So the old, drunken hag has landed in Taiwan. Of course, stocks are ripping higher because, why not?
The bottom line here is that China doesn’t want to go to war with America over this. They want to recapture Taiwan. They’d prefer to do so without starting WW3.
However, they are being shown up here and they must respond. They were ranting and raving about how they would basically shoot the old bitch’s plane out of the sky if she dared to visit Taiwan, and now she’s there.
China looks weak. They’ve just been big-dicked by a female official from the Rainbow Flag Empire. How embarrassing is that? You notice that China does not have very many female politicians–I can’t imagine they’re thrilled about being shown up by an old, drunken bitch.
China has to do something here. Their bluff has been called. They now look like foolish beta males, and they must respond.
What that response is, I have no idea, but they will respond somehow. They have just been embarrassed in front of the whole world.
I found this informative article on the website “The Culture Shack” by an author named John Groot, a Canadian expat living in Taiwan.
He wrote an in-depth essay about the potential for a Chinese invasion of Taiwan–how it might play out, possible scenarios, etc. It’s a very good piece, obviously biased to the Taiwan side, but still provides good insight into things I previously knew nothing about.
China’s military build-up over the last few decades has been the largest peacetime military expansion in human history. And much of that enhanced capacity – such as the development of “carrier killer” hypersonic missiles – is based on being able to exclude the US and its regional allies from getting anywhere near Taiwan if the PLA decides to apply serious military pressure. PRC Chairman Xi Jinping – who is 69 years old – has said on several occasions that he wants to accomplish the “re”-unification with Taiwan within his lifetime. And Russia’s invasion of Ukraine serves as a grim reminder that superpower politics can be very brutal indeed. Oh, yes it certainly could happen. Have no doubts on that score.
But will it? No one knows. It depends on a host of factors, including who’s running the show in Beijing, Washington DC, and Taipei. Will Xi get his 3rd term and thus likely be leader for life? Likely but not certain. Who will be the next US president? Will China hawks continue to prevail in the US State Department? Unknown. Will Taiwan finally harden its own defenses? Will the CCP accept some sort of compromise in talks with Taiwan? There are many opinions about all these things. But no clarity.
Obviously the best time for China to invade Taiwan is with Joe Biden in the White House. That’s what Putin concluded about Ukraine, and we all know he and Xi are buddies. They talk.
The real issue, as I see it, is what happens with Xi. In early November, the CCP will kick off its 20th National Congress (I can’t find an exact date but the previous one was November 8, 2017). This meeting of the Chinese Communist Party will last about a week, and during the meeting it will be determined whether Xi gets a third term as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, and thus a third term as President.
The prevailing belief is that if Xi is indeed endorsed for a third term (and thus becomes Leader for Life), then that will make China’s invasion of Taiwan a certainty, probably an imminent certainty. Wikipedia says that after the 20th National Congress, “Xi Jinping may begin adopting foreign policies that advance Chinese interests against the interest of the West.”
Which means an invasion of Taiwan, presumably.
However, it’s also possible that Xi sees an invasion of Taiwan occurring before the 20th National Congress as a way to strengthen his grip on power and rally support.
Plus, as we went over yesterday, China’s window of opportunity to invade Taiwan this year is limited to October, so any invasion will have to happen then. Waiting until after the Party Congress is infeasible.
Back to the article:
OK, so let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that it does happen. When is the most likely time? And what is the most likely scenario for the attack? This is again unclear, but there are a few points most experts agree on.
Firstly, for an amphibious invasion, there are two main windows, October and April. In the winter, the winds in the Taiwan Strait are too rough for large-scale naval action. In the summer, there is the risk of typhoons. However, for missile and bombing attacks, there are no such limited time windows.
Secondly, there would most likely be a noticeable movement and buildup of forces and materiel in PLA bases near Taiwan in the months before any actual amphibious attack. US and allied satellites and other intelligence sources would notice this and probably publicize it in an attempt to pressure China into backing off.
This is already happening.
And the US government publicizing Russia’s amassing of troops near the Ukrainian border did not pressure Russia to back off. It could be different with China, but I doubt it.
Finally, given China’s political culture, there would need to be some sort of political pretext, a legitimization. It seems very unlikely that they would launch a surprise attack without a formal process being announced, such as a law passed in China, and the opportunity presented to Taiwan to enter formal negotiations (negotiated surrender) by a certain deadline.
Taken all together, these factors could amount to something like a six-month timeline from first clear warning sign to an actual amphibious invasion.
So, probably the most likely scenario would be the spring of 2023.
But let’s consider the full range of possibilities. Here are some hypothetical but (hopefully) realistic scenarios of Chinese military aggression against Taiwan:
Scenario 1: The minimalist approach. The PLA occupies Jinmen or Matsu islands, as well as Taiwan’s islands in the South China Sea, and maybe even the Penghu Islands. They also declare part or all of the Taiwan Strait a “no go” zone to foreign military shipping. This would probably be fairly easy for the PLA, and Taiwan would probably not want to overcommit to naval action against the huge PLA Navy (PLAN) if it didn’t directly approach the main island.
Scenario 2: Hybrid warfare. Some sort of partial naval and aerial blockade of Taiwan intended to interfere with the economy, combined with stepped-up harassment, such as direct flyovers of Taiwan’s territory by PLA Air Force (PLAAF) jets, or incursions into Taiwan’s maritime space by China’s naval militia, protected by PLAN warships. This might also be accompanied by cyberattacks designed to shut down the internet and other infrastructure for days at a time. Taiwan would have no choice to assert a stiff defensive posture, resulting in real engagements between Taiwanese and Chinese forces, posing a serious risk of escalation.
Okay, but what would this amount to other than a buildup to a real war? China won’t just indefinitely harass Taiwan when its real goal is to conquer Taiwan, right?
Scenario 3: A serious attack but no invasion. This would involve air and sea warfare only, no boots on the ground. A full aerial and naval blockade, a protracted set of naval and aerial battles designed to degrade Taiwan’s military, combined with ballistic missile attacks on military targets. Aggressive cyberattacks turning off the internet and shutting down critical infrastructure for days or weeks. Once air and naval superiority were established, China could pick off targets at will, ratcheting up the threat until the government breaks.
The only reason for this would seem to be to soften Taiwan up for a proper invasion.
Scenario 4: The Full Monty – a proper invasion. Total air and sea blockade, massive ballistic missile attacks on military targets, massive cyberattacks to paralyze virtually all military, governmental, and civilian communication and shut down critical infrastructure. Aggressive naval and aerial engagements to degrade Taiwan’s forces and achieve battlespace superiority, followed by sustained aerial assaults by fighters and bombers on military targets. A decapitation strike at Taipei by special forces units to try to seize key leadership personnel. Well-coordinated insider treason and sabotage actions by gangsters, planted CCP agents, and other groups sympathetic to China – the so-called “5th column”. An amphibious assault with close air support from fighters, helicopters, and battle drones at one or more locations in Taiwan, and very possibly a move to seize a major port, such as Keelung, Taipei Port, Taichung, or Kaohsiung. Then hundreds of thousands of troops would start rolling in until the island was occupied. That would be the plan, anyway. PLA success in such an endeavor is very unclear. But they could do a hell of a lot of damage trying. And yes, they might actually succeed, at least partially, such as in seizing and holding the region around Taipei.
This is what I’m sure most of us envision when we think about China invading Taiwan.
Scenario 5: Worst Case (short of nuclear) scenario. Full air and sea blockade, massive ballistic missile attacks on military targets, massive cyberattack, aggressive naval and aerial attacks to degrade Taiwan’s forces and achieve battlefield superiority, followed by aerial assaults by fighters and bomber on military targets and area bombing of civilian targets. There are massive casualties, and Taiwan is crushed by brute force, surrenders, and then the occupiers enter the country and take it over.
I don’t think China wants this for the same reason Russia is resisting launching an all-out war on Ukraine: because they don’t intend to destroy Ukraine, they intend to capture it.
The Chinese don’t intend to destroy Taiwan (at least I don’t think they do), they intend to capture it. To “reunify” China, and finally put an end to the renegade Kuomintang government that set up shop on the island over seven decades ago.
At the current moment, as far as I have read, China could probably accomplish any of these scenarios except for scenario 4. Scenario 5 is so extreme that it is unlikely to happen. Scenario 4 is the riskiest for China, as they would have to deal with an angry populace, the ROC forces on their home turf, in addition to the aforementioned long warning window. Scenarios 1 and 2 are most likely to stiffen Taiwan’s resolve and get it even more international support, without really giving China what it wants. So, my bet is that scenario 3 is the one we have to worry about. If and when the PLA can accomplish effective area denial to allied forces, it becomes even more likely.
So this author believes the full-blown invasion is unlikely to happen at least in the near term.
As it is right now, the latest news on China’s response to Taiwan is that they are conducting “military exercises” and live fire drills including missile tests in the waters surrounding Taiwan on all sides.
I am no military expert so I have no idea what this actually amounts to other than loud noises and harassment. Seems like the Chinese are just thrashing about angrily, punching walls and kicking over garbage cans.
Maybe someone more knowledgable than I am can shed more light on what exactly China is accomplishing here with its response, but to me it seems like they’re just blustering and not actually doing anything substantial.
In other words, I don’t think anything China is doing right now is scaring Taiwan or the US.
Maybe I’m wrong, but it looks like China has lost this round.
For some reason, I just cannot seem to shake the feeling of doubt that China will engage in a full-blown massive invasion of Taiwan.
It just feels out of character. China is the land of Sun Tzu and the Art of War, and as we all know, “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”
I am no expert on the matter, but China does not strike me as a chest-beating, valiantly charge headlong into battle type of nation. Chinese military strategy is heavily influenced by mythology from the Warring States period, and the highest ideal to aspire to is to be a master of deception, rather than a William Wallace (Braveheart) approach.
It would be more snake, or fox, than lion, to use an animal analogy.
But then again, who knows: China launched an all-out assault against UN forces in Korea in 1950.
The bottom line is that we really do not know all that much about the Chinese approach to war, as they haven’t really been involved in a major, conventional war since Korea.
China underwent a “century of humiliation” at the hands of the British and other colonial powers for most of the 1800s and the first half of the 20th century (the Opium Wars, the Unequal Treaties, the Boxer Protocol, Versailles, the Sino-Japanese war of 1937-1945, etc.) and thus China has not been a great military power in modern times until quite recently; they don’t have a clear and robust track record like the US.
I always make the point that China is not a rising power in the world, but in fact a re-awakening power. It’s not as if China is becoming powerful for the first time in its history; it has simply taken China nearly a century to return to where it once was prior to the Century of Humiliation. This chart really illustrates the point:
You can see that in 1820–and really, all the way back to the time of the Han Dynasty 2000 years ago–China was the world’s largest economy (other than India), but the century of humiliation took an enormous toll on the Middle Kingdom.
My point is that we don’t know what China is like as a great power. We don’t know how they will conduct themselves militarily now that they are ascendant and can look us eye-to-eye.
We can only hope that they’re not as aggressive and warlike as we are.
Update: The running theory that seems to be emerging is that China’s military “exercises” in the seas surrounding Taiwan are just an excuse to eventually blockade the island.
They have the island surrounded. This could easily turn into a blockade.


