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Steve Wilhelm, April 16, 2015, Puget Sound Business Journal
Automate West Coast ports and replace strike-prone dock workers. That was the suggestion of Bill Mongelluzzo, senior editor of New Jersey-based Journal of Commerce, who spoke before a Port of Seattle annual breakfast this week.
The increasing size of cargo ships and fallout from the months of labor strife between longshore workers and employers will make it difficult for Puget Sound ports to do anything to prevent the steady loss of market share, Mongelluzzo said.
"The reputation of West Coast ports now is in the gutter," he said. "I hear it all the time from folks who control cargo. They have a keen loathing for the West Coast and labor contracts there."
Mongelluzzo laid most of the blame for the months of cargo slowdowns on the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, arguing they weren't concerned enough about the impacts on the economy.
"There were work stoppages and slowdowns for four months, November through Feb. 20, that did not have to happen," he said.
Dan McKesson, president of ILWU Puget Sound District Council, fired back, pointing at terminal operators. They caused many of the slowdowns by not allowing longshore workers on the docks, he said.
"For six days our guys were sent home every day after six hours," he said.
The months of labor strife ended in February, when, under federal pressure, the longshore workers and the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents ocean carriers, reached a settlement agreement.
In addition to the labor dispute, Mongelluzzo said the increasing size of ships handicaps Puget Sound ports by drawing cargo away.
A ship capable of carrying 14,000 containers can reduce the per-container cost by 60 percent compared to older ships a third the size. That is the key reason operators are now ordering ships carrying 20,000 containers, he said.
The bad news for Northwest ports is that owners are operating the largest ships out of Southern California ports first because of the large population in the Los Angeles basin. The better economics of the larger ships then attract more cargo.
Mongelluzzo said automation may be the answer for West Coast ports recovering cargo because it will free terminals from the impacts of labor actions, and also because automated terminals can be run more efficiently.
"An automated terminal is what the ultimate answer will be to productivity problems, and future of labor relations in the West," he said.
As an example, he described one Southern California cargo terminal that kept operating during the worst of the labor problems this fall.
Port of Seattle Seaport Managing Director Linda Styrk tried to cool reactions to Mongelluzzo's comments, indirectly addressing the longshore leaders who were there.
"My experience has been with ILWU leadership in Puget Sound," she said. "I think these guys understand the supply chain…and they understand the balance between interest in automation, which is very costly, and productivity that can be maintained through more traditional methods."


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Retcon This! Blackest Night and it's Consequences
In the ever-evolving landscape of fandom, there are simply some things that should not have happened. In Retcon This!, we examine some of the more questionable aspects of our beloved geek properties.
Blackest Night was billed as an event that would shake the DC Universe to it's core. Sure there were some changes, even some good ones, but did Blackest Night deliver as promised? Was it the penultimate Green Lantern story we were told was going to be delivered? I say thee nay. Geoff Johns delivered a well told story, that has had little to no real consequence in the DCU. Where Blackest Night has had impact in titles like Brightest Day, Justice League: Generation Lost, Action Comics, and the Green Lantern books themselves, it was far from the universe-shattering event we were promised. Titles are slathered with the Brightest Day banner that have had little or no influence from the effects of Blackest Night.
Let me just get it out of the way and say that I enjoyed Blackest Night until the last issue. It was a tight, robust story, that seemed to be on it's way to shaking up a status-quo. With shcking moments in the first issue like the deaths of the Hawks, the desecration of "Batman's" grave, and the Martian Manhunter's attack on Green Lantern and the Flash, I thought we were on the way to a story that was going to impact every title in the DCU.
Then the rest of the issues started coming in. It was nerdgasm moment after nerdgasm moment, and it was great for the issue. It was Nerdporn on the level we have never seen from DC. We learned things about the Black Lanterns that made them seem unbeatable.
Our heroes rallied, but it was the wrong heroes. Instead of the Green Lanterns cleaning up their mess, we were introduced to the Justice League as the White Lantern Corps, who struck the humbling blows to Nekron. The Hawks, who were so brutally murdered at the start of the series were brought back to life. Characters that had just died in Final Crisis were brought back. The genius stroke of inducting various DC characters into the various Corps was undone. The DCU had been returned to the state it was in before Final Crisis and Blackest Night, with only a few minor changes.
Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, and Deadman came out in the best shape after this series. Deadman had his entire character re-written. He was Deadman, and now he is back among the living. Aquaman had some real pathos in his adventures for the first time in a long time. The Martian Manhunter was back, and not tethered to the JLA. These are good things. I expected more of this from Blackest Night. Instead most books went back to the storylines they were dealing with before Blackest Night. New books were started under the Brightest Day banner, that weren't affected by BN in a meaningful way. Green Arrow's new setting was from Cry to Justice. If anyone can explain to me the reason that Birds of Prey has the Brightest Day banner, in a way that makes sense, I'd be appreciative.
There was a way to have done this better, and live up to the promise of this series.
First of all, some of the new recruits should have kept their rings. The Scarecrow was a natural for the Sinestro Corps. It would have been an evolution for that character, and upped his threat quotient. Barry Allen as a Blue Lantern should also have been kept. It would have differentiated him from the other 2 Flashes, and allowed Wally West fans to still have that character in a Flash title. The Atom could have stayed in his Corps, and maybe we wouldn't have had the needless death of Ryan Choi. (Luthor I understand not having been able to keep his ring, because of Larfleeze. It also set up the brilliant run in Action Comics right now.)
The resurrected characters could have been the White Lantern Corps. The Martian Manhunter as the host for the White entity would have been great for that character, taking him away from the Justice League, and letting him be in charge of a new league of sorts. If the White Lanterns lost their rings, bang they would die again. Imagine the storytelling potential there. Deadman would have some serious choices to make, does he stay among the living, or go back to his old, familiar setting being dead. The Hawks would stop their constant death and rebirth cycle. What would happen to Firestorm?
The Green Lantern Corps should have defeated Nekron in the end. If there was a Doomsday story that the plot started in a Superman book, and Superman didn't defeat Doomsday and some new character did, you'd be like WTF? It was the Green Lantern Corps chance to shine, instead of the now non-existant White Corps. The Black Corps also should have not been decimated and destroyed at the end of the event. They should have been an insidious, ever present threat. All the potential for stories with the Black Corps was wasted.
Overall, Blackest Night was a well written, exciting event. But, just like any event, it had it's problems. What are your thoughts? Am I completely off base, or is there a shred of truth in my theories? Let me know in the comments below.
Filed Under: Columns • Retcon This!

subset: commoncrawl


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Double Blow For Cowen As Coughlan Gives Full Backing
Outgoing Golfer & Amateur Taoiseach Brian Cowen is this moment considering his position after being hit by a double salvo from within the ranks of his own cabinet. It's reported that an unnamed government minister has asked the keen leadership hobbyist to stand down. However it is not this but the unequivocal backing of Tanaiste Mary Coughlan which has the leader-like enthusiast in despair.
Ms. Coughlan defended the Taoiseach in the Dail when responding to questions from Enda Kenny, the leaderlike member of Fine Gael.
"I have full confidence in the aversion of eventing given to me by the Teatray", she malapropped stridently, "If Noel Coward says he didn't talk about angling when playing a round with the charwoman of Angled Iris Tank, then I for one am happy to acceed to his alma mater".
Asked how the Taoiseach felt about Coughlan's defence of him in the house earlier, a source close to Mr. Cowen blanched, muttered "Shite", poked The Emergency reporter Seamus Brophy in both eyes with a putter and retreated into his burrow, dragging a large rock over the entrance.


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Creativity, Art and Failure
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Neil Gaiman, who is a writer and creator of many things, gave a commencement speech that was later published as a book. In it, he urges:
I hope you'll make mistakes. If you're making mistakes, it means you're out there doing something.…Make interesting, amazing, glorious, fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make. Good. Art.
I hope you'll make mistakes. If you're making mistakes, it means you're out there doing something.…Make interesting, amazing, glorious, fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make. Good. Art.
I hear something in Mr. Gaiman's words that inspires me to a new kind of courage, to new ways of being brave. If our congregations are going to be relevant, I think we have to lead the way toward creative engagement with the world. And we have to lead without—or at least, in spite of—the fear of failure. Perhaps we can learn some of this by reconnecting with the muses, playful and dangerous partners that they are.
Art and spirit are close kin, the only two realms in which people talk openly about inspiration—about being claimed by the beauty of a thing or an idea or a cause. For centuries, if you wanted to see art you would head to a cathedral, temple, or mosque. You might walk through gardens made to resemble paradise on earth or be bathed in light filtering through stories told in glass. For millennia, people understood art to be a gateway to spirit and spirit to be at work in art.
Only in the past few centuries, as industry and capital have begun to determine what is of value, has art been demoted to an avocation, a hobby.
