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A Dirty Job Chapter 27
BITCH'S BREW
Lily had been looking all night for a way to approach Minty Fresh. She'd made eye contact with him a dozen times over the course of the evening, and smiled, but with the atmosphere of dread that fell over the room she was having trouble thinking of an opening line. Finally, when an Oprah movie of the week came on the television and everyone gathered around to watch the media diva beat Paul Winfield to death with a steam iron, Minty went to the breakfast bar and started flipping through his day planner, and Lily made her move.
"So, checking your appointments?" she said. "You must be feeling optimistic about how things will go."
He shook his head. "Not really."
Lily was smitten. He was beautiful and morose – like a great brown man-gift from the gods.
"How bad can it be?" Lily said, pulling the appointment book out of his hand and flipping through the pages. She stopped on today's date.
"Why is Asher's name in here?" she asked.
Minty hung his head. "He said you've known all about us for a while."
"Yeah, but – " She looked at the name again and the realization of what she was seeing was like a punch in the chest. "This is that book? This is your date book for that?"
Minty nodded slowly, not looking at her.
"When did this name show up?" Lily asked.
"It wasn't there an hour ago."
"Well, fucksocks," she said, sitting down on the bar stool next to the big man.
"Yeah," said Minty Fresh. He put his arm around her shoulders.
With Charlie pulling on the legs of the bobcat guy (who was doing some impressive screaming considering he had prototype vocal cords) and the squirrel people dog-piling onto the Boston terrier, they were eventually able to extricate their lieutenant from the jaws of the bug-eyed fury with only a few snags in his Beefeater's costume.
"Down, Bummer," Charlie said. "Just chill." He didn't know if chill was an official dog command, but it should be.
Bummer snorted and backed away from the surrounding crowd of squirrel people.
"Not one of us," said the bobcat guy, pointing at Bummer. "Not one of us."
"You shut up," Charlie said. He pulled a beef jerky from his pocket that he'd brought for emergency rations, tore off a hunk, and held it out to Bummer. "Come on, buddy. I told the Emperor I'd look out for you."
Bummer trotted over to Charlie and took the beef jerky from him, then turned to face down the squirrel people as he chewed. The squirrel people made clicking noises and brandished their weapons. "Not one of us. Not one of us," chanted Bob.
"Stop that," Charlie said. "You can't get a mob chant going, Bob, you're the only one with a voice box."
"Oh yeah." Bob let his chanting trail off. "Well, he's not one of us," he added in his defense.
"He is now," Charlie said. To Bummer he said, "Can you lead us to the Underworld?"
Bummer looked up at Charlie as if he knew exactly what was being asked of him, but if he was going to find the strength to carry on, he was going to need the other half of that beef jerky. Charlie gave it to him and Bummer immediately jumped up to a higher, four-foot pipe, stopped, barked, then took off down the pipe.
"Follow him," Charlie said.
After an hour following Bummer through the sewers, the pipes gave way to tunnels that got bigger as they moved along. Soon they were moving in caves, with high ceilings and stalactites in the ceiling that glowed in various colors, illuminating their way with a dull, shadowy light. Charlie had read enough about the geology of the area to know that these caves were not natural to the city. He guessed that they were somewhere under the financial district, which was mostly built on Gold Rush landfill, so there would be nothing as old-looking or as solid as these caves.
Bummer kept on, leading them down one fork or another without the slightest hesitation, until suddenly the cave opened up into a massive grotto. The chamber was so large that it simply swallowed up Charlie's flashlight and headlamp beams, but the ceiling, which was several hundred feet high, was lined with the luminous stalactites that reflected red, green, and purple in a mirror-smooth black lake. In the middle of the lake, probably two hundred yards away, stood a great black sailing ship – tall-masted like a Spanish galleon – red, pulsating light coming from the cabin windows in the rear, a single lantern lighting the deck. Charlie had heard that whole ships had been buried in the debris during the Gold Rush, but they wouldn't have been left preserved like this. Things had changed, these caves were all the result of the Underworld rising – and he realized that this was just a hint of what was going to happen to the City if the Underworlders took over.
Bummer barked and the sharp report echoed around the grotto, sending a cloud of bats into the air.
Charlie saw movement on the deck of the ship, the blue-black outline of a woman, and he knew that Bummer had led them to the right place. Charlie handed his flashlight to Bob and set his sword-cane on the cave floor. He drew the Desert Eagle from the shoulder holster, checked that there was a round in the chamber, cocked the hammer, then reset the safety and reholstered the pistol.
"We're going to need a boat," Charlie said to Bob. "See if you guys can find something we can make a raft from." The bobcat guy started down the shore with Charlie's flashlight, scanning the rocks for useful flotsam. Bummer growled, tossed his head like he had ear mites or perhaps to indicate that he thought Charlie was insane, and ran out into the lake. Fifty yards away he was still only in water up to his shoulder.
Charlie looked at the black ship and realized that it was sitting way, way too high out of the water – that, in fact, it was sitting with its hull on the bottom in only about six inches of water.
"Uh, Bob," Charlie said. "Forget the boat. We're walking. Everyone quiet." He unsheathed his sword and sloshed onward. As they approached the ship they could make out details in its construction. The railings were fashioned from leg bones lashed together, the mooring cleats were human pelvises. The lantern on the deck was, in fact, a human skull. Charlie wasn't exactly sure how his powers as Luminatus were going to manifest themselves, but as they reached the hull of the ship he found himself very much wishing it would happen soon, and that levitation would be one of the powers.
"We're fucked," said Bob, looking up at the black hull curving above them.
"We're not fucked," Charlie said. "We just need someone to climb up there and throw us a rope."
There was some milling around amid the squirrel people, then a lone figure stepped out of the little crowd – this one appeared to be a nineteenth-century French dandy with the head of a monitor lizard. His outfit – the ruffles and the coat – actually reminded Charlie of pictures that Lily had shown him of Charles Baudelaire.
"You can do it?" Charlie asked the lizard guy.
He held out his hands and lifted one foot out of the water. Squirrel paws. Charlie lifted the lizard guy as high as he could up to the hull, and the little creature caught ahold in the black wood, then scurried up the side of the ship and over the gunwale.
Minutes passed, and Charlie found himself listening hard for some hint as to what was going on above. When the thick rope splashed down next to him, he leapt two feet in the air and barely contained blasting out a full-blown man-scream.
"Nice," said Bob.
"You first, then," Charlie said, testing the rope to see if it would hold his weight. He waited until the bobcat guy was about three feet over his head before he tucked the sword-cane down inside the Lexan plate strapped over his back and started the climb himself. By the time he was three-quarters of the way up the rope, he felt as if his biceps were going to pop like water balloons and he entwined his motocross boot into the rope to rest. As if being granted a second wind by the gods, his biceps relaxed and when he resumed climbing he felt as if he might really be gaining his power as the Luminatus. When he reached the railing, he grabbed one of the bone mooring cleats and swung himself up until he sat straddling the rail.
He swung around and his headlamp caught the black shine in her eyes. She was holding the bobcat guy like an ear of corn, her claw driven through his skull, pinning his jaw shut. There was flesh and goo glowing dull red, running down her face and over her breasts as she tore another bite out of the Beefeater.
"Want some, lover?" she said. "Tastes like ham."
At the breakfast bar in Charlie's apartment, Lily said, "Shouldn't we tell them?"
"They don't all know about us. About this." Minty held the date book. "Just Audrey."
"Then shouldn't we tell her?"
Minty looked at Audrey, who was sitting on the couch entwined in a sleepy pile with Charlie's sister and one of the hellhounds, looking very content. "No, I don't think that would serve any purpose right now."
"He's a good guy," Lily said. She snatched a paper towel off the roll on the counter and dabbed her eyes before her mascara went raccoon on her again.
"I know," Minty said. "He's my friend." As he said it, he felt a tug on his pant leg. He looked down to where Sophie was staring up at him.
"Hey, do you have a car?" she asked.
"Yes, I do, Sophie."
"Can we go for a ride?"
Without any hesitation, Charlie whipped the sword-cane out of his back and snapped it down on the Morrigan's wrist. She lost her grip on the bobcat guy, who bolted, screaming, across the deck and over the opposite railing. The Morrigan grabbed the sword-cane and tried to wrench it from Charlie's grasp. He let her – pulled the sword free, then drove it into her solar plexus so hard that his fist connected with her ribs and the blade came out her back, sinking into the wooden hull of the lifeboat she was reclining against. For a split second his face was an inch from hers.
"Miss me?" she asked.
He rolled away just as she slashed at him. He got his forearm up just in time to deflect the blow away from his face, the thick Lexan plate on his forearm stopping the claws from taking off his hand. She lunged for him, but the sword kept her pinned to the boat. Charlie ran down the deck away from her as she screeched in anger.
He saw light coming from a door that must have led to the cabin at the aft of the ship – that same red glow – and he realized that it had to be coming from the soul vessels. Rachel's soul could still be in there. He was only a step from the hatch when the giant raven dropped in front of him and spread her wings out across the deck, as if trying to block the whole end of the ship. He backpedaled and drew the Desert Eagle from the shoulder holster. He tried to hold it steady as he clicked off the safety. The Raven snapped at him and he leapt back. The beak then pulled back, changed, bubbled into the face of a woman – but the wings and talons remained in bird form.
"New Meat," said Macha. "How brave of you to come here."
Charlie pulled the trigger. Flame shot a foot out of the barrel and he felt as if someone had hit him in the palm with a hammer. He thought he had aimed right between her eyes, but the bullet had ripped through her neck, taking half of the black flesh with it. Her head lolled to the side and the raven body flailed its wings at him.
