The Heart of Darkness of 21st Century Society - Opinions - Crusader ...

Published:?Friday, April 26, 2013

Updated:?Saturday, April 27, 2013 19:04

?? ?The meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside,? wrote Joseph Conrad, ?Enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze.?

?? In Conrad?s legendary tale, The Heart of Darkness, Marlow insightfully observes that he cannot find understanding from a strange encounter while analyzing the experiencing alone, but rather he only finds significance while retelling the story to others.

?? On Monday, April 16, two bomb explosions killed four people and injured over one hundred at the finish line of the annual Boston Marathon.

??? After the news widely spread, buzz rushed across the world, questioning who the criminals were and what their particular goals were. As moral human beings, we desire to seek answers in order to try to understand such incomprehensible actions. ?
?? For the following few days, my thoughts were paralyzed. The only coherent words that I could mutter about the topic were, ?It is just awful; just unbelievable.?

??? As the words splattered out of my mouth, I could immediately sense their inadequacy. The sentiment was too generic, too ingenuine to capture the true evil of the tragedy. I internally scolded myself, ?How could I be so passive about a disaster of this degree??

?? I realize now that my frustration with attempting to describe the calamity reflected my struggle to grasp what even occurred.

?? With so many human-caused tragedies occurring in the past year from the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting to the Colorado Dark Knight Rises gunfire to last week?s Patriots? Day attack, receiving news about a shooting is now like ripping off a band-aid.

??? I suffer from an immediate, tender sting to the heart. However, this ache seems to dwindle into a blur of numb confusion. ?
?? ... Who can I contact to make sure that they are safe? To make sure that they know they are loved? How can I just continue life here in the Holy Cross bubble when the outside world is a war zone?
?? Why is The New York Times posting invasive, graphic photographs of the victims and calling it news? Who are these killers? How long did they plan this attack ? a month, a year, or perhaps a decade? Why is another place ? another population?s home ? being destroyed yet again?? When will this seemingly unbreakable chain of hate end? If a shielding, higher power exists, how can he allow such slaughter to transpire? Is this a punishment? Is this a lesson? How can I help? ...

?? We are naturally at a loss for answers on why another human being would single handedly create such cruelty among our own and how to continue living in a society that is clearly corrupted.

??? Neither any expert nor I can even define this pure evil and certainly cannot even place a guess on how this represents the world that we shaped or how to determine a solution.

?? Even after Friday, April 19?s capture, I don?t feel like there has truly been any closure. Even if we do ain information from the nineteen year old, would we feel any more sense of comfort? I honestly do believe that I would.

?? I truly don?t think having concrete answers would bring any genuine ease or understanding. I suspect that grave perplexity would still linger in my thoughts.

?? Perhaps, instead, we adapt Marlow?s mentality regarding the complexity of closure. For such grand depictions of evil, it is impossible to observe and then immediately conclude on our own.

?? Continuous discussion and care are the only actions that a typical human can pursue at the moment. Yet, maybe that is all many of us ordinary onlookers can really need to do right now.

?? However, Marlow utters a lie in the end of the novella to ease a widower?s pain, which is certainly not a model to follow. We cannot evade the truth as a remedy for grief.

?? Caregivers, victims, police, doctors, and onlookers across the world must confront the heart of darkness to progressively heal.

?? Like many of us, I find myself to be amidst a hazed cloud of uncertainty.

??? As much as I crave to know why lives were taken and impaired at this year?s Boston Marathon, I don?t know if I am prepared for the answer.

?? Marlow uncovers understanding by retelling the story throughout his journey. With an evil so immense, we, too, must fight our way upstream through the heart of darkness of our today?s society, the pain, hate, confusion, violence, and death.

??? We must look outside of the hard facts for an answer to this grief. Even when surrounded by so much uncertainty with each other, we must depend on each other to prevail forward.

Source: http://www.thehccrusader.com/opinions/the-heart-of-darkness-of-21st-century-society-1.3037181

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Owner of collapsed building captured in Bangladesh

SAVAR, Bangladesh (AP) -- The fugitive owner of an illegally constructed building that collapsed and killed at least 377 people was captured Sunday by a commando force as he tried to flee into India. At the disaster site, meanwhile, fire broke out in the wreckage and forced authorities to suspend the search for survivors temporarily.

Mohammed Sohel Rana was arrested in the western Bangladesh border town of Benapole, said Jahangir Kabir Nanak, junior minister for local government. Rana was brought back by helicopter to the capital of Dhaka where he faced charges of negligence.

