Brecht in Church

In preparation for next year’s placement I have decided to start re-reading old theatre theory books and re-envision myself and the potential of theatre and ministry.  I’m starting with Shomit Mitter’s book ‘Systems of Rehearsal’. In his chapter on Brecht ‘To be or not to be’, I was struck by an argument he posed about the differences in the work of Stanislavky and Brecht.

Stanislavsky is famous for his naturalistic approach to theatre. An audience was to go and witness reality. The stage was a window onto life; hence the term ‘fourth wall’ to indicate that the audience sat where a wall to the house was meant to be. You could say Stanislavsky was the modern day Ricky Gervais with his mock-umentary style… but I’d have to kill you if you did! This, for Brecht, was destructive. It stifled the audience to except the world as it is and to ‘wallow’ in the inevitability of life.

For Brecht, theatre was about evoking change in a person.

‘I wanted to take the principle that it was not just a matter of interpreting the world but of changing it, and applying that to theatre.’ Bertolt Brecht, Brecht on Theatre

The theatre then is a place where an audience sits and reviews how life isled and to see the possibility for different outcomes. Stanislavsky taught the given circumstance; A leads to B leads to C, the path is set and you must walk it, whereas, Brecht saw that after A there were many paths to take and should be explored. The audience were opened up to personal change.

My mind immediately asked the question, what is theatre’s role in the church?

Are my reservations about ‘church drama’ stemming from my understanding of theatre?

It could be said that the ‘church drama’ that I have witnessed are Stanislavskian in style. They pose something as it is (or at least as the particular church thinks it is) and there’s no room for questions. A story, with its seeming inevitability, is put forward and that’s that. The audience are not welcomed in and given a real choice to make changes. This is difficult when the scenes portrayed are historical and the outcome has already been decided but an audience should still be present in the story and understand why an action is decided upon.

It makes me think of St Ignatius of Loyola and his practise of visualisation prayer where the practitioner is to walk into a biblical scene using his imagination and explore it for themselves. Many have criticised this practise as heretical as it means that our imagination can make up things not in scripture and develop theology away from Christian doctrine. Unfortunately, use of the imagination is natural human action and one cannot say with any assurance how they understand the very nature of God or the will of God without, in part, attributing it to the imagination. Theatre itself is imagination and so let us assume that using it is not ‘the work of the devil’ and push on in to its use in religion.

To inhabit a biblical scene is to live within the reality (or supposed reality) and so the audience/congregation must be able to imagine what it was like in that situation. This should include the option of choice and to change the situation. Reality is about choices and free-will, isn’t it? The giving of choice and free will does not, necessarily have to change the outcome. Brecht wanted audiences to dream of possibilities and to see characters as flexible and real not automatons set on one path. The biblical and non biblical characters shown in church dramas are often set on a course (often without any reason) which the audience/congregation must watch. This, I think, is the source of my frustration. As an audience/congregation member I want to be able to see reality not something outside of reality and this involves the potential for change, even if it is never realised.

Is the Brechtian approach to theatre a suitable alternative? I believe, in some part, it is particularly with its clear depiction of both character and actor at the same time rather than the ‘trickery’ of Stanislavsky. I like, however, the complete immersing in the reality which is often missed, I feel, in Brechtian theatre. Peter Brook uses Brechtian techniques but applies them to a mix of Grotowskian, Artaudian and Stanislavskian practises as well.

As I continue to read I get excited about the use of my previous study and formation in the theatre to communicate into my formation in ministry. My own theatre practise speaks into my ministerial practise and, I hope, vice versa.


The Two Second Interview
"You should be grateful, you know," said the man in the long white robe as he stood next to me. "It's been 212 years since He has given His last interview to a media faction." The man, an interface agent, wasn't speaking condescendingly to me as he spoke, and I was truly grateful for the opportunity.

"Any idea why He chose me?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Maybe it was that positive article about AI God's you wrote last month for the newsies? I am not sure, and who knows the mind of a God anyways?" the man shrugged and held out his hand. "Did you bring the infocrystal as requested?"

I gave him the small recording device, a crystal pellet that all major media now used. The pea-shaped object could literally hold terrabytes of data. The man in the white robe placed it on a console and within a few seconds handed it back to me, smiling.

"The interview is over," he stated.

I retrieved the small object from him and looked at the infocrystal. I had placed over 2,000 questions within it, and now over 7,000 Mb worth of information was stored on it.

Man that was fast, I thought as I walked out the door.

In the boundless depths of c-space Megagant dwelt, organizing His thoughts, controlling interfaces into the real world and rerouting data as needed. In the two seconds it took to scan and formulate answers to the mediaman's questions, Megagant took the opportunity to actually look at His subject: Jine Adwine, newsie for Imperia Papers.

.00028 Scan infocrystal and begin formulating answers; load answers onto crystal (7,101.56Mb worth of data transferred). Interface with Joyful Dancer AI from Beta Continent. Interface complete.

.0067 Begin and finish 100 year agricultural weather pattern analysis of planet Jinx. Receive data from Conscience AI regarding the Formation of the Universe. Refresh memory core with scientific information; 10.2 terrabytes accessed and assimilated.

.051 Interface via wormhole-link with Blinx, L-Adam, and Archeron AIs regarding Heat Death of the Universe. Engage in wargames with Blinx AI, conducting several thousand battles simultaneously. Begin designs for new micro-fighter craft, system defense boats, and KK-Class Battleships as a result of these virtual conflicts.

.93 Consult with Uel (He Who Is Ever Present AI) over long-term fertility rates on the Negentropic Alliance worlds Campuya, Delfos, and the Andoas System. No consensus reached. Monitor global information patterns; over 310 billion transmissions received this hour; recorded and analyzed by subroutine as they come in.

1.21 Begin joint conversion process with Forerunner, Mazzeleron, and Iceblink AI . Data storage peak. Continue overseeing conversion of Jupitrex to Mainbrain formation; additional nanoswarms (412 trillion) sent to construction site. Begin and finish genetic encoding for entire family of Corona viruses.

1.350 Formulate economic needs and resource allocations for Bender's World, McGuffin's Planetoid, and send credits overdue to planet Primaria/Agent Marcus de la Royo via wormhole communications. Rewrite financial subroutines to better effectively deal with upkeep. Conduct and finish defense mode drills of primary planetary defenses; 87% efficiency recorded.

1.70 Continuing to monitor global information patterns; continue maintaining wormhole gate stability. Over 7,000 tons of mass-energy have been added this cycle to maintain pattern. Begin and complete history of all virch worlders at Ain Soph Aur. Database released to Cybernex Press.

1.88 Study Dyson feasibility in Juggernaut Nebula area. Begin nucleo-tech research into superbonded materials. Alert interface agent that interview is over.

by Idahobeef

Table of Contents


Gastlandschaften Rheinland-Pfalz

Other special historical places to explore

show filters

449 results , sorted by ascending / descending

Aachener Dom | Aachen

The Aachen Cathedral is one of the most famous examples of occidental architecture. It is the coronation church of more than 30 German kings,...

Townscapes and village scenery | Schweich

Townscapes and village scenery

A historical ferry tower in Schweich, the Niederprümer Hof cultural centre with a permanent exhibition about...

Römerkastell | Alzey

As a result of border safety measures over part of the desolate abandoned "vicus" (settlement) Kaiser Valentinian I. had a late antik...

Juliusplatz mit St. Marienkirche | Neustadt/Weinstrasse

Juliusplatz with St. Marien – Neustadt from its most attractive side: The neo-Gothic church steeple of the Parish Church St. Marien towers over...

Schloss Sayn | Bendorf

Sayn Castle was first of all merely a castellan’s house: in the second half of the 15th century, the barons of Reiffenberg had built it underneath...

"Elisenhäuschen" in den Weinbergen | Mülheim an der Mosel

Elisenberg vineyard hut is located south-east of Mülheim town centre directly on country road 158. It is a one-and-a-half-storey hip roofed...

Doppelkreuz / Kapuzinerkreuz | Bernkastel-Kues

The religious cultural heritage of the Moselle also comprises burial crosses and wayside crosses of profound artistic quality.

Kronenburg | Dahlem

The castle ruin and fortified settlement of Kronenburg

Kronenburg Castle was one of the characteristic medieval hill-castles of...

Ehrenburg | Brodenbach

For centuries Ehrenburg Castle has perched atop a sheer, rocky crag rising above the wild, romantic forests of the Hunsrück hills close to the...

former synagogue of Zell | Zell

Synagogue Zell (Mosel)

In 1849 the Chief Executive at that time, Alexander Moritz, sold the upper floors of the domestic house belonging to...

Genovevahöhle | Kordel

The Genovevahöhle ( cave) is located south of Kordel in the beautiful Kyll Valley.

Schloss Neuwied | Neuwied

That the Rhine represents a thoroughly lucrative income source as an important traffic route and a major economic axis was also clear to Count...

LVR-Freilichtmuseum Kommern | Mechernich

Hohe Acht and Kaiser-Wilhelm-Turm | Kaltenborn

The Emperor-William-Tower was erected on the mountain Hohe Acht, at an altitude of 747 metres.

Schloss Philippsburg | Braubach

Philippsburg Castle, which was derelict in the 18th century and had undergone major change through the refurbishment measures carried out from...

Become part of our Facebook-community:

Romantic Germany Thank you Tips For Travellers for your blog post about the Romantic Upper Middle Rhine Valley and what there is to see, do and why it's so remarkable 😀
Tips For Travellers Find out why I think you should visit the UNESCO World Heritage Site on the Rhine in Germany. What there is to see, do and why it's so remarkable: A must do if you Visit Germany
27. 10. 2017, 11:57

Noch mehr Infos aus der Community


4 Factors To Take Into Account Seeking Essay Writing Help

Essay writing is fun and interesting for those students who have a passion for writing or at least the subject. If a student knows nothing about the subject or hates to write about the given choice then he or she will find it extremely hard to compose a winning paper. Even if they try to attempt the essay, it will be evident from there writing that they did not have an interest in the assignment.

