Image by Leo Reynolds via Flickr

The Right Move for New York (Part 6 of 6). Originally published in the Fall of 2006. Visit the Awesome Academic Articles!!! page for previous parts.

Why support education over other programs? (Concerns Continued)

Why should the sales tax be increased for a free education instead of state health care coverage? The boon created from an educated work force with more income would allow the state to better fund these programs through a ripple effect.

In Eric Schutz’s Markets and Power, he talks about inequality in the real world. The problem is, some of America’s citizens do not have a say in their social and wealth status. As established earlier, government makes decisions, sometimes without consulting the people their decisions impacts. Schutz emphasizes the importance of a formal education and it is emphasized here.

A formal education provides people with basic skills and abilities needed to function in the world. A formal education also works as a filter, putting people on tracks, which will get them a job that best fits their skills and ability. Schutz believes the lack of education restricts access to certain kinds of job opportunities (Schutz 135). Despite the additional tax burden or additional cost we may have to incur to make tuition free for our neediest citizens, with greater knowledge and education New York’s citizens can have access to better paying jobs, higher standards at the work place, and power our economy.

Conclusion

It is imperative if our state and country want to grow that we provide access to education to those workers who cannot afford it.  Note that this is not a blank check for all people, but for people already employed who still cannot afford the cost of an education. By providing people with a track record of steady employment and a desire to better educate themselves, we can generate new oppertunities for the state and new employment oppertunities for the individual and those in need. In a world that can no longer constantly produce and use resources, and in a world where our country faces economic challenges, the state must make college education available to its citizens who earn less than $30,000 if we are to start the next great American century.

Bibliography

3 American Futures: What Direction should we take. Lockhaven University: Lockhaven 2004.

Interview with former SUNY Chancellor, Robert King.

Atkins, Ellie. Congress could cut student aid. November 4th, 2005.The Vanderbilt Hustler. November 5th, 2005.

Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed. New York. Henry Holt, 2001

Politics. A definition of politics. Wikimedia Foundation. November 5th, 2005. <>.

Kramer, Miriam, Arbetman, Liam, Vila, Jose. Overburdened: further shifting the cost of public higher education from state government to New York families. NYPIRG. November 1st, 2005. <>

Reed Jr., Adolph. Free Higher Education. February 23rd, 2004. The Nation. November 5th, 2005. <>

Schutz, Eric. Markets and Power. Armonk; M.E. Sharpe. 2001

SUNY Potsdam. Estimated Cost of Attendance. March 17th, 2005. State University of New York at Potsdam. November 5th, 2005 < contentid="41F5699D831412622A2AFF0E8E142D6C">.

SUNY. SUNY Fast Facts. January 1st, 2005. State University of New York. November 5th, 2005 <>.

Wakin, Daniel J. Large Gift to End Yale Music School Tuition. November 3rd, 2005. The New York Times. November 5th, 2005.

Yankelovich, Daniel. The Magic of DIALOGUE. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999.

Written on July 2nd, 2005 by Brandon J. Mendelson

Whereas, the California Public Interest Research Group, a consumer advocacy group, conducted a survey in 2005 of the five most widely purchased textbooks at 59 colleges and universities across the country. The group discovered that college textbooks prices have increased at nearly four times the rate of inflation for all finished goods since 1994.

Whereas, publishers often release new editions with little content changes, making the less expensive used books obsolete and unavailable.

Whereas, Faculty book orders not only affect prices, but also the availability of books. Buyback prices are always the highest at the end of an academic term when faculty has filed its orders.
Whereas, textbook publishers are adding extemporaneous items like CDs and study guides that are not needed and not selling the book separate from these materials

Whereas, schools do not make an effort to contact students through modern means to inform them of buy back alerts and opportunities to exchange and compare prices

Whereas, professors sometimes make students purchase books that are rarely used

We hereby resolve,

1) That the faculty of our institution submit book orders as early and as far in advance as possible.

