Tom Faranda's Folly

Investigation begins into the Titan submersible implosion

From the NY Times. The picture below the excerpt is the wreckage, shown at the inquiry.

Titan Submersible Company Neglected Safety Concerns, Ex-Employees Say

The company operating the Titan submersible, which imploded in the ocean last year, killing five people on board, was plagued with equipment problems in the years before the disaster, and had fired an engineering director who would not approve a deepwater expedition, according to testimony at a Coast Guard hearing on Monday.

The Titan had experienced dozens of problems during previous expeditions, including 70 equipment issues in 2021 and 48 more in 2022, investigators revealed on Monday, the first day of two weeks of testimony on what went wrong during the submersible’s ill-fated June 2023 trip to view the Titanic shipwreck on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.

For part of the winter before the fatal accident, the investigators said, the Titan was stored in bitterly cold temperatures outside a facility in Newfoundland, with no protection from the elements.

Then, less than four weeks before the fatal mission, the craft was tested and then found “partially sunk” two days later, following a night of high seas and fog.

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The first witness was Tony Nissen, a former engineering director at OceanGate, the underwater exploration company that operated the submersible. He was visibly shaken after seeing the Coast Guard’s initial presentation on the long series of problems that plagued the Titan in the months and years before the voyage, and called the problems “disturbing.”

Mr. Nissen said he was fired in 2019 after he refused to approve an expedition to the Titanic wreckage that year because he deemed the Titan’s hull to be unsafe. OceanGate, he said, lied about the problems, and instead blamed the cancellation of that mission on problems with a support ship.

“It wasn’t true,” he said. “We didn’t have a hull.”

He described an earlier instance, in April of 2018, when the Titan was apparently struck by lightning while in the Bahamas for testing. He told the chief executive of OceanGate, Stockton Rush, who later died in the implosion, that there was a good chance that the strike had compromised the Titan’s hull. Mr. Nissen said Mr. Rush refused to believe him, insisting, “It’ll be OK.”

Pope Francis - all religions lead to God?

All the Pope haters immediately jumped to a certain conclusion. Here is what he said in Singapore and a correct interpretation.

 

Monday wordle

Turns out, Trump does not get the "same level of protection" as Biden or Kamala Harris

This is nuts. He's running for President.  The speaker is the Palm Beach County Sheriff, Ric Bradshaw. It's the last 20 seconds of a three minute video.

Sunday wordle

Today, 80th anniversary of Pacific Battle of Peleliu

This was supposed to be a short campaign; it took over two months. Peleliu is a small island near the Philippines and very debatable that it was even needed to be taken. Over 1,600 US troops died - and nearly 11,000 Japanese soldiers. The video is two minutes long.

 

One year ago; That's me, entertaining two hot babes at 10520

People in the know, will know.

 

Saturday wordle

Pope Francis criticizes Trump and Harris over "anti-life" policies

“Both are against life, be it the one who kicks out migrants or the one who [supports] killing babies,” Francis reportedly told journalists during a press conference aboard his papal plane. “Both are against life.”

He argued that Scripture says migration is a right and that anyone who doesn’t welcome a stranger is committing a “grave sin.” In 2016, Francis said Trump’s plans to build a border wall was “not Christian.”

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Meanwhile, Francis said Friday that to have an abortion is to “kill a human being.”

“You may like the word or not, but it’s killing,” he said. “We have to see this clearly.”

Harris, if elected, hopes to sign a bill protecting abortion nationwide.

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“One should vote, and choose the lesser evil,” Francis said when asked what American Catholics should do. “Who is the lesser evil, the woman or man? I don’t know.”

“Everyone in their conscience should think and do it,” he said.

The U.S. bishops conference has designated abortion as the “preeminent priority” for American Catholic voters this cycle.

Friday wordle

Four minutes

Yanks beat Red Sox on Judge grand slam homer.

Ahhh the Red Sox. As the man says "Judge cranks one!"

 

Gingrich: "Pope ... Concludes 45th Apostolic Journey Abroad"

This is from Callista Gingrich who is the wife of Newt. I had forgotten or never knew that she had been the US Ambassador to the Vatican. It's a nice summary of his trip and where he visited. Brigid and I did watch some bits on EWTN and youtube. Love this picture.

Pope Francis’s 45th Apostolic Journey to Asia and Oceania was marked by a deep commitment to dialogue, fraternity, compassion, and environmental stewardship – all of which resonate with the core messages of his papacy.

Friday cocktail - by popular request - the Sidecar!