Charlie fell backward onto the deck, but pulled the pistol up and fired again as the raven was coming down on him. This one caught her in the center of the chest and sent her flying backward, up onto the cabin roof.
The ringing in his ears felt like someone had driven tuning forks into his head and hit them with drumsticks – a long, painful, high-pitched wail. He barely heard the shriek from his left as another Morrigan dropped out of the rigging behind him. He rolled to the railing and brought the gun up just as she slashed at his face. The gun and his forearm pad absorbed most of the blow, but the Desert Eagle was knocked from his grasp and slid down the deck.
Charlie did a somersault to his feet and ran after the gun. Nemain flicked her claws at his back and he heard the sizzle as the poison strafed the Lexan pad down his spine and burned onto the deck on either side of him. He dove for the pistol and tried to roll and come up with it pointed at his attacker, but he misjudged and came up with the back of his knees against the bone railing. She leapt, claws first, and hit him in the chest just as he fired the Desert Eagle and he was driven backward over the railing.
He hit flat on the water. The air exploded from his body and he felt like he'd been hit by a bus. He couldn't breathe, but he could see, he could feel his limbs, and after a couple of seconds of gasping, he finally caught a breath.
"So, how's it going so far?" asked the bobcat guy, about two feet from Charlie's head.
"Good," Charlie said. "They're running scared."
There was a big chunk bitten out of the middle of Bob's torso, and his Beefeater uniform was in tatters, but otherwise he seemed in good spirits. He was holding the Desert Eagle cradled in his arms like a baby.
"You'll likely need this. That last shot connected, by the way. You took off about half of her skull."
"Good," Charlie said, still having a little trouble catching his breath. He felt a searing pain in his chest and thought he might have broken a rib. He sat up and looked at his chest plate. The Morrigan's claws had raked the front of it, but in one spot he could see where a claw had slipped under the plate and into his chest. He wasn't bleeding badly, but he was bleeding, and it hurt like hell. "Are they still coming?"
"Not the two you shot. We don't know where the one you stuck with your sword went."
"I don't know if I can make it up that rope again," Charlie said.
"That may not be a _roblem," Bob said. He was looking up to the ceiling of the grotto, where a whirlwind of squeaking bats was spiraling around the mast, but above them was beating the wings of another creature altogether.
Charlie took the pistol from Bob and climbed to his feet, nearly fell, then steadied himself and backed away from the hull of the ship. The squirrel people scattered around him. Bummer let loose with a fusillade of angry yapping.
The demon hit the water about thirty feet away. Charlie felt a scream rising in his throat but fought it down. The thing was nearly ten feet tall, with a wingspan of thirty feet. Its head was as big as a beer keg, and it appeared to have the shape and horns of a bull, except for the jaws, which were predatory, lined with teeth, like a cross between a shark and a lion. Its eyes were gleaming green.
"Soul stealer," it growled. It folded its wings into two high points behind its back, and stepped toward Charlie.
"Well, that would be you, wouldn't it?" Charlie said, a little breathless still. "I'm the Luminatus."
The demon stopped. Charlie took the hesitation to bring up the pistol and fire. The shot took the demon high in the shoulder and spun him to the side. He turned back and roared.
Charlie could smell the creature's breath, like rotting meat, wash over him. He backed up and fired again, his hand numb now from the recoil of the big pistol. The shot knocked the demon back a step. There was shrill cheering from above.
Charlie fired again and again. The slugs opened craters in the demon's chest. He wavered, then fell to his knees. Charlie aimed and pulled the trigger again. The gun clicked.
Charlie backed up a few more steps and tried to remember what Minty had shown him about reloading. He managed to hit a button that released the clip from the pistol, which plopped into the water. Then he unsnapped one of the pouches under his arm to retrieve an extra clip. It slipped out and fell into the lake as well. Bob and a couple of the squirrel people splashed forward and started diving beneath the water, looking for the clip.
The demon roared again, unfurled his wings, and, in one great flap, pulled himself to his feet.
Charlie unsnapped the second clip and, with his hands shaking, managed to fit it into the bottom of the Desert Eagle. The demon crouched, as if to leap. Charlie jacked a shell into the chamber and fired at the same time. The demon fell forward as the huge slug took a chunk out of his thigh.
"Well done, Meat!" came a female voice from above.
Charlie looked up quickly, but then back to the bullheaded demon, who was on his feet again. Then he braced his wrist and fired, and again, walking forward, pumping bullets into the demon's chest with each step, feeling any second as if his wrist would just shatter into pieces from the recoil, until the hammer clicked on an empty chamber. He stopped, just five feet away from the demon when it fell over, facefirst into the water. Charlie dropped the Desert Eagle and fell to his knees. The grotto seemed to be tilting before him, his vision tunneling down.
The Morrigan landed on three sides of him. Each had a glowing soul vessel in her claw and was rubbing it on her wounds.
"That was excellent, lover," said the raven woman standing closest to the fallen demon. Charlie recognized her from the alley. The stab wound his sword had made in her stomach healed over as he watched. She kicked the bullheaded demon's body. "See, I told you that guns suck."
"That was well done, Meat," said the one to Charlie's right. Her neck was still knitting back together. She was the one he'd blasted up onto the cabin roof.
"You guys do bounce back with a certain Wile E. Coyote charm," Charlie said. He grinned, feeling drunk now, like he was watching all this from another place.
"He's so sweet," said the hand-job harpy. "I could just eat him up."
"Sounds good to me," said the Morrigan to his left, whose head was still a little lopsided.
Charlie saw the venom dripping from her claws, then looked to the wound below his chest plate.
"Yes, darling," said hand job, "I'm afraid Nemain did nick you. You really are quite the warrior to have lasted this long."
"I'm the Luminatus," Charlie said.
The Morrigan laughed, the one in front of Charlie did a little dance step. As she did, the bullheaded demon lifted his head from the water.
"I'm the Luminatus," said the demon, black goo and water running between his teeth as he spoke.
The Morrigan stopped dancing, grabbed one of the demon's horns, then pulled his head back. "You think?" she said. Then she plunged her claws into the demon's throat. He rolled and threw her off, sending her sailing twenty feet in the air to smash into the hull of the ship.
The Morrigan behind Charlie patted his head as she passed. "We'll be right with you, darling. I'm Macha, by the way, and we are the Luminatus – or we will be in a minute."
The Morrigan fell on the bullheaded demon, taking great chunks of flesh and bone off his body with each slash of their talons. Two took to the air and swept in, taking swipes at the demon, who flailed at them, sometimes connecting, but too weakened from the gunshots to fight effectively. In two minutes it was finished, and most of the flesh had been flayed from it. Macha held his head by the horns like she was holding the handlebars of a motorcycle, even as the demon's jaws continued to snap at the air.
"Your turn, soul stealer," Macha said.
"Yeah, your turn," said Nemain, baring her claws.
Macha held the demon head out in front of her, driving it at Charlie. He backed away as the teeth snapped inches from his face.
"Wait a minute," said Babd.
The other two stopped and turned to their sister, who stood over what was left of the demon's corpse. "We never got to finish."
She took one step before something hit her like a ball of darkness, knocking her out of sight. Charlie looked at the demon head coming at him, then there was a loud smack and Macha was yanked to the side as if she'd had a bungee cord attached to her ankle.
The screeching started again and Charlie could see the Morrigan being whipped around in the darkness, splashing, and chaos – he couldn't follow what was happening. His eyes wouldn't focus.
He looked to Nemain, who was now coming at him with her claws dripping venom. A small hand appeared at the edge of his vision and the Morrigan's head exploded into what looked like a thousand stars.
Charlie looked to where the hand had appeared before his eyes.
"Hi, Daddy," Sophie said.
"Hi, baby," Charlie said.
Now he could see what was happening – the hellhounds were tearing at the Morrigan. One of them broke, jumped into the air and unfurled her wings, then dove at Sophie, screeching.
Sophie raised her hand as if she was waving bye-bye and the Morrigan vaporized into a spray of black goo. The souls, thousands of them, that she had consumed over the millennia, floated into the air, red lights that circled the grotto, making the whole huge chamber appear to have been frozen in the middle of a fireworks display.
"You shouldn't be here, honey," Charlie said.
"Yes, I should," Sophie said. "I had to fix this, send them all back. I'm the Luminatus."
"Yeah," she said matter-of-factly, in that Master of All Death and Darkness voice that is so irritating in a six-year-old.
The hellhounds were both on the remaining Morrigan now, tearing her in half as Charlie watched.
"No, honey," Charlie said.
Sophie raised her hand and Babd was vaporized like the others – the captured souls rose like embers from a bonfire.
"Let's go home, Daddy," Sophie said.
"No," Charlie said, barely able to hold up his head. "We have something we have to get." He lurched forward and one of the hellhounds was there to brace him. The whole army of squirrel people was coming around the bow of the ship, each carrying a glowing soul vessel he'd retrieved from the ship's cabin.
"Is this it?" Sophie said. She took a CD from Bob and handed it to Charlie.
He turned it in his hands and hugged it to his chest. "You know what this is, honey?"
"Yeah. Let's go home, Daddy."
Charlie fell over the back of Alvin. Sophie and the squirrel people steadied him until they were out of the Underworld.
Minty Fresh carried Charlie to the car.
A doctor had come and gone. When Charlie came to he was on his bed at home and Audrey was wiping his forehead with a damp cloth.
"Hi," he said.
"Hi," Audrey said.
"Did Sophie tell you?"
"They grow up so fast," Charlie said.
"Yeah." Audrey smiled.
"I got this." He reached behind his chest plate and pulled out the Sarah McLachlan CD that pulsated with red light.
Audrey nodded and reached out for the disc. "Let's put that over here where you can keep an eye on it." As soon as her fingers touched the plastic case the light went out and Audrey shuddered. "Oh my," she said.
