China prepares for open war with Taiwan, Taipei's Defense Ministry reveals Beijing's plan. China has increased military pressure on Taiwan in the so-called grey zone. Beijing saturates the areas around the island with balloons, drones and civilian ships. The Chinese are trying to exhaust the enemy before starting an open war. According to Reuters, citing a report by the Ministry of Defense of Taiwan, China is trying to exhaust the enemy without resorting to an open military confrontation. The document reads that the China uses the tactics of a multi-front saturated grey zone to deplete Taiwan, which includes increased patrolling with vessels and aircraft. China has attempted to increase the burden on our naval and air forces and conceal the existence of a median line in the strait. The report reads it's about the situation on the unofficial border between China and Taiwan. Chinese troops have regularly crossed it in recent years. China also uses research and military vessels, disguising military activities as civilian ones. Taiwan's Defense Ministry said it is working on measures aimed at preserving its troops in case of war, increasing the resilience of infrastructure and conducting exercises to ensure the survival of Taiwanese troops in a protracted conflict. In addition, the Taipei military department is stockpiling weapons and fuel to withstand a long war with China. The Ministry noted that it is analysing and drawing lessons from Russia's war against Ukraine and the military actions of Israel and Hamas. Taiwan's Ministry of Defense believes that China will try to seize Taiwan to prevent external interference quickly. Taipei is trying to disperse its command systems and introduce more long-range and mobile weapons and artificial intelligence. The island also strengthens ties with democratic allies, including the US. Biden considers sending US Army's money to Ukraine. The US government is considering tapping the US Army budget to provide Ukraine with much-needed military aid Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. One of the sources told the news agency that a final decision has yet to be made. The sum reportedly sought by the White House in the Pentagon reserves around $200 million is a small fraction of the $61 billion worth of Ukraine aid President Biden has been requesting from Congress. The President will once again urge legislators to approve new assistance for Kiev during his State of the Union address Bloomberg said. The Senate backed the aid package last month but it is now stalled in the White House due to political infighting. House Republicans have so far refused to back Biden's bill hoping to pressure the President into enacting tougher measures to deal with the influx of illegal migrants crossing the border with Mexico. The hold-up in Congress is occurring at a crucial time for Ukraine whose troops have been forced to retreat from several key positions in the Donbas in recent weeks. President Volodymyr Zelensky and other officials in Kiev have cited the shortages in ammunition and other equipment as reasons behind the losses on the battlefield for nearly half a year. The US Congress has failed to pass legislation to send weapons to Ukraine. Speaker Mike Johnson continues to be the steadfast roadblock arguing that aid for Ukraine will not be considered until an immigration deal is passed something that has failed to gain traction with congressional Democrats. The terrible war between Russia and Ukraine has started on the territory of Sudan. When Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudan's military ruler, found himself besieged by rebel forces in the country's capital last summer he called an unlikely ally for help. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky according to the Wall Street Journal it is noted that Zelensky had reasons to take the request seriously. Burhan had been quietly supplying Kiev with weapons since shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 according to Ukrainian and Sudanese military officials. In addition, the Sudanese rebels were backed by Russia's Wagner paramilitary group which has also mined gold in the country and used it to fund Moscow's war in Ukraine. Ukrainian Timur special forces are active in the civil war in Sudan. Not much information is available in the public domain about the Ukrainian military's presence in Sudan. Matthew Orr, Eurasia analyst at the Risk Intelligence Company, Rain told the New Arab. Sudan's brutal war between the Sudanese armed forces under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary rapid support forces led by Mohammed Hamdan Hamed T. Dagalo erupted last April. It has since killed over 10,000 people, displaced 6 million within the country and caused another 1.7 million to flee to neighboring countries. Less than a week into the war, reports emerged that Wagner Group supplied the rapid support forces with surface-to-air missiles. There were also indications in September that Ukrainian special services were operating in Sudan targeting Wagner and the rapid support forces. Sudan would be a strategically logical target for Russian mercenaries' activities as neighboring Central African Republic is one of the places where Russian mercenaries under the Russia's main directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces are most active while ensuring access to Sudan would fit within Russia's broader Sahelian strategy, or said. On the other hand, the strategic usefulness of Ukraine's activities is dubious since it needs all available resources to defend its own territory. Nevertheless, Ukraine doesn't necessarily see it that way. Kiev likely believes that the few resources spent exaggerating the mere threat of such attacks on Russian interests in Sudan open the possibility of similar attacks across Russian activities in the Middle East and Africa forcing Moscow to expand disproportionate resources to secure against such activities in new geographies, or said.


We have among the recensions or the versions of the story of the Isra and the Mi'raj, one story, one recension of this epic monumental event, the Prophet ﷺ, after entering the direct presence of his Lord is descending the heavens and he encounters Musa ﷺ and Musa asked him about what he received from Allah and he explained that he had received the prayer but that the prayers were initially 50 in number that Muslims were responsible for completing 50 prayers every day and Musa ﷺ told the Prophet ﷺ to go back to Allah to request a reduction because 50 prayers a day would be far too many for the Ummah of the Prophet ﷺ to manage and so the Prophet ﷺ went back to Allah and that number was reduced to 25 and Musa ﷺ said the same thing go back 25 is too many the number was reduced to 10 and then finally the number was reduced to five and they say that it was from the Hayat from the extreme modesty the ih-tisham of the Prophet ﷺ that he could not bring himself to go back to Allah to request a further reduction but at that point Allah revealed to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ that the number of the prayers that your Ummah is responsible for completing every day will remain five but if they complete those five prayers on time and with Khushua with reverence I will give them the reward of 50 and at this Sayyidina Musa ﷺ said I wish that I could return to be among the living so that I could be from your community ﷺ so this blessing that we enjoy being from the Ummah of the Prophet ﷺ this is an extreme privilege of ours this is an expression of God's great favor this is something prophets and messengers Musa ﷺ was from those possessors of great resolution they wanted this blessing and it's one that we get to experience on a daily basis now the Prophet ﷺ speaking about himself in relation to the Nba who came before him he said that he was given five khusais he was given five special characteristics these are the things that make his Risala his mission distinct among the missions of all of the prophets and the messengers he said first that the entire earth has been made a place of prayer for him ﷺ then he mentioned that if followers of his Ummah are unable to find water with which to purify themselves for prayer they can use the earth then he mentioned the that the spoils of war had been made permissible for him the spoils of war were not permissible for prophets before him then he mentioned the intercession that the Prophet ﷺ had been given the right of intercession no prophet before him had been given that right and then he mentioned and this is the topic for today's khutba that every prophet before him was sent specifically to his nation when you read the Quran Allah talks about the ad he talks about the mood he says Jesus himself even in the gospel says I was only sent to reclaim the last sheep of the house of Israel the house of Israel but the Prophet ﷺ he was commanded to say I am the messenger of God unto all of you so the diversity that we see in our community is a part of what makes the ummah of the Prophet ﷺ distinct and we have to recognize this not only as a gift that God has given us but a great responsibility how will we manage this diversity how will we treat it we can treat it in a way that accentuates it highlights it we can benefit from its blessing or we can treat it in a way that takes it for granted or worse yet destroys it if you look at our community in our diversity in the nations that we represent the ethnicities that we represent the cultures that we represent the social economic classes that we represent maybe the ummah of Muhammad ﷺ has never seen a community as diverse as ours and as one sister said to me who works in a diversity and inclusion space diversity is just a euphemism for conflict whenever people have different histories different backgrounds different perspectives you can expect for there to be conflict but this is nothing new to our community even among the Sahaba may God be pleased with all of them there was some conflict there was some difficulty what makes them distinct in their virtue was not an absence of conflict but how they dealt with that conflict there's one story some people question is authenticity but my my review of the story and it's in the serial of the Prophet ﷺ suggests that this story is completely authentic that Bilal Ibn Rabah was in some kind of contentious exchange with Abudar Al-Ghifari with Abudar and in a fit of anger Abudar said to him ya Ibn As-Saudat you son of a black woman and if you look at Ijaluni's book al-i-saba fitameezah sahaba you see all of these very vivid descriptions of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ you learn that Abudar himself was gamik he was dark skinned himself so his his referencing Bilal's complexion might have been a reference to his former condition of enslavement you're the son of a slave woman how dare you speak to me like that and Bilal went to the Prophet ﷺ and said this man engaged in ta'anun fil ajdad he disrespected me and he disrespected my forefathers in this criticism he made of me publicly the Prophet ﷺ and this is something typical of his sunnah he did not say to Bilal be patient he did not say these are bad habits and perhaps they will