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The most decisive event in human history was the appearance of the God-man Jesus Christ on earth. This occurred at the beginning of the first century in the western reckoning, in what was then the Syrian province of the Roman Empire – to be more precise, in Galilee and Judea. The faith in the life, teaching, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ would over the course of time give rise to three divergent forms of Christian religion: Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant. All three have historically claimed to be based on the Gospel of Christ, and much conflict has occurred between their followers over the centuries.
Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Protestantism are often seen as variations on a single theme, in other words as the three main branches of Christianity. In this view, Orthodoxy and Catholicism represent the eastern and western strands of Christianity until their separation between the 9th and 13th centuries, with Protestantism breaking away from its Catholic parent from the 16th century onwardsi. However, in this essay we will suggest that it is more correct to see these three religious forms as distinct religions. This does not imply equality between Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Protestantism; there can be no doubt that Orthodoxy represents the integral fullness of Christian faith, with Catholicism and Protestantism deviating to a greater or lesser degree from it.
The conceptual background for our thesis is the organic view of history, first propounded by the German philosopher Oswald Spengler (1880-1936) in his monumental work, The Decline of the West.ii In this wide-ranging tome Spengler interpreted human history as a succession of High Cultures, commencing with the Egyptian and Sumerian around 3000 BC. A High Culture can be understood as an organism, since it displays the key marks of living organisms: birth, growth, maturity, old age, and death. Interestingly, it was a Russian thinker, Konstantin Leontiev, who had already in 1875 suggested that civilisations mirrored the life-patterns of living organisms: growth, flowering, decline, and death.iii This organic view need not surprise us: human cultures consist of living beings, and therefore these cultures ought to experience collectively what humans experience individually.
The main difference between a High Culture and other living organisms, Spengler argued, is in duration. In the case of the former the life-span stretches over ten to twelve centuries, while its influence on a younger Culture within its territory may linger on for centuries more. This phenomenon is termed pseudomorphosis, and Spengler describes it particularly by means of the late Classical dominating the early Arabian. In that case the Battle of Actium (31 BC) was decisive: the victory of Octavian over Mark Antony ensured continued Roman (and hence Classical) domination over the territory of the coming Arabian Culture: the Near East, Asia Minor, and North Africa.
Spengler further argued that some High Cultures also experienced a late imperialistic phase, situated between old age and death. In this phase all the remaining energies of that Culture are expended in one final expansion. Again the Classical Culture provides us with an instructive example: the rise of the Roman Empire under Augustus and his successors. This militaristic empire burst out at a time when the Classical Culture had seemed to be in its dying throes, and by the end of the first Christian century had spread its dominion wider than any Culture before. According to Spengler's model, this late Cultural imperialism entails not only Caeserism on the political level but also a second religiousness. This rebirth of religion overcomes the rationalism that characterizes the latter stages of any Culture, and entails a partial return to the religion of the early Culture.
The Egyptian and Sumerian Cultures were followed by the birth of the Indian, Chinese and Classical Cultures around 1500, 1300 and 1100 BC respectively. Of these High Cultures the Classical was in its final stage when the Arabian Culture arose during the century following Christ coming to earth. The Classical Culture would exercise an enormous influence on the young Arabian Culture, shaping its religious and philosophical thought for several centuries to come (Spengler's pseudomorphosis). In the early centuries of the first millennium the Mexican Culture appeared in Central America, the only High Culture to be born in the western hemisphere. This Culture also had the tragic destiny of being the only one whose life would be violently ended by representatives of another High Culture – the Spanish conquistadors.
Around the year 1000 in our reckoning a new Culture had arisen to the northwest of the Arabian Culture. This was the Western Culture, the relative autonomy of which was first noted by Spengler. Germany, France, England, Spain, and Italy would eventually become the national centers of the Western Culture. Prior to this organic model of history, the West had generally been viewed as a continuation of the Classical world via the Middle Ages. Thus, most western historians promoted the ancient-medieval-modern scheme of things, with the modern West (i.e. Western Europe and North America) representing the apex of human cultural development. This chauvinistic view of history was undermined by Spengler's thesis of the cyclic rise and fall of High Cultures.
In terms of the organic view of history, the West is in its dying throes. Although the countries of Western Europe (perhaps all Europe to the west of Russia) and North America are still functioning as political and economic entities, culturally speaking they are moribund. The higher cultural activities of music, literature, philosophy and so forth (that is, in their more or less traditional forms) are still being practiced by a small minority, but the majority of westerners are content to live in a non-reflective state as consumers while worshiping the great god of entertainment. Bread and circuses were not confined to the ancient Romans, to say the least. The same criticism applies to the majority of humans in other parts of the world, since there are no other living High Cultures at this juncture in history – but there exists a possibility of an existing culture flowering into a new High Culture (see further on).
The question may be asked as to the validity of this approach to interpret religion in cultural terms. Is authentic religious faith not, after all, superior to all other human activities? Yes indeed, but we should be under no illusion that religion could be a-cultural, as it were. Every human being is culturally conditioned from birthiv until death, on account of possessing a spiritual soul and not only a material body. First and foremost among these ubiquitous cultural influences is the medium of language, through which much human activity is expressed. We even think in terms of language, which led the atheist philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche to lament that faith in God cannot be got rid of since people still believe in grammar.v Religious activities are therefore expressed in linguistic terms, and this should be accepted as providential.
Following in the footsteps of Spengler, the English historian Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975) wrote a comprehensive study of world history. Although he accepted aspects of Spengler's organic view of culture, Toynbee held that the rise and fall of cultures were not inevitable. Rather, the way in which civilisations responded to physical or social challenges determined their chances of survival. He correctly made a distinction between the civilisations of the Graeco-Roman world (Spengler's Classical Culture), the post-Roman Western world (Spengler's Western Culture), and the Orthodox world of Russia and the Balkans. Against the charge by his 18th century predecessor Gibbon that Christianity was responsible for the collapse of the Roman Empire, Toynbee argued that Christianity in fact harbours the inner strength to survive the collapse of civilisations. In view of Christ's teaching about the Kingdom of God not being of this world, Toynbee was undoubtedly closer to the truth of the matter than Gibbon.
The oldest of the Christian religions is Orthodoxy, the Church founded by the Apostles of Christ. For nearly three centuries the Orthodox Church, with Greek as main scriptural and liturgical language, endured repeated persecution by a number of pagan Roman Emperors. This official hostility ended abruptly when the Emperor Constantine granted religious freedom to the Christians in 313. He later moved the imperial capital from Rome to Constantinople, the New Rome, where he convened the first ecumenical council of the Church in 325. On his deathbed Constantine was baptised as a Christian, receiving the name of Basil. Constantine's mother Helena was instrumental in discovering the remains of the cross of Christ in Jerusalem. For their contributions in establishing the Orthodox Christian faith throughout the empire, both Constantine and Helena would be canonised as saints by the Church. By the end of the fourth century Orthodoxy had become the state religion of the Christian Roman Empire.vi
During a series of ecumenical councils that stretched over a millennium (from 325 until 1349) the doctrines and practices of the Orthodox faith were formulated. The decisions of these councils were affirmed as imperial law by the Emperor, and thus became binding on all Roman citizens.vii Alas, the Christian Roman Empire soon became as intolerant of religious dissent as its pagan predecessor had been, so that violent persecution of heretics (real and alleged) occurred throughout its history. Even leading theologians, such as Maximus the Confessor, would be persecuted by the Church hierarchy and/or the imperial rulers. However, each deviation into error would eventually be corrected by an ecumenical council, due to the ubiquitous presence of the Spirit of God in the Church, collectively speaking.
The spread of Orthodoxy coincided with the rise of the Arabian Culture, the existence of which was first noted by Spengler. In his mentioned work he argued that the Arabian Culture possessed a Magian soul that came to expression in its religions: Persian (i.e. Zoroastrian), Jewish, Christian, neo-Platonist, and finally Islamic. Instead of the usual understanding of neo-Platonism as the final flowering of the Classical Culture, it is seen from this perspective as the Scholasticism of Arabian Culture, albeit heavily influenced (as was the case with Judaism and Christianity) by Classical philosophy. In its turn Neo-Platonism influenced Orthodoxy to some extent, not the least in its terminology.
In Spengler's cultural model each High Culture possesses a distinctive Culture-soul that impresses itself on all human activities in that Culture. Thus, the Magian soul of the Arabian Culture is contrasted with the Apollonian soul of the lingering Classical Culture and the Faustian soul of the still-to-come Western Culture. According to Spengler the Magian soul views the world as a vast cavern, expressed on the physical level by the domed basilicas and mosques of the Christians and Muslims respectively.
Within Orthodox theology the Magian world-view found expression in a cosmology that depicted the world as a box-like structure.viii This was founded on a literal reading of Genesis, expounded notably by the school of Antioch in Syria. Thus, the earth represented the bottom of the box and the sky the ceiling. Above this box lay the kingdom of Heaven, inhabited by God and the celestial beings. Among the early Church writers Origen was one of the few who deviated from this literalistic cosmology with his allegorical interpretation of Genesis. With the rise of modern astronomy it naturally became impossible to retain this pre-scientific worldview, keeping in mind that the early Church writers were informed by the science of their day.
By the time Orthodoxy was declared the official religion of the Roman Empire (late 4th century), it had developed into an intricate synthesis of Biblical/Judaic theology, Hellenic philosophy, and Roman legal thought. The latter two components were obtained through the prevalence of the late Classical Culture, already in its final imperial phase, in much of the Roman Empire at the time of Christ. This cultural-historical confluence has to be seen as providential, since it contributed to Orthodoxy becoming more universal and less Culture-specific than any other religion before. It is therefore quite unnecessary for Orthodox Christians to consider the criticism of some of its modern opponents that their faith is not 'Biblical' enough – such 'criticism' being entirely irrelevant in the bigger scheme of things.
Nevertheless, the fact of Orthodox theology being based not only on Judaic but also on Hellenic thought eventually brought about a popular need for a religion more consonant with the developing Arabian Culture. Therefore in the 7th century the Prophet Mohammed appeared in the Arabian heartland of Mecca and Medina to proclaim the supremacy of the one God (Allah in Arabic), and the requirement that all humans submit to His authority – whether voluntarily or by force. After Mohammed's death this new religion spread like wildfire through the former Christian territories of the Near East and North Africa. According to Spengler's philosophy of history, the rapid expansion of early Islam was actually a reclaiming of the territories of the Arabian Culture from domination by the late Classical Culture – hence its initial success. Within a hundred years the Islamic armies had overrun the Iberian Peninsula, but they were halted in Gaul by representatives of the human material then being prepared for the birth of the Western Culture. These warriors were ably commanded by Charles Martel, the 'Hammer' of the Christian God.
As a result of this dramatic Muslim expansion, the Orthodox Christian world shrank to cover not much more than Asia Minor, Greece, Southern Italy, Sicily, the Adriatic and some of the eastern Mediterranean. In the centuries to come these territories would systematically be conquered by either Muslim invaders or Germanic 'barbarians' from the northwest. One of the worst tragedies in European history occurred in 1204, when Catholic Crusaders from Western Europe, ostensibly on their way to recapture Jerusalem from the Muslims, sacked and looted the Orthodox Christian capital Constantinople with Venetian financial and naval assistance. This travesty by Catholic Christians led to lasting mistrust of the West among many Orthodox Christians – understandably so.
During the past century or two the Orthodox religion became widely spread outside the Orthodox heartlands of Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Due to increasing emigration from countries such as Greece, Russia, Serbia and Romania, coupled with sporadic missionary activity, there are today numerous Orthodox churches throughout Western Europe, North and South America, Australia, and parts of Asia and Africa. There is also an increasing Orthodox monastic presence in various parts of the world. This striking expansion is the mirror image of the decline (in both numbers and influence) of Catholicism and mainstream Protestantism in many of these countries.
The presence of Orthodoxy in the post-Christian, secular humanist West of today presents an enormous challenge to those who wish to live a Christian life within it. It is to be expected that Orthodox Christians in the western world will increasingly be depicted as anachronistic, reactionary and backward. This onslaught comes mainly from the mass media, being the most effective instrument of the dark spiritual powers that rule the world.ix As a result many Orthodox, even clergy, are succumbing to this anti-Christian offensive by adapting to humanist western customs. Most notable among these compromises is the rejection of the Church calendar by parts of the Orthodox world, and its replacement by the Roman Catholic and Protestant calendar. Providentially, the bulk of the Orthodox Church has remained faithful to the ecumenical councils in this regard.
The Western Culture-soul is characterised above all by the striving to infinity, as Spengler demonstrated by means of numerous examples drawn from mathematics, architecture, painting, and music. Already in its first century this Faustian striving of the West expressed itself in the political and military sphere by means of the Crusades, despite the pious Crusaders' claim to be fighting to recapture the 'Holy Land' for Christ. Within a century or two this same striving manifested on the artistic level in the great Gothic cathedrals of Northern Europe. These imposing edifices would provide the spatial setting for the development of Gregorian chant, the liturgical music of the new Gothic Christianity. For Spengler this was the second great issue of Christianity, a thousand years after the original Christian religion appeared in the Near East.
When the Western Culture began to express itself as a young organism it naturally required a religion that would be consonant with its Faustian soul. Or as the Greek philosopher Christos Yannaras put it, the Latin-speaking 'Holy Roman Empire' needed a cultural base to differentiate it from the Greek-speaking Eastern Roman Empire.x From a metaphysical perspective it is conceivable that Orthodoxy, with its Middle Eastern and Hellenic foundations, could not fully satisfy the Western religious quest. Therefore the Western theologians developed a version of Christian faith that was partially based on the Augustinian theological tradition and partially on the rediscovered Aristotelian metaphysics. The latter was given a Christian interpretation by Thomas Aquinas, and in this way was the Catholic religion born.
One of the major theological aspects on which the Catholic religion, or Gothic Christianity in Spengler's terminology, deviated from its Orthodox parent is the role of Christ. Whereas Christ had in the Christian East always been seen primarily as the Cosmic Christ, in other words the Divine Logos who was creator of the universe,xi Catholic theology saw Him chiefly in juridical terms. Thus, Jesus came into the world in order to pay the penalty required by God for the human transgression of Divine Law. As Anselm stated the case, an infinite transgression required an infinite sacrifice, so that nothing less than Christ's death could propitiate God's offended majesty. There can be no doubt that this juridical interpretation of Christ's work of salvation is a distortion of the New Testament message, but nonetheless one that reflected the Latin-legalistic basis of the new Western Culture.