Rana's capture was announced by loudspeaker at the disaster site, drawing cheers and applause from those awaiting the outcome of a continuing search-and-rescue operation for survivors of Wednesday's collapse.

Many of those killed were workers at clothing factories in the building, known as the Rana Plaza, and the collapse was the deadliest disaster to hit the garment industry in Bangladesh that is worth $20 billion annually and is a mainstay of the economy.

The fire that broke out late Sunday night sent smoke pouring from the piles of shattered concrete and halted some of the rescue efforts ? including a bid to free a woman who was found trapped in the rubble.

The blaze was caused by sparks as rescuers tried to cut through a steel rod to reach the woman, said a volunteer, Syed Al-Amin Roman. At least three rescuers were injured in the fire, he said. It forced them to retreat while firefighters frantically hosed down the flames.

Officials believe the fire is likely to have killed the trapped woman, said army spokesman Shahinul Islam. Rescue workers had delayed the use of heavy equipment for several hours in the hope that she could be extricated from the rubble first. But with the woman presumed dead, they began using heavy equipment around midnight.

An exhausted and disheveled Rana was brought before reporters briefly at the Dhaka headquarters of the commando team, the Rapid Action Battalion.

Wearing a printed shirt, Rana was sweating as two security officers held him by his arms. A security official helped him to drink water after he gestured he was thirsty. He did not speak during the 10-minute appearance, and he is likely to be handed over to police, who will have to charge him and produce him in court within 24 hours.

A small-time politician from the ruling Awami League party, Rana had been on the run since the building collapsed Wednesday. He last appeared in public Tuesday in front of the Rana Plaza after huge cracks appeared in the building. Witnesses said he assured tenants, including five garment factories, that the building was safe.

A bank and some shops on the first floor closed Wednesday after police ordered an evacuation, but managers of the garment factories on the upper floor told workers to continue their shifts.

Hours later, the Rana Plaza was reduced to rubble, crushing most victims under massive blocks of concrete.

Rana's arrest was ordered by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is also the Awami League leader.

On Saturday, police arrested three owners of two factories. Also detained were Rana's wife and two government engineers who were involved in giving approval for the building design. Local TV stations reported that the Bangladesh High Court has frozen the bank accounts of the owners of all five garment factories in the Rana Plaza.

Three floors of the eight-story building apparently were built illegally.

A garment manufacturers' group said the factories in the building employed 3,122 workers, but it was not clear how many were inside when it fell. About 2,500 survivors have been accounted for.

Army Maj. Gen. Chowdhury Hasan Suhrawardy, the coordinator of the rescue operations, said the next phase of the search involved the heavy equipment such as hydraulic cranes that were brought to the disaster site Sunday. Searchers had been manually shifting concrete blocks with the help of light equipment such as pickaxes and shovels, he said.

The work will be carried out carefully so as not to mutilate bodies, he said. "We have engaged many private sector companies which supplied us equipment, even some heavy ones," Suhrawardy said.

In a rare bit of good news, a female worker was pulled out alive Sunday. Rescuer Hasan Akbari said when he tried to extricate a man next to the woman, "he said his body was being torn apart. So I had to let go. But God willing, we will be able to rescue him with more help very soon."

The collapse and previous disasters in garment factories have focused attention on the poor working conditions of workers who toil for as little as $38 a month to produce clothing for top international brands.

The death toll surpassed a fire five months ago that killed 112 people and brought widespread pledges to improve worker-safety standards. But since then, very little has changed in Bangladesh.

Its garment industry was the third-largest in the world in 2011, after China and Italy, having grown rapidly in the past decade.

Among the garment makers in the building were Phantom Apparels, Phantom Tac, Ether Tex, New Wave Style and New Wave Bottoms. Altogether, they produced several million shirts, pants and other garments a year.

The New Wave companies, according to their website, make clothing for several major North American and European retailers.

Britain's Primark acknowledged it was using a factory in Rana Plaza, but many other retailers distanced themselves from the disaster, saying they were not involved with the factories at the time of the collapse or had not recently ordered garments from them.

Wal-Mart said none of its clothing had been authorized to be made in the facility, but it is investigating whether there was any unauthorized production.

__

AP writers Farid Hossain and Gillian Wong in Dhaka contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/owner-collapsed-building-captured-bangladesh-184621056.html

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US tries new aerial tools in Caribbean drug fight

ABOARD THE HIGH SPEED VESSEL SWIFT (AP) ? Drug smugglers who race across the Caribbean in speedboats will typically jettison their cargo when spotted by surveillance aircraft, hoping any chance of prosecuting them will vanish with the drugs sinking to the bottom of the sea.

