Tom Faranda's Folly

Who needs Crossfit? Dude lifts 2000 lbs in 30 seconds

At a charity event - 775 squat 500 bench 725 deadlift.

Looks like he enjoys eating also.

Kasich (currently my guy for President) to announce he's running

Or so it says here.

John Kasich to announce presidential bid July 21

Ohio Gov. John Kasich will jump into the crowded Republican presidential field on July 21 at the student union at his alma mater, The Ohio State University, in Columbus, advisers tell POLITICO.

Kasich, 63, who was overwhelmingly reelected in November, will aim to appear less scripted and guarded than the leading candidates. Advisers say he combines establishment appeal with a conservative record going back to his stint as House Budget Committee chairman, during his 18 years as a congressman from Ohio.

Despite his late start, Kasich will be one of the most closely watched candidates — partly because Ohio is such a crucial presidential state, putting Kasich on many short lists for vice president.

 

Rod Dreher's "Benedict Option" essay

I happen to not agree with this - written in light of the same sex marriage legislation - that's what it really is - from the five member majority of the Supreme Court. I don't think Christians are supposed to Ghetto-ize themselves - what about going out and converting the world?

But people are talking about this Time Magazine essay, so here it is, with some excerpts below the link.

Orthodox Christians Must Now Learn To Live as Exiles in Our Own Country

The alarm that the four dissenting justices sounded in their minority opinions is chilling. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Antonin Scalia were particularly scathing in pointing out the philosophical and historical groundlessness of the majority’s opinion. Justice Scalia even called the decision “a threat to democracy,” and denounced it, shockingly, in the language of revolution.

It is now clear that for this Court, extremism in the pursuit of the Sexual Revolution’s goals is no vice. True, the majority opinion nodded and smiled in the direction of the First Amendment, in an attempt to calm the fears of those worried about religious liberty. But when a Supreme Court majority is willing to invent rights out of nothing, it is impossible to have faith that the First Amendment will offer any but the barest protection to religious dissenters from gay rights orthodoxy.

Indeed, Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito explicitly warned religious traditionalists that this decision leaves them vulnerable. Alito warns that Obergefell “will be used to vilify Americans who are unwilling to assent to the new orthodoxy,” and will be used to oppress the faithful “by those who are determined to stamp out every vestige of dissent.”

******

For one, we have to accept that we really are living in a culturally post-Christian nation. The fundamental norms Christians have long been able to depend on no longer exist.

Of course that began in 1973 with Roe V Wade ...

For another, LGBT activists and their fellow travelers really will be coming after social conservatives. ... The next goal of activists will be a long-term campaign to remove tax-exempt status from dissenting religious institutions. The more immediate goal will be the shunning and persecution of dissenters within civil society. After today, all religious conservatives are Brendan Eich, the former CEO of Mozilla who was chased out of that company for supporting California’s Proposition 8.

Third, the Court majority wrote that gays and lesbians do not want to change the institution of marriage, but rather want to benefit from it. This is hard to believe, given more recent writing from gay activists like Dan Savage expressing a desire to loosen the strictures of monogamy in all marriages. Besides, if marriage can be redefined according to what we desire — that is, if there is no essential nature to marriage, or to gender — then there are no boundaries on marriage. Marriage inevitably loses its power.

In that sense, social and religious conservatives must recognize that the Obergefell decision did not come from nowhere. It is the logical result of the Sexual Revolution, which valorized erotic liberty. ... The individualism at the heart of contemporary American culture is at the core of Obergefell — and at the core of modern American life.

This is profoundly incompatible with orthodox Christianity. But this is the world we live in today.

One can certainly understand the joy that LGBT Americans and their supporters feel today. But orthodox Christians must understand that things are going to get much more difficult for us. We are going to have to learn how to live as exiles in our own country. We are going to have to learn how to live with at least a mild form of persecution. And we are going to have to change the way we practice our faith and teach it to our children, to build resilient communities.

******

I believe that orthodox Christians today are called to be those new and very different St. Benedicts. How do we take the Benedict Option, and build resilient communities within our condition of internal exile, and under increasingly hostile conditions? I don’t know. But we had better figure this out together, and soon, while there is time.

More if you hit the link; I excerpted about half the essay.

Washington Post on Sanders v. Clinton

Bernie Sanders a flash in the pan or the real deal?

