Noah

These are the descendants of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw that the earth was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth. 13And God said to Noah, "I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth. Make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits® , its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above; and put the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks. For my part, I am going to bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. 18But I will establish my covenant with you®, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons, wives with you. 19And of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. 2oOf the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every kind shall come in to you, to keep them alive. 21 Also take with you every kind of food that is eaten, and store it up; and it shall serve as food for you and for them. "22 Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

Saul Is Rejected as King

The word of the LORD came to Samuel; 11 "I regret that I made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me, and has not carried out my commands. " Samuel was angry; and he cried out to the LORD all night. 12Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul, and Samuel was told, "Saul went to Carmel, where he set up a monument for himself, and on returning he passed on down to Gilgal. " 13When Samuel came to Saul, Saul said to him, "May you be blessed by the LORD; I have carried out the command of the LORD. " nBut Samuel said, "What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears, and the lowing of cattle that I hear?" IsSaul said, "They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and the cattle, to sacrifice to the LORD your God; but the rest we have utterly de¬stroyed. " leThen Samuel said to Saul, "Stop! I will tell you what the LORD said to me last night. " He replied, "Speak. " 17Samuel said, "Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anoint¬ed you king over Israel. 18And the LORD sent you on a mission, and said, 'Go, utterly destroy the sinners, the A-malekites, and fight against them until they are consumed. ' 19Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you swoop down on the spoil, and do what was evil in the sight

of the LORD?" 20Saul said to Samuel, "I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, I have gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me, I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 2lBut from the spoil the people took sheep and cattle, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal. " 22And Samuel said,

"Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD?

"Surely, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.

23"For rebellion is no less'a sin than divination, and stubbornness is like iniquity and idolatry.

"Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king. "

24Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned; for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. 25Now there-fore, I pray, pardon my sin, and return with me, so that I may worship the LORD. " Samuel said to Saul, "I will not return with you; for you have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel. " 2?As Samuel turned to go away, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore. 28And Samuel said to him, "The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this very day, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you. •••" Then Saul said, "I have sinned; yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, so that I may worship the LORD your God. " 3lSo Samuel turned back after Saul; and Saul worshiped the LORD.

Pippen 's work now to tutor young players

DEERFIELD, Scottie Pippen said Thursday he will probably retire following an injury-shortened season in his return to the Chicago Bulls3 .

But Michael Jordan's old sidekick also hedged a bit, as he has all season. 4

"This is probably it for me," Pippen said, the day after the Bulls completed a 23-59 season— the first time in his 17-year career he has missed the playoffs5 .

" I'd rather not make a 100 percent commitment6 . But I'm quite sure that this is probably my last season. "

Pippen was brought back to give a young Bulls team leadership and experience, but he had knee surgery7 in December and played in only 23 games.

Pippen, who will turn 39 in September, was voted one of the NBA's 50 greatest players as the Bulls captured six championships in the 1990s.

Asked to reflect on8 his career, Pippen told reporters; " I don't want to reminisce about9 it right now. I may come back and play next year, you never know. "

Reminded that Jordan made two comebacks after retiring, Pippen said; "He came back a few times. I guess I can come back once. "

Future Hall of Fame10 candidate Scottie Pippen told the Chicago Sun-Times on Monday that he likely won't play again this season and that there is almost no chance he'll play next season.

" I'd like to play once more to say goodbye to the game at this level , " Pippen told the newspaper. "But I don't think I can go any more. I want to, but I don't think I can. "

Pippen, whose 17-year career has included six NBA championships,

declined" to announce his retirement at this time, reports the Sun-Times.

Pippen played just 23 games this season before undergoing knee surgery on Dec. 12. Problems with his left knee continued when he tried to return. And Pippen acknowledged that there's no reason to risk further damage this late in the season when the Bulls will not make the playoffs. 12

Paxson told Pippen that his job now is to tutor newly acquired'3 point guard Jannero Pargo according to the Sun-Times. Pargo signed a 10-day contract with the Bulls after Rick Brunson was waived.

