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Sep — Dec 2015
Summits Galore, But (Mostly) Business as Usual
By Brad Glosserman and Ralph A. Cossa
Published January 2016 in Comparative Connections · Volume 17, Issue 3 (Ralph Cossa and Brad Glosserman, "Regional Overview: Summits Galore, But (Mostly) Business as Usual," Comparative Connections, Vol. 17, No. 3, Jan. 2016, pp. 1-12.)
Tama University CRS/Pacific Forum
While events in Paris and San Bernardino refocused the international community's attention on terrorism, it was largely business as usual in Asia, with the normal round of multilateral meetings – the Association of East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit, US-ASEAN Summit, East Asia Summit (EAS), and ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting Plus (ADMM+) in Kuala Lumpur, plus the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Meeting in Manila – going largely unnoticed. A few other summits did attract attention, including the first "Plus Three" (Japan-Korea-China) Summit in three years (which included the first direct one-on-one summit between ROK President Park and Japan Prime Minister Abe) in Seoul and the "non-summit" between Mr. Xi Jinping and Mr. Ma Ying-Jeou who just happen to be the presidents, respectively, of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China, in Singapore. Chinese actions (and US reactions) in the South China Sea continued to dominate the news, while hopes that Kim Jong-Un was on the brink of behaving were quickly dashed as the new year began. All eyes remain on the Chinese economy and the impact the continuing slowdown there may have on global growth, even as the US pushes forward on the finally completed (but not yet Congressionally-approved) Trans-Pacific Partnership.
ASEAN/East Asia Summits: proclamations as usual
The annual series of ASEAN Summits – beginning with the ASEAN leaders proclaiming the official formation of an ASEAN Community, followed by a number of ASEAN Plus One sessions, and culminating in the EAS involving the ASEAN 10, plus Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea, and the US – brought President Obama to Asia for the ninth time as president.
The ASEAN leaders, on Nov 20, patted themselves on the back while signing the 2015 Kuala Lumpur Declaration on the Establishment of the ASEAN Community, thus meeting their self-proclaimed 2015 deadline – the "landmark achievement" officially went into effect on Dec. 31, 2015. During the signing ceremony, witnessed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak declared that "Our ASEAN way has guided us and will continue to be our compass as we seek to realize a politically cohesive, economically integrated, socially responsible and a truly people-oriented, people-centered rules-based ASEAN." Most observers argued, however, that this was largely a case of form over substance, especially when it comes to economic integration. While many tariff barriers have been eliminated, many politically sensitive sectors, such as agriculture, auto production and steel, remain protected; much work remains for its most important pillar – the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) – to achieve its primary goal of allowing freer movement of skilled workers, trade, and capital for the region's more than 600 million people.
During the third US-ASEAN Summit on Nov. 21, President Obama met the heads of state of the 10 ASEAN nations for "a frank and constructive discussion on strengthening ASEAN-United States relations as well as a productive exchange of views on regional and global issues of common concern." The Chairman's Statement highlighted Washington's continued support for a "politically cohesive, economically integrated and socially responsible, and a truly people-oriented, people-centered ASEAN Community" and for "ASEAN's central role in the evolving rules-based regional architecture through ASEAN-led processes." It also applauded the launching of the "forward-looking and comprehensive" ASEAN-US Strategic Partnership while welcoming the "commitment of ASEAN Member States and China in ensuring the full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) in its entirety" while calling for the early establishment of an "effective Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC)" and a resolution of disputes "through peaceful means, in accordance with international law." It also recognized the conclusion of the TPP, which it saw as complementing the AEC – four ASEAN members (Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam) are TPP charter members.
For his part, President Obama commended ASEAN's "vital role in advancing a rules-based order for the Asia Pacific" and for working to ensure that all nations uphold international law and norms, including the peaceful resolution of disputes, freedom of navigation and freedom of over-flight, while elevating the relationship to a "strategic partnership." He also invited the ASEAN leaders to meet with him in the US. That meeting will take place at Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage, California on Feb. 15–16, with a declared aim to build upon "the deeper partnership that the United States has forged with ASEAN since 2009," noting that the meeting will "further advance" the Obama administration's rebalance to Asia and the Pacific. The context and location will no doubt be interpreted as an unfriendly gesture by the Chinese – Sunnylands was the location for Obama's famous "shirt-sleeved summit" with President Xi in 2013.
On Nov. 22, Prime Minister Najib chaired the 10th EAS. The Chairman's Statement identified the following EAS priorities: energy, education, finance, global health (including pandemics), environment and disaster management, and ASEAN connectivity. As in past years, it "reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security and upholding freedom of navigation in and over-flight above the South China Sea" while taking note of "serious concerns expressed by some Leaders over recent and on-going developments in the area, which have resulted in the erosion of trust and confidence amongst parties, and may undermine peace, security and stability in the region."
In this regard, it supported the "full and effective implementation" of the DOC and "expeditious establishment of an effective COC." It also "registered deep concern" over Pyongyang's May 2015 ballistic missile launch while supporting the "complete and verifiable denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner."
ADMM+: much ado about something
The flurry of mid-November ASEAN summits was preceded by the third ADMM+ on Nov. 4, which garnered a certain amount of press coverage, not for what was said or accomplished, but by the failure to issue a joint statement. The reason was familiar and expected: many participants (the US very much included) wanted the joint statement to reference security concerns in the South China Sea; one participant in particular (guess who, reportedly supported in its position by Russia) was adamantly opposed. The others decided it was better to not have a joint statement than to have one which omitted the major security issue of the day.
This does not mean the issue went unmentioned; by all accounts it was hotly debated. As with the ASEAN meetings, the ADDM+ Chairman's Statement – which is not a consensus document – also urged the "effective implementation" of the DOC and the "early conclusion" of a COC. It further noted that "some countries also expressed concerns on the escalation of tensions in the Korean Peninsula and pushed for peaceful conflict resolution through diplomatic means."
US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, in his prepared remarks at the meeting, applauded ASEAN as "both a source of rules and a steward of the rules-based regional order" and pledged to "work to build our partners' maritime capacity and capabilities, so we can face shared challenges, together." He noted that "many of the participants here remain concerned about the South China Sea. While the United States takes no position on sovereignty claims to land features in the South China Sea, we do have an interest and an obligation – as do others – to uphold international law and standards" while further asserting that "freedom of navigation and the free flow of commerce are not new concepts; they are not theoretical or aspirational goals; in this part of the world, these rules have worked for decades to promote peace and prosperity." Carter also expressed Washington's support for "existing diplomatic and legal processes, such as . . .the Law of the Seas Tribunal," an obvious reference to the ruling a few days by the Permanent Court of Arbitration that it has jurisdiction over the case Manila filed against China's nine-dashed line claim to sovereignty over the whole of the South China Sea.
What is new, Carter asserted, is "the intensive and aggressive reclamation of features in the South China Sea. Make no mistake: these new facts will not change what we've always done. The United States will continue to fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows." The sailing of the USS Lassen, a guided-missile destroyer, within 12 miles of the Chinese reclaimed (or more accurately, fabricated) Subi Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands on Oct. 27 underscored this point. Australia, Japan, and South Korea have joined Washington in proclaiming the importance of freedom of navigation (FON) under international rules, which do not recognize territorial claims based on low tide elevations. Obama's critics have complained that more such FON operations are needed and that the US Navy needs to clearly distinguish between FON operations and "innocent passage" to send a stronger message to Beijing. But it's clear Beijing has already gotten the message and that FON operations will continue against areas claimed by China and by others, on the Navy's timetable, not the critics. (Personally, we believe that US sailors deserve to spend the Christmas holidays in port; there will be plenty of time and opportunity for messaging in the New Year.)
Pyongyang's exaggerated claims (or are they?)
At the ADDM+, Secretary Carter also noted "the need to seek a Korean Peninsula at peace and free of nuclear weapons." His message, echoed in the EAS Statement, was lost on Kim Jong Un, who created quite a stir in early December when he boasted that "Our great President Kim Il Sung has turned today's DPRK into the powerful nuclear state that can make the loud blasting sound of the atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb for the self-defense of the country's autonomy and dignity." (For the record, it was his father, Kim Jong Il, and not his grandfather, who brought the DPRK into the nuclear age, but all credit always goes to the "Eternal President.") While it is always risky to underestimate Pyongyang's nuclear prowess – a similar debate has been underway regarding its ability (or lack thereof) to miniaturize a warhead – most experts dismissed this claim as yet another highly unlikely and unsubstantiated assertion.
Kim also made headlines two months earlier when he presided over a huge military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the ruling Korean Workers' Party. The parade was described as a "highly orchestrated event included goose-stepping soldiers, convoys of rocket launchers and missiles, and fighter jets roaring overhead." In a long speech before the parade, his first public address in three years, the "Great Successor" boasted: "We have stood up against the American imperialists, and we are ready for any kind of war against the United States," adding "We can firmly declare that we can fight and win against the U.S. anywhere."
Much has been made of the presence of Liu Yunshan, the fifth-ranking member in the Chinese Communist Party Standing Committee, at Kim's side during the parade. While somewhat overshadowed by the more prominent image of South Korea President Park's presence at President Xi's side during China's even grander parade commemorating the 70th anniversary of the ending of World War II a month earlier, it still was seen as a significant warming of the seemingly troubled relationship between the two communist neighbors. When the long-anticipated DPRK long-range missile test/satellite launch did not take place in October, most analysts saw this as the quid-pro-quo for the high-level Chinese visit. Feeding speculation that Beijing had persuaded Pyongyang to tone things down was the absence of any reference to nuclear weapons in Kim Jong-Un's New Year's Day address. That euphoric feeling, to the degree it existed, only lasted six days and ended with a bang, as Pyongyang boasted of a successful test of a hydrogen bomb "conducted in a safe and perfect manner had no adverse impact on the ecological environment." Beijing joined Washington, Seoul, and the rest of the civilized world in condemning this latest violation of a number of UNSC resolutions; the coming months will show just how angry Beijing really is as the UNSC debates next steps.
APEC: something for everyone
Prior to the ASEAN-centered events, President Obama was in Manila for his fifth APEC Leaders' Meeting (out of seven opportunities; since APEC's creation in 1993, ironically, only George W. Bush among US presidents had a perfect attendance record). We are APEC skeptics: apart from the original complaint – the group consists of "four adjectives in search of a noun" – the annual leaders meeting tends to be a showy affair (mercifully, the fashion photo has been abandoned), more symbol than substance. This year's meeting, in Manila Nov. 18-19, was no exception. Coming on the heels of terror attacks in Paris and Beirut, much of the discussion of an "economic meeting" focused instead on security concerns. The leaders "strongly condemned all acts, methods and practices of terrorism in all their forms and manifestations," and the attendees pledged that they would not "allow terrorism to threaten the fundamental values that underpin our free and open economies."
That boilerplate rhetoric could not mask the divergence of views between those who feel the most important way to deal with this problem is tougher law enforcement and military efforts and those who think the focus should be economic growth that deprives such groups of traction and followers. Thus, in the banal sentiments invariably churned out in such gatherings, the leaders agreed that "Economic growth, prosperity, and opportunity are among the most powerful tools to address the root causes of terrorism and radicalization." Yet, "global growth is uneven and continues to fall short of expectation," and poverty "continues to be a reality for millions … in our region." Here, as in other issues, the debate featured the US and China facing off, with the US pushing the hard power, law, and military response while China argued for tackling "root causes." As is often the case in APEC, the final declaration was a catch-all document that offered something for everyone.
TPP: now comes the hard part
A sharp contrast to the "squishy APEC" offering was the conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, an agreement reached in October in Atlanta after seven years of negotiations and numerous missed deadlines. TPP has two purposes: producing a "gold standard" trade agreement to counter the low-value bilateral and regional deals that have been struck in recent years, and ensuring that the "Asia Pacific" remains a viable economic unit. Both goals are an implicit repudiation of the other ongoing Asian economic negotiation, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), even though they are not mutually exclusive. Agreeing on the TPP was a real accomplishment, given the participants, their diversified interests, and the range of issues included. The challenge now is national ratification. There are few countries where that can be taken as a given. In the US, election-year politics will delay serious debate; Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that he won't schedule a vote before the November ballot. Most of the candidates have complained about the deal, and called for renegotiation of parts. That should be a nonstarter – if the October deal wasn't final for the US, then other countries will want modifications as well and that would make the October document anything but final. (Still, other "concluded" deals, such as the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement, have been modified.) These apprehensions notwithstanding, TPP members took advantage of their combined presence at the APEC Leaders Meeting in Manila to have their first TPP Summit to highlight their success (thus far).
Putting history behind?
Perhaps the most eventful multilateral meeting was the China-Japan-South Korea trilateral summit that was held in Seoul in November, the first such sit-down in three years. The three leaders – Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, and ROK President Park Geun-hye – agreed to resume annual meetings and produced a declaration with a grab-bag of issues: 18 points on economic and social cooperation, 10 on sustainable development, 14 on "enhancing trust and understanding among the peoples," and eight points addressing security and political issues, most of which concerned promises to coordinate before multilateral meetings. Of some significance was the backing of a trilateral free trade agreement and the call on North Korea to return to diplomatic negotiations over its nuclear weapon program. Since those two initiatives were always priorities, it is hard to say that the trilateral meeting provided any new momentum. Nevertheless, the fact that the three leaders were able to meet suggests that history concerns have been diminished and the three governments are trying to get back to business as usual. The statement declared that "trilateral cooperation has been completely restored on the occasion of this Summit." We shall see.
The most significant outcome was the side meeting between President Park and Prime Minister Abe (covered in detail in the Japan-Korea summary). This opened the door for the historic grand bargain on comfort women which, while far from satisfying everyone, is the first tangible progress on this issue in years and opened to door for closer cooperation between America's two Northeast Asia allies.
A (premature?) vote of confidence in the RMB