"Audrey." Charlie tried to sit up, but was forced back down by the pain. "Ouch. Audrey, what happened? Did they get it? Did they take her soul?"
She was looking at her chest, then looked up at Charlie, tears in her eyes. "No, Charlie, it's me," she said.
"But you had touched that before, that night in the pantry. Why didn't it happen then?"
"I guess I wasn't ready then."
Charlie took her hand and squeezed it, then squeezed it much harder than he intended as a wave of pain washed through him. "Goddammit," he said. He was panting now, breathing like he might hyperventilate.
"I thought it was all dark, Audrey. All the spiritual stuff was spooky. You made me see."
"I'm glad," Audrey said.
"Makes me think I should have slept with a poet so I could have understood the way the world can be distilled into words."
"Yes. I think you have the soul of a poet, Charlie."
"I should have made love with a painter, too, so I could feel the wave of a brushstroke, so I could absorb her colors and textures and really see."
"Yes," Audrey said, brushing at his hair with her fingers. "You have such a wonderful imagination."
"I think," said Charlie, his voice going higher as he breathed harder, "I should have bedded a scientist so I would understand the mechanics of the world, felt them right down to my spine."
"Yes, so you could feel the world," Audrey said.
"With big tits," Charlie added, his back arching in pain.
"Of course, baby," Audrey said.
"I love you, Audrey."
"I know, Charlie. I love you, too."
Then Charlie Asher, Beta Male, husband to Rachel, brother to Jane, father to Sophie (the Luminatus, who held dominion over Death), beloved of Audrey, Death Merchant and purveyor of fine vintage clothing and accessories, took his last breath, and died.
Audrey looked up to see Sophie come into the room. "He's gone, Sophie."
Sophie put her hand on Charlie's forehead. "Bye, Daddy," she said.
Things settled in the City of Two Bridges, and all the dark gods that had been rising to erupt out over the world remembered their place and returned to their domains deep in the Underworld.
Jane and Cassie were married in a civil ceremony that was dissolved and sanctioned a half-dozen times over the years. Nevertheless, they were happy and there was always laughter in their home.
Sophie went home to live with her Aunties Jane and Cassandra. She would grow to be a tall and beautiful woman, and eventually take her place as the Luminatus, but until then, she went to school and played with her puppies and had a fairly wonderful time as she waited for her daddy to come get her.
While Minty Fresh had believed in the adage that in every moment there is a crisis, his belief had been somewhat academic until he started seeing Lily Severo, when it became very practical indeed. Life jumped up several steps for him on the interesting scale, to the point where the Death Merchant part of his existence became the more prosaic of his pursuits. They became renowned around town, the giant in pastels always in company with the short, Gothic chef, but the City really stood up and took notice when they opened up the Jazz and Gourmet Pizza Place in North Beach in the building that had once housed Asher's Secondhand.
As for Ray Macy, Inspector Rivera set him up with a lady pawnbroker from the Fillmore named Carrie Lang, and they hit it off almost immediately, having in common a love of detective movies and handguns, as well as a deep mistrust for most of humanity. Ray fell deeply in love, and true to his Beta Male nature, was doggedly loyal to her, although he always secretly suspected her of being a serial killer.
Inspector Alphonse Rivera has spent most of his life trying to change his life. He'd worked in a half-dozen different police departments, in a dozen different capacities, and although he was very good at being a cop, he always seemed to be trying to get out. After the debacle with the Death Merchants and the strange, unexplainable things that had gone on around it, he was simply exhausted. There had been a brief time when he'd been able to leave police work and open a rare-book store, and he felt as if that might have been the only time he had ever truly been happy. Now, at age forty-nine, he was ready to try it again: take an early retirement and just read and live in a calm, unevent-filled world of books.
So he was somewhat pleased when, two weeks after the death of Charlie Asher, he went to his mailbox to find a substantial envelope that could only be a book. It was like an omen, he thought as he sat down at his kitchen table to open the package. It was a book – what looked like a very rare and bizarre children's book. He opened it and turned to the first chapter. So Now You're Death: Here's What You'll Need.
THE EMPEROR
The Emperor enjoyed a happy reunion with his troops and went on to rule benevolently over San Francisco to the end of his days. For leading Charlie into the Underworld, and for his boundless courage, the Luminatus gave Bummer the strength and durability of a hellhound. It would fall to the Emperor to explain how his now all-black companion – while he never weighed more than seven pounds soaking wet – could outrun a cheetah and chew the tires off a Toyota.
Audrey continued her work at the Buddhist center and did costuming for a local theater group, but she also took a volunteer job with hospice, where she helped people to the other side as she had done for so long in Tibet. The hospice position also, however, gave her access to bodies that had been recently vacated by their souls, and she used these opportunities to cycle the squirrel people back into the human flow of birth and rebirth. And for a while, there were remarkable instances of people recovering from terminal illness in the City, as she exercised the p'howa of undying.
She didn't give up her work with the squirrel people altogether, however, as it was a skill she had come to over a long time and a lot of work, and it could still be extraordinarily rewarding. At least that's how she was feeling as she looked over her latest masterpiece in the meditation room of the Three Jewels Buddhist Center.
He had the face of a crocodile – sixty-eight spiked teeth, and eyes that gleamed like black glass beads. His hands were the claws of a raptor, the wicked black nails encrusted with dried blood. His feet were webbed like those of a waterbird, with claws for digging prey from the mud. He wore a purple silk robe, trimmed in sable, and a matching hat with a wizard's star embroidered on it in gold thread.
"It's only temporary, until we find someone," Audrey said. "But take my word for it, you look great."
"No, I don't. I'm only fourteen inches tall."
"Yeah, but I gave you a ten-inch schlong."
He opened his robe and looked down. "Wow, would you look at that," Charlie said. "Nice."
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Home»World»The Da Vinci codices that shook the Golden Age and made Madrid the epicenter of the world
The Da Vinci codices that shook the Golden Age and made Madrid the epicenter of the world
By News February 23, 2021 Updated: May 12, 2021 No Comments4 Mins Read
Madrid was the "capital of technical and scientific knowledge of the Golden Age", a time when Leonardo da Vinci's codices reached the capital, whose history is the backbone of the exhibition Ingenuity at the service of power. The codices of Leonardo da Vinci in the Austrian court, which opens today at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando.
"The common thread of this exhibition is a story that is little known and that is worth discovering; how at the end of the 16th century almost everything that Leonardo Da Vinci wrote arrived in Madrid", Magoga Piñas, one of the curators of the exhibition during its inauguration, which was attended by the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Marta Rivera de la Cruz.
Under the name Ingenuity at the service of power. The codices of Leonardo da Vinci in the court of the Austrias, the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Community of Madrid, in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, where the sample is exhibited , organize this exhibition available until May 16, recovering the "little known Spanish Golden Age of science and technology".
A century in which Madrid was positioned as the "capital of technical and scientific knowledge" and in which "great projects of architecture and civil initiative" took place, in addition to hosting the renowned codices of Leonardo da Vinci, brought by the Milanese architect Pompeo Leoni at the end of the 16th century, and coinciding with the stay in Madrid of the "elite of the engineers of the time", to whom it could have served as "inspiration".
"Pompeo Leoni brought the codices to Madrid, and although the exact number is unknown, they could have been close to twenty. When he died, his heirs dispersed them, but almost all the documentation on machinery that we have seen throughout history created by da Vinci , was one day here ", the curator details about the codices, highlighting the importance of keeping two of the originals, the Madrid I-II codices, in the National Library of Madrid.
The exhibition, according to Piña detail, answers the question of why the codices reached the capital; "The codices arrived in Madrid because it was the center of Europe's technology," she remarks. There, they were able to read them renowned engineers, giving rise to "indications that propose that many works could be inspired by their content," she explains, adding that the exhibition "may help other researchers" to continue investigating.
With the presence of these manuscripts by Leonardo da Vinci in the Madrid of the great engineers, the exhibition proposes a journey through the technology of this part of history, whose content is divided into six blocks, containing from theoretical books to hydraulic projects or the project of the work of the Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial.
"It is a multidisciplinary exhibition that tells a story", Piñas reels about the content, of which pieces such as The Twenty-One Books of the Sugar Mills and Machines stand out – technical publication with measurement systems and hydraulic devices of the time – scientific instruments used during these centuries, or two sculptures attributed to Pompeo Leoni.
This sample of objects composed "exclusively of original content" is complemented by a digital montage, which recreates in 3D copies made from the 16th to the 18th century, such as the study of the fight of a lion with a dragon, a reputed da Vinci work belonging to the volumes in the Valparaíso collection and that "it could be the oldest surviving copy of the lost original."
With pieces gathered thanks to the collaboration of more than twenty institutions, including the Prado Museum, the National Archaeological Museum, the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts and the Turin Library, among others, the exhibition invites you to do this "travel in time" knowing the technological discoveries of the time.
Nicolás García Tapias, Elisa Ruiz, Daniel Crespo, Almudena Pérez de Tudela, Mariano Esteban Piñeiro, Magoga Piñas, and Almudena Palancar make up the multidisciplinary group of curators of the exhibition, experts in areas such as engineering, mathematics or history that give rise to to this exhibition that brings the technological advances of the time closer to the viewer.
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Add Shelter
Maryland Homeless Shelters
Towson Homeless Shelters
Towson Homeless Shelters & Services For The Needy
Welcome to our Towson, Maryland Homeless Shelters and Services for the needy page. Below are all of the homeless shelters and services for the needy that provide help to those in need for Towson, MD and surrounding cities.
We also provide other homeless resources such as transitional resources for the homeless. Homeless clinic and treatment center resources are also provided on the right navigational bar.