die slowly he said tell Abudar that I want to speak to him and when Abudar arrived to the presence of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ he said I notice that you are a man that still has some of the traces of jahiliya in you how dare you disrespect in other words how dare you disrespect this man your brother and his mother on account either of his complexion or his former condition of enslavement and Abudar upon hearing this was so broken what makes them distinct from every other generation is they wanted kamalul iman they wanted a complete faith when Allah ﷺ said enter into Islam completely they wanted that they desired that they pursued that so hearing the Prophet tell him and of course it's very important to note this among the sahaba abudar was known for being a zahid he was known for his abstinence in the dunya he was known for being an abid he was known for being very intense in his worship and in spite of that because of his attitude toward Bilal the Prophet ﷺ informed him that his Islam had yet to be completed and abudar went back to Bilal and sought his forgiveness but he did not stop at simply apologizing he said to him Bilal I'm going to get on the ground and I am not going to get up until you take your foot and place it upon my head just to you know symbolize the atonement that I'm seeking in this moment and Bilal in his graciousness he said this is not necessary you apologized and that is enough for me but then abudar swore I'm not getting up from this place until you put your foot on my head and in the story Bilal just took his foot and lightly grazed the head of abudar and there is no indication in our sources that they had any issue after that why am I mentioning this because this is how good people this is how people who desire virtue atonement for past mistakes the hero of this story is really abudar because he recognized that he did something wrong he sought forgiveness for that wrong action and Bilal granted him that we are a divided community our community has many divisions some people separate our community by immigrant and indigenous some people by country of origin some people by social economic status we actually cannot afford any of this Allah says in the Qur'an this is an ayah all of us are familiar with it's on the the the program booklet of every conference we attend oh humanity we created you from one male and one female and we spread you intentionally into nations in tribes for the purpose of ta'aruf of getting to know one another the diversity in creation and that diversity being reflected in our community is a sign of God it's intentional we are not supposed to be limited to that which which which we are familiar we're supposed to have a healthy curiosity about people that are different than us and it should increase us in devotion it shouldn't increase us in narrow mindedness the most noble of you in the sight of God are those in possession of the greatest God consciousness and Allah is knowledgeable and informed about our differences one poet and i realized that i'm from chicago this analogy it probably resonates better in chicago than in the bay area but one poet said referencing diversity it is better to learn to appreciate the change in seasons than to fall hopelessly in love with summer you see difference this is God's step in creation learn to appreciate difference right once a man came into the message of the prophet withdrew to a corner and urinated and the prophet were moving to accost the man the prophet said no let him finish let him finish after the man finished the prophet looked at the magnanimity of his prophetic character he didn't even jump to a conclusion he didn't say why would you desecrate our sacred space he said what would compel you right literally what carried you to urinate in the mosque and the man said i didn't know that you couldn't urinate in the mosque right he was from the from the from the yeah i need from the bedouin right i didn't know that you couldn't urinate in the mosque the prophet alaisa wassalaam explained to him that this is the masjid it's a place of purity we use it for prayer we use it for remembrance it is not suitable to be used to relieve qadha al haja to relieve ourselves and then the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam called for a sigulum from the water a pail of water and he began to clean this man's urine with his own blessed hand sallallahu alaihi wa sallam christians boast often about a story in the gospel of Jesus cleaning the feet of his disciples and i said the prophet alaisa wassalaam cleaned the urine of one of his sahaba la ilaha ilallah then he said to the man no the man upon seeing this he turned to Allah and he said oh Allah forgive me have mercy on me have mercy on muhammad seeing this act of prophetic generosity then he turned to all of the other companions who he knew wanted to hurt him and he said but don't forgive anybody else don't forgive anybody else the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam looked to him and said luck had had jarat as shea an wassia truly you have made a vast thing constricted the mercy of God and you restrict that to just me and you i think that every person engaged in some self-serving other obliterating ideology philosophy world view is guilty of the same thing luck had had jarat as shea an wassia do you restrict dignity and respect for people of your ethnicity people of your social economic class people of your level of professional standing people of your geographic location people of your national uh you know wherever your citizenship is based why do be laugh luck had had jarat as shea an wassia you are restricting something that is vast God's creation is vast our appreciation for its vastness should be similarly vast you know i did my islamic training at al azhar university and i lived in kairu for about five years and one of the most difficult things about my time in kairu was finding a place to get my hair cut you're probably looking at my hair or lack thereof thinking anybody can do that but i'm still quite particular about the way it's done i'm mostly particular about how hygienic the barber is in his practice is he cleaning the clippers is he changing the razor blades etc so one day i walked into this barber shop and i'm observing this barber and i can tell he was really good you know he's changing the blades he's disinfecting the clippers and i knew that i wanted him to shave my hair so i started trying to disguise my heavily inflected classical arabic right because that's the the medium of instruction at al azhar with egyptian aamea which i can i can get around an aamea and i tried my best but after about two minutes he looked at me and said enter menfane where are you from and i said to myself well price of this haircut just increased so i said to him in completely classical arabic i said come in which means you guess you guess where i'm from he said i know where you're from i said you do where he said senegal i said he said enter senegal you're senegalese i said no i'm not from senegal i said yeah i'm a sheikh i'm from somewhere west of senegal he looked at me and said there's something west of senegal right and then i said and i'm in america i'm from america and he said america chicabica right and then he got really serious and he said if you're from america i have a very important question for you he said obama muslim is he muslim or not and i said obama is a christian man he said well i can listen with hussein his name is hussein there's no such thing as a christian with the name hussein and i thought to myself you're definitely not ready for african-american communities we have malix and maliks and jabars and jabaris not practicing islam he said how did he get that name i said i believe his father was born into a muslim family in kenya but even his father after some time at university his father became a communist and then his father became an atheist and he looked at me and said ish mullahed he said mullahed atheist what is an atheist this man had never heard the term mullahed and i explained to him as best i could in my classical eric what an atheist was and he looked at me and he said are there really people like that in ladonya are there really people like that that don't believe in any metaphysical dimension to life i said there are really people like that right and then he said to me what do they do when a baby is born how do they get married what i add what holidays do they celebrate he could not imagine life without the social cohesion given to life by religious practice then i said like this was like a thing he started looking around and then he said subhanallah in a very loud voice subhanallah ruby ahsen al khalin king he said my lord is the best of creators and i thought that's a strange pivot what caused you to say that he said if the law subhanahu wa ta'ala can create people and sustain them and bless them with provision and sustenance and they don't even believe in him my lord must be all mean and i said subhanallah this simple seemingly uneducated egyptian man with just a basic quranic view of the world could encounter something radically unlike anything he knew for which he had no analog in his frame of reference and he could appreciate that as a source of god's diversity in his creative power that is sophistication we live in a community that is heterogeneous it's diverse and we don't have and we're not and we're just talking about muslims and we don't have that man's level of appreciation for god's intentional variance in his creation may god give us that quranic worldview may god help us to see that our diversity is a source of our strength may god help us to end this silly segregation that goes on in our masajid and in our communities in the all upon him. Yes, the jiblakum will respond to you. Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Ya Rabb al Alameen, we come before you on this blessed day of Juma'a. Begging for your mercy, Ya Rabb al Alameen. Ya Rabb al Alameen, we know that we might be the least deserving of your mercy, but we know that we're also most in need of it, Ya Rabb al Alameen. Ya Rabb al Alameen, you have given yourself the name el-Aafu.  Ya Rabb al Alameen, wa afu anna, Ya Rabb al Alameen. Ya Rabb al Alameen, if there's any member of our congregation dealing with sickness or infirmity, we ask that you restore their health, Ya Rabb al Alameen. If there's any member of our congregation dealing with depression or sadness, we ask that you allow them to taste felicity in your remembrance, Ya Rabb al Alameen. If there's any member of our congregation dealing with debt or financial insecurity, we ask that you enrich him or her, Ya Rabb al Alameen. Ya Rabb al Alameen, we pray from the depths of our hearts for our brothers in Turkey and Syria, Ya Rabb al Alameen. The victims of the earthquake and the survivors of the earthquake, Ya Rabb al Alameen, help us to live to our duty to serve them, Ya Rabb al Alameen.  They have the haqq on us, Ya Rabb al Alameen. Help us to recognize it and help us to discharge our responsibility toward them, Ya Rabb al Alameen, wa akhrat da'awana anal hamdu lillahi Rabb al Alameen wa aqeem us-salaam.