It was this legalistic misunderstanding of Christian theology that facilitated the incessant attempts by Catholic popes and cardinals to subject kings and emperors to their authority. The Church was viewed mainly in juridical terms, and not in ontological terms as in Orthodoxy. This deviant ecclesiology would before long lead to the diabolical methods of the Inquisition, such as the horrors of the rack and the stake. In this regard we should also mention the Catholic genocide of the neo-Gnostic Albigensians and Cathars in northern Italy and southern France, sanctioned by papal authority.
During the Middle Ages a liturgical development took place in the Catholic Church that would contribute significantly to the eventual breach within Gothic Christianity. In Orthodoxy worship has always been seen as communal, that is the clergy and laity standing together before God in worship. This conviction is symbolised by the priest facing the altar together with the parish. However, in the Franco-Latin West a divergent view arose – one that saw the priest as mediator between God and man, and therefore as dispenser of the sacraments. This divergence necessarily led to sacerdotal empowerment to the detriment of the laity. The bulk of Catholic Christians were in this way placed at the mercy of clergy as far as salvation was concerned. Excommunication became the chief weapon of the Church, and remained so after worldly power shifted into the hands of emperors and princes, rather than the hands of popes and cardinals. It is not difficult to see how this state of affairs inevitably led to widespread revolt when the time was ripe.
In the 16th century much of the Western world was shaken to its core by the Protestant revolution. What commenced as proposals for reform of the Catholic Church by a German monk steeped in the Augustinian tradition, soon escalated into a political breakaway from Catholic rulers by large territories in Northern Europe. By the end of that momentous century all or most of Scandinavia, Prussia, the Netherlands, England and Switzerland had become Protestant. The colonisation of North America and South Africa by settlers from these nations in the 17th century ensured that these territories too would be Protestant in faith, at least in the initial stages.
Within the Western Culture, Protestantism played a role analogous to that of Islam within the Arabian Culture. Both arose as grand attempts at purification, claiming to be a return to the original Divine revelation. Both claim the authority of sacred scripture for its teachings, whether the Quran or the Bible. Both are iconoclastic, rejecting visual representations of sacred truths as 'idolatry'. Both spread with astonishing rapidity and became the dominant faith in huge territories: the Near East and North Africa for the one, and Northern Europe for the other. From these heartlands both religions extended further to other continents, one more to the East and the other further West.
However, a fundamental difference between Islam and Protestantism is to be found in their views on person and community. In the Islamic view, the individual person is always related to the community of believers. It is entire communities that have to submit to Allah, and not only individual persons. In contrast, Protestantism has from the outset emphasised the individual person standing before God. This approach necessarily (given sinful human nature) led to excessive individualism being a hallmark of the Protestant world throughout its history. Even the Protestant doctrine of sola scriptura could not be safeguarded from individualistic interpretations of the Bible, and this phenomenon inevitably led to the fragmentation of Protestantism into thousands of competing denominations, each one claiming to base its faith on Scripture alone.
The Protestant religion claims Martin Luther as its founding father. His writings laid the foundations for much of Protestant theology, not to mention his German translation of the Bible. In addition, the liturgical music written by Luther and his followers became a mainstay of Protestant choral singing in many parts of the world. This musical tradition was continued by composers such as Praetorius, Scheidt, Schein, Buxtehude and others, culminating in Johann Sebastian Bach, who in his numerous sacred works createdxii a transcendent spiritual beauty – the highest musical expression of the Faustian soul.
Shortly after Luther and his fellow evangelicals (as they called themselves) began their reformation, another Protestant current arose – one that would eventually become more widespread than their Lutheran relative. This is Reformed Protestantism, also known as Calvinism. The main figure in Reformed theology is John Calvin, a Frenchman who settled in Genève. His magnum opus, Institutes of the Christian Religion, would obtain a status second only to the Bible among many Protestants in the centuries to come. Calvin took certain teachings on divine grace and predestination of the great Latin thinker of the early Church, Augustine, to extreme conclusions. As a result, Calvinism became associated with the doctrine of double predestination: God predestines some people to salvation and others to damnation. It is easy to see how this distortion inevitably leads to fatalism – if salvation is by God's election only, then why bother with any kind of spiritual striving?
In the century following Luther, Calvin and their cohorts, Protestantism became even more extreme in its rejection of medieval Gothic Christianity. This new fundamentalism became known in the 16th century as Puritanism. The English tyrant and regicide Cromwell played a leading role in establishing the Puritan religion in Britain, whence it was taken to the new American colonies. According to Spengler's organic philosophy of history, the role of Cromwell within the Western Culture is equivalent to those of Mohammed in the Arabian and Pythagoras in the Classical Cultures. All three of these figures were instrumental in establishing a puritan religion in their Cultures, each one seeing him as an instrument of the Divine will.
Since that time the Protestant religion has gradually fallen under the sway of rationalism. This can be seen as an inevitable result of the Protestant rejection of mysticism, which has ignorantly or arrogantly been confused with superstition. Hand in hand with the rise of rationalism came the explosion of the natural sciences from the 17th century onward. Alas, this inevitable development brought not only enlightenment, but also the pseudo-religion of scientism. By the 19th century, this irrational faith in the ability of science to explain not only natural phenomena but also the spiritual-intellectual world had become all but dominant among the educated classes in Western Europe and North America.
However, during the 18th century a reaction to rationalism had in the meantime arisen in the same parts of the world where rationalism and scientism had become established. This reaction became known as Pietism in Germany and as Methodism in Britain. Personal devotion to God again came to the fore for many western Christians, regardless of their ridicule by the learned and powerful. This pietistic reaction to rationalism is in Spengler's view the Western equivalent of Stoicism in the Classical Culture and Sufism in the Arabian Culture. Protestant pietism eventually spread throughout the English-speaking world, as well as the more Germanic countries of Europe.
From the beginning of the 20th century the Protestant world became afflicted with the so-called Pentecostal movement. It arose like most of the cults and sects of modern times in that bastion of liberty, the United States of America. Pentecostalism sees itself as a 'new outpouring of the Holy Spirit', the characteristic mark of it being 'speaking in tongues'. This auto-induced phenomenon is usually practised in conjunction with emotional excitement, the latter being incited by the Pentecostal 'ministers'. From the 1960s the Pentecostal aberration began infiltrating the mainline Protestant denominations, and following the Second Vatican Council also the Catholic Church. In this new guise it became known as the so-called 'charismatic' movement, its proponents arrogantly claiming to be 'reintroducing praise and worship' into the Christian (i.e. Protestant and modernist Catholic) Church. The saintly Orthodox spiritual writer Fr Seraphim Rose (1934-1982) wrote an illuminating expose of the 'Pentecostal/charismatic' movement, showing it to be nothing other than satanic deception.xiii Providentially the Orthodox Church as a whole has been spared this anti-Christian phenomenon masquerading as a 'work of the Holy Spirit', even though a modernist fringe has been attempting to introduce aspects of it into Orthodoxy.
Within Protestantism only the Anglo-Catholic movement in the Anglican Communion can today be understood as representing a more or less traditional Christian faith, albeit in its western form. This movement got under way by the middle of the 19th century, spreading from Oxford to various parts of the English-speaking world. Ever since that time the Anglo-Catholics have been fighting a theological rearguard action, in a sincere attempt to preserve whatever was left of the Christian faith amidst an increasingly secularised and humanist church environment. They deserve the respect of all Christians.
We have now briefly considered the religions of (Greek) Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Protestantism in terms of Spengler's organic model. To conclude this essay, let us look at the dominant Orthodox Christian faith of modern times: Russian Orthodoxy. Since its establishment by Greek Orthodox missionaries in the 10th century the Russian Orthodox Church has grown into the largest member of the Orthodox family. Over the past few centuries it has undertaken widespread missionary work in Central Asia, China, Japan, Alaska and elsewhere. Now, in the 21st century, Russian Orthodoxy is set to proclaim the Christian message anew in the post-Christian western world.
It is of particular relevance to us that Spengler was convinced of Russia's potential to become the next High Culture, amidst the inescapable cultural death of the West. The German philosopher observed that Russia had repeatedly in modern times been subjected to alien influences by her rulers, becoming another instance of pseudomorphosis. The first was Peter the Great's attempt to modernise Russia along western lines, entailing among other misdeeds the abolition of the Moscow Patriarchate. After a 200 year hiatus the Patriarchate was re-established on the eve of the Bolshevik revolution in 1918, although its freedom would be short-lived. Having consolidated their power over the former Russian Empire, the Bolshevik communists set about to establish a totalitarian state based on Marxist-Leninist thought. This grandiose project of social engineering represented a further westernisation of Russia, since Marx and Lenin were both products of western European revolutionary thought. Ironically it was the fiercest enemy of Russian Orthodoxy, the tyrant Stalin, who also strove to undo some of the westernising of his predecessors.
Among famous Russian writers it was Tolstoy who represented the westernised past, Spengler argued, while Dostoyevsky points towards the future. Interestingly, in the Orthodox world Dostoyevsky, with his profound psychological insight and mystical vision, has indeed become one of the most influential thinkers since the late 19th century. Numerous Orthodox writers, including well-known theologians and philosophers, have recognised their spiritual-intellectual debt to this latter-day prophet of Russian Orthodoxy. It is understandable why Spengler believed that a 'third great issue of Christianity' (i.e. after Greek Orthodoxy and Catholicism) would come forth from Russia.
In this regard it is significant that in 1988 the Russian Orthodox Church celebrated the millennium since the establishment of Orthodoxy in the Russian lands. Soon afterwards Russia began shaking off the 70-year old heritage of the Bolshevik revolution, although the new post-Soviet rulers erred in allowing American-globalist influences to wreak socio-economic havoc in the country. Since the beginning of the third millennium the Russian government, led by the able partnership of Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, have worked hard to bring a renewed Russian identity to their much-suffering people. The Russian Orthodox hierarchy have actively co-operated in this regard, in addition to evangelising a population estranged from their Church by decades of communist propaganda. Thus has come about the most spectacular revival in Christian history, with thousands of parishes, hundreds of monasteries, and dozens of seminaries rebuilt and reopened in Russia since the early 1990's.
However, lest complacency about this Church revival sets in, it should be recognised that much remains to be done by the Church and the state in Russia. High levels of immorality represent an ongoing challenge, not to mention the periodic murder of clergy by enemies of Christ. The socio-economic condition of the bulk of the population is ghastly, with a daily struggle for survival being the norm, especially for the elderly and the infirm. Inexcusably, the huge revenues from the country's natural resources are restricted to the rich and their cronies. And rampant corruption occurs on all levels of administration and public service, in spite of Putin and Medvedev's attempts to establish a sense of responsibility among officials. These problems and challenges will have to be addressed with vigour and determination if Russia is to fulfil her potential to be a force for good in this world.
Vladimir De Beer
March 14, 2010
Sunday of St John of the Ladder
i The oft-repeated statement that the Orthodox and Catholic Churches separated in 1054 (called 'the Great Schism' by some writers) is an over-simplification of the facts. On the one hand, the two religious groupings had by that date been moving away from each other for some time, encouraged in the Latin West by the anti-Greek Carolingians. On the other hand, many churchmen on both sides hoped that this would be a temporary estrangement, as had happened before. However, the Crusaders' sacking of Constantinople in 1204 sealed the breach irrevocably. It would be more correct to see this date as marking the final parting of the ways between Orthodox and Catholic.
ii This was originally published in German as Der Untergang des Abendlandes, in 2 volumes (1918 and 1922).
iii Wikipedia entry on 'The Decline of the West'.
iv Some would say earlier – for instance, there is convincing evidence that the human foetus is influenced by the music he/she is exposed to during pregnancy.
v Yet from a certain perspective Nietzsche's atheism can be interpreted as a desperate search for God – see Eugene (Fr Seraphim) Rose's early writing published posthumously as Nihilism, p 6.
vi There was never a 'Byzantine' Empire or Church – despite the continued use of these terms by misinformed persons and others. The 'Byzantine' myth was a creation of those who saw the 'Holy Roman Empire' founded by Charlemagne in the 9th century as a restoration of the Western Roman Empire that came to an end in the 5th century. In their view the Eastern Roman Empire was so corrupt that it deserved to be destroyed by the Ottoman Turks in the 15th century, leaving the Germanic empire as sole heir of the classical Roman Empire.
vii Another popular misconception, aided and abetted by some Orthodox writers, is that the ecumenical councils are called ecumenical because the whole Church was represented through her bishops. This is not correct, since at some of the councils hundreds of bishops were present and at others only a few dozen. In fact, what made those councils ecumenical was the affirmation of their decisions by imperial signature. Likewise, there were not only 7 ecumenical councils, as is often averred. After the 7th council held in Nicaea in 787, further ecumenical councils were convened in Constantinople in 879 and 1341. This gives a total of 9 ecumenical councils whose decisions became imperial law. See the writings of Fr John Romanides (called by some 'the prophet of Roman Orthodoxy') in this regard.
viii Cunningham, chapter 9: Faith and Worldview.
ix 'For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms' (St Paul's letter to the Ephesians, 6:12).
x Yannaras, chapter 10e: The Western deviation.
xi See for example St Paul's letters to the Ephesians (chapter 1) and the Colossians (chapter 1).
xii Although Bach would have said 'co-created', by the Grace of God.
xiii In Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future.
Cunningham, Mary. Faith in the Byzantine World (Lion Histories). Oxford: Lion, 2002.
Pelikan, Jaroslav. The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Vol. 2: The Spirit of Eastern Christendom (600-1700). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974.
Romanides, Fr John. Various writings on Roman Orthodoxy (at www.romanity.org.)
Rose, Eugene (Fr Seraphim). Nihilism: The Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age. Platina: St Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 2001.
Rose, Fr Seraphim. Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future. Platina: St Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1997.
Sherrard, Philip. The Greek East and The Latin West: A Study in the Christian Tradition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1959.
Spengler, Oswald. The Decline of the West. Abridged Edition by Helmut Werner. Translated by Charles Atkinson. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Toynbee, Arnold. 'Christianity and Civilisation', in Civilisation on Trial. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1948.
Yannaras, Christos. Elements of Faith. An Introduction to Orthodox Theology. Translated by Keith Schram. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1991.
Wikipedia entry on The Decline of the West. www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Decline_of_the_West.
Vladimir De Beer a South African living in the UK, active in the Sourozh diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church as lay representative of the new mission in Belfast. His MA dissertation at the University of South Africa dealt with the ontology of John Scottus Eriugena. He is currently engaged in doctoral research in religious philosophy, dealing with creation and evolution from an Orthodox Christian perspective.