In Bernie Sanders, an unlikely — but real — threat to Hillary Clinton

During his hour-long stump speech here, Sanders railed against the “billionaire class” and pledged to make large corporations pay their fair share of taxes if he becomes president. But much of his message focused on improving the lot of the lower and middle classes — by providing free college; guaranteeing workers vacation time, sick leave and family leave; and raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

“I don’t believe it is a terribly radical idea to say that someone who works 40 hours a week should not be living in poverty,” Sanders told a crowd of about 300 people.

As Margaret Thatcher said: "Socialism is great until you run out of other people's money.

WSJ video. "Gay Marriage: How Justices Justify..." decision

Fair and Balanced - Pretty good short explanation -

 

"Euthanasia's Open Season on the Mentally Ill"

A short essay in the Journal First Things.

I expect that within ten years this will be a pretty well established practice in the USA. After all, it's all about choice and whose body is it, etc, etc.

Helping the mentally ill commit suicide was unthinkable not long ago. Today, it is a growing practice.

In the Netherlands, for example, psychiatrists legally kill their patients with the approval of colleagues and the culture. Indeed, the Dutch Journal of Psychiatry has encouraged psychiatrists to euthanize patients with severe mental illnesses (corrected Google translation):

Assisted suicide, as a last resort in psychiatry, legally admissible since 2002, has recently been legitimized in practice. The midwife of Death is now appropriate forpsychiatric patients, representing an emancipation of the psychiatric patient and psychiatry itself.

Netherlanders responded positively to their “emancipation”: The number of euthanasia deaths of the mentally ill rose from fourteen in 2012 to forty-two in 2013. Not coincidentally, a just-released study reports that 34 percent of the country’s general practitioners would consider euthanizing a mentally ill patient.

Belgium is even more enthusiastic than the Netherlands about euthanizing those with psychiatric illnesses. The most well-known case is that of Godelieva De Troyer, who was euthanized by oncologist and palliative medicine professor Wim Distelmans. De Troyer did not have cancer; after a lifelong struggle with depression, she consulted with Distelmans (now a famous euthanasia doctor and advocate) for the sole purpose of being made dead.

Distelmans also made the news when he euthanized Nathan Verhelsta, who requested and received lethal injection after becoming distraught over his female-to-male sex change surgery. Needless to say, Verhelsta didn’t have cancer, either.

A morally sane country would strip Distelmans of his license to practice medicine and prosecute him for murder. Instead, not only does he have nothing to fear from colleagues or prosecutors, but he was recently awarded the Liberal Humanist Prize for having “demonstrated in his life and work a genuine and sustained liberal humanist engagement.” Belgian doctors have also coupled the euthanasia of the mentally ill with organ harvesting. One particularly disturbing case involved a patient who was a chronic self-harmer (auto-mutilation); her death and the harvesting and transplant of her lungs was written about approvingly in an international medical journal.

There's more if you hit the link.

Chief Justice Robert's dissent on same sex marriage

As the Supreme Court legislates, 5-4.

This is from Ann Althouse' (Constitutional Law Prof @ at University of Wisconsin, Madison) blog. i put in a fairly big excerpt; more if you hit the link.

"Just who do we think we are?" Chief Justice Roberts asks.

He begins: "Petitioners make strong arguments rooted in social policy and considerations of fairness." But that fairness only reaches the policy level. It's for the legislatures. It's not a constitutional right.

The fundamental right to marry does not include a right to make a State change its definition of marriage. And a State’s decision to maintain the meaning of marriage that has persisted in every culture throughout human history can hardly be called irrational. In short, our Constitution does not enact any one theory of marriage. The people of a State are free to expand marriage to include same-sex couples, or to retain the historic definition.

So he's coming down hard on the "definition" argument, which I've always disliked. The legal issue isn't over who gets to define words, it's about how government can treat people. Government needs at least a legitimate interest for excluding same-sex couples from the various benefits of the status of marriage, which it maintains in the legal system. Government needs at least a legitimate interest for everything it does. (Oddly, the words "legitimate" and "interest" appear nowhere in any of the Obergefell opinions!)

[T]he Court invalidates the marriage laws of more than half the States and orders the transformation of a social institution that has formed the basis of human society for millennia, for the Kalahari Bushmen and the Han Chinese, the Carthaginians and the Aztecs. Just who do we think we are?

That ignores — for the moment — the majority's argument that marriage has not stayed the same over time. (Justice Kennedy wrote that "The history of marriage is one of both continuity and change," and cited many examples of evolution in the institution, notably the changes in "the role and status of women," who under the doctrine of coverture were regarded as part of "a single, male-dominated legal entity.")