2) That the College Store and its management provide buy-back alert emails to current students.

3) That the College Store and its management provide alerts for faculty to submit their orders on time.

4) That our institution construct and maintain a website for students that will give current buy-back prices and offer a used-book exchange where students can buy and sell books to other students.

5) That our institution construct and maintain a website for faculty that will list prices, current editions, upcoming editions, and information about textbooks

6) That Faculty only purchases textbooks that are not bundled with extemporaneous materials unless absolutely needed. Faculty must present a reason to Faculty Senate and the Student Senate to explain that reason.

7) That Faculty must make minimum one copy of the required textbook through a library reserve or as a loan for students who cannot afford the book.

8) That Faculty only purchase text books they will use extensively for the course

9) That Faculty will not purchase a new edition of a text book because a few new pages were added unless good reason is given

10) That our institution creates a used book recovery process that will collect used books internally and resell them the next year instead of going to a whole sale.
Editorial Board. “Sustainable Textbooks? Curb the rising cost.” Middleburycampus.com.

Sources:

February 12th, 2004. The Middlebury Campus. July 2nd, 2005. <>

Miranda, Meyling Siu. “Students overwhelmed by rising cost of textbooks.” The

Spectator Online. April 28th, 2005. The Spectator. July 2nd, 2005 <>

Veilleux, Richard. “Proposals Seek To Address Rising Cost Of Textbooks” February

28th, 2005 Advance on the web.. The UCONN Advance. July 2nd, 2005. <>

The Basics of Videojournalism (Larry Nance)

Videojournalism: Thinking Visually (hmmm...sounds like a website I saw once)

VJ (only the initiated will buy this...and a lot of folks interested in Victory over Japan/VJ Day)

And YOUR suggestion is?

If you're looking for a regular, run of the mill blog entry, stop reading. I certainly can't stop you from continuing to pace through the words. But I can try to warn you. This entry serves only one purpose, to help me study. That is, I'm studying now and this will be the median through which I explain and then in turn retain the information much better than just reading from the book. Or at least that's the goal. So if you're looking for how I'm feeling, or what my plans are for the week, you're not going to find it here.

If you're looking for a condensed, very truncated discourse on Syntax and Morphology outlined strictly by my quiz study guide, then you've come to the right place! Take a seat, if you haven't already, and enjoy the voyage as I take you on a magical whirlwind tour of just a small slice of the wonderful world of Linguistics!

Where to begin!?
Disclaimer: Most of the following is straight out of my textbook, Linguistics for Non-Linguistics: 4th Ed. by Frank Parker and Kathryn Riley. As much as I would love to actually be able to regurgitate this right off the top of my head and actually sound professional and academic... I'm not there yet.

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Syntax!

Here is a wonderful definition of Syntax I found on Urban Dictionary.

Syntax	4 up, 23 down
	Syntax- Words used by kids with large unibrows who also happens to be extremely emotional, and think theirselves to be the modern day Shakespere. "Colin once said "Please dont mock my correct syntax, it upsets my black little broken heart."

Hilarious as it is, I can't say it is correct. :P

Syntax is the study of phrases, clauses and sentences. OR "the study of the principles and rules for constructing sentences in natural languages. In addition to referring to the discipline, the term syntax is also used to refer directly to the rules and principles that govern the sentence structure of any individual language" (Wiki: Syntax). AKA Grammar!

These are a few of the core elements of the theory of syntax:

1. Words in a language are organized into different categories or, "parts of speech".
2. Words in phrases must have a particular left-to-right ordering. (Or top-to-bottom as in Japanese) In other words, structured order. e.g. In English "the big house" is acceptable, "big the house" is not.
3. Words in sentences are arranged not only in left-to-right order, but also in hierarchical structure.
4. Sentence structures are related by transformations: operations that move a category from one location to another within a structure. (Am I losing you yet?)
5. Transformations are subject to various constraints that limit their application.