text:
UNEARTH Frontman Comments On The Band's Drummer Situation
In a recent interview with Shauna O'Donnell of MUEN Magazine, UNEARTH Frontman Trevor Phipps commented on the bands drummer situation. "Justin is going on the tour. He is going on Mayhem and then we head over to Europe to headline a tour and he is going on that as well. Justin is definitely the guy for the summer. With Derek our last drummer, we are still friends with him and his leaving the band was based only on his personal taste in music. The March was more groove/ rock and we wanted to go heavier. We started to write this record last summer and we just weren’t gelling with him. After our tour that fall we just told him, we said “Hey look man, it’s not working out.” He’s a great drummer and a great dude, but he has different projects going on so we told him to focus on those and we will find a drummer for us that can play more extreme and actually wants to play more extreme."
Unearth will be headlining the Jager Stage at this summers Mayhem Fest and will be releasing its' fifth studio album "Darkness In The Light" on July 5th via Metal Blade Records.

domain: news


text:
IT’S the flavour of the month at the moment, with promises it can fix everything from stress to chronic pain.
But should we perhaps be a bit more mindful about the vaunted benefits of mindfulness?
The idea that we can make our lives better, improve our wellbeing and our health, simply by shifting the way we think about things is immensely seductive.
Recent studies, though, raise questions about whether the benefits are as impressive as has sometimes been claimed.
A 2014 review, for example, revealed mixed results.
The researchers did find moderate evidence for small improvements in anxiety, depression and pain. Although small, the improvements in anxiety and depression were actually similar in magnitude to those achieved with antidepressants, but that’s another story.
There was little or no evidence of benefit, however, for the other conditions studied, which included stress, mental health-related quality of life, mood, attention, substance use, eating habits, sleep and weight.
The researchers, from Johns Hopkins University in the US, ended up giving qualified support for clinical use of mindfulness-based techniques in some patients, while cautioning that the scarcity of properly conducted trials made it difficult to draw definite conclusions.
From the more than 18 000 citations they identified, only 47 trials met their quality criteria for inclusion (ie, randomised controlled trials with adequate controls for placebo effects).
- Related: MJA — Mindfulness training: an adjunctive role in the management of chronic illness?
- Related: MJA — Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy: an efficacious community-based group intervention for depression and anxiety in a sample of cancer patients
Previous reviews had been more enthusiastic about the benefits of mindfulness meditation, but the reason could be that they had also been more willing to include poorer quality studies.
Another study, published this month, raises further questions about the quality of the evidence.
Canadian researchers examined 124 published trials of mindfulness-based therapy and found a suspiciously high rate of statistically significant benefits being reported.
Based on the small size of most trials, the researchers calculated that just over 50% of them might have been expected to report a statistically significant finding.
In fact, 88% concluded mindfulness-based therapy was effective.
“A concern … is that the overwhelmingly statistically significant results in favour of [mindfulness-based therapy] interventions that can be seen in the published literature, despite very low power in many studies, may be influenced by reporting biases,” the researchers wrote.
Reporting bias is, of course, a concern across most fields of science. It’s not really surprising that researchers and journals are more motivated to publish studies with significant findings of benefit than those with equivocal results.
But a serious overestimation of benefits has consequences, even when you’re dealing with something as apparently innocuous as mindfulness.
It may be unlikely anybody will suffer toxic side effects from an overdose of meditation, as they might with an overhyped drug therapy.
But there’s always the risk a seriously ill person will neglect evidence-based treatment if they have somehow become convinced that an alternative approach is the panacea for all their problems.
A recent article by Princeton philosopher Dr Andreas Schmidt makes a case for “cautious optimism” about the usefulness of mindfulness-based interventions, while also discussing potential ethical concerns.
Could mindfulness programs be used, for example, by corporations (or presumably the US military) to make individual employees responsible for the stress they experience at work, rather than adopting organisational strategies to mitigate it?
“This is indeed a good argument not to overstate the role and effectiveness of mindfulness,” Dr Schmidt writes.
We must not allow the current hype about the technique to “crowd out discussion of organisational and social determinants of stress, lowered well-being, and mental illness and the collective measures necessary to address them”, he writes.
Because, in the end, no matter how much we might want one, there’s no such thing as a panacea.
Jane McCredie is a Sydney-based science and medical writer.

domain: literature


text:
Home Service Cost Estimates
||215 square feet||$341.97||$375.96|
||200 square feet||$42.33||$45.84|
||215 square feet||$753.24||$853.51|
|Average cost per square foot||$3.77||$4.27|
Dealing with the costs of Laredo concrete driveway installation tasks doesn't have to be daunting. For thorough happiness with your property's concrete driveway installation services, set up a financial plan which addresses a few particular fees. In line with recent concrete service in Laredo, you should count on your work to land within a specific price structure. Getting ready for masonry services near Laredo necessitates a bit of designing.
Check out precise costs for your masonry and domestic remodeling plans. $803.38 - the typical expense to install concrete driveways in Laredo. Wholesale fees for 200 square feet of driveway installation - around $3.77 and $4.27. Fees for custom devices used for effectiveness and venture standard, which may entail: reinforcing bar cutters, 5+ cubic foot mortar mixing box with mortar hoe and 48" bull float - between $64.20 and $113.96. We gauge that nobody in the region spends over $4.27 or beneath $3.77 per square foot for masonry in Laredo services.
Terminate the guessing out of interior renovating and Concrete and Masonry payments. $1.86 per square foot: the cheapest sum for asphaltic concrete driveway installation in Laredo 78040. $2.25: largest rate for the identical service. reinforcing bar cutters, 5+ cubic foot mortar mixing box with mortar hoe and 48" bull float - necessary niche devices for project quality and efficiency, could be around $64.20 and $113.96. Labor fees to install asphaltic concrete driveways in Laredo - within $107.17 and $120.29. Read more about asphaltic concrete driveway installation Laredo TX costs.

