Two Understandings of Death: On the Dormition of the Theotokos

Two Understandings of Death: On the Dormition of the Theotokos: we will notice a profound contradiction between two understandings of death. Blessed repose, dormition, falling asleep – the word “death” is not used in reference to the Theotokos. Incidentally, another word used in ecclesiastical parlance is derived from here: “reposed” – not died or perished, but reposed. We see that there is a different understanding of death. On the one hand, there is the understanding connected with the triumph of the Mother of God; on the other, there is our ordinary understanding of death as a tragic end, as the termination of all things. One feels animal fear, the fear of death, before this tragic end. How greatly this fear of death contradicts the basic value judgments of modern society, a society of consumerism and prosperity! But this very society, imbued with false values, recognizes the impossibility of joining its ideals – those of unlimited consumption and pleasure – with the fact of death.

Our 'Enemies' in Ukraine Speak

Our 'Enemies' in Ukraine Speak: America’s ‘news’ media do not let the victims of Ukraine’s civil war — the people who are dying and being driven out from the southeastern regions of that country by the new Ukrainian Government — speak, and tell their story. Scenes will therefore be posted below from an admittedly overlong amateur video from southeastern Ukraine, in which they have been allowed to tell their story. This is being done here since U.S. ‘news’ media apparently don’t consider it something that you would want to know, and since you should be allowed to judge for yourself whether it is or not, and to judge why it’s not being reported on the ‘news’ sources that our ‘democracy’ offers to ‘inform’ America’s public about public affairs.

The 55 Essential Movies Your Child Must See (Before Turning 13) | PopWatch | EW.com

The 55 Essential Movies Your Child Must See (Before Turning 13) | PopWatch | EW.com: This isn’t a list of the 55 “best” kids movies, nor a compendium of hidden gems. Rather, it’s a survival-guide syllabus of films that we all need to know to be able to speak the same pop-cultural language, listed in order by when they might be best introduced. It starts with a film that is a perfect introduction to the cinematic universe and ends with one that is an ideal capper before graduating into the world of PG-13 and R movies—and the age when kids begin to make their own theater decisions.

The fabulous Alcock boys and how they took South Africa by storm | World news | The Observer

The fabulous Alcock boys and how they took South Africa by storm | World news | The Observer: They grew up in a mud hut, two blond kids regarded by their tribal peers as Zulus. So when the new dawn broke over South Africa, the Alcock brothers took the rainbow nation by storm - Khonya brokering land deals for 200,000 tribesmen, entrepreneur GG bringing the party spirit back to Soweto.

We scam the Indian call centre scammers | TechCentral

We scam the Indian call centre scammers | TechCentral: Regard-van-der-Berg-180At TechCentral, we get called on average at least once a week — sometimes far more often — by a friendly sounding Indian national warning us that our Windows computer is infected with a virus. The call, which originates from a call centre, follows exactly the same script every time. Usually we shrug them off and put the phone down, but this week we thought we’d humour them to find out how they operate.

When survival and accountability collide: Ramaphosa and Jordan's moments of reckoning | Daily Maverick

When survival and accountability collide: Ramaphosa and Jordan's moments of reckoning | Daily Maverick: Just days after a national newspaper exposed his academic qualifications as a lie, Pallo Jordan apologised to the ANC and to South Africa, and stepped down from his public positions. This week, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa finally appeared before the Marikana Commission of Inquiry to explain his role in events preceding the massacre of 34 mineworkers two years ago, an appearance during which 'sorry' seemed to be the hardest word for him. He still remains the most likely candidate to be the next President of South Africa. Jordan, on the other hand, is headed into the political wilderness. What does this mean for the ANC and for South Africa?

Lavrov: Ukraine ready to accept Russia’s humanitarian aid — RT News

Lavrov: Ukraine ready to accept Russia’s humanitarian aid — RT News: The Russian Foreign Ministry has received a note from the Ukrainian government expressing its readiness to accept the Russian humanitarian aid. The news came as Moscow agreed on the Ukrainian presence in the humanitarian convoy.

The arrangements for the humanitarian aid convoy have been completely agreed upon, with all of Kiev’s wishes taken into account, including the route, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters at a press conference in Sochi.

The New Cold War and the Necessity of Patriotic Heresy | The Nation

The New Cold War and the Necessity of Patriotic Heresy | The Nation: The Ukrainian civil war, precipitated by the unlawful change of government in Kiev in February, is already growing into a proxy US-Russian war. The seemingly unthinkable is becoming imaginable: an actual war between NATO, led by the United States, and post-Soviet Russia.

Certainly, we are already in a new cold war, which escalating sanctions will only deepen and institutionalize, one potentially more dangerous than its US-Soviet predecessor the world barely survived.

Stop poking the bear: A secure and prosperous Russia is in our national interest | Elizaphanian

Stop poking the bear: A secure and prosperous Russia is in our national interest | Elizaphanian: The principal driver of this crisis is the United States, seeking to expand the borders of Nato to the edge of Russia. They are seeking to humiliate Russia. This is not a strategy of statecraft but of small boys in a playground.

Elizaphanian | Trying to be a man who pleases God – If the Church of England were to fail, it should be found in my parish." (Keble)

Elizaphanian | Trying to be a man who pleases God – If the Church of England were to fail, it should be found in my parish." (Keble): The principal driver of this crisis is the United States, seeking to expand the borders of Nato to the edge of Russia. They are seeking to humiliate Russia. This is not a strategy of statecraft but of small boys in a playground.

