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Rotterdam Harbor will now have a new resident. Roughly the size of a car,‘Waste Shark’ will scour the harbor waters in search for the ever-present trash, and then “eat” it. For a few years now, the city of Rotterdam has been looking into ways to lessen its impact on the environment. And given that the city has one of the largest ports it the world, it too was given special attention. Under the startup program PortXL, the port had been looking for and promoting new ideas to help make the place more sustainable. After the program’s first year, the authorities have signed a deal with a South African startup, RanMarine, in order to deploy their Waste Sharks into ints waters. Rotterdam Harbor already has a drone resident, the AquasmartXL, which is a small unnamed vessel, equipped with a camera which allows it to see the water’s surface. And while this guy will be the eyes of the operation, the Waste Shark will be its mouth. Roughly the size of a car, it is capable of gorging on some 500 kilos (1100 pounds) of trash, right at the source. Since up to 90% of all waste in the oceans initially starts from urban areas, like Rotterdam. Allard Castelein, Chief Executive Officer of the Port of Rotterdam Authority said that the Rotterdam Port Authority is determined to explore all avenues of innovation, as stated in their operational philosophy. “Innovation cannot be forced. However, you can create an environment in which innovation is likely to take place and be in line with the market,” he said. “We support research in conjunction with universities, such as the Port Innovation Lab with the Delft University of Technology and of course our own Erasmus University in Rotterdam. And we collaborate with contests for students. In addition, we support Dutch start-ups that are relevant to the port, but we also scout worldwide via PortXL; the first accelerator that focuses on port start-ups on a global level.” The contract requires four Waste Sharks to scour the waters for the next six months as part of a test run for the drones. They will operate in areas where it is too difficult, dangerous, or undesirable to use manned solutions. This includes under jetties, bridges, and other structures.
Switching to a straight razor I stared, face lathered up, sweat dripping, hand shaking, into the fogging mirror in my bathroom almost every day for over 2 weeks before I built up the courage to actually put the 4" razor to my face and take a swipe. The fact that I hadn't shaved on any regular basis for any period in my life because of the bloody mess that inevitably ensued didn't help matters, but mostly I was just afraid of slicing my jugular wide open and being mocked after my death for as the idiot who even attempted this in the first place. I took a deep breath and went for it. How did I get to this point? It all started in early 2012 when the previously beardy version of myself was engaged in an exciting and thought provoking discussion with seven or eight other beardy gentlemen. I noticed that every single one of these guys was fiddling with their facial hair. I thought that odd for a moment until I realized I was as well. I went home that night and shaved. I'd had facial hair - to one extent or another - since I hit puberty, so it was a change. Because I can't do anything the easy way, and because I've become obsessed with what physical items I add to my life (but mostly because I can't do anything the easy way) I knew right away that if this was going to be a regular thing I needed an option other than the plasticy disposable razor I was currently holding. My reluctance to acquire new objects was enflamed every time I needed new razors, and so was my disappointment in myself for buying something that I knew from the start was disposable. And quickly doing the math, the 3-pack of Schick Xtreme razors I'd taken a shine to ran about $14 and would last me a little shy of 2 weeks, so that's nearing on $350 a year on crap I'd be buying and then throwing out. I just couldn't keep doing it. I started researching different shaving methods. I watched a lot of YouTube videos of dudes in towels videoing themselves in the bathroom and visited some popular shaving message boards. Yes, there are message boards where people spend countless hours every day blowing off work to talk about shaving. You might laugh at that - as I did when I found them - but damn if there wasn't a wealth of knowledge there to be uncovered. Trust me when I tell you this, the most important thing for me was not what was there, but what wasn't: a memorial collection of now deceased members who accidentally slit their own throats and died. I reminded myself of that every single day as I tried to work up the confidence put this giant blade on my face. I decided on using a straight razor for a number of reasons. I didn't want something electrical because then I'm still stuck buying batteries or having to struggle with a cord getting in the way, or whatever else comes up with cleaning stuff like that. The so called "safety razors" still required new blades and seem to be anything but safe - almost every single post I read about someone who cut their finger or their face, certainly anyone who was discussing what they considered to be a serious cut - those were all the results of safety razors. It almost seems like a joke how nasty those things are to have such a friendly name. Which might be the problem, when you have something called "safety" you relax and assume it's safe. And that's when it cuts off your lip. A straight razor doesn't suffer from that as it reminds you every time you see it how scary it is. But it's also tried and tested and was used by millions of people for a hell of a long time on the regular so it had to have some redeeming qualities. I could expand on what those might be but I really made the decision because they just look cool. What actually sold me was the realization that once you buy the set up, assuming you take care of it, you really never have to buy anything again. There were people online claiming to own and still be able to shave with straight razors that had been passed down to them by grandparents. That kind of quality and lasting usage was exactly what I wanted. I smiled, thinking of my own son Ripley, and the fear and panic I'd be gifting to him many years from now when I passed my razor on to him. So I started hunting for what my set up would be. First and foremost I needed to find a quality razor made by a reputable company. There are a handful of old and well respected companies still making straight razors - and most of them make both high end and low end models. Which is cool, but it also seems sketchy. When you are talking electronics then there are countless parts and features that can be tweaked to create a high and low end variation of a similar product. But when the product is a single piece of metal attached to a handle… yeah. Weird right? Also, turns out there are like a hundred different kinds of grinds and edge types and corner styles that a straight razor can have. There are no shortage of people willing to write epic message board posts about why one is better than the other but it all seems to boil down to personal opinion. I didn't want to buy an entry level razor and then have it suck and scare me away, or have to buy a new one months down the line, so I decided if I was already spending $300+ on disposable razors a year that's the ballpark I should consider for a straight razor. I'd originally been drawn in by the the "Flowing" razor by Dovo . The guy at The Superior Shave even said it's the nicest razor they make. Then a friend sent me a link to a smaller US based razor making upstart called Hart. I was immediately impressed with their minimal designs, focus on quality and lack logos all over the blades. When I emailed them a few questions and they immediately offered to overnight me a razor to examine in person I was kinda blown away. This is 2012, there are still companies that doing things like that? By this point I'd been window shopping for a while, and had the opportunity to hold a number of razors, but nothing was like the Hart razor when I picked it up. The quality was instantly noticeable - combined with their obviously excellent customer service, this was a good sign. The gentleman I spoke with pointed out that in addition to the regular line offered on their site they make a special edition razor that has been blackened with gun-bluing exclusively for a barber shop right here in Los Angeles called Baxter. The bluing provides an extra layer of corrosion resistance. I was sold. Razor chalked off the list, now came what I assumed would be the difficult task of finding vegan friendly accessories in a genre of object that seems to fetishize leather and animal hair. Turns out, not so difficult. You know that dark strap of leather that is always hanging from old timey barber chairs? Apparently it has a function. It's called a strop, and you need to drag a straight razor back and forth on one every day to maintain a sharp edge. Legendary razor strop maker Tony Miller sells a totally synthetic vegan strop right on his site. He was sold out when I initially contacted him, but within a month I had one in my hands. And while badger hair brushes appear to be the ultimate shaving status symbol, one of the best reviewed brushes on Amazon is the Parker synthetic shaving brush so I grabbed that too. That was about 5 months ago and I'm happy to report that I'm not dead yet. In fact, I haven't even suffered a cut worse than I might have using the disposables. It took me at least 3 weeks to take the first stroke with the blade on my face. The thing you learn really quick with a straight razor is that decisive movements are where it's at. Hesitate, and you cut yourself. Of course, there is all kinds of technique to work on, how to hold the thing and what angle to strive for, and keeping your stroke straight up and down and never side to side. And all the is important, but getting over the fear of using the thing in the first place is really the hardest part. You should never stop respecting how deadly it potentially is, but at the same time you don't want to be timid when using it. Shaky hands lead to shaky cuts and there will be blood. What about the results? Since I wasn't a big shaver before this it's hard for me to compare against anything, but I think this method delivers an insanely close shave. The best part for me is that there is almost no irritation at all. No razor burn of any kind and my face doesn't feel on fire for the next 2 hours like it did when I used a disposable razor. In 5 months, I haven't had to spend another cent after my initial set up. And going through this routine 2-3 times a week – and it definitely is a routine – has gotten much easier. I'm much more comfortable holding and using the razor and actually enjoy the process. Would I recommend it? Hell yes. I feel like I've accomplished something by just mastering how to hold the damn thing, and I'd be lying if I didn't admit that it gave me a weird confidence boost. Every other challenge you face in the day gets some perspective when you've already had a razor against your throat.
Tado’s smart thermostat, from a European company that competes with Nest, is today getting new hardware that brings multi-room support to the thermostat and allows it to control individual radiators. First, the system now supports an additional smart thermostat so individual floors or rooms can be controlled independently. It’s much the same as the original thermostat, but provides another spot for controlling it in your home. Additional thermostats will cost £179 (€199) outright or can be rented for £6.99 (€7.99) per month. Tado’s smart devices The more interesting part is a new smart radiator valve, which directly replaces the old valves on your home’s radiators so Tado can control them individually. That won’t be available until Q3 2016, but Tado is running a beta program for users to test it out early. Tado is also launching its IFTTT channels today (the link is still pending approval), after announcing it earlier in the year. You’ll be able to use the geolocation features of the thermostat to do things like activate your home alarm when you leave or turn on the lights when you’re on the way home. I’ve got one of Tado’s early devices in my apartment and love it — being able to control the thermostat via an app is handy and the geolocation features mean I rarely need to actually touch it. We picked it over the Nest as Tado supports furnace modulation support, which can save on the utility bill. The only thing I’m hanging out for now is HomeKit support which is being worked on, so it can be controlled via Siri. Tado’s system starts at €249 for a single thermostat and is fairly easy to set up on your own. ➤ Tado
Man killed, 6 wounded in Bronzeville mass shooting blocks from CPD HQ Chicago Police investigate near East 37th Street and South Michigan Avenue, where one man was killed and five women were wounded in a shooting Tuesday night, Aug. 8, 2017. \| Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times A man was killed and six people, five of who are women, were wounded in a shooting Tuesday night in the South Side Bronzeville neighborhood just a few blocks from Chicago Police Department headquarters. The victims were standing on the sidewalk during a barbecue at 10:37 p.m. in the first block of East 37th Place when a group of males walked up and fired shots from the corner of the block, according to Chicago Police spokeswoman Officer Brandi Wright. Alfred Mitchell Jr., 28, was shot in the back and pronounced dead at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. He lived in the Fuller Park neighborhood on the South Side. A 21-year-old woman shot in the left knee, a 28-year-old woman shot in the left leg and a 45-year-old woman shot in the right buttock were all taken to Stroger Hospital, police said. A 46-year-old woman shot in the right leg and a 27-year-old woman shot in the left leg were taken to Mercy Hospital. All of their conditions were stabilized. A seventh victim, a 30-year-old man, suffered gunshot wounds to the right leg and later showed up at Northwestern Memorial, police said. His condition was also stabilized. Police were looking into whether a 20-year-old man at the barbecue who has a history with police and was wounded in a 2011 shooting was the intended target, Wright said. Investigators were also trying to determine whether an earlier verbal dispute in a park led to the shooting. No one was in custody early Wednesday as Area Central detectives investigated. The mass shooting happened about two blocks from Chicago Police Department Headquarters at 3510 S. Michigan Ave. Sixty-year-old Floyd Atkins, who grew up in the neighborhood, said, “The city needs to get a handle on its guns and cut down on them.”
Yell 707 Information Paper BMO-7 Kerry A. Gunther, Bear Management Biologist February 2016 On the evening of 13 August 1967, two women were attacked and killed by grizzly bears (Ursus arcto) in separate incidents within Glacier National Park (GNP). Following these incidents, there was speculation that due to odors associated with menstruation, women may be more prone to attack by bears than are men (Rogers et al. 1991). The objective of this paper is to present the data available on this subject so that women can make an informed choice when deciding whether or not to hike and/or camp in bear country during their menstrual period. Polar Bears In a study designed to test the hypothesis that bears are attracted to the odors of menstruation, Cushing (1983) reported that when presented with a series of different odors (including seal scents, other food scents, non-menstrual human blood, and used tampons), four captive polar bears (Ursus maritimus) elicited a strong behavioral response only to seal scents and menstrual odors (used tampons). Cushing (1983) also reported that free-ranging polar bears detected and consumed food scent samples and used tampons, but ignored non-menstrual human blood and unused tampons. This suggests that polar bears are attracted to odors associated with menstrual blood. Grizzly Bears Herrero (1985) analyzed the circumstances of hundreds of grizzly bear attacks on humans, including the attacks on the two women in GNP, and concluded that there was no evidence linking menstruation to any of the attacks. The response’s of grizzly bears to menstrual odors has not been studied experimentally. Black Bears Rogers et al. (1991) recorded the responses of 26 free-ranging black bears (Ursus americanus) to used tampons from 26 women and the responses of 20 free ranging black bears to four menstruating women at different days of their flow. Menstrual odors were essentially ignored by black bears of all sex and age classes. In an extensive review of black bear attacks across North America, no instances of black bears attacking or being attracted to menstruating women was found (Cramond 1981, Herrero 1985, Rogers et al. 1991). Yellowstone National Park Bear-Inflicted Human Injury Statistics Prior to 1980, most bear-inflicted human injuries in Yellowstone National Park (YNP) involved human food conditioned bears that were aggressively seeking human foods and injured people in the process. By 1980, human foods and garbage were no longer readily available to park bears and few human food conditioned bears remained in the population. During the 36 year period from 1980 through 2015, over 107 million people visited YNP. These visitors spent over 22 million overnight stays camping in developed area roadside campgrounds, and over 1.5 million overnight stays camping in remote backcountry areas of the park. Although actual statistics are not available, thousands of menstruating women undoubtedly visited, hiked and/or camped within YNP over the last 36 years. From 1980 through 2015, 46 people were injured by bears (38 by grizzly bear, 5 by black bear, and 3 by bears where the species was not identified) within YNP, an average of only 1.3 bear-inflicted human injuries per year (Gunther 2016). Of these 46 injuries, 36 (78%) were men, and only 10 (22%) were women. Of the 10 incidents where women were injured, most (70%, n=7) involved surprise encounters with bears while the women were hiking, and were therefore probably unrelated to menstruation. One incident involved a female park ranger moving an injured bear that had been hit by a car, off of the roadway. In one incident a grizzly bear pulled a woman out of her tent at night and killed and partially consumed her. However, the woman was not menstruating at the time of the attack. In one incident a curious bear approached and bit a woman, but the woman was not menstruating at the time. There was no evidence linking menstruation to any of the 10 bear attacks on women. It is difficult to accurately compare the ratio of males to females that are injured by bears because the park does not keep records of visitor use in the park by gender. However, the bear-inflicted human injury data from YNP does not indicate any correlation between bear attacks and menstruation (Gunther and Hoekstra 1996). Precautions Although there is no evidence that grizzly and black bears are overly attracted to menstrual odors more than any other odor, certain precautions should be taken to reduce the risks of attack. The following precautions are recommended: Use pre-moistened, unscented cleaning towelettes. Use internal tampons instead of external pads. Do not bury tampons or pads (pack it in - pack it out). A bear may smell buried tampons or pads and dig them up. By providing bears a small food "reward", this action may attract bears to other menstruating women. Place all used tampons, pads, and towelettes in double zip-loc baggies and store them unavailable to bears, just as you would store food. This means hung at least 10 feet above the ground and 4 feet from the tree trunk. Tampons can be burned in a campfire, but remember that it takes a very hot fire and considerable time to completely burn them. Any charred remains must be removed from the fire pit and stored with your other garbage. Also, burning of any garbage is odorous and may attract bears to your campsite. Many feminine products are heavily scented. Use only unscented or lightly scented items. Cosmetics, perfumes, and deodorants are unnecessary and may act as an attractant to bears. Follow food storage regulations and recommendations so you can avoid attracting a bear into your camp with other odors. All odorous items that may attract bears, including food, cooking and food storage gear, toiletries, and garbage, must be kept secured from bears. Proper methods for storing bear attractants include: 1.) in a vehicle (the trunk of a car or cab of a truck), 2.) in a solid camping trailer that is constructed of non-pliable material (never in a tent or tent trailer), 3.) in a food storage box (provided at many campgrounds), or 4.) suspended at least 10 feet above the ground and 4 feet horizontally from the tree trunk. The question whether menstruating women attract bears has not been completely answered (Byrd 1988). There is no evidence that grizzly bears are overly attracted to menstrual odors more than any other odor and there is no statistical evidence that known bear attacks have been related to menstruation (Byrd 1988). For all park visitors combined, the chances of being injured by a bear are approximately 1 in 2.2 million. The probability of being injured by a bear is significantly lower for those visitors that don’t leave park developments or roadsides, but higher for those hiking in backcountry areas (Gunther 2013). Although the risks are low, visitors have been injured and killed by bears in Yellowstone National Park (Gunther and Hoekstra 1996). If you are uncomfortable hiking and camping in bear country for any reason, you should probably choose another area for your recreational activities. Your risk of bear attack is highest while hiking in the backcountry. You can reduce the risks by: 1) hiking in groups of 3 or more people, 2) staying alert, 3) making noise in areas of poor visibility, 4) carrying bear spray, and 5) not running during encounters with bears. Literature Cited Byrd, C.P. 1988. Of bears and women: Investigating the hypothesis that menstruation attracts bears. M.S. Thesis, Univ. Montana, Missoula. 129pp. Cramond, M. 1981. Killer bears. Outdoor Life Books. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, N.Y. 301pp. Cushing, B. 1983. Responses of polar bears to human menstrual odors. International Conference on Bear Research and Management 5:270-274. Gunther, K.A., and H.L. Hoekstra. 1996. Bear-inflicted human injuries in Yellowstone, 1970-1994, a cautionary and instructive guide to who gets hurt and why. Yellowstone Science 4(1): 2-9. _____. 2016. Yellowstone National Park bear-related injuries/fatalities. Bear Management Office Information Paper No. BMO-1. U.S. Department of Interior., National Park Service, Yellowstone National Park. 2pp. Herrero, S.M. 1985. Bear attacks - their causes and avoidance. Winchester Press, New Century Publishers, Inc., Piscataway, New Jersey. 287pp. Rogers, L.L., G.A. Wilker, and S.S. Scott. 1991. Reaction of black bears to human menstrual odors. Journal of Wildlife Management 55(4):632-634.
Your brand-new Profile site has a lot of love to give. When you click around your character and dive into the data you’ll see a rich history of everything you’ve ever loved about World of Warcraft: tricky achievements, rare pets, raid progression, PvP prowess and a great deal more. And it’s not just about your in-game XP—the new Profiles look just as good on your phone, tablet or desktop, so you can take your Warcraft story with you wherever you go. What’s New? Character The main Character screen gives a beautiful high-level overview of. . . well, pretty much everything. It also mirrors what you see in-game, so the information you’re getting is not just easier to access, but makes logical sense when switching from in-game to IRL. Your gear has the same tooltips and you can see enchants, transmog info, gems, enhancements, and stats at a glance. Don’t you look good? Scroll a little way past your character and you’ll discover talents, raid progression and Player vs Player overviews. More on all of that below. Achievements Want to know how close you are to 100% on any area of Achievements? You got it. A dashboard of your (undoubtedly many) Achievements immediately shows your progress by area of expertise. Better yet: you can drill down into the data and see when it all happened. Of course, you’ll also see Achievements you haven’t yet earned, so you can plan your play time to up that precious point count. Collections Here you’ll find your currently equipped Battle Pet team, alongside your full pet collection. The Pet Journal shows the cute and the deadly in all their glorious forms. As in the game, pets are ordered by favorites, then by level. On the second tab, you will find all your mounts ordered by rarity.These journals are a great way to remember when something as rare as hen’s teeth dropped, that time you crafted a pet or looted one from a complex (and angry) boss, or the time you completed an arduous task or quest chain to get that thing you wanted so much. It’s all here. Raid Progression Want to count how many times you’ve heard “YOU FACE JARAXXUS!”? Done. Raid progression is shown from Classic through every expansion, right up to the present day. If you’re a stickler for all the gory details, you can drill down into how many times you’ve killed each boss and at which difficulty. The color on the bars shows completion level, with green showing you’ve slain every boss in the instance. Good job! Player vs Player We all stand together! Well, some of us do. The rest of us really, really like to kill other players in-game (and that’s fine). If that sounds like you, then here is where you’ll see your Prestige and Honor levels, alongside your rating and kill count. That time you had to kill 500 of each race for the Nemesis quests will make that kill count look very juicy indeed. For the Horde! For the Alliance! For the sheer joy of killing your fellow players! Reputation Feel the love! Or the hatred, depending on your Burning Crusade Shattrath choices and your penchant for pirates. Either way, your best friends and favored factions are listed by expansion. This will help you decide who needs a little more kowtowing and which dungeon to run to max out your standing. And hey, don’t be a Stranger. SOMETHING’S NOT QUITE RIGHT! If your character isn't being displayed in its full glory on your Profile page, log in to the game, change a piece of gear and log back out. Refresh the Profile page and your character will be waiting for you (this may take a few minutes). If you run into any issues or bugs when using your new Profile page, let us know on the Website Bug Report forum. That way we can keep everything working beautifully. What Do You Think? Let us know your favorite changes, as well as ideas for additional features in the comments. We’d love to hear your feedback!
I’m talking to you. You know, that Harry Potter fan who, to this day, still relapses an all-nighter binge watching your favorite moments. And of course, re-reading one or more of the books occurs frequently, possibly once a year. In honor of the new Fantastic Beasts film that recently hit theatres, I wanted to post my thoughts on the movie. Sadly, the future of the series will only be unveiled through the big screen. A book would allow for an insightful, more detailed account of the story, enveloped by every page to understand more about the wizarding world. Nonetheless, I was very excited to see the movie, and it was amazing! Without a doubt, the debut was not a let-down and only rekindled my Harry Potter flame, perpetually burning inside every true fan. Viewing the wizarding environment from a different perspective, a more American perspective, has only incited more questions about the history of that universe. Everything from wizarding school, classes taken, and daily wizarding operations, like the Ministry of Magic or wand purchasing, is different from the UK counterpart. As it seems to be with wizarding schools, I’m guessing dark moments have accrued throughout Ilvermorny’s history, secrets that will drag me to the next movie in the series. Overall, the protagonist, Newt Scamander, was played exceptionally well by Eddie Redmayne. He depicted a reserved, beast-loving scholar pursuing his passion while balancing the protection of endangered species residing in the wizarding world. His mastery of the exotic creatures portrayed a new combat technique, one that proved to be quite handy in various predicaments. I am optimistic about his character development over the course of the series. Obviously, I cannot ignore the surprise ending of the movie, Johnny Depp casted as Gellert Grindelwald. This character, originally presented in the Deathly Hallows, can only inspire the series to new heights. I mean, Grindelwald is directly associated with one of the most beloved characters in the original series, Albus Dumbledore. Who will play young Dumbledore in the remaining movies? When will he duel Grindelwald for the Elder wand? Although I could be wrong, I strongly believe that Dumbledore will be introduced in the new series, hopefully sooner than later. Unresolved questions of his mysterious past still linger in the minds of fans, and we all want answers. However, Dumbledore’s past will have to run parallel to that of Newt, so I’m curious how the story will unravel. J.K. Rowling mentioned in a prior interview that the Fantastic Beasts series intends to be darker, so expect heart-throbbing moments on the way. Although we all adored Harry Potter, this series shall enlighten us with new facts, turning our heads towards a new direction. With that in mind, I encourage all fans to give this series a chance, for it might just exceed expectations and squander reluctant misconceptions.
Disturbing footage showing "routine abuse" of sheep in a halal slaughterhouse has reignited the debate over whether animals should be stunned before they are killed for meat. Under halal law, animals are supposed to be killed quickly by single cut from a surgically-sharp knife . Although 80 per cent of halal meat is stunned, the number of sheep killed without stunning is rising due to campaigning by Muslims, figures show. Secret filming in an halal abattoir in Yorkshire showed "horrifying" treatment of animals killed without stunning. An operative in Bowood slaughterhouse in Thirsk grabs a sheep by the neck Workers were shown hacking and sawing at the animals' throats with apparently blunt knives. In one instance the procedure, which according to Islamic law should be instantaneous, took five attempts. Halal rules also state that animals should never see the knife or witness others being killed, protecting them against unnecessary trauma. But the footage showed a man wearing a Muslim kufi skullcap at Bowood Lamb abattoir in Thirsk regularly sharpening knives in front of the sheep. Due to the design of the slaughterhouse, in which animals were forced on to conveyor belts, the sheep typically saw another member of the flock having its throat cut, bleeding on the floor and being hoisted and shackled. In a direct contravention of animal UK animal welfare law, 431 of the 500 sheep observed were "shunted off" the conveyor within 20 seconds of being cut. A slaughterman teases one of the sheep as it is pushed on to a conveyor belt British law prohibits the slaughtering of animals unless they have been stunned, but there are exemptions for Jewish and Muslim producers. Religious leaders from both communities have always insisted that halal and and kosher meat is produced in a humane way. The film captured by lobby group Animal Aid, which has used subterfuge to place cameras in 10 abattoirs since 2009, showed evidence of repeated malpractice. John Blackwell, president of the British Veterinary Association, said: "Slaughter without stunning unnecessarily compromises animal welfare at the time of death and as such we call for an end to its practice. "The Animal Aid film is truly shocking. Whether in a stun or non-stun abattoir these abuses would warrant sanctions under the current welfare legislation." The group has collected more than 100,000 signatures for a petition to have the issue of stunning animals debated in Parliament. It has gained the backing of celebrities including Ricky Gervais, actress Sadie Frost and Queen guitarist Brian May. Awal Fuseini, of the Halal Food Authority, condemned the practices in the video as unrepresentative of halal slaughtering and against Islamic law. "Any imam [Islamic leader] who looks at this video would be disturbed," he said. "Every activity is a contravention of animal welfare standards – the operatives are poorly behaved and trained, the knives are not sterilised and do not appear sharp. "These are very special circumstances and have nothing to do with stunning or non-stunning." Workers laugh and joke as the sheep is transported for slaughter The number of sheep and goats killed without stunning rose 60 per cent to 2.4 million last year, according to the Food Standards Agency. On receiving the video evidence, the regulator immediately suspended the licence of the slaughtermen involved and initiated an investigation. "There is no excuse for treating animals in the way shown on the video and we are therefore investigating the footage with a view to prosecution," a spokesman said. Slaughtermen 'hacked away' at the animals' necks with blunt knives Kate Fowler, head of campaigns at Animal Aid, said the footage was among the "most extreme" examples of animal abuse in the 10 films captured. It was the first video showing meat killed in a religious manner. Workers at Bowood stamped on sheep, kicked them in the head and shouted at them as they attempted to transport them to onto the conveyor belt. Ms Fowler said the poor design of the slaughterhouse made matters worse. However, she said such treatment was unrelated to religious practice and called for CCTV to be placed in every abattoir. Earlier films at slaughterhouses that did use stunning had shown animals being punched in the head, burnt with cigarettes, beaten with sticks, given electric shocks with stunning tongs, thrown and kicked. A spokesman for Bowood abattoir was unavailable for comment.
Hope for America=> Just 29% of US Voters Trust Corrupt Media Fact-Checkers Good News for America! Liberal media cranks are losing their grip in America– After years and years of lies a new poll finds just 29% of American voters trust liberal media fact-checkers. Americans today understand the media and Democrat Party have become one unit. There is no difference between a statement put out by the DNC and statement released by any number of news organizations. Americans have had enough. Via Rasmussen Reports: Most voters believe news organizations play favorites when it comes to fact-checking candidates’ statements, but this skepticism is much stronger among voters who support Donald Trump than those who back his rival Hillary Clinton. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that just 29% of all Likely U.S. Voters trust media fact-checking of candidates’ comments. Sixty-two percent (62% ) believe instead that news organizations skew the facts to help candidates they support. (To see survey question wording, click here.) Eighty-eight percent (88% ) of voters who support Trump in the presidential race believe news organizations skew the facts, while most Clinton backers (59% ) trust media fact-checking. Among the supporters of Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein, sizable majorities also don’t trust media fact-checking.
Donald Trump and the GOP are STILL trying to take down the ACA! They SHREDDED the Paris Accord! Betsey DeVos wants to KILL public education and bring the caste system to America! Undocumented AMERICANS are being DEPORTED in growing numbers every day! They just SOLD your #hashtags to the highest bidder! Come down to 587 SHOTWELL and show the WORLD that he will NOT: MAKE US SICK RUIN OUR PLANET MAKE US STUPID DEPORT US INVADE OUR PRIVACY We have cameras at 583 & 587 Shotwell in the MISSION DISTRICT. Bring your lawn chairs and make your best signs, wear your best costumes and be ready to chant all night long and let Donald Trump know that HE WILL NO DIVIDE US! If you have questions you may call the contact number up to ONE HOUR before the event starts and all night during the event! Added to the calendar on Wednesday Mar 29th, 2017 5:01 PM
Who carries the greatest responsibility for the deaths of unborn children in this country? I accuse the leader of the Catholic church in England and Wales, His Eminence Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor. I charge that he is partly to blame for our abnormally high abortion rate. Let me begin with a point of agreement. "Whatever our religious creed or political conviction," Murphy-O'Connor writes, the level of abortion in the UK "can only be a source of distress and profound anguish for us all". Quite so. But why has it climbed so high? Is it the rising tide of liberalism? The absence of abstinence? Strange as it may seem, the evidence suggests the opposite. Last week the cardinal sacked the board of a hospital in north London. It had permitted a GP's surgery to move on to the site, and the doctors there, horror of horrors, were helping women with family planning. Though it is partly funded by the NHS, St John & St Elizabeth's is a Catholic hospital, which forbids doctors from prescribing contraceptives or referring women for abortions. The cardinal says he wants the hospital to provide medical help that is "truly in the interests of human persons". Murphy-O'Connor has denounced contraception and abortion many times. That's what he is there for: the primary purpose of most religions is to control women. But while we may disagree with his position, we seldom question either its consistency or its results. It's time we started. The most effective means of preventing the deaths of unborn children is to promote contraception. In the history of most countries that acquire access to modern medical technology, there is a period in which rates of contraception and abortion rise simultaneously. Christian fundamentalists suggest the trends are related, and attribute them to what the Pope calls "a secularist and relativist mentality". In fact it's a sign of demographic transition. As societies become more prosperous and women acquire better opportunities, they seek smaller families. In the early years of transition, contraceptives are often hard to obtain and poorly understood, so women will also use abortion to limit the number of children. But, as a study published in the journal International Family Planning Perspectives shows, once the birth rate stabilises, contraceptive use continues to increase and the abortion rate falls. In this case one trend causes the other: "Rising contraceptive use results in reduced abortion incidence." The rate of abortion falls once 80% of the population is using effective contraception. A study published in the Lancet shows that between 1995 and 2003, the global rate of induced abortions fell from 35 per 1,000 women each year to 29. This period coincides with the rise of the "globalised secular culture" the Pope laments. When the figures are broken down, it becomes clear that, apart from the former Soviet Union, abortion is highest in conservative and religious societies. In largely secular western Europe, the average rate is 12 abortions per 1,000 women. In the more religious southern European countries, the average rate is 18. In the US, where church attendance is still higher, there are 23 abortions for every 1,000 women, the highest level in the rich world. In central and South America, where the Catholic church holds greatest sway, the rates are 25 and 33 respectively. In the very conservative societies of east Africa, it's 39. One abnormal outlier is the UK: our rate is six points higher than that of our western European neighbours. I am not suggesting a sole causal relationship: the figures also reflect changing demographies. But it's clear that religious conviction does little to reduce abortion and plenty to increase it. The highest rates of all - 44 per 1,000 - occur in the former Soviet Union: under communism, contraceptives were almost impossible to obtain. But, thanks to better access to contraception, this is also where the decline is fastest: in 1995 the rate was twice as high. There has been a small rise in abortion in western Europe, attributed by the Guttmacher Institute in the US to "immigration of people with low levels of contraceptive awareness". The explanation, in other words, is consistent: more contraception means less abortion. There is also a clear relationship between sex education and falling rates of unintended pregnancy. A report by the United Nations agency Unicef notes that in the Netherlands, which has the world's lowest abortion rate, a sharp reduction in unwanted teenage pregnancies was caused by "the combination of a relatively inclusive society with more open attitudes towards sex and sex education, including contraception". By contrast, in the US and UK, which have the developed world's highest teenage pregnancy rates, "contraceptive advice and services may be formally available, but in a 'closed' atmosphere of embarrassment and secrecy". A paper published by the British Medical Journal assessed four programmes seeking to persuade teenagers in the UK to abstain from sex. It found that they "were associated with an increase in the number of pregnancies among partners of young male participants". This shouldn't be surprising. Teenagers will have sex whatever grown-ups say, and the least familiar with contraception are the most likely to become pregnant. The more effectively religious leaders and conservative papers anathemise contraception, sex education and premarital sex, the higher abortion rates will go. The cardinal helps sustain our appalling level of unwanted pregnancies. But the suffering his church causes in the rich nations doesn't compare to the misery inflicted on the poor. Chillingly, as the Lancet paper shows, there is no relationship between the legality and the incidence of abortion. Women with no access to contraceptives will try to terminate unwanted pregnancies. A World Health Organisation report shows that almost half the world's abortions are unauthorised and unsafe. In East Africa and Latin America, where religious conservatives ensure that terminations remain illegal, they account for almost all abortions. Methods include drinking turpentine or bleach, shoving sticks or coathangers into the uterus, and pummelling the abdomen, which often causes the uterus to burst, killing the patient. The WHO estimates that between 65,000 and 70,000 women die as a result of illegal abortions every year, while 5 million suffer severe complications. These effects, the organisation says, "are the visible consequences of restrictive legal codes". I hope David Cameron, who wants restrictions on legal terminations in the UK, knows what the alternatives look like. When the Pope tells bishops in Kenya - the global centre of this crisis - that they should defend traditional family values "at all costs" against agencies offering safe abortions, or when he travels to Brazil to denounce its contraceptive programme, he condemns women to death. When George Bush blocks aid for family planning charities that promote safe abortions, he ensures, paradoxically, that contraceptives are replaced with backstreet foeticide. These people spread misery, disease and death. And they call themselves pro-life. · Bring on the Apocalypse: Six Arguments for Global Justice, by George Monbiot, is available for £10.99 from Guardian Books; to order visit guardianbooks.co.uk or call 0845 606 4232 g.monbiot@zetnet.co.uk
China has installed weapons on all seven of the artificial islands it has built in disputed water of the South China Sea, according to a U.S. think tank’s analysis of satellite imagery. Photo: Digitalglobe/Reuters CHINA may be preparing to mobilise “hundreds” of its surface-to-air missiles currently stationed in Hainan Island. US military officials said the missiles, which Beijing recently shipped to its non-contested Hainan Island in the South China Sea, will be moved to the country’s disputed man-made islands over coming months. The officials told Fox News Hainan Island would likely serve as a training site before the missiles are deployed early next year to the disputed Spratly Islands or Woody Islands. The equipment includes a number of short, medium and long-range weapons. One of these, a military unit of the advanced SA-21 system, would be capable of knocking out aircraft from more than 400km away. The officials also said the total number of surface-to-air missiles on Hainan could reach 500. If true, this puts China’s actions in the South China Sea at odds with previous statements made by President Xi Jinping. While strengthening its presence in the South China Sea is a long-term goal for Beijing, Mr Xi pledged not to “militarise” the disputed region during a visit to the US last year. “This is another example of the adventurous and aggressiveness of the Chinese in the face of an anaemic and feckless set of policies that we’ve seen over the last eight years,” said retired air force Lieutenant General David Deptula, the former head of air force intelligence. This latest development comes days after Beijing returned an unclassified underwater research drone in the South China Sea. The Pentagon accused China of stealing the drone, making global headlines after Donald Trump slammed the Chinese government on Twitter, and then told them to “keep it”. Earlier this month, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative think tank (AMTI) reported that China appeared to have installed weapons on all seven of its artificial islands in the region. AMTI said it had been tracking construction of hexagonal structures on Fiery Cross, Mischief and Subi reefs in the Spratly Islands since June and July. China has already built military length airstrips on these islands. A fresh batch of satellite photos taken in November show these are being completed as point-defence fortifications housing radar-guided anti-aircraft and antimissile guns. China has said military construction on the islands will be limited to necessary defensive requirements.
Even dealing with a biceps injury and his Bucs at 4-9, Gerald McCoy isn't giving up on playing this season. "I'm a fighter," McCoy said Tuesday night. "Y'all know me. I don't quit. I give it everything I have. Even the slightest possibility of being able to play, I'm going to do everything I can. I don't know what's going to happen right now, but it's me. I love this team. I love this game. I love this city and give it everything I have." The Bucs made another transaction Tuesday to add a player without putting McCoy on season-ending injured reserve, which suggests they'll give him a chance to rest the injury and play at some point in the final three games. McCoy injured the biceps in his right arm on the first play of Sunday's loss to the Lions, leaving after playing only 12 plays. McCoy said he hears some fans questioning his desire to play, and hopes they know he would do anything to get on the field if he's medically allowed to do so. "I'm the wrong person to question. I give this team and this city everything I have," he said. "I'm going to keep doing it, regardless of what they say, regardless of the record, an injury, whatever. If I have an opportunity to be on that grass, I'm going to do it."
Op-ed: Bruce Jenner Helps Us Stand Taller in Our Truth It’s heartbreaking to think that Bruce Jenner — world famous Olympian, father of 10 children and a member of one of the most famous & adored families in the world — would wake up every day for nearly his entire life and feel alone. He’s not alone. The biggest takeaway from Bruce Jenner’s life-changing interview with Diane Sawyer is that the announcement, the revelation of his “true self” — it all happened on his time and on his terms. We’ve seen in the tabloids for months, even years, stories and rumors regarding Bruce’s gender identity and although he denied it until now — that’s perfectly fine. A big part of identity is acceptance. For some, it’s easy to identify and accept who you are from the moment you’re born. For others, it takes time and a great deal of soul searching. I cried through the majority of the interview because I personally related to a lot of the feelings he expressed: growing up confused, lonely, afraid, not fitting in, being “stuck here in the middle” — there are infinite parallels. The majority of Americans are still learning about what it means to be transgender. For Bruce to share his truth on national television is phenomenal and has inspired me to walk even taller in my truth. The key to understanding is education, and the only way we’ll get educated on these issues is if people, like Bruce, are brave enough to share their stories. There’s no one way to be “transgender,” just as there’s no one way to be a man or a woman. A trans individual’s journey is as unique as his or her personality. And let’s be clear, Bruce Jenner isn’t the first high-profile trans person to tell their story, but by Bruce standing in his truth he made it so that another person won’t have to wait until they’re 65 to fully embrace who they were born to be. B. SCOTT is a celebrity personality, advice columnist, activist and entrepreneur, best known for his number 1 entertainment website: lovebscott.com. Reach B. Scott on Twitter at @lovebscott.