Many shelters also provide services such as alcohol and drug rehab treatment along with clinics. I try to provide as much information as possible on my details pages.
Homeless Help Forum
Visit Our Towson, MD Homeless Help Forum
- Towson Homeless Questionnaire.
- Find out what it is like to be homeless in Towson, MD
- Tips on best shelters and food pantries/soup kitchens in Towson, MD
Visit The Towson Homeless Help Forum
Active Listings In Towson Maryland
Turnaround, Inc.
Emergency shelter services for victims of domestic violence. Provides counseling and support services to victims of rape, incest and domestic violence and to increase community awareness and understanding of these problems. 24-Hour Helpline 443.279.0379 For Immediate Ass
House of Ruth
4.01 miles from city center Towson
Battered women and their children. Emergency/transitional shelter. Meals, Counseling. Legal assistance
Marian House
For homeless & unemployed women. Transitional housing to permanency(Marion House I - women only)(Marion House II - women can be reunited with children)
HolBrock Estates Assisted Living
We are located in the city of Baltimore. Our facility is geared towards helping individuals recover their spot in socitey by offering the housing and assistance to help start them on their journey. We work alongside Social Services and other state organizations and are will to help all individuals a
Hyacinth Independent/Transitional Living Home, INC
Hyacinth's Independent/Transitional Living Home positions itself as a transitional home for homeless victims who have maximized their stay at regular shelters, but still have need for accommodation and support services to live independently. Most Shelters accommodate clients for approximate
Manna House
The Drop-In-Center provides services beginning with the morning meal from 8:00 to 10:15 a.m. daily and continues from 11:30 a.m. until 4 p.m (Monday through Friday). We serve an average of 176 men, women and children everyday. The meal we serve may be eggs, potatoes, oatmeal, fruit and coffee, or it
Project PLASE
Project PLASE, Inc. addresses homelessness in Baltimore by providing transitional housing, permanent housing and supportive services to homeless adults. We serve the most vulnerable and underserved, including persons with mental illness, HIV/AIDS, addiction, developmental disabilities, and ex-offend
Turnaround Inc. - Domestic Violence Shelter
TurnAround offers a hotline, emergency shelter, housing, individual and group counseling for domestic violence victims.
Mission Possible Ministries Shelter For Men
Shelter for men. Job training CounselingMPM's "10 Commandments" for the men's Shelter: Sign "MPM's" guest registry upon arrival (no aliases, please). Talk to a residential manager about their circumstances. Must get a job within 2 weeks of
Muslimat Al Nisaa
A culturally sensitive, faith-based shelter home environment for homeless Muslim women and children and Muslim women victims of domestic violence allowing them to accomplish and/or return to self-sufficiency. Muslimat Al Nisaa is not a institutional shelter, but a home for those who were homeless.
Sarah's Hope Mount Street
Sarah�s Hope, Mount StreetComprehensive 130 bed shelter serving homeless families in Baltimore City. Services include meals, youth activities and tutoring, adult education classes, case management, housing placement and referrals.Services include: intensive case management, meals,
Code Blue Shelter Baltimore - Weinberg Housing and Resource Center
The Weinberg Housing and Resource Center (WHRC) is a low barrier emergency shelter that provides homeless services to over 275 adult men and women each night in the City of Baltimore. Our services include shelter, convalescent care, breakfast and dinner, showers, laundry, case management and a varie
Agape House Homeless Services
OVERVIEW: Provides housing for single men; food; clothing; job training; day and after school mentoring and day camp programs. SERVICES: 1) RESIDENTIAL PROGRAM: Provides 2 emergency housing programs for single men and 1 emergency housing for women in Harford county who are cur
Bea Gaddy Family Center Homeless Services
Patterson Park Emergency Food Center and Emergency Homeless Shelter for women. Provides an array of social services to anyone in need. SERVICES: 1) FOOD PANTRY: Offers groceries to individuals and families. Register to receive food weekly by coming in Wed or Fri, 10:30AM-2PM. M
Bea Gaddy's Family Center, Inc.
Our mission, since 1981, has been and always will be to assist in providing our neighbors with food, clothing and other items. We also provide a safe haven from the storms of life for women and children on a transitional basis.Bea Gaddy Women and Children�s Shelter provides shelter and s
Homeless outreach center. Breakfast to those 55 or older. Mon. - Fri. (7:30 - 8:20 a.m.. Noon meal to anyone in need. 10:30 - 12:30 Referral servicesOur Daily Bread is located in the Our Daily Bread Employment Center (ODBEC) and provides a hot, nutritious lunch for anyone in need eve
My Sister's Place
Daytime drop-in shelter. Emergency assistance. Case management.
Maryland Center for Veterans Education and Training
Opens: 6:00 p.m. (need referral from Department of Social Services)Day Drop-In FacilityThe Day-Drop provides homeless veterans who are in need of a facility that affords a degree of comfort during the day and a feeling of camaraderie with other veterans in similar circumstances. In
Helping Other People through Empowerment, Inc.
Day program offers case management,outreach, telephone, showers, washer/dryer, education, support groups, health maintenance groups, recreational activities, snacks.
Baltimore Rescue Mission
Emergency shelter for men in BaltimoreOpens: 5:00 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Friday to 7am.6:00 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday to 7am. (men only). Provides free shelter, clothing, meals, lockers, showers, and medical screening to homeless or transient men. Men
Karis Home
Eligibility: Single women 18 years or older, pregnant women, and women with children. Women with children can have boys 9 years and under, and girls of all ages accepted. Will accept drug/alcohol-free women (no methadone) in a substance abuse program for at least one month. Hours:
Office Hours: Mondays through Fridays 7am to 5pm.If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction or homelessness, Helping Up Mission may be able to provide immediate help. Do you need:Temporary help due to a short-term crisisOvernight Guest Services provides a night o
Women Affairs of Almumtahinah Home Inc(AMH)
443-965_0555
Our Program is entitled: Helping others. The purpose of this program is to provide relief to the poor, distressed and underprivileged women and children of our community in their time of need.EMERGENCY TEMPORARY Transitional Home. We provide sisters,families and their children a saf
Rosedale, MD
Eastside Family Shelter
Eligibility Homeless families and single women. Men must have children. Provides 24-hour shelter, support services and referrals to homeless families and single women. The maximum length of stay is 4-6 months. SERVICES:
Beans and Bread Outreach Center
Provides financial assistance a housing program, a day resource center and holiday assistance to residents in their catchment area.A homeless day resource program that serves 300 people daily with meals, healthcare, showers, laundry, employment services, case management, housing referral
Pleasant Housing Supportive Housing
We accept women and men ages 25 and up... There is a fee of $125.00 per week. Pleasant Housing Supportive Program is a non-profit 501(c)(3) located in Baltimore City that provides programs that teach independence and life skills to the often neglected members of our community includin
Bon Secours Women's Resources And Day Shelter
Offers a variety of services for women, including hospitality services (laundry, meals, showers), a job skills bank, domestic violence counseling and support groups. They assist women with children and single women. They will also assist married women as long as their name is on an eviction notice.
Baltimore Outreach Services Emergency Shelter
EMERGENCY SHELTER: Offers emergency shelter for single women and women with children . Can stay for up to 90 days. Eligibility - Homeless women and their childrenProgram fees - Sliding scale based on incomeThe mission of Baltimore Outreach Services is to provide comprehensive
South Baltimore Station
We are an innovative therapeutic residential treatment program supporting veterans and others who are transitioning through the cycle of poverty, addiction, and homelessness to self-sufficiency.At The Baltimore Station, we concentrate on helping those we know most about - those we can do
Mi Casa Su Casa Supportive Housing Program
We provide transitional and supportive housing to young adult males, age 25 and older, that are returning citizens (re-entry),recovering from drugs, homeless veterans and /or individuals that have been thrown out or aged out of a system. Our organization will provide supportive services to assist ea
American Rescue Workers
shelter for men in Baltimore, Opens: 6:00 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday - 4:30 p.m. Thursday and Sunday. Offers a faith based 12-step residential program and an emergency shelter for men. The soup kitchen, thrift store and holiday meals are for anyone in need. EMERGEN
Project PLASE Main Office
The goal of Project PLASE�s transitional /emergency housing program is to shelter and serve homeless adult s in temporary housing . We offer 24 - hour supported supervision and case management for our residents, with a focus on helping the individual function at
Brenda House of Promising Futures
Brenda House of Promising Future is a transition house for women and children, non-profit 501 c.24 hours/ 7 days weekly.B.H.P.F provides resources for homeless women between the ages of 18 and 25 and their dependent children. The services provided wi
Windsor Mill, MD
Night of Peace Family Shelter, Inc.
Windsor Mill, MD 21244
We shelter homeless families with children. To become a guest at Night of Peace, contact the Baltimore County Department of Social Services at 410-853-3000. DSS will process your information and send us a referral. As required by County regulations, all shelter guests can stay for up to 90 days
Westside Emergency Men's Shelter
10.59 miles from city center Towson
Contact Baltimore County Department of Social Services to be referredinto a CAN shelter at 410-853-3000 ext. 2.We are a 100+ bed facility housing homeless men in Baltimore County. Our goal is to provide a safe and secure place for men to come too terms with their present situation
Shelter410.285.749624 Hours/ 7 Days A WeekCrisis Hotline410.828.639024 Hours/ 7 Days A WeekProvides assistance to individuals and families experiencing a domestic violence situation. EMERGENCY SHELTER PROGRAM: The Family Crisis Center Emer
Sarah's Hope At Hannah More
Reisterstown, MD 21136
Offers emergency shelter and case management services for 90 days. Residents receive 3 meals per day, case management, life skills training, referrals to various community services including substance abuse and job readiness programs for established clients. Also provides housing counseling.
