OneGeorgeFox: Misdirected Love | Just Out Portland Oregon's ...

By Jennifer Yocum

?I said ?goodbye? to God.? Those are usually the last words said when a LGBT person talks about their faith experience. Having been rejected by the church or temple or other faith house that had sheltered, shaped and supported them, LGBT folk often come to the conclusion that, for the sake of their own well-being they have to close the door to any faith and that?s the end.

For Paul Southwick, though, saying ?Goodbye to God,? is just an early chapter in an ongoing story about faith and redemption. Southwick is one of the co-founders of OneGeorgeFox, an alumni organization dedicated to creating dialogue and a healthy regard for spirituality and sexuality at their alma mater, George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon.

Southwick came to George Fox as a young man already struggling with his feelings of attraction to other men, but knowing he needed to hide his feelings on the evangelical Christian campus. In 2004, he went to Washington D.C. on a fellowship with the Family Research Council, a right-wing policy think tank. When the fellowship ended, Southwick had his first sexual encounter with a man, and fell apart.

?I was hospitalized for two nights for panic attacks,? Southwick said. Mentors at Fox encouraged him to go into ?reparative therapy? to try to change his sexual orientation, encouraging him to watch straight porn as part of the process of becoming a healthy, heterosexual Christian man.

Southwick says, ?Everyone was very loving toward me, but the love was misdirected and ultimately very damaging.? Southwick spent his last two years of school at Fox in reparative therapy in what he calls ?a dark time? then went to study law at the University of Michigan where he found himself able to talk about his feelings and ultimately come out to himself and others in a safe environment.

But Southwick had doubts, ?It wasn?t just about being gay,? he said. ?It was about the Bible and the question of evil. Ultimately, I said ?goodbye? to God, but it was very hard. I mean, I prayed an hour every day and I believed I had a close personal relationship with God. Nothing can replace that.? But that was not the end of his journey.

Southwick says that he felt a need to let the administration at George Fox know that their policies, which officially prohibit sexual relationships outside of marriage while defining marriage as taking place between a man and a woman (thereby cutting off full relationship for LGBT people) can drive their students to despair.

He and other alumni have begun working with George Fox administrators to try to create a safe, healthy environment for LGBT students. Southwick says, ?We hope for an open dialogue. We want sexuality and faith to be discussed openly.? Southwick would like to see Fox take a stand against reparative therapy and ultimately support same gender marriage, but admits that goal is probably a long way off.

About his own faith, Southwick is still in transition. He says, ?I?ve had some great experiences in churches, even evangelical churches since this work with OneGeorgeFox started. I?ve been at churches that felt really familiar, that felt like home, but it?s like a home where it?s good to visit but you?re not sure you want to stay.? For now, Southwick says he is pro-Christian and pro-Gay and he hopes his alma mater can one day say the same.

Rev. Jennifer Yocum is pastor of the Forest Grove United Church of Christ-. No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey you are welcome here. www.fgucc.org

Source: http://www.justout.com/magazine/2012/07-july/onegeorgefox-misdirected-love/

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Press Trust of India | Updated: June 29, 2012 08:53 IST

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Flat consumer spending weakest in 6 months

By Lucia Mutikani, Reuters

WASHINGTON - U.S. consumer spending was flat in May for the first time in six months as demand for motor vehicles waned, but weak inflation pressures should ease the burden on cash-strapped households.

The Commerce Department said on Friday April's consumer spending was revised down to show only a 0.1 percent rise instead of the previously reported 0.3 percent gain.

Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, was also held back by weak sales at service stations as the pump price of gasoline fell from lofty levels early in the year.

"We're seeing consumer spending come off the boil a bit over the last few months. That's to be expected, given uncertainty across the board and the troubling headlines we've seen," said Omer Esiner, chief analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange in Washington.

U.S. stock index futures held onto sharp gains after the data, while Treasury debt prices maintained earlier losses. The dollar held onto losses versus the euro.

Spending rose 0.1 percent after adjustment for inflation. The small rise could cause economists to tweak their second-quarter forecasts for real consumer spending - currently in a range of 2 percent to 2.3 percent.

Spending grew at a 2.5 percent annual rate in the first quarter, with the overall economy expanding at a modest 1.9 percent rate.

Weak gasoline prices put downward pressure on inflation last month. A price index for personal spending fell 0.2 percent in May, the first decline in a year. The index was flat in April.

In the 12 months through May, the PCE index was up 1.5 percent, the smallest increase since January last year. It increased 1.9 percent in April.

CNBC's Rick Santelli reports monthly data on personal income and consumer prices.

A core measure that strips out food and energy costs advanced 0.1 percent last month after rising by the same margin in April. In the 12 months through May, the core PCE rose 1.8 percent, slowing from 2.0 percent the prior month.