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Olga Salanueva and Adriana Perez: State Department of US, Please Grant the Wives Visas
by Casa de las Américas (Casa)
The Department of State is prohibiting entry, from Cuba to the US, to two of the wives of the Cuban Five. These women want to visit their husbands incarcerated in US prisons. Olga Salanueva, wife of Rene Gonzalez, and Adriana Perez, wife of Gerardo Hernandez, are law abiding and productive citizens of Cuba who simply want to visit with their respective husbands. Rene Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernandez are two of five men referred to as the Cuban Five. They are political prisoners serving two life sentences and 98 years collectively after being railroaded by the FBI in its continued hostility toward Cuba. They were arrested on September 12, 1998. They were falsely charged with espionage conspiracy and were convicted in Miami on June 8, 2001.
These five Cuban men never committed espionage nor did they conspire to do so, their actions were not directed against the US. Instead, their mission was to prevent Cuban exile terrorist organizations in Miami from carrying out attacks on Cuba. They wanted to monitor the activities of violent Cuban exiles that were planning violent actions against innocent people in Cuba. They were trying to prevent further brutal acts against Cuba and save innocent lives.
In 1959, after the US backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista was overthrown; Batista's repressive police and army torturers took refuge in Miami. With Miami as their staging ground, they organized, planned and carried out numerous sabotage and terrorist acts against the people of Cuba. To date, the attacks have killed 3,478 Cubans. Reports of these acts are not widely publicized in US media.
Anti-Cuban terrorists placed bombs in various hotels ‒ in one instance killing an Italian tourist. A bomb was placed in the Havana airport. Bombs were placed in buses to and from the airport. The Cuban government protested these terrorist activities to the US, but to no avail. They protested to the United Nations, and they recognized that Cuba had the right to defend its sovereignty.
Cuba's numerous appeals to Washington to stop terrorist attacks from various Miami based groups were repeatedly ignored. This is why a group of concerned Cubans in Miami infiltrated the terrorist organizations: to do what the US government could not do given that these terrorists are connected to and protected by an elite group of extremely wealthy right wing Cubans that live and control the politics of Miami and oppose all attempts between the US and Cuba to normalize their diplomatic relations.
Olga has not seen Rene since August 16, 2000. In April of 2003, the Department of State denied her a visa, invoking section 2112(f) of the Immigration and Naturalization Act. Repeated requests to obtain a visa to visit her husband have been denied.
Adriana was subjected to cruel and unjustified treatment when she attempted to visit Gerardo on July 25, 2002. Upon Adriana's arrival at the Houston Airport, she was detained by the FBI for 11 hours, isolated, deprived of her passport, photographed, fingerprinted and illegally interrogated before she was sent back to Cuba without having seen Gerardo. The FBI offered absolutely no explanation to support their decision. Thereafter, time and again, she has been denied a visa from US authorities, to visit her husband.
While the cause for the case of the Cuban Five has inspired a worldwide movement, these men have remained imprisoned for nearly 14 years. In the case of Rene Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernández they have also been denied family visits. Besides the fact that their right to a fair trial was denied because it took place in Miami, their right to have family visits has also been denied.
Recently, a conference was held at Howard University School of Law in Washington, DC with Danny Glover as the featured guest speaker. The objective of the forum was to bring light to the case of the Cuban Five as well as the inhumane act on the part of the Department of State of denying visas to Olga Salanueva and Adriana Perez who simply want to visit their husbands. Many well-known celebrities have joined in the efforts of informing the rest of the nation of this great injustice. These include Bonnie Rait, Susan Sarandon, Benicio del Toro, Oliver Stone, Martin Sheen, Pete Seeger, Ry Cooder, Chrissie Hynde, Haskell Wexler, Graham Nash, Jackson Browne, Ed Asner, Mike Farrell, and others.
It is time to correct this wrong and this great injustice. By signing this petition directed at the Department of State, you join in the effort of allowing Olga Salanueva and Adriana Perez to obtain visas for them to visit their husbands incarcerated in US prisons.
Editor's Note: According to its website, Casa de las Américas (Casa) is a New York-based organization of Cuban emigrants who support the revolution. Beginning in 1955, the July 26 Committee was established in NY for the purpose of supporting the armed struggle that was taking place in Cuba against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. Shortly after the triumph of the revolution in 1959, the Committee was renamed Casa Cuba, which later became Casa de las Américas.

