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If you would like to read my review of the last episode, click here.
Synopsis: Gordon races against the clock to save the city from the Alice Tetch virus, when Lee Thompkins intercepts with a plan of her own. Also, Alfred sees a big change in Bruce Wayne after his work with The Shaman. Meanwhile, some of Gotham's most deranged villains band together. (IMDB)
Writers: Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt
Director: Danny Cannon
Rating: TV-14
Running Time: 42mins
This episode started with Bruce and the Shaman to address the Court of Owls and administer their judgement by slicing all their throats. Bruce was hesitant to call the order but he reiterated his commitment to the cause. Meanwhile, Gordon, Bullock, and Alfred were investigating the hideouts from the map and found nothing. They stumbled onto the Court murders scene with Alfred learning the truth about Bruce.
Gordon then made a detour to visit Lee who had injected herself with the Tetch virus at the end of the last episode. She was definitely crazier than usual. Lee has been a pretty insufferable character this season and this episode was no different with this transformation making things even worse. This new side of her just didn't work at all and every line of her dialogue was cringe-worthy.
She thought it was her fault for what happened. The virus had shown her how much she loved Gordon, how she was drawn to his dark side, and to give in to her deepest, darkest, desires. He was denying himself from who he really was and she wanted to help with that. She knocked him out and buried him alive somewhere in a park.
Despite killing the Court, the bomb was still in play. The Shaman worked for something higher up than him believed that Bruce had a great destiny and wanted the Shaman to help prepare him for it. Strange arrived with the bomb and the Shaman tasked Bruce to detonate it. Bullock and Alfred got there with Alfred having the Shaman at gunpoint and Bruce standing in the way, seemingly under his spell and shocking Alfred.
Back at the station, Lee showed up to toy with the GCPD and to show them all who Gordon really was. She left him a way out, however, and that was a sample of the virus to inject himself with to gain the strength to get out. She did want to tell them where he was and she didn't want to leave since she wanted to see all their faces once Gordon used the virus.
With Gordon gone, there was still the bomb to deal with so Bullock and Alfred split up with Bullock looking for Gordon and Alfred muscling Strange for information on the whereabouts of Bruce and the bomb. Bruce was at Wayne Enterprises so they can watch the upcoming carnage.
Finding Gordon was looking insurmountable which made the idea of taking the virus more tempting but what didn't help was when they learned that they were planning on detonating the bomb during rush hour at the subway station. This obviously added a lot more urgency to the situation so Gordon injected himself and dug himself out and went straight to the station.
With Ed and Penguin gone from their captivity, they began to plot against each other. Penguin, on the other hand, lost his army of freaks. After escaping Ed, Penguin's last hideout was Ivy's greenhouse but Ivy simply fell for their trap and giving them their location. Ed, Barbara, Butch, and Tabitha were there. It looked like he was done for but unfortunately, Fish Mooney showed up and saved him.
It was time to detonate the bomb but before that, Alfred showed up to try and convince Bruce not to do it. Bruce put himself in between them again but the Shaman got impatient and activated it himself, causing him to get shot by Alfred. Gordon was dealing with the bomb but unfortunately, Lee escaped from the GCPD and knocked him out.
Overall, this was another mediocre episode, continuing this season's downward spiral. This story has been all messed up this season and now as it rushes with a 2-part episode left next week, it is just making things worse and forcing us to deal with the useless Fish Mooney and the horribly written Lee.
Score: 6/10
If you liked this, please read my other reviews here and don't forget to follow me on Twitter, follow me on Instagram, and also like me on Facebook.
Silicon Valley Season 4 Episode 6: Customer Service Review
This Week in Home Video (Tuesday May 30th)
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Learn to Tap Into Your Intuition + Deepen the Connection With Yourself
When we don't have self-trust we can't hear our intuition We agonize over our decisions. We look for someone or something outside of ourselves to give us the answers or to make us feel safe.
No relationship, no job, no perfect body, no amount of money will give us the feelings we deeply desire. It is our job to trust ourselves and our own intuitions to give us the things we want. By learning to trust and rely on ourselves it eliminates our need for validation from an outside source. Self-trust = self-love.
This journal was designed to:
- Create an energetic shift that makes you a magnet for manifesting a life that you love.
- Learn to listen, hear and trust your intuition so you are able to deepen your level of self-reliance and self-trust.
- The ability to stop looking for something or someone outside of yourself to give you the answers you've been searching for.
- Be a beautiful place to write down your thoughts, feelings and reflections.
Get ready to tap into your intuition and deepen the connection with yourself!
Daily Mantras for Radical Self-Love + Healing
Start your day with intention and end it with gratitude. Use these mantras to help you to feel safe, loved and connected. Feelings of anxiety and fear will slowly melt away.
Download and print out to use whenever, wherever.

subset: commoncrawl


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These pics were taken on our recent daytrip to Kiama blowhole. Such a beautifully sunny day and the swell was huge, making the blowhole work overtime! It was hilarious watching all the tourists get soaked. lol.gallery by midnight 31 October 2010 to enter the draw for this month's prize sponsored by EAD Designs. Click on the blinkie below to see their other gorgeous products. Did I mention that I also have the vinyl forest for my loungeroom! Once its up, I'll take some pics.
tfl, Lis.


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Eschrichtius robustus
The Gray Whale is a large species of whale commonly found in the Pacific Ocean. A few specimens exist near and around the Gulf of California. They can be recognized by the white and gray scar tissue on their backs and by barnacles growing on their skin, which
gives their skin the consistency of ocean rock. They are omnivores, and they eat through filter feeding. Migratory animals, specimens often travel in groups called pods and can migrate thousands of miles away to warmer waters. Like most other species of whale, they surface in order to breathe, and like other baleen whales, they have dual blowholes.
Their current overall conservation status is Least Concern, but in the past there were on the brink of extinction. Whalers had been hunting them for many years, some for food and others for the products that could be produced from their bodies. The hunt was especially prevalent in the Northwest Pacific ocean. So many of them had been caught that they were pushed to the brink of extinction. In response to the problem, many governments have placed them on their endangered species lists, and whaling practices have been restricted in America, Europe and most Asian countires. Although their population is rebounding, they continue to remain critically endangered in the northwestern region of the Pacific Ocean.


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These days it's hard to get very far, when considering a new site launch or refresh, without coming across WordPress. Which is no surprise, considering it powers almost a third of the internet.
What is surprising is how often it's considered for larger organizations, especially when security and compliance with regulations like the GDPR can create significant risk.
I get it though. It looks easy. There are a gazillion themes available and a plugin for everything under the sun. Not only that, but developers are a dime a dozen. And no one gets fired for choosing WordPress, right?
Not exactly.
WordPress may be easy to stand up in the short term, but for the enterprise and larger organizations, the total cost of ownership, risk, and opportunity cost can be significant.
Justin Page Wood frames it this way:
"WordPress is designed so loosely, that all the pieces, plugins and technology fall apart constantly. You'll need to hire a WordPress developer on roughly 1-3 month basis just to make sure it's all still working properly...And that's not including any website changes, improvements or modifications..."
While many like to use WordPress as the foundation of the digital experience, it's a blogging platform at heart. This is evident in the UI and in the fact that you have to use plugins to achieve even the most basic CMS functionality. Content owners often feel pressure to choose an "easy" platform that all of their contributors know how to use, so they gravitate toward WordPress without realizing they are choosing a blogging platform.
From a UI perspective, there's a reason why editing content on the front-end of a WordPress site is often cited as a requirement — once you have more than a handful of pages, finding content in the admin isn't easy.
There's no logical structure. The WordPress back-end is a dumping ground that gives no context for where your content lives in within your site. That's why it's easier to browse your site on the front-end, find your content and edit it there.
But, even that presents challenges.
Wood goes on to state, "...even I get frustrated and confused with WordPress. That's because [WordPress] was not designed with clients or business people in mind. It was made for coders. The backend of WordPress is so confusing, so annoying and frustrating, that all my clients refuse to attempt to edit it on their own after their first few attempts. WordPress is not user-friendly, no matter what any WordPress developer claims."
And what if you have hundreds or thousands of pages of content, with a robust taxonomy, like many large organizations?
Are you resigned to browsing your site, bouncing between two different views, one for finding your content and another for editing it?
Ah, but there's a plugin for that you say? Let's talk about that!
One of the things WordPress has going for it is the multitude of plugins available to extend functionality. This is also perhaps its biggest downside.
"7 Reasons You Should Not Use WordPress for your Small Business Website" puts it this way:
"WordPress is designed so loosely, that all the pieces, plugins and technology fall apart constantly. You'll need to hire a WordPress developer on roughly 1-3 month basis just to make sure it's all still working properly...And that's not including any website changes, improvements or modifications as your business grows."
Adding crucial functionality is all well and good until the developer decides they're not going to support that plugin any longer. And when that happens, guess who gets to support it? You do. Or at least your developer does. They'll need to either fix issues and maintain compatibility with WordPress or swap it out for another plugin. Until next time.
In last year's annual report on malware infected websites by security firm Sucuri, they found WordPress infections rose from 74% in 2016 Q3 to 83% in 2017.
As CMS Critic notes, "...plugins are not tested by any WordPress core developer to ensure they pass some form of QA before entering the plugin repository." As a result, WordPress is particularly vulnerable to security issues such as this one.
The problem is not that WordPress itself has security issues — all software does at some point — and they do get addressed by parent company Automattic. The problems arise when using plugins developed by a third-party, which expose the foundation of the digital experience to the internet equivalent of an STD.
Ugly, but true. A third-party library with security flaws within a plugin can present vulnerabilities all on its own. Even if the plugin developer doesn't introduce vulnerabilities themselves, anything they use in the plugin can, hence the unsavory analogy.
And because WordPress is so ubiquitous, it makes it an easy and desirable target for exploits.
Indeed, WordPress is at the top of the list of targets, as Illustrated by a record number of vulnerabilities in 2017.
In fact, early last year an estimated 1.5 million WordPress sites were defaced as hackers exploited an unpatched vulnerability.
And herein lies the challenge. Even if the developer of a plugin fixes the security flaw, you still have to update every plugin individually and hope nothing breaks in the process. If you have several plugins installed, you have to make sure every single one is updated or risk being exposed. It's a lot to manage to say the least.
Yep. And you've probably heard a lot about it lately — for good reason. If you not familiar with it yet (and you need to be), you can learn more here. The General Data Protection Regulation may be the single biggest change in how we do business on the web and lack of compliance comes with a steep cost— a minimum penalty of 20 million euros.
As such, maintaining compliance is imperative and WordPress plugin developers "...may not be able to adequately answer some of the questions about the personal data that their plugins collect and use. Many plug-in makers are individual developers or small companies that lack their own legal teams to advise them.", according to this article from digiday.
It goes on to say, "One of the most popular plugins, Contact Form 7, runs on more than 5 million sites but was built by a single developer, Takayuki Miyoshi. He had been receiving questions asking whether the plug-in was GDPR-compliant, and in a blog post published in April, he admitted that he's unable to say."
If the plugin developer can't say whether or not their plugin is compliant with GDPR, how will you?
Automattic does offer this plug-in to help navigate GDPR compliance if you're stuck on WordPress and there's no getting away from it.
Security, compliance and ongoing maintenance and support aren't the only issues that can result from using WordPress plugins. Performance is another. Every plugin you install adds more bloat, and performance will invariably suffer.
"Sadly, even plugins developed by Automattic can cause massive slowdowns in load time and performance…" laments CMS Critic.
"On top of this, a HUGE percentage of the plugins in the WordPress repository are old and out of date yet still available to install on your system. This is a huge issue as these older plugins still exist and are not removed…I attempted to install a plugin that was 6 years old on my WordPress install and it worked perfectly with no warning. This is a major security issue and a huge concern that needs to be addressed as far as I'm concerned."
Think again. While the vast number of themes you can get for WordPress is truly impressive, I still struggle to understand what value a theme has for the enterprise and large organizations.
Brand design standards are going to demand that design is applied in very specific ways. Asking your dev team to do this in a theme, rather than starting with a framework and building it out based on their own conventions, is a cruel and unusual punishment that will have them pulling their hair out rather than making progress.
And being bound to a theme by a third-party developer who may have included plugins in order to provide specific functionality, and who may or may not update, or support, the theme in the future, is a risky proposition and contributes greatly to the total cost of ownership.
The instant gratification that themes provide is short-lived compared to the technical debt associated with maintenance costs, and sometimes more detrimental, the opportunity costs of simply maintaining the status quo.
In the end, WordPress is more hobbler than enabler.
Unless you're resigned to scour the web for answers, the only way to get WordPress support is if you host your site on wordpress.com or vip.wordpress.com. At least as far as I can tell by scouring automattic.com. This article seems to confirm this:
"There is no official WordPress support team that you can contact, and the only forms of support that exist are from plugin and theme developers, volunteer support and WP communities made up of random people around the world that use WordPress."
What this means is that, if you want to spin up WordPress in your own infrastructure or cloud, you're on your own.
Fortunately, there are many options beyond WordPress. A great place to begin looking is third-party review site, G2 Crowd.
When looking at alternatives, consider a platform that:


