I am nervous of China. I am so nervous about “china” that I only use plastic plates and cups, being nervous about the china one’s! But, the rest of Asia is nervous abut China too, so my neurotic behaviour could have survival value:
  https://www.todayonline.com/chinaindia/china/china-aims-world-class-army-asia-starts-worry

“Chinese President Xi Jinping's pledge to build a "world-class army" by 2050 is making his neighbours nervous, but analysts say Beijing's military ambitions do not constitute a strategic threat — for now. With purchases and construction of fighter jets, ships and hi-tech weaponry, China's military budget has grown steadily for 30 years, but remains three times smaller than that of the United States. Now, Beijing wants to catch up. "We should strive to fully transform the people's armed forces into a world-class military by the mid-21st century," Mr Xi told 2,300 delegates of the Chinese Communist Party, which he heads and which controls the army. The comments, made during the party's twice-a-decade congress, were aimed in part at domestic nationalists, but also intended to show other countries "China's desire to be strong economically as well as militarily," said Mr James Char, a military analyst at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University. During China's so-called Century of Humiliation, starting around the mid-19th century, the country lost almost every war it fought, and was often forced to give major concessions in subsequent treaties.

     So now we know, the decision of the most exciting case in legal history, according to some. A transgender individual with a penis and scrotum wanted Brazilian waxing of said scrotum, but three non-white immigrant waxers refused to do so, claiming not to have experience waxing male genitals, which requires, I don’t know, some sort of diploma. Maybe an Arts degree?! Anyway, the decision went against the transgender individual. An interesting technicality to preserve damage to Canada’s crazy laws:
  https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/10/22/transgender-loses-brazilian-wax-lawsuit-in-canada/
  https://www.jccf.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/222_Yaniv_v_Various_Waxing_Salons_No_2_2019_BCHRT_222.pdf

“A Canadian official ruled against Jessica Yaniv, the transgender Canadian plaintiff who had accused three women of unfair “discrimination” when they declined to give his testicles a “Brazilian wax” treatment. But the official minimized the damage to Canada’s pro-transgender laws by suggesting that women may need to provide the sexually intimate service to male bodies if they have been trained for the task. “Human rights legislation does not require a service provider to wax a type of genitals they are not trained for and have not consented to wax. … There are differences between waxing the genitals of a person with a vulva and a person with a penis and scrotum,” said the deciding official in the quasi-judicial British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal. The 61-page decision implies that women will have to provide the intimate service to men if the Canadian licensing boards require cosmeticians to learn how to do the service. “I agree generally with [the transgender plaintiff] Ms. [Jessica] Yaniv that a person who customarily offers women the service of waxing their arms or legs cannot discriminate between cisgender and transgender women absent a bona fide reasonable justification,” said Devyn Cousineau, a far-left human rights lawyer, who added: There is no material difference in a cake which is baked for a straight wedding, and one that is baked for a gay wedding. Nor does baking a cake for a gay wedding require you to have intimate contact with the client. Taking another example, there is no material difference in renting a room to a gay couple or to a straight couple, and renting out rooms does not require intimate contact with the client.

     This reminds me of the movie I am Legend (2007), where a genetically engineered cancer vaccine goes wrong and destroys the human race, but that was a movie, and what could go wrong with a vaccine?
  https://www.naturalnews.com/2019-10-10-who-unicef-admit-polio-outbreaks-caused-by-vaccines.html

“After nearly two decades of having been declared “polio free” by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Philippines is now experiencing its first polio outbreak in 19 years – and authorities are actually admitting that the cause was the polio vaccine itself! Health Secretary Francisco Duque III announced at a recent press conference that at least one person, a three-year-old girl in the southern Lanao del Sur province, has contracted the virus, which has also been detected in waterways throughout the southern Davao region, as well as in sewage in Manila. These three vector points are enough to declare an official polio outbreak, officials say, which is creating something of a panic as polio was previously thought to have been completely eradicated. “As long as one single child remains infected, children across the country and even beyond are at risk of contracting polio,” added UNICEF Philippines representative Oyun Dendevnorov in a statement. In a joint statement, both the WHO and UNICEF admitted that the type of poliovirus that’s currently spreading is vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2, which once again means that vaccines are the source and cause of this first-in-nearly-20-years polio outbreak. “The weakened virus used in vaccines replicates for a short time in children’s intestines and is excreted in their feces,” writes Carley Petesch for the Associated Press (AP). “In rare instances … the weakened virus can strengthen in areas with poor sanitation and hygiene.”

