text:
"The Ribos Operation" (season 16, episodes 1-4. Originally aired Sept. 2-23, 1978)
At its heart, "The Ribos Operation" is playing for relatively small stakes in comparison to the kind of thing you usually get with Doctor Who. It's a story about a con game gone wrong between two hard-luck grifters and a fallen aristocrat who thinks they're his route back into power. Though it's set on a faraway planet with connections to a vast interstellar empire, mainly it's just about the con, and how the Doctor's own little quest gets in the way of that. But wrapped around "The Ribos Operation" is a much broader story of literally cosmic scope, and it's there that we should start.
By Doctor Who's sixteenth season, the show had run into a problem inevitable for any series that lasts that long—it was outgrowing its own founding mythology. The seemingly all-powerful Time Lords had been a lingering background presence for years, first as the unknown people the Doctor was running away from, then later a persistent source of unwanted control. But by this point, the question was: What do you do when your hero finally defeats the one foe he was never supposed to be able to defeat?
In the early seasons, the Time Lords were a cosmic, powerful, and sometimes frighteningly mysterious force. Their presence was only hinted at during the first half-decade of the show, but in "The War Games," the Doctor was finally caught, and the Time Lords revealed themselves to be the antithesis of the lone, anarchic little man who'd stolen the TARDIS to get away from them—stern, controlling judges with effortless power over time and space, who punished the Doctor for his rulebreaking with a dual sentence of death (for his second incarnation) and exile (for his third). But what really got under the Doctor's skin was that they kept interfering in his life, constantly giving him little tasks to do like saving the Earth, taking out the garbage, stopping intergalactic criminals, washing the car, that kind of thing. That was his relationship with them for the better part of eight seasons, until scriptwriter Robert Holmes finally brought the Doctor back to his home planet in 1976's "The Deadly Assassin." That show and its sequel, "The Invasion Of Time," looked into Time Lord society for the first time, and showed it to be bureaucratic and stifling, burdened by ceremony and tradition. It was no wonder the Doctor fled. And in those two shows, while defeating other enemies, the Doctor also wound up changing his relationship with Gallifrey permanently, not only exposing them as a gang of old fogeys but winding up getting elected as their Lord President. He abandoned the job almost immediately, but once that had happened, he'd won: The Time Lords weren't credible anymore as the series' cosmic puppet-masters now that he'd proven he could pull their strings. That was a necessary and probably inevitable evolution of the relationship, but it did leave a void at the top of Doctor Who's hierarchy. Who'd be able to give the Doctor a mission he couldn't refuse now?
And producer Graham Williams came up with an answer: God. Well, not exactly God, but something like an off-brand equivalent: The White Guardian, who worked eternally against his opposite Black Guardian to balance the forces of the universe. And Williams came up with a way to involve the Doctor: A quest, and one of epic scope never seen before on the series—over the course of the entire season, on orders from the White Guardian, he'd go off in search of the Key To Time. A crystal cube in six pieces that had been disguised as other objects and scattered throughout the cosmos, the Key, once assembled, would give its wielder the power to stop time itself. So, big stakes. The quest format also appealed to Williams as a way of continuing to lighten the tone of the series after the gothic-horror years of seasons 12-14.
"The Ribos Operation" was the kickoff, and as such it had one of the most important jobs—setting up the arc and getting the whole enterprise moving. And to do that, Williams turned again to Holmes, who seemed like a natural choice—up to this point, he'd written a dozen serials including four season-openers, script-edited the series for three years, and introduced a half-dozen of its most well-loved characters, from villains to the Doctor's companions to helping create the Third and Fourth Doctors themselves.
Holmes took the ball and ran with it, and "The Ribos Operation" wound up being one of his better works—a fun, tightly constructed caper that pitted two endearingly scruffy con artists against a pompous, mean disgraced ex-dictator whose odiousness made you cheer for his downfall. But it's also hard to escape the impression that while Holmes dutifully did the job of setting up the chess pieces that formed the Key To Time season-arc, he never actually bought into the whole "cosmic battle between good and evil" thing, and set about undermining it subtly from the beginning by refusing to put the Doctor firmly on the side of the angels.
But let's pick up at the beginning: The Fourth Doctor (played by toothy, energetically eccentric Tom Baker) and his robot dog K9 are in the TARDIS planning a vacation (from what, exactly?) when the ship is stopped mid-flight and the doors open of their own volition, filling the console room with blinding white light. It's not quite a burning bush, but the message is the same. Outside, an old man with a white beard—the Guardian—awaits, lounging on a wicker chair and sipping a glass of wine. And he tells the Doctor why he needs the Key found, in terms that are scarily cosmos-threatening while not actually committing to anything specific, possibly because none of the writing staff knew at that point where they were going with all this, and hadn't come up with the ending yet. "Forces within the universe [have] upset the balance," and they need to act "before the Universe is plunged into eternal chaos." If that seems needlessly vague, it's only 10 minutes into a 26-episode season, and there will be time later to expand on that. That's probably the biggest problem with the season, though—the Doctor is always looking for segments of the Key, but questions of why he's looking and the consequences of success or failure are never really addressed. He doesn't even encounter a rival Key-seeker until the last story of the season. That, however, isn't the fault of "The Ribos Operation," which only needs to start the journey, not end it.
One interesting thing about the White Guardian's mission is that it places the Doctor explicitly on the side of law and order—which, as Robert Holmes knew well, isn't quite a perfect fit. He's not a galactic policeman, despite what the TARDIS looks like. He's a mercurial wanderer who pops in and out of situations seemingly at random. Sure, he helps people, but he's more of a force of chaos than anything else, and to work for the White Guardian, even unwillingly, sets up a tension between him and his nominal boss. Once the actual first mission begins, the story subverts any easy equation that obeying the rules equals doing the right thing.
Holmes also gives the Guardian one of the key traits of the Time Lords in earlier seasons—a hint that he's somehow in control of the narrative of Doctor Who itself. It's no accident that the threat he uses to get the Doctor to agree to the quest is that nothing will happen to him, "Nothing at all. Ever." It's not dying that the Doctor couldn't stand, it's the prospect of no more adventures—in a manner of speaking, he'll be cancelled.
There's one more introduction before we get to Ribos. Returning to the TARDIS, the Doctor meets his new assistant—brought in with a minimum of fuss by simply having her already be there when he gets back, brought by the Guardian's power. This is Romana, another Gallifreyan like the Doctor, played with arch humor by Mary Tamm. (Romana version one, that is—the next season, her character would regenerate and the role taken up by Lalla Ward.) Her first scene sets the tone for her time on the show: She's lacking in his experience but his intellectual equal or even superior in many ways, and not afraid to let him know that. Something of an ice queen (dressed in white, even), all businesslike and serious, Romana makes a fine foil to the Fourth Doctor's eccentric, unserious and volatile personality. She's not really happy to be considered merely the Doctor's assistant, and he's not really happy to have her getting in his way. (Which, intentionally or not, reflected the way the actors felt about things in real life, and one of the reasons Tamm left after one season.) Unlike most companions, Romana's not only able but all too willing to talk back, and flummoxes him by refusing to be impressed and even implying that he's old and over-the-hill. It's pretty rare for a companion to take the Doctor down a peg like that—Liz Shaw, Peri Brown, Tegan Jovanka, and Donna Noble are the only others that spring to mind—and Romana's particular skill at the task is unexcelled. Which was a good thing, since Tom Baker's high-wattage performance often badly needed some counterbalance, especially in the last couple of years he played the role. And it didn't hurt that having the main characters bicker and argue was a good springboard for comedy, which helped the overall goal of making Doctor Who funnier and more lighthearted.
Now that the cosmic-scale, season-spanning story has been introduced, "The Ribos Operation" dives into its main tale, and it's interesting to note how much it subtly undermines what the Guardian has just finished telling the Doctor the season is supposed to be about. Collecting the Key may be a race against time to preserve order, but Holmes chooses a story format here, the crime caper, that emphasizes rogues and rebels, and encourages us to root for the triumph of people whose primary desire is to break the law. (Holmes loved con men and charlatans, and made them major figures not only in this story but earlier ones like "Carnival Of Monsters," "Talons Of Weng-Chiang," and even the Master's introduction in "Terror Of The Autons.") For a supposed soldier of order, the Doctor allies himself quite easily with the duplicitous Garron, a man clearly after his own hearts, and against the unpleasant Graf Vynda K. Though he pretends to be a policeman out to arrest Garron, it's solely to get information out of him, and he never intervenes to prevent Garron's scheme to defraud the Graf. He sees Garron as a kindred soul.
The disguised segment of the Key, appropriately enough, is a gemstone—a platter-sized hunk of the rare mineral jethrik, valued because it allows space travel. It's being used by Garron to lure the Graf into his scheme to sell him a piece of property he doesn't actually own, namely the planet Ribos itself. (In case it's not clear, Ribos is a planet that hasn't developed beyond medieval technology yet and doesn't know about alien worlds, which is why Garron, the Graf, and all the other offworlders are dressed in furs and suits of armor—they're in disguise.) The jethrik functions in the story like a classic Hitchcockian Macguffin, an object that motivates all the major characters, albeit for different reasons. For the Doctor and Romana, it's the first object in their quest. For the Graf, it means riches enough to buy an army to take back his throne. And for Garron and Unstoffe, it's the key not only to their current con, but apparently many earlier ones—and Garron seems to understand that it's a fake underneath, considering that he tells Romana that "I don't think it's worth all that much."
Meanwhile, the clear representative of law and order can only be the Graf, a power-crazed, arrogant, cruel man who schemes to win back a throne that he clearly lost because he was too unpleasant for his people to stomach him as a ruler. He makes a perfect mark for a con-job story—dour and humorless and eager to use violence where it's probably not even necessary, it's easy to feel like he deserves to be rooked. His final psychotic break, ranting about glorious victories of his past while wandering aimlessly into the labyrinth of tunnels, echoes the fate of Klaus Kinski's mad conquistador swallowed by the jungle at the end of Aguirre, The Wrath Of God—another instance where chaos deserved to win the day.
And then there's Binro—a minor side character who never even meets the Doctor, unless you count him being shot to death in front of him, but who might be Holmes' slyest way of thumbing his nose at the idea that the Doctor is now taking orders from God. Binro's realization that the little lights in the sky are really other stars with other planets is a recapitulation of Galileo's persecution for daring to suggest the Earth revolves around the sun, an idea that ranked the religious establishment of his day. Binro's friendship with the kind-hearted grifter's apprentice Unstoffe provides "The Ribos Operation" with its only moments of real emotional resonance, but his story also serves as a bit of iconoclasm in an otherwise apolitical genre tale, and a reminder that order for its own sake is oppressive if it insists on enforcing rules (and facts) that are wrong.
Stray observations
• Garron proudly admits a double-cross: "I admit I had a great struggle with my conscience. Fortunately, I won!"
• The Doctor chides Romana: "You call that nearly being killed? You haven't lived yet."
• The society of Ribos isn't explored in any great detail, but I like the way the script and the production team sketch out an alien society that feels believable yet convincingly foreign out of some fake snow, quasi-medieval sets and a few surplus Russian fur hats. On the other hand, you really have to use your imagination to see the shrivenzales as scary reptiles beasts and not a stuntman in a rubber suit.
• R.I.P. Caroline John, who played Liz Shaw in Doctor Who's seventh season.
• Upcoming schedule:
July 8: "Revelation Of The Daleks"
July 22: "Black Orchid"
Aug. 5: "Remembrance Of The Daleks"
Aug. 19: "Ghost Light"
Sept. 2: "The Seeds Of Doom"
Sept. 16: "The Romans"