Vladimir Putin is 'alive' but 'neutralised' as shadowy security chiefs stage a stealthy coup in Moscow, it was claimed last night. Former FSB chief Nikolai Patrushev was behind the plot, claimed chairman of the pro-Kremlin national Islamic Committee, Geydar Dzhemal. There have been no confirmed sightings of Putin for nine days, while in the febrile atmosphere engulfing Moscow a convoy of large trucks parked outside the Kremlin fueled rumours of a flit by the president. Scroll down for video Russian president Vladimir Putin has not been seen in public for the past nine days fueling coup rumours Putin, left, supposedly met the chairman of the supreme court Vyacheslav Lebedev, right, on Friday, however, it is now thought the video footage released by Putin loyalists may have been several years old In fact, the lorries close to St Basil's Cathedral were more likely connected to a nationalist celebration of the first anniversary of the return of Crimea to Russia - seen by Putin's supporters as his ultimate masterstroke. Despite this, bloggers likened it to Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovych's treasure-grab as he fled into exile just over a year ago in Kiev. 'I think that Putin is neutralised at the moment, but of course, he is alive,' said Dzhemal, seen as a Kremlin loyalist. 'He is under the control of the power-wielding agencies, who have, in my opinion, organised a coup d'etat.' Recent pictures of Putin supposedly working during a nine day absence from public sight was 'playing for time' by the plotters, he claimed. 'My information is that Patrushev met Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov in Pyatigorsk on 11 March and tempted him over to his side.' He also pointed to a recent visit by Patrushev - head of Putin's security council - the US. The visit came despite sanctions barring visits by most senior Russian officials. 'I think he was offered something there that he failed to reject,' said Dzhemal on Georgian TV channel Rustavi-2. Several large trucks were parked near Kremlin Square fueling rumours connected with Putin's absence Putin has not been seen in public for nine days which has caused certain consternation in Russia Putin failed to reappear again on Saturday - the ninth day without a confirmed sighting - as his Chechen enforcer suggested the Russian strongman is in danger of being overthrown. Ramzan Kadyrov - a devout Muslim whose security apparatchiks are seen as being behind the brutal murder of Boris Nemtsov - said he would remain devoted to the Kremlin leader 'whether he is in his position or not'. This came amid a claim that pictures issued by the Kremlin on Friday of Putin meeting Supreme Court head Vyachevslav Lebedev may date from 2011. The images were rushed out in a bid to show Putin is still at work, and followed the release of other photographs which had been taken on or before 5 March when he was last seen in public. With feverish speculation in Moscow over Putin's health and whereabouts, and claims of a bitter power struggle in his entourage which could even trigger an attempted coup, the head of Chechnya spoke emotionally of people 'trying to harm the president of Russia - and Russia itself'. And he claimed that forces were scheming 'to break us apart', referring to him and his guarantor Putin. As startling has been the lack of shows of support in recent days from other senior Kremlin cardinals during an absence which has no obvious parallel in his 15 years as president or premier. The voices of prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, Chief of the Kremlin staff Sergei Ivanov - and Putin's intelligence tsars - have remained silent. Kadyrov has enjoyed extraordinary power and largesse under Putin as a reward for keeping an iron grip on the rebellious oil-rich Chechen region, scene of two bloody wars since the collapse of the USSR. As a result he is hated by many senior Putin loyalists. But Kadyrov's enemies claimed yesterday that the 38 year old bearded regional potentate is in 'panic' because he can no longer contact his mentor. 'He is phoning anyone he can in an attempt to arrange a talk with Putin - but he fails,' alleged a website linked to Islamic hardliners seeking to overthrow Kadyrov. One of the two men formally charged with killing opposition leader Boris Nemtsov is a personal friend of Kadyrov, who spoke out in his support for the second time yesterday. 'I'll repeat now that I knew him as a true warrior and patriot,' he said of Zaur Dadayev, who is accused of murder. There are allegations that a security official closer to Kadyrov ordered the Nemtsov murder, and that the FSB and Interior Ministry in Moscow have full proof. His slaying has triggered bitter factional infighting in the Kremlin, which includes talk of defence and security service generals seeking to replace Putin. Others believe Putin will reemerge tomorrow to stamp his authority once more on his government. There were also unverified claims last week that Putin's alleged girlfriend, Olympic gymnast Alina Kabayeva, 31, had given birth to a child in Switzerland. This was denied by the Kremlin. The political chaos in Moscow comes after Western sanctions and a low oil price have caused mayhem to the Russian economy, with a serious fall in the rouble. Many of the clans in Putin's entourage became hugely rich under his rule, but now face their fortunes evaporating. Software experts in Russia yesterday suggested the pictures of Putin meeting Lebedev, supposedly taken Friday, were created in 2011 and modified a year later.
Facebook is launching new features to its Live video capabilities by adding reactions and filters. The updates on iOS and Android mean users will soon be able to share live video to a specific group or event. Live originally launched last year in Facebook's Mentions app and was released to users in the US in January and outside America in February. A new video discovery tab will replace the Messenger symbol currently at the bottom of the iOS and Android apps. Messenger notifications will move to the top of Facebook's mobile apps near the search box. Users will now be able to invite a friend to watch a video with them and will be able to see what the other person is saying. In a move that's similar to Periscope, Facebook 'reactions' will also be coming to Live and will be displayed on top of the video, scrolling across the screen. Here's how to share a live video to your Timeline on Facebook. Some of the new features in the latest round of updates are more important than others, according to Will Cathcart, Facebook's vice president of product management. As people get better cameras in their phones that can take better pictures and video, we've sought more and more to make video a well supported part of Facebook Will Cathcart Facebook's vice president of product management Will says that, for example, "if people 'love' something, you'll see a flurry of hearts in the video". "We've introduced this so everyone can see all the reactions from the crowd at the same time," he tells Newsbeat. And if you're watching video later - after the live session is over - then you'll see comments appear over time, as they happened. "This will help people to make sense of things like why the broadcaster answered a question," Will explains. Whoever is making the video will now be able to choose from five filters like black and white and sepia, and will soon be able to doodle drawings on top of their videos too (both features on Instagram and Snapchat). There will be a button for Live in the Facebook app, where you'll be able to see popular videos as well as videos from friends and celebrities you follow and things you're interested in. A Facebook Live map page on Facebook's desktop website will display bubbles around the broadcasts showing you how many people are watching the video. Why roll out Facebook Live? "As people get better cameras in their phones that can take better pictures and video, we've sought more and more to make video a well supported part of Facebook," Will says. "We have been surprised with the positive reaction to Live so far as people have really taken this up, whether they are sharing with their friends and family, the world or their fans. "We've seen that live videos get 10 times as many comments as regular videos, and people broadcasting read those comments and react to them. "So the updates are in the spirit of making Live a more permanent part of Facebook that's hopefully something people end up liking." Isn't Facebook a bit late developing this, as there are already things like Periscope? "We have always responded to what users like. For example, when we started it was photos. People kept changing their profile picture every day, so we developed that as part of Facebook. "Now we're seeing a lot of people adopt Live. It's really growing quickly compared to what we expected, so we're really excited about what will happen with it in the near future," Will says. "We are really trying to focus on what's helpful to people, so we will continue to develop other parts of Facebook including regular video." How are you planning to keep the content safe so that people don't just post explicit videos to Facebook? "Live has all of the same privacy features that the rest of Facebook has. There are privacy settings people can choose to only share their videos with certain groups of people. "Content on Live has to follow all of our community standards. We have teams behind the scenes making sure that the content complies with those standards, and people also let us know when it's not doing that and we will keep an eye on it as Live grows. "Even if things meet the standards, if we think it might be sensitive we might put out an advance warning letting people know the video might contain sensitive material." Are you going to phase out live video from other services? "With Live, we want to feature whatever the users are most interested in seeing, whether that's content from Facebook or elsewhere. "Video has become a big part of Facebook and we expect that will be the same with Live. "We do think that it will provide an opportunity for rich native mobile experiences that can unlock a lot more content consumption." Find us on Instagram at BBCNewsbeat and follow us on Snapchat, search for bbc_newsbeat
Attention, big-game hunters! Pack your elephant gun into your crocodile-skin bag and get ready to hunt the ultimate prey: a mega-swole rubber ducky so tall that humans probably look to it like delicious breadcrumbs. Just kidding – please don't shoot the duck. (Or stab it, which actually has happened before.) While this inflatable waterfowl's monstrous size makes it look intimidating – just imagine its sonic-boom quack blowing cars and people down the street – in reality it is a "friendly" entity that "has healing properties," according to the Dutch artist who built it, Florentijn Hofman. Since it launched in 2007, the ducky has graced humans with its benevolence in Amsterdam, Osaka, Sydney, Hong Kong and other ports of call. The creature's arrival in Pittsburgh this September for the art-and-culture International Festival of Firsts marks its first U.S. appearance. Expectations are already running high. "The Rubber Duck has captured the imaginations and the hearts everywhere it deployed. How can you not be drawn to a four-story Rubber Duck?" says Marc Fleming, a spokesman for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. "It is going to be HUGE."
97 Klatch Coffee Panama Ironman Camilina Geisha Location: Los Angeles, California Origin: Boquete growing region, western Panama. Roast: Medium-Light Est. Price: $49.95/8 ounces Review Date: September 2014 Agtron: 58/80 Aroma: 10 Acidity: 9 Body: 9 Flavor: 10 Aftertaste: 9 Blind Assessment: Beautifully structured and almost impossibly intricate in flavor and aroma. The fruit sensation is so deep and so complex that one could find almost any note in it: we settled on guava, mango and tangerine. Intensely floral – passion fruit, lilac, lily – with crisp cacao nib and sandalwood complication. Rich, lyric acidity; syrupy but buoyant mouthfeel. The aromatic fireworks quiet a bit but still saturate the finish. Notes: This exceptional coffee was selected as the #1 coffee on Coffee Review’s list of the Top 30 Coffees of 2014. Produced from trees of the rare Ethiopia-derived botanical variety Gesha (also spelled Geisha) by farmer Roberto Brenes of Auromar Estate. With its generally elongated beans and distinctive floral and crisp, often chocolaty cup, the Gesha variety continues to distinguish itself as one of the world’s most unique coffees. This is a dry-processed or “natural” Gesha, meaning the beans were dried inside the fruit rather than after the fruit has been removed, as is the case with wet-processed or “washed” coffees. A wet-processed version of the Ironman Gesha took first prize at the prestigious 2013 Best of Panama juried green coffee competition. Klatch Coffee is an award-winning small-batch roasting company in the Los Angeles area whose resident barista and trainer, Heather Perry, won both the 2003 and 2007 United States Barista Championships brewing a Klatch Coffee espresso blend. Visit www.klatchroasting.com or call 877-455-2824 for more information. Who Should Drink It: Anyone who can afford it. The wet-processed Gesha profile, however complex and extraordinary, can be too bright and drying for many coffee drinkers, but here the dried-in-the-fruit or natural processing rounds and deepens the acidity – and everything else – in this utterly amazing, if dauntingly expensive, coffee.
On September 2, an inside source revealed that Park Shin Hye is currently in talks to join “Hyung” (working English title). “Hyung” has already secured Jo Jung Suk and EXO’s D.O as brothers who end up living together after 15 years of living separately. Director Kwon Soo Kyung of “Barefoot Kibong” will be helming the project. Jo Jung Suk will be acting as the older brother named Doo Shik who serves a prison sentence due to committing fraud. Meanwhile, EXO’s D.O will portray a star judo athlete named Doo Young. He is on the national team, but suffers an injury right before an important competition. The unfortunate accident ends up changing his life irreversibly. If Park Shin Hye confirms the film, she will act as a character who treats D.O like her real younger brother yet bickers with Jo Jung Suk. The actress’ last film was “The Royal Tailor” which was released about a year ago. However, she more recently had a cameo in the movie “Beauty Inside.” Her agency, SALT Entertainment, commented, “We are currently discussing [the role]. We have not reached a final decision, but we are discussing it favorably.” “Hyung” is scheduled to start filming in October. Would you like to see Park Shin Hye act alongside EXO’s D.O and Jo Jung Suk? Source (1) (2)
Israel's resolute occupation of Palestinians in not just historic Palestine, but in the West Bank and Gaza Strip specifically, can be considered the oldest quasi-dictatorship in the Middle East, Bishara argues [GALLO/GETTY] As the conventional wisdom goes – especially in the West – Israel is the "only democracy" in the Middle East. And that is so, particularly for its Jewish citizens. However Israel has been anything but democratic for the indigenous people of the land, the Palestinian Arabs. By nature and precedence, foreign military occupation is temporary. Colonialism on the other hand, and more precisely civilian colonisation, is a socio-political system of ruling over another people. Since its inception at the end of the 19th century, Zionism preached self-determination for the Jewish people in "their" homeland. In reality, Israel has directly or indirectly driven Palestinians out of their homeland, confiscated their properties, rejected their right to return to their homeland despite UN resolutions, and occupied and colonised the rest of their homeland for the last four decades. Throughout, Israeli military and security services ruled over another people against their will. They oppressed, tortured, exploited and robbed the Palestinians of their land, water and most importantly, their freedom. There has been more political prisoners in Israeli jails than any of its neighbours. In denial over their predicament, Israeli leaders have taken shelter in the illusion of surplus morality. This was best expressed by late Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, who warned the Arabs: "We can forgive you for killing our sons. But we will never forgive you for making us kill yours." A wild illustration of Israeli chutzpah. Occupation as colonial dictatorship Unlike other colonial powers and dictatorships in recent memory, Israel took all, but gave nothing in return. The settlements, the bypass roads and the industrial zones it built, are exclusively for Jews. Israel and its various Zionist organisations have built over 600 towns, villages and other form of settlements for the Jews, but none for the Palestinians – not even those it considers part of its own citizens, who make up almost one-fifth of its population. And much like other dictatorships, it's in denial over the damage it has caused to the people under its rule, and delusional over occupation it deems necessary, benevolent, or even divinely promised. No other dictatorship in the region has been as indifferent and destructive for so long over those it ruled, as the Zionist regime has been in Palestine. It didn't hesitate to use lethal, excessive force time and again against those under its occupation. The most recent war crimes have been documented and detailed in various UN reports, including that of Judge Goldstone regarding the 2008/9 war on Gaza, which added or changed little in regards to the reality on the ground. Like other dictatorships it boasts of sacrificing for peace, demonises its detractors and oppositions, and justifies any wrong-doing on the basis of national security, order and stability. Although it preached democracy, Israeli leaders long preferred to deal with autocrats, not only in the Arab world but also in the greater Middle East, as well as in Asia and Africa. Israeli leadership has lobbied for the Mubarak regime in its last days and reportedly its leaders voiced support for assisting Gaddafi. The illusion of separation In spite of the six-decade record of Israel's joint history with the Palestinians, its leadership and supporters still maintain that Israel is nothing like its neighbours; that it's a democratic oasis in a sea of totalitarianism; that when it fought its neighbours and ruled over them, it did so against its will. But regardless of the motivation and justification for the post-1948 or post-1967 wars, the resulting reality can't be ignored. Indeed, it is politically and academically dishonest and counterproductive to speak of Palestinians and Israelis as two separate social and political landscapes. Any attempt to understand the nature and the political, economic and social – even religious – evolution of the Israeli state in separation from its colonial dictatorship over another people would be futile at best. In reality, misleading and destructive. The same goes for the Palestinians. Their national and political evolution over the last century, and to a greater extent of the last six decades, is intertwined with that of Zionism and Israeli dictatorship. Today, the maximum distance between any Israeli and Palestinian is less than nine miles. Where is the Palestinian revolution? It was no coincidence then, that the "Palestinian revolution" emerged following Israel's 1967 war and occupation, when it defeated its neighbours' post colonial leaders and their national projects, be it pan-Arab nationalism, Baathism, etc. As Israel allied itself with the colonial and imperial powers of the time – France, Britain and the United States – the Palestinian revolution – as the Palestinian liberation movement was depicted at the time – was inspired by similar anti-colonial struggles, such as the Algerian FLN against the French colonial dictatorship of their country. But Cold War polarisation, Arab divisions and its own mistakes and blunders led to the disintegration of the 'Palestinian revolution'. With the advent of the post-Cold War Peace Process in 1991, the Palestinian liberation movement was finally reduced to spearheading accommodation with Israel's colonialism. The domestication of the Palestinian liberation movement by the Peace Process soon led to national divisions leading to armed conflict between the Islamist and secular currents under Hamas and Fatah. Separated by hundreds of checkpoints, 'security' walls and fences, and policed by British/American trained Palestinian forces under the supervision of Israel military and security services, Palestinians today live under multiple levels of military dictatorship and police state. Alas, the Hamas-controlled, Israeli-choked mini entity in the Gaza Strip doesn't look much different in reality. Instead of pursuing their struggle for liberation from dictatorship, 'Palestine Liberation movement' and PLO leadership in the West Bank are suppressing Palestinian eagerness to join the Arab revolution's struggle to bring down the – in this case, colonial – regime. For two decades, the PLO leadership has looked for salvation in Washington, and when that has proved a pipe-dream, it has decided to go to the UN for a recognition of a Palestinian state. Come September, the PLO leadership will realise that the end result will, at best, be a state on paper, and its true realisation requiring more of the same diplomacy with Israel. All that assuming Washington wouldn't veto such a draft resolution. But regardless of the diplomatic acrobatics, at the end of the day, peace is possible between Palestinians and Israelis on the basis of one state, or two independent states divided by the 1967 borders. It's however not tenable nor moral, let alone revolutionary, for the Palestinians to be forced into accommodation or peace with Israel's occupation or its colonial dictatorship.
Officials at Grand Teton National Park are considering banning food at String Lake following multiple bear sightings at the picnic area. Andrew White, spokesman for the Wyoming park, told Jackson Hole News & Guide that visitors are both deliberately and accidentally feeding the bears. Over the past three years, park employees have noticed that people leave their food unattended at the picnic area while they swim in the lake. There have also been reports of park-goers feeding bears directly. In a recent incident, a bear approached a picnic table, scared the people eating away, and stole a sandwich. “She didn’t bother them, she was just interested in the food,” White told Jackson Hole News. The bears also steal food and drinks from backpacks, coolers, and trash bags. Grand Teton National Park’s website advises park visitors to not feed bears other wildlife for any reason, saying, “Failure to follow park food storage regulations is a violation of federal law.”
Trouble at the DNC The Murder of Seth Rich – A Basic Primer for Corporate Media Hostages This weekend, my neighbor asked me what I knew about the murder of Seth Rich. Instead of answering him, I asked him what he knew about it, which admittedly was not much. He only heard about it from a drive-by media report and couldn’t understand why a shooting during an “attempted robbery” almost a year ago in Washington, DC was being discussed. It was then I realized that not everyone, even those seemingly knowledgeable about current events, understands the potential significance of this incident. It was then I decided to write this most basic report intended for those who are just learning of the murder of Seth Rich, and explain why it is of such importance. I also hope to convey why there is such opposition to the investigation and discussion of this tragic event, and why there is such vitriol levied against anyone who is searching for answers to what many want to dismiss as a “botched robbery.” The following is a very basic introduction of the case compiled from limited releases by official sources, my personal interviews with investigative journalists on my radio show, the Hagmann Report and my own investigation. First, here are the most basic facts. Subject & Incident Profile Victim: Seth Conrad Rich Address: 2113 1st St. Washington, DC 20001 Age: 27 DOB: 1/3/1989 Prior Address: 1222 Euclid, Washington DC 20009 Employer: Democratic National Committee (DNC) Position: Data Analyst Parents: Joel & Mary Rich, Farnam St, Omaha, NE (Douglas County) Date of Crime: 10 July 2016 Time: 0419 hours Location of crime: Southwest corner of W Street & Flagler Place NW, Washington, DC Incident Type: GSW (Gunshot Wound(s)) – The victim was reportedly shot twice in the back with a small caliber handgun. Metropolitan Police Public Incident Report (CCN #16113797; Issued 10 July 2016 at 0710): “CIC reports the sound of gunshots at 2134 Flagler Pl. NW. Upon arriving to the scene, the decedent was laying in the Southwest corner of the intersection of W St. and Flagler Pl. NW. The decedent was conscious and breathing with apparent gunshot wound(s) to the back. The decedent was transported to local area hospital and was pronounced dead by attending physician at 0557 hours.” The public incident report listed the following [capitals/punctuation in source document]: Responding officer: Jody O’Leary (#7859) - MPD. Assisting officer: ROBERT WINGATE ROBINSON (#7634) (Body Worn Camera), Derek Tarr (#9237) (Other Officers At Scene): Shea Ellis (#9499) (Other Officers At Scene), Benjamin Velez (#6631) (Body Worn Camera), Mark Lee (#6141) (Body Worn Camera). Motive for the shooting The motive for the shooting, according to subsequent statements by or on behalf of the Metropolitan Police Department or the Rich family, was that the shooting was a “botched robbery” attempt. This despite that nothing was reportedly taken from the victim. The victim also reportedly sustained pre-mortem wounds to his face, hands and knees in what was described as defensive wounds. Also according to reports, the victim was conscious upon the arrival of police, although he allegedly provided a previous address to authorities. It is unclear whether the responding officers, as is customary in a shooting, asked the victim who shot him or a description of the shooters. No BOLO alerts were sent out as a result of the initial contact with police. The preceding information concludes the public information either provided by or admitted to by public officials. Numerous important factors and relationships have been left out by police and public officials. Mr. Rich reportedly sustained two gunshot wounds from a small caliber handgun. One wound was alleged to be a “through and through” wound, while the other bullet reportedly struck his liver. He was transported to an unidentified hospital where he allegedly died a few hours later. His murder might have gone as just another statistic and testament to the violence that plagues our inner cities, except for nagging questions about the activities of Seth Rich prior to his murder, combined with other oddities that involve departure from standard operating procedure by the MPD. On March 17, 2017, GOP lobbyist Jack Burkman announced the creation of the Profile Project and announced a $105,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the Rich murder. As reported by investigative journalist Liz Crokin, Burkman is now claiming that the MPD is thwarting his efforts through non-cooperation. While other people and groups have added to the reward that now totals well over a quarter of a million dollars, conspicuously absent is his own employer – the DNC. In the face of accusations of departure from police department SOP and other oddities, the Rich family spokesman, Brad Bauman, has been vitriolic in his condemnation of anyone asking questions about the murder of Seth Rich. Family spokesman Brad Bauman happens to be a Public Relations crisis manager with the Pastorum Group in Washington, D.C., a firm with progressive ties. In his role as a communications consultant, Bauman offers “strategic communications advice to Democratic candidates and labor unions,” according to his public profile page on LinkedIn. The real problems with this case, however, have yet to be be addressed. Trouble at the DNC In the matter of the murder of Seth Conrad Rich, the core issue exists in the growing body of evidence that strongly indicates that Mr. Rich, though his position as a data analyst at the DNC during a hotly contested primary election, might have discovered fraudulent and perhaps criminal activity that could affect the outcome of the party nomination (from Bernie Sanders to Hillary Rodham Clinton). Subsequent reports verified that Seth Rich was an ardent supporter of then-DNC candidate Bernie Sanders. By virtue of his job description, Rich was positioned to have access to data that could prove poll tampering in favor of Clinton. Concurrently, his importance to anyone conspiring to maintain the specific narrative of foreign interference rose exponentially, if not unexpectedly, should his alleged discovery be exposed. Should such alleged tampering be made public, it would obviously have devastating consequences to those “fixing” the polls. Accordingly, Mr. Rich might well have found himself in a very lonely and unenviable position of possessing information which, at the very least, is vital to the integrity of our election process. Specifically, this information would be most problematic for those conspiring to assure the party nomination of Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic primaries. This situation is further clouded and exacerbated by constant media allegations of “hacks” of our election process by foreign entities, specifically the Russians, which has become and continues to be the official account of the DNC and supporters of Hillary Clinton. While these alleged hacks reportedly both pre-date and postdate the murder of Seth Rich, he has nonetheless become a key subject of interest due to his position with the Democratic National Committee and the outcome of the 2016 Presidential election. It is important to note that on June 14, 2016, about a month before Seth Rich was murdered, The Washington Post reported that “Russian hackers” obtained DNC communications, and reportedly had access to DNC computers for approximately one year before discovery and lockdown. It is also vital to note that this information did not come from the FBI or any law enforcement agency of the United States government, but from the private cyber security firm CrowdStrike, which was called in to handle the DNC breach despite the FBI offering its services which were curiously rejected. These odd rejections were verified by former FBI Director James Comey himself during his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on January 10, 2017. Comey testified that the FBI made multiple requests, but was denied direct access to the Democratic National Committee’s email servers and other “hacked devices” as part of its probe of Russian hacking. It was within this environment of alleged poll fixing and reports of Russian intrusion into the DNC computers that Seth Rich found himself. Having direct access to the DNC computers and perhaps finding irregularities that could impact the outcome of the primaries, it is conceivable that Seth Rich might have been long on critical information but short on trusted friends. Anyone who has spent any time in Washington knows that trust within the beltway is a rare commodity. Consider then, the predicament of a young man from Nebraska at the moment he realizes that he possesses evidence of fraudulent and criminal activity at the highest levels of the DNC. Seth Rich & Wikileaks For the last decade, Wikileaks has existed and received millions of leaked documents that exposed, among many things, the machinations of the powerful and those in power. The methods used to provide information to Wikileaks have consisted of electronic transfer as well as the transfer of information through handoffs of portable storage devices. Is it possible that Seth Rich reached out to Wikileaks to expose the possible and alleged fraud within the DNC? According to published reports by at least two sources, the answer is yes. One source is Rod Wheeler, the DC private investigator hired by a representative of the Rich family to investigate his murder. Another is the infamous hacker Kim-Dot-Com. One might also consider Julian Assange of Wikileaks himself, although not directly, but by his offering a $25,000 reward on August 9, 2016, less than one month after Seth Rich was murdered. Considered in totality, there appears to be sufficient circumstantial evidence to suggest that Seth Rich did, in fact, communicate with Wikileaks at some point prior to his murder. Direct evidence in the form of forensic analysis of his computer devices and cell phones, however is presently non-existent. Why? There appears to be a problem locating his electronic devices, as both the DC police and the FBI deny custody. The Russian Conspiracy Theory The primary component that is used to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election of Donald Trump is foreign interference of our election process, specifically by Russia. To this day, this unproven conspiracy theory is repeated ad nauseum by the corporate media without any authenticated proof from any government law enforcement agency. The primary source of this narrative is the private cyber security firm CrowdStrike as referenced by the June 14, 2016 report in The Washington Post and picked up by other media outlets. CrowdStrike was hired and paid for by the DNC in June 2016, essentially making the Russian hacking account a paid product of the DNC. All told, there were at least four-(4) separate hacks into the DNC computers: the Democratic Caucus “hack(s),” the Podesta email “hack(s),” the DNC “hack(s)” and the Clinton Foundation “hack(s).” Included in the above is the strange account of the Awan brothers, three highly-paid Pakistani nationals who were employed as IT specialists shared among House Democrats. Working under Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, the Awan brothers are at the center of controversy in a series of thefts discovered early this year. Also overlapping this period was the FBI investigation into the handling of classified emails by Hillary Rodham Clinton and staff. On July 5, 2016, FBI Director James Comey held a press conference at the conclusion of his investigation, where he accused Clinton of serious mishandling of classified information contained in emails and computer documents, but stopped short of recommending any referrals to the Department of Justice. As one can see, there exist numerous problems with computer security, both party data and government equipment and information. The Seth Rich case, however, surrounds the DNC polling data that might have given the party’s nomination to Hillary Clinton rather than Bernie Sanders. The importance of exposing the information possessed by Seth Rich is two-fold and very significant. Obviously, it would expose the false Russian hacking narrative that has been used to delegitimize the Presidency of Donald Trump, and also expose the “rigging” of the DNC nomination process. Just the Beginning There is more – much more – about this. There is much more information that will break this week about this case. For now, however, I am going to print this explanation for my neighbor, who is a hostage of the corporate media. Perhaps this will help your neighbor when the murder of Seth Rich arises in conversation in the coming days. And I suspect it will. Only YOU can save CFP from Social Media Suppression. Tweet, Post, Forward, Subscribe or Bookmark us Copyright © Douglas J. Hagmann and Canada Free Press Douglas J. Hagmann and his son, Joe Hagmann host The Hagmann & Hagmann Report, a live Internet radio program broadcast each weeknight from 8:00-10:00 p.m. ET. Their new website is The Hagmann & Hagmann Report. Douglas Hagmann, founder & director of the Older articles by Doug Hagmann Please adhere to our commenting policy to avoid being banned. As a privately owned website, we reserve the right to remove any comment and ban any user at any time.Comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats of violence and death, racism, anti-Semitism, or personal or abusive attacks on other users may be removed and result in a ban.-- Follow these instructions on registering
click to enlarge Mike Koozmin/The S.F. Examiner Mayor Ed Lee announced the enforcement of a drug-free zone around the Main Library, which is located near a playground and other sites frequented by children. Mayor Ed Lee is calling for a zero-tolerance policy for patrons of the Main Library and an enforced drug-free zone around the public building. The renewed focus comes after a rise in complaints about bathroom conditions and a rash of violent and criminal behavior. On Thursday morning, the mayor spent about an hour and a half touring the Main Library in the heart of the Civic Center, walking in and around the building and meeting with staff. Also along for the tour were department heads — including Lee’s homeless czar, Bevan Dufty, and his chief of staff, Steve Kawa. Lee wants the library to become what he referred to as a “family and education zone.” The effort comes after years of library officials having attempted to address the challenges of unruly patrons only to face an increase in complaints in recent months. In fiscal year 2011-12, 4,412 incidents were recorded, ranging from assaults to drug use. The mayor also sent a letter Thursday to the Library Commission outlining his strategy to make the library a more welcoming destination. “My overall goal is to make sure we prevent unacceptable behavior in our library before it happens,” the mayor said. To that end, he recommended that the seven-member commission, which he appoints, impose “stronger penalties for violations” of the patron-use guidelines. The new penalties, he said, should “focus on first immediately removing the person exhibiting problematic behavior, and then issuing and enforcing longer suspensions to discourage future bad behavior.” The crimes Lee singled out for increased penalties include indecent exposure, simple assault on library staff and patrons, possession of weapons, being under the influence of drugs or alcohol, making disruptive noise and vandalism of library property. Last year, library officials suspended 295 patrons in the Main Library and 27 branch libraries. Suspensions would likely increase under Lee’s zero-tolerance policy, at least early on. The new rules and stronger police enforcement “will have their intended impact on restoring the library’s place as a destination for parents and children,” Lee wrote to the commission. Police Chief Greg Suhr said a series of incidents led to the recent attention, including drug use and sex in the bathroom, someone being hit by a chair, a person bringing in an oversize bag that was infested with fleas and someone urinating on a book shelf. “The sum total of all of it was just begging for a reasonable modicum of decorum,” Suhr said. With children’s programs and a playground across the street, Suhr said, the Main Library is legally a drug-free zone. But without signage, it’s not enforced as such. Signs will be posted within weeks, which he said would make a difference. One immediate change that happened Thursday was placing the entire library premises under the jurisdiction of the Tenderloin Police Station, instead of under two different stations that responded to incidents depending on their locations. City Librarian Luis Herrera was supportive of the mayor’s suggestions, while noting that overall problem incidents were declining. “We have 5,000 people coming into the Main Library every day,” Herrera said. “Ninety-nine percent of folks use it for such diverse uses. We want to continue to get the word out that this is a very welcoming environment.” Lee said the library “suffers from a small number of people who create disturbances and commit crimes, tarnishing the experience for everyone else.”
Maoist rebels have killed 12 people in two poll-related blasts in the instability-hit region of central India, police said, highlighting security threats aiming to disrupt a marathon election in the world's biggest democracy. Saturday's attacks came as Indians cast ballots in the resort state of Goa and in the far-flung northeast in another round of the multi-phase polls that wind up on May 12 with results due on May 16. Six polling team officials were killed when Maoists blew up their bus in the state of Chhattisgarh, senior police officer Gurjinder Pal Singh told the AFP news agency. "The Maoists triggered the landmine blasts," Singh, a key official in ensuring election security in the state, told AFP. Five security men engaged in an election safety operation and another victim were killed in a separate landmine blast that created a huge crater in the road. The men were blown up near Darbha, where Maoists massacred the top leadership of the Congress party of Chhattisgarh last May. The blasts, just an hour apart, came just days after Maoist rebels killed three soldiers guarding polling officials in Chhattisgarh, underscoring the security challenges facing election organisers in India. Separatist and Maoist insurgencies afflict large swathes of India's northeast, northwest and central regions. Vowing to prevent the rebels from disrupting the vote, the government has deployed tens of thousands of police and paramilitary soldiers to guard polling booths in insurgency-wracked areas. But the rebels have only stepped up their attacks while also asking citizens to boycott the vote. "Internal security threat" The electoral race over the 543-seat lower house of parliament kicked off earlier in the week. The opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party are tipped to win, ousting the ruling Congress party after a decade. The vote is held in stages to allow security forces to be moved around the country to protect voters. Maoist rebels, who say they are inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, killed 16 people in a massive attack on security forces in central India in March in the deadliest attack so far this year, heightening fears of more unrest in their stronghold. The Maoists, who have been described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the country's most serious internal security threat, have been fighting since 1967 for a communist society by toppling what they call India's "semi-colonial, semi-feudal" form of rule. They seek greater share of wealth from the area's natural resources and more jobs for the poor. The violence is believed to have cost tens of thousands of lives, with much action focused around the restive-dominated, so-called "Red Corridor" stretching through central and eastern India. The rebels are believed to be present in at least 20 states but are most active in Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand and Maharashtra, occupying thousands of square kilometres (miles) of land.
As part of LastWordOnSports’ Euro 2016 coverage, we are covering Arsenal players’ performances in France. The ten Arsenal players seeking Euros glory are: France: Oliver Giroud, Laurent Koscielny Switzerland: Granit Xhaka England: Jack Wilshere Wales: Aaron Ramsey Germany: Mesut Özil Poland: Wojciech Szczesny Czech Republic: Petr Cech, Tomas Rosicky Spain: Hector Bellerin ARSENAL AT EURO 2016: Group A: Giroud and Koscielny Advance to Knock Out Stages Oliver Giroud and Laurent Koscielny enjoyed a hard-fought 2-0 win over Albania courtesy of late goals from Antonie Griezmann and Dimitri Payet. Giroud failed to score back to back Euros goals after several of his chances went wide, forcing Didier Deschamps to substitute him for eventual goalscorer Griezmann. Koscielny, meanwhile, helped keep a clean sheet against an imposing Albania side. Granit Xhaka featured in a 1-1 draw with Romania with an industrious performance; at the base of midfield, he produced the most passes, created chances and recovered the ball more than other player on the pitch. Despite the draw, Switzerland find themselves in a strong position for knockout qualification. Group B: Wilshere En joys Last Minute Success At Ramsey’s Expense In what almost turned into an Arsenal civil war, England beat Wales 2-1 thanks to goals from Jamie Vardy and Daniel Sturridge. Aaron Ramsey featured for the full 90 minutes with the most ball touches and covered the largest amount of ground for Wales. Jack Wilshere was an unused subsistute against Wales and may start against Slovakia. Group C: Özil’s Germany Flatters To Deceive Against Poland In a game that promised so much, both sides failed to make a vital breakthrough and improve their respective qualification prospects. Mesut Özil had a quiet 90 minutes in Germany’s midfield despite forcing a save from former Arsenal goalkeeper Lukas Fabianski. Wojciech Sczcesny was absent from the game due to a back injury. Group D: Rosicky and Cech Hang On While Bellerin’s Spain Progress A game marred by Croatian fan trouble saw the Czechs fight back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 against an energetic Croatian outfit. Poor Czech defending meant experienced Petr Cech was regularly in action and he prevented a Croatian onslaught. Tomas Rosicky sparked his side’s comeback with his delightful outside of boot curling pass finding Milan Skoda’s head. The 35-year-old unfortunately picked up a leg injury in the remaining minutes and is doubtful to play against Turkey. Hector Bellerin was an unused substitute in Spain’s 3-0 win over Turkey.
