Pope Leo X - Giovanni de'Medici, 1475 - 1513 - 1521: Giovanni de'Medici, second son of Lorenzo and younger brother of the fatuous Piero, became the first of the Medici Popes (Leo X - Leone Decimo) at the age of 38 on 11 March 1513. Prior to this his life had been a complete roller coaster. Brought up in Medici luxury alongside Michelangelo (who was included in the Medici household by Lorenzo), older brother Piero and cousin Giulio (who was adopted by Lorenzo after his father (who was Lorenzo's brother) was killed in the Pazzi Conspiracy in 1478), he had access to the incomes of several wealthy monasteries, including Badia a Passignano, and was made a Cardinal at the age of 13. All this came to an abrupt end in 1494 when, in the wake of Lorenzo's death, the incompetent surrender of his brother Piero the Fatuous to the French, and the ensuing Savanorola stirred turbulence, he had to sneak out of Florence dressed as a Franciscan Friar, and then live in hiding with his cousin for the next decade, latterly being protected by the Habsburg Emperor Maximilian (who ironically was to be a major cause of the collapse of the Bruges branch of the Medici Bank) and then by the dreadful Cesare Borgia and his father Pope Alessandro VI (1431 - 1492 - 1503 (72)) in Rome. ... Pope Clement VII Giulio de'Medici, 1478 - 1523 - 1534 (56) Illegitimate son of Lorenzo's (Pazzi murdered) brother Giuliano, adopted son of Lorenzo, and companion in exile to Lorenzo's son Giovanni (Leo X), who was three years his senior, Giulio de'Medici became Pope Clement VII (Clemente Settimo). He was good looking, intellectually sophisticated, a talented musician and a political disaster. In reality he also faced the legacy of the corrupt practices of his cousin Leo X, and the impossible task of operating in the emergent nation state Europe dominated by Charles V, Francis I, and Henry VIII (whom he excommunicated), and threatened by Suleiman the Magnificent, plus Martin Luther dealing the protestants into the game as well - see Insight Page. He lost England, and was humiliated by having to flee in disguise from Rome when it was barbarically sacked by Charles V's rabble army after Clement mistakenly got too close to flashy Francis I of France.

Spendthrift [primarily on things not directly benefiting or advancing the Christian message and Gospel of Jesus Christ]: Leo's lively interest in art and literature, to say nothing of his natural liberality, his alleged nepotism, his political ambitions and necessities, and his immoderate personal luxury, exhausted within two years the hard savings of [Pope] Julius II, and precipitated a financial crisis from which he never emerged and which was a direct cause of most of what, from a papal point of view, were calamities of his pontificate. -- He sold cardinals' hats. He sold membership in the "Knights of Peter". He borrowed large sums from bankers, curials, princes and Jews. The Venetian ambassador Gradenigo estimated the paying number of offices on Leo's death at 2,150, with a capital value of nearly 3,000,000 ducats (about 132 million dollars in 2010 dollars) and a yearly income of 328,000 ducats ($14,432,000.00). -- The ordinary income of the pope for the year 1517 had been reckoned at about 580,000 ducats ($2,552,000.00) [around $44 each ducat coin in 2010 dollars], of which 420,000 came from the States of the Church, 100,000 from annates, and 60,000 from the composition tax instituted by Sixtus IV. These sums, together with the *considerable amounts accruing from indulgences, jubilees, and special fees, *vanished as quickly as they were received. Then the pope resorted to pawning palace furniture, table plate, jewels, even statues of the apostles. Several banking firms and many individual creditors were ruined by the death of Leo.