domain: economics


PSDesigns V2 E46 Boot Floor Reinforcement Plates
£156.98 – £348.42
PSDesigns, in partnership with Redish Motorsport, redeveloped the original chassis repair/reinforcement plate kit for the BMW E46 3 Series to offer a superior, more cost effective, long term solution to the well-documented problem of floor cracking (rear subframe as its commonly known) which the E46 3 Series suffers with.
The kit has been designed to fit perfectly, each hole or slot lines up with a corresponding feature, as it is supposed to, all of which are in a specific location to address either weak points or areas of failure, be it spot weld locations, the contour of the panel, or bolt hole/mounting feature etc. as has been reported by countless customers.
Each kit is inspected before it is dispatched to ensure it meets PSDesigns’ exacting requirements. If “other kits” on the market have holes in different locations you should question why, the spot welds/features are in fixed locations on the car’s rear axle carrier panel so why are the holes located differently? There are a specific number of holes in this kit so as not to interfere with the structural integrity of the plate or vehicle panel and how they dissipate loading forces across their surface area; this kit wasn’t just designed, it was engineered as a long term solution. The development process took in excess of 6 months to develop and correctly test.
The V2 PSDesigns E46 Rear Subframe Reinforcement kit has been designed to provide the best repair and reinforcement option available on the market, regardless of crack damage, age, mileage, service history or modifications made. The kit is universal to the entire E46 BMW 3 Series model range regardless of body type, transmission or engine size/type.
The kit consists of 8 individual plates, part numbered and tailored to specific locations on the E46’s chassis, along with a set of comprehensive colour fitting instructions. There simply is no better solution available. It is recommended that these are fitted in conjunction with Powerflex subframe bushes – these are available to select in the options.


text:
Capital hurdler Allan Scott has had his request turned down for a guest lane in the Aviva Great Britain Indoor International at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall on Saturday.
Scott was hoping to get a chance to post a fast time after his encouraging return from the wilderness to win the Scottish Open 60 metres hurdles title in 7.85 seconds in Glasgow last Saturday. But the Scottish record holder, whose best is 7.52sec, has since been told by UK Athletics officials that there has been a change of policy and no guests are being allowed despite there apparently being a spare lane and one extra British runner.
World Championship bronze medallist Andy Turner is naturally named in the GB team, with British cap Lawrence Clarke also in the line-up, presumably taking the slot reserved for the Commonwealth Select in the match which also includes Germany, Russia and the United States.
Scott, 29, who had not raced for two years after retiring from the sport, will now accept an invitation to represent Scotland in a Celtic Nations Challenge in Cardiff this weekend.
Meanwhile, Capital miler Chris O’Hare (Edinburgh AC) has been invited to run in the prestigious Wanamaker Mile in the annual Millrose Games at Madison Square Gardens next month. The Tulsa University athlete, who finished runner-up in the NCAA Indoor Championship last March after setting a personal best of 3:56.48 at an earlier meeting, is one of five top US college athletes to be invited to the event to attempt to beat the American collegiate indoor record of 3:55.02. They include Miles Batty (Brigham Young), who beat O’Hare for the 2011 NCAA title and whose best is 3:55.79 and NIA Champion Silas Kisorio (Oklahoma Christian), whose best is 3:56.64.
O’Hare was delighted with his 800m win in 1:52.6 in Oklahoma last weekend: “It was a great confidence-builder even though the time wasn’t very fast,” he said.


text:
Delhi based icanstay.com, an online luxury hotel booking platform for business travelers has raised a fresh round of funding of Rs 1.30 Cr from an angel investor Mr. Manoj Prasad, executive chairman at Singapore-based venture capital and management advisory firm MP Morgan Capital Partners Pte. Ltd.
Earlier the online platform has raised Rs 2.24 Cr from the same investor who has picked up 6.54 % stake in the company. The overall funds acquired are now $550000.
The latest funding values icanstay at more than Rs 36 Cr, in just nine months since its commercial launch.
icanstay is launched to fulfill the aspiration of millions of Indians, who have yet not experienced stay in a Luxury Hotel.
As per the market study, less then 2% Indians have experienced stay in a luxury hotel. There is a huge aspirational class of customers, as per our estimates 10% of the total population, who wish and desire to stay in a luxury hotel. And as on date, there are 125000 luxury rooms in India, which will grow to 165000 by 2020.
With an industry average of 62% occupancy, 47500 rooms go vacant daily. Icanstay is a marketplace/bridge for a large base of aspirational consumers and luxury hotels with vacant rooms.
icanstay offers 4 & 5 Star rooms all over India at an amazing and fixed price of 2999 (include GST) all around the year. No seasonal surges or city-based price. The portal wishes to upgrade budget hotel customer to the Luxury hotel and make this his/her way of life.
Users can purchase an open voucher valid for 11 months, which can be utilized in more than 50 cities.
Mr. Puneet Gupta, COO, and Co-Founder, icanstay said, that the investment would be utilized to beef up the technology and expand hotel network. We are strongly placed to help hotels fill their vacant rooms and increase their yield per room. Further, we are continuously strengthening our product offering and user experience. We are targeting a turnover of Rs. 700 Crores by 2020.”
The company’s USP has always been the price and flexibility that it offers to its customers, making a luxury hotel stay affordable for as many people as possible.
Hospitality is a $550bn+ industry and is growing at a CAGR of ~10%. While hotels are already fighting a battle with MakeMyTrip & Airbnb of the world; a unique and personalized Guest Experience which is Valuable, Durable, Rare and most importantly Non-Imitable will create a long-term loyalty.

domain: travel


text:
Fast-Track : Scalable Production of High-Quality Bi2212 Precursor Powder
Small Business Information
2436 Over Drive Suite B, Lexington, KY, 40511-2637
Name: Stephen Johnson
Phone: (859) 259-3637
Phone: (859) 259-3637
Name: Andrew Hunt
AbstractThe United States Department of Energy, along with researchers in industry, and academia has identified an urgent need for Bismuth Strontium Calcium Copper Oxide superconducting precursor powder. This material is a high-temperature superconductor that will be used in powerful magnets for commercial magnetic resonance imaging devices. It is also desired to achieve very high magnetic fields required for high-energy physics colliders in an energy-efficient manner, but there currently exists only one commercial source for the material. Furthermore, this supplier is an overseas company that is changing its business model away from powder production on which the entire United States Superconducting community relies. Through this Small Business Innovation and Research program, a new method for high-quality powder production will be developed and the emergence of a powder-focused supplier will drive costs down. The problem of superconductor quality and supply will be addressed by using a continuous combustion technique to produce the powder in a scalable manner. Through the Phase I and Phase II efforts, research and scale-up work necessary to produce commercial- quality powder will be executed. Following the Phase II program, an enhanced powder product will become available on the commercial marketplace. Phase I will focus on using a scalable combustion process to develop and optimize precursor powder with low carbon content. Collaboration with superconductor experts in academia will yield state-of-the art powder characterization and the optimized material will be formed into superconducting wire for testing. Phase II will see continued enhancement of powder as well as a scaled-up process capable of producing up to 10 kg/day of material. Superconducting wire will be made in Phase I and at multiple points during the Phase II effort and sourced to the superconducting community for evaluation. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: The current primary application for superconductor precursor powder is in superconducting magnets used in high-energy physics colliders. While the commercial marketplace is mostly centered around this application, the market is expanding to include insert coils for magnets in commercial Magnetic Resonance Imaging devices as well. Bismuth Strontium Calcium Copper Oxide outperforms conventional superconducting materials in such magnets, but the issue of cost typically constrains the material to only in high-end niche applications. However, as the cost of precursor powder decreases through this research program, its price point will reach a competitive level which will enable its use in more widespread commercial applications.
* information listed above is at the time of submission.

