Maranatha is an Aramaic (Syriac, see also Aramaic of Jesus) phrase occurring once only in the New Testament and also in the Didache which is part of the Apostolic Fathers collection. It is transliterated into Greek letters rather than translated, and is found at the end of Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor 16:22) as a farewell. The NRSV translates it as: "Our Lord, come!" but notes that it could also be translated as: "Our Lord has come"; the NIV translates: "Come, O Lord"; the NAB notes:
"As understood here ("O Lord, come!"), it is a prayer for the early return of Christ. If the Aramaic words are divided differently (Maran atha, "Our Lord has come"), it becomes a credal declaration. The former interpretation is supported by what appears to be a Greek equivalent of this acclamation in Rev 22:20 "Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!""
The phrase seems to have been used as a greeting between Early Christians, and it is probably in this way that it was used by the Apostle Paul. However, the preceding word is the curse "anathema", and because the original texts of the Greek New Testament contained no punctuation at all, or indeed any word or sentence separation, early readers took the two words together and construed the passage as, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha". It was therefore believed that "anathema maranatha" must be some exceptionally severe kind of curse. The phrase was in use in this sense at least by the 7th Century, when Pope Silverius pronounced anyone who deceives a bishop as "anathema maranatha" (see the Catholic Encyclopedia article referenced below). One possible understanding of this is that the offender would be excluded from communion with the Church until the return of Christ, tying the punishment to the term Maranatha. John Wesley in his Notes on the Bible comments that, "It seems to have been customary with the Jews of that age, when they had pronounced any man an Anathema, to add the Syriac expression, Maran - atha, that is, "The Lord cometh;" namely, to execute vengeance upon him." The negative understanding of maranatha began to die out by the late 19th Century; Jamiesen, Fausset and Brown's commentary of 1871 separates Maranatha from anathema in the same way as modern scholars. However the traditional interpretation is still occasionally found among some of the more extreme conservative Christians to-day (e.g. [1]).
It is worth noting that, perhaps as a consequence of this interpretation, it has been maintained by some scholars that "Maranatha" is a mis-translation of the Hebrew phrase "mohoram atta", which means "you are put under the ban"[1]. If the original usage is understood as a greeting, however, this interpretation seems gratuitous.

love struck

Love is a constellation of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection or profound oneness.[1] The meaning of love varies relative to context. Romantic love is seen as an ineffable feeling of intense attraction shared in passionate or intimate attraction and intimate interpersonal and sexual relationships.[2] Though often linked to personal relations, love is often given a wider connection, a love of humanity, of nature, with life itself, or a oneness with the universe, a universal love or karma. Love can also be construed as Platonic love,[3] religious love,[4] familial love, and, more casually, great affection for anything considered strongly pleasurable, desirable, or preferred, to include activities and foods.[5][2] This diverse range of meanings in the singular word love is often contrasted with the plurality of Greek words for love, reflecting the concept's depth, versatility, and complexity.

In a recent short story I wrote, a writer is told by a young critic that he doesn't understand love. "It's neither noble nor eternal, as you would have your audience believe," she says.
"Nobody understands love," the writer admits. "It seems to be Universal. Timeless. Yet, it's also very individual, filtered by our own lives and expectations. I don't understand love, and can't understand love, because it's a different thing for each of us."
These love poems are Universal. Timeless. And yet very much a different thing for each of us. We hope you enjoy them...

geNEtic enGiNeeriNG+++++++

Genetic engineering, Recombinant DNA Technology, genetic modification (GM) and gene splicing are terms for the process of manipulating genes, generally implying that the process is outside the organism's natural reproductive process. It involves the isolation, manipulation and reintroduction of DNA into cells or model organisms, usually to express a protein. The aim is to introduce new characteristics or attributes physiologically or physically, such as making a crop resistant to herbicide, introducing a novel trait, or producing a new protein or enzyme, along with altering the organism to produce more of certain traits. Examples can include the production of human insulin through the use of modified bacteria, the production of erythropoietin in Chinese Hamster Ovary cells, and the production of new types of experimental mice such as the OncoMouse (cancer mouse) for research, through genetic modification.
Since a protein is specified by a segment of DNA called a gene, future versions of that protein can be modified by changing the gene's underlying DNA. One way to do this is to isolate the piece of DNA containing the gene, precisely cut the gene out, and then reintroduce (splice) the gene into a different DNA segment. Daniel Nathans and Hamilton Smith received the 1978 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their isolation of restriction endonucleases, which are able to cut DNA at specific sites. Together with ligase, which can join fragments of DNA together, restriction enzymes formed the initial basis of recombinant DNA technology.
Some groups have argued[citation needed] genetic engineering is wrong and is "doing the work of God", but most scientists believe that genetic engineering is essential to help future medical discoveries.