In Rick Warren To Be Featured At Desiring God 2010 - I was among the few who broke the story that Dr. Piper had made the ill-advised decision to invite Leadership Network's propped-up Purpose Driven Pope Rick Warren to DG 2010 as a keynote speaker. Then, as I shared in Rick Warren Doctrinal And Sound?, unfortunately it got even worse when Dr. Piper decided to defend his decision: At root I think [Rick Warren] is theological and doctrinal and sound. ... So whether one even knows it or not, Warrengate still is slowly simmering; Dr. Piper's choice here has had the rippling effect of people, even outside of any discernment ministries, beginning to look a little closer at his theology, educational background, and associations; e.g. his charismatic bent, his connection to Fuller Theological Seminary, and with the late Ralph Winter. I had received a tip from a source back in June of this past year; and as I followed up on it, it would eventually lead me to discover some disturbing information which I orginally began sharing in Questions Concerning Dr. John Piper and Dr. John Piper And Unanswered Questions. When I wrote those initial articles Dr. Piper was on his much talked about sabbatical; now however, he is back and a few of the mystic books I pointed in the latter piece are no longer in the BBC online library. ... What I just showed you here should give us real concern as the obstensibly Reformed, "happy," and "romantic," Calvinist Dr. John Piper is sounding less like a charismatic and more like a mystic as he points us to apostate teachers of Roman Catholicism and its spiritually bankrupt mysticism; and from what we can see, this has been going on for quite some time now. Perhaps, now that his discernment is so far off he's even promoting the double-minded Rick Warren, the time has finally arrived for some of his DG speakers to take a closer look at what's going on in this neo-Reformed camp.

Two University of Dayton students created a digital exhibit about notable 20th century Assyrian women this summer for the Syriac Heritage Museum in Iraq.

Conext Engages with Aviation Institute of Maintenance, Centura College, and Tidewater Tech Family of Schools for Improved Processes for Students, Faculty, and Administration

University Games coincides its availability of the new Godzilla 3D Crystal Puzzle with the highly anticipated Apple TV+ live-action monster series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, starring Kurt Russell, streaming November 17th.

The Princess of Wales will host her Christmas carol concert this year, reflecting on "how much we need each other, especially in the most difficult times of our lives".

By now, you have probably heard of 23andMe, the biotech juggernaut that is revolutionized the DNA-testing industry. Though the company has its fair share of critics, one thing is for sure: 23andMe has experienced tremendous growth, claiming more than 10 million worldwide customers as of this writing.  A lesser-known fact is how much its employees love working there. In fact, it was named among Glassdoors Best Places to Work for 2019.

complete article

One of the primary appeals of the contemporary small business, in my opinion, is the family-centric culture that comes from a close-knit team. While in modern America, many may feel swallowed by corporations, the notoriety of the small business proves that people still find value in the intimate workplace.

Every industry across the globe has felt the staggering impacts of Covid-19, but small businesses were put under specific strain. Based on what I've seen, however, they have proved their undeniable resilience.

As a proud member of a small business myself, I have felt the social deprivation of working from home firsthand. Similar to my own experience, members of thousands of other small businesses who have worked alongside each other for lifetimes have had to adjust to maintaining an office culture from the comfort (or discomfort) of their home. While online interactions can never compare to the in-person experience, many small businesses, like my own, found that being apart actually meant working closer together than ever before.

(EMAILWIRE.COM, November 03, 2024 ) Aliphatic Amines Market are substances created through displacement reaction within an ammonia molecule. Monovalent hydrocarbon radicals replaced the hydrogen atoms in ammonia in Aliphatic Amines. The analysis in the report examines how the COVID-19 pandemic...

(EMAILWIRE.COM, November 04, 2024 ) The Global Agricultural Tractors Market is growing, fueled by a demand for precision farming and advanced agricultural machinery. Modern tractors equipped with GPS, AI, and automation technology are transforming farm efficiency, reducing labor, and increasing yield....

(EMAILWIRE.COM, November 11, 2024 ) The agriculture drones market is estimated at USD 2.00 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach USD 8.03 billion by 2029, at a CAGR of 32.0% from 2024 to 2029. The global agriculture drone market is growing substantially due to rapid technological advancements...

Prime Irrigation Ltd – Agricultural & Turf Irrigation Services. Prime Irrigation Ltd first began working in irrigation in 1958 and have over 60 years of experience in the design, installation and service of installation systems. The Prime family have been working in East Anglia for over a century. In 1919, Frederick Prime first began working ...

The European Union on Tuesday took the debate about genetically modified crops to the public with a survey asking citizens to share their thoughts on organic farming, reports Phys.org in a recent article titled EU asks citizens to join debate on GM food Image credit: americanoverkill.com The article continues ... The bloc's 500 million consumers are invited to complete an anonymous online questionnaire on the European Commission's Agriculture and Rural Development website (ec.europa.eu/agriculture/consultations/organic/2013_en.htm). The consultation, which ends on April 10, is part of a review of European policy on organic agriculture. The survey is available in all official EU languages. English is the one linked here, but other languages are available from a drop-down menu at the top of the page. The Phys.org article, putting emphasis on the GM angle, goes on to say......