That may be a less winning tactic in the future. The U.S. Navy on Friday began testing two new aerial tools, borrowed from the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, that officials say will make it easier to detect, track and videotape drug smugglers in action.

One of the devices on display aboard the High Speed Vessel Swift is a large, white balloon-like craft known as an aerostat, which is tethered up to 2,000 feet (600 meters) above the ship's stern. The other tool on board for tests in the Florida Straits is a type of drone that can be launched by hand from the deck.

Together, they expand the ability of Navy and Coast Guard personnel to see what's beyond their horizon, according to officials from both military branches and the contractors hoping to sell the devices to the U.S. government.

The devices should allow authorities to detect and monitor suspected drug shipments from afar for longer sustained periods, giving them a better chance of stopping the smugglers. They also should allow them to make continuous videotapes that can be used in prosecutions.

"Being able to see them and watch what they are doing even before we get there is going to give us an edge," said Chief Chris Sinclair, assistant officer in charge of a law enforcement detachment on board the Swift, a private vessel leased to the Navy that is about to begin a monthlong deployment to the southwestern Caribbean, tracking the busy smuggling routes off Colombia and Honduras.

Crews practiced launching and operating both systems before a small contingent of news media on board the Swift, managing to bring back video of vessels participating in a mock surveillance mission as well as radar and video images of the fishing charters and sailboats that dot the choppy seas separating Cuba from the U.S. mainland.

The drone, officially a Puma All Environment unmanned aircraft system from Aerovironment Inc. of Simi Valley, California, splashed into the water on one landing and had to be retrieved. On the second round, it clacked noisily but intact on the shifting deck of the 321-foot ship. Rear Adm. Sinclair Harris, commander of the Navy's 4th Fleet, said the devices are necessary at a time when the service is making a transition to smaller, faster ships amid budget cuts.

The aerostat, formally the Aerostar TIF-25K and made by a division of Raven Industries Inc. of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is filled with helium. It's an old technology, models of which have been used for decades, but it's packed with cameras and sensors that expand the ship's radar capability from about 5 miles (8 kilometers) to about 50 miles. That can help teams in an on-board control center to identify larger ships, which now would appear as just dots on the horizon, from as far as 15 miles (25 kilometers) away.

The Puma, meanwhile, can be sent out to inspect a vessel flagged by the larger aerostat and give a "God's eye view," of what's happening on board, a job usually handled by a plane or helicopter, said Craig Benson, director of business development for the company.

Both the aerostat and the drone have been used widely by the U.S. government for overseas actions, but Harris and others aboard the Swift said neither has been used before by the Navy to conduct counter-drug operations.

Unmanned aerial devices, however, are not new to the drug fight. U.S. Customs and Border Protection operates 10 Predator drones, including two based in Cape Canaveral, Florida, that patrol a wide swathe of the Caribbean through the Bahamas and down to south of Puerto Rico. It deployed one to the Dominican Republic last year for six weeks and has considered using one in Honduras. The others are used along the northern and southern borders of the United States.

The U.S. military has long been deeply involved in counter-drug operations in the Southern Hemisphere, coordinated by a multi-agency task force based in Key West, Florida. Navy ships and Air Force jets use their radar to track and run down smugglers, though for legal reasons the actual arrests are carried out by the Coast Guard, civilian agencies or officials from other countries.

In March, the military said it would reduce patrols and sorties in Latin America and the Caribbean because of the automatic spending cuts imposed by Congress, another argument for increased use of aerial surveillance devices like the aerostat and drone, officials said.

Representatives on the Swift from both contractors declined to say what their systems cost. But they said each can be run at a fraction of the cost of the fixed-wing planes or helicopters usually dispatched to check out suspected smugglers.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-tries-aerial-tools-caribbean-drug-fight-114421954.html

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'Out of This World' Exhibit Coming to Maifest | Family Friendly ...

One of our favorite events held each year in Covington is Maifest. ?We love taking our kids down to MainStrasse Village to experience all the food, the music, the beautiful chalk art, and of course?. the rides!

Maifest is just around the corner ? May 17, 18, 19 ? and this year they have an out-of-this-world mobile exhibit that kids are going to love ? NASA?s Driven to Explore (DTE).

Sponsored by the folks at John R Green (and located in their parking lot), NASA?s Driven to Explore ?mobile, multi-media exhibit immerses visitors in the story of NASA. Guests will learn why we explore, discover the challenges of human space exploration and how NASA provides critical technological advances to improve life on Earth. The exhibit includes imagery and audio and visual technology to connect visitors with the space program, highlighting advanced human research that will ensure safe and sustainable future missions, and next-generation vehicles and surface systems destined for use exploring beyond low Earth orbit.

