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BagoGames > Articles > Game Reviews > Retro Game Reviews > Wii U Reviews > A Small Improvement – Rodea The Sky Soldier Review
A Small Improvement – Rodea The Sky Soldier Review
by Johnny Axelsson
in Game Reviews, Wii U Reviews
A few weeks ago I reviewed Rodea The Sky Soldier for the Nintendo 3DS. Despite its problems, I could spot a nice game hidden behind the portable mess. After reviewing the game, I could not help but wonder how much better the Wii U or Wii versions could be, so I got excited to get the opportunity to also review the former as well.
The story of the Wii U version of Rodea The Sky Soldier is exactly the same as in the 3DS version. You still play as Rodea The Robot, who has to stop the evil Naga Empire from conquering Garuda. Ion the mechanic finds Rodea in Garuda, 1000 years after he has been sent there by princess Cecilia. All of this is to make sure that the Naga Empire cannot get their hands on the key of time. I kind of like the story in Rodea The Sky Soldier, so I am happy that it is the same in the Wii U version. The humor and simple characters were one of the strongest points when I played it on the 3DS, so it is nice to see that it stays the same between both versions of the game. The characters and premise are still simple, however, so if you like more advanced plots, this setup might be too simple minded for you.
(Rodea the Sky Soldier, NIS America)
One of the most important improvements in the Wii U version of Rodea The Sky Soldier is the frame rate; The game is much more stable than its 3DS counterpart. The frame rate manages to hold up most of the time, but with some unfortunate dips here and there. It is still mind boggling, however, that the frame rate drops at all, since the game honestly do not look that much better on the Wii U. Rodea and friends, as well as enemies, all look smoother, but the environments still has some questionable textures with some drab colors.
Rodea can still run and fly in all directions. On paper this is an awesome idea, but it still does not work as intended in the Wii U version. The homing attack still misses its target at times, and the camera is still very difficult to control. These problems do not show their ugly mug as frequently as in the 3DS version, but they still occur often enough to be a headache. When it all works, however, the action still feels fast paced and fun. It is just a shame how troublesome it is trying to aim the camera anywhere, whether you want to attack an enemy or simply want to fly towards the next landmass in the sky. It helps a bit that you can control the camera with the gamepad's right analog stick, but this is not precise enough to work well in moments that contain a lot of action.
There's still a lot to do if you want to collect everything in the game, as you can explore each stage freely. It's pretty satisfying finding a secret coin that was hidden on an island off in the distance. I can easily picture a Wii mote in my hand solving some of the control issues that the game has, so why Rodea The Sky Soldier doesn't support the controller it was made for in the first place is beyond me. It's nice — and helpful — to have it run on a bigger screen, however, since it is easier to use the mini-map to locate enemies. The HUD is still very discrete, giving only the information that you need, such as health and your currently equipped weapon.
Rodea The Sky Soldier for Wii U is a slightly better version of the game compared to the 3DS version. The controls work a bit better, the graphics look a bit better, and the game has tolerable frame rates. As I have mention earlier, the action is fun when it works, especially the boss battles; And while it all does work better on the Wii U, it still does not work well enough. It feels like a less shoddy port, but a port nonetheless. In the end, I personally had a better time with Rodea The Sky Soldier on the Wii U than I had on the 3DS, even if the game's faults are hard to ignore at times. I really wanted it to be better in the end and after playing both main versions of the game, I am left with an urge to try the Wii version just to see if the original product is better than the ports. However, if you only have the 3DS or the Wii U version to choose from, the latter is the one to get. It works a bit better and still gives you the charming storyline about Rodea The Robot and friends.
A WiiU copy of Rodea The Sky Soldier was provided by NIS America for the purpose of this review
Rodea The Sky Soldier
A more enjoyable game than the 3DS version, thanks to better framerate
The story is fun
Still has control and camera issues
Still looks pretty aged in the graphics department
Tags: GamesNintendoNISTop Stories
Insomnia 56 (i56) – RPG Tycoon Interview Video
Same Old Same Old – Just Cause 3 Review


Ian became a partner in 1993 and went on to become the firm's Senior Partner in 2002. Ian is also head of the Commercial Property department.
Ian specialises in a variety of property matters including the acquisition, sale and lease of commercial property, residential and commercial development and residential and social landlord property work.
Ian is a member of the Variety Club Yorkshire committee and is a keen golfer.


1. Citizens Bill of Rights – We need to codify a citizen's basic rights when they have a police encounter.
2. Family of Police Shootings- They are often victims, or at least often innocent of any wrongdoing. They are rarely accorded any Information. We need a statute that requires the police/ state to timely inform the next of kin of certain facts, like, if and when the shooting case is presented to a grand jury.
3. Willful Prosecutorial Misconduct-We need to criminalize a prosecutor's willful withholding of exculpatory evidence or willful manufacturing of evidence that leads to a Wrongful conviction. There can be no statute of limitations. It needs to be a felony. It Needs to be at least a third degree felony. The statute needs to state in all case A special prosecutor will be assigned.
Any felony possession of less than a gram wherein the defendant will be automatically accorded probation .
5. Sealing Records- We need to make it easier for people to seal their record and we need to expand the ability to do so. We need to expand who is eligible to file petitions for non disclosure to include people who received straight probation. We need to shorten the amount of time after a felony community supervision is completed for eligibility to file a petition for non disclosure.
The legislature needs to act to protect the people of this state from those who use their power to abuse us.
There is no such thing as a small tyrant. Damn all tyrants.
The Legislature makes baby steps to protect us, while abusive cops, DAS & judges stomp on our civil liberties.


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Jessica Radmilovic
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California State University, Sacramento
M.A. Therapeutic Recreation, Fall 2012
Jessica was an extremely active child and in high school, she was, in her own words, one of the "jocks". She started water skiing at the age of four, was a competitive gymnast and pole vaulted for the Moreau Catholic High School and was recruited by numerous colleges. On January 19, 2003, while taking a jump in the snowboard park at Sierra Nevada Ski Resort at Lake Tahoe she had a bad landing and broke her back resulting in paralysis at the T-11 level. Her dreams of going to college on a pole vaulting scholarship were dashed but her physical aptitude, incredible support system and a fierce determination fueled by frustration with her injury fired her up and helped her through outpatient physical therapy and allowed her to catch up with her classes and graduate on time. That competitive fire was still burning in Jessica and she needed an outlet. Her mom found an article about a wheelchair basketball team and the next weekend her dad took her to Berkeley where she was immediately thrown into a basketball wheelchair and into a game. Success came soon after and she was recruited by the University of Arizona where she received a partial scholarship to play on their wheelchair basketball team and went on to play on the USA National Women's Basketball Team. Jessica went on to adapt her water skiing skills so that she could get back on the water. She later became a triple Gold Medalist and pending world record holder in disabled water skiing. Through adaptive athletics, Jessica has met some amazing people and has learned the importance of priorities in one's life. The University of Arizona has the biggest adapted athletics program in the country including wheelchair basketball, tennis, rugby and road racing. While Jessica loved her time at the University she was disappointed that it was necessary to go out of state just to play sports in school. Jessica will study for a master's degree in Therapeutic Recreation at Sacramento State University. She will compete on the Sacramento State Water Ski Team and anticipates that she will be the only paraplegic athlete on the team. She hopes that this will help to kick-start an adaptive athletic program at the university. The future is bright for Jessica and Swim With Mike is proud to have her on board.