Emergency shelter. Meals, Counseling. Referrals only through: DSS: 887-2800 Family & Children's Svcs: 281-1334 Sex. Asslt/Dom. Viol Ctr.: 377-811
Arundel House of Hope, Day Resource Center
DROP-IN: Provides hospitality such as coffee, snacks, showers, use of phones and computers, clothing and toiletries. Case management and referral to services are provided for applications for benefits, medical care, job assistance, substance abuse treatment programs, housing and other identified iss
Safe Haven for Men - Arundel House of Hope
Provides permanent housing for homeless men with mental health and/or substance abuse issues. Case management is provided for referral to appropriate services. Eligibility Chronically homeless men over 18 years old who have mental health and/or substance abuse issues and are not yet
Women in Safe Haven - Arundel House of Hope
Provides permanent housing for chronically homeless women who have mental health and/or substance abuse issues. Case management is provided for referral to appropriate services. Eligibility Chronically homeless women over 18 years old who have mental health and/or substance abuse is
Winter Relief for the Homeless Arundel House of Hope
Emergency shelter November - April. Rotate weekly as host-site locations (all prospective clients must be screened & referred by the Salvation Army, Glen Burnie at number listed, by 3:30 pm each day)
Harford County DSS - Homeless Program
Emergency shelter placement. Counseling, case management. Assistance with applying for benefits. 410-838-6600 (after-hours)
Bridges To Housing Stability - Family Housing Assistance
HOUSING STABILITY PROGRAM Bridges assists Howard County households who are homeless or in danger of losing their housing. What Bridges Offers: Housing Advocacy (case management aimed at housing stability) A supportive environment Goal planning for future housing stability R
Fort Meade, MD
Sarah's House
Fort Meade, MD 20755
Sarah's House is a supportive housing program, offering emergency and transitional housing with an array of other services for homeless families in Anne Arundel County. Emergency shelter Transitional housing Referral from DSS needed Sarah's House is a supportive housing program
Grassroots Crisis Intervention - Men's And Women's Shelter
Provides free 24-hour telephone and walk-in crisis counseling, emergency shelter, transitional housing, and community education in the Central Maryland area. Also offers a mobile crisis team for psychiatric emergencies. FAMILY AND WOMEN'S SHELTER: Provides 33-bed shelter for individual
Grassroots Crisis Intervention Family Shelter Program
Family Shelter Program Grassroots operates the only general emergency shelter in Howard County at 6700 Freetown Road in Columbia, MD. The program has 33 beds for families and single adult women experiencing a shelter crisisAll clients are accepted into the emergency
Randy Sands Men�s Shelter
The Randy Sands Men�s Shelter can serve up to 18 single adult men. The program serves about 55 � 75 men per year. Each resident has a primary counselor or case manager and an individualized housing plan which could include employment, a savings plan, addictions treatment, psychiatric treatment
Belcamp, MD
Welcome One Emergency Shelter
Welcome One Emergency Shelter The Welcome One Emergency Shelter is located in the Riverside Business Park. The Emergency Shelter opened in 2006 and was a collaborative effort with the Harford County Government, local Faith Communities and various Civic Agencies. The Emergency Shelter house
Laurel Advocacy & Referral Services
HOURS OF OPERATIONMonday: 9:00a.m. - 2:00p.m. & 5:00p.m. - 7:30p.m.Wednesday: 9:00a.m. - 2:00p.m.Friday: 9:00a.m. - 2:00p.m.LARS serves homeless and low-income families and individuals in Laurel, Maryland. Our service area includes parts of Prince George's (zip co
Human Services Programs of Carroll County
HSP is the point-of-entry for accessing a variety of community services and is a private, non-profit 501c3 corporation.Homeless Shelters Intact Family Shelter The purpose of this
YWCA of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Domestic Violence Shelter
Arnold, MD 21012
YWCA of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County. Domestic Violence HotlineProvides support services for victims of domestic violence. SERVICES: 1) EMERGENCY SHELTER/SAFE HOUSE: Provides shelter for 10 days to 1 month to women who have been physically and/or sexually abused by t
Crownsville, MD
Chrysalis House Women's Treatment Center
Crownsville, MD 21032
Treatment center for women. Drug and alcohol drug treatment assistance. 45 beds at this location. Also allows women who have children. Chrysalis House, Inc. is a nonprofit organization which provides full treatment services to women suffering with the disease of addiction. We offer
Towson Resources
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HomeResearchersRussell Mannion Publications
Russell Mannion
Patient mobility in the global marketplace: a multidisciplinary perspective
Russell Mannion, 1 Jan 2014, In: International Journal of Health Policy and Management. 2, 4, p. 155-157
Populism and health policy: three international case studies of right-wing populist policy frames
Russell Mannion, Nov 2020, In: Sociology of Health and Illness. 42, 8, p. 1967-1981 15 p.
Populism, pestilence and plague in the time of Coronavirus
Russell Mannion, 4 Jan 2021, In: International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare. 7 p.
Publication and related biases in health services research: a systematic review of empirical evidence
Iestyn Williams, Russell Mannion, Richard Lilford, 1 Jun 2020, In: BMC Medical Research Methodology. 20, 12 p., 137.
Repositioning the boundaries between public and private healthcare providers in the English NHS
Mark Exworthy & Russell Mannion, 7 Mar 2019, In: Journal of Health, Organization and Management. 15 p.
Roles and behaviours of diligent and dynamic healthcare boards
Judith Smith & Russell Mannion, 14 Nov 2019, In: Health Services Management Research. 32, 4
Stakeholder views on publication bias in health services research
Iestyn Williams, Russell Mannion, Richard Lilford, 3 Feb 2020, In: Journal of Health Services Research & Policy. 25, 3, p. 162-171 10 p.
Statistical synthesis of contextual knowledge to increase the effectiveness of theory-based behaviour change interventions
Russell Mannion, 1 Jul 2011, In: Journal of Health Services Research & Policy. 16, 3, p. 167-171 5 p.
Sustaining organizational culture change in health systems
Russell Mannion, 21 Mar 2016, In: Journal of Health, Organization and Management. 30, 1, p. 2-30 29 p.
Systematic biases in group decision-making: implications for patient safety
Russell Mannion, 1 Dec 2014, In: International Journal for Quality in Health Care. 26, 6, p. 606-612
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Q: Change the default screenshot destination folder of "Prnt Scrn" key? Hello everybody,
        My Prnt scrn key is not working after deleting the Pictures folder. I tried to add a folder without any success. I thought changing the destination folder may work so how i do that?

A: I just tried this with Ubuntu 12.10, and 13.04, I pressed the PrntScrn key, and this is what came up.

Just choose the location that you desire, and click Save

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Maggie Mae's Cafe is located in Oxford, Wisconsin. Owned by Roger and Maggie. Its a Unique place to eat because you can get a song with your meal. In August of 2002 I became interested in learning to play the guitar, mainly because of a customer, brought his in one day and sang. The customers loved it and I knew I had to get one. So I bought my first guitar, taught myself to chord and to my amazement….I could sing!!! and I have been singing ever since. The summer of 2003 Roger and friends cleaned out our barn on the farm and we have been holding " Music in the Barn" parties every month. This has drawn a large crowd from our community and has allowed us to keep country music alive. My life is so rich due to all of the good people in it, especially Roger.


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Edward Snowden on Why We Must Protect our Privacy
It's Not About Having Something to Hide; It's About Having Something to Lose
By Literary Hub
In November 2015, PEN America released a report that examines the scant protections for whistleblowers working in United States intelligence organizations. To mark its publication, we hosted a forum at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Executive director of PEN America, Suzanne Nossel, interviewed former U.S. government contractor Edward Snowden via Skype. Whistleblowers Thomas Drake, former senior executive at the NSA, Jesselyn Radack of WHISPeR, the Whistleblower & Source Protection Program of ExposeFacts, and New York Times reporter James Risen shared their stories.
Katy Glenn Bass, deputy director of PEN America's Free Expression Program, introduced the event:
PEN's report shows that the gaps in existing protections for intelligence community whistleblowers, the government's failure to adequately address retaliation against them, and the Obama Administration's aggressive prosecution of leakers under the Espionage Act, are damaging to freedom of expression, press freedom, and access to information in the United States. The combined impact of these elements has created a chilling effect on free expression, and affects both the willingness of government workers to expose wrongdoing and the ability of journalists to cover their revelations. This poses serious risks for the free flow of information and informed public debate that is necessary for a healthy democratic society.
The following transcripts are adapted from the evening's conversations.
SUZANNE NOSSEL: While Americans treasure the idea of free speech and lionize individuals who stand up to authority, there is a deep skittishness when it comes to whistleblowers. They make people nervous. Why do you think that is?
EDWARD SNOWDEN: I don't think it's a huge mystery, given that the government and the press in our country have extremely tight relations. A lot of media will print allegations rather than facts, whereas whistleblowers are required to present evidence on behalf of our claims. Whenever wrongdoing is revealed—whether it's warrantless wiretapping in the Bush Administration, lies in the Vietnam War, or the lead-up to Iraq and the way intelligence was doctored—when it's an unofficial leak, we immediately get a cohort of authorized leakers saying, "This is harmful, this is dangerous, it's going to cost lives, it's going to reduce the level of safety in our society." No one ever challenges them to show facts; they become persuasive simply because we say, "These are people in positions of authority; these are serious people. If the media is giving them this level of deference, perhaps we should as well."
But they don't want to talk about the concrete harms of bad policy. They don't want to declassify a particular program; they don't want us to know what's going on. As soon as anybody has to justify their position in terms of our current modern political culture, they're losing. I think that's really why, by proxy, the public is uncomfortable. Politicians become uncomfortable anytime they have to justify why they're doing what they're doing.