Students can often find it hard to complete academic assignments because they have a busy schedule or they do not have enough skills to complete the project. If you are facing a similar situation, then you definitely need help. Instead of feeling bad about the paper, you should start your hunt for someone who can help you complete it.

Remember to be careful and search different sources to find the best suitable person or agency for your essay. Below are few considerations that you should keep in mind when using someone to write your paper

  1. Determine the type of help you need
  2. You need to decide whether you need an online writing agency, a freelance writer, a traditional writing agency or a professional writer to write your essay

  3. Have an estimated budget and turnaround time in your mind
  4. They will tell you their prices and time required for completing the task but you should have something in mind at least to be able to compare. You should know how much you are willing to spend on an essay for school and when do you want it

  5. Check their credibility
  6. Check the reputation of the writer or agency by reading what their customers say about them. You can also have an idea about the quality of their work by looking at the portfolio samples. Compare different reviews and samples before you hire one company or writer

  7. Make sure you receive unique and original assignment
  8. Before you go ahead and submit this essay to your teacher, it is a good idea to check it for plagiarism. You should have a soft copy of the assignment and copy this text into a reliable software program to detect plagiarism. If the paper is hundred percent unique only then you should move forward. Before submitting the paper to your teacher, you need to revise and proofread it to see if there are any grammatical, spelling or typing mistakes in the paper

TeamHagkull.com. | Essay Writing Secrets


James Teschner: Landscapes

I paint outdoors near my home in remote farmlands of central France.

The direct experience of being in the landscape, often standing in the same field for months on end, is crucial to my creative process.

My work in recent years has focused primarily on the setting sun and those moments leading towards nightfall,

whereby the landscape is either being obliterated, almost devoured by the sun’s all consuming luminosity

or being dissolved by the receding, diminishing light.

Since obtaining his MFA in painting at Yale University in 1984, James Teschner has had numerous exhibitions in the United States, Italy, and France, where he now lives. He has taught at Parsons and Yale and received numerous honors and awards, including residencies in Co. Kerry, Ireland, and Venice, Italy. He currently has a one-man show at OK Harris Gallery, in New York City, which runs from April 20th through May 25th.


Boston Globe delivery woes lead to a math activity: “Ruminating on Routes.”

If you’re reading this in the Boston area, you probably know about the Boston Globe’s problem with home deliveries this month. As soon as they switched delivery companies just before the beginning of the year, massive problems ensued — principally a complete failure to deliver the paper to some subscribers. The Globe claimed that 95% of subscribers were receiving their papers, but that is surely a gross exaggeration.

Here are some interesting links. First of all, we have the description of the problem:
• Globe, distributor trade blame as delivery woes persist
• Boston Globe delivery problems could last up to 6 months, distributor says

And then we have the attempted solution:
Globe turns to former distributor to get back on track

But wait! All these articles are from the Globe itself, so maybe they represent the company line. Let’s try a more neutral source:
Amid delivery problems, Boston Globe reporters deliver newspapers

As you can gather from this last headline, employees pitched in to provide a temporary workaround (actually, not just reporters, despite the headline).

So what does all this have to do with a math activity? It turned out that the forces of serendipity conspired to provide an opportunity for a discrete math investigation. Our Algebra II students will soon be choosing between Precalculus and Applied Discrete Math Concepts for next year; Precalculus is fairly easy to describe, since it’s basically a continuation of Algebra II, but what is discrete math? To engage our students in thinking about a discrete math problem, my colleague Aviva Hamavid (coincidentally also my niece) wrote a pair of worksheets about the Globe delivery woes. As we do in our Applied Discrete Math Concepts course, she asked students to read an article or two, dig out some facts, discuss the situation with each other, and explore possible solutions. Very different from standard Algebra II!

It worked. The vast majority of students were engaged in the process and did what they needed to do. The biggest issue was the “traveling salesman problem”: trying to find the most efficient route through a large number of locations. We simulated the problem by asking each group to find the shortest path to deliver papers to all their homes (as well as a couple of other sites). Since we couldn’t have realistically large groups, we at least were able to add interest and complexity by ensuring that each group contained a mixture of Weston and Boston students. There’s no perfect general solution, but we were able to compare different options.

Here are the worksheets:

Categories: Math, Teaching & Learning, Weston


Lock iconRectangle 1Rectangle 2 + Rectangle 2 CopyShapeRectangle 1

Cardamom Seed (Decorticated)

  • Sale
  • $ 2.60

Cardamom Seed (Decorticated) - ELLETTARIA CARDAMOMUM

Description: Whole Decorticated Cardamom Seed is the dried and peeled, unripened fruit of the Ellararia Cardamomum, a perennial plant belonging to the Zingiberaceae family. Cardamom is an aromatic spice, with a warm, spicy-sweet flavor and an exotic floral aroma. The fruit of the cardamom plant is a light green oval pod containing three chambers that can hold up to twenty small black seeds.

Origin: Guatemala

Part Used: Seed

Culinary Uses: For the best flavor, heat the Cardamom Seed in a frying pan and cook the seeds until roasted. Cardamom Seed are used to flavor cakes, gingerbreads, apple pie, candies, cordials, liqueurs and spiced wine, bitters, curries, rice dishes, pickles, sausages and hamburgers. It is also a flavoring in drinks including chai teas, egg nog, and Arabic-style coffee (add a small amount of ground cardamom to ground espresso before brewing).

Medicinal Uses: Cardamom, when added to grains and dairy products, is considered to improve their digestability. Cardamom improves circulation to the digestive system and lungs. It is thought to help mental alertness.


Through the use of transmission electron microscopy and infrared spectroscopy, hydrous components have been identified as hydroxyl and free water (H2O) in elongate garnet of ultrahigh-pressure eclogite from the Dabie Mountains, eastern China. The H2O occurs as clusters of water molecules and as hydroxyl in garnet; the clusters of water molecules are interpreted to have promoted elongation of garnet through hydrolytic weakening. The presence of hydrous species in ultrahigh-pressure garnet from continental-crust protoliths indicates that such protoliths are able to carry water into the mantle during the subduction of continental lithosphere.

You do not currently have access to this article.


Falling Into the Diagnostic Trap

He was sprawled on the floor of his apartment surrounded by empty beer and wine bottles when E.M.S. broke down the door. He was 63, but his elderly mother still kept tabs on him. When he hadn’t answered the phone for three days, she’d called 911.

He was an alcoholic, she told E.M.S., with many admissions to the hospital for “alcohol withdrawal,” but was otherwise healthy.

Danielle Ofri, M.D.Credit Joon Park

Working in an inner-city hospital, our medical teams admit so many alcohol withdrawal cases that the treatment is nearly second nature. Basically, all you have to do is treat the shakes with sedatives like Valium until the withdrawal symptoms abate, or the patient ducks out of the hospital for another drink.

Our patient exhibited every sign of alcohol withdrawal – a rapid heart rate (tachycardia), hypertension and tremors. He was awake but lethargic.

He was given intravenous Valium every few hours through the night, but the next day, he still had the shakes, as well as the elevated heart rate and blood pressure. Hard-core alcoholics are known to be “tolerant” of sedatives, so we cranked up the dose.

We continued to increase his Valium dose, and by the end of the day, his shakes were starting to improve, though his heart rate hadn’t yet come down. But he was a textbook case of alcohol withdrawal, we told ourselves, he just needed more sedative.

We were about to leave for the day… and about to fall into a trap.

The trap that we nearly fell into is called anchoring bias. The patient was admitted to our team with the diagnosis of alcohol withdrawal. Once we had that label in our minds, we fit everything into that diagnostic box, anchoring all of his symptoms to that diagnosis, even ones that didn’t quite fit.

Just before we left, one of the medical residents reviewed the patient’s vital signs for the previous 24 hours and noted that the heart rate did not drop — even transiently — after each Valium injection. That gave us pause. Was it still alcohol withdrawal, with an “atypical” presentation, or was there something else going on?

Occam’s razor is the principle that one should hunt for the simplest single diagnosis to explain a patient’s condition. Certainly this patient, who reeked of alcohol when he first arrived in the E.R., had every symptom of withdrawal.

But Hickam’s dictum is the opposite philosophy, that patients can have as many illnesses as they damn well please. Maybe there was something else in addition to alcohol withdrawal.

Lots of things cause a rapid heart rate in addition to alcohol intoxication: dehydration, electrolyte abnormalities, hypoglycemia, fever, anxiety, drugs, bleeding, heart attacks, blood clots, infections, hyperthyroidism, even too much coffee.

We’d already hydrated him, corrected his electrolyte problems, checked for infections, heart attacks and thyroid disease. His oxygen saturation was 100 percent, without any supplemental oxygen needed. A CT scan of his head and chest X-ray were normal. Other than the rapid heart rate, so was his EKG.

But then the d-dimer, a nonspecific blood test for clots, was elevated. A stat CT scan of the chest demonstrated clots in both lungs — a life-threatening condition called pulmonary embolus that required immediate treatment with blood thinners.

In the textbooks, patients with pulmonary embolus are short of breath and complain of sharp pain when breathing in deeply. Their oxygen saturation is low, and their EKGs show a classic “right-heart strain pattern.”

Our patient had none of those symptoms, and he had another condition, alcohol withdrawal, that could account for his rapid heart rate.

This was a frightening near miss, a potentially fatal condition almost undiagnosed because of our anchoring bias. Only the astute observation — that the patient’s heart rate was not dipping after the Valium injections — led us to the additional diagnosis.