Swim With Mike provides financial resources for the advanced education of physically challenged athletes to overcome their tragedies and realize their full potential. We are a family of volunteers, athletes, sponsors, campaign directors and donors that can be found in nearly every state and across the globe. We have raised millions of dollars for hundreds of athletes across the country and we're just getting started. Join us.
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Still from 'Scene UnSeen', a feature film by the late Abdul Nizam and Friends
● Tickets for the 32nd edition of Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) go on public sale tomorrow, 9 November 2021 at 12pm via SISTIC
● Beyond film screenings, the festival also features a lively range of talks by filmmakers and industry experts who offer insights into the the creative processes and developments in cinema culture
● A special feature of 'Scene UnSeen' by the late Abdul Nizam and Friends includes a live music showcase by pioneering rock band The Oddfellows and Singapore's first all-female hardcore band, Obstacle Upsurge
SINGAPORE, 8 November 2021 — Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) returns for its 32 nd edition from 25 November to 5 December 2021, with tickets going on public sale tomorrow, 9 November 2021 at 12pm, via SISTIC. As announced previously, this year's Festival will present a diverse, inclusive range of over 100 films by filmmakers from more than 40 countries and categorised under Films in Competition (Asian Feature Film and Southeast Asian Short Film), Singapore Panorama, as well as five new film sections that position cinema from different perspectives.
According to SGIFF's Programme Director, Thong Kay Wee, "As we return to the cinemas this year, we also wish to encourage further discourse in-person, which includes Q&As with filmmakers as well as our Forum section, featuring leading industry voices in topical panel discussions. We are also especially thrilled to offer a special presentation of the feature film Scene UnSeen, on Singapore's underground music scene, which will include a one-night-only showcase by two of Singapore's beloved indie bands. I hope these accompanying experiences will continue to ignite our audience's curiosity and bring different communities together at our festival."
A special feature of 'Scene UnSeen'
28 November 2021, Sunday, 7.30pm | The Esplanade Theatre | Tickets from $15 – $25
A portrait of the late Abdul Nizam, who directed Scene UnSeen; a still from Scene UnSeen featuring Singapore band E-thereal
Part of the Singapore Panorama category, 'Scene UnSeen' (rated NC16) is an honest, heartfelt documentary about Singapore's underground music scene that opens a rare window into a slice of Singapore that has largely eluded the public eye. Comprising interviews, archival footage, and animation, 'Scene UnSeen' captures the pleasures and pains of Singapore's underground music scene, as shared by icons from the punk, hardcore, metal, and alternative genres. The diverse set of bands, artists, gig organisers, and fans featured in the film also candidly delves into issues of discrimination, disenfranchisement, and the disillusionment posed by making art in a hypercapitalist and highly surveilled city. Lovingly stitched together by a passionate team of like-minded friends, this honest, heartfelt documentary proudly wears the DIY ethos celebrated by the community. SGIFF is proud to present a special presentation of 'Scene UnSeen' at the Esplanade Theatre. For one night only, watch the film, hear from members of the music community in exclusive Q&A sessions, and enjoy special performances by pioneering rock band The Oddfellows as well as Singapore's first all-female hardcore band, Obstacle Upsurge.
Forum: A platform for discussions and an exchange of ideas
For this year's Forum, five distinct panel discussions will take place during the Festival; these are mostly in-person at The Projector and The Arts House. Distinguished speakers include Indonesian film director Edwin, who is behind this year's opening film Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash, and award-winning Singaporean director Yeo Siew Hua — both of whom are winners of the Locarno Film Festival's Golden Leopard award. Established actors from the region, Angeli Bayani, Ladya Cheryl and Yeo Yann Yann will also feature, exploring their roots in independent filmmaking, and how they have navigated their careers domestically and internationally as actors from Southeast Asia. Full details below.
Southeast Asian actresses Angeli Bayani, Layda Cheryl and Yeo Yann Yann will speak on an online Forum panel, which is free to attend
27 November 2021, Saturday, 11.30am | 90 Min | The Projector, Redrum | Tickets at $5
Indonesian director Edwin and Singaporean director Yeo Siew Hua are the last two Golden Leopard recipients out of only three Southeast Asian winners in the whole history of the Locarno Film Festival. Building on the momentum of their recent wins, they will be in conversation to reflect on Edwin's career and to share their aspirations for our region's cinema. Singapore Panorama: A Cosmopolitan Perspective 27 November 2021, Saturday, 1.30pm | 90 Min | The Projector, Redrum | Tickets at $5 A panel of industry professionals with an international viewpoint share their impressions, contributions and prospects of the local film scene. What can we learn from these players who have an eye on the world and a hand in shaping Singapore cinema?
● Panuksmi Hardjowirogo — Co-founder of M'GO Films and producer of 'Scene, UnSeen' and 'The Anatomy of Time', both films showing at SGIFF 2021
● Fran Borgia — Founder of Akanga Film Asia and Programme Specialist for SGIFF 2021
● Heo Chul — Filmmaker and Associate Professor at the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
● Kuo Ming-Jung — Film programmer and former SGIFF Artistic Director
29 November 2021, Monday, 6.30pm | 90 Min | The Arts House, Chamber | Tickets at $5
Focusing on case studies of the past and present realities in Afghanistan and Myanmar, this talk will shed light on the developments of both national film industries in the 20th century, and discuss the various ways in which cinema and artists can continue to move forward despite the odds today.
● Maung Okkar — actor, filmmaker and founder of non-profit organisation Save Myanmar Film, which conducts film archiving workshops and leads digital restoration projects for classic Myanmar films
● Sahraa Karimi — Iranian film director and actor, and the first woman to become general director of the state-owned Afghan Film
30 November 2021, Tuesday, 8.00pm | 60 Min | Zoom | Free to attend
Angeli Bayani, Ladya Cheryl and Yeo Yann Yann are established actors of the same generation in their respective countries, involved in film productions with various auteurs. With roots in independent filmmaking, how have they navigated their careers domestically and internationally as actors from Southeast Asia?
1 December 2021, Wednesday, 7.30pm | 90 Min | The Arts House, Chamber | Tickets at $5
International film practitioners share their experiences in programming and supporting a diversity of Asian films on their platforms. What do they look out for in contemporary Asian cinema and how have they sought to present a more nuanced and inclusive picture of the region?
● Eddie Bertozzi — Head of Pardi di Domani for Locarno Film Festival
● Kim Young Woo — Film programmer at DMZ International Documentary Film Festival
● Raymond Phathanavirangoon — Executive Director, SEAFIC; film producer and film festival programmer
● Charles Tesson — Artistic director of Critics' Week at Cannes
Tickets to the Singapore International Film Festival go live on 9 November 2021 at 12pm
on SISTIC.
(Download full media assets)
Call for entries – Singapore International Film Festival Film Fund for 2022


San Francisco police are seeking the public's help identifying the man and the two dogs pictured here. The pit bulls attacked a another dog, biting it and four people in Dolores Park.