When you look at this as an engineer, which is sort of natural to me, you think about it in terms of game theory. What is the optimal strategy for your side, for your tribe, whatever that is? If you're a newspaper, if you've got to scoop things to survive, and the opposition has a big story but you don't, you look for your angle. Traditionally there would be follow-on reporting, other journalists would chase new leads, but this has become difficult in the national security context. Nobody wants to talk to journalists anymore, they realize it's the kiss of death for their career and could expose them to legal charges, and so journalists naturally and understandably go, "Well, what can we report on? Well, we can go after the whistleblower. Who could it be? What does the document imply about them? What could their motivations be?"
Even if journalists get the Pulitzer Prize-winning story showing that officials broke the law, they're going to lose access as a result. Bridges will be burned within the administration, or officials will start feeding stories to competitors. It's traditional in our society for the press to become adversarial to the government in a contest for public information, but unfortunately and increasingly, particularly under this administration, the government is becoming adversarial to the press. And that's quite dangerous.
NOSSEL: Do whistleblowers' motives matter? Assuming their disclosures meet the criteria of whistleblowing and advance the public interest, does that person deserve protection regardless of motive?
SNOWDEN: If they've revealed wrongdoing, that's really all that matters. If somebody works for an organized crime group, that doesn't have any bearing on what we do with the information they give and what it means to us, provided we can determine it's factually correct.
NOSSEL: We know you're not in Russia by choice, that your options were severely limited, that you've also been critical of the Russian government for human rights and freedom of expression violations. At the same time, Masha Gessen, one of our trustees at PEN America, commented during your early days in Russia, when you met with human rights groups at the Moscow airport, that the Russian propaganda machine had not gotten so much mileage out of a U.S. citizen since Angela Davis's murder trial in 1971. I think there still is a sense among some Russian dissidents that your position is unhelpful to their cause. How do you respond to that?
SNOWDEN: That's a mistake. They're trying to argue, basically, that one individual is responsible for the bad actions of another. This is the same as critics who say I caused tech companies to lose sales. We know that's not true. No one's going to be surprised if the Russian government or the Chinese government or any other irresponsible government that is against free and open and unregulated communication on the internet uses something like this to their advantage.
The fault here also lies with the U.S. government, which actively blocked my ability to leave Russia. I applied for asylum in twenty-one countries, and many of them actually seemed favorable in response—but, for example, when Ecuador seemed to be leaning toward saying, "Yes, we're going to allow him to come here," Vice President Joe Biden called the president of Ecuador directly. When the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, made some joke about considering granting me asylum so I could leave Russia, his plane was grounded on the orders of the president of the United States. The airspace of France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy was closed (a violation of international law), and they grounded his plane.
Where is the line between prosecution and persecution? I would argue that line becomes quite bright and quite clear when you start grounding the diplomatic flights of heads of state on their equivalent of Air Force One. If that happened to the president of the United States, it would be seen as casus belli.
NOSSEL: A couple of weeks ago, there was a vote in the European Parliament against extradition for you, a new sign of support. Might that mean at some point soon you could trade your home in Russia for one in Paris?
SNOWDEN: We'll see how that goes. I do think it's pretty extraordinary to see such a wide body, the Parliament of the European Union, saying the U.S. position on this issue is mistaken. They're actually doing what I believe is a friendly action, and a proper action. There is a growing consensus that in 2013, the U.S. government could make the argument that these disclosures would be dangerous, that they could cause harm, that maybe terrorists were going to take over, that the sky was going to fall, but it's 2015 now, and the directors of the CIA, the DIA, the NSA, the FBI, and so on have testified. They've all been begged by my largest critics in Congress, "Show us any evidence, any case where anybody has come to harm as a result of these disclosures," and they never have.
This is a fact: [Mass surveillance] doesn't keep us safe, it doesn't save lives, it doesn't prevent terrorist attacks.
NOSSEL: Your colleagues had one agenda one purpose and you had another. When people weigh up your case, one of the things they think about is your colleagues. It's said you had to obtain passwords or other information from them without their knowledge.
SNOWDEN: That's not true.
NOSSEL: I'm curious about your relationship with your peers and whether you think they understand what you did, what you would say to them now, or if you have spoken with them since then.
SNOWDEN: I can't comment on whether or not I've spoken with anybody. That would obviously be a profoundly negative thing for them. What I can say is that I think a number of my colleagues would understand and approve of the choices that I made and the results. The people at the working level at NSA are not bad guys. They aren't criminals. They aren't people trying to get over on anything, and they aren't people trying to cause harm. They are patriotic people who want to do the right thing. They recognize that they do break laws here and there, but typically they're thinking about international laws or some foreign government's laws. They like to think that they're upholding the Constitution.
Many of them didn't even know what was going on. Even people who had top secret clearance didn't know about the warrantless wiretapping program. You have increasingly restricted circles within the intelligence community, where you can't see into this silo or that silo. What was special about me was I had a special clearance called PRIVAC, which meant I could see across silos. I saw the big picture. When I connected the dots and I showed it to colleagues, they became extremely concerned.
NOSSEL: Certainly we've seen diversity of opinion on whether it was a good idea to make the disclosures you made, and I would guess some colleagues said that doing so went strongly against their grain as loyal government employees. How do you think about those people now? Do you think they've changed their minds?
SNOWDEN: I used to keep a copy of the Constitution on my desk at the NSA in Hawaii, and I would talk to my co-workers about it, particularly as I thought more and more about these issues, and I gave copies to some of them, and we would talk. Some people would really think about it, some people would be concerned, but there were others who said, "The Constitution is just a piece of paper. It doesn't really matter. Bottom line, we have a job to do." Particularly when we're talking about topics like extraordinary rendition. I remember one conversation quite well: A co-worker said, "Guantánamo is a giant waste of time. If we had been doing it the right way, we would have simply kicked them out of the airplane as they were crossing the Atlantic, and then we wouldn't be dealing with this problem."T hat guy's mind probably hasn't changed.
NOSSEL: Let's say your lawyers succeed in striking a plea deal, and you're able to come back to the United States. Fast forward five or ten years. What are you focused on, what does your life look like?
SNOWDEN: Right now I spend almost all of my time coordinating to solve really tough technical problems in terms of how we enforce the protection of our rights, the privacy of our communications, either with academics or technologists or engineers, increasingly at the Freedom of the Press Foundation. A lot of individuals in a lot of different countries think that mass surveillance is a bad idea. They don't think that bulk collection is effective or that it keeps us safe. This is a fact: It doesn't keep us safe, it doesn't save lives, it doesn't prevent terrorist attacks. For example, the telephonic metadata program under Section 215 was warrantlessly intercepting phone calls of more or less everyone in the United States for a period of more than ten years. Not only did it never stop a single terrorist attack in the United States, it didn't make a concrete difference in a single investigation.
The Boston Marathon bombings in the United States, the Charlie Hebdo attacks, the attacks in Sydney, the Canadian Parliament attacks— all of these attackers were known to intelligence services beforehand.
NOSSEL: I take it you'd stay with this fight, that you're saying this is, perhaps, the fight of your life. But if you were back here, would you be in Silicon Valley, developing the next generation of encryption tools? Would you be out in the streets with a bullhorn, trying to engage the public on these issues? Would you be testifying in front of Congress? Where would you situate yourself in society if you had the opportunity to come back and wage this effort from within?
SNOWDEN: I was never a very public person before 2013. A lot of computer guys are like that; they keep to themselves, they work online, they write, they design, they engineer, but they aren't so good at being out on the streets. I'm not a politician and I don't want to be, but a lot of advocacy organizations and worthy movements have asked me to participate, and so I am spending more time on that. When it comes to the question of where I would live, what would I do, would it be different, I think it wouldn't be much different than today. You know, people say I live in Russia, but that's actually a misunderstanding. I live on the internet. That's where I spend all of my time, that's where all of my work is seen, and one of the most beautiful things about the last two years is it shows that you don't have to be in some specific spot. You don't have to be in San Francisco. Even when your government is pursuing a policy of exile, you can be everywhere and anywhere. That is powerful and liberating, and I think that will be one of the most important lessons learned as aresult of the disclosures of 2013. You can't shut people up the way you used to be able to.
NOSSEL: When we think about surveillance, we think about literature as maybe the most authoritative source about the harms of the surveillance state: Kafka, Huxley, Orwell. Have those books influenced you?
SNOWDEN: I think they have. Of course I've read Huxley, I've read Orwell. When we think about this—and this perhaps may not be so popular with PEN, but…
NOSSEL: Watch out.
SNOWDEN: [laughs] Literature to me is more about a writing culture than about what's bound between two covers. And there is a writing culture, a literary culture that is growing on the internet by the day. Yes, the long-form traditional novel has an influence, it has a space to make an argument that you don't get in the typical back and forth of the internet, but I think it's not helpful to give space to the idea that the internet and traditional print are in opposition to each other. I think it's an evolution as we develop new tools. Just as the printing press meant that we shared books and ideas more broadly than when each book was handwritten and an incredibly precious object, the internet is providing a reach for ideas that aren't necessarily able to attain the attention of a well-known reviewer at The New York Times.
AUDIENCE: By your own estimations, in what ways have you been both an effective and a less than ideal messenger for the causes of civil liberties and digital privacy?
SNOWDEN: I think the fact that I have a face is problematic. Ideally, nobody would know who I am. The anonymous whistleblower is the one who's able to force the most focus on the issues. At the same time, had I done that, it would have set off an extraordinary witch hunt. People would have been unfairly implicated as aiding and abetting; they could have suffered legal liability. Revealing myself helped keep focus on the fact that this was real. But it also allowed the media to focus on me.
