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Celebrities Lend Their Voices to Bring Bible Alive
Over 70 actors spanning three continents create powerful, dramatized audio Bible
LOS ANGELES (MetroCatholic) — It's the greatest story newly told. Actors from Hollywood, the West End, and beyond have breathed new life into the Good Book, bringing its power and inspiration to a whole new generation. You need only listen to Julia Ormond as "Mary" or Neal McDonough as "Jesus" (see them too at www.truthandlifebible.com) to hear sacred words from the distant past made current and so compelling — especially in an age when even many Christians know little of the Bible (according to a recent Pew survey) and have all but forgotten the stories and people it celebrates even during major holidays like Christmas.
Launching November 1, 2010 in time for the holidays, this 18-CD, 22-hour series called Truth & Life Dramatized Audio Bible New Testament boasts a huge talent of over 70 world-renowned actors such as Blair Underwood, Michael York, Stacy Keach, Malcolm McDowell, Kristen Bell, John Rhys-Davies, Sean Astin, and Brian Cox. The series was produced by New York Times bestselling author, broadcast journalist and producer Raymond Arroyo and legendary award-winning radio show producer Carl Amari, who is also president and CEO of Falcon Picture Group. Brenda Noel directed.
The Truth & Life Dramatized Audio Bible New Testament is endorsed by the Vatican, bears the imprimatur of the archbishop of New York and includes a special foreword by Pope Benedict XVI.
Visit www.truthandlifebible.com to watch behind-the-scenes video of the celebrities performing their roles and to hear Luke Chapter 1 (Mary visited by an angel), Matthew Chapter 3 (Jesus is baptized) and Mark Chapter 5 (Jesus raises a little girl from the dead).
"They're not just reading," explains Arroyo, "these actors are performing, sharing these stories in the same way they were originally communicated — passed from person to person as part of an oral tradition. The stories come alive (think radio drama style with sound effects and original music), propelling us right into history, the way it might have happened."
Describing his impetus for the project, co-producer Amari adds, "My children would ask me about a particular Bible passage, and I'd realize that I really didn't know what it meant, even though I grew up in the Church."
"It's the delivery," suggests Arroyo. "Reading or listening to Scripture being read is often a confusing, dull experience." From the pulpit, it's grounds for a snooze. "But performed like this," he says, "you are thrown into the middle of the action. The Bible is suddenly not only understandable, but arresting and compelling."
The Actors:
Neal McDonough as "Jesus," Julia Ormond as "Mary, Mother of God," Blair Underwood as "Mark," Stacy Keach as "John," Michael York as "Luke," Brian Cox as the "Voice of God," Sean Astin as "Matthew," Kristen Bell as "Mary Magdalene," Malcolm McDowell as "Caiaphas," and John Rhys-Davies as the Narrator.
For interviews, contact: John Bianco, 413-848-1407, [email protected]
Posted by Trisha Simpson · Filed Under Lifestyle, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
VATICAN ISSUES THREE SPECIAL POSTMARKS
VATICAN CITY, 6 OCT 2010 (VIS) - A note released today by the Governorate of Vatican City State announces the issue of three new postmarks to commemorate, respectively, the Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops due to take place from 10 to 24 October, the Romafil Philatelic Fair being held in Rome on 29 and 30 October, and the "LXIV Salon Philatelique d'Automne" being celebrated in Paris, France, from 4 to 7 November.
The first of these postmarks - depicting a chalice and the Bible with a map of the Middle East - has been produced by the Vatican Post Office. The images are surrounded by the text: "ASSEMBLEA SPECIALE PER IL MEDIO ORIENTE DEL SINODO DEI VESCOVI. POSTE VATICANE. 10.10.2010″.
Anyone interested must send the philatelic material to be franked, with a stamped addressed envelope, to the Franking Office of the Vatican Post Office before 10 November.
The second postmark, produced by the Philatelic and Numismatic Office of the Governorate , shows the Roman church of the Most Holy Trinity at Monte Pincio, better known as "Trinita dei Monti". The design is surrounded by the words: "ROMAFIL. MANIFESTAZIONE FILATELICA 2010. POSTE VATICANE 29 - 30 OTT.".
People interested must send the philatelic material to be franked, with a stamped addressed envelope, to the Franking Office of the Vatican Post Office before 30 November.
The third post mark, also produced by the Philatelic and Numismatic Office of the Governorate, portrays the Parisian basilica of the Sacred Heart accompanied by the words "POSTE VATICANE. 64eme SALON PHILATELIQUE D'AUTOMNE. PARIS. 4 - 7 NOVEMBRE 2010″.
Anyone interested must send the philatelic material to be franked, with a stamped addressed envelope, to the Franking Office of the Vatican Post Office before 7 December
Posted by George Vogt · Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
ST. GERTRUDE: A UNIQUE INFLUENCE ON CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY
VATICAN CITY, 6 OCT 2010 (VIS) - In his general audience, held this morning in St. Peter's Square, the Pope dedicated his catechesis to St. Gertrude, "one of the most famous mystics and the only woman in Germany to receive the title of 'Great'", which was given to her "for her great cultural and evangelical importance. With her life and thought she made a uniquely incisive contribution to Christian spirituality", he said.
Born in the year 1256, at the age of five "she entered the convent, as often happened at that time, for education and study. There she spent her whole life".
Gertrude "was an outstanding student. … She went on to dedicate herself totally to God in monastic life and for twenty years nothing exceptional happened: her principal activities were study and prayer". Then, at the age of twenty-five, "she had a vision of a young man who took her by the hand and guided her to loosen the knot of thorns oppressing her soul. In that hand, Gertrude recognised … the One Who saved us with His blood on the cross: Jesus.
"From that moment her life of intimate communion with the Lord became more intense", the Holy Father added. She abandoned "the profane humanistic sciences for theological studies, and in her monastic observance she moved from a life she herself defined as 'negligent' to one of intense mystical prayer, showing exceptional missionary ardour".
Gertrude, Pope Benedict explained, "understood that she had been distant from God, … that she had dedicated herself too avidly to liberal studies, to human knowledge, disregarding the spiritual sciences and depriving herself of the taste of true wisdom. Now she was being led to the mountain of contemplation where she abandoned the old self to clothe herself in the new".
This German saint "dedicated herself to writing, to revealing the truth of faith with clarity, simplicity, grace and conviction, serving the Church with love and faithfulness, and becoming much appreciated by theologians and men of piety". Among her writings - of which few remain "because of the events that led to the destruction of the convent of Helfta" - are the "'Herald of Divine Love' or 'The Revelations', as well as the 'Spiritual Exercises', a rare jewel of mystic spiritual literature", said the Holy Father.
"Gertrude added other prayers and penance to those imposed by the monastic rule, with such devotion and faithful abandonment to God that she aroused in those who met here the conviction of being in the presence of the Lord. And in fact God Himself brought her to understand that He had called her to be an instrument of His grace. Yet Gertrude felt unworthy of this immense divine treasure, and confessed that she had not protected and cherished it". She died in 1301 or 1302.
In closing, Benedict XVI highlighted how the example of St. Gertrude "shows us that the focal point of a happy and authentic life is friendship with Jesus the Lord. This is learned through love for Sacred Scripture and the liturgy, through profound faith and through love for Mary, so as to gain increasing knowledge of God and, therefore, to know true happiness which is the goal of our existence".
Having concluded his catechesis, the Holy Father reminded the various pilgrim groups present that October is the month dedicated to the Holy Rosary, and that tomorrow marks the feast day of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary.
"The Rosary", he said turning to address Polish pilgrims, "is a special prayer of the Church and a spiritual weapon for each one of you. May meditation on the lives of Jesus and Mary be a light for all of us on our evangelical journey of spiritual renewal and conversion of heart".
Teresa Tomeo is coming to Dallas!
Spend an evening with Teresa Tomeo at the White Rose Women's Center's 25th Anniversary Benefit Dinner and Silent Auction! Join us on October 16th at 6pm at Brook Hollow Golf Club in Dallas. Tickets and more information are available through www.saintjosephshelpers.org or call (214) 824-5942.
Posted by white_rose · Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Cardinal DiNardo welcomes HHS Exclusion of Abortion from Federal Insurance Program, Calls for Permanent Law
Following public criticisms of new federally-funded health insurance plans that would have covered elective abortions in Pennsylvania and New Mexico, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a statement that the agency will act to exclude abortion from this program. Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, chairman of the U.S. Catholic bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities, welcomed the statement as averting an "alarming precedent" and called for permanent law to exclude abortion from all programs under the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
"We welcome this new policy," the Cardinal said, "while continuing to be gravely concerned that it was not issued until after some states had announced that pro-abortion health plans were approved and had begun to enroll patients."
"This situation illustrates once again the need for Congress to enact legislation clearly stating once and for all that funds appropriated by PPACA will not pay for abortions or for insurance coverage that includes abortion," Cardinal DiNardo said. "The issue of government involvement in the taking of innocent human life should not remain subject to the changeable discretion of executive officials or depend on the continued vigilance of pro-life advocates."
"It is vitally important for people with serious medical conditions who have been unable to obtain coverage to receive the help offered by programs such as this – and for them to be assured that their coverage will be life-affirming, not life-threatening," the Cardinal concluded.
The full text of his statement follows:
This week it was reported that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had approved a new high-risk health insurance program for residents of Pennsylvania that by its terms would cover abortions without meaningful limits. This federal program, established by the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), will provide health services until 2014 to uninsured persons with pre-existing conditions. The Pennsylvania plan, while purporting not to fund "elective" abortions, made clear in its text that all abortions that satisfy the requirements of certain Pennsylvania statutes (i.e., all abortions that are not illegal in that state) would be covered, and reimbursed, with a combination of private premiums and federal funds drawn from the U.S. Treasury. This first announcement that $160 million in federal funds would be used to provide pro-abortion coverage raised an alarming precedent. Later the news also became public that the state of New Mexico would be covering "elective abortions" in its federal high-risk pool, which was already accepting enrollees.
Last night, however, HHS reacted to public criticisms by announcing that it will act to exclude abortion from this federally funded program, in accord with the assurances that Secretary Sebelius and President Obama have repeatedly made that PPACA will not be used to promote abortion. We welcome this new policy, while continuing to be gravely concerned that it was not issued until after some states had announced that pro-abortion health plans were approved and had begun to enroll patients. This situation illustrates once again the need for Congress to enact legislation clearly stating once and for all that funds appropriated by PPACA will not pay for abortions or for insurance coverage that includes abortion. Such legislation would mirror the Hyde amendment and similar provisions which prevent such abortion funding in all other federal health programs.
In this program as in others, the issue of government involvement in the taking of innocent human life should not remain subject to the changeable discretion of executive officials or depend on the continued vigilance of pro-life advocates. It is vitally important for people with serious medical conditions who have been unable to obtain coverage to receive the help offered by programs such as this – and for them to be assured that their coverage will be life-affirming, not life-threatening.
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TX Catholic Voice: July Capitol Comments, Marriage, Abortion, and Immigration News
This week's Voice includes our July Capitol Comments titled "A Government Of the People, For the People, By the People." It also includes information from the US Bishops on Marriage, Immigration, and Marriage.
Bishops Concerned over Federal Court Rulings Rejecting Marriage as Between One Man, One Woman
Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Ad Hoc Committee for the Defense of Marriage, expressed grave concern regarding recent rulings by a federal judge in Massachusetts rejecting the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman.
Archbishop Kurtz offered his remarks after two rulings on July 8 that held that section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional. Section 3 provides that for purposes of federal statutes, regulations, and rulings, "marriage" means the legal union of one man and one woman.
"Marriage – the union of one man and one woman – is a unique, irreplaceable institution. The very fabric of our society depends upon it. Nothing compares to the exclusive and permanent union of husband and wife. The state has a duty to employ the civil law to reinforce – and, indeed, to privilege uniquely – this vital institution of civil society. The reasons to support marriage by law are countless, not least to protect the unique place of husbands and wives, the indispensible role of fathers and mothers, and the rights of children, who are often the most vulnerable among us. And yet, a judge has decided that a marriage-reinforcing law like DOMA fails to serve even a single, minimally rational government interest. On behalf of the bishops' Ad Hoc Committee for the Defense of Marriage, I express grave concern over these dangerous and disappointing rulings which ignore even the most apparent purposes of marriage and thus offend true justice," he said.
The court rulings were based on two separate lawsuits which had been filed in Massachusetts.One ruling states that section 3 of DOMA violates the equal protection principles of the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause (see Gill v. Office of Personnel Management). The other ruling holds that section 3 of DOMA violates the Tenth Amendment and the Spending Clause (see Commonwealth of Mass. v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).
In the Gill ruling, U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro commented that, "as irrational prejudice plainly never constitutes a legitimate government interest," section 3 of DOMA is unconstitutional.
"To claim that defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman is somehow irrational, prejudiced, or even bigoted, is a great disservice not only to truth but to the good of our nation," Archbishop Kurtz said. "Marriage exists prior to the state and is not open to redefinition by the state. The role of the state, instead, is to respect and reinforce marriage. Thursday's decision, by contrast, uses the power of the state to attack the perennial definition of marriage, reducing it merely to the union of any two consenting adults. But only a man and a woman are capable of entering into the unique, life-giving bond of marriage, with all of its specific responsibilities. Protecting marriage as only the union of one man and one woman is not merely a legitimate, but a vital government interest."
The USCCB Office of General Counsel noted that the two court rulings are mistaken, both on the basis of the unique meaning of marriage, and because nothing in the Constitution forbids Congress from defining "marriage" – as that term is used in federal statutes, regulations, and rulings—as the union of one man and one woman.
A Critical Distinction between Direct Abortion and Legitimate Medical Procedures
On June 23, 2010, the U.S. Bishops' Committee on Doctrine released a clarification entitled: The Distinction between Direct Abortion and Legitimate Medical Procedures. Since most folks don't read every new posting on the vast USCCB web-site, this helpful statement could be overlooked.
The statement notes that "On November 5, 2009, medical personnel at the St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, performed a procedure that caused the death of an unborn child. Most Reverend Thomas Olmsted, the Bishop of Phoenix, has judged that this procedure was in fact a direct abortion and so morally wrong…."
When Bishop Olmsted spoke, many a commentator became a self-appointed expert on the Church's moral teaching overnight. The national media certainly caused confusion among Catholics and the general public as to what the Church teaches regarding illegitimate and legitimate medical procedures for addressing the risk to a mother's health or even life during a pregnancy.
The Committee on Doctrine reminded us that "…. abortion (that is, the directly intended termination of pregnancy before viability or the directly intended destruction of a viable fetus) is never permitted… One may never directly kill an innocent human being, no matter what the reason… By contrast, in some situations, it may be permissible to perform a medical procedure on a pregnant woman that directly treats a serious health problem but that also has a secondary effect that leads to the death of the developing child… The difference can be seen in two different scenarios in which the unborn child is not yet old enough to survive outside the womb."
"In the first scenario, a pregnant woman is experiencing problems with one or more of her organs, apparently as a result of the added burden of pregnancy. The doctor recommends an abortion to protect the health of the woman… The surgery directly targets the life of the unborn child. It is the surgical instrument in the hands of the doctor that causes the child's death. The surgery does not directly address the health problem of the woman, for example, by repairing the organ that is malfunctioning… The abortion is the means by which a reduced strain upon the organ or organs is achieved. As the Church has said many times, direct abortion is never permissible because a good end cannot justify an evil means…."
"In the second scenario, a pregnant woman develops cancer in her uterus. The doctor recommends surgery to remove the cancerous uterus as the only way to prevent the spread of the cancer… The woman's health benefits directly from the surgery, because of the removal of the cancerous organ. The surgery does not directly target the life of the unborn child. The child will not be able to live long after the uterus is removed from the woman's body, but the death of the child is an unintended and unavoidable side effect and not the aim of the surgery. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with surgery to remove a malfunctioning organ. It is morally justified when the continued presence of the organ causes problems for the rest of the body."
"Surgery to terminate the life of an innocent person, however, is intrinsically wrong… Nothing, therefore, can justify a direct abortion. No circumstance, no purpose, no law
whatsoever can ever make licit an act which is intrinsically illicit, since it is contrary to the Law of God which is written in every human heart, knowable by reason itself, and proclaimed by the Church."
May the Law of God, proclaimed by our Church and through our bishops, inspire each of us to work for the protection of every human person, mother and child alike.
To read the entire statement, go to:
www.usccb.org/doctrine/direct-abortion-statement2010-06-23.pdf