domain: chemistry


text:
Browse related inspiring design of purple floor mat below, and keep inspiring with 1 of 1 search result.
How about a purple-themed woman's room? Very beautiful furniture design with a touch of modern style and purple shade. The floating vanity table is very interesting, purple cabinet doors perfectly collaborate with a clean white base color. Equipped with two contemporary style sink bowls and large mirror also hanging beauty equipment organizer. The attic girl room with black and white geometric wallpaper gives a more cheerful impression. You can give another purple accent on the cushion sheets, rug area, or floor mats. Adding lavender flowers in a vase for vanity table or coffee table decoration is a good idea to strengthen the mystic accent.
This black, white and red bathroom theme is modern style with a slick feel. The dark wall behind the vanity becomes a slick background of the red-vanity table focal point. Vanity mirror with a thick red frame enclosed in modern sconces. Simple white tile floor design is collaborated with black accents of non-slip tiles for comfort when walking in the bath room.
This tufted yellow sofa gives cheerfulness in the minimalist living room. Together with the folded room divider, this contemporary sofa looks peachy, padded, and elegant.
The urban atmosphere is formed through the brick exposed wall. Choices of sofa and chairs with beige and black colors, and combined with an black velvet rug create bohemian style. Glass coffee table with mirror decoration produces sparkling accents, perfect for strengthening boho impression.
Stripe themed bathroom is contemporary style with wooden textures mix. The patterns of red and white lines make the bathroom seem more excited. Its easy, the use of built-in patterned tiles is enough to produce dramatic decorations.
The minimalist design of red-white themed living room seems elegant though simple. The contrast between red and white symbolizes romanticism in simple holiness. The red sofa set with glass top coffee table offers passion and spirit. With excellent materials and flexible modern designs can be applied to a variety of interior design styles.
Industrial nuances radiated from the exposed brick wall adjacent to the steel door. The chesterfield leather sofa with coffee table chests collaborate nicely to create a more modern impression. As the main light source, theater spotlight lamp lined up the impression of a glamorous show area.
Red-themed furniture set for the teen bedroom looks luxurious and modern, combined with a wooden texture makes it seem elegant. The storage space options are quite abundant including features for hanging bags or sweaters. The walls are painted in bright pink color, and this room is for girls.

domain: artistic


text:
I read recently in The Washington Post that McDonald's
Now, you may be wondering how many Olympic athletes eat at McDonald's. Well, maybe once they walk past it a few times, they'll notice all the newly added healthy menu items. Or, perhaps when they're finished competing, they'll be looking for that special junk food treat, of which McDonald's still offers plenty of options.
Just look at gymnast Carly Patterson. In May, she said she couldn't remember the last time she ate at a McDonald's. Yet, within the past week, she tried a salad and yogurt parfait. Her response? "It's fruit and yogurt. It's good for you."
Of course, I'm not naïve enough (and neither is McDonald's) to think that Carly and the other athletes are going to start eating at McDonald's on a regular basis. But that's not the goal anyway. McDonald's is interested in the access to the plethora of fans in attendance and in gaining a foothold in the host country.
The company announced that it had extended its Olympic sponsorship through 2012. This will give McDonald's significant presence in China, which is one of its primary growth markets and just happens to be playing host for the 2008 games in Beijing. The company plans to increase its number of restaurants in China by 65% in time for the 2008 opening ceremonies. With the extremely popular Yao Ming as a spokesperson and its presence in the current Olympics, McDonald's should be successful in China prior to the 2008 games and after.
The move is a clear indication that McDonald's is not willing to rest, satisfied with its recent comeback. The company is maintaining its focus and is looking to continuously expand its brand globally. All I can say to the competitors such as Wendy's
Fool contributor Mike Cianciolo welcomes feedback and doesn't own any of the companies in this article.


TRAFFIC ALERT: I-90 Closures & Construction Wrap Up For The Winter East of Snoqualmie Pass
HYAK, Wash. - As winter takes hold in the mountains, construction crews on I-90 east of Snoqualmie Pass will wrap up work this week and take a break until next spring. Drivers will get a temporary reprieve from the nightly hour-long closures for rock blasting.
The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) expects to have I-90 back to normal by Nov. 5. A half-mile detour with narrow shoulders will remain in place through the winter at the Gold Creek bridges near Hyak.
Contractor crews will continue to work along the project to prep the area for winter. Drivers may experience minor delays as crews move equipment across I-90.
Since May, crews have excavated approximately 500,000 tons of rock (out of 1.3 million tons) from the slopes adjacent to I-90. This will make room to widen I-90 from four to six lanes. Crews also began construction on new, wider bridges over Rocky Run and Gold Creek.
This four-year project (I-90 Snoqualmie Pass East - Hyak to Keechelus Dam Project) lays the groundwork for a wider, safer and more reliable I-90 east of Snoqualmie Pass.
More than 27,000 vehicles travel over Snoqualmie Pass on weekdays and traffic volumes can double on weekends and holidays. The additional lanes will improve traffic flow and accommodate more drivers, and the new bridge design connects wildlife habitats under the highway.
WSDOT also rehabilitated approximately nine miles of deteriorated pavement on I-90 east of Snoqualmie Pass this year through the I-90 Lake Easton to Bullfrog and I-90 Keechelus Dam to Cabin Creek projects.
Most Popular StoriesMost Popular StoriesMore>>
SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. - Spokane Valley Major Crimes Detectives have made a third arrest in the homicide investigation of Bret Snow. 37-year-old Cheryl L. Sutton was arrested on charges of Leading Organized Crime and Criminal Conspiracy to Commit 1st Degree Murder and 1st Degree Kidnapping in connection to Snow's disappearance.>>
Navy issues updated statement on 'irresponsible and immature act' after obscene images drawn in skies over Okanogan Co.
OMAK, Wash. - I can picture the Austin Powers bit now. The people of Omak looking up at the sky and seeing a giant (Fill in the blank innuendo here) just like in 1999's Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. If you're unfamiliar, I'll save you a Google search. A simple, yet effectively funny joke. Except the U.S. Navy doesn't see humor in the real-life version at all.>>
KHQ.COM - Cards Against Humanity is known for unique stunts around this time of year. In years past, in an effort to combat Black Friday, they've had people send them $5 and literally sent nothing in return. Just like they said they would. They've also mailed people poop in a box. 30,000 bought it. They've even raised $100,000 to dig a giant hole in the ground.>>
DENVER - Two doctors from Colorado claim that their patient, a baby boy, died of an overdose on marijuana. The case in question happened in 2015 the second year of recreational marijuana sales in Colorado. An 11-month-old boy came into the ER after a seizure, barely conscious.>>
ATLANTA, GA. (AP) - Two nurses lost their licenses after a television station persuaded courts to unseal a video secretly recorded by the family of a man who died in their care. The video shows the World War II veteran repeatedly calling for help, saying he can't breathe. It also shows the nurses failing to take life-saving measures, and laughing as they try to start an oxygen machine. The family of 89-year-old James Dempsey of Woodstock, Georgia, sued the Northeast Atlan...>>
WOODBURY, N.J. (AP) - Authorities say they have made an arrest in the slaying of a New Jersey woman who was beaten to death while house-sitting. Gloucester County Prosecutor Sean Dalton says additional details will be announced at a news conference Friday afternoon. Twenty-six-year-old Shawneeq Carter was found dead inside the Woodbury home of an acquaintance on Sept. 23.>>


text:
Join Explore Charleston, Southern Living, and Historic Charleston Foundation for a series of events that celebrate the holiday season through Southern culture, preservation, and design inspiration. Highlights include:
- Site-specific designer vignettes at the 1820s Aiken-Rhett House Museum
- A sensational Opening Night Party hosted by Historic Charleston Foundation
- The Southern Living Illumination Holiday Village featuring a full day of demonstrations and seminars
- A spectacular Southern Living Christmas dinner hosted by Celebrity Chef Kardea Brown
- Design-in-Mind series at the historic Second Presbyterian Church
- Historic holiday walking tours of downtown Charleston, and more!