Welcome everyone to the regular Board of Selections meeting for Monday, December 16th, 2013. It is a six o'clock meeting start. I just want to remind everyone that this show, this meeting is being cable cast through ACMI.tv and may be recorded by other individuals or reporters who are here. That said, Mr. Greeley, could you? Yep. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We wanted to start tonight to ask everybody for a moment of silence for Dr. Michael Foley, who passed away unexpectedly as being waked as we speak. Mike and I went to grammar school and high school together. In high school, Michael was captain of the football, the baseball, the basketball teams. He was president of the class and he was the number one student in the class in terms of intelligence. At Arlington Catholic, you sat in the order of intelligence. I was in the gymnasium in the back. But Mike, tremendous accomplishments, became the director of internal medicine, I think, if that's the correct title, at St. Elizabeth's, was also associated with Mount Auburn and very involved in this town, volunteer, provided volunteer services as a doctor for the football team and others. When we tried to save Sims Hospital, Mike was right on the front line with all of us. His personal loss for me and a tremendous loss for the town. So with your permission, Mr. Chairman, a moment of silence, please, for Dr. Michael Foley. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I also, before we get really started, I wanted to welcome our town council, Doug Byme, who is with us today for his first day in his first meeting. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ann? You know everything? I told him to expect to know everything. All right. Welcome. Thank you. Our first item is the consent agenda. We have the minutes of the meeting of December 2nd. We have an appointment of new election workers, John Crowley of Ridge Street, Nancy Ott of Glenburn Road, Paul Shaw of Inverness Road, and four approval keynote ago at the right spot on 1389 Mass Ave. Move approval. Second. Mr. Rupakira. Yeah, I just have a question. Is the keynote ago an approval or a receipt? I read it. It looked like we were just being notified. Yeah. We had the opportunity to register. Yeah. The State Lottery Commission actually is the one that would approve. Yeah. I think that it would be appropriate under either. I have no. Okay. That's fine. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Next up, request from Monotomy Grill & Tavern for a late night on New Year's Eve of this year. Is anyone here from? All right. So Monotomy, they have furnished us with a written request for a one-time event for the end of the year that they would stay open until 1 a.m. and that they would sell liquor until that time. This is Mohan. I'm not sure if this has been called earlier in the week. I asked the stipulation be that alcohol stop a half hour before they close. Was that something you were able to speak to them about? I talked to Billy about thinking that you usually do that even before the 30th event. So at least a half hour before closing time. Is that okay? So it's fine with me. So can I, if I can suggest perhaps, so then saying 130 with, but whatever it is, they have to stop a half an hour before they actually close. That's fine. So that would actually permit them to sell to one. And the reason I say that is simply because if I remember correctly, that's what we said for the other applicants. I'll make that motion if it's okay with my colleagues. Is there a second? I thought you did make the motion. Yes. Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Next up, Whitamore Park signage, Ted Fields. Welcome. Thank you. Good evening. It's my pleasure to be here. I'm before you at the request of the town manager to briefly summarize a request for sponsorship for a new sign on Whitamore Park. Advertising the shopping, small shopping district on Mystic Street between the Russell Common parking lot and Mass Avenue. It's a very narrow, rather dark right of way. It's rather hard to see from Mass Avenue or the parking garage or Mystic Street itself or Medford Street, I'm sorry. And the merchants in that section overwhelmingly asked me and support a sign indicating where their shops are in that section. In your packet, I included a mock-up of the proposed sign. And I also have a larger, nearly to scale one here. I will unfurl in a second. And I apologize. The filigree at the bottom did not come out. Correct. That will be white. It's not the rather off-grade that you see. I've also shown a copy of the email from the local representative of the merchants in that area. And as well a photo of a two-scale version of the sign and not the exact colors but a mock-up of it at the proposed location at the head of Mystic Street, the intersection of Mystic Street and Massachusetts Avenue. And as I say in my packet to you, I've gotten two price quotes for manufacturing the sign with manufacturing and professional installation by a sign company. The cost range from $506 to $530. That would come down if DPW were able to install the sign. And here is a nearly full-scale mock-up. And again, in consultation with the businesses and town staff, we feel that if we mount it about six inches or a foot off the ground, it will elevate it away from the elements enough but still keep it fairly unobtrusive to all the shoppers and folks who it's meant to serve. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to try to answer them. Mr. Greeley. Yeah. So, thank you, Chad. Is this the approximate location you recommend? That is the approximate location. In the field, we'll make it exact with consultation with DPW and the sign company or whoever installs it will adjust it on site. Thank you. And I just like to know I've received quite a few compliments about the job you have done so far as economic development. Oh, I appreciate that. Thank you. A number of business owners. Oh, good. Thank you for that excellent work. It's my pleasure. Mr. Fields, do you have any thoughts on how first lights went? I was there all five hours of first lights and I was in all three sections. I strolled by around 11.45 just to make sure preparations were all set. And to my eye, things went very, very well, better than I had hoped, especially in the heights and capital square. And the foot traffic in the center really coalesced at the end of the festivities with the lighting ceremony by the Central Fire Station. And there must have been several hundred people in the center that from what I could see subsequently went out and shopped and dined and whatnot. So I think for all three sections it was very successful. So to what degree do you attribute the commercial song by the Selectones for creating excitement about this event? Well, I think it was a crucial factor. Continue to do excellent work. Thank you. Thank you. I hope Attorney Heim is taking the sin. I move approval of the request. Second. Sorry, Joe. I thought we should have done that. I got Joe and Steve on moving the second. Any further discussion? I would just echo that I was at the Chamber of Commerce the other night and the merchants are very excited about this. This has been an ongoing concern, I think that that stretch of, it's actually addressed from Mystic Street, but it gets lost to a lot of the traffic. So glad to see Mr. Fields taking this on. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Aye. Five-zero. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I will say that when Mr. Fields started talking, which was, I suddenly noticed, we have amplification in this room. I know. I broke in at the very end. Yeah. Yes. Did you hear that? Yeah. So ACMI was in last meeting, and we were talking about it, and all of a sudden his voice was much louder. Thank you. How excited must this audience be that you have every word that we say? You mean we don't have to hire the sign language interpreter? No. So we should thank ACMI. Yes. I don't know what the right vehicle for that is, but I'm really glad that they got that done. So next up is our licenses and permits. So it is the end of the year, and we're looking of course at the start of 2014, and most, or at least many licenses in town, especially the ones issued by the Slackman, our annual and our renewed at this time. And so we have a series of memos from different departments within the town with recommendations to renew. There's a few that are actually, we're not renewing because they haven't actually been granted yet, even though they're in the records, but other than that, we have a set of memo, a set of licenses for contractors and drain layers, various alcohols, including all alcohol restaurant, all alcohol club, package stores, wine and malt, food, including common vitriol or food vendor. We have lodging houses, public entertainment, second hand dealer, and I think that that's the set we've got. Move approval on all subject to all conditions and set forth. We have a motion. Is there a second? Second. Second. Second. Joe. Well, I just have a question because we did receive some fairly, you know, a list of comments from the Board of Health, and it looks like most of these have been settled. Is that my understanding? Once it's added, it will not be given a license until it has been applied. Okay. So, would our subject to all conditions clause cover those? Yeah. Is there, so I looked at this and like, so there's two that haven't yet opened. Mm-hmm. There's one that's also, the only one that's like, that isn't okay is the savory plate. And that's because, and it's closed. Yeah. So I mean, we wouldn't issue that because it's closed. Is there another one? So I think everything else. I think we're all set. Yeah. Yeah. I just didn't know, it looks like we can't really act on the ones that have not reopened yet, can we? I don't think so. Yeah. We just haven't issued them yet. So, yeah, I think it's a good point. Diane. Just one question, and no one knows the answer right now. I wouldn't expect you to, you can let me know tomorrow. Okay. Okay. Thank you. The other ones, self-explanatory, carrotism, Salvation Army. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. And I should, I should also mention that, as a part of this, that we should extend what, I'm sure that Mr. Greeley intended in his motion to extend the hackney licenses past a year, because then we're going to renew them in January. Yes, I did. Sorry. Okay. Good. Sorry. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. All right. Licenses were done. Next up, presentation for the family of John F. McHacker. Is there members of the family who are here? Comma on up. So, should I, Mr. I'll give a quick, please Adam. So members of the board, I was contacted by William J. Riley, who's a managing partner of Forward Capital Partners. Mr. Riley? Yes. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. In regards to the estate of John McHacker, who's a longtime Arlington resident, and in his estate in his will, has left some very generous gifts to the town of Arlington. So, part of, part of that was wanting to be able to come before the board, talk about Mr. McHacker's love for Arlington, about the gifts, and also have his family have an opportunity to come before the board. Well, welcome all of you. Thank you for coming. Thank you for having us. We just wanted to say a few words about our Uncle Mack. We have with us today, myself, Bill Riley, who I sit myself, John's best friend, grew up with him in East Arlington, went to school together, elementary school, high school, and all. And we have a couple of his God children here, my son, Jack, Riley. We have Bill, Tapscott, Harry Tapscott, and Bob Tapscott, the father. We all have a relationship to Arlington. All of us have lived one time or another in Arlington. John's parents both lived in Arlington throughout their lives. John was an only child, but he had a lot of people that loved him very much. He loved everything that was about Arlington. He defended it to the nine. And he was just a great guy, but glad that he was able to give some of his estate to the town, so that the town could enjoy some beautiful trees. And he's also given about, I think, $50,000 to Robbins Library as well. He has a couple of wishes that he'd like to see that the town do with that money. And we'd appreciate it if you would consider that. So I will say that I was absolutely delighted to learn the gift, I know that we are all, and other people in town are very grateful for the donation. For people who watch, it's $146,000 to be donated for the purposes of using for trees, including a memorial bench for him and $50,000 for the Robbins Library, which is a very, very generous gift. And we definitely thank him, and it's a good, I'm sure his memory is well served by that gift. Kevin? Yeah. Was he a hockey player? No, he was. I know that. I know that we're thinking of, no. Different one. No, but he had a connection to Mattenon high school. Did they go to Mattenon? Yeah, no. He was, he went to Mattenon before years as well. So I think you may have known those folks, but they were not related. Well, this is, you know, obviously his life is a tremendous gift to the town of Allington. And this is certainly a wonderful gift. And I move that we receive with pleasure and great thanks and we refer to the public memorial committee with our strongest recommendation that his