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Live updates
Whitley Bay assault
Police are investigating following an assault on a 16-year-old boy.
Officers were called to a grassed area opposite the Briardene Pub, on The Links, in Whitley Bay, at 11.37pm, on Sunday (May 11) following reports that a youth had been stabbed, suffering a puncture wound.
He was treated by ambulance staff at the scene and taken to the Royal Victoria Infirmary, where he was released after further treatment.
The teenager had been walking along The Links when he was approached from behind and assaulted by an unknown offender who ran off.
Police are carrying out enquiries in the area and additional officers are on patrol to reassure the community.
Three arrested following Newcastle assault
Police investigating an assault in Newcastle have arrested three people.
At around 11.45pm on Friday, April 11, officers received a report that a 15 year-old boy had been assaulted by a group of men in Elswick.
The teenager was taken to hospital with injuries to his eye and nose.
Three male youths, one aged 17 and two aged 16, have been arrested on suspicion of assault.
Teenager assaulted by a group of men in Newcastle
Police are appealing for information following an assault on a youth in Newcastle. It happened at 11:45pm on Friday in Elswick. The 15 year-old boy was taken to hospital with injuries to his eye and nose.
Man arrested after serious assault in Gateshead
A 28-year-old man has received a serious head injury following an assault in Gateshead. Officers were called to Leam Lane Estate yesterday afternoon. A 47-year-old man has been arrested and remains in police custody.
Witness appeal following York assault
Detectives in York are appealing for witnesses after an assault in the city.
It happened at around 11.55pm on Wednesday 19 March on St Johns Crescent when a 24-year-old York woman was punched in the face.
As a result of the incident the victim suffered a fractured cheekbone and black eye.
Afterwards the man ran from Penley's Grove Street, using an alleyway which leads to Jackson Street.
The suspect is described as a white man in his early to mid-thirties, around 6ft tall with a slim build, and short dark hair.
At the time he was wearing a dark slim fitting waist length jacket, slim fitting dark jeans and black shoes.
Newcastle pub assault victim dies
A 65-year-old man who suffered a serious head injury in an attack outside the Beehive pub in the High Bridge area of Newcastle on January 28, died in hospital in the early hours of this morning (February 7). He has been named as Kenneth Brough, of Sycamore Street, Lemington, Newcastle.
Officers made arrests on the night of the assault which resulted in one man being charged. 20-year-old Sean Lee Sillet of Bondicar Road, Hadston, Morpeth, was charged with causing grievous bodily harm and appeared at Newcastle Magistrates' Court on, January 30.
A 57-year-old man arrested on suspicion of assault remains on police bail. Police are continuing to ask for any witnesses to the assault to come forward as enquiries continue.
Man in coma following brutal beating
A man is in a coma following a brutal beating in Middlesbrough.
42-year-old Gerard Williams was attacked with a wooden weapon, possibly a cricket bat or a baseball bat, on Thursday night.
He suffered a fractured skull and broken arms and legs.
Today (February 3) officers held a press conference as the search for his assailant continues.
Jonny Blair reports.
Police appeal after unprovoked assault
York CID are appealing for information after a man's leg was broken during an unprovoked assault in the early hours of Friday (31 January).
The victim was attacked by two or three men at the junction of Howe Hill Close and Sowerby Road in the city.
The men assaulted the 22-year-old victim with a metal pole and a hammer, leaving him with a bruising all over his body and an open wound where his leg was broken.
The victim was taken to York District Hospital where he is receiving treatment for his injuries.
Man assaulted in Gateshead
Police are appealing for witnesses after a 25 year old man was attacked in Gateshead after a run in with a group of men.
It happened in the early hours of Friday, December 27th at 12.50am after the man left the Ye Old Cannon Pub at 12.30am. He began talking to a group of men near a taxi rank on Durham Road in Low Fell, then was hit from behind across the head. He was taken to hospital and released after treatment.
Northumbria Police are asking anyone with information to get in touch on 101.
Police appeal for witnesses to Catterick assault
Catterick police are appealing for information following an assault in the town.
It happened at 2.30am on Thursday December 12 on Catterick Road, near Darlington College.
Two men from Catterick Garrison, aged 25 and 29, were assaulted by two other men. The victims received minor head injuries.
One of the men was taken to the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton for treatment.
The first suspect is described as a white man who is short and stocky, with short brown hair. He was wearing a navy blue jumper with white writing on front.
The second man is around 5ft 8in tall. He was wearing a zip-up hoodie with writing in the shape of a rainbow on the front.