At the conjunction of this critique of reductionism in physics and this interview with Benoit Mandelbrot I think one sees the same basic dynamic at work: a devaluation of simplicity and generalization in math and science, what I suppose Mandelbrot might call “smoothness,” and a preference for the complex and the multifarious. To some extent this seems to cut against the basic scientific impulse to simplify, to generalize, which is what a law or an equation generally does. In Laughlin I think there is even a certain disillusionment with realism perhaps not totally dissimilar from that in the analysis of language by dear friend Wittgenstein. Although, by encouraging investigation of the specifics and intricacies of phenomena which seem to be superficially covered by the most general and basic laws and to give up idle speculation about the far nether regions of the universe in space and time which cannot in any way be corroborated, he seems to be trying to bring physics back into the solid world of relative certainties and reasonable evidence, it seems to me that this is a tacit admission that the theories which seem to cover and explain adequately all phenomena except for those extreme edges are in actuality insufficient to represent the richness of even the most mundane levels of reality.

Just as in the case of the over-heated discoveries of Wittgeinstein and Cambridge group, this sudden realization that the broad and universal physical laws established and the abstract shapes used to represent them don’t really reflect the full multiplicity of reality seems a little phony to me. I mean, isn’t that the entire point? Isn’t that abstractness and simplicity supposed to yoke all of that complexity within a reasonable level of comprehensibility sufficient to possibly predict other phenomena, or at least relate them to what we have already seen? Now maybe we see a revision in the valuation of these ideals, and in both Laughlin and Mandelbrot a movement away from final solutions, formulations and summations. Seemingly nothing out-of-the-ordinary about that, but if one ceases to regard oneself as capturing the essence of a phenomenon in an equation or image describing it, then that necessarily leads to a re-evaluation of the type of work one is doing and the standard by which it is judged. Let’s put it this way: although there are many rules which often govern both the form and content of a form (some, granted, quite idiosyncratic and individual), it would be quite ludicrous to suggest that a listing of those rules would be an adequate reflection or description of the poem, let alone itself be a poem, or equivalent to the poem.

Philosophically, I’m not troubled by this as many scientists seem to be. Despite the many declarations that Newton had discovered the very mechanism by which God controlled the universe, he himself complained famously that he felt like a dilettante on the shoreline picking up stones and shells that amused him while neglecting the vast ocean before him. This seems unnecessary if one regards theorems as essentially creations, not mirrors of nature, and hence judge the cathedral of scientific knowledge by its height above the ground rather than as an incomplete ladder to the heavens.

In Part 8 of 'Helping Others To Freedom', we learn that the demonic is an area that needs to be handled sensitively and cautiously. Yet we must also acknowledge that the demonic realm is very real and often an area of blockage to blessing in people's lives. Through this study on 'Occult, Idolatry And Freemasonry' we find out: how people can be affected by the demonic; whether or not Christians can be demonically influenced; how the enemy can get power in our lives; and how to get the freedom promised in the gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. This session is available at https://www.preachtheword.com now in MP3 audio format and in HD video on our YouTube Channel (https://youtube.com/PreachTheWord)...

El sector agrícola y ganadero de la provincia de Cuenca ha recibido un significativo respaldo económico por parte del Gobierno regional, que ha procedido al pago del anticipo de los ecorregímenes de la Política Agraria Común (PAC) 2024. El delegado provincial de Agricultura, Ganadería y Desarrollo Rural, Rodrigo Fernández Alcalde, ha anunciado que se han […]

Artículo publicado en : El Gobierno Regional Paga 22,5 Millones de Euros a Agricultores Conquenses por Ayudas de la PAC

Les personnes de tous horizons engag�es en faveur de l'amiti� sino-br�silienne au Br�sil se r�jouissent de la visite du pr�sident Xi Jinping dans le pays et restent pr�tes � contribuer davantage � l'approfondissement de l'amiti� entre le Br�sil et...

Une porte-parole de la partie continentale de la Chine a condamn� mercredi les politiciens du Parti d�mocrate progressiste (PDP) dans la r�gion de Taiwan, qui tentent de faire obstacle aux �changes normaux entre les deux rives du d�troit de Taiwan...

Land values in the Fens have rocketed in the past year.

A new look for ClearlyCultural.com! We will again be providing you with the latest news on cross cultural communication, as well as categorizing useful tools, resources and other information that will help you understand intercultural differences and how to apply that knowledge in informal and business settings.