I’ve never been to the Great American Beer Festival. I’m not sure I’m ever going to go, now. I have mixed feelings about that. For those of you who have lives that don’t revolve around beer, the kerfuffle du jour in the beer world is that tickets for the Great American Beer Festival in Denver sold out extremely quickly. The Brewer’s Association/ American Homebrewer’s Association (BA / AHA) member’s pre-sale sold out in about two hours, but there were technical issues that kept a lot of legitimate members from being able to purchase tickets. When tickets went on sale to the general public the next day, they sold out in twenty minutes. Two years ago it took almost a week for tickets to sell out. Except, of course, they didn’t really sell out. As I write this, there are just under 1000 tickets available on StubHub. There are about 50 more tickets listed there today (Friday) than yesterday. I expect there are probably similar numbers available via Craigslist, eBay and any number of other secondary markets. The Brewer’s Association — the sponsors of the Festival — have chosen to throw TicketMaster under the bus for the technical difficulties and have basically just thrown up their hands at the fact that so many folks are flipping their tickets for a profit. And I say “so many” with some reservations. The Brewer’s Association doesn’t release ticket sales numbers. They say 49,000 people attend GABF over the three days, but that includes brewers, staff, press and paid attendees. We have no way of knowing what percentage of tickets are on the secondary market (since a given ticket can be listed in more than one place) and how that compares to other high-profile events. My feeling is that what we’re seeing here isn’t all that large a percentage, but that’s just a guess. The logjam isn’t limited to people wanting to go to the sessions either. Brewers had difficulty getting in. The BA has proposed changes to deal with that issue, so it’s a pretty sure bet we’ll see some changes coming on the ticket purchase side once things settle down this year. This story resonates with me on several levels. There’s the beer angle, of course. Then there’s the whole festival angle. We work with the Cincy Winter Beerfest organizers to put on the 5B Conference and I’m in awe of all the details that have to be handled simultaneously to get that many people safely in and out of a facility where intoxicating beverages are the entire point of the exercise. Finally, the first job I ever had when I was in high school and college was selling tickets at the Astrodome. I mostly worked Astros games in the summer, but we did football, concerts, prize fights, rodeos, whatever. We had the misfortune of being one of the first facilities in the country to adopt TicketMaster. I’ve played the game of cat-and-mouse with scalpers more times than I can count. I called Craig Johnson to get some of his insights into the issue. Craig is one of the partners behind the Cincy Winter Beerfest, the Cincy Summer Beerfest on Fountain Square as well as similar events in Columbus and, most recently, Pittsburgh. He’s been to the last five GABFs and has a very strong admiration for how the logistics of the event are handled. One of the first things he stressed is the difference in scale between the festivals he works with and GABF. “We’ll have 350 some-odd beers,” he said, “They have 3,100.” The logistics of getting that much beer into the Denver Convention Center and to the right places at the right time is really quite an accomplishment. “What I don’t understand, though, is why they don’t expand the floor,” he said, “There’s a hall right next to the one they’re in that’s the same size. And downstairs there’s as much space as upstairs.” He stressed that he wasn’t necessarily arguing that the number of brewers needed to increase (though he wasn’t opposed to that, either), but that he thought it was worth spreading the crowd out and, presumably, being able to up the number of tickets being sold. He noted that he didn’t know what that would do to the Brewer’s Association’s cost structure or if the extra space is even an option, given other events in the facility. Craig also pointed out that the three days of GABF is really expanding into an informal week-long beer holiday in the Denver area. It’s becoming sort of the national homecoming for brewers and beer fans alike and actually going to the festival itself is only part of the appeal of being in Colorado that week. “Everybody ought to go once to see it once,” he said, referring to the GABF itself, “but there’s a lot to do that week that makes the trip worthwhile without ever actually going [to GABF]” He pointed out that the Member’s session on Saturday afternoon was really the only time you’re likely to actually meet a brewer on the floor. “The public sessions are staffed by volunteers who wanted a ticket,” he said, “You’re not going to meet a brewer except at the Member’s session.” It’s relevant to point out here that, as I write this, StubHub lists the fewest available tickets for that session (98) and the highest starting price per ticket ($165 for a $65 face-value ticket that was discounted from $75 for being sold to an BA/AHA member). There are things that the BA could probably do to cut down on the scalping, but most of those would involve making entry into the hall more difficult (and beer festival patrons aren’t exactly known for their patience. That’s a personal observation on my part, by the way. That’s not something that came up when I was talking to Craig). Economics says the way to deal with the issue is to raise prices. I actually think that would make the scalping issue worse. It’s clear there are folks who fund a portion of their trip by buying the maximum number of tickets allowed, then selling off the excess at a premium. Raising the price will only make that a more attractive option. In the end I think it comes down to being careful what you wish for. You want craft beer to be popular? Then don’t expect that attending events will be as easy as it was “back in the old days.” The whole festival concept is pretty dicey for me anyway. How much can your palate really handle in a short period of time? Despite my years working large events (or maybe because of them), I’m not a big fan of big crowds. On the other hand, a festival can give you the chance to sample things you may not be able to get regularly. And there’s a “gathering of the tribe” quality that can’t be denied. For good or for ill, GABF is the premier Beer Festival in the US that’s associated with the only beer competition most people have ever heard of. It’s the White Whale right now. Will it still be in three years? Who knows? I think the worst thing the BA could do now is overreact. In every other realm of event planning I’m aware of, a sellout is considered a good thing. There are lots of beer festivals out there. So support local beer. And support local beer festivals.
A new device that may be capable of pumping human waste into the 'engine room' of a self-sustaining robot has been created by a group of researchers from the Centre for Fine Print Research at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) and the Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL). Modelled on the human heart, the artificial device incorporates smart materials called shape memory alloys and could be used to deliver human urine to power future generations of EcoBot – a robot that can function completely on its own by collecting waste and converting it into electricity. The device has been tested and the results have been presented in IOP Publishing's journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics. Researchers based at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory – a joint venture between the UWE Bristol and the University of Bristol – have created four generations of EcoBots in the past 10 years, each of which is powered by electricity-generating microbial fuel cells that employ live microorganisms to digest waste organic matter and generate low-level power. In the future, it is believed that EcoBots could be deployed as monitors in areas where there may be dangerous levels of pollution, or indeed dangerous predators, so that little human maintenance is needed. It has already been shown that these types of robots can generate their energy from rotten fruit and vegetables, dead flies, waste water, sludge and human urine. Dr Ioannis Ieropoulos from the BRL explains how microbial fuel cells have been used to generate electricity to power a mobile phone in the video below. {^youtubevideo\|(width)425\|(height)264\|(rel)True\|(autoplay)False\|(fs)True\|(url)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LTprRQTKAw\|(loop)False^} This same technology is being employed to power the artificial heart. Essentially Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) are bio-electrochemical transducers that convert the energy found in organic matter, to electricity. Live microorganisms that inhabit the inside of MFCs, metabolise the organic fuel – urine and this produces electricity as a by-product, along with carbon dioxide. Lead author of the study Peter Walters, from the Centre for Fine Print Research, said, “We speculate that in the future, urine-powered EcoBots could perform environmental monitoring tasks such as measuring temperature, humidity and waste water quality. A number of EcoBots could also function as a mobile, distributed sensor network. “In the city environment, they could re-charge using urine from urinals in public lavatories. In rural environments, liquid waste effluent could be collected from farms.” At the moment conventional motor pumps are used to deliver liquid feedstock to the EcoBot's fuel cells; however, they are prone to mechanical failure and blockages. The new device, which has an internal volume of 24.5 ml, works in a similar fashion to the human heart by compressing the body of the pump and forcing the liquid out. This was achieved using 'artificial muscles' made from shape memory alloys – a group of smart materials that are able to 'remember' their original shape. When heated with an electric current, the artificial muscles compressed a soft region in the centre of the heart-pump causing the fluid to be ejected through an outlet and pumped to a height that would be sufficient to deliver fluid to an EcoBot's fuel cells. The artificial muscles then cooled and returned to their original shape when the electric current was removed, causing the heart-pump to relax and prompting fluid from a reservoir to be drawn in for the next cycle. A stack of 24 microbial fuel cells fed on urine were able to generate enough electricity to charge a capacitor. The energy stored in the capacitor was then used to start another cycle of pumping from the artificial heart. “The artificial heartbeat is mechanically simpler than a conventional electric motor-driven pump by virtue of the fact that it employs artificial muscle fibres to create the pumping action, rather than an electric motor, which is by comparison a more complex mechanical assembly,” continued Walters. The group's future research will focus on improving the efficiency of the device, and investigating how it might be incorporated into the next generation of MFC-powered robots. [Image and video courtesy: University of the West of England.]
Robert L. Woodson Sr., who heads the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise in Washington and advises House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) on poverty issues, said late Friday that he is under consideration to be secretary of housing and urban development in President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet. If selected, Woodson, who is black, would add diversity to Trump’s team. And he would be responsible for leading education and social reforms in predominantly African American areas, which Trump repeatedly described during the campaign as “failed” and vowed to repair. “They seem to be very serious about it,” Woodson, 79, said in an interview with The Washington Post. “I’m not job hunting, but we’re talking about how I could possibly work with him. We’re talking about how we could work with those across the aisle to do these things together.” When asked if Trump officials have specifically discussed a potential Cabinet appointment, Woodson said, “Yes, we’re talking about HUD.” Woodson is scheduled to meet with Trump on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at the president-elect’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J. He added that the House speaker has encouraged him as he heads to New Jersey. “It’s fair to say that Paul wouldn’t mind having me there to work with them on all of this,” Woodson said with a chuckle. Woodson first met Ryan in the early 1990s through their mutual friend, the late Jack Kemp, who served as housing secretary in George H.W. Bush’s administration. At the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, which Woodson founded in 1981, he has become a familiar face to politicians in both parties who work on housing and poverty, and more recently has worked closely with Ryan and traveled with him across the country to churches and impoverished neighborhoods. While he began his career at the National Urban League and assisted Democrats such as Vernon Jordan, Woodson drifted to the right during Ronald Reagan’s presidency. He worked for a time as a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he expressed wariness for state-oriented solutions for poverty, and has been critical of some national leaders in the black community such as Al Sharpton. Jason Miller, a Trump spokesman, declined to comment.
To be a successful undrafted free agent in the NFL is one thing. To do it on the team you grew up rooting for is magical. Born and raised in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, Vikings wide receiver Adam Thielen was a die hard Vikings fan in his youth, so much so that he would often imitate his idol Cris Carter on tiptoe catches in his backyard. He was a multi-sport athlete in high school, and enjoyed a successful career at Minnesota State. Undrafted in 2013, Thielen stuck around with his hometown Vikings for a few years, mostly seeing action on special teams (being awarded the team’s Special Team’s Player of the Year in 2015) while rarely seeing any time as a receiver. In 2014 and 2015 he had 281 yards on 20 catches. What would happen in 2016 finally resulted in a breakout year for the Minnesota resident. In the first four games of the season, he saw more targets, and with Stefon Diggs out for the fifth game against the Texans, he finally showed what he could do. For that game, Thielen put up 127 yards and a touchdown on 7 catches, and went on to lead the team in receiving yards (967). Going into week 9 this season, Adam Thielen is second only to Antonio Brown in receiving yards with 627 and is 4th in yards per game (78.4). It’s clear he’s cemented himself as one of the Vikings’ most valuable players, and as far as 2017 goes, few receivers are playing better than him. What #19 is doing is not a fluke. He’s not a receiver that requires his quarterback to throw to him perfectly into tight windows, nor is he a receiver that drops the ball whenever he gets opportunities. Instead, Thielen has established himself as one of the top vertical threats in the league with polish and technique. The first thing to stand out about Thielen is his ball skills. Because of his size (6 ft 2, 200 lb), he has a big frame to throw to, going along with his wide catch radius. This catch looks easier than it actually is. The receiver is open but the throw is too high. Most receivers would stop their stride and momentum to make this catch, but Thielen not only makes the catch, but keeps his stride going, using smooth execution to run as if it were a routine play. Especially under Case Keenum, Thielen has been consistently asked to make difficult adjustment to what should be easy passes for the quarterback. This play is no exception, as Keenum forces an inaccurate pass despite a clean pocket. Fortunately, the receiver makes it work out. Thielen is able to use his athleticism to dive, grab the ball, and pull it into his body to complete the process of a catch. He eats bad throws for breakfast. While he only has one touchdown on the year, this is not something you can put on Thielen. He’s had opportunities to find the end zone, but Keenum has regularly forced him to adjust on his accuracy. On this play, Thielen uses great technique to separate. He pushes off his left foot at the top of his route, allowing him to separate outside and create an open window for his quarterback. This is not an easy catch to make. Not only is the throw wide, but as the receiver turns around, he’s only given a split second to react to the throw. This is what makes Thielen a great receiver. Much like Everson Griffen on snaps, his timing on the catch is perfect. He’s a smart, quick thinking athlete, which has allowed him to separate and create yards that shouldn’t have been there in the first place. Thielen regularly gets positioned both outside and in the slot. It doesn’t matter where he’s put because he will dominate with his expertise at route running. As he has played better as each week comes and goes, Thielen’s route running is to the point where it’s one of the best in football. The way he’s able to create separation downfield reminds me of guys like Doug Baldwin and Antonio Brown in how polished he is. On this play, he cuts outside, drawing the interest of the corner in man coverage. The way he pushes off without breaking down his mechanics creates an easy, quick throw for the quarterback, one that results in a first down and the continuation of the drive. On this play, the receiver executes a double move Jordy Nelson would be proud of. However, Keenum was under pressure when this happened, resulting in a throw that asked Thielen to make a ridiculous body adjusting catch. Because of his route, ball skills, size, and security, he hauls in what could be the most impressive catch of his career. Conclusion Barely any receiver can say they are playing better football than Adam Thielen. What makes it more impressive is that he’s putting up big numbers with poor quarterback play, as he has made himself one of the more reliable targets in the league. Everything that Thielen does is stellar. His route running is refined and precise, he can separate easily, has great pass catching abilities, and wonderful timing on inaccurate throws. He’s been able to do this without losing his stride or having his mechanics break down. But more importantly, he’s playing lights out on the team he grew up rooting for in the state he grew up in. An undrafted hometown hero becoming one of the better receivers in the league is a dream come true, and #19 has accomplished this. Adam Thielen isn’t just a good receiver; he’s become a great one. With him paired alongside Diggs, the Vikings once again have one of the most lethal receiving duos in the league.
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band began its 2014 High Hopes tour with a 27-song, three-hour plus show at the Bellville Velodrome in Cape Town, South Africa. Not a very exciting set list for a tour opener, but maybe not a surprise since Bruce tends to stay close to the vest when he plays the first show in a location he has not played before. The set list, for the most part, resembles a bland show from last year's Wrecking Ball tour Only four songs were played off the new "High Hopes" album: the title track, "Heaven's Wall," "American Skin," and "The Ghost of Tom Joad." Not real exciting for those waiting to hear some of the new tracks. "The venue is an indoor bicycle velodrome. Maybe 10,000 people here," my friend Mitch, formerly of Manalapan, texted me from the show. "The seats are full but there is room is the back of the floor. Definitely not sold out. (Update: I've been told that the show was sold out, that the local officials allowed the building 8,100 tickets and that's what was sold.) "It's like a big barn here. Bruce at one point said 'I came 8,000 miles to play (Asbury Park's) Convention Hall.' " Springsteen began the show with "Free Nelson Mandela," a cover of a 1984 song written by British musician Jerry Dammers and performed by band The Special A.K.A. - with lead vocal by Stan Campbel. It was orginally released as a protest against the imprisonment of Mandela by the apartheid South African government. Backup singer Curtis King joined Bruce on some of the lead vocals on "Free Nelson Mandela." Bruce started the encores with "We Are Alive" which was dedicated to Mandela. "It was a nice tribute," Mitch said. It was a crowded stage with Tom Morello joining Steve Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren on guitar. Patti Scialfa was not at the show. Show began at 8:13 p.m. local time (seven hours ahead of New Jersey). Set list: 1. Free Nelson Mandela (cover) 2. Badlands 3. Death To My Hometown 4. Out In The Street 5. High Hopes 6. Spirit in the Night 7. Hungry Heart 8. The River 9. Heaven's Wall 10. Atlantic City 11. Johnny 99 12. Pay Me My Money Down 13. American Skin (41 Shots) 14. Because the Night 15. Darlington County 16. Shackled and Drawn 17. Waitin' On A Sunny Day 18. The Rising 19. The Ghost of Tom Joad 20. Land of Hope and Dreams Encores 21. We Are Alive (dedicated to Nelson Mandela) 22. Born in the U.S.A. 23. Born to Run 24. Dancing in the Dark 25. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out 26. Shout 27. Thunder Road (solo acoustic) Show over at: 11:17 p.m. Next shows: Tuesday and Wednesday at the same venue.
Posted on 12th December 2017 \| Freek Van der Herten laravel-medialibrary is a powerhouse package that can help handle media in a Laravel application. It can organise your files across multiple filesystems, generate thumbnails, optimize images and much much more. My team and I are hard at work creating a new major version, v7, that adds a lot of awesome features such as responsive images, vue components to assist with uploading, single file collections, ... In this post I'd like to highlight one cool handy feature that's coming to v7: multi file downloads. In our package every file is associated with a Media model. To download a single file you can do this in a controller: public function download (Media $media) { return response()->download($media->getPath()); } Because Media implements Laravel's Responsable interface you can also write that a bit shorter: public function download (Media $media) { return $media; } Pretty sweet! But what if you want to download multiple files at once? Currently the medialibrary won't help you with this and you need to take care of this yourself. You could generate a zip file with all media you want to download on your server and then do return response()->download($pathToZippedMediaFiles); But maybe you want to download big files, in that case creating the zip takes a while. Or maybe the files are stored on a remote service like S3, so now it takes even longer because the files need to be copied over first. I'm happy to share that medialibrary v7 will solve this for you. It includes a ZipStreamResponse class that allows you to respond with a stream. Files will be zipped on the fly and you can even include files from multiple filesystems. Let's take a look at an example on how to use ZipStreamResponse . We're going to create two routes. Visiting add-files will add some files to our medialibrary, visiting download-files will download them. I'm using routes here for demonstration purposes, in a real world app you'd probably use ZipStreamResponse in a controller. Route::get( 'add-files' , function () { $article = Article::create(); $article ->addMedia($pathToAFile) ->toMediaCollection( 'downloads' ); $article ->addMedia($pathToABigFile) ->toMediaCollection( 'downloads' , 's3' ); return 'files added!' ; }); Route::get( 'download-files' , function () { $allMedia = Article::first()->getMedia( 'downloads' ); return ZipStreamResponse::create( 'my-files.zip' )->addMedia($allMedia); }); That last line is the most important one. It's kinda cool that the zip is created on the fly and that it pulls data from both the local disk and s3. Coding ZipStreamResponse up was easier than I thought it would be. The maennchen/zipstream-php does the hard work of creating a zip stream. All I need to do was to integrate the provided ZipStream class in our medialibrary. Here's the entire source code of Spatie\MediaLibrary\ZipStreamResponse : namespace Spatie \ MediaLibrary ; use Illuminate \ Http \ Request ; use Illuminate \ Http \ Response ; use Illuminate \ Contracts \ Support \ Responsable ; use Spatie \ MediaLibrary \ Media ; use Symfony \ Component \ HttpFoundation \ StreamedResponse ; use ZipStream \ ZipStream ; class ZipStreamResponse implements Responsable { protected $zipName; protected $mediaItems; public static function create (string $zipName) { return new static ($zipName); } public function __construct (string $zipName) { $this ->zipName = $zipName; } public function addMedia ($mediaItems) { $this ->mediaItems = $mediaItems; return $this ; } public function toResponse ($request) { return new StreamedZipResponse( function () { $zip = new ZipStream( $this ->zipName); $this ->mediaItems->each( function (Media $media) use ($zip) { $zip->addFileFromStream($media->file_name, $media->stream()); }); $zip->finish(); }); } } Of course there are situations (eg. when the same assets get downloaded over and over again, or when download speed is very important) where you still want to create a zip file locally and store it for later use. But I believe StreamedZipResponse does provide a good solution for the proverbial 80% Like mentioned above, multi file downloads are coming to v7 of laravel-medialibrary which will be released around February - March 2018. Of course you can start using v6 of laravel-medialibrary right now.
Show full PR text Samsung Electronics Announces Third Quarter 2012 Earnings Results on Oct 26, 2012 Posts record operating profit of 8.12 trillion won on consolidated revenues of 52.18 trillion won SEOUL, Korea – October 26, 2012 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced revenues of 52.18 trillion Korean won on a consolidated basis for the third quarter ended September 30, 2012, a 26-percent increase year-on-year. For the quarter, the company's consolidated operating profit reached an all-time high of 8.12 trillion won, representing a 91-percent increase year-on-year. Consolidated net profit for the July-September period was 6.56 trillion won. In its earnings guidance disclosed on October 5, Samsung estimated third quarter consolidated revenues would reach approximately 52 trillion won with consolidated operating profit of approximately 8.1 trillion won. Samsung's solid performance is mainly attributed to increased sales of handheld phones and stronger demand for display panels. The Mobile Communications Business posted 26.25 trillion won in revenue for the quarter, accounting for more than half of Samsung's total revenue. As for the display panel segment, increased shipments of Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) and Liquid Crystal Display panels used in tablets and smartphones, as well as TVs drove up profitability. Despite global economic uncertainties, Samsung's end-product and components business units saw sales climb compared with the same quarter last year. Digital Media & Communications – comprising the Consumer Electronics and IT & Mobile Communications business sectors – accounted for 41.90 trillion won in sales, up 41 percent year-on-year. For Device Solutions, operating profits reached 2.29 trillion won on revenue of 17.40 trillion won. The Display Panel segment outperformed the Semiconductor Business, in terms of on-year revenue growth On the currency market front, the depreciation of the euro and local currencies in emerging markets chipped away Samsung's bottom line by 570 billion won for the quarter. "The business environment remained difficult with global economic uncertainties persisting amid the fiscal concerns in the US and Europe. However, we continued to break our quarterly profit records," said Robert Yi, Senior Vice President and Head of Investor Relations. Mr. Yi said he expects market competition to intensify but "we will do our best to sustain our earnings momentum throughout the fourth quarter by implementing strategies we have developed for our businesses." Looking ahead, for the remaining quarter, year-end seasonality will push up demand for mobile devices including tablet PCs, as new products make their way into markets with more competitive pricing. Year-end holiday promotions, robust demand in emerging markets and China's New Year holiday effect are expected to shore up global demand for IT products. Demand for PC DRAM will be weak due to oversupply, and sales of digital appliances will slow down due to unfavorable market conditions in developed economies. Capex 18.5 Trillion Won To Date Capital expenditure in the third quarter totaled 4.5 trillion won; 2.1 trillion won was invested in the Semiconductor Business, while 1.1 trillion won went to strengthening the Display Panel segment. All told, the total capex for the first nine months of this year amounted to 18.5 trillion won or 73 percent of the annual capex budget of 25 trillion won planned for 2012. High Value-Added Chips Remain Profitable Samsung's Semiconductor segment – including the Memory and System LSI businesses – posted an operating profit of 1.15 trillion won on revenue of 8.72 trillion won for the quarter, which equates to an 8-percent year-on-year drop in sales. Weak demand compounded by an oversupply of PC DRAM chips in the global market pulled down Samsung's sales of memory chips, which slid to 5.22 trillion won from 5.5 trillion won recorded the previous year. Samsung's concentration on high value-added products such as server and mobile DRAM products, a more competitive mix of NAND products including Solid State Drives (SSDs) for notebook PCs and Embedded Multimedia Cards (eMMC), and logic chips softened wider losses. For the October-December quarter, demand for PC DRAM is expected to stay weak, but a flurry of new mobile devices hitting the market will prop up sales of application processors (AP) and image sensors that power smartphones and tablet PCs. Orders for mobile DRAMs are forecast to be high. We anticipate global demand for PC DRAM to remain stagnant, but seasonal growth of value-added chips will continue. Panel Profit Driven by Demand for TV and Mobile Devices The Display Panel segment achieved an operating profit of 1.09 trillion won on revenue of 8.46 trillion won. This represented a 19-percent increase in year-on-year sales for the quarter and a swing into profitability compared with the same period last year. The overall panel market exhibited quarter-on-quarter growth with demand rising 2 percent on the back of new tablet products and emerging market growth, despite delayed demand recovery in developed markets. Shipments of TV panels enjoyed a steady 9-percent increase compared with the second quarter as manufacturers prepared for the year-end peak season, although sales of panels for notebook PCs and monitors remained weak. Samsung saw strong growth momentum in the OLED panel segment due to demand for high-end smartphones. Sales of high value-added products, such as LED panels for TVs and LCD panels for tablets, continued to rise. Overall, Samsung's third quarter TV panel shipments saw year-on-year growth in the mid 10-percent range. Increased demand for TV panels, buoyed by year-end seasonality and the Chinese New Year holidays, is expected in the fourth quarter while the effect of an energy saving subsidy in China is also forecast to lift sales of large-size LED TV panels. Meanwhile, forthcoming launches of new tablet devices will help maintain positive growth for tablet displays and the strong demand for OLED smartphone panels is set to continue into the next quarter. Bellwether Mobile Business The IT & Mobile Communications division, comprising Mobile Communications, Telecommunication Systems, IT Solutions and Digital Imaging, ended the third quarter with operating profits of 5.63 trillion won on 29.92 trillion won in revenue. Operating profits for the division saw 132 percent year-on-year growth. The mobile unit alone was responsible for 26.25 trillion won in revenue, resulting in an 82-percent spurt in growth compared with the same quarter a year ago. The global market for smartphones increased in the low 10-percent range on-quarter, while that of feature phones saw growth of around 10 percent on-quarter. Samsung's flagship GALAXY S III smartphone, along with diverse smart device offerings which encompass high- to low-end products, have been the key drivers in raising profit margins. Improvements in the product mix also led to a more competitive average selling price (ASP). Also in the third quarter, orders for GALAXY Tab variants were strong, as well as the GALAXY Note 10.1, which redefined functionality through its S Pen stylus and split screen feature. Sales of Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless broadband technology equipment picked up in the third quarter but tougher price competition has dampened profit margins. In the fourth quarter, the smartphone market is expected to continue its growth momentum with increased demand, especially in emerging markets. Samsung plans to further cement its leadership in the smartphone market with premium products, including GALAXY S III, and by ramping up sales of GALAXY Note II. Premium TV Strategy Ensures Stability amid Strong Price Competition The Consumer Electronics division – encompassing the Visual Display and Digital Appliances businesses – posted revenue of 11.60 trillion won for the third quarter. The operating profit of 430 billion won amounted to an increase of 38 percent compared with the corresponding period last year but was down on the previous quarter. Due to slowing TV demand during the summer vacation season and economic uncertainty in developed markets, price competition among manufacturers intensified. To deal with these conditions, Samsung maintained profitability by expanding sales of both premium and region-specific LED TV models in developed and emerging markets, respectively. With peak season demand for TV products in the fourth quarter expected to stimulate on-quarter growth in the mid 20-percent range, the proportion of LED TV sales is also likely to expand. Although competition will intensify, Samsung will continue to focus on improving profitability by increasing its portions of premium products such as large-sized TVs of over 60 inches, strengthening its Smart TV leadership with expanded content service offerings, and growing its sales of localized LED TV models. For the Digital Appliances Business, sluggish demand in developed markets and weak seasonality for air conditioners resulted in an earnings decline for the quarter. Looking ahead, the company is targeting sales growth in emerging markets with region-specific products and improved profitability in developed markets through high value-added products.
Photo courtesy of Molly Brady/New York Red Bulls By FRANCO PANIZO CHAMPIONSGATE, Fla. — Leo Stolz was a teenage boy, living in his native Germany, when the opportunity of a lifetime forced him to make a very difficult decision. His local club, 1860 Munich, offered him a professional contract in 2011 after seeing him work his way up its academy system. Stolz had always wanted to play pro soccer, especially after becoming hypnotized by Zinedine Zidane’s worldly skills at the 1998 World Cup, but also yearned to experience the college life in Southern California that his father so often gushed about. Coming from a family that focused on academics more so than athletics, Stolz made the kind of decision very few German teenage soccer players, or any soccer player, would make. He passed on the 1860 Munich offer and embarked on his American journey. “It was kind of tough for me to make a decision back then and I read an article about the system in the United States that I could (play soccer and study), plus my dad studied in UC San Diego,” Stolz recently told SBI. “He didn’t play sports, but he was all about his time living in Southern California.” Passing up a pro contract to go to college in a foreign country might sound like a crazy decision, but Stolz has made it pay off. Not only did he accomplish a goal of his by studying political science at UCLA, but is now preparing to begin his professional career as a midfielder for the New York Red Bulls following a stellar four-year collegiate career. The No. 18 pick in the 2015 MLS Draft, Stolz has already begun to impress his new team, showing the qualities that made him one of the highest-rated NCAA players in the country over the past two seasons. “He’s been looking good,” Red Bulls head coach Jesse Marsch told SBI. “We’re kind of trying to get everybody thinking faster, playing faster, so for him that’s a little bit of an adjustment, especially because when he was in college they used him as a No. 10 and he kind of found the game as it went. “But we’re asking him to cover more ground, we’re asking him to close things down, we’re asking him to play faster, think faster and he’s responded really well. You can tell he’s psyched to be here. His energy every day has been great, and you see the moments of individual brilliance where he can just see a pass and put a play together that a lot of guys can’t. He’s going to be good.” There has admittedly been an initial learning curve for the 5-foot-11 Stolz, who is adjusting to the speed of play and more demanding defensive responsibilities. He has no qualms about any of that, though, as he is finally ready to step away from the classroom and onto the field on a full-time basis. “I’m new to professional soccer now,” said Stolz, who turns 24 on Feb. 15. “It’s now about putting together my first step in the door and seeing how well I do at the next level.” Stolz’s path to the Red Bulls is a far different one than your typical rookie takes to MLS. After making the decision to go to college in the United States, Stolz sought out a group of advisors in Germany who specialize in helping players find American colleges to play for. “They create a profile, they turn in all your academic and athletic information and U.S. coaches have access to that and can make an offer,” Stolz said of the process that eventually helped him land at George Mason University. After spending the 2011 season as a starter for George Mason, the affable central midfielder transferred to UCLA prior to the start of the 2012 campaign, partially because his father had suggested that Stolz experience the Southern California lifestyle. Stolz fell in love with Los Angeles quickly and also wasted no time in settling in with the Bruins, becoming an immediate starter and impact player. He went on to accumulate 20 goals and 22 assists in his three seasons at UCLA, capping his college career with a nine-goal, six-assist senior season that earned him the prestigious Hermann Award. “It was amazing, the entire three-and-a-half years with teammates and the entire environment, living in Los Angeles, academics. I liked it a lot,” said Stolz. “I could talk all single day about LA. Big campus. I would love to go back there, and I would if I could, I would do it all over again.” After completing his college tenure this past winter, Stolz had another tough soccer-related decision to make: sign with an MLS club or pursue overseas opportunities. Undecided, he weighed both options carefully before reports surfaced saying that he would only play in MLS if he were drafted by the New York Red Bulls or LA Galaxy. With collegiate players not usually having the type of power to dictate where they land, some fans and observers believed Stolz was unfairly manipulating the system in his favor. Stolz, however, maintains that he was open to anything. He did prefer New York or Los Angeles because of a recommendation from a coach he trusted, but that he would not necessarily have been opposed to playing for other MLS clubs if they had taken him in the draft. “I just looked at my options and there was a back and forth of making a decision of going back to Europe and staying in MLS,” said Stolz. “I waited for the draft and I went through the entire process, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to. I had trials set up with preseason camps, but after I found out that I got drafted by New York Red Bulls, I thought it was a great city and a great team and a great coach. “They were all factors that I considered. I looked at the entire package and I thought I would develop a lot better than at the second-division team in Germany. That’s why I decided to do it.” Five years after that initial major decision, Stolz has once again chosen an American adventure over a chance to ply his trade closer to home. Given how well that initial decision went, you can’t really blame him for that.