domain: entertainment


It's a piece of infrastructure 100 years old, and more than 750,000 Brisbane residents use it daily without even realising.
Now in the midst of an upgrade, Queensland Urban Utilities is bringing to light the history of the state's oldest, largest and most critical sewer pipe.
The S1 Main Sewer runs 12 km from Toowong to the Eagle Farm pump station and handles 60 Olympic-sized swimming pools' worth of waste every day.
Colin Hester is the QUU Manager of Commercial Water and Trade Waste, but he's also the utility's resident historian.
"I always describe it as a gift from the people of 1915 to the people of today," he said.
"The people who planned it, planned it well. They made a very efficient sewer. It goes quietly about its public health duty every day and nobody thinks much about it."
Mr Hester said in the late 1800s when Sydney and Melbourne were starting to sewer, Brisbane put it off due to the smaller population and the cost.
"They decided they would mandate earth closets, the old outside dunnies, and ban cesspits, where waste just trickles out into the ground around them," Mr Hester said.
"They rested there for a long time, and it wasn't until 1911 that Brisbane started to seriously consider sewerage again."
Mr Hester said Brisbane had its own Joseph Bazelguette, the civil engineer who pioneered sewers in 1860s London, in the form of chief drainage engineer G.W. Thom.
"He is completely unknown, but he's the guy who put together the contour plan of the city and the first sewerage plan for the city, which at that time had around 200,000 people.
"He had that all ready by late 1911... but it took until 1915 for all the vested interests to come to an agreement on how it should be done."
Mr Hester said construction required the recruitment of hard rock miners from Gympie and Ipswich to dig through the Brisbane Tuff rock, but by then the country had entered the Great War.
"Soldiers actually got paid pretty good wages compared to labourers... so that artificially raised the cost of contract labour," he said.
"This really hurt the Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, as their contractors had budgeted on lower wages, and as contracts collapsed they got quite a caning for being slow."
The S1 was eventually finished and opened in 1924.
However the Great Depression, Second World War and credit squeeze of the 1950s meant the rapidly expanding city had no money to extend its sewer system.
"By 1961 the population of Brisbane was actually 600,000, but the planning done in 1911 allowed for a sewered population of 221,000, so you can see how far short they fell," Mr Hester said.
"But they didn't understand at the time they were falling short, and they were under great pressure not to over-invest, because that was cannons, artillery and uniforms."
It fell to Clem Jones, Lord Mayor from 1961 to 1975, to finally finish the job.
"Clem was the right man at the right time," Mr Hester said.
"By Brisbane's good fortune, he was a town planner and a surveyor by profession and knew it had to be done."
Queensland Urban Utilities is now upgrading a 5.7km stretch of the tunnel between James Street in Fortitude Valley to the Eagle Farm pump station in Bunya Street.
Mr Hester said a specialised crew was using the latest in "trenchless technology" to give the old concrete pipe a new PVC lining.
"If you imagine wrapping a ribbon onto a baton on the outside, you get that spiral pattern," he said.
"The machine that's used actually wraps a ribbon onto the inside of the sewer and relines it."
The first phase of the upgrade, along Kingsford Smith Drive between Hunt Street and Riverview Terrace, is due for completion next month.
"The project team is really dedicated to make the least amount of disruption to people trying to get to and from work and out to the airport," Mr Hester said.
"It's not that we don't create any disruption, but we try to do it after peak hour and at night time and we work really hard to minimise it, compared to digging the whole road up."
The full upgrade will be completed in 2019.
Mr Hester said he hoped people would recognise the critical role the S1 Main Sewer played in the history of the city.
"It's called S1 because it's sewer number one," he said.
"But there isn't an S2... I think that might be because calling a sewer pipe 'number two' is a bad pun."
Get more stories like this in your pipeline by liking Brisbane Times on Facebook.


HOT Flush continued her great start to the new season by picking up a close victory over Lets Pop The Bubbles in the Get Well Soon Jan Kelly Ladyship Pace (1730 metres) at Bathurst Paceway.
David Hewitt, filling in the driver’s role during his cousin Robbie’s suspension, guided Hot Flush ($2.60 favourite) to a win just a head clear of the Steve Turnbull-trained Lets Pop The Bubbles ($2.90, Amanda Turnbull).
The two best-backed contenders were in a race of their own during Wednesday night’s opening event and KerryAnn Turner’s Hot Flush got home first in a 1:57.0 mile rate, rounded out by a 27.7 final quarter.
Hewitt was happy to salute in his first drive on Bettors Delight mare.
“KerryAnn was supposed to come down to drive the horses tonight but she hurt her back so they asked me to come down and fill in for them, which I’m grateful for,” he said.
“To be honest this was all the horse. I just sat behind her and I was the passenger. She went along really well and I’m sure she’ll go on to win a few more.”
Keep up to date with the latest sports news by clicking here.
Lets Pop The Bubbles eased to the lead from the inside gate at the race start while Hewitt was in no rush to get the favourite to the front.
Trunky Digger was the early death seat runner but driver Tom Pay was happy to let Nicka Time give his mare cover.
From further out wide Hot Flush began to work her way forward as the field passed the clubhouse for the first time.
The two favourites passed the winning post together.
At the 500m the leading pair upped the tempo. Cobbity Castle, sitting behind Lets Pop The Bubbles, was able to hold on but Nicka Time struggled to keep in touch.
Lotta Laughs worked through the pack to put herself in the mix.
As the field rounded for home Hot Flush and Lets Pop The Bubbles broke away to make it a two horse finish.
Inside the final 100m Hot Flush started to put her nose in front and the Turnbull mare couldn’t respond.
There was an equally intense battle for third a further 8.4m away.
Cobbity Castle ($36.40) held onto third place in a photo finish over Lotta Laughs ($23.80).
Nathan Turnbull was the standout performer of the meeting with three straight winning drives in races two to four.
Turnbull trained the first two of those horses, Freddy Funk and Carramar Times Up, and then drove his father Steve’s hope Hidden Courage.
The achievement was all the more impressive considering none of the horses ran as favourites.
The meeting also featured a rare dead heat. Nothing could split Nathan Hurst’s Tulhurst Cash and Peter Bullock’s Jedda Shannon in the Yirribee Stud Pace.


text:
Leading scholars in both China and the United States voiced strong disappointment following US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken's latest speech outlining the overall China policy of President Joe Biden's administration, saying Blinken's words were neither constructive nor meaningful for improving bilateral ties.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers a speech on the Biden administration's policy toward China during an event hosted by the Asia Society Policy Institute in Washington, DC, May 26, 2022. Alex Wong/AFP
In his long-delayed, delicately worded speech made on Thursday in Washington, Blinken tried to justify Washington's unchanged plan to further contain China by overstating China's strength in various areas including cutting-edge technologies, observers said.
During the 45-minute address at George Washington University, Blinken outlined the Biden administration's strategy for relations with the world's second-largest economy with three words－"invest, align, compete".
"China is the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to do it," he said.
He added that the US would "shape the strategic environment around Beijing" to advance what he called a "vision for an open, inclusive international system".
Beijing on Friday responded to the speech with "strong dissatisfaction", saying that the text goes to great lengths in wording but actually "spreads disinformation, hypes China's threat, interferes in China's domestic affairs and smears China's policy at home and abroad".
While Blinken said China is a challenge to the "international order", Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin rebuked such a notion, saying the "rule-based international order" advocated by Washington is actually rules for its own clique and protects the order dominated by the US.
At a time when the world needs joint efforts to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and revitalize the global economy, "the US hyping the China threat won't solve its own problems but will lead the world to a dangerous abyss", Wang told reporters on Friday in Beijing.
The poor record of the US in human rights and democracy nullifies its right to lecture other nations, and its ganging up with countries in the region under the pretext of the so-called Indo-Pacific Strategy to contain China is "doomed to fail", Wang said.
Sourabh Gupta, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Institute for China-America Studies, said "the fundamental underlying precept of his characterization of China was wrong".
Blinken's speech would not help clarify policy because "there wasn't anything terribly new or consequential", and "the only saving grace of his speech is that it was no more hawkish than it was", he said.
"China is not the most serious long-term challenge to the international order. China, rather, is the most serious long-term challenge to the United States' dominance within the international order," Gupta told China Daily. "Washington erroneously conflates the challenge to its own dominance as a challenge to the larger system."
Wu Xinbo, dean of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University, said Blinken's speech is not constructive as Washington has not made changes on three fronts.
"The US has not stopped defining China as the top strategic competitor; it continues its China strategy of suppressing and containing the country in the name of competition; and its attitude toward China is still full of arrogance, prejudice, and even a lot of lies," Wu said.
The speech also signaled that Washington intends to increase direct contacts with Beijing, and it pays great attention to crisis communication and minimizing risks, Wu said.
"And it named more specific areas of cooperation with China than it did before, but it remains to be seen if it will translate its rhetoric into action," Wu added.
In his speech, Blinken listed areas where the US and China could cooperate including the climate, the COVID-19 pandemic, nonproliferation and arms control, illicit narcotics, the worldwide food crisis and the recovery of the global economy.
Su Xiaohui, deputy director of the China Institute of International Studies' Department of American Studies, said Blinken's latest gesture for collaboration lacks sincerity "because Washington courts Beijing's cooperation in areas in its need while it refuses to stop suppressing China".
There is no major difference between Washington's new approach to China of "invest, align, compete" and its previous definition, as it still seeks to exclude China from production and supply chains it works on building and it continues introducing barriers to coerce China in high-tech sectors, Su said.
"Washington's hostile China policy led to the current difficulties in bilateral ties, and there is a lot for the US side to do if it is really willing to put relations back on track," Su said.
Originally scheduled for May 5, Blinken's major policy speech was postponed after he tested positive for the novel coronavirus one day earlier.
Blinken's speech followed Biden's Asia trip from May 20 to Tuesday. Biden said "yes" in Japan when asked whether the US would defend Taiwan "militarily", spurring strong opposition from China. The White House and Biden later said that there was no change to US policy on Taiwan.