wishes be fulfilled of a tree and a bench in Waldo park. Do I need to say anything else? Is there a second? Second. Diane? I just want to say first of all, not only what a great gift this is from Mr. McGeckern but also from his family and friends. And I applaud you for coming out and honoring his wishes by this very generous portion of his estate. And as you have said and others, he obviously cared a lot about the town and I think it's just amazing that he's continuing to give back. And I think it will be such a great solace down at Waldo park where we have something commemorating Mr. McGeckern and where people can go and people who know him can sit there and remember. And people who don't will say, who was that Mr. McGeckern? And they'll find out about him. And so I think that's a great tribute from him, from his family and from his friends. And thank you so much for coming here tonight and giving us such good news. Thank you. Joe? I just want to say that oftentimes when we go through our agendas and you get to traffic rules and orders and other business, which is the segment of the agenda this was under. A lot of times it's not fun things that we deal with. It's not happy things. It disputes. So, you know, first of all, I want to say sorry for your loss of your friend and your relative. He obviously did understand that the town, though, you know, we suffered losses in street trees in that end of town just a couple of years ago, very horrendous losses. And this certainly helps greatly to help with the rebuilding that we'll be doing and we are doing around that. And he obviously also had a good sense of where we have to go in moving the libraries into the 21st century as we try to build up the new digital collection. So it's very much appreciated. And thank you. I mean, were these, had he discussed these with you, his thoughts about where the greatest good could be accomplished? Well, John was somewhat of a man of his own desires, his own wishes, and had strong opinions about a lot of things. And I think the things he cared most about, this is not just saying it because when we're here, he's Arlington. He used to give me a hard time because I moved to Winchester. And he never stopped giving me a hard time about that. But the things about the old radio shows and all that, he was, he loved that type of thing. He was very nostalgic about life.  And I couldn't remember half of them, but he's very nostalgic guy and he loved old radio shows and he wanted to see those preserved.  We've been preserving it. We can give those over to the town as well so that they have that in their collection. That's fantastic. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. So we have a motion by Mr. Greeley, seconded by the blue Mr. Currow. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Five, zero. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Next up, vote to authorize renewal and municipal agreement with Bedford for regional energy manager, Mr. Tom manager. So as part of the agreement that we have with Bedford to have a regional energy manager is the possibility of up to five two year extensions before we look at the agreement again. And it stipulates in the agreement that we need to have each community vote by January 1st of the expiring year to renew the agreement. So that puts us up against this January 1st because it expires June 30th of next year. So what I'm asking the board to do is authorize me to sign a two year renewal which would commence on July 1st 2014 and run for two years to June 30, 2016. I know I've been very pleased with the results we've seen since hiring an energy manager. I know Bedford has been we've had a series of joint meetings between myself and the facilities director in Bedford to monitor progress. Our work with the energy manager has been focused more on facilities improvements. Bedford's work has been focused more on behavioral improvements and building inhabitants sort of behaviors and how they utilize heating and cooling systems, which I think frankly is more beneficial to us because she's doing the work we need to have done here, but also bringing that expertise that she has in Bedford in terms of eventually trying to change our culture with our, you know, again with our building inhabitants. In the upcoming months leading up to town meeting, we're going to be putting out several documents in regards to some of the recent projects she's been able to implement since coming on board and also a number of other projects that she's been working on. One I'll note tonight is a very exciting one. We have two separate data centers in the high school, one for school data, one for town data. And the cooling system that is in the town's portion of that is on the verge of failing. So David Goode has been looking at options for potentially replacing that. We looped Ruthie Bennett, our energy manager, into that discussion. We've already got a free assessment from the EPA or for the EPA to pay for an assessment by a consultant to come in and look at what we can do and is working on an option of bringing both data centers together and getting one cooling system that might be able to be completely paid for by an EPA grant. So that's just an example of the kind of focus she's been able to bring, you know, to how we look at all of our facilities and how we use energy. So again, I ask the board's approval to authorize me to sign that to your extension. Steve? No, I appreciate the work that this individual is doing. And I was wondering if you could speak to how you got to the two-thirds in Arlington, one-third in Bedford, and how that is the most beneficial to us? So that really came about when the MAPC was seeking people interested in creating a position. And at that point, we had expressed that what we wanted to fund and what we thought we could put to work was two days a week. Bedford had said they could use one day and way back, Wuburn had said that they could use two days. Eventually, Wuburn dropped out of those discussions. But we stayed on with two. Bedford still wanted one, and that's what created this three-day position. But, you know, we sort of generated the two from what we thought we could reasonably budget within the DPW administrative budget. Great, thank you. Joe? Have we approached Wuburn again to see if maybe they've had a change of mind over the last two years? You know, we've not primarily because Ruthie, the current person in the position, is interested in just three days a week. It's sort of a discussion we continue to have whether or not she has an interest in expanding that. And also she's brought to light the reality that adding another community could begin to dilute how effective she is in each community. So that we'd have to look at that too before we would take a step to expanding it to another community. Okay. Thanks. Diane? Since this is dated October of 2012, you know, it was a different board configuration then. Legally, is it okay that we do that first off, that we, this board, approved the contract starting in October of 2012? There's no issue with that? I'm not sure. The thing, it says a term that this agreement shall commence on October 1st, 2012, and expire on June 30th, 2014. It's okay that we do that. This is an already executed agreement? Okay. All right. To serve as an example of what would be extended from July 1st. Okay. So it'll be different dates? Yes. Okay. That would just kind of go in the other way. And then the only other question I had was in terms of Allenton share, it says shall not exceed and you have a very specific number. Is that the exact number or has been trending a little bit lower? No, so the only number that would change in this document when it is updated are those figures to be updated to FY15 and then potentially FY15 cost amounts. No, we are both, we are, and Bedford is below those total amounts. We put those in there as ceilings for both Allenton and Bedford so that. So those are the ceilings up until, what is it, June of 2014? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Any further questions or a motion? I move approval. Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Thank you. 5-0. All right. Next up we have correspondence received. Received. Of an item. Thank you from Jeffrey Beck with the MMA about the annual town report award that we received. We have Richard and Turka and Howard Muse with a report on the TAC project list and we have a letter about Bow Street safety concerns. Should we refer to TAC as a suggestion, I believe. Mr. Lockwood might be here. Yeah.  Thank you. My name is David Lockwood. I'm a resident at 24 Bow Street. I've been there for almost 20 years now. Yeah. I'm at the end down as you almost get to the baseball field. Just recently one of my cars was parked outside of my house during the middle of the day and somebody decided to take my driver's side mirror off and it kind of prompted me to bring this forward as an issue. Again, I'd done so in the past. It's probably now the fifth or sixth time that's happened. It's also just recently my neighbor at number 26 had their car totaled right outside of their house.  And as I was speaking to my neighbor at 26 today, they said the person next to them had had their car crashed into. And whether it was a total loss or near total loss had happened right there. So the concern that we have is obviously during the day there is a need for us to be able to park out in the street. But clearly there's something about that stretch of the road that is causing a lot of damage to our vehicles to occur. So, you know, we were just wondering what the options potentially were. I know some years back when I'd raised the concern, I believe the DPW put out a couple of the markers to count the number of cars traveling up and down the street. And it was a considerable number. Obviously I don't have those numbers to hand. They did follow up, but then nothing else came beyond that.  And I know my neighbor, they had to, like I said, it was a total loss on their vehicle.  So the current posted speed limit is 20 miles an hour. And I'm pretty sure that a car put in park has to be struck pretty hard to move it across the sidewalk there. So obviously any help that you can give us, it would be greatly appreciated and obviously still maintaining our ability to park out in the street during daytime hours. Kevin? Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chairman. So I will move that we do refer this to TAC. May I ask, do you have a driveway, sir? Yeah, I can accommodate $2,000. So sometimes there's a third one that you have to have out there? Well, like, for example, this time my fiance had just a letter. She teaches at the Belmont High School there. She had just run home, parked out there for two minutes as she ran into the house.  So it is our practice to typically park in my driveway. But, you know, as you can imagine, time to time you do want to park in front of your own house. Well, of course you do. I don't blame you for that. And people breaking the speed limit are breaking the speed limit. But TAC is pretty clever, I think, and maybe, you know, they'll take a look at it. What you don't know, sir, is that we also have a report from TAC. They're currently working on 23 projects. Yeah. But they are very thorough. But we will refer to them. I also wonder if, through you, Mr. Chairman, if we might ask Adam to have the police look at certain enforcement measures there. But, you know, whether there's a permanent solution or not, I don't know. But I hope we can find one for you. Okay. The Transportation Advisory Committee. Any matters like this related to us about the roads and traffic in particular. We sent to this committee who, and believe me, they will do time and motion studies and everything else to determine. And they, as I say, I think they're very clever in terms of recommendations they come up with, which will come back to us. But as I should make sure, the mayor of Allenton over there on your right, Marie Kropelka, just be in touch with her and she'll let you know when they're back to us with a recommendation. But they're so thorough, I'm sure they'll also contact you about it as well. Okay. And just as a point of context, there is a painted pedestrian crossing right in front of my neighbor's house at number 20. So, you know, there is already whatever measures are in place to try and slow people down to protect just regular pedestrians crossing there. Fortunately, so far, it's only been a car and some mirrors, but you know, you have kids in the neighborhood, particularly as they go down towards either accessing the bike path or the baseball field and ice rink there. Yes, Steve. I was thinking, maybe we should, after reading text, yeah, list that they provide us tonight, maybe we could wait to send it to them until we hear what the police department has to say on the matter. Maybe there might be some sort of, you know, enforcement tools that can be used, that can be just as effective without, you know, bringing this before attack again. I think that, you know, from what I got at least from their letter to us was that they would like us to tone back what's being sent to them. And I think that looking down another avenue, like the police department and having Officer Ratoan, his team look at this might be a pretty good option prior to sending it to attack. Joe. Oh, I actually had a question. It looks like Kevin actually has something to add to the speech. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to accept Stephen's recommendation. I think it's a good one. So if you want to make that motion, Steve, or a change mind to, we refer first to the police, ask them to report back. Yeah. And then we'll go from there. Yeah, maybe move, asking Officer Ratoan to look at the situation and acting on it on sending it to attack at a later date, potentially. That works because I believe Officer Ratoan sits on attack. Yeah, he does, yes. So if he takes a look at it and he says, you know what, we can just take care of this as Mr. Burns suggested through the police department right now, or if he feels no, it really should go to attack. The police do come out and monitor from time to time because I think you get a lot of cars coming down Park Ave and just cut straight through to get down to Summer Street. So periodically we do have the, I don't know the name of it, but the speed detector that shows you how fast you're going. And I know I've seen people being with the speed gun being captured. So I definitely appreciate that the police department are already there on some kind of schedule. But obviously, you know, people come down there every day. Joe. Yeah, I actually come down there every day to myself. So just so I can get it straight in my head. Are you actually on the bike path side of the road? Or are you on that? My property butts right up onto the bike path. I can't access it right there, but it's right on it. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Tom manager, any comment or? No, I think the recommendation that the board has made is a good one. All right. So we have three items, one of which to refer to attack and two that we're receiving. Is there any further comment? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed. Okay. Thank you very much. Thanks for coming down. Sorry about your memories. I've lost twice, but I know what it's a business with a big truck. So we are going to do new business reasonably quickly. And then we're going to go into executive session. Marie attorney by. Hi. I'm going to, you'll have to forgive me. But I'm going to, I read it wrong the first time and it's like locked into my head until I know how that happened. So I'm just going to say, Doug, what do you got for us? Yeah. So my understanding is that the, the board would like to go into executive session for the purposes of reviewing a complaint and taking and determining what necessary action should be made upon that. Can I pause you right now? I actually not quite at that point yet. So what we actually welcomed, we go around and we do new business with each person. Oh. And then after that, then we're going to go into executive session and I will ask you to, I'll ask to hear that at that time. I have no new business. All right. Adam. I just very quickly, I included in the board's packet this week, very proud of the work a number of folks in Arlington have done to win the annual report, second place in the annual report award as the board received notice from the MMA Arlington visual budget, won the innovation award from the MMA. And the annual budget and financial plan was honored with the distinguished budget service award from the government finance offices association. So an award winning year for the work a lot of folks do in town. I just wanted to mention that and tell you how proud I am of that. Excellent. I'm sorry. I did want to, I'm sorry. I did want to add one thing. I'm sorry. I neglected you before. I just wanted to recognize the terrific work of Ed Marlinga who is serving as acting town council and has made life tremendously easier for me to start out on our first day. There's been a lot of active business, nothing that merits new business attention before the board this evening. But I just wanted to recognize that it's done a terrific job and I very much appreciate all the work that he's put into serving his community as well as to make it an easier transition for me. What? You didn't want to deal with the $7 million lawsuit? Well. Thank you, Attorney Marlinga. Indeed. All right. Kevin. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Adam, I'd like to know what specific steps you plan on taking to pull us out of the cellar of second place in the town annual report and bring us back to first place. You can write a report on that if you want. But congratulations. I mean, it does seem every week that there's more and more awards at this town as one. And in a great part due to your leadership. Thank you. Thank you. Just one other item under new business. Mr. Gilligan, the treasurer has decided to issue an internal posting for a deputy treasurer position. And while that is within his right, I am bothered to say the least that he did not feel it necessary to come speak to this board that must confirm that position. For more than a year, I've asked Mr. Gilligan to please delineate for us his responsibilities versus the position he created for his management analysis. Management analyst. Management analyst and the assistant treasurer. So we can make a decision. Is the assistant treasurer position any longer necessary? Or is that one of the places where we might be able to save money? So I just want to make it clear. I personally will not confirm anybody for this position until Mr. Gilligan discusses it with us and provides that specific information. That's just my position. Thank you. Thank you. Diane. Oh, Merry Christmas, otherwise. Okay, Mr. Potter. Just very quickly, Pop Warner C Squad placed fourth at Nationals. Very proud. Hit everything in their performance. So to all of us, it was first place. But they did fantastic down there. Great opportunity. Thank you ACMI for the amplification when they said, oh, it's really easy. They promised this time to do it quickly. And they certainly came through on that. And just two other things we're going to be addressing from a conversation with the chair. Hackney licenses in language as well as alcohol proposed language. I know I have a proposition about the correct legal language for this board to vote on. If they agree, that's fine. That's fine too. About the date of the, the date the offense is committed is the date that the penalty punishment shall commence. A day of the week, I should say. Whatever the legal is. And then anything else that anybody else has and then put it before the board and, you know, a majority may say, no, we're okay with the way it is. And then the old. Can I just cut it? So if they, if they're caught on a Wednesday, the punishment has to start on a Wednesday. Okay. All right. Sorry. That's just what I'm putting out. Okay. Somebody may say they want it to end or not or something different. And then the only other thing is I saw this. I can't remember where I read it could go over the times or something that I think Boston was one of them cited that they are switching in certain areas, the handicap placard, the nationally recognized placard. And it kind of looks like it's still the handicap. But it's like on a bike or something. I'm not saying it right. It just said the more mobile. Yeah, it looks like it's in motion. Yeah. I just thought that was interesting. I was just wondering if I could put that for you, but it's not a high priority at all. But when I saw it and having, you know, so many handicaps in my family for various reasons. And that said, thank you. Thank you. Oh, oh, sorry. One other concern that we got in our packet on Friday, a question and you can get us this answer later if you want. I was wondering how it was possible for the residents on the private way portion. I think it was Wallace to nav that we now that number one, our fire apparatus cannot approach it certain ways. And we also cannot plow it. I'm wondering a, do we have safeguards in? Was there a plan in the contractor deviated from it? Or can private way owners redesign their road and we, the town doesn't issue any guidelines that this is the steep, this is the grade. And then naturally as you've done, letting us know about this issue, if you could please let us know follow up because I'm just really concerned, you know, snow when someone gets in a bad accident and it's not the town's fault. But I'm just wondering, don't we have safeguards in when people go in and do their private ways that they have to adhere to? My understanding is this, this one individual, a butter who made these changes on their own, which created sort of this drop off situation that wouldn't allow either fire trucks to go over it or plow it. Right. So frankly, we wanted to let folks know about the services that they would or would not receive, but also hopefully put other butters on notice that something amongst the, all the butters needed to happen for those services to come back. So beyond that, we have to sit and wait. I'm not being sarcastic. I'm just saying it's, we've notified them of the problem with the issue is we've notified our town personnel so we don't bottom out any of our apparatus or trucks. And now we just wait and see. We can take a look at it, but I'm not aware of any method we have to deliver them. I'd be curious. Yeah. I'd be curious actually. I hadn't really thought about it in that life, but that actually, because if we're approved, because presumably the board of survey at some point appointed the approved their survey. And if they're not, if the road is no longer within the survey, I wonder what the, what's possible at that point. Yeah. I'm not sure that it is not a survey, but we can take a look at it. Okay. That was it. Thank you. Joe. Thank you very much. Just a couple things. The, as you all know, the manager and the superintendent organized a tour of Arlington High School for a number of officials. It was led by Dr. Janger and Mr. McCarthy. I know the one that the three of us were on went two and a half hours. It was pretty, pretty extensive. I noticed when we went into one of the rooms, there was a poster that said the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. So this seemed to be the first step towards really getting our hands around the situation at the high school, which I know will have long discussions about in the years to come. I did want to say that I found it ironic that the building that seemed to be most problematic was of the same era as our community safety building, which has given us so many headaches. So this, this is going to be a long, long process that a lot of us will be involved in. But I want to thank those. The freshman building, Joe? Downs. Downs. Downs. I think they also called the freshman. Yeah. Well, it used to be. And also I was very, I was negligent when Mr. Fields was here. He's been working on a lot of other initiatives besides the signage and first lights. I just got pulled into a group of folks from different organizations in town, which he is also a part of working on organizing a TEDx conference for Arlington. He's been working on it for a couple of years and a year from January. So that's TEDx. Technology, engineering and design. The TED talks are something that you can find online on a number. But you can have affiliate conferences and if we pull this off, which I know we will, we may well be the first community of our size to really do one of these. So the Arlington Center for the Arts is involved and some other members of the arts community in the film festival and such. But Mr. Fields is really helping to keep things on track with that. I also wanted to say that there's been a lot of buzz this week. His incubation efforts also look like they may be yielding some fruit with some large vacant spaces that we have in town. There's been interest with some incubation outfits partnering with the arts collectives. That's been out I think on some of the lists and such. I don't think I'm telling tales out of school there. So he is definitely earning his keep on this. Thank you very much. Thank you, Joe. No new business. I also have no new business. So let's talk about the next week. So my understanding is that the board would like to go into executive session to discuss an open meeting while complaint and decision and actually needs to be taken in respect to that as well as for a review of executive session minutes. There would need to be a roll call and the majority of the vote approving to go into executive session on that and we need to state whether or not an open meeting will take place or not. So I think that the board would like to share basically agree with the purposes of the executive session. Sorry, do I what? So I believe it in a packet. I agree. That's why we're going. Could someone want to make a motion? Second, Mr. Gurley's motion and I think we have the caveat that when we come out, we may or may not be taken. So let's go into executive session. Thank you. We're now back from executive session in regular open session. We took votes in executive session, which we will now also do in public session. Mr. Chairman, I move that we release the executive session minutes for April 11, 2011 for January . So let's go into executive session minutes for April 11, for January 28, 2013 for March 18, 2013 and for June 3, 2013, sir. Is there a second? Second. We have a motion to second for any discussion. All those in favor, please say aye. 5-0. Thank you. Motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye.