After months of anticipation, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed to include the renminbi (RMB) or yuan, in its basket of reserve currencies. The decision reflects the growing role that the RMB is playing in international finance; it is also intended to push China to continue reform and opening its economy. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde called the November decision "an important milestone in the integration of the Chinese economy into the global financial system" and "recognition of the progress that the Chinese authorities have made in the past years in reforming China's monetary and financial systems."
Beijing has pressed for inclusion of the RMB in the IMF basket of reserve currencies, both in recognition of its growing international status and as a way of reducing the world's reliance on the dollar (and diminishing the resulting US influence). China sees the IMF policy as a sign that the Fund is ready to adapt to reflect new geoeconomic realities. Failure to reform IMF voting rights was part of the reason China proposed the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. (Mercifully, the US Congress in mid-December finally approved the long-sought quota and governance reforms.)
There has been debate, however, over whether the RMB met the two criteria for inclusion in the basket: it must be widely used and it must be freely available. The first would seem obvious given the scale of Chinese trade: the RMB was used for 24 percent of China's current account transactions in the first nine months of 2015, about RMB 5.5 trillion. But Beijing's tight grip on national finance, exchange rates in particular, threatened the second. Nevertheless, staff economists concluded and the IMF executive board agreed that China met the two requirements.
That second factor is a partial explanation for the Chinese decision last summer to allow the RMB to move more freely against the dollar, a move that produced an immediate plunge in the value of the currency against the dollar and charges that Beijing was engaging in currency manipulation to boost a slowing economy. Many Westerners don't like market forces when they work against their national interests, but they should accept this particular weakening as part of the case for continuing liberalization in China.
Reform could be dangerous, however, especially given the many uncertainties in China produced by a slowing economy, the anti-corruption campaign, reports of bubbles, market manipulation, and outright fraud. The RMB has continued to slide against the dollar since the authorities decided to loosen the currency's bounds last summer, but a freefall would be equally dangerous, generating inflation in China, along with complaints of currency manipulation. China's economy is likely to continue to weaken as a result of diminishing international demand, excess capacity, and mounting debt for government units and parts of the finance sector. Most damaging, however is a perception that China's economic decision makers are foundering under multiple assaults, a charge that has taken on increasing weight as the Shenzhen and Shanghai stock markets were forced to suspend trading as share prices plummeted. The installation of "circuit breakers" failed and seemed to accelerate the declines. The People's Bank of China has been forced to intervene heavily in currency markets – its reserves reportedly decreased by half a trillion dollars in 2015 – to prevent the RMB from plummeting.
China's troubles managed to overwhelm the Federal Reserve's December decision to raise interest rates from near zero to a range of 0.25 – 0.50 percent. There were fears that such a move would force a skittish global economy to stumble: the US economy is doing reasonably well, they argued, but inflation risks were low and the rest of the global outlook was uncertain. At the same time, however, there were equally real concerns that the near zero interest rate, in combination with the Fed's quantitative easing policy, was flooding emerging markets with cash. Fed members wanted a return to normalcy, among other things to signal their faith in the US recovery. The move also meant that if the US economy stumbled, they would have one of their usual tools – interest rate cuts – to help cope. Most observers credit Fed Chairman Janet Yellen with providing enough advance warning – without explicitly saying what was happening – to minimize any damage.
Elections past and pending
On Nov. 8, international attention focused on Myanmar as that country held elections, which the National League for Democracy (NLD) won in a landslide: the party took 86 percent of the seats in the Assembly of the Union (235 in the House of Representatives and 135 in the House of Nationalities), a supermajority that should ensure that its candidates are named president and first vice president. The NLD victory was expected. Far less certain was the military government's response to that win. By all accounts, however, the military is prepared to accept defeat. The big question now is what sort of accommodation will be worked out with Aung Sun Suu Kyi, the leader of the NLD who is constitutionally banned from being president (because she has foreign relatives – a clause that was written specifically to disqualify her). Reportedly, negotiations are underway that will allow Suu Kyi to be the power behind the president. Thus far, the democratic transition is proceeding, but there is no guarantee that it will be friction free as the impact of changes begins to impact the military's political and economic interests.
In the next quarter, the electoral focus will be Taiwan's presidential ballot, scheduled for Jan. 16. As we get ready to publish this issue (and voters head to the urns), Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Tsai Ing-wen is favored to win. Her victory will certainly upset Beijing but China must have been preparing for this outcome for months: the KMT has been in disarray and Tsai's lead in the polls has never been challenged. Some view the historic meeting between Xi Jinping and Ma Ying-jeou in Singapore on Nov. 7 to have been an attempt to influence that ballot, but we give the Chinese credit for more sophistication. That was far too crude a gesture to move Taiwanese voters. Rather, the meeting seems more like an attempt to burnish Ma's legacy than it was to boost KMT support. All eyes will remain on Taiwan if the DPP wins and as Tsai struggles to reconcile her (and her party's) ambitions for greater autonomy and international space with China's demand for acceptance of the 1992 consensus and the one-China framework.
Other elections will demand attention in the year to come: the US presidential campaign promises to be a spectacle (in every sense of the word). Meanwhile, the domestic and international dynamics identified above will continue to shape and shake regional politics. It promises to be a busy year.
Regional Chronology
September — December 2015
Sep. 2, 2015: Lao President Choummaly Sayovone visits Beijing and meets Premier Li Keqiang. They pledge to strengthen bilateral ties with Li emphasizing the two countries' similarities and China's desire to advance relations with ASEAN countries and protect the peace, prosperity, and stability of the region.
Sep. 3, 2015: China marks the 70th anniversary of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War over Japan with a large military parade in Tiananmen Square.
Sep. 3-4, 2015: While in Beijing for the 70th anniversary of the victory over Japan, Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Prawit Wongsuwon meets Vice Chairman of China's Central Military Commission Xu Qiliang, They agree to strengthen military ties.
Sep. 4, 2015: President Xi Jinping meets Myanmar President Thein Sein in Beijing.
Sep. 4-7, 2015: US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Russel visits Myanmar and meets Cabinet officials, members of the Union Election Commission, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and ethnic leaders.
Sep. 6, 2015: Thailand's junta-appointed National Reform Council rejects a draft charter by a vote of 135 to 105, effectively extending the military regime's rule for at least 22 more months.
Sep. 6, 2015: Indonesian Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu says that the country will upgrade military facilities on the Natuna Islands.
Sep. 9, 2015: Chairman of Vietnam's National Assembly Nguyen Sinh Hung meets Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington, saying Vietnam hopes to deepen its relations with the US.
Sep. 15, 2015: North Korea's KCNA announces the DPRK's main nuclear facility at Yongbyon has "resumed normal operations," that the country is improving its nuclear weapons "in quality and quantity," and that it is ready to "face US hostility with nuclear weapons any time."
Sep. 15, 2015: Malcolm Turnbull is sworn in as prime minister of Australia after ousting Prime Minister Tony Abbot in a party leadership ballot.
Sep. 15, 2015: Photographs published by Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) show construction of a 3,000-meter retaining wall on Mischief Reef that matches work by China on Subi Reef and Fiery Cross Reef, where it has constructed airfields and other facilities.
Sep. 16, 2015: Secretary of State Kerry warns of "severe consequences" if North Korea continues to develop its nuclear weapons and missiles.
Sep. 17-22, 2015: China and Malaysia conduct Peace and Friendship 2015 in Malaysia and surrounding waters. It is the first joint military exercise between the two militaries and the largest bilateral exercise between China and an ASEAN country.
Sep. 19, 2015: Japanese Diet passes legislation that reinterprets self-defense and gives the government the authority to send its Self-Defense Forces overseas to defend allies, even if Japan itself is not under attack. China criticizes the legislation as destabilizing to regional security.
Sep. 22-25, 2015: Chinese President Xi Jinping visits the US with stops in Seattle to meet business leaders, Washington DC for a summit with President Obama and a state dinner, and New York to participate in the UN General Assembly (UNGA).
Sep. 24-25, 2015: South Korea, China, and Japan hold the eighth round of negotiations for a trilateral free trade agreement (FTA) in Beijing.
Sep. 29, 2015: South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, Secretary of State Kerry, and Japanese Foreign Minister Kishida Fumio meet on the sidelines of UNGA.
Sep. 29, 2015: Secretary Kerry hosts the inaugural US-India-Japan Trilateral Ministerial Dialogue with Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Japanese Foreign Minister Kishida on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Sep. 30, 2015: Secretary Kerry hosts an ASEAN-US ministerial meeting in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Oct. 1-5, 2015: Trade representatives from the 12 Trans-Pacific Partnership countries (Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, United States, and Vietnam) meet in Atlanta and conclude negotiations on the trade agreement.
Oct. 5-9, 2015: The US, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, with Bangladesh Navy officials observing, conduct Southeast Asia Cooperation and Training Exercise (SEACAT), a naval exercise focused on anti-piracy in the South China Sea.
Oct. 5-10, 2015: Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken travels to Japan, South Korea, and China to discuss key political, economic, and security issues.
Sep. 27-Oct. 11, 2015: US and Philippines conduct the 31st iteration of the Philippine Amphibious Landing Exercise (PHIBLEX).
Oct. 12-13, 2015: Secretary of State Kerry and Secretary of Defense Ash Carter co-host Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Defense Minister Marise Payne in Boston for the 2015 Australia-US Ministerial (AUSMIN) consultations.
Oct. 13, 2015: Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi and head of the Japanese National Security Council Yachi Shotaro co-chair the second China-Japan high-level political dialogue in Tokyo.
Oct. 13-16, 2015: South Korean President Park Geun-hye visits the US and meets President Obama and other senior officials. She is accompanied by Defense Minister Han Min-koo.
Oct. 14-19, 2015: Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force joins the US and Indian navies in the annual Malabar training exercise in Chennai, India. Japan had taken part in these exercises as an invited guest in the past, but joined this year as a permanent member.
Oct. 15, 2015: China hosts ASEAN defense ministers in Beijing for a "deep exchange of views."
Oct. 16-18, 2015: Xiangshan Forum is held in Beijing.
Oct. 20-25, 2015: Japanese Defense Minister Nakatani Gen visits South Korea; he meets Defense Minister Han and attends Seoul's International Aerospace & Defense Exhibition.
Oct. 22-27, 2015: Japan Prime Minister Abe visits Mongolia and five Central Asian Countries including Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan.
Oct. 25-27, 2015: Indonesian President Joko Widodo visits the US and meets President Obama and other senior officials.
Oct. 27, 2015: US guided missile destroyer USS Lassen reportedly sails within 12nm of Subi Reef and Mischief Reef in the South China Sea.
Oct. 29, 2015: Permanent Court of Arbitration awards its first decision in The Republic of Philippines v. The People's Republic of China case, ruling that the case was "properly constituted" under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, that China's "non-appearance" (i.e., refusal to participate) did not preclude the Court's jurisdiction, and that the Philippines was within its rights in filing the case.
Oct. 31-Nov. 1, 2015: Chinese Premier Li, Japanese Prime Minister Abe, and South Korean President Park hold a trilateral summit in Seoul, the first such meeting since 2012.
Nov. 1, 2015: Annual ROK-US Military Committee Meeting (MCM) is held in Seoul.
Nov. 1-4, 2015: Australian Navy ships HMAS Stuart and HMAS Arunta visit China's South China Sea base at Zhanjiang and conduct military exercises with the Chinese Navy.
Nov. 2, 2015: The 47th ROK-US Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) is held in Seoul.
Nov. 2, 2015: President Park and Prime Minister Abe meet in Seoul marking the first bilateral meeting between leaders of the two countries since May 2012.
Oct. 29-Nov. 3, 2015: Secretary of State Kerry visits Central Asia with stops in Bishkek, Samarkand, Astana, Dushanbe, and Ashgabat.
Nov. 3-5, 2015: ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting Plus (ADMM+) is held in Kuala Lumpur.
Nov. 5-6, 2015: Chinese President Xi Jinping visits Vietnam and meets General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Nguyen Phu Trong and President Truong Tan Sang.
Nov. 6-7, 2015: President Xi visits Singapore and meets counterpart Tony Tan Keng Yam.
Nov. 7, 2015: China's Xi Jinping and Taiwan's Ma Ying-jeou meet in Singapore as "leaders of the two sides," marking the first time since the civil war between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China ended in 1949.
Nov. 16, 2015: G20 Summit is held in Antalya, Turkey.
Nov. 16-20, 2015: US and Cambodia conduct sixth CARAT naval exercise.
Nov. 18-19, 2015: Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders Meeting is held in Manila.
Nov. 19, 2015: UN General Assembly passes a resolution calling for North Korea to be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for its human rights violations.
Nov. 21, 2015: The 27th ASEAN Summit is held in Kuala Lumpur.
Nov. 22, 2015: Tenth East Asia Summit Leaders Meeting is held in Kuala Lumpur.
Nov. 26-27, 2015: Chinese and Thai air forces conduct first joint exercises that China says are aimed at increasing "mutual trust and friendship."
Nov. 30, 2015: US Special Representative for North Korea Policy Sung Kim hosts a trilateral meeting in Washington with ROK Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Hwang Joon-kook and Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director-General for Asian and Oceanian Affairs Ishikane Kimihiro.
Dec. 7, 2015: Singapore Minister for Defense Ng Eng Hen visits Washington and meets Secretary of Defense Carter. They sign a joint enhanced defense cooperation agreement (DCA) that will provide a framework for an expanded defense relationship.
Dec. 10, 2015: Despite protests from China and Russia, a UN Security Council (UNSC) meeting is held on North Korea's human rights violations.
Nov. 30-Dec. 11, 2015: UN Framework on Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP21) is held in Paris.
Dec. 11, 2015: North and South Korea hold vice-ministerial meeting in Kaesong. The talks end without any substantive agreement and no plans for subsequent meetings.
Dec. 11-14, 2015: Prime Minister Abe visits India and meets Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Dec. 13-21, 2015: Assistant Secretary of State Russel travels to Asia with stops in Thailand, Laos, and Japan. In Thailand, Russel leads the US delegation to the fifth US-Thai Strategic Dialogue on Dec. 16, marking the first time the dialogue has been held since 2012.
Dec. 15, 2015: The 14th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Prime Ministers Meeting is held in Zhengzhou, China. They issue a statement on regional economic cooperation.
Dec. 15, 2015: US announces the planned sale of $1.83 billion in military equipment to Taiwan. Included in the package are two decommissioned US Navy frigates, anti-tank missiles, surface-to-air missiles, and amphibious assault vehicles.
Dec. 16, 2015: China's Foreign Ministry summons the US charge d'affairs in Beijing to protest the Obama administration' s authorization of arms sales to Taiwan and says it would impose sanctions on the firms involved.
Dec. 17, 2015: The defense and foreign ministers of Japan and Indonesia meet in Tokyo in a "two-plus-two" format and agree to strengthen security and economic ties.
Dec. 28, 2015: South Korean Foreign Minister Yun and Japanese counterpart Kishida meet in Seoul and agree to "finally and irreversibly" resolve the issue of Japan's wartime exploitation of Korean women as "comfort women/sex slaves."
Jan. 6, 2016: North Korea claims to have successfully conducted a thermonuclear test at its Pungye-ri nuclear test site saying it has "successfully joined the ranks of advanced nuclear states." Seismic monitoring agencies report a 5.1 magnitude tremor in the vicinity of the site.