Philip Frederick Anschutz ( AN-shoots; born December 28, 1939) is an American billionaire businessman who owns or controls many companies in a variety of businesses, including energy, railroads, real estate, sports, newspapers, movies, theaters, arenas and music. He is a philanthropist whose name appears on medical and educational institutions to which he has donated millions. Anschutz has been described as a Christian conservative. In 1961 he bought out his father's oil drilling company, Circle A Drilling, and earned large returns in Wyoming. He invested in stocks, real estate and railroads. He expanded his investments to sports and entertainment companies, co-founding Major League Soccer as well as multiple teams, including the Los Angeles Galaxy, Chicago Fire, Houston Dynamo, San Jose Earthquakes, and the New York/New Jersey MetroStars. Anschutz owns stakes in the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Kings, and venues including the Staples Center, The O2, London, and the Dignity Health Sports Park. Through his ownership of Walden Media, he has invested in films such as The Chronicles of Narnia, Ray, and Joshua. Through AEG Live, he owns the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. As of March 2017, Forbes ranked him the 38th richest person in the U.S., with an estimated net worth of $12.5 billion. Life and career [ edit ] Anschutz was born in Russell, Kansas, the son of Marian (née Pfister) and Frederick Benjamin Anschutz.[2][3] He has one older sister, Sue Anschutz-Rodgers, who became a Colorado rancher and philanthropist.[4][5] His father was an oil tycoon and land investor who invested in ranches in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, and eventually went into the oil-drilling business. His grandfather, Carl Anschutz,[6] was an ethnic German who emigrated from Russia and started the Farmers State Bank in Russell. Anschutz grew up in Russell, Wichita, and Hays, Kansas, where he lived near Bob Dole. In later years, Anschutz contributed to Dole's political campaigns. He graduated from Wichita High School East in 1957, and in 1961 graduated with a bachelor's degree in business from the University of Kansas, where he was a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity.[7] His first cousin was fellow Russell native and longtime news anchor Wendall Anschutz.[8] A member of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, he is a conservative Christian.[7][9] He and his wife Nancy, whom he met when he was 16, have three children. Anschutz was inducted into the Kansas Business Hall of Fame in 2000[10] and the U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 2002.[11] Anschutz is somewhat reclusive, preferring to stay out of the limelight. He has granted only three formal interviews since 1979, and none at all from the 1980s until 2015.[12][13] On December 6, 2015, Anschutz broke his media silence when he appeared with several of the founders of Major League Soccer to reflect on the league's 20th anniversary.[14] Anschutz has run 15 marathons.[15] Land ownership [ edit ] In 1970, Anschutz bought the 250,000-acre (1,000 km²) Baughman Farms, one of the country's largest farming corporations, in Liberal, Kansas, for $10 million. The following year, he acquired 9 million acres (36,000 km²) along the Utah-Wyoming border. This produced his first fortune in the oil business.[16] In the early 1980s, the Anschutz Ranch, with its billion-barrel (160,000,000 m³) oil pocket, became the largest oil field discovery in the United States since Prudhoe Bay in Alaska in 1968. In 1982 Anschutz sold an interest in it to Mobil Oil for $500 million. For several years, Anschutz was Colorado's sole billionaire. With his acquisition of land in other Western states, he is one of the 100 largest landholders in the United States.[17][18] Anschutz then moved into railroads and telecommunications before venturing into the entertainment industry. In 1999, Fortune magazine compared him to the 19th-century tycoon J.P. Morgan, as both men "struck it rich in a fundamentally different way: they operated across an astounding array of industries, mastering and reshaping entire economic landscapes." Rail and petroleum businesses [ edit ] In 1984, Anschutz entered the railroad business by purchasing the Rio Grande Railroad's holding company, Rio Grande Industries. In 1988, the Rio Grande railroad purchased the Southern Pacific Railroad under his direction. With the merger of the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific Corporation in September 1996, Anschutz became Vice-Chairman of Union Pacific. Before the merger, he was a director of Southern Pacific from June 1988 to September 1996, and non-executive chairman of Southern Pacific from 1993 to September 1996. He was also a director of Forest Oil Corporation beginning in 1995. In November 1993 he became Director and Chairman of the Board of Qwest, stepping down as a nonexecutive co-chairman in 2002 but remaining on the board. He has also been a director for Pacific Energy Partners and served on the boards of the American Petroleum Institute, in Washington, D.C. and the National Petroleum Council in Washington, D.C. In May 2001, the Bush administration upheld Anschutz's right to drill an exploratory oil well at Weatherman Draw in south-central Montana where Native American tribes wanted to preserve sacred rock drawings. Environmental groups, preservationists, and ten Native American tribes appealed the decision without success. In April 2002, the Anschutz Exploration Corporation gave up its plans to drill for oil in the area. They donated its leases for oil and gas rights to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which has pledged to let the leases expire, and the Bureau of Land Management said it had no plans to permit further leases there and would consider formal withdrawal of the 4,268-acre (17 km²) site from mineral leasing in its 2004 management plan. In recognition of its preservation efforts, The National Trust for Historic Preservation presented its President's Award to the Anschutz Exploration Corporation.[19] In May 2003, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer reached a settlement with Anschutz after filing a civil complaint accusing Anschutz of accepting IPO shares from Salomon Smith Barney in exchange for Qwest's investment banking business. Anschutz denied any wrongdoing but volunteered to donate a total of $4.4 million to settle the case as long as he selected the recipient organizations in advance.[20] Anschutz paid $100,000 to each of 32 New York nonprofit philanthropic groups, as well as $200,000 to each of six law schools. In return, Spitzer dropped his civil suit.[21] The payment was roughly equal to his profit from the practice of IPO "spinning"; thus, he actually suffered no penalty. Spitzer's suit was panned in a Wall Street Journal editorial headlined "The Anschutz Ransom".[22] The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice extensively investigated Qwest officials and determined there was no justification for taking action against any board member. The Denver Post summarized the implications for Anschutz: "Not only is Qwest founder and board member Philip Anschutz not a defendant in the long-awaited civil case against the regime of former Qwest chief executive Joe Nacchio, he doesn't even merit a mention in the 50-page complaint."[23] In February 2006, the Denver Rocky Mountain News reported that Anschutz would not run for reelection to the boards of Qwest and Union Pacific and would resign from the board of Regal Entertainment Group so as to focus on his other investments.[24] On June 24, 2008, it was announced that Anschutz would buy Xanterra Parks and Resorts, which had purchased the Grand Canyon Railway in 2007.[25] In 2011, it was announced that Anschutz had purchased the Oklahoma Publishing Company, and as part of their assets The Broadmoor and the Manitou and Pike's Peak Railway in Colorado Springs.[26] Effective August 1, 2010, Xanterra Parks and Resorts purchased and assumed management of Kingsmill Resort. Xanterra purchased the resort from Busch Properties, Inc. (BPI). Entertainment — Anschutz Entertainment Group [ edit ] The Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) is a sporting and music entertainment presenter and a subsidiary of The Anschutz Corporation. It is the owner of entertainment venues and under AEG Live the world's second largest presenter of live music and entertainment events after Live Nation. Through AEG Live, it owns the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. On September 18, 2012, Anschutz announced he was putting AEG up for sale, but he decided not to accept[13] any of the bids, and on March 14, 2013, took AEG off the market.[27] Soccer [ edit ] Anschutz is one of only four recipients of the National Soccer Hall of Fame's Medal of Honor for his contributions to growing the sport of soccer in the United States.[28] In 2006 SportsBusiness Journal ranked Anschutz the most influential person in soccer in the U.S.[29] Anschutz was one of the founders of Major League Soccer as well as multiple teams, including the Los Angeles Galaxy, Chicago Fire, Colorado Rapids, Houston Dynamo, San Jose Earthquakes, D.C. United, and the New York/New Jersey MetroStars.[30] He owns a stake in the StubHub Center, the stadium for the MLS team LA Galaxy and former MLS team Chivas USA. For some time, while MLS was struggling, Anschutz owned six MLS franchises and experienced significant financial losses. For this reason, Anschutz has been called the man who saved MLS.[31][32] MLS Commissioner Don Garber stated in 2006 that "without Phil Anschutz, there's no MLS today."[28] Anschutz was instrumental in several MLS initiatives that have grown the league's revenues and profits. For example, he pushed for the building of soccer-specific stadiums, allowing MLS teams to increase revenue and better control costs.[28] Anschutz also advocated for MLS's creation of Soccer United Marketing, the league's sales and marketing arm.[28] He has since sold his stake in the Chicago, Denver, Houston, New York, San Jose and D.C. MLS teams and now owns only the Galaxy. Other sports [ edit ] SportsBusiness Journal named Anschutz the fifth most influential person in sports business in 2012 in its annual survey of the "50 Most Influential People in Sports Business."[33] He owns stakes in the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Kings and in venues including the Staples Center and O2 Arena. AEG is the world's largest owner of sports teams, sports events, and sports venues. Philanthropy [ edit ] One of the world's richest people, Anschutz has been an active philanthropist.[34] He was listed as #113 on the Forbes list of billionaires in January 2015, with a net worth of $10.3 billion.[35] He heads the Anschutz Foundation. Anschutz and his wife have contributed over $100 million to the new medical, dental, nursing, and pharmacy campus of the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, Colorado, now named the Anschutz Medical Campus in their honor. The land came from the recently closed Fitzsimons Army Medical Center, but millions were needed for the construction of new medical laboratory buildings and a new University Hospital on the land. They have also donated to the University of Kansas, their alma mater. There is an Anschutz Library and an Anschutz Sports Pavilion. In recognition of their philanthropic efforts, the Anschutzes were named the winners of the 2009 William E. Simon Prize for Philanthropic Leadership.[36] Other business ventures [ edit ] Anschutz has had multiple other business ventures, including Forest Oil, Pacific Energy Group, Union Pacific Railroad (he is the company's largest shareholder, with a 6% stake), and the Regal Entertainment Group, the largest movie theater chain in the world, with approximately 7,000 screens. Anschutz owns more than half of the company, and multiple newspapers and media groups. Anschutz has invested in, for example, the Clarity Media Group, a Denver-based publishing group that includes[37] newspapers such as The Oklahoman, the largest newspaper in Oklahoma; The San Francisco Examiner (purchased in 2004, sold in November 2011); The Washington Examiner, a right-wing weekly tabloid that was consolidated from group of D.C.-area suburban dailies; The Baltimore Examiner, which launched in April 2006 and was shut down in early 2009; the now-closed Examiner.com, a hyper-local web portal where contributors wrote on local topics from news to blog-like stories; the conservative Weekly Standard (purchased in 2009);[38] and The Gazette, Colorado's second-largest newspaper, with a daily circulation of 74,172 (purchased on November 30, 2012)[39] (Anschutz has trademarked the name "Examiner" in more than 60 cities.) On December 14, 2018, Anschultz executed the closure of The Weekly Standard and fired all its employees. Editor in Chief Stephen Hayes had initially been cleared to find a buyer but after a venture capital firm agreed to broker any future deal, Anschutz withdrew permission and decided to effectively kill the company in order to harvest its subscribers. Anschutz invested in both the Oil & Gas Asset Clearinghouse, an auction company designed for the oil & gas business, and NRC Broadcasting, which owns a string of radio stations in Colorado. The Anschutz Investment Company also purchased LightEdge Solutions in February 2008. LightEdge is a business-to-business hosted services provider focused on Wide-Area-Networking, Voice-over-IP, Hosted Microsoft applications (Exchange, OCS, SharePoint), hosted servers/storage collocation cage and rackspace and Business Continuity Services.[40] It was announced on September 15, 2011, that Anschutz would acquire all assets of the Oklahoma Publishing Company (OPUBCO) from the Gaylord and Dickinson families. Upon closing, Anschutz would operate OPUBCO separately from his other publishing and media assets as an independent company. Closing was expected in October 2011. In March 2012, it was reported that Anschutz was interested in buying the Rangers. He also invested in the Power Company of Wyoming LLC,[41] formed in 2007[42] (re-incorporated in 2010)[43] for the purpose of building the Chokecherry and Sierra Madre wind power complex in Carbon County, Wyoming, comprising up to 1,000 wind turbines with up to 3,000 megawatts of capacity.[41] It will be sited on 229,077 acres, about half federal, about half privately owned by an affiliate, and a smattering of state lands.[44][45] According to the Bureau of Land Management, which on July 2, 2012, announced completion of the project's final Environmental Impact Statement, "Chokecherry and Sierra Madre are two distinct sites approximately five miles apart which are both being analyzed together. When combined, they comprise the largest commercial wind generation facility proposed in the U.S. and one of the largest in the world." Construction is expected to start in 2013, and cost an estimated $4 billion-$6 billion."[46] Political and religious activism [ edit ] Anschutz supported the Parents Television Council, a group that protests against alleged television indecency.[47] He also financed and distributed films with Christian themes for mass audiences (through his two film production companies and ownership of much of the Regal, Edwards and United Artists theater chains) such as Amazing Grace and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.[citation needed] He financed The Foundation for a Better Life. In 2009 Anschutz purchased the conservative American opinion magazine The Weekly Standard from Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.[48] In 2010, he financed the pro-charter school film Waiting for Superman.[49] In 2012, he financed the pro-parent trigger film Won't Back Down.[50] Anschutz reportedly donated to conservative causes and groups that are openly antigay, anti-transgender, and pro-life.[51] He responded to the reports by saying, "Neither I nor the Foundation fund any organization with the purpose or expectation that it would finance anti-LGBTQ initiatives, and when it has come to my attention or the attention of the Anschutz Foundation that certain organizations either the Foundation or I have funded have been supporting such causes, we have immediately ceased all contributions to such groups."[52] Anschutz contributed $1 million to conservatives during the 2016 U.S. elections, including pro-life and pro-gun candidates, and $200,000 to Republican politicians and political action committees during the 2017 elections.[53] In 2018 he donated $1 million to support the Elton John AIDS Foundation LGBT Fund.[54]
Forum Sidebar Events/Features Carefoot Stream - StarCraft 2 Description: You could watch some viewbot esau edomite but, you're here with me. You're saved StarCraft II: "Wings of Liberty": ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ ▼ (Actor from the Nick Tasteless Plott Official Music Video) ▼ ▼(TOP 16 / CODE A - Inventor of the Code A Cast)▼ ▼GSL [Season 3 & 4] ▼ StarCraft II Heart of the Swarm ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ ▼Open Beta - South Korea ▼ StarCraft II Legacy of the Void ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ ▼ Closed Beta - North America▼ Protoss Quest to GM Korea Server [AFTER NA] http://www.youtube.ca/NickCarefoot You know me from the Tasteless Music Video from 2010 when I was in Korea and got as far as InControl. I invented Code A casting. I survived GSL WOL. Caster, player, actor, and overall SC community member. I am a legend. I have played many people from ROOT in North America in WOL to entire pro teams in KR early into Heart of the Swarm release 2011 early alpha. 72 comments. Latest: Nov 21 2018, 09:59 by Carefoot
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Damascus wants more coordination with Baghdad to combat Islamic State fighters who control land in both countries, Syria’s foreign minister said on Wednesday, days after the group seized a border crossing and overran a central Syrian city. Residents walk in Palmyra city May 19, 2015. REUTERS/Stringer Islamic State seized al-Tanf border crossing with Iraq last week and has taken over the desert city of Palmyra, the first time the group has captured a large population center directly from the Syrian military. Though Damascus and Baghdad share a close relationship with Shi’ite Islamist Iran, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem’s comments indicated Damascus was not happy with the level of Iraqi cooperation in the fight against Islamic State. Both countries realized they had to fight together, he said. “But the coordination has not reached the threat level we are facing,” he told a joint news conference in Damascus with his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian, who also met President Bashar al-Assad. Baghdad is coordinating with U.S. forces to combat Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot which has taken territory from government forces in the north and west of the country. In Syria, U.S.-led warplanes are carrying out an aerial campaign which they say is not coordinated with the Syrian military and has focused on areas outside of government control. However Syria says it has been informed of attacks ahead of time and has criticized the U.S.-led raids as ineffective, but has not opposed them. Moualem also said support from Syria’s main allies Russia and Iran remained strong and that they would not hold back on helping Syria to remain “steadfast.” Nalbandian is the third foreign minister to visit Damascus this year after trips by ministers from Iran and Belarus. Syria hosts an Armenian population mainly in the north of the country and is also home to several Armenian churches. Both countries are hostile towards Turkey. Syria blames its northern neighbor for funding and arming insurgents. Turkey has denied arming rebels or helping hardline Islamists. Armenia condemns Ankara for not recognizing what it says was a genocide by Ottoman Turks 100 years ago. Moualem criticized Turkey for what he said were acts of aggression and for violating Syrian airspace. He also dismissed comments by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Tuesday in which he warned Iraq and Syria risked further division if international efforts to tackle Islamic State were not stepped up quickly. “Our people are able to repel any attack and prevent any attempt to partition Syria,” he said. He said France, which supports the four-year uprising against Assad, had supported terrorism and was conspiring against Syria.
ClojureScript on Node.js is a (potentially) compelling story for writing scripting apps with Clojure. I am just now finishing up the first of a handful of example apps to help tease out the approach, tooling, and ClojureScript patches needed to make Clojure a viable option in this regard. git-ttt git-ttt is a git-backed, text-based, ticket tracker written in ClojureScript, making use of EDN as the storage format, supporting datalog-like query driven by core.logic, running on Node.js. I pushed an early glimpse of it to github and published an intro screencast to allow those that are curious to see it in action. Two interesting pieces of the project are its use of protocols and the approach to avoiding constant callbacks. Protocols “Program to an interface, never to an implementation.” and “Favor composition over inheritance.” – Gang of Four Protocols enable developers to open their systems for extension, while also allowing others to compose targeted functionality ala carte. Shoreleave’s pubsub abstractions and git-ttt’s search abstraction are two concrete examples to see these benefits. In Shoreleave, one can extend the full functionality of the pubsub to any object in ClojureScript and extend the pubsub bus abstraction to any implementation. Participation in this system is open to all, from all directions. In TTT, the search protocol specifies a function to compare two attributes, while falling back on equality in the default case. This allows plugins to extend search functionality and behavior. Blocking Deref One challenge when working with ClojureScript is staying true to Clojure style and programming with values, while also conforming to JavaScript’s callbacks. One strategy in the browser is isolating those cases and placing them at the end of a threading macro. Node rests its foundation on callbacks, so a strategy built around promises becomes useful. Promises within JavaScript provide freedom from the constant callback concern, enable proper exception handling within the context of the exception, return the programmer to focusing on values, and allow for styling and composing ClojureScript like traditional Clojure code. The pattern I’ve fallen back on is a combination of dynamic vars, promises, and a function called blocking-deref. Scripting applications usually have some global constants (for example a file path string), which you might need to set from an external system call. A more concrete example- TTT needs to know some of the user’s git settings, which are fetched with the git command via Node’s system exec call. The result (a map of git config keys to their values) is bound to a dynamic var and the rest of code is written against that dynamic var. To actually get that result though, we use an atom, a promise, and the threading macro. First we write the system call to git in a standard callback style, except an atom will contain the eventual result. Multiple requests are threaded, passing the atom along and building up the data. A promise awaits the values in the atom. Blocking-deref just ticks away Node’s internal process until the promise is fulfilled. This overall approach is similar in notion to how transients work. From a top-level, the value of the promises set the dynamic vars or are passed in before kicking off the main application loop. Scripting Clojure apps on Node.js is a real possibility and a complete pleasure by using the platform (Google Closure), the host (Node.js), and the language cooperatively.
It must have been a slightly uncomfortable moment for the village official. China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, had come to Shibadong village to gauge conditions in a poor corner of Hunan Province. Upon entering the home of a family whose sole electrical appliance was a fluorescent bulb, the most powerful man in China was asked by the 64-year-old matriarch, “What do I call you?,” according to a report from Xinhua, the state-run news agency. It was a polite way of saying, “Who are you?” The village official stepped in quickly, telling his constituent, “This is the general secretary.” Mr. Xi, in a version of retail politicking with Chinese characteristics, then asked the woman’s age, and learning she was four years his senior, called her “older sister.” He proceeded with several detailed questions about her family’s livelihood: Were they getting enough to eat? Did they have fruit trees? Raise pigs? For sale or their own consumption? Photo Mr. Xi’s focus on the details of agricultural economics in Xiangxi Prefecture, a region of steep valleys that is dominated by members of the Tujia and Miao ethnic groups, shouldn’t be a surprise. The photograph of him sitting with the woman and her husband is not unlike one of him as a young county Communist Party secretary in Zhengding County, Hebei Province, in 1983. Rural study trips by Chinese officials, and subsequent images of them meeting with the people, are a staple of the official portrayals of Chinese leaders dating to Mao Zedong, the founder of the People’s Republic. What’s different about this latest depiction of Mr. Xi is the attention that one citizen’s lack of knowledge of China’s new leader was given by the official news media. During the Mao era, such ignorance was inconceivable. The individual power and profile of China’s top leaders have declined greatly since his time. Still, it is hard to imagine such an an interaction being played up during the term of Mr. Xi’s predecessor, Hu Jintao. Whether in photos with his pants rolled up in a rainstorm or sweating through his shirt while meeting with earthquake victims in Sichuan, state media over the past year have emphasized the idea of Mr. Xi as a man of the people. His trip to a remote region of Hunan is a reminder that, while China now has nearly 600 million Internet users, there is another half of the country’s population without Internet access. In the case of Shibadong village, there are people without televisions or the means to readily know, outside perhaps the occasional newspaper, just what the country’s leader looks like. As the Communist Party’s current Central Committee plans for its Third Plenum, which begins on Nov. 9, and discussion turns to possible economic policy changes, it’s a signal that amid China’s rapid growth, Mr. Xi remains aware of the needs of the nation’s poorest. And as a leader who has cast himself as a man of the people, he doesn’t mind that one of the people doesn’t immediately know who he is.
Cable Sports TV Ratings for Saturday March 25, 2017: (includes overall cable top-10) Note to readers using mobile phones: the tables are easier to read/scroll through if you tilt your phone to landscape orientation. Program Episode Network Start End Total Viewers (000) Viewers Age 18-49 (000) TBS NCAA BSKBL CHMP SA-2 KANSAS/OREGON TBS NETWORK 8:40 PM 10:55 PM 9,312 3,564 TBS NCAA BSKBL-BRIDGE-SAT TBS NETWORK 8:26 PM 8:40 PM 6,515 2,446 TBS NCAA BSKBL CHMP SA-1 XAVIER/GONZAGA TBS NETWORK 6:00 PM 8:26 PM 6,048 2,213 TBS NCAA BKB POST GAME-SA INSIDE MARCH MADNESS PRESENTED BY BUICK TBS NETWORK 10:58 PM 11:30 PM 3,777 1,696 JUSTICE W/ JUDGE JEANINE FOX NEWS CHANNEL 9:00 PM 10:00 PM 2,241 213 INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGE INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGE HBO PRIME 8:00 PM 10:00 PM 2,133 862 SPONGEBOB 211 - PLANKTON RETIRES/TRIDENT TROUBLE NICKELODEON 10:00 AM 10:30 AM 2,071 611 FIXER UPPER HFXUP-407BH HOME AND GARDEN TV 5:00 PM 6:00 PM 1,991 650 WATTERS WORLD FOX NEWS CHANNEL 8:00 PM 9:00 PM 1,953 210 NCIS USA NETWORK 10:00 PM 11:00 PM 1,870 348 WMNS NCAA BKBL CHAMP L UCLA/CONNECTICUT ESPN 1:57 PM 4:02 PM 1,477 377 NASCAR XFINITY SERIES L FONTANA FOX SPORTS 1 4:00 PM 6:55 PM 1,460 296 NASCAR XFINITY POST L FONTANA FOX SPORTS 1 6:55 PM 7:00 PM 1,375 283 NCAA STUDIO UPDATE L ESPN 1:30 PM 1:57 PM 1,248 373 ROAD TO FINAL FOUR-SAT TBS NETWORK 5:00 PM 6:00 PM 1,042 399 WMNS NCAA BKBL CHAMP L QUINNIPIAC/SOUTH CAROLINA ESPN 4:02 PM 5:56 PM 988 256 WMNS NCAA BKBL CHAMP L OREGON/MARYLAND ESPN 11:30 AM 1:30 PM 920 304 SPORTSCENTER WEEKEND-AM L ESPN 10:00 AM 11:00 AM 771 417 SPORTSCENTER WEEKEND-AM L ESPN 11:00 AM 11:30 AM 764 380 WCB: 3/25/17 GOLOVKIN/JAC HBO PRIME 10:00 PM 12:00 AM 709 287 NASCAR RACEDAY: XFINITY L FONTANA FOX SPORTS 1 3:30 PM 4:00 PM 695 154 NCAA STUDIO UPDATE L ESPN 5:56 PM 6:22 PM 632 165 SPORTSCENTER WEEKEND-AM L ESPN 9:00 AM 10:00 AM 610 328 PGA TOUR 2017 WGC-DELL MATCH PLAY GOLF CHANNEL 10:00 AM 1:46 PM 603 95 SPORTSCENTER WEEKEND-AM L ESPN 8:00 AM 9:00 AM 582 310 NASCAR M.E. CUP FIN PRA L FONTANA FOX SPORTS 1 2:30 PM 3:30 PM 573 126 WMNS NCAA BKBL CHAMP L FLORIDA STATE/OREGON STATE ESPN 6:22 PM 8:23 PM 568 155 SPORTSCENTER 12AM L ESPN 12:00 AM 1:00 AM 558 281 SPORTSCENTER 1AM L ESPN 1:00 AM 2:00 AM 525 274 SPORTSCENTER MORNING L ESPN 2:00 AM 3:00 AM 492 261 NASCAR XFINITY QUALIFY L FONTANA FOX SPORTS 1 12:30 PM 1:58 PM 491 75 SPORTSCENTER LATE L ESPN 11:00 PM 12:00 AM 461 245 NASCAR RACE HUB WKND ED L FONTANA FOX SPORTS 1 1:58 PM 2:30 PM 437 79 SPORTSCENTER MORNING ESPN 7:00 AM 8:00 AM 422 205 NCAA STUDIO UPDATE L ESPN 8:23 PM 9:00 PM 404 120 SPORTSCENTER MORNING ESPN 6:00 AM 7:00 AM 384 206 MONSTER ENERGY SUPERCR L DETROIT FOX SPORTS 1 7:00 PM 10:00 PM 381 159 SPORTSCENTER MORNING ESPN 3:00 AM 4:00 AM 366 252 SPORTSCENTER MORNING ESPN 5:00 AM 6:00 AM 354 218 NASCAR M.E. CUP PRAC L FONTANA FOX SPORTS 1 11:30 AM 12:30 PM 339 63 NBA REGULAR SEASON L WASHINGTON/CLEVELAND NBA-TV 7:33 PM 10:00 PM 323 146 SPORTSCENTER MORNING ESPN 4:00 AM 5:00 AM 310 204 ESPN ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY 30 FOR 30: THE PRICE OF GOLD ESPN2 1:30 PM 3:00 PM 275 136 MECUM AUTO AUCTIONS KANSAS CITY - 3/25/17 NBC SPORTS NETWORK 1:31 PM 5:00 PM 275 55 UFC RELOADED 207:NUNES/ROUSEY FOX SPORTS 1 10:00 PM 1:00 AM 261 126 ESPN ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY 30 FOR 30: THE U ESPN 9:00 PM 11:00 PM 248 128 ESPN ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY 30 FOR 30: THIS WAS THE XFL ESPN2 12:00 PM 1:30 PM 214 102 NCAA HOCKEY CHAMP L NOTRE DAME/MINNESOTA ESPNU 3:43 PM 6:10 PM 212 86 MASTERS SERIES MIAMI ATPWTA:MR2 FEDR/TIAF THE TENNIS CHANNEL 3:35 PM 4:56 PM 203 45 COLLEGE BASEBALL L LSU/FLORIDA ESPN2 3:00 PM 6:00 PM 199 82 PGA TOUR 2017 PUERTO RICO OPEN GOLF CHANNEL 1:46 PM 5:59 PM 194 34 NASCAR M.E. CUP QUALIFY FONTANA FOX SPORTS 1 10:30 AM 11:30 AM 189 42 SPORTSCENTER WEEKEND-AM L ESPN2 11:30 AM 12:00 PM 183 76 NBA POSTGAME SHOW NBA GAMETIME PRESENTED BY KIA NBA-TV 10:00 PM 11:00 PM 179 95 COLL SOFTBALL REG SSN L AUBURN/FLORIDA ESPN2 6:00 PM 8:23 PM 175 50 LPGA TOUR 2017 KIA CLASSIC GOLF CHANNEL 5:59 PM 9:00 PM 168 12 NCAA HOCKEY CHAMP L BOSTON UNIVERSITY/MINNESOTA DULUTH ESPNU 6:10 PM 8:46 PM 157 67 SPRING TRAINING DET AT PIT MLB NETWORK 1:00 PM 3:48 PM 157 23 FOOTBALL LIFE JOE NAMATH PT II NFL NETWORK 2:00 PM 3:00 PM 153 45 MASTERS SERIES MIAMI ATPWTA:WR3 MUGG/ZHAS THE TENNIS CHANNEL 1:19 PM 3:35 PM 152 27 F1 PRE RACE AUSTRALIA NBC SPORTS NETWORK 12:00 AM 12:27 AM 150 29 MASTERS SERIES MIAMI ATPWTA:MR2 CORB/THID THE TENNIS CHANNEL 4:56 PM 6:12 PM 149 24 HORSE RACING DUBAI WORLD CUP NBC SPORTS NETWORK 10:30 AM 1:31 PM 145 44 OFFSHORE BOAT RACING SUPERBOATS NBC SPORTS NETWORK 5:00 PM 6:00 PM 140 37 F1 QUALIFYING AUSTRALIA NBC SPORTS NETWORK 2:00 AM 3:30 AM 138 37 SPRING TRAINING BRIDGE BRIDGE SHOW MLB NETWORK 3:48 PM 4:10 PM 136 35 PARTIDO AMISTOSO 3/25 CRUZ AZUL / UNAM UNIVISION DEPORTES 6:55 PM 9:13 PM 127 72 F1 QUALIFYING AUSTRALIA NBC SPORTS NETWORK 10:30 PM 12:00 AM 125 32 NCAA HOCKEY CHAMP L AIR FORCE/HARVARD ESPNU 8:46 PM 11:00 PM 122 53 UEFA ELIMINATORIAS PORTUGAL VS HUNGRIA FOX DEPORTES 3:34 PM 5:55 PM 120 84 SPRING TRAINING SD AT SF MLB NETWORK 7:00 PM 9:45 PM 120 37 FOOTBALL LIFE TROY AIKMAN NFL NETWORK 4:00 PM 5:00 PM 120 56 SPRING TRAINING TEX AT SEA MLB NETWORK 4:10 PM 6:37 PM 119 41 MASTERS SERIES MIAMI ATPWTA:WR3 MATB/PAVA THE TENNIS CHANNEL 12:23 PM 1:19 PM 118 11 MICHAEL JORDAN MJ - COME FLY WITH ME NBA-TV 1:00 PM 2:00 PM 116 62 FOOTBALL LIFE KURT WARNER NFL NETWORK 3:00 PM 4:00 PM 116 45 CHEERLEADING 2017 COLLEGE CHAMPIONSHIP ESPN2 11:00 AM 11:30 AM 113 21 NASCAR XFINITY FIN PRAC FONTANA FOX SPORTS 1 9:30 AM 10:30 AM 113 28 FOOTBALL LIFE DOUG FLUTIE NFL NETWORK 6:00 PM 7:00 PM 112 62 FOOTBALL LIFE JOE NAMATH PT I NFL NETWORK 1:00 PM 2:00 PM 112 37 MASTERS SERIES MIAMI ATPWTA:WR3 WOZC/CIRS THE TENNIS CHANNEL 11:42 PM 1:10 AM 111 26 CHEERLEADING 2017 COLLEGE CHAMPIONSHIP ESPN2 10:00 AM 11:00 AM 109 31 COLLEGE BASEBALL L OKLAHOMA STATE/TCU ESPN2 8:23 PM 11:31 PM 109 47 GOLF CENTRAL PREGAME GOLF CHANNEL 9:00 AM 10:00 AM 104 22 MECUM TOP 10 MOPAR NBC SPORTS NETWORK 10:00 PM 10:30 PM 102 21 ESPN ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY 30 FOR 30: THIS WAS THE XFL ESPN2 12:00 AM 1:30 AM 100 68 FOOTBALL LIFE MICHAEL VICK NFL NETWORK 5:00 PM 6:00 PM 100 46 FOOTBALL LIFE KEN STABLER NFL NETWORK 7:00 PM 8:00 PM 99 45 NBA GAMETIME LIVE NBA GAMETIME LIVE NBA-TV 11:00 PM 1:00 AM 98 55 COLLEGE GAMEDAY-BKBL ESPN2 9:00 AM 10:00 AM 96 30 MASTERS SERIES MIAMI ATPWTA:MR2 DELJ/HAAR THE TENNIS CHANNEL 10:11 PM 11:42 PM 96 20 PGA TOUR: NBC 2017 WGC-DELL MATCH PLAY GOLF CHANNEL 10:00 PM 1:45 AM 94 22 MASTERS SERIES MIAMI ATPWTA:MR2 WAWS/ZEBH THE TENNIS CHANNEL 11:06 AM 12:23 PM 93 14 WORLD CUP QUALIFIER MEXICO/COSTA RICA FOX SPORTS 1 1:00 AM 3:10 AM 90 55 SPRING TRAINING BRIDGE BRIDGE SHOW MLB NETWORK 6:37 PM 7:00 PM 88 19 NBA PREGAME SHOW AUTOTRADER PREGAME SHOW NBA-TV 7:00 PM 7:33 PM 88 54 E:60 ESPN2 11:31 PM 12:00 AM 87 45 COLLEGE LACROSSE L DUKE/SYRACUSE ESPNU 1:34 PM 3:43 PM 87 35 CURLING WOMENS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP NBC SPORTS NETWORK 7:00 PM 10:00 PM 86 32 RENO NATIONAL AIR RACE NBC SPORTS NETWORK 6:00 PM 7:00 PM 86 20 PREMIER LEAGUE ENCORE TOTTENHAM/LIVERPOOL NBC SPORTS NETWORK 9:00 AM 10:30 AM 84 23 MASTERS SERIES MIAMI ATPWTA-E:MR2 FEDR/TIAF THE TENNIS CHANNEL 6:12 PM 7:48 PM 82 14 ESPN ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY 30 FOR 30: SURVIVE AND ADVANCE ESPN2 7:00 AM 9:00 AM 81 33 TOP 100 RIGHT NOW 2017 TOP 100 40-21 1A MLB NETWORK 1:05 AM 1:15 AM 78 40 WORLD CUP QUALIFIER L PORTUGAL/HUNGARY FOX SPORTS 2 3:30 PM 6:00 PM 77 38 MASTERS SERIES MIAMI ATPWTA:WR3 CIBD/FLIK THE TENNIS CHANNEL 9:19 PM 10:11 PM 77 11 WORLD CUP QUALIFIER L SWEDEN/BELARUS FOX SPORTS 2 12:45 PM 3:00 PM 76 32 SPRING TRAINING NYM AT ATL MLB NETWORK 11:00 PM 1:05 AM 76 35 MICHAEL JORDAN MJ - AIR TIME NBA-TV 12:00 PM 1:00 PM 72 38 CONTACTO DEPORTIVO L UNIVISION DEPORTES 9:13 PM 10:00 PM 72 41 FOOTBALL LIFE BRETT FAVRE NFL NETWORK 9:00 PM 10:00 PM 71 22 FOOTBALL LIFE STEVE YOUNG NFL NETWORK 8:00 PM 9:00 PM 71 29 EL TRI EN 60 UNIVISION DEPORTES 1:00 PM 2:00 PM 71 42 NASCAR XFINITY PRACTICE FONTANA FOX SPORTS 1 8:30 AM 9:30 AM 69 25 MLB TONIGHT 30 CLUBS/30 DAYS: PIRATES MLB NETWORK 9:45 PM 11:00 PM 69 24 COLLEGE LACROSSE L MARYLAND/NORTH CAROLINA ESPNU 11:30 AM 1:34 PM 68 36 UEFA ELIMINATORIAS PREVIA FOX DEPORTES 3:00 PM 3:34 PM 68 37 MASTERS SERIES MIAMI ATPWTA-E:MR2 WAWS/ZEBH THE TENNIS CHANNEL 1:10 AM 2:26 AM 68 17 ESPN ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY 30 FOR 30: PHI SLAMA JAMA ESPN2 6:00 AM 7:00 AM 67 27 NBA GAMETIME GAMETIME 3/25/17 NBA-TV 2:30 AM 3:00 AM 66 33 NBA INSIDE STUFF P INSIDE STUFF N418 NBA-TV 6:30 PM 7:00 PM 66 31 WORLD CUP QUALIFIER USA USA/HONDURAS FOX SPORTS 1 6:30 AM 8:30 AM 64 31 NFL FILMS PRESENTS WE LIKE THAT NFL NETWORK 12:00 PM 12:30 PM 64 28 MASTERS SERIES MIAMI ATPWTA-E:MR2 WAWS/ZEBH THE TENNIS CHANNEL 7:48 PM 9:19 PM 64 10 NBA GAMETIME GAMETIME 3/25/17 NBA-TV 2:00 AM 2:30 AM 63 25 MADDEN NFL AMERICA MADDEN NFL AMERICA NFL NETWORK 12:30 PM 1:00 PM 63 35 NBA TV MARQUEE MATCHUP LA CLIPPERS/DALLAS NBA-TV 2:00 PM 4:00 PM 62 26 LA ULT PALABRA WKND FOX DEPORTES 12:00 AM 1:00 AM 60 20 ESPN ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY 30 FOR 30: PHI SLAMA JAMA ESPN2 5:30 AM 6:00 AM 58 21 GOLF CENTRAL-POST GOLF CHANNEL 9:00 PM 10:00 PM 58 5 MASTERS SERIES TC LIVE: MIAMI ATPWTA THE TENNIS CHANNEL 10:00 AM 11:06 AM 58 7 SPRING TRAINING CWS AT OAK MLB NETWORK 9:00 AM 12:00 PM 57 14 NFL FOLLIES PHENOMENAL FOOTBALL NFL NETWORK 11:00 AM 12:00 PM 56 21 NBA GAMETIME GAMETIME 3/25/17 NBA-TV 1:00 AM 1:30 AM 54 26 MASTERS SERIES MIAMI ATPWTA-E:WR3 MATB/PAVA THE TENNIS CHANNEL 2:26 AM 3:00 AM 53 18 FORMULA 1 PREVIO L UNIVISION DEPORTES 12:03 AM 12:30 AM 53 30 NBA GAMETIME GAMETIME 3/24/17 NBA-TV 11:00 AM 12:00 PM 52 30 UCL MAGAZINE 121 FOX SPORTS 2 3:00 PM 3:30 PM 51 33 NBA INSIDE STUFF REAIR INSIDE STUFF N418 NBA-TV 1:30 AM 2:00 AM 50 24 UNDISPUTED 139 FOX SPORTS 1 3:10 AM 5:00 AM 49 22 TIMELINE FAVRE RETURNS NFL NETWORK 10:00 PM 11:00 PM 49 22 MLB NETWORK BREAKDOWN 2016 MLBN BREAKDOWN 8:30A MLB NETWORK 8:30 AM 9:00 AM 48 15 MLB TONIGHT MLB TONIGHT 12P MLB NETWORK 12:00 PM 1:00 PM 48 15 PATH TO THE DRAFT PATH TO THE DRAFT NFL NETWORK 9:00 AM 10:00 AM 48 25 UEFA ELIMINATORIAS SUECIA VS BIELORRUSIA FOX DEPORTES 12:51 PM 3:00 PM 47 27 PARTIDO AMISTOSO L SEATTLE SOUNDERS / NECAXA UNIVISION DEPORTES 10:00 PM 12:03 AM 47 27 NFL FOLLIES THE NFL TV FOLLIES NFL NETWORK 10:00 AM 11:00 AM 