When I was planning a project we called Cabaret Church, we used a quote by Lee Ustinich as our motto: "Art is spirituality in drag." It may have made people laugh, but I hope it made them think as well. Art and spirituality are deeply connected, and I think we have much to gain by reclaiming not just a connection to art, but a sense of ourselves as artists and the work of ministry as art.
I have to say that my understanding of ministry was shaped by serving a congregation full of artists. We had actors, sculptors, fabric artists, painters, poets, and glass artists. I can't think of anyone in that congregation who doesn't make art. Even the chair of their Endowment Trustees plays the banjo and sings at the coffee house.
One Sunday after the service I was talking to a few board members, and I spontaneously asked, "So, when I say minister, what image comes to mind?" Their list was unsurprising, "He's tall and thin, in his mid-fifties, has gray hair and a beard, wears black, and he is very serious."
Next I asked, "What about when I say artist? What do you imagine then?" "Oh, she's young! She has blue hair and tattoos and wears colorful, funky clothes and she is lively and unique and FUN!"
As I observed these long-time leaders of my congregation, it wasn't the answers they gave, but rather the way they gave them that caught my attention. They spoke with joy and enthusiasm, with heart! "Now you're going to dye your hair blue, aren't you?" And I said, "Maybe." And the chair of the Board said, "Good!" Something began to shift and we began to claim art as part of our mission, and it began to change us.
When I said at a planning meeting, "I really should probably teach a class on UU history…." they were savvy enough to ask, "Hmm…. Is that your 'serious-minister-all-in-black' showing up? What do you want to teach?" I answered, "Well, there is this poetry class I've taught a couple of times.…" and they said, "THAT! Teach that!" So I did.
Nine women signed up for the class. Four of them were already leaders in the congregation. Two came because they wanted to get to know people better. A mom and daughter decided to take the class together. The ninth woman was new. She'd been on our mailing list because she'd once attended a documentary film we'd shown. That very week her therapist encouraged her to start a writing practice and she saw our poetry class in the newsletter and spontaneously signed up. As we introduced ourselves, she mentioned that she attended a local evangelical mega-church.
The next week the assignment was: "Write a poem that tells a very short story." When it came time to share, the newcomer blurted out, "I'm really terrified to read this. I've been terrified all day. Can I please go first?" We agreed and she introduced her poem by telling us that she was in counseling because her marriage was abusive, and she was wrestling with what to do. She then read the most honest and painfully beautiful poem telling a story of power and control that, while deeply personal, was also a story anyone who had known abuse would find familiar.
In that moment, the class became more than a bunch of people who wanted to experiment with writing poetry. We were claimed by a mission, the most fundamental mission of art: truth-telling. From that moment on, none of us could share a single poem that pretended to be something it was not. We bonded into a community that could tell and hear truth.
More than that, the Unitarian Universalists in the class gained—seemingly instantaneously—the ability to interpret and accept words spoken in a language of faith that they themselves had rejected. No one felt the need to correct her when she said, "God bless you" or to dismiss her when she said, "Praise the Lord." The mission of truth-telling was too important.
About halfway through the class, she found the courage to move into a local shelter. It was hard for her to be there, and she kept writing poems and we kept listening, without judgment, without correction. Her poems told her story and we learned the terrifying truth of the danger she was in. We heard how the leaders of her church told her to go home, to have faith, and to pray. She couldn't tell them what she'd told us: that she'd locked his guns in the trunk of her car because she was afraid he would kill her while she slept. We held her and heard her truth and shared a profound artful and spiritual community.
She didn't become Unitarian Universalist, and like many women in her position she struggled, returned home, left again. Her road to freedom and safety will likely continue to be bumpy, but her willingness to be honest made it possible for all of us to set aside the façade of perfectionism and connect around our common, flawed, humanity.
Together, we witnessed two things: the value of her life, each life, no matter how far from perfect and the power of art in spiritual community to affirm that value and beauty. In this small circle of truth-tellers she could see herself—flaws and all—through our eyes, and ultimately, through our belief that eternal, all-embracing Love would never, ever let her go. She didn't become a Unitarian Universalist, but she knows we're here. She knows there is a religious community that doesn't believe she is being punished, doesn't blame her for the abuse, and will not abandon her for being human.
Art is healing. Making good art is more than paint on canvas or a moving melody line or beautiful turn of phrase. Making good art is opening our hearts—our whole beings—to the emotion, inspiration, pain, and courage of being alive. Making good art demands that we let go and allow ourselves to be claimed by something bigger than our egos, something bigger than our fear. Making good art means being willing to face the inevitable messes and mistakes and be brave. When we do this, we sometimes succeed in ways we could never have imagined.