     The next big thing, on the way to replacing the human being by thinking machines will be brain implants to create cyborg, human machine hybrids, because the technocrats simply can’t help themselves, and if it can be done, it must be done, even if the universe is destroyed … because … science …
  https://www.technocracy.news/can-ai-brain-implants-give-people-superhuman-intelligence/

“Brain-boosting electrodes will soon become “like plastic surgery” as all we race to get cybernetic enhancements. Humans will be turned into cyborgs — with scientists sticking AI implants deep into their brains. Brain-zapping electrodes have treated seizure patients with promising results, and bizarre and unexpected side-effects of calmness and positivity means they are now being probed as a radical treatment for depression. It’s even theorised that the electric implants can be manipulated to make users max out their brain power — similarly to how amphetamines like Adderall are abused today. Science power couple Kelly and Zach Weinersmith explored the exciting advancements in their brand new book “Soonish – Ten Emerging Technologies That’ll Improve And/Or Ruin Everything”. The pair reckon that brain-boosting electrodes will soon become “like plastic surgery” — with people spending shedloads in order to become smarter and stay ahead of the pack. One in four top academics currently abuses amphetamines, according to the Weinersmiths. “As brain-computer interface technology becomes more reliable, it may have implications in many industries,” they wrote. “An ideal brain-computer interface can make you smarter, better at remembering things, more focused, and perhaps even more creative.

To The Age        Ken Wyatt states that Australians "need to ensure Indigenous voices are heard" ("New design to give voice to unheard Australians", 30/10). Such voices have been being heard for many decades, with huge support from both the media and governments. Policies being espoused by the current federal government amount to an unjustified over-privileging of that small minority of Australians that happen to have some Aboriginal ancestry. The term "Closing the Gap" is misleading. Scientific evidence suggests that that such closure cannot and will not happen; thus the term can be used, politically, as a never-ending cry for more and more wealth and power for some Australians at the expense of the great majority of others. Why should our taxes fund another unjustly constituted body? Why should those calling themselves "indigenous" not set up their own representative bodies at their own expense? That, surely, would be a fairer way to go. Or they could interact with Parliament on the same footing as the rest of us.
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave

     In the era before coal, oil and electricity, the environment suffered greatly. Whales were slaughtered for lamp oil; forests were cleared for firewood, mine props, building materials, roofing shingles and sailing masts; London (“The Big Smoke”) and Pittsburgh (“The Smoky City”) were smothered in smog from open fires, charcoal kilns and iron smelters; horses powered public and military transport and city streets were layered with horse manure. Then came the hydro-carbon revolution. Kerosene lamps saved the whales and coal-powered steam engines delivered electricity (clean-coal-by-wire) to the cities – and much of the sulphurous smogs disappeared. Coke from coal replaced wood charcoal to make iron and steel. Steel and concrete saved the forests and trucks and railways allowed the farmland which once fed millions of horses to produce food for humans. Not one of these boons for humans AND the environment was driven by a UN resolution or funded by statutory levies on consumers, or subsidies from taxpayers. None were mandated in a government energy plan. The anti-human, anti-industry policies of the Global Greens are now reversing all that progress. A key event occurred in 2006 when a leading left-wing politician, Al Gore, invented the Global Warming Industry. Despite a finding by a British High Court judge that his movie “The Inconvenient Truth” contained nine key scientific errors, it is still shown in schools.