45 17 SPECIAL OLYMPICS 2017 WORLD GAMES ESPN2 3:00 AM 4:00 AM 44 18 ENTERTAINMENT BRACKET GENIUS ESPNU 10:30 AM 11:00 AM 44 24 UEFA ELIMINATORIAS BOSNIA Y HERZEGOVINA VS GIBRALTAR FOX DEPORTES 5:55 PM 8:00 PM 43 20 TOP 100 RIGHT NOW 2017 TOP 100 40-21 MLB NETWORK 8:23 AM 8:30 AM 43 19 GAME OF THE DAY PHOENIX/BOSTON NBA-TV 4:30 PM 6:30 PM 43 16 NBA ACTION NBA ACTION 2625 NBA-TV 4:00 PM 4:30 PM 43 20 CONTACTO DEPORTIVO L UNIVISION DEPORTES 6:00 PM 6:55 PM 43 25 SPORTSCENTERU L ESPNU 11:00 PM 12:00 AM 42 18 MORNING DRIVE GOLF CHANNEL 8:00 AM 9:00 AM 42 14 MADDEN NFL AMERICA MADDEN NFL AMERICA NFL NETWORK 12:30 AM 1:00 AM 42 23 COLLEGE GAMEDAY-BKBL ESPN2 4:30 AM 5:30 AM 41 18 PRIME 9 HITTING SEASONS MLB NETWORK 1:30 AM 2:00 AM 41 27 NBA GAMETIME GAMETIME 3/24/17 NBA-TV 10:00 AM 11:00 AM 41 30 PRODUCT SHOWCASE NBC SPORTS NETWORK 3:30 AM 4:00 AM 41 10 TMZ SPORTS 360 FOX SPORTS 1 5:00 AM 5:30 AM 40 20 NFL TOTAL ACCESS WEEK IN REVIEW NFL NETWORK 11:00 PM 12:00 AM 40 12 SELECCION EEUU EN 60 ESTADOS UNIDOS / HONDURAS UNIVISION DEPORTES 12:00 PM 1:00 PM 40 20 SPRING TRAINING TB AT PIT MLB NETWORK 6:00 AM 8:23 AM 39 19 NBA ACTION NBA ACTION 2625 NBA-TV 5:30 AM 6:00 AM 39 24 NFL FILMS PRESENTS WE LIKE THAT NFL NETWORK 12:00 AM 12:30 AM 39 11 UEFA WORLD CUP Q L BELGICA / GRECIA UNIVISION DEPORTES 3:33 PM 6:00 PM 39 20 GOLF CENTRAL GOLF CHANNEL 2:48 AM 3:27 AM 38 14 NBA SPECIAL NBA.COM HIGHLIGHTS NBA-TV 5:18 AM 5:30 AM 38 27 NFL FILMS PRESENTS WE LIKE THAT NFL NETWORK 8:30 AM 9:00 AM 37 15 ENTERTAINMENT BRACKET GENIUS ESPNU 11:00 AM 11:30 AM 36 23 WORLD CUP QUALIFIER USA USA/HONDURAS FOX SPORTS 2 11:00 AM 12:45 PM 36 12 ESPN ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY 62 - LEGENDARY STREAK OF MAINE-ENDWELL ESPN2 4:00 AM 4:30 AM 35 17 UFC TOP TEN FEUDS FOX SPORTS 2 1:30 AM 2:00 AM 35 24 NBA GAMETIME GAMETIME 3/24/17 NBA-TV 9:00 AM 10:00 AM 35 25 WORLD CUP QUALIFIER USA USA/HONDURAS FOX SPORTS 2 4:00 AM 6:00 AM 33 10 LPGA TOUR 2017 KIA CLASSIC GOLF CHANNEL 3:27 AM 5:00 AM 33 12 PREMIER LEAGUE ENCORE BURNLEY/LIVERPOOL NBC SPORTS NETWORK 7:00 AM 9:00 AM 33 14 90 IN 30 - URUGUAY VS. BRAZIL BEIN SPORT ESPANOL 11:30 AM 11:57 AM 32 10 SAWCQ-R ARGENTINA VS. CHILE BEIN SPORT ESPANOL 7:00 PM 9:00 PM 32 19 NBA REGULAR SEASON RE-AIR ATLANTA/MILWAUKEE NBA-TV 3:00 AM 5:18 AM 32 20 SAWCQ-R URUGUAY VS. BRAZIL BEIN SPORT ESPANOL 9:00 PM 11:00 PM 31 16 SPORTSCENTERU ESPNU 12:00 AM 1:00 AM 31 15 UEFA ELIMINATORIAS - R PORTUGAL VS HUNGRIA FOX DEPORTES 10:00 PM 12:00 AM 31 19 UFC TONIGHT 136 FOX SPORTS 1 5:30 AM 6:00 AM 31 19 WORLD CUP QUAL HIGHL MD5: FRIDAY FOX SPORTS 2 3:00 AM 4:00 AM 31 12 TOP 100 RIGHT NOW 2017 TOP 100 20-1 MLB NETWORK 1:15 AM 1:30 AM 31 20 90 IN 30 - PARAGUAY VS. ECUADOR BEIN SPORT ESPANOL 11:01 AM 11:30 AM 30 11 NBA GAMETIME GAMETIME 3/24/17 NBA-TV 6:00 AM 7:00 AM 30 8 PRODUCT SHOWCASE NBC SPORTS NETWORK 4:30 AM 5:00 AM 30 7 MASTERS SERIES MIAMI ATPWTA-E:WR2 WILV/HADB THE TENNIS CHANNEL 8:30 AM 10:00 AM 30 3 FORMULA 1 SAT UNIVISION DEPORTES 12:30 AM 12:53 AM 30 16 UFC TONIGHT 136 FOX SPORTS 1 6:00 AM 6:30 AM 29 16 MLB TONIGHT MLB TONIGHT 5A MLB NETWORK 5:00 AM 6:00 AM 29 16 NBA GAMETIME GAMETIME 3/24/17 NBA-TV 7:00 AM 8:00 AM 28 15 SPORTSCENTERU ESPNU 10:00 AM 10:30 AM 27 11 UEFA ELIMINATORIAS - R ITALIA VS ALBANIA FOX DEPORTES 8:00 PM 10:00 PM 27 12 PGA TOUR 2017 PUERTO RICO-WEATHER GOLF CHANNEL 5:00 AM 6:00 AM 27 6 NFL FOLLIES THE NFL TV FOLLIES NFL NETWORK 1:00 AM 2:00 AM 27 7 TOURNAMENT MIAMI ATPWTA-E:WR2 MUGG/MCHC THE TENNIS CHANNEL 3:00 AM 4:21 AM 27 4 LA LIGA WORLD - LA LIGA WORLD BEIN SPORT ESPANOL 10:30 AM 11:01 AM 26 10 UEFA CL SEMANAL FOX DEPORTES 12:00 PM 12:30 PM 26 12 PRODUCT SHOWCASE NBC SPORTS NETWORK 4:00 AM 4:30 AM 26 6 NBA ACTION UNIVISION DEPORTES 10:30 AM 11:00 AM 26 10 ZONA AZUL UNIVISION DEPORTES 9:30 AM 10:00 AM 26 15 SAWCQ-R ARGENTINA VS. CHILE BEIN SPORT 10:15 PM 12:10 AM 25 3 SPORTSCENTERU ESPNU 3:00 AM 4:00 AM 25 9 UFC MAIN EVENT MIOCIC/OVEREEM/CM PUNK/GALL FOX SPORTS 2 2:00 AM 3:00 AM 25 20 MORNING DRIVE GOLF CHANNEL 7:00 AM 8:00 AM 25 2 ZONA NECAXA UNIVISION DEPORTES 9:00 AM 9:30 AM 25 16 BOXING VELOCIDAD VS. POER/PAEZ JR. VS. SANDOVAL BEIN SPORT ESPANOL 11:00 PM 1:00 AM 24 7 UFC SPECIAL PRESENTATION 206 FOX SPORTS 2 7:00 AM 9:00 AM 24 13 MADDEN NFL AMERICA MADDEN NFL AMERICA NFL NETWORK 8:00 AM 8:30 AM 24 6 NBA GAMETIME GAMETIME 3/24/17 NBA-TV 8:00 AM 9:00 AM 23 15 NFL FOLLIES PHENOMENAL FOOTBALL NFL NETWORK 2:00 AM 3:00 AM 23 5 FIA FORMULA1 CMP MNDL SAT GRAN PREMIO DE AUSTRALIA 2017 UNIVISION DEPORTES 2:00 PM 3:00 PM 23 12 LIGA MX EN 60 UNIVISION DEPORTES 11:00 AM 12:00 PM 23 12 ZONA PUMA UNIVISION DEPORTES 10:00 AM 10:30 AM 23 12 SPORTSCENTERU ESPNU 7:00 AM 8:00 AM 22 9 CENTRAL FOX WKND FOX DEPORTES 1:00 AM 2:00 AM 22 14 LA ULT PALABRA WKND ENC FOX DEPORTES 11:00 AM 12:00 PM 22 10 PGA TOUR 2017 PUERTO RICO-WEATHER GOLF CHANNEL 6:00 AM 7:00 AM 22 2 TOP 100 RIGHT NOW 2017 TOP 100 20-1 4:45A MLB NETWORK 4:44 AM 5:00 AM 22 6 MASTERS SERIES MIAMI ATPWTA-E:MR2 DONJ/ZVEM THE TENNIS CHANNEL 6:00 AM 6:09 AM 22 2 EXPRESS WEEKEND-L EXPRESS XTRA WEEKEND-L BEIN SPORT ESPANOL 5:44 PM 7:00 PM 21 10 SPORTSCENTERU ESPNU 1:00 AM 2:00 AM 21 12 2018 FIFA WORLD CUP MAG 19 FOX SPORTS 2 6:00 PM 6:30 PM 21 6 WORLD CUP QUALIFIER USA USA/HONDURAS FOX SPORTS 2 7:00 PM 9:00 PM 21 6 FORMULA 1 CLASIFICACION L GRAN PREMIO DE AUSTRALIA UNIVISION DEPORTES 1:55 AM 3:10 AM 21 15 90IN30 CONMEBOL-R VENEZUELA VS. PERU BEIN SPORT 2:30 PM 3:00 PM 20 8 UFC TOP TEN KNOCKOUT ARTISTS FOX SPORTS 2 1:00 AM 1:30 AM 20 7 PL BEHIND THE BADGE WEST BROM 3 NBC SPORTS NETWORK 6:30 AM 7:00 AM 20 13 PRODUCT SHOWCASE NBC SPORTS NETWORK 5:00 AM 5:30 AM 20 6 EXPRESS WEEKEND-L BEIN SPORT 11:55 AM 1:00 PM 19 2 EXPRESS WEEKEND-L EXPRESS XTRA WEEKEND-L BEIN SPORT ESPANOL 11:57 AM 1:01 PM 19 5 SPORTSCENTERU ESPNU 6:00 AM 7:00 AM 19 10 WORLD CUP QUAL HIGHL MD5: SATURDAY FOX SPORTS 2 9:00 PM 10:00 PM 19 3 EXPRESS WEEKEND-R EXPRES XTRA WEEKEND-R BEIN SPORT 12:10 AM 1:10 AM 18 6 LA LIGA WORLD - LIGAWORLD BEIN SPORT 7:30 PM 7:45 PM 18 14 SPORTSCENTERU ESPNU 4:00 AM 5:00 AM 18 5 SPORTSCENTERU ESPNU 2:00 AM 3:00 AM 18 11 UEFA ELIMINATORIAS PREVIA FOX DEPORTES 12:30 PM 12:51 PM 18 15 TOURNAMENT MIAMI ATPWTA-E:WR2 KEYM/GOLV THE TENNIS CHANNEL 4:21 AM 5:33 AM 18 3 FIA FORMULA1 CMP MNDL SAT GRAN PREMIO DE AUSTRALIA 2017 UNIVISION DEPORTES 12:53 AM 3:00 AM 18 12 ZONA AGUILA UNIVISION DEPORTES 8:00 AM 9:00 AM 18 12 CENTRAL FOX WKND AM-R FOX DEPORTES 8:00 AM 9:00 AM 17 9 CENTRAL FOX WKND ENC FOX DEPORTES 10:00 AM 11:00 AM 17 9 LA ULT PALABRA WKND ENC FOX DEPORTES 9:00 AM 10:00 AM 17 11 UFC TOP TEN KNOCKOUT ARTISTS FOX SPORTS 2 9:00 AM 9:30 AM 17 10 SUPER BOWL CLASSICS SB XLIX - NE VS. SEA NFL NETWORK 3:00 AM 6:00 AM 17 7 90 IN 30 - COLOMBIA VS. BOLIVIA BEIN SPORT ESPANOL 3:00 PM 3:30 PM 16 3 UFC SOUND WAVES MIXED EMOTIONS FOX SPORTS 2 10:30 AM 11:00 AM 16 7 UFC TOP TEN KNOCKOUT ARTISTS FOX SPORTS 2 6:30 AM 7:00 AM 16 9 SPRING TRAINING PHI AT NYY MLB NETWORK 2:00 AM 4:44 AM 16 5 PL BEHIND THE BADGE WEST BROM 2 NBC SPORTS NETWORK 6:00 AM 6:30 AM 16 15 NFL TOTAL ACCESS NFL TOTAL ACCESS NFL NETWORK 7:00 AM 8:00 AM 16 7 TOURNAMENT MIAMI ATPWTA-E:MR2 DONJ/ZVEM THE TENNIS CHANNEL 5:33 AM 6:00 AM 16 3 UCL MAGAZINE 121 FOX SPORTS 2 6:00 AM 6:30 AM 15 9 UFC SOUND WAVES CONOR MCGREGOR FOX SPORTS 2 10:00 AM 10:30 AM 15 7 UFC TOP TEN FEUDS FOX SPORTS 2 9:30 AM 10:00 AM 15 8 MASTERS SERIES MIAMI ATPWTA-E:MR2 PELG/DIMG THE TENNIS CHANNEL 7:46 AM 8:30 AM 15 2 90IN30 CONCACAF TRINIDAD & TOBAGO VS. PANAMA BEIN SPORT 2:00 PM 2:30 PM 14 9 90 IN 30 - VENEZUELA VS. PERU BEIN SPORT ESPANOL 1:30 PM 2:00 PM 14 4 SPORTSCENTERU ESPNU 5:00 AM 6:00 AM 14 6 NFL TOTAL ACCESS NFL TOTAL ACCESS NFL NETWORK 6:00 AM 7:00 AM 13 3 MASTERS SERIES MIAMI ATPWTA-E:MR2 NADR/SELD THE TENNIS CHANNEL 6:09 AM 7:46 AM 13 1 90IN30 CONMEBOL-R ARGENTINA VS. CHILE BEIN SPORT 5:30 PM 6:00 PM 12 5 GILLETTE WORLD SPORTS GILLETTE WORLD SPORTS BEIN SPORT 1:00 PM 1:30 PM 12 8 NCAA HOCKEY CHAMP AIR FORCE/WESTERN MICHIGAN ESPNU 8:00 AM 10:00 AM 12 3 FUTBOL CENTRAL L UNIVISION DEPORTES 3:00 PM 3:33 PM 12 8 EXPRESS WEEKEND-L EXPRESS PREVIEW BEIN SPORT ESPANOL 3:30 PM 3:40 PM 11 5 LA ULTIMA PALABRA -R FOX DEPORTES 2:00 AM 3:00 AM 11 8 PRODUCT SHOWCASE NBC SPORTS NETWORK 5:30 AM 6:00 AM 11 7 NORTH AMERICAN SOCCER LEA PUERTO RICO VS. NEW YORK COSMOS BEIN SPORT 1:10 AM 3:00 AM 10 4 CENTRAL FOX WKND AM-R FOX DEPORTES 7:00 AM 8:00 AM 10 7 UCL MAGAZINE 121 FOX SPORTS 2 6:30 PM 7:00 PM 10 1 90IN30 CONMEBOL-R VENEZUELA VS. PERU BEIN SPORT 11:00 AM 11:30 AM 9 2 EXPRESS WEEKEND-L EXPRESS XTRA WEEKEND-L BEIN SPORT 6:00 PM 7:00 PM 9 3 SAWCQ-R ARGENTINA VS. CHILE BEIN SPORT ESPANOL 8:30 AM 10:30 AM 9 5 90IN30 CONMEBOL-R ARGENTINA VS. CHILE BEIN SPORT 11:30 AM 11:55 AM 8 0 EXPRESS WEEKEND-L EXPRESS PREVIEW BEIN SPORT 7:00 PM 7:30 PM 8 6 G SERIES G SERIES BEIN SPORT 10:30 AM 11:00 AM 8 2 LA LIGA WORLD - LIGAWORLD BEIN SPORT 1:30 PM 2:00 PM 8 7 LA LIGA WORLD - LA LIGA WORLD BEIN SPORT ESPANOL 1:01 PM 1:30 PM 8 1 LIGA MX EN 60 UNIVISION DEPORTES 7:00 AM 8:00 AM 8 8 90IN30 CONMEBOL URUGUAY VS. BRAZIL BEIN SPORT 5:00 PM 5:30 PM 7 3 EXPEDIENTES UDN UNIVISION DEPORTES 6:00 AM 7:00 AM 7 3 EXPRESS WEEKEND-L EXPRESS PREVIEW BEIN SPORT 7:45 PM 8:15 PM 6 4 RUGBY GUINESS PRO12- LEINSTER VS. CARDIFF BLUE BEIN SPORT 3:00 PM 5:00 PM 6 4 EXPRESS WEEKEND-R EXPRESS XTRA WEEKEND-R BEIN SPORT ESPANOL 1:00 AM 2:00 AM 6 1 LA LIGA WORLD - LA LIGA WORLD BEIN SPORT ESPANOL 2:30 PM 3:00 PM 6 0 SAWCQ-R URUGUAY VS. BRAZIL BEIN SPORT 8:30 AM 10:30 AM 5 1 90 IN 30 - ARGENTINA VS. CHILE BEIN SPORT ESPANOL 2:00 PM 2:30 PM 5 2 LA LIGA 123 OVIEDO VS. GIRONA BEIN SPORT ESPANOL 3:40 PM 5:44 PM 5 3 AUSTRALIAN RULES FB LG L NORTH MELBOURNE/WEST COAST EAGLES FOX SPORTS 2 10:00 PM 1:00 AM 5 2 EL TRI EN 60 UNIVISION DEPORTES 4:00 AM 5:00 AM 4 4 LIGA MX EN 60 UNIVISION DEPORTES 3:10 AM 4:00 AM 3 2 SELECCION EEUU EN 60 ESTADOS UNIDOS / HONDURAS UNIVISION DEPORTES 5:00 AM 6:00 AM 3 1 NORTH AMERICAN SOCCER LEA PUERTO RICO VS. NEW YORK COSMOS BEIN SPORT 8:15 PM 10:15 PM 2 1 PAID PROGRAMMING BEIN SPORT 8:00 AM 8:30 AM 1 1 90 IN 30 - PARAGUAY VS. ECUADOR BEIN SPORT ESPANOL 2:00 AM 2:30 AM 1 0 CENTRAL FOX US - R FOX DEPORTES 3:00 AM 4:00 AM 1 0 PAID PROGRAMMING BEIN SPORT 6:00 AM 6:30 AM 0 0 PAID PROGRAMMING BEIN SPORT 6:30 AM 7:00 AM 0 0 PAID PROGRAMMING BEIN SPORT 7:00 AM 7:30 AM 0 0 PAID PROGRAMMING BEIN SPORT 7:30 AM 8:00 AM 0 0 90 IN 30 - VENEZUELA VS. PERU BEIN SPORT ESPANOL 2:30 AM 3:00 AM 0 0 PAID PROGRAMMING PAID PROGRAMMING BEIN SPORT ESPANOL 6:00 AM 8:30 AM 0 0 PAID PROGRAMMING FOX DEPORTES 4:00 AM 6:00 AM 0 0 PAID PROGRAMMING FOX DEPORTES 6:00 AM 7:00 AM 0 0 Note: viewership of around 100,000 or lower is technically what Nielsen refers to as a “scratch” i.e., not enough Nielsen panelists watched for Nielsen to validate it. There are around 40,000 homes in the Nielsen panel and a bit over 100,000 panelists, where 1 Nielsen panelist watching a whole telecast represents around 3,000 people. So something averaging a million viewers averaged around 370 people out of the ~100K panel — small, but still statistically significant. But when there’s a show with 30,000 viewers, that’s only around 10 Nielsen panelists…
Stuart Harold "2-D" Pot (born 23 May 1978, Crawley, West Sussex) is a fictional English musician and member of the British virtual band Gorillaz. He provides the lead vocals and plays the keyboard for the band. 2-D's singing voice is provided by Blur frontman Damon Albarn on Gorillaz' recordings and performances, while in additional material, his speaking voice is provided by actor Nelson De Freitas in various Gorillaz direct-to-video projects such as Phase One: Celebrity Take Down and Phase Two: Slowboat to Hades. In 2017, Kevin Bishop was cast as the new speaking voice of 2-D.[1] He was created by Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. Characterization [ edit ] 2-D was loosely inspired by a friend of Hewlett and Albarn's who had worked with both Gorillaz and Blur.[2] Stuart Pot was born on 23 May 1978 to David and Rachel Pot. His father works as a mechanic and a fairgrounds worker, while his mother works as a nurse. He was born in Crawley, West Sussex, England, and attended St Wilfrid's Catholic School. When he was 11 years old, Stuart was involved in an accident where he fell from a tree and hit his head. This caused all his natural brown hair to shed, until it eventually grew back in a deep azure blue color. The accident also caused him to experience frequent migraines, for which his mother supplied him with painkillers. At age 19, Stuart was hit in the face by Murdoc Niccals when he crashed his Vauxhall Astra into Uncle Norm's Organ Emporium, in an attempt to raid the store of its musical equipment. This caused Stuart to receive hyphema in his left eye and put him into a coma. Murdoc was then arrested and sentenced to 30,000 hours of community service, as well as to care for the vegetabilised Stuart for 10 hours a week. Not long after, Murdoc injured Stuart again while pulling off 360 donuts to impress a small crowd of women. Stuart came crashing through the windshield of the car, and fractured his other eye. After the incident, he woke up from his vegetative state and was given the nickname "2-D", which refers to the two dents in his head. Role as musician [ edit ] The character 2-D sings and plays the keyboard. He can play guitar, as can Murdoc, but both leave it to Noodle. In most cases, 2-D's singing voice is much lower than his warbly speaking voice. His vocal range is very wide, and he has sung everything from baritone to falsetto. All his singing voices are provided by Damon Albarn,[3] including the spoken verses in the 2005 hit "Feel Good Inc." 2-D apparently has had some influence in the lyric-writing process (as evidenced by the credits on the insert of the titular debut album) even though his intelligence is reputedly negligible. Apparently, Murdoc has had Albarn teach 2-D from time to time to sing better than he already could, and apparently even sing in some of their songs, as stated in an NME interview with Albarn.[4]
Real Madrid vs Fuenlabrada Scored twice against Fuenlabrada Given the opportunity against Fuenlabrada in the Copa del Rey, Borja Mayoral showed what he can offer to Zinedine Zidane and the Real Madrid starting lineup. He scored the opening goal after a spectacular cross from Gareth Bale, who had only just come onto the field. Again in the second goal, he teamed up with the Welsh international to follow up on the rebound and to put Real Madrid into the lead at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu. The goals from the youth product cut the tension produced by the Segunda B visitors, who had taken the lead through Luis Milla. They even went close to adding a second which would have taken the tie to extra time. Until now, Mayoral has only been in the starting lineup against the south Madrid minnows and in one league game against Real Sociedad. Although he scored against the Basques, something was missing in his game in the first leg of this Copa del Rey clash. In the second leg, he has once again shown his ability to score goals and with those goals he will stake his claim for a more important role in Zidane's squad.
Supporters at President Trump's rally in Harrisburg, Pa. on Saturday agreed on two things: Trump deserves high marks for his first 100 days in office, and House Speaker Paul Ryan needs to go. "Ryan is a complete idiot," said rally-goer John Knepper speaking with AOL.com. "If I was Trump, boom, he'd be out of there in no time." SEE ALSO: Trump rally-goer roughed up after being wrongly IDed as a protester Tensions between establishment Republicans and Trump have seemingly heated up since the administration and Congress failed to repeal and replace Obamacare shortly after the president took office. And while the Trump does not have the power to remove Ryan as speaker, some in the Republican camp are calling for him to step down. In March, after a health care repeal bill was pulled from the floor of the House, President Trump urged the public to watch "Justice with Judge Jeanine" on FOX News the same night Judge Pirro called for Ryan to step down, quickly spurring speculation that the president wanted Ryan out. Supporters at the president's 100-day rally seem to be on Pirro's side. Click through images of Trump's Harrisburg, Pa. rally here: 14 PHOTOS Trump rally in Harrisburg See Gallery Trump rally in Harrisburg U.S. President Donald Trump leads a rally marking his first 100 days in office in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. April 29, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY HARRISBURG, PA - APRIL 29: A protester is surrounded by members of the group Bikers For Trump during a 'Make America Great Again Rally'at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center April 29, 2017 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. President Trump held a rally to mark his first 100 days of his presidency. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) U.S. President Donald Trump leads a rally marking his first 100 days in office in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. April 29, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria Attendees watch as U.S. President Donald Trump leads a rally marking his first 100 days in office in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. April 29, 2017. U.S. President Donald Trump appears on stage at a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. April 29, 2017. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri A woman holds a sign as U.S. President Donald Trump leads a rally marking his first 100 days in office in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. April 29, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria U.S. President Donald Trump leads a rally marking his first 100 days in office in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. April 29, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria U.S. President Donald Trump leads a rally marking his first 100 days in office in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. April 29, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY U.S. President Donald Trump leads a rally marking his first 100 days in office in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. April 29, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria HARRISBURG, PA - APRIL 29: A protester is led away during a 'Make America Great Again Rally'at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center April 29, 2017 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. President Trump held a rally to mark his first 100 days of his presidency. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) HARRISBURG, PA - APRIL 29: A protester is led away by the police during a 'Make America Great Again Rally'at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center April 29, 2017 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. President Trump held a rally to mark his first 100 days of his presidency. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) A protester is escorted out by police as US President Donald Trump addresses a 'Make America Great Again' rally in Harrisburg, PA, April 29, 2017, marking his 100th day in office. / AFP PHOTO / JIM WATSON (Photo credit should read JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images) HARRISBURG, PA - APRIL 29: U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledges supporters as he leaves after speaking at a 'Make America Great Again Rally' at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center April 29, 2017 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. President Trump held a rally to mark his first 100 days of his presidency. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) A Trump supporter (C) aims her tongue at the press corps as US President Donald Trump addresses a 'Make America Great Again' rally in Harrisburg, PA, April 29, 2017, marking Trump's 100th day in office. / AFP PHOTO / JIM WATSON (Photo credit should read JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images) Up Next See Gallery Discover More Like This HIDE CAPTION SHOW CAPTION of SEE ALL BACK TO SLIDE Bill Hepl, a Trump supporter from Pennsylvania told AOL.com, "I think Paul Ryan is holding him back ... You have to get rid of Ryan and a lot of these judges are screwing everything up." Over the weekend the president thanked FOX Business Network's Lou Dobbs for saying his first 100 days were "unmatched in recent presidential history." During the same segment Dobbs spent a considerable amount of time slamming the speaker of the house, saying Ryan is "working against the president and his agenda at every turn, frustrating the entire GOP conference and indeed the American people." "If I was Trump, boom, he'd be out of there in no time." Rally attendee named John C. echoed Dobbs' claim saying, "To most people who support Trump and the cause, he seems to be a nuisance." However, the new administration's inability, thus far, to repeal and replace Obamacare has not stymied the support from his base. John told AOL.com that just having Trump in the White House is enough to give the former reality TV star high marks for his first 100 days in office. "It's the idea of what Trump represents, that's all he has to do, he doesn't have to do anything else." "I think he's being hammered by both sides. He's got obstacles on the liberal side and he's got a few on his side," said Trump voter Roger Frost. "He's got a few Republicans he has to reel in." Frost says he's still proud of the president regardless of obstructionist tactics from the Democrats and establishment Republicans. "He's the first president I've ever been excited for."
The Great Divide is a series about inequality. As the travel season kicks into full swing this Memorial Day weekend, many of us are anticipating the rites of the modern vacation with a quiver of dread — crawling along the Long Island Expressway; stalling in endless security lines; gnawing on pretzels while squeezed into ever-smaller airplane seats. It’s hard not to envy today’s über-rich, whose getaways, on private jets to Caribbean villas, take place far above the sweaty fray of mortal tourists. But not long ago, on a journey through India, I began to see things a little differently. For two weeks, I had been fairly battered by the daily chaos of budget travel. Then, on my last night in Kolkata, I met up with some particularly affluent friends who had spent their vacation escorted by private staff from one security-gated refuge to the next, and who were staying in a palatial five-star hotel on the outskirts of the city. In their cocoon of opulence, they quizzed me about my comical but vivid excursions, which had left me both exhausted and exhilarated. I began to realize that they suffered their own form of travel envy. The sense of control money provided them had also served to deaden their experience. The economic gulf between travelers is part of a great tradition. Since the birth of leisure travel, aristocrats have been devising creative ways to isolate themselves from hoi polloi. It began with the ancient Romans, whose elite set off every summer along the Appian Way, sipping Falernian wine in sumptuous carriages, to fantastical villas by the Bay of Naples. But even the slightly less well-to-do had to tolerate far less regal conditions. The first-century philosopher Seneca, who took a room at the resort town of Baiae, was kept awake all night by partying neighbors — classical spring breakers. “Why must I look at drunks staggering along the shore or noisy boating parties?” he railed. Another disgruntled hotel guest in Pompeii scribbled his complaint on the wall: “Innkeeper, I urinated in the bed. Yes, I admit it. Want to know why? You forgot the chamber pot.” Photo It’s precisely when Roman travelers ventured out of their comfort zones that their accounts become most compelling. Classical literature contains a litany of complaints about bad food, rock-hard mattresses and pushy guides. The Romans may have had paved roads and plumbing, but meals at highway inns were rumored to include human flesh in the stews, with unlucky travelers discovering knucklebones or worse. Fellow travelers could be oafish: Plutarch hummed to himself to block out the noise of drunken mule drivers. And rapacious locals were everywhere. One Roman traveler in Alexandria griped: “Unus illis deus Nummus est” — “They worship only one god there: cash!” But the intrepid Roman traveler was able to behold many wonders: festivals and sacred sights, the pyramids of Egypt, the oracle of Delphi, the battlefields of Troy. To quote another piece of ancient graffiti found in a tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings: “Those who have not seen this have seen nothing. Happy those who have!” The words echo throughout history. When leisure travel was revived in Europe in the 18th century, a well-connected young gent on the Grand Tour could stay in the palaces of royals, dining on roast quail and dancing in all-night masked balls. But the rewards for the impecunious traveler could also be great. The young James Boswell, effectively backpacking across Germany and Switzerland, filled his journal with remarks that would impress any Travelocity reviewer: his inns were “dreary,” “comfortless,” “wretched,” “indifferent,” “grievous” and “sorry.” Supper tended to be “pitiful,” the landlord “a stupid, miserable-looking old man.” But his accounts involve hilarious encounters with eccentric characters and alluring women, and are eagerly read by historians and lovers of literature today. In the United States, traveling for pleasure largely began after the Civil War, when the burgeoning middle class was able to take rejuvenating summer trips to the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York, hiking, canoeing and sleeping in rustic tents — and just as often being harassed by insects and soaked by rains. Despite such democratic origins, America’s rich quickly found their luxury niches, as the Rockefellers, Carnegies and Vanderbilts built their own “Great Camps” in the Adirondacks. Arriving by private trains, the families of robber barons could disport for the entire summer in artistic elegance, surrounded by armies of servants and chefs. (It’s from this seminal period that the word “vacation” entered common usage, replacing the British use of “holiday.”) But to purists, the wealthy were merely playacting at being in the wilderness and recreating their Fifth Avenue drawing rooms in the forests. THE more popular travel became, the more extreme the lengths the rich would go to set themselves apart. No sooner had the Victorian businessman Thomas Cook created the first package tours to Europe than scions like Lord Randolph Churchill (Winston’s dad) realized they could travel in style to just about anywhere. Churchill set off in 1892 on an exotic African safari, with 200 local porters carrying 20 tons of baggage, which included a dozen crates of Bollinger Champagne and a grand piano. But the deadening effect of all those creature comforts had a price: Lord Randolph’s memoir, “Men, Mines and Animals in South Africa,” is one of the most pompous of the colonial era. Today the 1 percent are going to even greater lengths. Some use their wealth to positive effect, making charity-driven excursions to remote villages in Madagascar, while others are more self-indulgent, flitting about in light aircraft to shake hands with Amazonian shamans. By early next year, for $200,000 a head, travelers are expected to be able to take a commercial spaceflight on Virgin Galactic, including a whole five minutes of weightlessness. But perhaps gravity isn’t the only thing missing from these luxury travels. Epictetus, the first-century Stoic philosopher, argued that a certain degree of physical discomfort was an integral part of a rich experience on the road. He used as an example the Olympic Games, where 40,000 travelers crowded into a remote Greek sanctuary, like the Woodstock of antiquity. “Don’t you swelter all day in the sun? Aren’t you jammed in with the crowds?” Epictetus asked. “Don’t the din and the shouting and the petty annoyances drive you mad? But of course you put up with it all because it’s an unforgettable spectacle.” What we all want from travel is essentially the same, a vivid and memorable experience. So when I’m lined up on the sands of the Jersey Shore this weekend, and I see the first megayacht gliding across the horizon toward St. Barts, I will smile and ask myself: how much fun can that really be? But I’ll try not to get too self-satisfied. We travelers should all remember that, even with increasingly affordable air travel, tourism is very much a first-world pursuit, and only a small percentage of the world’s population travels for pleasure in any capacity. (Statistics are few, but the United Nations’ World Tourism Organization calculated around the turn of the millennium that only 3.5 percent of people on the planet traveled internationally, a figure that was expected to rise, all going well, to 7 percent by 2020.) So when you think about it, even the chance to spend a few days in a Holiday Inn in Ontario makes you part of a modern aristocracy. Tony Perrottet is a contributing writer at Smithsonian magazine and the author of “Pagan Holiday: On the Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists” and “The Sinner’s Grand Tour: A Journey Through the Historical Underbelly of Europe.”
Statins are associated with a significant improvement in erectile function, a fact researchers hope will encourage men who need statins to reduce their risk of heart attack to take them, according to research to be presented at the American College of Cardiology's 63rd Annual Scientific Session. Erectile dysfunction is common in older men, especially among those with cardiovascular risk factors where cholesterol-lowering statins are frequently prescribed. Previous research has suggested a negative association between statin therapy and testosterone levels, leading to questions about the effects of these widely used medications on the quality of erection. In the first meta-analysis of previous studies on erectile dysfunction and statins, researchers identified 11 randomized, controlled trials that measured erectile function using the International Inventory of Erectile Function - a self-administered survey with five questions, each scored on a five-point scale and totaled, with lower values representing poorer sexual function. Analysis of all 11 studies combined found a statistically significant effect of statins on erectile function in men who had both high cholesterol and erectile dysfunction. Overall, erectile function scores increased by 3.4 points in men who took statins (from 14.0 to 17.4, a 24.3 percent increase). "The increase in erectile function scores with statins was approximately one-third to one-half of what has been reported with drugs like Viagra, Cialis or Levitra," said John B. Kostis, M.D., director of the Cardiovascular Institute and associate dean for Cardiovascular Research at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and the lead investigator of the study. "It was larger than the reported effect of lifestyle modification," Kostis said. "For men with erectile dysfunction who need statins to control cholesterol, this may be an extra benefit." Researchers believe that statins may work to improve erectile function by helping blood vessels dilate properly and improving vascular blood flow to the penis, which is often restricted in men with erectile dysfunction. While statins are not recommended as a primary treatment for erectile dysfunction in patients with healthy cholesterol levels, the added benefit may encourage more men who need statins to take them. Millions of Americans are prescribed statins to prevent heart disease, but some stop taking the medication or take less than the prescribed dose, Kostis said. Rather than preventing the possibility of a heart attack in the future, the more immediate benefit of improving erectile function might improve adherence to statin therapy, he added. Erectile dysfunction affects an estimated 18 million to 30 million men and occurs more often in men over the age of 40. Common causes include heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, tobacco use, depression and stress. Kostis said that larger randomized controlled trials are needed to further investigate the link between statin therapy and erectile function. This study will be simultaneously published online in the Journal of Sexual Medicine at the time of presentation. ### The ACC's Annual Scientific Session brings together cardiologists and cardiovascular specialists from around the world each year to share the newest discoveries in treatment and prevention. Follow @ACCMediaCenter and #ACC14 for the latest news from the meeting. The American College of Cardiology is a nonprofit medical society comprised of 47,000 physicians, surgeons, nurses, physician assistants, pharmacists and practice managers. The College is dedicated to transforming cardiovascular care, improving heart health and advancing quality improvement, patient-centered care, payment innovation and professionalism. The ACC also leads the formulation of important cardiovascular health policy, standards and guidelines. It bestows credentials upon cardiovascular specialists, provides professional education, supports and disseminates cardiovascular research, and operates national registries to measure and promote quality care. For more information, visit CardioSource.org. Kostis will present the study, "Effect of Statins on Erectile Function," on Saturday, March 29 at 1:30 p.m. EDT in Hall C.
With the 2012 London Olympic Games right around the corner, sports and athletic competition are increasingly on the minds of many men, women and children around the globe. However, in the shadow of sport's epic moments of glory lies a troublesome reality -- the incidence of eating disorders in athletes. Experts generally agree that certain categories of athletics place these high-achieving individuals at a greater risk for developing anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS). In fact, research published by Craig Johnson, Ph.D., FAED, CEDS, chief clinical officer of Eating Recovery Center, found that at least one-third of female college athletes have some type of eating disorder. [1] According to Ron Thompson, a licensed psychologist specializing in eating disorders treatment at the Bloomington Center for Counseling and Human Development, consultant to the NCAA and International Olympic Committee Medical Commission and author of multiple books, including Eating Disorders in Sport, several factors converge to make athletes a special population at risk for eating disorders: The pervasive belief in the sport world, held by both coaches and athletes alike, that the leaner athlete performs better, which leads to dieting. Aesthetic, judged and endurance sports, including gymnastics, dance/cheerleading, cross country, swimming and wrestling. Sports requiring revealing uniforms, which can put participating athletes at risk for body dissatisfaction and competitive thinness. "Good athletes" possess similar personality traits to those who suffer from anorexia, which may predispose them to potential development of an eating disorder. "I believe that the greatest risk to athletes is the challenge to identify an eating disorder within the sport world; if an at-risk or symptomatic athlete isn't identified, they cannot be treated," explains Dr. Thompson. [2] "Issues complicating identification involve 'sport body stereotypes' in which thinness is accepted as both normal and desirable, as well as the presumption of health with good performance. Interestingly, the very same perfectionistic, overachieving and people-pleasing temperament that fuels achievement in athletic competition -- both elite and casual -- closely mirrors the personality traits of those individuals who tend to develop eating disorders. For both male and female athletes, the combination of these traits, along with the body shape- and weight-focused demands of many competitive sports, creates the perfect storm that can trigger eating disordered thoughts and behaviors. Warning signs of eating disorders among athletes can be difficult to identify, as they can be masked easily and often go unreported by the athletes themselves. However, common indicators specific to sport participation include a decrease in performance, an increase in exercise outside of routine training activities, stress fractures and other overuse injuries. If you observe these warning signs in yourself or in your athletic friends and families, support from a qualified eating disorders treatment professional and resources for eating disorders help may be necessary. Treatment programming and environment isn't distinctly different for athletes than non-athletes struggling with eating disorders. However, identifying strategies to protect recovery following discharge, especially as athletes consider re-engaging in athletic activity on a casual or competitive level, is incredibly important treatment component for an athlete. --- 1. Johnson, C., Powers, P.S., Dick, R. Athletes and Eating Disorders: The National Collegiate Athletic Association Study. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1999, International Journal of Eating Disorders 26, 179-188. 2. http://eatingdisorder.org/blog/2008/03/athletes-and-disordered-eating---qa-with-ron-thompson/ For more by Kenneth L. Weiner, M.D., FAED, CEDS, click here. For more on eating disorders, click here.
