Jon Wilson helps victims talk with perpetrators - and find closure
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Janet Connors, Turner's mother, has met behind bars with two of the men involved in her son's death. It is not the sort of meeting a grieving parent is likely to want to experience alone.
That's where Jon Wilson steps in.
Mr. Wilson owns a business dedicated to boats and boat building, a craft as artful and precise as the taking of a human life is violent and horrid. Wilson was there with Ms. Connors, as he's been with dozens of victims of violent crimes, because he believes such meetings are crucial to the healing process.
This concept, called Victim Offender Dialogue (VOD), lets agonized victims or their surviving loved ones do something the justice system rarely lets them do: talk with the wrongdoer.
Source: Christian Science Monitor
What crew take when abandoning ship
31.12.69
Crew are trained to envision themselves in abandon ship scenarios and many did as they watched video of M/Y Yogi sinking in February.
No one expects to see their boat sink or burn. When it does, crew evacuate. They get off with themselves, passengers and a collection of emergency survival equipment; the ditch bag.
"I picked up a couple in the water with nothing but their bathing suits," a captain said of his experience rescuing people who didn't have a ditch bag when their boat sank.
Whether you call it an abandon ship bag, grab bag or flee bag, you need one even for the smallest craft, a captain said at this month's Triton Bridge luncheon.
"Like even the guys we saw in the water in the overturned rental kayak," he said.
Source: The Triton
Safety of oil-spill dispersants under fire
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The Government Accountability Project and the Louisiana Action Network claim they have obtained a manual from the cleanup's Vessel of Opportunity program. The document, they say, contradicts safety assurances offered by both BP and Nalco Energy Services, the company that made the Corexit dispersant used in the spill cleanup.
The critics also claim that the manuals were pulled from worksites as workers began to develop symptoms listed in health warnings.
“One of our goals is to hear from the government their explanation for the discrepancy between the apparent hazards and health risks from the cleanup and their statements that it was safe,” said Shanna Devine, an investigator for the accountability project. “If it's as dangerous as we're seeing reported here, we're hoping BP and the government would ban further use of this dispersant.”
Source: Daily Comet
The Earth's savior, Lt. Alex Hopper, is played by Taylor Kitsch; he helped save Mars as John Carter in the recent misfortune of the same name. As a gifted young man who's made a mess of his life, Alex is long overdue for redemption.