Another three ingredient cocktail - cognac, orange liqueur, and lemon juice - which changes as you vary the ratios. You don't have to sugar the rim, and you can add demarara syrup. The link below the video shows four variations and answers the question of which came first, the cocktail or the motorcycle attachment.

 

1:30 / 7:48 Sidecar Cocktail Three Ways - Best Cognac Cocktail?

Thursday wordle

Four minutes

Singer Jon Bon Jovi talks woman off jumping from a bridge.

Good on Bon Jovi! Here is the short version and a link to a longer - 3 minutes version - is below it.

 

Here's the long version -

Incredible moment Jon Bon Jovi stops woman from potentially jumping off a bridge

Author on "finance as the ideal playing ground for AI"

I am reading this guy's original huge bestseller Sapiens. He presents a number of interesting arguments on the development of "Sapiens" (that's us). I am only a bit more than 10% through the book but so far finding holes in his various arguments.

 

Wednesday wordle

About five minutes.

 

My 9/11 post - Tom Knox - Same post I've put up for last 18 years

Like for most people today is a sorrowful day. Below is a posting I first put up in 2006. Tommy should be 53. The comments on his Legacy Tribute page are 100+ pages. 

I knew seven people killed on 9/11. But I only knew one of them real well.

I knew Tom Knox ("Tommy") because I coached him for five years at the North Jersey Rugby Club. He was a great kid. Funny, quick witted, really sparkling personality. The sort of fellow you enjoy hanging around with; you're glad he's your friend.

He was an intense rugby player and wonderfully coachable guy.

  Tom was married to Nancy for less than a year. He was thirty years old. The youngest of six children. He worked at Cantor Fitzgerald. No trace of him has been found. 1,000 people attended his funeral Mass. It is still painful to even write about this.

If you have time, go here  Guest Book - Thomas Patrick Knox and read some of the 21 pages of tributes Tommy's friends wrote.

Like for most people today is a sorrowful day. Below is a posting I first put up in 2006. Tommy should be 53. The comments on his Legacy Tribute page are 100+ pages. 

I knew seven people killed on 9/11. But I only knew one of them real well.

I knew Tom Knox ("Tommy") because I coached him for five years at the North Jersey Rugby Club. He was a great kid. Funny, quick witted, really sparkling personality. The sort of fellow you enjoy hanging around with; you're glad he's your friend.

He was an intense rugby player and wonderfully coachable guy.

  Tom was married to Nancy for less than a year. He was thirty years old. The youngest of six children. He worked at Cantor Fitzgerald. No trace of him has been found. 1,000 people attended his funeral Mass. It is still painful to even write about this.

If you have time, go here  Guest Book - Thomas Patrick Knox and read some of the 21 pages of tributes Tommy's friends wrote.

Tuesday wordle

Pope Francis Mass in East Timor draws 600,000 - half the population

In 1993 we were at Pope John Paul II's outdoor Mass in Denver - which also had about 600,000 people. We had to arrive very early -in the dark - and then walk two miles to arrive at the venue. It was a Catholic Woodstock. Would have been the same for this Mass, I am sure.

TASITOLU, East Timor (AP) — An estimated 600,000 people — nearly half of East Timor’s population —- packed a seaside park Tuesday for Pope Francis’ final Mass, held on the same field where St. John Paul II prayed 35 years ago during the nation’s fight for independence from Indonesia.

The remarkable turnout was a testament to the overwhelmingly Catholic Southeast Asian country and the esteem with which its people hold the church, which stood by the Timorese in their traumatic battle for freedom and helped draw international attention to their plight.

Francis delighted them on Tuesday, staying at Tasitolu park until well after nightfall to loop around the field in his open-topped popemobile, with the screens of the crowd’s cellphones lighting up the evening.

“I wish for you peace, that you keep having many children, and that your smile continues to be your children,” Francis said in his native Spanish.

Other papal Masses have drawn millions of people in more populous countries, such as the Philippines, and there were other nationalities represented at Tuesday’s Mass. But the crowd in East Timor, population 1.3 million, was believed to represent the biggest turnout for a papal event ever, in terms of the proportion of the national population.

 

Off facebook, a point well made

Came to me via Brigid, via PM off of facebook. I tracked down the origin of the quote using perplexity ai . And it's below the image.

The quote "Modern man is in a terrible predicament. He is helplessly enamored with the beauty of what the old world built, yet despises the beliefs that inspired them to build it" is attributed to a user named Culture Critic on the platform iFunny

 

Monday wordle

3 minutes.

Pope visits Indonesia; Catholic seminary is packed, priests are heading overseas.