Categories:

The classification of words into categories or parts of speech goes back at least as far as Plato who first mentioned the categories noun, verb, and sentence (nohma, rhema, and logos, respectively). Categories are theoretical constructs, part of the unobservable theory of syntax. Linguists have historically classified words into categories solely because postulating such categories helps them explain phenomena that they otherwise could not explain.

Words in the human languages can be categorized in terms of their behavior. For example, some words can be made plural, whereas others cannot. I.E. nouns can be made plural; other words can't.

Linguists have grouped words into two corresponding types of categories: lexical categories, which include items such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs; and phrasal categories, which include items such as noun phrases, verb phrases, etc, and so on. The theory is that every phrasal category contains at least on lexical category of the same basic type.

Left-to-Right Ordering:

Words in English cannot appear in any random order. The left-to-right sequence of items within a phrase is governed by principles that are codified in phrase structure rules. PS rules specify three types of information:

• which elements are permitted in a particular type of phrase.
• the left-to-right ordering of those elements.
• whether any of the elements are optional.

These relatively simple rules make it possible to generate, or describe, an extremely large number of English phrases. PS rules form the basis for tree diagrams, which allow us to visualize how the components in a phrase are related, and PS rules also allow us to represent an important property of human language called recursion.

Examples of specific PS rules for English:

• Sentence: S->NP-VP A sentence consists of a noun phrase followed by a verb phrase.
• Noun Phrase: NP->(Det)-(Ap)-N-(PP) A noun phrase must contain a noun. The noun may be preceded by a determiner, an adjective phrase, or both, and it may be followed by a prepositional phrase.
• Verb Phrase: VP->V-({NP/AP})-(PP) A verb phrase must contain a verb. The verb may be followed by a noun phrase, an adjective phrase, or neither. The verb phrase may end in a prepositional phrase, but need not.
• Adjective Phrase: AP->(I)-Adj An adjective phrase must contain an adjective. The adjective may be preceded by an intensifier (e.g., very).
• Prepositional Phrase: PP->Prep-NP A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition followed by a noun phrase.

Constituent Structure:

Phrases, clauses, and sentences are more than just a set of words or. as we have just discussed, categories arranged in left-to-right order. Rather, they are sets of categories organized into a hierarchical structure. For example, consider the phrase American history teacher. Any native speaker of English can verify, this phrase is ambiguous: it can mean either 'a teacher of American history' or 'a history teacher who is American'.

One way to explain this phenomenon is to assume that phrases are organized into hierarchical structures and that there are cases where more than one such structure can be assigned to a particular phrase. Such cases are said to exhibit structural ambiguity.

Transformations:

Transformations is just a breakdown and analysis of how we structure certain sentences, transforming one type to another.

This section literally gives me a headache just thinking about it, so if you're really interested you can read this Wikipedia page on the amazing world of Wh-movement!

Inflectional Movement, or I-Movement, moves the tensed verb (which is always the first verb) to the left of the subject NP. For example:

1. John has concealed the document.
2. Has John concealed the document?

----And now time for something (not) completely different!----

Side note: One nice thing about this quiz I'm studying for is that it is in my Linguistics 102 course, the basics.  I'm simultaneously taking other higher level Linguistics classes, one of which is LING 321: Morphology & Syntax. So my quiz is on what I'm studying in my other class. I can't say its making it a whole lot easier... but it certainly doesn't hurt. And now, back to the lesson!

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Morphology!

Morphology is the study of word formation. Morphology is to words what syntax is to sentences. That is, morphology is concerned with the structure of words, just as syntax is concerned with the structure of sentences.

1. Words are made up of meaningful units called morphemes.
2. Some morphemes, called lexical morphemes, have meaning in and of themselves; others, called grammatical morphemes, specify the relationship between one lexical morpheme and another.
3. Some morphemes, called free morphemes, can stand alone as words; others, called bound morphemes, cannot.
4. Bound morphemes can be divided into two types, inflectional and derivational.
5. Languages create new words systematically.