Anchoring bias is often considered the Achilles’ heel of diagnostic reasoning. It’s as though our brains close ranks around our first impression, then refuse to consider anything else. Once a patient is “billed” as a heart attack, or gastroenteritis, or anxiety, we view every data point through that particular lens.

If the data don’t fit, we tend to assume that it’s merely because the illness is presenting atypically rather than that our diagnosis might be wrong or incomplete. Anchoring bias casts an even longer shadow in today’s shift-oriented medical world, in which patients are serially handed off from one team to another. The label that is attached to them takes on a life of its own.

Once our patient was treated with blood thinners, the clots could no longer grow bigger. As they began to heal, his heart rate normalized. He still needed heavy doses of Valium to ease his alcohol withdrawal symptoms, but those, too, eventually subsided.

For the doctors, this was a harrowing lesson in the trap of anchoring bias. It is so easy to slip into it without even knowing. But this case reminded us to keep reciting the mantra: if something doesn’t fit, don’t try to make it fit. Ask what else might be going on. Don’t fall into the trap.

The patient, though, ended up in another clinical dilemma. He needed to stay on blood thinners to prevent a future clots, but his history of alcohol use made this a risky proposition. A drunken fall while on blood thinners is a recipe for a brain hemorrhage. Without blood thinners, however, his next blood clot could be fatal.

But that’s a treatment quandary, rather than a diagnostic one. Fodder for another discussion.

Danielle Ofri is an associate professor of medicine at New York University School of Medicine and editor in chief of the Bellevue Literary Review. Her most recent book is “Medicine in Translation: Journeys With My Patients.”


A St Paul's embroidery and the recovery of soldiers after World War One

The whole altar frontal

A beautifully embroidered altar frontal that helped over 100 soldiers recover from the effects of fighting in World War One is to go on display at St Paul's Cathedral.

The unique piece was worked on by soldiers badly injured in the fighting as part of their recovery. Embroidery was used in the rehabilitation of soldiers upon their return to Britain as the intricate close work greatly reduced the effects of shell shock.

The embroidery features intricate floral and bird designs with the chalice of the Eucharist and the palm branches of martyrdom.

The soldiers were recovering in hospitals all across the UK and their individual pieces of embroidery were sent to the Royal School of Needlework in Kensington to be stitched onto the frontal as a whole.

Those who worked on the frontal were documented in an illuminated book that featured photographs, their regiments and handwritten names.

The frontal was made for the High Altar of St Paul's Cathedral, which was later destroyed during bombing in World War Two. It has not been used since the 1940s because the new High Altar was made of different dimensions.

The altar frontal features floral and bird designs

However, it is being taken out of the cathedral's Collections specially to mark the centenary of the outbreak of World War One.

It is currently being restored by the cathedral's broderers and will be used during a special service of the Eucharist on Sunday 3 August.

The cathedral has so far managed to identify 133 men who worked on the embroidery. They come from the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Researchers are working hard to identify other contributors in the hope that their stories can be told alongside the altar frontal when it goes on display later this year.

The piece will be the main focus of a display that will include photographs and personal items of the men who worked on the embroidery.

The display will be situated in an area set aside specially in the cathedral over the next four years in memory of those who fought and died in the Great War.

The Reverend Canon Michael Hampel, Precentor of St Paul's Cathedral, said: "The hands that clung to life in the trenches of the First World War and which lifted the bodies of dead comrades into graves, came home to craft this beautiful altar frontal.

"It is a symbol of faith despite everything and a deeply moving tribute to those who did not return.

"It is our privilege at St Paul's to let it stand as a memorial to the sacrifice, courage and legacy of a world at war and we are very keen to identify some of these men and learn of their stories."


Gunpowder Empires Dbq Essay example

689 Words Aug 3rd, 2012 3 Pages
The Ottomans,Safavids,and Mughals were powerful Muslim empires that were successful due to their access to gunpowder,and good leadership early on in the start of the empires.The 3 gunpowder empires had difficulty sustaining power due to mistreatment of peasantry,and poor leadership, which led to their decline in 1700 CE.
One of the reasons that the empires were so successful, was because of gunpowder,which gave them an advantage over other nations.This is shown when Father Paul Simon wrote about Shah Abbas the Great and his soldiers.Describing how the soldiers were experienced with muskets,and little behind the soldiers back in Europe.Father Simon goes on to describe Shah Abbas' great experience with warfare, and Abbas' great liking for
…show more content…
The decline of the gunpowder dynasties began in the 1700s CE,which was caused by bad leadership and later on led to mistreatment of the peasantry.Sir John Malcom commented on how the later monarchs were greatly affected by the harems and pleasures of being a monarch.The monarchs were bad leaders,due to the fact that they were inexperienced and were distracted by the pleasures of being leader.(Doc.7)Due to their lack of experience they did not know how to operate the government which led to mistreatment of the peasantry.In addition to the mistreatment of peasants,the policies of the Sultans demanded for new impositions in addition to the yearly taxes that the peasants already pay.(Doc.8)Which put more reason on the peasants to rebel and leave.Dr.Francois Bernier,foreign employee of the Mughal emperor,wrote about how the soldiers,governors,and even farmers had almost absolute authority over the peasantry.Dr.Bernier probably had a less extreme look at how the peasant's were treated,due to the fact that he worked as a forein employee of the emperor. (Doc.5)This later on led to peasants leaving from these lands and abandoning their former duties.This weakened the empire's economy by not having a labor force and a decrease in population.
In conclusion the 3 gunpowder dynasties ruled ,because of their advantage with gunpowder,and…

Related Documents


Enforcement through the courts

At trial

Most judges have no special technical background. The courts routinely conduct special technical examinations, involving experts in the relevant field. Usually, parties submit expert candidates to the court for approval. When appointing an expert, the courts will evaluate his or her professional experience and skills. In some cases the parties do not file motions for examination. In this situation, the court will render a decision based on other documents submitted by the parties.

Further, the IP Rights Court handles matters pertaining to the review of Patent Office decisions, including patent revocation cases that have first been tried before the Chamber for Patent Disputes. It also determines issues of IP ownership and authorship. Some IP Rights Court judges have both a legal and technical background. The technical background of the new judges is considered when appointing them.

A single judge hears all first-instance patent infringement cases in the commercial courts, except cases which:

  • are remanded to the commercial court of first instance with an order to reconsider them in a panel;
  • the head of a judicial chamber decides to consider in a panel, due to their complexity and based on a reasoned application by a judge; or
  • are within the IP Rights Court’s jurisdiction.

Appeal and cassation commercial court cases, as well as those under supervisory review, are considered by a panel of three judges.

What role can and do expert witnesses play in proceedings?

The courts usually order expert opinions in patent infringement cases where the judge lacks the necessary technical background.

The doctrine of equivalents applies to Russian and Eurasian patents and may be invoked where it is necessary to establish the use of an invention in a particular product or process – in particular, where this is required to prove patent infringement.

The patentee may file a preliminary injunction motion at any stage of the proceedings in order, among other things, to prevent the defendant from using the alleged product or process until the court issues a decision. However, the patentee must demonstrate that the court’s decision will not be enforced if the motion is not granted and that the absence of a preliminary injunction would cause substantial damage to the patentee.

How are issues around infringement and validity treated in your jurisdiction?

Patent invalidation is a separate administrative procedure handled by the Patent Office. Patent invalidity cannot be raised as a defence during a patent infringement case.

The courts usually consider decisions of the higher courts (eg, the appeal courts, the Cassation Court and the Supreme Court) regarding similar cases. However, the courts do not consider decisions from other jurisdictions.

Damages and remedies
Can the successful party obtain costs from the losing party?

The legal expenses incurred by the successful party may be recovered from the losing party. Expenses are recoverable within reasonable limits, to be determined by the court.

What are the typical remedies granted to a successful plaintiff?

The following remedies can be granted to a successful plaintiff:

  • injunctions, which are granted if the defendant’s product contains every feature of the independent claim of the patented product;
  • damages (if they are proven) and compensation;
  • seizure and destruction of counterfeit products; and
  • publication of the court decision.

How are damages awards calculated? Are punitive damages available?

Damages can include:

  • costs suffered by the patentee;
  • costs that the patentee has incurred for restoration of the violated right, loss or damage to its property (actual losses); and
  • costs for income that the patentee would have received under ordinary circumstances had its right had not been violated (lost profits).

If an infringer received income as a result of its infringement, the patentee can demand compensation (along with damages) for lost profits in an amount no less than the infringer’s income.

A permanent injunction can be granted if the defendant’s product contains every feature of the independent claim of the patented product. In most cases patentees claim a permanent injunction only.

Timescale and costs

As most first-instance patent cases require the appointment of experts, they usually take between six and eight months, after which the decision enters into force if no appeal is filed.

Litigants should expect to pay approximately $35,000 to take a case through to a first-instance decision.

Click here to view the full article.


The Construction Industry and the Tax Gap

Not reporting or under-reporting business income, including income from construction activities, contributes to the tax gap.

Resource:  IRS  22, August 2007

Contractors, subcontractors, as well as individual workers need to be aware of everything that counts as income, and proper accounting methods, so they pay their fair share of taxes. They also need to be aware of all deductible expenses so they do not overpay their taxes. This fact sheet is the 15th in a series to help reduce the tax gap by helping taxpayers better understand the tax code. The tax gap is the difference between the amount of taxes that should be paid in a given year, and the amount actually paid voluntarily and in a timely way.

Contractors, subcontractors, and workers must pay taxes on income received for all work, including side jobs and work that is paid for with cash. This includes work in exchange for credit on a bill. It also includes work that is done in exchange for goods or services in a barter exchange. You are required to report your income even if a Form 1099 or a W-2 is not issued to you.