In the NY Times so there shouldn't be a paywall. Only 3% of Indonesia, which is the 4th most populous country in the world - is Catholic.

On an Indonesian island about 500 miles east of Bali, an open-air truck traversed up winding roads one recent Sunday. It was taking dozens of jovial men, some already in white robes, and their songbooks and guitars to the church on top of the hill.

The men are training to become Catholic priests. While probably only a fraction of them will go on to be ordained, Indonesia — the world’s largest Muslim-majority country — is producing so many priests now that many of them head overseas to serve the faithful.

For centuries, this traffic flowed in the opposite direction, with Catholic missionaries from Europe heading to the islands of Indonesia.

The Roman Catholic Church knows how significant Indonesia and many countries in the Global South are to its future. Two years ago, Pope Francis declared that to find vocations “we will go to some island of Indonesia.” He did not specify the destination, but he almost certainly meant the island of Flores, where 70 percent of the roughly two million residents are Catholic.

This is where, on a remote hilltop called Ledalero, the St. Paul Major Seminary was established in 1937. This year, it expects to ordain nearly 50 priests of the Society of the Divine Word, a Catholic order that focuses on missionary work. Over the years, it has sent more than 500 of its graduates to different parts of the world, including the United States, Australia and Latin America.

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Those who enroll in Ledalero come with two years’ experience as novices and are still under probation for admission into priesthood. They study philosophy for four years, followed by theology for two years, and serve about one to two years of pastoral duty before they are ordained. At any point, they can drop out and obtain a bachelor’s degree from the Ledalero Catholic School of Philosophy, which is considered by many in Flores to be prestigious. Laypeople enroll in the school, too.

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Catholicism first arrived in Flores in the 16th century, when the Portuguese, in search of spices, sailed east, bringing traders and missionaries. Roughly 200 years later, the Dutch colonized large parts of the archipelago, which came to be known as the Dutch East Indies. The Dutch were Protestants and forbade Catholicism, but adopted a hands-off policy in places like Flores because of its distance from the main island of Java.

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The priests from Ledalero bring with them a sense of mission to fight injustice and a broad understanding of religious tolerance. This includes discussing a sinister period in Indonesian history: the state-sponsored slaughter in the 1960s of an estimated half million people or more under the guise of a Communist purge.

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Aurelio Morghan, 32, is one of the 48 seminarians at Ledalero scheduled to be ordained in October. He has at least 16 relatives who are priests or nuns.

Sunday wordle

Alan Dershowitz, famed liberal Democrat lawyer and scholar, leaves the Democrat Party

This should be big news - similar to Liz Cheney saying she's voting for Harris - but it will not make the headlines of the NY Times or really any of the major media - except FOX. Hit this link for Dershowitz bio.

Attorney Alan Dershowitz says he is leaving the Democratic Party after being “disgusted” by the recent Democratic National Convention, which he described as “anti-Zionist.”

During a recent radio interview with Zev Brenner, Dershowitz criticized the convention for giving legitimacy to anti-Israel speakers and anti-Israel protesters outside the convention in Chicago last month. 

“It was the most anti-Jewish, anti-Israel, anti-Zionist convention I’ve experienced,” he said. “I was disgusted at the Democratic National Convention. Absolutely disgusted.”

“I am no longer a Democrat. I am an Independent,” he said, though he wouldn’t say who he plans to vote for in the November matchup between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris. He said he might not reveal who he plans to vote for until after November 1.

“I want to see how they deal with Iran. I want to encourage the current administration to support Israel,” he said.

Saturday wordle - ugh - a miss

After 20 correct - word is OWNER and I should have gotten it straightaway rather than using up my turns with weird words. My very bad.

Amazing - Husband/wife; she wins Paris Olympic gold; he wins Paralympic gold

What a great story this is. She wins the Olympic long jump gold and he wins the Paralympic 400M gold as well as other medals.

Woodhall and Davis-Woodhall, who wed in 2022, went viral at the Paris Olympics thanks to their emotional celebration of Davis-Woodhall's win, her first Olympic medal.

The couple, who also competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, met at a high school track meet when they were seniors.

Davis-Woodhall went onto join the track and field team at the University of Georgia and then transferred to the University of Texas at Austin, where she finished her college career in 2021.

Husband throws welcome home surprise for Olympic gold medal-winning wife

Woodhall competed in track at the University of Arkansas, where he made history as the first double-amputee to get a Division I track and field scholarship.

Olympic power couple Tara Davis-Woodhall and Hunter Woodhall celebrate gold medal win

Born with fibular hemimelia, in which the fibula, a bone in his lower legs, never formed, Woodhall had both legs amputated below the knee at 11 months old, according to his Paralympic bio.