Morphemes:

A morpheme can be loosely defined as a minimal unit having more or less constant meaning associated with more or less constant form. Consider a simple example: the word buyers is made up of three morphemes {buy} + {er} + {s}. Each of these morphemes has a unique meaning: {buy} = verb 'buy'; {er} = 'one who performs an action'; {s} = 'more than one.' Together they mean something like 'more than one person who buys things.'

The more combinations a morpheme can occur in, the more productive it is said to be; the more productive a morpheme is, the stronger evidence that it is a separate morpheme.

There are four points to note about morphemes.

• First, they are distinct from syllables. The word alligator, for example, consists of one morpheme but has four syllables; cats, on the other hand, consists of two morphemes but has only one syllable.
• Second, identical spellings do not necessarily indicate identical morphemes. For example, consider buyer and shorter, each of which ends in -er. Note that the -er in buyer means something like 'one who,' while the -er in shorter means something like 'to a greater degree than.'
• Third, the definition of a morpheme as a minimal unit with more or less constant meaning associated with more or less constant form should be taken as a general rule rather than a hard and fast criterion. For example, boys can be divided into {boy} + {s}, but the word men, however, does not seem to be as easily divisible into morphemes, since plurality is marked not by the addition of an -s but rather by a change in vowel (from man) ({man}+{PLU})
• Fourth, the goal of morphological analysis is to determine the rules that speakers actually follow for forming words in a particular language. However, it is often difficult for the linguist to distinguish between the etymology (i.e. history) or a word and its structure in the minds of present-day speakers.

Lexical and Grammatical Morphemes:

Lexical morphemes have a sense (i.e. meaning) in and of themselves. Nouns, verbs, and adjectives are typical of lexical morphemes. Grammatical morphemes, on the other hand, don't really have a sense in and of themselves; instead they express some sort of relationship between lexical morphemes. Prepositions, articles, and conjunctions are typical of grammatical morphemes.

Free and Bound Morphemes:

In contrast to the division between lexical and grammatical morphemes, the distinction between free and bound morphemes is straightforward. Free morphemes are those that can stand alone as words. They may be lexical (e.g., {serve}, {press}) or they may be grammatical (e.g., {at}, {and}). Bound morphemes, on the other hand, cannot stand alone as words. Likewise, they may be lexical (e.g., {clude} as in exclude, include, and preclude) or they may be grammatical (e.g., {PLU} = plural as in boys, girls, and cats).

Inflectional and Derivational Morphemes:

This distinction applies only to the class of bound, grammatical morphemes. The more familiar term for the class of bound grammatical morphemes is affix. Affixes, in turn, can be subdivided into prefixes and suffixes, depending upon whether they are attached to the beginning or the end of a lexical morpheme.

Inflectional Affixes: English has eight inflectional affixes; all other affixes are derivational. The eight inflectional affixes are listed below, along with the type of root that each attaches to and a representative example.

• {PLU} = plural Noun e.g. boys
• {POSS} = possesive Noun e.g. boy's
• {COMP} = comparative Adjective e.g. older
• {SUP} = superlative Adjective e.g. oldest
• {PRES} = present Verb walks
• {PAST} = past Verb walked
• {PAST PART} = past participle Verb driven
• {PRES PART} = present participle Verb driving

Derivational Affixes: Unlike the inflectional affixes, which number only eight in English, the set of derivational affixes is open-ended; that is, there are a potentially infinite number of them (although the number is finite at any one time for a particular speaker). A few representative examples: The suffix {ize} attaches to a noun and turns it into the corresponding verb, as in criticize, rubberize, vulcanize, pasteurize, mesmerize, and so on. The suffix {ly} attaches to an adjective and turns it into the corresponding adverb, as in quickly, carefully, swiftly, mightily, and so on. Note that there is another separate derivational affix, also spelled -ly, which attaches to a noun and changes it into the corresponding adjective, as in friendly, manly, neighborly, and so on.