Last month, spending on long lasting goods, like autos, fell 0.4 percent after dipping 0.2 percent in April. Auto sales had been boosted by pent-up demand after last year's earthquake and tsunami in Japan left showrooms bereft of popular models.

Automakers reported unit sales declined in May.

Spending on nondurable goods fell 0.8 percent, with services advancing 0.3 percent.

Weak income growth as the economy struggles to generate enough jobs to cut into high unemployment is also curbing spending. Income rose 0.2 percent after a similar gain in April. The increase was in line with economists' expectations.

The amount of income available to households after accounting for taxes and inflation, rose 0.3 percent. That followed a 0.1 percent gain in April.

With spending less than income, the saving rate rose to 3.9 percent from 3.7 percent the prior month.

More money and business news:

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Source: http://economywatch.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/29/12479530-flat-consumer-spending-weakest-in-6-months?lite

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Effective Advice That Will Help You Successfully Build Muscle ...

Watch your cardio workouts if you are trying to gain muscle. Cardiovascular workouts can actually burn muscle, so they should always be done separate from your muscle-building routines. Try to do cardiovascular workouts on a separate day or better yet, take a break from them for a few weeks while you focus completely on muscle gain.

If you really want to start an effective muscle-building routine, consider hiring a trainer. A trainer can help you to get and maintain proper form and can also introduce you to exercises that you might not have considered before. Find one at your local gym or YMCA, and use their services at least twice a week.

Utilize super-sets in your workout regimen. By doing two exercises back to back without resting, the working muscles are placed on a much higher demand. Super-sets typically include opposing muscle groups, which include biceps and triceps. By doing an isolation move after a large compound exercise, additional growth can occur.

Most people use the same repetition speeds for all their workouts. Try something different the next time you are working out and speed up your repetitions. By using faster lifting speeds, you can actually target and work out diverse muscle fibres, some, which may not get stimulated as often.

If you have enough time, consider breaking up workouts into two different sessions per day. For example, you could train your chest in the morning, and then once evening strikes, you can train your back. Resting your body in between lets your energy stores recover better than training both muscles during the same workout.

To build a muscular physique, keep stress in check. Men who are stressed may experience lower testosterone levels, and this hormone encourages muscle growth. In addition, stress increases cortisol levels, and this hormone actually inhibits muscle growth. Teach yourself some relaxation exercises and find other outlets for your stress, and you may reach your muscle-gaining goals even faster.

Perform your lifting regimen every other day. After a vigorous workout, the protein synthesis process can take up to 48 hours to complete. In other words, your body builds muscle for up to two-day post-workout, and working out while your body is still recovering may undo your hard work. Enjoy the day of rest?it will help to maximize your results.

If you would like to build muscle mass and have larger muscles, you need to focus on three basic exercises that will build mass, increase conditioning, and increase strength. These exercises are the squat, bench press, and deadlift. These are critical in your weight-training routine in some form or another.

What you?ve learned here are the first steps to making your life better. They?ll give you the tools you need to build your body in a healthy and effective manner, allowing you benefits you never enjoyed before. Take the time to work hard and build muscle, and the rewards will come in full!

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Computer learns to make oriental ink paintings

2 hrs.

John Roach

A computer has mastered Sumi-e, a style of oriental ink painting that conveys a scene with just a few, delicate brush strokes.

The accomplishment takes automated image manipulation to a new frontier, according to MIT?s Technology Review, and may open the door for a new photo app to compete with the likes of Instagram.

The challenge Ning Xie and colleagues at the Tokyo Institute of Technology faced was to get a computer to generate natural-looking brush strokes in a repeatable manner.

Previously, researchers have tackled the problem using a so-called dynamic programming approach, but doing so was computationally expensive and only produced a stroke for a specific shape.?

That?s a problem if you want to turn a snapshot of a flower vase on the table into a Sumi-e painting with the touch of a button and do it all again moments later with a picture of your child in a sandbox.

So, Xie?s team used a technique called reinforcement learning, whereby the computer was rewarded when it made nice, smooth lines for a variety of strokes but not when it stroked poorly.

In this way, the computer learned a library full of brush strokes and now calls on them at any time to create a Sumi-e painting.?

The only catch is that humans manually draw contours on a photo that the computer then fills in with strokes.

The technique is explained in a paper posted on arXiv.org and to be presented at the International Conference of Machine Learning in Edinburgh, Scotland.

"The results ... we think are of good quality," Xie and colleagues conclude.

??? Via Technology Review?

John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. To learn more about him, check out his website. For more of our Future of Technology series, watch the featured video below.

Source: http://www.futureoftech.msnbc.msn.com/technology/futureoftech/computer-learns-make-oriental-ink-paintings-851878

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