subset: commoncrawl


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Opel calls them "moving billboards" and is hoping three new OPC performance models will help to get people talking about the brand.
The Opel Performance Centre (OPC) models will give the recently arrived German arm of General Motors some presence in the minds – and, if Opel has its way, the garages – of rev-heads looking for a value-focused Euro model.
Opel Australia managing director Bill Mott says interest has been strong since the brand announced it would bring the halo variants to each of its model lines.
"Customer inquiry regarding OPC models at our dealerships has been strong. The dealers are very excited to get these cars into showrooms and out on the road," Mott says.
"The OPC brand has long been the performance halo for Opel and given Australia's long affinity with and love for performance vehicles, bringing these models to Australia was a natural fit.
"OPC has a fundamental role to play in defining our brand in this market, and solidifying in customers' minds the performance and the design pillars of our brand.
"In terms of design, performance and value for money, OPC truly establishes a new benchmark in the performance car category."
But Mott says the OPC situation is nothing like the Toyota 86/Subaru BRZ phenomena, when hundreds of orders were placed before people had even driven the cars.
"There has not been a tremendous number [of pre-orders]," he says. "But I think with this kind of car people are going to want to test-drive it."
Mott says that almost every one of the brand's 17 dealerships has taken a deposit and pre-orders, but all of those had been for the Astra OPC.
No other performance offshoot currently has cars in the city car, small car and medium car segments. VW used to have the go-fast versions of the Polo (GTI), Golf (GTI and R) and Passat (R36), but the latter no longer comes with a hotter variant.
Kicking off the Opel line-up is the Corsa OPC city car, priced at $28,990 plus on-road costs when it arrives in April.
It's positioned as a rival to the Volkswagen Polo GTI, Citroen DS3 D-Sport and Skoda Fabia RS, but is more powerful than all of those pint-sized hot hatches.
The Corsa OPC is powered by a 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbo engine producing 141kW and 260Nm, with power sent to the front wheels via a six-speed manual transmission. There is no automatic option.
Despite boasting more power, the Corsa OPC's claimed 0-100km/h time is 7.2 seconds – slower than the Polo GTI. It's well equipped – the extra weight of all the goodies could be slowing it down – with 17-inch alloys, a body kit, Recaro sports seats, adaptive headlights, auto headlights and wipers, reversing sensors and part-leather trim.
Next up is what is bound to be the bulk-seller, the Astra OPC, which is priced at $42,990.
The fastest-ever Astra has a 2.0-litre turbocharged engine producing 206kW of power and a whopping 400Nm of torque, and can sprint from 0-100km/h in just 6.0 seconds. That makes the three-door gruntier and quicker than the VW Scirocco R (from $47,490) and Renault's Megane RS265 (from $42,640) – not to mention cheaper if you specify each car like-for-like.
The OPC has standard Brembo brakes, a limited slip diff, adjustable suspension, 19-inch alloy wheels, leather trim, heated front seats with 18-way adjustment and sat-nav, several of which cost thousands of dollars as optional extras from both the French and German brands.
Opel Australia product manager Min-Sean Chew says: "You'd need to spend a lot more money at Renault to get a similar equipment level as the Astra OPC, and you'd still be left with a car that is far less powerful."
The top-of-the-range OPC model is the Insignia, priced at $59,990.
The Insignia OPC is also well appointed, with 19-inch alloy wheels, adjustable suspension, bi-xenon headlights, sat-nav, leather trim and Recaro sports seats. It's powered by a turbocharged V6 with 239kW/435Nm and standard six-speed auto.
It sits in a relative no-man's land in the medium car segment, but the brand is convinced that if Volkswagen could get people to pay $65,990 for the 220kW/350Nm V6-powered Passat R36, then many will be interested in the Insignia, which is more powerful and cheaper than that car was.
"Annual sales for the Passat R36 peaked at 749 units and really indicated a market out there for a German performance car at the affordable end of the spectrum," Chew says.
The biggest drawcard of the Passat R36 was the practical station wagon body, which accounted for about 60 per cent of its sales. But while there is a wagon body available for the Insignia OPC, Australia has not yet been confirmed to receive it.
"We've not closed that door," says Mott. "If a lot of people rock up to our showrooms and are looking for 239kW in a wagon, it's something we've got that we could bring to market."
For more car reviews, video and news download the free Drive app. It updates every Friday with seven pages of fresh content from the Drive team.