The Chief tells us that the "premises supporting this concept of marriage are so fundamental that they rarely require articulation." Only male-female sex produces children, and a children are better off (usually) if their parents stay together:

Therefore, for the good of children and society, sexual relations that can lead to procreation should occur only between a man and a woman committed to a lasting bond.

That brings up a couple ways marriage has changed: We don't restrict sex to married couples. And we let married people divorce pretty easily. 

[B]y bestowing a respected status and material benefits on married couples, society encourages men and women to conduct sexual relations within marriage rather than without.

Mother Teresa quote

Apropos:

"Be humble and you will never be disturbed. It is very difficult in practice because we all want to see the result of our work. Leave it to Jesus."
- Mother Teresa

House bill would force Supreme Court to enroll in Obamacare.

As Justice Scalia said it's now more aptly called SCOTUScare.

Sometime I should write about my four clients getting their insurance through the mandated coverage. It's a travesty.

House bill would force the Supreme Court to enroll in ObamaCare

Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas) said that his SCOTUScare Act would make all nine justices and their employees join the national healthcare law’s exchanges.

“As the Supreme Court continues to ignore the letter of the law, it’s important that these six individuals understand the full impact of their decisions on the American people,” he said.

“That’s why I introduced the SCOTUScare Act to require the Supreme Court and all of its employees to sign up for ObamaCare,” Babin said.

Brian Babin is the father of the former navy SEAL, Leif Babin.

 

Climb El Capitan on your computer

this is pretty cool. I haven't done the whole "climb", which is a google project.

Here's the link to the climb Climb El Capitan, Yosemite

And here's a short CNN video about the project.

 

12 Reasons to cut back on sugar

Good advice, which I should follow.

It's off the Fitocracy blog.

The Surprising Benefits of Cutting Back on Sugar

 

NY Times: "Growing Old With Madonna"

Interesting article - is she over the top or a trailblazer for women? Hit the link to decide. One thing's for sure - she spends lots of time in the gym.

Madonna will turn 57 in August. As she has repeatedly pointed out, her age is not going to slow her down. “Shut up jealous bitches!” she wrote recently on her Instagram account. “I hope you are as fun loving and adventurous as me when you’re my age!!!! Hahahhahaha let’s see.”

In 90 seconds; Queen Elizabeth's wealth

Nice work if you can get it!

 

G. K. Chesterton quote

Chesterton, a British writer of some note.

“Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.”

Former Bunny on life with Hugh Hefner

Self explanatory.

 

Why I like kangaroos

Amongst other reasons, like me, they are left-handed.

 

Sr., Nirmala, Mother Teresa's successor

Sr. Nirmala succeeded Mother Teresa as head of the Missionaries of Charity.

Sr. Nirmala Joshi, Successor to Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, Dead at 81

According to religious news agency Matters India, Sr. Nirmala suffered from kidney failure and other complications. Despite being advised by doctors to undergo dialysis, the she chose to be with her sisters in her final hours.

Following her release from the hospital on Friday, Sr. Nirmala’s health declined and died on Monday after midnight.

Born in 1934, Sr. Nirmala converted to Catholicism and shortly after joined the Missionaries of Charity.

She went to Panama and became one of the first Missionaries of Charity to head a mission. In 1976, Sr. Nirmala started and led the contemplative branch of the Missionaries of Charity until her election as Mother Teresa’s successor in March 1997.

She served as Superior General of the congregation until March 25th, 2009.

Our anniversary today!

Married in Mandeville, Jamaica in 1979 where we'd met. We were both teachers in Mandeville at the time.

As Don Imus would say, "That's 19 wonderful years."

Here's Brigid on our honeymoon - with my brother Phil. We brought my parents and brother with us to Treasure Beach on the south coast of Jamaica. They'd come down for the wedding and we couldn't very well not take them ... My father was always embarrassed by this. Phil was our altar boy at the wedding.

Now here's Brigid a few weeks ago, climbing the Popolopen Torne just north of Bear Mountain. 36 years later and she looks excellent - about the only difference is she's got clothes on in this picture.

Lymphoma strikes Maryland Governor

This doesn't seem to be the type I had (mine was mantle cell) but sounds pretty serious. "Advanced" and "aggressive". Mantle cell is a serious lymphoma, but I had the indolent (slow moving) version, which occurs in about 15% of cases. I had the treatment described under "treatment options" at the link above, and of course documented my chemo and stem cell transplant on this blog. That is the original reason I started it.

