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CAMA 2020: HURIWA Backs Oyedepo,Calls On FG To Expunge Obnoxious Provisions
August 23, 2020 August 23, 2020 Victor Oriola	6 Comments
A Statement by The Prominent Civil Rights Advocacy Group; Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) Tasking The Federal Government to Immediately Expunge Those Toxic Provisions in The Amendments To The Company and Allied Matters Act 2020 for Seeking To Disempower Non-Governmental Bodies and Churches so as To Shut Up Independent Voices and Opinions, Which is A Direct affront on Constitutional Democracy and A New Form of Dictatorship
It is reasonable and intuitive, within a liberal normative and institutional framework, to expect that human rights conditions would improve when a country makes the transition from authoritarian government to democratic rule.
In the Nigerian context, as the struggles of the people continue to unfold and as symbolized by the blood of those who died in the process, one of the obvious goals for which its people fought, was for the restoration of human rights (including civil, political, economic and social rights) previously repressed by military decrees.
Nonetheless, the goal has arguably not been optimally realized in the country which restored civil rule in 1999 after many years of military dictatorship but which has not shown as much progress as might be expected in positively altering its human rights standing.
Evidence from several local and international reports on the human rights situation in Nigeria indicate continuing human rights violations under a democratic constitution in which human rights guarantees (contained in the Constitution itself and international agreements that Nigeria signed onto) are prominently prioritized, at least on paper.
A more recent obstacle to the enjoyment of fundamental freedoms and human rights as encapsulated in the Nigerian Constitution and international agreements that Nigeria signed into, which includes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the African Charter and People's Rights is the amendments to the Company and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020, which forms the fulcrum of the statement.
On August 7, 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari assented to the Company and Allied Maters Act, 2020 (CAMA 2020), which repeals and replaces the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 1990. The controversial section 839 (1) and (2) provides that religious bodies and non-governmental organisations will be strictly regulated by the Registrar-General of Corporate Affairs Commission and a supervising minister.
The law also wields power to suspend the trustees of an association or a religious body and appoint an interim manager or managers to coordinate its affairs where it reasonably believes that there had been any misconduct or mismanagement, or where the affairs of the association are being run fraudulently or where it is necessary or desirable for the purpose of public interest.
It would be recalled that there was a public hearing conducted by the 8th National Assembly on the "Non- Governmental Organisations Bill tagged; 'Bill for an Act to Provide for the Establishment of the Non-Governmental Organisations Regulatory Commission for the Supervision, Co-ordination And Monitoring of Non- Governmental Organisations,' which was attended by CAN and many NGOs.
On the crest of the desire of the people, the bill that sought to bring the religious organisations and NGOs under the control and influence of the government was rejected because it would kill the church, but regrettably it is now smuggled into CAMA through ambush and making the rejected bill a law.
This is of utmost concern because the establishment of a church has a spiritual foundation and the invitation of a manager who obviously does not share the spiritual insight of the founders of the church would undermine the church, insidiously defeating its purpose. How can a secular and political minister be the final authority on the affairs and management of another institution which is not political?
Again, we discovered that CAC which will control Churches and NGOS has always been controlled by Hausa Fulani Moslem Northerners since inception. Even when Mrs. Azinge acted briefly, President Buhari brought up kangaroo charges of non-declaration of assets to unseat her so as to make way for the candidate of the Moslems, controlled from the Sultanate in Sokoto. How then can a non-Christian head of government ministry would be empowered to determine the running of the church as envisaged by the CAMA 2020.
We are worried that this amendment would lead to the revocation of licences of not only NGOs, but also religious bodies and other similar CSOs. It would also have disastrous consequences for the daily lives of ordinary Nigerians and to society more broadly.
OUR POSITION AND DEMANDS:
The amendment to CAMA is NGO Bill in disguise because what NASS failed to do before through the NGO Bill they have now achieved through the backdoor. Obviously, the legislative & regulatory agenda of the present NASS as illustrated in several of their proposed legislations appear to be aimed at attacking freedom of speech & civil space and to abrogate property & economic rights.
The clause in section 839 of CAMA which shows that an order of court is required to suspend the trustees of an NGO under that section the extant principles of Nigerian administrative law are adequate to ensure that the wrongful exercise of the regulatory powers of the CAC are brought under the supervisory control of the courts is misleading and deceptive owing to the sabotage and the undermining going on in our nation's judicial system. THE JUDICIARY HAS BEEN HIJACKED BY THE EXECUTIVE BECAUSE THE HEAD OF THE NIGERIAN JUDICIARY AND THE CHIEF JUSTICE OF NIGERIA WAS RAILROADED INTO OFFICE BY THE EXECUTIVE CONTROLLED CODE OF CONDUCT TRIBUNAL THROUGH AN EX PARTE ORDER WHICH ILLEGALLY UNSEATED THE THEN SUBSTANTIVE CJN WHO IS FROM CROSS RIVERS SOUTHERN NIGERIA AND REPLACED BY A JUDGE FROM HAUSA/FULANI. So this crippled judiciary can't guarantee fair hearing in the event that a case is lodged against any action of the government against any NGO deemed unsatisfactory under the controversial CAMA 2020.
While we are not against the government fighting corruption wherever it may be found as claimed by the proponents and supporters of the amendment, we completely reject the idea of bringing the church, which is technically grouped among the NGOs, under control of the government.
The church and the civil Society Organisations cannot be controlled by the government because of the spiritual responsibilities, obligations. Additionally, the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), which are often assumed to be institutions that facilitate communication between citizens and policymakers is only as effective as the space allowed by government, and so cannot be controlled by the government too in a third World Country whereby institutions are deliberately weakened by strong men in political offices.
Moreover, the Constitution of the Association usually contain provisions, which sanction these conducts, ascribing civil and sometimes criminal liability to erring trustees and which may result in the removal or replacement of the trustee. Why is the Government of Muhammadu Buhari codifying this position only to reinforce its statutory teeth to disempower Non-governmental bodies and Churches and to shut up independent opinions and voices.
Assenting to the CAMA 2020, which repealed the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 1990, despite its rejection at the public hearing is a declaration of war on Christianity and a further agenda to islamise Nigeria by another means and must be resisted by all means.
More so, the operational independence of plurality of voices in a democracy which these amendments to CAMA seek to undermine is tantamount to taking away the right to liberty and freedom and thus constitutes a huge obstacle to the enjoyment of fundamental freedoms and human rights as encapsulated in the Nigerian Constitution, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on civil and political rights and the African charter on HUMAN and people's rights.
In the Nigerian Constitution, two Chapters, spanning 26 (twenty six) sections are devoted to human rights subject and the right to personal liberty is one of the most central human rights.
Besides, Nigeria as a constitutional democracy, cannot be making a law that makes the executive arm of government far and above the other arms or segments of government when the grund norm envisaged a clear delineation or Separation of powers in section 4,5 and 6 of the Nigerian Constitution.
Therefore, the section 839 of the CAMA 2020 is a direct affront on constitutional democracy, aimed at attacking freedom of speech, civil space and abrogate property and economic rights. This is not different from the military takeover of government that has just happened in Mali. We wonder how President Buhari will be condemning the coup in Mali but happily staging a military or dictatorial coup against Churches and non-governmental bodies and CSOs.
HURIWA is totally in support of Rev. David Oyedepo and the organised body of Christians that opposed the amendments. We join our voices with theirs to task the federal government to immediately expunge those toxic provisions. We also urge Nigerians to institute multiple court cases to challenge these illegalities.
Just like CAN rightly noted; Nigeria should not be compared with any other nation when it comes to the relationship between the religious institutions and the government. In Nigeria, people's religions are tied to their humanity and of course, their life. How can the government sack the trustees of a church which it contributed no dime to establish? In other climes, bodies registered as charities enjoy some forms of funding support from public fund so such stringent rules on management are permissible but not the same position in Nigeria in which the Nigerian government has no role in the funding of non governmental bodies.
In Nigeria, there is a clear separation between church and state and it is strange for the government to enjoy the arbitrary powers to suo moto nominate trustees for organisations that are Non-Governmental because this is a direct injury to the operational independence of non-governmental groups and a way to kill the vibrancy of the civil society.
COMRADE EMMANUEL ONWUBIKO:
NATIONAL COORDINATOR.
Miss. Zainab Yusuf:
DIRECTOR; National Media Affairs.
HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA).
22nd/AUGUST/2020.
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Battlestar Wiki Podcast:The Hand of God
Podcast:The Hand of God
"The Hand of God" Podcast
[[Image:{{{image}}}|200px|The Hand of God]]
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Transcribed by: Carl Angoli
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Ronald D. Moore
Comedy Elements
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All contents are believed to be copyright by the speakers. Contents of this article may not be used under the Creative Commons license. This transcript is intended for nonprofit educational purposes. We believe that this falls under the scope of fair use. If the copyright holder objects to this use, please contact the transcriber(s) or site administrator Joe Beaudoin Jr. To view all the podcasts that have been transcribed, see the podcast project page.
1 Teaser
2 Act 1
Hello and welcome to the podcast of commentary on episode 10, "The Hand of God", on Battlestar Galactica. I'm Ronald D. Moore and I'll be your skipper and guide here for the next five days and four enchanting nights as we talk about The Hand of God.
This particular episode is one that remains virtually the same from the story outline onward. David Eick, the-my partner and the other executive producer on this show, often refer to this episode as 'The Big Mac' and 'The Big Mac' is what we tended to call it around the offices. 'The Big Mac' because it's sort of fast food - its like here's the guilty pleasure, let's go out and blow a lot of stuff up, let's have some fun, let's do a war story, let's sort of get back to the roots of what the show is about, which essentially is a combat series about an aircraft carrier in space and fighting its foes.
Part of the concept of this series overall was that we knew going in that we would not be able to - nor did we really want to - do a battle episode every single week. We knew right away that was not going to be economically viable for us - we simply couldn't have enough money to produce that week in/week out - with Vipers continually engaging the Cylon Raiders and etc., in a never-ending battle. And also, creatively, I never really wanted that to be the show. I always saw the show, as I've said many times before, as a drama first and an action-adventure series or science fiction series a distant second. So I always wanted to make the characters front and center. Which is in part one of the reasons why Laura Roslin was invented in the first place as long as we're- she's on the screen here.