As people around the world celebrated their new year a few days ago, most are wondering what the year 2023 has in store for us. Some are touring to the Suusayers to find out what 2023 will bring following the unpredictable year of 2022. According to Nostradamus and Baba Vanga, the two most prominent Suusayers of all times, 2023 could be remembered as the year shaping our contemporary history. Nostradamus have made terrifying predictions for 2023 that include a large scale war and natural disasters. So what exactly are these predictions? Nostradamus is 16th century medieval scientist and mystic whose predictions have been strangely accurate, has predicted the great war this year. In his book The Prophetess, Nostradamus predicted 7 months great war, people dead through evil in 2023. The prophetess points to the conflict in Ukraine that has been marked by the heavy death toll and crimes against humanity. The predictions suggest that the war could further escalate this year into the world war 3. In and as a prophecy, Nostradamus wrote of the Celestial Fire when the lights of Mars will go out. This prophecy could suggest a possible mission to Mars. The prophecy is quite feasible as industrialist Elon Musk earlier says that his space-ass company could take immense spacecraft to Mars by 2029. However, according to Nostradamus, this will take place in 2023. In monkey's predictions for 2023, the astrologer also foresaw a climate crisis that is likely to be caused by a nuclear explosion. Like the sun, the head shall sear the shining sea. The black sea's living fish shall all but boil, Nostradamus writes. The mystics as a prediction for 2023 include possible appointment of a scandalous new Catholic pope who will bring down the Roman Catholic Church as well as a scandal in British royal family and finally cannibalism among humans. And as a mystic Baba Vanga, a blind woman from Bulgaria has also made green predictions about 2023. According to Vanga, the Earth's orbit will shift in 2023 with likely impact on the climate. She also warned of a possible nuclear power plant explosion in Asia that will have devastating effects on other countries. Her final prediction for 2023 is that humans will start to be produced in laboratories and governments will move to ban natural births in the future. It's worth noting that both source areas are credited with predicting landmark events in the past. Nostradamus foresaw the rise of Adel Hitler, World War II, 9-11 terror attack, the French Revolution, COVID-19, the Great Fire of London, to name a few. In turn, Vanga predicted the course disaster of 2000, the rise of Barack Obama and Donald Trump, assassination of Indira Gandhi and drugs and floods in 2022.


Hey everyone, I'm Emma from GoDaddy Show the Journey and I'm joined today by my friend Darlene from GoDaddy's How To and we want to talk with you today about adding delivery service options to your business. That's right Emma. I know that I'm doing my part to stay home during the COVID-19 crisis as are many others that don't have essential jobs and using services like UberEats, DoorDash and Grubhub are great ways to still get food delivered right to my door from my favorite restaurants. Yeah, so let's talk about delivery service. Each of these companies has their own business models so you research to determine which option works best for you. Some things to consider are one, cost for you and your customers, two, delivery areas so like how far do they deliver from your location and thirdly, how user-friendly is the app or the website for you and your customer. Another thing you can do is check out other restaurants in your area and see what they're using. If you determine that everyone's using a specific service, that means that there may be more drivers in your area. Oh, and another thing to point out is that I've seen that a lot of these companies are offering different promotions right now to encourage customers to use their services. I know that I've taken advantage of them for sure. Me too, Darlene. Once you decide which company you want to use, you'll work with them to get things set up and when your menu displays on their website or app, you can add links on your website, right, Darlene? That's right, Emma. Let me show you how to do that. We're going to start on Website Builder. There are a couple of different ways to show that you're now offering delivery. You can add the information to the header of your site or even call it out in a promotional banner. To update the header, all you need to do is click the text you want to update and make the change. I'm going to change my text to say, now offering delivery. When you click on the header, it opens that section over here on the right so you can make any other changes to the image, accent color, or alignment. We're going to leave ours as is. Now let's update our call to action button. We'll click the button in our preview window and make the changes in the pane on the right. We're going to put order now on our button. Now we're going to link to the website URL of the delivery service where our menu displays. I'm going to paste in my URL and then click done. Now when people click the button, they'll jump over to the delivery company website with your restaurant displaying so they can place the order. If you want to add a promotional banner, you can do this by going to the promotional banner option in the header section, which is where we currently are. In this section, flip the toggle to show promotion and to your custom message, we're going to say now offering delivery through reads. Now we want to add the link to the external website URL. Click the toggle and paste in the link. Now click done. Let's go preview our site. We can see our header and promotional banner front and center and they're both advertising that we're using a delivery service and both link to that site. Don't forget to publish if you like what you see. Thank you, darling. As always, you do such a great job of showing us how to do these things. I hope that more and more restaurants take advantage of delivery services during these times when we're all at home. And I know that I love seeing new restaurants pop up here in San Diego because I love to support small businesses. I hear you, Emma, and I feel the same way. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my favorite local restaurant adds their delivery soon. So thanks for joining me today. Stay safe. My pleasure, darling. Stay healthy.


Oh my goodness boys. This is some of the most exciting news we have ever had. Merch-wise and gameplay-wise for Security Breach. I'm cutting straight to the chase earlier today. Scott made a post over on the Reddit saying, watch out guys, Funko is going to be revealing some brand new merch for Security Breach later today and it has some major gameplay spoilers. Also, we got some movie news for the FNAF movie. I will be making a video on that later today, so subscribe because you don't want to miss it. There is a lot of exciting news to cover for the movie. It's great, subscribe. So Scott's post is called Let's Try This Again, which is just the best name he has ever given to a post. Hey everyone, I wanted to announce that there will be some big reveals coming later today for Security Breach. Yes, he totally just dropped that upon us. I've been working with Funko on some new product designs that I'm really excited about. Funko and I both felt the need to try to win you all over again and prove we can design great looking products. And I really think the products they will reveal later today look really cool and trust me, they do. It's only two products, but they still look really good in my opinion. The products will also give away some details about the gameplay mechanics of Security Breach, so be watching for it and it's pretty obvious and yes, we'll be talking about it.  It's Security Breach, it's been spoiled countless times at this point. Three, two, one, this is Funko's tweet. Attention all Five Nights at Freddy's fans. Here is a sneak peek of two brand new products to add to your FNAF collection and oh boy, am I gonna be picking them up. Tune in at 11 a.m. PST to see the full 12 inch statues designs and to pre-order. Now, it's not actually 11 a.m. PST right now, so I'm gonna have to wait to post this video. For me, that's like 30 minutes away, so I do have to wait, unfortunately. But I do want to see a preview of this and of course I want to pre-order it because these look hella dope. I hate myself for saying that, but anyways, let's take a look at the figures themselves. These look absolutely incredible. Honestly, I feel like we've been waiting for figures, not action figures, but proper collectible figurines for a very long time. And now we finally have one one foot tall figurines for FNAF Security Breach. So, first off, we have Freddie and Gregory. Not only do we have a official look at Gregory, what he looks like, what he's going to be doing, we also see him inside of Glamrock Freddie himself. Also, take a look at Gregory and now take a look at the shirt I have. You cannot tell me that this is a different shirt. I own his shirt. It seems like he has a bandaid on his chin, so clearly he has a boo-boo probably from Vanny, which speaking of Vanny, we will be getting to her very shortly, but I do want to keep talking about this for a little bit. So yes, we have Gregory inside of Glamrock Freddie's chest cavity. It looks like his chest can just open up, you know, normal as these characters should do, just have a hole inside their stomach to store kids. And that basically confirms that when Freddie said, Gregory, be still. I think she's found us in the trailer. That confirms that he is inside of Glamrock Freddie and that also does confirm that that is Freddie's voice. If you were doubting it wasn't, if you were doubting it was, it's his voice, okay? I mean, I make no sense, but trust me, this confirms that was him. Freddie also appears to be looking off into the distance. I don't know what he's looking at. Maybe Vanny coming up from behind them. I'm not entirely sure. Also, it appears that he is missing his eyebrows. Overall, the figure is very, very accurate. It looks super clean. Just everything about it looks fan, super contastic and I cannot wait to pick it up. And of course I will be getting it and reviewing it on the channel. So that is another reason to subscribe if you are new. I mean, here's some analytics, right? This is what viewers love to see my analytics. Take a look at it. Subscribe right now. And so now we are moving on to Vanny or Vanessa herself. This was very interesting. Well, Glamrock Freddie and Gregory make sense as two characters. That's why it's called Freddie and Gregory. This figure is called Vanny and Vanessa. And of course it's just Vanny. So why are there two names? Well, my theory is my game theory, if you will, is that we will be seeing unmasked Vanny in security breach. My guess is, is that Vanny, when she's in her bunny costume, is named Vanny.  But the person inside of that suit is named Vanessa, which is confirmed apparently. So this is great. That's my guess. I really love the gesture that she's doing. It is very similar, right boys? Think about this. It is very similar to what Glitchtrap does in the pizza party mini-game in Help Wanted. Just calling that out boys, just calling it out. So this new gameplay mechanic is going to be hiding inside of Freddie Fazbear himself. And the fact that Scott called it a gameplay mechanic makes me think that we will be playing as Gregory, which was something, it was a thought that I had. It was an idea, it was in one of my predictions videos. But I don't really know if I'm all for it, you know?  