bisexuality v.s. homosexuality

Bisexuality is a sexual orientation which refers to the aesthetic, romantic, and/or sexual attraction of individuals to other individuals of either their own or the opposite gender or sex. Most bisexuals are not equally attracted to men and women, and may even shift between states of finding either sex exclusively attractive over the course of time.[1] However, some bisexuals are and remain fairly static in their level of attraction throughout their adult life.
In the mid-1950s, Alfred Kinsey devised the Kinsey scale in an attempt to measure sexual orientation. The 7 point scale has a rating of 0 ("exclusively heterosexual") to 6 ("exclusively homosexual"). Bisexuals cover most of the scales' values (1-5) which ranges between "predominantly heterosexual, only incidentally homosexual" (1) to "predominantly homosexual, only incidentally heterosexual" (5). In the middle of the scale (3) is "equally heterosexual and homosexual".[1]
Although observed in a variety of forms in human societies and in the animal kingdom throughout recorded history[citation needed], the term "bisexuality" (like the terms "hetero-" and "homosexuality") was only coined in the 19th century.[2]

Bisexual people are not necessarily attracted equally to both genders. [1]. Due to the nature of bisexuality as an often ambiguous position between homosexuality and heterosexuality, those who identify, or are identified, as bisexuals form a heterogenous group.
Some view that bisexuality is a distinct sexual orientation on a par with heterosexuality or homosexuality.[3] This views bisexuality as something clearly distinct from these other two sexualities, with a clear attraction to both men and women required.
Others view bisexuality as more ambiguous. Some people who might be classified by others as bisexual on the basis of their sexual behavior self-identify primarily as homosexual. Equally, otherwise heterosexual people who engage in occasional homosexual behaviour could be considered bisexual, but may not identify as such. For some who believe that sexuality is a distinctly defined aspect of the character, this ambiguity is problematic. It is sometimes argued that the behaviour of bisexuals may be explained by a subconscious homophobia or peer pressure.[citation needed] On the other hand, some believe that the majority of people contain aspects of homosexuality and heterosexuality, but that the intensities of these can vary from person to person.[citation needed] Some people who engage in bisexual behavior may be supportive of lesbian and gay people, but still self-identify as straight; others may consider any labels irrelevant to their positions and situations.
Some bisexuals make a distinction between gender and sex. Gender is defined in these situations as social or psychological category, characterised by the normal practices of men and women. For example, the fact that women wear dresses in Western Society whilst men traditionally do not is a gender issue. Sex is defined as the biological difference between males and females, prior to any social conditioning. Bisexuals in this sense may be attracted to more than one gender but only to one sex. For example, a male bisexual may be attracted to aspects of men and masculinity, but not to the male body. Such a person's attractions may manifest themselves through sexual activities other than anal sex with other males.

Bisexuality is often misunderstood as a form of adultery or polyamory, and a popular misconception is that bisexuals must always be in relationships with men and women simultaneously. Rather, individuals attracted to both males and females, like people of any other orientation, may live a variety of sexual lifestyles. These include: lifelong monogamy, serial monogamy, polyamory, polyfidelity, casual sexual activity with individual partners, casual group sex, and celibacy. For those with more than one sexual partner, these may or may not all be of the same gender.

“MP4″ Player

Yesterday I received a package from a friend working in a local tech magazine. When I opened it up, I was surprised to find a small portable “MP4″ player branded as CD-R King MP4 Player M1820. The packaging is the usual blister pack that you need to have the strength of Samson to open it up, with scissors of course, unless you wanted to be cut up by very sharp plastic.
The tiny device can hold 1GB of anything, and supports MP3 and WMA. Since I have most of my music collection in OGG, this posed a bit of a problem, so I loaded most of the MP3s that I have on the device and decided to give it a go.
For a cheap device, its not so bad, it gives music as I want to, but I couldn’t use my favorite headset because the input jack is much smaller (I don’t know the exact size, but I might try looking for an adapter later). The device also supports images and small video (probably AMV, which isn’t really MP4), as well as simple text files that would fall under “E-book” category. Battery life isn’t really great, but suitable for a few hours of continuous playback. The 1.8″ TFT screen is bright, albeit the firmware having a clunky interface, which strangely works after getting used to.
Navigating through the music collection is a chore, as you need to pause playback first before selecting a folder. It doesn’t seem to have support for playlists or creating one on the fly. This would be nice to have, but most of the flash-based players I had before, good brands and otherwise, don’t have such support either. Upon close scrutiny of the firmware functionality, this is very much like an S1 MP3 device, only with more functionality (although useless most of the time).
Plugging it to a computer shows it as a USB flash device, so a simple drag and drop of the files work. Ubuntu shows this with a flash player icon and is even detected by audio specific software like Rhythmbox and Amarok.
Going over the details online, the real brand of this unit is Allfine developed by BTL International Development Ltd. For its price, I can only imagine how cheap this thing is to mass produce to its target markets. Heck the TFT screen might even cost less than $1USD. If some large-scale manufacturers can produce this with very cheap Bill-of-Materials, I can only imagine how much these things will cost in 5 years.