Four people and a small dog were bitten when two pit bulls attacked them in Dolores Park, police said.
The incident occurred on Sunday just before 11:45 a.m., police said, when the three dogs were in the designated off-leash area in the park. The two pit bulls, one brown and one gray, attacked a Lhasa apso named Bloom, police said, leaving her with puncture wounds to her back.
Bloom's owners and other family members attempted to break up the three dogs, and four had their hands bitten in the process. Three of the bite victims were taken to a hospital for further treatment, police said, and Bloom was taken to a veterinarian.
The pit bulls were put on leashes by a man who left the scene without providing any personal information or information on the dogs' vaccination record. Police said he was last seen going north on Noe Street, but a search of the area failed to locate the man or the dogs.
Anyone with information about the incident can contact the San Francisco Police Department's Vicious and Dangerous Dog unit at 415-553-9182.


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Wanted: A religion of pure grace: 11-30-15
Perhaps some of you remember sitting in a college dorm room late at night with several other sophomores talking about religion and what it means to you. There's a reason such conversations have been called sophomoric. What they lacked in depth they made up for in the certitude of some of the participants.
In a good way, John D. Caputo's new book, Hoping Against Hope: (Confessions of a Postmodern Pilgrim), may remind you of some of those late-night conversations, except that this time all the participants are Caputo himself -- as a devout Catholic boy, as a young man then known as Brother Paul, considering giving his life to the church, and finally as a mature college professor who focuses on philosophy and religion.
It's a fascinating -- and also, at times, disconcerting -- read. Caputo challenges himself and his readers at every turn:
"I am seeking," he writes, "to know what religion would look like, what form it could take, if it were wrested free from people who consider themselves authorities in matters in which we are all unlearned novices and perpetual beginners."
Clearly, his respect for the pre-Vatican II Catholicism he learned as a child has waned profoundly. And yet there is something about the religious perspective that he wants to save. The book represents his effort to find out what that might be.
Caputo knows with some clarity the religion he seeks: ". . .the religion I am trying to retrieve in the present text begins and ends with grace."
Ah, grace, that pure, unmerited favor about which people of faith speak, sometimes not understanding that for grace to be grace, it cannot come bound with conditions, cannot mandate a gift in return, cannot perhaps even reveal the giver.
For Caputo, one of the main problems with traditional religion is that too often it "allows itself to be all about winning, about beating time at its own game, about cheating death. That is religion at its worst. . .I embrace a religion of the gift, of an unconditional affirmation made without the expectation of a reward, a religion that we would lack only at our peril."
Caputo, in this internal dialogue (well, trialogue) that he invites us to overhear, draws on the mystics, those people in various traditions who have written about a more personal experience of the divine. He describes them as "those insidious insiders who make such salutary trouble for religion." But it's the kind of challenging trouble that religion needs to keep it honest, to keep it seeking, to keep it humble.
If, as he writes, "people who think in terms of inerrancy and infallibility are dangerous," his task is to find adherents of religion who, by contrast, are willing to explore what it might mean if God simply disappeared from the world and left us to embody, to incarnate the goodness, the love, the mercy that God represents -- and not just represents but, in fact, is. Thinking such thoughts can be, as I say, disconcerting in the sense that it feels a little like walking on a high tight rope without a net underneath to catch us.
All of that said, Caputo has not completely given up on the church -- especially in light of the new tone that Pope Francis has set since his election. But if Caputo were put in charge of the church (he would refuse), it would look much different than it does now.
He also reminds us of the profound difference between belief and faith: "When beliefs deepen, entrenchment sets in, fundamentalism waxes, searching wanes. When faith deepens, beliefs are destabilized, searching waxes, fundamentalism wanes. . .My task here is to help religion out of the hole it keeps digging for itself."
In contrast to some traditional Christian thinking, Caputo insists that God needs us. Others often say God would be God without humanity. But Caputo is having none of that: ". . .God is a promise, an unkept promise, and everything depends upon us to keep that promise, to translate that hope into reality. . .Without God we can do nothing, but then again without us God can do nothing."
Catholics deeply committed to the church as it now exists may well find Caputo to be too challenging to be taken seriously. Some may wish to label him a heretic. It's that kind of instinct toward certitude that Caputo thinks is damaging true religion. It would be fun to bring him before the College of Cardinals to hear him try to make his case. He gives a hint of what he would do in such a case: He would simply hand the cardinals a rose and tell them that the flower's unconditional grace and beauty say all they need to know about religion. And then he'd rest his case. And what a strong case it would be.
FAITH AT PLAY IN CLIMATE MEETINGS
What role is religion playing in the climate change summit in Paris? This piece from The Economist offers an interesting look at that question, particularly as faith affects the French president, who, like Jack Caputo, (see above) has given up the Catholicism in which he was reared.
Tags: "Hoping Against Hope", Catholicism, climate change, France, God, grace, John D. Caputo, religion
Chaplains who ministered to Nazi criminals: 11-28/29-15
Faith that in some way doesn't challenge and even complicate our thinking seems hardly worth having. And yet sometimes the challenges can be especially difficult.
In this Washington Post story, for instance, we learn about two American military chaplains who wound up ministering to some of the Nazis who were on trial for crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials soon after the end of World War II.
The story's opening question is telling: "Should anyone who commits evil on a massive scale be offered a path to forgiveness?"
Later the story raises this question: "If the perpetrators of genocide can be seen as fellow human beings, do they deserve empathy or forgiveness from those who have chosen to lead good lives?"
As I understand the concept of forgiveness in Judaism, I as a third party not guilty of the crime nor a victim of it can have no say in the question of forgiveness. It is up to the victims to forgive the criminals. In the case of the Holocaust, two-thirds of the Jews of Europe alive at the start of the war had been murdered. By that deadly mathematics, those victims were in no position to offer forgiveness to the architects of the genocide. Rather, only the survivors could consider the question of forgiveness -- but only for what they themselves suffered, not for what was done to those who were murdered.
But I don't think offering clergy services and spiritual counseling to Nazis accused of crimes constitutes an offer of forgiveness in and of itself. Rather, it is simply a recognition of our common humanity, even if the person in whom we locate that humanity has done viciously inhuman acts.
On this I stand with the chaplains who did the work assigned to them. I just don't choose to designate that work as a sign of forgiveness either offered or accepted.
POPE FRANCIS STANDS WITH THE NEEDY
The trip to Africa by Pope Francis has been intriguing in the way he has spoken truth to power -- being a representative of power himself, albeit theological, not political, power. In Kenya, for instance, he chastised the nation's elite for neglecting the poor. It's been his consistent message to the powerful around the world. And it's a message the church itself has needed to hear, particularly when you think of vulnerable children as being among the poor and the elite as including the bishops who allowed abuse priests to remain unpunished after attacking those children.
P.S.: Are you looking for exactly the right book as a gift for someone with excellent, though perhaps a bit off-beat, tastes in writing? May I suggest one or more of the books I've written or co-authored: Jesus, Pope Francis and a Protestant Walk into a Bar: Lessons for the Christian Church, Woodstock: A Story of Middle Americans or They Were Just People: Stories of Rescue in Poland During the Holocaust. The links I've given you will let you buy them online. But if you want autographed copies (and in the case of the Woodstock book, want to pay less than online prices), send me an e-mail at wtammeus@gmail.com and I'll tell you how that can happen.