I wanted to see what it was going to be like, roaming around the mall with the flashlight, with the walkie-talkie, calling in to people. You know, checking up on them. Maybe we'll still do that. Maybe there'll be like separate sections where you, at one point you play as Gregory, another point you play as security woman. I don't know, but it seems like based off of what Scott has said and based off of this new brand new figurine, new brand new figurine, we will be playing as Gregory, which again, it's very interesting.  They put him in the trailer for no reason. Very clearly, he is very important to the game. Doesn't make any sense. My whole world has been turned upside down. Okay, so Funko revealed the entirety of the figurines. And I'm basil, I'm bamboozled, bro. What, what, what? Okay, so this is Freddie and Gregory. As you can see, it is not just Freddie and Gregory. It looks like Vanny is peeking out behind a wall. Yep, she's just kind of there. So they are clearly trying to hide from Vanny. They were trying to hide behind this obscure structure, just poking out from the ground. But Vanny is peeking out, you know, trying to get them. There's not too much to talk about here, but the next one, it just honestly, it blows me away. Remember how the set was called Vanny and Vanessa? Well, get this boys, Vanessa is security woman. I don't know what to think. This changes everything. Also, can I just say, I know it's my thing, ha ha, you know, women are cute, women are hot. But legitimately, why did they look so good?  Her face looks beautiful. I know, it's my bit, you know, ha ha, women are hot.  This is my first time loading up the site. I'm about to see how much they cost. They cost $50. Okay, that is kind of exactly what I was thinking they were gonna cost around that price range. So I'm not all too surprised. Getting a better look at these things, they just look so goddamn beautiful. All right, not even just the women. All right, I'll say it, I'll say it. Freddie looks good too. I'm not gonna say that about Gregory because that's very weird. But honestly, boys, this is just incredible to see. I fucking, this is so cool. I cannot wait to buy these things. I am going to buy these things. I am buying these things. They're like, absolutely goddamn beautiful. Scott, Funko, you outdone yourselves, boys. I completely forgive all of your past mistakes because this is amazing. Truly, it is amazing. It may seem like I'm hyping it up for the video, but honestly, like having a figurine of FNAF and even just thinking about where FNAF has come, you know, like it's FNAF 2, six year anniversary today. And I have such great memories playing that game. And I know people are gonna say, oh, technically it's tomorrow. It released on Steam today, this year to this month, this day six years ago. Jesus Christ, that was a struggle. But yeah, just thinking about where FNAF has come and seeing all these amazing figurines, it's just honestly incredible. And I cannot wait to see where the franchise goes in the future. And we know exactly what's gonna go, security breach, and of course the movie. Movie news video coming out later today. Again, subscribe if you haven't. You made it through this whole video without subscribing. What is wrong with you? I just realized my lights were not on for this section of the video. Apologies, but that is going to be it for me today. I say today, again, I'll be back later today. I don't know when these are going to ship out, but I, again, I'm definitely going to be getting them. So, thanks for watching and I'll see you all on the flip side. Goodbye. Gregory, be still. I think she's found us.


the head of DAFORM for Fine Arts, the talent of art and painting, it grows with the person. It evolves naturally. And of course, there are different ways to improve that gradually, either by actually attending art events or actually visiting museums. It evolves gradually with that. I didn't study arts, I studied psychology, yet my talent overcame my field of study and I continued in painting and fine arts and I participated in several galleries. I mean, being at IBDA, we organize several galleries, especially when it comes to occasions. And these occasions, whether they be social or religious ones, with respect to the society, parents don't always encourage art.  My parents wanted me, as for the society, parents don't always encourage art.  They would say that. What's art? My parents wanted me to study something that will hold a value in my social life. They picked out several majors and told me to choose one. At the same time, we can develop our own talent by applying to specialized institutions and not necessary to be a college study. Of course, I agreed and I majored in something close to arts, which is psychology, because eventually it's all about expressing. It helps you a lot in your life, like art. It is about expressions and feelings, too, conveyed by colors and brush, not words. So, I don't really regret majoring in psychology because it's closely related to arts. It helped me a lot, whether it be in my life or my paintings. Psychology expresses nearly every painting, every text, every detail, every color, so psychology really helped me in that. I used to write stories. I wrote stories and I drew them, which actually attracted my parents' attention, because I live in a house where my dad is a poet, and he has friends who are poets as well, and some artists, of course, thus they helped me evolve my talent by buying me the tools and registering me in art classes. They even took me to several art galleries. This was how my talent began to develop. Now, my environment was a little bit pious and religious, and I was kind of far from it, because life somehow lures you to idolize foreigners, and of course, this is a mistake. Now, one of the misconceptions is having a foreigner as a role model, knowing that life is so silly and empty. On the other hand, of course, a person should have Saeeda Fatima al-Zahra as his role model, and along with Ahle al-Bayt. They were, and of course, a graceful role model for Muslim girls and for all girls in the world, but unfortunately, media tries to hide all the morals and the beautiful things, and on the contrary, they encourage us on, of course, worldly matters, unfortunately. Now, I had faith in my heart, and I wanted to wear hijab, and what really helped me was a dream that I had. I woke up during Fajr prayers, and I decided to put on the veil, and I was really proud of that. I'm so proud of wearing it. At night, I dreamt that it was a judgment day. I was at the top of the mountain, and the whole coast and Beirut were under me, and there was something like a tsunami. The sea was covering the whole coast and reaching the mountains. The mountains were falling, and there was smoke coming out of it. You feel like it's the end of time, so I asked God to give me just five minutes, five minutes, because I wanted to wear a veil, so I wouldn't meet my God looking this way. I was so ashamed of myself. At that moment, everything stopped. It was like, it was like God gave me those five minutes, so I woke up at Fajr Azzan. I was feeling so touched. I was really touched that moment. I decided that whatever happens, I had to wear the veil, no matter what. God was so generous with me, and he gave me those five minutes when I asked him, so I wore the veil, and I'm so glad, and alhamdulillah, it was one of the most important decisions I ever took in my life. Being in the art major and in paintings, you would feel that people wouldn't accept you when wearing a veil, especially if you had art galleries in foreign countries. I mean, or if you had relations with people from different religions, probably the veil would limit your ambitions and have a certain effect, perhaps something that would stop ahead of what you want. I was a little afraid, but decided to wear the veil and stay on this path, and of course, depend on God. I felt, on the contrary, that God eased many matters for me. I succeeded in several issues, and people accepted me for who I am. Of course, at first, it would be hard for them to consider my veil or consider your veil, but your work, your thoughts, and your way of convincing them with your beliefs and values, and all of these matters inherited from your dogma and parents, you can convince them and convey it all in your own way. I mean, especially painting, because painting helps you convey the thoughts you want in a beautiful and fast way. Any thought will be conveyed faster by painting than words. I mean, I ask any girl who has low self-esteem or feels held back. I say that the veil doesn't strain us. It grants us a divine push forward and keeps us improving. I mean, I never felt anything changed, nothing at all. One time, I had an art gallery for me and my paintings with some French people, and of course, considering my name is Eva Hashem, I guess they didn't expect me to be veiled. When I showed up, they were shocked at first, then they accepted me because of my paintings and the artistic values of my paintings. The art gallery contained honoring and certificates at the end of it. It was really important. When I showed up, they were shocked that I wore a veil and I didn't shake hands. All of this shocked them. When I sat with them and we started talking, we became best friends, and we are still in contact till this moment. There were seven French artists, and I remember we are still in contact till now. When they came to Lebanon, they give me a call and we go out and chat. You can always change thoughts because outside there is some kind of deceit. I mean, they tend to convey a different view of Islam.  With the veil, there are things, of course, rituals and acts of worship that accumulate by time. You feel happy and falling more into faith. Of course, into the faith, I started reading and researching and watching a lot of related matters so that these things took root in my mind. Artistic puts all his emotions and thoughts into his paintings. During Ashura, I drew a lot of things about Imam Hussein, and Abu Fadlil Abbas, and a lot of things that happened in the incident of Taaf.  This painting, maybe it's silent, but it is somehow an outcry. The person who sees this painting, even though he has different religion or from different country, it will still reach him quickly because he is seeing it in a very quick and simple way. Of course, in a very simple way. Now, Imam Hussein tried a lot not to let the battle happen. Thus, there is a symbolic significance for every painting and subject that we paint. Religious subjects, especially when it comes to Ahlul Bayt, there are a lot of specific colors to use, such as the black, the red, and the green, knowing that these symbolize our faith. The blacks and the flags and everything we have are either black, red, and green. Now, you can add any color you want. An artist is free to add any color he wants for beauty, improvement, or better artistic value. Mainly, the colors of dessert and sunset are well known, as well as the black, the red, and the green. There are humanitarian connotations as well.  