Tom Grenchik is Executive Director of the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Go to www.usccb.org/prolife to learn more about the bishops' pro-life activities.
Posted by Trisha Simpson · Filed Under Pro-Life, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
TX Catholic Voice: Cardinal Speaks Against Abortion Drug, Action Alerts, New Marriage Initiative
This week's Voice includes a statement from Cardinal DiNardo regarding a new abortion drug, two action alerts, information on the US Bishops' response to the oil spill, and information on a new web site created by the USCCB Ad Hoc Committee for the Defense of Marriage.
Posted by Trisha Simpson · Filed Under Texas Catholic News, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Jerusalem patriarch hopes prayer and fasting will ease drought
Archbishop Dolan, Bishop Hubbard Voice Bishops' Support for Ratification of Nuclear Arms Reduction Treaty
Catholic League nativity sets find positive response from state governors
Pope Benedict XVI composes prayer for the unborn
Ohio pediatricians voice 'disgust' as partial birth abortion 'inventor' moves in next door
Ignatius Press Releases New Website and Trailer About Novel Featuring C.S. Lewis and 'The Inklings'
Bishops Commend House Resolution Seeking Protection for Religious Minorities in Iraq
CHURCH IN PHILIPPINES: CONTINUE TO BE A LEAVEN IN SOCIETY
Basic Catholic Rules On Indulgences
New San Antonio archbishop asks Catholics to listen for God's call
REV FR PAUL IKECHUKWU OGUJIOFFOR:ADVENT THE YEAR OF THE LORD 20
Stephan:I agree with the Southern Pove
Christmas Light Business:In this the Pope does not refo
Tomm Kane:Many Catholics do not realize
Name: Mark:This may seem like hair-splitt
Deacon Saviour Apiku:Dear Reverents, I greet all o
uwawike modestus maduabuchi:Please it will please me most
Ron Genini:Like Peter Boero I am part of
ROBERT JUDD:I was wondering if I could get
Jo the Housewife:I am trying to get the truth a