Yesterday, Sunday March 22nd 2015, we were privileged to be vendors at the 9th annual Carnival of Care event! The Carnival of Care is a beautiful one-day event to honor, celebrate, support, and bring joy to survivors of catastrophic injuries, disabilities, their families, and caregivers! This was our third year attending and we feel so honored to have been invited back again.
This year the staff of Sianna Muscles in Motion was stationed in the lovely 'relaxation room' alongside other wonderful massage therapist of other companies. In this large, dimly lit and quiet area we were able to provide brief therapeutic care to help ease the pain and stiffness of the attendees - or help those who just wanted to loosen up their arms for another round of games! If you were able to attend please leave a comment below sharing your favorite part of the event! Also be sure to LIKE! Carnival of Care on Facebook. Please enjoy some of the photos Leo, our staff photographer and graphic designer, was able to take throughout the day.


We're a fast growing nonprofit that harnesses the power of data science in the service of humanity. We bring pro bono data scientists together with organizations that are dedicated to solving the world's most pressing challenges. Every day, mission driven organizations apply to us with their data science needs. We then work to understand their pain points, how their organization works and, most importantly, how their data and other data sources can be used to make the biggest impact on the world.
We've helped the World Bank estimate poverty from satellite imagery, teamed with the Grameen Foundation to improve their mobile knowledge programs in Uganda, and joined the Red Cross in using fire data and open city data to understand where fires are most likely to occur. We've gained a prominent voice in both the data sector and the social entrepreneurship world and you can find word of us in The Guardian, The Economist, Mashable, and the Stanford Social Innovation Review. See this TEDx video for more about what we do.
You will work closely with the Director of Impact and Engagements, to enhance existing programs, design processes, create strategies, and build internal and external data science teams. In this highly visible and high impact role, you'll oversee our existing DataCorps projects and design them for maximal impact.
You will be the marshall of our core practice for insight generation, exploring new ways for data science to make an impact on the social sector and devising clever ways to use our army of volunteer data scientists for the greater good. You will bring fresh vision to ways huge datasets and computational methods, new technologies, and novel partnerships can work to create social change. You will lead teams in the journey from idea to insight using a combination of discovery stages, user experience mapping, human centered design thinking, and data translation methodologies. And, you will easily translate between our partners and volunteer data scientists because you are well versed in both social sector and data "languages".
Managing a portfolio of projects in DataKind's flagship program, the DataCorps.
Leading day-to-day team project operations & activities, and ensuring progress meets anticipated deadlines.
Writing and overseeing project briefs for DataCorps project portfolio and managing scope creep.
Scoping projects with the Programs team and developing project plans and timelines.
Vetting, training, and pairing our volunteers onto project teams.
Planning and executing project kick-off meetings and overseeing client and volunteer check-ins and end of phase presentations.
Consistently communicating and managing expectations of partner organizations and volunteers throughout the entire project life cycle.
Working closely with the Director of Impact and Engagement on developing and continuously improving our processes and our products.
Frequently soliciting feedback from partner organizations & volunteers to execute action toward continuous improvement.
A Creative Data Scientist. You are fluent in ETL and R, as well as open source databases like PostgreSQL and Hadoop. you're driven to continue learning and finding ways to bring your skills to new challenges. You've mastered the art of turning a vague business challenge into a crisp data problem.
An Expert Project Manager. You have a proven track record of successfully managing full life-cycle projects, prototyping and launching data-driven products. You know how to build and maintain a healthy pipeline of projects and enjoy creatively framing analytics problems.
A Technical Hybrid. You understand the language of non-profits and can translate it into technical requirement, and vice versa. You have a skill in explaining bayesian statistics to NGOs and persuading them care about it.
Volunteer empathetic. You've had dozens of volunteering experiences – as a volunteer or as the organizer – and are intimately familiar with what it is like to be giving up your free time for something you love.
Highly adaptable. You can work any project, with any team. You have strong humility and are driven to ensure that your team succeeds.
Constantly evolving. Continuous improvements is a mantra of yours. You will always be contributing learnings to the team so we can make constant updates to our process and our product.
An Impact-driven Professional. You are committed to leveraging your expertise in a space that marries the rigor of the private sector, the responsibility of the public sector, and the passion of the nonprofit sector.
Non-profit / NGO and volunteer management experience.
Advanced degree in applied statistics, mathematics, computer science, or other quantitative area.
You will work to achieve our mission to harness the power of data science in the service of humanity.
You will support our team, sponsors, funders, and partners who are mission-aligned to reduce human suffering.
You will contribute ideas and perspectives to our long term goals, helping us to achieve our goals together.
You will be part of a workplace that truly values diversity.
You will hone your expertise in project and program management, cultivating your niche in our portfolio of projects.
You will strengthen your relationship management skills as you dedicate the majority of your time to empowering our partner organizations.
You will be welcomed into a team culture that sets high standards, values new ideas and innovative approaches, and supports individual growth.
You will join an open and casual work space where colleagues challenge you to learn and grow, are open to collaboration, and expect you bring a sense of humor with your 'A' game.
You will enjoy our awesome new offices in NYC which are located within Civic Hall.
You will receive a comprehensive and growing benefits package with room for growth.
Please complete the following application. Priority will be given to those applications submitted by March 14; therefore we encourage you to submit yours soon!
These short-answer questions are designed to replace a cover letter, please take your time with them and copy in your answers from a separate document.
Mid March: Initial phone interview with the ReWork team.
Late March: Phone interview with DataKind team.
Early April: Candidates will be asked to complete a trial project assessing their skills.
Mid April: Finalists will come in-person for half-day, multi-team member interviews in New York. Candidate references will also be checked at this step.
Mid/End of April: Offer finalized.
End of April/Early May: Anticipated start date.
You'll be invited to join our growing team in NYC. If you have any questions about the role, please feel free to email us at talent@rework.jobs. We look forward to reading your application!