Orson Scott Card Orson Scott Card's long history of homophobia In honor of the "Ender's Game" trailer release, a look at some of the sci-fi master's most controversial remarks During the next six months, you're going to be hearing the name Orson Scott Card a lot. Card is the author of Ender's Game, one of the greatest works of science fiction and children's literature ever written. In November, an all-star film production of Ender's Game is hitting theaters, and along with the buzz, there's sure to be lots of controversy. Why? Because in addition to being one of the most critically acclaimed writers of science fiction, Card, or OSC, as he's dubbed in sci-fi circles, is also one of the most openly bigoted. Card is the great-great-grandson of Mormon icon Brigham Young, and his politics are deeply linked to his lifelong Mormonism. Card has been openly railing against what he calls "the homosexual agenda" for decades. Advertisement: Earlier this year, DC Comics found itself embroiled in a public relations fiasco after it hired Card to write its latest Superman adventure. Already rather beleaguered on the subject of diversity, DC caused a public outcry when it announced the anti-gay Card would be scripting a story about the American icon, and finally had to put the issue on hold indefinitely. But Card has been in the science fiction business for decades, and has become one of the powerful and influential authors in the industry. He is the only author in history to win sci-fi's two biggest awards, the Hugo and the Nebula, back-to-back: for 1985's Ender's Game and its sequel Speaker for the Dead. He's the winner of the John W. Campbell Award, the World Fantasy Award, and the Locus Award—nearly every prestigious sci-fi/fantasy award on the planet. He runs a yearly "boot camp" for sci-fi writers, teaches at Southern Virginia University, and serves as a judge for the annual sci-fi Writers of the Future awards. In 2008, the esteemed Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) awarded Card its Margaret A. Edwards Award, annually given to an author whose lifetime has been spent "helping adolescents become aware of themselves and addressing questions about their role and importance in relationships, society, and in the world." The decision inevitably caused controversy, but YALSA argued that Card's personal views should not diminish the impact of the Ender's series, which is stridently anti-war and progressive in its depiction of intergalactic cultural clashes and the societal cost of violence. But Card remains a polarizing figure in a corner of the publishing industry that's long been criticized for its commitment to upholding a mostly male, mostly white standard of excellence. It matters that when Orson Scott Card talks, the world of sci-fi is listening; because so often what Orson Scott Card has to say overshadows the iconic Ender and its sequels. Despite being a Democrat, Card also has stridently right-wing political views that verge on neo-conservative. He also hates fanfiction, even though he frequently writes it. And that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the paradoxical mishmash of Cardian beliefs that might provoke some brain-scouring and heated debate among sci-fi fans near you as the buzz for Ender's Game starts to grow. OSC and the “Homosexual Agenda” Advertisement: In 2008, Card lamented that he had for so long been labeled a "homophobe" because of his stated positions on homosexuality. Here's a run-down on what he said. Notably, he's become far more vocal and politically active in the fight against gay marriage in recent years. 1990: Card argued that states should keep sodomy laws on the books in order to punish unruly gays--presumably implying that the fear of breaking the law ought to keep most gay men in the closet where they belonged. 2004: He claimed that most homosexuals are the self-loathing victims of child abuse, who became gay “through a disturbing seduction or rape or molestation or abuse.” 2008: In 2008, Card published his most controversial anti-gay screed yet, in the Mormon Times, where he argued that gay marriage "marks the end of democracy in America," that homosexuality was a "tragic genetic mixup," and that allowing courts to redefine marriage was a slippery slope towards total homosexual political rule and the classifying of anyone who disagreed as "mentally ill:" Advertisement: A term that has mental-health implications (homophobe) is now routinely applied to anyone who deviates from the politically correct line. How long before opposing gay marriage, or refusing to recognize it, gets you officially classified as "mentally ill" Remember how rapidly gay marriage has become a requirement. When gay rights were being enforced by the courts back in the '70s and '80s, we were repeatedly told by all the proponents of gay rights that they would never attempt to legalize gay marriage. It took about 15 minutes for that promise to be broken. … If a court declared that from now on, "blind" and "sighted" would be synonyms, would that mean that it would be safe for blind people to drive cars? No matter how sexually attracted a man might be toward other men, or a woman toward other women, and no matter how close the bonds of affection and friendship might be within same-sex couples, there is no act of court or Congress that can make these relationships thesame as the coupling between a man and a woman. This is a permanent fact of nature. Card went on to advocate for, literally, a straight people's insurrection against a pro-gay government: [W]hen government is the enemy of marriage, then the people who are actually creating successful marriages have no choice but to change governments, by whatever means is made possible or necessary... Regardless of law, marriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down.... 2009: He joined the board for anti-gay lobby The National Organization for Marriage, which was created to pass California's notorious Proposition 8, banning gay marriage. 2012: He supported his home state North Carolina's constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage by arguingthat gay marriage "will be the bludgeon [The Left] use to make sure that it becomes illegal to teach traditional values in the schools." Advertisement: Homophobic Subtext in Card's Writing While subtext is a tricky thing to address, Card's subtext is often, well, text. Hamlet's Father: In 2008, Card wrote this hilariously painful Shakespearean fanfic that posits that Hamlet's father was a pedophile who molested most of the royal court, with the implication that the abuse made them all gay. OSC joked that he left Shakespeare's version "in shreds on the floor." You don't say. Advertisement: The Homecoming Saga. This book is Card's fanfic retelling of the Book of Mormon—in space. It also features a gay male character who gets married for the good of society, because he recognizes that procreation is his duty. The book espouses the joy and love of his relationship with his wife, though, notably, Card doesn't attempt to "cure" the gay man, and sex continues to be a chore for him. Ender in Exile. In this book, as in several others, Card sets up a situation where civilization is in the early stages of formation, which means it's largely dependant on high fertility rates and stable, monogamous heteronormativity. This sets the stage for Card to spend time rhapsodizing about the benefits of straight sex. Ad nauseum. "In between things actually happening it's ALL lecturing about marriages and heterosexuality to the point of propaganda and driving me insane," writes one Goodreads reviewer about the book. Songmaster. Songmaster was Card's attempt to show that he could write fairly about gay people—more specifically, gay men, since his writing seems to pay little attention to lesbians. However, Card's well-meaning (sort of) attempt at depicting homosexual love is muddied by the creepy overtones. The main gay love story features a young man who was groomed to be mostly homosexual in a pederasty-based society similar to Ancient Greece. He falls in love with a 15-year-old castrati. To make things worse, the 15-year-old has the body of a10-year-old. To make things even worse, when they finally have sex, the 15-year-old in a 10-year-old's body loses his virginity, only to nearly die because of a plot point that leaves him unable to have sex ever again. Card addressed Songmaster in his 1990 essay, and described the relationship as a "mutually self-destructive path": Advertisement: What the novel offers is a treatment of characters who share, between them, a forbidden act that took place because of hunger on one side, compassion on the other, and genuine love and friendship on both parts. I was not trying to show that homosexuality was "beautiful" or "natural"—in fact, sex of any kind is likely to be "beautiful" only to the participants, and it is hard to make a case for the naturalness of such an obviously counter-evolutionary trend as same-sex mating. So basically, Card wrote a novel whose main plot point involves punishing homosexual sex, in the guise of identifying with mostly gay men. Did we mention the older lover was also in a straight relationship? With a kid? Once again, reproduction trumps all. Orson Scott Card and Fanfiction In 1989, Orson Scott Card wrote a story called "The Originist." It was a work of Isaac Asimov fanfiction, published in an anthology alongside other Asimov fanfics. Card later explained that although fanfiction is terrible and unimaginative, he wanted to write it to prove how much better his fanfiction was than everyone else's fanfiction. In the 1990 anthology Map in the Mirror, Card first expostulates that "Written science fiction has an author-driven audience. The real science fiction audience doesn't want to read [works written by one author in another author's universe]." He then goes on to tell how he gleefully jumped at the chance to write Asimov fanfic: [F]or this one anthology, Dr. Asimov was allowing the participants to set stories within his own closely-held fictional universes... Suddenly I was sixteen years old again and I remembered the one story I wanted so badly to read, the one that Asimov had never written... Advertisement: Card explains that even though he has laid down the law regarding franchised works and other forms of fanwork, the rule doesn't apply to him "because I had a compelling story to tell." Card also went on to write the novel tie-in for the franchise The Abyss. In 2004, he went even further, bluntly stating on his website that "The time to write fan fiction is 'never,'" and that "to write fiction using my characters is morally identical to moving into my house without invitation and throwing out my family." In a post-Fifty Shades publishing environment, however, Card has rapidly thawed out. Last year he hosted a fanfiction contest and told the Wall Street Journal that "Every piece of fan fiction is an ad for my book. What kind of idiot would I be to want that to disappear?" Advertisement: Taking Card at his word, then, we are happy to direct you to our favorite repositories of Ender's Game fanfiction on the Internet. Enjoy the gay, gay slash fanfiction—or write some of your own. Ender's Game fanfiction at AdultFanfiction.net. Highlight: "Ender is forced to pleasure his brother, Peter. Routine, dismissed in the face of desire. Two wills, pitted in a game of lust and control." Ender's Game fanfiction at Fanfiction.net. Highlight: "Ender encounters Alai at night. Boy/boy, but the fluffy sort, with conversation." Ender's Game fanfiction at Archive of Our Own. Highlight: an extra-sultry Arthur/Eames Inception crossover alternate universe story, just because we can. Advertisement: The ins and outs of Card's bibliographical representation of gay men may not be relevant to everyone. But with Card already taking center stage this year for the DC comics fiasco, and the first trailer for Ender's Game dropping today, soon a great number of people are going to be revisiting their childhoods, and revisiting the views of one of their favorite authors in the process. Whether you think a writer's works should speak for themselves, or whether no great work can be read without context, between now and November, you're likely to have no shortage of debate around sci-fi's most hotly debated author.
So who would you put your money on? Buffett or Ahmadinejad? I’d short Ahmadinejad and go long Warren Buffett. Why? From outside, Israel looks as if it’s in turmoil, largely because the entire political leadership seems to be under investigation. But Israel is a weak state with a strong civil society. The economy is exploding from the bottom up. Israel’s currency, the shekel, has appreciated nearly 30 percent against the dollar since the start of 2007. Photo The reason? Israel is a country that is hard-wired to compete in a flat world. It has a population drawn from 100 different countries, speaking 100 different languages, with a business culture that strongly encourages individual imagination and adaptation and where being a nonconformist is the norm. While you were sleeping, Israel has gone from oranges to software, or as they say around here, from Jaffa to Java. The day I visited the Iscar campus, one of its theaters was filled with industrialists from the Czech Republic, who were getting a lecture — in Czech — from Iscar experts. The Czechs came all the way to the Israel-Lebanon border region to learn about the latest innovations in precision tool-making. Wertheimer is famous for staying close to his customers and the latest technologies. “If you sleep on the floor,” he likes to say, “you never have to worry about falling out of bed.” That kind of hunger explains why, in the first quarter of 2008, the top four economies after America in attracting venture capital for start-ups were: Europe $1.53 billion, China $719 million, Israel $572 million and India $99 million, according to Dow Jones VentureSource. Israel, with 7 million people, attracted almost as much as China, with 1.3 billion. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. Boaz Golany, who heads engineering at the Technion, Israel’s M.I.T., told me: “In the last eight months, we have had delegations from I.B.M., General Motors, Procter & Gamble and Wal-Mart visiting our campus. They are all looking to develop R & D centers in Israel.” Ahmadinejad professes not to care about such things. He was — to put it in American baseball terms — born on third base and thinks he hit a triple. Because oil prices have gone up to nearly $140 a barrel, he feels relaxed predicting that Israel will disappear, while Iran maintains a welfare state — with more than 10 percent unemployment. Iran has invented nothing of importance since the Islamic Revolution, which is a shame. Historically, Iranians have been a dynamic and inventive people — one only need look at the richness of Persian civilization to see that. But the Islamic regime there today does not trust its people and will not empower them as individuals. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Of course, oil wealth can buy all the software and nuclear technology you want, or can’t develop yourself. This is not an argument that we shouldn’t worry about Iran. Ahmadinejad should, though. Iran’s economic and military clout today is largely dependent on extracting oil from the ground. Israel’s economic and military power today is entirely dependent on extracting intelligence from its people. Israel’s economic power is endlessly renewable. Iran’s is a dwindling resource based on fossil fuels made from dead dinosaurs. So who will be here in 20 years? I’m with Buffett: I’ll bet on the people who bet on their people — not the people who bet on dead dinosaurs.
by Miguel de Icaza I have great news to share with the Mono community. Today together with SUSE, an Attachmate Business Unit, we announced: Xamarin will be providing the support for all of the existing MonoTouch, Mono for Android and Mono for Visual Studio customers. Existing and future SUSE customers that use the Mono Enterprise products on their SLES and SLED systems will continue to receive great support backed by the engineering team at Xamarin. Xamarin obtained a perpetual license to all the intellectual property of Mono, MonoTouch, Mono for Android, Mono for Visual Studio and will continue updating and selling those products. Starting today, developers will be able to purchase MonoTouch and Mono for Android from the Xamarin store. Existing customers will be able to purchase upgrades. Xamarin will be taking over the stewardship of the Mono open source community project. This includes the larger Mono ecosystem of applications that you are familiar with including MonoDevelop and the other Mono-centric in the Mono Organization at GitHub. We are a young company, but we are completely dedicated to these mobile products and we can not wait to bring smiles to every one of our customers. Roadmaps Our immediate plans for both MonoTouch and Mono for Android is to make sure that your critical and major bugs are fixed. We have been listening to the needs of the community and we are working to improve these products to meet your needs. You can expect updates to the products in the next week. In the past couple of months, we have met with some of our users and we have learned a lot about what you wanted. We incorporated your feature requests into our products roadmaps for both the MonoTouch and the Mono for Android products. Another thing we learned is that many companies need to have a priority support offering for this class of products, so we have introduced this. It can be either be purchased when you first order MonoTouch or Mono for Android, or you get an upgrade to get the priority support. Next Steps Our goals are to delight software developers by giving them the most enjoyable environment, languages and tools to build mobile applications. We are thankful to everyone that provided feedback to us in our online form that we published a month ago. Please keep your feedback coming, you can reach us at [email protected]. We are reading every email that you send us and you can use my new miguel at new company dot com email address to reach me. We will be at the Monospace conference this weekend at the Microsoft NERD Center, hope to see you there! Remember to purchase early and often so we have the resources to bring you the best developer tools on the planet.
LONDON — Britain’s Conservative Party, which is leading opinion polls less than a year before the next election, confirmed Monday its intention to give the Bank of England sweeping regulatory powers over banks. The plans would rip apart Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s supervisory model, which the party blames for the country’s financial troubles. David Cameron, the Conservative Party leader, formally proposed to abolish the Financial Services Authority, Britain’s financial regulator, and move its powers to the central bank. Britain’s regulatory system needs “one body to be unambiguously in charge,” he said in a speech in London on Monday. “In the United States, they’ve called on the Federal Reserve,” Mr. Cameron said. “In Britain, it’s time to call on the Bank of England.” Britain’s current regulatory system was set up by Mr. Brown when he was chancellor of the Exchequer in 1997. The Financial Services Authority is an independent nongovernmental body, but its board is appointed by the Treasury. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Under the Conservative plan, a more powerful Bank of England would police financial services companies and set capital requirements. A new Consumer Protection Agency would be in charge of safeguarding the rights of retail bank customers. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. Mr. Cameron made his speech two weeks after the Labour government presented its own plans for regulatory reform, which included the creation of a council that would include the Treasury, the Bank of England and the F.S.A. to deal with risks in the market and at specific institutions.
Gona Pillay was killed on Tuesday night during an attack at her Silverglen home. Her husband, Logie, is in a critical condition in hospital. Picture: Facebook Durban - The community of Silverglen in Chatsworth have been left reeling following the murder of a former principal who was killed during a violent home robbery on Wednesday night. Gona Pillay, 63, a former Southlands Secondary School principal was stabbed to death at her home. Her husband, Logie who was also stabbed is believed to be fighting for his life in hospital. It is alleged that a gang of men approached the couple at their house, pretending to be potential home buyers. Their home was on the market. Andreas Mathios, spokesperson for Blue Security, said the men named a legitimate estate agent who worked for a reputable estate agency. “This is what led the couple to letting their guard down and allowing the men into their house. The gang allegedly sat down and had an informal discussion with the couple about the property before brandishing knives and attacking the Pillays,” he said. Mathios said Gona Pillay was stabbed numerous times in the neck and back. She died in the bathroom, while her husband, who was also stabbed, managed to crawl to the panic button and call for help. “ER24 paramedics arrived at the scene and transported him to hospital in a critical condition where he is fighting for his life,” Mathios said. The gang manage to make off with items from the house, including the couple’s silver grey Mercedes Benz. Captain Nqobile Gwala, police provincial spokesperson, confirmed that a case of murder and attempted murder is currently under investigation. Meanwhile, tributes have been pouring in on social media following news of Pillay’s death. Taking to his Facebook page, Brandon Pillay, African National Congress councillor and community member, said he was feeling heartbroken over the incident. “She was a great woman. We have indeed been robbed as a community of such an incredible women who helped shape the lives of thousands of pupils. We salute you for your contribution,” he said. Haniff Hoosen, Democratic Alliance MP and provincial chairperson, said Pillay excelled in her years as a teacher before moving on to her post at the school’s principal. “I spent most of my childhood years being taught by this dedicated and caring teacher who gave her entire life to the education of children. She knew that our society and country will only change if its children were better educated and well equipped with good old-fashioned family values. How ironic it is, that a person who spent her entire life instilling good values in our society, was robbed of her life by people who could care less for those very values that she so strictly enforced,” Hoosen said. Southlands Secondary School management has expressed shock and sadness at Pillay's passing. Daily News
Kokeshi dolls are hand-crafted japanese dolls. They come from the North-East of Japan and are traditionnally made out of wood. Kokeshi dolls are the typical souvenir travellers brought back from Japan. Nowadays, japanese kids play with those dolls. But they are also a gift to someone loved or a good friend. There’s a lot of kokeshi dolls but their original shape is cylindrical. They are made out of wood, painted of flowers and covered with lacquer. Meanwhile, Maneki-neko is the white and red cat that you can easily find in asiatic shops and mangas. Those small cats always have a paw raised. The left one is supposed to attracyyt client and the right one the attract money. Most of the times, this cat brings luck to his owner. Even if they have traditionnally different purposes in Japan, those two figurines are used as decorations on desks and shelves in both the East and the West. For instance, kokeshi dolls inspired Wii’s characters called Mii and the Pokemon Meowth looks like Maneki-neko! Have a look at Yoco’s dolls!
Punk bands getting themselves into trouble for infringing on trademarked and copyrighted works is nothing new. After all, punk, by definition, is about crossing boundaries and pushing buttons. (That, and how high you can spike your hair, obviously.) But when former Thursday vocalist Geoff Rickly rounded up a few semi-anonymous musicians to form a new band back in 2005, they picked the biggest possible button to push. They called themselves United Nations. In nearly a decade as a band, United Nations has had on-again, off-again dealings with the intergovernmental agency of the same name. They've also gotten themselves into trouble over the cover of their first LP, which featured the iconic Abbey Road cover, with the Beatles members engulfed in flames. Now, United Nations are about to release their second record, The Next Four Years—part album, part open challenge to the “real” United Nations, with the LP’s cover art made from the actual cease and desist letters sent by the UN. We recently spoke with singer Geoff Rickly about the band’s history, which has largely been shrouded in rumors until now... Rickly, assembling United Nations box sets. Photos by Liza de Guia. Noisey: When you were naming the band back in 2005, you had to have known some problems would arise, yeah? Geoff Rickly: That’s the funny thing: no. It actually never occurred to me. There’s no problem here clearly, that’s a government organization and no one would ever confuse the two. I was more worried about the artwork, and I was even preparing the label to print a second version of the record that was going to have a black cover, because the original had the Beatles on fire. And I figured, well obviously the Beatles will sue. Apple Records is notorious about that. So I was worried about the art, had no idea that the name would cause anything, and we never got sued for the art, and only had flak from the United Nations. But a lot of stores were scared to sell that though, right? That’s true, yeah. We had a lot of stores that wouldn’t take that cover, and we had one pretty big account retail store took, I think 7,000 copies? And when they realized there were all of these copyright violations, they have a no return policy, so they sent us pictures of them destroying the record. That was their policy, they would destroy them but they wouldn’t return them. So we have all these absurd pictures of stock boys destroying all these records. Which is unfortunate, because it’s a great record. Oh, thanks. Yeah, it was just surreal because we were like, “I guess that makes sense, and we still get paid for them? Is that even a bad thing? Now they have to come and buy them from us.” Like maybe it was good. At that point, we were all sort of, “This is fun!” And that was before United Nations were involved. So at this point, you sort of got a taste for being provocative button-pushers. Explain how you were first contacted by the UN originally. I think the first thing was our Facebook page being taken down. It just went down? Yeah, it was taken down and there was maybe even one news story that was “United Nations are trying to convince us they’re being harassed by the United Nations.” And we went to the label and we’re like, “Is this you?” and they’re like, “No, is it you?” And it was like, “Ah shit, it’s either you or us, who’s messing with us?” And then our publicist called and he quit immediately because he got a letter in the mail. And he was like, “I can’t represent you guys” and we were like, “But why? You're not gonna get in trouble. You’re just representing a band that’s done something wrong." And he was like, ‘I dunno man, I smoke a lot of pot and they’re gonna come to my house and destroy my life.’” [Laughs] And I was like… “Seriously?” Then retailers would stop carrying the record, and everyone sort of jumped ship all at once. It was pretty weird. The United Nations collective, hand-making box sets. What interactions did you have with them after you got those things taken down, and that cease and desist letter? None, because none of the songs were copyrighted, so nothing was legally tied back to the people that were in the band. So our label was the one that decided to do it. They were like, “Well, cease and desist” so technically they stopped printing the record, but they had a shit-ton of copies. And we were like, “We’re technically ceasing, and we’ll play it that way until we get told not to.” And that’s what Eyeball kept doing until they shut down. So I think technically, the first record is out of print. Then Deathwish was like, whatever, if it’s coming out on Deathwish then the United Nations will find out anyways. At the time, that was sort of the attitude. I don’t know if that’s really their true attitude, they’re a really big small label. But the seven-inch never really got promoted; there was a pre-sale and maybe a couple articles about it. So we were all waiting to find out if we were safe now, or if it was getting re-opened. We kind of just went straight ahead to hire artists who would push buttons. We had Ben Frost who’s an Australian artist do a Sex Pistols take off. And your new record uses the cease and desist letter in the artwork, right? Yeah, we figured we’d better double down. So are you doing anything on the new record differently to either prevent future problems or go harder with it? What approach are you guys taking with this? Yeah, we’re going to go for it, and see how far we can get. It just seems so weird that they’d spend so much time go after a band this hard, like no one’s come to us for help and confused us with them. When this all happened, people thought you were just doing it all for press. But you really didn’t get a lot of press about it. Really, no one’s been talking about it until now. Yeah, it’s kind of funny because that’s what I told our publicist that quit. I was like, “Dude, this is a dream for you! Write it out, and we’ll make some headlines and stuff, we’ll take it to court,” and he’s like, “Yeah not with me.” Too afraid for his weed. You have a new song on the album called “United Nations vs. United Nations.” Are the lyrics specifically about this ordeal? Right, totally, it’s completely about this. And it’s also sort of about behaviors like United Nations going out of their way to spend legal counsel’s time on a band. So, it’s kind of about them coming after us, and it’s also about us pretending to fight the man. Most punk kids who are pretending to fight the man are totally fighting who they’re going to become in five years anyways. [Laughs] So it’s like a little bit of a fuck you to ourselves too. Do you think the name and the interactions that you’ve had dealing with the actual United Nations gave the band a purpose, or at least an identity? Oh yeah. I think one of the things that happened with my old band Thursday was that we lost something to fight against when we didn’t have Victory anymore and we really lost our focus. I’m proud of a lot of our later work, mostly the last record, but we sort of wandered, we didn’t have anybody to fight. And that sort of gave us a vacuum of purpose for a while. And I think that was sort of the opposite with United Nations. Having this sort of weird thing happen to us, now we know what direction we’re going in, and now we know that this probably has a time limit on it, so we should go as hard as possible for the very short term we can do it. And you guys have been sort of riding it a little bit, and pushing buttons. Besides the cease and desist letters you have those shirts that poke fun at the whole thing too. Yeah, they make fun of the lawsuit, they make fun of Black Flag, they kind of poke fun at Minor Threat for having that Urban Outfitters thing. I think it’s really funny that our counterculture, like the idea of punk or whatever, isn’t really counter, it’s a subculture, maybe. It’s a tiny version of the same culture. I think there are aspects of it that have been counterculture, like straight-edge for the right reasons is counterculture, I think veganism for the right reasons can be counterculture. But for the most part, it’s the kinds of cliques and things that become glorified and cool, and everyone’s racing to be the biggest band in the basement. It’s like, all these people share all the same values you’re supposed to like claim to be against, and you’re like, “This is so stupid, punk is so lame.” That’s kind of a lot of what United Nations has become about, it’s self-critique. It started off as social commentary, but then we realized how stupid that was because we’re just a band. And then the second seven-inch was about how dumb punk is. And then we were like, “Wait, we’re a punk band.” So now the new record’s about how stupid and pointless we are. It’s become more and more meta to the point where now I feel like we’ve actually found our thing that we do, which is a self-examination of value systems, like our own. A lot of the record’s about that. “Serious Business” is about examining white privilege from the inside. “UN Find God” is about everyone’s quest for some spiritual meaning, and how bleak that is. That can be such a vacuum in your life. “Between Two Mirrors” is about how anything can be glorified, as long as you put it in between two mirrors it stretches out forever to an infinite reflection. And that’s sort of what punk does, like one band does something and the next band says, “That’s not punk, this is punk.” Then the next band goes, “That’s not punk anymore, this is punk!” So yeah, a lot of those things came together on this record. What do you think punk of the future will be? Hmm, I dunno. I think it’ll be like acid-house. I think dance music is the way to go, not like Blood On The Dance Floor, but I just think somehow club culture will become the punk of the future. I want military marching bands to become punk. I like that, military marching bands, that’s sort of the antithesis, right? I don’t know if you’ve read Céline’s Journey to the End of the Night, but there’s this great opening, and it’s something I’ve always thought was a big part of United Nations. There’s this guy sitting at a cafe with his friends, and a marching band goes by, so he stands up and starts marching with it and making fun of it, doing all these salutes and joking around. But by the end of the march, he realizes he accidentally signed up for the military, and now he’s in the war. Yeah, I think that’s how they recruit. They should have like a recruitment station in Williamsburg, where they’re like, “Hey, join the army ironically, duuuude. It'll be soooo cool to die in another country.” Yeah! [Laughs] So switching gears completely, I wanted to ask you about the record itself. I hear there are a lot of really cool hidden things on this record, like some things play differently at the ends of the vinyl? Yeah, I really wish all reviews of the album could be on the actual boxset. There’s going to be a CD version, there’s going to be a digital version, but the real record itself is meant to be a box set. The idea is this fake progression from basement punk band to pretentious eight-minute long experimental, “We’re too cool for this shit we used to do” band. So it’s like the progressive steps through that. Then there are some cool things along the way, “Revolutions at Varying Speeds” is meant to be played at 33 RPM and 45 RPM, it was recorded at two speeds. So at one speed, it sounds like a doom song, like, “Oh, one thing sounds wrong but it’s pretty cool,” but you put it at 45 and it’s like, “Oh it sounds like Orchid, but some parts sound really high and weird.” And then we remixed the digital version because we wouldn’t be able to have the two speeds on the digital version, so we did a 25-minute 800x slowed down version, and it’s called “Revolutions In Real Time,” and it sounds like Sunn or something. And then there’s the song with the two endings. The thing about vinyl is it’s like a road, and the road splits, it can go one of either ways. And that’s how the album ends, you can make a change, like political change, or you can realize the problem is completely in yourself and you have to change yourself if you’re ever going to do anything. And that’s kinda how the record ends, is with choice. Even though the thing is, there’s a groove in the vinyl, so you don’t have a choice, it’s made for you. You might listen to the record five times before you get a different ending. Possibly, yeah. Especially if your turntable isn’t level. Then it’ll probably pick one more than the other. What advice would you give to a band who’s considering naming themselves after a trademarked name? [Laughs] Do it! It’s awesome. You’ll have the time of your life, you won’t just be a shitty band that gets to play a bunch, you’ll be a shitty band that gets to call lawyers and talk to people about the difference between a trademark and a super mark. It’s so much more fun than just playing shows and drinking beer. It’s way more fun. The Next Four Years is out on July 15 from Temporary Residence. Dan Ozzi got a cease and desist letter from Lane Bryant once. Follow him on Twitter - @danozzi
Gameday Essentials Tampa Bay Rowdies ( 14 pts Fall, 33 pts Combined) at Jacksonville Armada FC (11, 23) Community First Park, Saturday 7:30 p.m. Watch the match online through ESPN3 The Rowdies are hosting a free watch party at Al Lang for the match & Ralph’s Mob has a limited number of seats remaining on the bus up to Jacksonville. Scouting the Armada Nearing the end of its first season, Jacksonville Armada FC currently finds itself dead last in both the Fall Season and combined standings. The slide down the standings came to head this weekend when head coach Guillermo Hoyos became the fourth NASL manager to get the axe this year. Taking over as interim coach is Eric Dade, who has no professional coaching experience, but led Jacksonville United to a NPSL title in 2011. He’s a well-respected figure in the Jacksonville soccer community and has been working as the Armada’s Director of Player Development. Unlike when Stuart Campbell took over for the Rowdies in August, Dade is more of a wildcard. He isn’t as familiar with the squad as Campbell was because he wasn’t an assistant coach working with the players daily. He has a few ties to several players who were on his NPSL team in 2011, but he has some quick catching up to do to figure out the bulk of the roster. One thing Dade did stress in an interview this week was the importance of regrouping defensively. He has faith in the quality of the defenders on the roster and they can get the job done with proper tactical adjustments. Armada supporters are probably more than happy to hear that after seeing Hoyos’ three-man back line concede 38 goals this year, only one off from being tied with Indy, San Antonio and Carolina for most in the league. The defense has been a hindrance, but the attack has been shockingly poor in the Fall Season. The Armada finished with an impressive 15 goal tally in the 10-game Spring Season, but have followed it up with an abysmal 10 goals through 13 Fall Season fixtures. The club’s combined 25 goals are the fewest of any team in the NASL. Injuries have kept key players like Alhassane Keita and Marcos Flores out of the lineup for long stretches of the Fall, but the experienced attacking talent on this squad should not be carrying a five-game scoreless streak into this weekend’s encounter. What to Watch For Every game the Rowdies play these days has serious playoff implications, but this weekend’s has the added pressure of Coastal Cup survival. The Rowdies need to win outright to even have a slim chance at winning this year’s competition. Fort Lauderdale has a three point lead in the standings and are also five ahead in goal differential. A win by a large margin would help increase Tampa Bay’s odds, but they would need Jacksonville to beat Fort Lauderdale in the season finale for that to even matter. survival. The Rowdies need to win outright to even have a slim chance at winning this year’s competition. Fort Lauderdale has a three point lead in the standings and are also five ahead in goal differential. A win by a large margin would help increase Tampa Bay’s odds, but they would need Jacksonville to beat Fort Lauderdale in the season finale for that to even matter. As far as the playoff hunt goes, this weekend could be huge. The teams closest to the Rowdies on the table, Edmonton and Fort Lauderdale, have tough matches with New York and Minnesota. If those teams stumble and the Rowdies find a way to win on the road again and pull off a weeknight win against Indy, they can create some much needed breathing room. The Rowdies will be without Maicon Santos , the man who scored four of the club’s six goals against Jacksonville this year. The Brazilian also remains Tampa Bay’s leading scorer (7), so someone (or multiple people) will need to step up and find their finishing touch on Saturday. The team acquired former FC Tampa Bay attacker Long Tan on loan from Arizona United this week. He’s just finished up an impressive season in USL Pro (14 goals) so he should be fit, but it might be a long shot to see him take the field so soon. , the man who scored four of the club’s six goals against Jacksonville this year. The Brazilian also remains Tampa Bay’s leading scorer (7), so someone (or multiple people) will need to step up and find their finishing touch on Saturday. The team acquired former FC Tampa Bay attacker Long Tan on loan from Arizona United this week. He’s just finished up an impressive season in USL Pro (14 goals) so he should be fit, but it might be a long shot to see him take the field so soon. The Rowdies finally suppressed the dangerous counter attack of San Antonio this week and the task only gets tougher this weekend with the incredible pace that Jacksonville brings to the table. A repeat of the diligence performance last week will be needed to squash the fleet of foot Armada attack. Consistency in all areas of the game will be what sees the Rowdies through to the playoffs. IMAGE, PATRICK PATTERSON Share this: Tweet Email Pocket Print
There’s not enough attention paid to how schools have become socialist propaganda centers to warp children’s and young adults’ minds into leftist mush. Even grade school kids are taught that America is evil and diversity is the highest good The National Center for Education Statistics informs about the current number of young people subject to K-12 public education: In fall 2016, about 50.4 million students will attend public elementary and secondary schools. Of these, 35.4 million will be in prekindergarten through grade 8 and 15.0 million will be in grades 9 through 12. An additional 5.2 million students are expected to attend private elementary and secondary schools (source). The fall 2016 public school enrollment is expected to be slightly higher than the 50.3 million enrolled in fall 2015. Sadly, the civic education many Americans experienced as kids is disappearing. In its place, globalism and its values are being taught. Below, an international flag was created for use in a New York classroom a year ago. Recently, the National Associate of Scholars published a report, Making Citizens: How American Universities Teach Civics, that warned about the “New Civics” which redefines the subject as leftist political activism. That topic was explored recently on Fox News: BRIAN KILMEADE: Our universities and colleges around the country are turning their classrooms into cash registers by selling out and trading academics in favor of activism. You have a recent survey of over 400 universities: they found that nearly all are offering courses — it was called “new civics.” Our next guest says those courses designed to turn institutions of higher learning away from scholarships and towards left wing advocacy. Professor Frank H Buckley is a professor at George Mason University; hes at the Scalia Law School and hes the author of ”The Way Back”. Frank, first off, do you think this is organized? FRANK H. BUCKLEY: Well its more like astroturf. Whats happening is the federal government is supporting a great deal of money into colleges that have programs that train students to be student activists, and the ultimate goal is to make this a part of every course and indeed a condition for tenure for university professors so its really a takeover of scholarship in the direction of making little community organizers out of all of our students. KILMEADE: And when do you think this infiltration took place? BUCKLEY: It’s happened over the last 20-odd years, I mean it certainly increased over the last eight years, lets say, but its really remarkable: its under the radar screen. Its well hidden its there, but it took an organization called the National Association of Scholars to go out and actually see what was happening and the results are shocking. KILMEADE: So the government can have some leverage here because it provides so much money to these universities. For example UC Boulder, 25 million per year; Colorado State, 15 million per year; University of North Carolina nine million per year. So with that could come some strings. What do you think, if you want to balance things out again, should those strings contain? BUCKLEY: I think first of all, I see absolutely no reason why we should be training people to or paying for students to do stuff which is totally unrelated to scholarship. I mean, were giving money for scholarships for students who want to learn things. Were not giving money to teach people how to occupy buildings and go out and riot on the streets. Thats not what its all about, and we shouldnt be actually paying any money for that terms of of the of college grants and in general in terms of dedicating money to universities. I think what the Trump administration should be doing is looking at how faithful they are to the mission of basically doing ordinary good scholarship. (Continues) In addition, the Washington Times discusses the topic:
An Android app named "System Update" that secretly contained a spyware family named SMSVova, survived on the official Google Play Store for at least three years, since 2014, when it was updated the last time. Google intervened this week, after a report from mobile security firm Zscaler, but by the time Google took it down, between one and five million users had already installed it on their phones. This happened even if the app's Play Store page looked extremely suspicious, as it featured blank white screenshots and one sentence as its description, reading: "This application updates and enables special location features." User reviews left on the Play Store page also reflected the app's shady behavior, with Android users complaining the app didn't update their system as promised but simplify disappeared from their screen after they ran it the first time. New SMSVova spyware was hidden inside the app's code According to Zscaler researcher Shivang Desai, who analyzed the app's source code in a technical write-up here, the System Update app didn't contain any "system updating" features, but only spyware-like behavior. Desai says the malware found within, which he named SMSVova, included functionality that set up an Android service and a broadcast receiver. The Android service worked by taking the user's last known geo-location coordinates and saving this information inside "Shared Preferences," a storage space where Android usually gathers application data. Spyware was controlled via SMS messages On the other hand, the Android broadcast receiver is where most of the malicious code was. According to Desai, this receiver listened to incoming SMS messages containing the string "vova-" or "get faq". An attacker sending an SMS with the "get faq" command to an infected host would receive back another SMS with a list of commands he could execute. New commands could then be sent in new SMS messages by prefixing the instructions with "vova-", as: vova-set user password:'newpassword' The app included support for commands that reported the user's current location and changed the device's password. The researcher wasn't able to determine why SMSVova would be collecting only geo-location information from users, but this could have been "used for any number of malicious reasons," Desai said. SMSVova could be an early version of the DroidJack RAT Furthermore, the researcher also discovered that SMSVova had the same code structure as a small section of the DroidJack RAT, one of the most well-known commercial Android remote access trojans on the market. Taking into account that the System Update app didn't receive any update since December 2014, along with its similarity with DroidJack, this may very well be one of the first attempts to get the DroidJack RAT, or at least some part of it, past Google's security filters and on the Play Store. The DroidJack RAT appeared on hacking forums in June 2014 and was based on the legitimate Sandroid remote administration app, still available today on the Google Play Store. Images credit: Zscaler
Amazon has added STARZ Play and ENCORE Play content to the results of the Fire TV’s universal voice search. When browsing movies and TV shows in the main Fire TV interface, you’ll now see if the video is available through either of these two newly added apps. STARZ and ENCORE are joining existing universal search services like HBO, Showtime, Hulu, Crackle, and Vevo. Amazon has also announced that over 10 new services will be added to the Fire TV’s universal search by the end of the year, including A&E, HISTORY, Lifetime, and PBS. The sudden influx of new services being added to voice search will probably be a direct result of the next-generation Fire TV being announced soon. Still no word on whether Netflix will make good on their promise and finally be included in the Fire TV’s voice search results. Follow AFTVnews on Twitter / Facebook and subscribe via email to be the first to learn when new articles go live. Follow me, Elias Saba, on Twitter and Instagram to see what I'm working on before it's posted here. ShareTweetShare+1
Reddit isn't the future of creativity, but it is a vital part of it The site has emerged as an important creative platform, but getting—and keeping—an audience there is a tricky thing. One day a few years ago, I was on my lunch break and I decided to go on Reddit. I found an interesting thread, and I started punching out a story. The story got away from me. Before I knew it, it was a few pages long and it was time to get back to work. I posted part of it on Reddit. I still don’t understand what happened next. At the time, not many people were posting huge stories on Reddit and not many more were reading them. To a lot of Reddit users, and to a lot of other people, it felt like something entirely new. It wasn’t the greatest writing ever, not even my best writing. But something about it struck a chord, something caught fire. A quarter-million people read the story that afternoon; one of them named it “Rome Sweet Rome” and the title stuck. By the time I left work at 5, I had several publication offers. That weekend, I started working with a manager in Hollywood. A week after that, Warner Brothers came sniffing around. Two months later, on the basis of that half-baked first draft of a story’s first act, Variety announced I had a screenplay deal. This doesn’t happen all that often. So when people ask me about that day, about that project, this is generally what they focus on; the story of a pudgy white-collar schmoe in Des Moines getting dragged blinking into the limelight, getting a shot at the Big Time. It’s a hell of a story. It’s a ridiculous story. (So ridiculous there are at least two conspiracy theories circulating around it. If I were actually working for DARPA I’d be changing a lot fewer diapers and I’d get the bumper fixed on my car.) What they don’t often ask about is what it’s like to create something like that on Reddit. Like a lot of other folks, I got caught up (and still am, far too much for my own good) in the pursuit of applause, or its wan cousin, the upvote. Redditors compete to be first off the mark; the sooner you comment, the better chance it’ll get a good response. And content fades quickly; Reddit’s algorithm requires older submissions to get ever-increasing attention to stay at the top of the front page. For this reason, Reddit’s creatives often dash off paintings without backgrounds or stories with simple structures, sketched with lean detail. An aesthetic emerges: dreamy, spartan, urgent, well-suited to the the demands of the platform and its audience (which is disproportionately young and male). There was a lot of excited talk when Rome Sweet Rome took off. Was this the first of a wave of Hollywood acquisitions? No: at least two Redditors have had works optioned, but none that I know of have gotten past the bar set back in 2011, when I got a screenplay deal. Part of the problem is legal; collaboration is great when creating something and nightmarish when dollars become involved. Part of the problem is that Reddit has never been the best platform for anything requiring more than a few minutes of work or attention: you create something for millions of people in a default sub. A few thousand care enough to stick with you when you create a new subreddit. Day by day, week by week, the comments and upvotes taper off. It takes a lot of passion to keep going when the audience leaves the building. Creativity on Reddit is more than possible. It’s demonstrated on a daily basis. Reddit is much more than celebrity pit stops and cute cat pictures (as vitally necessary as these are). Professionals and experts post passionate, engaging essays. Songs, poems, portraits and stories flood onto the site. Among the trolls and maladjusted debaters you find anywhere on the Internet, there are talented storytellers and comedians honing their skills and paying close attention to the response of their audience. And that’s a giant part of what makes Reddit exciting for writers or artists. To do anything creative requires a strange kind of doublethink. You must have insane confidence in your own work and the willingness to present it to the entire world for judgment. At the same time, you must believe that not one word you’ve written is good enough. You have to rethink and revise everything you create, and sometimes to angrily destroy the work of hours or days. You must believe in your heart that you can sway the minds and touch the hearts of your audience, but you must also leave yourself open and vulnerable to even the cruelest and most infuriating review. (I myself was once dubbed “the Mark McGrath of military pornography.”) Reddit rewards that self-confidence and it certainly isn’t shy about offering feedback. Reddit’s not the future of creativity. It’s not the future of Hollywood. But for now, and probably for a long time to come, it’s going to be an important tool (for some, an indispensable tool) for people who want to create, or to find an audience, or to find art to buy and resell. There are more artists than you think mining Reddit for ideas, using it to refine their craft, and building a name for themselves. But artists should strive not to fall under Reddit’s spell. Its audience isn’t the world. There are so many things that work on a canvas, or in a novel, that will fail in an imgur album or a comment thread, and Lord knows the reverse is true too. A lot of creatives have agonized over Reddit’s terms of service, but they shouldn’t. If someone wants to buy your work, they’ll find a way. Your first concern should be the first concern of any artist: create something honest and find an audience for it. Don’t let any platform get in the way of that. James Erwin's novel, Acadia, is available now for pre-order at Amazon.