text:
There is a certain stunning quality and undeniable appeal to vintage diamond engagement rings, whether it is a antique emerald cut, old European cut, oval cut, pear shaped, radiant cut or asscher cut engagement ring. Vintage styles feature bold angles and large, open tables for that distinctive eye-catching look. They are popular with people from many walks of life, and are often displayed by fashionable celebrities, whose fortunes are based in part on their ability to maintain an in-depth appearance of class and style.
This 1.36 carat vintage engagement ring’s radiant cut diamond is framed by an elegant and graceful single band. With its own adornment of pavé diamonds, this single band offers a striking vintage appearance through its expansive surface area. Its appearance is reminiscent of various artistic styles from the 60’s and 70’s, including Art Deco, as well as that which was then considered to be Avant Garde.
The emblematic look of cropped corners strongly favors the grace and elegance of a central asscher cut stone, prominently displayed by this vintage halo engagement ring. The rare and undeniable appeal of the ring’s old-fashioned shape is enhanced by the band’s beaded detailing and the brilliance of its micropavé diamonds. The halo style was popular for many years, and is now one of the most favored of vintage engagement ring looks. This 2.63 carat asscher cut engagement ring is sure to capture the heart of your special someone.
This 2.16 carat old European cut diamond is in its own league. It’s hard to surpass this European cut diamond for sheer class, while the added luster of the cut elevates this vintage ring into something that will ensure all eyes rest upon it. This particular ring offers a stunningly classic shape. This is truly a timeless piece.
This stunning 3.51 carat pear diamond is gleaming and exceptional. There’s nothing wrong with sticking to known qualities when they exemplify the taste of this vintage engagement ring. On this particular ring, the center stone is truly the focus of all attention. Its simplicity is managed in such a way as to enhance the ring’s overall elegance, while ensuring that its style has a measurable impact on all who see it.