A new cross cultural tool has been released allowing you to consult the Geert Hofstede 5-dimensional cultural model on the Iphone. From the CultureGPS website: “CultureGPS is a tool for the iPhone and iPod Touch that enables you to analyze behavior differences in intercultural encounters and to predict to a certain degree, which interactions evolve …

Continue reading "Iphone app Geert Hofstede’s 5 cultural dimensions"

A very interesting post on how cross cultural differences between makers of airplanes Boeing and Airbus (located in small power distance countries) and pilots from South Korea (large power distance country) caused series of dangerous situations and accidents in the late 90’s. Planes produced by Airbus and Boeing are supposed to be flown by 2 …

Continue reading "How cross cultural differences caused Korean Airlines problems"

Farmscape for October 31, 2024

Saskatchewan Agriculture reports the province's farmers are disappointed with this year's crops but relieved that things weren't worse.
Saskatchewan Agriculture released its final crop report of the season yesterday.
Tyce Masich, a Crops Extension Specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture, says producers were able to get their crops off well before the heavy frosts set in.

Quote-Tyce Masich-Saskatchewan Agriculture:
Starting in May when producers were seeing it was very cool and wet so there were some seeding delays and also the early season cool temperatures specifically delayed crop development in the first two months of the growing season, which wasn't great for crops but the moisture did allow them to be well established for the lack of moisture in July and August that we saw.
In July and August there were hot and dry conditions throughout most of Saskatchewan which really hurt the early season yield potential that producers were expecting.
Early season, with all of the moisture that we had, there were more reports of early season root rot in crops which hurt crop establishment early in the season and then, as the season progressed and things got warmer and drier, that's when the grasshoppers really came out and started to feed on crops.
I know in the west and southwest producers were spraying for grasshoppers specifically and in areas of the province that would have gotten rainfall in the beginning July when canola was full canopy there were a lot of producers spraying for sclerotinia stem rot and there were some reports of sclerotinia stem rot in Saskatchewan but I think overall it had a pretty minimal impact on yields this year.
The biggest thing was the hot conditions in July really heat blasted a lot of canola which would have resulted in most of the yield loss for canola and other crops as well.

Masich says yields for most crops in Saskatchewan were slightly above average with the exceptions of crops like canola and mustard that were slightly below average but, given the dry years we've had the past couple of years, growers are happy with that.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is produced on behalf of North America’s pork producers

Farmscape for November 13, 2024

A professor with Dalhousie University suggests Canada will need to work with the United States under the new Donald Trump administration to ensure benefits to Canadian agriculture.
“Navigating the Maze: Agri-Food Trends and their Impact on the Pork Industry” was among the topics discussed last week in Saskatoon as part of Saskatchewan pork Industry Symposium 2024.
Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, a professor with Dalhousie University, says Canada followed the United States in terms of food inflation but Canada is now higher, the result of Canada's own food policies.

Quote-Dr. Sylvain Charlebois-Dalhousie University:
Dairy, meat are pushing food inflation higher and they're all pretty domestic.
That's why, during my talk I really focused a lot on the concept of competitiveness, because I don't think that right now that we're helping agriculture.
We're just making agriculture more expensive so farmers are struggling.
Right now, things are good for the pork industry but they're not going to remain the same so we've got to be ready for that and, with America becoming even more competitive under a Trump regime, we're going to have to follow.
I know there's a lot of rhetoric around tariffs and things like that.
I don't pay a whole lot of attention to that.
I think what's most important is the fact that we do have an American administration looking at deals, looking for deals.
Donald Trump is very transactional.
He's very predictable and so I think we need to capitalize on that as much as possible.
But I do think that the world is likely going to get more interesting as a result of what we're seeing in Washington and that's going to probably benefit Canada over time.
But we've got to be in lock step with the Americans.
We can't just be at odds with them.
We're at odds with India, with China.
The last thing we want is to be at odds with the Americans.

To access Dr. Charlebois's work google "Agri-Food Analytics Lab, Dalhousie University."
He notes all of the reports are available in both French and English at no charge.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is produced on behalf of North America’s pork producers

Clickbank carries a large range of ebooks on love, romance, charity, politics, government, language and other matters related to society and culture.

[Leadership] Junior Chamber International (JCI), Aso, has reaffirmed its commitment to fostering quality leadership among young Nigerians to drive sustainable economic growth.