Friday wordle

Took about six minutes

Friday cocktail - A dark daiquiri; veeery tasty!

As opposed to the standard and better known light daiquiri. The Farandaville recipe below the short video.

 

Farandaville two slightly different variations -

Myers Jamaican rum - 2oz.

Lime juice - 1 oz

Demerara syrup - 3/4 oz   

Shaken and poured as above; we cut the demerara back to 3/4 oz. from the video's 1 oz.

Second variation same our the first one, but only 3/4 oz of lime juice.

Both are delicious - will soon try with 1 oz. of lime and 1 oz. demerara. The demerara adds hint of carmel and molasses flavors. You can order demerara on amazon - have it the next day.  

Thursday wordle

Took six minutes

NY Times Dementia test - Brain - health - mind quiz - are you susceptible?

Ok very easy to do the 12 questions - then you get a number. Mine was 16 out of 21, indicating "low risk." Family and friends may disagree on that ...

Do You Have Healthy Brain Habits? These 12 questions can help assess your risk for dementia, stroke and depression, and identify ways to reduce it.

 

Wednesday wordle

Took one minute.

Bio of Fr. Tony, Holy Name's new pastor

I'm impressed. Fr Anthony Ekanem. Text is from the Holy Name of Mary bulletin

Get to Know Fr. Tony

Fr. Tony is the fourth of 8 children and the younger of a set of twins born to Columba L. Ekanem, a late Chief Inspection of Education and Brigid C. Ekanem, a schoolteacher. He was born on April 15 in Pennsylvania when his father was studying here.

His desire to become a Missionary priest after his Junior Seminary training was obvious when hedecided to forgo his admission to the University of Calabar, Nigeria to study medicine and instead continue his formation program at the National Missionary Seminary. He applied for admission into the Missionary Seminary of Saint Paul for priestly formation.

His formation began in 1980, which was followed by his philosophy studies in Iperu – Remo, OgunState, Nigeria. In 1984, he moved to Abuja to continue his study of theology moderated by the Pontifical Urban University of Rome. Fr. Tony was ordained a priest in Gwagwalada in Abuja, Nigeria, July 1, 1989.

He was appointed a Seminary Bursar after his ordination in Abuja. During his free time, he was involved in pastoral work in the nearby parishes. In October 1990, his first mission took him as far as Sierra Leone in Makeni Diocese, where he taught in a Secondary School and served as an assistant pastor in Theresa’s Catholic Church, Yonibana.

In October 1992, he came to the United States Mission and began his Orientation Program in Washington, DC under the Supervision of the Josephites in Baltimore. Later he was assigned as an associate pastor to St. Peter the Apostle Church in Houston. Two years later, he was assigned pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Port Arthur, Texas in the Beaumont Diocese. During this time, he studied and obtained his master’s at St. Thomas University of Houston, Texas in Pastoral Studies. After 3 years at Sacred Heart Church, he was transferred to St. Martin de Porres Church in Barrett Station, Texas, and served as pastor for over 10 years. While he was there, he became a member of the Knights of St. Peter Clever, 4th degree.

Fr. Tony also took a Chaplain course on Clinical Pastoral Education for four years at Herman Memorial and Methodist Hospital at Medical Center in Houston and obtained his doctorate degree in Pastoral Care and Counseling in 2017 from the Graduate Theological Foundation in Indiana.

In 2004, he was appointed Local Superior to the United States Missions, and in September 2007, he was elected to the Missionary Society of Saint Paul General Council, Abuja, Nigeria. He served as a Counselor in charge of Mission and priests’ welfare for six years. Fr Tony was appointed as pastor of St. Philip Neri Church in Houston, Texas on November 15, 2013.

In early January 2015, he left that position and was assigned to the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in June 2015. There he worked for 3 years and became a member of the Knights of Columbus, 4^th degree.

In June 2018, he was transferred to The Church of Immaculate Conception – Saint Mary’s in Yonkers. On December 1, 2022, his religious group appointed him a Community Leader of Area Seven consisting of New York and Baltimore. On June 30, 2024, the 175-year-old Church was officially merged with Saint Denis–Saint Peters.

Finally, Fr. Tony was officially assigned on August 19, 2024, as administrator of the Church of the Holy Name of Mary, Croton on Hudson. On September 14, 2024, Fr. Tony will be installed as Pastor of this parish by the Most Reverend Bishop Edmund Whalen.

Tuesday wordle

Two minutes.