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The press conference took place at the Dara Hotel at 1:30pm today (May 19), but Mr Sawit Ketroj, Executive Director of The Emerald Development Group Co., Ltd. declined to answer direct questions from the media regarding concerns about several of his companies projects.
(See previous stories here, here and here)
"I want to tell everyone that I am confident that our projects will keep going and that just need time. We understand if people want to cancel their contracts with these projects. We are fine because we know The Emerald Development Group is valuable," said Mr Sawit.
"For foreign clients, I will explain our updated plan in May. We have enough investment and we want to make sure the people of Phuket and our clients are confident in our ability to manage the projects," added Mr Sawit.
When asked what was going on in the investigation of his charges. Mr Sawit declined to answer directly, saying, "I want to know what is the result of the investigation? Please tell me what is it?"
Mr Sawit released a written statement detailing the state of nine projects, managed through five subsidiary companies, under the Emerald Group's umbrella in an effort to reassure investors and the public. The statement said negative media coverage had an affected business and tourism confidence in Phuket.
"I and all Emerald Group employees are engaged in business and work with honesty to deliver the best condominium accommodation to the customers who believe in our company throughout the eight years of our hard work," said Mr Sawit in the statement.
According to the statement the Emerald Group is presently managing the following projects under the control of five separate companies:
• Two completed projects:
Kathu Golf Condo Project by Emerald Development Group Co., Ltd.
The Emerald Terrace Condo Phuket by Phuket Future Development Co., Ltd.
• Two projects under construction:
The Emerald – Central Project by Phuket Capital Real Estate Co., Ltd.
The Emerald City Life Condo Patong by Emerald Development Group Co., Ltd.
• Projects under construction and waiting for license:
The project on land Kalim by Phuket Future Group Co., Ltd. Consisting of four sub-projects:
Emerald Nirvana 1 and 2
Nirvana Lux
Jade Villa Project
• One project in preparation:
5-star hotel and resort by Phuket Advanced Development Co., Ltd.
"It can be seen that only Phuket Future Group Co., Ltd. is in the media spotlight, but other projects are in different parts and still operated normally. Therefore, it means that this is not a problem for all projects under Emerald Brand," said the statement.
"Phuket Future Group Co., Ltd. was established since 2014. Currently under construction and gradually operating projects with a total value of B1.2 billion, with total sales of 941 million baht or 70% and B359 million already paid by customers.
"The total investment cost of the project was B117mn , brokerage fee was B56.60mn, construction cost was B110mn, interest and management fee was B68.34mn (excluding additional investment). The total tax amount of B7.61mn was paid regularly.
"So the money from the company's capital and sales was put to work. There is evidence and the accounts can be verified. The company is now working on the application for permission in other projects. The customers who are confident will receive special conditions as prescribed by the company since starting the project and the contracts to buy and sell. The company has all proper legal contracts.
"The project on Kalim Beach has been developed on an area of 36 rai, divided into a sub-project villas and residences, the company has been partially licensed. The company has been working on the construction permit. Since the construction is on sloping hills, the company has taken great care in engineering and architecture. Especially engineering work, the company most focuses on the safety causing the project to delay.
"We would like to inform the main reason that causing the delay is about the amendment to the new environmental law. As a result, the project needs to be modified in accordance with the new law in the year 2017. It took each party to make changes up to three times each time the sales and customer relations of the company. It has contacted customers via email and other channels all the time.
"All 185 current customers in the project are trustworthy customers. There are 98 customers who cancelled their contracts, representing 50%. The company is willing to make a repayment plan and gradually negotiate to take care of these customers fully.
The current fair value of the company and subsidiaries from estimation is around B6.1bn. As a result, the company is aware of the need to raise funds in various ways and continue to work on the financial plan for the next two to three years, there are other companies from other countries and in Thailand that are interested to collaborate. It is expected that this year we will be able to raise capital to make the whole business more stable. Currently the company has a proper plan for liquidity management.
"Emerald Group Co., Ltd. and its subsidiaries have confidence in the business and that it will continue the construction. All projects will be completed in accordance with their plans and sufficient funding sources. We would like to assure customers and society that Phuket real estate projects are worth investing compare to other provinces.
"I am sure that many projects besides Emerald in various locations in Phuket are all interesting. By Emerald Group is a member of the Real Estate Association. Phuket has set up guidelines and ways to promote real estate that sold to foreigners and Thais. Because real estate is not just increasing revenue and tourism to Phuket only," concluded Mr Sawit in the statement.


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Cheerleader of the Week:
Bailey W.
Bailey is on our Senior 5 team, the Lightning Ladies. Bailey is they type of girl that every coach wishes they had 100 of. She is constantly in the gym perfecting her skills and pushing herself to the limits everyday. She motivates all of her teammates and makes sure she encourages every team in the gym. Bailey is the definition of a hard worker and she won't stop until she has made sure her team is going to be successful. She is the type of girl who will find the good in every situation and make everything positive. Keep your eye out for Bailey because she is going to own the mat every time she touches it.
Congratulations Bailey on being this week's cheerleader of the week! Keep up the hard work!
Get to know our Cheerleader of the Week:
What grade are you in?
"11th grade"
What school do you attend?
"Chaparral High School"
How long have you been cheering?
"8 years"
How long have you been apart of the United Elite Family?
"Since it opened"
What do you like to do with your free time when you are not cheering?
"I go to bonfires and rodeos. I love spending time with my family and horseback riding"
What is your favorite part about being at United Elite?
"Every time I step into the gym I feel like I'm at home. I love how everyone treats everyone like family. This gym helps me get my mind off everything and I love that."
What is your favorite part of a cheerleading routine and why?
"My favorite part is the dance because I get to show my personality and the crowd gets really involved. "
What is your favorite tumbling skill?
"Definitely my full. It's the skill that pushed me to work harder and is the most rewarding"
What do you want to be when you grow up?
"I want to attend Oklahoma State University and become a neonatal nurse"


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Q. When I click on show seed, I get an invalid password notification.
I'm signed in and haven't been prompted to enter my password in order to get my seed so I'm not sure why I can't see it?
A. When you click Show Seed and see it pre filled out, delete that, re-enter your password and click Show Seed