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In the past, when I wanted to go on a day-trip that required a backpack, I had to empty my carry-on and repack it again after. Now, I just pull out my palm-sized Packable and go! Also great for avoiding plastic bag use on the road.
These work as a portable closet in my backpack, helping me stay organized as well as unpack and repack in seconds. I have two , a , and a .
After 90 seconds of agitation, tap water in locations from Thailand to Tunisia is safe to drink, saving the world from yet another single-use plastic water bottle. This purchase will eventually pay for itself! I love this option because it allows you to sterilize water for multiple travelers at once.
Simply fill the bottle from the tap and start to drink — the water will be sucked through the filter like a straw and immediately safe to drink. Again, a purchase that will pay for itself and reduce plastic use. I love this option because the gratification is instant, and no batteries are needed.
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Especially when traveling in Southeast Asia, where street food reigns supreme, styrofoam boxes and plastic forks are all too common. Take away your take-out guilt by packing your own supplies. This tupperware easily folds down and slips easily into the tiniest corner of your backpack.
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I backup often using Apple's Time Machine on a WD My Passport 1TB hard drive. I try to keep my laptop and hard drive stored and carried separately so I don't lose both sets of my data in case of an emergency – a good habit to keep.
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Hannah and Lee are the geniuses behind this big beautiful website! They were an absolute dream to work with and I can't recommend them more highly. They provide a wide range of services and are very reasonably priced.
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I have purchased themes from many different sites before, and Elegant Themes is my favorite. The price for access to all themes is extremely reasonable, and questions are quickly answered in the help forum.
When I first started blogging, Bluehost took care of my domain names and web hosting. As I expanded they no longer fit my growing needs, but I still recommend them to anyone setting up a new site.
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Sometimes I book ahead of time, sometimes I just show up. For hostels, I check and sort by rating to find a good fit. For hotels and guesthouses in Southeast Asia, is my go-to. For apartment rentals, I check Flipkey and Airbnb — get $25 off your first booking by clicking . I often comb newsletter for cheap deals in big cities, and poke around to see what's available in a new destination. I always try Travelpony to see what kind of hotel deals they have — read my review here and get $35 off your first booking of $200 or more by clicking .
When it comes to guide books, I'm a girl through and through. I wait until they have big sales, announced via email, and snap up books or digital guides for all my upcoming destinations. My favorite feature? Being able to purchase a single downloadable chapter at a time online. On a tight budget? Libraries carry guidebooks too! For Southeast Asia trip planning, is hands down the best resource on the internet.
I've experimented with sign up rewards with Capital One Venture (my go-to card, highly recommended), Barclaycard Arrival (highly recommended), Starwood Amex (recommended), Southwest Rapid Rewards Visa (recommended), and Citibank Advantage (not recommended). I keep 2-3 cards active and set them to auto-pay in full. I rarely pay full price for flights anymore! Read more about my travel money management system here.
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Castle Freeman, Jr., né le  à San Antonio, au Texas, est un écrivain américain, auteur de roman policier.

Biographie
Fils d'un officier de la United States Army Air Corps, il naît au Texas, mais passe son enfance et son adolescence à Chicago. Il s'inscrit à l'université Columbia en 1968 et, l'année suivante, épouse l'artiste et designer Alice Chaffee. Le couple déménage dans le Vermont en 1972, où Castle Freeman commence à se consacrer à l'écriture, tout en étant rédacteur en chef pour des périodiques et responsable de l'édition de livres chez divers éditeurs. Il signe aussi régulièrement des textes dans des publications locales.

Son œuvre compte cinq romans, deux recueils de nouvelles, ainsi qu'un recueil d'essais et une monographie historique. Il est de plus l'auteur d'une cinquante nouvelles et d'une centaines d'essais publiés dans divers magazines. Ses récits comme ses essais ont pratiquement toujours pour sujet le Nord des États-Unis et l'État du Vermont.

Viens avec moi (Go with Me), son troisième roman paru en 2008, est son plus gros succès. Ce court thriller est adapté au cinéma par Daniel Alfredson en 2015 sous le titre Viens avec moi (Blackway).

Œuvre

Romans
 Judgment Hill (1997)
 My Life and Adventures (2002)
  (2008)
 All That I Have (2009)
 The Devil in the Valley (2015)

Recueils de nouvelles
 The Bride of Ambrose and Other Stories (1987)
 Round Mountain: Twelve Stories (2012)

Essais
 Spring Snow: The Seasons of New England from The Old Farmer's Almanac (1995)
 A Stitch In Time : Townshend, Vermont, 1753-2003 (2003)

Adaptation
 2015 : Viens avec moi (Blackway), film américain réalisé par Daniel Alfredson, adaptation de Go with Me

Notes et références

Liens externes
  Site de Castle Freeman, Jr.
  interview de Castle Freeman, Jr.

Naissance en novembre 1944
Naissance à San Antonio
Romancier américain  du XXe siècle
Romancier américain  du XXIe siècle
Nouvelliste américain du XXe siècle
Nouvelliste américain du XXIe siècle
Essayiste américain du XXe siècle
Essayiste américain du XXIe siècle
Auteur américain de roman policier

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Fantasci Book Recs: Books In Between Science Fiction and Fantasy!
Okay, so this recommendation post has been rattling around in my mind for a couple weeks now, and I just had to share all of these recommendations with you!
But this leads to the creation of the fun, intermediate genre (at least, that's what it is in my mind), fantasci. The intersection of science-fiction and fantasy where it's not magic, but it's not science either.
It's sometimes a little vague and can definitely lean toward a certain side of the spectrum, but all in all I think fantasci is a really fun, underappreciated genre!
I've already read The Fever King and can I just say–I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH!
It is amaaaazing and I absolutely adore the characters (Noam+Dara 4eva) and OMG this book is sooo spicy with its politics and political manipulations! I was reading it at Disney World and all I wanted to do was DEVOUR the whole book, not wait in line.
It was A Problem, but one I'm glad to have because I just want to hug this book to my chest (and it's free on Amazon First Reads and $8.99 for the hardback early, if you want to read). I even started an Incorrect The Fever King twitter account because I love this book so much.
Seriously, give this book an add because it is so awesome! And the way the fantasy and sci-fi mesh together in the future with the powers that the Level IV student soldiers have are very, very cool.
This book is a mix of like, fantasy powers and genetic manipulation and I am very very excited to dive into this soon! My ARC is on the way, and my hands are itching to start because (1) THAT COVER (2) THE SYNOPSIS AHH.
I am just the biggest sucker for teens with super powers, and that's exactly what The Dysasters has. And the teens ~bond to the elements~ which seems really exciting, and something I'm super excited to pick up!
I will let you know how this book goes, but in the meanwhile, peep that Godreads add button! I just–YAY SUPERPOWERS.
You all probably know just how much I enjoy this dark fantasy x paranormal x mystery x sci-fi mashup, but if you don't, let me tell you a little more about just how much I love this book!
It's just so spooky, and de Becerra does an amazing job of capturing the mystery of the whole situation Hayden is going through, as well as mashing up the INSANE number of genres in this book.
And I swear, it actually works in the book.
ANOTHER QUEER FANTASCI FOR THE BOOKS!
I just–this sounds so amazing? A mix of science fiction and fantasy in the clockwork heart that the main character Anna harbors in her chest, along with all the other mechanical parts she tries to distribute to the sick and injured.
And throw in an assassin and the son of a corrupt tyrant, all working together to end a deadly epidemic–SIGN ME UP. I just have been so so hyped for Tarnished Are the Stars and cannot wait for this book to be in my hands! I've heard wonderful things about the ace and lesbian rep too, and I just–I'm so ready.
And last but not least, I have another book about superpowered teens for your list (this time, they're called Nytes, ahh), and I am so excited to dive into this book!
Four teens working towards peace feat. lots of action sounds like just my jam. And throw in some superpowers, and you have me hooked. Seriously.
I have heard wonderful things and this book sounds like the action-packed adventure that I have been waiting for! If action, books feat. squad goals, or superpowers sound appealing to you, I definitely suggest the use of that cute little button right below!
Even though this book had its flaws, I ultimately really enjoyed reading (stayed up wayyy too late doing so) and cannot wait for book 2 to come!
It's like, addictive–the friendship and the (m/m) relationship, the magic and the science, the story and the characters. I just gobbled this book up! It's got this sort of mind-meld thing going on with some of the characters, plus prescribed death days and other planets and I think the sci-fi/fantasy mix in this book was really unique!
Plus, I had a really fun time reading, even if I did think that the writing/plotting was a little messy. So much fun, though.
I CAN'T BELIEVE I INITIALLY FORGOT THIS.
Can we all take a moment to scream about the queer King Arthur retelling of our dreams? McCarthy & Capetta are AWESOME at giving us all the queer rep we desire, and I'm so so excited for Once & Future and its teenage Merlin and female Arthur.
Plus, all the interplanetary/galactic things to save and corporations and AMGIC SWORDS just all sound so cool, and I'm really excited to read this and dive into my ARC. It looks amazing!
🌸 What fantasci books can you think of?
🌸 Have you ever read any fantasci books that you love?
🌸 Are any of these going on your TBR?
‹ PreviousExclusive First Look: A Treason of Thorns by Laura E. Weymouth Cover Reveal, Excerpt, Interview, and Giveaway!
My TBR is already insane but I'm adding basically all of these to it. Except the Fever King because it was already on there and I cannot wait to read it!
and oooh, yes! Tarnished Are The Stars sounds wonderful I cannot wait for it!
yes!!! I love how it mixes space and fantasy–thank you so much, Kelly!
Great recommendations!! I'm definitely adding these to my TBR. And those covers are all absolutely gorgeous! My wallet won't be happy but I need to have these on my shelf!
thank you so much! and ahahahah omg yes they somehow have GORGEOUS cover I am not minding this at all.
YAY!!!! I love some of these and am so excited for other! Usually fantasci stuff just gets shoved under the fantasy rug, ahhaha! and yeah! These are great–and I'm also adding ONCE & FUTURE which I somehow forgot???
also once & future should be on this list ahhhh I need to add it!
I'm so excited for Tarnished Are the Stars. like aroace rep and a f/f relationship??
yes omg ahhhh SPARK is so awesome and the ENDING ALKJSDLFKJ also THE FEVER KING is just so exciting and I hope you get the chance to read!
ALL THESE BOOKS SOUND SO GOOD!!!! I need them all.
I hadn't heard of Tarnished are the Stars or Spark of White Fire though, so those have gone straight on to my to-read list. Thanks for the recs!
AHHH I AM GLAD I HOPE YOU PICK IT UP! it's so so good and I can't recommend THE FEVER KING enough!
and tarnished are the stars is one i'm sooo excited for, and SPARK is just literally amazing. so awesome. of course!!