Oops! Newscast Accidentally Uses The Most Horrendous Image Possible For Yom Kippur (IMAGE)
Liveblogging World War II: November 20, 1945: Nuremberg Trials Begin
German Military Industrial Resources During WWII
Tags: Holocaust, military chaplains, Nazis, Nuremberg trials, Pope Francis, religion
A story of hope and respect: 11-27-15
As we enter what is supposed to be a joyous holiday season -- but one that is, nonetheless, filled with wars and rumors of wars, terrorism and rumors of terrorism, political lies and rumors of political lies -- I want to share with you an inspiring story of hope.
In Jaffa, Israel, next to Tel Aviv, there's a school known as Hand in Hand, where roughly equal numbers of Jewish and Arab children learn together, with each class having a teacher who speaks Hebrew and one who speaks Arabic.
This story describes this small sea of sanity in the midst of what sometimes looks like insanity. As the story notes:
"The school is vital for the community and parents — who understand their 5-year-olds may not yet grasp the implications of their ethnic, religious or national identities — to show that it is possible to 'be together, while still different, and learn about each other,'" said one of the parents.
The story properly notes that this is far from the first Jewish-Arab effort at cooperation. But such efforts are nowhere near as numerous as they need to be, and not enough of them involve teaching children how to be both proud of their own heritage and at the same time respectful of the different heritage of others.
That kind of instruction is crucial if the conditions and beliefs that lead to extremism are to be overcome. The story ends with this hopeful note:
"While parents are eager to foster mutual understanding during these tense times, it's easy to see a sense of normalcy back at the school's playground when Jewish and Arab children go to class together.
"'It's fun to know other languages because then you can speak with all kinds of people!' exclaims Ofri Druckman, 5, as two of her friends, one Arab, one Jewish, nod in agreement, before they all resume playing on the wooden jungle gym."
Ah, a bit of light in a world desperate for light.
GOD IN THE HANDS OF ANGRY SINNERS
Remember reading the old sermon by Jonathan Edwards, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"? Well, this Patheos.com piece suggests it might be enlightening to turn that phrase around and compare that turn-around to reality. I think the writer is on to something.
Tags: God, Hand in Hand, Islam, Israel, Jaffa, Jonathan Edwards, Judaism, religion
But first some words of thanks: 11-26-15
Bill Vaughan wrote the daily "Starbeams" column for 31 years before I took it over in 1977 at The Kansas City Star and wrote it for another 27 years. The column format called for 12 one-liners (quips, often satirical) plus one beam reserved for the front page each day.
When Bill wrote the column, the front page line was called, simply, "Bill Vaughan says. . ."
And every Thanksgiving those words were followed by this simple word: "Thanks."
I have no idea why, but the surprising simplicity of it -- after being used to beams of 25 or 40 words there -- always made me chuckle.
A simple "Thanks" will not, of course, ever be recorded among the best and most engaging comments ever made about Thanksgiving itself or about gratitude. But there are other sayings worth passing along on a day like today, and some of them reflect ideas about gratitude from this or that faith tradition.
So let's begin. And let's start with Paramahansa Yogananda, founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship:
"Thanksgiving and praise open in your consciousness the way for spiritual growth and supply to come to you. Spirit pushes Itself out into visible manifestation as soon as a channel is opened through which It can flow. You should be thankful for everything at all times. Realize that all power to think, and speak, and act comes from God, and that He is with you now, guiding and inspiring you."
(By the way, the Self-Realization Fellowship is starting a holiday season gratitude challenge tomorrow. If you're interested in checking that out, click here.)
Next we'll turn to the Apostle Paul, who in I Thessalonians 5:18 of the New Testament, writes this:
"Give thanks in every situation because this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
In the Hebrew Scriptures, we find this word about thanks in Psalms 138:1:
I give thanks to you with all my heart, Lord. I sing your praise before all other gods."
From the Islamic tradition, we find these words about Abraham in 16:120-121 of the Qur'an:
"Abraham was truly an example: devoutly obedient to God and true in faith. He was not an idolater; he was thankful for the blessings of God who chose him and guided him to a straight path."
Going back to ancient Rome, we find these words from the philosopher Cicero:
"A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue but the parent of all the other virtues."
Finally, a Thanksgiving thought from the late, great Erma Bombeck:
"Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence."
And in the spirit of the late Bill Vaughan, I, too, say this to my wonderful readers:
EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THANKSGIVING. . .
And when you tire of football and leftovers later today, come back and read this explanation of what Thanksgiving is really all about. Memorize it. There will be a quiz next Thanksgiving.
P.S.: My latest National Catholic Reporter column now is online here.
An Augustinian approach to self-esteem: 11-25-15
The other day The New York Times reviewed a new book about the early Christian leader Augustine (seen here in his fraternity pledge class photo). It looks like an intriguing read and maybe I'll get to it eventually.
But I was especially engaged by what the reviewer said in the at the end of the piece:
"Augustine hit upon an idea that would shape Western consciousness for centuries: the notion that human beings have two wills within, a defiant one that wants autonomy and a chastened one that wants to serve God. The only way to achieve happiness, Augustine believed, was to subordinate the former to the latter. . .It was during the Renaissance that this conception of the self came under serious challenge, most powerfully in Montaigne's 'Essays,' which mocked the idea of sin and preached self-acceptance. To Augustine's anxious admission that he was a problem to himself, Montaigne simply responded, So what's the problem? Don't worry, be happy. As modern people we have chosen Montaigne over Augustine. We traded pious self-cultivation for undemanding self-esteem. But is love of self really enough to be happy? You know the answer to that, dear reader. And so did Augustine."
The great religions teach us that we must love ourselves if we ever are to be capable of loving others. And there is profound truth in that. The problem, which Augustine obviously understood, is that our task is made more difficult because we must learn to love ourselves even while acknowledging that we are deeply flawed in various ways. It's not unlike true patriotism, which is love of our nation even while acknowledging our national faults -- and sometimes speaking aloud about those flaws so they might be fixed.
The self-esteem movement that gained traction a few decades back was rooted in a proper concern about being able to love and accept ourselves. But, as I came to know more about it, I found that it was not built either on the religious idea that we are lovable because we are precious children of God or on the more practical idea that true self-esteem is gained through real accomplishments -- not in all the children in a foot race receiving equal "participation" ribbons.
The book reviewer is right that we all know the answer to the question of whether love of self is really enough to make us happy (as if being happy were the ultimate goal of life; but that's another subject). And if you don't know the answer, perhaps it's time to read Augustine's Confessions.
WHEN THE HUNGRY AREN'T FED
A new report from Bread for the World says hunger in the U.S. is terribly costly and is killing tens of thousands of children. Come on, Americans. We can do better than that. The problem is systemic, and so must be the solution.
Tags: Bread for the World, hunger, New York Times, religion, self-esteem, St. Augustine
When fear leads us to reject our values: 11-24-15
Sometimes, as my friend Rick Horowitz pointed out on Milwaukee Public Television recently, we Americans get fearful and forget our foundational values.