The role of the President, as I have probably also mentioned before, I always thought was vital to the life of this series as opposed to the original series because I was always interested in playing a civilian versus military dynamic - the tension between those two and I thought also just given the sort of more realistic approach to the genre that we were going to take I knew that the President was going to have to have a role -a strong role - and that the political leadership of the survi- the remnants of humanity and the survivors of our rag-tag fleet was going to be a very important story and I wanted to play it and that it would have to be this way that you would have to have someone in charge of the government - we couldn't just have Adama week in and week out making these decisions for all these civilians.
This particular scene, with - obviously Laura's having hallucinations about snakes, which dovetails into our backstory and running subplot about her cancer and her hallucinations which are brought on by the drug that she's taking. This is also one of our press conference scenes - which to me was a way of sort of reinforcing the notion that Colonial One is our analog to Air Force One and that you sort of needed something larger than the Oval Office to sort of convey the White House as it were - I mean, we have sort of her office aboard Colonial One that we will see in a moment (or maybe we won't) and that was never really enough to convey sort of the power and the importance of the Presidency, so we came up with this idea of using the press conference because it's essentially such a familiar fixture in our day-to-day politics in the United States - the press conference, the press corps asking questions, the President standing behind the podium - it's such a familiar - the iconogra - the iconography of that is so familiar that it sort of reinforces this idea that she is the President over and over again.
To get back to the plot here for a second - Crashdown and Sharon are out hunting for Tylium fuel. Tylium fuel is lifted directly from the original Battlestar Galactica series. Unlike Star Trek and other futuristic sort of space operas, which sort of posit in Star Trek's case the Enterprise runs on matter/antimatter engines and there are books and reams of material and technical data that you can find that tell you exactly how the Enterprise engines work but essentially it's like this - the collision of matter and antimatter creates such an enormous release of energy that it drives the Enterprise forward.
The original Battlestar Galactica simply said that they had fuel. It was something called tylium fuel. And you had to find it, you had to refine it, and you had to put it in your gas tank to go. I liked that idea; I thought it was - it fit well within the sort of the retro-technology point of view that I was taking in this version of the series. So I kept it as opposed to simply giving the Colonials and the Cylons some vers - some variant of nuclear energy or again matter/antimatter or some out there sounding sort of space notions of what would drive these ships. Fuel is a good thing. I think it's a limitation; it's something that you can - you can run out of periodically, your supplies can be threatened, it gives you a need to go do things, ships have to be refueled; it's just sort of an interesting bit of texture in the series and it's sort of another way we tend to depart from what sort of has become the contemporary accepted conventions of science fiction. I think I've spoken about this sequence in previous podcasts but once again this is our upcoming shots of tonight's episode which is really an homage to Space: 1999. And I will save the rest of my comments back to the show to the other side of the main title.
Act 1, "Hand of God". "Hand of God", as I said at the outset, is virtually the same episode that we set out to tell at the very beginning. Which is somewhat of a rarity, and also something that is nice when it does happen.
This particular episode was written by David Weddle and Bradley Thompson, a team of writers that I worked with on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine during its last couple of years and two of the first people that I thought about bringing aboard Battlestar Galactica because I knew that their sensibility would match up quite well with what I wanted to do in the series. Bradley in particular has a vast (laughing) and interesting knowledge of military lore and and technical jargon and tactics and sort of shares the - his -shares my interest as an amateur historian in military issues and I knew he would be a great addition.
His partner, David Weddle, is very different than Bradley in many many ways, David's a writer for the - a sometimes writer for the L.A. Times, he has also written a fine, fine biography of Sam Peckinpah which I recommend to all my listeners, called If They Move, Kill Em, and he's appeared in a couple of documentaries about Peckinpah and is a movie - is somewhat of a movie historian himself. In any case, they came up with this story in response to the request of David Eick and I to come up with 'The Big Mac'; we need a combat show.
And as I think I started to say, the idea of combat in the series from the get-go, when I pitched it to the network originally, I was very clear that we not going to be fighting the Cylons continuously. We would probably encounter and have combat episodes every third or fourth episode roughly. Both for budgetary reasons and creative reasons. The creative reason was - I did not see how you ran into the Cylons every week and defeated them every week - which you kind of have to do in order to just keep the series moving forward - and still maintain the Cylons as this sort of frightening, unstoppable foe. This was a problem that I had run into in some ways before at the Star Trek franchise where there was an enemy known as the Borg, which was this cybernetic sort of half human or half organic and half synthetic creatures that assimilated -- cultures and they were essentially set up as the perfect unstoppable force that you could not reason with you could not talk to and you could not defeat and they would just keep coming. Well, the problem was they were so cool you kept going back to them and time after time the Enterprise would find a way to defeat them. So, eventually, the Borg sort of become somewhat toothless; they just sort of lose the scare factor because you beat them every week. I didn't want us to fall into the same trap here, so right from the get-go I made it very clear we were only going to do combat in small bursts, we were going to try to always keep it scary, our losses would be real, we were never going to really be cute about how we beat the Cylons, we were never going to really be pulling something out at the last minute - some virus inserted into their computers or anything like that. We would play it as real as we can given the parameters of dramatic television, of course.
This scene between Elosha and Laura is moving Laura Roslin along a path that sort of ties into the larger Battlestar Galactica mythos. Just as Tylium was something that was found in the Original Series, so was this idea that there was a larger mythos to Galactica. The original Galactica series began with this short prologue and the main title sequence voiced by Patrick Macnee which began 'There are those who believe that life here began out there' and he proceeded to talk about how that some people believe that the pyramids and the Mayan civilizations and other ruins of past civilizations on Earth were actually built or aided in some ways by ancient astronauts. This was an idea that was very current in the 1970s - Chariots of the Gods was a best-seller - In Search of, Leonard Nimoy explored the issue many times. So the idea that there were past visitors to Earth who were either human beings from some other part of the galaxy or were true aliens who came down and helped us - or influenced our development in some way shape or form - this is something that was built into the original series.
As I approached Galactica, the new version, I decided pretty early on that I wanted to keep that part of the mythos, I didn't want to play it too heavily up front in the mini-series or the first couple of episodes, because I felt it was more important to establish the characters, sink into the world, set up kind of a storytelling that we were doing, and really hook the audience into the show before we sort of start to introduce this more grandiose, mythological concepts. But it was very important so -- at this point in the series, in the latter episodes of the first season, you'll start to see more and more pieces of Laura, starting to realize there are connections - not just a connection between themselves and what they believe is the possibly mythical planet of Earth, but also that there is a larger story that was perhaps being told. There is a larger, more eternal tale that all of them are wrapped up in.
Leoben, the Cylon had referred to this with Kara in the episode "Flesh and Bone", there is a quote of the scripture that is used time and again called: 'All of this has happened before and all of this has happened again'. Which is a phrase that I have always been in love with because, if memory serves me correct - and I haven't actually pulled out the movie and checked this - but I believe it is the opening words of the Disney animated version of Peter Pan which I love the connection to and I thought it was just an elegant phrase; there's something really kinda nice about that. I mean, Peter Pan, and all that sorta symbolism about fantasy and reality and growing up sort of those sort of notions and I love that that's sort of part of their mythos and their scriptural belief that all of this has happened before and all of this has happened again. Which I think is marvelous.
Anyway, enough with the mythos, back to the hard core action of the show. This is the Big Board, as we called it. This came out of a creative - again a creative and budgetary problem, as so many sort of things in the show do. They sort of have both parents of budget and creative. How do you illustrate and dramatize to the audience a complicated military plan in space? I'd gone round these -round and round these sorts of ideas many times before - again, primarily at Star Trek, both NextGen and Deep Space 9 where occasionally we would do battles and we would have tactical plans that had to be elaborated to the audience and sort of ideas that had to be conveyed in somewhat succinct terms. And the conundrum you always find is that you never quite have enough money to just do it all in exterior space shots - and show all the movement of all the ships and set up all the geography correctly and see them going from A to B and this ship is over here and that base is there and we're trying to get over here. And it's confusing - even if you did have the money, it's all the ships against black, I mean, really unless you're like in the orbit of a planet or something, the backdrop in every single shot is the same starry blackness. And it's very hard to convey a sense of geography - that is, where ships are in relationship to one another, particularly when they're moving. So, you have that problem. Also, the other problem is that if you go with the more obvious answer to that, it's to simply do it all on a computer screen - to hand it over to the art department and your computer graphics people and visual effects and okay 'show me on a map, on some kind of flat 2-D surface that I can do a close-up insert shot of where the Galactica is, where the Vipers are, where the station is, where the Cylon Raiders are, show me how the plan's supposed to be, move all the dots from here to there, give me a red line between the Vipers and the Galatica that's moving' - you get into these long detailed technical discussions with various skilled artists who give you everything that you ask for. The problem is, when you get those on-screen schematic graphics, and you put them in your show, nine times out of ten, they don't make sense. Real graphics, if you look at real, usable, functional graphics as they would be in say an Aegis cruiser in the United States Navy trying to track multiple aircraft and ships and missiles and what have you in the Persian Gulf, say, it is a confusing jumble of symbols and iconography and notations and colors that makes perfect sense to the people who use it. And it looks really cool, but it doesn't tell you the story quickly and easily. And the trick in these kind of shows is to tell the story - you want to tell the audience what the plan is. You're not trying to sort of wow them with how technical you are and how close you're emulating sort of the technical reality of the show. You're trying to simply get across an easy story idea. The Cylons are there, we're coming from here, we're going to go over there, we're doing this other thing. So then you -- what ends up happening if you go down the computer graphics road is that you end up simplifying and simplifying and simplifying the graphic until it looks like something out of Fischer-Price where the Enterprise say is a bright yellow dot that's labeled Enterprise and moves in a very precise, straight way to some other dot that says 'Klingon Ship' and it's moving in a very easy to understand way and suddenly all of the interesting tactical movements are wiped away and you sort of fall in the cracks - you never quite have a way to convey a complicated battle in anything remotely resembling a satisfying manner. Which is why the most successful space battles are the kind of the simplest ones in space - generally. The Enterprise is being attacked by the Reliant in Star Trek 2 is essentially two ships going at each other. I'll be back.