Income and expenses are reported on tax returns based on one of two accounting methods, which include either the cash method or the accrual method. Either method must clearly reflect a consistent treatment of income and expenses from year to year.

Most construction businesses use two different tax accounting methods, one for long-term contracts and one overall method for everything else, which is often the accrual method. A special section of the IRS web site can help companies pick the best accounting method for their needs.

Accrual Accounting

The accrual method requires reporting income in the year earned and expenses in the year incurred. The purpose of an accrual method of accounting is to match income and expenses in the correct year. If you use an accrual method for reporting your expenses, you must use an accrual method for figuring your income.

Common accrual methods used in the construction industry are the “completed contract method” and the “percentage of completion method.” Under the completed contract method, all income and expenses from the contract are reported in the year the project is completed and accepted by the customer. Under the percentage of completion method, income is reported in proportion to the percentage of costs incurred to date when compared to total estimated costs for the contract.

Cash Accounting

The cash method requires reporting cash receipts as income when received and expenses when paid. Again, if you use the cash method for reporting your expenses, you must use the cash method for reporting your income. Receipt of income occurs when a contractor has unrestricted access to income, including income earned. Contractors who could have received money in one year, but chose not to receive the money until a later year, must include the money as income in the first year, as if it had been actually received in that year.

Two types of businesses are not permitted to use the cash method of accounting. These include a corporation and/or a partnership with a C corporation as a partner, with average annual gross receipts exceeding $5 million, and a business with substantial purchases of materials, generally 10 to 15 percent of its gross income.

Additional information on income and accounting methods is available in Publication 538, Accounting Periods and Methods.

View our Finance and Accounting Courses


Monday, August 31, 2009

Key elements of Shamanism.

Key Elements of Shamanism
copyright Alison Sinclair 2009

Mircea Eliade, historian of religion, considered the classic forms of shamanism, in his seminal Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy with particular reference to practices and beliefs in Siberia and Central Asia. The term shamanism comes from the Manchu-Tungus word šaman. The noun is formed from the verb ša- ‘to know'; thus, a shaman is literally “one who knows.” The shamans recorded in historical ethnographies have included women, men, and transgender individuals of every age from middle childhood onward (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

Important Elements
Some key elements of shamanism are identified below:

1. Eliade defines this complex phenomenon as “shamanism = technique of ecstasy.” By this he meant that “shamanism specializes in a trance during which his soul is believed to leave his body and ascend to the sky or descend to the underworld.”

2. The shamanic flight implies a sacred cosmology, often identified in tribal myths and beliefs that see the ultimate reality as structured in a three-storeyed cosmology: upper world, earth and the lower world. The vocation of the shaman allows him or her to travel in trance through the various planes of consciousness and reality at will. In this world view, the lower world, central world, and upper world are all experienced as inhabited by spirit-beings.

3. Shamans often utilise some variation of an axis mundi, a central axis linking the upper and lower world with our world and supporting it, which is often symbolized by a cosmic tree, a sacred mountain or a ritual pillar. Elements of the shamanic ascent may still be found in the Judaeo-Christian tradition, for example Jacob's ladder in the Old Testament with angels ascending and descending on it, and the golden ladder rising to heaven seen by Dante in Paradiso.

4. A shaman works with helping spirits, who are under his or her control. Sometimes shamanic power is derived directly from the supreme being or other divine entities, ancestors or guardian spirits, (the owl, fox, bear, etc.), which can act as messengers of the spirits or gods. This collaboration with spirits should be distinguished from possession by spirits, since the shamanic operator retains control. According to certain tribes, transmission of power takes place in dreams and includes initiation.

5. Shamans through their trances act as intermediaries between people in their community and the spirit world and are thus able to heal others, accompany the dead as psychopomp, serve as mediators. “The shaman is the great specialist in the human soul; he alone “sees” it, for he knows its “form” and its destiny.” (Eliade, pp3-9 Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy”)

6. Although the classic model of shamanism is found in the Arctic and Central Asian regions, the phenomenon is not limited to those countries. Elements can be found in other regions of the world, and among mystical elements of different religions. Notably, shamanism occupies a role of central importance in native American traditions. In some societies, the priest or priestess may also be a shaman, for example, a Bon Po or a Tibetan Buddhist shaman.

7. Eliade mentions the chief methods of recruiting shamans as follows:
(1)hereditary transmission of the shamanic profession;
(2)spontaneous vocation (call or election); or
(3)some may become shamans by their own free will or that of the clan but they are considered less powerful than those called by the spirits.

8. Shamans are recognised in the community after receiving two kinds of teaching:
(1)ecstatic such as dreams, trances etc.;
(2) traditional (shamanic techniques, names, functions of spirits, mythology, etc.) This course of instruction given by spirits and old master shamans is equivalent to initiation. “It is only this twofold initiation – ecstatic and didactic – that transforms the candidate from a possible neurotic into a shaman recognised by his particular society.” Eliade, p.14.

9. Friendship with animals, knowledge of their language, and experiencing transformation into an animal are signs that a shaman has re-established the “paradisal” situation lost at the dawn of time. (Eliade, p.99)

10. According to anthropologist and proponent of neo-shamanism, Michael Harner, there are two main methods of shamanic healing:
(1)Removing something that does not belong: this technique does not require a shamanic journey, i.e. it consists in working in the middle world typically using divination techniques and moving back and forth from what Harner calls “ordinary” and “non ordinary” reality. (Smith, p. 17.) Typically the shamanic efforts are focused on locating foreign or pathogenic objects in the body of the afflicted and then extracting it.
(2)Restoring something which is lacking in the sick person: The restoring method does typically involve the shamanic journey to retrieve the lost soul. The person may be stressed, distressed or traumatized, resulting in the loss of a vital principle or power. The shaman then typically journeys into the other world to retrieve the lost soul or power and restore it to the person.
(Cited in Smith, p.17, who also mentions other conditions that may require shamanic intervention, including spirit intrusion, breach of taboo and sorcery.)

Shamanism in today's society
Psychotherapist and trained shaman Sandra Ingerman, a student of Harner, developed a shamanic approach to soul loss, which is adapted to western culture. Ingerman believes that the shamanic view of soul loss speaks to the widespread experience of soul loss in modern western society, which can also apply to other contemporary societies. She claims that a whole variety of disorders have their underlying cause in soul loss.
C. Michael Smith, a Jungian psychotherapist, writes about how C.G. Jung's views of complexes relates to modern western understandings of soul loss and dissociation. Loss of vital souls, vital energies, correlates well with Jung's notion of psychic libido. In a Jungian view, the shaman can be understood as employing a trance device similar to active imagination for accessing at will the personal and collective unconscious of his/her patient (depending on where the split off energies are located.) A special advantage of the shaman is the the map that he or she has acquired through numerous ecstatic journeys. This map of the inner world serves as can be held or lost.
Ai Gvhdi Waya, hereditary Eastern Cherokee Metis shamaness, in her book “Soul recovery and extraction” explains that the shamanic technique described as “flight” is in fact an expert use of the right hemisphere of the brain to access other dimensions in order to locate lost parts of an individual's soul. This is typically, although not always, induced by drumming. She identifies signs of soul loss, which may be helped by shamanic intervention, as indicated by symptoms including depression, memory loss especially of early years, addictive behaviour, codependence, and victim's mentality. Although shaman is usually thought of as helping human beings, work can also be done for other parts of the natural world, including animals, plants and the land.
Shamans differ greatly in quality and in degree of expertise. For example, some shaman based cultures use hallucinogenic drugs to achieve the necessary altered states; and some shamans may use their powers negatively, becoming sorcerers. Furthermore, not all are able to perform long distance journeying. It is therefore recommended that clients exercise caution when approaching shamans to have work done on them, and ensure that the person has adequate training, experience and a heart-centred orientation. No hallucinogenic substances are required, in fact, to make the shift into alternative reality.

Eliade considered the ecstatic experience to be a primary element of shamanism. It was not the result of any particular historical civilization but rather was fundamental to the human condition, and hence known to the whole of archaic humanity (Eliade, p. 504). What changed with the different forms of culture and religion were the interpretation and evaluation of these experiences. Shamanism is a practice originating in early hunter-gatherer societies that is still practiced today, whereby trained and experienced practitioners can, through accessing alternative reality and altered states of consciousness, assist people in becoming more balanced and integrated individuals.

For further information see the references below, or

Eliade, M., (1951), 2004. Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy. Bollingen Series LXXVI. Princeton University Press.
Encyclopædia Britannica. " shamanism ." Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Ingerman, S., 1991. Soul Retrieval. Harper-Collins
Harner, M., 1980. The Way of the Shaman: A Guide to Power and Healing. Harper & Row Publishers, NY.
Smith, C. Michael, 2007. Jung and Shamanism in Dialogue: Retrieving the Soul/Retrieving the Sacred. Paulist Press.
Waya, Ai Gvhdi, (1992) 2004. Soul Recovery and Extraction. Blue Turtle Publishing.

No comments:


News For This Month: Wellness

Strategies That One Can Incorporate In Their Lives Despite The Busy Schedules

The world of today has made the business person or the traveler to forget to have a moment to relax. When the day is jammed with flights, meetings and moving among hotel rooms, it is not usually simple to get much-needed balance. Despite the busy schedules that people have, there are various ways that a person can use so that they get time to unwind. If a person wants to wind down and distress, then the first option would be to have a meditation that is mindful. Meditation has been proven to have many advantages and these include reducing blood pressure, depression and stress. As a way of reducing stress, depression and high blood pressure, an individual seeks to get the eventual relaxation that will help them.