text:
CAIRO (AP) — In an echo of the Cold War, Egypt gave the red carpet welcome Thursday to senior Russian officials aiming to expand Moscow's influence through military and economic cooperation with a key U.S. ally in the Middle East.
The flirtation underscores how U.S.-Egyptian relations have soured lately over the Obama administration's criticism of the July 3 military coup. And although Egyptian officials say the one-time Soviet client is not turning away from the United States, the military-backed government is clearly signaling it has options.
Egypt's Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy sought to downplay speculation of a major foreign policy shift, describing the visit by Russian's foreign and defense ministers as an "activation" of existing ties and speaking positively of cooperation between the two countries "in multiple fields."
But the fact that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergei Shogiu arrived in Cairo weeks after the United States froze millions of dollars in military aid is significant.
The officials gave no details about any arms deals being discussed.
Russia's Interfax news agency recently quoted an unidentified official of the state Rosoboron export arms trader as saying that there are no plans to sign big contracts during the Cairo talks.
View gallery."
Egyptian foreign minister Nabil Fahmy speaks during a press conference, in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, N …
It said Egypt has shown interest in purchasing Russian air defense missile systems and MiG-29 fighter jets, combat helicopters and other weapons. But it quoted an unnamed official dealing with arms trade as saying that no big deals are expected in the near future as Egypt currently can't afford it.
However, a retired Egyptian military general who maintains close ties to the present army leadership said Egypt was inching close to signing a $2 billion deal with Russia for the purchase of 24 MiG fighter-jets as well as anti-tank missiles and an air- defense system.
"Do you want us to take the (U.S.) slap on our face and remain silent? Of course not," said the retired general, Hossam Sweilam. "This pressure is not acceptable, so we returned to the Russians to maintain our fighting capabilities."
Tensions are high between Egypt and the U.S. — its chief foreign backer and benefactor since the 1970s, since the ouster of Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president, and the subsequent crackdown on his Islamist supporters that has left hundreds dead and thousands arrested.
Lavrov and Shogiu were greeted with an honor guard and met at Defense Ministry headquarters for talks with Egypt's powerful Defense Minister and military chief, Gen. Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi, who led the coup that ousted Morsi, and his commanders.
View gallery."
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, speaks during a press conference in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, …
Throughout the day, state television broadcast black-and-white archival footage of Soviet and Egyptian leaders meeting in the 1950s and 1960s, the two decades that saw the two nations forge a strategic friendship at the height of the Cold War and Egypt's wars with Israel, Washington's closest Middle East ally.
"We seek to energize a relationship that is already in existence," Fahmy told reporters later after meeting with Lavrov.
When asked whether Russia would replace the U.S. as his country's chief ally, Fahmy said Egypt was not looking for a "substitute for anyone" and that Russia was too significant for such a role.
Lavrov, speaking through an interpreter, described the meeting as "historic."
He stressed Russia "would like to see a stable Egypt with a prosperous economy and an efficient political system," and endorsed the military's so-called transition plan, which envisages a nationwide referendum on an amended constitution before the end of the year and parliamentarian and presidential elections by winter and summer of 2014.
View gallery."
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, chairs his delegations during a meeting with his Egyptian co …
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry sought to patch up things with the Egyptians during a visit to Cairo earlier this month, but the partial suspension of military aid, which covers the delivery of tanks, helicopters and fighter jets, appears to have hurt the interim government's pride.
The Russian defense minister vowed to develop military ties and increase bilateral contacts between the two countries, saying "I expect to continue a constructive dialogue on the entire spectrum of military and military-technical issues."
He said their discussions also covered fighting terrorism and future joint exercises.
It was the highest level Russian visit to Egypt since former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a partnership deal with then-President Hosni Mubarak in 2009.
It is difficult to see Russia, at least in the short term, replacing the United States as Egypt's chief backer.
View gallery."
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov speaks to his counter part Nabil Fahmy, foreground, during th …
Egypt has been the second-largest recipient — after Israel — of U.S. bilateral foreign assistance, largely as a way to sustain the 1979 Egypt-Israeli peace treaty. Washington froze a large chunk of about $1.5 billion in annual aid, mostly for the military, last month.
"Theoretically speaking, there's no polarization and no need to pick and choose between the U.S. and Russia," said Russian affairs specialist Farrag Aboul-Nour. "But practically, freezing U.S. aid was a dangerous alarm ... The message to the U.S. today is: Egypt cannot remain a hostage to the U.S. forever."
Russia's cause in Egypt will likely be helped by growing anti-U.S. sentiment in Egypt, chiefly over Washington's perceived bias in favor of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group and decades of what many Egyptians see as their country's submission to Washington's will under Mubarak, who himself was toppled in a 2011 revolution.
Russia and Egypt's new government share a common enemy in Islamists, with Moscow facing Islamist insurgencies in some of its outlying regions.
Earlier this week, a 21-gun salute and a band played military music to welcome a Russian missile cruiser, the Varyag, when it docked in the Mediterranean port of Alexandria. Another Russian warship, the Boris Butoma, is now docked in a Red Sea port.
View gallery."
Egyptian foreign minister Nabil Fahmy, right, accompanies his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov foll …
Egypt was Moscow's closest Arab ally for two decades starting in the 1950s, when the Soviet Union supported the late nationalist leader Gamal Abdel-Nasser's ambitious drive to modernize the Arab nation and create a well-armed military at the height of the Cold War and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
But in 1972, then-President Anwar Sadat threw out thousands of Soviet military advisers and took his nation closer to the United States soon after the 1973 Mideast war.
Egypt's relations with the Soviet Union took a marked turn for the worse after Moscow's invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 where Egypt was among the countries sending Arab fighters to join war against Soviets. Relations have steadily improved in recent years, with nearly 2 million Russians vacationing in Egypt every year.
Associated Press writer Vladimir Isachenkov contributed to this report from Moscow.
- Military & Defense
- Foreign Policy
- Egypt
- Sergey Lavrov
- Russia
Tags: kanye west jennifer lawrence Brooke Greenberg Valerie Harper Brian Hoyer

subset: commoncrawl


text:
"Ireland is ready for the legalisation of cannabis," according to Roscommon TD Luke Ming Flanagan, who today published his Cannabis Regulation Bill 2013.
Mr Flanagan estimated that the legalisation of cannabis could generate up to €300 million through tax revenues and the freeing up of resources. However, he stressed this was an estimate and it was not possible to know for sure what savings might be made.
"If cannabis is legalised, we can make a shopping list out of the amount of money which legalising cannabis will save this country," said the TD.
These savings could, he said, lead to the reversal of the recent Budget cuts including cuts to the bereavement grant, cuts to young people's social welfare payments and the abolition of the telephone allowance.
The Bill, which is due to be debated in the Dáil on November 5th and 6th, would, if passed:
- regulate cannabis for recreational and medical use
- allow for home cultivation up to a maximum of six cannabis plant
- allow for the personal possession of up to one ounce of cannabis
- allow for the setting up of "Cannabis Social Clubs" which would allow up to 50 club members to cultivate up to 300 plants for not-for-profit use
- set up a "cannabis regulation authority" to regulate the cultivation, sale, labelling, advertising and marketing of cannabis
- see tax revenue from cannabis fund drug addiction services, medical research and juvenile education courses on drugs.
- include a requirement that the Minister for Justice and Minister for Agriculture to examine the feasibility of the safe regulation and controlled use of cannabis.
"This Bill will protect our youth from unscrupulous dealers; it will make it, in my opinion, more difficult for them to get it; and in the same way as if a minor uses alcohol, a minor who uses cannabis will also face similar sanctions such as having to go into treatment," Mr Flanagan said.
Mr Flanagan also announced the setting up of a new group, Normal Ireland, which aims to "proactively educate the Irish public as to the social, economic and health benefits of legalising cannabis" and to lobby for a change to the law.
The board of the new groups includes Stuart Clark, assistant editor of HotPress; Dr Garrett McGovern, a GP specialising in alcohol and substance abuse and Dr Cathal ÓSúiliobháin, a GP working with addiction.