You can also paint the film like captives. These are humanitarian connotations. There are also historical connotations that help, such as things that happened during the incident of Taf, burning of the camp, or during the battle. It all leaves an impression on people. There are also written connotations. When we use faces, such as La Baika Ya Hussein and Hayhat Minna Zilla in a painting, it all has a written subtext. Of course, there are a lot of connotations. There are two kinds of paintings to paint. Either abstract painting, in which you can paint the symbols, such as the tent, the sword, and the spear. You can mix all these colors, of course. Or you can take a picture and paint it the exact same way. I feel I have an abstract painting. I wrote Ya Hussein on it. I drew it as a tear, a red tear, because we cry blood on the Hussein, alaihi salam. The Hussein revolution is a rise. It's a humanitarian movement. Because before it concerns us, Ya, it is a humanitarian renaissance. I mean, I drew a lot of abstract. I even drew Al Hussein like he is coming out of time. Al Hussein has a direct relation with the whole history, with the whole history. In every moment, we feel that we are still defending our religion, and we are still holding this flag, walking on the same path. Because in each time and phase, there are people who oppress others. I felt it was a scream that comes out of the painting from that time, with the time of Al Hussein, with the name of Al Hussein and the red tear. Al Hussein agitated a lot before the battle happened. So the last moment, he tried to convince them and send messages. He used the most sophisticated techniques and words, which by conversation, debate, and conviction, but they weren't convinced. The green flag is the flag of Imams. It also means life and peace, but they didn't accept it. They mixed it with blood and refused it. It was covered with blood, and they refused. Unfortunately, they refused. An artist is never satisfied. When he reaches satisfaction and met his goals, it means he is done. I always feel that I have a lot of energy to work more, to convey my thoughts. Of course, the painting starts to attract you while painting and mixing colors. You start to put ideas in its proper place. You will know when to add more things. And of course, the more beautiful the painting, the more it will attract people. God is great. The painting attracts and leads you. I use my hands to paint more than the brush. I use the brush to paint small details. You begin to feel that the color is going all the way with you, and what you picture is really coming true. Of course, you feel that your hands are working alone, as if God and your mind are doing all the work. I can't describe the feeling while painting, because especially when it comes to the religious things, it's like there's an invisible force that is making things much, much easier, expressing beautiful things, expressing beautiful things out of you, things that express your reactions and your inner feelings. It comes to abstract painting. There are no details. And since I paint in abstract forms, there are no details in paintings. But I would like to reach a moment where I am able to paint expressions on faces.  I really hope, I really hope I would be able someday to do something profound and beautiful on facial expressions in those moments. I have to tell you something. In such moments, when Sabaya went to Sham, we received so little about what happened, so little about those events. I mean, we received little. Their agony. I mean, could you imagine how much distance they were forced to walk, how tired they were, how much violated they were? It is all dear to us as loyal Muslims. You can't really accept what happened. I mean, even when you're just talking about it, you feel like your emotions can't accept that. I tried in specific paintings to convey a certain scene or a message, but I'm certain that I can't convey the true moments that they lived. No matter how hard I would try, the true moments that each one of them has lived, because what happened to them happened to nobody. It never happened in history. No one can imagine being in their place. It was really hard. I cry a lot. I really cry a lot. It feels like your soul is there. I can't express, I can't express what happens to you. This reaction is very important and beautiful.  You live the moment, you feel like you're there, but you couldn't help anyone and you just wish that you were there to help, to do something or even change anything. These are the feelings of each and every one of us. After the film about Prophet Muhammad and the fuss that was made in media, we thought about how to come up with our own cry. I mean, we have the right to express our thoughts and defend the Holy Prophet because, of course, we do not accept what happened. We thought a lot and planned to organize an art gallery. Of course, a lot of artists participated and drew about Prophet Muhammad. We thought that in other countries, they would convey a wrong image about Islam because they would translate the imagery into something else. I mean, you can talk for hours, yet they would translate the message at the bottom of the screen the way they want to. So we wanted to use the art as a way to send a direct message. You are drawing to show what Islam and the prophets really are through these paintings, of course. So for sure, I drew an expressive painting about the Prophet Muhammad. I only took the Islamic symbol of him, but didn't draw him. Islam is the religion of equality. It raised the women. It is the religion of peace. I mean, there are a lot of and a lot of things to say. It is a humanitarian religion, but they changed it and made it into a religion full of blood, bloody and things that we don't like to mention, of course. In our own ways, we can get Islamic meanings, images of what happened, the way they lived, the way the Prophet treated others and what was his message. And of course, we put all this in a painting. The art gallery had a huge echo, of course, because people were surprised with it, just like you said, because no one has dealt with this matter in an artistic way. It was covered by media and a lot of people were part of it from different religions, not only Muslims or Shia, but from all religions. It had positive echoes and reviews, of course. You have to be happy because you were able to convey the thought in a positive and not a negative way, of course. The participation of artists from different religions is the biggest event. I mean, you can attract them to your religion. Besides that, and away from that, when media covers the art gallery, it also participates in spreading the religion and the message properly. Of course, one of the things that we organize every year is the Ashura Studio. Now, we organized it for the fourth year. Children come to paint and express their thoughts and feelings and emotions. Of course, this thing is very important. This studio has positive influence on parents who bring their children and the latter were also helped by a number of participating artists. Now, the art of Ashura started with the monk who took the head of Al-Hussein and engraved it in his painting. This painting is found in Russia. Then it started to develop in Iraq. They painted about Al-Hussein and what happened in Iran also. Then it came to Bahrain. In Bahrain, we saw that this studio was taking place every year, and we liked the idea. We wanted to try it in Beirut for the lack of this type of expression in Lebanon. It was a trial. We estimated that around 20 children will come. 400 came during the first time. We expected 20, but 400 came. We know that there was a positive response from people. Every year, we repeated it, and it grew and grew and grew. Last year, about 1,500 children participated. There was a huge demonstration. I can't even tell you. Children painted in a beautiful, unexpected way. Even great artists can't express the way some children did. I mean, this thing was really important and it was something really beautiful. We found that there was a lot of response. Children also have the right to express their feelings. Every year, we organized the studio. It is an open one. Big artists come to help and supervise children. It's a beautiful event. All children draw. This is how they express themselves. I mean, give any child a pencil and paper and he will immediately paint. In psychology, when they want to figure out the child's problem, they ask him to draw on a paper. Using what he drew, the lines, and the place of people, they can diagnose his problem. Children like to express using this way. They usually use that to express themselves. A child paints in an innocent way, full of love and pure hearts. I mean, I don't know how to explain it. When you see their paintings, you can feel how happy and joyful they are. And even that, you feel that. Do not expect a child to have such thoughts. If you were painting about war, it is not necessary to draw about blood. Some children paid colors and spring in war. It differs from one child to another. One time, a child painted a deer. There were many beautiful ideas. There are many talents that need to be developed. Also in the association, we have a center for developing those talents. If there were like around 20 children who drew great paintings, we take care of those 20 and contact their parents. We contact their parents. It is essential. It is essential to have artistic culture because art is elegant and reaches all people, of course. It is the duty of every Muslim to clear out the image of Islam, which is being targeted by so many people to be hated and to hate this religion. I mean, even the child, when we organize such studios, we intend to plant in them the right seed to express. We realize that the child can't express by words. He expresses by paintings. Even when you make him watch movies and theater, you'd ask him to put his feelings on a paper using his paintings. This is how you plant in this child the proper way to express his religion. Any person, whatever his job was, I mean, you have to know that any person, whatever his job was, it is his duty to convey this thought. Maybe by the way he acts, even with the smallest issues like the way he treats people, I mean, as a Muslim, he should improve the image of Islam. For sure, in this time of oppression that we're suffering, you feel that it is nice to combine the past with the present in a single painting. Everything in history is repeated within time. You feel that you want to combine what happened with what's going on right now. It is an idea that I began to prepare for that is to combine history with present, to come up with a beautiful idea.


The sheriff's office says that Emil growth was driving a tractor Monday afternoon in a field near his home when he fell off the tractor and was run over by it. Growth was transported to St. Gabriel's Hospital where he died from his injuries.


Every second, more than 100 searches are conducted against Interpol's databases. In 2017, 4.5 billion database searches were carried out across our 192 member countries, resulting in more than 1 million hits against available records.


About a year ago, you could sum up the issues for Southern Marja in one word, security. Now, it's more complicated, but that's a good thing. Like at this Shura, or meeting, hosted by three-sixth Marines, where they had a good turnout from local leadership. That sitting in that Shura were both previous Taliban commanders and also Mujahideen that fought against the Russians. They were all sitting in the same place, saying the same thing, dealing with the government of Afghanistan. And their air and their grievances about that government with words and not weapons. Shuras like this one happen regularly at various outposts in Southern Marja controlled by the Marines and ANA. Sergeant Andrew Milner, forward operating base, Marja, Afghanistan.