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In the series, graphs showed execution time. Another way to view performance is by throughput — the number of elements/second that are processed (sorted). The following logarithmic graphs show performance of various sequential and parallel algorithms in elements/second. Keep in mind that several algorithms are hybrid, where Insertion Sort is combined with the main sorting algorithm, and is the reason for performance being nearly the same for the smallest array size. Note that the order of the algorithms is visible on these graphs, especially O(n2), where as the difference between O(nlgn) and O(dn) is smaller.
In all graphs the vertical axis is elements/second and the horizontal axis is size of the array being sorted. All measurements are for Intel i7 860 quad-core CPU (2.8 GHz).


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After a little silence during which I was occupied with Eastern and OpenLink related work I bring you news about the second Nepomuk task: the KActivityManager crash.
Ivan Cukic already "fixed" the bug by simply not using Nepomuk but an SQLite backend (at least that is how I understood it, correct me if I am wrong). However, I wanted to fix the root of the original problem.
Soprano provides the communication channel between Nepomuk and its clients. It is based on a very simple custom protocol going through a local socket. So far QLocalSocket, ie. Qt's implementation was used. The problem with QLocalSocket is that it is a QObject. Thus, it cannot live in two threads at the same time. The hacky solution was to maintain one socket per thread. Sadly that resulted in complicated maintenance code which was impossible to get right. Hence crashes like #269573 or #283451 (basically any crash involving The Soprano::ClientConnection) were never fixed.
A few days ago I finally gave up and decided to get rid of QLocalSocket and replace it with my own implementation. The only problem is that in order to keep Windows compatibility I had to keep the old implementation around by adding quite a lot of #ifdefs.
And now I could use some testers for a Soprano client library that does only create a single connection to the server instead of one per thread. I already pushed the new code into Soprano's git master. So all you need to do is run KDE on top of that.
Oh, and while at it I finally fixed the problem with re-connecting of clients. So now a restart of Nepomuk will no longer leave the clients with dangling connections, unable to perform queries. That fix, however, is in kdelibs.
Well, the day was long, I am tired, and this blog post feels a little boring. So before in addition to that it gets too long I will stop.


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We've scheduled a hearing on March 1 at 10 a.m. to consider Catholic Health Initiative's request to acquire Washington-based Soundpath Health Inc.
From our public notice about the hearing:
Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) through its subsidiary, CollabHealth Plan Solutions, is proposing to acquire common shares of Soundpath Health from Soundpath's current owners, Northwest Physicians Network and Physicians of Southwest Washington. The acquisition would allow CHI and CollabHealth Plan Solutions to own approximately 56 percent of common shares of Soundpath Health and become controlling entity of Soundpath Health.
Catholic Health Initiatives is a national nonprofit health system with headquarters in Englewood, Colo. The faith-based system operates in 19 states and includes 81 hospitals; 40 long-term care, assisted, and residential-living facilities; two community health-services organizations; two accredited nursing colleges; and home health agencies. In fiscal year 2012, CHI provided more than $715 million in charity care and community benefit, including services for the poor, free clinics, education and research. With total annual revenues of more than $10.7 billion and approximately 86,000 employees, CHI ranks as the nation's second-largest faith-based health system.
If approved, CHI through CollabHealth Plan Solutions, Northwest Physicians Network and Physicians of Southwest Washington would be co-owners of Soundpath Health.
The public is notified that all interested parties may submit letters of support or concerns or objections and/or may participate in the hearing by appearing in person or by telephone at no charge.
To view the Notice of Hearing, which includes advice on how to participate in the hearing process, and to view all documents filed in this matter including the Purchase Agreement between the parties, and all other documents such as organizational charts and finances, current and past states' regulatory actions and other litigation filed in this proceeding, go to Soundpath Health #13-0039 at
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
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When it was revealed this week that Google+ chief Vic Gundotra was leaving Google, some began thinking that may be the beginning of the end for Google's social network, according to reports.
Google+ will "no longer be considered a product but a platform," unnamed sources revealed to TechCrunch. It will no longer compete with Facebook or Twitter but instead have most of its services geared toward the Android platform.
Although Google denies this, TechCrunch stands besides its secret sources.
U.S. & World
Once Facebook acquired Whatsapp, that seemed to be the last nail in the coffin of Google+. That's the moment when Google knew it had missed out on the ephemeral social aspect of the social network and decided on phasing out Google+.
If the report is accurate, this means that all of Google+'s features and services, such as Hangouts and Google+ photos, will still be made available for Android users -- likely on the device's camera. So, while Google+ may disappear, its features will still be available for Android users.


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About our delivery service
We provide delivery service within 5 miles radius only from our restaurant location. Our delivery service operates from Mon to Sun 6:00 pm - 10:00 pm (7 days a week, last order at 10.00pm).
Please note that there will be distance related charges for the delivery service from our restaurant, here are the details of charges:
- Within 3 miles radius - £2.00
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Sorry! We do not deliver take-away over 5 miles distance, collection only in this case. Delivery service is available for orders £10.00 or over.
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Please take a look at some of the new dishes we have added to our menu!
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Lunch set menu includes Shake Teriyaki To Yasai Tempura, Soba To Yasai California Maki, Piman Niku To Yasai Tempura, Ramen To Age Gyoza, Yaki Udon To Yasai Gyoza and much more!
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|206B. Katsu Curry Chicken
|454. Salmon Sashimi
|739A. Miso Soup


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20 NICU Babies Were Safely Evacuated From NYU Hospital During Hurricane Sandy
Oct 2012
As if going into preterm labor isn't stressful enough, many new parents and their fragile new babies had to endure a mid-hurricane evacuation from the NICU when a New York City hospital lost power due to Hurricane Sandy.
After its basement flooded and the backup generator failed to start, the New York University Langone Medical Center was forced to evacuate patients. With over 200 patients to transfer, the staff and rescue workers had to work extremely fast. They immediately began moving the 20 babies they had in neonatal intensive care, most of whom were relying on respirators, down the nine floors of a darkened stairwell. In many cases, the heroic nurses who transported the babies had to switch to battery-operated respirators and hold them close to avoid the cold weather.
According to the Huffington Post, workers were met outside the hospital by almost two dozen ambulances who transported patients "to other hospitals, including Mount Sinai, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer, Lenox and Bellevue Hospital Center."
With the help of rescue workers and members of the community, the staff was able to clear the hospital in 15 hours.
"By 11:00 Tuesday morning, all 300 patients were safely transferred from NYULMC to nearby hospitals," NYU Langone Medical Center tweeted this morning. "We thank FDNY, NYPD, and Office of Emergency Management and accepting hospitals for their immediate assistance. We also thank our dedicated faculty, staff, and medical students for their tireless efforts during the storm."
A huge thank you to all those involved in the NUY Langone Medical Center evacuation, to the NICU nurses who work tirelessly to care for premature babies in their daily jobs, and those going above and beyond to keep people safe during Hurricane Sandy.
Did you have a baby in the NICU? How has your family been affected by Hurricane Sandy?


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CES 2012 may have been dominated by OLED and progressively "Smart"er TVs, but there's one product that caught our eye that wasn't quite as big an announcement, but as tasty nonetheless; gaming peripheral manufacturer Mad Catz has joined forces with the Major League Gaming Pro Circuit to create a joypad that all hardcore gamers worldwide will be drooling over.
The Mad Catz MLG Pro Circuit Controller is shaped like an Xbox 360 control pad, even if you buy the PS3 version (professional gamers, like us, prefer that form factor), but it is fully customisable, so you can set the thumbsticks, D-pad or weight (in the hand) however you like.
The face- and sideplates can be removed and swapped out for new ones, with shiny and matt black options in the pack, however it is what is under the fascia that's more important. Once removed, you can see some markings near all of the thumb modules, which signify that they can be taken out and replaced.
Coming with the controller are two sets of PS3 DualShock-style analogue thumbsticks, two that ape the Xbox 360's, a DualShock-style D-pad and an Xbox 360-style D-pad. You can then mix and match all of these components to make the controller fit your exact specifications. The modules are incredibly well built and sturdy (more so than their official equivalents, we'd say), and the company plans to release add-ons of all shapes and sizes as and when the pro-gamers request.
And that's not all. Like with a customised set of darts or snooker cue for serious players, the MLG Controller can be weighted to a player's ideal specification. As it is wired (wireless is just not as responsive for tournament play), the battery compartment at the back can be unclipped and small weights can be added or removed to give the correct balance. It may sound like overly obsessive stuff, but you only need to hold one for a second to get it.
You may even require different balances and configurations for different games or genres, and for this the controller is perfect. Indeed, even if you're only half serious about your gaming, we're pretty sure, from our CES fondle, that the Mad Catz MLG Pro Circuit Controller will help improve scores dramatically, no matter the game.
Of course, this doesn't come cheap... but surprisingly less than we expected. It is currently available in the US for $99.99, which could translate to £89.99 in the UK in the near future, we're told. But, even from our brief dabble, we reckon it is worth every penny.