Eimear Noone as she leads BT's Electronic Opus. Image: Conductrix Kickstarter Conductor Eimear Noone and composer Craig Stuart Garfinkle imagine a future where anyone can make music and collaborate on songs with friends all over the world with the help of virtual reality. Strap on your guitar and virtual reality headset, call up your friend from Korea who plays violin, maybe buy a drum track from an in-game storefront, and start recording. The first phase of this ambitious project, Muso-VR, is Conductrix, A View from the Podium, which successfully hit its Kickstarter goal and has so far has raised over $16,000. Conductrix is a series of 3D and virtual reality conducting tutorials, but it's just a larger part of Muso-VR, a future for music lessons, learning, and gaming in virtual reality. The plan is to use Conductrix to gather support and funding to build a working model for Muso-VR. "There are two things that are really important to everything we do: Music and people," Noone said. Noone—who started the Dublin International Game Music Festival, was the principal conductor for Blizzard's World of Warcraft, and a regular conductor at Skywalker Ranch, knows a thing or two about conducting and video games. Garfinkle is an Emmy nominated composer and music producer whose credits include The Office, The Sopranos, Balder's Gate, and Fallout, A Brotherhood of Steel. The pair is also currently working on breaking the Guinness World Record for a crowd created video game performance. The concept for Conductrix came from Noone's constant touring, where she met people all over the world who studied music before moving into other fields, but still held a love for conducting. "I heard it so many times that it just got the cogs moving," Noone said. "And I thought, what if you could create a virtual experience where people could experience what I feel and see on the podium, the high I get when the main theme from Zelda kicks in?" And with the recent advances in virtual reality, that's just what Noone and Garfinkle are setting out to create. "Everyone's really trying to figure out what [virtual reality] is right now," Garfinkle said. "And that's the other thing that's exciting about it. We're going to try to define in some ways—at least in terms of what virtual reality means for music." Conductrix will include tutorials on basic beat patterns and gestures; how to communicate articulations, cuing, dynamics, and tempo changes; and other tools and information to assist people in figuring out their own conducting style. "The physical language of conducting is often something that's shrouded in mystery and is shrouded in difficulty" Noon said. "But a physical vocabulary should never be difficult to learn. It's what you do with that vocabulary, the way you use the language, that's where the magic is." That physical language is something Noone think shouldn't be kept hidden. "I'm absolutely opposed to elitism and keeping people out," Noone said. "I think that enabling people to express their musical spirits, lets them be their best selves." The hope is that Conductrix's VR will be a much better teaching tool than current conducting teaching videos because it will put people in the shoes of the conductor instead of the audience. "Conducting videos are ridiculous, because you are looking at everything in reverse," Noone said. "That's something that's always frustrated me," Noone said. Conductrix is just the beginning. The idea is to use the lessons and tutorials in Conductrix to teach people how to conduct, and then in the later sections of Muso-VR actually create a virtual-reality orchestra that players will be able to lead. "It's going to be more like a game in that you control the experience, rather than the experience controlling you," Garfinkle said. "That's our ultimate goal." Once Conductrix is completed, the duo can then move on to funding and development for Muso-VR. Garfinkle and Noone estimate they'll need around two to three hundred thousand to get a working demo going, and then plan to use that demo to raise an additional two to three million to build the rest of the game. "We'd love for Muso-VR to be the musical equivalent of Facebook combined with World of Warcraft in five years time," Garfinkle said. "That's a big statement, but that's really what we want." The pair imagines a future where they hold Conductrix competitions in the lobby before shows, with the winner joining the orchestra on-stage to conduct live, similar to what Video Games Live concerts do now with Guitar Hero. "Guitar Hero is an awesome game, but it doesn't teach you how to play guitar," Noone said. "This will be the real deal."
You must enter the characters with black color that stand out from the other characters Message: * A friend wanted you to see this item from WRAL.com: http://wr.al/VRlw The mother of slain rapper Tupac Shakur will appear in a Robeson County courtroom next month on charges related to an April 16 drug arrest. Afeni Shakur Davis, 63, of 2630 E. 77 St. in Lumberton, faces one count each of felony possession of marijuana, simple possession of a controlled substance and maintaining a vehicle, dwelling or place for a controlled substance. She is out of jail on a $10,000 bond and is expected to appear in court May 10, authorities said Tuesday. Shakur was fatally shot Sept. 7, 1996, in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. The case has never been solved. Davis, a former political activist and former member of the Black Panther Party, later founded the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation for students interested in performing arts. The foundation is funded by the profit from her son's unreleased works.
Hamas authorities reportedly prevented a Gazan father from naming his baby after the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, saying the name was “forbidden” in Gaza. Gaza resident Fayiz Badran, 32, wanted to name his newborn after Abbas due to his “love and appreciation” for the president, the Palestinian news site Wattan24, affiliated with Abbas’s Fatah party, reported Thursday. However, when Badran recently took his baby to Hamas’s interior ministry headquarters in the north of the enclave, authorities told him the name Mahmoud Abbas is “rejected and forbidden in the Gaza Strip.” Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up According to the report, Badran said the authorities told him he could name his son either Abbas or Mahmoud, but not both together. Badran, who the report noted is an employee of the PA, reportedly remains steadfast in his quest to name his child after the PA president. Hamas ousted Abbas’ Fatah party from Gaza in 2007 and numerous attempts to reconcile the rival parties have failed. The Gazan father accused Hamas of hypocrisy, claiming that in recent days the authorities in Gaza had allowed children to be name after Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, former Hamas spiritual leader Ahmad Yassin, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
1088 SHARES Facebook Twitter Reddit Stumbleupon Pinterest When Walmart–which just happens to be the largest single employer in the United States–announced a few months ago that it would be raising the wages of some workers, it was indeed big, and unexpected news. The increase will mean the minimum hourly wage paid to new employees will be $9 an hour, with an increase to $10 an hour in April of 2016. Walmart has estimated that the salary increases will cost the company over a billion dollars a year. But now we discover exactly how Walmart plans to pay for the increased pay for its workers: A spokesperson told Bloomberg that the company has instructed managers to cut hours only when staff has been “overscheduled.” Translation: Managers will now be cutting the hours of employees so they can continue to operate at the present profit margins the company is accustomed to. So they give money with one hand and take it away with the other. That’s a nice bait and switch, wouldn’t you say? What exactly does it mean to cut hours when employees have been “overscheduled?” Well, one anonymous Walmart employee from Houston said that means more than 200 hours per week have already been cut from her store by asking people to leave their shifts early or extending unpaid lunch breaks by up to two hours. So yet again we see Walmart managing to lie their way to good public relations so they can continue to give their employees the shaft. Is it any wonder so many people refuse to shop at their stores on principle? I have nothing against a company making a profit. That is, after all, what they are in business for. But when a behemoth like Walmart again and again screws its workers and then attempts to put a happy face on their nefarious actions, they have crossed the line between profit and predation.
Jenell Rodden Wright gets a chill when she recalls the 20-year reunion she attended for the McCluer North High School class of 1988, less than five years ago. “It’s amazing to think about it now,” she says. “Everything was normal. Everyone seemed healthy and happy. We were all fine.” That’s not ordinarily what stands out to people about their high-school reunions. But it turns out that there was nothing ordinary about the McCluer North class of ’88. In just a few short years after that normal reunion, not so much would be fine. Not after Kathy Bindbeutel Broyles developed a brain tumor and died a few months later, at age 40, leaving behind four children. Not after Kathy Jones, mother of five adopted special-needs kids, died of uterine cancer at age 40. Not after friends Kerry and Steve contracted appendix cancer, and Scott got a brain tumor, and Diane was diagnosed with nonsmoking lung cancer—all in the course of a couple of years. These friends from the neighborhood where Wright grew up and went to high school were not random cases of bad luck. And they were by no means isolated cases in North County. They are but a microcosm, part of an untold number of people afflicted by their own government in an area that realistically must today be termed a “cancer cluster.” These were the children of Coldwater Creek, a picturesque tributary through about 15 miles of the county, spanning communities such as Florissant, Hazelwood, Black Jack, Spanish Lake, St. Ann, Berkeley, and Ferguson. It runs past schools, golf courses, and soccer fields. The creek was once a thing of beauty, to be sure. But there was one problem that the residents knew nothing about: Some of the deadliest toxins known to man had been dumped into Coldwater Creek. Over seven decades, home sweet home has doubled as a hell zone of water, soil, and air contaminated with treacherous substances like uranium-238 (with a half-life of 4.5 billion years) and thorium-232 (with a half-life of 14 billion years). The residents have paid a ghastly price, and the contamination may continue to plague future generations. It all started with the famous Manhattan Project, as St. Louis’ Mallinckrodt Chemical Works secretly signed on to enrich uranium for the world’s first controlled nuclear chain reaction in 1942. For 15 years, the company would continue its uranium-refining activities at its downtown site, and when it ran out of room to store its tons and tons of hazardous waste—known in the day as “poisons”—it was off to a couple of sites near the airport. Reportedly, not even the people assigned to transportation duties had any idea of what they had on their hands. It was inevitable, between the hauling and the storage, that Coldwater Creek and neighboring properties would become contaminated beyond anyone’s comprehension. Nothing could have been more irresponsible. “We have the oldest radioactive waste of the atomic age,” says Kay Drey, the grande dame of local environmentalism. “And there is no place on the planet to put this where it won’t impact our air, our water, and our lives. There is no solution.” For most of the past seven decades, authorities didn’t appear to make a serious effort to get rid of the waste, and as Drey points out, even moving it off to Utah or some other less-populated area is no panacea. In recent years, the government has made a fair amount of cleanup progress, but as recently as late April, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers indicated that there is more testing—and more removal—to be done. Obviously, removing all of the toxins from a highly populated area ought to show up prominently on the government’s radar screen, though that doesn’t seem to have been the case for much of this sordid history. But even if that were to happen—even if every last ounce of radioactive waste were to be gone—that wouldn’t end the problem. You see, there’s a real-life crisis going on right now: After a long latency period following their exposure to ionizing radiation, a stunning number of people have reached the “presentation” stage of their diseases. That means we’re seeing symptoms in the generation of children who enjoyed the outdoors by playing in or near the water and otherwise exploring the lethal banks of Coldwater Creek. They skipped rocks, played with crawdads, and mixed yellow dirt with water to pan for gold. When the creek would flood—which happened quite a bit—the water would seep into their families’ gardens and basements. And there was always the prospect of wind blowing thorium dust off the piles of radioactive waste and into the air breathed by the kids and their families. And now, for a new generation, the symptoms are arriving. “Most of the cancers appear to have popped out in just the last few years,” says Wright. “We are not even in full bloom.” A Facebook group called “Coldwater Creek–Just the facts Please” was created by a McCluer North grad in 2011, about the time many young North County residents were becoming gravely ill or dying. It has grown to more than 7,200 members, whose heart-wrenching stories seem endless. Wright, an Ernst & Young certified public accountant and corporate executive before retiring to raise her children, joined the Facebook group shortly after it was established, as did another McCluer North grad, Diane Schanzenbach, an economics professor at Northwestern University. They are serious numbers crunchers who were struck by the statistical improbability of what they were seeing. Members of the page have reported more than 2,500 cases of cancer, autoimmune diseases, and birth defects. The numbers spiked earlier in the year, after KSDK-TV’s Leisa Zigman aired some compelling coverage of the situation. At press time, those numbers hadn’t been fully updated. But even the partial numbers are stunning. The data contains more than 100 reports of brain tumors and cancers, more than 50 cases of thyroid cancer, and more than 30 cases of appendix cancer—a stunning number, considering it’s a rare disease affecting fewer than 1,500 people annually. There are dozens of cases of leukemia, multiple sclerosis, and lymphoma. There’s amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, pancreatic cancer, and more. Wright says there are a stunning number of reports of infertility, in addition to the birth-defect cases. There have been three separate cases of conjoined twins (a statistical anomaly if ever there was one). There were three babies born with only one ear, another without either eyeball. Keep in mind that’s just what’s come in through the Facebook group. Wright is concerned that there’s not as much participation in the Facebook group from some of the lower-income, predominantly African-American communities that have been affected, so this is hardly an exhaustive accounting of this tragedy’s scope. It all raises the question of what to do now. Somehow, there’s got to be a greater sense of urgency, some recognition that this is a tragedy that may have a larger scope than most realize. There have been random acts of journalism over time. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch discovered waste at Coldwater Creek as far back as 1989, when a powerful series detailed some of the hazardous-waste problems. But no one truly grasped the scope of the problem, and it got nowhere near the attention of the dioxin at Times Beach. The Riverfront Times published a moving story in 2003 about the plight of a deceased Mallinckrodt worker and his family, revealing the company’s employees were victims themselves, facing huge hurdles to compensation for their suffering. But overall, the plight of the Coldwater Creek residents has been lost in the noise, with too much news of too little importance. In late April, for example, there was a major meeting held by the St. Louis Oversight Committee of FUSRAP (Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program), the community group charged with representing the public interest to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers regarding cleanup. We in the media hardly noted it. We were too busy, apparently, with the story about a lady taking a baseball bat to the fellow she thought was supplying heroin to her addicted son. But if the media is unhelpful, Missouri state government is worse. Apparently in response to some public outcry, the Missouri Department of Health & Senior Services issued a report in March claiming there was no health problem near Coldwater Creek and essentially blaming the victims for bad lifestyle choices. It was possibly the most asinine document ever produced by anyone for any reason. The “experts” studied some health data in a handful of ZIP codes between 1996 and 2004, meaning at best they considered the wrong people. As a horde of angry critics pointed out, there’s great turnover in North County residency. The large majority of real victims no longer live in the studied area, and as much as 75 percent of the area’s residents have moved in so recently that their histories meant nothing to the issue. The study made no effort whatsoever to track the experiences of the generation whose tragic stories appear on the Facebook group. Health officials were not even made available to the media to defend this nonsense, with good reason: They are truly the Last Responders in an emergency. But the report did serve one important function: It illustrated how difficult it will be to find justice for the children of Coldwater Creek. I’m not sure what form justice should take, but for starters, the federal government needs to be prodded—ASAP—to start providing the kind of relief it gives to other victims of government-inflicted fallout. This is a real cancer cluster, and it needs to be treated as such. A “downwinders” program in some Western states has set the precedent to bring federal relief to those affected by fallout from nuclear testing. This is a big deal—we truly don’t know how big yet—and it’s time for local officials to channel some of the outrage that can be found in the “Coldwater Creek–Just the facts Please” group. Speaking of which, Wright isn’t sure a 25th reunion of McCluer North High School will happen this year. The good soul who organized the last one is busy fighting cancer. Commentary by Ray Hartmann
Winston Peters' refusal to say who he would support after the election has voters almost evenly divided about who he might back to form a government, if he is cast again as the kingmaker. Asked which party Peters, the NZ First leader, would support to form a government, 32.1 per cent of those surveyed in the latest stuff.co.nz/Ipsos poll expect him to back National, while 29.2 per cent said they expected him to go with Labour. One in five of those polled said they thought Peters would go with neither Labour nor National, and 18.7 per cent said they did not know. Twice in the past Peters has been in a position to determine whether National or Labour formed a government. In 1996 he backed National for a third term under Jim Bolger and in 2005 he backed Labour for a third term under Helen Clark. Although recent political polls have suggested National could form a government on its own, a single party has never had enough support to rule alone since MMP was introduced in 1996. That means if NZ First gets more than the 5 per cent support required to bring MPs into Parliament without winning an electorate, Peters could again be the kingmaker. Peters has consistently refused to say who he is likely to support in coalition talks, saying he is opposed to pre-election deals favoured by other parties. "You don't test the water with both feet," Peters told the Timaru RSA this week, adding that giving hints would weaken his negotiating position. Although he has primarily targeted National since returning to Parliament following the 2011 election, attacking the Government on its asset sales programme, Peters said Labour was also promoting policies to which NZ First was strongly opposed. Before the 2011 election, NZ First warned it could not support a Labour government proposing to raise the retirement age and to extend capital gains tax in the way it was proposing. Labour leader David Cunliffe has affirmed both policies going into the September 20 election. "I think that lost them [Labour] the election [in 2011]," Peters said in an interview this week. "Don't they get it?" Meanwhile, he hinted this week that he may stand in an electorate this year, something he didn't do in 2011. Although he did not name the seat, the hint was it could be East Coast Bays, where there are persistent rumours that long time local MP Murray McCully could stand aside, with National not fielding a candidate, in a bid to gift the seat to Conservative leader Colin Craig. "You've got political parties who think they can mess around with an electorate . . . They might do that [but] they might be in for a surprise in one of them if they do pull that stunt," Peters said. "We have the firepower to hit it on the ground with all the hoardings and the full hundred yards if that's the case." Click here if you are having trouble viewing graphics on a mobile.
The morning brings a trio of horror-news about Diablo III. I’m outright bewildered about what Blizzard have done, and shuddering about the likely reaction in comments. I won’t muck around here, and instead shall just wade straight into the things that are probably going to end up being PC gaming’s biggest controversy of 2011. 1) The game requires a constant internet connection. It cannot be played offline. 2) Mods are “expressly prohibited.” 3) Items in the auction house are bought and sold for real-life money. Uh-oh. When my future children ask me “where were you when the war began, Daddy?” I’ll think of this day. And I’ll say “well, sweetling, I was drinking a cup of instant coffee, sat in my dressing gown in front of my PC, same as every morning. But on this particular morning, I don’t mind telling you, I sprayed that coffee all over my monitor and had to fight the urge to leave the internet for a least a month. For I knew what was coming, child. I knew. Every day since, I thank every god I can think of that we’re somehow still alive, that the Earth somehow still turns.” All of news this via PC Gamer (who’ve been to see Blizzard recently), here, here and here. In order, here’s Blizzard’s justifications: 1) “One of the things that we felt was really important was that if you did play offline, if we allowed for that experience, you’d start a character, you’d get him all the way to level 20 or level 30 or level 40 or what have you, and then at that point you might decide to want to venture onto Battle.net. But you’d have to start a character from scratch, because there’d be no way for us to guarantee no cheats were involved, if we let you play on the client and then take that character online.” Also, piracy. 2) “For a variety of gameplay and security reasons, we will not be supporting bots or mods in Diablo III, and they’ll be expressly prohibited by our terms of use for the game.” 3) “We think it’s really going to add a lot of depth to the game. If I have more money than time I can purchase items, or if I’m leet in the game I can get benefits out of it. The players really want it. This is something that we know people are going to do either way. We can provide them a really safe, awesome, fun experience, or they’ll find ways of doing it elsewhere.” Blizzard will take a small cut, but they’re not expecting to make too much of a profit out of it themselves. They also say there’ll be level caps on items, so you can’t immediately shortcut to a high-level sword with a level-1 character, not matter how rich you are, plus there will also be an additional auction house that uses in-game gold. So this element of the game can, at least, be dodged entirely. As for the online requirement and the mod-blocking? That’s just desperately sad. The DRM was at least in StarCraft II, so it’s not too much of a shock, but given Blizzard’s rich history of allowing user modification, and just how much it’s given to so many of their previous games, it’s hard to not feel let down by the decision to outright ban Diablo 3 modding. Let’s hope they have a change of heart on that point particularly.
A new THR/Penn Schoen Berland Poll finds Trump's antics more likely to drive voters to favor the president than George Clooney and Tina Fey. Politically opinionated celebrities definitely have power to affect elections, according to an Oct. 29 survey of likely voters by The Hollywood Reporter pollster Penn Schoen Berland. But sometimes voters do the exact opposite of what the celebrities recommend because many voters despise celebs who talk politics. PHOTOS: The Top Celebrity Political Twitter Commentators Here are the celebs who make the highest percentage of voters more likely to support Democrats, in order: Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres (12 percent) Donald Trump (11 percent) George Clooney (9 percent) Tina Fey (8 percent) Eva Longoria and Clint Eastwood (7 percent) Katy Perry and Bruce Springsteen (6 percent) Meat Loaf and Cher (4 percent) Lena Dunham (3 percent) STORY: 'Glee' and 'Modern Family' Drive Voters to Favor Gay Marriage -- Even Many Romney Voters What’s striking is that Trump, Eastwood and Meat Loaf endorse GOP candidate Mitt Romney, not President Obama. Yet Eastwood, who stole the show at the Republican National Convention by ridiculing an empty chair representing Obama, actually is more effective at getting people to vote for Obama than the pro-Obama Springsteen is. And Trump is better at driving voters to the Democrats than Obama stalwarts Clooney and Fey are. “Donald Trump is in a league of his own when it comes to rallying the other side,” says Penn Schoen Berland pollster Jon J. Penn. “He actually makes Democrats more likely to support Democrats. And Republicans think he hurts their cause.” Eighty-five percent of Romney voters agree that Trump has the right to say whatever he wants, and they rate him the second-most-credible/trustworthy celebrity among the 15 listed on the poll, after Eastwood. STORY: Poll: Katy Perry Influences Young Voters More than Older Voters But almost half of Romney voters -- 46 percent -- think that when Trump speaks out, he hurts the cause he’s advocating. (Fifty-seven percent of Obama voters agree.) Among all voters polled, 77 percent think Trump is just trying to get attention by talking politics. The five least-credible political celebs among all voters are: Donald Trump Kid Rock Meat Loaf Katy Perry Cher Like all polls, THR’s shows a divided nation Sixty-one percent of Obama voters think the polarizing shock comic Sarah Silverman helps her cause when she speaks out on an issue; 65 percent of Romney voters believe she hurts her cause. Barbra Streisand makes 5 percent of voters overall more likely to support Democrats, but 7 percent more likely to support Republicans. Should she do Obama a statistical favor and stop supporting him in public? Not necessarily: She is the fifth-most-trusted celeb among Democrats. Here are the top five most politically credible celebs for Obama voters, in order: Oprah Winfrey George Clooney Ellen DeGeneres Tina Fey Barbra Streisand For Romney voters, the top five most-trusted are: Clint Eastwood Donald Trump Oprah Winfrey George Clooney Ellen DeGeneres “Republicans don’t love Oprah, but they like her, they respect her,” says Penn. PHOTOS: 20 Biggest Political Players in Hollywood The least-credible political celebs for Obama voters are: Donald Trump Kid Rock Meat Loaf Clint Eastwood Katy Perry Least credible celebs for Romney voters: Ellen DeGeneres Katy Perry Cher Eva Longoria Tina Fey At least Americans can agree on something: Perry’s whipped-cream-spouting brassiere clearly has cost her political credibility. PHOTOS: Hollywood's Campaign Contributions: 15 of the Best Election-Themed Movies But what about the bewildering result that Romney voters rank DeGeneres both as the No. 1 least-credible celeb (with a 30 percent vote against her) and the fifth-most-credible celeb (with a 13 percent vote for her)? Perhaps the 13 percent of Romney voters who thought her credible disagreed with her but respected her outspokenness, like Oprah’s. Or maybe they liked her performance in the animated hit Finding Nemo -- a 2011 THR poll found that Republicans prefer family films, while Democrats like edgy films such as Bad Teacher and Easy A. Or perhaps political people just aren’t up on their Hollywood celebrities. Despite the much-publicized controversy over Dunham’s suggestive pro-Obama ad aimed at young women (“Your first time shouldn’t be with just anyone”), a full 30 percent of voters (and 29 percent of Obama voters) said they had never heard of her.
Of the many adjustments modern defenses have made to combat ever-changing offenses in today’s NFL, going all-in on hybrid positions has been at the forefront. There is the ‘money linebackers’—Mark Barron, Deone Bucannon and Su’a Cravens come to mind—linebackers that will line up down in the box and meet running backs in the hole, but can also go step-for-step with even the most natural pass catching ‘backs and tight ends. On the back end, there’s combination nickelback and safeties—Tyrann Mathieu and teammate Tyvon Branch are two familiar to the Seattle Seahawks—that can line up in the slot and effectively cover receivers and tight ends one on one. More importantly to the quarterback position is the change edge players have undergone, particularly in a 3-4 defense. Instead of outside linebackers pinning their ears back and getting after the quarterback on nearly every snap, even the best at his position, Von Miller, drops into the flats and over the middle and does it with great success. The adjustment that 3-4 outside linebackers have made in their game and the way they’re deployed hasn’t just made them even more dangerous to opposing offenses; it has helped them nearly monopolize their position when it comes to All-Pro honors. It’s hard to fault the voters for this; double-digit sacks, combined with splash plays off the line of scrimmage, are always going to grab the attention and accolades over triple-digit tackles. And most recently, with players like Justin Houston and Miller playing at the position, the honors are more than deserved. In the past few seasons, it appears just superhuman efforts from 4-3 outside linebackers have been enough to garner All-Pro honors. Thomas Davis’ Herculean 2015 season and Lavonte David’s 2013 season—which was a culmination of as good of a two-year start to a career as any—are just two examples of the kind of performances needed to breakthrough the barrier 3-4 outside linebackers have built up in recent years. K.J. Wright is having one of those seasons. Through 12 games, Wright has three sacks—already a career high—a forced fumble, and four passes defensed. The Seahawks defense has gone against the league’s heavyweight offenses in 2016, and come out with all their teeth still in place time and time again—and Wright is a huge part of that. He and Bobby Wagner have been this season’s version of Davis and Luke Kuechly: two de facto inside linebackers that can cover, blitz, and go sideline-to-sideline cleaning damn near everything up. It’s no coincidence that Keuchly and Davis were All-Pros in 2015, and that Wagner and Wright seem destined for the same honor this season. Wagner and Wright’s 2016 form isn’t anything new to those of us in the Pacific Northwest. Wright has been the unsung hero of Seattle’s defense for years now, and Wagner is generally overshadowed by Kuechly—but since both entered the league in 2012 has consistently the second-best middle linebacker in the NFL, if not 1B. The Seahawks defense has remained nearly the same through three defensive coordinators since Pete Carroll took the job, but second-year defensive coordinator Kris Richard has added one wrinkle that wasn’t seen much before: the double A-gap blitz. Wagner and Wright have been coming down to the line of scrimmage more often under Richard, and there have been numerous instances where one or both have come through the line unblocked, creating a big play. In last year’s home loss to the Arizona Cardinals, Richard dialed this up twice, resulting in huge plays. In Carroll’s dominant cover-3 defense, the linebackers - Wright and Wagner - are most asked to play the hook/curl zone over the middle of the field. It’s something both players have mastered; how to use their size against big bodied tight ends, how to time contact as to not be flagged for pass interference, and how to get the ball out of the receiver’s hands once they get there. Wright’s 23 passes defensed since 2011 is tied for 26th by linebackers over that time, and despite finding himself one-on-one with tight ends or in a zone coming through a receiver’s back, he has just four defensive holding/pass interference penalties in his career. Additionally, there isn’t a more instinctive defender in the league when it comes to identifying and reacting to screen passes. Since 2011, it seems like every time Seattle’s opponent tries a screen pass, Wright arrives at the exact time the ball does. The level that Wright is playing at in 2016 may not be too different than the level he’s been at for the past few seasons, but he’s seemingly gained a ton of traction among national media. At a position that’s judged alongside some of the game’s best pass rushers, and on a defense that has perhaps as many as four top-20 defenders, Wright continues to make people sit back and notice he’s making play after play. By the end of the year Wright will have done everything possible to deservedly break through and see his name next to Miller’s on the All-Pro team, and that still may not be enough. But if he and his defensive fellows’ play keeps up over the next two months, he’ll have much bigger things on his mind come February.
Johnny and The NCT unit returned this time with 2 new members -and Doyoung . During an interview while waiting for the live broadcast of 'M! Countdown', the two new members gave their thoughts on joining their labelmates. Johnny said about his rehearsal stage, "I'm disappointed about parts of it, but because it's my first time, I think I won't be able to help but feel a little disappointment, whatever stage it is." He continued about debuting with NCT 127, "I'm glad that I'm able to stand on stage with the members whom I've practiced with since I was young. I'll show more of me [in the future]." Doyoung said, "I think I was able to join [NCT 127] comfortably since they've been doing well up until now and they have things built up. I also strongly believe that because we are now 9, we have to show our improvement by working harder." Are you liking NCT 127's new song "Limitless"?
Yonhap spoke to an anonymous Samsung official, who claimed the cause of the explosions stemmed from the Galaxy Note 7's battery. While the exact cause of these battery explosions has yet to be disclosed, Yonhap's source went on to say "less than 0.1 percent" of devices sold are affected. When asked for comment, a Samsung spokesperson provided the following statement: "In response to questions on Galaxy Note7, we are conducting a thorough inspection. We will share the findings as soon as possible. Samsung is fully committed to providing the highest quality products to our consumers." If the report holds true, the company doesn't plan to announce the results of its investigation until either this weekend or early next week. That delay is said to be a result of discussions Samsung is having with its global carrier partners -- Verizon is said to be one such company Samsung is discussing the matter with, which suggests that the upcoming recall could be a global one. The cynics in us also can't help but note that if Samsung waits to announce the results of its investigation until next week, it might be able to dodge a certain degree of press scrutiny at the IFA tradeshow currently running in Berlin. To date, the Note 7 has been launched in ten countries, and Samsung has said demand has exceeded its own expectations. The sales situation has grown so strained, in fact, that Samsung told CNBC it had to adjust the device's launch in some markets. That people want Galaxy Note 7s isn't a surprise; reviewers (myself included) seemed to love the device. More importantly, after the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge helped the company rebound from a rough financial start to 2016, Samsung looked to the Note 7 as one of its financial pillars for the latter half of this year. If a recall -- global or otherwise -- is in the works, Samsung's near future won't be as rosy as it hoped.
IRVING, Texas – Mat McBriar's comeback from offseason surgery to remove a cyst below his left knee is just about complete with the two-time Pro Bowler working out for Philadelphia on Monday. The Cowboys would like to visit with McBriar, their punter since 2004, this week before the team flies to Oxnard, Calif. The Cowboys have two punters on their roster in Chris Jones, who replaced McBriar for two games in 2011, and Delbert Alvarado. Update (1:10 p.m.): McBriar is scheduled to work out for the Cowboys on Tuesday. The Eagles are working out several punters. McBriar had surgery in February and has been punting for the last six weeks in San Diego. McBriar ended up on injured reserve last year because of nerve issue that affected his foot. He averaged 43.8 yards per punt and had a 36.1-yard net average, which was his lowest since his rookie season. McBriar, who was the Cowboys’ special teams’ captain in 2011, has a career 45.3-yard average with a 38.1-yard net average. From 2007-10 his net average went up every year, topping out at 41.7 yards in 2010, which earned him his second Pro Bowl bid.
England are set to be without Jonathan Joseph for the remainder of the World Cup pool stages, with his pectoral injury likely to keep him sidelined for up to three weeks, Telegraph Sport understands. The Bath centre, who had gone into the tournament as England’s most potent attacking player, sustained the injury during the 35-11 victory over Fiji at Twickenham last Friday. Initial reports from the England camp suggested that the 24 year-old would be available for the crunch match against Australia on Oct 3 if he was ruled out of the game against Wales at Twickenham on Saturday. And it is now understood that Joseph’s injury is more serious than first thought and he is now likely to be sidelined for two to three weeks. • Why picking Burgess is not a risk for England That would rule him out of the Australia game and potentially the final pool match against Uruguay on October 10 in Manchester, leaving him in a race to confirm his fitness for the quarter-finals if England qualify as one of the top two finishers in Pool A. With just four centres named in Stuart Lancaster’s 31-man squad, the England head coach faces the quandary of whether to stick by the Bath player, who is seen as critical to the red rose side’s of lifting the Webb Ellis trophy for the first time since 2003 or call up a midfield replacement. • Lancaster's big calls for Wales game - analysed Joseph is remaining in camp today for further treatment while the remainder of the squad enjoy a day off with England’s medical team doing all that they can to ensure he recovers in time to play a meaningful role in the tournament. The fact that Owen Farrell, who is set to start at fly-half ahead of George Ford on Saturday, can cover inside centre at least gives Lancaster an extra midfield options while Exeter wing Jack Nowell also has experience of playing at centre in the Premiership.
We've harped on the New York Jets' lack of depth at wide receiver for much of the offseason. But Jets fans should have no fear: Antonio Cromartie is here! Rex Ryan mentioned Friday at his first post-practice press conference that we shouldn't be surprised to see Cromartie taking some snaps at wide receiver. Instant Debate: Breakout stars Who'll be the breakthrough studs of training camp? Our analysts reveal their picks, including Vincent Brown. More ... Who'll be the breakthrough studs of training camp? Our analysts reveal their picks, including Chargers WR "You have 53 guys on your roster and 45 are active and you're sitting back some games there has to be some crossover," Ryan said. "Don't be surprised if Cromartie plays some receiver, that's something we talked about. You have to be ready for those type of things." We have no problem with coaches cross-training players at different positions, but this one smacks of desperation. The Jets are hoping for some spark at wideout off the bench with Brad Smith gone and Chaz Schilens still Chaz Schilens. We can't imagine that Cromartie, a starter at cornerback, will have a major role on offense. At least the early signs regarding rookie receiver Stephen Hill are promising. "I definitely take credit for that second round pick. So far so good, but he's really been impressive." Ryan said. Mark Sanchez also lauded Hill for a fast start at his first training camp practice. Hill figures to start, with Jeremy Kerley, Schilens, and possibly Cromartie chipping in off the bench. All this New England Patriots-Jets copycat stuff is getting out of hand.
With the first U.S. offshore wind farm, Deepwater Wind, about half way through construction, what could be more appropriate than to select Alstom’s (now part of GE) Haliade 150-6 MW turbine as the Turbine of the Month? The turbine design is one of the largest in the world. (Enercon sports a 7.58-MW onshore turbine while Vestas has bragging rights to the world’s only 8-MW unit.) Designers of the U.S. wind-farm will commission five of the 6-MW turbines to provide 30 MWs total and possibly keep the diesel generators on nearby Block Island offline for long periods. The first Haliade 150-6 MW successfully obtained the IEC power-performance measurement (power curve) after three months of testing in France. The turbine was designed following Class I-B specifications, making it suitable for sites with a reference wind speed of 50 m/s (10-minute average) and a 50-year extreme gust speed of 70 m/s (3-second average). A few features The turbine boasts a range of noteworthy engineering developments. For instance, like many other offshore units, this one will use a direct drive – no gearbox. GE says the generator is more compact and lighter than earlier direct-drive systems. A feature called Alstom Pure Torque protects the generator and improves its performance by safely diverting unwanted stresses from the wind though the main frame to the turbine’s tower. It does so with a clever rotor-support concept protecting the drivetrain and other components from deflections. A patented coupling with rubber elements and an embedded hydraulic system absorb undesired loads that would otherwise affect the generator. Other innovations keep power outputs at optimum levels. For instance, electric pitch and yaw systems control energy production. The system is said to reduce non-torque loads by 90% when compared to conventional designs. Electrical yaw and pitch controls rapidly adapt the rotor alignments to changing wind conditions to keep a nominal and constant power supply to the grid. The braking system is based mostly on pitch control. Each blade is equipped with an independent power supply to ensure safe rotor braking, even in extreme conditions. Safety Alstom says the Haliade 150-6MW will make maintenance as simple and as safe as possible. The hub is accessible from the nacelle, which is equipped with a 1-ton capacity crane on a central frame. A maintenance trolley inside the frame eases transport of components. Outside the nacelle, a helicopter winching area allows for quick rescue in case of an on-turbine emergency. Other design features ensure that the turbine provides high-power production in all circumstances. For instance, three independent generator and converter lines ensure uninterrupted operations. And, the turbine can reach a yawing capacity of 95% with only six of its seven yaw motors. Software-controlled derating strategies are said to guarantee operation in the event of faults in the power line or cooling systems. No turbine is an island, so a feature called WindAccess monitors and collects wind-farm data from other wind turbines, meteorological masts, and substations letting the facility operate like a conventional power plant. A ring-topology network connects the turbines on a facility to maintain communications even with an isolated cable fault. Lastly, the system’s web-based interface lets operators access their wind farms from any location at any time. And the system’s open communication protocols lets the operator easily combine the wind farm with all other renewable assets in its portfolio.
