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We need to be following Jesus, serving (working) where He is. 
Pretty awesome to think of how much God loves and is faithful to his followers! :)The term "Orwellian" usually refers to one or more of the following:
click on the image to make it readable...
I have just finished reading an awesome book of redemption and healing, today.
|CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts -- You are a mind reader, whether you know it or not. You can tell just by looking at a human face whether the person is concentrating, confused, interested or in agreement with you.
But people afflicted by autism lack this ability to ascertain emotional status -- it's one of the signature characteristics of the disease. Help could be on the way for autistic individuals, though: A novel computer-vision system developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology could do the mind reading for those who can't.
Two MIT researchers wore tiny cameras mounted on wire rods extending from their chests to demonstrate the Emotional Social Intelligence Prosthetic, or ESP, at the Body Sensor Networks 2006 international workshop at MIT's Media Lab last week. The video cameras captured facial expressions and head movements, then fed the information to a desktop computer that analyzed the data and gave real-time estimates of the individuals' mental states, in the form of color-coded graphs.
The system's software goes beyond tracking simple emotions like sadness and anger to estimate complex mental states like agreeing, disagreeing, thinking, confused, concentrating and interested. The goal is to put this mental state inference engine on a wearable platform and use it to augment or enhance social interactions, said Rana el Kaliouby, a postdoctoral researcher at the Media Lab.
"This is only possible now because of the progress made in affective computing, real-time machine perception and wearable technologies," she said.
The researchers are developing an outward-facing version of the ESP system with a cap-mounted camera connected to a wearable computer. People with autism spectrum disorders have a hard time determining others' emotions or even whether someone is paying attention to them. The system is designed to provide that missing information. Feedback could be visual or auditory messages describing the target person's mental state. It could also be tactile, like a vibration that cues the user to ask a question or move on to a new topic of conversation, said el Kaliouby.
Software featuring video clips or animated talking heads has been used for years to help people with autism learn to read faces. The MIT researchers want to go a step further to help people with autism learn about emotions and facial expressions in the context of their daily lives, using faces that are meaningful to them, said el Kaliouby.
The researchers are working with the Groden Center, a nonprofit educational and treatment center in Providence, Rhode Island, to organize a six-month test of the system with a group of adolescent boys with Asperger syndrome, which is similar to autism but milder.
In addition to the psychosocial prosthetic possibilities, the ESP system could help autism researchers collect data in the real world and quantify aspects of social behavior, such as how long a person with autism looks at other people's faces, said Matthew Goodwin, research coordinator at the Groden Center.
Though recent fears of an autism epidemic appear to be overblown, researchers generally hold that the disorder is becoming more prevalent, said Goodwin. The number of people with autism is difficult to pin down, but one in 500 children is a reasonable estimate, he said.
The ESP system also has potential as a personal relationship management tool, said el Kaliouby. "Suddenly you are aware of what faces you make during a conversation with your partner," she said. "Do you do enough eye contact? Are you always frowning or disagreeing?"
There is a stage in a child's life at which it cannot separate the religious from the merely festal character of Christmas or Easter. I have been told of a very small and very devout boy who was heard murmuring to himself on Easter morning a poem of his own composition which began 'Chocolate eggs and Jesus risen.' This seems to me, for his age, both admirable poetry and admirable piety. But of course the time will soon come when such a child can no longer effortlessly and spontaneously enjoy that unity. He will become able to distinguish the spiritual from the ritual and festal aspect of Easter; chocolate eggs will no longer seem sacramental. And once he has distinguished he must put one or the other first. If he puts the spiritual first he can still taste something of Easter in the chocolate eggs; if he puts the eggs first they will soon be no more than any other sweetmeat. They will have taken on an independent, and therefore a soon withering, life. - C. S. Lewis
Sometimes life seems scary (living by sight), we look and it seems too hard, but what this verse requires of us is that we live by faith. We know that God will not let us down, that he never changes and that he is always there! He will catch us when we fall. :) What a fantastic promise.
Pretty Cool - God always provides a way out from temptation. We don't always take it, or look for it... thinking it better to give in to the temptation.mp-t
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I have been involved on the team of the local mainly music group at Manukau New Life for 2 terms now - and it is fun! If you have preschoolers this can be a great way to get out and meet new people and exercise those limbs. :) My children are now all school age (9, 7 & 6) but the 9 and 6 year olds still get a lot out of the group. Hope (9) helps a lot with set up and enjoys playing "mother-hen" to the little ones in the group.
"Worry weighs a person down; an encouraging word cheers a person up." Proverbs 12:25
When we encourage each other, we can bring the best out in each other (and in ourselves). When we say kind words, send a funny or thoughtful card, even write a quick email or send an instant message, we can make a person feel happy, hopeful and thankful. Encouraging other people is something we can do that has great power!
I am currently doing a missions course, run by the people who used to do the "Perspectives" course here in NZ - and it wasn't until I did the homework for this week that I realised that I had done this course 12-13 years ago when I was at Faith Bible College in Tauranga. My first thought was, "was it that long ago" and "I can't believe I have forgotten all this great information".
l, rl)lis, from Latin rs, thing. See r- in Indo-European Roots.] ness n. Synonyms: real, 1actual, true, existenttrue (tr
These adjectives mean not being imaginary but having verifiable existence. Real implies authenticity, genuineness, or factuality: Don't lose the bracelet; it's made of real gold. She showed real sympathy for my predicament. Actual means existing and not merely potential or possible: “rocks, trees... the actual world” (Henry David Thoreau). True implies consistency with fact, reality, or actuality: “It is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatever for supposing it true” (Bertrand Russell). Existent applies to what has life or being: Much of the beluga caviar existent in the world is found near the Caspian Sea. See also synonyms at authentic
)p
d, sty-)re, to be stunned.] pid·ly adv.pid·ness n.
Interesting that the word stupid is used here. We have banned the word from use in our house - mainly because Aimee learnt it in the playground (when she was bullied last year) and was going around hitting herself on the head and yelling "stupid, stupid - Aimee is STUPID". I feel that words hold power and didn't like her doing or thinking this about herself - especially since it simply is NOT TRUE! So we have removed this "s" word from our family vocabulary.
This is the verse that the girls and I are memorising today. As you can see Hope got tired of colouring in the words with multi-colours - tired hand as it's a fairly big verse. ;)-tshn)
tti
, mttin-, from past participle of mtre, to change. See mutate.] tion·al adj.tion·al·ly adv.
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