In World War II, for instance, after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Americans and their leaders became fearful of Japanese-Americans, who had elected to come to this country and contribute in so many ways. So we rounded them up and forced them into internment camps, even while some of those same Japanese-Americans put on military uniforms and fought for the country that was treating their families like poison.
My brother-in-law Gary was born in one of those camps. Gary has gone on in his life to do many excellent things, including marry one of my three sisters. But his family's sad history at the hands of our government is an indelible part of who he is and, thus, by extension, an indelible part of our family's history.
Although the United States was created (eventually) to be a nation without an established religion, everyone knows that our basic values often reflect the teachings of Christianity and Judaism. The Hebrew scriptures insist over and over that the people of Israel are to welcome the stranger, in part because they once were strangers in Egypt.
And the teachings of Jesus emphasize the inestimable value of every human being and the obligation to care for those in crisis and in danger. Matthew 25 records Jesus saying, "I assure you that when you have done it for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you have done it for me."
But we find ourselves in another time of fear. The fear is justifiable. There really are radical Islamist terrorists out there who want to kill us -- and who already have killed some of us, including my own nephew on 9/11. The threat and the danger are real. And we are fools if we don't recognize that.
But fear among American Muslims is also real and also justified. Just yesterday a Muslim friend told me that things are as bad right now for Muslims in the U.S. as they were right after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Muslims, she said, are living in constant fear of retribution simply for being followers of Islam.
Our fear of terrorism should not mean that we ought to jettison our core values. It should not mean that governors ought to say they won't accept Syrian refugees into their states. It should not mean that presidential candidates like Donald Trump (but who is like Donald Trump?) ought to say they would create a watch list that would include every Muslim in the U.S., not unlike the way Nazi Germany created lists of Jews in preparation for the Holocaust. And it surely should not mean that Trump (more than once and without apology) and Ben Carson (before taking it all back) can get away with making up wildly inaccurate stories about thousands of Muslims in New Jersey cheering the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9/11. In another time and another circumstance, the kind of bunk Trump has been saying about 9/11 was called a Big Lie.
When we do such things we can be sure we have lost our way. We have abandoned the values first introduced by religion and later codified into secular law. Rick Horowitz is right that we will get past this current round of fear and stupid reactions to fear and then be embarrassed again about what we did -- just the way we found ourselves later embarrassed by Sen. Joe McCarthy's fear-mongering about communists and by the way our ancestors brutalized native Americans when those very ancestors were immigrants seeking a better life.
But the sooner we get over it the better. And you can help that process by rejecting xenophobia. It's an illegitimate response to legitimate fear.
WHO ARE THOSE SYRIAN REFUGEES?
Oh, and if you're looking for actual factual true facts (which, as you know, are the best kind of facts) about Syrian refugees, you might want to have a look at this piece by Jonathan Merritt of Religion News Service. For instance, did you know that more than half of those refugees are children under age 18?
Pope tells Congress U.S. should reject hostility to immigrants
Tags: Japanese internment camps, Jonathan Merritt, religion, Rick Horowitz, Syrian refugees
A new look at a pope and the Holocaust: 11-23-15
For decades now, people have argued over whether Pope Pius XII (pictured here), who served throughout World War II, did enough to help save Jews from the Holocaust.
This controversy has created such deeply divided opinion that it has slowed the effort inside the Catholic Church to designate Pius XII a saint.
My friend Russ Saltzman recently did this review of a new book on the subject (a book I haven't had a chance to read yet) called Church of Spies: The Pope's Secret War against Hitler, by Mark Riebling. Riebling looks at the considerable evidence that Pius XII took steps to protect Jews as well as the indisputable evidence that he was extraordinarily silent about the fate of the Jews during the war. In the end, Saltzman notes, Riebling concludes this: "Buffeted by shifting pressures from all sides, Pius did not so much keep above the fray as work below it."
I have mixed feelings about the effort to make this pontiff a saint. First, it's an internal Catholic matter that in no way changes anything he did or didn't do in his life. But, second, if I were Catholic and had any voice in the process, I would want a much more thorough vetting of the evidence before coming to any conclusions.
Sainthood, after all, is kind of a big deal in Catholicism. So I'd hope the church would get it right, though noting that all human beings are imperfect, the lone exception, according to church doctrine, being Jesus Christ himself.
If this matter of Pope Pius and the Holocaust interests you, then Riebling's book sounds like a must read. But in the meantime, here are three online sites you can explore to help you understand the issues at play:
This one is from the Jewish Virtual Library, which seems pretty unimpressed by the pope's actions. It says, in part: "For much of the war, he maintained a public front of indifference and remained silent while German atrocities were committed. He refused pleas for help on the grounds of neutrality, while making statements condemning injustices in general. Privately, he sheltered a small number of Jews and spoke to a few select officials, encouraging them to help the Jews."
Here is the Wikipedia entry on the subject. It's more generous, saying, "Pius employed diplomacy to aid the victims of the Nazis during the war and, through directing his Church to provide discreet aid to Jews and others, saved hundreds of thousands of lives."
Finally, here is a piece from Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial authority, which notes both sides of the argument this way: "For his supporters, the Pope avoided making public statements because there was a strong possibility that they would expose innocent people to drastic Nazi reprisals. They emphasize that Catholic institutions rescued thousands of Jews. Papal opponents focus on the particular evil that Nazism represented and maintain that in such circumstances religious leadership must be clear, forthright and outspoken."
No one knows, of course, how all this will work itself out. But I'm glad the conversation continues because it has relevance for us today in the way we think about and speak about more recent atrocities, from genocides in Africa to murderous terrorism at the hands of Islamist extremists. Public silence, a position that Pius XII chose, seems unlikely to be the right choice or one ever likely to be honored for its moral strength.
TERRORISM AS A DISEASE
Sunni Islam does not have a pope, but the closest to it, the head of al-Azhar in Cairo, says that terrorism is an "intellectual and psychological disease" and that terrorists are wrong to use religion to justify their actions just as people are wrong to blame Islam for terrorism. Fine. But the problem is that the radical Islamists consider this man and others like him to be traitors to their vision of the religion.
Pope Francis and the evolution of Catholic theology: Gail Collins
No miracle, but Pope Francis will canonize Junipero Serra, friar responsible for indigenous genocide
Tags: "Church of Spies", al-Azhar, Cairo, Catholic Church, Holocaust, Islam, Judaism, Pope Pius XII, religion, terrorism
A model for pastors everywhere: 11-21/22-15
When Hal LeMert was called to be pastor of the Presbyterian Church in which I grew up in Woodstock, Ill., -- I want to say it was about 1979 or 1980 -- I was long gone from my hometown.
But my parents still were active in the church, so while Hal looked for a Woodstock house to buy for him and the rest of his soon-to-join-him family -- Annie, three daughters and a son -- he stayed with my folks. It turned out to be the beginning of a long friendship I developed with this remarkable man, whose funeral I attended this past Wednesday in Lawrence, Kan., where he died Nov. 11 at the age of 83.
Several years into his productive pastorate in Woodstock, one of Hal's good friends died while serving as pastor of Southminster Presbyterian Church in the Kansas City suburb of Prairie Village, Kan. Hal and I both attended the funeral and I began to imagine what a good fit Hal might be if he were called to replace his friend. It took a bit of time -- as these things always do in Presbyterian polity -- but eventually that's exactly what happened. And Hal served that church well for quite a few years as my and my wife's friendship with him and his wife Annie grew.