As part of this unique exploration experience, visitors have an out-of-this-world opportunity to touch a 3 billion-year-old moon rock brought back aboard Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the moon in 1972. The moon rock is one of only eight lunar samples in the world made available for the public to touch. Additional exhibits accompany the exhibit and are displayed beneath an inflatable tent that is part of the trailer?s external structure.

Get a feel for the exhibit in this YouTube video:

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There is no admission charge for Driven to Explore is designed for all ages. ?Touring the exhibit takes approximately 10 minutes.

NOTE: In addition to hosting the exhibit during Maifest, John R Green will be inviting schools to come down to check out the NASA DTE exhibit on the Monday after Maifest, May 20th.

PS. John R Green is an awesome place to go not only for school supplies, but for craft supplies, stickers, just about anything you can think of. We even get our computer paper there!

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Source: http://familyfriendlycincinnati.com/2013/04/27/out-of-this-world-exhibit-coming-to-maifest/

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Fotopedia Reporter for iPad lets photographers publish their own photo stories

Fotopedia Reporter is a gorgeous app that lets you create your own photo stories and publish them to the popular social magazine. Whether it's a gallery from your last vacation, a tour of your garden, a review of your favorite restaurant, there's a place for your editorial creativity on Fotopedia.

Creating a photo story is easy: start with a cover photo, choose a title and description, add a location, pull text from Wikipedia or add your own, and share for all to see!

In addition to sharing your own stories, you can also browse stories posted by other people. Fotopedia has a featured page of great content as well as the most popular and new stories organized by category.

Fotopedia is very social at lets you rate stories up to 5 stars as well as leave comments. You can also follow users and see all their work viewed as a list or thumbnails.

The good

• Stunning design
• Easy to create a photo story
• Find amazing work by other users
• Organize by featured or category (new or popular)
• Leaving ratings and comments
• Follow users and view profiles
• Share to Facebook and Twitter

The bad

• No complaints

The bottom line

Fotopedia Reporter is incredibly well designed and is a great way for photographers to showcase their work. I am in awe by some of the photos I've come across and it makes me want to pick a theme and take a stab at photojournalism.

• Free - Download now

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/CoGB8ldagU4/story01.htm

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LG Cloud rolling out in over 40 more countries by late May

Although LG jumped into the deep end of the online services pool when it launched LG Cloud last year, it didn't have much to brag about when access was limited to South Korea, Russia and the US. The company is about to broaden its horizons considerably -- it now plans to deploy LG Cloud to more than 40 additional countries before the end of May. While the electronics giant hasn't outlined its plans on a nation-by-nation basis, it's planning a truly worldwide expansion that should include Asia, Europe and Latin America. If your Optimus G Pro and brand new TV aren't already syncing their media in perfect harmony, there's a good chance that they will within a month's time.

Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Internet, HD, LG

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Source: LG

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/26/lg-cloud-rolling-out-in-over-40-more-countries-by-late-may/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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PFT: Joeckel angry Chiefs passed on him in draft

Reuters

For months, it was assumed the Chiefs would take tackle Luke Joeckel with the first pick in the draft.? Last night, the reality become otherwise.

The Chiefs bypassed Joeckel for Eric Fisher, and Joeckel won?t forget it.

?I wanted that first pick but, you know, it didn?t happen. And that definitely puts a chip on my shoulder,? Joeckel told PFT on Thursday night, after he was picked.? ?I?m ready to go work, I?m ready to go prove myself.? It kind of hurts even more that another offensive tackle was taken before me, so I?m ready to go. . . .

?I?ll probably wake up every single day thinking that and when I?m in the weight room . . . when I?m lifting, when I?m out in the field working, you know, that?s my entire goal.? I grew up in a very competitive family, always wanted to be the best.? And you know, going behind another guy in my same position is definitely going to push me.?

It also puts pressure on Fisher.

?Obviously the first pick gets a lot of expectations, a lot of pressure, but I think I perform very well under pressure,? Fisher told PFT on Thursday night.? ?I am somebody to take advantage of pressure situations and make the most of them.? A lot of people will break under their pressure, I?m not that kind of person.? I think any time in my life I?ve had that kind of expectation that I needed to meet, I think I?ve performed very well.?

There?s a chance both will perform well.? There?s also a chance, in theory, of a Peyton Manning/Ryan Leaf dichotomy.

After spending time last night with each guy, our money?s on the former.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/04/26/joeckel-will-think-of-being-passed-over-every-single-day/related/

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