Two ships going at each other - I'll come back to the I'm sure intriguing discussion of graphics and tactics in a moment. This scene is one of my favorites in the show and one of my favorites in the series. I love it for several reasons - there's the actors involved, who I adore, there's the material of it, and there's the continuity of it. The continuity element was something that is very important to me in the series; that is to maintain a sense of reality from show to show to say that events that happen in one show impact things that happen in the other show that we don't essentially push the reset button at the end of the episode and everybody's back exactly the way they were. On Galactica, we don't have a magical sickbay which sort of wipes away all your wounds and makes everything - makes your body just like it was at the beginning of the show. People have -- people suffer, people go through surgery, people have to go through rehab, like Starbuck does. And that the notion that Starbuck would sustain such a terrible knee injury that she - that actually, in her backstory, she had injured it once already - I don't know if we've ever said this in the series yet, but part of Starbuck's backstory is that she was a pyramid player - which is a physical game - again an homage to the original - it came to sort of a racketball/handball/basketball type game we haven't seen yet. She wanted to be a pyramid player, she blew out her knee, was not then - basically could not be scouted by the pros, her career was over or so she thought, and so she decided to become a Viper pilot. Sorry to back up - she was in the Academy - she had joined the Colonial Fleet Academy on some kind of athletic scholarship primarily to play pyramid and she saw it as a means to an ends when she was there she blew out her knee and had to find other employment and when she got in the cockpit or flew for the first time she realized she had found her true calling. In any case, someone with that kind of backstory who suffers another injury shouldn't just get up and walk away from it and I wanted to play out the ramifications and the impacts of that over the course of many episodes, and then the great thing was in this episode it gave us a chance to make her stay behind - make our best pilot stay behind when we have the big 'Big Mac' mission to go on.
Which gives us this lovely scene between Starbuck and Apollo where Starbuck calls her on the fact that she doesn't think he's up to the mission. Which I thought was really interesting; it wasn't just sort of the easy surface 'Attaboy, you can do it without me' and Lee saying 'Oh, come on, I'm not up to you and I wish you were with us' and each of them sort of golly-geeing the other one and holding their fears deep inside which is sort of the standard way you do these scenes. I like the fact that they're at each other again, that she really doesn't think he's up to it. That's what comes through. And that he's pissed about it, and he doesn't like it, he thinks he is up to it. Or at least wants a chance to prove it. I like the conflict of the two characters more than I like the sort of false and easy going camaraderie that is so often the case in these shows.
Cylon occupied Caprica - Origin- the only big change to happen in this show, really, and its development, really - originally this show was going - was slated to be episode 8 -excuse me, it was slated to be episode 9 - and it became episode 10. At the last minute I decided to split the two episodes in production order because I realized that the end of Flesh and Bone - where Leoben whispers into Laura Roslin's ear that (whispers) 'Adama is a Cylon' - was the perfect way to springboard us into the episode that was all about paranoia and all about who's a Cylon and could Adama be a Cylon? Which became "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down". So at the last minute, I pulled a fast one and sent everybody scrambling to sort of switch the order so that it could be episode ten, and that Tigh Me Up could be episode 9. The only thing that then had to change substantially in the two episodes was this Cylon occupied Caprica story. These were the scenes that were originally targeted to be in "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down" and then the scenes that you saw in "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down" - the scenes of them running through the sewers and Doral and Six walking down into the vast underground chamber - all those little pieces were originally going to be in "Hand of God", because would've been in episode 9. And these sequences would have all been in episode 10.
This - in this story, this is maybe the first hint that maybe something is up with Sharon, in case you haven't been paying attention. Helo doesn't see it because hey, he wasn't looking at the television monitor like you were. And this story is again is developing slowly over time, we've taken our time with it all season long. I think it's been a bit of a challenge to the traditional audience because they're very used to these episodes being -particularly science fiction in particular as being very standalone, very episodic, you don't have to see last week in order to understand this week. And I've been very pleased so far with the response of the audience and ratings - that the audience is willing to be patient, they are willing to invest themselves in a sci-fi show that asks its audience to remember things that happened, or if they missed last week's episode to at least take the leap of faith and get into it and not worry about the fact that they may have missed something.
This scene is an interesting scene between Adama and Lee. It's been interesting to sort of watch the evolution of their father/son dynamic since the Miniseries where it began -for those of you have seen the miniseries - and I'm sure all of you have - in the original miniseries, Lee has a huge chip on his shoulder vis-a-vis his father. His father has tremendous feelings of guilt and anger of his own - both, both relating to -- both of their feelings relating to the death of Adama's other son, Zak. And it took us a while to sort of move the relationship past that - in many ways, the death of Zak and the hard feelings between father and son over that really colored and defined their relationship for quite some time. What's good about this is that it's really a separate idea; it's really about Adama's belief or non-belief in his son -- and it's -- it's again, it's Lee realizing what the people around him think of him, which I think is an interesting way of going at this - that here's this handsome, heroic lead pilot character in the drama, who starts to realize that the people around him - his own father, his best friend - don't really think he's up to snuff, that his dad doesn't - thinks that he might not come back and gives him a lucky charm (laugh) to guide him back and to get him to kind of spunk him up and that Starbuck has to stand in rooms and sort of walk him through all the tactics. And it kinda - I think it's a weight that the character carries with him. And it's the determination - (right here) it's the determination in Lee that I think is most telling. He's tenacious, he is not somebody who gives up easily and I think that in probably throughout his life I think many people have underestimated Lee Adama.
And it's raining on the hangar deck - no it's not, we're back on Cylon-occupied Caprica. One of the things that became troublesome, of course, was the worry that the audience was going to get confused about where was Sharon? Which is Sharon? Why is Sharon on the planet? Why is she also on the battlestar? There were countless, countless, countless discussions of this idea - how to differentiate the two and the audience confusion factor was always something that was like uppermost in a lot of executive's minds. And, fortunately we overcame that and I think we split the difference and we were able to sort of compromise in a lot of areas that it was ok to compromise in to spell out the difference. This comes up just because she's beaten and sort of had some scarring going on which started to help differenterate-differentiate the two visually to the audience, which is always the sort of the fundamental idea. It's like OK at a glance you want to know this is not the same Sharon that you're watching back on the Galactica. Even if you don't know all the reasons why. And, I guess they're going to run and get on a horse and fly away. No they're not.
So here we go with the plan. I like that we didn't tell you everything that goes on in the tactical plan, that there are hidden secrets within it, some things that are hidden even from the President, which I think dramatically is interesting because it gives the audience a sense of fun and a sense of excitement and a sense that something could change at any moment. It's a bit of a trick, I mean, it's a writer's device to sort of lead you down a certain path; we've essentially told you what the plan was in very general terms, without spelling too much of it out, and now here you are, you're going to watch it unfold and you're expecting the Cylons to do something unexpected, you're expecting that the Cylons will pull something at the last minute, that they will act in a way that we don't anticipate, and you're--you the audience, are anticipating that in turn, and you're kind of looking forward to it and seeing how it happens. Now, what we did on top of that in this episode was then to also to bury the card of what will Galactica - what piece of the Galactica plan has not been conveyed to you the audience that either anticipates this Cylon unexpected maneuver or outmaneuvers it at the last minute. All of this is very conceptual and I'm not even sure if it is even remotely interesting to most of you in the audience. But, in essence, it's a way of constructing these dramatic scenes in such a way (coughs) that just as you feel familiar with where it's going - and you know as an audience member that certain twists are on the horizon - you still can enjoy it because we still have some legitimate surprises to come out later.
All of this, these sequences, of course, are very influenced by classic action movies, classic World War II movies, real life documentaries of the carrier war in the Pacific, and later to some extent to the Korean and Vietnam war, and even in the carrier -- carrier combat and aircraft - aircraft something, a word that I can't - I'm reaching for but can't find - (laughs) in the way the aircraft are detailed and put into battle in the present day.
Back to the table itself - the Big Board. As I was saying earlier, once you've eliminated the idea of doing everything in space shots and also that computer graphics are not going to help you too much we came up with this idea of let's go back to what some of the great World War II movies used to do. Which was based on something very real - these big boards of pieces, ships and troops, and maneuvering tactical units - putting them on a very big map and having people move them around with sticks is something that really happened in mostly in World War II and in earlier eras as a way of sort of seeing it visually. As human beings, we're very visually oriented, we like to see where all the pieces are. And in several classic Second World War movies like Sink the Bismark! or Tora! Tora! Tora! or even much much less a movie called Midway - about the Battle of Midway - they used these large boards. With ships. Labeled them, carrier task groups and where they are in relation to the different islands. And the idea of using that in our show was unique - as far as I know. I don't remember anybody else having done this exactly like this. Or even remotely like this. And we all got really excited about it and at first our notion was to be very real. Again, always is the underlying drive in our series is to be as real as possible. And the initial pieces we were sort of going to put on this board were like the real ones which were very nondescript - they were just essentially little blocks, little pieces of paper, or construction paper or little blocks that just had very simple designators on them - you know, just sort of dry words and carrier group numbers and that sort of thing. And what we found is that it wasn't going to be visually interesting at all. It just wasn't going to conve- again, it was getting kind of boring visually to the audience, and hard to understand. And the whole point of doing this was not just to be realistic, but also to be entertaining and also to tell the story. So I believe it was Richard Hudolin, who is our production designer -- simply suggests why don't we use little models. And it's such a simple idea and at first I kind of resisted it cause I thought it was a little hokey. It was so great and I was so glad he did it and I'm glad that we went for it because it makes this entire sequence work.