Good luck Larry Hogan!

Md. Gov. Hogan announces he has ‘advanced’ cancer

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan disclosed Monday that he has been diagnosed with late stage 3 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which he described as “a very advanced and very aggressive” form of cancer.

 

Sad NY Mets news

Former outfielder Hamilton Jordan in a murder-suicide.

Leaving behind a 14 month old.

 

Farandaville (extended) has new baby

UPDATE: Stolen from my brother Phil's facebook -

Ethan, who was born five weeks ago to my nephew Paul and his wife Laura.

So Father's Day was spent meeting Ethan, who was three weeks premature.

Paul

Laura

My brother Jim, extremely pleased Grandpa!

Ethan himself - great outfit ...

My brother Phil got a selfie stick for Father's Day - L to R; Anthony, Ethan, Paul, Phil, Jim, Joe

In the evening Brigid and I caught the tail end of the Clearwater Festival - here's the Clearwater berthed at 9PM on the longest day of the year!

Ok, back to the #1 attraction!

 

A son goes to Guadalcanal to find his father's past

An essay; not short. But once I started reading it, I couldn't stop.

Peter Richmond lost his father when he was 7. Years later, on a trip to Guadalcanal to research his dad's World War II experience, the son encountered old horrors but found a hero.

It occurs to me that, while the odds are long, the hand grenade at my feet could very well have been thrown by my father, the 26-year-old captain and commander of G Company, Second Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, First Marine Division (G-2-5). He lost 30 men on this ridge.

Mel Stottlemyre on being honored by Yankees at Old Timer's Day

The Yankees surprised their fine former pitcher and pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre with a plaque in Monument Park.

Stottlemyre is fighting a recurrence of multiple myeloma and the outlook is dicey. Since he didn't know about the honor (his family did know but kept it from him) this is certainly a wonderful off the cuff thank you.

And here's the NY Daily news coverage -

Yankees surprise Mel Stottlemyre with Monument Park plaque on Old Timers’ Day at the Stadium

It was a moving scene, so much that it was clear the misty weather wasn't responsible for the wet eyes in the stands and on the field.

******

The honor was Hal Steinbrenner's idea after it was called to his attention that the Yankees had never honored Stottlemyre, the five-time All-Star who was 164-139 with a 2.97 ERA over his career from 1964-1974. He had 40 career shutouts and was a three-time 20-game winner whose career undoubtably would've been even better had the Yankees not crumbled after their early 60s dynasty was over. Stottlemyre, who retired prematurely because of a shoulder injury, was also the beloved pitching coach of Joe Torre's championship teams from 1996 and 1998-2000.

"Mel was the franchise during those dark years (1960s-early 70s)," Steinbrenner said. "And we needed to do this."

Guy who caught A-Rod's 3,000th hit/home run obsessed with collecting major league baseballs

"It takes all kinds..."

Zack Hample, a New York native who wrote a book on catching stray baseballs in the stands at games, said he has no intention of giving the ball back - even to A-Rod himself. 

Here's his wiki

 

1. Zachary Ben Hample is an American sports writer and Major League baseball collector. He is best known for having collected more than 8,000 baseballs from major and minor league ballparks in America. Wikipedia
2. Born: September 14, 1977 (age 37), New York City, NY

 

More on Rev. Pinkney, Charleston murder victim

From the WSJ website.

 

A-Rod gets his 3,000th hit - a Home Run!

Here's the homer, in the first inning.  Yanks won the game, and see his interview below.

# 3000

And here's the very interesting post-game interview. Wish I spoke Spanish - he answered two questions in Spanish, the first regarding he and Roberto Clemente.

 

The Encyclical Laudato Si - here's a pdf download site.

You can put it on a computer or other device. I plan on reading it over the weekend. I've already read the intro 1-12, and sections 115 to 125.  Great stuff. And not a difficult read. But it won't be available (in English) in book form for another month.

http://w2.vatican.va/content/dam/francesco/pdf/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si_en.pdf

 

Cardinal Kasper and marriage: another theologian's view

Over a week ago I posted this video interview, Cardinal Kasper interview RE: marriage . Here's an interesting commentary on the issue in general and the interview in particular by a theology professor (a woman, Monica Migliorino Miller).

Kasper’s Flawed Path to Mercy for Divorced and Remarried

Kasper’s argument rests on a distinction between what is referred to (especially among canon lawyers) as the internal versus the external forum. The internal forum is a person’s own subjective conviction of their spiritual state, while the external forum is the objective judgment of the Church.