Word-Formation Processes:

Another area of interest to linguists is the formation of new words in a language. The following are common word-formation processes.

• Derivation. This involves the addition of a derivational affix, changing the syntactic category of the item to which it is attached (e.g., orient(V)-> orientation(N)).
• Category Extension. This involves the extension of a morpheme from one syntactic category to another (e.g., chair(N)-> chair(V)).
• Compound. This involves creating a new word by combining two free morphemes (e.g., put-down).
• Root Creation. A root creation is a brand new word based on no pre-existing morphemes (e.g., Kodak).
• Clipped Form. A clipped form is a shortened form of a pre-existing morpheme (e.g., bra < brassiere).
• Blend. A blend is a combination of parts of two pre-existing forms (e.g., smog < smoke + fog).
• Acronym. An acronym is a word formed from the first letter(s) of each word in a phrase (e.g., NASA < National Aeronautics and Space Administration).
• Abbreviation. An abbreviation is a word formed from the names of the first letters of the prominent syllables of a word (e.g., TV < Television) or of words in a phrase (e.g., FBI < Federal Bureau of Investigation).
• Proper Name. This process forms a word from a proper name (e.g., hamburger < Hamburg).
• Folk Etymology. This process forms a word by substituting a common native form for an exotic (often foreign) form with a similar pronunciation (e.g., cockroach < Spanish cucuracha 'wood louse').
• Back Formation. A back formation is a word formed by removing what is mistaken for an affix (e.g., edit < editor, peddle < peddler).

Summary:

Central to this theory of morphology is the concept of morpheme, as well as the distinctions between lexical and grammatical morphemes, bound and free morphemes, and inflectional and derivational morphemes. Within inflectional morphology, regularities within the English auxiliary verb system allow us to predict which inflected forms will follow which auxiliary verbs. Finally, word-formation processes provide an account o how new words are introduced into the lexicon.

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WHEW! How's that for a slice of fried gold? And that is just a taste my friends. My brain kind of hurts now. Or maybe I'm just tired. I started this whole study session drinking Green tea, then in the last half hour switched to herbal sleepy-time tea. So it is probably that which is causing my head to feel a little drowsy. That and its midnight. And I have to be up at 6:30am for work. AGAIN. I need to take a nap or something tomorrow. Cause I certainly ain't gettin' a proper amount of sleep tonight. Such is student life, and the sacrifices we make for the pursuit of knowledge.

Lets just hope I retain some of this for the quiz tomorrow.

-Moniker Vise
"Planting seeds of revolution"

Click the link above for internet guru John Chow's free e-book! I am using this as a starting point to learn about blogging and affiliate marketing!

Sourcework

Chapter 1: Building a Paper - Explore 

Chapter 2: Building a Paper - Focus 

Chapter 3: Building a Paper - Organize 

Chapter 4: Building a Paper - Create 

Chapter 5: Building a Paper - Refine 

Chapter 6: Building a Paper - Independent Research 

Theme 1: Heroes - The People Who Inspire Us 

Theme 2: Globalization -- Changes That Draw Us Together 

Theme 3: Nonviolent Social Change - Working for a Better World 

Theme 4: Bioethics - When Science and Human Values Collide

Additional Topics: 

Birth Order, Home Schooling, Expectations of Marriage, Standardized Testing, Taking Risks

Although any of these is a good topic to write about, you can begin to explore other topics that you may want to use for your second paper later in the semester. Choose something you are interested in. Choose something that has been on your mind. Choose something that has happened recently. If you cannot decide, I suggest you write about the recent financial crisis in the United States, or the election there. A more local or national (Japanese) topic may be good, as well. 

First, you would need to find a source to read. You might try Google News (in English), New Scientist, Yahoo News, The Daily Yomiuri, The Japan Times, or the Asahi News, VOA news in simple ("Special") English or somewhere else. When you write your "reaction" writing, you can create a link to the original source, and even quote from it.