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Rough translation and scans via
"Filming Cosmopolis with Cronenberg changed something in me. It gave me balls"
It's 1:30pm in the halls of the Soho House, a private club on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, Members only ... If the hostess let us in the elevator with a smile, it's because we prononce the magic words :'We have a meeting with Robert Pattinson at 2pm.'. Surprise, the actor arrives too 30 minutes in advance ... with a heavy beard. he didn't let it grow to throw off the paparazzis but to prepare himself for a next role in a movie about a rock band, The Band. But the project that reunites us today is Cosmopolis, the adaptation of Don DeLillo's novel for David Cronenberg. Electric shock movie set to be at Cannes this year. The Canadian director surprised everyone by giving out the role of Eric Packer to the Twilight star. This 28 years old yuppie from New York that decides to travel through the city in his limo so he can get a haircut, while demonstrations makes chaos prevail in the streets and threats are hanging over the millionaire's head.
A ride to hell that will change him forever, the 'him' could apply to Pattinson as well, who delivers a shocking performance with a perfect timing. Mid-November, when the last Twilight movie will be out, the teen hearthrob can definitely let the grown up actor, revealed by Cosmopolis, take his place. The transformation starts now!
P: Rob, last time we talked, you were coming out of the Cosmopolis shooting and you told me: 'I didn't understand what we were doing and when I asked David, what it was about, he told me: 'I don't know, we don't care'. But after seeing the movie, I found it extremely clear.
RP: For the first screening, I was alone and I came out of it puzzled. At that time, the music didn't register in my brain yet. I then saw the movie again with other people and they were really responsive. They couldn't stop laughing and I thought: "Oh, well it works afer all (laughs)" I can't wait to see how the audience will react to it. It's the first time I can watch something I made as 'a movie' maybe because Cosmopolis belongs entirely to David Cronenberg. It's really his movie.
P: It's yours too, let's be real ...
RP: It's still pure Cronenberg, there's no doubt about it. Most directors try to take you by the hand and tell you: 'I'm gonna help you go where you need to go'. David films a scene and then go: 'Ok, that's good, let's move on!' But he's really sensible to the actors' performances, he's not going to give you a lot of instructions but he has an uncanny accuracy. Nothing escapes him, you just need to lose your focus for a second and he notices right away. It's almost unsettling to work with someone like this. At the wrap party, I asked him if he saw some edited scenes and he told me he saw the whole movie! He already edited it. Since I was so curious, I asked him, 'So, do you know what it is about?' 'Not at all, but it's good, it's funny.' He then quoted Fellini to me, asserting that a movie is dead when it doesn't raise questions anymore.
On the set, David was delighted by the confusion that ruled, including among the more experienced actor, like Paul Giamatti.
P: The director is supposed to have a head start ...
RP: And he's supposed to fear nothing as well. I never worked with a screenwriter who was this confident in his abilities. If he was stuck on a way to film a scene, he did something else. He knew the script by heart so he could afford it. It was kind of unnerving at first, but since I'm in every scene I memorized the whole script, like a play.
P: It's healthy for an actor to be fearful, isn't it?
RP: On the first day of shooting, I wasn't showing off. While we were getting ready for the first shot, Sarah Gadon (who plays his wife) asked me: 'So how did you prepare for your role?' I broke down and left the limo really pissed off and yelled: "How dare you judge me like that? Are you trying to test me or something?" *laughs*
P: Cronenberg told us that you were stressing out about filming the movie ...
RP: I'm going through a phase were I'm trying to determine what I can accomplish or not as an actor. It's even more complexe when you know you have a past, even though people like David don't pay any attention to it.
P: I recommend David to see the last Twilight movie, that is almost 'Cronenbergian' at some times ...
RP: *laughs* I can't believe there's still one more to come (Breaking Dawn Pt 2 is out November 14th) and I have some reshoots to do in a few days.
P: You thought Twilight was behind you?
RP: Yes, I'm not the same as I was at the beginning. First, I'm older ... When I have to go on the makeup chair, I see all those wrinkles that came with time, it's scary. I thickened/filled out too. Since I didn't have any clothes when we shot the first movie, I stole some from the movie when we done and I can fit any them anymore!
P: When you first went to Cannes in 2009, you triggered off a riot on the beach where 700 fans were waiting for you. The security had to carry you out to your car to get you out of there ...P: This year they won't even notice me: 'We don't care, he's not in The Hunger Games!' *laughs*
P: It is looks like you have a date with one of your Twilight costar on la croisette, since Kristen Stewart will be there for On The Road too. The Festival almost looks like graduation day ...
RP: I'm thrilled to go. Filming Cosmopolis with Cronenberg changed something in me. It gave me balls. *laughs* I have 5 projects lining up right now that follow the path the movie opened for me. Before, I spent my time doubting myself. As soon as I read a script that I liked, I was working myself up, asking myself if I was good enough. Now, I tell myself: 'Fuck it! If they want to hire you, go!"
Rest of the interview thanks to SomeLostBliss
PREMIERE: You haven't shot any movie since Cosmopolis, as if you were waiting for more offers that the movie would bring you. Is that the case, here?
ROB: More or less. Breaking Dawn had me busy till the end of the year & there are not a lot of movies shot in the winter. I started panicking three months ago, but that's when all those projects started to come. If everything goes well, I will start shooting in the fall.
PREMIERE:Two years ago, you seemed surprised that some people would hire you for certain movies & you said that you would still act as long as you would have that opportunity. I feel like the way you think about acting has changed. Now you know where you want to go.
ROB: I've always wanted to make good movies. But before, I was more the type to get drunk & say: "If people don't like me, they can go fuck themselves!" (laughing) It's different nowadays : I want the people that I respect to respect me as well. It seems easy when you say it like that, but sometimes, you need time to understand that having the respect of others is what is the most important. And whining about it won't make you succeed. When David came out of nowhere to ask me to be a part of Cosmopolis, I asked him tons of questions. I wanted to know absolutely what he has seen in me, what he thought about me... But he couldn't answer me.
PREMIERE: The Cosmopolis teaser had the effect of a bomb on the internet...
ROB: I've been doing movie for 8 years & I've been criticized often & all of a sudden, this teaser is released & everyone is excited. "It looks great! His acting is good in it!" It's ridiculous! It's what makes you understand how the critical mind of some people work.
PREMIERE: Most of the critics said you sucked without having seen you in any movies. And you were good in Twilight!
ROB: In some scenes maybe... I tried anyway.. I'd like to ask a question to those people who think I just started acting well: What do you think I was doing in twilight? Do they think it's how I act naturally? No, I had to take decisions as an actor. I find it funny when I read stuff like (He uses a dramatic voice) "Will Cosmopolis finally prove that he can act?" What does that even mean?
PREMIERE: Before he was discovered by Burton & Fincher, Johnny Depp & Brad Pitt were more or less known as 'pretty faces'. I feel like the same thing is happening to you with Cosmopolis.
ROB: The good news is that the way the industry perceives actor is changing, even if Brad Pitt is to me, one of the most unfairly underestimated actor in the world. It's not said enough but he never delivered a bad performance. Nowadays, no one wants to make drama for adults because people say no one is going to see them. No one. Except Brad Pitt. It's how you make a career last. We still see those kind of movies in the world of independent movies, but those dramas, held by stars have almost disappeared. It must be because those stars lost their part of mystery. How do you want to play roles like that if people know everyone about you & your life?
PREMIERE: Before, talented actors were turning into big stars. Nowadays, we become a star before we've had time to prove that we're a talented actor.
ROB: Celebrity is one of the only thing that we can access without having any qualification. And when you dare to say something negative about fame in the media, you're sure that you're going to get a lot of crap. People don't want to hear about that at all. It's not jealousy, it's just that they don't want you to shatter their dreams.
PREMIERE: You have to maintain the illusion, no matter the price...
ROB: The paradox is that they want to maintain it & shatter it at the same time by accumulating as many things as possible about your private life.
PREMIERE: Am I wrong or it seems like you're going to favour ambitious projects, without giving up to the Hollywood sirens?
ROB: It's almost more dangerous to try the Hollywood adventure, in fact. Recently, I read the script for a big movie worth 80 million dollars that I liked a lot. it was the first time a studio was sending me a script that I liked and I was really excited. I was telling myself: "This is it, I finally have that cool blockbuster that i was looking for!" But when I went to the meeting, I was told that I was too marked by Twilight & that it wouldn't be possible. I was disappointed. Then I read the script again & realized that, in the end, it wasn't that good. (laughing)
PREMIERE: It's like destiny was trying to tell you something...
ROB: Possible. It's said often that you need to alternate the projects that you do for yourself & the ones you do for the studios. But I don't believe that. If you shoot a shitty film.. well, you just made a shitty film. The money it will make at the box office won't change a thing about that. And success is never a sure thing: look at "Wrath of the Titans" which just failed at the B.O...
PREMIERE: Have you ever tried to accept a role for money?
ROB: Yes. But something always happened at the last minute & it ended up not happening. Of course, I've done five Twilight, but I never did that for the money, even if I would have found that really unfair to let that money go to somebody else. (laughing). I learned one thing & that is that everything that makes you win money is never "free". I feel like, the more money you gain, the more problems you have on the side. Like.. to barricade your house for example. When someone tells me: "But it's just a movie!", I want to tell them: "Yes, but you can pay it for the rest of my life!"
PREMIERE: It's hard to get your soul back once you've sold it.
ROB: Especially in Hollywood, where everyone is judging you. I've always admired Nicolas Cage, who always did whatever he wanted with his career without caring about what others thought about it. And after 15 years, they finally realized that he was a genius. He's not only one of the most fascinating actors in the world, but he's also a real artist.
PREMIERE: The hostility that Twilight received might have made you used to not live your life according to how people perceive you..
ROB: When you suddenly become known, you have no control over what people think of you anyway. You need to learn how to fight the storm, especially when you understand that you're just a pawn within an enormous machine.
ROB: When you're doing interviews, one after the other, to promote a movie but no one asks you about your work, you end wondering if you'r even an actor. I often ended up in front of people who had probably never seen any Twilight & only wanted to know what it was like to be a celebrity.. "People recognize you in the street, they take your picture all the time & it's really weird, Here you go.."
While i'm talking about that, something happening to me at the beach not long ago. I was trying to learn how to surf - So I looked like an idiot, you can't even imagine -, when I thought I had seen paps, trying to hide behind rocks. When I got the confirmation, my body acted on impulse & I ran in their direction. But in the middle of my run, I started asking myself what I would do once I was in front of those guys. I wasn't afraid of being beaten up, what you would be scared of in those kind of situations, but I was scared of ending up in court if I hit one of them. Fortunately, Those paps were such cowards that they left immediately. I have no idea what would have happened if they had not left.
PREMIERE: The good news is that the hysteria will be over soon...
ROB: I'm going to be 26 & I can tell you that it's starting to freak me out that I'm appealing to girls that are 13 yo. I'm often wondering how things will change now.
PREMIERE: Things will change starting this months, when the public will discover Cosmopolis.
ROB: I've always felt like people judged the performance of actors as if we were in American Idol. That we need to cry or scream really loudly for people to find you good. That way, I'm trying not to delude myself.
PREMIERE: I'm surprised that you're still able to keep your head on your shoulder. Have you ever found yourself acting like a star/diva?
ROB: It might have been different if people kept telling me I was a genius all day long, but that's not the case.
At the beginning, I tried to break through as a model, without being offered a single job. When you've done more that 2, 000 castings & the guy in front of you doesn't even look at you once in the eyes, looking at your pictures one after the other while saying "No, no.." in a disgusted tone, you end up being immuned to a lot of things.
Star of Cosmopolis, the new movie by David Cronenberg, in competition at Cannes, RP was a willing participant to a crazy photoshoot that lasted 13 hours! Find out more in the May issue.
In general, when you organize a photoshoot with an actor, whose movies made more than 2.7 billion of dollars all over the world, you except someone cold and shy, someone with a controled image and with a safeguard. Everything is timed to the last minute, especially if the actor arrives late, everything has to be started over again. I say 'in general' because all of this doesn't apply to Robert Pattinson!
It's at the end of our interview that the actor comes up with the idea of a photoshoot dedicated to David Cronenberg's movies. Like an hommage to his respect for the filmmaker, who by casting him in Cosmopolis, offered him not only a passport for after Twilight but also the opportunity to come and celebrate his entry to the adult age, on the steps of Cannes on May 25th.
To say that he got involved in the making of the photoshoot is an euphemism. The first images of Scanners and Videodrome we prepared for him as an inspiration for the future snapshots came back to us with an unexpected commentary: Rob was sorry that they weren't more daring, wanting to push all the limits with this shoot - the complete opposite of what someone in his position would have asked. Two days later, the photograph Eliot Lee Hazel and his crew - sort of strange for this kind of shoot (a special effect makeup artist, a pregnant lady ...) - met in a glummy hotel in downtown L.A. to give the go-ahead of this shoot that lasted for exactly 13 hours.
After seeing the results of this shoot, we're ready to bet that you won't look at Robert Pattinson the same way again. That the last pretense who might still weigh on the actor will fly away as fast as they appeared.
Premiere's review of the film is also in. They like Rob's performance!
New York is on war footing. The President of the USA is passing through and demonstrations are threating to drown Manhattan in chaos. Eric Packer, 28 years old millionaire, doesn't care. No matter what happens, he will go get his haircut on the other side of town.
We're not going to lie, whether we like David Cronenberg's recent movies, we were seriously missing the filmmaker of Videodrome and Crash. Pop open the champagne because he's back in every shot of Cosmopolis. Even though he's adapting someone else's work, the Canadian filmmaker recognized his young/offsprings in the novel of DeLillo. The absurd and persistant odyssey of a young wolf in finance who parades collegues, mistresses and doctors in his high-tech limo. When he reaches his destination, he might be left with nothing (the Japanese currency threatens his waller, his wife is more and distant, it's getting unbearable.) but the answer of the question that haunts him, without being able to articulate it: Can the one who possesses everything still desire anything else?
Cronenberg made sure that all his obsessions punctuate his route, whether they are intellectual (the search for 'another' reality) or carnal/physical (another scene that will make people talk, Packer learns that his prostate asymmetrical). Enthroned in the back seat of his limousine Robert Pattinson reveals a deepness that gets more & more fascinating as his character gets closer to hittng rock bottom/gets closer to the abyss. The fear that surrenders his face in the last moments doesnt belong only to this anti-hero that arrived at the point of no return, but it's also the fear of an actor who tests his limits with an unsupected bravery. With a feverish and decadent ride in Hell, Cosmopolis proves that he's not done testing them.
While we still don't have official confirmation on when the film will be released in the UK or the U.S. - the reported date for the UK is June 15th. North American distributor eOne says Canada will get it on June 8th. For the rest of the confirmed dates check the official Cosmopolis website.