text:
Minor earthquakes rattle Silicon Valley, California farmland
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Two minor earthquakes a few minutes apart shook farmland in the southern San Joaquin Valley and wilderness east of Silicon Valley.
The U.S. Geological Survey website had thousands of reports of people feeling a magnitude-3.9 quake that struck at 9:39 a.m. Monday and was centered 9 miles (15 kilometers) northeast of San Jose.
The Santa Clara County sheriff's department says there was minor shaking but it didn't receive any calls.
The Geological Survey says a magnitude-3.8 temblor hit three minutes earlier 21 miles (34 kilometers) south of Bakersfield.
The Kern County sheriff's office says it didn't receive calls on the slightly smaller quake.
The epicenters were about 200 miles (322 kilometers) apart.


text:
Product 14/42
Moncler Sales provide many beautiful and warm style clothes for every customer. Unique design of Moncler Clothes shows your grace and fashional. Moncler LUICE Pop Star Long Down Jacket is style product for 2011,that they delivery you full protection and warm style.
Filler:White goose downStyle:Business or leisureStyle segments:EnglandNeck Type:Removable capFabric Category:Pure clothLining Material:PolyesterFabric Material:NylonColor:Blue


text:
One unexpected idea on US President Barack Obama's to-do list is a new public pension powered by behavioral economics.
Obama touted the MyRA, a "new savings bond" for private-sector workers who don't have pensions (which is most or them) or tax-advantaged retirement investments like 401ks and IRAs (about 40%). More broadly, more than half of Americans aren't saving enough money to maintain the standard of living they enjoy during their working life, even with the help of federal Social Security benefits.
The president will issue an executive order allowing Treasury to create the new savings plan where workers can automatically direct a certain portion of their income into 30-year savings bonds, tax-free. Drawing on one of the most widely-touted findings in behavioral economics, Obama wants to make it so that money is deducted from paychecks before workers receive them, and the investment accounts will steadily grow without any active decision-making required.
MyRA is designed to be used by private-sector companies as a "starter savings account" for middle-class families. It appears similar to a plan underway in California that would pool worker savings into a $6.6 billion pension fund.
The Reinharts and Rogoffs of the world will no doubt be crying "financial repression," but the move could protect small savers from the fees charged by Wall Street fund managers that might otherwise make setting aside a nest egg less advantageous. Millions of workers could be included in the program, and they will reportedly be able to transfer their savings out of US debt and into other assets without penalty, though withdrawing from the fund before retirement would incur fees.
The Obama administration would really like to create a broader program that automatically sets aside a portion of all worker savings into an IRA, unless they opt out of it. But that would require authorization from lawmakers in Congress, which is an unlikely proposition at best.


text:
Suggestions to improve your search
- Check the spellings of all words
- Try different keywords
- Try more general keywords
- Try fewer keywords
Your search for "Rough Cut" Jamie Shovlin found no results. | Search Help
Try changing the ordering from 'Newest' to 'Relevance', use the filters to refine the results or search again using quotation marks to search for an exact phrase - e.g. "Bladerunner 2049".
Screen International is the essential resource for the international film industry. Subscribe now for monthly editions, awards season weeklies, access to the Screen International archive and supplements including Stars of Tomorrow and World of Locations.Find out more


text:
[Colin Furze] is just showing off in this picture. His pulse jet tea kettle is built well enough to get by without help from a blow torch, but who can blame his showmanship? In fact, once it's running there's no flame to be seen. That's because the combustion happens at an earlier stage of that pipe, heating a segment that is submerged in water so that you may have your tea in no time.
Once this thing is tuned up it roars like a robotic lion. [Colin] yells his commentary at the camera, but it is picked up as nothing more than a blip of distortion. Pressurized propane and air both feed into the jet. they're regulated by the two knobs on the base of the unit (that enclosure is actually just a pie tin). There is also a 9V battery-powered igniter built into the base. You can see how the unit was built in the video after the break.
[Thanks Manicphase]


text:
This program has been archived.
Cracking the Olfactory Code (Olfactory) Crosscutting Programs
Cracking the Olfactory Code Awards
The Cracking the Olfactory Code Awards press release is available. Click here for details.
|Krastan B. Blagoev
|Mary Ann Horn
|Anne M. Maglia
|Sridhar Raghavachari
|Edda . Thiels
PROGRAM GUIDELINESSolicitation 15-547
Important Information for Proposers
A revised version of the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 22-1), is effective for proposals submitted, or due, on or after October 4, 2021. Please be advised that, depending on the specified due date, the guidelines contained in NSF 22-1 may apply to proposals submitted in response to this funding opportunity.
Olfaction is an evolutionarily primitive sense critical for survival across the animal kingdom – finding food, searching for mates, or avoiding predation all depend on detecting, identifying, and discriminating odors. Although early steps in olfactory processing are relatively well understood, significant gaps remain in our understanding of higher-order odor representations and processing during on-going behavior. Deciphering the operating principles of olfaction requires the development of innovative and integrative approaches that combine novel theoretical frameworks, improved mathematical models, and novel behavioral paradigms across the phylogenetic spectrum, experimental methodologies, and engineering principles.
This solicitation describes an Ideas Lab on "Cracking the Olfactory Code." Ideas Labs are intensive workshops focused on finding innovative solutions to grand challenge problems. The ultimate aim of this Ideas Lab organized by the Biological Sciences (BIO) and the Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) Directorates at the National Science Foundation (NSF) is to facilitate the generation and execution of innovative research projects aimed at understanding the nature of olfactory processing and sensory representations in the brain in general. The aspiration is that mixing researchers from diverse scientific backgrounds will engender fresh thinking and innovative approaches that will transform our understanding of olfactory processing in behavioral contexts while spawning new opportunities to elucidate the general nature of sensory representations in the brain.
This multi-directorate program is one element of NSF's multi-year effort towards the goals of the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative (http://www.nsf.gov/brain/). US researchers may submit preliminary proposals only via FastLane for participation in the Ideas Lab in which a set of multidisciplinary ideas will be developed. These multidisciplinary ideas will be submitted as full proposals.
What Has Been Funded (Recent Awards Made Through This Program, with Abstracts)


text:
About BrokersAndSellers.com
Our Story: A Tale of Frustration
The absolute best deals available for purchasing a vehicle have always been on cars that have a rebuilt title. These types of vehicles are considered totaled by insurance companies for a variety of reasons, many of which don't affect the drivability of the car. These vehicles can be restored back to like-new condition and given a rebuilt title.
While newer cars and trucks with rebuilt titles can be purchased for unheard of prices, the process of finding and checking out a potential vehicle can be nothing short of an experiment in frustration. Searching various classified websites or responding to personal ads online or on Craigslist is time-consuming and very inconvenient. It can also be a bit unnerving to meet with total strangers in random gas stations or parking lots.
It's often impossible to find photos of the original damage to the vehicle and it can be difficult to take the car to a mechanic for an inspection. The time and effort that can go into the process can leave people feeling helpless and frustrated.
That's why we started BrokersandSellers.com. We wanted to have a place where customers could save thousands buying professionally rebuilt vehicles with a paper trail and a history report. Our customers can shop for great deals on solid vehicles in the comfort and safety of a professional car dealership. No more searching through classified ads.
Every day, we help people find quality vehicles at very affordable prices in one convenient location, all backed by a warranty. It's a great feeling to help people save so much time, money, and frustration.
Mission Statement: Trust and Value
Our mission is to revolutionize the rebuilt vehicle marketplace by making it a safe environment for customers to purchase quality vehicles at prices that are up to 50% off retail. Our goal is to ensure that every customer enjoys significant savings on a reliable vehicle they will be able to depend on. Trust and value are the cornerstones of who we are and everything that we do.
Our Vision: A New Way
In our quest to become the premiere dealer of rebuilt title vehicles, we are committed to providing our customers with solutions to all of their automotive needs. Our goal is to be your one-stop location where you can buy a professionally rebuilt vehicle, take care of all its servicing needs, export it across the country or across the globe, or sell it via consignment when you're ready to upgrade. When you experience the convenience and savings we offer our customers, you'll realize there's no reason to go anywhere else.