text:
December 29th, 2011
09:10 AM ET
My Take: The 3 biggest biblical misconceptions
Editor’s note: John Shelby Spong, a former Episcopal bishop of Newark, New Jersey, is author of "Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World."
By John Shelby Spong, Special to CNN
The Bible is both a reservoir of spiritual insight and a cultural icon to which lip service is still paid in the Western world. Yet when the Bible is talked about in public by both believers and critics, it becomes clear that misconceptions abound.
To me, three misconceptions stand out and serve to make the Bible hard to comprehend.
First, people assume the Bible accurately reflects history. That is absolutely not so, and every biblical scholar recognizes it.
The facts are that Abraham, the biblically acknowledged founding father of the Jewish people, whose story forms the earliest content of the Bible, died about 900 years before the first story of Abraham was written in the Old Testament.
Actually, that's not in the Bible
Can a defining tribal narrative that is passed on orally for 45 generations ever be regarded as history, at least as history is understood today?
Moses, the religious genius who put his stamp on the religion of the Old Testament more powerfully than any other figure, died about 300 years before the first story of Moses entered the written form we call Holy Scripture.
This means that everything we know about Moses in the Bible had to have passed orally through about 15 generations before achieving written form. Do stories of heroic figures not grow, experience magnifying tendencies and become surrounded by interpretive mythology as the years roll by?
My Take: Bible condemns a lot, so why focus on homosexuality?
Jesus of Nazareth, according to our best research, lived between the years 4 B.C. and A.D. 30. Yet all of the gospels were written between the years 70 to 100 A.D., or 40 to 70 years after his crucifixion, and they were written in Greek, a language that neither Jesus nor any of his disciples spoke or were able to write.
Are the gospels then capable of being effective guides to history? If we line up the gospels in the time sequence in which they were written - that is, with Mark first, followed by Matthew, then by Luke and ending with John - we can see exactly how the story expanded between the years 70 and 100.
For example, miracles do not get attached to the memory of Jesus story until the eighth decade. The miraculous birth of Jesus is a ninth-decade addition; the story of Jesus ascending into heaven is a 10th-decade narrative.
In the first gospel, Mark, the risen Christ appears physically to no one, but by the time we come to the last gospel, John, Thomas is invited to feel the nail prints in Christ’s hands and feet and the spear wound in his side.
Perhaps the most telling witness against the claim of accurate history for the Bible comes when we read the earliest narrative of the crucifixion found in Mark’s gospel and discover that it is not based on eyewitness testimony at all.
My Take: Yes, the Bible really condemns homosexuality
Instead, it’s an interpretive account designed to conform the story of Jesus’ death to the messianic yearnings of the Hebrew Scriptures, including Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53.
The Bible interprets life from its particular perspective; it does not record in a factual way the human journey through history.
The second major misconception comes from the distorting claim that the Bible is in any literal sense “the word of God.” Only someone who has never read the Bible could make such a claim. The Bible portrays God as hating the Egyptians, stopping the sun in the sky to allow more daylight to enable Joshua to kill more Amorites and ordering King Saul to commit genocide against the Amalekites.
Can these acts of immorality ever be called “the word of God”? The book of Psalms promises happiness to the defeated and exiled Jews only when they can dash the heads of Babylonian children against the rocks! Is this “the word of God? What kind of God would that be?
The Bible, when read literally, calls for the execution of children who are willfully disobedient to their parents, for those who worship false gods, for those who commit adultery, for homosexual persons and for any man who has sex with his mother-in-law, just to name a few.
The Bible exhorts slaves to be obedient to their masters and wives to be obedient to their husbands. Over the centuries, texts like these, taken from the Bible and interpreted literally, have been used as powerful and evil weapons to support killing prejudices and to justify the cruelest kind of inhumanity.
The third major misconception is that biblical truth is somehow static and thus unchanging. Instead, the Bible presents us with an evolutionary story, and in those evolving patterns, the permanent value of the Bible is ultimately revealed.
It was a long road for human beings and human values to travel between the tribal deity found in the book of Exodus, who orders the death of the firstborn male in every Egyptian household on the night of the Passover, until we reach an understanding of God who commands us to love our enemies.
The transition moments on this journey can be studied easily. It was the prophet named Hosea, writing in the eighth century B.C., who changed God’s name to love. It was the prophet named Amos who changed God’s name to justice. It was the prophet we call Jonah who taught us that the love of God is not bounded by the limits of our own ability to love.
It was the prophet Micah who understood that beautiful religious rituals and even lavish sacrifices were not the things that worship requires, but rather “to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.” It was the prophet we call Malachi, writing in the fifth century B.C., who finally saw God as a universal experience, transcending all national and tribal boundaries.
One has only to look at Christian history to see why these misconceptions are dangerous. They have fed religious persecution and religious wars. They have fueled racism, anti-female biases, anti-Semitism and homophobia.They have fought against science and the explosion of knowledge.
The ultimate meaning of the Bible escapes human limits and calls us to a recognition that every life is holy, every life is loved, and every life is called to be all that that life is capable of being. The Bible is, thus, not about religion at all but about becoming deeply and fully human. It issues the invitation to live fully, to love wastefully and to have the courage to be our most complete selves.
That is why I treasure this book and why I struggle to reclaim its essential message for our increasingly non-religious world.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of John Shelby Spong.
About this blog
The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.
So much anger over scripture. Are many missing what God is trying to teach them? Don't question what God wrote, for he put much to confound the so called wise. What you think you might see is not really there , but much is there for the believer . Seeing is not always believing, but it is believing and seeing. So to those who do not believe you will not see and all your arguing is in vain.
The stupid making stupid comments. That is you.
God not able to give everyone a uniform and simple message? So hilarious.
the state church try to sell salvation if you donate money etc you go to heaven..the reality is you offend the gods, you will be punished..or killed.
What I try to tell both my religious and non-religious friends. But not nearly so well.
tell you friends if they offend the gods, they die! there is no forgiveness for your sins. you cannot buy forgiveness..all crimes must be paid.
All other religions leaders is dead, JESUS is ALIVE. JESUS is the only person who died in my place that I might have life. This man has warped scripture and took it out of context to meet his agenda. He Will know the truth one day I hope its not to late. The city of Sodom learn the truth but to late. You might check out what happen to Ninnevah. Check out what Charles Darwins last words were. He said He would give worlds if he could if only he hadn't came of with the myth of evaloution.
"evaloution"...is that the accepted home skool spelling in the South?
Jesus has his divinity insured by his writers by acts of magic that have no originality beyond their era. if he would have aligned the stars to say, "I am the son of God", then I would take it seriously. Instead, he reportedly did acts of magic that were only as good as the imagination of people 2000 years ago. Not original or unique.
Sorry, I don't buy it.
the wonders of the universe is beyond the intelligence of moron humans.
HAhaha Christain storys from a Jew owned Media thats funny.Can somebody tell me what biased means please?All of the Jew owners don't belive in Christ anyways lol.
I remember reading Dr. Seuss as a kid...great books! Glad I didn;t base my life on them and loudly insist that the Lorax was real and my friend...that would have just made me look stupid...the Bible isn't as good as Dr. Seuss, though.
Not a Christian, not a believer in a higher power, but I liked this article because it points out quite plainly that Americans are basing their belief in 'god' on pure, fabricated, unadulterated BS.
God created elephants and dolphins....and flowers...
2 + 2 = 5
The stork brings babies.
Water flows up hill.
See. It's really easy to write stuff that isn't true. Don't believe everything you read.
Hey your the one going to Hell pal not me lol.Life is not created out of nothing.Everything in this World has a creator.
Mr. Machine – do you have any proof that hell exists? Sorry, that story doesn't scare me anymore.
And do you really believe that some guy living in a cloud created all this? And so who created the cloud he lives in?
"lip service is still paid in the Western world." The funny thing is that biblical stories and so-called prophesies have ZERO bearing on western society. They are stories from the middle east – why should Europeans, Americans, etc. feel any connections.
The Bible is a long winded rationalization of the two great unknowns of mankind. Where did we come from – the Old Testament and what happens to us when we die – the New Testament.
The Big Bang.
Turn in next week for the 3 greatest misconceptions about gay marriage.
5 year olds cannot comprehend the science behind the creation of the unverse beginning and end of the unverse..it's beyond human comprehension.
You can share your life and love with friends online. - Bｉgtálls。Ｃ０Ｍ - it is a nice dating service for t all guys or girls to find their romantic love. Maybe you will like it. Join it and find your girl or guy
No god would create nigras. There is no god.
the bible is meant for kids..hence the 7 day to create the universe..etc.
Yes....and, unfortunately, 99.9% of the adults in this world are no smarter than kids. Thus, they believe in all the fairy tales. At LEAST, this relgious man tells the truth that the bible is nothing but fairy tales.
the ten commandments, geneiss and revelations is all there is t o read in the bible...the rest is just poems and story of life of jesus.
You can't tear the Bible down out one side of your mouth then say it's somehow beyond our comprehension from the other. It's a book edited for a political purpose and that's it. That we still "pay lip service" to it is a sign we have a long way to go.
I am so thankful someone has come out and said what I have believed to be the truth all my life. It IS the truth. You religious zealots have to get off the condemnation! What are you all? Catholic? (I was raised catholic bty).
The Bible is a literary representation of the beginning of life and a moral guide FOR your life. It was written by monks, the same guys who invented beer. Later it was continued by Christian zealots looking for ways to condemn, ie get rid of, kill, others who believed would gain control politically and religiously (within which was a very thin line at that point in history) if they were not stopped. Catholocism is riddled with advertising and marketing propaganda, as many other factions of Christianity are today, ie. "born again", some evangilist tribes, etc. It's still going on via the pope and the Vatican.
To believe that the words we read in the bible, which I have read cover to cover for my literary education, MA & PhD, are that "of God" is just ..well frankly, naive.
However, many themes in the bible should be a moral guide, which is it's purpose. It is all metaphor to help people over the ages, make better decisions, live better lives and be better people, the best version of themselves. It was teaching people to live an "authentic" life way before Oprah, before it became a hip expression and current vernacular. It is not without it's charms and purpose. Personally, I believe everyone should read it. Kids should be given a religious education, a basis from which to grow. As parents, we are obliged to do this. Now if they grow up and decide to become Protestant, Buddhist, or God Forbid Scientologists, you have given them the basis of religious knowledge from which to make such a decision.
I am raising my children Episcopal. My mother was episcopalian and my Dad catholic. The family joke was the chose the religion of we children because the catholic church was closer. Well it was. And we got there more often. So often that my Protestant Mom taught Sunday School/CCD there. She was a teacher by profession.
When I had my first child, I decided to raise her in my Mother's faith, a close relative of Catholicism. Religion without the guilt, hellfire and damnation. And you know what? I LOVED it. I found a wonderful church with super people. My daughter loved going as we all did every Sunday morning. So much so that I later became the Christian Education Director. So I am not without faith and belief.
However, I do not believe that the Bible is the direct dictation of God. I thoroughly enjoyed this article and am very happy that CNN had the good sense to post this. I intend to go and get this guy's book from the library tomorrow as well.
That's my 2 cents.
Thank you. Ditto. I have read all his books. He is full of great wisdom. Thank you for the great article, "Father" Spong.
I find it hard to believe that someone who claims to have been a director of religious education at an Episcopalian Church could believe that the Bible is the literal dictation from God. Those two things simply don't go together.
Tje Bible is ispired word of God. Working thru a failed medium namly Man. God can't help is some one write its ok to smash Babloyn kids heads toaghter . So what this aouthor states it to throw the Bible as suspect. Yes it is a oral crongy it does state event and can be traced thru Achoogy. Yes I do agree the idea of postdict the act of where a scholoar pens a idea in the past & present authors try to make sense of it by making "thier" Revlation fit what a prior author penned. That is also part of the Bible. Lastly the Bible is also in the eve of the holder or believer . its what you make of it some oby the dark voices and impuses to justify every carnel impuske and desire there is scriptures every where that allow this & yet many more rational intreptations that urge believers to live by thier better selfs. thta is part of modern life every one has choice in belif or not and living in harmony and by your better nature for some small majotiyu notyl idyening ot action thier evil desires .
Can you tell us what language you speak, so we can put that through our Google translators?
Please stop typing on your phone. Your post is atrocious.
Which God? There are at last estimate >1,000 gods worshiped on this planet. To assign one specific god to this tenet would be disingenuous.
The most important part of this article is in the Editor's note: "John Shelby Spong, a FORMER Episcopal bishop . . . " Does anyone care what a FORMER doctor thinks of Grey's Anatomy or what a FORMER jurist thinks of Blackstone's Commentaries? Regardless of your belief system, why should anyone care what a FORMER theologian thinks of the Bible?
I care. That is at least one. I'll bet there are more. Perhaps FORMER means that after years of investigation, meditation, and logical thought, he finally figured it out.
Yeah, he's retired. Now he's an author and travels to lecture. Perhaps one should find out the truth before one bashes another for no reason. Gosh there's definitely something about that in the bible. Perhaps YOU should read it before you cast the first stone.
He's retired, idiot. And he's made more money on his books than you will ever see.
Not sure I get yout point. I think that while he is a former bishop, that does not make him a former theologion. And why would I care more what a current doctor thinks of Grey's Anatomy (assuming the book, not the series) than a former one? I assume they are both equally educated in anatomy, and nothing has changed in quite some time on that subject.
Thanks for pointing this out so eloquently. It is clear that he never really studied the bible, but is wise in his own eyes. This man has his own agenda, which is to dilute the bible and totally misrepresent it in the most dishonest way, by claiming to love it. Really sickening. Nothing you said Mr Spong, supports your claim that you love or admire the bible. You must certainly want to defame it, and CNN has given you a worldwide platform to do so.
Ya ya ya. How tired. He is wise ONLY if he agrees with ME. Next.