Excerpted from Sean Parker Dennison's essay "Mission Impossible: Why Failure is Not an Option, delivered to Ministerial Conference at Berry Street in 2015. You can read the complete essay here.
Rev. Sean Parker Dennison
Latest posts by Rev. Sean Parker Dennison (see all)
- Creativity, Art and Failure - April 1, 2017
- Living in a Multi-Racial Family - November 11, 2011
- A Quest for Integrity - October 25, 2011


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Tough decision
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July 31st, 2011, 04:07 AM
Platinum Supermommy
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: chicopee ma
Posts: 15,513
i say forget him! if he would even say that to you he isnt a friend at all!!
Im kinda in the same position but not fully..baby was a surprise baby..he broke up with me before he even new about baby..well when i finally told him he wanted an abortion after a week of going back and forth i told him i wasnt..the baby ment more to me then him even as a friend..in the beginning he was saying things like "ill go with you to have it done,ill pay for it,once its all over we will work on us" it wasnt about us it was about BABY..once i told him i was keeping the baby he became distant for about a week or so..now he is a very excited dad to be! we are working on a strong friendship for baby but thats it!
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New Kygo Track Featured In Ultra Music Festival Trailer
The Ultra Music Festival trailers always exceed expectations, dazzling viewers with slick editing and fantastic soundtracks. With the 2015 festival creeping up, Ultra organizers have begun to kick promotion into high gear. The newest trailer for Ultra, titled "Ultra + Miami = Paradise", only runs for a minute and fifty six seconds, but its brevity works in getting future attendees even more excited.
Perhaps more interestingly, the video post abstained from identifying the song featured in the trailer, simply labeling it as an ID. However, it appeared that through some digging in the video's metadata, we found that the video was originally called "KYGO FINAL."
Generally Ultra posts the tracklists to its videos, and this tease suggests a new song from the popular artist. Kygo released one of his only original tracks "Firestone" a few months ago, and this new track could very represent another look into the producer's upcoming album.
Ultra Music Festival will take place in Miami on March 27-29. Watch the new trailer below:
Cover photo credit: Kygo
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NetflixThe Netflix series "13 Reasons Why" follows high-school student Clay Jensen and his classmate Hannah Baker, who commited suicide. She leaves behind cassette tapes that explain 13 reasons she says she took her own life. Each tape is made for someone who she felt was responsible for her suicide in some way. Each episode focuses on one of the tapes.
Netflix released all the episodes of the show on March 31, 2017. And ever since, it's gotten more and more popular, but in some cases for all the wrong reasons. It's now facing major controversy.
Many mental-health experts, concerned parents, and teachers are saying that it glorifies suicide, and could be a dangerous lesson for teens who could be going through the same things as Hannah.
Here's how the Netflix show "13 Reasons Why" became a hit among teens and why experts are calling it "harmful":


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Cornwall Wildlife Trust Photography Group
Wildlife Photography in the Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park, Andalucia
Monday 12th October 2009
Start time 19:30
A taste of the wildlife & landscapes of the Sierra de Grazalema, Andalucia by group members, Delia Trathen, Jeremy Northcott & Steve Jones based on a one week photography holiday in the region during April 2009. Refreshments available during the interval. All welcome.
Please note that this meeting will take place at Allet Chapel, which is approximately 250 metres west of our usual venue at the Cornwall Wildlife Trust head office (Five Acres, Allet,) on the B3284 Truro road between Chybucca & Shortlanesend. Car parking is at the rear of the chapel or a the junction/triangle Five Acres.
Contact(s) David Chapman (01736) 850287 or Adrian Langdon (01208) 813440.
If you are interested in wildlife photography holidays in the Sierra Grazalema Natural Park why not contact Clive Muir via the contact page at http://www.wildsideholidays.com/contact-us.html
Amongst the wildlife/photographic opportunities available are excursions to the Llanos de Libar
http://www.cornishnature.co.uk/holidays-nature-diary/2-holiday-nature-diary/33-llanos-de-libar-a-land-of-reptile-a-amphibians-a-mole-crickets-.html and the Graganta Verde gorge, Griffon Vulture colony & La Ermita caves http://www.cornishnature.co.uk/holidays-nature-diary/2-holiday-nature-diary/2-garganta-verde-in-the-sierra-de-grazalema.html