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Chinese Investment In India May Grow As US-China Trade Dispute Intensifies
Ankur Bhardwaj
14 May'19 2 min read
Xiaomi founder Lei Jun believes that Investments will grow in India
China recently announced a hike in tariff on $60 Bn worth of US goods
Chinese VCs invested $5.6 Bn into the Indian startup ecosystem in 2018
Chinese investment coming to India could intensify because of the raging trade dispute between the US and China, founder of Xiaomi, Lei Jun has said in an interview with the Economic Times.
"It is getting difficult for Chinese companies to invest in the US. We are most active in investing in India, and it will also be good for this country. Investments will grow in India due to what is happening between the US and China." Jun said.
Those who are not aware of the US-China dispute, it all started on March 22, 2018, when the US started with its first round of sanctions targeted at China imposing a tariff of 25% on $50 Bn worth of Chinese imports. By September 24 2018, America has tariffs on $250 Bn worth of Chinese goods and China had tariffs on $110 Bn worth of American goods.
In the latest round, China announced a rise in tariff on $60 Bn worth of US goods. The Chinese salvo comes three days after the United States increased the tariff on Chinese goods worth $200 Bn to 25%.
"China will be imposing the new tariffs from June 1," the country's finance ministry said in a statement.
The US's increased tariffs came on the back of a failed negotiation in a round table which happened on the night of May 9. But with US and China engaged in a bitter trade dispute, India is slated to benefit from the heightened tensions between China and the US.
In such a scenario when the US seems hostile towards investments from China, India becomes a viable option for Chinese entrepreneurs to invest in. "There are currently not many Chinese companies doing business in India, and we have a lot of room to improve. We are bullish," Jun said in the interview.
India Opportunity For Chinese Investors And Startups
Chinese venture capitalists invested $5.6 Bn into the Indian startup ecosystem in 2018, data from research and analytics platform Tracxn has shown. In 2017 it was $3 Bn and $668 Mn in 2016. A few notable VCs; are Alibaba, Shunwei Capital, Fosun Tencent who have invested in sectors such as logistics, retail, food-tech, AI, IoT and fintech.
Four Indian startups, namely: Zefo, Healthy Buddha, NowFloats and Grozip, were among the group 38 Asian firms which have recently completed the fourth edition of Alibaba eFounders Fellowship programme, which provides first-hand exposure to ecommerce and digital innovations.
This exponential growth of Chinese investment into the Indian startup ecosystem is a testament to the fact that as the trade was intensifying, more and more Chinese VCs are looking at avenues other than the US to pump in money.
Alibaba Investments China Tencent

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Image of the president of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin will be cardinally changed, "The independent newspaper" writes with reference to the certain report prepared for "one of governors". As they say in the publication, instead of an image of "macho" the image of "the grown wise patriarch of the Russian policy" will be soon used. This image, writes "NG", "will help it and further to use favourite tactics and to be allegedly not in a course of dismantlings of subordinates".
As they say in the report to which the newspaper refers, for the first time in a new image Vladimir Putin will make the message to Federal Assembly. After that, according to the newspaper, political strategists will sustain a pause, and then will start advancing a new image of the president actively.
According to the edition, in the report authors refer to the Kremlin administration. In work as writes "NG", it is said that Minister of Defence Anatoly Serdyukov was dismissed to lift Vladimir Putin's rating.
Thus, according to "Levada Center" poll, Putin's rating in November not only didn't grow, and was lower, than in October. Other sociological services recorded rating growth.
Russians ambiguously apprehended Serdyukov's resignation. 40 percent of respondents "Levada Center" considered that systematic cleaning of the country leaders from people who abuse the situation" is begun ". 42 percent consider that Serdyukov dismissed in a course "fight between different groups of the power".
Vladimir Putin during the board appeared more than once in an image of "macho". In particular, it operated planes, went down on a bottom of Baikal, shot at a whale, put on a navigation collar a tigress, dived behind amphoras and so on. Flight with white cranes which was failure became one of the last PR actions of the president. However, thus inhabitants of Russia estimated an action, generally positively though the majority recognized that Putin simply wanted to lift a rating.
The head of the Center of studying of elite of Institute of sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences Olga Kryshtanovskaya not so long ago consisting in "United Russia", in conversation about "Kommersant FM" declared that sociologists observe now "fatigue from Putin".


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Residents can tour the Ralph Wulz Riverside Tennis Center, enjoy a host of activities and learn about new programs from 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday.
During an event called "Party at the Net," media and the public are invited to tour the tennis center located at 551 N. Nims. Attendees can meet the new staff, learn about new programs and enjoy free food.
There will also be opportunities to participate in various activities including speed serving, Fit Tennis, Pickleball and more. Attendees can listen to music while youth play in the bounce house and are entertained by Barry the Bison and the Recreation Station. Various vendors will be on site for demonstrations.
"We are excited to host this event and open up the facility for a preview of upcoming summer programming," Sara Rasmussen, the Tennis Center Director, said. "We are looking forward to enjoying an afternoon with tennis enthusiasts who already play at Riverside, as well as meeting those who have never been here before and showing them what we have to offer."