Pronouncing a language is a skill

Every normal person is expert in the skill of pronouncing his own language; but few people are even moderately proficient at pronouncing foreign languages. Now there are many reasons for this, some obvious, some perhaps not so obvious. But I suggest that the fundamental reason why people in general do not speak foreign languages very much better than they do their own is that they fail to grasp the true nature of the problem of learning to pronounce, and consequently never set about tackling it in the right way. Far too many people fail to realize that pronouncing a foreign language is a skill — one that needs careful training of a special kind, and one that cannot be acquired by just leaving it to take care of itself. I think even teachers of a language, while recognizing the importance of a good accent, tend to neglect, in their practical teaching, the branch of study concerned with speaking the language. So the first point I want to make is that English pronunciation must be taught: the teacher should be prepared to devote some of the lesson time to this, and, by his whole attitude to the subject, should get the student to feel that here is a matter worthy of receiving his close attention. So, there should be occasions when other aspects of English, such as grammar or spelling, are allowed for the moment to take second place.

Apart from this question of the time given to pronunciation, there are two other requirements for the teacher: the first, knowledge; the second, technique.

It is important that the teacher should be in possession of the necessary information. This can generally be obtained from books. It is possible to get from books some idea of the mechanics of speech, and of what we call general phonetic theory. It is also possible in this way to get a clear mental picture of the relationship between the sounds of different languages, between the speech habits of English people and those, say, of your students. Unless the teacher has such a picture, any comments he may make on his students' pronunciation are unlikely to be of much use, and lesson time spent on pronunciation may well be time wasted.

Most of us, work is the central, dominating fact of life

We spend more than half our conscious hours at work, preparing for work, travelling to and from work. What we do there largely determines our standard of living and to a considerable extent the status we are accorded by our fellow citizens as well. It is sometimes said because leisure has become more important the indignities and injustices of work can be pushed into a corner; that because most work is pretty intolerable, the people who do it should compensate for its boredom, frustrations and humiliations by concentra-ting their hopes on the other parts of their lives. I reject that as a counsel of despair. For the foreseeable future the material and psychological rewards which work can provide, and the conditions in which work can provide, and the conditions in which work is done, will continue to play a vital part in determining the satisfaction that life can offer. Yet only a small minority can control the pace at which they work or the conditions in which their work is done; only for a small minority does work offer scope for creativity, imagination, or initiative.

Inequality at work is still one of the cruelest and most glaring forms of inequality in our society. We cannot hope to solve the more obvious problems of industrial life, many of which arise directly or indirectly from the frustrations created by inequality at work, unless we tackle it head-on. Still less can we hope to create a decent and humane society?

The most glaring inequality is that between managers and the rest. For most managers, work is an opportunity and a challenge. Their jobs engage their interest and allow them to develop their abilities. They are constantly learning; they are able to exercise responsibility; they have a considerable degree of control over their own— anothers' — working lives. Most important of all, they have the opportunity to initiate. By contrast, for most manual workers, and for a growing number of white-collar workers, work is boring, monotonous, even painful experience. They spend all their working lives in conditions which would be regarded as intolerable—for themselves—by those who take the decisions which let such conditions continue. The majority has little control over their work; it provides them with no opportunity for person-al development. Often production is so designed that workers are simply part of the technology. In offices, many workers feel alienated from their work and their form, whether it is in public or in private ownership.

Rising educational standards feed rising expectations, yet the amount of control which the worker has over his own work situation does not rise accordingly. In many cases his control has been reduced. Symptoms of protest increase—rising sickness and absenteeism, high turn-over of employees, restrictions on output, and strikes, both unofficial and official. There is not much escape out and upwards. As management becomes more professional—in itself a good thing — and managers don' t think there is close connection between production and working condition.

The opportunity for promotion from the shop floor becomes less. The only escape is to another equally frustrating manual job; the only compensation is found not in the job but outside it, if there is a rising standard of living.

Nazca

One of the most mysterious archaeological spectacles in the world is the immense complex of geometrical symbols, giant ground-drawings of birds and animals, and hundreds of long, er - straight lines , some right across mountains , which stretch over 1,200 square miles of Peruvian tablelands, at Nazca.

Nazca was first revealed to modern eyes in 1926 when three explorers looked down on the ert from a hillside at dusk and briefly saw a Nazca line highlighted by the rays of the sun. it was not until the Peruvian airforce took aerial photographs in the 1940s that the full mificence of the panorama was apparent. Hundreds of what looked like landing strips for raft was revealed. There eighteen bird-like drawings, up to 400 feet long; four-sided fig-i with two lines parallel; and long needle-like triangles which ran for miles. Among the ly abstract patterns were a giant spider, a monkey, a shark, all drawn on the ground on a huge scale.