text:
Privacy Policy
We know that you buy our products and services and use our Website because you trust us. This notice explains how we protect your privacy and treat your personal information. It applies to current and former customers. "Personal information" here means anything we know about you personally.
Protecting Your Information
We take important steps to protect your personal information. We treat it as confidential. We tell our employees to take care in handling it.We limit access to those who need it to perform their jobs. Our outside service providers must also protect it, and use it only to meet our business needs. We also take steps to protect our systems from unauthorized access. We comply with all laws that apply to us. Anytime we transact your confidential information via email, we use a proven encrypted email provider.
Collecting Your Information
The types of Personal Information we collect and share depend on the product or service you have with us. This information can include:
- Social Security Number
- Insurance Claim History
How We Get Your Information
We get your personal information mostly from you. We may also use outside sources to help ensure our records are correct and complete.
Using Your Information
We collect your personal information to help us decide if you're eligible for our products or services. We may also need it to verify identities to help deter fraud, money laundering, or other crimes. How we use this information depends on what products and services you have or want from us. It also depends on what laws apply to those products and services. For example, we may also use your information to:
- process claims and other transactions
- perform business research
- confirm or correct your information
- market new products to you
- help us run our business
- comply with applicable laws
Opting Out
You may tell us not to share your information with our affiliates for their own marketing purposes or unaffiliated business partners as part of a joint marketing arrangement. Even if you don't "opt out", we will not share your information with unaffiliated companies for their own marketing purposes without a joint marketing arrangement. You can also "opt out" anytime by contacting us at email@example.com.
Non-Personal User Content
Owner may use user submitted content such as ratings, reviews, feedback ("User Content") in a number of different ways, including displaying it on the Website, reformatting it, incorporating it into other works, creating derivative works from it, promoting it, or distributing it. Accordingly, you irrevocably grant Owner permission to use your User Content for any purpose. You also irrevocably grant the Website users the right to access User Content in connection with their use of the Website.
You assume all risks associated with User Content, including reliance on its accuracy, completeness or usefulness, or any disclosure by you of information in your User Content that makes you personally identifiable. You may not imply that User Content is in any way sponsored or endorsed by Owner.
Owner cannot and does not review all User Content feedback, nor does it have any control over the same. Under no circumstances shall Owner be held responsible or liable for any claims or damages arising out of any reviews or feedback.
Owner may remove, edit or reinstate User Content at our sole discretion.
We use cookies and log files to: (a) store information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your next visit to the Website; (b) provide custom, personalized content and information; (c) monitor the effectiveness of our services; and (d) monitor metrics such as total number of visitors and pages viewed.
Accessing and Correcting Your Information
You may ask us for a copy of the personal information we have about you. Generally, we will provide it as long as it is reasonably retrievable and within our control. You must make your request in writing. For legal reasons, we may not show you anything we learned as part of a claim or lawsuit, unless required by law.
If you tell us what we know about you is incorrect, we will review it. If we agree, we will update our records. Otherwise, you may dispute our findings in writing, and we will include your statement whenever we give your disputed information to anyone else.
We want you to understand how we protect your privacy. If you have any questions about this notice, please contact us. When you write, include your name, address, and policy or account number.
Send privacy questions to:
- email@example.com
- Jackson Dieken & Associates
27893 Clemens Road
Westlake, OH 44145
Please note that this Privacy Policy may change from time to time. If we make any material changes, we will notify you as required by law.


text:
Playlist Creator & Web Marketer
Bio: Playlist Creator & Web Marketer. The son of a church organist father and pianist mother, South African born Brian Currin grew up surrounded by music. In his pre-teen years he realised that he had no real talent for playing music and he couldn't sing, so he immersed himself in the world of music by listening, exploring and researching. Which he still does today.
He served in the military for five years, then spent many years in corporate sales and marketing until his involvement in the re-discovery of Rodriguez, opened up a whole new world for him.
He was the Content Editor for Rhythm Online, South Africa's first online music store, from 2006 to 2012.
He ran Mabu Vinyl, the iconic music store seen in the Oscar-winning "Searching For Sugar Man" film from 2013 to 2019. His voice could be heard on the streaming radio station All Jazz Radio where he hosted the Vagabond Show from 2012 to 2019.
He is very involved in promoting South African music, and is the co-owner of a number of music-related websites including www.rock.co.za which he founded in 1999..
Check out Brian's write up of each of these albums by clicking here.


text:
What is: XML Sitemap
A sitemap is a file where you provide information about the pages, videos, and other files on your site, and the relationships between them.
Search engines like Google read this file to more intelligently crawl your site. A sitemap tells Google which pages and files you think are essential to your site. Also, it provides valuable information about these files: for example, pages, when the page was last updated, how often the page is changed, and any alternate language versions of a page.


text:
Ramallah: Heavy clashes have erupted between the Palestinian public and their security apparatus in Nablus and the northern areas of the West Bank in protests against the Palestinian government's decision to delete electricity debts and to financially pardon the residents of the refugee camps.
Hundreds of angry Palestinians flocked to the streets, burning tires, blocking the main roads and roundabouts and clashing with the Palestinian security apparatus which requested back-up all over the northern areas of the West Bank.
Palestinian demonstrators threw stones and empty glass bottles at security forces which fired live bullets in the air and tear gas bombs toward the demonstrators. More than 50 Palestinians, both demonstrators and the security forces, have been wounded and rushed to hospitals.
Under the theme of "cover all the needy people", thousands of Palestinian members of the public are expected to take part in the demonstrations which are spreading city by city and village by village.
The municipalities of the northern cities of the West Bank have announced a three-day general strike in protest of the decision which covered only the residents of the refugee camps and excluded residents of the villages and cities. The municipalities of Nablus, Tulkarem, Qalqilia, Salfit, Jenin along with all the local councils of their villages have been closed since the government's decision was put in place at the beginning of the year 2013. Tuesday was an official holiday and those municipalities will be closed on Wednesday and Thursday.
According to the Palestinian government's agreement, which Dr Salam Fayyad signed with the popular committee of the refugee camps, the residents of the refugee camps will be pardoned from paying their outstanding electricity debts which will be deleted up to the end of the last year — December 31, 2012.
The municipalities of the northern West Bank cities announced that the government agreement with the refugee camps lacked social justice as almost all the Palestinian residents were in debt to municipalities and it was unfair to relieve the residents of the refugee camps and leave the residents of the villages and cities without any privileges.
"All Palestinian residents should be treated equally and fairly — this is a social must," said Othman Dawoud, Qalqilia Mayor.
"The latest government agreement to delete the debts of the residents of the refugee camps has created a serious problem with the city's residents of whom more than 70 per cent hold UNRWA cards," he told Gulf News. "Social justice, especially with the needy Palestinians in the cities and villages was totally missing when the government signed this agreement with the refugee camps," he stressed.
The residents of Qalqilia owe more than 100 million Shekels to their municipality. "Now we have a problem and the government should pay bigger attention to the residents of the cities and provide them with social justice," he said.