So we get there I look at the book and deem it is sufficient.  We are standing in a dimly lit parking structure's basement.  Also I refuse to take off my sunglasses. I count out the twenties to reach 100, then reach for my pocket for two loose 5's, then grab another 20.  "There's 130."  Her eyes had followed the waves of the bills the entire time, like two beetles crawling side by side on a single path.  "130" she says.

Business is done, I feel clever and she feels like she had a poker windfall.

Haiku:

Textbook Underworld,
Shrewd girl, highlighting too much,
You wrote in the book!

How have your shaped your course around a major focus that adds not only interest but a strong vehicle for the course's standards?

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said Wednesday college students to help themselves and encourage class instructors to become more aware of the cost of the course's required textbooks until a new federal law is implemented.

Durbin, Illinois' senior Democratic Senator and assistant senate minority leader, said he authored a bill requiring textbook publishers to alert professors of the price they will recommend to retail outlets, and to unbundle materials that come with the book.

"We want full disclosure to the students about what the textbooks will cost for each course," he said. "The faculty members are not paying attention in many instances. It's up to students to remind them that their decisions come right out of the pockets of students and their families."

The bill further instructs publishers to provide the ISBN code number — a unique 10 or 13-digit number assigned to a book. Durbin said this would allow students to become better shoppers "in the world of Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com."

But the bill is not scheduled to go into action until fall 2010. In the meantime, Durbin suggested students to help themselves out by alerting their instructors to the bill's existence. As a result, professors may become more aware of the affect textbook prices have on student budgets, he said.

If the bill sounds familiar, it may be because state Rep Naomi Jakobsson, an Urbana Democrat, proposed similar legislation into the Illinois House on Feb. 11 this year — about the same time Durbin's bill moved out of the Senate and into Congress, which sent the measure to President Bush in August. Durbin said many representatives, like Jakobsson, have introduced similar textbook requirements into their state legislatures, which could be implemented at an earlier date.

"There's may be better," he said.

Jakobsson did not return a phone message left at her office Wednesday.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Collector's Edition

In December 2007, J.K. Rowling unveiled The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a very special book of five fairy tales illustrated by the bard herself, embellished with silver ornaments and mounted moonstones. Amazon was fortunate to come into possession of one of the original copies, and it was our privilege to share images and reviews of this incredible artifact. Now J.K. Rowling is giving millions of Harry Potter fans worldwide cause for celebration with a new edition of The Tales of Beedle the Bard (available December 4, 2008) and Amazon is thrilled to exclusively offer a luxuriously packaged Collector's Edition designed to evoke the spirit of the handcrafted original.

Tucked in its own case disguised as a wizarding textbook found in the Hogwarts library, the Collector's Edition includes an exclusive reproduction of J.K. Rowling's handwritten introduction, as well as 10 additional illustrations not found in the Standard Edition or the original. Opening the case reveals a velvet bag embroidered with J.K. Rowling’s signature, in which sits the piece de resistance: your very own copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, complete with metal skull, corners, and clasp; replica gemstones; and emerald ribbon. As a special gift for fans, the Collector's edition also includes a set of 10 ready-for-framing prints of J.K. Rowling's illustrations, enclosed in a velvet-lined pocket in the lid of the outer case.

Offering the trademark wit and imagination familiar to Rowling's legions of readers--as well as Aesop's wisdom and the occasional darkness of the Brothers Grimm--each of these five tales reveals a lesson befitting children and parents alike: the strength gained with a trusted friendship, the redemptive power of love, and the true magic that exists in the hearts of all of us. Rowling's new introduction also comments on the personal lessons she has taken from the Tales, noting that the characters in Beedle's collection "take their fates into their own hands, rather than taking a prolonged nap or waiting for someone to return a lost shoe," and "that magic causes as much trouble as it cures."