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Egyptian Delegation Walks Out of NPT PrepCom Meeting Over Failure to Convene Middle East WMD SummitPosted: April 30, 2013 Filed under: Nuclear 8 Comments
I just read about this here. Quite a surprising move, but I'm personally glad they did it. I think it is time for action on this issue. Although it is a bit quizzical as to why they didn't coordinate with other Arab League states beforehand. Does this indeed show fracturing on strategy within the Arab League on this issue? I'm pretty sure there's still consensus on principle.
Readers will recall I've written on the ME WMD FZ issue several times, most recently here. I think that Egypt and the rest of the Arab league are perfectly justified in feeling that an important deal they made in 1995 has been broken by the West, and as Ambassador Badr was quoted as saying in the GSN piece: "We cannot continue to attend meetings and agree on outcomes that do not get implemented, yet be expected to abide by the concessions we gave for this outcome."
I'll just put in a couple of cents worth of thoughts on the underlying issues. As we all know, the whole ME WMD FZ issue is about Israel. The fact that Israel has nuclear weapons, and hasnt signed the NPT, nor will they even admit to having nuclear weapons. The Arab League is tired of the double standard of treatment that they receive from the West in the nuclear area, as compared to how Israel's nuclear program is treated by the West. The ME WMD FZ project is a way to put the spotlight of the international community squarely on Israel's nuclear weapons stockpile, and put Israel and its backer, the US, in the uncomfortable position of having to explain why Israel won't come to the meeting and won't meaningfully engage with the program.
As I've noted, I've recently been to Israel. I think that we can enhance our understanding of other nations' policies and attitudes so much by putting ourselves, as much as possible, into their shoes and looking at the world from their perspective. It's the failure of so many observers to be able to do this that narrows their ability to objectively analyze problems in international relations.
If I put myself in the shoes of Israeli officials, I totally understand why Israel wants to have nuclear weapons, doesnt want to sign the NPT, and wants to keep the whole thing "in the basement." If I were an Israeli official, with the history of the Holocaust as my personal and national context, I would do the exact same thing. But here's where I think Israel's policies in the nuclear area start to get indefensible – when they criticize other countries for wanting their own nuclear weapons, or for even doing research to build up their capability to one day acquire nuclear weapons if they decide they need them. This is just basic hypocrisy, and the absence of any principled leg to stand on. It doesn't have anything to do with history, or with Israel's unique perspective on the world. And I really don't like it when people say, well, Israel isnt under a legal obligation not to have nuclear weapons, whereas these other countries are. Israel's failure to sign the NPT, and the West's willful blindness toward this fact, are not a diplomatic asset that Israel and the West can play as a card to justify the double standard. In this regard, Israel is part of a rather ignominious club of regime outlier states – rogue states if you will – that also includes India, Pakistan and North Korea. Its not a moral high ground fact.
I think that it would gall the Arab League states a whole lot less if Israel and the West would pull the reins in on the double standard they apply so publicly, and in international institutions such as the IAEA and the U.N. Security Council, as between Israel's nuclear program and the nuclear programs of every other state in the region. If the rhetoric and the policies of the US and the West generally weren't so very prejudicial toward Middle Eastern states, with the glaring exception of Israel, when it comes to both peaceful nuclear technology trade and nonproliferation policy (going back to the Leveretts' article I posted about earlier) it might well take much of the wind out of the sails of the ME WMD FZ movement, and contribute a lot to the general level of support for the NPT in the Middle East.
New Article by the Leveretts in the Huffington PostPosted: April 30, 2013 Filed under: Nuclear 26 Comments
Friends of ACL Flynt & Hillary Leverett have written an excellent new article in the Huffington Post here. I agree with everything they have written here (with only one small reservation below) and I think they explain the issues of legal interpretation in a very accessible, and correct, way.
The only point on which I'd like to do some more thinking myself is the WTO point they make. Theyre obviously referring to GATT Article XXI here, and I'm not saying theyre wrong. I'd just like to think about it a bit more before going on record in agreement. I wrote about GATT Article XXI at some length in Chapter 3 of my 2009 book, and I'm planning to address it in a new book I'm planning to begin writing on soon. Much of Article XXI is quite intentionally broadly and subjectively worded, and there is virtually no WTO case law on it, and so determining that a national security related action does not fall within it can be difficult. Certainly not impossible, though, as I argued in my book regarding dual use export controls.
But certainly all of their points regarding the NPT I agree with fully. Do have a look at Flynt & Hillary's new article.
New Congressional Research Service Report on Iran SanctionsPosted: April 29, 2013 Filed under: Nuclear 7 Comments
Check it out here. Very thorough and informative. Quoting from the Summary section:
Increasingly strict sanctions on Iran—which target primarily Iran's key energy sector as well as its ability to access the international financial system—have harmed Iran's economy, but not to the point where key Iran leaders have been compelled to reach a compromise with the international community on Iran's nuclear program. And, the strategic effects of sanctions might be abating as Iran adjusts to them economically and advertises the adverse humanitarian effects.
This jives with the conclusions of the recent NIAC report on the efffectiveness of sanctions on Iran, about which I posted a while ago. It's also consistent with my general views on sanctions which I've written about a number of times, including here and here starting on Pg. 6.
I really hope this starts to sink in in Washington – that sanctions will not force Iran into doing what the US and Israel want it to do regarding its nuclear program. I also hope it sinks in with people like Orde Kittrie who have so misguidedly been pushing for newer and tougher sanctions on Iran for years.
Public Service AnnouncementPosted: April 29, 2013 Filed under: Nuclear 1 Comment
One of the nice things about blogging over traditional media is that we can tap into the people behind the stories and interactively pick the brains of experts. In that regard, I'm pleased to pass on a public service announcement by Prof. Yousaf Butt at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute. Yousaf is a nuclear physicist and an expert on technical arms control. He's one of the few folks active in both science and policy (and indeed, at their interface), and has served as an invaluable resource to the community by explaining complex technical matters in a straightforward jargon-free way. He's also been instrumental in debunking a lot of misinformation/propaganda on Iran's nuclear program propagated by the usual suspects. Anyway, he has kindly agreed to provide one-on-one guidance to any aspiring scientists (or other academics) thinking about navigating over to the policy world. Yousaf can provide you the inside scoop on the DC scene, as well as on what's going down on the West Coast, e.g. at the Monterey Institute. If you're contemplating studying or working on technical arms control issues, especially at Monterey or in DC, I urge you to take advantage of this opportunity to pick Yousaf's brain! As he mentions, there is great need for scientists (and science) in policy-making…the situation is so dire and the need for science in DC is so great that even institutes without any scientists have put "Science" in their titles! So without further ado, I'll let Yousaf explain his offer:
I'd like to thank Dan for hosting this Q&A on his excellent blog. I'm certain that some of the ideas being discussed on this blog day-to-day will determine the future trajectory of arms control. I've long thought we need some fresh thinking on arms control and non-proliferation: as any of the diplomats from Non-Aligned Movement will tell you, we are witnessing the death throes of the NPT. The bulk of the fault, in my view, lies with the multiple "band-aid" solutions and outright politicization of the nonproliferation institutions by some of the P5 states. In fact, a few months ago I proposed the broad outlines of what an NPT 2.0 could look like. That's why I admire Dan's intellectual honestly, and find his blog to be an enormous resource to the community.
As a small gesture of thanks, and as my own small contribution to helping train up the next cadre of arms control professionals, I'm happy to try to answer any questions any students or scientists/academics may have about transitioning over to the arms control NGO community. I can't say I'll have the answers but I'll try my best! If there are general non-personal questions please post them in the comments section below, but if you need any personal advice you can email me at ybutt2002 –at- yahoo.com . (I'll try my best to get back to you as soon as possible, depending on the traffic that's generated.)
By way of background, my own transition to security studies started in Cambridge, MA while I was a staff scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). Luckily, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) was just down the road near Café Algiers, and a CfA colleague had just gotten a job there. Through her, I found out about a research fellowship on Space Security and was launched on my way…out of outer space and pure science and into technical arms control and global security issues. In parallel, however, I continued my science work. When I heard about the fellowships at the National Academy of Sciences, I applied for those and moved to DC for a bit. DC is an all-you-can-eat buffet of seminars, lectures, roundtables on policy but it is – for the most part – shockingly science-deprived! So it's good there are outfits like the Federation of American Scientists, for whom I later consulted leading to a report with Ted Postol of MIT: "Upsetting the Reset – the Technical Basis of Russian Concern Over NATO Missile Defense." Of course, that report was not what the community wanted to hear at the time, but in the end we were proven correct and one of recommendations has just been adopted (dropping the Phase IV of the NATO missile defense system). My point is the science in invaluable in the policy world: from Climate change, to nuclear power, to clean energies, to missile defense, to nuclear weapons etc. – there are few decisions that can be made without scientific or technical input. Yet DC remains, in my opinion, highly science deprived. So if you're a scientist or science student looking to join the policy world there is plenty (plenty!) of need! But you may need to be somewhat entrepreneurial in finding the channels to make the transition. There are also unique challenges academics may face in the transition: for instance, as academics we take freedom of expression for granted, but things can be a little different in the NGO world where there may sometimes be subtle pressures to hew to the political opinions of the funding institutions or senior administrators.
In any case, if I can help, or if you're thinking of working/studying in DC or Monterey and want to know what to expect, or how I've found the experiences, drop me a line at ybutt2002 –at- yahoo.com or post your comments below.
Reza Nasri on UNSC Role Regarding IranPosted: April 26, 2013 Filed under: Nuclear 11 Comments
Reza Nasri has written a really important analysis about the unhelpful role the UN Security Council has played in the Iran nuclear issue. I endorse his view and his prescription completely. Its a relatively short piece in the CS Monitor. I hope neither he nor the Monitor mind, but I'll reprint the piece here:
To Nudge Iran Talks, New UN Resolution Needed
The latest round of nuclear talks between Iran and "P5+1" international negotiators ended earlier this month with no more than an agreement to resume negotiations at a later date. As usual, pundits on both sides offered their assessments about why the talks did not succeed.
But one factor – UN Security Council resolutions that Iran "suspend all enrichment-related activities" – may play more of a role in fruitless negotiations than most commentators realize.Since 2006, when the Security Council first made that demand, it has repeated it in three subsequent resolutions, the latest being Resolution 1929, adopted in June 2010. But the demand to cease all uranium enrichment is overly restrictive, essentially denying Iran the ability to develop even peaceful nuclear power. For the negotiation process, this restrictiveness poses several problems.
First, the resolutions are out of touch with the realities on the ground in Iran – namely, enrichment taking place that is not at bomb grade (at least not yet). They are also out of date, neglecting all the developments and understandings that both sides have achieved throughout various rounds of negotiations since 2006.
Today, after years of multilateral negotiations, most negotiating countries seem to have adopted a more pragmatic and practical approach and no longer truly expect a full suspension of Iran's nuclear activities. Nonetheless, the shadow of the Security Council's unrealistic and outdated request still looms over the talks.
Second, because of the Security Council's radical stance on enrichment, world powers cannot legally offer Iran any meaningful relief on international sanctions in exchange for fair and reasonable concessions from Tehran. In the present climate, agreeing to anything short of a full suspension of Iran's nuclear activities would breach UN resolutions, and that would set a bad precedent and dent the credibility of the UN collective security regime.
Third, because of the legal restrictions that these UN resolutions impose on all states, including on Western states that are in the process of negotiating with Iran, P5+1 negotiators cannot legally offer Iran any technical incentive to secure its cooperation. The Security Council effectively bans most forms of assistance to, and investment in, Iran's nuclear and energy sector. That restricts the P5+1 negotiators, which are legally bound to maintain the full force of the resolutions, from offering any captivating alternative to Iran.
To illustrate the point, Germany's Green Party submitted a proposal last year in which the German government would help Iran build a solar energy facility in exchange for Iran curbing some aspects of its nuclear program. Such a proposition, and similar ones, could have been put on the table by the P5+1 to increase the negotiations change of success. But the Security Council renders such creative initiatives irrelevant as their realization would be illegal under its resolutions.
In other words, because of these legal strictures, the P5+1 goes to the negotiation table without having the capacity to offer its counterpart any positive incentive, something that most negotiators would find a handicap rather than a leverage to their advantage.
Of course, despite these legal restrictions, various international actors have occasionally been able to offer promising deals to Iran. For example, in May 2010, Brazil and Turkey persuaded Tehran to ship 1200 kg (2640 pounds) of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey (as a confidence-building measure) based on a proposal that was initially drafted by the Obama administration. However, the United States itself subsequently blocked the bargain on the ground that it still did not meet the restrictive demands of the Security Council.
"While it would be a positive step for Iran to transfer low-enriched uranium off of its soil as it agreed to do last October, Iran said today that it would continue its 20 percent enrichment, which is a direct violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions," the White House said in a statement.
In sum, despite the fact that the UN Charter mandates the world body to encourage and facilitate peaceful settlements of international disputes, it seems that in the case of Iran's nuclear crisis, the Security Council has had the exact opposite effect.
The way out of this conundrum is for the Security Council to issue a new resolution. The resolution would do two things: It would explicitly acknowledge whatever achievement the P5+1 track has so far produced. And it would promise to lift its sanctions if the parties reach a "reasonable agreement" – notwithstanding previous resolutions.Such a move by the Security Council would greatly help to resolve the Iranian nuclear problem in a peaceful manner. It would give Iran the long-awaited assurance that its cooperation would be met with some degree of reciprocation. And it would free Western negotiators from the burden of having to work within the unrealistic and outdated UN strictures on enrichment.
It remains to be seen which member of the Security Council is bold enough to propose such a draft resolution.
Reza Nasri is an international lawyer specializing in Iranian affairs and charter and foreign relations law at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.
Liron Libman on the ATTPosted: April 25, 2013 Filed under: Nuclear 2 Comments
Friend of ACL Liron Libman has written a truly excellent review and discussion of the new ATT over at his blog. I highly recommend it as the best review and explanation I've seen of the ATT so far.
I had the pleasure of meeting Liron when I was recently in Jerusalem. He was previously the head of the International Law Department of the Israeli Defense Force. So he's someone eminently qualified to write on the ATT. He's also a really nice guy.
Why Nuclear Supplier States are in Collective Breach of the NPTPosted: April 24, 2013 Filed under: Nuclear 4 Comments
I have argued before, and particularly in my 2011 book, that the NWS parties to the NPT, along with the other supplier state NPT parties, are collectively in breach of the NPT's terms due to their overly restrictive policies regarding export of peaceful nuclear energy technologies to developing countries, as harmonized through the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
Here's what NPT Article IV(2) says (emphasis mine):
All the Parties to the Treaty undertake to facilitate, and have the right to participate in, the fullest possible exchange of equipment, materials and scientific and technological information for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Parties to the Treaty in a position to do so shall also co-operate in contributing alone or together with other States or international organizations to the further development of the applications of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, especially in the territories of non-nuclear-weapon States Party to the Treaty, with due consideration for the needs of the developing areas of the world.
So, supplier states parties to the NPT ("parties in a position to do so") are under an international legal obligation to contribute to the further development of applications of peaceful nuclear energy technologies by NNWS, and in particular developing NNWS. This obligation provides the backdrop for considering the lawfulness of the restrictions that supplier states have agreed upon through the NSG on the export of nuclear technologies, and in particular dual use nuclear technologies.
In light of this obligation, let's think about the current dispute between the US and South Korea, in which South Korea is trying to negotiate a nuclear technology sharing agreement with the US which allows for the export to South Korea of nuclear technologies, including enrichment and reprocessing technologies, from US vendors. The US is so far unwilling to allow transfers of these technologies due to proliferation concerns. See reports here and here.
Enrichment and reprocessing technologies are of course dual use – meaning that they play an integral part in a state's development of a full peaceful nuclear fuel cycle, but they can also be used in a nuclear weapons development program – like most of the other parts of the nuclear fuel cycle. The US, and the other members of the NSG, consider enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) technologies to be especially proliferation sensitive because of the particular roles they play in the nuclear fuel cycle, and their susceptibility for use in producing fissile materials for a nuclear explosive device. For this reason, the NSG guidelines were recently revised to place even higher restrictions on these technologies than on other technologies in the fuel cycle. (See my post on this revision from Arms Control Wonk here)
But what about the obligation of the US under NPT Article IV(2) quoted above? Can the US get out of this obligation simply by declaring that some dual use technologies that are part of the fuel cycle are in its opinion too proliferation sensitive, and therefore can be restricted from trade with NPT NNWS? This is the basis assumption on which the entire NSG Part II guidelines and trigger lists are maintained. But I think this assumption is fundamentally erroneous.