text:
We'd all sit around and watch her fuse burn down, speculating about the burn rate. Then we'd chart out the expected end, with an ongoing betting pool that you would not believe.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Our Lucy
We'd all sit around and watch her fuse burn down, speculating about the burn rate. Then we'd chart out the expected end, with an ongoing betting pool that you would not believe.
49 comments:
Alright, who died?ReplyDelete
Nonetheless, it's okay, and you don't have to use sex to feel alive, you know.
You already are, and you are living it, for a long time to come.Replies
About 144,000 people died today alone.Delete
Another 144,000 will die tomorrow.
The pics for some reason made me think of Margaret Atwood's Surfacing. And the tagging makes me think of individuation. Maybe also the tagging happens when we realise we're not immortal and we start creating in earnest.ReplyDeleteReplies
I'm not sure what this one is really about, actually. I just write them.Delete
But our theory sounds as good as any. I sort of get a "tag, you're it" sensation as the older generations die off. You know, like your grandparents die and your parents' generation moves up one stage closer to the cliff?
And if I can remember twenty years BACK, I can kind of picture what moving twenty years FORWARD will be like.
It's truly better to flame out than to fade away...ReplyDelete
too early in the week to do Neil YoungReplies
The king is gone but he's not forgotten. This is the story of Johnny Rotten.Delete
- AnonymousNovember 22, 2012 at 4:40 AM
Katy, did you know that Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where lies and hypocrisy governs literally every aspect of peoples lives even more that it does in America, we should have taken all that oil by force in 1945, think about how much easier and pleasant life would be for 300 million Americans now it we had.ReplyDelete
God, after reading this dammit, I'm contemplating quitting. You're so freaking good at blogging, I don't know why I bother with barf and fart jokes. This was really really great. A beautiful tribute to Lucy.ReplyDeleteReplies
Plus, there were pictures of tits!Delete
Thanks, Pickleope! My problem is that I have a very short attention span, and I need to change up my tone and writing style and subject matter weekly or else I lose interest. So next week's could just as easily be barf and fart jokes.
Since you admitted to a stream-of-consciousness post, here's a SOC reply:ReplyDelete
- Reading that first comment was eerie. Not because it was so profound - but because your response was more or less what was going through my head as I read it ("...about 150,000 people are gonna die today. Tomorrow doesn't look good, either...")
- Anyone who can finish a Neil Young quote is worthy of some form of worship.
- I've probably got one of those stamps, too. I've known a few who were capable of doing so; likely in the night while I was sleeping.
- Boobies are cool. Thanks for the pics.
- When I go, I either want (1) to be completely surprised; (2) explode in sparks and fireworks, thus being memorable; (3) both.
Haha... Being completely surprised sounds good.Delete
Years ago, I wrote a novel-length story about people dying and going to an Afterlife Fair where they got to choose where they'd go for all eternity.
I was trying to figure out how to get them there. A friend suggested just having them turn off like a radio here in this world and turn back on in buzz and hubbub of the Fair.
I didn't use the idea, but thought it WOULD have that great element of surprise.
Surprise! You're dead!
My High Concept pitch for this story: Joanna Russ meets Kurt Vonnegut ... plus, there are pictures of tits!ReplyDeleteReplies
Haha... It's funny you mention Vonnegut in this context. I think his perennial writer character, Kilgore Trout, ONLY got stories published in "open beaver" magazines.Delete
So Trout and I have that in common: Few readers, most of whom are just there to see pics of naked women.
I can live with that!
If you can live with that then I predict you will go far. I remember the first time I ever wrote a story that really excited me - I realized that the three key ingredients were aliens, sex, and guns (not necessarily in that order). Of course it must be done just right.Delete
That would make the movie "Species" the perfect piece of writing: An alien disguised as a gorgeous blonde on a mad scramble to mate with as many human men as possible while being pursued by the government.Delete
Ahh yes, our expiration date. No one knows where or when... I suspect they use that invisible ink like they used to use at Disneyland (the old one in California) when you left the park. Somewhere we all have a Mickey Mouse stamp that is only visible under UV or IR light, or maybe it magically appears when in the presence of 2nd hand smoke from a sacred bong. These mystics are a tricky bunch.ReplyDelete
I love the philosophical bent you are one, especially when mixing with topless photos. That is how one appeals to both of your reader groups.Replies
Thanks, Brent. You know, the interesting thing is, I've only been spending about 10th the amount of time on planning these blogs as I normally do. So they've just been sort of taking on a direction of their own without me getting in the way.Delete
It is therefore sort of weird that you see the spontaneous writing as being ore philosophical!
Expiration dates: It's like a monster movie! Have you ever looked at an old group photo of your extended family and thought about how much time the people had left at the time the pic was taken? It's like a monster movie where you try and guess at the start what order the characters will get eaten.
Intentional or not, you are on a good run. Sometimes the best way is to just let it happen. I was stuck on a story until I spent 3 hours driving across OK on the turnpike last week. Better to not overthink things and (for me) too much detail gets in the wayDelete
I like the monster movie analogy. All I can remember is the girl who has sex or goes skinny dipping always gets eaten first.
The sexually impure gets eaten first. This can also mean the lesbian.Delete
...Especially since it's no longer kosher to kill off the black dude first. That monster needs to eat something...
I had a great response about the lesbians being eaten by the monster first sounded like a bad horror/gay/porn fusion but apparently the iPhone monster decided to eat it first.Delete
I also had a off topic commentary about bad poetry and drum circles at the local coffee shop but dang if I can remember it all.
This was an interesting blog and showed some introspection. It's always hard when someone you know passes on to the other side. It does remind us of our own mortality.ReplyDelete
Most of my blogs were stream of consciousness. When I started a blog I rarely knew what it was going to be about or how it would end. On occasion I would go back and put a sentence or two where "it was supposed to be," but not very often. What seemed to attract my readers was honesty in my writing. They seemed to like that I spoke from the heart.Replies
You always come across as very sincere and thoughtful when you write.Delete
You can also hit politics and religion, which I sort of skirt at the edge of... When I hit politics or philosophy or religion too directly, I always feel as though I'm preaching, and that just ruins it for me.
I try not to be too "preachy," but I'm sure that many of my blogs came off that way. I try to consider the feelings of others and try to share what I've learned in life with those who might be interested. If people haven't learned anything from my blogs, I just hope that they helped a few people get through a difficult moment in their lives... even if it was by laughing at me.Delete
You need to blog more, then!Delete
Kathy and Cal - thanks for the brain food - my way of saying thanksReplyDelete
For many years it's been my custom to listen to Alice's Restaurant on Thanksgiving. Lets take a trip to Alice's Restaurant. Where we can part take in a neat and groovy blast from the past.
Thanksgiving - Alice's Restaurant
This blog had Lucy and the sky, but it was missing one thing.ReplyDelete
OK, so no diamonds. But I promise never to go the "Say Say Say" or "Ebony and Ivory" route in fifteen years.Delete
That ought to balance things out!
Okay, I did read this, just like I said I would. But also as predicted, I did not bring it up at the Thanksgiving dinner table. I'm still pondering it though. It's very good.ReplyDeleteReplies
Thank you, Alex. I had to make up for that awful one I wrote last week.Delete
Of course, almost all of my writing is a reaction against whatever I wrote immediately before it.
Your family would have loved it, though.
Ok. It could very well be the mood that I am in right now...LONG STORY...but I feel very sad yet totally uplifted after reading that. I so love the way you write, by the way. That's all.ReplyDeleteReplies
I hope you feel better. We are, after all, supposed to be entering into the most wonderful time of the year.Delete
"Uplifted" is good, though. I can accept "uplifted"!
Katy, I was in such a bad place when I read this, and it really did make me feel better. Thank you. xxDelete
Cool. People seem to have been in an awful mood this week, generally.Delete
I have gotten bawled out more than usual...
Things are going to get better, though!
Yeah...I was kind of expecting it. Last year was tougher (don't know if you know the story, but it involves a still birth and I still have a hard time with it). I had so many people telling me "You should just appreciate the two you have" and all I could think was "Yeah, thanks...that why I wanted another.". And it all started the weekend after Thanksgiving. So I got scared when it seemed to be happening again. I'm sure I will have a moment here or there, but I hope it won't be as bad as it was last year. I was ready to throw the tree in the fireplace and be done. You don't have to publish this little bit of sadness, but I really did want you to know how much I appreciate you!!Delete
Comment here are like messages in bottles - not much threat of anyone reading them except for me.Delete
"A moment here and there" is to be expected. I go a week or even two where I feel great and think I'm making progress and then - in an instant - it's as though all my gains have evaporated.
If people can bring a little bit of light into each other's lives, this is a good thing. Things can be awful otherwise.
I too was waiting for some reference of diamonds after all this talk of Lucy and the sky. I'm kinda glad you didn't.ReplyDelete
Also, it's not about the expiration date, it's about when you get thrown out. This sour box of milk looks forward to hanging around in the fridge long after he's worn out his welcome.Replies
I can't think of anything better than being so old and beat up that I can get away with saying anything.Delete
I'm going to get gold caps on my teeth and sit around on a rocking chair handing out pearls of wisdom to the neighbor kids.
This was a great read...and not just because it has pics of tits!ReplyDelete
It has left me wondering "What the hell does it all mean?" Perhaps there is no meaning...perhaps the meaning remains obscure to those without a keen eye to see it...perhaps I'm trying to read too much into a blog post that was so well written!
Either way, we all have an expiration date. I'd rather not know mine. Some people shine so bright that everyone knows when they are going to blow. Me, I'm just a dimly lit lamp in the corner of the room.Replies
I have no idea what this one means, frankly. I'm always ecstatic when I can just start typing and then go back later and try to figure out why I wrote what i wrote.Delete
It might have some meaning I'm not aware of!
I think I'm fine with being the dim lamp in the corner, too. I'm for whatever it takes for people to leave me the hell alone, haha...
- AnonymousNovember 29, 2012 at 6:22 PM
Katy, the uncut version of Robert Aldrichs 1976 masterwork "TWILIGHTS LAST GLEAMING" is back on YouTube, you`ve got to nip over there right now and watch it. By the way, Merry Christmas little darlin`.ReplyDelete
- Edgar Allen PoeDecember 1, 2012 at 12:01 PM
Once upon a midnite dreary, while i pondered weak and weary, suddenly there came a tapping, as of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. Tis` that amazing little sex-pot Katy Anders i muttered, so i let her in and buggered her senseless.ReplyDelete
- otis rampaging heterosexualityDecember 4, 2012 at 3:53 PM
Isn`t it about time for another post Katy ! ?. Preferably a lovely, cuddly, fluffy, cosy, Christmassy one ! ?.ReplyDeleteReplies
I posted one tonight. I will be posting more this month - going t have some time off work to write finally!Delete
- teddy crescendoDecember 4, 2012 at 3:56 PM
on5464, you obviously have no appreciation for the magic of Poe, you are a ludicrous fart who doesn`t know their arse from their elbow ! ! !.ReplyDelete


text:
Browse Newsroom
- 2 results found
- (-) Australia
- (-) Libya
- (-) Peru
- (-) Market Development
- Clear all
December 17, 2019
Under Secretary McKinney Discusses 2020 USDA Ag Trade Missions
Seven USDA-led Agricultural Trade Missions are scheduled for next year in continuing efforts to increase export opportunities. USDA Radio's Rod Bain talks to Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Ted McKinney about the 2020 trade...
By organizing and executing agricultural trade missions, USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) is helping U.S. exports thrive around the world. In 2011 alone, USDA led 57 U.S. agribusinesses on missions to Peru, Indonesia, Vietnam, Colombia and...


text:
7025 Knightdale Blvd
Knightdale, NC 27545
Posted: October 3, 2023
Follow GIENC on social media for Job Updates, Career Tips, and more!
We at Goodwill Industries of Eastern North Carolina, Inc. believe that every person has the opportunity to achieve his/her fullest potential and participate in and contribute to all aspects of life. Goodwill works to enhance the dignity and quality of life of individuals and families by strengthening communities, eliminating barriers to opportunity and helping people in need reach their full potential through learning and the power of work.
35 hours per week, $15 per hour plus excellent benefits. Day, night, and weekend availability required. Some heavy lifting is required for this position. Assist donors and customers, loading and unloading bags, boxes, furniture and larger items from vehicles. Light janitorial duties. Apply in person only at the Goodwill Industries of Eastern NC, Inc. (7025 Knightdale Blvd, Knightdale, NC 27545) or online at www.gienc.org/careers. No telephone calls please. EOE/Drug-free Workplace.


text:
Green Choice Parts
Millions of tons of electronics that are returned by end users or otherwise unsaleable are loaded with perfectly good, functioning parts that can be harvested rather than sent to landfills. Encompass reclaims and markets these parts through our Green Choice Parts program as an environmentally-friendly, less costly alternative to OEM replacement parts for Consumer Electronics, Appliances, Computers and Printers.
Green is Good
Green Choice Parts are harvested from damaged consumer electronics products for use in out-of-warranty or extended warranty repairs. Available components include printed circuit boards, speaker assemblies, power supply and more from top brands such as LG, Sony, Philips, Samsung, Vizio and Panasonic, as well as a large selection of name brand appliance and computer products.
Green Choice Parts cost as much as 25% less than genuine parts but deliver the same reliability. Encompass offers a 180-day warranty on defective/in-warranty returns to further instill confidence in the parts. Professional servicers and third-party administrators benefit from high-quality parts at a discount, while also helping to protect the environment. Through Green Choice Parts, Encompass annually prevents about 7,500 pounds of e-waste from ending up in landfills.
How to Find Green Choice Parts
If a Green Choice Parts equivalent is available for a particular part number, it will be listed on the Encompass parts search results page along with component details and photos. Look for the Green Choice Parts icon and a distinctive "moo" alerting users to the availability of Green Choice Parts as an alternative to a new OEM part.


text: Studio portrait of a boy wearing quirky goggles Dana Pugh of Calgary, Alberta, Canada photographs children and families on location and in studio for commercial and portrait clients. Her images are modern, quirky and emotional while being documentary in nature. She is a Canadian commercial and editorial photographer specializing in candid lifestyle photography. Studio and on location portraits available.