The scale is monumental, but from the ground almost invisible and totally incomprehensible. The amazing fact about Nazca, created more than 1,500 years ago, is that it can onli be appreciated if seen from the air. Many, therefore, regarded to as a prehistoric landing ground for visitors from outer space, but Jim Woodman, an American explorer, who was lon| fascinated by the mystery of Nazca, had a different opinion. He believed that Nazca onli made sense if the people who had designed and made these vast drawings on the ground coult actually see them, and that led him to the theory that the ancient Peruvians had somehoi learned to fly, as only from above could they really see the extent of their handiwork. Wit] this theory in mind, he researched into ancient Peruvian legends about flight and came to thi conclusion that the only feasible answer was a hot-air balloon.

To prove his theory, Wookman would have to make such a thing using the same fabrici and fibers that would have been available to the men of Nazca at the time. He started by gatb ering information from ancient paintings, legends, books and archaeological sites. After man; attempts, Woodman built a balloon-type airship. It took him into the air, letting him have thi sensation he had never had from viewing the same ground that he had seen many times. Hi flight was a modern demonstration of an ancient possibility.

Phillips wins gold in long jump

ATHENS, Greece—The biggest smile in track and field got a little bigger Thursday night, and the long jump is solidly back in American hands.

Dwight Phillips—the world's best jumper by leaps and bounds2, and maybe the happiest guy in the sport-lived up to3 his billing4 with a 28-foot, 2X-inch effort to win the gold medal.

"But my parents and myself, we always believed that I would,"said Phillips, 26. "I mean, I didn't think that story was that big of a deal5. I overcame6 that. Now I'm Olympic champion and happy and filled with joy. "

The event has been in the doldrums for years, and Phillips aims to bring it back, not just in the United States but everywhere.7

" It feels good to go beyond8 the limits I dreamed of as a kid," he said. " Now I have new goals. " Phillips attended the University of Kentucky9, then trans-ferred10 after his sophomore" year to Arizona12 State and began long jumping. He still lives and trains in Tempe, Ariz.

He said he was thinking world record when he fouled13 on his second and third jumps. An awkward landing on the second foul was a bit embarrassing14.

"I fell flat on my face," Phillips said. "I think more than anything my pride was hurt. "

But it was quickly restored when the victory was assured and he realized a fellow American had taken second. Phillips grabbed Moffit in a bear hug, then the two paraded15 the American flag around the track in celebration, just before the United States completed its big night with a sweep16 in the 200.

The United States has now won the long jump gold medal in all but four Olympic Games.

Phillips will be married Nov. 13 to his longtime girlfriend, Valerie Williams. "I had absolutely nothing to do with the wedding preparations," he laughed.

"I was concentrating on winning a gold medal. "

Often overlooked by larger personalities in the sport, Phillips is known in track circles, as Maurice Greene put it, as "a nice guy. ""

" I would like to be known as a patriotic18 guy," Phillips said, "a guy that was raised well by my mom and dad, a guy who's always smiling, and a guy who's always going to give his all, in everything he does, not only in track and field but in every part of my life. "

The 15th and 16th centuries were a period of radical social, political, and intellectual developments

The explorations of the world; the Reformation, with its emphasis on individual faith; the rise of commercial urban society; and the dramatic appearance of new ideas in all areas of culture stimulated the development of a new philosophical world view . The medieval view of the world as a hierarchical order of beings created and governed by God was replaced by the mechanistic picture of the world as a vast machine, the parts of which move according to strict physical laws, without purpose or will. The aim of human life was no longer looked on as preparation for salvation in the next world, but rather as the satisfaction of people's natural desires. Political organizations and moral principles ceased to be regarded as reflections of God's command and came to be seen as practical devices created by humans. In this new philosophical view, experience and reason became the sole standards of truth.

The first great spokesman for the new philosophy was the English philosopher and statesman Francis Bacon, who attacked reliance on authority and verbal argument and criticized Aristotelian (3EJLi;£l!(:ft) logic as useless for the discovery of new laws. Bacon called for a new scientific method based on inductive generalization from careful observation and experiment. He was the first to formulate rules of inductive inference.