text:
Back to the Raw. The Lost Tapes From the Legendary SunPalace Project
Lexis— January 12, 2017
"Rude Movements / Winning" by SunPalace (released in 1983 on Passion Records) has always been somewhat of an obsession for me. Perhaps the track I've played the most in DJ sets in the last 15 years. I always wondered where it came from and where the project disappeared to.
Leftield Cosmic Disco meets Jazz-Funk. Drum machines, synths, guitar and even some harp. All creating the quintessential cerebral dance-floor tune.
Legendary DJ's like Mancuso, Kenny Dope, Larry Levan, Francois K – to name a few – kept the song alive from its release in 1983 up until its revival in the late 90's. Ignored by the masses, the real heads made the EP into a cult-classic!
When hearing that the folks at BBE Music (celebrating their 20th anniversary!) were planning on releasing an album featuring unheard productions and versions from SunPalace I was so excited to hear more from this project that had only ever given us one EP.
Had the pleasure of having a discussion with Mike Collins, half of the original SunPalace project.
Sun Palace - Rude Movements (1983)
Lexis: SunPalace was one of the first projects you ever worked on. You've had a very long productive career in the music industry since then. How does it feel to go back to the very start?
SunPalace (Mike Collins): It feels good! The SunPalace project started off well, but then we struggled to get the first studio recording released (from summer 81 until November 83). By this time, the stresses and strains had begun to take their toll and things became more difficult for our musical partnership to survive in the face of the large debt we owed to the bank to pay for the studio recording and to cope with the overwhelming rejection we faced from everywhere – the record labels, publishers, people in general…
I did my best to keep the spirit alive throughout the 80's, but it became increasingly difficult to persuade Keith to be enthusiastic about this, so by the end of the 80's I made the last couple of recordings on my own. Then I changed direction in the 90's and became a 'gun for hire' working on other people's projects, not my own.
I started working on my own projects again around Y2K, mostly recording acoustic jazz at first, while building up a pretty damn good home studio setup. Since 2006, I have been working more or less full-time at musical projects, as a producer or co-producer, as a recording engineer and studio musician, and writing songs with other people. I planned to revitalise the SunPalace project and have been working towards this for a number of years. My plans were given a big boost in July 2015 when I was contacted by Flavia Lamprecht and her DJ partner Massimo di Lena from Berlin who told me they were big SunPalace fans and asked if I had any unreleased material. I played them a couple of tracks and they spent the next 12 months encouraging me to dig out more stuff, clean up the old recordings, overdub some to complete them, and make new mixes. Then Peter Adarkwah called me…
Lexis: You mention the rejection you felt when it was released. How long after the release did you feel like it was getting a second wind and slowly becoming a cult-classic?
And to what do you attribute it? What has made it such a timeless dance-floor tune.
SunPalace (Mike Collins): This recognition started for me in 1999 when I learned, by accident, that Passion Records had fulfilled an order from Japan via the Mr Bongo vinyl specialist shop in London, to supply 5000 copies of the single in 1998. In the early 2000's I heard about the Loft CD compilation from a couple of fans in New York and was told that the New York correspondent for the UK Straight No Chaser magazine had started a club night called Rude Movements in honour of this track. This guy told me about other DJ compilations, such as those by Chris Brann in the UK and by Julien Jabre in France. So I started to keep an eye out for these. Then I noticed a compilation called stop and listen 5 by Kenny Gonzalez of Master @ Work (on bbe as it happens) that included Rude Movements as one of his faves, so I realised that it was influencing generation after generation of DJs.
courtesy Eddie Otchere
Lexis: From the early 80's up until the late 90's you had turned the page on the project without necessarily knowing the impact it was still having?
SunPalace (Mike Collins): Yes, that is correct. Throughout the 90's I had no idea that it was having any impact anywhere – until 1999.
Passion (the record label) were not telling us anything – probably to avoid giving us licensing fees for the compilations. Our deal with passion ended in 1993, so after that date they had no rights to release or sub-licence our tracks, yet they did!
As it happens, I had always hoped, and in many ways expected, that this would be the case! In the 70's I was a DJ myself, and was well aware that many DJs would find obscure instrumental dance tracks that they could make into 'cult' hits, and in many ways I designed this record to be exactly that. And that is exactly what it has become! This, of course, is making me very happy and is a total vindication of my decision to spend the vast amount of money to make this record in the first place!
Lexis: Unbelievable! Another good example of DJ's and record collectors being important cultural preservationists.
SunPalace (Mike Collins): Yes, DJs and record collectors are cultural preservationists! I always was, and still am!
Lexis: Getting back to the making of the project. I think it was one of the most expensive independent electronic/dance-floor record made in those days right?
SunPalace (Mike Collins): Yes, the SunPalace single, which cost almost £4000 to make in 1981, must have been one of the most expensive independent electronic/dance-floor records made at that time. The other people making stuff like this were the early house guys. I met Marshall Jefferson in Chicago in 1986 and he told me that he was working in a day job at the Post Office on an early shift so he could go and do his music in the evenings, and that they were DJs and music enthusiasts who could not afford the expensive studios, expensive musicians and arrangers used by their Motown and Philly 'heroes', so they used cheap drum machines and synths, just like me an Keith!
Except that for our record we hired EXPENSIVE synthesisers (Prophet 5/10 and PPG Wave) that we could not afford to buy, but we did use the relatively affordable CR78 drum machine.
Lexis: I encourage everyone to go on your website and check out the pictures of the studio invoices, gear lists… fascinating read!
> Studio Gear Link
Photo courtesy of Mike Collins
Lexis: What i've always loved from the two SunPalace tracks is they work on a dancefloor or in your headphones just vibing out. It gets your feet and body moving but its also quite cerebral!
SunPalace (Mike Collins): Well, we were definitely aiming this at the dance floor (that was my DJ and Stax/Soul covers band influence and Keith's Motown/Soul background), but also getting off on the trance-like repetitive nature of the Rhodes part and the string synth in the background! Some people also say I can be cerebral at times – I love Debussy, for example! And Philip Glass… And Kraftwerk, Jean Michel Jarre, Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, Donna Summer/Georgio Moroder… Herbie Hancock. Weather Report…
Tomita's classic "New Sounds of Debussy' was a major influence – Snowflakes are Dancing', Clair De Lune', etc.
Lexis: I can definitely hear all those influences in the SP project!
Lexis: Has the project given you an opportunity to reconnect with your former SP partner Keith O'Connell?
SunPalace (Mike Collins): I have never lost touch with Keith O'Connell: he is one of my oldest friends and was my closest musical associate throughout the 70's and 80's. I spent a great day with him last month telling him all about how the SunPalace project is progressing and he re-iterated his 'moral' support for this, while explaining again that he has moved on to other things in his life, so cannot be involved practically. He reminded me again that this is my vision that I must carry forward – with his blessing!
Can you tell me how much of this record was remixed recently?
SunPalace (Mike Collins): For the recent re-issues, I used original studio mixes made in the early 80's which I re-transferred from stereo 1/4″ tapes. The "Rude Movements" mix should be virtually indistinguishable from the Passion release, and the "Movement 1 (Winning)" release is an alternate mix made the same day as the "Winning" mix released on Passion – again, virtually indistinguishable, but maybe the length is a bit different and some inner details. The other studio recordings, Movement II and Movement III have never been released before.
The Movement three part suite is absolutely incredible!
SunPalace (Mike Collins): This shows the progression which, with hindsight, makes it clear that we were aspiring to have an actual band with a proper bass player and drummer, which we got to in Movement III. Nevertheless, the simplicity of the original Rude Movements track will always remain my favourite – and that of many, if not most of the fans!
It also reveals that I was happy to use the original tracks as a structure or template on which to build these further re-workings…
And I still have creative ideas to continue on this path to make a whole Rude Movements album one day! Maybe with new vocals, and certainly with further instrumental explorations…
Well now fans who have obsessed over those two original versions for 30+ years will be rejoiced to hear all the new material!
SunPalace (Mike Collins): I really hope they like the unreleased stuff! It does sound more 'raw' – but my fans in Berlin loved this aspect…
Lexis: Im going to thank you for your time. And thank you so much for dusting off the SunPalace project! One of the musical highlights of the year for me.
Buy Album
JAZZ AMNESTY SOUND SYSTEM #06 - A Free J.A.S.S. Festival
MIMS Guest Mix: ALFRED BORDEN (Montreal, Hell In Paradise)
Weekly Podcast: LARAAJI (New York) – Discussion hosted by LEXIS
Weekly Podcast: JAY GLASS DUBS (Athens) – Discussion hosted by LEXIS
Weekly Podcast: LEFTO (Brussels) – Discussion hosted by LEXIS
Interview: ELAQUENT (Toronto) – Discussion hosted by LEXIS