text:
23 S.Ct. 170
47 L.Ed. 266
MOBILE TRANSPORTATION COMPANY, Plff. in Err.,
No. 62.
Argued November 3, 1902.
Decided January 5, 1903.
This was an action in ejectment brought in the state circuit court by the city of Mobile against the Mobile Transportation Company, to recover a portion of the shore and bed of the Mobile river in the city of Mobile, between high-water mark and the channel line or point of practical navigability.
In support of its title the city relied upon the following acts:
1. An act of Congress approved March 2, 1819, entitled 'An Act to Enable the People of the Alabama Territory to Form a Constitution and State Government, and for the Admission of Such State into the Union on an Equal Footing with the Original States.' 3 Stat. at L. 489, chap. 47.
2. An ordinance of the convention of Alabama adopted August 2, 1819, accepting the proposition offered by Congress. Ala. Code 1876, p. 68.
3. A resolution of Congress of December 14, 1819, declaring the admission of the state into the Union, with a Constitution which had been adopted by the state. 3 Stat. at L. 608.
4. An act of the general assembly of Alabama, approved January 31, 1867, entitled 'An Act Granting the City of Mobile the Riparian Rights in the River Front.' Acts of 1866-67, p. 307.
5. An act of the assembly, approved February 18, 1895, entitled 'An Act to fix the Right of the City of Mobile to Certain Real Estate.' Acts of 1894-95, p. 815.
6. An act approved December 5, 1896 (Acts 1896, p. 49), amending the last act.
Several acts respecting the incorporation of the city of Mobile, unnecessary to be considered, were also offered in evidence. It was admitted that defendant was in possession of the lands.
Defendant pleaded the statute of limitations, and offered in evidence certain 'documents, legislative and executive, of the Congress of the United States, in relation to the public lands, from the first session of the First Congress to the first session of the Twenty-third Congress,' and particularly that relating to the claim of one Regis Bernoudy, who claimed under a Spanish grant made March 3, 1792, to Joseph Munora, together with evidence of the report of the Land Commissioner in favor of his claim, and a patent of the United States dated December 28, 1836, to the assignees of Bernoudy, wherein it was recited that the claim of Bernoudy (entered as No. 11) was affirmed, had been surveyed, and was by such title granted unto his assignees. The defendant also offered an unbroken chain of deeds from these assignees to the transportation company, as well as proof of an adverse possession of the lands described in the complaint, under a color of right, for twenty years before bringing suit.
All this evidence was excluded by the circuit court, whose action in that particular was affirmed by the supreme court of the state. 128 Ala. 335, 30 So. 645.
Messrs. Frederic G. Bromberg, William B. Putney, and Eugene H. Lewis, for plaintiff in error.
Messrs. Harry T. Smith and Gregory L. Smith for defendant in error.
Mr. Justice Brown delivered the opinion of the court:
1. Motion was made to dismiss this writ of error for the want of a Federal question, but in view of the fact that defendant's title depends upon a Spanish grant claimed to have been perfected under the treaty of 1819 between the United States and the King of Spain (8 Stat. at L. 252), and a patent of the United States dated December 28, 1836, in alleged confirmation of such claim, we do not see how such motion can be sustained, unless upon the theory that the Federal questions so raised are frivolous and undeserving of further notice. We are of opinion that they cannot be so considered, and the motion to dismiss must therefore be denied.
There are fifty-eight assignments of error, none of which require separate consideration, since all turn upon the respective titles of the parties to the land in question. As the plaintiff in an action of ejectment is bound to recover upon the strength of his own title, we shall first consider the several objections made to the title of the city.
2. That the state of Alabama, when admitted into the Union, became entitled to the soil under the navigable waters, below high-water mark within the limits of the state, not previously granted, was so conclusively settled by this court in Pollard v. Hagan, 3 How. 212, 11 L. ed. 565, as to need no further consideration. This was also an action of ejectment for lands below high-water mark in the city of Mobile. The plaintiffs insisted that, by the compact between the United States and Alabama, on her admission into the Union, it was agreed that the people of Alabama forever disclaimed all right or title to the waste or unappropriated lands lying within the state, that the same should remain at the sole disposal of the United States; and that all the navigable waters within the state should forever remain public highways; and hence, that the lands under the navigable waters, and the public domain above high water, were alike reserved to the United States, and alike subject to be sold by them; and that to give any other construction to these compacts would be to yield up to Alabama, and the other new states, all the public land within their limits. This court, however, held that, when Alabama was admitted into the Union, on an equal footing with the original states, she succeeded to all the rights of sovereignty, jurisdiction, and eminent domain which Georgia possessed at the time she ceded the territory of Alabama to the United States, and that nothing remained to the latter, according to the terms of the agreement, but the public lands. In summing up its conclusions the court held: 'First, the shores of navigable waters, and the soils under them, were not granted by the Constitution to the United States, but were reserved to the states respectively. Secondly, the new states have the same rights, sovereignty, and jurisdiction over this subject as the original states. Thirdly, the right of the United States to the public lands, and the power of Congress to make all needful rules and regulations for the sale and disposition thereof, conferred no power to grant to the plaintiffs the land in controversy in this case.'
The supreme court of Alabama having approved a charge to the jury that 'if they believed the premises sued for were below the usual high-water mark, at the time Alabama was admitted into the Union, then the act of Congress' (passed in July, 1836, confirming the title of the plaintiff), 'and the patent in pursuance thereof, could give the plaintiffs no title,' its judgment was affirmed. The opinion of the court was pronounced in 1844.
Prior to this time, however, and in 1839, the supreme court of Alabama in the case of Mobile v. Eslava, 9 Port. (Ala.) 577, 33 Am. Dec. 325, had also held that the navigable waters within that state, having been dedicated to the use of the citizens of the United States, it was not competent for Congress to grant a right of property in the same, and that the navigable waters extended, not only to low water, but embraced all the soil within the limits of high-water mark. This case was also affirmed by this court (16 Pet. 234, 10 L. ed. 948), though the case as here presented did not turn upon the rights of the state to land beneath its navigable waters below high-water mark.
This was also declared to be the doctrine of the supreme court of Alabama as late as 1853, when in Magee v. Doe ex dem. Hallett, 22 Ala. 699, it was held that, if the Mobile river were the eastern boundary of the grants in question, the lines could not, under the decisions of that court, as well as those of the Supreme Court of the United States, extend beyond high-water mark at that time, citing Pollard v. Hagan, 3 Ala. 291, Affirmed, as above stated, in 3 How. 212, 11 L. ed. 565; Abbot v. Doe ex dem. Kennedy, 5 Ala. 393, and Goodtitle v. Kibbe, 9 How. 471, 13 L. ed. 220. This last case was little more than an affirmance of Pollard v. Hagan.
On January 31, 1867, the general assembly of Alabama passed 'An Act Granting the City of Mobile the Riparian Rights in the River Front,' the first section of which enacted that 'the shore and the soil under Mobile river, situated within the boundary lines of the city of Mobile, as defined and set forth in § 2 of an act to incorporate the city of Mobile, approved February 2, 1866, be and the same is hereby granted and delivered to the city of Mobile.'
'Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, That the mayor, aldermen, and common council of the city of Mobile be and they are hereby created and declared trustees to hold, possess, direct, control, and manage the shore and soil herein granted, in such manner as they may deem best for the public good.'
In Boulo v. New Orleans, N. & T. R. Co. 55 Ala. 480, decided in 1875, it was also held that the title to the shore of all tidewater streams resides in the state, for the benefit of the public, and its use by the public for the purpose of commerce was not only permissible, but in accordance with the trust annexed to the title. The place in controversy was a slip beneath two wharves, but whether it was covered at high tide by the water of the river was a fact about which the evidence conflicted, though the court inclined to the opinion that land had been formed which was not usually covered by water at high tide. It was held the title was in the state.
In Williams v. Glover, 66 Ala. 189, part of the land in controversy was an island in the Tennessee river. Some 12 acres of the tract lay between high and low water marks, and was covered with water in high floods. The court held that the ownership of the plaintiff extended to the margin of the water at its ordinary stage, and hence embraced the land between high and low water marks. As the Tennessee river is not a tidal stream, but empties into the Mississippi far to the north of Alabama, the court in using the words 'between high and low water marks' must have had reference to the difference between the river at floods and at its ordinary stage. No reference was made to the prior authorities respecting tide waters.
In Demopolis v. Webb, 87 Ala. 659, 6 So. 408, the case did not turn upon the ownership of land below high-water mark, although the court, in delivering the opinion, said: 'Under our decisions, when a person owns lands on a navigable river his ownership is held to extend so far as to embrace the land between high and low water marks,' citing Williams v. Glover, 66 Ala. 189, which, as before stated, related to land upon an island in the Tennessee river, and not upon a tidal stream. The land in question was in the city of Demopolis, on the Tombigbee river, a navigable stream emptying into the Bay of Mobile, and at this point apparently far above the tidal effect. In the same case afterwards before the court on its merits (Webb v. Demopolis, 95 Ala. 116, 21 L. R. A. 62, 13 So. 289), the court held that whether a grant of the United States to land lying on a navigable stream within the limits of a state extends to high or to low water mark, or to the middle thread of the stream, was not a Federal, but a local, question, citing Barney v. Keokuk, 94 U. S. 324, 24 L. ed. 224; Packer v. Bird, 137 U. S. 661, 34 L. ed. 819, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 210; St. Louis v. Rutz, 138 U. S. 226, 34 L. ed. 941, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 337; Hardin v. Jordan, 140 U. S. 371, 35 L. ed. 428, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 808, 835, and Kaukauna Water Power Co. v. Green Bay & M. Canal Co. 142 U. S. 255, 35 L. ed. 1004, 12 Sup. Ct. Rep. 173, and also held that 'the rule which this state has adopted and declared through this court is that a grant by the United States to land bordering on a navigable river includes the shore or bank of such river, and extends to the water line thereof at low water.' In none of the above cases cited from our reports were the lands situated within tide waters.
Relying upon these cases from the supreme court of Alabama, the transportation company attack the constitutionality of the act of January 31, 1867, conveying to the city of Mobile the shore and soil under Mobile river, 'because the act impairs vested rights, because riparian rights are property, and because the rule in Alabama is that a grant by the United States of lands bordering on a navigable river includes the shore or bank of such river, and extends to the water line at low water.' In this connection the company insists that the decisions above cited constitute a rule of property in the nature of a contract with the owners of land adjacent to the Mobile river, which have been impaired by the construction given to the act of January 31, 1867; but, as we have already noticed, none of the cases related to tidal streams.
In its opinion in this case the supreme court of Alabama seems to admit that in Webb v. Demopolis, and one or two other cases relating to the shore line of streams above the ebb and flow of tide waters, the defendant was correct in supposing that the title of the riparian proprietor extended to low-water mark, but, said the court, 'these cases in nowise conflict with the commonlaw rule, so often approved by this court and other jurisdictions, that on streams where the tide ebbs and flows, grants of adjoining lands only extend to the ordinary high-tide line along the shore. The law is definitely settled as to this point, and it could hardly have been the purpose of the decision in Webb v. Demopolis to disturb this rule of property, supported by a vast array of authorities, without making reference to them.'
But we are of opinion that there is no conflict between the cases in Alabama, inasmuch as the cases which hold that the rights of the riparian proprietor extend only to high-water mark are cases arising upon navigable tide waters, where the rise and fall are of daily occurrence, and not usually subject to much variation in height. In regard to this class of cases the rule laid down by the supreme court of Alabama in Mobile v. Eslava, 9 Port. (Ala.) 577, 33 Am. Dec. 325, that private ownership extends only to high-water mark, has been consistently adhered to ever since, and notably so in Doe ex dem. Kennedy v. Beebe, 8 Ala. 909, 914; Doe ex dem. Pollard v. Greit, 8 Ala. 930, 941; Magee v. Doe ex dem. Hallett, 22 Ala. 699, 719; Abbot v. Kennedy, 5 Ala. 393; Boulo v. New Orleans, M. & T. R. Co. 55 Ala. 480; while, upon the other hand, in the cases which hold that private ownership extends to low-water mark (Bullock v. Wilson, 2 Port. (Ala.) 436; Williams v. Glover, 66 Ala. 189; Demopolis v. Webb, 87 Ala. 659, 6 So. 408, and Webb v. Demopolis, 95 Ala. 116, 21 L. R. A. 62, 13 So. 289), the lands were situated upon a navigable river far above the tidal influence, and high and low water marks were determined, not by the action of the tides, but by the actual rise and fall of the river at different seasons of the year. With regard to this latter class of cases there is a great conflict of authority in the state courts, some holding that the rights of the riparian proprietor are bounded by high-water mark, others by low-water mark, and still others by the thread of the stream. Some of these cases are mentioned in the opinion of Mr. Justice Bradley in Hardin v. Jordan, 140 U. S. 371, 382, 35 L. ed. 428, 433, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 808, 838, and a large number of them are reviewed in part 1, chap. 3, of Gould on Waters, where nearly all the cases seem to be collected.
But even if it were conceded that there had been a change of opinion in Alabama with respect to riparian rights upon tide waters, such change by no means raises a case under the contract clause of the Constitution. The status of real estate within a particular jurisdiction is not so much one of contract as of policy, which may be changed at any time by the legislature, provided no vested rights are disturbed. Of course, if riparian proprietors have acquired the title to the property below high-water mark by a grant or prior possession, good against the state, they could only be dispossessed by proceedings in eminent domain. The act of 1867 declared no more than that the rights possessed by the state in the shore and soil under Mobile river were granted to the city. We see nothing objectionable in this act. What the state held it held as trustee for the public, and it had a right to devolve this trust upon the city of Mobile. What it had not it could not grant, and the rights of the riparian proprietors were neither enlarged nor restricted by the act. If subsequent cases have given any construction at all to that act, of which there seems to be some doubt, such construction would not present a Federal question, and if the supreme court of Alabama had changed its views with respect to the limit of private ownership upon tide waters, its decision in that regard cannot be reviewed by this court. Central Land Co. v. Laidley, 159 U. S. 103, 40 L. ed. 91, 16 Sup. Ct. Rep. 80; Hanford v. Davies, 163 U. S. 273, 41 L. ed. 157, 16 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1051. Upon the whole, we are of opinion that there is no defect upon the face of the title of the city of which the transportation company was entitled to avail itself.
3. We are next to consider whether the defendant has a vested right in these lands which could not be taken from it without compensation or proceedings in eminent domain.
By the eighth article of the treaty between the United States and Spain of February 22, 1819 (8 Stat. at L. 252), 'all the grants of land made before the 24th of January, 1818, by His Catholic Majesty, or by his lawful authorities, in the said territories ceded by His Majesty to the United States, shall be ratified and confirmed to the persons in possession of the lands, to the same extent that the same grants would be valid if the territories had remained under the dominion of His Catholic Majesty.' In support of this alleged grant from the King of Spain, defendant offered in evidence volume 3 of the American State Papers, entitled 'Documents, legislative and executive, of the Congress of the United States in relation to the public lands, from the first session of the First Congress to the first session of the Twenty-third Congress, March 4, 1789, to June 15, 1834.' That part of it relating to the claim of Regis Bernoudy of the land in question is printed in the margin. The difficulty
Register of claims to land in the district east of Pearl river, in Louisiana, founded on private conveyances, which have passed through the office of the commandant, but founded, as the claimant supposes, on grants lost by time or accident.
* * * * *
(Page 30.)
Number ——, 11.
By whom claimed, Regis Bernody.
Original claimant, Joseph Munora.
Where situated, Mobile river.
Quantity claimed, area in arpens, 600.
Cultivation and inhabitation, from 1809 to 1813.
* * * * *
(Page 31.)
(Signed) William Crawford,
Commissioner. with this report is that it contains no grant, but merely a supposition of the claimant that a grant once existed, and had been lost by time or accident. It is needless to say that this is no evidence of an actual grant; but a further, and even more serious, objection to the document is, that it contains no other description of the land granted than that it was 600 arpents in area, and was situated on the Mobile river, but that no survey of the land existed.
Apparently in confirmation of this claim, defendant also offered in evidence a patent of the United States, dated December 28, 1836, wherein it was recited that this claim had been confirmed by acts of Congress passed in 1819 and 1822 [3 Stat. at L. 707, chap. 128], and that it had been surveyed. Referring to these acts of Congress, we find that both contain a proviso that the confirmations and grants provided to be made by the acts 'shall amount only to a relinquishment forever, on the part of the United States, of all right and title whatever to the lots of land so confirmed and granted.' Had this patent been issued before the admission of Alabama into the Union, it would be difficult to see why it did not convey a perfect title; but it was fully settled by this court with respect to these titles in Pollard v. Hagan, 3 How. 212, 11 L. ed. 565; Goodtitle v. Kibbe, 9 How. 471, 13 L. ed. 220, and Doe ex dem. Hallett v. Beebe, 13 How. 25, 14 L. ed. 35, that, inasmuch as all lands below high-water mark had passed to the state of Alabama upon her admission into the Union in 1819, there was nothing left upon which a subsequent patent of the United States could operate.
There are other defenses presented by the record in this case, such as that of estoppel, by reason of improvements made upon this land with the acquiescence of the city, license to build a wharf, and payment of taxes; the unconstitutionality of the act of 1867, because the title of the act does not describe its subject; want of power in the state to convey its title to the city, and the statute of limitations. These, however, are all of a local nature, and present no Federal question.
In connection with the power of the state to convey its interest in these lands to the city, as it attempted to do by the act of 1867, much reliance is placed by the transportation company upon the case of Illinois C. R. Co. v. Illinois, 146 U. S. 387, 36 L. ed. 1018, 13 Sup. Ct. Rep. 110. This case, however, is inapplicable for two reasons: First, it turns upon the power of the state to convey its right to the soil beneath the navigable waters of the state, and, of course, below low-water mark, not to a municipal corporation 'created and declared trustees to hold, possess, direct, control, and manage the shore and soil herein granted in such manner as they may deem best for the public good,' but to a private railroad corporation to hold and control for its own purposes; second, that case came to this court from the circuit court of the United States, which was called upon to declare as an original question what power the state of Illinois had to convey the property in question to the Illinois Central Railroad Company; while this case comes up by writ of error to the supreme court of a state, which has itself put a construction upon an act of its own legislature and upon its conformity to the Constitution of the state. The decision of that court upon these questions is obligatory upon us.
The judgment of the Supreme Court of Alabama is affirmed.
Remarks.—Though the original grants upon which the preceding claims are founded have been lost, yet it is conceived that the claims to such lands, not exceeding a reasonable quantity, as were inhabited and cultivated under the Spanish government, ought to be confirmed.
(Signed) William Crawford,
* * * * *
(Page 400.)
No. 9.
Report on the conflicting claims of Joseph McCandless and Regis Bernody, both of whom claim the same tract of land, and in relation to whose claims the former commissioner reported favorably.
Former Commis.'s Report.
No. of report, 10.
No. of claim, 11.
By whom claimed, Regis Bernody.
Original claimant, Joseph S. Murona.
Nature of claim and from what authority derived, spa. pert. to cert. from commandant; grant lost by time or accident.
Date of claim, 3 March, 1792.
Quantity claimed, area in arpens, 600.
Where situated, Mobile river.
By whom issued, Carondelet.
Surveyed, no survey.
Cultivation and inhabitation, from 1809 to 1813.
* * * * *
Report 10, claim 11.—The claim of Regis Bernody is founded on a conveyance made to him by Joseph Gaspar Munora, at Pensacola, which passed through the office of the commandant, as all authentic conveyances must have done in the Spanish posts of the intendancy, and recognizes the original grant or concession of the same made by the Baron de Carondelet in favor of said Munora on the 3d March, 1792, which grant was produced by Munora on the day of the execution of the conveyance to Bernody. The proof of the inhabitation and cultivation by Bernody (until forcibly expelled by McCandless) is complete, and the inference is strong that Munora,
the grantee, did comply with the essential conditions of the grant, inasmuch as the instructions of Morales expressly charge the 'notaries and commandants not to pass any conveyance of lands where the conditions of the grant were not previously proven to have been complied with; and, independently of this consideration, the declaration of Munora, in the conveyance to Bernody, that it was 'the same land that Antonio Espejo worked with his permission,' made, too, at a time when it could not be imagined that any rival claim would arise, furnishes a violent presumption that the land was inhabited or cultivated by or for Munora agreeably to the Spanish regulations. A full report of all the evidence presented by the conflicting claimants is herewith presented. Upon the best view we have been able to take of the relative merits of these claims, we are decidedly of opinion that the claim of Joseph McCandless ought to be rejected, and that of Regis Bernody confirmed.'
W. Barton, Register.