NOSSEL: Let's stipulate that there was going to be a face at the forefront of this campaign. My question is trying to get at the fact that it's your face, it's you, it's your line of thinking, your reasoning, your personality, and how you think that has played out in shaping the effectiveness of your message.
SNOWDEN: The fact that I don't really like to embrace the media, I don't like the story to be about me, makes me a less than ideal messenger because, as we discussed earlier, the government sort of owns all the Sunday shows, and if you wind the clock back to June 2013, every Sunday they had a parade of officials who would be out there and they'd mislead the public in concrete ways that I could have quite easily disproved, and shown that these were misdirections. Intentional mendacity. But I felt that this would make it more about me. Maybe I was overcautious; I tried to back out of it and let there be some other face. Let somebody else come and argue these issues. But the result was a vacuum where they smeared my character repeatedly for a number of months (it's still going on, but on a much lower level). If there had been a different person in my shoes who made the same decision but had a different personality, who was a little more media-hungry, who wanted to engage, to go talk to George Stephanopoulos, they would have been more effective in pushing back, they could have more quickly corrected the record when officials made false statements in defense of these programs.
NOSSEL: Given how motivated you are, why not overcome your natural reservations and go mix it up with George Stephanopoulos?
SNOWDEN: I think it comes down to personality. You're asking why I didn't become a long jumper instead of an engineer. Sure, in hindsight I can say maybe I should have done this, maybe I should have done that, but on balance, when I look back at things, I think it worked out really well. It did benefit the public in a clear, broad way, and if I had to go back and do it again, I'm not sure that I would change things.
NOSSEL: You painted a pretty optimistic picture of how things are going in terms of surveillance reform and the momentum that you see to address the changes that you're concerned about. You ground a good part of that in the technical fixes that you think will protect privacy even if legislation won't. But I wonder about the 2016 election, and what you think of the candidates' views on surveillance.
It's not really about having something to hide, it's about having something to lose. When we're talking about rights, we're talking about relative power within society. These people do not realize… they're saying it's okay for a government or other institution to have total power in society.
SNOWDEN: When he was elected, Obama could have said, "This surveillance program is a fundamental violation of rights—I'm against that. I don't care how you structure it, monitoring absolutely everyone in the nation without regard to criminal suspicion, without regard to any individual wrongdoing whatsoever, is a violation of the Fourth Amendment, and it's a violation of our human rights. That's not how we should be as people, that's not how we should be as Americans." Had Obama done that, he would have gotten moral applause. But as soon as there was any low-level terrorist attack or noteworthy criminal event, his political opponents would have said it was because of this decision.
We have to move away from the politics of fear that has enveloped our country for the last decade or more, and move into a post-terror generation: the politics of resilience. There will be crimes, there will be terrorist attacks; we will punish the wicked, but we will not elevate stability above liberty.
AUDIENCE: I wonder what you say to the many Americans who feel, "If my information is washed up in an enormous sea with hundreds and millions and billions of other records, I'm actually okay with that." Our sense of privacy and the acceptable level of government intrusion has been recalibrated, reset by the internet, by mobile, by your revelations. Even if we don't want to live in a security state, even if we want to move beyond a War on Terror paradigm, there may be a sense in which the American public has decided, "We can live with a lot of this."
SNOWDEN: I think that's changing. When we look at polls, we see that argument is becoming radically less persuasive than it was ten years ago. Arguing that you don't care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is like arguing you don't care about freedom of speech because you have nothing to say. It's not really about having something to hide, it's about having something to lose. When we're talking about rights, we're talking about relative power within society. These people do not realize, necessarily, consciously, what they're arguing about, because it's an abstract idea, and they're making an emotional argument without following it to its logical conclusion. They're saying it's okay for a government or other institution to have total power in society. Mass surveillance is a totalitarian power by definition. It monitors everybody's private communications, everybody's private records, their private lives in society. We don't let federal agents have a tour our home when we leave for work every day simply because it would give them an advantage in investigating crimes. Of course it would. They would find evidence of drugs, of fraud, of tax evasion, whatnot, if they had the power to go through everything. In the digital realm, because it is invisible, it's very difficult to demonstrate wrongdoing, and to hold violators to account. The NSA's own records show they violate law or policies thousands of times in a single calendar year. Even if these policies are implemented by well-meaning people, they will not only be abused, they will be dangerous. If people do agree that we should embrace mass surveillance, that they don't care about the right to be left alone, that decision is fundamentally public in nature. The problem, revealed in 2013, was that this decision had been made for us, without our knowledge, without our consent. The programs had been put in place in secret and were being used against us, and in our name.
These policies are not passive. They're invisible, they're constant, these are things that are monitoring you all the time. People say, "It's just metadata, it's getting a copy of your phone records and getting an itemized phone bill." That's not at all what it's like. It's a record of every book you've ever opened, every library you've ever visited, every home you've ever visited, every person you've ever talked to, every cellphone tower you've ever passed, every method of transportation you've used. It is a perfect record of every private life. That is what metadata reveals, that is what bulk collection or mass surveillance produces. Ultimately, it's not really about surveillance. It's about the balance of power within society. It's about whether we, the private citizens, stay protected. The government is not supposed to know a lot about us. That's why we're called private citizens. Public officials are supposed to be transparent: We're supposed to know a lot about them because they wield privilege, influence, and power to the most extreme degree within society. Privacy is intended not for these people; privacy is for the powerless. And if we do not protect it, we will not have it.
Edward Snowdenfree expressionfree speechmass surveillancemetadataNSAPEN AmericaPEN America JournalSuzanne Nosselwhistleblowerswoke bae
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By misfortune, they had struck the reef at high tide, and as the seas grew violent, attempts to free the ship failed....


I'm 29 but still consider myself pretty much a 20-something-year old! I love my job- lecturing and research - and when I'm not working I play guitar, write music, think of 'new' metaphors, travel the world, drink wine and do something that moves me outside of my comfort zone. If you's like to hang out, go for a stroll, grab a drink, or even hear me play guitar, drop me line!!
Anything that stirs the heart and makes me happy!
I prefer people from a different background - I see it as becoming cultured and learning to appreciate difference!
Keep plans to a minimum and live in the moment! Take long road trips and if you still like each other then it's meant to be!!


text:
Uádi Sale (Wadi Salih) é um dos sete distritos do estado do Darfur Ocidental, no Sudão.

Bibliografia

Distritos do Sudão

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HomePerspectiveJared Staudt'What is truth?': Catholic responses to pro-choice objections
FeaturedPerspectiveJared StaudtMagazinePro-Life
'What is truth?': Catholic responses to pro-choice objections
By Jared Staudt
picture of Ultrasound of baby in mother's womb. 24 week.
"What is truth?" (Jn 18:28). Pilate speaks for many today, even as Truth itself stood before him. We as Catholics have accepted a basic definition of truth: the conformity of the mind to reality. We know the truth if we understand the nature of things, making proper judgments about what is and is not correct about the world and ourselves. Getting things right can even be a matter of life and death.
Truth has been eclipsed in our culture — this much should be obvious. We no longer accept even the most basic aspects of reality and refuse to affirm that we can even know them at all. Life, the most basic tenet of reality itself, has become a flashpoint in our flight from reality. In opposing the specious arguments of the pro-choice movement, we can have confidence that the truth is on our side. But, the truth is not enough. We also need charity. If we live in a relativistic culture, then we need a witness of love to move the heart beyond just winning an argument, which will prove elusive.
In this dialogue, it helps to think through the arguments of the other side. How would we answer them? Many of our arguments do not even make sense on their surface to the other side, because they come from an entirely different way of thinking about human life and sexuality — a fundamentally different worldview, as it were. We need to understand this and take the time to think them through in conversation. The following 10 pro-choice objections can provide a primer for thinking about how you would witness to the truth of human life.
1. We do not know when life begins.
Roe v. Wade employed this falsehood to justify its decision, even though it is a basic fact of biology that an independent organism begins to exist at the moment of conception. It is true that before the 19th century there was debate about the exact mode and timing of how the human person developed, but the German scientist Oscar Hetwig determined the nature of sexual reproduction through fertilization in 1876. From this moment, there is no scientific debate on the origin of human life and every textbook will present the moment of fertilization as the origin of human life. That said, other people will try to say that even though a human organism exists at conception it is not developed enough to be considered a human "person." This distinction essentially means that some human beings would not be considered worthy of protection because of their state of development or capacity, a dangerous distinction that could leave many people subject to arbitrary discrimination. In fact, the origins of the abortion movement were linked to racist eugenics, as we see in the influence of Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, who actually wrote: "We don't want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population" (Letter to Dr. Clarence J. Gamble, December 10, 1939).
2. My body, my choice.
This mantra assumes that the conceived child is simply a part of the mother's body. Since we know that human life does begin, biologically speaking, at the moment of conception, there is a distinct human organism within the mother's body. It is true that this child can only survive in dependence upon the mother, but this is also true of young children and anyone who is vulnerable. In fact, there is no such thing as a completely autonomous human being. We all exist in dependence upon one another. We cannot kill another human being in the name of our autonomy, rights or convenience. It is a tragedy that some mothers would see an innocent human life, alive and growing inside of their womb, as an invasive threat to their bodies that must be eliminated.
3. Stop pushing your religious views on me.
This argument assumes that opposition from abortion stems solely from faith. It is true that our faith teaches us that murder (the intentional killing of an innocent human being) is wrong, but it is also a clear precept of the natural law. Abortion is wrong by its very nature because it violates the inherent dignity of the human person as a rational being. We can explain the evil of abortion without reference to faith, even though faith and reason are in agreement on this point. It is incumbent on government to protect the life of all of its citizens in order to uphold the common good of the community. When the government not only allows but also supports the destruction of human life, the rule of law becomes undermined and even arbitrary. Reason itself tells us that all human beings are worthy of respect and protection, without upholding only the rights of the strong against the weak.