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A walk through many of the buildings at Windermere Baptist Conference Center reminds center visitors of Barbara Shock's eye for design and the love for the ministry she and husband Frank, Windermere president and CEO, shared. Mrs. Shock, 46, passed away on June 30 in Dallas.
Born in Union, Miss. on Aug. 7, 1957, she attended East Central Community College in Decatur, Miss. She earned a degree in nursing in 1978 from Belleville Area College, Belleville, Ill. She was a cardiac/intensive care nurse at All Saints Hospital in Fort Worth, while her husband attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
The Shocks began their ministry at Tall Timbers Baptist Conference Center in Louisiana. They moved to Windermere in December 1989. Over the past 14 years, Mrs. Shock directed the interior design work for several building and renovation projects, including the Deer Ridge lodges, Koehler Lodge, Lake View Lodge and the new Wilderness Creek project.
Mrs. Shock was a member of First Baptist Church, Camdenton, where she taught Sunday School for high school girls and led women's Bible studies. She served on several boards, including the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Young Life.
Diagnosed with primary sclerosing cholangitis, a disease that causes inflammation and deterioration of the liver's bile ducts, she received two liver transplants in 1999 at Baylor Medical Center in Dallas. After rejecting the first liver in February, she received a second transplant in April.
"Barbara was a creative and innovative member of the Windermere family who played a major role in beautifying the entire campus," Windermere board chairman Arthur Mallory said. "Even throughout all of her trials with her illness and the transplants, she remained optimistic. She was a person with a deep Christian faith whose charm, style and grace always shown brightly."
Mrs. Shock is survived by her husband of 27 years, Frank Shock; a daughter, Betsy Shock of Springfield; a son, Forrest Shock of Camdenton; her parents, Clinton and Barbara Jo Russell of Union, Miss.; a brother and sister-in-law, Randy and Sherri Russell of Jackson, Miss.; and a sister and brother-in-law, Lynn and George Hayes of Decatur, Miss.
Funeral services are scheduled for 10 a.m. July 3 at Clarke Venable Baptist Church, Decatur. A memorial service will be conducted at 2 p.m. July 6 at First Baptist Church, Camdenton.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Barbara Shock Memorial Scholarship Fund for Disadvantaged Children & Youth to benefit student campers at Windermere. Gifts may be sent in care of Windermere Baptist Conference Center, P.O. Box 458, Roach, MO 65787.


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Thanks JAMIROQUAI!!!General chat and meaningful discussion about Jamiroquai. News about Jamiroquai should be posted and discussed here.
4 posts • Page 1 of 1
Thanks JAMIROQUAI!!!
Thanks so much JAMIROQUAI for your music and love!
Re: Thanks JAMIROQUAI!!!
such sweet thoughts Lola! Yes thank you Jamiroquai for your music!
Last edited by Giba7 on Mon Aug 19, 2013 9:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Thanks JAMIROQUAI!!!
Thanks to Jamiroquai for music and passion,coz its helping me to be a good performer and dont give up when there is no patiens and power.JK inspire me for a new projects,im working hard and do believe in my business from all my heart.
with the best wishes
Re: Thanks JAMIROQUAI!!!
haha! I thought your name (above) was cosmic girl latex!
a week ago I watched a video and found this one as a follow-up
and it is Jamiroquai as an opening band for a comedy show - it sounds familiar but I don't think I actually watched the video!
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Professional Vastu Courses
This Vastu Course is the third Stepping stone in the entire array of Vastu Courses that we offer in our institute. This Vastu course is extremely crucial for budding Vastu Consultants who are aspiring to become Successful Vastu Consultants. This Professional Vastu Course is equally important for Vastu Consultants who are already in Practice but wish to learn more about the intricate details of Vastu and the newer and latest theories coming up in Vastu Shastra.
Every student who has started with Vastu courses in our academy should aspire to complete this course with flying colors. only then can one become successful in his endeavors in the field of Vastu learning.
Duration: 3 Months | Mode: ONLINE | Fees: INR 15000/- (USD 236) | Medium: English, Hindi
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Most people can survive only a couple of minutes without oxygen, and low concentrations
of oxygen can cause fatigue and blackouts.
To ensure the safety of the crew, the ISS will have redundant supplies of
that essential gas.
"The primary source of oxygen will be water electrolysis, followed by O2
in a pressurized storage tank," said Jay Perry, an aerospace engineer
at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center working on the Environmental
Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS)
project. ECLSS engineers at Marshall, at the Johnson Space Center and elsewhere are developing, improving and testing primary life
support systems for the ISS.
Most of the station's oxygen will come from a process
called "electrolysis," which uses electricity from the ISS solar
panels to split water into hydrogen gas and oxygen gas.
Each molecule of water contains two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. Running
a current through water causes these atoms to separate and recombine
as gaseous hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2).
The oxygen that people breathe on Earth also comes from the splitting of
water, but it's not a mechanical process. Plants, algae, cyanobacteria
and phytoplankton all split water molecules as part of photosynthesis
-- the process that converts sunlight, carbon dioxide and water
into sugars for food. The hydrogen is used for making sugars,
and the oxygen is released into the atmosphere.
"Eventually, it would be great if we could use plants to (produce oxygen) for
us," said Monsi Roman, chief microbiologist for the ECLSS project
at MSFC. "The byproduct of plants doing this for us is food."
However, "the chemical-mechanical systems are much more compact, less labor intensive,
and more reliable than a plant-based system," Perry noted. "A plant-based
life support system design is presently at the basic research and
demonstration stage of maturity and there are a myriad of challenges
that must be overcome to make it viable."
Curator: Kim
Dismukes | Responsible NASA Official: John Ira Petty | Updated: 04/07/2002Web Accessibility and Policy Notices