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Spacious parking space 300 meters from the beach of Guardamar del Segura.
Extensive underground parking space of 15 m2 in a good location in Guardamar del Segura - Costa Blanca South. It is just 300 meters from the beach and next to the main shops and services.


The International Press Academy held a gala ceremony at the InterContinental in Century City, California for their 17th annual Satellite Awards.
The big winner of the night was David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook. It took five awards total, including the top prizes of Best Motion Picture and Best Director. It also won Best Actress (Jennifer Lawrence), Best Actor (Bradley Cooper) and Best Editing.
Tom Hooper's musical Les Misérables had led with ten nominations, plus the pre-announced Best Ensemble Award. In addition to Best Ensemble, it won for Best Supporting Actress (Anne Hathaway), song and sound.
Ang Lee's Life of Pi won for Best Screenplay and Cinemtography. The previous awards juggernaughts Zero Dark Thirty and Lincoln only managed one award each. Zero Dark Thirty won for Original Screenplay, while Lincoln won for Art Direction.
Previously announced Honourary Awards were presented to actor Terence Stamp, singer/songwriter Paul Williams, editor Walter Murch and Bruce Davison.


We all love sleeping and all living creatures needs to sleep. Humans spend one third of their lives sleeping, however, it is not fully understood what sleep does. It is the primary activity of the brain during early development. The sleep-wake cycle, is regulated by light and dark and these rhythms take time to develop, resulting in the irregular sleep schedules of new-borns.
The rhythms begin to develop at about six weeks, and by three to six months most infants have a regular sleep-wake cycle. At the age of two, most children have spent more time asleep than awake and overall, a child will spend 40 percent of his or her childhood sleeping. Sleep is especially important for children as it directly impacts mental and physical development.
Wesco's basic range of cots are ideal for nursery's and creches, the cots are put through rigorous testing and meet the required EU standards and regulations.
New born children convey to us that they want sleep through a different number of methods. Some babies cry and rub their eyes to capture a parent's attention, it is best to put babies to bed when they are tired but not asleep.
Try observing a baby's sleep pattern and identify signs of sleepiness.
Encourage the baby to sleep at night.
Infants typically sleep 9-12 hours during the night and take 30 minutes to two-hour naps, one to four times a day, fewer as they reach age one.
Create an environment that is sleep friendly.
Begin a schedule for daytime and bedtime and encourage babies to fall asleep independently.
Pre-schoolers typically sleep 11-13 hours each night and most do not nap after five years of age. Sleeping in a crib instead of a bed is associated with enhanced caregiver-reported sleep quantity and quality. A new study has found that children who sleep in a cot until the age of 3 sleep better through the night.
Child should sleep in the same sleeping environment every night.
The Basic space saving cot from Wesco is ideal for rooms with limited room.
1 – Put babies on their backs.
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text:
Pope selects new diplomat to U.S. Archbishop Pietro Sambi to succeed Montalvo: Archbishop Pietro Sambi to succeed Montalvo
by Religion News Service staff
The Vatican's chief ambassador to Israel has been appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as the church's top ambassador to Washington and the U.S. church.
Archbishop Pietro Sambi, a 67-year-old Italian and a veteran diplomat, will succeed Gabriel Montalvo as the papal nuncio, or ambassador of the Holy See. Montalvo has held the post since 1998 and retired when he reached age 75.
The Vatican's representative to Israel since 1998, Sambi, who recently has had to defuse tensions between the two, negotiated the church's call for peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and worked with Israeli officials to overcome Vatican objections to tax policies on church-owned sites in Israel.
Religion News Service staff
Jan 24, 2006 issue
As nuncio, Sambi will have a key role in the appointment of U.S. bishops as he vets candidates to fill open seats in the church hierarchy.
Sambi is Benedict's third high-profile appointment for the U.S. church. Last month, Benedict named Bishop George Niederauer of Salt Lake City to be archbishop of San Francisco, filling the seat left vacant when Archbishop William Levada was named to take the pope's old job as chief guardian of Catholic doctrine. –Religion News Service
Pope to visit D.C., New York in April: First visit to the U.S.
Vatican's U.S. envoy, who helped shape U.S. church, dies
Pope appoints new ambassador to U.S.
by Francis X. Rocca
On 9/11 anniversary, calls for education, interfaith efforts: Nation urged to work for peace and justice
Pope taps diplomat as new 'prime minister'