4. What if the mother's life is in danger?
The Church teaches a basic moral principle that "the end does not justify the means." We can never do evil so that good may result or we ourselves become compromised by that evil. It is never permissible to kill an innocent human life for any reason. That said, the Church also recognizes the legitimacy of taking action to save the life of the mother even if it may result in the death of the unborn child. The foreseen but unintended death of the child is not what is chosen directly, for the moral choice is to save of the life of the mother, a principle called double effect. This would not be an abortion, because the child is not killed (there is no procedure directly killing the child), even though he may die as a consequence of a necessary treatment to save the life of the mother.
5. No one should be forced to have a child.
In our culture, we have changed our understanding of the purpose of human sexuality. Its intrinsic function from a biological perspective is reproduction. As Christians, we would say that God designed it that way. It is also meant to draw us into unity, expressing the complete gift of self in marriage that is exclusive, permanent and fruitful. Today, we understand sexuality almost solely from the viewpoint of personal fulfillment, although we know that is regularly misused to exploit others. Engaging in sexual intercourse is ordered intrinsically toward life. Because it is so foreign to the mainstream way of thinking, this is a hard truth to accept for many people; however, it is a vitally necessary one to reorder the many distortions of sexuality and point us back to reality.
6. What about cases of rape and incest?
We have to return to the principle that it is never permissible to kill an innocent human being. The victim of rape or incest has experienced terrible violence. The answer to this violence is not to pass it on to another innocent person and thus become a perpetrator of violence. This will not help in the healing process but will actually cause more harm to the mother through the violence of abortion. This points to the reality that abortion causes trauma for women and itself requires a process of healing and forgiveness. Adoption may be the best option in these cases.
7. Women will be economically burdened if they are forced to give birth.
People are more important than things. This also requires us to examine how our culture thinks about life. What are our priorities? Do we value human life more than economic realities? It is true that many women will find it harder to work during pregnancy and after giving birth, but they should not have to face these difficulties on their own. This is why St. John Paul II challenged us to abandon a culture of death, which sees human beings as disposable, and instead build a culture of life that cherishes and supports people. A culture of life values the life and wellbeing of mothers and children equally and would entail the community being willing to make sacrifices for their good.
8. Poor children would be worse off.
Is it better to be dead than to be poor? Perhaps some people think so. We need to reaffirm the inherent goodness of human life. A culture of life works for justice in society and Christian charity seeks to make sure that no one goes without the necessities of life. Children are a gift that enrich everyone, poor or not. Those who are poor are better off with children than without them, because we need communion with others to be happy. We will not find this happiness by getting rid of others or making sure that we are not inconvenienced by them. The Catholic Church in particular feeds and educates more people than any other group throughout the world. We see Jesus in every other human being, and God himself, the Creator, sees us all as very good, made in his image and likeness. Every human life has a transcendent value and worth.
9. Constitutional freedom demands access to abortion.
This argument is at the heart of the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade and its reversal. Roe v. Wade used the reasoning of the prior decision on contraception from Griswold v. Connecticut that argued there was a right to privacy in the Constitution, although no such right can be found there. This fabricated right became the basis for the argument that the State could not interfere with issues related to human sexuality, which in Casey v. Planned Parenthood would become the infamous right to define the meaning of our own existence (created by Justice Anthony Kennedy). Roe v. Wade does acknowledge that the State has a vested interest in the birth of new citizens, and we tend to overlook the relationship of children to the common good, in part because of our distorted understanding of sexuality. Abortion harms the common good by depriving the nation of future citizens, which is now leading our country into a dangerous population decline. Although the health of a nation depends upon the willingness of its citizens to raise a family, it is also a path to genuine happiness, which is found in giving of ourselves for others.
10. If we do not have legal abortion, people will die!
It is hard to believe anyone could utter this with a straight face and yet it has become a recent rallying cry. We should not have to remind people of the fact that abortion necessarily involves death. The argument, of course, focuses on the possible return to unsafe abortion practices if Roe v. Wade is overturned. The United States, however, will not be outlawing abortion entirely, even though it will most likely become illegal in many States. Women could choose to travel to another state, Colorado being one of them. As such, Catholics will be called to do even more to support pregnant women so that they do not feel the need to kill their own children. It will become a true moment of witness for us and a test to see whether we can communicate the love of God to our society and begin building a culture of life.
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R. Jared Staudt, PhD, is a husband and father of six, Director of Content for Exodus 90, a Benedictine oblate, prolific writer, and insatiable reader.
CPR: Colorado Catholics hope to change hearts — and laws — over the state's abortion access


CINCINNATI, OH – 26 Oct, 2017 – Today, several important announcements were made at the the nation's first Smart Regions Conference, hosted by Cincinnati-based Venture Smarter, an organization aimed at aligning governments, business and academia nationally toward Smart Cities implementations.
The City of Cincinnati announced a request for proposals (RFP) to combine data sets to bring seamless mobility and personalized transit optimization through the development of a web-based, fully mobile-friendly tool.
"Cincinnati is a city of innovators, and we want to harness their knowledge and expertise to drive us forward," said Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley.
City Manager Harry Black added, "The app is intended to be a tool for which every person traveling through Cincinnati may optimize their own, unique mobility experience." "We're looking to enhance connectivity and mobility as we continue to build Cincinnati into a truly smart city" Black said.
City Manager Black, the Office of Performance and Data Analytics, and the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) announced the RFP at the Regional Smart Cities Initiative's Midwest IoT Showcase and Smart Regions Conference held at BB&T Arena on the campus of Northern Kentucky University.


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Top 18 Albums of 2012: #8 Beach House – Bloom
December 7, 2012 Adrian Spinelli 1 Comment
(I've embedded RapGenius links in the song title hyperlinks. Right click and open in another tab to listen to the songs and read the lyrics as you follow along to fully experience the depth of #8 Bloom)
[Press Play]
I'll admit, I was a skeptic when this album came out. Maybe i just couldn't accept the idea that something from Beach House could be as good as their previous release, Teen Dream (My #5 Album of 2010). Hence, it took me a while to immerse in Bloom and all that it had to offer…
I went to sleep…and had the same dream I had in 2010. The whole time in the dream, Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally's songs kept me in my comfortably numb alternate reality. I never wanted to wake up…and i floated…and kept floating, in a momentary bliss. Beach House is truly the soundtrack to my dreams. When I listen, i feel like i'm floating….it still feels like the "warm wood and cold marble" effect of 2010. Bloom is just as spectacular as Teen Dream and this pleases me greatly.
On 'Other People', Victoria sings about the fleeting nature of our friendships. We do our best to stay in touch, but in the end, much like our dreams, many of those that we're close to inevitably come and go and follow their own life paths… Once you start to understand that Bloom is an album about how you live your life, the decisions you make, the people you meet and the different roads we all walk down, it really starts to reach the inner depths of your emotions and your psyche.
On 'Lazuli', Legrand compares the uniqueness of her subject to the qualities of a mystical, sapphire-like stone. You can't pull this off without her beautiful siren song…her voice is what truly sets this band apart. It's one of a kind…it's angelic…it's…well…it's just about perfect…much like the collection of tracks on Bloom together encompass a near perfect follow-up to a perfect record; Both of which will surely stand the test of time.
I choose to end this post with 'Irene'…the last song on the album and the first one that grabbed me:
"It's a strange paradise" Legrand sings…..and i'm back in my dream. And i'm in an incarnation of paradise… But maybe it's not a dream at all…Maybe the relationships that we forge with each other are the beauty of our reality….Are we living in our dreams? [puts headphones on]
beach housebest of 2012dreamsindie rockMusictop albums


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Summit Of The Americas: Leaders Talk Economy, Climate And Migration
President Biden and other Western Hemisphere leaders are meeting in Los Angeles to promote discord and unity amid a host of regional issues.
Article by Adi Guajardo
Day two of the Summit of the Americas kicked off with a heavy emphasis on democracy.
President Joe Biden held one-on-one meetings with the presidents of Canada and Brazil, announcing commitments and agreements targeting economic recovery in the Western hemisphere and much more.
"There is no reason why the Western Hemisphere can't be the most forward looking, most democratic, most prosperous, most peaceful, secure region in the world," President Biden said.
U.S. Excluded Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela From Americas Summit
The White House downplayed the number of missing leaders at the table, indicating that the summit can still be effective.
He called for unity, despite a deep division in the Americas over the leaders who were excluded from the summit in Los Angeles.
Mexico's president and other leaders boycotted the summit over the U.S. decision to not invite leaders from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
Despite hesitation, the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, flew in to meet with President Biden for the first time, expressing interest in drawing closer to the U.S.
"I am quite certain that with the advent of my administration, both our administrations have never had such a great opportunity given the many affinities or shared areas of interest we have," Bolsonaro said.
He said Brazil is willing to cooperate toward a way out of the conflict in Ukraine, with hopes of a return to normalcy.
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris also met with the leaders of Caribbean nations to launch a new climate partnership. Two other major agreements announced were the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity and the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration.
Since Monday, protesters have chanted outside the summit, calling on President Biden to make good on a number of issues, including migration promises here in the U.S.
"He said in the first 100 days there was going to be an immigration reform," activist Carlos Eduardo Espina said. "We're still waiting. So we're just here to get our message out and also call on the international leaders from other countries to find regional human solutions to the immigration crisis."
President Biden will officially roll out the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration Friday and expand his plan to work with other countries to address the crisis.
Many immigration activists have been critical of how fruitful this plan will be without key leaders like the president of Mexico at the table. But the country's foreign minister is in attendance.
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