text:
In the remote reaches of rural areas and developing countries there is continuous demand to accessible solutions that provide reliable, faster, and affordable clinical care. Every day, around the world, approximately 800 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. Of those deaths, 40 percent are due to injuries or conditions related to placenta complications. The only way to detect abnormal placenta challenges is through an ultrasound exam.
In the rural areas of Morocco, previously pregnant women had to wait up to two weeks to obtain the results of a critical obstetric ultrasound, now a new trial shows that local sonography with remote interpretation can reduce turn around time down to 24 hours while decreasing cost from $80 to $2 per study (Read the full story on the Mobile Ultrasound Projects site).
Over 4 weeks, medical professionals drove on a Mobile Ultrasound Patrol caravan to three small villages in rural Morocco (Oulmes, Boulmane, & Ribat el Kheir), using FUJIFILM Sonosite Inc. portable ultrasound devices and Trice Imaging's cloud based image management solution. Local midwives, nurses and doctors performed 575 ultrasounds on expecting mothers and sent the results to be interpreted and diagnosed by physician specialists in 3 larger remote cities.
Ultrasound medicine is experiencing drastic changes, resulting in an absolute paradigm shift. New technologies are disrupting how ultrasound imaging is executed by whom and at what cost, to improve accessibility, and pave the way for new, sustainable models of healthcare economics (Read the full story on the Mobile Ultrasound Projects site).
Qualcomm Wireless Reach, Trice Imaging Inc., FUJIFILM Sonosite Inc., and Sony announced the results of the Mobile Ultrasound Patrol project in Morocco, on June 23rd, to an audience of government and health ministry officials, and news media.
"FUJIFILM Sonosite Inc. congratulates the Trice Imaging team for leading a successful trial and championing this project with support from Qualcomm Wireless Reach and Sony. Our goal in supporting such a well-managed trial was to observe and capture the needs of today to better understand high access and mobile solution requirements that empower medical care workflows to patients who have had none or limited access to healthcare," said Marco Daoura, director of Product Management and Marketing at FUJIFILM Sonosite Inc.
Online links referencing this study:
|• LesECO
• LaNouvelleT
• mHealthNews
• TechnoMag
|• Qualcom site - summary
• Qualcom site - Full report
• QualComm Wireless Reach
• HIT Consultant
|• Medcity News
• LeMatin
• Majalatouki
• DoctiNews
Additional photos:
Connect with us if you have ideas for similar projects, connections or a story to tell.