And we're back. Using the models on the table makes it work in a very real way. You look down, you see the Raptor, you know those are the Raptors. You see the Vipers. There's the Vipers. Here's the Cylons. Here's Galactica. It's so much - this is so easy to convey this idea. There. What's going on? The Vipers are heading back to Galactica. It would have cost quite a bit of money to do it in space. That's a simple shot. Cylons flip over, head away from those transports. That's great but if I cut to another shot of Vipers doing the same thing somewhere else you might be confused into the relative position of one another. But on the board, you get it. You get what's going on on the board.
Now coming up, of course, is another -- yet another little homage to the original Battlestar Galactica. Because there are many little homages to the original Battlestar Galactica. Contrary to the views of many of our detractors, who think that we spend our time dancing up and down on the grave of the original one. That we enjoy chances to put a stake through the heart of the old show. Actually, we're kinda -we're quite fond of the old show, we mean it no disrespect, and there are many fans of the original- in the visual effects department in particular - who delight in sprinkling our rag-tag fleet with models and ships from the original. And coming up is one of those original ships from the original Battlestar Galactica which was featured prominently virtually every week because it was one of their stock shots that they used over and over and over again- which -- not that we don't use stock shots over and over again but it was one of the more recognizable ships of their fleet. And there it is! I believe that was called the Colonial Movers. And it's hiding our Vipers. Which I think is such a cool gag - when the guys came up with this (helicopter noises) --this -- the -- I'm sorry, there's an aircraft going overhead - I am in my undisclosed location somewhere in the greater Los Angeles area - and they are looking for me constantly.
Anyway, this whole sequence is in large large measure has - is a salute to the efforts of everyone at Zoic and many other artists and artisans beyond Zoic who aided in this episode in our visual effects department. And Gary Hutzel - who is our Visual Effects Supervisor - who's just one of the key players on our team - and he - Gary -- the director and the writers worked very closely on all this. I - my rewrite - and I've said before that I do production rewrites (helicopter noise) - again the aircraft - the black helicopters are hunting me even as we speak -- I always do a rewrite and a pass through of scripts of varying degrees - this was the script I did the least of. I didn't do a huge rewrite on this episode -- it's really a salute to the writers and the director and Gary Hutzel how where this- how well this all works out. This is all very complicated material, this is all expensive material, we had to save our pennies and hoard our visual effects budget for quite a while to make all this work. What's nice about this sort of show and these episodes are all these other Viper pilots, I think, because you need to put faces to these other pilots to care about them and you'll recognize Kat is one of the faces you saw go by very briefly and Kat was one of the nuggets, one of the new pilots that Kara had trained way back in "Act of Contrition". Which again was -- is another nice little bit of continuity.
All of this -- all of this action is influenced very heavily by the way real pilots conduct tactical missions, coming in along the deck, how they respond and try to avoid and evade and sometimes not evade anti-aircraft fire. Certainly, these are all reminiscent of scenes we have all seen from shots of pilots over Baghdad in both Gulf Wars. We tried very hard to be as true to those tactics and those missions as we could. We couldn't do everything, there are certainly valid areas of criticism, I think, that a real pilot and a real military officers will bring to the series. And they do. And I think that's perfectly legitimate. We- as much as I want it to be a documentary-like series, it's not a documentary, it is a dramatic show and we try really hard to give it a sense of realness. It's a sense of realism that you want. You want to believe these things are really happening, even thought they're not. So we do strive and we have technical advisors and we strive every week to make these things feel like they're really happening. But in the end there are always compromises and always little things that don't quite work and I'll take the responsibility for all of that. A lot of -- there are things in this episode - some of the pilot jargon back and forth - some of the wireless transmissions between the pilots - that doesn't quite ring true, that the writers called me on. There are things I did in post-production just because I had to move the story forward and sometimes you make compromises on the fly because you don't have time to do anything else and later you go 'Oh, God, he really wouldn't have said that'. But, all that aside, I think this is in many ways this is a more successful and more exciting battle sequence than we had in the miniseries. I think it's visually interesting, I think the objectives and the tactics are more complicated than the miniseries. The miniseries battles were essentially 'There they are, they're coming at us, oh, let's try and get away'. This is go into a target, set up decoys, suppression fire on the anti-aircraft, and then we've got this. This is -- this is Apollo doing the Luke Skywalker gag. I mean, this is -- we talked about it. This is an homage, in some ways, to Star Wars. There's no doubt about that. It's go down into the trench go down into something and fly your Viper and do something hangin' it out there over the edge. Because the whole char-- and it's in service of a character thing; it's not not so much the plot device of how to destroy the Cylon base -- it's really a character gag. We wanted Lee to do something crazy. Like Kara would do. That was the whole point. Apollo doing really a Starbuck move to prove to himself and everyone else that he's capable of doing these kinds of things.
What I did tell Gary Hutzel on this run through the tunnel was I said make it look as difficult as possible but don't make it look impossible. I don't want it to be like the sequence in Return of the Jedi where the X-Wings, the Millennium Falcon go inside the battlestar -- the Death Star -- under construction. And you just don't believe for a second that they could really fly in it- that the tolerances are so tight and they have to move so quickly and there's just no way - you just know that they'd smash into the wall. So in that sequence you just watch. The Viper is not moving at an impossible speed, it's not moving in an impossible way and the tunnel is not so narrow that he could not have piloted through it. Given that it is a spaceship and not an aircraft -- so the fact that he could stop and do that -- see, that's all great stuff. This breaks this sort of language that you usually have in space opera, that ships move like aircraft or like naval vessels. I wanted the spaceships to move like spaceships which means they can stop, they can turn around, they can flip end over end, they can -- they are not bound by the same aerodynamic limitations that real aircraft are. They are spaceships, they are bounded by the laws of physics. So, Gary and Zoic worked very hard under that dictum and we often send shots back because we don't want them to look like planes in air we want them to look like spaceships in space. And for the most part I think we're quite successful at that. And I think what's interesting is that many times you see the spaceships moving like a fighter --like a traditional fighter -- and then it does something like you just saw where it stops, spins, turns, and goes the other direction. And it catches you completely off guard and it reminds you 'Oh, yeah these are spaceships'.
These kinds of scenes are interesting to me because these are the kinds of scenes I'm usually afraid of, frankly, in scripts. I'm usually afraid of the moment when you script the- 'and the crew gives out a cheer and everybody breaks into applause' -- because my experience is usually those moments fall flat and that usually it feels forced and phony and you don't really buy it. What's interesting in our show is whenever we've asked for one of those moments they have felt genuine and they have felt - I felt - an emotional release. And like this little bit here, this lovely bit between Laura and Starbuck, and she hugs her. I just love that. It moves me. It makes me feel these are real people. All these people feel like real -- all these characters feel like real people to me. And I think that's the key, is what we have tried so hard in the show is to convey a sense of realism so that you can accept these characters as flesh and blood human beings. And once you cross that threshold, then you share their victories and you cry in their defeats and this is one of those moments where you just believe it - you believe given this whole episode you've seen that they would need a release that they would actually celebrate. And that they would be happy and it doesn't just feel like forced frivolity to me, it feels like genuine release of emotion, which I think is the key.
What's also interesting about this little bit is that - the cigar. Y'know what, I don't care what the anti-smoking folks, the PC tobacco folks wanna say - I like it, we're gonna keep doing it. People smoke, they're human beings, it's their choice, let 'em. And I think it's a symbol -- in areas -- tok -- lighting up the stogie -- like many, many, many fighter pilots have beforehand and many will after in the moment of celebration and I think that's great.
And there's the lighter back to Dad.
It's a honest episode. It's a Big Mac, but sometimes Big Macs are really good and they taste really good. You just have to be sure that you make them well. And I think we made this one pretty well.
Now the coda to this, this little bit with Baltar and Six which we haven't talked on at all, also continues in his continuity, his movement through the show in a philosophical and religious sense to the point where he's starting to wonder what's going on. We've made all these connections and him as a rational, secular scientist has to look around him and realize that things are maybe are not what they seem, that much as much as he wants to deny the existence of God, and certainly the Cylon God, things do tend to work the way Six tells him. God's hand does seem to be in play in many ways in this episode. And in the series. And what does that say? What does that say to Gaius Baltar, the skeptic and secularist, what does it say to him. How does he start to put this all together? In his mind, as evidence piles atop evidence, that perhaps there is a God and perhaps it is her God, perhaps he has been visited by not just a chip in his head, or by a subconscious psychotic break, but perhaps God is speaking to him in some bizarre way. And where will that take him? Where will it take him by the end of the series is a fascinating question and one that myself and the other writers are enjoying exploring at this very moment.
I think, --yeah, we're getting ready for the close of the episode, and we are moving to one of my favorite shots in the series, I have favorite moments and character bits, and then there is this shot, which I believe is actually David Eick's idea. David spends far more time on the actual set than I do. He's in Canada far more than I am, I sort of bounce back and forth between the L.A. writers office and post-production is down here and the Vancouver shooting stages. And David up there much more. He's directly - sitting next to the director many times. And this upcoming shot where we end the episode, I believe, was David's idea. And as soon as I saw it, I fell on the floor laughing and just loving it. This. (laughs) You gotta love that.
Well, thank you ladies and gentlemen, and I will be talking to you again on "Colonial Day".
Battlestar Galactica (Re-Imagined) Season 1 (2004-2005) Podcast List
33 | Water | Bastille Day | Act of Contrition | You Can't Go Home Again | Six Degrees of Separation | Flesh and Bone | Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down | The Hand of God | Colonial Day | Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I | Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II | Next Season >
Retrieved from "https://en.battlestarwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Podcast:The_Hand_of_God&oldid=150497"
Podcasts (Episodes)
Podcasts (Season 1)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
layout: post
title: Unleashing Akka Stream Extensions
---