Next, he will order an upper gastrointestinal X-ray; it is really an X-ray in the stomach. He will be looking for ulcers or hernias as well as other condition of your stomach that may be creating the acid reflux. Waking up in the center of the night choking and coughing could signal anything from allergies to respiratory ailments, but gagging can also indicate acid reflux. Just with there being foods that may help with signs and symptoms of acid reflux disease, you can find others which should be avoided. Avoid giving your toddler high-fat or foods that are fried, which take more time for that stomach to digest. On the flip side, any food that has a pH above 7 is categorized as alkaline and also has a higher pH level. A diet regime comprising less acidic foods and a lot more alkaline foods is often higher in fruits and veggies and is also connected with better bone health jump over to this website www.paleotraining.eu. Eating in close proximity to bedtime causes stomach acids to work overtime as metabolic rates go into resting period. Have a smaller meal 3 or 4 hours before going to bed, to protect yourself from reflux symptoms. Drink a glass water before bedtime. Drink a glass of water before going to bed.
A January 2009 study published in "Clinical Cancer Research" demonstrated that any green tea leaf extract suppressed the increase of Barrett esophagus cells and esophageal cancer cells. During this condition the sphincter is becoming lax and struggles to do its job of holding the top of the stomach closed in order to avoid the backup of food. The disorder has several symptoms, mainly burning pain, belching, bloating and erosion on the esophageal lining due to being exposed to acids. In case you develop shortness of breathe, jaw pain, sweating as well as a feeling of impending doom, you will be developing a cardiac arrest. In case the pain is so severe that you simply cannot turn your neck of get a comfortable position, head to the nearest e . r .. MedlinePlus says the signs of iron deficiency include fatigue, weakness, breathlessness upon exertion, sore tongue, pale skin, brittle nails, headaches and irritability. Symptoms usually are not always obvious in mild iron deficiency and often become clear as deficiency progresses.
Depending on the 2007 medical journal ldquo;Digestive and Liver Disease,rdquo; ldquo;Treatment with peppermint oil improves abdominal symptoms.rdquo; Peppermint could possibly be consumed one tablet two to three times daily may help relieve gastrointestinal symptoms including heartburn. Stomach acid damages the lining of the esophagus to result in painful sores. The signs of GERD in kids include irritability, spitting up, refusal to enjoy, frequent upper respiratory infections, breathing problems, blood in stool and weight reduction. A bowl of whole grain cereal. A lot of people with acid reflux disease digest rice with little difficulty, however the added fiber in brown rice adds an additional boost of nutrients. Likewise, bran cereals are full off complex carbohydrates and are generally tolerated. Glycosis forms hydronium molecules and pyruvic acid, which becomes lactate; should there be inadequate oxygen available, the buildup of hydronium causes the pH of muscle cells to lower below normal degrees of 7.1, causing acidity.
Both hydrochloric acid and magnesium have important benefits for you, but digestion is often a delicate process. For those who still experience trouble, view your doctor. Green Smoothie Recipe An illustration of a natural smoothie recipe might include 1/2 a head each of kale and spinach included with 1 mango, 1 apple, 1 cup fresh strawberries, 1 cup yogurt, and honey to taste. Combine all of your ingredients in a blender with several ice cubes to thicken. Addison's disease, also called chronic adrenal insufficiency, can be a condition that the adrenal glands fail to produce enough hormones. These hormones include cortisol, corticosterone, aldosterone as well as some steroids. You will discover a correlation relating to the fulvic acid content in your foods and the calibre of soil the foods are grown in. Many mass-produced fruit and veggies contain less fulvic acid because of the mineral depletion of the soils these are grown in.
Acid Reflux Disorder Treatments Change in lifestyle often help lessen the the signs of acid reflux disorder. Some examples are avoiding your trigger foods, wearing looser clothing, losing weight and quitting smoking or drinking. In addition to the mixture of Robusta versus Arabica, the taste from the coffee is heavily influenced by the organic acids from the bean, including quinic, malic, acetic, citric and formic acids. As soon as dish is being digested inside your stomach, strong acids can be found to help break up the meals into usable nutrients. We have a sphincter, the industry flap separating your esophagus as well as your stomach, that keeps food within your stomach, although, in some instances, it may not fully close. Peppermint oil is also suitable for natural relief of gastric conditions.
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Looking for the protocol to build a driver for total control. IP line that could be edited would be great.. well anything would be great!
We are currently working with URC on building a driver for the Caseta Wireless system. The current launch date is slated for CEDIA. If you have any further questions about the driver please contact URC for more information.
Looks like we have a one way driver available to us just this morning. I will test later today.
All complete! I built the one way driver this evening and left the instructions on the URC forum in the link above. It works well and there are plenty of "scene" selections.


Why am I posting success quotes?
I find it helpful, when I'm going through a difficult time and the obstacles look insurmountable, to read about how others have succeeded -- in whatever way they were pursuing their dream and working to make it real.
As I find them, I'll be posting success quotes here from the famous and not so famous. Perhaps you'll find one or more of them to be inspirational and maybe this will be a small help in motivating yourself to act on your dream.
When I started thinking about this page, I was thinking of success quotes like the ones that follow this poem. But, when I ran across this beautiful poem about success written by Ralph Waldo Emerson, I knew I had to include it first. In just a few short phrases, he has illustrated a successful life that isn't defined by wealth, power, and fame. Using this as a guide, any of us can change our life and achieve the level of success we want.
easier because you have lived.
Here are some success quotes from people who achieved some level of success and popularity with their work and their lives.
It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects us all indirectly. We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality. -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Try. Make mistake. Fail. Learn.
Try better. Make mistake. Fail. Learn.
Try better still. Make mistake. Fail. Learn.
Act On Your Dreams -- Do It Now!


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Heinicke feels he plays his best when he has nothing to lose
/ by Ethan Cadeaux
Following the Washington Football Team's Week 3 loss to the Buffalo Bills, Ron Rivera made an interesting and eyebrow-raising comment about starting quarterback Taylor Heinicke.
"I'd like to see him do things in more of a game-manager way," Rivera said. "Sometimes, that is really just taking what's given to you."
At the time, what the head coach was asking for made sense. Heinicke had thrown two interceptions -- both bad ones -- in a blowout loss to Buffalo. Rivera simply felt that Heinicke was trying to do too much, which led to him turning the ball over.
While Rivera might not have meant game-manager with the negative connotation that it's typically associated with, his comments did weigh on his quarterback. Heinicke excelled the following week against his hometown Falcons, but the quarterback played a lot more passive the next two weeks against New Orleans and Kansas City.
"You go back two weeks ago against the Saints and the Chiefs. I had a different mindset to where I didn't want to lose the job and that resulted in bad play in my opinion," Heinicke said Wednesday.
Yet this past week in Green Bay, Heinicke reverted back to his I have nothing to lose form. The result was a much better overall performance, even if Washington still ended up on the losing end.
"I think when I go out there and just have fun and have nothing to lose, that's when I feel like I'm at my best," Heinicke said. "Green Bay was easy for me to go up there and play like that. It was a dream come true. I felt like a little kid out there just playing in the stadium I've always wanted to play in. I feel like I had a good game, just a couple things here and there that just didn't work out. So I feel like the mindset of playing like you have nothing to lose is when I play my best."
Against the Packers, Heinicke led Washington to 430 yards of total offense. Heinicke threw for 268 yards and ran for another 95. It was easily the best Washington's offense had looked since its Week 4 win in Atlanta.
However, while the offense was able to move the ball at will for much of the game, it stalled every time it got into the red zone. Sure, Washington had a few unlucky breaks, but scoring just three points on four red-zone trips is not going to win very many games in the NFL.
"You go back and look at the film, we didn't punt once. We were moving the ball on them," Heinicke said "I felt we played a lot better than 10 points. I think a lot of people feel that way too. So again, we moved the ball well, but when we get down in the red zone, you have to score touchdowns. That's how you win games. That's going to be a big point of emphasis this week."
This isn't the first time Heinicke has been candid and honest about his performances, either. Earlier this month, he admitted that some of his struggles were that he was trying to be "too perfect." He was focused on making every correct read and the perfect throw every pass, which ultimately led to more harm than good.
Heinicke first won over fans with his playoff performance against Tampa Bay in January, where he seemingly put his body on the line to give Washington every chance to win. There were no expectations going into the night, as Heinicke was able to play his game without worrying about anything else. He finished the contest with over 300 passing yards and two touchdowns while rushing for nearly 50 yards and another score, nearly leading Washington to an upset over the eventual Super Bowl champions.
Through his seven stats with Washington's it's proven clear that Heinicke is at his best when he's slinging the football around and being aggressive, as well as using his underappreciated athleticism to extend plays and make things happen with his legs. None of that happened in Washington's games against the Saints or Chiefs, but we saw plenty of it last week in Green Bay.
Despite a better performance from Heinicke and the offense as a whole, the team still came out on the losing end for a third straight week. With the bye week looming, a win in Denver this Sunday would go a long way and "set the tone" for the remainder of the season.
So, when Heinicke takes the field on Sunday, his focus will be on just one thing: getting the win, no matter what it takes to do so.
"My only job is to go out there and move the chains, don't turn the ball over and win games," Heinicke said. "And if that means I throw it for 120 or 400 yards, I don't care. As long as we go out there and get a win, that's all that matters to me. That's not my mindset."