Irish humorist Dylan Moran on women and feelings

Brigid's niece June sent me a different short vid of this guy awhile ago. An Irish stand up ...

Short and sweet.

 

The murdered pastor talks about black political participation

From PBS 1n 2012.

"Rev. Clementa Pinckney, a senior pastor and South Carolina state senator, was one of the nine people to die in Wednesday night’s shooting"

 

Interview with Catholic Leauge's Bill Donohue on the encyclical

Fair and balanced.

 

Pope: Climate change and abortion are interrelated

From the National Journal on today's Encyclical "On Care for Our Common Home". Who else will pick up on this? #1 on National Journal's "six points from the Encyclical."

Population Control Is Not the Answer

For Pope Francis, caring about the environment goes hand in hand with taking a strong stand against abortion. "Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion," the encyclical says. "How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties?"

Francis suggests that efforts to slow population growth are misguided and a distraction from the underlying cause of the world's environmental crisis—the hoarding of the Earth's resources by the rich and powerful. "To blame population growth instead of extreme and selective consumerism on the part of some, is one way of refusing to face the issues," the encyclical says.

I expected the encyclical to say something along these lines - for Catholics it should be self-evident.

 

The Encyclical - find it here

From Ed Mechmann, of the Archdiocese family life office. I haven't gone to the site yet; hopefully later today.

Doesn't seem to be a hard copy available yet.

 

1.  The encyclical is out!  The Vatican server is having trouble keeping up with the traffic, but here's the link:  http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html.  

 

2.  Read it yourself before reading anything about it.  At the very least, read the introduction which is magnificent, and paragraphs 115 to 123 which are essential.  Then pray the two beautiful prayers at the end.  Thank you Holy Father!

Battle of Waterloo - 200th anniversary

Battle of Waterloo - history-changing event.

Next hike of the month - and the past one

Next hike is Saturday, June 27th, Sugarloaf Mountain, north of Cold Spring. It's the next height north of Breakneck Ridge, and one of my favorites. Takes about an hour, or a little less, to get to the top.

Here's the view - the girl on top of the iconic dead tree is Heidi Paine. She is the daughter of our friends Mick and Jan and was visiting us in September, 2013 when the picture was taken. Last year she graduated from medical school in England. Across the Hudson, that is Storm King Mountain.

Here are all three girls. Never hurts to have young ladies in your pictures ...

So this is where we'll be going.

And this is where we went on Wednesday, May 27th - the Teatown Kitchawan Trail. We started from the Kitchawan end and went a bit over five miles over mostly flat terrain. Nice hike. It was a one way hike - we had a car at The John Hand/Bald Mountain parking area where we ended. We didn't do the last two miles to Teatown, since we were familiar with it.

Near the beginning, with me looking my dorky worst best.

 

More dorkiness.

The drum majorettes

The Taconic State Parkway bridges over the reservoir are bigger then they appear when you're driving by them or over them.

About three plus miles into the hike we got fairly wet from a intense but short thunder shower - no lightning in the area, luckily.

But Jeanne Marie had brought along some great licorice, which made us feel better ...

Very nice weekday hike! Sugarloaf Mountain on the 27th will be great.

 

 

 

More proof chocolate is good for you!!

Yay, yay!! Dancing in the street!! Further proof there is a God!! 12% less chance of a heart attck, 23% less chance of a stroke.

Both dark and milk chocolate.

 

 

American confidence in religion continues to drop

A gallup survey as reported in USA Today.

In the mid-'70s, nearly 7 in 10 Americans said they had "a great deal or quite a lot" of confidence in the church or organized religion. That has bobbled downward decade by decade to a new low of just 42%, according to the report.

A Pew Research survey this year finds nearly 23% of Americans say they don't identify with any religion. The Gallup data — which combined this group with non-Christians — finds only 10% of these had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in religion.

There is also a distinct decline in confidence in the church among Protestants and Catholics. Gallup tracks an overall downward drift of more than 20 percentage points for both traditions since the 1970s, to 51% of Protestants and Catholics alike — "the first time it has been the same for both," said Saad.

A slight recovery among Catholics.

Similarly, Catholic confidence reached nearly its lowest ebb (41%) during the peak of the Catholic sex abuse scandal in 2002. Catholic views may have recovered 10 percentage points in part because of the "Francis factor."