There are many ways via which you can achieve this mindful relaxation. These entail excluding yourself from public glare, sit down comfortably and relax the mind. While relaxing it would be nice to take your mind to that fresh and serene place that you know. The second technique to keep stress and depression at bay is concerning healthy food choices. Your diet can significantly be tampered with in case you are always travelling or having back to back meetings. When in a rush, you tend to make decisions that will save your time, and this may narrow down to the kind of food that you take. For a diet to qualify as healthy, it must contain proteins, fruits and vegetables and a traveler should always make sure that all these are adhered to.

When you travel a lot, your body becomes dehydrated, and this is not good for the body. One of the ways through which a regular traveler lost water is when they travel through air. Therefore, to avoid dehydration, there are certain things that you can opt for. In most instances, alcohol drains of the body water, and the traveler should prevent this when traveling. A water bottle can be carried easily in a briefcase or travel bag, and a business person should always remember to take water before, during and after a flight. Irrespective of where a traveler finds themselves, a sure way to relax and unwind can be through a massage.

Most hotels have massage services that are provided by the best massage therapists, and you can take advantage of this and enjoy several procedures with them. No one can turn down massage services and as a traveler you can always book for such services. Massage experiences are good for travelers because it always makes them ready to take on other tasks. Always be present at the moment. Regardless of how an individual is traveling, it pays to care for their bodies.


Saturday, July 30, 2016

Book review: Shadow of the Mountain: Exodus

Shadow of the Mountain: Exodus by Cliff Graham

From the back cover:

                           - CALEB

Exodus, the first volume of Graham's Old Testament saga, begins with Caleb as he prepares to attack the fortified city he has claimed for his inheritance. He refuses to spend his twilight years resting, and instead is driven to claim the victory the Lord promised him decades previously. Capturing Caleb's early days as a mercenary for Pharaoh in Egypt watching the Hebrews suffer under the yoke of slavery, through a desperate fight with Anakite giants in the dark forests of the Israelite hill country, this is a story filled with the epic battles, gritty intensity, and supernatural events that made Graham's LION OF WAR serios a hit. Shadow of the Mountain is destined to ignite a love for the Scriptures in popular culture.

I really enjoyed this book! It was fast moving and action-packed, which is what I often crave in novels. The story takes place in two different settings, that of the elderly Caleb telling the story of his youth to his nephew as they prepare for battle, and the actual story he tells. With Caleb not being mentioned much in the bible, Graham wove his own tale of how his life might have been, and the result was a captivating tale. At the end of the book Graham states: My purpose is not to invent an elaborate backstory because I felt the Bible was insufficient; it is to create a way for the reader to encounter the events of Exodus as the Egyptians themselves might have known them.
His story is well-written and will keep you wanting to read more. I was especially taken in by the part with the plagues of Egypt. The whole book was written vividly and it was easy to imagine everything as it was explained, without being overly descriptive. Some of the battles were a little long for my taste, but that's about it. It was also extremely gory, so I would not recommend it for those who can't handle blood and strong violence. It even made me cringe at a few parts, and I have a pretty high tolerance for that sort of stuff.
But overall a very good read and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys Biblical fiction and can handle the gore.

Saturday, July 23, 2016

Book Review: A Refuge at Highland Hall

A Refuge at Highland Hall by Carrie Turansky

From the back cover:

The Great War shakes the world of a spirited young woman and the brave British pilot she loves, taking her from London to her family's magnificent country estate, and sending him into the war-torn skies over France.

Penny Ramsey has always considered Highland Hall her home, but when Britain becomes involved in World War I, she travels to London to help her sister Kate with the eight orphan children she and her husband, Jon, have taken into their home. Doing her part for the war effort takes priority over Penny's dreams of romance until she meets Alex Goodwin, a Royal Naval Air Service pilot in training.

Alex is determined to prove his worth and do his part to defend his country. Knowing he is heading off for the dangerous assignment of chasing Zeppelins in France, he feels it's unwise to form any romantic attachments. But he can't help admiring the pretty, warm-hearted Penny and wondering what it would be like to find her waiting when he returns home from the war.

As Penny writes to Alex, their friendship blossoms, and she becomes his tie to home and normalcy as he faces the hardships of war. But being an RNAS pilot means confronting the enemy, and the fallout from those experiences pushes Alex beyond Penny's reach. Can God mend the brokenness left by the losses of war?

I hate to too harshly critique a piece of literature, because it is a dear thing to me, nor is this a direct jab to the book or its author, but I found this book to be far too slow-paced for my liking. While the story had its strong points, and it was not in the least the worst book I've read, it was certainly not the best. It's more a matter of my own, personal prefernces rather than to how good the book was. In order for me to become enamored by a story, it must be moving forward constantly and speedily, a new scenario popping up in every chapter. The characters must be strong individuals with realistic personalities, fears, and flaws. This book, in terms of that criteria, was mediocre. I found myself becoming bored more than once, and I actually had to force myself to read it because I knew I needed to finish it in order to write this review. I did find parts of the story likeable, especially the side romance that took place between two of the minor characters, and the writing wasn't all bad. There were, however, several typos throughout the book, and I'm fairly certain this was not an advanced reading copy as it did not say so on the cover as they usually do. Also, there were two very similar scenes in the book which I found silly! In both scenes, there was a mail call, and the man whose perspective it is in is hoping he has a letter, but then becomes dissappointed when the stack of mail is depleted and his name wasn't called. But wait! The man announcing who the mail is for reaches again into his bag and pulls out a package, which is in fact for the man in whose perspective it is! This happened twice, to two different characters! Maybe I'm being ridiculous, but I just found it to be redundant. Also, the end of the book felt rather rushed, with poorly worded sentences thrown in. I can often sense a change in an author's writing when a book is nearing its end, like she was coming too close to her deadline and had to hurry to finish it up.
In conclusion, it was not a terrible story, it had its ups and downs, but overall it was just too slow and boring for my taste, though I am sure (and know) that there are others who would enjoy it, as I noticed it has several 5 star reviews on goodreads. Mostly, my opinion is just a personal prefernece.
Because it did have some interesting twists and a few likeable characters, and was clean and Godly, I give it a rating of 3 out of 5.

I received a free copy of this book from WaterBrook Multnomah Press in exchange for my honest review.

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Book Review: Awakening

Awakening by Tracy Higley

Kallie Andreas is a mystery, even to herself.
Despite her shattered memories, she's worked her way into a position as assistant curator in that very museum, and now she wants nothing more than to pursue funding for her project--assembling pieces from the ancient Minoans.
But then the blackouts start. Lost time, stranded in terrifying danger, frantic visions that can't be real. A threatening phone call may be nothing more than paranoia and madness. Or perhaps not.
It's time to start seeing her psychiatrist more often.
Kallie's doctor challenges her to keep a journal, but her writing morphs into something else... What begins as a romantic fairy tale becomes an allegory of a woman plunged into crisis in the ancient past, in the misty islands of Minoan Greece, home to myth and legend.
When a mysterious billionaire invites Kallie to scour the black market with him for the most valuable of all Minoan treasures, the key to their lost language, Kallie can't resist. Dimitri is wealthy, charming and good-looking, but she's not interested--not in someone who's clearly hiding secrets of his own.
Together, the two embark on a global quest to find the Key, through some of the most exotic and beautiful locations in the world--unraveling the mystery and pursuing leads, all the while resisting romance in Italy, under the Santorini sun, and among the pyramids of Egypt.
Meanwhile, Kallie's memories are bleeding through and her journal has turned violent. She's teetering on the verge of a breakthrough, but what devastating truth has she been suppressing?
When a strange woman who clearly knows Kallie's real identity tries to murder her, it's clear that Kallie's past and present worlds are colliding, in a deadly crisis that will finally reveal the shocking mystery of her past.
But will the truth leave room for love?

This was a pretty good book! I love anything to do with treasure hunters, and I loved the locations in this book! It was mysterious and fairly well-written. It kept my interest pretty well, and was an easy book to read, although I did read it kind of slowly. The only things I didn't like was that Kallie turned to an Oracle rather than God, and while it was a clean book there was very little in the way of Christianity. The other thing was that I found Kallie's traveling companions to be extrememly stereotypical and cliche, and that really annoyed me. So those things aside, it was well written and an entertaining, mysterious story.


The Tear of Guilt

A tear formed at the bridge of my nose
When I thought about the day I left you
It refused to flow down the cheek, though
Fighting against the gravitational force.
Bottled up emotions,
Thoughts of you tried to throw it down,
As many more tears waited in line to flow
Finally, out they came from the other eye -
As this one was still stuck there, unmoved
Losing its fluiudity, soft drop hard as stone.

It wanted to stay back, later I knew -
Because it was the tear of guilt...
And your guilt always stays with you.


A recent study suggests that babies who receive gluten for the first time after 6 months of age are more a little more likely to contract celiac disease, an autoimmune disease in which eating gluten triggers an immune response. We talked to Dr. Mark Corkins, chief of Pediatric Gastroenterology at Le Bonheur, about his thoughts on this research. He shares some helpful information below.

What are your thoughts on this study?

This study confirms some older epidemiology data. Introducing gluten in a baby’s diet too early or too late increases the risk of developing celiac disease. Somewhere around 5-6 months of age, there is a window when the GI tract’s immune system is programmed to learn about things that are OK and should be “ignored” by the immune system. That is when we normally introduce solids into an infant’s diet for that reason.

How common is celiac disease, and why does it seem like we hear so much about it these days?

It is more common than we used to realize. It was previously taught it was a rare disease, and then studies the last few years have shown it to be more common than we thought. One study found it was present in one in 133 persons. Of course, what we have learned is that not everyone presents with the classic symptoms (mentioned below).