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Tag Archives: Melissa Crandall
Book Review: Star Trek: The Janus Gate Trilogy by L. A. Graf
With all my focus on Marvel Comics lately, I have let a few of my other favorite stories go by the wayside. (What do you mean, Mithril? You have all but ignored them! Insert eye-roll here.) A while ago, I wanted something light to read, so I went to my bookcase, pulled a volume from the shelf, and read it.
That book was Star Trek: The Janus Gate – Past Prologue by L. A. Graf.
L. A. Graf is the pseudonym of two writers – Julia Ecklar and Karen Rose Cercone – who write, or wrote, fiction based on the original Star Trek series and its following series. Once, there was a third writer (Melissa Crandall), but she did not stay to write more than one book with the other ladies. L. A. Graf is supposed to stand for "Let's All Get Rich And Famous!"
Obviously, the writers have had some success with that. 🙂
Star Trek was/is one of my favorite TV series EVER! I can remember watching reruns of original Star Trek episodes from a very young age; I think I was five or six when I saw it first. I have always enjoyed Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, and I eventually learned to pay attention to the rest of the Enterprise Seven: Scotty, Uhura, Sulu, and Chekov. After a while, I ended up reading novels based on the original Star Trek series. (Star Trek: The Next Generation, is not high on my favorites list. Neither is DS9, really; Voyager and Enterprise are sequel Trek series I do like, however.)
The Janus Gate trilogy, made up of Present Tense, Future Imperfect, and Past Prologue, takes place after the first season episode The Naked Time. In that episode, the Enterprise landing party is infected by a virus which killed a Starfleet research crew on planet Psi 2000. The virus makes those who receive it go mad; sometimes by releasing rage and psychopathic fury, sometimes by making the person go "La, la, la!" and doing crazy things, such as showering in sub zero temperatures with their clothes on. Depends on the person who gets it.
The book trilogy picks up at the end of this episode when, to escape the dying planet, the Enterprise is sent hurtling three days back in time. Since going on to their next assignment while the Enterprise is technically headed to Psi 2000 (the dying planet) would completely muck up the time stream, Kirk decides to take the Enterprise back to a different planet, where he had left three research teams before going on to Psi 2000.
Before I go any further, I must warn you that Star Trek books, or some of them, have no bearing on the original TV show/original film timeline. They are, as fans like to say, non-canon stories which were written to amuse the fans and the writers. After all, the Enterprise in the original TV series is supposed to be on a five year deep space mission. CBS, the TV station which produced and showed Star Trek in the 1960s, hated the series and tried to kill it after two seasons.
That did not work, as Star Trek fans flooded the studio with letters demanding that the series remain on the air. CBS relented long enough to allow a third season of Star Trek, but they cut the show's funding so much that the special effects for season three were very poor. Star Trek did not return for a fourth season.
But that is not where the story ends. CBS prevented Star Trek from carrying on beyond three seasons, true, but the series has never been off the air since it was killed. Though finding the reruns on TV now is next to impossible (for me, anyway), I can recall when the original Star Trek series would play on TV.
For an unsyndicated series – that is, a TV series with less than a hundred episodes – to remain on television for as long as Star Trek has is amazing. In the 1960s and even today, TV shows in the U.S. are not rerun on television unless they are syndicated – that is, unless they have a hundred episodes or more. Star Trek, and now Joss Whedon's series Firefly, are enormous exceptions to this rule.
This is the reason – or one of the reasons – for all the original Star Trek novels. We Trekkers and Trekkies like our original series too much to let anyone kill it, and if no one is going to tell the stories we want to hear, then we will tell 'em ourselves. Preferably while being paid bucket loads of money to do it, but only a few lucky people actually manage to get that.
Someone in the publishing department messed up when they printed The Janus Gate trilogy, because the blurbs on the backs of books one and three – Present Tense and Past Prologue – describe the wrong story and refer to actual Star Trek episodes from the original series. The blurb on the back of book two, Future Imperfect, is mostly accurate.
With these digressions out of the way, we can now get back to business. L. A. Graf books always focus on the three "lower level" officers from the Original Star Trek series: Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu, and Ensign Pavel Chekov. This is part of the reason I enjoy L. A. Graf's books so much. I do have other favorite fan fiction novels for Star Trek, of course. L. A. Graf books, though, are the ones I keep my eyes peeled for.
The Janus Gate fits into L. A. Graf's modus operandi, focusing mainly on Uhura, Sulu, and Chekov, though Kirk gets very good "screen time," too. That is always a plus!
The first book of The Janus Gate trilogy, Present Tense, picks up immediately after the events of The Naked Time. Kirk brings the Enterprise to the barren planet Tlaoli 4, where he left three research teams before going on to Psi 2000. Contacting the lead team, Kirk finds out that Team Three went spelunking – against orders – and has been missing for several hours.
Kirk also learns from Team One that the reason they broke with his orders was because they found the wrecks of at least nineteen starships buried in Tlaoli's scoured surface. Afraid the Enterprise could suffer the same fate, Team One sent Team Three to investigate nearby caves where something was draining the research teams' power from their equipment, and even from their shuttlecraft!
With the power drain likely stranding Team Three in the caves, Kirk decides to move in and rescue his people, sending down a landing party from the Enterprise. He also orders "primitive" equipment such as chemical batteries and carbide lamps to be sent along with the rescue team, so they at least have light and an alternate source of power for their phasers, communicators, et al. Kirk will lead the team, and he calls on several others to join him. The people he wants are short, so that they can fit into the caves' tight spaces. That lands Uhura on his spelunking team, and Chekov ends up in the landing party because he knows how to make maps by hand.
Once in the caves on Tlaoli, Kirk's team cannot find the research team. Finally, the spelunker on Kirk's team, Zap Sanner, figures out where the leader of Team Three would have gone. He does this after Kirk and the others' use of their phasers to light the dark caverns so he can see more of the cave system.
However, despite the use of the chemical batteries, the phasers, communicators, and tricorders are still losing power. No one can figure out why and, with a stranded team of their fellow officers somewhere in the caverns, they do not take time to work out the why. Sanner throws a rope ladder down the crevasse where the research team went. But then Chekov, who is going down first, slips and falls into the hole before you can say "Moscow."
Kirk, who was next in line down the ladder, goes to rescue the Russian kid. He drops down the crevasse and lands in icy water, having forgotten it was there. Swimming to shore, he finds a disoriented and somewhat hypothermic Chekov already there. The ensign seems bemused, as if he is suffering from déjà vu. Worse, he has lost the maps he was making. Now he has to write them up again from memory. Yay.
Further exploration of the caves ends in the discovery of the lost Team Three. But when the Enterprise tries to beam up both parties, the ship experiences an immense power loss. It takes everything Sulu and Scotty have to get the ship back into a safe orbit above Tlaoli. In fact, they end up throwing the ship away from the planet.
When the transport Kirk and his people are expecting does not occur, they settle on trying to find another way out of the caverns. Research Team Three leads them to an "ice cave" which may have a back door out of the cavern system. When Kirk goes to help Chekov take a measurement of the cave for the new maps, he suddenly stops. "Do you hear that?" he asks the young ensign.
Then, without warning, he and Chekov vanish from the cave.
This leaves a startled Uhura in charge of the landing parties. As she gets them out, they discover some flame-like blue energy wafting around the ice cavern. It is only visible in the pitch dark. Unsure just what it is, but assuming it is some kind of transporter device, Uhura gets the team back to the cavern where they found the research team – and they find Chekov, totally unhurt but equally miserable. However, there is no sign of Kirk in the cave with him.
Questioning him, Uhura and the others learn that Chekov remembers nothing but falling into the crevasse and its icy waters. He has no idea where the captain is and does not recognize anyone except the members of his own landing party, and them only by face, not by name.
Eventually, the team makes it out of the caves and back to the base camp. Gambling that the power drain on the equipment here has not been terrible due to distance, they try to contact the Enterprise. Unknown to them, Sulu has already made two runs to Tlaoli's surface to pick up the remaining researchers and bring them back to the ship in a cargo shuttle with a shielded engine.
Also, on the way out of the caves, Chekov found human tracks and a handprint. This proves that someone – hopefully Captain Kirk – got out of the caves ahead of them. In hopes of attracting the captain's attention and leading him back to the base camp, Uhura allows the two weapons officers in the group to set up a beacon. However, despite the distance, the equipment at the camp is losing power. Before Uhura can decide whether to shut down the beacon or keep it on, Sulu lands the cargo shuttle Drake at the camp, having found the location more easily thanks to the beacon.
McCoy, who arrived with Sulu in the shuttle, spends the rest of the night operating on an injured member of the spelunking crew. Meanwhile Uhura, Sulu, and Chekov muse on how to find the captain. Uhura reluctantly lets Sulu take the shuttle back into the air to do aerial recon to find the captain, while Chekov and two others follow him on the ground.
It does not take Sulu long to spot Kirk. He gives Chekov and the others his signal, only to disappear in a flash of light when his shuttle collides with the strange energy field that made Kirk and Chekov vanish.
Uhura is horrified by this turn of events. But the geologists in the landing party figure that, if Kirk and Chekov are still on Tlaoli, and since they found Chekov in the caves, that is where Sulu will be. Where the shuttle went – well, that they will find out sooner or later. Uhura lets Chekov and his team search for the captain while she takes McCoy and Sanner back into the caves. There, they find Sulu in one of the pillars of rock in the cave – only to realize the pillar is a travertine-encased, alien healing device. But it is healing a Sulu who is twenty years older than the pilot they know!
Elsewhere, hunting down the captain, Chekov gets a similar shock. He finds and corners, not a great starship commander, but a rebellious fourteen year old James Tiberius Kirk!
Back in the caves, Sulu comes to and Uhura tries to get him to calm down. It takes a few minutes, but eventually Sulu realizes he is not only out of place, he is out of time. When they question him, McCoy, Sanner, and Uhura learn that in this Sulu's timeline, the Gorn have invaded the galaxy and are on the verge of destroying the Federation. Sulu, Uhura, and Chekov were on a mission to stop the Gorn when the Tlaoli device picked the younger Sulu up to replace his older self.
Trying to find out just when he is, Captain Sulu asks who the captain of the Enterprise is. In the process, he names Captain Kirk's former first officer, Gary Mitchell, as a previous captain of the ship in his timeline.
Uhura and McCoy share a blank look, then explain that Mitchell is dead and James Kirk is captain of the Enterprise.
Now it is Sulu's turn to give them a blank look, dropping the bombshell that he has never heard of a James Kirk commanding any ship in Starfleet. In fact, to the best of his knowledge, no such man ever existed.
Well, now that I have basically spoiled the first book in the trilogy for you, readers, I will have to tell you to pick up the three volumes yourselves and allow you to take the adventure on your own. Suffice it to say that I greatly enjoy these books, as we get a look at how the three "lower level" Enterprise officers learn about the great friends they are going to become through their adventures in the original TV series.
Temporal mechanics being what they are, we readers have the best chance of remembering the whole adventure. After all, since the trilogy is set in the first season of the original Star Trek series, L. A. Graf cannot go jumping around that much! Still, the trilogy is a fun sci-fi story and a grand illustration of Uhura's, Sulu's, and Chekov's characters.
I have to warn you, the ending for the trilogy, Past Prologue, is a heartbreaker. It is very, very hard to see what happens to the older versions of Sulu and Chekov at the end – but at the same time, it makes me so darn proud of the two of them!
Sooner or later, I may get around to reviewing my other favorite Trek fiction here, readers. Until then, "Live long and prosper!"
This entry was posted in Book Reviews and tagged Book Reviews, Captain James T. Kirk, Commander Spock, DeForest Kelley, Ensign Pavel Chekov, Future Imperfect, Gene Roddenberry, George Takei, James Doohan, Janus, Julia Ecklar, Karen Rose Cercone, L. A. Graf, Leonard Nimoy, Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu, Lieutenant Uhura, Marvel Comics, Melissa Crandall, Montgomery Scott, Moscow, Nichelle Nichols, Past Prologue, Present Tense, sci-fi, Science Fiction, Scotty, Star Trek, Star Trek The Original Series, The Janus Gate trilogy, trilogy, TV series, TV Shows, U.S.S. Enterprise, Walter Koenig, William Shatner on January 22, 2016 by The Mithril Guardian.