 

"Pope Francis: The (Climate Movie) Encyclical" is coming!

HA ...

 

More on "The Gin and Tonic perfected"

After watching this  The Gin and Tonic, perfected , Brigid immediately started working on perfecting her own G & T.

More on anti-adoption license plate censorship

I recently posted about this absurdity here - Federal Court: NY "Choose Life" license plate "patently offensive"

A good column by the former Lt. Governor of NY, Betsy McCaughey, on the speech police nationally.

What do the Confederate flag, the words “Respect Choice” and the message “Choose Life” have in common? DMVs in many states are arbitrarily banning them from license plates.

 

WSJ: "The Top 10 Bucket List Destinations"

An interesting survey. #1 surprised me, but will please many of my in-laws!

 

The Gin and Tonic, perfected

Following up on this posting from Saturday - Today is World Gin Day!

The WSJ has this short video -

Kimmel: New sports drink - Tequil-Ade

I never watch the Kimmel Show - why bother when he puts the good stuff on youtube?

 

Tim track: Stepinac MVP

Not for the first time, Tim is Stepinac track MVP.

Below the plaque is Tim with his coach for all four years, Nick Mitchell. Nick did a wonderful job with Tim as well as with all the boys, including those who weren't outstanding athletes. Coach Mitchell was always looking for the boys to get the best out of themselves - the best from their own talent.

It's simple to determine MVP - the athlete who scores the most points in two meets - The County Championship and the Catholic HS Intersectionals - is the MVP. Very objective, results only, determination.

By coming first in the javelin and third in the shot put in the County Championship, Tim got 16 points. A second place finish in the CHSAA javelin Intersectionals - by one inch! - was good for 8 points.

Overall in the state he's finished #4 in the javelin with a personal best of 167'4", and #87 in the shot put (out of literally thousands of shot throwers) with a best of 47'8".

BIAS ALERT -

A quick look at the Mile Split NY website - which tracks these things - shows that Tim would be in the 14th percentile in the javelin in NY colleges. In the shot put - adjusting for the fact that the college shot is 4 lbs heavier (16 lbs) then the HS shot, Tim would be around the 40th percentile. Pretty good for a high school senior.  

Gail Sheehy: "Hillary's Sixties Surge"

Gail Sheehy, who became famous in 1976 with her book Passages (and who was once married to my now retired internist) has an essay online on why (she's sure) Mrs. Clinton will win the election.

It comes down to her being a woman, and now a mature 67 year old.

Hillary’s Sixties Surge. It’s taken a career in the spotlight, but Hillary Clinton finally seems to be comfortable with her age and her gender.

Of course, not every intelligent woman agrees with this analysis.

Carly Fiorina pounds Clinton again

 

 

How to make BIG MONEY in six seconds

I'm so not with it. I never heard of VINE until I saw this short video.

 

Scientific American: Saturn's newest ring "Mind-Bogglingly Big"

I didn't know they'd found a new ring, in 2009.

A giant ring around Saturn is even larger than thought, spanning an area of space nearly 7,000 times larger than Saturn itself, researchers say.

"It's fascinating that this ring can exist," Hamilton said. "We're told in science that planetary rings are small and close to their parent planets — if they're too far away from their planets, moons form rather than rings. This discovery just turns that idea on its head — the universe is a more interesting and surprising place than we thought."

Today is World Gin Day!

2nd UPDATE: Hallie has informed me that "It is also 'Knit in Public' Day"

UPDATE: Wall Street Journal gets into the spirit of things: How to (Seriously) Upgrade Your Gin and Tonic

Yay! Goes along with this posting from June 2nd,  Negroni week has kicked off! , since gin is in the Negroni. World Gin Day was started seven years ago.

World Gin Day

Founded by ginthusiast Yet Another Gin, and currently run by UK blogger and all round gin soak Gin Monkey, World Gin Day is a celebration of all things gin, giving us a legitimate excuse (not that we need one) to mix up a cocktail and learn about all of the exceptional gins that are currently on the market.

 

Disrespect for local culture ...

I'm sure these people were not deliberately out to be disrespectful ,but maybe a little educaiton and common sense about local feelings?

 

News Flash: Tim gets 1st (& hopefully last) tattoo

On the inner aspect of his left upper arm - no pictures of course - he'd not be happy.

Anyway it says in black lettering of some exotic font -

Learn from the past

Live for the present

Hope for the future

Not exactly Ignatian or Franciscan spirituality ...