Sunday Various

In Rome the battle lines are forming for the upcoming conclave.

A list of potential papal successors from media reports

A look at some of the possible successors from Rorate with a traditionalist POV

In Canada's election, Trump is on the ballot.

Poll: Canadians despise Trump and distrust US

Shocked by US peace proposal, Ukrainians say they will not accept any formal surrender of territory

Trump's third-term talk freezes the potential 2028 Republican field

GOP Medicaid debate intensifies in search for cuts

Florida nears ban on fluoride

The NBC / MSNBC Divorce is Getting Messy

Various for 3/31

Trump is about to impose one of the largest tax hikes in history

Germans are getting nervous about their gold

Germany wants to sanction Hungary's authoritarian regime

Trump, again, hints at force to seize Greenland

Lessons for America in Russia's disastrous war

Trump says there are "methods" to serve a third term   (He's right. The constitution could be amended. Or he could simply ignore it.)

Amidst trade wars, rising concern over inflation, and the inability of the US Government to deal with the debt; gold shatters records.

Various for 3/26

GOP considers eliminating courts that defy Trump

Trump floats possibility of compensation for Jan. 6 rioters (This would be for the rioters, not the people they hurt.)

Trump admin considers killing big energy projects in Dem states

DOGE says it needs to know the government's most sensitive data, but can't say why

Trump’s Canadian Collateral Damage

Pope Francis’ doctors considered stopping treatment to ‘let him go’

Democrats flip a deep red state senate seat in Pennsylvania

EU says 'unconditional withdrawal' of Russia from Ukraine is a precondition to amend sanctions

Trump has blown up the world order 

Noah Rothman: America is now in the business of extortion

Russia sentences Ukrainian POWs for "Terrorism" 

New German Government to Toughen Immigration Policy

The Ukrainian teens who took on Putin's gulag archipelago

New Orthodox church in Halifax opens doors at former Saint Matthias Anglican Church

Fifteen years ago, Affaf El-Jakl remembers there was talk of building a new church to accommodate the growing congregation of Saint Antonios Orthodox Church.

And on Sunday, that hope finally became reality.

“We’re in awe,” El-Jakl, president of the parish council said Sunday morning, as hundreds of parishioners filed into the sanctuary, filling it to capacity until there was only standing room and the upper balcony left to sit.

"It's not everyday a new church is built and opened."

The crowd gathered to celebrate the unveiling of the new church with the first of what would be many Sunday masses to follow, sitting in pews that originally belonged to the building when it served as Saint Matthias Anglican Church.

Read the rest here.

A couple of noteworthy posts from other blogs

 A Greek Orthodox Archimandrite has reportedly converted to Rome at the Monastery of Bellaigue.  That would be news in itself but supposedly he was received by Bishop Fellay of the SSPX.  Click here for the story.

There is a spectacular photo essay of life in an Orthodox parish by a professional photo-journalist.  Click here to visit her blog post.

On the threshold of the Great Fast

A few quick items as we start gearing up for Lent...

First I would like to bump an outstanding article over at Mike Liccione's blog on the danger posed by Jihadists. If you haven't read it, you need to. His preceding article on confession isn't bad either. And I particularly like the picture.

Secondly for any who are or may be in the Central Valley of California during the first weekend of Lent I would like to invite you to a Lenten retreat to be held at St. Mary Magdalene Orthodox Church in Merced on Friday March 6th at 7 PM and Saturday the 7th at 8:30 AM. The guest speaker will be Fr.Meletios Webber, the Abbot of St. John's Monastery. He is by all accounts an excellent speaker. Later on Saturday Fr. Meletios will also be the principal speaker at a Conference on Orthodox Christian Faith and Life to be held at St. Peter the Apostle Serbian Orthodox Church in Fresno from 1 - 6 PM. Q&A to follow all of the conferences. Fast friendly refreshments will be served following the Friday evening and Saturday afternoon events. Additionally St. Peter's is hosting the Central Valley's annual Pan Orthodox Vesper service for the Sunday of Orthodoxy. These events are free and open to the public.

Finally, as has been my custom since since I started blogging, I will be scaling back on the internet during Lent. I do not however expect to go completely offline as I more or less did last year. Still readers should expect reduced posting and delays (worse than usual) in replying to private emails. Barring something really significant that is also time sensitive there will be no new posts after tomorrow until Thursday at the earliest. In addition I expect that I will be traveling a great deal during Lent this year which will further impact my blogging and correspondence. Your prayers are coveted and appreciated.

And now for something a little different...

Modern day Krakatoa

OK. This article has absolutely nothing to do with anything I normally blog about. No politics, religion or social issues and the history is incidental. To be honest it's something I have a hard time imagining I would go looking up barring a bad case of insomnia. But the article was featured on refdesk, my favorite omnibus website and the home page for my browser. And somehow I got sucked into it. My interest in geology ranks right up there with my interest in periodic tables and other things I was forced to memorize in High School. I did take a geology course in college which thanks to a remarkable professor was actually somewhat interesting. But again it's not really my cup of tea. So don't ask me why this particular article grabbed my attention. But it did.

Krakatoa (Indonesian: Krakatau), also spelled Krakatao, is a volcanic island in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. The name is used for the island group, the main island (also called Rakata), and the volcano as a whole.

Significance

Further information: 1883 eruption of Krakatoa

Its best known eruption culminated in a series of massive explosions on August 26–27, 1883, which was among the most violent volcanic events in modern times. With a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 6,[2] it was equivalent to 200 megatons of TNT — about 13,000 times the yield of the Little Boy bomb (13 to 16 KT) that devastated Hiroshima, Japan, and four times the yield of the Tsar Bomba (50 MT), the largest nuclear weapon ever built. The 1883 eruption ejected approximately 21 cubic kilometres (5.0 cu mi) of rock, ash, and pumice,[3] and generated the loudest sound historically reported: the cataclysmic explosion was distinctly heard as far away as Perth in Australia approx. 1,930 miles (3,110 km), and the island of Rodrigues near Mauritius approx. 3,000 miles (5,000 km) distant. Near Krakatoa, according to official records, 165 villages and towns were destroyed and 132 seriously damaged, at least 36,417 (official toll) people died, and many thousands were injured by the eruption, mostly from the tsunamis that followed the explosion. The eruption destroyed two-thirds of the island of Krakatoa.

Eruptions at the volcano since 1927 have built a new island in the same location, named Anak Krakatau (Indonesian: "Child of Krakatoa"). This island currently has a radius of roughly 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) and a high point around 300 metres (980 ft) above sea level, growing 5 metres (16 ft) each year. [1]

Read the whole article.