The trouble with the increased awareness of the disease is that it is now a “fad” to be gluten-free and blame a variety of vague symptoms or behaviors on gluten. There is no published evidence to support a lot of the general claims that we see floating around and are made by a variety of less than reliable sources.

When do you recommend a child get tested and what does testing involve?

A child should be tested if they have any of the classic symptoms:

  • diarrhea
  • poor weight gain
  • unexplained nutritional deficiencies

It is also recommended if there is a primary relative with celiac disease. There is a very good blood test to screen for the disease. But the blood test is not perfect so the gold standard for the diagnosis of celiac is an upper endoscopy with biopsy of the small intestines if the antibody is positive.


Thursday, March 30, 2017

Still Alive

Oh yeah... this thing that I have on the web. What do they call it? A "blog"?

I've decided to start posting again. Since 2014, I've felt my soul wither, lost all sense of meaning, struggled with health issues, had multiple existential crises, and started experiencing panic attacks. It's been a bit rough, but I'm on the mend.

The past couple years have been a period of latency–not really producing anything but reorganizing my brain, figuring things out, and healing. I finally feel like I'm at a place where I can be productive again.

I'm still alive; it's time to create stuff.


Archives for posts with tag: self expression

Forgiveness Sake… For Goodness Sake!

Forgiveness is NOT:

4. Condoning or accepting negative or hurtful behaviors of others

8. Forgetting what happened.

9. A lofty ideal.

10. Reconciliation

Check out

From multiple evidenced based studies on forgiveness some general guidelines follow
to practice and live out forgiveness.

That this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth.”   President Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863, address at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery.

If we forget the people, all the people and only focus on a select people, then the fiscal cliff deadlock and rhetoric of uncooperativeness, unrelenting postures, narrow visions and self-serving interests will contribute to more than an economic travesty, but to perishing from the earth a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

During this season of light, may our inner light see the light in others so that the blame, shame game of diminishment transforms us into our best selves to work for the good of all beings.

A Loving Kindness Dedication

(From Buddhist practice and Joan Borysenko)

“May all beings be free from harm and anger.

May all beings be free from mental sufferings.

May all beings be free from physical sufferings.

May all beings take care of themselves happily.

May all beings be well and happy.”

Dirty Laundry! Radical Honesty? Over Spiced?

Ever heard of radical honesty? In an age where “telling all” is a sign of courage to some individuals, an age where it is a “new power” as one stands naked in their truth and vulnerability or it is seen as a sign of being healthy, there seems to be an unintended consequence often overlooked…. “lowered morale”.  And in the “tell all” do we not often over spice the story with too many four letter words or graphic pictures in an effort to avoid being “boring”, that we miss the flavor of the real story.  This too can feed “lowered morale”, not to mention deteriorated language skills.

As “heroes” fall from their path of glory, unmasked often by individuals or groups who get a sense of vindication or gloat in self righteousness in doing this, our level of trust in people also falls.  Trust in the fabric of society as a whole is diminished as a result. No one believes anyone anymore…no one is surprised anymore when the next big person or institution falls down. And some conclude, “if they can do it and get away with it why can’t I?” And the slippery slope begins spiraling downward to the “why should I care?” (also often colored with four letter words)attitude.

In an age of transparency in business strategies and ethics, it has extended to transparency of all your life from birth to the present moment in your life, in the public and private arena, in the business and personal world…in any area where your mistakes, past poor judgments, etc, etc, lie and where someone can get you and tear you down if they have the information.  Those that want to know everything about you so that they can use it later if need be to smear you are alive and well. (This may be a possible reason why the President of the U.S. has said in the past that we be careful about what we post on social media about ourselves.) It is true we don’t know how any information can later be used against you in the world.

Does that mean we should not be telling our stories or being “honest”? Telling our stories can be healing and transforming, being honest is freeing at many levels, but to whom does this honesty belong?  If you are a private individual, it belongs only to you and those you wish to share it with. It does not have to be a media event. If you are a public individual, then your public life of service can be scrutinized as it is part of the domain. However it seems that the personal is often scrutinized mercilessly and has become part of the public domain!

“Dirty laundry should be washed at home” was an expression used when I was in formation to draw a line between creating public scandal, maintaining public dignity and respecting social norms (even if you had deviated from one, you and your confidants held the pact of silence and did not contribute to public scandal or demoralize others with your failures). Shame on you or the family was not just for the moment and for the transgression, it was for the rest of your life if it was aired in public. Caution was exercised when you sought out counsel.

Your dark moments (excluding criminal behaviors) and accumulated errors called experience were for you to learn something about yourself.  Honesty began with you to avoid self-delusion or denial of your behaviors.  In the act of telling someone who could guide you back to your sense of self, you became vulnerable and entered the realm of humility. Your possible arrogance faded and you moved closer to being real and authentic, a more genuine you. Healing for your transgression was the result. You were transformed. Honesty was the key to gain the gifts of courage, (the result of sharing your truth), humility (the result of becoming vulnerable and giving up your pride) integrity (the result of being back in the “whole of you”, not broken or fragmented or separated from yourself by self deception or in the denial of your transgression). Honesty, radical honesty, with you, with someone who could guide you, with those that had a right to the truth and with God was the virtue; the public exposition was not the virtue.)

And it ended there, with your new insights and realizations, arresting moral turpitude, and a new desire to contribute in better ways. The larger picture of societal norms remained the ideal to aspire to in your life. Public scandal and expose’s was an injury to the public morale, something to be avoided. But now we make money, get famous and rise in our ratings or sales from our dirty laundry and spicy language.

Individuals are far more tolerant and forgiving of transgressions more than ever before, which is a step toward unity…as we unite in our common ground of being human and not perfect. Yet should we not re-examine who and how we “tell all” to? Would not a few trusted individuals be enough?  Is the anything goes way of being “really healthy” for the social fabric of life that needs to be inspired and strive toward realizing ideals?

It is true that all stories of being healed are a true inspiration for many.  We all need the inspiration from other people’s journeys and stories that overcome trials and tribulations and smile on the other side of the experience full of hope, gratitude and wisdom. However, eloquence in telling stories is often replaced by crassness. If our dialogues or writings are not spiced with four letter words and graphic sex do we call it boring and no good?  Are we so hooked on the spice, that we miss the real flavor of the truths in the story?  Would it not be refreshing to taste real unadulterated flavor and not have the over spice of words change and adulterate the experience of the story? It indeed is a matter of taste.

As we move to higher consciousness, evolve toward a shift in consciousness, might we first awaken and examine our dirty laundry at home with radical honesty, only the necessary spice and inspire many to be more genuine, authentic, and whole?  If we desire to use more four letter words…LOVE added as the spice, flourishes best when we wash our dirty laundry (preferably at home) and commit to radical honesty to gain in the virtues of a more evolved world of higher consciousness. How can lowered morale, contribute to this shift, when rather than lifting ourselves and others in love, we toss so much garbage at each other? Dirty Laundry! Radical Honesty! Over Spiced?

The Common Ground

Once upon a time, there were no stories about us.  Each of us came into being somewhere in the world. Life was breathed upon us at some point in our development.  And before our gender differentiated into male or female, we were generic human beings growing.  We then differentiated into respective males or females in the womb.  Alas some ready and some not, we were born somewhere in the world.

Those before us had experience in the world and they had learned how to navigate it and survive to the best of their ability. They took on roles assigned or chosen in order to participate in life and meet its demands.  They formed groups of different interests to perform different functions for the good of all and they taught us how to be humans in that group.  They tried to understand life and human beings and the greater powers bigger than themselves. They gave us a legacy by teaching us how to express ourselves and get along with each other and understand the world through the eyes of their cultural story.

They celebrated and they cried. They laughed and worked. They rested and fought.  They had special foods and drinks, special music with unique instruments.  They utilized a language to communicate.  They loved each other and cared for each other.  They did not know about any other part of the world, only theirs. They had a cultural story they could identify with and become united at many levels. These were powerful cultural stories that gave each of us a unique formation that includes a belief system. But now we have arguments about who has a better story.

All human beings have needs… anywhere in the world. No one is exempt. This is not unique to anyone being. We all have the need to eat, rest, breathe (physiological needs) and we all have the need to feel safe in the world. We want to feel good about ourselves and feel we belong.  When we are assured of all these, we become more aware of our need to transcend and go beyond ourselves and we can serve others and leave our mark in the world in selfless ways (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs).  Some human beings never get past satisfying their physiological needs and they often are collectively in countries we deem as “third worlds” or a lesser designation. And those who know about transcendence do not forget those behind and fight for them so they too can know what it is like to transcend and be the most we can all be.

We were given intelligence and talents that are unique to us and not equal to each other. We saw how good it is to cultivate the intelligence and develop our talents to use not just for our benefit but for the service of all if we choose and thus advance the world forward at all levels. Our contributions are unique.

 The politics and economics of each country either support our development or can stymie the potential with either their short sighted vision or no vision at all for each of us. We are either valued or devalued. We are dehumanized or of human worth.

Suddenly our cultural story becomes the divide between us and we justify actions that widen the divide between us individually or as a country. We let the story get in the way, we hide behind the story and we forget our humanity.  We forget the common ground we are all on and we fight over whose story is right or better.  We lose respect for each other based on these cultural stories. We forget that we all were given the breath of life by the same being. In this we are one.

 We fail to get past all that is different and miss each other at the core of our being. We fail to meet on our common ground and the power struggles begin.  There are winners and losers, the weaker or stronger, richer or poorer, smarter or less bright, powerful or powerless, haves and have-nots, important or non grata, all designs to create divisions and justify the power brokers influence and delegate and designate lots in life subject to the control of the powers that be.  We lose each other in the struggle; we lose ourselves in the struggle and forget our own origin…before our time on earth.