text:
What's New
Minor bug fixed
Chapter 9 optimisation
App Description
A quest crammed with puzzles in the heart of Paris
Professor Weismann has disappeared.
After arriving in Paris to present his latest invention, the Time Camera, at the Universal Science Congress, Professor Weissmann disappears without a trace.
His daughter, Laura, believes he has been kidnapped. Aided by Eustache, the Professor's cat, Laura sets out on the trail of a mysterious sect, whose symbol is 9 elephants.
The intrepid duo is confronted by a series of challenges, and each has to draw on their powers of invention and deduction to unravel the plot at the heart of this extraordinary adventure.
Follow our two intrepid investigators across Paris as you've never seen it before, a combination of fantasy and the Crazy Years.
Converse with colourful characters with secrets to share.
Solve over 230 puzzles to reveal the secret of the 9 elephants.
Plunge into the heart of the capital, and savour this extraordinary tale featuring a modern art exhibition, poisoned oranges, a magician's cat, a cyclist, an accordion champion, an esoteric conspiracy, the Paris catacombs, the destruction of the Eiffel Tower and... 9 elephants.
- Solve over 230 puzzles with 8 different gameplays
- Explore Paris's most enigmatic locations
- Encounter 20 delightful and mysterious characters,
- including a cat
- Savour the city's fascinating atmosphere
- Zoom in on the puzzles by pinching the screen.
You have a comment, an opinion, a question, a proposition about one of our games or apps?
Join our Facebook fanpage!
You have a technical issue?
Contact [email protected]
App Changes
- April 24, 2014 Initial release
- May 16, 2014 New version 1.2
- May 19, 2014 New version 1.3
- September 22, 2014 Price decrease: $2.99 -> $0.99
- September 25, 2014 Price increase: $0.99 -> $2.99
- November 07, 2015 Price decrease: $2.99 -> $0.99
- November 17, 2015 Price increase: $0.99 -> $2.99


text:
For McElroy, A Vice-"Disrupter"… For Davenport, "An Awesome Dude"
For the first time since 2002, what's now a 1.3 million-member fold in San Diego has a new auxiliary bishop. But if anyone's expecting a clone of the last one, well, have we got news for you.
Six weeks since Bishop Robert McElroy electrified progressive activists (and infuriated conservatives) with a fiery address at a national summit on social justice, at Roman Noon this Wednesday, the Pope bolstered the SoCal prelate's arsenal with the appointment of Fr John Dolan, 54 – the "pastor to the priests" as McElroy's vicar for clergy, likewise serving at the helm of two city parishes – as the first of two requested deputies for the border diocese.
According to Whispers ops, the choice of a second San Diego assistant prelate remains in process. As previously reported here, the Padres' Country picks are just part of a flood of auxiliaries to be named across the Stateside church over the next year.
In addition, Francis tapped Msgr Thomas Zinkula – his 60th birthday today, the rector of Dubuque's 16-man St Pius X Seminary – as head of Southeast Iowa's 100,000-member Davenport diocese upon the retirement of Bishop Martin Amos four months after the Cleveland-born prelate reached the age-limit of 75.
Over his decade in the post, Amos faced the daunting task of steering the diocese through a years-long Chapter 11 bankruptcy case amid well over 100 sex-abuse lawsuits. While the reorganization process closed in 2012 with a $37 million settlement to victim-survivors, the Davenport case featured an even rarer sign of purification: the removal of a prior bishop's name from the library of the local Catholic college after revelations that the late prelate had demanded the silence of a victim in the 1970s.
inducted him into its athletic hall of fame. Of course, while most bishops to date remain products of college seminaries – and, thus, didn't have the chance at NCAA sports – that an All-American's made the bench is just another sign of how times are changing, and changing quick.
Back to the coast, Dolan's appointment marks the second time a SoCal clergy chief with an extensive history in parishes has been named a hometown auxiliary in recent months. Much like the first, Orange's Bishop Tim Freyer, today's pick is widely regarded among the brothers as a warm, dedicated pastor with a fluency in Spanish and an overtime work-ethic that extends to a number of other ministries – in Dolan's case, a longtime commitment to refugees and the church's outreach on mental health issues among others. Yet where the celebrated "Mini-Vann" to the north is more laid-back in terms of the spotlight, McElroy's protege has already taken to making a splash on the wider scene.
After last October's opening round of a newly-devised San Diego Synod – a Francis-inspired consultation on family life and its optimal accompaniment in a post-Amoris church – Bishop-elect Dolan sketched two kinds of of ecclesial life in an interview with the National Catholic Reporter....
"There are two different forms of doing church," he said. "One is very dialogical, from a dialogical sense, and the other is from a monological sense. And we have dealt with that monological world: Things come from on high, they get shelved in some pastor's corner, then there's some thought that comes down, but ultimately it's all 'We're going to tell you what to think.'"
Of course, it's one thing when zingers of the kind are made by a parish priest or even a diocesan official. Yet with today's nod, it's a whole new ballgame – put another way, the US' episcopal discourse is further set a-Blase.
Far from any burning issues, however, behind the scenes in this shop, Dolan is simply known as one of us – a donor to these pages through the years, and someone to whose kindness and generosity of time and encouragement this scribe can gladly (and gratefully) attest. If the Man in White keeps poaching our funding-base like this, though, Whispers might have little choice but to go bankrupt unless more of this crowd starts stepping up.
Described by a close collaborator in Dubuque as "just an awesome dude" – and one "you can't get a read on" ideologically – Zinkula is being introduced at a 10am presser in Davenport, its video headed here once it wraps up. In a nod to his life before priesthood, the Iowa prelate will be ordained on 22 June – the feast of St Thomas More, the patron of lawyers.
In San Diego, meanwhile, a media rollout won't be held due to the thin staffing on-hand given Easter Week. However, Dolan will be presented and make remarks at a mid-morning event in the Chancery. The full shape of his new duties still to be determined, an ordination date in early June is said to be in the works.
SVILUPPO:Per San Diego Chancery, Dolan will be ordained on his 55th birthday, June 8th.
And complete with some impromptu stand-up, the fullvid of Zinkula's own birthday intro to Davenport: