)PeruGeneral Latin America Forum The Middle East Forums----------------BahrainEgyptIsraelKuwaitOmanQatarSaudi ArabiaUnited Arab EmiratesGeneral Middle East Forum North America Forums----------------General North America Forum Oceania----------------Australia/New Zealand You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forum This page is maintained by the one and only Dave Sperling. Contact Dave's ESL Cafe Copyright © 2018 Dave Sperling. All Rights Reserved. Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group Teaching Jobs in China


text:
You British and Americans and Germans and Japanese and Greeks and...Babylonians have had it pretty good when it comes to Civilization games. You get to play as your own people. But what about me?
Australia has never been in the game. And don't give me that crap about being a country and not a Civilization. If other "new world" nations like the US and even Brazil can get in the game, then damn it, we deserve a shot too.
And we're getting one, albeit courtesy of this fantastic new mod for Civilization V. It adds Australia as a fully-fledged Civilization in the game, with a unique leader, units and abilities.
The best part is that some genuine thought has gone into it; the leader is the "father of Australia" Sir Henry Parkes, the Civ specialises in tourism and...Russell Crowe is the Australian spy unit.
[BNW] Australia Civilization - Colonialist Legacies [Steam, via Gizmodo]