After a retirement stint helping with campus ministry at the University of Missouri in Columbia, he eventually retired and he and Annie moved to Lawrence, Kan., where one of their daughters lives and where Hal also helped out with the Ecumenical Campus Ministries on the University of Kansas campus. Lawrence isn't far from where I live on the Missouri side of the state line, so we continued to stay in touch in person and by phone and e-mail.
The photo you see here today of Hal and Annie was taken at a 2006 party at our house celebrating my formal retirement from The Kansas City Star.
As Hal has neared the end of his life this fall, I've been doing some thinking about what he brought to the profession of ministry and why he was so winsome. And what I've concluded might be helpful to others still in professional ministry -- and to lay ministers, which Christianity says all followers are -- so I share it with you today.
Hal had a sense of curiosity that seemed endless. At times he seemed baffled by the universe and by the idea of a God who could love seemingly insignificant humans. He was willing to admit his bafflement but was, nonetheless, happy to commit himself to such a God -- in gratitude and with humility, knowing that scripture is right when it says that we walk by faith, not by sight.
Any time I had a conversation with Hal, he had some new idea, some new thought that he wanted to share so as to complicate my own thinking. He did. And it did.
Once Hal and I drove together to Woodstock. He drove. I rode. And as I did I read aloud to him the beginnings of a possible book I had in mind to write -- and had, indeed, begun writing. I called it The Unauthorized Autobiography of Jesus Christ. I read a few chapters but there was relative silence in response from Hal. I got the uncomfortable feeling that he thought I was off base. Eventually he challenged me because what he was hearing was pretty much straight out of the Bible, with a few semi-interesting comments thrown in. But there wasn't much fresh in it, wasn't much that challenged the conventional views about Jesus, wasn't much that made Jesus accessible to people today. If I wanted people really to think hard about this itinerant rabbi who changed the world, I needed to present him in interesting, fresh ways that somehow spoke to contemporary times -- and not just use echoes of language employed 2,000 years ago. Of course Hal was right about that. Maybe one day I'll get back to that project. I wish I'd finished it while Hal was still around to box me about the head and shoulders as I moved it toward publication.
Hal, in the end, was a servant. He was enthralled with the idea of the diaconate -- servant ministers the church has called deacons almost from the beginning. And if Hal LeMert was anything, he was a servant -- not only of Jesus Christ but also of love. What kind of love? The kind described by the Apostle Paul in I Corinthians 13 (using the Common English Bible translation): "Love is patient, love is kind, it isn't jealous, it doesn't brag, it isn't arrogant, it isn't rude, it doesn't seek its own advantage, it isn't irritable, it doesn't keep a record of complaints, it isn't happy with injustice, but it is happy with the truth."
That's a lovely description of Hal, though, of course, Hal would confess that he regularly failed to live up to such glowing words. Which simply means that Hal understood and tried to live by the Benedictine virtue of humility. But the fact is that those words from Paul fit Hal as well as they fit anyone I know, especially the part about being unhappy with injustice. Throughout his whole ministry he stood with the marginalized and sought to be a voice for the voiceless.
Hal was deeply engaged by the idea of spirit -- human spirit, Holy Spirit, any sense of spirit. And he himself was something of a free floating spirit who occasionally could challenge what some considered orthodoxy. He was no heretic. Not at all. But he was willing to listen to and learn from heretics, which is something quite different from being one.
Hal also had a marvelous sense of humor that endeared him to his congregants. Long ago he made up a character he called Hester Bugle. I understood her to be kind of a sharp-tongued, slightly racy church lady, and occasionally he would drag Hester out to be the mouthpiece for wisdom that sounded better coming from her than directly from him.
(I confess that when I signed the guest book at Hal's funeral the other day, I also registered Hester Bugle's presence. I hope Hal laughed.)
Once some years ago I got a call from Hal in Lawrence. He told me he was standing by a trash dumpster and was looking at an old Woodstock manual typewriter, made in my hometown, next to the dumpster.
"Do you want it?" Hal asked, assuring me it was in reasonably decent shape. "Of course I want it," I said.
So I now own that typewriter and it sits proudly on a bookshelf in my home office. It's what I think of as an attractive nuisance for grandchildren, who naturally want to pound on it, though I discourage that. In fact, I pictured the typewriter in my 2014 book, Woodstock: A Story of Middle Americans.
After Hal saw its picture in that book, he sent me this note: "Among the file I keep on coincidences, I mark that typewriter as a major curiosity. Maybe I've told this too many times, but I seldom go past the spot where I saw it without a memory flash. Why a Woodstock typewriter, of ALL things, should have been sitting out so prominently quite apart from the trash container, as if addressing me! And the unlikeliness of anyone even paying attention to its two part brokenness, and there I was." Thanks to Hal's sharp eye and generosity, I now sign off my e-mails with this line: "Sent from my manual typewriter." Hal liked that signature.
Sometimes pastors can have a cutting edge to them, a hard-heartedness that defends a heart-hearted sort of religion, which can become an alibi for hate, for injustice, for war, for racism, for sexism, for xenophobia, for cruelty to those in need.
I wish I could take all such clergy and make them spend a week with Hal LeMert, though now it's too late for that.
Hal's daughter Amy had asked her father how he wanted the end of his life to come at his house, where he was under the care of a hospice nurse. Hal told her he'd like the family in the house, though not necessarily in his room at all times. He just liked hearing their presence nearby. So the day he died there was family, including grandchildren, in the house, and they were making family sounds that Hal could hear from his room.
A rerun of "M*A*S*H" was on TV in Hal's room. The very minute the show ended and the credits rolled, Hal breathed his last breath, with a few family members in the room to notice.
Hal went gentle into that good night. And although he was never burdened with false certitude, Hal, I'm convinced, was as sure as he could be that the night he was entering would, indeed, be good -- and full of divine light.
WISE WORDS FROM AN EVANGELICAL VOICE
It's reassuring to hear a voice of reason and sanity on the matter of Syrian refugees coming from someone who identifies as a leader among conservative Christians. Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, says the anti-refugee rhetoric being heard in recent days is appalling: "We really don't want to penalize innocent women and children who are fleeing from murderous barbarians simply because they're not Christians," he said in an interview. Good for Moore. I wish the Donald Trumps, Ben Carsons and Mike Huckabees of the world would learn from him.
P.S.: A reminder that this year's Festival of Faiths in Kansas City was postponed from late October to the evening of Dec. 10. You can read about the speakers and event at the link I've given you in the previous sentence. I hope to see you there. Also on Dec. 10 -- but as a breakfast event -- is the next American Public Square program on religious literacy, "What We Don't Know Is Hurting Us." The link I just gave you will give you details about how to attend the event at Village Presbyterian Church in Prairie Village. Or you can click on -- and enlarge -- the graphic you see here at the left.
