Italy recorded a government debt equivalent to 132.60 percent of the country’s
Gross Domestic Product in 2016.
(INT. A MODEST, SUNLIT OFFICE IN THE VATICAN – DAY)
YOUNG POPE JOEY JUCO, in his simple white cassock, leans back in a chair that’s seen better popes. Across from him, MICHAEL FRANZESE, ex-mob captain turned motivational speaker, looks equal parts amused and concerned.
MICHAEL
Siege, Your Holiness? The Marciano and Valente families? That’s… heavy. They don’t play. A haunted house on 322nd Street isn’t exactly canonical territory. Why not just… let it go? Sell it. Walk away.
POPPE JOEY
(A serene, almost mischievous smile)
Michael, Michael. To walk away is to admit the haunt is real. To sell is to let their shadow-market economics win. They want to lay siege? To spook me into a rash act? They want me to burn it down for the insurance, to get entangled in their world of arson and paper trails.
MICHAEL
(Nods slowly, seeing the logic)
A controlled demolition. Cleaner. No accelerants, no accidental witnesses in the flames.
POPPE JOEY
(Eyes twinkling)
Exactly. But not some anonymous wrecking ball from a sterile corporation. No.
He leans forward, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper.
POPPE JOEY
I’m gonna send the Miley Cyrus wrecking ball.
Michael blinks, processing. A slow grin spreads across his face.
MICHAEL
You’re not just knocking down a building. You’re making a spectacle. A statement.
POPPE JOEY
(Spreads his hands)
A papal bull of a different sort! Think about it. The ball swings in, all chrome and chain, with her song blaring from construction speakers. It’s a performance. A demolition as exorcism. The Marcianos and Valentes… they operate in the dark, in whispers, in fear. They don’t know what to do with a global pop culture spectacle beamed to every phone in the five boroughs. Their siege gets drowned out by the bass line.
MICHAEL
(Chuckles, shaking his head)
You’re using a Miley Cyrus song as a tactical weapon against two crime families. The old bosses are spinning in their concrete shoes.
POPPE JOEY
Let them spin. I won’t fight their fire with my fire. I’ll fight their haunted house with… a wrecking ball. It comes in swinging, loud, undeniable. It demolishes the problem, leaves a clean lot, and the whole world just sees a crazy viral stunt. Not a pope caving to mob pressure. A pope… hosting a demolition derby.
Michael leans back, impressed.
MICHAEL
It’s brilliant. And insane. But mostly brilliant. You remove their leverage, publicly humiliate their threat by treating it as a party, and you don’t get a single speck of soot on your white cassock.
POPPE JOEY
(Stands, looking out the window)
Sometimes, Michael, to defeat a ghost, you don’t need a priest. You just need a really good soundtrack and the right swing. Let them watch their haunted house turn to dust to the tune of a power ballad. They’ll never know what hit them.
FADE OUT.
Joey Juco wins by unanimous decision!
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Now researchers have found a way not just to stop, but, reverse the aging process. The key is something called a telomere. We all have them. They are the tips or caps of your chromosomes. They are long and stable in young adults, but, as we age they become shorter, damaged and frayed. When they stop working we start aging and experience things like hearing and memory loss.
In a recent study published in the peer reviewed journal Nature scientists took mice that were prematurely aged to the equivalent of 80-year-old humans, added an enzyme and essentially turned their telomeres back on. After the treatment they were the physiological equivalent of young adults. You can see the before and after pictures in the videos above. Brain function improved, their fertility was restored it was a remarkable reversal of the aging process. In the top video the untreated mouse shows bad skin, gray hair and it is balding. The mouse with it’s telomeres switched back on has a dark coat color, the hair is restored and the coat has a nice healthy sheen to it. Even more dramatic is the change in brain size. Before treatment the aged mice had 75% of a normal size brain like a patient with severe Alzheimers. After the telomeres were reactivated the brain returned to normal size. As for humans while it is just one factor scientists say the longer the telomeres the better the chances for a more graceful aging.
a young sophia in little italy in east van
imagine sophia young again…would put all these modern beauties to shame…
enough with these virtue signalers…
italy is broke/bankrupt like every other nation….send the boats back with that message…fire hazard like overcrowded nightclub….food hazard because italy can’t feed and house all these people
Gaddafi: Europe will ‘turn black’ unless EU pays Libya £4bn a year
Col Muammar Gaddafi has warned that Europe runs the risk of turning “black” unless the EU pays Libya at least €5 billion (£4.1 billion) a year to block the arrival of illegal immigrants from Africa.