     Fanatic in residence here to unload on organic farming. Don’t get me wrong, the odd drop of orgasmic, I mean organic, Word stop wrecking my article, food, like wine is good, but let’s consider how we get there:
  https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-50129353

“A new study suggests that a switch to 100% organic food production in England and Wales would see an overall increase in greenhouse gas emissions. While going fully organic would produce fewer direct emissions than conventional farming, researchers say it would limit food production. As a result more imports would be needed, resulting in up to five times more land being used overseas. Overall emissions could rise by 21% compared to the conventional approach. Farming is generally estimated to be responsible for around 9% of overall UK greenhouse gas emissions, due to the use of artificial fertilisers, but also through emissions of methane from animals and from changes in soil conditions. This new study aims to assess what the impact would be on greenhouse gases if all food production in England and Wales switched to organic. Such a move, the researchers say would see a drop in emissions of about 20% for crops and around 4% for livestock. However, the study predicts significant drops in food production, by around 40% compared to conventional farming. The scientists involved say that decrease is due to smaller crop yields and the introduction of nitrogen-fixing legumes into crop rotations, reducing the amount of land available for production. So crops like wheat and barley would see significant falls in production. For livestock, the numbers of sheep and beef cattle in the scenario would increase but the volume of meat would go down, due to lower carcase weights and longer finishing times under organic management.”

     Despite however much I praise Vlad the lad Putin, I still have not been elected prime minter, I mean minister of Australia via Russian hacking. What is wrong with these guys? Queen Hillary assured me that the Russians are hacking everything to pieces and that I would be in line for a special toady position, such as Donny Trump allegedly got. All that even after intense study of Robert Sears, Vladimir Putin: Life Coach (2018):
  https://www.bookdepository.com/Vladimir-Putin-Life-Coach-Robert-Sears/9781786894694?redirected=true&selectCurrency=AUD&w=AF45AU968GDJD7A80TRQ&pdg=aud-530325474908:cmp-966708429:adg-48044257813:crv-356196816192:pos-none:dev-c&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIj5uZypm05QIVkrGWCh2vFwQHEAEYASACEgL3-vD_BwE

“What can the rise and reign of this century's most feared politician teach us about life, work and love? Rob Sears shows how the machinations that enabled Putin to dominate the Kremlin and undermine the United States of America could also help you take control of your mundane life. How would you like to ruin your enemies by sharing compromising material about that time they didn't wash their hands? Or annex territory by claiming the stationery cupboard at work as your personal empire? Fancy hacking democracy at the parent-teacher association to ensure you're a shoo-in for social secretary? Or serving up a cold dish called revenge in a high street restaurant? Filled with stories from Putin's extraordinary time in power, and ideas and illustrations to help you emulate him on a small scale, Vladimir Putin: Life Coach is the ultimate guide to releasing the pseudo-elected, judo black belt, 5D chess-playing autocrat inside each and every one of us.”

     Talk about diversity and multicultural excitement! Will the thrills of enrichment ever end? Yes, these titillations and tessellations,  will end when we end:
  https://canoe.com/news/world/crime-hunter-killers-voodoo-sex-traffickers-among-europes-most-wanted-women/wcm/3d129be7-9406-4d51-b638-1cd3df48fc22

“They called her “Mama” and according to cops, she lorded over a sprawling sex trafficking ring that used voodoo to keep her sex slaves terrified. She is Jessica Edosomwan and along with 17 other women, she is one of Europe’s most wanted female criminals. At her peak, the 26-year-old allegedly oversaw a sex ring of more than 60 women who were smuggled into France via Libya from their native Nigeria. “Jessica Edosomwan was the ‘mama’ of this network,” Jacques Croly Labourdette, head of the French National Brigade for Fugitive Research told AFP. “The mama took care of the girls but also had the mission to prospect in Nigeria … to find new recruits.” If the women didn’t have sex with clients, their families were sentenced with reprisals. “They were also subject to a ‘voodoo rite’, the ‘juju’, which was terrible for them, far more than threats,” Labourdette said, adding cops believe she is in Italy or Germany. Now, investigators hope to bring Mama to trial along with 17 other femme Fatales, Europol said, adding “crime has no gender.””