text:
Josh and David talk about the coronavirus and the massive impact it’s having on the country, Dr. Burnestine Taylor with ADPH joins the podcast to discuss the virus in-depth and talk about the state’s response, AEA associate director Theon Stokes talks about recent legal battles and we wrap up with the Rightwing Nut of the Week.
If you need more coronavirus info or believe you might be infected, call 1-800-338-8374 or visit the ADPH’s website.
- Dr. Burnestine Taylor, Assistant State Health Officer, Alabama Dept. of Public Health
- Theon Stokes, Associate Director, Alabama Education Association
Visit our website for more information and to contact us.
This week’s music provided by:
- Witchcord, “Consequences of Miscalculation”
- The BBS, “Disregard for Time”


text:
This collection is private and cannot be viewed.
© 2004-2013 STEVEN ROBERTS | www.styvesphotos.com
All my images / content are the exclusive property of Steven Roberts. All rights reserved. All images and text are protected under International copyright laws.
None of these images are in the Public Domain.
The content on this website may not be downloaded, reproduced, copied, stored or manipulated in any manner or form whatsoever without the prior written permission of Steven Roberts.
Reminder: the use of any image as the basis for another photographic concept or artistic illustration is also a violation of copyright law.
Contact info(@)styvesphotos.com for usage

domain: law


text:
Dr. Jaime Villalobos Medelez, M.D.
Chief Orthopedic Surgeon
Arthroscopy. Knee and Shoulder
Joint Replacement. Knee, Hip, Shoulder
For the last 30 years has been recognized as one of the Top Doctors in Mexico as an Orthopedic Surgeon, Sports Medicine and Knee Replacement.
He is the Head of the Fellowship Program for La Salle University in Knee Replacement and Sports Medicine for the last 15 years.
The techniques, implantes and care to his patients is always a Jet-Setter in the Medical Argot.
Dr. Jaime Villalobos Rodriguez, M.D.
Certified Medical Tourism Provider
Joint Replacement. Knee and hip.
He became the Knee Surgeon at the Joint Replacement Surgery Team at Ortomédica. He has performed over 500 Knee Replacement Surgeries in the past two years, and is now considered one of the best surgeons in Mexico City with Stryker Triathlon and Amplitude Score Implant Techniques. The past years, he has become pionner in Medical Tourism and Wellness Toursim. His passion for Wellness helped him develop the Complete Post Operative Protocols in Conjuction with Terapias Elite.
Dra. Alicia Villalobos Rodriguez, M.D.
Joint Replacement. Knee and Hip.
Egresa de la Cruz Roja de México y Especializada en Cirugia Articular de rodilla y hombro. Es apasionada de la ortopedia y la traumatología, dando calidad y seguridad a sus pacientes.
Dra. Lucia Comellas Kirkshup, M.D.
Rheumatology and Internal Medicine
Dr. Jose Manuel Athie, M.D.

domain: medical


Elephant Cinched Bottom Hoodie
Elephants are majestic beings are traditionally considered symbols of good luck, nobility, wisdom, fertility, and protection. All across the world, the elephant has long been considered a sacred animal, although the spiritual symbolism of elephants changes slightly from culture to culture.
FEATURES: Mid-length. Boxy, oversized fit. Cinched elastic hem. Seamed detailing.
SIZING: SMALL - 2XLARGE Runs true to size, slim fit.
FABRIC: Super Soft Fleece
52% Airlume combed and ring-spun cotton, 48% polyester fleece
Fair Labor Made, WRAP Certified.


text:
This is apple season! To celebrate the abundance of apples this time of year, the Berkeley Garden Club holds an annual apple tasting at it’s October meeting. The results are in: out of the 26 varieties that were sampled, the two top vote getters were Kanzi and Rave. Coming in a close third and fourth were Mutsu and Smitten. All four were new to me! and wonderfully crisp, with varying balances of sweetness and tartness. Also garnering several votes each were Ambrosia, Cameo, Jazz, Pacific Rose, Pippin, Sommerfield, and Sweetie Crispy.
All of the apples were purchased at either Monterey Market or Berkeley Bowl, both in Berkeley, with the exception of Cox’s Orange Pippin, grown by member Cathy Roha. There are more than 7,500 different varieties of apples, so we made a very small dent in the varieties!
The apple tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor is still found today. Apples have been grown for thousands of years in Asia and Europe, and were brought to the Americas in the 1600 and 1700’s.
Apples, for the most part need abundant winter chill hours, hours where the winter temperatures dip below 45 degrees. Unfortunately, or fortunately, our SF Bay Area winter temperatures are rarely below 45 degrees for 100’s of hours, so the best apples for us to grow are Fuji and Gala, which need fewer ‘chill hours’.
Because apples do not breed true when planted as seeds, grafting is generally used to produce new edible apple trees. The rootstock used for the bottom of the graft can be selected to produce trees of different sizes, winter hardiness, insect and disease resistance, and soil preference of the resulting tree.
A generous selection of grafted apple trees is found in local nurseries in January. Additionally, more unique varieties can be found during the scion exchange held by the California Rare Fruit Growers in late winter. See their website for details: https://crfg.org.
If garden space is limited, espaliering apple trees along a vertical/horizontal structure, for instance near a fence would be a solution. Another would be planting a single tree with several varieties grafted onto one trunk. A third solution would be to plant two to three apple varieties in a single hole. A very fine resource, for homeowners, is the Dave Wilson Nursery, http://www.davewilson.com. They have an excellent section on ‘Backyard Orchard Culture’.

domain: food


The Jaguar 420 (pronounced "four-twenty") and its Daimler Sovereign equivalent were introduced at the October 1966 London Motor Show and produced for two years as the ultimate expression of a series of "compact sporting saloons" offered by Jaguar throughout that decade, all of which shared the same wheelbase. Developed from the Jaguar S-Type, the 420 cost around £200 more than that model and effectively ended buyer interest in it, although the S-Type continued to be sold alongside the 420/Sovereign until both types were supplanted by the Jaguar XJ6 late in 1968. The Jaguar 420 should not be confused with the larger Jaguar 420G. The 420/Sovereign traces its origins back to the Jaguar Mark 2, which was introduced in 1959 and sold through most of the 1960s. The Mark 2 had a live rear axle and was powered by the XK six-cylinder engine first used in the Jaguar XK120 of 1948. The Mark 2 was available in 2.4, 3.4 and 3.8-litre engine capacities. In 1961 Jaguar launched two new models with the triple SU carburettor version of the 3.8-litre XK engine; the Mark X (pronounced "mark ten") saloon and the E-Type sports car. Both cars used versions of Jaguar's new independent rear suspension;
left-hand-drive daimler ds 420 grey black 0083 79 white 1979
Oldtimerfarm Bvba, Steenweg op Deinze 51C
Aalter, B-9880, Flanders
The Daimler Motor Company is possibly the oldest British motoring name a...
Perhaps it’s those awkward looks or maybe it’s because just 2645 were ma...


Middlesbrough and Redcar are set to receive a family hub to support vulnerable children and parents.
Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland MP Simon Clarke said that the centres would help to end the postcode lottery that some people face. The local authorities are two of 75 areas that will be benefitting from the government’s £302m investment in the Start for Life programme.
Mr Clarke said: "This is one of the ways we are delivering our manifesto commitment and improving local access to childcare, mental health services, housing advice and employment, for families who need them most. By ensuring vulnerable families and young people leaving care can access key support services in one place, we are helping to end the postcode lottery that too many of them face as we build back fairer.”
Family hubs have been compared to Labour’s Sure Start centres, however, the new sites provide support for the entirety of childhood, whereas Sure Start Centres focus on children under the age of four. Across the country, the number of children’s centres peaked in 2010 at around 3,620 and by June 2019, the number declined to around 3,050, which was made up of 2,350 children’s centres and 700 children’s centre linked sites.
Redcar MP Jacob Young has also welcomed the new family hubs which will give parents advice on how to take care of their children, including breastfeeding support, to ensure they are safe and healthy.
Mr Young said: “It is vital that families across England have access to the same high-quality services to support them and their children’s development, wherever they live. I welcome the new family hub for Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland from the Conservative government, as part of our £302 million Start for Life investment."
Of the £302m, £100m will go towards funding bespoke parent-infant relationship and perinatal mental health support. Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi said that the hubs would make a "transformative difference" in the lives of parents and carers who might not have a lot of support around them.
Bridget Phillipson, Labour’s shadow education secretary, said: “The Education Secretary is finally catching up, but this is too little, too late, for too many children. It’s time Ministers matched Labour’s ambition for children’s futures.”
Middlesbrough Council will be providing children with meals and things to do as part of the government-funded Holiday Activities and Food programme over the Easter break. As part of the government's plans, around 300,000 vulnerable families across the country will also be receiving support from a dedicated keyworker to try and help parents and children remain together safely, rather than being split up and taken into the council’s care.
For a North East politics and regional affairs digest direct to your inbox,go hereto sign up to the free Northern Agenda newsletter


text:
Maritime Bus operates, on average, 1 bus schedule(s) from Port Hawkesbury to Rivière-du-Loup. The average Maritime Bus ticket to Rivière-du-Loup costs $82.62. Cheap Maritime Bus tickets to Rivière-du-Loup are available on Wanderu starting from $81.87. In Port Hawkesbury, Maritime Bus departs from Ultramar and no other station. In Rivière-du-Loup, Maritime Bus arrives at 317 Hotel De Ville Oues and no other station.
An average trip on Maritime Bus from Port Hawkesbury to Rivière-du-Loup takes 14 hours and 8 minutes, while the fastest available Maritime Bus trip will get you to Rivière-du-Loup in 14 hours and 0 minutes,
On weekends, Maritime Bus offers 1 trip per day and you could expect to pay $82.67 for a weekend getaway trip to Rivière-du-Loup.

domain: geography