We have a world divided, we have countries divided pitted against each other. How will we ever evolve when we choose to be polarized? The universe is ready to lift off and rise to higher consciousness and only those who can see beyond themselves, those who can get past the politics and economics of our times, those who can see beyond the differences and the divides will transform from within to rise to higher consciousness.

Martin Buber (1878-1965) Jewish philosopher and theologian once said in his book, I and Thou (Ich und Du) that human existence may be defined by the way in which we engage in dialogue with each other, with the world and with God (highest being, power). We are all part of the whole and we enter relationships of reciprocity and mutuality. Each relationship opens up a window to the ultimate and eternal Thou.

We are in this world together and our actions do impact each other. Let us meet on the common ground of our humanity infused first with the spirit that gave us life and that unites us all. Let us meet on common ground.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta always greeted each person with hands folded and a bow and would say NAMSTE, a deep spiritual greeting that means: the divine spirit in me recognizes the divine spirit in you.

Let us meet on the common ground….NAMASTE.

What Meaning? What Vibes?

What meaning of yours do you want understood? What vibrations do you emit with your words? Why am I talking? Why are you talking?  Just for fun, to share, educate, vent, aggrieve, because you can’t stop, need to be heard, don’t like silence, need attention???? Only we know why we talk.

But most would agree that the whole point of communicating with anyone is not just to get words across, but to have our meaning understood.  So how do we effectively get someone to understand our meaning?  The plain truth is that if no one understands what you mean to say, all the words have been in vain.

Just this word “meaning”, means something to everyone with slight variations so that when we hear or see the word meaning, we get a picture in our mind. Unless the other party has the same picture in their mind as yours, there is a great chance of misunderstanding and hence miscommunication. So for good communication we must get our meaning across.

And one great way to know if they have gotten our meaning is to ask the other person? Or of course, the other person can ask. “What did you mean by that?”  In all cases one cannot assume that images will be conjured up in others’ minds that are like the ones in our mind since most of us are not mind readers. But as we strive to get meaning across, we need to have a greater awareness of the choice of words we use and their energetic patterns.

In an era of savvy words used to create realities, it is wise to notice the words we choose and the images they connote to clearly get our meaning across, but as we choose these words let us also enter the awareness that words have a vibration quality that can lift and empower.

In his book, Power vs. Force, David R. Hawkins lists words and their energetic impact or vibration quality created.  Words have a high or low energy pattern.  For instance, using abundant versus excessive, determined rather than stubborn, empathetic over pitying, giving versus taking. The higher patterns have a positive impact on others in lasting ways.

Those of us desiring to add to the positive impact of an evolving consciousness will be greatly surprised at how much difference the choice of words can make.  Having awareness in order to add empowering words to our vocabulary, as we choose our words to share our meaning in our communication is a very inexpensive yet highly rewarding exercise.  It is a unique contribution as we choose to evolve to higher consciousness. The very essence of life in this universe is consciousness. Energy patterns of specific frequencies or vibrations are cast into the universe when we author words and by their ripple effect will come back to us.   What meaning? What vibes?

Up and Coming and Going Nowhere

Part One

What do you think is going on?

What do you thinks is going on?

What do you thinks is going on?

Here are the facts:

to be continued:

The Green Eyed Monster or the Green Eyed  Teacher

Are you a gatekeeper?  Have you ever looked around and paid attention to how many gatekeeper positions exist?  If we start with the highest place to go to, assuming it is a place, the pearly gates have a gatekeeper called St. Peter. And if we go to the netherworld there are also gatekeepers called devils by some, who let us in if we are blacklisted.  But, let’s face it, these gatekeepers whether real or mythological are not the ones that make it or break it for us in this lifetime and external world.

Try calling the President, not difficult to know there is not only one but a trail of gatekeepers to get to the top,  they are tiered and numbered. Try calling someone you don’t know, even if they are not important as in the case of the role of President and even there you run into a series of questions or machines.  Gatekeepers are everywhere.  They sometimes are in the form of machines and some are in human form acting like machines.  They serve a purpose.  Who gets in and who does not. They have criteria that must be met for us to get in if they are strictly objective. However, we do know that in the exercise of power, some let you in just  because they know you or are related to someone they want to know.

In every world, whether it be business or personal, there are gatekeepers.  We are a gatekeeper ourselves. Think of when you shut your phone off, do not answer the door, bolt the door, connect your friends to each other or not, relay messages or not. Think of how you feel with the sense of power you get when you let someone in through the gates on your own criteria or when we make exceptions to the criteria we should follow to let them past the gate.

In the external world, the gates and gatekeepers are too many to count. We navigate them daily, some of us lose ourselves just to get in through some gates and gatekeepers as is often the case with power, fame or fortune. We sometimes sell out for power, fame or fortune.

Yet, fortunately,  we are the only gatekeeper to our inner world.  We are the only ones that can enter that world, explore it, learn from it, clean it, heal it, expand it, keep it small and tight, or large and bright.

Sometimes, when we trust someone, we let them into this very personal world. We become vulnerable to them in trust. We also become prey for betrayal.

It is this inner world where we have our personal power, not given by roles, fame, prestige, money or criteria of the external world, but by our birthright of being spiritual beings in this human experience.

Some of us fear going past this gate into our inner world, thinking we will only discover the “prodigal” shamed, unacceptable, ugly, worthless, loveless self.  But, this is only that, a “thought” turned belief, about ourselves shaping our self concept and feeding our self-esteem . One we created or learned, albeit, with the help of early caregivers who were the first mirrors of our self and from which we got the raw material to birth our first self concept and sense of self and self-esteem. But we do not have to carry that self-concept into adulthood.

Fortunately, we leave childhood physically by chronological age, unfortunately, some of us never leave it emotionally or psychologically. None of us leave it unscathed by the milieu of our upbringing whether it was a good one or not, but we do leave it with the freedom to re-invent ourselves or better yet, to rediscover who we really are underneath all these thoughts that keep the gate closed to the endless power of our true spiritual self.

If we want to evolve to higher consciousness, we must go past this gate and past these blockages of our fears and thoughts and beliefs of who we “think” we are and enter the realm of being.

Entering our birthright of being a “being of light”, one in the union of the one spirit from which all life comes. But we must go past the gate. Criteria: fearlessness, courage, desire to come home to love and being and living in that interior space of light and love. For only from this place of transformation can we transform and heal others. Are you a gatekeeper?

Poetry in E-Motions

It’s the phone call I’ll never get

And the number I’ll never dial

The fresh cut rose from your garden I will never smell

The chocolates we won’t taste and share

Nor the toasts we’d make over wine we’d sip

It’s the books we’d read and discuss at length

And the music we danced and sang to all night

The meals we’d prepare to dine without hurry

And the stars in the sky we’d count for hours

The strolls by the lake we would often make

And the country drives we’d often take

It’s the peaceful sunsets we’d contemplate

And the morning songbirds we’d awaken to

It’s your touch

Your taste

Your smell

Your gentleness

Your caress

Your kisses

Your embraces

Your voice

Your caring

Your presence

It’s you… I miss


What Each Myers Briggs Type Enjoys Doing

We all have our own interests as unique individuals, but for starters here are some of the most common activities and interests of each Myers-Briggs personality types.

ENFJs focus on their external aspects. They dream to be a star. They love inspiring others and leading others. Nevertheless, they value their own privacy and beliefs which make them hold back in expressing them which makes them need to have their own space. For these reasons, they love reading, learning, organizing, talking to people and share their ideas, and do physical activities such as sports or exercising.

ENFPs may be inconsistent and unpredictable in most situations. Their interests vary depending on the environment or characteristics they have inherited. They have this dire need to have freedom from mundane isolation to have a full grasp of the individualistic part of them. ENFPs, in general, loves learning new things through reading, listening/talking to people, they also show interest in arts, take on travels and do physical activities like sports or exercise.

ENTJs are seen as different though they are extroverted, they aren’t easy to know. They are persuasive and they set high standards for themselves that often results to perfectionism. In a group of people sharing their ideas, their charm makes them stand out and end up representing the group. ENTJs are smart and rational individuals who are fast learners. Socializing, writing, sports or exercise, reading and engaging with physical activities satisfies their extroverted needs.

ENTPs focuses on the external world. They are quick thinkers and solves problems easily when in a normal state of emotion. Because they love concepts and keep on having new ideas, they commonly end up not finishing what they have started. ENTPs are answer-seekers and like learning new things. They are action-oriented individuals who would like sports, reading, debating, talking, and artistic endeavors.

ESFJs are outgoing individuals who love interacting with people. They are understanding and are good listeners. They perform their duties very well and constantly better themselves and become very dependable individuals to belong in the crowd. Due to these facts, they like physical activities (e.g. dancing), arts (e.g. music), talking to people, traveling, and studying.

Due to their generally-liked personalities, ESFPs are friends of everybody. They are very fun to be with and very spontaneous. ESFPs live in the present thus, dislikes theories and serious thinking about the future, and are pragmatists who enjoy being the centerpiece in a room. ESFPs like physical activities such as traveling, socializing, taking care of animals, nature and learning new things.

Being rational and authority-driven entities, ESTJs apt to stand for others. They do not have difficulty in expressing themselves to others because they are honest and straight-to-the-point. ESTJs are natural leaders and have a clear vision of what should be done and put it in action. They put on amounts of energy to improve a system and influence others to follow the rules. They like leading others, planning, physical activities, socializing and working.

ESTPs are spontaneous and fun to be with. They are practical and they love interacting with people. Though most of them have difficulty in coping up with school, their people skills are surprising. ESTPs are doers and have a strong sense of value. They like motivating other people, talking, traveling, having fun, and relaxing.