     Will academics ever reach peak racism, running out of things to deconstruct with their pathetic little slogans and concepts?
  https://www.zerohedge.com/political/professor-says-grading-good-grammar-are-examples-white-supremacy
  https://www.thecollegefix.com/professor-says-grading-good-grammar-are-examples-of-white-supremacy/

“Ball State University recently hosted a presentation to “engage with the question of how English language practices in college classrooms contribute to white supremacy.” “Freeing Our Minds and Innovating Our Pedagogy from White Language Supremacy” was the title of the 75-minute guest lecture given on October 14 by Asao Inoue, a professor and the associate dean of the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts at Arizona State University. “We are all implicated in white supremacy,” Inoue said during his presentation, co-hosted by Ball State’s English department, university writing program, and Office of Inclusive Excellence. “This is because white supremacist systems like all systems reproduce themselves as a matter of course,” he said. “This includes reproduction of dominant, white, middle-class, monolingual standards for literacy and communication.” White language supremacy, according to Inoue, is “the condition in classrooms, schools, and society where rewards are given in determined ways to people who can most easily reach them, because those people have more access to the preferred and embodied white language practices, and part of that access is a structural assumption that what is reachable at a given moment for the normative, white, monolingual English user is reachable for all.” “Your school can be racist and produce racist outcomes,” Inoue said. “Even with expressed values and commitments to anti-racism and social justice.” In one of his slides, Inoue states that “grading is a great way to protect the white property of literacy in schools and maintain the white supremacist status quo without ever being white supremacist or mentioning race.”

     Although Jared Taylor needs to upgrade on the paradoxes of the IQ question, and the replication crisis in psychology, this deconstruction of the diversity myth is still good viewing, even for veterans and the world weary:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAnv4dz14Sw

     Watch it before it too disappears down the memory hole.

     Mrs Vera West has covered over a number of months the use of aborted foetuses, primarily in the US, as something of a cash crop for the bio-tech industry.
  https://www.naturalnews.com/2019-10-23-planned-parenthood-admits-guilt-in-illegal-baby-body-parts-trafficking-scheme.html

     But, that is just the tip of a bloody iceberg, as this story shows:
  https://www.naturalnews.com/2019-10-24-human-body-parts-stolen-from-deceased-family-members.html

     It is like the boy who cried wolf, we have heard the term “racist” slung about as a politically correct weapon so much that it has drained of all meaning and impact. How about American, and by implication, Western food being “racist,” a claim coming from an academic, of course? Who else has the ample leisure time?
  https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/10/24/yale-hosts-podcaster-that-argues-american-food-is-racist/
  https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=13907

“Yale University hosted Wednesday the host of a podcast, titled, “Racist Sandwich,” which examines food through a social justice lens. The Ivy League school invited Soleil Ho to speak, with the event co-sponsored by Yale’s Poynter Fellowship in Journalism, the Yale Center for the Study of Race, Indegenity, and Transnational Migration, the Timothy Dwight College (a dorm), the Yale Sustainable Food Program, the Asian American Cultural Center, according to a university news release. “...a white supremacist, abelist, hetero-patriarchial, capitalist culture” Ho ties the food industry to gender, race, and class in her podcast and often has guests including Julia Turshen, author of a cookbook called “Feed the Resistance.”  “You include a lot of really obvious tells for your politics and I appreciate that,” Ho tells Turshen in an October 2018 episode, titled, “Sheet Pan Chicken with a side of Social Justice.” “In the Thanksgiving menu, you mention indigenous activists and the reasons why a lot of people might not like Thanksgiving.” “I got to put so much of myself into this book, which includes both my love of cooking at home...but also a lot of social justice messaging,” the author responded. “And I think that cookbooks are a very useful and effective and sort of a powerful tool.” Ho spoke at the 2019 XOXO Festival, an event for independent artists in Portland, Ore. that features artists “who live and work online.” During her speech, she highlighted “more stories by and about people whose food ways and livelihoods have been marginalized and undervalued by a white supremacist, abelist, hetero-patriarchial, capitalist culture.” In August, Ho critiqued Popeyes’ chicken sandwich, calling it "a cheap product where the true cost is carried by marginalized people and animals besides the consumer." Matthew S. Tanico, associate director of Yale’s Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration, told Campus Reform that “This year’s series focuses on indigenous food sovereignty and race.”