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Schedule & Results (2019)
Latest results (2019)
Registered teams (2019)
Maciej Lampe is the first basketball player from Sweden who have played in the NBA. Lampe was Born in Lodz, Poland, but he emigrated with his family from Poland to Stockholm, Sweden when he was six.
He began play basketball in Polisen/Hammarby Basket youth teams when he was 9 years old and was a member in the club for more than 5 years.
During his first years playing basketball he also practiced ice hockey and soccer. And it was not at all certain that basketball was the sport he was going to focus at.
"You could notice early that Micke was a talent above the usual. His height in combination with a rare feeling for the ball. But talent can only get you that far - and Micke had something more. Maciej was always the player that practiced the hardest and the most focused. And he always had his ball with him, wherever he went. Just to practice a little more" says his coach from the early years, Joakim Samuelsson.
Playing for Stockholms Polisen boys-85 he got the award to be the best player in his age (Boys-85) in the Nordic championships two years in a row.
At the age of 15 he moved to Spain to play professional basketball in Real Madrid (Spain) and he became the youngest player in Real Madrid history that played in Euroleauge.
Selected by New York Knicks in the second round (30th overall) of the 2003 NBA Draft as an early entry candidate. Maciej got traded to the Phoenix Suns in January 2004 and became the youngest player in Suns history to appear in a regular season game.
One year later he got traded for the second time in his NBA career, this time to New Orleans Hornets. At the end of his third year in the NBA he represented Houston Rockets which has become Maciejs fourth NBA club.
Season 2006/2007 Maciej returned to Europe and played three years in the Russian top club BC Khimki. With Khimki he won the Russian cup and Maciej got the MVP award in the final. In 2009 he helped Khimki to reach the Eurocup final.
Maciej, who has both swedish and polish nationality, played Eurobasket in Poland 2009 were he represented the polish nationalteam.
In july 2009 Lampe signed with the Israeli super league club Maccabi Tel Aviv. He averaged 8 points and 3.8 rebounds in eight Euroleague games with Maccabi.
In January 2010 Maciej returned to Russia and club Unics Kazan were he did great success.
He became MVP in the Russian league 2011 (stats: 18.5 points, 7,5 rebounds) and also won Eurocup (Stats: 15,6 points, 8,5 rebounds) the same season with Unics. Maciej get named to the Eurocup All-first team.
Maciej returned back to Spain and after two seasons in Caja Laboral, he is played two season for the historic FC Barcelona.
After one season in Besiktas Istanbul in the Turksih league, Maciej is now playing his forth season in the CBA league in China, The adventure continues…
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06 December 2019 10:25 Lampe Challenge 2020 We have started the preparations for the 16:th edition of Lampe Challenge which will be arranged...
27 May 2019 15:31 Lampe Challenge i over Lampe Challenge 2019 has come to an end When the two spanish teams from Granada left swedish gro...
26 May 2019 08:14 Luggage Luggage/bags has to be stored in Farstahallen 3 during sunday. The big red hall next to the fotb...
25 May 2019 22:42 Transport schedule for Sunday is updated The Sunday transport schedule is now updated to fit with all final games. Please make sure you a...
03 March 2013 01:33 Interview with Maciej Lampe Euroleague.net did un interview with Maciej Lampe in January. You can read the full interviw here.
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The endless GOP hostage theatre over US budgets succeeds in one of its main purposes: to distract attention from issues that matter. Like the race against the clock to avoid complete climate breakdown. We already have the trailers.
So here comes a fat Victorian-novel style doorstopper weekend post with as many nutritious links as a Christmas pudding has currants.
What hope is there for my granddaughters? A change of heart by billionaires? A popular insurgency, a Main Street Spring? A miracle discovery?
The one solid basis for optimism is the prospect of terawatts of solar energy. If you just extrapolate the global trend of the last 12 years – an average growth rate of 43% a year – , the world will reach its first cumulative terawatt of solar PV in 2020. Its expansion would cross the world's full energy demand soon after 2030. That's fast enough even for James Hansen.
Plenty of experts say it won't happen. But their reasons are unconvincing.
For some time semiconductor experts have been offering very good reasons why Moore's Law of transistor density must come to an end. But so far it hasn't, and looks OK for a good few cycles yet. In comparison, the trend doubters on solar PV are running on empty.
Existing solar, wind, biomass, and energy storage systems are not yet mature enough to provide affordable baseload power at terawatt scale.
Baseload? What's that, Grandpa? Well, sonny, in the days before the Deluge we used to have big coal and nuclear power plants running all the time, that's baseload, and gas plants running only at times of high demand, that's peak lopping. Now we have wind and solar running when they can, because they are the cheapest, as primary load; but they are variable, so we need despatchable capacity to make up the difference, peak and off-peak. There isn't any baseload now.
You can't believe experts who are still trapped in an obsolete paradigm.
Exhibit B, the IEA, the born-again intergovernmental think tank, and semi-penitent former whore cheerleader of the oil industry. They project that solar PV will flatline around 26GW of Solar PV a year, below its current rate. But their assumptions are plain wrong. They predict that utility PV installation costs will gently fall from $2.6 to to $1.65 a watt in 2035. Terje Osmundsen, author of the blog post I got this from, works for a company that will quote around this today. (Independent confirmation from another solar entrepreneur, Jigar Shah, here.) The IEA shows in-depth ignorance by expecting 130 GW of PV to be «retired» by 2035. Osmundsen points out that 25 years is just the maker's guarantee for 90% performance; the gear lasts much longer, 30-40 years at least.
The only way I can make sense of the IEA's absurd predictions (I'm not going to shell out good money on a dud report to check) is that they think past growth has been entirely driven by policy, which is now going into reverse, as in Spain. Neither proposition is globally true. The learning curve (a steady 22% since 1955) is driven by technology; policy just enables or obstructs it. And the number of countries with reasonably supportive policies and targets keeps growing: Brazil, Mexico, Chile (for the policies of these three, see also here), South Africa, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, France, India, Thailand and Indonesia …) These are following in the footsteps of the rapidly growing big deployers of China – its latest target is 10 GW this year -, the USA, Australia and Japan. Germany has stopped growing, but at a very high annual level of 7 GW and a stock of 30 GW. Only Greece and Italy have run out of money and are in retreat. In developing countries, the boom is driven by simple economics, not subsidies.
What's more interesting is that solar boosters like EPIA and Greenpeace also won't trust the trend. In a joint report, they predict a steady slowdown in the pace of cost reduction and installation, and their optimistic scenario comes out at half the trend number in 2020. I can't find any considered argument for this. It's basically herd caution in the consultaverse, reflecting the risk aversion of its client investors. McKinsey is an honourable exception.
Distinguish between the intrinsic characteristics of the technology, and its deployment. Clearly any given process, like the currently dominant polycrystalline silicon cell, will reach an intrinsic cost asymptote some day. If DARPA and its industrial partners think this is below $1/watt installed, who am I to quibble? The current wholesale module price is 65$c per watt (cyclically ahead of the trend), so 50c/watt is pretty certain in the next few years, and BOS costs will surely follow on the German model.
When the current scheme stalls, there is an extraordinary variety of potential relays being investigated, ranging from 3D light-trapping geometries to 44% efficient multijunction cells (on sale now for satellites and military backpacks, at a price) to the ultimate long shot, artificial photosynthesis mimicking the near 100% efficiency of leaves as solar cells achieved by evolution using weird quantum effects. I have no more idea than you which of these will make it to market success. But it would be very surprising if none of them were able to take over the torch, and we were stuck as it were with 5¼" floppy discs for computer memory. In any case, we don't need any of them to get to tens of terawatts.
Beyond that, the environment will begin to impose constraints, and policy will become critical to a successful transition. It's most unlikely that 50 TW of solar PV will meet world energy demand in 2031, even if it's by far the cheapest option. What are the possible constraints?
One: running out of land. A world total of 50 TW of solar panels, the upper bound in my thought experiment, corresponds to 25,000 km², or a square about 100 miles on a side. That's less than the roofspace of a bundle of megacities. So land take is not a killer. The WWF has just released some pretty maps making the same point.
Two: intermittency. We will need a lot of balancing power for solar in a zero-carbon world. (Actually we will probably have to go carbon negative, and build a few TW for sequestration, but never mind for now.) Some of it should be be wind, which is nicely complementary at night and in winter (Fraunhofer here, slides 15, 23, 58) but also variable. So we must have a lot of more expensive despatchable power. This can be either substitute primary sources, in the forms of hydro, geothermal, CSP, and biomass; or additional storage for time- and mode-shifting, as distributed and utility batteries and heat tanks, synthetic fuels catalysed from the air, and load management with price incentives.
Now all of these except the last are going to be more expensive than solar PV. The optimisation problem is to start from 100% solar PV, which is mismatched to demand, and add the other things so as to match demand at least additional cost. Wild guess for a seed solution: for 10TW continuous demand, the primary energy could be 5 TW solar (installed 33 TW), 3 TW wind (9TW installed), 1 TW geothermal (2 TW installed), 0.6 TW biomass (1.2 TW installed), the 0.4 TW of hydro (0.8 installed or under construction) we have now, and 5 TW (?) installed storage. You can shift between wind and solar, and between storage and the despatchables. (To pacify Brett, we should throw in nuclear power, but in fact it's not going to be more than a footnote, for reasons explained here and here.) A terawatt is 1000 nuclear reactors, which will never be built.
Even in this very crude form it stands out that the policy problem lies not with wind and solar but with despatchable energy. Load management is a no-brainer, but its scope is necessarily limited. We do not have deliverable technologies for storage, geothermal, and biomass on the required scale. That's where the funding should go.
Three: transportation, iron, and cement. These are the main areas where solar electricity is not yet a technical solution. Electric cars are slowly on the way to mass deployment, but not trucks, ships, and planes. Absent technological breakthroughs, it will have to be sustainable bio- or synthetic fuels. Cement-making inherently releases carbon dioxide, even with solar calcining. A lot more work needs doing here.
Four: backlash. Cheap solar PV is disruptive because it's going to be very cheap, and will destroy value embedded in defeated competitors on a heroic scale. The shift will not be controllable by incumbents. Solar PV doesn't only come in the unthreatening shape of multi-megawatt utility solar farms. It also arrives in distributed form on residential and commercial rooftops – turning millions of passive electricity consumers into an activist army of prickly producers armed with social media and votes. Some rough and noisy politics is in store before the oil and coal industries die.
Germany is the laboratory for the future here, as solar is already below grid parity and renewables are having a major impact on electricity supply. Merkel's conservative government, pushed by incumbent utilities and heavy industry, is increasingly hostile to its lusty and disruptive solar cuckoo. It favours expensive offshore wind to replace the rashly closed nuclear power stations. In Spain, rooftop solar was strangled in the cradle, so there's no lobby to defend it, just marginal bloggers. But in Germany the solar producers are a large and strong lobby.
What's more, the government has lost the technocratic control of the situation it had when the FIT was a subsidy and could be tweaked. The official target for solar PV installation in 2012 was 2.5-3.5 GW; the result was 7.6 GW. The FIT will expire above 53 GW, but why should German households and warehouse-owners stop? The payoff is less and less the miserable FIT, more the saved consumption, valued at the full retail price of 25c€/kwh. Local storage, as low-tech as the venerable storage heaters being dusted off and as high-tech as electric cars, will stretch the self-consumption payoff. What's sold to the grid will have some market price.
Some German solar people, including Professor Volker Quaschning, are already proposing 200 GW of solar PV in Germany, four times the government target, and a 300 GW yearly worldwide installation rate by 2025.
Can we get there? I've said it before: we are witnessing, and in many cases taking part in, a technological revolution. Governments can obstruct it as in Spain or help it along as in Germany, but they are not in the driving seat. Current policies are favourable enough for the revolution to happen.
Will it happen fast enough to save our climate? Even with my optimistic scenario, solar PV doesn't really vanquish fossil fuels till the 2020s. If carbon emissions have to peak in the next five years, the heavy lifting will have to be done by conservation – meaning carbon pricing – and wind energy. Wind has a lower historic growth rate than solar – 28% over the last 15 years, and slowing as the technology matures; but it has a much higher installed base, around 280 GW nominal to solar's 100 GW. Since wind's capacity factor is twice as high, the effective ratio is five to six times. There's a strong case for differential medium-term support for wind. On conservation, the air pollution crisis in China and coal chaos in India offer more hope than US policy, still in hock to denialism like Noah's neighbours.
Don't overplay the capabilities of natural selection. You refer to "the near 100% efficiency of leaves as solar cells achieved by evolution using weird quantum effects". Actually current silicon is already more efficient than photosynthesis. The wikipedia page cites a theoretical maximum efficiency for photosynthesis of 11% and an actual performance of about 1/4 to 1/2 that.
On the other hand, a forest full of green plants is much nicer to walk through than a desert full of PV arrays.
Yes, the past growth has been driven by policy, in the sense that only massive subsidies make solar competative any place that's able to be hooked up to the grid. That may change, indeed I hope it will, but there are all manner of problems with solar PV which can be papered over, (Like using the grid to compensate for intermitancy.) so long as it's a small fraction of power usage, which will become increasingly important as it starts to push past a few percent.
Fossil still receiving $Bns in subsidies notwithstanding, the past growth – esp. recently – has been due to technology bringing cost down.
be a little dangerous and expensive.
precisely matches the peak output of solar.
sunny Southwest, with 6-7 hrs/day.
One of the major problems with solar on the grid is large-scale ramping events. Both Texas and California have experienced significant events where fast-moving cloud cover (and in Texas, fast-moving onset of persistent calm winds) has "ramped down" solar output quickly enough to strain the ability of grid operators to get gas turbines on-line. One problem with your hot-day scenario is that thunderstorm lines will block out the PV arrays faster than the houses in the path of the storms will cool down – the sun is gone but the A/C is still running.
Again, none of these problems are insurmountable. And don't get me wrong: I'm all in favor of lots more solar and possibly more wind as well. But the glib statements that the people who currently work to keep the North American grid in balance are corrupt fools is a bit silly.
 Although it is deeply unclear to me that our current attempts to rebuild the US electric system (Canada too to a lesser extent) along lines laid down by the Chicago School of Economics will allow these problems to be addressed. For all their faults, the old geographically compact regulated monopoly utilities would have been better prepared and capable of handling a centrally-planned and dictated change in supply mix ala Germany's than the current "competitive"[sic] electricity providers.
This is a common fallacy. Peak output of a PV system is solar noon, or shortly thereafter if west-facing. Peak AC load is quite a bit later. Houses and buildings have thermal inertia. In fact, in California, the system peak is late afternoon to early evening. Worse, studies show that as you add more PV to the system, the correlation with the remaining demand net of existing intermittent renewables gets worse and worse.
PV is correlated with demand, but not particularly well.
As an aside, I used to be a bright young man full of ideas in the energy business. Now I'm a cranky old man (not quite a grandpa yet) who occasionally manages teams of bright young men & women. And now I understand that weird quirk of the mouth my elders used to get when I would explain my bright new idea… (I was right about the ARPANET though).
I don't disagree with your basic premise, and I certainly know about the ingrained resistance to change in the electricity industry (made worse, not better, by the freshwater-inspired restructuring in 1994+). But I have to ask, have you ever worked in a major load center's power dispatch control room for a full season (at least six months)? Because it really, really, really isn't as easy as the wind/solar optimists say – and the people doing it today really aren't stupid.
Think very hard before you advocate Yglesiasizing a service as fundamental as electricity.
Naturally I haven't but there are Danish and German engineers who do, and run grids much more reliable than the USA's at ten times the renewable penetration.