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Download center professionals
You as a professional need to have everything quick at hand. For that reason the Vandersanden Group created a special "Professional" link. Click on one of our products and download technical specifications, 3-D mappings, etc.
Have you got other specific questions? Or do you want to make an appointment with our representative? Please click here.


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At 24 years old, Dev Basu is already running his own shop. He founded his online marketing and ecommerce company Powered by Search three years ago, and says he's committed to a career in helping businesses navigate the online world.
He began working in marketing roles in 2007 before making the leap to entrepreneurship. "Online marketing really grabbed my attention since I was 17. When I started, there wasn't a lot of information or courses. But even then, I saw a very big opportunity that could offer a different path to success."
When doing his business administration degree at the University of Toronto, Basu specialized in strategic marketing. "I soon figured out there was a very deep need for online marketing related expertise in business," he says.
His instincts were right. Basu now has a team of 10 people and an impressive client list of companies that seek his help to sell their inventory or services online.
What he likes best about the online marketing game is the pace of change. "There's always something new and always a better way to do things. Websites, platforms and consumers change. So do the way people buy. It used to be desktop computers. Now it's smartphones, tablets and TV."
It seems that companies can't get enough of people who can navigate the ecommerce world. From the largest retailers and financial institutions to online pure-plays and small startup companies, the hunt is on for talent that knows the ins and outs of web-based business. Many are desperately seeking online expertise that can run the gamut, from marketing and website optimization to analytics and transaction processing.
"There are many skills involved in establishing an online presence," says Tim Richardson, ecommerce professor at Seneca College and the University of Toronto. "When people used to talk about ecommerce it was just about the transaction part and building shopping carts to buy things." Now he says employers need skills such as setting up a YouTube and Facebook presence, customer segmentation, search engine optimization [SEO] and more.
Regardless of the changes, one skill requirement remains the same, says Steve Tissenbaum, instructor at the G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education at Ryerson University. "You still have to have a good foundation of business concepts. While technology and IT skills help, a better start is an understanding of finance, marketing and organizational setups. A number of ecommerce courses, in fact, have been introduced into business programs."
For Leon Edelman, a financial services management student at Seneca College, ecommerce knowledge is a definite plus in the curriculum. "Ecommerce is involved in just about every business today, especially financial services. I like the fact that it brings a big value to what we're doing."
There are also technical skills that help in job search, Tissenbaum notes. These include understanding website design, a working knowledge of analytics and SEO, and in some cases a knowledge of HTML.
Equally important is the ability to communicate, he explains. "To do well, it's important to be able to see the big picture and how ecommerce fits into the whole business strategy. This is about business, so you need to be able to understand what you're seeing and get your message across to other departments. In other words, you have to play nice in the sandbox and work with other teams."
When hiring people for his business, Basu says he doesn't focus so much on the educational background. The key for him is curiosity and resourcefulness. "We have people with MBAs and others who started their own sites and built up their expertise through trial and error. Some learned everything first hand. Others had mentors. Some paid for course accreditations. Others simply learn free from resources like YouTube, online guides and industry conferences."
Ecommerce is definitely a great career opportunity for the young, Tissenbaum notes. "Businesses need young people who understand the rules of the game, who know how business and technology run and how social media works, and can bring it all together to do something interesting."


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Hello my dear readers. Oh, I wish I could blog more often. The intensity of my full-time day job combined with a busy craft season (actually, every season feels really busy) makes it tough. I am so looking forward to what amounts to an "herbal retreat" for me this June, the Medicines of the Earth Herb Symposium , Black Mountain, North Carolina. Check out the cool PDF brochure if you're interested. Not only can immerse myself in the world of herbs for a nice, long weekend, but I also get to learn from some of the greatest herbal teachers of our time.
When I begin to shift into a new paradigm or even have some ideas for changes to be implemented, it seems that it takes me a very long time to migrate into a new place. I muse about changes for what seems like months, even years, before I make a move. A true taurus! I confess. This slow drifting towards change can extend from new curtains to new Lilith's Apothecary products, to new life practices. Why is this? I'm not sure, but I've come to accept that it is just my process. On the flip side, I'm also impressionable. When I read about great ideas, hear convincing arguments about ideas, growing practices, food, and so forth, I can internalize them with a passion. But I don't flit from one thing to another; rather, I deeply internalize things that make sense to me until they become part of my own personal tapestry. And I'm finding that unlike Athena, who sprang from Zeus's head fully formed in all her philosophical, conceptual, and ideological glory, it's taken me 34 years to get me to where I am now. Maybe that's just how it is for we mortals. Given my nature, I fully anticipate changes ahead to be a gradual, growing process. This is why I fully believe in the power of the third phase of life, the Crone's stage, as one's potential arrival at wisdom. Before that, it's not really possible (as I see it anyway), though we try. We do.
I have some goals for the future of Lilith's Apothecary. I will begin to slowly move towards the accomplishment of these goals over the next year, following my last craft shows of the Spring, The Art Star Craft Bazaar and the Trenton Avenue Arts Festival. Last summer was a time of rest. This summer will be a time of careful implementation of new practices in my business.
1. I am going to move away from the use of Plastic. Yes, the plastics I use are all recyclable, but it just doesn't make sense. I will probably keep certain components, such as pumps, caps, or mister tops, because at the moment, I don't really see a way around it.
2. I am going to be focusing my product line much more exclusively on Facial Care. This is my area of expertise, and in an effort to keep my customers happily contented, I have often created products that are not really in this sphere. As they are lovely products, too, it's hard to part with them! I have far too much diversity in my offerings, however, and I am spread too thin in production, which means that people often need to wait for staples such as facial creams and serums. What I may do is offer certain body creams, lotions, etc on a limited basis from time to time, but they may not be as regularly available. An exception to this is my Chamomile & Calendula lotion, as far too many people depend on this lotion to treat various dry skin conditions.
3. I'm going to have to eliminate my Tea line, which I have been pairing down for the last few years. I am still available as an herbal consultant to make specialized blends for pregnancy, post-partum, breast feeding, insomnia, anxiety, etc, however. Feel free to contact me directly, but realize that custom orders can sometimes take up to 4 weeks.
4. By paring down my offerings, I will be able to put more time into the development of new products that fit into my Facial Care line, such as creams that address skin discoloration (in development), products specific to acne issues, and others that have been bouncing around in my head for months!
5. I'm going to invest the necessary time in the development of my website, www.lilithsapothecary.com which was started over 2 and a half years ago, but for which I have rarely felt the ability to devote the necessary attention and time.
So, there are exciting changes ahead! And as I progress along my learning curve as a business owner and developer of natural bath and body products, I hope all my learning shows!
The main thing is that I love my business and I want to continue working on it in a way that is sustainable for myself, for my customers, and for the earth itself. I always welcome a dialogue with my readers and customers and would love to hear about your own personal experiences as well as favorite products. Thank you, as ever!


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BdCalendar 1.07
Why waste precious menu bar room with Apple's Date & Clock menu bar, when you can replace it with BdCalendar.
BdCalendar gives you a 1,3, 6, and 12 month Calendar with iCal Event/To-do, Address Book and Notes access all from your menu bar and is only a Hot Key press away for instant access.
BdCalendar fills the gap between Apple's Clock not having a Calendar and instant full access to Apple's Address Book and iCal. With just one click on your menu bar, you can be viewing a Calendar, looking up addresses, checking your iCal events and To-do items without having five more items eating up your dock space or menu bar.
BdCalendar can be customized to suite your color preferences, just about everything can be changed, you can even have colored gradient or Photos in your Calendar background.
BdCalendar is built using 100% Cocoa and Objective-C, BdCalendar leverages the built-in power of Mac OS X10.5 (Leopard) to give you access to the latest technologies available from OS X, like iCal and Address Book full access and Core Data SQL storage