Today, we are proud to release this opensource library extending the very promising & already great [Typesafe Akka-Stream](http://doc.akka.io/docs/akka-stream-and-http-experimental/1.0-RC1/scala.html?_ga=1.42749861.1204922152.1421451776).

For the impatient, if you want to use it immediately, let's go to our [QuickStart](/akka-stream-extensions/quickstart/)

## Introduction

Our main purpose in this project is:

1. to gather generic structures, low-level or higher-level built on top of existing Akka-Stream `Sources`/`Flows`/`Sinks`, well tested, production ready that can be reused in your projects

2. to study/evaluate bleeding-edge concepts based on Akka-Stream

At [MfgLabs](http://mfglabs.com), we have been developing this library for our production projects because we have identified a few primitives that were common to many use-cases, not provided by Akka-Stream out of the box and not so easy to implement in a robust way.

We thank [MfgLabs](http://mfglabs.com) for accepting to opensource this library under [Apache V2](http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.html) but we believe it can be very useful & interesting to many people and we are sure some will help us debug & build more useful structures.

> So don't hesitate to [contribute](/akka-stream-extensions/contributing/)

## What's provided?

TODO

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Watch Performances by Beyoncé & JAY-Z, D'banj, Cassper, Ed Sheeran, Wizkid at Global Citizen Festival SA
The Global Citizen Festival hosted in Johannesburg South Africa has just concluded today Sunday, 2nd December 2018 at the FNB Stadium.
For those that missed the livestream of the show, the show saw performances from top foreign and African Artiste, In the event where artiste like, Beyoncé & JAY-Z, Cassper Nyovest, D'banj, Ed Sheeran, Eddie Vedder, Kacey Musgraves, Femi Kuti, Pharrell Williams & Chris Martin, Sho Madjozi, Tiwa Savage, Usher, and Wizkid who performed their top songs.
Watch video performances from your favourite artistes below and don't forget to share.
D'Banj
Global Citizen Festival
Tiwa Savage
Beyonce's New Album features Wizkid, Yemi Alade, Burna Boy, Tiwa Savage, Mr Eazi, Tekno +Tracklist
Happy Birthday Starboy Wizkid || Drop Your Wishes In Here


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Home » Studios » London's film Studios » Garden Studios, Park Royal
At the end of 2020 a surprise announcement was made about a new studio centre which opened in the spring of 2021. The scheme has been funded by Arts Alliance Ventures – a very successful investment firm that specialises in supporting arts-related businesses.
The Garden Studios occupy some industrial units in Waxlow Road, Park Royal. They contain 3 sound stages and a specialised Virtual Production stage – which opened late in 2020. There are also workshops, green rooms, technical facilities, offices and further shooting spaces.
The sound stages are as follows – Stage 1: 23,350 sq ft; Stage 2: 11,745 sq ft; Stage 3: 5,230 sq ft; Virtual Production Stage: 4,800 sq ft. The stages have a grid height of a useful 10.2 metres.
The Virtual Production Stage – surrounded by high-res LED screens enabling scenes to be shot on computer-generated sets. The advantage of this technique over green screen is that the light generated by the screens reflects off the actors in a realistic fashion, enhancing the believability of the final image.
Garden Studios are located over three campuses in Park Royal. 'Iris Campus' contains stages 1, 2 and 3 plus dressing rooms, green rooms etc. 'Townsend Campus' contains the Virtual Production Stage and 6,900 sq ft of workshop space. 'Orchid Campus' has 16,000 sq ft of workshop space, 10,500 sq ft of offices and two further shooting spaces – one at 9,000 sq ft and the other at 31,000 sq ft.
In September 2021 they announced further expansion. A 95,000 sq ft site called the Lily Campus was about to open. This contains serviced production offices. The Townsend Campus has also had hair, make-up and costume facilities added.
The studios have formed a partnership with MetFilm school – training is an important part of their remit, as is sustainability. Companies already linked with the project include Procam and Take 2 Films. They have said they will be using local suppliers as much as possible – which is relatively easy for them as a number of scenery construction, prop hire and lighting hire companies are located in the area. The studios are aimed at the TV drama market and according to reports, they have been busy since they opened.
PreviousTroubadour Meridian Water Studios, Edmonton
NextFarnborough Studios


Iran's Islamic unity center issued a message calling for tribute to mosques condemning any desecrating move towards holy sites.
Recent message issued by the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought, has hailed 21st of August as the beginning day of Mosque's Week calling all to defend Al Aqsa Mosque and all sacred sites, reported Taqrib News Agency (TNA).
The message referred to the 2003 conference by the Organization of the Islamic cooperation (OIC) titled "Unity and Honor" highlighting the importance of mosques.
Referring to the beginning of Mosques Week from 21st of August, anniversary of the arson attack against Al Aqsa Mosque, the message called the day as an anniversary of the brutality of the Zionist regime against Islam and the whole humanity.
World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought has called mosques as the key to honor and unity of Muslims stressing that destruction of mosques aim at dispersing Muslims; therefore, we have to make the best of the World Week of Mosques and struggle for defending our sanctities as well as defending our honor and solidarity.


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https://sputniknews.com/20181124/usa-court-malaysia-mh370-lawsuit-1070085585.html
US Court Rejects Lawsuit Over Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - A US judge rejected a lawsuit filed against Boeing, Allianz SE and Malaysia Airlines for the 2014 disappearance of flight MH370. 24.11.2018, Sputnik International
https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/101920/11/1019201159_0:0:0:0_1920x0_80_0_0_245ef620344a7d985fe095ac86044ef3.jpg
https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/101920/11/1019201169_0:0:0:0_1920x0_80_0_0_8bc2ca4160537e4de8e4281eaaa5722a.jpg
newsfeed, us, malaysia, mh370
© AFP 2023 / Asit KumarBeachgoers walk past a sand sculpture made by Indian sand artist Sudersan Pattnaik with a message of prayers for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370
© AFP 2023 / Asit Kumar
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - A US judge rejected a lawsuit filed against Boeing, Allianz SE and Malaysia Airlines for the 2014 disappearance of flight MH370.
"This case is about the unexplained disappearance of a passenger plane operated by Malaysia Airlines as part of its national air carrier fleet following its departure from a Malaysian airport," Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson said in the document as quoted by New Zealand's Newshub.com on Friday. "Litigation in the United States related to the Flight MH370 disaster is inconvenient."
Pilot Claims MH370 Crew Didn't Have Time to Save Plane From Fire – Report
23 November 2018, 16:43 GMT
The 61-page ruling came in a response to a lawsuit filed on behalf of more than 100 MH370 victims seeking to hold the airline, insurer and manufacturer involved accountable.
Flight MH370, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, disappeared from radars on March 8, 2014, less than an hour after takeoff. There were 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board the aircraft.
So far, several pieces of debris believed to have come from the aircraft have been found at different locations, including Mozambique, South Africa and the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean.
READ MORE: Pundit Claims Google Maps Lead on Missing MH370 Flight Might Be Result of a Hack