Grid conditions in Germany and Denmark are considerably different than those in North America, of course. One key factor being that the wind off the North Sea is stronger and less variable than continental wind, resulting in a much higher capacity factor for wind farms; another being that Northern Europe seldom sees the seasonal variation in temperature and extreme high temperatures that are common in central NA.
I'm not sure where the linked source is getting the reliability statistics showing the US' reliability numbers being lower than Greece. The US does have large areas of remote rural service (e.g. Montana) which are inevitably going to have more outages than dense urban networks, but if the assertion is that US reliability factoring out unavoidable weather conditions is at third-world levels I'll respectfully have to ask for more details on that one.
In the US distribution reliability (to your house) is regulated at the state level, and I don't have aggregated statistics at hand. Here's a typical state example ( http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/energy/ElectricSR/Reliability/annualreports/ ) and the 2012 reports for SCE, for example, look fairly reasonable. Zero interruptions would be great, naturally, but would also come at a cost.
True for Denmark but not for Germany, which is only now starting to instal offshore wind.
My source for US grid reliability (Galvin) looked reputable to me. The most unreliable regions are not remote low-density ones in the Rockies, but the densely populated Great Lakes and mid-Atlantic ones. Their report, page 17. The international differences are so enormous that they are unlikely to be measurement artefacts.
In any event, assuming arguendo the superiority of the German and Danish provision-of-electricity systems, there are two serious problems here in the United States: the Federal Power Act amendments of 1995 and 2005. Both of those revisions, ostensibly designed to "improve competition", increase supply, and lower prices were carefully written by Chicago School economists to create the type of rigged, winner-take-all "markets" that Republicans and neoliberals love.
From the time of the 1994 act forward the FERC has been populated almost exclusively with Chicago Schoolers as well, and has worked diligently to break up any vestige of service in the general public interest and transfer the entire process of providing electricity to auction markets. There are a few states that have resisted (e.g. Missouri) and asserted their rights to continue regulating, but the FERC and the ISOs are working hard to break them, too. Unfortunately, Chicago School auctions don't leave any room for considerations such as long-term national welfare, so a Germany-style solarification doesn't seem likely.
What was it that Mark just posted about intellectual honesty and people hoping to persuade rather than inform?
No, that $0.097/kwh includes a delivery charge of $0.027/kwh. (And I checked versus my last electric bill–$146 net of taxes for 1500 kWh).
and then high-volume manufacturing will reduce prices.
I am with Cranky Observer above. I worked in high tech for many years before transitioning to the power industry to save the world. The optimism displayed here is actually hard on the eyes.
Wimberley starts off with a dig against experts who are stuck in an obsolete paradigm, but in reality most of those experts are not stuck in a paradigm so much as they are stuck operating with the real constraints to manage a real power system safely, reliably, and cost-effectively. It's not about "baseload" vs "peaking" so much as it is about putting together a portfolio of resources that can provide the level of service to which we've all become accustomed.
As the latter part of the piece points out, PV obviously cannot solve all our power needs and even an infinite quantity won't keep the lights on at night. Wind is somewhat complementary, in some places, most of the time, but in most places not most of the time, and in all places not all of the time. Storage, of course, can solve this, but the technological problems to provide bulk storage that can shift across minutes, hours, days, seasons, and even perhaps years are not even close to being solved. Price-sensitive demand response can also help, but let's not kid — making a system that requires DR is a form of lowering the quality of the product — so don't be surprised about the backlash.
So, getting back to that portfolio, it turns out that you need a lot more PV capacity than you can use most of the MWh from, you need a lot more wind capacity than you can use the MWh from, and you'll need a substantial amount of storage to boot. Dropping energy from wind and PV is equivalent to raising its price, and storage is already pricey.
– get serious about the SYSTEM — which includes seriously learning a lot about power markets and why the system is at it is.
When this happens, PV will take off for real.
PS — I'll give the PV fanatics this. If someone cracks the right price level for retail level energy storage enabling complete grid disconnect (not leaning on it for anything at all) then we can see something truly disruptive and exciting happen.
– get serious about the SYSTEM — which includes seriously learning a lot about power markets and why the system is at it is.
I think all these are right, and the other part of the value issue is the old grid that is still bumbling along. A few more Sandys and millions of freezers of ruined food, plus the continued price decline and there will be real movement.
How would you describe what is happening today? In the 15 countries I mentioned?
James, Europe's FITs are being gutted in the name of austerity – real movement would be continued high growth at or above recent rates. Here in Exceptional America, new electricity generation from solar was 6% of all new installations in 2012 – which is great, but it is a baby step. Real movement will be when those numbers are consistent and higher.
Again, part of my work is to foster solar growth. I'm already booked several times – three weeks into the year – to talk about it, better than last year.
2012, a difficult year for the industry, saw the world market being rebalanced away from Europe towards China, India, the USA, and a host of emerging markets. It is no longer critically dependent on European FIT tariffs. As I wrote, German FITs are below grid parity and increasingly irrelevant to demand. France and Britain maintain residential FITs above grid parity.
Your perception that 40% growth is not real movement because it hasn't moved averages yet is, I submit, a cognitive bias. You wouldn't react that way to an epidemic affecting 6% of the population and growing that fast.
Your perception that 40% growth is not real movement because it hasn't moved averages yet is, I submit, a cognitive bias. You wouldn't react that way to an epidemic affecting 6% of the population and growing that fast.
Again, part of my income is from fostering solar growth. Your argumentation is couched in the premise that we need to move much more quickly to slow emissions. I agree. I also don't think we are moving fast enough to do this. 6% growth in the US to get us to 1% isn't fast enough. I don't know how to move faster either.
"…putting together a portfolio of resources that can provide the level of service to which we've all become accustomed." The one prediction I can make with 100% certainty is that the world in 2030 will not tbe the one to which we've been accustomed.
the lower volume, then grid power will become even less attractive.
load-shifting by smart appliances and smart control systems.
Consider a typical house. What uses the electricity, and when ?
when supply is tight, let the temperature rise a bit higher.
of washing machine or dishwasher.
LED's which will be better for replacing the remaining incandescents).
Smarter controls (e.g. occupancy sensors) can also save lighting energy.
That's just one possible approach, not necessarily the best or cheapest.
shallow to prolong the lifetime).
Yes. Germany has just announced incentives for rooftop solar owners to install some storage. With smart meters – which unaccountably Germany has very few of – your battery (or other storage device, eg storage heaters and electric cars) should fill up for a second cycle at night, from wind and (if you are French) nuclear.
The storage thing urgently needs professional modelling.
Well, I'm in the middle of writing a handbook for solar site analysis for several trades, so there are enough of us out there who think this can ramp up in cities with the technology coming out of the labs within the next decade.
For the pass three decades, the planet has been getting greener.
For the pas[t] three decades, the planet has been getting greener.
The preciousness of someone actually citing Craig Idso notwithstanding, trying comically to play off CO2 as plant food has nothing to do with the latest news about Amazonian rainforests. But thanks.
This strikes me about the same as when some guy claims, based on some random bit of disinformation gleaned from Fox, that the observed global thermodynamic disruption is somehow actually negative if you squint just right, choose your data carefully, and wear just the right blinders.
We all better hope the world has not been greening for decades, because if that's true, then man are we ever screwed, because we've only seen about half the effect of the co2 already emitted; if the disruption we've already enjoyed was this bad and occurred in the face of a great period of high biological storage of carbon (that's what the claim of a greening planet is), then when the greening rate slows even as our emissions have increased, whamo, we're toast.
Generation is lots of fun (I know, I've worked in it quite a bit). But unmentioned in all of this is bulk transmission grid. We're currently in a situation where the areas that have wind power (Kansas, Nebraska, Manitoba, etc) don't have the transmission capacity to get it to where the load is growing (Chicago, Atlanta, southern New York). And the very strict ROI analysis requirements imposed on transmission providers by the chain FERC => NERC => ISO, with the state regulatory agencies and the SEC playing their part as well, are showing negative return on almost every proposed long-distance transmission project out of the wind area. The Midwest in particular is temporarily awash in excess generation capacity and it is impossible to show that you'll ever make your investment back with a new line.
Very long-distance transmission is difficult, but we could hire the Soviets, oops I mean Russians, to build some of their famous 1050 KV lines from Kansas to BosWash to pick up that sweet Great Plains wind power. The next problem then arises: nobody, and I mean nobody wants UHV transmission lines in their neighborhood (including me: the guy who watches Koyaanisqatsi and thinks "that steel mill is beautiful") . Don't transmit me, don't transmit me, transmit that fellow behind the hill of trees, as it were.
How these problems are going to be overcome in our inevitable transformation into an almost entirely electric economy between now and 2050 is going to be interesting. To use a word.
for reducing fossil fuel consumption and better matching usage to supply.
I would like to respond, but there is no "reply" button.
I think PV can grow 40% globally for awhile, but in any given power system, growth will slow. Sooner, later, it's hard to say. But probably long before PV becomes a significant fraction of total capacity on that system. This is not the result of my cognitive bias, but of my knowledge of power systems. At around 10-15% penetration, PV starts to show significant diminution of marginal value. For one, at peak sun periods, when fossil units are backed down as far as they can go, there may be forced curtailment of the resource, or curtailment of some other intermittent renewable resource. This drives up the real LCOE of these resources. Similarly, as you add PV to a system, the load profile net of existing PV and other intermittent renewables starts to change. The peak moves further into the afternoon and evening, which means that that capacity value of new PV diminishes, that is, it's ability to provide capacity /when needed/. Third, as you add more intermittent renewables, their output swings will, in aggregate, subject the system to larger swings in net demand, necessitating resources that can be controlled to deal with ever larger and more sudden ramps. This will drive costs as the system either needs to invest in storage or traditional dispatchable machines.
It's good that professionals are working on the implications of high levels of renewable penetration. What I would contest is the implication that the difficulties for grid managers and utilities are my problem, or more generally a problem that advocates of massive solar PV are in some way obliged to solve. I described its arrival as a revolution. It would still be one if I opposed it. Revolutions are messy and create losers as well as winners. In this case, the revolution is our best chance of survival, so sympathy for the losers is misplaced.
For example. you write: "At around 10-15% penetration, PV starts to show significant diminution of marginal value." That's value to the utility. The knock-on effects on fossil capacity are not going to to be seen by households and Wal-Mart as their problem. No conceivable regulation can stop them installing cheap solar capacity to meet their own unshifted peak daytime consumption, and probably a bit of shifted as well if batteries get cheaper. Utilities in many places are trying to levy charges on distributed producers for fed-in electricity, to cover alleged capacity and transmission (!) costs, but they are not likely to win these battles at the ballot box. They will have to learn to live with the new landscape.
BTW, German Greens are that country's earliest advocates of capacity markets and subsidies, as a response to pressure from incumbent utilities to slow down the Energiewende. It's also worth remembering that much of the legacy system – particularly gas and hydro, less so coal and nuclear -, is already available as despatchable backup in OECD countries. (This applies less in fast-growing countries like India and China.) Despatchable backup gas does not of course get us to zero-carbon, but it can get us to a place worth having while we figure out storage and geothermal.
No, it's not value to the utility. It's value. As in social benefits minus social costs. Depending on the structure of the utility (and they vary widely), the utility may pay the dollars, but in the end the incidence will fall primarily on rate payers. If, as you say, such things are not sustainable at the ballot box, then I think you'll not see utilities "living" with anything. You'll see a gradual pattern of underinvestment followed by low reliability and eventually a multi-tiered system where people who can afford to provide themselves with electric service without the aid of a reliable grid will do so, and those who can't, won't. Sure, the utilities may suffer (huzzah!) but in the end, if there is to be a grid, someone will have to pay for it.
By the way, there is nothing exclamation-worthy about utils trying to recover costs for transmission and capacity. In California, which I know best, the net metering program allows PV generated MWh to offset ALL bill costs: those for energy, capacity (which is actually folded into generation on a CA bill), transmission, and distribution. But rooftop PV does not avoid all these costs. There is probably some transmission benefit, but then again, only in so far as solar output coincident with transmission loading allows a reduction in transmission investment — a big if. I'm even more skeptical that rooftop PV avoids significant distribution costs. One only needs to imagine a hot, muggy, cloudy day to realize that it is hardly a given that distributed PV can avoid distribution investment. I've already pointed out the capacity value problem. It's real. A fact. To be dealt with and not rhetorically brushed aside.
1. distributed storage makes being completely free of the grid attractive. Over time, the grid and utility-scale resources becomes stranded assets, death spiral economics for the losers who still depend on them, and perhaps an abrupt transition to be post-utility world. A revolution, yes.
2. Ratepayers and voters around the world decide they want a solar-powered system. PV systems get cheap, and perhaps MWh (volumetric) charges on your bill go down, perhaps all the way to zero. But your bill will not go down nearly as much. There will be infrastructure charges, demand charges, and other fixed charges. Maybe for-profit utils will suffer and die but if there is investment required (and there will be), there will be a bill.
One thing James overlooks, and some of the more dour commentators mention only as a warning: curtailment. Renewables can become very reliable indeed if you produce a great deal more than you need, and then dump most of it. That can be cheaper than storage. At current prices this is still very expensive. Here is one example http://www.ceoe.udel.edu/windpower/resources/BudischakEtAl-2013-CostMinimizedWindSolarPJM.pdf . Note that this is within a single grid in a single state. Still it shows that mostly wind, a very little bit of solar and a little of bit of solar could provide 99.9% of electricity reliably with natural gas for the remain tenth of a percent. Note that this does not consider long distance transmission that would allow the use of small amounts of hydro and geothermal for shaping.
The extreme price and amount of dumping come because A) solar is so much more expensive than wind, B) so even though it means a lot of dumping a unbalanced grid that is mostly wind and a little solar is cheaper than a more balanced grid where solar and wind are roughly propostional – say somewhere between 40/60 and 60/40. If solar can drop in price just to the point where it is as cheap as wind, then you could probably get away with much less curtailment. Another study (though unlike the first not peer reviewed) showed that we could 70% of our electricity from sun and wind with no storage and very little curtailment. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B11UgVNFOcF6TnJ6bmRORVRBemM/edit?pli=1 This is not cost optimized, but it probably would be if solar dropeed enough. At point add some curtailment, a little bit of storage and shapig via hydro and geothermal, and I suspect you could get to at least a 98% renewable grid with 2% natural gas, at a price of around ten cents per kWh. That is a multiple of what generation costs now, but the difference is less than what we spend on our military budget.
Which leads to the real point: the social cost of switching from fossil fuel based electricity to renewable electricity is socially bearable even with today's technology at today's prices. Waiting around for that technology to become cheap enough that it can compete against fossil fuels in the current market is absurd. It is an important enough goal that we should use public investment to make it happen. Especially stuff like demand management, long distance transmission, storage won't happen in a "free market" as fast and to the degree needed. But even deployment of sun and wind need large scale public intervention. WE need to get over market fetishism on this issue.