     It is true, but it has been denied for a long time, that the white polar bears that are the victims of climate change, are in fact, white racists, with white polar bear privilege:
  https://babylonbee.com/news/woke-polar-bear-apologizes-for-being-white?fbclid=IwAR0iODYoqY81R6F-izkbLYjZKBntRPteoNs-JVSCpPGF_fXtz3XyfOTEm9A

“A polar bear at the San Diego Zoo has apologized to black bears, brown bears, and all other mammals of color for his "problematic whiteness." The bear "got woke" after a leftist protesting the zoo for keeping animals in captivity bravely leaped into the bear's exhibit. After eating the protester, the polar bear picked up the book on critical race theory the woman had in her pocket and devoured it, first figuratively, then literally. "Wow," he said. "I never realized how problematic my existence was before. I really need to think about this." Shortly after reading the book, the polar bear, whose name is Chad, held a press conference in which he apologized for his many years of not being "woke" to the struggle of non-white animals. "I am so sorry for everyone I've hurt," he said. "I am hereby canceling myself. Please listen to black and brown bear voices." He also announced that he was donating his remaining walruses to minority bears in need. "The overwhelming whiteness of the polar bear community should give us all paws." The bear escaped the zoo, devoured several people, and cast himself into exile on an ice floe for his crimes.”

     I did not notice this at all until reading the below article, now I really do notice it, all the time, in fact. Does that make me a racist? Sure, deplorables like me are racist by definition, even 1,000 years after extinction. Where do I get help, Clockwork Orange style for this? Pretty please!
  https://loudwire.com/james-kottak-scorpions-interracial-couples-commercials/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referralk

“Some people truly have no filter on social media. James Kottak of Kingdom Come and formerly of the Scorpions has gone off in a tweet about the amount of interracial couples in commercials, insinuating that it "is not reality." "You know I am sick of every other commercial having interracial couples...this is not reality. It is Hollywood shoving it down our throat. I don’t have one friend or friends who live in this category...just saying," Kottak said in a tweet, followed by a bunch of animal and American flag emojis. The drummer has gone off on several other controversial tangents in the past on Twitter as well, especially regarding climate change — "For those of us who lived through it, we were told an ice age was coming in 1978/79. Who froze? I am all about ‘reduce reuse recycle repurpose’ the rest is political b.s...same now . I recycle every piece of paper, containers, and have done since I was 9 years old...I encourage." Kottak was the drummer for the German group Scorpions from 1996 until he was let go in 2016 due to his reluctance to get sober. Two years prior, he was sentenced to jail in Dubai for drunkenness, derogatory comments toward Islam and public exposure.”

     The Saltbush Club today called for the immediate resignation of Mr. David Littleproud from his position as Minister for Water on the grounds of incompetence in his management of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority. The call was made by Mr Ron Pike, the Saltbush Club Water Adviser with a lifetime of experience and information on Murray Darling Basin water supply, storage and use. “Under Mr. Littleproud’s stewardship this Authority has grown to be a law unto itself and is repeatedly lying to both the people and the Government. As an example; ‘we had to drain Menindee Lakes, or the water would have been lost to evaporation.’ “We now have the wicked and unjust situation where this out of control Authority is denying available water to desperate end users by claiming that they are compelled by law to release this fresh water to the sea, while farmers and Municipalities are left without water.

     “In a worsening drought no one in their right mind would condone wasting fresh water to the sea, while denying the people the water they desperately need. But Mr. Littleproud is. “This is not only unjust it is a crime against the people perpetrated by a Federal Minister. “Given that Mr. Littleproud has several advisors, he should have been aware that the MDBA were fabricating stories, just as they now are about releases from Wyangala Dam. “Not only are the actions of the MDBA leaving the Government with little credibility they are exposing the Government to billions of dollars in compensation for lost businesses, especially the death of permanent plantings; something that has never happened since we built the dams on our western rivers. “David Littleproud is responsible for a Government Authority that is denying the people their most basic of rights; that is access to water.  Mr. Littleproud has broken his oath of office “To well and truly serve the people of Australia.” “David Littleproud you have broken that vow and the people no longer trust you. You must resign now”.