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Castle RECAP 2/25/13: Season 5 Episode 16 "Hunt"
BY Dorothy Gale on February 25, 2013 | Comments: Leave Comments
Related : Castle, Recap, Television
Tonight on ABC their hit crime drama CASTLE returns with a new episode called "Hunt." On tonight's show Castle learns that Alexis' kidnapping could be part of an even more sinister agenda. Did you watch last week's episode? We did and we recapped it here for you!
On last week's show in the first of a two-episode story arc, Castle & Beckett began a murder investigation that also exposed a plot to kidnap the daughter of a wealthy Middle Eastern businessman. Dylan Walsh ("Nip/Tuck") guest starred as FBI Agent Harris, an even-keeled professional brought in to help find the kidnappers.
On tonight's show in the powerful conclusion of a two-episode story arc, when the FBI fails to get his daughter back, Castle takes matters into his own hands, reaching out to a shadowy fixer to help him recover Alexis. But Castle soon learns that his daughter's kidnapping may be part of an even more sinister agenda.
Guest Cast on tonight's show, James Brolin as Castle's dad, Dylan Walsh as FBI Agent Harris, Christopher Heyerdahl as Jacque Henri, Nestor Serrano as Gregory Volkov.
Tonight's episode is going to be great and you won't want to miss it. So be sure to tune in for our live coverage of ABC's Castle tonight at 10 PM EST! While you wait for our recap, hit the comments and let us know what your think of Castle season 5, so far? Enjoy some pics and a sneak peek video of tonight's episode below!
RECAP: Castle knows his daughter is in Paris and wants to know why, he's being told that they need to follow certain protocol and be patient if he wants to find Alexis. Castle reveals to Becket that Alexis sounded very scared and there was nothing he could do. There is a ransom demand, 15 million Euro. The drop is arranged, Al-Mazri pays the demand, but only Sara is let go, not Alexis.
Esposito and Becket are trying to look for clues, but the come up with nothing. Becket heads over to Castle's house and finds Martha, he never returned home and his passport is gone, Castle is in Paris and he is taking matters into his own hands.
Becket decides that she is not going after Castle because she doesn't have jurisdiction there and she needs to think like a cop.
Castle meets up with Gaston, the secretary of the Minister of Defense that appears to be an old friend. Castle begs Gaston for help, no matter the cost, Gaston tells him to stay by phone.
Becket and Esposito try to track down the plane that flew Sara and Alexis to Paris. Meanwhile, Castle gets a message on his phone to meet someone at a church who escorts him through a passage way to meet with some guy who analyzes Castle's cell phone call from Alexis. The guy thinks he may have found her location from the sounds, they are like fingerprints and no two are alike.
Becket locates the guy who was hired to kidnap the girls, but someone got to him first and he is gone. They find a computer and she tells Esposito to get it to tech.
Castle and his hired help, Henri, may just have found Alexis, they are all together and go into the building where they think she is located based on that call she made to Castle.
Castle finds a strand of hair, he knows it belongs to Alexis, but it is gone. Whoever is behind the kidnapping has intelligence training, they find a bugging device and the guy Castle hired basically threatens the kidnappers into giving Alexia up or he is going to go after them. The phone rings, the kidnappers want to talk.
Henri is back, Alexis is safe and he has a photo of her with a current newspaper to prove it. The kidnappers will let her go, but they want more money.
Back at home, Becket has figured out that Alexis was not in the wrong place at the wrong time, she was actually the target and Castle is in danger.
Castle is at the drop with Henri who turns on him. Castle is drug to his knees and just as these masked bad guys are about to shoot him, he hears shots and they all fall down by some stranger named Jackson who then shoots Castle's phone as he is speaking to Becket who manages to tell him that Alexis was the target, the guy tells Castle to get in the car.
Castle is taken to an apartment, where he sees lots of pictures of Alexis on the wall. A phone rings, it is a clone of Castle's phone and a guy on the other end admits that he has Alexis. Ok, this is getting weird, it turns out that Jackson is Castle's father and he screwed up some job, so the bad guys know that Alexis is his granddaughter and want to trade her life for Jackson's life. It turns out that Jackson is an intelligence spy and explains that what he does means no communication with his family, but he has been watching them their whole lives. Jackson reveals that the guy who kidnapped Alexis is from the KGB. Jackson and Castle work together to figure out how they can storm the compound and save Alexis before the drop.
Castle gets inside the compound and he finds Alexis who is in a cage just when the kidnapper walks in armed. The kidnapper gives Jackson ten seconds to give up just when explosions start to go off and both Alexis and Castle just keep running until they reach the US Embassy.
The two make it out safely and home to Martha and Becket who are thrilled to see them. Castle receives a package that arrived for him earlier in the day, it is a book, Casino Royale that his father sent him. Castle then tells Martha, that he has something to tell her.


The organic RAWBITE Cashew bar just for nut lovers. The soft texture and mild taste is guaranteed to satisfy your hunger and will provide you with the necessary energy to stay focused during the day. In addition, it provides constant energy with a delicious taste.
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May contain occasional nut shells and fruit pit.


Technology plays a key role in developing our learners' literacy skills. We use state of the art resources, like our Immersive Technology room (Holodeck), and our TV and Radio Studios. Our Assistive Technology Department provides outstanding support to learners with sensory and physical impairments, for example Eye Gaze technology.
The Welsh Government's National Literacy and Numeracy Framework (LNF) sets out the national priorities for raising standards. At Ysgol Y Deri, all pupils up to and including Key Stage 3 are taught literacy throughout the curriculum, using a thematic, topic-based approach to learning. Once pupils reach Key Stage 4 they start a range of accredited courses. These courses enable them to continue to develop their literacy skills, and to use them in everyday situations.
· A well-stocked, attractive and comfortable library.
· A huge collection of story sacks for our younger and lower ability readers.
· Reading interventions delivered by specialist reading co-ordinators: Uffculme to develop visual discrimination skills, and SPARKS – our own bespoke programme of phonics and letters.
· A huge collection of levelled reading books.
· Daily class reading sessions.
· Engaging online and iPad reading and writing programmes.
· A central bank of literacy resources.
· Pupils with writing difficulties supported by our Occupational Health team.
· Emergent writers engaged through Write Dance.
· A school team who are committed to developing pupils' literacy skills throughout their school career and beyond.


Bafta TV Awards 2018 - what are the Must See Moment nominations and can I still vote for the winner?
Bafta TV Awards 2018 – what are the Must See Moment nominations and can I still vote for the winner?
BAFTA TV Awards 2018 are happening TONIGHT, and the Must See Moments is a special category voted for by YOU.
What are the Must See Moment nominations for the Bafta TV Awards?
ITV2 Love Island - Stormzy Makes a Surprise Appearance: As Kem, Chris and Marcel rehearsed their rap for the talent show, the TV screen in the lounge switched over to reveal Stormzy on a live video call.
Sky Atlantic Game of Thrones - Viserion is Killed by the Night King: A White Walker lieutenant hands a giant ice spear to the Night King. Taking aim, he hurls it skyward, striking Viserion in the throat.
BBC One Doctor Who - The Thirteenth Doctor Revealed: A mysterious hooded figure walks through a wooded glade. The hood is pulled back to reveal Jodie Whittaker as the thirteenth Doctor.
BBC One Love Manchester - Ariana Grande Sings One Last Time: The June 2017 concert was organised after the terrorist bombing attack at an Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena two weeks earlier. The show ended with Ariana singing One Last Time while her fans sang along with her.
BBC One Blue Planet II - Mother Pilot Whale Grieves: A whale was filmed carrying her dead newborn baby around the ocean for days, reluctant to let go. Sir David Attenborough suggested that the calf could have been poisoned by its mother's milk, contaminated by the flow of plastics and industrial pollution into the ocean.
BBC One Line of Duty - Huntley's Narrow Escape: DCI Huntley suspects Tim Ifield and turns up at his house at night. A row breaks out and Huntley hits her head on a table and lies unconscious on the floor but wakes up before she is about to be chopped up with a chainsaw.
How do I vote for the Must See Moment Award?
The public could vote for their favourite Must See Moment at virginmedia.com/bafta - this also included the opportunity to enter a prize draw to win tickets to the event.
Virgin TV customers could vote through their television, via their TiVo or V6 box.
Voting closed May 1, 2018 at 5pm.
When are the Bafta TV Awards 2018 and who will be hosting?
The British Academy Television Awards will take place TONIGHT, Sunday May 13, 2018.
The big event will be hosted by Sue Perkins.
It is Sue's second year in charge of proceedings.
The awards ceremony takes place at the Royal Festival Hall on London's Southbank.


This website is filled with my research on the families of my husband and I. Information I have gathered throughout the years. My husband and I stop and research our families on many trips throughout the USA and abroad.
Search first by surname and then by individual name from there. You can also click on the family members listed on each individual.
This website was started in September of 2016 and will be added to as time allows and information is found.