[Capital FM] Nairobi Kenya -- President William Ruto will preside over the second edition of the Maasai Cultural Festival in Samburu County, an event dedicated to celebrating the traditions, customs, and lifestyle of the Maasai people.

[Nile Post] Filmmakers have contributed Shs 57,600,000 to Parliament to support the Parliamentary Forum in revising the National Culture Policy.

Influences from around the world in luxury home design

Chennai’s thriving mess culture is dominated by families that have made it their mission to serve good quality food at pocket-friendly rates for students and working professionals

Fr. Stephen speaks of the Church as a culture of remembrance—not of a dead past—but of death trampling down death.

Fr. Stephen looks at the relationship between Orthodox Christianity and culture and argues that since Orthodoxy is the fullness of the faith, it should also be productive of the fullness of what it is to be human. Healthy Orthodox nations have always had a healthy Orthodox culture.

Our unwillingness to have productive difficult conversations and deal with conflict is at the root of so many issues in our churches, ministries, and lives. This week on Stewardship Calling, Bill and his guest Dr. Mitch Owen will tackle these critical issues. Dr. Owen is the creator of the Elusive Leadership Model for high-performance teams. He is also professionally certified and administers many assessment instruments for professional development, executive coaching, management training, team effectiveness and organization development. Dr. Owen has decades of experience addressing conflict in non-profit organizations, helping them become more effective and collegial, and guiding their leaders to perform at higher levels of excellence. He and Bill explore how and why these issues arise, and we will share specific and helpful strategies and solutions to these challenges. Listen for Part 2 on May 5, 2021.

In Part 2 of their series on difficult conversations, Dr. Mitch Owen and Bill Marianes delve more deeply into some successful strategies and examples of how to have increasingly productive difficult conversations.

Fr. John Whiteford shares about the Good Samaritan and the story of his father-in-law's life in Communist China.

We have all heard the phrase “culture of death.” Many use it to describe the culture we live in, especially when it comes to current social issues. Join Michael as he talks about life and death, what we as Orthodox Christians need to do to continually bring life to a world riddled with death, and why our understanding of life and death needs to be understood in a much broader and deeper sense.

Cancel culture is a culture of hate, division, and destruction. Join Michael as he uses the Gospels and other scripture to show just how wicked this culture is; what the current culture is doing to us; why we are knowingly or unknowingly participating in it; and what we should do to combat it.

Join Michael in a discussion about prayerful and practical ways to frame our understanding in regard to our difficulties and setbacks, and deal with them in a spiritually healthy way.

Join Michael in a discussion of the difficulty of getting out of our own heads, the cultural and spiritual challenges that perpetuate this, and leaning to live our faith through our hearts and not just our minds.

Are there uniform criteria for Orthodox Christian cultural choices? The answer may not be the same for everyone.

Fr. Andrew gave this talk at Cornell University on February 14, 2012.

Fr. Nicholas and Dr. Roxanne Louh have found that relationship issues are common to all of us and tonight they tackle the problem again. Great interaction on the phone with callers and in the chat room. You don't want to miss this episode.

Dn. Nicholas Kotar is the guest. He is an author and writer for the Ancient Faith Blog A Light So Lovely.

Fr. John Oliver asks difficult questions in the wake of the death of Osama Bin Laden.

Parish cultures vary. Some of this variation is wonderful, but what about toxic parish cultures? Fr. Anthony and Fr. Gregory Jensen talk about how priests can cultivate healthy cultures, warning signs that they are doing it wrong, and whether/when it is acceptable and even good for parishioners to find another parish.

In this interview, Fr. Anthony and Dn. Michael Abrahamson talk about the relationship between a healthy parish culture, worship done well (to the glory of God), and evangelism. Along the way, they talk about funerals, the organic development of local worship melodies, and the simple joy of shared service. Enjoy the show!

In this episode, Fr. Anthony talks with Subdeacon John (Robert) Cummings, the Manager of Staff Training and Development at Red Oak Recovery in Waynesville, PA, about opioid addiction, what works in recovery, and how the lessons of effective recovery can be re-learned and enculturated by our parishes. Along the way, they spar about the correct pronunciation of Appalachia (Fr. Anthony used the pronunciation of his ancestral homeland of northern Appalachia; Sdn. John that of his southern part), Enjoy the show!