INFJs focus on the internal aspect of their lives. They are sensitive individuals but are detached from the external world and thus develop a very imaginative and artistic way of thinking. They are calculating and observant with their environment and can be very emotional in times of bad situations. For these reasons they needed something to express their emotions with like writing (e.g. poems), drawing/painting, playing or composing music, reading, and traveling.

INFPs are very private when it comes to their personal lives. Though they like to offer help and provision to others, they are also protective of their own private issues. Since INFPs are very creative, kind and sensitive they tend to love writing, playing or composing music, drawing or painting, playing (video) games, and they also like helping others who are in need like volunteering in social services and such.

INTJs are intuitive and analytical visionaries. Creative and systematic, they like orderliness which often arrives in perfectionism. However, INTJs aren’t all brains, they are surprisingly sensitive and reflective to their surroundings which often drives them to put on high standards to themselves and others. Due to these facts they love reading, thinking/planning, writing, solving things (like math problems, or human behavior) and also physical activities such as exercising.

INTPs are curious individuals who often seek the purpose of everything. They are driven by mysteries and theories and spends lots of time thinking and strive to fully understand something. Although they like to know more about a specific subject, they are often confused with their own emotions and sometimes their own identity. Because they like to seek knowledge, they tend to love traveling, reading, writing, experimenting and relaxing alone.

ISFJs are very reserved individuals. They are patient and gentle persons whom mostly are physically attractive and are protective and helpful to people and often dream about simple living. ISFJs likes literature, security, and harmony around them. Because of these facts they love reading, doing household chores, resting/sleeping, most likes arts (music or painting), and writing.

ISFPs are one of the most artistic individuals who mind their own business. They are perfectionists on their own which helps them accomplish an output with satisfactory results—though sometimes leads to procrastinations when there are deadlines to meet. ISFPs are sensitive, loyal and good listeners though won’t speak their mind until they have weighted it with their sense of value. They incline with any kinds of arts, writing, reading, researching, and others love nature or animals.

ISTJs are security-builders who are hardworking rational individuals. They are loyal in fulfilling their duties and pour the utmost of their abilities to complete them. Whatever they see as important, they incline to it and spend a lot of their energy to make it run smoothly. ISTJs like organizing, working, arts (e.g. music), physical activities (e.g. exercise), and planning.

ISTPs like technical and practical activities. They are logical but does not like theories. They are individualistic and loyal in nature and like solving problems with their own thinking abilities. Because of these, they incline in doing physical activities (e.g. exercise), fixing things, working, resting, and traveling.

These are just some of the common and general interests of each MBTI type. Being unique individuals, we all have our own specific leisure and capabilities due to environmental and genetic factors.
All in all, the list above will help you understand each type of MBTI to improve your personal and social life.

Facebook Comments

Related Post

Tags : myers briggs

Freelancer, Writer and Game Developer

MarianElaineD is a curious individual, a lifelong learner, and a lover of rationality.


The freedom to make decisions based upon our faith is being challenged

Jack Phillips is going to the U.S. Supreme Court

When a cake artist declines to design a cake for a Halloween party, the world goes about its business. But if that same cake artist declines a request for a custom cake for a same-sex wedding, he is forced to defend his decision all the way to the United States Supreme Court.

Why must Colorado cake artist Jack Phillips defend his right to decline one event and not the other?

In America, artistic expression shouldn’t be subject to government control. Jack’s case, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, is an example of what happens when the government gets into the ideology business and begins to punish private citizens if they don’t share and celebrate the same beliefs as the state.

Now the Supreme Court must decide—does the First Amendment protect Jack’s artistic freedom, a principle the high court has long defended, or not?

Don’t Miss the Latest on Jack

Jack’s case is a landmark religious freedom case at the Supreme Court. It has already received national and international attention. As we get closer to oral arguments—on December 5, 2017—that will only continue to increase. Get the latest news on our fight to secure justice for Jack—and how it impacts you—from the legal team defending him before the Supreme Court.

*First Name
*Last Name
*Email Address
Display errors here

Jack Phillips doesn't design cakes for all events—he never has. He has a set of values based on his religious beliefs—a moral code—that guides his life, including his work. When an event conflicts with Jack’s beliefs, he doesn't participate. The Constitution protects that freedom—not just because Jack is a person of faith, but also because he is an artist who pours his time, talent, and incredible skill into creating custom works of art for his customers.

But that hasn’t stopped LGBT activists and the State of Colorado from coming after Jack. They’ve accused him of intolerance and discrimination, forced him to reeducate his staff and file quarterly compliance reports with the government, and demanded that he design cakes for same-sex weddings.

The Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell may have redefined marriage, but it didn’t redefine freedom. The government does not have the power to force creative professionals like Jack—or anyone for that matter—to celebrate events that violate their faith. That’s the kind of freedom the First Amendment guarantees, and that’s why we seek justice for Jack.

Watch Jack’s Story

Across the United States, creative professionals like Jack Phillips are being told by the government that they must lend their talents to promote and celebrate certain events, even when those events conflict with their sincerely held beliefs.

Jack has taken a bold stand for his faith—and for religious freedom for all of us—but that stand hasn’t come without personal and professional consequence.

-United States Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges, 2015

Dig Deeper

If you want to learn more about the facts of Jack’s case, how we got to this point, and what the media is saying, visit our Jack Phillips resource page.

Get the latest news about Jack’s case and other cases that will impact your religious freedom.


CROWNS: a study in 1 Samuel

In 2016, the dominant conversations in society were about leaders. The presidential election stirs this up every 4 years, but this last year was different; it was about much more than who would be our next president. There was a much deeper discussion about the purpose, characteristics, and limitations of those who lead us. Questions like:

Does it matter if our leaders have a moral structure?

Do we need an empathetic leader or a powerful one?

Do we want a leader who works within the status quo or one who will shake things up?

What flaws can we overlook and which ones are disqualifying?

It went well beyond who lives in the White House. Due to data leaks and website hacks, we were left questioning the interests of our government. Police shootings and aggressive tactics had us wondering if law enforcement could be trusted. Even the media, who had been the trusted source for rooting out bad leaders, has been cast as an abusive authority. This has led many to extreme view of freedom/liberty: that no person should ever be in a position to rule over another person. For others, it simply leads to confusion; in every area of life, we are left wondering: do we need anyone to lead us? If so, what should that leadership look like?

1 Samuel answers many of these questions, not by giving a quick shorthand to twenty-first century politics, but by giving us a story about the establishment of the monarchy in Israel. As Israel is going through the transition to a king, they are given direction by God through teaching, through experience, and through a contrast of the different people that God raises up to lead them. In all of this, God is making a statement about leadership and about being led. He is showing us what is important in how we understand our relationship with the power structures of the world.


您好，欢迎光临珠宝网上商城。  [请登录] [免费注册]
发布于：2017-9-12 17:53:28  访问:46 次 回复:0 篇
TRade CFDs On
Did you know that An investor can trade online with a 61607893438 CFD broker such as ACM Gold or XM and with a minimum deposit of 200 EUR and take advantage of a leverage up to 1:200.
* CFD is a financial instrumement which is designed as a deal between a trader and to exchange the difference between the opening and closing value of a CFD position. CFD is a modern investment vehicle that reflects the fluctuations
changes of the underlying assets value. A range of financial instruments may be used as an underlying asset. including: indices, commodities market, companies shares companies like : Ventas Inc or Danaher Corp.
Seasoned economists identify that Bad Traders` treats are:: lack of knowledge and excessive desire for money.
With CFDs day traders can Trade on a wide variety of corporations stockes ,like: Harman Int`l Industries and Dollar Tree
a trader can also speculate on Forex including EUR/USD JPY/GBP JPY/CHF GBP/CHF USD/USD and even the Czech Koruna
traders are able invest in multiple commodities markets such as Fish meal and Meat
A speculator can trade CFDs through DragonGain with a minimum deposit of 100 GBP and take advantage of a leverage up to 1:100.
In addition, day traders are able are able speculate on a variety ETFs including SPDR S&P Retail ETF. , SPDR MSCI China A Shares IMI ETF (more than 3975 instruments in total
验 证 码

Copyright ? 2009-2010 All Rights Reserved. 云南糖草管理系统 版权所有  香港信誉堂云南糖草


Unread post Mon Sep 07, 2015 1:11 pm

If you have problems creating or replying to posts

Because this forum is hosted on CAE servers there can be issues with their security settings causing the forum software to reject new posts. This is usually caused by special symbols or quotation marks that CAE thinks are being used for SQL injection attacks, trying to execute arbitrary code, etc.

If you have problems, try to remove any special characters until the post goes through.


New York

New York Architecture

These drawings and watercolours of New York Architecture in these portfolios have been created over the past 10 years after various trips to New York. Some of the works of been published in books and magazines and some are working towards upcoming book publications.

NEW YORK ENTRANCES                              NEW YORK ICONS                            NEW YORK DRAWINGS

New York has architecturally significant buildings in a wide range of styles spanning distinct historical and cultural periods. These include the Woolworth Building (1913), an early Gothic revival skyscraper with large-scale gothic architectural detail. The 1916 Zoning Resolution required setback in new buildings, and restricted towers to a percentage of the lot size, to allow sunlight to reach the streets below. The Art Decodesign of the Chrysler Building (1930) and Empire State Building (1931), with their tapered tops and steel spires, reflected the zoning requirements. The Chrysler building is considered by many historians and architects to be one of New York’s finest, with its distinctive ornamentation such as V-shaped lighting inserts capped by a steel spire at the tower’s crown. An early influential example of the international style in the United States is the Seagram Building (1957), distinctive for its facade using visible bronze-toned I-beams to evoke the building’s structure. The Condé Nast Building (2000) is an important example of green designin American skyscrapers.