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Falcons' Softball Drafts Johnston from Team IMPACT
FITCHBURG, Mass.—Fitchburg State University softball players and coaches officially welcomed the Johnston family during a Team IMPACT (Inspire, Motivate, Play Against Challenges Together) Draft Day on Thursday inside the Recreation Center as thirteen-year-old Emma Johnston signed a contract as softball's newest member.
Emma, who hails from Lunenburg, Mass., was diagnosed with a seizure disorder (SCN8A) after she began having seizures at just seven weeks old. SCN8A is very rare with less than 200 people diagnosed worldwide. This fall Emma spent time with the softball leadership group and visited the team at practices and attended the annual Alumni game. Some of her favorite things are watching Disney movies, dancing and ice cream and she hopes to work for PIXAR when she grows up.
Emma was joined by her mother Colleen and brother Jake at the signing ceremony, however her big sister Michelle who is away at college and her dad Scott were unable to attend. Emma received an official Falcons contract and softball jersey, while Jake received a Falcon Fanatic t-shirt.
"The Falcons softball family has been waiting 4 years for Team IMPACT to give us the call," said Fitchburg State University head coach Merry MacDonald, "but I think everyone would agree that it was definitely worth the wait for Emma. Emma is a daily inspiration to all of us and we are so glad to have her join our Falcon community. We are such a stronger team this year with the addition of our youngest teammate."
Softball is one of three Falcons programs currently partnering with Team IMPACT, as men's soccer and ice hockey are also members.
Team IMPACT is a northeast-based non-profit organization aiming to improve the quality of life for children facing life-threatening illnesses. Team IMPACT strives to provide team-based support for children facing the hardships associated with adverse issues and events to significantly enhance their quality of life.