text:
Edwin Arlington Robinson
The Clinging Vine
Poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson
"Be calm? And was I frantic?
You'll have me laughing soon.
I'm calm as this Atlantic,
And quiet as the moon;
I may have spoken faster
Than once, in other days;
For I've no more a master,
And now—'Be calm,' he says.
"Fear not, fear no commotion,—
I'll be as rocks and sand;
The moon and stars and ocean
Will envy my command;
No creature could be stiller
In any kind of place
Than I … No, I'll not kill her;
Her death is in her face.
"Be happy while she has it,
For she'll not have it long;
A year, and then you'll pass it,
Preparing a new song.
And I'm a fool for prating
Of what a year may bring,
When more like her are waiting
For more like you to sing.
"You mock me with denial,
You mean to call me hard?
You see no room for trial
When all my doors are barred?
You say, and you'd say dying,
That I dream what I know;
And sighing, and denying,
You'd hold my hand and go.
"You scowl—and I don't wonder;
I spoke too fast again;
But you'll forgive one blunder,
For you are like most men:
You are,—or so you've told me,
So many mortal times,
That heaven ought not to hold me
Accountable for crimes.
"Be calm? Was I unpleasant?
Then I'll be more discreet,
And grant you, for the present,
The balm of my defeat:
What she, with all her striving,
Could not have brought about,
You've done. Your own contriving
Has put the last light out.
"If she were the whole story,
If worse were not behind,
I'd creep with you to glory,
Believing I was blind;
I'd creep, and go on seeming
To be what I despise.
You laugh, and say I'm dreaming,
And all your laughs are lies.
"Are women mad? A few are,
And if it's true you say—
If most men are as you are—
We'll all be mad some day.
Be calm—and let me finish;
There's more for you to know.
I'll talk while you diminish,
And listen while you grow.
"There was a man who married
Because he couldn't see;
And all his days he carried
The mark of his degree.
But you—you came clear-sighted,
And found truth in my eyes;
And all my wrongs you've righted
With lies, and lies, and lies.
"You've killed the last assurance
That once would have me strive
To rouse an old endurance
That is no more alive.
It makes two people chilly
To say what we have said,
But you—you'll not be silly
And wrangle for the dead.
"You don't? You never wrangle?
Why scold then,—or complain?
More words will only mangle
What you've already slain.
Your pride you can't surrender?
My name—for that you fear?
Since when were men so tender,
And honor so severe?
"No more—I'll never bear it.
I'm going. I'm like ice.
My burden? You would share it?
Forbid the sacrifice!
Forget so quaint a notion,
And let no more be told;
For moon and stars and ocean
And you and I are cold."
Comments about The Clinging Vine by Edwin Arlington Robinson
Ashley Seats (9/5/2008 12:02:00 AM)
This poem has fascinated me since I first read it back in freshman year of high school. I tend to base most my poetry on this style. I love it so much, it gives me shivers up my spine.(Report)Reply
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Read poems about / on: moon, ocean, fear, women, pride, happy, truth, song, dream, people, heaven, death, light, believe, woman, star
Edwin Arlington Robinson's Other Poems
Famous Poems
- Phenomenal WomanMaya Angelou
- Still I RiseMaya Angelou
- The Road Not TakenRobert Frost
- If You Forget MePablo Neruda
- DreamsLangston Hughes
- Caged BirdMaya Angelou
- Annabel LeeEdgar Allan Poe
- IfRudyard Kipling
- Stopping By Woods On A Snowy EveningRobert Frost
- I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love YouPablo Neruda


text:
These kids were made for pushing…. The minivan may not be the coolest ride, but that doesn't mean the stroller can't be. Daphyl's lightweight easy fold umbrella stroller offers the perfect option for easy strolling. Expertly crafted meeting the most stringent safety designs, out strollers offer soft grip handles, easy carry shoulder strap and a host of other amenities not usually found in this lifestyle amenity. All of this while maintaining our "Rock & Roll" branding and imagery that is sure to delight you and your kids.
37″H X 15.75″W X 23″D – Open
41″L X 8″W X 7.5″D – Folded


text:
More than 300 parents looking to open enroll their students in the Des Moines School District received their rejection letters Friday.
Some parents are complaining about the reasons behind their child's rejection, some believe it could be related to the color of their skin.
The word 'quota' carries a negative connotation these days especially when it comes to who gets accepted by a public school.
Turns out, Des Moines Public Schools do try to meet quotas when it comes to open enrollment.
Up until five year years ago, race was a determining factor in deciding whether or not a student could open enroll in a particular school. Now race has been replaced by a student's socio-economic status.
The school district defines that as whether or not the family is eligible for free or reduced lunch.
The school made the switch back in 2008 as a part of the schools diversity plan.
The plan states schools must keep a balance of the number of students from various backgrounds.
"It's not just race that is a factor in free and reduced lunch, people who qualify for that based on their income cuts across a lot of demographics," said Des Moines Public Schools' Phil Roeder.
Roeder does mention that race and socio-economic status may be closely related but there are other factors that determine if a student can go to a different school.
During open enrollment, about half of applicants are turned away based on socio-economic status and whether a particular school is full.


text:
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text:
Random Post.
Nothing Special happened in the Weekend.
Nothing Special happened in the Weekend.
(except that i received a PANIC call from Nurul at 11+ pm last nite)
So why did i blog since i got nothing to blog about???
Just Wanna Tell You all...
I wanna buy this Phone!Presenting W810i
I know it's an Old Model but i am Sick of Phones that cannot take Clear Photos.
This Phone has Nice Design and Can take Clear Photos.
(Why didn't i think of this phone before buying my LG?)How bout the White one? Which is nicer???