The work of Italian physicist and astronomer Galileo was of even greater importance in the development of a new world view. Galileo brought attention to the importance of applying mathematics to the formulation of scientific laws. This he accomplished by creating the science of mechanics, which applied the principles of geometry to the motions of bodies. The success of mechanics in discovering reliable and useful laws of nature suggested to Galileo and to later scientists that all nature is designed according to mechanical laws.

When families gather for Christmas dinner , some will stick to formal traditions dating back to Grandma's generation

Their tables will be set with the good dishes and silver, and the dress code will be Sunday-best.

But in many other homes, this china-and-silver elegance has given way to a stoneware -and-stainless informality, with dresses assuming an equally casual-Friday, look. For hosts and guests, the change means greater simplicity and comfort. For makers of fine china in Britain, it spells economic hard times.

Last week Royal Doulton , the largest employer in Stoke-on-Trent , announced that it is eliminating 1,000 jobs - one-fifth of its total workforce. That brings to more than 4,000 the number of positions lost in 18 months in the pottery ( |S)^) region. Wedgwood and other pottery factories made cuts earlier.

Although a strong pound and weak markets in Asia play a role in the downsizing, the layoffs in Stoke have their roots in earthshaking social shifts. A spokesman for Royal Doulton admitted that the company "has been somewhat slow in catching up with the trend" toward casual dining. Families eat together less often , he explained , and more people eat alone , either because they are single or they eat in front of television.

Even dinner parties, if they happen at all, have gone casual. In a time of long work hours and demanding family schedules, busy hosts insist, rightly, that it's better to share a takeout pizza on paper plates in the family room than to wait for the perfect moment or a "real" dinner party. Too often, the perfect moment never comes. Iron a fine -patterned tablecloth? Forget it. Polish the silver? Who has time?

Yet the loss of formality has its down side. The fine points of etiquette ( ^Ll?) that children might once have learned at the table by observation or instruction from parents and grandparents ( ' Chew with your mouth closed. " " Keep your elbows off the table. " ) must be picked up elsewhere. Some companies now offer etiquette seminars for employees who may be competent professionally but clueless socially.

The American economy, whether in government or private industry, has found retirement a convenient practice for managing the labor force.

On the positive side, widespread retirement has meant an expansion of leisure and opportunities for self-fulfillment in later life. On the negative side, the practice of retirement entails large costs, both in funding required for pension systems and in the loss of the accumulated skills and talents of older people.

Critics of retirement as it exists today have pointed to the rigidity of retirement practices: for example, the fact that retirement is typically an all-or-nothing proposition. Would it not be better to have some form of flexible or phased retirement, in which employees gradually reduce their work hours or take longer vacations? Such an approach night enable older workers to adjust better to retirement, while permitting employers to make gradual changes instead of coping with the abrupt departure of an employee. Retirement could be radically redefined in the future.

Earlier criticism of mandatory retirement at a fixed age led to legal abolition of the practice, for the most part, in 1986. The same kind of criticism has been leveled at the Dractice of age discrimination in employment. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act rb The importance and focus of the interview in the work of the print and broadcast journalist is reflected in several books that have been written on the topic.ids older workers from being limited or treated in any way that would harm their employment possibilities. Still, most observers admit that age discrimination in the workplace remains widespread. The negative stereotypes of older workers have caused employers to be reluctant to hire or train older people. Sometimes such discrimination against older workers is based on mistaken ideas, such as the false belief that older workers are less productive. In fact, empirical studies have not shown older workers to be less dependable in their job performance, nor are their absenteeism rates higher.

Interest in the potential productivity of older workers has stimulated the growth of industrial gerontology, a field concerned with recruitment, performance appraisal, retraining, and redesign of jobs to permit older workers to be more productive. Managing an older workforce will clearly be a challenge for the future. There is also much support for the idea of work life extension; that is, adaptations of retirement rules or employment practices to enable older people to become more productive. In favor of this idea is the fact that three-quarters of employed people over 65 are in white-collar occupations in service industries, which are less physically demanding than agriculture or manufacturing jobs. As a result, it is sometimes argued, older people can remain in productive jobs now longer than in the past. In addition, some analysts point to declining numbers of young people entering the workforce, thus anticipating a labor shortage later in the 1990s. That development, if it occurred, might stimulate a need for older workers and a reversal of the trend toward early retirement.