But the true jewel of this new edition is the enlightening and comprehensive commentary (including extensive footnotes!) by Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, who brings his unique wizard's-eye perspective to the collection. Discovered "among the many papers which Dumbledore left in his will to the Hogwarts Archives," the venerable wizard's ruminations on the Tales allow today's readers to place them in the context of 16th century Muggle society, even allowing that "Beedle was somewhat out of step with his times in preaching a message of brotherly love for Muggles" during the era of witch hunts that would eventually drive the wizarding community into self-imposed exile. In fact, versions of the same stories told in wizarding households would shock many for their uncharitable treatment of their Muggle characters.

Professor Dumbledore also includes fascinating historical backstory, including tidbits such as the history and pursuit of magic wands, a brief comment on the Dark Arts and its practitioners, and the struggles with censorship that eventually led "a certain Beatrix Bloxam" to cleanse the Tales of "much of the darker themes that she found distasteful," forever altering the meaning of the stories for their Muggle audience. Dumbledore also allows us a glimpse of his personal relationship to the Tales, remarking that it was through "Babbity Rabbity and Her Cackling Stump" that "many of us [wizards] first discovered that magic could not bring back the dead."

Both a wise and delightful addition to the Harry Potter canon, this new translation of The Tales of Beedle the Bard is all that fans could hope for and more--and an essential volume for the libraries of Muggles, wizards, and witches, both young and old.

Idag har jag varit så pass uttråkad att jag fick för mig att analysera de 25 mest spelade spåren i iTunes. Jag kunde konstatera att Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars" var en klar vinnare på 189 spelningar följt av We Are Scientists' "Can't Lose" på 147. Inte nog med att jag spanade in spellistan, jag räknade dessutom ut att jag måste ha lyssnat på låt nummer 1 under sammanlagt 14h drygt. Oroväckande? (Jag är nog mest orolig över att jag lagt ner tid på att räkna ut speltiden) Så nu får det vara nog med den! Promotar plats 25 istället "Textbook" med We Are Scientists (81 spelningar).

This morning we turn our attention to the Lord’s Supper, this being the day on which we come together as a church to actually celebrate the Lord’s Supper together.

I do not know what your experience of past Lord’s Supper’s has been, but I do know what mine have been like, and I have been far from satisfied with what has been practiced on most occasions.

Often times the Supper is tacked onto the end of a service, as though it were a necessary evil that we have to go through in order to do things right. Generally speaking it seems to be celebrated as an empty ritual, with many people just going through the motions, even relieved when it is over.

As a reforming church, it is important for us to consider the Lord’s Supper and to see whether our approach to it is in need of a change. Are we measuring up to the Biblical Lord’s Supper, or are we pursuing something that is merely a traditional way of doing things?

John Calvin in his commentary on this portion of Scripture says,

‘This passage ought to be carefully studied, for it shows that the only remedy for removing and correcting corruptions is to get back to the unadulterated institution of God.’

And this is our aim here in this place, to reform after the pattern of scripture, and so over the course of this year we will devote ourselves to this passage which is so full of instruction concerning the Lord’s Supper. May the Lord be our Teacher, and His Word our textbook.

1. The Importance of Proper Form

When we come together for the Lord’s Supper are our meetings doing more harm than good? This is a question that we need to ask ourselves in all seriousness. This is something which was actually the case with the Corinthian church, ‘Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse. (11:17).’

What a terrible indictment for a church! We need to be sure that this is not the case with us, so we need to examine this passage this morning to see what it has to tell us as regards the way we ought to observe this Supper.

The first thing that strikes the reader of this passage is the importance of proper form. Today we find ourselves in a religious climate in which the form of the Lord’s Supper can be anything, as long as the name is kept on it. It is as though it doesn’t matter what is done as long as it has a Scriptural tag, then its going to be OK.

The Supper has become an institution open to all manner of abuses, and the one which sticks out from all the rest is of course the Roman Catholic Mass, and all its idolatrous and ungodly rite.