text:
In late 2007, the metal community mourned the loss of Witold "Vitek" Kiełtyka, the impairment of Adrian "Covan" Kowanek, and the demise of one of the genre's most venerable bands, Decapitated. While we all sat by and watched as Wacław "Vogg" Kiełtyka began to put the pieces of his band and life back together, the future of Decapitated remained bleak at best.
Then, in early 2009, to most everyone's surprise, the band's remaining member announced a reformation, a new tour, and soon, a new album. After hitting the road in the US, Europe, and Australia for much of 2010, the band returned to the studio early this year to begin recording their fifth album, Carnival is Forever. Released in July through Nuclear Blast, Carnival proved to be well worth the wait. The band's follow up to Organic Hallucinosis is the best metal release of 2011 (don't believe me–read this).
Prior to their appearance at The Whiskey in Hollywood, I had the privilege of sitting down with Wacław to discuss the band's reemergence. In perhaps my lengthiest interview to date, we discussed the creative process behind Carnival, Covan's harrowing recovery process, and the state of the modern metal scene.
So the new album is incredible. It's insanely heavy, but has an almost expansive vibe to it. Was that your intention?
I think, yes, indeed. There's lots of death metal on this album, but lots of other stuff, too. In my opinion, [there are] lots of progressive things going on. We connected the death metal with some other progressive parts, and I think it fits. It's very cool. I'm very happy about it.
Finally, [for the] first time in my life, I was 100% brave that if I want to play what I like, I don't have to worry about it. I don't have to worry what someone will say about it, or if someone will like it or will not like it. But sometimes, it's cool if somebody is pissed off about this. Some real death metal heads maybe didn't expect it, but I think it's a good surprise, for sure. It's what I feel right now, and it's what the band is feeling right now. It's what we want to play.
I remember reading that the drums were recorded live…
Yes, that's right. [The] kick drums are live kicks. It's not triggers.
We did lots of crazy stuff in the studio with Daniel Bergstrand, the producer. He's from Sweden, and he came into the studio in Poland and kept looking for the best sounding kick drums, and drums in general, for a couple of days. He did lots of crazy stuff, like he recorded in the stair area. He used all areas of the studio, every single place, to put microphones. He even put a big piano on the front of the drums, so that's why he got more sustain for the sound. He did a great job, for sure.
It's impressive in the sense that most modern metal bands can't do that. Now everyone does massive guitar overdubs and uses fake drums, does sound replacement…
Yes, definitely. We were looking for the most natural sound because we are very bored and sick with the modern deathcore sounding bands. It's a little too much of a plastic sound, you know? It's not real.
We—me, and the guys, and our sound engineer, Malta (Arkadiusz Malczewski)—we like real.
Aside from the obvious lineup change, what was different for you through the writing and recording process this time around?
It was kind of hard, I have to say, especially in the beginning. When I played with Vitek, we are brothers, so it was very natural for us to work together without any words. We didn't need to speak to understand what was the idea behind the riffs and stuff.
This time, I'm very happy and very proud about having Kerim Lechner as a drummer. In my opinion, he replaced Vitek 100% as a drummer. He's very fast too, with arrangement and with arranging drums for my riffs. He's a very smart guy, and he's always on time. He's young—he's younger than me—so he's got different influences for his drumming. He listens to mostly modern music, modern metal groups, but still we can understand each other even with a little bit of an age barrier.
There is also a language barrier because he comes from Austria, so we have to talk in English together. But step by step, we found a way to make the songs together, and it was a very cool process and very successful, I guess.
Well, I'm not sure if it was as big of a deal to everyone else, but I remember watching those videos of Kerim on YouTube…
Yeah, Kerim, before he joined the band, he was already kind of famous, like a YouTube star. (LAUGHS) He did so many videos on YouTube, and I have to say, I was pretty jealous by how many [views] he got.
Considering everything that the band has gone through, how much pressure did you feel when deciding to reform, as well as going into the writing and recording process?
Oh, I have to remind myself how it was. (LAUGHS)
I felt stressed about how it would be with the new lineup, and it was very hard to be on tour and not see the person I used to be on tour with and that used to be in the band; that was very, very hard. I did kind of struggle inside to understand it, or to be cool about the new situation, because the most important idea to come back was that we wanted to keep Decapitated alive, we wanted to try to play still. It would be not the same anymore, but I want[ed] to try as much as possible to keep it in the same spirit that it was in the past.
I think this album proves that it was a good idea to continue the band. I'm very happy, to be honest, to be on the stage again and to keep it going with this band, and I'm pretty sure that my brother would be happy about that, and Covan as well.
You played with Vader following the accident. How did that compare to being on stage now?
That was easier, to me, because there was no pressure. I was just a session guitar player. That was a very cool time, I have to say. Vader was always one of my favorite bands, and it was a very cool opportunity to play with them.
Something that really stuck out to me about Carnival is that you actually outsourced the lyrics…
Yes, somebody from outside the band. It's quite weird. (LAUGHS) It happens for a couple of bands I know though, for Behemoth as well…
Yeah, yeah. Nergal. He's writing some lyrics, but not all. They have one guy from Poland, he makes [the] lyrics for them. And you know, the main reason is that nobody from the band—me or the guys—we cannot write good lyrics. That's the main reason.
We were dreaming to have the album, to have everything, just perfect—as much good as possible. That's why we decided to leave the lyrics to the guy that knows how to do them. And this guy, his name is Jarosław Szubrycht. He's from Poland, and he's my old friend. I play with this guy in a band called Lux Occulta, a very interesting band. But this guy, he's a journalist as well. He's writing books. He has his very own characteristics and original style.
The lyrics are pretty interesting, in my opinion. They're crazy, a little bit, but this is his style. It's not usual, it's not simple, but it's different. The lyrics are about some things going on in the world and about people, how we don't want to change and we make the same mistakes. Humanity likes to hide the bad things, like hide behind masks—politicians, religions, whatever.
Did you work with him on the concept?
I just talk[ed] to him in the beginning. I wanted him to write the lyrics, and the lyrics should talk about human nature and about what is going on in the world. It should show how it looks in the real world, like behind the mask. It's about humanity, about real things.
Do you think you'll continue working with him on future recordings?
That's a good question, but I don't know. I wish! I hope he would be interested. If yes, that will be cool, and maybe for the next album or maybe more. I will be happy, for sure, but we'll see if he will be interested.
Musically, you've always been a very forward-thinking band. How have you been able to consistently evolve while a lot of the metal community has become somewhat predictable?
Or obvious. Like a lot of the music coming out doesn't really offer anything new…
Oh yes, I know. It's very hard.
And Carnival is just…within the first ten seconds, I was already blown away.
You think it's something good?
It's insane!
(LAUGHS) I don't know. I'm always trying to put as much energy as I've got, and that was the concept behind my music and writing these riffs. On this album, as I said in a question before, it's [got] some kind of progressive, dreamy parts, like you sleep, and you're dreaming. It's more chilled out. So maybe the mix between this kind of playing and really fast, death metal riffs together, it makes something interesting. It makes something new for extreme metal music.
For me, this album, the riffs, are still really deep into traditional metal. It's not really something new or original. It's hard to say. Would you say it's fresh or something like that?
Yes, considering how redundant a lot of metal bands have become.
Oh, like you hear another deathcore band and it sounds the same, but we make it something different?
Yes. (LAUGHS)
Oh yeah, and of course, about music and about arrangement and also about production.
Yes, exactly. But everything about Carnival is exactly what Decapitated fans want to hear.
Really? That's so cool!
You have to know that this album should have been released about three years ago, because those songs, the main ideas for those songs, I created with Vitek before [the] accident in 2005 and 2006. So those ideas waited a long time to be released.
So considering your age when the band first formed, it's obvious that music has always played a large role in your life. Who have been some of your biggest influences, not only as a musician, but as a songwriter as well?
It's a lot of persons, lots have influenced me through the years. Lots of guitar heroes like Dimebag Darrell. I think Pantera and Dimebag Darrell are some of the biggest music influences for me.
I started to listen to metal when my older cousins showed me metal, and it was like Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer—the music from here, that was the first of what I heard of metal music. Then I changed my point to Florida…
On to death metal?
Yes, death metal! And, I don't know, together, with some European metal bands like Kreator and Sodom…I mean, I was listening to all metal. I didn't like too much of doom metal, slow music, though.
Do you now?
Yes, more! (LAUGHS)
I feel like as I get older, doom is becoming more my speed…
Yes, yes, yes! It's the way, it's the classic way.
But yes, so there are so many bands I looked up to. I also studied music at music school, at the Academy of Music in Kraków. I studied the accordion. (LAUGHS)
That's hard to play!
Yes, yes! Very, very hard! It's not easy, but I graduated, and I am very proud.
What made you go with the accordion?
I started to play accordion when I was six because my parents said, "Play the accordion." So that's why, and then it was too late to change, so I thought, why not? It's cool. But I don't play too much right now. Mostly guitar. But this instrument, hmm, maybe I should play. I don't know, maybe it's too hard now. I'm lazy, and I prefer metal because it's easier to play. (LAUGHS)
It's crazy that you're so accomplished with more than one instrument. It's like how the Van Halen brothers are actually both amazing at each other's instruments.
Yeah? I didn't know that. That is why they are so good!
Exactly. So going back to the original question…
Yeah, you ask me about something, and I don't give you an answer. (LAUGHS) Songwriting influences. I would say Devin Townsend. He's a good composer. Jeff Hanneman is a good composer. Dimebag Darrell was a fucking brilliant composer. There are a bunch of great composers from classical music, too, that I really respect. Frédéric Chopin is my favorite composer, for sure, and Claude Debussy.
That's funny. My standard daytime music is "The Nocturnes, Op. 9," and once I really wake up, I throw on Pantera.
Yes, yes, me too! I always listen to Chopin, then Pantera, then Morbid Angel. So same music! And oh yeah, I have to say Trey Azagthoth to add to the list from before.
Covan's birthday was earlier this week. Do you have any update on his condition?
He, all the time, makes progress. But his health state, it's still not happy, and it's not good. I mean, it's still on the same line. He's safe, he's not in harm, and he's ok. He has good doctors, and he's taken care of by lots of persons everyday, but, you know, he cannot move, and he cannot do anything by himself.
Probably he can understand what's going on around him, and he understands what people say and when people talk, but he cannot speak. He cannot do anything. He spends his time on the bed or on the chair. His parents are taking care of him, and his friends, and his sister, of course. It's hard. But sometimes people are getting better after ten or twelve years from his situation, or so I hear about.
His parents are planning to take him to Germany for surgery, to take some…I don't know how to translate. What is the word for the things we are made up from?
Yes, I think so. For the surgery, they want to take the cells from other parts of the body and put [them] into the brain. I think so, I think it's something like that. I don't know medicine. I am not a doctor. But this surgery is still…not experienced?
Yes, yes, experimental. So, it's not totally legal. You have to sign the papers that if something happens [or goes] wrong, they are not at fault. So I think they should try, because it's the last, or maybe one of the last chances, to really do something that makes the process of recovery faster. It's a very difficult situation, especially because it's very expensive. It takes lots of money.
Does Poland not pay for portions of your health care? I thought I remembered hearing something about that from when Nergal was sick…
Covan has some help from the government, but it's not as much as he's needing.
Yeah, we don't really have that here. Well actually, some people do, but that's a whole different conversation…
I hear that it's better to die in the US than to go to the doctor. It's a whole different world. I hear that the medicine, or when you want to go to the hospital in the US, if you don't have insurance, it's very expensive.
Oh, yes. Well, following this US run, what's in store for the band for the rest of the year?
After this tour? We have two weeks for break, but it's not really a break because we have two festivals. One is in Belgium, and one is in the UK, in Nottingham. I am very, very happy about these festivals. I cannot wait! We will play with Ulver, the band. You don't know?
Oh, check them out. It's cool, it's very cool! We are also playing with Devin Townsend and Godflesh, so a very cool lineup! After that, we have a European tour with Aborted and Fleshgod Apocalypse and with Cyanide Serenity in Europe.
For more information on Decapitated, check out:
To donate to Covan's recovery, visit:


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In Issue #8 of DC's All Star Comics (cover date: Jan. '42) there's an eight-page story intended to test readers reaction to a new type of hero. Written by Charles Moulton (pseudonym of Psychologist William Moulton Marston) with art by … [Read more...]
In late 1949 EC started publishing horror comics such as 'Crypt of Terror' and 'Vault of Horror'. The extreme, graphic violence of these quickly made them best sellers, and other publishers began producing their own gruesomeness. The early … [Read more...]
Why, Marvel, Why?!!
I grew up a Marvel Comics fan. I enjoyed the exploits of Spider-Man, The X-men, and The Fantastic Four. I am also a big fan of the villains especially Dr Doom. I have endured the fact that Dr Doom has not been portrayed well in not one but 3 … [Read more...]
Those Comic Book Creatures with Strange Sounding Names
The first of the Giants makes his entrance. For a little more than three years, from January 1959 (these are cover dates) to February 1963, there existed the Marvel Age of Monsters. Five titles are involved, all featuring a giant … [Read more...]
Amazing Logan Trailer
3 weeks ago was the big game, and as many know our New England Patriots won its 5th Super Bowl Championship, but before I lose all the patriots haters. This has nothing to do with the game but the commercial of the game. Which I usually … [Read more...]
Steranko Cover Battle
#110 or #111? For years now there has been some debate in the office.. Which Steranko Cover is better Captain America #110 or #111? (If you say #113 is better then we don't take your opinion seriously). Steranko had a very short run at Marvel, but … [Read more...]
Good Girls of the Golden Age/How Bright were my Headlights?
GOOD GIRLS OF THE GOLDEN AGE or HOW BRIGHT WERE MY HEADLIGHTS (A non-PC post) One of … [Read more...]
Reed Crandall and The Ray
Reed Crandall and The Ray In August of 1939, Quality began publishing Smash Comics, a ten-year series featuring an assortment of crime fighters, including the first mechanical battler called Bozo the Robot (no relation to the later Bozo the … [Read more...]
Dive … Dive …
During the 1960's just about every spy, western, action, adventure, comedy or sci-fi tv series had an equivalent comic book series. These books usually mimicked their show well; some did it very well. None are better - with possibly one … [Read more...]
Dr. Strange Movie has the Magic!
Let's talk magic for a bit. We went and took in Dr. Strange this weekend, and I must say that it has to be one of Marvels best origin films. You could feel the spirit of the comic book stories come to life on the big screen and the influence of both … [Read more...]
Examining Green Lantern #76… the Day the Silver Age Died
After the Comics Code shut down the early experimentation of the Golden Age of comics, the Silver Age was born. This glorious (and silly) period lasted from about 1954 to 1970. The times were changing and the comic world could no longer ignore the … [Read more...]
Military Veterans of the Silver Age and Golden Age of Comic Books
In honor of Veterans day, we look at famous characters of the Silver Age and Golden Age of comic books that have their origins associated with the military. These men, after their service, found themselves on a path of transformation; some for the … [Read more...]
Black Panther, Silver Age Comic Books Superhero: Perhaps More Relevant Than Ever
Politics aside, it goes without saying that since the Ferguson upheaval of last year, the Baltimore protests of recent note and the #BlackLivesMatter movement, a voice for African-American concerns and issues has coalesced with a new-found momentum. … [Read more...]
Remembering the Death of Superman
The Silver Age of comic books was a special time of relative innocence, an innocence which often gets rattled by the more brutally realistic concepts of modern comics. One of the toughest of these was the graphic novel "The Death of Superman," a … [Read more...]
How the Comics Code Derailed the Golden Age
Have you ignored the world of golden age comic books because you associate it with bland, morally simplistic stories? Sadly, this understandable misconception has fueled comic book fans for decades and it didn't have to be that way, if it wasn't for … [Read more...]
Supergirl: A Silver Age Heroine for a Modern Day Audience
Most comic book fans are readily aware of at least one version of DC Comics popular female Kryptonian and most would agree that the ultimate incarnation is Kara Zor-El herself. A character popular among fans for decades now will finally be getting … [Read more...]
5 Oddball Facts About Some Favorite Golden and Silver Age Marvel Characters
Comic books have provided many of us with hours upon hours of entertainment (although some may be reluctant to admit this). Equally entertaining are the bits of weird and amusing real world news that relate to our favorite silver and golden age comic … [Read more...]
Should You Bother Seeing the New Ant-Man Movie? Absolutely! Here's Why
Ant-Man is one of those silver age comic book characters that seems to get a bad rap. Many comic book fans think of him as little more than a joke and have already laughed off his upcoming new movie. However, if you're a true comic book fan, you … [Read more...]
The Flash: How the Scarlet Speedster ushered in the Silver Age of Comic Books and Television
Before Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and Jack Kirby were working together to bring the Marvel Universe to life, the Silver Age of Comics had already begun thanks to the Distinguished Competition. In the pages of Showcase #4, published in October of 1956, a … [Read more...]
The Inspirations Behind Superman
Superman is so deeply rooted in popular culture that virtually everything about him, his origin story, and his supporting cast almost seem to have simply always existed. But the reality is that Superman, his pals, and his story were based on a number … [Read more...]
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Nearing the end of its fall trip out West, the GRP ski team has a lot of experiences and a lot of skiing to talk about! Hopefully you've seen some of our blog posts to date. We're also experimenting with a new "video blog," where GRP skiers go on camera to talk about their travels, races, and other happenings.
The most recent installment features Clare Egan, and comes out of West Yellowstone. Enjoy!
Also see the first edition, featuring Alex Howe in Canmore.


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What a day.
Jackson and I woke up and ran down to the lake to watch the sunrise on the mountains. It was a cold, crisp, wet morning, and it smelled like Christmas outside. Our plan to see the sunrise was foiled as it was overcast and cloudy. While we didn't see a pink sky, we did see the mountains sticking out of the clouds which was pretty awesome. We got back to the RV as the girls were waking up. Only then did the rain start, for which I was very grateful. Rain gives us the chance to play catch up. We sat in the RV, snuggled in our blankets, ate a little breakfast and spent the morning doing the Jr. Ranger programs. By the time we turned them into the visitor center (and the kids did one last look at the gift shop) it was already noon.
Driving north through the park, we crossed into Yellowstone. It is one big park. Two hours of driving, and we arrived at the Yellowstone Inn and Lodge area. I was told if we go to Yellowstone, we must spend one night at the Inn. Since it was still kind of a rainy day, we grabbed lunch at the cafeteria and from the comfort of our window table, saw Old Faithful go off right on schedule. And then the rain came down! Everyone ran inside and the kids and I went back to the RV. Lunch was at the Lodge, but our room was at the Inn, so we drove over there.
Before going to our room, we walked all along the gysers and saw Old Faithful erupt again. The dark clouds moved in again, and before we knew it, it was a total downpour. Thunder and lightening, hail, all of it! It was fabulous. I told the kids, "now THIS is a night to be staying at an Inn, NOT in our RV!!" They agreed.
The lobby of this historic Inn is breathtaking. It looks a little like The Swiss Family Robinson Tree House. Old, wood log steps wind way up into the rafters, five flights! Guests are only allowed to go up to the 3rd floor. There are huge comfy chairs with a giant fireplace and views all around. We ran through the rain back to the RV to gather our belongings, including school work. Shlepping it up to the 3rd floor, we found a great, big table and spread everything out. For those of you CAL folks, it was like being at that old, cool library with the long tables, which I now can't remember the name.
Anyway, we spent over 2 1/2 hours doing some work and met lots of nice people, including another homeschool family. The girls quickly made friends with their girls and swapped all kinds of stories. Before I knew it, it was 8pm, and we hadn't had dinner. Thankfullly we picked up some sandwiches and brought them back to the room.
Each day we see some amazing sights. And each day I think it can't get better, but it does. Today Sammy said, "Mom, I didn't think I would like this place, but I love it. Thanks so much for bringing us here. I think I want to live here." It doesn't get much better than that.


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- The Rez Map, with its many layers, provides a wealth of knowledge. Boat ramps, hiking trails, hunting land, land use plans, zoning, and much more.
- Board of Directors Minutes, agendas.
- Email addresses for all staff, including the Executive Director.
- A copy of James E. Sorrels, The Pearl River Valley Reservoir Project: A Study of the Creation and Promotion of a Regional Reservoir (U. of Miss. Press, 1962).
- Brochures from each of the campgrounds.
That's just a scratch on the surface.


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Version Control
SpecVet Version Control is a system to keep track of modifications made to our code base. Due to the nature of the FileMaker platform on which SpecVet is based, it is very easy to make code changes on individual systems fo remedy problems and add features. The Version Control system is an attempt to keep track of changes and to aid in determining differences between one set of files and another.
Version Control consists of the following:
- A Version table in each of the SpecVet files
- Several scripts used during the update process
Accessing the Version Table
You must be logged into SpecVet using an account with Full Access to access the Plugins table.
1. From the SpecVet Home screen, click the Setup tile.
2. Click the Developer Menu button on the lower right corner of the Set Up screen.
3. From the Developer Menu, click the Version Control button under the Development Layouts section.