Changing roles for clergy spouses: 7-15-13
Sampling another faith tradition: 11-20-15
Today I'm going to tell you about a book I hadn't heard of at all until recently and that I didn't think I wanted to read once I got a copy. Why did I get a copy? Oddly enough, I noticed a tweet about it from the Jewish newspaper, The Forward. The tweet said if that you'd retweet it, you could win a copy. So, as an author wanting to encourage other authors, I did. And, to my surprise, I won it.
The book is called The Mystics of Mile End, by Sigal Samuel, and it's about a family from Montreal whose members get connected in various ways to the Jewish mystic path, called Kabbalah. As you may know, almost every religion has a mystical path. Each one in different ways emphasizes a personal experience of the divine. The piece about Kabbalah to which I've linked you describes it as "one of the most grossly misunderstood parts of Judaism."
I don't read a lot of fiction and I rarely review it for blog readers, feeling that I'm not qualified to do that. And I'm not going to do a full review of this book today. Rather, I want to make another point or two about learning about faith traditions not our own.
But I will say that I frankly thought the book started out slowly, and I wasn't sure I would stay with it. It begins using the voice of a young boy, Lev, and although the author gets the boy's voice right, sticking with that voice didn't allow her to show off what turned out to her rather prodigious writing skills that became possible when the voices turned to those of adults.
For instance, at one point, when the narrator is the father of Lev and his sister, Samara, he describes a moment with his lover this way: "Our warm bodies just barely touching. Not the supernova of two people newly in love, not the sticky melding together of disparate identities, but a constellation of adjacent alonenesses, a parallel glide through space." You simply can't put such words into the voice of a young boy.
You can read the story for yourself and discover its engaging ins and outs. What I want to do is to here is to encourage you to do what I have done in reading this book: Go outside your own faith tradition and sample writing that brings you into a world you don't know much about.
As someone who writes regularly about religion, I know a bit about Kabbalah but am far from an expert in it. And I know some things about Judaism, too. But to immerse myself in a Jewish story centered on Kabbalah was an experience that expanded my horizons and give me at least a small taste of what such a context feels like.
So I suggest you find a novel or a non-fiction book that focuses on a faith tradition beyond your own. As you read, write down questions. Then find someone knowledgeable from that tradition to help you answer those questions -- remembering that whoever you ask cannot possibly speak for the whole of that religion or spiritual path.
If you want to delve into Kabbalah, this novel is a good place to start.
YOU JUST CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP
Missouri state Rep. Mike Moon, perhaps in harmony with his name, has offered this bit of lunacy: He doesn't want Syrian refugees in the Show-me State because he wants to prevent "the potential Islamization of Missouri." This is on a par with GOP presidential hopeful John Kasich proposing creation of a federal agency to promote Judeo-Christian values. Sometimes politicians who get entangled with religious issues embarrass not just themselves but the whole country.
P.S.: Speaking of sampling other faith traditions, let me tell you about the opportunity you have to hear Noah Geller, the great concertmaster of the Kansas City Symphony, play in a solo recital. This will happen in the sanctuary of Rolling Hills Presbyterian Church, 9300 Nall in Overland Park, Kan., under the sponsorship of Temple Israel of Greater Kansas City, which holds its weekly services in the Rolling Hills chapel. The "play in a solo recital" link I've given you has details about how to purchase tickets. I love watching Geller when I attend Symphony concerts but have never heard him doing a solo performance. Hope to see you there.
SACRED STORIES IN ISLAM AND JUDAISM | North East Islamic Community Center
Is ISIS Islamic or not? 11-19-15
Now that a bit of time has passed after the terrorist attacks in Paris, maybe it's a good time to think again about the ways Islamist terrorists misuse Islam.
It is not an easy subject and there are no simple answers as to the relationship between terrorists and Islam.
Reflective of that complexity, Will McCants of the Brookings Institution has written this piece about how to think about ISIS and Islam. It's worth a read. As is this CNN piece by Haroon Moghul, in which he argues that "The Islamic State is at war with how Muslims understand Islam."
As McCants notes, "Ultimately, it's for Muslims to decide whether the Islamic State is being faithful to scripture. For the nonbelievers, it's enough to recognize that Islamic scripture is contradictory when it comes to violence and to rejoice that most Muslims makes sense of these contradictions in a very different way than ISIS."
Not only is Islamic scripture (which, as McCants notes, broadly includes both the Qur'an and the Hadith) contradictory when it comes to violence, so is the scripture held sacred by Jews and Christians.
Christians, for instance, must figure out what to do with words Jesus is reported to have said in Matthew 5:29: "If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell." Or these words attributed to Jesus from Matthew 10:34: "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword."
Sounds pretty violent to me.
The point -- one I've tried to make many times in many venues -- is that all scripture must be interpreted. And there will be differences of interpretation. One useful rule (that I wish ISIS would learn) is that if your interpretation of scripture regularly moves you to hatred and violence, you're not doing it right. Healthy religion leads you toward peaceful, not violent, resolutions of disputes. It's exactly the point that a large group of Islamic scholars made about ISIS in September.
The fact that Islamist terrorists insist on their bloody interpretations of parts of the Qur'an and the Hadith is much more reflective of their limited capacity for humane understanding than it is a reflection on those collections of Islamic sacred writing. And President Barack Obama was right the other day (as former President George W. Bush was right for the same reason right after 9/11) to insist that the U.S. is not at war against Islam. Such a war would be unthinkable.
A TERRORIST BY ANY OTHER NAME. . .
Because you can't tell the terrorist players without a scorecard, Religion News Services has put together this piece in which it explains the various names of the group identified as ISIS, ISIL and Daesh. You are free to make up your own four-letter word for the organization, as I do from time to time.
ISIS Explained
Paris attacks seen as a strategy shift for the Islamic State
Tags: Daesh, Hadith, ISIL, ISIS, Islam, Paris, Qur'an, religion, terrorists


text:
Q: How bitcoin payment in the dark web works? dear friends when I was using the dark web I have seen the bitcoin payment option when buying the products. Like the image I attached here but my question is if I send the payment to this bitcoin address how the website owner recognise this was done by exactly me? Because I didn't enter any other informations to that site before. According they it will redirect me to the next page after they recognise my payment. But what if someone else paid that bitcoin address? Does it count as my payment? How this whole process happen?

A: They provide a new address for each new payment and therefore it won't matter which address sent the bitcoin because the address it was sent to is associated with your payment and your payment only.
Note that this is an assumption based on how similar payment methods work and I don't know this site.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


buy for my niece. dont know comfortable or not but most importantly wont leak.
Ordered on 11 feb. Received on 20 feb. Free size. A bit big for my Sec 1 daughter but nice design. Money worth. Thks seller for the free hairband.