     An update from the US trenches:
  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50166557

“The head of Major League Baseball has said the organisation is investigating a tweet from an umpire that threatened civil war if US President Donald Trump was impeached. Rob Drake's now-deleted tweet said he planned to buy an AR-15 rifle. It comes amid an impeachment inquiry in the US House of Representatives. Mr Drake, 50, has not commented and has deactivated his Twitter account. He has been a full-time major-league umpire since 2010. In the tweet, Mr Drake said he planned to buy an assault rifle "because if you impeach MY PRESIDENT this way, YOU WILL HAVE ANOTHER CIVAL (sic) WAR!!! #MAGA2020", according to a copy seen by ESPN. It reportedly followed another tweet that read: "You can't do an impeachment inquiry from the basement of Capital (sic) Hill without even a vote! What is going on in this country?" Major League Baseball (MLB) Commissioner Rob Manfred told reporters before a World Series game on Wednesday that the tweet would be looked into. The president of the Major League Baseball Umpires' Association has declined to comment.”

     As someone with not a racist bone in my body, well, not many, I respect the curse that an Aboriginal leader has said will befall upon people climbing what was once via racism called Ayer’s Rock, but is now called … I can’t remember the name … getting senile …
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7612047/A-curse-fall-Hundreds-expected-climb-Uluru-final-hours-ban.html?ico=pushly-notifcation-small

“People who have climbed Uluru since a ban was announced will be cursed, according to an Indigenous activist. Marcia Langton, the chair of Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne, re-tweeted a video of people queuing to climb the historic landmark on Thursday, a day before the practice was banned. The 67-year-old wrote: 'A curse will fall on all of them. They will remember how they defiled this sacred place until they die & history will record their contempt for Aboriginal culture.' On Friday hundreds of climbers were forced to wait for hours for strong winds to die down so they could scale the rock for the last time. Hundreds started lining up from 4am to climb the 348-metre high landmark in Alice Springs. But at 7am, when the rock climb usually opens, rangers put up a sign declaring it was closed.”

     The unmatched, unimpeached Uncle Len is back, but he never really left, just stopped writing for a while because he lost his favourite pencil. But, now I have found it, let me talk about a subject that I am most qualified to discuss; farting, especially that of the king of farters, cows, the ultimate vegans, too, who are endangering the planet with their grassy gassy emissions, let alone other stuff. I hope that that was coherent. 
  https://www.breitbart.com/environment/2019/10/27/climate-alarmists-propose-feeding-cows-seaweed-reduce-methane-farts/

“Environmentalists intent on finding new ways to reduce so-called greenhouse gas emissions to curb climate change have proposed a novel method: feed cows seaweed to diminish methane in flatulence, belches, and manure. Ermias Kebreab, an zoology professor at the University of California–Davis, led a team in producing a bovine meal regimen containing varying levels of Asparagopsis armata, a strain of red seaweed, and fed it to 12 dairy cows over a two-month period. In a mix containing just 1 percent seaweed, the cows’ methane emissions went down by a stunning 60 percent. “In all the years that I’ve worked in this area, I’ve never seen anything that reduced it that much,” Kebreab said.”

     I have been reporting on the Pope’s multicultural defection from mainstream Christianity for some time. Here is the latest news on this front:
  https://catholicherald.co.uk/news/2019/10/25/pope-francis-apologises-that-amazon-synod-Pachamama-was-thrown-into-tiber-river/

“After controversial statues were thrown into Rome’s Tiber River, Pope Francis has issued an apology during Friday’s afternoon session of the Vatican’s Synod of Bishops on the Amazon. “As bishop of this diocese,” Pope Francis, who is Bishop of Rome, said, “I ask forgiveness from those who have been offended by this gesture.” Pope Francis also reported that the statues had been recovered from the river, are not damaged, and are being kept in the offices of the head of Italy’s national police. The statues, which were identical carved images of a naked pregnant Amazonian woman, had been displayed in the Carmelite church of Santa Maria in Traspontina, close to the Vatican, and used in several events, rituals, and expression of spirituality taking place during the October 6-27 Amazonian synod. The pope said they had been displayed in the church “without idolatrous intentions,” according to a transcript provided by the Vatican press office. The statues were thrown into the river on October 21; a video released on YouTube showed two men entering the Church, leaving with the statues, and then throwing them off a nearby bridge. The figures have become symbols of controversy during the synod of bishops, which is a meeting held to discuss the Church’s life and pastoral ministry in the Amazonian region of South America. They first appeared at an October 4 tree-planting ceremony in the Vatican gardens, attended by Pope Francis, at which they were in the center of a collection of figurines around which attendees processed.