Hai Isi Mein Pyar Ki Abhroo Lyrics and Translation: Let's Learn Urdu-Hindi - Mr. & Mrs. 55 - Classic Bollywood Revisited!
Mala Sinha experiences the pain of rejection in Anpadh (1962) from her husband Dharmendra due to her illiteracy.
As a sequel to our previous post on "aap ki nazaro.n samjhaa," I have provided an English translation and glossary for another memorable ghazal from Anpadh (1962): "hai isii me.n pyaar kii aabhruu." As a quick refresher, Anpadh narrates the story of a wealthy but illiterate woman (played by Mala Sinha) who is married off to an educated gentleman (played by Dharmendra). When Dharmendra asks Mala to recite a poem for him for her on their wedding night, she is compelled to reveal her darkest secret: her parents never taught her how to read or write. After hearing this, Dharmendra is furious that his parents lured into arranging his marriage to an uneducated woman because of the large dowry. As he spurns Mala for her lack of education, she expresses her sadness through this song, which was composed by Madan Mohan and penned by Raja Mehndi Ali Khan.
I'll be the first to admit that these lyrics are a tad excessive in the drama department, but this is exactly the kind of song that you need when you're in the mood to wallow. The essence of heartache is and the pain of rejection are illustrated beautifully in these words, so listening to a song like this can really hit the spot when you're love-sick and need to get that sulking out of your system. Although one can find beauty in the lyrics, it is difficult to overlook that this ghazal also carries an underlying subtext of misogyny that reflects societal attitudes of the time. Take, for instance, the mukhDaa where Mala proclaims that she finds pride in her beloved's cruelty: "hai isii me.n pyaar kii aabhruu / wah jafaa kare, mai.n vafaa karuu.n" (In this, I find the pride of love: he is cruel to me, yet I remain faithful to him). You won't (and shouldn't!) find such a line sung by the heroines in the Bollywood industry today.
Even if the lyrics for this song are too much for you to handle, I am certain that you can appreciate this song for its musical value. Madan Mohan has composed an evergreen melody that tugs at your heartstrings, and Lata Mangeshkar pulls through with a winning rendition. As an aside, I thought that I would share an alternate version of this song rendered by Madan Mohan himself using a different tune. This alternate melody was not used in the film, and I am guessing that was because it sounds too happy to suit the melancholic nature of these lyrics. Take a listen to both versions for yourself, and enjoy the translation and glossary that we have provided below! Requests for future posts, as always, should be e-mailed to themrandmrs55@gmail.com.
The intensity of Mala's pain depicted in this song highlights the urgency of Anpadh's message about the need educate Indian girls.
He is cruel to me, yet I remain faithful to him.
It now dictates my actions.
Because it is something given to me by him.
ise kaise dil se judaa karuu.n?
how shall I separate it from my heart?
And I am the night that cannot end.
That I shall burn here like a candle.
Nor am I the object of anyone's glances.
I am that flower which is wilted.
na bahaar aaye to kyaa karuu.n?
If the spring does not arrive, what shall I do?
In this, I find the pride of love.
aabhruu: pride; jafaa: cruelty; vafaa: loyalty, love; aziiz: dear; judaa: separate; khatm: end; nasiib: destiny, fate; shamma: candle; aarzuu: desire; justajuu: quest, search; udaas: sullen, wilted.
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Those are lovely lyrics….though the sentiment is, as u said, kind of questionable, to love persistently and unequivocally, despite the other parties cruel treatment… there appears to be a lot of this kind of thing in Urdu poetry across the gender divide… but definitely, the idea of a woman suffering and pining away, faithful to her one love, despite his rejection and cruelty, is something that would appeal to 50's and 60's moviegoers sensibilities. Mr. 55, u sound pretty unhappy : / ……or maybe u've made a general sort of statement in prescribing this song as a means of getting that "sulking out of your system". If it's the former I really hope u feel better soon.
Raja Mehdi Ali Khan's lyrics.