text:
define(
	[
		'../../extras/components/graphics/VonSprite',
		'ai/components/Selectable'
	],
	function() {
		return require('core/Kai').registerComponents(arguments);
	}
);

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Even college principal waiting to see internet sensation Priya Varrier
Thrissur (Kerala), Feb 14: Malayalam actress and B. Com first year student Priya Prakash Varrier's instant stardom -- thanks to her wink and mischievous smile in a 28-second film clip -- has left even her college principal eager to meet her. Marriette A. Therattil, Principal of the prestigious Vimala College here, is a senior nun attached to the Syro-Malabar Catholic Archdiocese of Thrissur. Therattil told IANS that she learnt lately about how her 18-year-old student has became a "national trend" on social media. "It was on Monday that I came to know about what was happening on social media about my student. I came to know it very late in the evening as I was busy with meetings. Since it was late and the students had all gone home, I could not meet her," Therattil told IANS. "Yesterday (Tuesday) was a holiday and I did send her a congratulatory message but did not get a reply. I can understand that she is busy. Today I asked to find out if she has come to college, but I was told she is on leave today," said Therattil. Therattil faintly remembers Priya from among the 2,500-odd women students in the college, as last month she had come with her parents to seek permission to shoot for the song that has made her an overnight star. "Since attendance is strict and a must, I told them that they should see that she should not miss classes and gave her the permission (to shoot). Honestly, I never knew that she would rise to this sort of instant stardom, and I am waiting to see her," she added. Priya, who learns music and dance , was initially selected to do a small role in the upcoming film "Oru Adaar Love'" and the song in the film "Manikya Malaraya", has turned viral in the internet world. In the clip, Priya is seen giving a wink and smiling while flirting with a boy, and it is the mischief, innocence and simplicity in the shots that have touched the right chords with viewers. The clip has made Priya the rage of the young and the old and is on way to becoming one of the fastest shared in the social media. Modest in her stardom, Priya told the media that while she was roped in for a small part in the movie initially, she has come to know now that the film's makers are considering doing some changes to the script so as to give her a more prominent role after all the publicity that she has got now.
Virat Kohli won't have any say in new India head coach selection: Reports
Skipper Kohli, other senior players ready for full Caribbean tour: Reports
Jimmy Neesham's childhood coach died during WC Super Over


Hello. I run a 6x6 HTH Keeper league through the CBS commissioner service. We currently have 2 open slots as previous owners have decided to leave for the coming year. Our league puts heavy emphasis on developing minor league talent. We have a unique set of rules to satisfy this idea. I would post our rules here, but they are much too long and much to complicated to be browsed through. We run 3 drafts, a rule V, minor league and finally, a major league draft. Each team is allowed 7 keepers along with additional players they have brought through their system (via the minor league draft). Our league fee is 125 and usually handled through the paypal service. Also, our tentative (major league) draft date is set for Friday, March 20th at 6 PM E.T. The Rule V and Minor league drafts are held through the league message board and extend for a number of days. Please inquire within for additional details, including the vacant team(s) rosters.


Home/General/Which should come first for SMBs – hosted VoIP or cloud?
Which should come first for SMBs – hosted VoIP or cloud?
Many SMBs are now adopting Microsoft Office 365 and other apps in the cloud services – but should they be moving their voice services to a hosted platform first?
More small businesses are moving everyday software applications to the cloud.
They are doing this because it makes sense.
Productivity apps like Office 365 are offered on a pay-per-use basis, they are constantly updated, and with the apps and data stored in the cloud, they can be accessed from anywhere there's an Internet connection.
The UK government's Making Tax Digital initiative, which will require all VAT-registered businesses to begin filing information digitally from April next year, will compel more small firms to take their first steps into the cloud.
Yet while a lot of businesses are moving much of their everyday IT in this direction, many still hesitate to adopt VoIP services.
This is an enigma, because there is really no difference between running applications and running voice through an off-the-premises, hosted VoIP service.
In fact, it probably makes more sense to put the telephony services onto a cloud platform before anything else.
The benefits are proven and can be seen almost immediately. Users are given access to extended functionality and have much greater flexibility.
Wherever they have access to an Internet connection, they can make use of the VoIP system, and be available on their usual number.
The business can operate from anywhere, so in this sense, a hosted voice service provides an immediate and very important element of any business recovery and contingency plan.
Costs will be reduced, and this will be visible almost straight away in the form of reduced overall charges.
This will be especially true for a business that makes a lot of international calls or one that has been getting staff to use mobile phones when they are working at home.
The business will have better visibility and control, over staff and costs. It will be possible to see in much more detail how much time is being spent on different calls and isolate the cost of managing individual customers or activities.
Efficiency and service levels will be enhanced, as customers will always be able to contact individual staff members on their usual numbers, and the business as a whole should be faster on its feet.
That may also have a positive, knock-on effect on morale and competitiveness.
All of these benefits can be realized very quickly and most of them can be measured with some accuracy.
Businesses can get a good idea of your return-on-investment quite soon after starting a hosted VoIP subscription.
While cloud-based applications and services also deliver many benefits, they may not always be as immediate or apparent. In terms of flexibility and business contingency, they are more or less the same – apps can be used and data accessed from anywhere.
If costs are going to be reduced, that may not always be as immediately obvious. In fact, with some cloud services it can, on the face of it, look like it will cost more to run software on a pay-as-you-go basis.
You do, however, also have to consider the decreased burden and cost of managing applications, user licenses and updates, so it's not such a simple equation.
Using a cloud service will also make a business more efficient – and indeed, it may be necessary to comply with regulatory requirements, as it will be with Making Tax Digital.
But overall, the benefits are not as immediately clear as they would be with a hosted VoIP service. It may seem odd then, that some SMBs are moving business apps to the cloud before they adopt digital voice services.
There are three reasons this is happening – momentum, perception and awareness.
First, and perhaps most importantly, the trend to migrate apps to the cloud has well and truly taken hold.
It has real momentum now.
In addition, voice and apps are considered to be quite different by most businesses – voice is seen as having a more physical aspect, as it usually involves picking up handset, whereas software is seen as more of a virtual and conceptual idea that exists only within the computer system.
Finally, the level of awareness of cloud is much higher.
While most businesses have heard of VoIP, intense and sustained promotion of cloud apps has been such that more businesses see it as a priority.
In fact, they would benefit just as much, if not more, from prioritising a move to hosted VoIP which, in the final analysis, is really just another cloud service.
The direction in which all IT and communications are headed is not in question, it is just a matter of which services businesses choose to adopt first.
A coffee lover. A geeky dad who loves nostalgic games. Been doing SEO and internet marketing for years now and quite enjoying them. When I'm not working, I'm certainly watching an EPL game!


text:
Home Bangladesh National Foreign doctors can be brought in for Khaleda's treatment: Momen
Foreign doctors can be brought in for Khaleda's treatment: Momen
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia is allowed to bring in any doctor from abroad and she is free to take treatment anywhere in the country, said Foreign Minister Dr. AK Abdul Momen while briefing foreign diplomats in Dhaka today.
"If Khaleda Zia wants to go abroad for treatment, she has to do it through the legal process," he told journalists at the state guesthouse the Padma in Dhaka.
Momen said the medical documents have already been sent abroad and foreign doctors can come to Bangladesh for her treatment.
He told diplomats that the government is committed to free, fair, and transparent elections in Bangladesh.
The minister referred to the UP elections that he said were held fairly.
"There was some violence in the elections due to over-enthusiasm of some people," he said.
He also spoke to the diplomats on the Rohingya crisis, their relocation to Bhasan Char, and World Peace Conference to be held on December 4-5.
Saudi Transport Minister Saleh bin Nasser Al-Jasser, who also had a bilateral meeting with Foreign Minister Momen, said that at least 30 Saudi private companies are interested to invest in Bangladesh.
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