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Wael the Plumber: Egypt's Google revolutionary mixes it up at the IMF
Along with cherry blossoms, spring means IMF annual meetings here in Washington along with some always intriguing panel discussions. The most highly anticipated talk at this year's confab was this morning's roundtable on "Youth, Jobs, and Inclusive Growth in the Middle East and North Africa," featuring IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Columbia University professor and ...
Along with cherry blossoms, spring means IMF annual meetings here in Washington along with some always intriguing panel discussions. The most highly anticipated talk at this year's confab was this morning's roundtable on "Youth, Jobs, and Inclusive Growth in the Middle East and North Africa," featuring IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Columbia University professor and Middle East Channel contributor Rashid Khalidi, the International Labor Organization's Nada al-Nashif, Tunisian Central Bank Governor Mustapha Nabli, and Egyptian Google executive-turned-revolutionary Wael Ghonim.
The real topic of debate was the IMF's past role in lending to autocratic regimes in the Middle East and whether it would expand its mandate to include job creation, economic equality, and good governance, in addition to more traditional macroeconomic indicators. Strauss-Kahn, on the defensive for most of the panel, seemed to promise they would.
Moderator Abderrahim Foukara of Al Jazeera was clearly (and effectively) looking to stir up a provocative discussion. He began by comparing Tunisian self-immolator Mohamed Bouazizi to Willy Loman — the hero of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, who committed suicide so that his son could have opportunities he never had — and ended by asking Strauss-Kahn to respond to a tweet that compared the IMF holding a panel on inclusive growth to Muammar al-Qaddafi holding a forum on human rights.
The most interesting back-and-forth of the discussion was between Ghonim and Strauss-Kahn. The Internet activist — notably the only guy in the room wearing jeans — began by saying, "I feel like Joe the Plumber," the conservative activist who became a shorthand for populist outrage during the 2008 U.S. presidential election. "When I was coming here, a lot of people were criticizing me for it. The perception is that the IMF was part of the problem. It made these regimes survive and put these countries into debt," he said. Ghonim said he had come to the IMF to represent "people like me who don't understand economics." To which Strauss-Kahn retorted, "Wael, you understand a lot more than you say."
According to Ghonim, the kind of macroeconomic discussions at the panel were far from the thinking of activists in Tahrir Square:
Honestly we were just thinking of how to get rid of the nightmare, not to start dreaming. I went to the street because of two things: I hate it when I see people eating from the trash. I work for a corporation, I'm well paid, and a lot of us just sympathized with those people, but they're not willing to pay the price of really helping them out. It's not just me; it's thousands of Egyptians. One of my friends who lost his eye [during the protests] actually drives a Ferrari. He went on the day of 25th. The second was dignity. We wanted our dignity back. And dignity does have an economic aspect.
He also took issue with Strauss-Kahn's characterization of "mistakes" made by the international community during the Mubarak era:
It's such an understatement to say mistake. To me, what was happening was a crime. The way the international community was dealing with the injustice and dictators in the region was basically a crime — partners in crime. […]
For the sake of being very controversial, which is something that I like to do, I'm reading here a [2007] report the IMF issued that says, "Egypt's economy had another year of impressive performance supported by sustained reforms, prudent macroeconomic management, and a favorable external environment. Growth was strong and has become more broad-based, creating record number of jobs. Investor confidence remains high." When I read such a report, or read a report saying the rate of inflation of 10 percent, then I talk to my neighbor who tells me the cost of meat is 50 percent higher, who am I going to believe?
The managing director responded:
It was very good that you read what you did because it clearly shows the point that we need — not only us at the IMF, but the whole international community — need to link more, what is traditionally seen as important economic and financial [indicators], and what is really important to the people in the street. This has not been part of our mandate so far, but we need to expand it. There's no way we can go on if on one side we have experts talking about economics and taking no account at all of what happens in real life.… Having growth [as our only consideration] is useless and it doesn't work.
Ghonim continued his criticism of the IMF's aid to the Mubarak regime and expressed a hope that the days of Egypt relying on international aid would soon be over, provoking a back-and-forth with DSK that's (heavily) excerpted below:
I think we should criticize now and we should be very open in the past few years. Bailing out dictators or regimes that are basically totalitarian systems — giving them loans will make the people pay the interest while the top niche are making the money. I don't understand how in a country like Egypt, billions of dollars are made in commissions of deals by Hosni Mubarak and Co. while we're borrowing money from international organizations and the Egyptian people have to pay the interest.
I take the radical view that [the international community] should let the Egyptians solve their own problems. Now, with everyone's dignity back, they will not let things go. Farmers created a syndicate; laborers are fighting for their own interests. We need enough meddling to serve your own values from the outside world and also give us your expertise, advice, and recommendations.
I think, to be very honest, aid didn't do us much good in the past few years.… At the end of the day we don't want aid. What we need is investments, improving the legal framework of doing business in Egypt, and the expertise of the international community.… I think the solution is not money.
DSK: Fine!… We're not bankers looking for customers. The less people that need our money the better.…
WG: I'm not in a position to evaluate the country's economic needs right now. But with the new government that the people trust to carry out their economic goals, if this government represents the needs of people and they hear the country needs money, this is probably the right way to go.
DSK: So you promise that if the new government asks for help, you won't blame me if we have the money?
WG: Well I'm a revolutionary, so I have to be against you by design!


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Phones services in Manchester and parts of the North West have been disrupted following a suspected arson attack.
Police were called to two incidents in the early hours of this morning. In one incident in Salford, a fire started in a wheelie bin near a cable box damaged underground cables. Shortly afterwards, police attended a similar incident nearby, following reports of another fire.
In a third incident a control box for traffic lights had been set on fire causing the lights to malfunction.
Both BT and business-focused telco, Your Communications (formerly Norweb Communications) have been hit by the fires. Other operators are also understood to have been affected.
Gary Clarkson, operations director for Your Communications, described the fires as a "serious incident" and said engineers were working to fix the damaged cables. According to one unconfirmed report the fires may have been started deliberately as part of a malicious attack against a telco.
Police have launched an investigation into the incident. ®
Sponsored: Webcast: Simplify data protection on AWS


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When Glynis does a Numerology reading, SHE DOES NOT MISS!! You may have seen her on Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, The Talk, 20/20, etc. Glynis believes that knowledge is power, and when she has someone's name and date of...
Monday, June 20, 2016
Host: Dr. Pat Baccili
Guest: Glynis McCants


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Friday, June 16, 2017
Gifts of the Spirit
As a Church, we celebrate Corpus Christi today – the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. Paul gave us the earliest account of the institution of the Eucharist – the self-giving of Jesus to all believers under the elements of bread and wine. Paul also was the first to tell us that we are the body of Christ. Many parts, but all one body. So today is a celebration of what we receive and who we are. We belong to Christ's Body and we belong to each other. There are implications to this belonging. This week, in a veritable blitz of light emanating from citizens of our city who hold many faiths, I heard how permeating the spirit of belonging is in our community. Here are some vignettes about Rochesterians who have come to value belonging, dignity and a chance at life for people in the community that we generally do not see. Can these stories of inspiration be anything less than gifts of the Spirit?
Karen Morris is a judge in Brighton. She is part of a group of law officials and citizens who have put together a system called Ticket2Ride which gives round-trip bus tickets to court-mandated appearances for people who would not otherwise easily get there. While the tickets will be provided, the responsibility for their appointment remains with the individual. A leg up.
Public Defender Tim Danaher has recently been recognized for the work he has done to insure that indigent defendants had lawyers at their first court hearing. He's also worked for increased resources for indigent defense. Efforts largely unseen by the busy public.
I was part of a group that toured the year-old facility on Mt. Read Blvd. that houses Foodlink. The name has been synonymous with food for those in need since the late 1970s. Now Foodlink manages food intake and distribution in 10 counties from Lake Ontario to Alleghany County. Food trucks go our daily to various locations, so that people can come up to the truck to buy fresh produce and other food items. No soda! Foodlink is part of a national network, but the folks who work there and who staff their new state-of-the-art kitchen are dedicated to insuring that the people who need cooked meals the most get them, especially children. This summer, as in other summers, food will be delivered to various recreation centers and places when children and youth gather.
Then there's David Beinetti, one of the principals at the architectural firm SWBR. He has a particular passion that people should have dignified affordable housing. Two of SWBR's recent projects are in the Carriage House on Canal Street and the Wedgepoint Apartments near St. Joseph's house of Hospitality and ABVI. Both are fully occupied. The surprise in our conversation came when David told me the landscaping department of SWBR designed a kitchen garden for the culinary school at East High, so that students could cook from garden to table. Only then did David and his colleagues discover that the students knew nothing about planting or tending a garden. So he and others are now gracious teachers of gardening as well. Projects like this have unforeseen consequences.
Sister Beth LeValley has reminded me that for the last six years through its Burial Initiative at the Oatka Cemetery and, more recently, at Riverside, the Greater Rochester Community of Churches has laid to rest about 25 people a year who died with no family or resources. The silence of death is broken by the respect of the community of believers.
We place these generous human efforts into the context of the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. We recall that Jesus never asked us to create a tabernacle where He could be contained. Jesus had to be with people wherever they were, whatever needs they brought before him. When he fed them, he fed them generously. When he attended to their deeply human needs, he did so with a tender spirit. He has invited all of us throughout history, to be generous to those most in need. One body, many parts. The Body of Christ in our day.
~ Sister Joan Sobala
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Photos and Blurb by Velton Hayworth
There was 'Nothin' But a Good Time' to be had for the fans who packed the Pavilion at the Toyota Music Factory in Las Colinas on Saturday night for the trifecta of Poison, Cheap Trick and Pop Evil.
It can be a common occurrence these days to see one of your favorite bands from the past in concert and there's only one original member surrounded by his band of mercenaries. On many occasions, the show may sound as good as the original band, but it's just not quite the real thing.
For Saturday night's show, Poison had all of their original band members and Cheap Trick featured all but one — Daxx Nielsen (Rick Nielsen's son) was on drums.
"I'm really excited to see C.C. (Deville, guitar), Ricki (Rockett, drums) and Bobby (Dall, bass) again and to get together," Posion lead singer Bret Michaels said to Eddie Trunk on SiriusXM. "And that's where you put in all the really hard work, just cutting through the songs we wanna do. This year, we're really gonna focus on putting back into the set 'I Want Action,"I Won't Forget You."Fallen Angel,'some of the stuff that, when we were out with Def Leppard and out with KISS, Motley Crue and all these different bands co-headlining, what happened is your set's a little shorter. Now we're gonna put all that stuff in.
"And we appreciate it — don't ever misunderstand me." Michaels continued. "I love it. And last year with Def Leppard was great. But focusing on rehearsals is gonna be amazing. I'm excited."
Pop Evil fans braved the sweltering heat to pack the house for their energy-packed show that started at 7 p.m.
Leigh Kakaty ( Pop Evil / Singer )
Cheap Trick followed at 8:20 p.m., taking the energy at one of DFW's newest music venues to the next level while playing the seemingly endless catalog of classic hits. They kicked off their 13 song set with "Hello There" which is the first song on their iconic live album Cheap Trick at Budokan.
Rick Nielsen ( Cheap Trick / Guitar )
Poison stayed true to their word by delivering some straight-up in-your-face live rock and roll.
They kicked the set off with "Look What the Cat Dragged In" and wrapped things up with "Rock and Roll All Nite" as their encore.
Bret Michaels ( Poison / Frontman )
When all was said and done, you had two bands (Cheap Trick and Poison) who 30 years ago probably wouldn't have been caught in the same zip code together, but on this night, they teamed up and put on a show worthy of their heydays.
You want your MTV? On this particular evening, you could still have it!
Eddie Trunk reference from Blabbermouth