My father always owned boats. Growing up, I'd be his first mate when he went deep sea fishing for bluefish several miles off the Jersey shore. During winters, I spent weekends at the boat yard in Somers Point getting ready for fishing season, scraping old flaking paint off the bottoms of his wooden boats, and painting them with thick blue oil paint.
I still paint boats, but now I paint them on canvas. The best subjects are boats that are well seasoned; those that are sitting on drydock, getting fixed and prepped with new paint and repairs. They are scraped and dented old things that smell like fish and wet bologna sandwiches. If they could talk, they'd tell tall tales of high seas adventures, hurricanes they'd lived through, and monster fish they'd helped catch.
Memories of my sweet saltwater childhood give my boat paintings life. Things that you have deep connections with as an artist are inspired by pure magic. My most recent paintings are little dinghies at the beach; rowboats and skiffs smaller and less powerful than Dad's. While they can't wrestle deep sea monster fish, they still have small tales of their own.


If you know someone who is evil, whose primary purpose in life is to bring sorrow and unhappiness to others (particularly you), you have within your power the ability to neutralize them. It is called the Snake-Eyes spell. And it is potent!
Reverse their negative energy upon themselves.
Lower their self-esteem, their self-confidence.
Instill in them a lackluster feeling -- as if their energy is slowly draining out of their body.
Inject in them a feeling of confusion, self-doubt, and an inability to focus.
Make them fearful of making decisions.
Have them look at you in a new light... impressing them with your strength, your wisdom, your confident manner.
I want to thank you for the energy that you used to address my concerns. I ordered a few spells over the last year and I have to say that I did get positive results.
The most striking results were from the two spells I had cast on an ex-boyfriend who caused me a lot of emotional suffering. I ordered the Snake Eyes Spell and the Get Even Spell.
He has been in contact with me recently and let me know that he got run over by a truck and broke a lot of bones. He's currently going through physical therapy.
Thanks so much for the great results!
Your enemy's wrath, anger, and hostility toward you will rebound against them tenfold. At first they will be puzzled and not know what's happening, but soon they will realize the devastation they have brought upon themselves. Then they will change their ways or back out of the picture altogether.
The Snake-Eyes spell will cause them to suffer the consequences of their bad thoughts.
If it is an enemy you wish to rid yourself of, the Snake-Eyes spell will cast a pall over them. Bad luck and bad karma will hover over them like a dark cloud. And as they experience these negative forces, you will feel more energetic, more confident in your future.
The moment the Snake-Eyes spell is cast, your enemy's negative impulses will flow off you like Teflon.
So, if there is someone out there who is opposed to you and wishes you harm -- perhaps not physically, but in ways that could be equally devastating -- now is the time to turn the tables on them!


Almost anyone that has lived in California has heard of an Eichler home: Mid-Century modern tract homes built by Joseph Eichler between 1950 and 1974. During this time, Eichler Homes built more than 11,000 homes in Northern California, three communities in Southern California, and three homes in Chestnut Ridge, New York.
Commonly referred to as "Eichlers," these homes are the quintessential picture of California living. Indoor and outdoor spaces are separated by a mere sheet of glass. LPA designers are proud to be a part of this legacy by having owned, renovated and lived in, more than a dozen Eichlers over the past 40 years.
Today, in the City of Orange, many past and present LPA families call an Eichler home. LPA Eichler owners enjoy car pools, family swim parties, progressive dinner parties, and coaching youth soccer together. They've even developed a secret way of communicating: one honk if you're leaving the neighborhood, two honks when returning, and three honks for cocktails at our house!
Enjoy the photos below, and may they inspire you to consider an Eichler the next time you're in the market for a fabulous space of your own.
Residence of LPA's Steve Flanagan (above).
Residence of LPA's Damon Dusterhoft (above).
Residence of LPA's Wendy Robison (above).


text:
Q: VF Email Template - Welcome New Member - {!$User.FirstName} displays created by user, not recipient As title suggests, I've created a Welcome New Member email using VF email template.
However the merge field {!$User.FirstName} and {!$User.Username} are displaying the created by user - i.e., our guest user.
Issue is similar to this email template issue but VF email templates don't support Receiving_User or Target_User.
Does anyone know how to resolve this?

A: Be careful of the merge fields you use, depending on the email template.
For VF email templates:

*

*{!$User.x} references the user that created the community member.

*{!Recipient.x} references the recipient of the email. Note there is no $ symbol.

Slightly confusing for other templates that use {!Receiving_User.x}.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Justice League: Ray Fisher Says Only a Single Zack Snyder Cyborg Scene Made It Into Whedon's Cut
Fisher claims he "reshot almost the entire film" on his end.
byAdele Ankers
Posted Nov. 3, 2020, 4:08 p.m.
Justice League star Ray Fisher has claimed that almost every single scene featuring Cyborg ended up being reshot for Joss Whedon's theatrical cut of the film.
Speaking to the hosts of the Geek House Show podcast, Fisher addressed the extent of Whedon's reshoots and how they altered Zack Snyder's intended arc for Cyborg, as he alleged that every single scene with Cyborg in the theatrical version of Justice League turned out to be a reshoot, except one brief appearance from his character assembling alongside the Justice League to meet up with Commissioner Jim Gordon on the rooftop of the Gotham City Police Department.
"Some things were, like, similar with the reshoots as what we did with the original, and so it's hard to, like, tell with certain shots of other people for scenes that I wasn't there for," Fisher said of the reshoots. "But what I can tell you from my character, and for what you saw in the theatrical version, that every single scene with the exception of the Gotham City police rooftop scene with Commissioner Gordon and Batman and Flash and all that... every single scene that I'm in was reshot. I reshot almost the entire film on my end. As far as other people's stuff where I wasn't there, I can't really tell you."
Most of Cyborg's origin story was cut from the theatrical version of the film, including seeing the character learn to fly, use weapons, and hack into other computer networks, as well as his deeper connection to Mother Boxes (since he's basically born from a Mother Box). The majority of these scenes are expected to be restored in full for Zack Snyder's four-hour cut of Justice League, which will release across four parts on HBO Max in 2021.
Snyder has already stated that he will not use even a "single frame" from Whedon's Justice League reshoots for his version of the film. In fact, he said that he would "literally blow that f***ing thing up" before using any of Whedon's material. Snyder has, however, started working on his own reshoots for the director's cut of Justice League, with several of the main cast reportedly returning to shoot additional footage to presumably flesh out existing scenes.
Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.
Developer: Warner Bros. Pictures
Publisher: Warner Bros. Pictures
DC x Reebok Sneaker Collection Will Make Your Feet Look Superheroic
2 years, 10 months Comments
The Batman Movies, Ranked
4 years, 9 months Comments
IGN Sidequest Podcast Episode #084
IGN Live Presents: Tomb Raider Trailer with Lara Croft Herself, Alicia Vikander


Celebrating a special occasion? There's a cake for that.
Here at New Cakes we believe that every special occasion deserves a cake. That's why no matter if it's a baby shower cake, engagement party cake or wedding anniversary cake, you'll find what you are looking for here at New Cakes.
Our cakes for special occasions are all baked by our cake-making experts and can be individually personalised to your requirements. Whether it's something as simple as a message iced onto the cake, or something more complex such as a custom cake design then our team are ready to make it happen for you.
When ordering you can choose from a wide variety of divine cake flavours including Vanilla Genoise, Death by Chocolate, and Luxury Red Velvet. There's' also optional extra's to add on if you'd like to make your cake even more special.
For alternative cake flavours or to discuss bespoke designs give us a call on 01753 374 726.


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Christie: No reason to see border while on Mexico trip
Jill Colvin
SEA BRIGHT – Gov. Chris Christie said Thursday there's no point in him visiting the border while he's in Mexico next week, despite criticizing the president for not doing the same.
The Republican governor hit President Barack Obama last month for failing to make a trip to witness the influx of minors entering the country illegally while he was on a Texas fundraising trip.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference in Sea Bright, Christie said his situation is different because he's not the country's president and isn't responsible for the nation's border security. He dismissed comparisons as "silliness."
"I mean, come on. I'm not the president, and so I'm not going to the border. What would I do exactly at the border?" he asked. "Like, you know, bring troops with me or something?"
"If I went down there and looked at it, what steps am I supposed to take exactly?" he later added. "Send the New Jersey National Guard there? It's not what I intend to do."
Christie had said that Obama's decision not to visit the border was an indication of his "unwillingness to lead."
Christie, who is mulling a run for president in 2016, went on to say Obama "has the absolute obligation to provide for the national security of our country" and argued that, when the country has "a border crisis like the one we've had recently," the president should travel to see for himself what's going on so that he can best respond.
"The president has his responsibilities, I have mine," he added. "Securing the border between the U.S. and Mexico is not within my current responsibility."