Divining Gospel

Ancient manuscripts of John’s Gospel containing hermeneiai have long puzzled scholars, provoking debate about their origins, purpose, and use. The fragmentary nature of the early evidence has impeded progress towards a better understanding of these specialized books. The present study shows that these books are "Divining Gospels"—editions of John’s Gospel incorporating lot divination materials for use in fortune-telling. The study centers on material presented here for the first time: the text and translation of a unique sixth-century Syriac manuscript, the earliest and most complete example of a hermeneia Gospel. An analysis of the Syriac along with evidence from Greek, Coptic, Latin, and Armenian versions show they all preserve vestiges of the same apparatus, disseminated widely at an early time throughout many different Christian communities. These books must be situated squarely within the development of divinatory practices in early and late antique Christianity. However, they represent a true hermeneutic, a method by which interpreters brought the potency of the Bible to bear on the everyday concerns of people who consulted them for help. Furthermore, the Divining Gospel draws on the special aura that John’s Gospel held in the Christian imagination, both as text and as textual object. An analysis of the interplay between the biblical text and sacred codex, the oracles, the ritual practitioner, and the client enrich our appreciation of this distinctive hermeneutic. Contextualizing these materials in popular use illuminates the fraught relationships between the ecclesial establishment, ritual experts operating on the margins of orthodox respectability, and lay clients seeking knowledge and help

Pedaling Asymmetry in Unilateral Transtibial Amputee Cyclists and the Effect of Prosthetic Foot Stiffness

Presented at a Special Seminar: MSPO Student Presentations on April 11, 2007 at the Coon Building, Room 115Runtime: 20:30 minutesIn addition to its rehabilitation potential, a prosthetic designed for cycling will enable amputees to have the benefits of cardiovascular exercise and participation in sports. A prosthetic design for cycling can be aided by an understanding of the forces involved. Amputees have significantly more pedaling asymmetry than the intact population. Factors creating pedaling asymmetry are: strength imbalance between limbs, difficulty in directing forces effectively with prosthesis, and sound side overcompensation at the top and bottom of the pedal stroke. The stiffness of the prosthetic foot was found to have no effect on asymmetry.R. S. Kistenberg and R. J. Grego

Genus Culicoides (Diptera-Ceratopogonidae) in central Missouri : species, seasonal abundance, activity

Digitized 2007 AES.Includes bibliographical references (page 24)

Fire on the mountain: Growth and conflict in Colorado ski country

This dissertation examines the environmental, economic, and cultural conflicts over the private development of ski resorts in Colorado\u27s National Forests between 1910 and 2000. Downhill skiing emerged as an increasingly popular winter activity during the first half of the twentieth century, particularly in western state such as Colorado. A part of the a larger outdoor recreational boom throughout the United States\u27 during the interwar years, downhill skiing challenged the Forest Service\u27s ability to meeting the public\u27s growing appetite for year-round recreational opportunities. These challenges increased following World War II as the nation\u27s growing population and affluence drew millions to their public lands to sightsee, camp, hunt, and ski. The Forest Service turned to private ventures to develop ski resorts to meet this growing public demand. But the development of ski resorts on public lands by private interest proved to be problematic when faced with competing views of public lands and public land management. The same natural allure that drew millions to the country\u27s national parks, national forests, and other public lands also gave rise to a modern environmental movement, which called for the preservation of wilderness, limits on urban and suburban growth, and pollution reduction. These two emergent views of nature came into increasing conflict with one another over the management of public lands, particularly concerning the development of ski resorts. With more ski resorts, and more skier visits, than any other state, Colorado sat at the center of these conflicts. By the late 1960s, a growing number of critics began denouncing the environmental impacts of ski resorts on national forests. Over the next four decades, political battles raged throughout Colorado over the environmental, social, and economic impacts of ski resorts. Controversies such as Colorado voters\u27 rejection of the 1976 Denver Winter Olympics, the fight to develop Beaver Creek Ski Resort, and the burning of twelve buildings on top of Vail Ski Resort by members of the extremist environmental group Earth Liberation Front pitted the American public\u27s growing recreational demands against emergent concerns over the environmental and social consequences of the commercial development of ski resorts on public land for private corporate gain. These fights not only tell the story of skiing in Colorado, but Americans\u27 changing understandings of nature and the larger environmental costs of outdoor recreation and tourism