Google and the right to be forgotten | Technology | Technology | Mail & Guardian

Google and the right to be forgotten | Technology | Technology | Mail & Guardian: On May 13, the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ), the highest court in the EU, ruled in favour of Costeja González and against Google. González asked the search engine giant to remove some unflattering links from the results that appeared when anyone searched for his name. Google refused, and so he took the company to court.

We can all sympathise with González. When his home was repossessed in 1998, a notice appeared in a local paper and on its website. Most people would want to forget such an unpleasant and embarrassing event as soon as possible. But Google’s results continued to remind the world of the repossession more than a decade later.

With its ruling, the ECJ effectively created a new legal right – the right to be forgotten. Since the ruling, tens of thousands of requests for removals have been pouring into the system that Google built for their handling. But the current solution is both deeply problematic and impractical.

Fragmentation of News and Causes � CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

Fragmentation of News and Causes � CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names: In the shadow of neocolonialism, criminal elements within NGOs, religious and otherwise, converge like so many hyenas on the unfortunate victims of the typhoon, for purposes of human trafficking. As in Haiti, soon the women and baby snatchers will be replaced by the likes of Bill Clinton, who will promise investments and reconstruction so long as the country’s assets are liquidated in a fire sale to corporations. More than three and a half years after its earthquake, Haiti is not reconstructed, but rather more demolished than ever before, and it is firmly under the boots of disaster capitalists.

The end of the hipster: how flat caps and beards stopped being so cool

The end of the hipster: how flat caps and beards stopped being so cool | Fashion | The Observer: At some point in the last few years, the hipster changed. Or at least its definition did. What was once an umbrella term for a counter-culture tribe of young creative types in (mostly) New York's Williamsburg and London's Hackney morphed into a pejorative term for people who looked, lived and acted a certain way. The Urban Dictionary defines hipsters as "a subculture of men and women, typically in their 20s and 30s, that value independent thinking, counter-culture, progressive politics". In reality, the word is now tantamount to an insult.

Genea-Musings: FindMyPast Acquires Mocavo, Mocavo Provides Free U.S./ Census Indexes

Genea-Musings: FindMyPast Acquires Mocavo, Mocavo Provides Free U.S./ Census Indexes: The Mocavo Genealogy blog post by Mocavo founder Cliff Shaw is at http://blog.mocavo.com/2014/06/new-chapter. The post highlights the announcement, plus provides a link to the U.S. census record indexes that are FREE (and Cliff says they always will be).

The link to search all of the census records is http://www.mocavo.com/1790-1940-United-States-Census/126199, and you can select a specific census from that page.

Genea-Musings: FindMyPast Acquires Mocavo, Mocavo Provides Free U.S./ Census Indexes

Genea-Musings: FindMyPast Acquires Mocavo, Mocavo Provides Free U.S./ Census Indexes: The link to search all of the census records is http://www.mocavo.com/1790-1940-United-States-Census/126199, and you can select a specific census from that page.

Zambia & Rhodesia Genealogy help: Christians of the Copperbelt

Zambia & Rhodesia Genealogy help: Christians of the Copperbelt: Here is a surprising find -- a recent book on the internet archive, in full: Christians of the Copperbelt. For the purposes of this blog, the bonus is that the book has an index including a list of names of people who were influential in the early church on the Copperbelt of Northern Rhodesia.

This account by John V. Taylor and Dorothea A. Lehmann was published in 1961 as part of the World Mission Study series. The book is based on an eight and a half month study undertaken in 1958 and particularly at Nchanga Mine in Chingola and in the township of Kansuswa near Mufulira. Although mainly about the Copperbelt, the authors also worked in rural areas elsewhere in the country, including Northern and Luapula Provinces. The authors say that the time they allowed for their work was too little and that suspicion of political motive hampered their success in interviewing local people. Nevertheless, there will be much of interest here to anyone with missionary roots, to help understand the story of the growth of the Christian church in Zambia, particularly at the time of the transition to independence, and to help understand the impacts of urbanisation. Also of interest is the study of Alice Lenshina's Lumpa Church before its bloody clash with UNIP just before independence in 1964.

Ayn Rand-loving CEO destroys his empire - Salon.com

Ayn Rand-loving CEO destroys his empire - Salon.com: The invisible hand waves bye-bye to Eddie Lampert, whose business plan has run Sears into the ground

Flannery O'Connor: Friends Don't Let Friends Read Ayn Rand (1960) - | Open Culture

Flannery O'Connor: Friends Don't Let Friends Read Ayn Rand (1960) - | Open Culture: I hope you don’t have friends who recommend Ayn Rand to you. The fiction of Ayn Rand is as low as you can get re fiction. I hope you picked it up off the floor of the subway and threw it in the nearest garbage pail. She makes Mickey Spillane look like Dostoevsky.

Cherie's Place -- Avebury

Cherie's Place -- Avebury: Avebury is a fascinating site that connects to other prominent features in the ancient landscape. What remains of the Avebury Circles is largely reconstructed. In the 1930s Alexander Keiller having purchased the site of Avebury and part of West Kennet Avenue started to excavate the site and in time restore the site to some of its former glory. Where stones had been removed he placed concrete plinths to mark their former position. The outbreak of WWII put a stop to the excavations and restoration. Sadly the excavations have never been resumed.

Facebook email switch continues causing problems - latimes.com

Facebook email switch continues causing problems - latimes.com: After causing a raucous week by changing users' listed email addresses to ones ending in @facebook.com, Facebook's switch is causing yet another embarrassment for the company and problem for many users.

The email switch has gone beyond the walls of Facebook, according to various users, who are saying that the change is affecting the emails listed in their contact books.

Across the Web, people are saying the emails listed for many of their contacts in their address books have been replaced by @facebook.com emails.