Tahini. Otherwise known as that one ingredient stopping you from making the homemade hummus recipe you found on Pinterest. If it weren't for instagram, I don't know if I'd know what it was or know what to do with it. So I wanted to share more about it, and some delicious recipes (that aren't just hummus) from fellow food blogger lady friends.
Okay first, texture. Think of a nut butter (peanut, almond, etc.), but instead of ground nuts, it's ground sesame seeds. It's less thick too, and has a slightly bitter aftertaste. This makes it perfect to pair with citrus, creamy, or sweet flavors.
It's sold at most grocery stores, and an article by Bon Apetit recommends Soom or 365 by Whole Foods as the best tahini brands. I don't know about you, but I trust 'em. The tahini pictured above is one I got from Sprout's and is garlic flavored, making it great for sauces, dressings, and hummus (not so much sweets).
So I spent some time going to some friend's blogs, searching tahini, and seeing what I could find. I think I hit the jackpot. Happy cooking (with tahini of course).
I wanted to start off with a baked good just in case you only thought tahini was good for savory dishes. Again, it has a nut-butter-like consistency, so it's a great option for baking. Plus, just look at those chocolate chips and sea salt flakes. To. die. for. Find the full recipe here.
Vegan pasta sauces can get pricey quickly. Cashews. They're delicious, but not a staple on my weekly grocery list. Using tahini along with olive oil, almond milk, and some other delicious ingredients, you can make a great pasta sauce. Plus, when all you have to do is blend, without timely soaking, how can you say no? Recipe here!
Fudge. As in fuuuuudge yeah. Okay I'm done with that, not with these. Tahini is responsible for the beautiful swirly design on top, and for balancing the sweet taste of the chocolate chips. Haley is one of my favorite food bloggers, so check out this recipe of hers, the rest of her blog, and be on the lookout for her cookbook coming out soon!
Tahini as a dressing is one of my favorite ways to use it. When blended with lemon and garlic in any which way, it makes for a flavorful and creamy topping. Plus, it looks pretty drizzled on top. This recipe is from one of the flyest momma, Sammy. Check it out in her caption here.
I asked some local Philly ladies if they had a favorite way to use tahini, and Annie told me that Goldie's Falafel restaurant makes a tahini shake. When I googled it, I found more local Philly peeps who recreated it! Blended with dates, cinnamon, and almond milk, it sounds pretty awesome to me. Find 'ze recipe over hereeee.
Finally, a hummus recipe. But I couldn't just give you the typical recipe, because you can google that. Here is a carrot hummus, which is perfect for fall and adds a little pizzazz to the normal hummus routine. Grab your pita and veggies and get dippin'. But first, go here for the recipe.
How many hummus recipes are too much? The limit does not exist. And while we're on a Mean Girls kick, here's one that's Wednesday-friendly. Beet hummus is chock FULL of nutrients, antioxidants, and makes a beautiful pink dip or spread. Find the simple and tasty recipe here.
Bethany is one of the 2 faces behind the Athletic Avocado blog, and I'm lucky to be able to call her a fellow classmate as we make our way through grad school. She always keeps me laughing, and keeps me stocked with all the foods. I appreciate it. I also appreciate her making these tahini muffins so I can share with you guys.
So you may be like, okay but what's the point? And to that I'd say, scroll up and take a gander at the fudge. That's the point. But also, know that tahini is a great source of omega 3's. Omega 3's are pretty awesome, can help reduce inflammation, and are great for heart health. Most of us don't get enough of them in a given day, and foods like fish and olive oil are great sources. And yes, you guessed it. So is tahini. Find out more about chronic inflammation here from RD, Jillian Greaves!
I hope you leave with a little more knowledge about tahini! I can't promise it'll get you any further in life, but I can promise you a happy belly by making any of these recipes. Keep your eyes peeled for more articles like these that explain the not-so-common ingredients, with some simple recipes you can try on your own! Thanks for reading.
First off, What is Dietitian Spotlight?
Welcome to the first #DietitianSpotlight in a little series I've been wanting to share for a while. After feeling uninspired by posting yogurt bowls all the time, noticing my own search history ("unique jobs in nutrition," "fulfilling jobs as a dietitian," you get the point), and wishing I could take every dietitian on a coffee date to learn more about them and their passions, this is what came out of it! I'm hoping it can help fellow #RDs2Be, and can be a fun behind-the-scenes thing for those who aren't. If you're really interested in a certain area of dietetics, let me know. Okay without further ado, let's learn more about Katie.
Well, let's just say we're starting off with a bang. I don't think there's an area in nutrition Katie hasn't been a part of, and she's been the driving force behind so much change in this field. I originally reached out to her because like almost every other dietitian-to-be, I was set on sports dietetics. Katie is the dietitian for the Philadelphia Phillies so I thought I was going to learn all about that. Little did I know, Katie would be the largest influence on me to stay in this field when I questioned it, and one of my biggest role models.
I remember shadowing her, and it being the first time I heard someone speak to clients like that. Instead of shaming them, she brought compassion and empathy. She was the first person to show me that you can be a dietitian without robotically telling people what they must eat. Every client raved about how much fun they had with her and all the things they learned throughout their session.
The warmth of her heart is contagious, her passion for nutrition is exciting, and her humility is something that sets her apart. Okay, she is my boss, how much of a brown-noser can I be? Haha, just kidding. But I do feel lucky to know her, so I'mma quit my babbling and let her take it away.
What attracted to the nutrition field?
My interest in nutrition began with a nearly 2 decade gymnastics career and a not so healthy relationship with myself or food that was, in part, healed by time spent traveling and playing in the kitchen where I learned to embrace what I like to call, "Food Gratitude." My nutrition career has offered me the opportunity to connect with and support so many people. While I started out as a clinical dietitian, I've had my own business for over ten years. This has offered me the opportunity to explore a variety of adventures from running my own meal delivery service and café to supporting the Philadelphia School Districts school lunch program. I've been the Philadelphia Phillies Dietitian for 9 years and I'm the nutrition advisor for a local breast cancer organization. I work with private clients as well as brands to support their nutrition programs. I'm passionate about nutrition communications, wellness and recipe development and I blog at Nourish.Breathe.Thrive. Recently, my spar with chronic illness gave me the opportunity to find new ways to pursue well-being, for myself and those that I work with. My healing journey inspired me to dive deeper into yoga and to become a reiki practitioner as these holistic modalities have helped me immensely.
It's my passion to help people disarm their fears around food and being well and to instead, help them create joyful eating (and life) experiences from the inside out. Wellness begins with positive messages of self-love, self-respect. We can all use more of that. I try not to subscribe to ONE counseling philosophy because I truly believe that nutrition and wellness ARE NOT one-size-fits all. I encourage my clients to trust themselves. To listen. They are only person that truly knows what is right for them. I celebrate whole foods, positive intentions, intuitive eating and moving and our need for simplicity in messages and in life.
What is one skill, not learned in school, that you feel is important to possess?
Great question. It's so important to connect with our clients in an authentic way. This happens when we are able to listen with intention. We can't save or fix anyone but we can hold space for them to find their own answers and guide them with offerings and supports along the way.
What advice do you have for nutrition students?
It's just as important to understand the things that don't speak to us as those that do. School will provide you with a vast base of knowledge that you can ultimately sort through to find a path that is right for you. It's so valuable to have this foundation and the RD credentials which open up doors for career opportunities and bolsters your ability to truly help others. If you get overwhelmed and feel like the end goal is super far in the distance, just breathe and remember, you are already on your way. One step in front of the other. Trust (and enjoy) the process.
Okay last one. What's Your Favorite Kitchen Gadget?
Either my hands or my microplane. I am not really a gadget person as I love to cook with my hands – the tactile experience is really important to me. I teach my clients to engage all of their senses in the cooking process (joy!) and getting our hands messy is one way to do this. My microplane though, I love it so much I keep one in my car's glove compartment for in home cooking classes. I use it to add zest, cheese, spices and of course, chocolate. Chocolate on everything. A little goes a long way with your microplane!
Thank you Katie for taking the time to answer these questions! I hope you guys found it as valuable as I did 🙂 Remember to check her out on social (blog + insta), and let me know any other specific fields you're interested in learning more about.
Hmm.. these aren't too realistic for me. Imagine chewing each bite of a peanut butter sandwich 25 times. Or I'm thinking about eating the yogurt I had last night in class with chopsticks. Or having the option to eat lunch with a friend but declining because you MUST clear myself from all distractions!!
Even the more sound tips can be difficult because most of us don't live in a ~zen~ room all day where we can practice them. Sometimes we have to eat while taking that call, while standing up, or while running to the next meeting.
So I wanted to share some mindful eating practices for the peeps living in 2018. We've got phones, the internet, social media, distractions and thangs. to. DO. But we can also find ways to be more in tune with ourselves to make eating more enjoyable and make our bodies feel good.
First, what are the Barriers to Mindful Eating?
Going long periods of time without a meal or snack: this one is important. Between fasting and dieting, it's easy to go long stretches without any fuel. This makes it extremely difficult to eat in a normal way where you can listen to body cues (relatively to you, not Joe Shmo on the internet) when your body feels like it's being starved.
Food rules: When your body is craving carbohydrates, listen! This doesn't mean you have to eat cupcakes every time you do, but our bodies are extremely in tune with what we need before we try and outsmart it. For example, glucose is the #1 source of energy for our brains and muscles (maybe you crave carbs on a study bender or after working out?). If you have a "carbs are bad" food rule, this can lead to eating other foods that you don't enjoy or don't satisfy you, and then the thing you really wanted all along anyway.
So how can you start eating mindfully?
For real. You've gotta get all Planet Fitness on yourself and create a no judgment zone. If you realize you're hungry 2 hours after breakfast, but don't listen because it feels "too soon," it's not going to work. Any type of dichotomous thinking (black and white/good and bad) is counterintuitive. A study in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology showed that participants ate more who anticipated a diet in their future.
A study in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology showed that participants ate more who anticipated a diet in their future.
We were all born with innate cues to tell us when to eat and when to stop. Think of babies. They don't hear their tummies rumble and disregard it. Somewhere along the way whether it was dieting, or highly palatable foods, we learn to tune them out. Take note over a couple of days of ways your body tells you its time to eat. Is it a stomach rumble? Depleted energy? Does food start to sound tasty? Again, a lot of us only eat when we feel starved. This leads us to eat more than we need because our body feels exactly that- starved.
We sometimes think, if it tastes good it's probably "bad," right? Think about this. All you want is a peanut butter cookie. Someone brought it home for you, and it looks fantaaastic if you don't say so yourself. But you have a cookie=bad thing going on, so you eat a salad instead. You then realize that didn't cut it. So you have a million almonds. Plain of course. Then a bowl of fruit and granola. All of a sudden, you're halfway through a carton of ice cream. Finally, something that satisfied. Except now you're extremely full and uncomfortable. In this case, having that peanut butter cookie and moving on may actually be best.
A lot of us eat when we're worried, anxious, bored, procrastinating, angry, excited, feeling shame, etc. While these aren't inherently bad (you better believe i'm celebrating a birthday with a cake.. and a break up with some Ben & Jerry's), it's worth taking note. Some of us numb out our emotions with substances or online shopping. Some escape with food. Take a step back to notice what you actually crave: A nap? A phone call/text/hangout with a friend? A walk? A Netflix show? A cry? Listen and feed your body (and mind!) what it wants.
These tips probably seem so strange to those who intuitively eat. But if you've been eating based off external cues all your life, it may take some practice. This one is to put your fork down halfway through your meal and see how you feel. Doesn't have to be long or anything special, but it's interesting to see how fast we can shovel food into our mouths without noticing how we feel. Most often, I'll do this and realize I'm still hungry. Sometimes I realize wow I'm actually kinda full, and stop. The nice thing is, if I'm hungry even just 10 minutes later, I know it's there, available, and I can have it. Remember, no judgement.
I saved this one for the end mainly because many "mindful" eating tips are weight-loss driven. Is brushing your teeth after dinner really a mindfulness tactic? Or a way to trick yourself to stop eating at a certain time. Is eating with a tiny spoon to slow you down mindful or a trick to get you to eat less? The whole point of mindful eating (in my opinion) is to let your body get to a place where it has the energy it needs to sustain your life. When you stop to notice your hunger level, your stress level, how the food is tasting and smelling, your body is pretty freakin' good at getting you to a place it wants to be.
When people begin to eat mindfully again, there are 3 ways it can go. If you're constantly dieting and trying to find ways to restrict yourself, you may gain some weight your body needs. If you're falling into restrict/binge cycles, eating mindfully may lead to weight loss. It can also do nothing and just make you feel more in tune with yourself and make eating more enjoyable again.
Ya'll still making pumpkin everything? Snooooze. No jk, I've already bought 3 cans in the past month and there's probably no stopping there. BUT if you're looking to make something else that tastes all Fall-y in your mouth, this granola is the perfect thing. Lately, I've been loving a good pecan, pepita, craisin, and cinnamon combo to make anything taste like fall. I love adding it on top of yogurt, warm oats, toast, and of course including it in this granola recipe.
Am I the only one who's made "granola" that is either no-bake or lightly toasted and it just tastes like oat flakes? No👏 Thank👏 You👏 When you want granola, you want the Nature-Valley-bar-like texture that crumbles (of course, it's a nature valley bar), but still has its bite-size pieces.
This recipe was inspired by this post I found, and I chose it because it looked like the granola was actually crumbly. It was. Yess. No catfishing me this time Pinterest recipes.
The only thing I'd look out for is burning the granola. The cook time is widely varied because depending on how thick or packed you the granola is, timing will differ. Once you see the edges brown slightly or smell a light toasted smell, I'd take it out. If not, the granola might burn and have an aftertaste.
To see if it's done, take an end piece off with a fork, place it on a cooler surface, and see if it hardens. If so, you can take it out and cool it all in the fridge or (if you're impatient like me) the freezer. Once cooled, crumble away!
Welp, that's it! Pretty simple, makes the kitchen smell good, and is a great topping or a snack. I stored mine in my Weck containers in the fridge and it kept well. Feel free to substitute your other fall favs to make it more your own.
To test if it's done, crumble off a piece with a fork, place on a cool surface, and if it hardens, it's done!
I'm not usually a soup gal. Especially ones that aren't chunky. I guess they remind me of baby food or something. But my mom snuck in some of her Butternut Squash Soup in my bag when I went home the other weekend, and I tried it and asked for the recipe immediately. IT'S SO GOOD and pretty much tastes like fall and thanksgiving in your mouth. So that's fun.
Basically all you gotta do is roast some veggies, saute some more veggies, season, blend and serve. Simple, right?
While making it, I also experienced a lot of food gratitude. Sounds cheesy, but there's something about making food from scratch with delicious veggies, vibrant colors, fragrant spices, and them all coming together to make a nourishing dish that's so cool to me. Maybe it's the fact that this recipe had a homey vibe to begin with, but it actually was kinda therapeutic to make, and made me have a little more appreciation with each time I enjoyed it.
So with that, grab your crispy bread, and get dipping! It's a great thing to make on a chilly Sunday afternoon and to have leftovers of during the week. Thank you to my mama for the recipe! I think the best part about it is knowing it's all getting blended together anyway, so measurements don't need to be perfect. Lot's of room for error and for putting your own spin on it.
Combine potatoes and butternut squash in a large bowl. Toss with olive oil, sea salt, pepper, and thyme. Place on a cookie sheet.
Bake for about 45 minutes to an hour. Should be tender and starting to brown but not shriveled.
While that's cooking, heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Cook celery, carrots, and onion until tender. Season throughout with salt, pepper, and thyme to your liking. When potatoes and squash are done, add them to the pot.
*If using better than bouillon: Add 2-3 tsp.'s to 2 cups of water. Mix well and pour into pan. Add 2 more cups of plain water. Continue until you cover all the veggies. You can always add more later when blended, so less liquid is better for now.
*If using chicken broth: Add 2 cups of broth at a time to the pot until you cover all the veggies. You can always add more later when blended, so less liquid is better for now.
Bring to a boil and then simmer until all the vegetables are tender.
Use an immersion blender to blend. If using a blender, cool in the fridge and then blend until smooth. Add in the coconut milk if you choose.
Return to pot and season with salt and pepper. Add more broth if you'd like. Voilla! You're done.
Also- this is Better than Bouillon. It essentially makes broth. So simple, and really makes a difference flavor-wise.