But even the more subtle corruptions need to be addressed, for all such separations from the God-given form are sin, and a deviation from the form given by the Lord Jesus Christ.

And what about what was going on in Corinth, for ‘For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep (11:30).’ Do you see the importance in getting this right? People were getting sick, and even being killed as punishment for their abuse of the Lord’s Supper. so you see, this is no light matter, it needs to be taken seriously.

Is there then a proper form to follow, a blueprint that we must carefully observe and stick to? The answer is yes there is, ‘For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you (11:23).’

Continued at: http://particularbaptist.com/sermons/sermonscor1.html

There are several country specific sites currently available such as SearchMedica UK, France, Spain and the US - with more sites coming soon.

The search function is easy to use with a single search bar provided to perform standard keyword search across all medical fields or refined search by specialty interest (such as oncology, cardiology, endocrinology, infectious disease, musculoskeletal and paediatric medicine). Search results can be further refined by

• Research/Reviews: Articles from peer-reviewed journals, mostly original research and reviews
• Evidence-based Articles: Randomized controlled trials, meta-analyses, and systematic reviews
• Practice Guidelines: Issued by medical specialty societies and governmental agencies, plus reports from consensus development conferences
• Practical Articles/News: General information and guidance on clinical topics
• Patient Education: Brochures and handouts for patients
• Clinical Trials for Patients: Mainly US based from government database
• CME: Continuing medical education courses available online
• Complementary Medicine

I found the search results to clinical questions to be accurate and the content to be from clinically reputable sources and contain medically-relevant information. The option to further 'broaden or narrow' my search or review 'related concepts' are also great additional features.

The order of result return is different to standard search engines with results ranked by 'relevance' and optionally by 'publication date' and not by 'popularity'. The algorithmic determination of 'relevance' in returning a search result is always fraught with danger as the most 'clinically relevant' paper/article to a search query may not be the most recently published, or the most popular and so it is always a fine balance to determine the best way to display the results. However, in the few examples tried so far I managed to find the most appropriate clinical information returned within the first page of results on most occasions.

Benefits of this medical search engine

• Easy to use
• Clinically accurate search results
• Multiple, simple search refinement options
• Result page clearly demonstrates whether the returned result is 'freely available' - (in pdf form); or 'secure' (- on a site which requires registration to view)
• Useful and functional 'pre-determined' search list

More information from SearchMedica can be found in their about us page and also in this great interview on AltSearchEngines.com

HA NOI — As many as 110,000 copies of updates and corrections to Vietnamese school textbooks had been printed and would be sent to schools across the country soon, Nguyen Minh Khang, Deputy Director of the Education Publishing House (EPH) announced on Thursday.

The copies, printed under a directive of the Education Department, were provided free to schools, he said, adding that they would also be posted on the Ministry of Education and Training’s website.

Printing amendments saved buying new books, said Khang.

The price of 2008-2009 school year textbooks has risen almost 10 per cent, that is why cash-strapped students are being encouraged to re-use old textbooks.

Of the 110,000 copies, 56,000 involved primary school textbooks, 34,000 junior secondary school textbooks and 21,000 senior secondary textbooks.

According to Le Quan Tan, head of the Ministry’s Department for Secondary Education, after lengthy discussions, the ministry decided to replace three previous books of corrections and updates from primary to senior secondary school level.

Primary level textbooks have received 15 amendments, according to EPH.

Junior secondary level textbooks have received 47 corrections – ten at 6th grade, 10 at 7th grade, 16 at 8th grade and 11 at 9th grade.

At senior secondary school level, 10th grade textbooks received 35 corrections and 11th grade 32.

Tan said the ministry hadn’t corrected the 12th-grade textbooks because they had only recently been issued.

Over the next three school years (2008-2010), the ministry will gather public opinion on school textbooks and then submit to consultants for consideration.

In the years to come, the ministry plans to enclose textbook amendments with old book versions to save money, according to Tan. —