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← Profile Response: Kate and Andy Grosmaire, Tallahassee FL
Profile Response: Evan Wilhelm and Conor McBride, Wakulla FL →
Profile Response: Darlene and Robert Wilhelm, Ponte Vedra Beach FL
Posted on March 1, 2017 by paulefallon
This is the third of four posts profiling Floridians affected by restorative justice.
The case of Evan Wilhelm contains eerie parallels to Conor McBride, and revealing lessons of the potential, and pitfalls, of restorative justice.
Evan was a junior at Florida State University, a pre-dental student and member of Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity. One Saturday afternoon Evan accidentally fired a rifle that instantly killed Ashley Cowie, his girlfriend's twin sister. Bob Wilhelm, Evan's father, trembles and shakes his head. "Why did those boys go to a gun show? Why did they buy an assault rifle? Why was Evan fiddling with it in the fraternity house?" Unlike Conor McBride, who shot his girlfriend with purpose, however short-lived his intent, Ashley Cowie's death was an accident. Evan was charged with manslaughter, a crime that typically receives a ten-year sentence in Florida.
Bob, an attorney, got Evan released to home on reconnaissance. The Wilhelm's reached out to the Cowie's to express their sorrow, to no avail. Amy Cowie, Evan's girlfriend, came to visit, often. One day Bob asked Amy if her parents knew of her visits; the next day they received a restraining order against further contact. An intermediary contacted the Wilhelm's, offering to meet in a neutral location; it turned out to be a rouse for Amy to see Evan again. During one hearing in Tallahassee Bob positioned himself in the lobby, and when Mr. Cowie went to the men's room, Bob approached, offered condolences and extended his hand. Mr. Cowie said nothing. Another time the Wilhelm's were walking from the courthouse parking garage. The Cowie's approached from behind. When Mrs. Cowie recognized them she screamed and ran the other direction.
Without acknowledgement, without communication, there is no opportunity for restorative justice. Quite the opposite. As the case evolved the Cowie's position hardened. They began to refer to the 'murder' rather than the 'accident.' At the sentencing hearing Amy testified falsehoods, according to the Wilhelm's. It took the judge only a few moments to sentence Evan to twenty years, potential for parole after eighteen and a half. Once the criminal case was settled, the Cowie's sued Evan, Lamba Chi Alpha, anyone associated with the accident. Though no amount of money could ever replace Ashley they pursued a course of suits and settlements.
"I feel desperate that I can't do anything to help Evan." Darlene Wilhelm bemoans a penal system that freezes the relationship of everyone involved at the moment of a crime. Perpetrators are coached to show no remorse or regret; which exacerbates victim's rage. Our worst moment defines us forever.
With her son in prison, Darlene descended into prolonged hopelessness. Then one day she discovered a beagle on the side of the road, brought it home, nurtured it and sought a home for it. An Episcopal priest adopted the puppy and discerned Darlene's loss. She invited Darlene to Ecclesia, a non-denominational church that serves Jacksonville's poor. Darlene became involved in Clara White Mission, serving breakfast to homeless. "You look around you and see the difficulties that other people have. It puts things in perspective. They are real people. They are not objects. We care about them."
The Wilhelm's continue to pursue appeal options. They travel three hours each way to Wakulla every other weekend, where they are allowed a Saturday and Sunday visit with their son: one hug at the beginning and end of each visit. They are close friends with Julie and Michael McBride; being parents of promising young men who did terrible things is a powerful bond. "We have a key to their house; they have a key to ours. We are in this together."
"For me, and this has already started, I will be more sensitive to other people. I am so blessed to meet and be exposed to new people. For years, I found conversations tiresome exchanges of what people want of the other. Now, even the smallest conversations are gems of that individual and the greater human spirit. I am more open to understanding others.
So, how will we live tomorrow? Hopefully, personal conversations, talking around a table, will not be lost to our devices." – Bob
"I will live tomorrow better than I lived today because of increased empathy, gratefulness, wisdom, and heartfelt sorrow for what happened yesterday. It's hard to be the mom of a young man in prison and have two parents who are near the end of life. I worry about my son, a convicted felon for an accident, who will never vote, never get a job, never have an opportunity for full participation." – Darlene
This entry was posted in Responses and tagged Ashley Cowie, assault rifle, Bob Wihelm, Darlene Wilhelm, Evan Wilhelm, FSU, Lambda Chi Alpha. Bookmark the permalink.


http://image.free.in.th/v/2013/iv/180223075742.jpg How do I install a desktop to an Ubuntu server? Just like the preview. Ask for installation instructions. Thank You.
Ubuntu VPS Hosting via How do I install a desktop to an Ubuntu server?.


Dress your fingers in a regal accessory with this crown-inspired PANDORA Rose ring. Created with a unique blend of metals, its radiant hue is complimented by gleaming orchid pink and blush pink crystals. Stack it with crowns in our other stunning metals for a royal flush of style.


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var rollup = require('rollup');
var babel = require('rollup-plugin-babel');

var dest = 'static/scripts/';
var banner = '/* Ether Website App Utils */';

rollup.rollup({
    entry: 'src/js/utils/index.js',
    banner: banner,
    plugins: [
        babel(),
    ],
}).then(function (bundle) {
    return Promise.all([
        bundle.write({
            format: 'iife',
            exports: 'auto',
            moduleName: 'utils',
            dest: dest + 'utils.js',
            globals: {
                ether: 'Ether',
                uuid: 'uuid',
            },
        }),
    ]);
}).catch(function (err) {
    console.error(err);
});

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


A native to southwest Kansas, Mindy Lehman graduated from Kansas State in 1995 with a degree in City Planning and moved to Kansas City shortly thereafter. Mindy found her way to Holy Family and has been the Director of Religious Education since 2011.
Mindy has three children and in her free time she enjoys watching movies, fixing up her home and gardening.