I always find this funny, that theists, in a debate, will do almost anything to make their beliefs seem reasonable. These theists will go to almost any length to suggest that either their beliefs are worthwhile or that everyone else operates on as much faith as they do. Now usually, these people will get to a point where they just stop caring or stop responding, but occasionally you get those who just don’t know where to stop and just make their entire audience facepalm at their stupidity. I’m sort of debating one of those right now. I say “sort of” because I’m firmly in that facepalming mode right now, I have no idea where to go next and everyone else playing along is in the same position. So we start talking about blind faith and how believing in something for which you can provide no objective evidence is foolish. There had been a previous assertion that God was the only logical option for the beginning of the universe and I had pointed out that God wasn’t even an option because nobody had shown that God was actually real in the first place. How can something that people just made up out of whole cloth be an option at all, much less the only logical option to explain an event? So he comes back and says everyone lives by blind faith. I asked for an example and he said that if someone in a crowded theater shouted FIRE!, you’d get up and leave the theater, whether you actually saw a fire or not. You had faith, blind faith at that, that there actually was a fire, thus everyone lives by blind faith. Well, no. That’s not the way it works. See, we all know that fire is real, we have personal experience with fire and the damage it can do. We know that buildings, even theaters, can and do catch on fire and the most rational option, given even the possibility of a building you’re in being on fire, is to vacate the premises. If the same guy stood up in the middle of the crowded theater and shouted TYRANNOSAURUS!, you wouldn’t move. The possibility of a tryannosaurus rampaging through the theater is virtually nil (unless someone has developed time travel and we didn’t know it). There’s no reason to run away, there simply isn’t an identifiable danger. Then he tries to say that if you were walking in the woods and you came face-to-face with Bigfoot, you would have no evidence that you had seen it, you couldn’t convince anyone else that it was actually real, but you would have plenty of evidence that would cause you to believe it happened. That failed too. If you actually had a direct, physical encounter in the woods with Bigfoot, you could see it. You could hear it. You could smell it. You could potentially touch it. If you tasted it, keep that to yourself. You actually do have a way of subjectively measuring the experience. Granted, there are lots of reasons why it may or may not be an encounter with an actual Bigfoot, but we’ll set those aside for the moment. So let’s compare that experience to claimed theist experiences with a god. First off, and I have debated literally thousands of theists over the years who have claimed to have had experiences with God, most of them actually haven’t. They have had experiences and have attributed those experiences, without evidence, to something they label God. There just is no direct causal link between any gods and the experience that they had. At least with Bigfoot, even though you may not be able to tell the difference between what has been described as Bigfoot and a horribly mutated bear, at least it matches a specific description and you can attach a specific label to it, even if that label is found to be ultimately wrong in further examination. But these God experiences, you can’t even point to a commonly held definition of what God is. Different people have different ideas, different cultures believe in different gods and since you can’t even point to any absolute characteristics of God in these “experiences”, it’s just an assertion, nothing remotely like what we see in the Bigfoot example. This can be clearly seen in the classical example, someone gets into a traffic accident and survives and claims that God saved them. They completely ignore the actions of the ambulance drivers, the doctors, the nurses and the wealth of modern medical technology, they just assert that “God did it!” They’ve just woven God into their explanation because it’s the answer that appeals to them emotionally the most. If asked why it wasn’t Allah or Krishna or Santa Claus or a unicorn that saved them, they have no credible answers. They don’t like those explanations so they reject them. To this theist, just because these people think they had encounters with God means that they actually did have encounters with God. Unfortunately for him, that’s too easy to take apart. Drunks see the stereotypical pink elephants. Just because they think they see these things, does that mean these things are actually real? Of course not. We know that excessive alcohol in the system can have detrimental effects on the brain and cause hallucinations and other similar experiences. We also know that excessive emotions can cause a shift in brain chemistry and have similar effects. These kind of religious hallucination are proven, without a doubt, to happen among the grossly faithful. There are no supernatural explanations necessary. So if a drunk can see a pink elephant that isn’t really there, why can’t a theist see a god that isn’t really there? And that’s when he dove into the realm of the bat-shit insane. He claimed that since we can’t prove that reality is, in fact, real, that everyone’s experiences are solely in their heads and therefore, everyone’s reality, no matter how different, are all real for them. Of course, that really just shoots them in the head, it means that there’s no point in proselyting to anyone because while in your “reality” there might be a god, in my “reality” there might not be. For Muslims, Allah is “real”. For Hindus, Krishna is “real”. For atheists, none of them are “real”. What’s the point in trying to tell someone whose “reality” dictates that Zeus is the only god that actually, the Christian God is real? It’s just not true! This guy doesn’t care. He’s whacked out of his skull and everyone on the place is pointing and laughing. Of course this never dissuades the religious lunatics, it’s just one more reason why we, as rational people, should never take them seriously. It’s amazing how far these people will go to protect their precious faith. 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Looking for news you can trust? Subscribe to our free newsletters. Trump University, the former for-profit business education venture that has landed Donald Trump in various courts to defend himself against claims of fraud, promised to teach students the secrets of Trump’s financial success. One particular course offered by Trump U presented a particularly blunt strategy for making money: target destitute, “completely disabled” homeowners headed into foreclosure and convince them to sell their homes at a discounted price. That is, exploit disabled people for profit. That advice comes near the end of a nearly three-hour audio lesson—paired with a workbook—that was offered by Trump University in 2006, shortly before the housing market collapsed. It was a year after the opening of Trump University, which shut down in 2010 and has prompted lawsuits against Trump from former students who allege that the school was a scam that ripped them off. The 2006 course, titled “Real Estate Goldmine: How to Get Rich Investing in Pre-Foreclosures,” begins with a monologue by Trump, who says, “We’re not peddling get-rich-quick schemes, no blue-sky promises or an easy road to riches.” But he pledges that his course will offer a “real estate gold mine.” Then Trump University’s Jon Ward interviews real estate investment adviser Gary Eldred about the best strategies for taking advantage of homeowners facing foreclosures. Throughout the course, Eldred provides a variety of tips on spotting homes that are in pre-foreclosure—for instance, look for an owner delinquent on payments because he could be foreclosed on imminently—and he offers strategies for persuading owners to sell their homes at a discount when they’re facing foreclosure. He repeatedly notes that a buyer should be kind when approaching pre-foreclosure owners about purchasing their properties, because these potential sellers are going through a stressful time. But Eldred does cover how to take advantage of short sales—a deal in which a buyer talks the homeowner into selling and convinces the mortgage lender to reduce the seller’s debt. Eldred points out that a key aspect of such a transaction is convincing a lender that the owner won’t be able to pay back the loan as it stands. The goal, Eldred says, is to find homeowners who are in a truly desperate financial position. “Under no circumstance will a lender accept a short sale if they think they can squeeze that borrower for an extra nickel, so certified destitution evidence needs to be included,” he explains. He lists the conditions that are ideal for a short sale: “The borrower is out of work, the borrower has $50,000 in unpaid medical claims, the borrow is completely disabled, the borrower has an extraordinarily messy divorce where everything has been squandered.” During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump has been criticized for mocking a New York Times reporter with a disability. Clips of that incident have become fodder for an attack ad created and aired by an outside group supporting Hillary Clinton. During the course, Eldred laments several times that foreclosures are a painful but inevitable part of the economy. Trump makes a similar point in his introduction. “The sad fact is, more and more property owners are getting themselves in trouble!” Trump says. “Defaulting on mortgages and losing their homes or commercial properties. I’m sorry for them, but life goes on, and the fact is, one person’s misfortune is someone else’s opportunity. That’s just the way the world works. This program shows you how to make a lot of money from investing in pre-foreclosures.”
December 1st is World Aids Day. A time to talk to talk about drugs and drug treatment. Why? A report published by the International Federation of the Red Cross last week goes some way to explain. Download the full report here. “A public health emergency." - According to the report, approximately a fifth of drug users -3 million people - are now living with HIV, but most governments deny them harm reduction services, such as needle exchanges, substitution therapies or addiction counselling. Bad policy violates the human rights of drug users and hampers HIV prevention efforts. -In the battle against AIDS, condoms maybe a cheap and efficient way of preventing infection, but with an epidemic of intravenous drug use around the globe, harm reduction treatment should offer a variety of services that help people restore people's lives in addition to providing a benefit to public health, including provision of condoms. -Research shows that prevention services, for example in prison, reduce the likelihood of HIV being transmitted upon release of the prisoner. The link between injecting drug use and the spread of HIV is well documented, as is that between social attitudes and the effectiveness of treatment. “Injecting drug users account for more than 60 per cent of all HIV infections in Belarus, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. ” In fact, “When an HIV-positive injecting drug user shares a needle, transmission is pretty much 'guaranteed'. Aside from needle sharing being the most effective transmitter of the virus, unsafe drug use can quickly spread the virus to the wider population through prostitution. “In many countries, drug users rely on sex work to support their addiction and ensure basic survival. ” But of course, it's never so simple, and treatment requirements vary from culture to culture. “ In Russia, where substitution treatment is banned, HIV transmission from male injecting drug users to their female sex partners appears to be a major factor behind a spike in the numbers of newly-infected women. ” Women are especially vulnerable as drug users and likely to contract HIV, as they are often second on the needle, victims of violence and abuse, and current treatments often put the onus on women to practise safe sex, increasing the risk of violent abuse. It may not be surprising then, that carrying the potential to spread disease and commit crimes, drug users are often stigmatised and marginalised by society – but that is precisely the problem. Yes. Because, as the UK Drug Policy Commission noted last month, “stigmatisation matters. ” If we take a group of vulnerable people such as injecting drug users, refuse them treatment, restrict their movement, criminalise and shun them, as countless governments and societies across the world continue to do, we contribute to the spread of HIV amongst the wider public. “Stigma associated with both drug use and HIV infection is likely the main reason why policymakers continue to disavow the evidence and oppose harm reduction programming. In all but a handful of nations, injecting drugs is illegal. Public attitudes toward drug users are rarely anything but hostile–not only because users are engaging in an illegal activity but because such behaviour is deemed morally suspect. ” But the borderless internet provides a chance to share stories of drug use so that we can all recognise drug users as human beings who deserve compassion and human rights. By shifting towards a non-judgemental and evidence based reaction towards drug use, users are encouraged to seek treatment services that quantifiably reduce the spread of HIV infections. The Red Cross report calls upon governments, policymakers and donors to “move beyond their prejudices” which is exactly what we encourage at Talking Drugs. So, on World Aids Day we should be talking about drug use. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Federation has called for the decriminalisation of drug users in the interests of public health and human rights. UNAIDS is using the hashtag #preventionrevolution on Twitter. But actually talking about DRUGS can help break down barriers. Tell stories. Ask questions. Discuss, debate and demand an evidence based drugs policy, human rights for drug users and a compassionate non-judgemental approach to treatment. “In 2008, only eight percent of opioid users were accessing substitution treatment, and only four percent of injecting drug users living with HIV were receiving antiretroviral therapy. ” The World AIDS Day website and their AWARE campaign is at www.worldaidsday.org
Dear Friend, Please I will like to know if you have hired Attorney John Palmer as your representative towards the collection of your Inheritance with the deposit company. Because am corresponding to the false Email claims I daily receive from Attorney John Palmer. That you have requested and hired his services as your representative Attorney to make the collection of your $1.5Million USD inheritance estate cheque funds collection. I will not oblige to his request, the reason is because you have not personally notify me about his coming and also after making consultations with the law suit Chamber he claimed he represent. I was told such name do not exist with the law firm either in the past or present. Without wasting much time, I have taken your cheque inheritance collection to the finance ministry to de-activate the Encrypted code been placed on it by your benefactor. All this activity was done by me last week to enable me conclude the final phase of your transaction with the finance ministry. Meanwhile, I have received response from the Deposits company that they have received your package collection Friday last week at about 14:00 GMT.Because they were the issuing bank deposits company that notify me earlier that you have a package collection consignment for pick up as bestowed in the will document papers of late Rev Father James. Elias who issued you this $1.5Million USD payment cheque in your name. So as the attorney to the deceased I was out-rightly informed about your collections which prompt me to take decisive actions immediately by following what was stated in his will papers. Once again, I hope and pray you use your Inheritance collection payment as issued to you wisely by investing with it and paying One tenth of it as your tithe to any Red Cross society or orphanage homes near you in helping a soul today. Furthermore, your compliance towards this E-mail is highly anticipated, to enable the deposit company remit your inheritance payment cheque to you immediately, thank you. I really want to know your stands on this matter before I pull OFF. Signed: Barrister George Williams. Legal Consultant on Mortgage Equity and Financial network. E-mail: georgewilliams250@inbox.ru *** My kind Dr. Williams – I have not hired that Attorney John Palmer. I believe he is trying to cheat both of us, Dr. Williams. Please cease and desist your dealings with him immediately. I fear he is some sort of—dare I even say this heinous term—scam artist. I assume you are with the advance title mortgage deposit reference company in London, England? Please confirm so I can get you the required information as soon as possible, -Paul * Dear Paul I am in receipt of your Email response as prompt. I have to inform you that the deposit company has issued your certified bank draft check $1,500,000 {$1.5 Million} collection to late Reverend. Father James secretary whom is Martins Owner. Immediately I forwarded the power of attorney letter of recommendations to the deposit company to release the collection to the secretary. Send your Full name and address to him, Also you can ask him to send fund through your bank account. Meanwhile, it’s still un-believable to me that till this moment you have not made the collection of your Traveler cashier check payment with the Deposit Company. By now you ought to have started enjoying your benefits. Here is the contact information’s For the Deposit Company. Contact Person:, Martins Owner, who is the head of foreign remittance Department, Metropolitan Company. Email: martinsowner@w.cn E-mail: martinsowner@rocketmail.com Once again, I hope and pray you use your Inheritance collection payment as issued to you wisely by investing with it and paying One tenth of it as your tithe to any Red Cross society or orphanage homes near you in helping a soul today. Signed Barrister George Williams * Dear Dr. George and Martins – This whole affair is becoming very upsetting to me. I was never informed that the Reverend Father’s money has been sitting there waiting for me. How long has it been sitting? Days? Weeks? What I am getting at is that even sitting in a simple passbook savings account of 0.1% interest, we’re talking about $29 or so worth of interest every week. And I’m pretty sure that I could get a lot closer to 1% interest with a lot of banks around here. I think this is the sort of thing that need to be brought to the attention to the Deposit Company. At the very least, we should get that church secretary’s ass fired. It’s just unacceptable that I was uninformed until now. Please let me know what the next steps are so I can get my money. -Paul * Dear Sir, Thank you today, this is to remind you that I have not receive any reply from you on my last mail to you, please do reply to enable start the process of getting your said inheritance fund released to you. Martins Owner * Hello Martins – I did not receive your reply to my last email, where I expressed my concerns about whether interest would be included. I do not feel that I should be penalized for this error on the Deposit Company’s account. What amount will be added to the $1,500,000 to make this right? And has that moronic secretary been fired yet? I am looking forward to your answers before we proceed. Thanking you in Christ, -Paul * Paul, Thank you for your mail and question about your interest that the fund accumulated please i will just want you to forget about the interest and go on on the claim also nobody is arrested since the bank did not honor their request, i need to tell you that your Certified Check has been issued and ready to be send to your address, as given,i will be happy if you understand my stand, what is needed is bank official Linguistic fee to enable them released this certified cashier check to me for onward post to your giving address, your urgent reply will be honored. Your Sincerely Martins Owner * Hello Martins – Fine. After much soul searching, I have decided to drop my request for the interest. But I am unclear as to why we are paying a fee for the scientific study of human language? Now, if there was just some sort of bank fee, well, I’d understand that, for sure. But a linguistic fee just seems so random and over the top. Would you please check into what this is all about? I’ve never been a huge fan of the humanities. Thank you, -Paul * Paul, Thank you for this mail,i went to the bank immediately i received your mail to ask what this fee stands for and i was told that, it is documentations like clearance certificate and to notarize the document that will accompany the fund to it country of transfer, please sir our delaying this issue will not help, send to me as soon as possible the bank information were you will want this fund transfer, and i was told that you should send the charges using the name of, Sarah Joy, address, United Kingdom London you can send through Money gram money transfer or western union money transfer, I wait for your reply Martins Owner * Hello Martins – Okay, I suppose that is acceptable. I have about $6,800 in my savings account, so hopefully the fee is not that much, I’d prefer not to have to temporarily borrow any money. What is the actual amount of the fee? You have never told me. Also, my wife is a little suspicious. Do not worry, I have mostly satisfied her about this transaction, I’ve explained that you are a trustworthy man and that this is all in the name of the most holy Reverend Father. But she said that sometimes there are Nigerians who are posing as English bankers and they’re not really English bankers, they’re Nigerians. To finally shut her up, we agreed that I could just have you answer some basic phrases/expressions that an Englishman would know (or if Sarah Joy can answer them, that would satisfy my wife, too). I’ll paste my wife’s questions below as fill-in-the-blanks. Jolly old ________ The clock tower of Big ________ Fish and chips and ____________ The ____________ of Parliment Who wants to really ____________? Queen ________ II Celery and raisin _______________ Patricia ___________________ Dig me up a __________________ Please send me the answers and I’ll get my wife to agree to this. And let me know the exact amount of the fee so I can send it to Sarah Joy immediately thereafter! Thank you again, -Paul P.S. I think you forgot Sarah Joy’s address. You just had it listed as “address.” Or is that the name of a street in downtown London (confusing if it is, huh?). Sorry about my confusion there. * I cannot understand why all this questions look below if this ok with you Jolly old ________saint nicholas The clock tower of Big ________Ben Fish and chips and ____________ vinegar or peas The _Westminster of Parliment Who wants to really ____________? hang out with me Queen ________ II pts Celery and raisin _______________ sandwich Patricia ___________________Louise Dig me up a __________________milk and cookies * Martins – Thank you for your cooperation. My wife said you scored perfectly! Maybe now that woman will go back in the kitchen and keep quiet. Not that I want her to actually cook, mind you. Her meatloaf could kill a horse. Anyway, let’s get to business. I need to know the fee amount and where to send it. Please let me know. As a short aside, are you any relation to Marty “Chesty” Owner Jr., the former barrister of Oxfordshire-on-Spanglish? He and my father were very good friends back in college in the 1970s, and as a coincidence, they actually spent a summer serving as interns in the Westminster of Parliment. Well, I’m guessing it’s a pretty common last name there in England, but you never know. It is a small world. Looking forward to your instructions, -Paul * Paul, thank you once more, the amount is 340 pounds and it equivalent to dollar is $680, send using the name of SARAH JOY,United Kingdom London, the world is a small world as you said, my promise to you is that fund will be released to you under 48 hours once this payment is received. Martins Owner * Good morning Martin – This is great, wonderful! I’ve just returned from the Cleveland airport post office, which is open 24 hours. I mailed $680.00 in cash to Sarah at this address, as instructed: Sarah Joy Address United Kingdom London I hope I did it right. I used a $0.98 international first class stamp, so I’m thinking it will arrive in 3 or 4 days, worst case scenario. Please have Sarah watch her mail, and let me know when it is received. I couldn’t tell from your response whether you know Chesty Owner. He wouldn’t be your father or uncle by chance? Maybe your comment about it indeed being a small world was acknowledging that you two are related? That would be so, so, so, so, so, funny. Your friend, -Paul *** THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR JOKES, IT IS FUNNY, MAY GOD HELP YOU
Youngstown, OH (TFC) -The Internet has often been likened to the printing press; a new technology that revolutionized communication and the freedom of information. But like the printing press, the Internet has also been the target of restrictions by those in the halls of power, who see freedom of information as a threat to their positions of privilege. Why is this, exactly? What could possibly be the harm in having an informed populace? The danger, of course, is that people can find out what the agendas of their leaders are – and they, throughout history, have very seldom been aligned with the interests of those who are ostensibly being lead. In recent years there have been many attempts to restrict a free and open internet. Often framed as copyright protection laws, these plans would limit the options of internet users the world over and place control in the hands of corporate entities. There is also the issue of privacy, as government agencies monitor and collect communications, ostensibly in the interest of “national security,” and corporate groups gather data in order to sell advertising, and thus products. These are serious, dire issues, issues that we must have a continuing conversation about, and practices that we should resist. But this is not my current subject of concern. My concern here is the freedom of the press. Lauded in the United States as something that is protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution of that country, freedom of the press I see, rather, as a basic human right. It is a basic facet of humanity that we possess language, and we communicate complex ideas via this natural capacity for communication. The limitation thereof, it almost always seems, is in the interest of the powerful, and indeed the powerful have always imposed these limitations, even in the modern day. Recently, we saw alternative media outlets being shut down in France in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Paris, as well as a crackdown on protest during the climate summit. Additionally, we have this piece discussing a planned Israeli deal with internet giant Google (and their subsidiary YouTube) to censor information coming out of occupied Palestine. We can only surmise from these developments that the French government doesn’t want voices of dissent being heard during their current crisis, and that the Israeli government doesn’t want the outside world to see what is happening in Palestine. But, we have so-called “mainstream” news outlets that still cover these stories – why aren’t they being censored? As Michael Parenti once observed to a journalist, “you say what you like because they like what you say.” The mainstream media outlets are owned by large corporate entities, which have an interest in the status quo and often fund the elections of those in power in democratic countries. They battle for “access” and “exclusivity” in their stories, so they can drive up ratings and thus fund the advertising that makes money for their corporate owners. They do not have any interest, then, in challenging power; in effect, the mainstream media is a sounding board for the powerful, a parrot that repeats the official narrative. They are not driven towards informing but rather, as Noam Chomsky would say, they are bent on “manufacturing consent.” With the rise of the Internet, however, a new form of journalism has risen. New and Alternative Media has blossomed in the last ten years, and anyone with a keyboard has a voice that can reach literally billions. Of course, not all of this lives up to the “journalistic standard.” There is plenty of bad, bad new media out there, yes. But does that matter? Freedom of information is worth it. It is worth sorting the wheat from the chaff. Voices unbeholden to anyone are more truthful voices, and we in New Media trust you to be able to discern our biases (which we often wear on our sleeves) and come to your own conclusions. No journalism is free of biases; objectivity is an impossibility. Whether bias comes consciously, in terms of misdirection, or subconsciously, in terms of omission, it is present in everything you read, whether that is this article or the Associated Press. If we cannot escape bias, we must acknowledge it, accept it, and integrate it into our understanding of the world in which we live. The censorship of New Media is just an extension of the censorship that has always existed – whether it be in speech and folk songs or books and newspapers. Censorship favors the powerful, always. In our modern times, we must fight for our latest platform – the internet. We cannot allow our voices to be silenced. We must fight for, and support, New Media. In many cases, it is the only truthful voice we have left.
Photo: Anadolu Agency / Getty Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Image 2 of 8 Ten-month-old baby Melda Ilgin is seen in her mother's arms after being saved by Turkish coast guard when she drifted a kilometer out to sea on a sea buoy in Ayvacik district of Canakkale province, Turkey on July 3, 2015. less Ten-month-old baby Melda Ilgin is seen in her mother's arms after being saved by Turkish coast guard when she drifted a kilometer out to sea on a sea buoy in Ayvacik district of Canakkale province, Turkey on ... more Photo: Anadolu Agency / Getty Image 3 of 8 Ten-month-old baby Melda Ilgin is seen as she drifts a kilometer out to sea on a sea buoy in Ayvacik district of Canakkale province, Turkey on July 3, 2015. Ten-month-old baby Melda Ilgin is seen as she drifts a kilometer out to sea on a sea buoy in Ayvacik district of Canakkale province, Turkey on July 3, 2015. Photo: Anadolu Agency / Getty Image 4 of 8 Turkish coast guard rescue 10 month-old baby Melda Ilgin as she drifts a kilometer out to sea on a sea buoy in Ayvacik district of Canakkale province, Turkey on July 3, 2015. Turkish coast guard rescue 10 month-old baby Melda Ilgin as she drifts a kilometer out to sea on a sea buoy in Ayvacik district of Canakkale province, Turkey on July 3, 2015. Photo: Anadolu Agency / Getty Image 5 of 8 Image 6 of 8 Turkish coast guard rescue 10-month-old baby Melda Ilgin as she drifts a kilometer out to sea on a sea buoy in Ayvacik district of Canakkale province, Turkey on July 3, 2015. Turkish coast guard rescue 10-month-old baby Melda Ilgin as she drifts a kilometer out to sea on a sea buoy in Ayvacik district of Canakkale province, Turkey on July 3, 2015. Photo: Anadolu Agency / Getty Image 7 of 8 Turkish coast guard rescue 10-month-old baby Melda Ilgin as she drifts a kilometer out to sea on a sea buoy in Ayvacik district of Canakkale province, Turkey on July 3, 2015. Turkish coast guard rescue 10-month-old baby Melda Ilgin as she drifts a kilometer out to sea on a sea buoy in Ayvacik district of Canakkale province, Turkey on July 3, 2015. Photo: Anadolu Agency / Getty
Miss May I is a Metalcore band from Troy, Ohio. The term up-and-coming is a common description of this band. Their 5th record, “Rise Of The Lion”, was released on April 25th of this year and the album was produced by Terry Date who has produced such acts as Dream Theatre, Soundgarden, Pantera, Deftones and Slipknot. The band performed on day 1 of the Louder Than Life Festival on October 4th. The weather was the talk of many due to a dramatic drop in temperature and windy conditions by daybreak on Saturday. As I filed into the venue, I was pleased by the size of crowd waiting for the gates to open at 11:00 AM. I could tell that this festival was going to rock. I was looking forward to one band in particular this day and Miss May I was that band. After walking around and checking out the venue, I headed to the the media area to have a chat with Miss May I’s dynamic frontman, Levi Benton. Levi Benton- Miss May I ONSTAGE MAGAZINE: Levi, how did you like working with Terry Date on your latest album, Rise Of The Lion? LEVI BENTON: It was awesome. It was cool to work with a legend like that because not only did we get to record with him, but we were always bugging him for stories about Pantera, Deftones and the other greats he has worked with. ONSTAGE: There is definitely a lot of history there and the album sounds great by the way. You guys have some really devoted fans, how have you seen the fans change over the last seven years that you guys have been around? LB: It’s crazy. The biggest thing is the tattoos. We sort of promoted that on our record and it’s sort of just crazy to me. To us, we’re just dudes who got a record deal that were playing in basements and now people really like our band. It’s weird to me because we are playing the same music we played in basements and we haven’t changed at all. ONSTAGE: How has the band evolved since things got going? You have made the statement that the new album is a conscious effort to be a little different. LB: Our biggest thing is that we want to be diverse. We don’t want to get stuck. At the end of the day we are just a long-haired thrash metal band. We’re just a heavy band. But we don’t want to get monotonous and boring. You can only be heavy for so long. So that’s our biggest thing is that we try to change it up a little bit but stay with our sound and not lose our fans and everyone think that we got mushy and soft. ONSTAGE: That sounds like a good formula. How have the fans responded to the new album? LB: They are cool. It’s diverse. So obviously there are songs we get backlash on and then there are songs people like. I think people weren’t ready for us to do a diverse record up and down. Everyone is used to 110% the whole way through. But for us, we wanted to change it up. You can’t make everyone happy. If we had made a full-on heavy record, people would say we wrote the same record again and if it’s different, people would say to write it again. ONSTAGE: What’s your favorite song to perform live? LB: Oh man. Hey Mister. The crowd goes crazy and that’s usually our last song and I can like give it all and just break everything on stage and be like, “Okay. We’re done.” ONSTAGE: How does your voice feel after a performance? LB: It’s actually not bad. I feel like it’s sort of a callous now. Back when we first started touring, I would just get wrecked. But today, I’ll play and then go party and watch all of the bands. ONSTAGE: What was the intent with Rise Of The Lion? LB: Just wanting to be diverse. Even the lyrical content we changed up. I feel I over-think stuff, but I didn’t want to write the same record about me like the previous four times. This one was like letters back to fans. It’s more of a fan-based record. ONSTAGE: What do you see on the horizon for Miss May I? LB: A lot of touring and a lot of writing. Now we have it set up so when we are off tour, we just write non-stop. Even though we just released a record, we are writing for the next record. I had my schedule laid out for the afternoon. Miss May I would be playing at 4:15 and I made sure to work around that. Look for photos from the show. You can follow Levi on Twitter. @levibenton Comments comments Powered by Facebook Comments
The tax credit cuts that will still go ahead, the bad news for students, and other devils in George Osborne’s detail 1. Not all tax credit cuts reversed Tory MPs cheer George Osborne's climbdown on tax credit cuts Read more Not all of the tax credit cuts announced in the summer are being abandoned. The Treasury is still going ahead with a cut to the “income rise disregard” – the amount of extra money a tax credit claimant can earn before losing benefits. In July, George Osborne announced that this was being cut from £5,000 to £2,500. That cut still applies, and it raises £170m. 2. The Office for Budget Responsibility is assuming another delay in the rollout of universal credit The OBR is assuming there will be another delay in the rollout of universal credit, the government’s flagship new method of paying benefits. The scheme has been downgraded and delayed repeatedly. This is from the OBR’s report: We have added our own forecast judgment of a further six-month delay to the managed migration phase of the [universal credit, or UC] rollout. As usual, we have considered evidence from DWP and the latest assessment of UC rollout by the Major Projects Authority. While this indicates greater confidence in the ‘transition phase’ rollout plan, considerable uncertainty remains over the ‘managed migration’ phase. And of course the transition phase rollout schedule has just been pushed back six months, just a year after the previous delay. And this chart highlights all the delays that have already occurred. (The line on the left shows what was originally meant to happen, and the lines on the right are the most recent forecasts.) 3. Average earnings revised downwards The OBR report also shows that average earnings have been revised downwards for the next five years (by 0.2% in 2016, then 0.2%, then 0.3%, then 0.4%, and then 0.4%). Facebook Twitter Pinterest Average earnings revised downwards Photograph: OBR 4. Household disposable income revised down According to the OBR, the level of real household disposable income has also been revised down for 2015 by 0.5%. That means the OBR thinks we have had less money to spend this year than it previously assumed. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Household disposable income down Photograph: OBR 5. Student loan repayment threshold frozen Student loans: Osborne criticised for freezing repayment threshold Read more The government has quietly announced that it is hitting students in the pocket, by not raising the threshold for repaying their loans. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills says: To reduce government debt, the student loan repayment threshold for plan two borrowers will be frozen until April 2021. Plan two borrowers are those who took out loans from 2012 onwards. Previously, the threshold for repayments was meant to rise in line with earnings. Student loan repayment threshold frozen 6. Funding for opposition parties to be cut Osborne accused of ‘despicable’ attempt to cut opposition party funding Read more It is often claimed that we don’t have state funding for political parties in the UK. But we do, on a modest level, because opposition parties get so-called Short money (named after Ted Short, a former leader of the Commons) to fund what they do in parliament. Currently this is worth more than £6m a year to Labour, and more than £1m a year to the SNP. All political parties can also get policy development grants, which add up to another £2m a year in total. This money is now being cut. The Tories will lose a bit through the changes to policy development grant funding, but Labour will be hit the hardest. This is from the autumn statement document: Therefore, subject to confirmation by parliament, the government proposes to reduce Short money allocations by 19%, in line with the average savings made from unprotected Whitehall departments over this spending review. Allocations will then be frozen in cash terms for the rest of the parliament, removing the automatic RPI indexation. Policy development grant allocations will also be reduced by a similar proportion, ensuring that political parties in receipt of taxpayer funding contribute to the savings being asked of local and central government. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Funding for opposition parties to be cut 7. New stamp duty rate covers second homes as well as buy to let George Osborne announced a new top-up stamp duty, 3% above the current rate, for people buying homes for buy to let. Bad news, if you have the money and plan to splash; the new rate will cover all second homes, not just ones that are being let. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Stamp duty rise on second homes and buy to let This new levy will raise £625m next year, rising to £880m by the end of the parliament. According to the Telegraph’s Christopher Hope, unmarried couples will be able to avoid this. 8. London bears brunt of transport cuts, but HS2 survives Transport has been dealt the biggest cut of any government department as a proportion of its day-to-day spending, with 37% slashed from the Department for Transport’s (DfT) resource budget by 2020, reports our transport correspondent, Gwyn Topham. Facebook Twitter Pinterest London bears brunt of transport cuts, but HS2 survives Most of the savings will come from London. Transport for London’s operational budget of almost £700m a year will be entirely wiped out by the end of the decade, leaving TfL to fund its services through commercial investment, cuts or potentially higher fares. But the chancellor said that transport cuts would be offset by money earmarked for infrastructure funding, up 50% from the last parliament to £61bn over the next six years, including 2020-21. Much of the later spending will go on HS2, whose price tag has been officially increased to £55.7bn at 2015 prices. Road building will account for £15bn in spending, which Osborne hailed as the largest road investment programme since the 1970s. London will still receive a total £11bn to continue upgrades and new infrastructure, including Crossrail. The chancellor said the increased capital budget would ensure that critical rail projects such as the electrification of the Midland mainline and Transpennine route could go ahead, after they were shelved earlier this year, to outcry in the north. The DfT forecasts that rail franchising will deliver bigger returns to the Treasury than it currently receives. The DfT’s budget will fall from £2.6bn this year to £1.8bn in 2019-20. Its departmental administration budget will be cut by 12% in real terms, a slightly less severe cut than the 18% average across government.
Cartman Joins NAMBLA Kenny's house, day. Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny sit around a Monopoly-type board game in Kenny's room Cartman Okay, Stan, I'm gonna you... a UFO crash-landing card! [tosses it in front of him] You can deny it, or cover it up. Stan Dude, I don't understand this game at all. Cartman [Front of board game box is seen with 'Kurtis' spelled incorrectly with a 'C'] It's "Investigative Reports with Bill Kurtis" funtime game. You have to decide if you deny it or cover it up. Stan Um, deny it? Cartman Okay, let's see what Bill Kurtis says. [presses an electronic Bill Kurtis head] Electronic Head [trembles from side to side] Hello, I'm Bill Kurtis. Many believe that the U.S. Government... covered it up. I'm Bill Kurtis. Kyle Alright, Cartman. I'm gonna give you... a jail-time card. [tosses it in front of him] You lose a turn. Stan Sweet. Cartman Oh yeah?! Well, I'm gonna give you... AIDS! [tosses the card in front of him] Kyle What? Cartman I just gave you AIDS. Kyle AIDS?! [looks confused] Stan Dude, that's not cool. Don't give Kyle AIDS. Cartman Kyle has AIDS, and now loses 47 turns [Kyle turns angry] and 800 points. [camera pans back, and Kenny's parents appear at the door with arms around each other] Mrs. McCormick Kenny, your dad and I are thinking about having another baby. Wouldn't you like to have another brother or sister? Kenny (No.) Stuart [tickling his wife] We just might get workin' on it later tonight, huh huh huh. [they walk off giggling] Cartman God-damnit, poor people suck! Your family is already on welfare, and now they're gonna bring another kid into the world. Poor people are turning out babies, adding to the overpopulation, and they're expecting me to pay for it with my tax dollars. Stan You don't pay tax dollars, Cartman! You're eight! Cartman ...You see. [stands] Gaw, this is just what I've been talkin' about! I can't even relate to you guys anymore because you're too immature! Kyle What? Cartman I've gotta start hanging out with friends that are a little more intelligent, and understand ...politics and stuff. It's just that... I'm up on this level up here [hovers his right hand at eye level], and all my friends are down here [hovers it at stomach level]. Kyle You don't know what you're talking about, fatass! Cartman Nononono! Me h'myah [hand at eye level], you guys myah! [hand at chest level] — maybe a little mo down, down in hyah. [hand at foot level. Then he straightens up] SCREW YOU GUYS, I'M GOING HOME. [turns around, walks out, and towards the front door.] Electronic Head I'm Bill Kurtis. Cartman's house, a few minutes later. Cartman paces the floor in his room. Next to him is a computer Cartman I've outgrown all my friends. I need to meet more mature people, Clyde Frog. [looks at Clyde Frog for a few seconds, then] Oh, great idea, Clyde Frog! [walks over to the chair and hops on] I can meet new friends on the Internet! [clicks the mouse and presses a few keys, then the computer chimes. A list of chat rooms comes up] Here's a chat room: "Men Who Like Young Boys" [moves the cursor to the title and clicks on it] That's perfect. [starts typing] Hi everybody! I am a young boy seeking an older male for good times. I am eight years old and would li- [replies start cascading over his message] Wow! Look at all these guys who wanna be my friend! I'll pick... Tony316. [click on Tony's reply and starts typing] Hi Tony. [clicks and reads the reply] "So what are you into?" [replies] Oh, you know, the usual stuff. Smiley-face. [clicks and reads the reply] "Kewl. Wanna get together? [softer] Smiley-face?" [replies] Sure, Tony! That would be... kewl. Winking, smiley, face. [clicks and reads the reply] "Meet me at Mel's Buffet restaurant tomorrow morning." [replies] Sounds good. See you then! Clown hat, curly hair, smiley-face. [clicks, then brightly] You see that, Clyde Frog? Tomorrow I'm gonna meet my first mature friend! Mel's Buffet, next day. Cartman enters and approaches a man seated alone in a booth. Cartman Hi, are you Tony? [the man looks unusually friendly] Tony Yeah. You're -Eric? Cartman Yeah! [gets into the booth and sits next to Tony] Tony [meekly, hands a bag to Cartman] I brought you some candy. Cartman [takes the bag] Wow, cool! Tony [hands him two books] And some books on Kama Sutra. Cartman Neato! Having older friends kicks ass, uh! You see, I've, I've really been having a tough time. I've kind of matured faster than my other friends [Tony places his hand on Cartman's back and starts rubbing with an open smile]; we don't really relate anymore, and, and uh, alright uh, all my friends seem so childish now. Tony Yahahahah like having your back rubbed? Cartman Heh, yeah! That feels real nice! Thanks. [two agents burst through the main door and head for Tony and Cartman] Agent Hold it right there, scumbag! Tony [Quickly removes hands from Cartman] Huh? Cartman Huh? Agent [pulls out some handcuffs] We monitored your little online chat. [cuffs Tony] Now you're coming with us! [hauls him away] Tony [meekly] No! [the two agents whisk him outside] Cartman [concerned] What the hell just happened? Kenny's house, early morn. Kenny's tossing in bed, apparently in a nightmare. His dreams are shown, and in each a parent carries a baby Mom You can't eat, Kenny. We have to save food for the baby. Dad Your mom and I are going out for a few weeks, Kenny. Take care of the baby. Mom Kenny, you have to change the baby's diapers! Dad You have to share your room with the baby! Mom The baby. Dad The baby! Mom The baby!! Kenny [wakes and sits up] (HAAAAAAAAGH!) [looks around] Kenny's house, living room sofa, later. Stuart is tickling his wife again Mrs. McCormick [giggles] Stop it! Stuart Come on, let's go try to get you pregnant again. Mrs. McCormick Oh, alright. [they get up and move when Kenny arrives with glove and baseball] Kenny (Dad, I wanna play catch.) Stuart Huh? Uh, I'll play catch with your later, son. Kenny (But I wanna play now!) Mrs. McCormick Oh, go ahead. We can make love afterwards. Stuart Aw, alright. Kenny's house, front lawn. Kenny stands in the driveway and Stuart stands in front of the tattered sofa Stuart Well alright, here comes a pop fly. See if you can catch it! [tosses it high, but straight for Kenny's glove. Kenny catches it] Good job. Now throw me one. [Kenny takes the ball out of the glove, looks at it in anger, and shoots it straight for his father's groin. Stuart doubles over in pain and covers his crotch] Ohp! Guhhogh! [groaning, he ends up on his side, then throws up] Mrs. McCormick [opens the door and rushes out] What happened?! Stuart Aw, he smacked me in the balls! [groans some more. Kenny tosses the glove to his mother] Kenny [goes inside] (Woohoo!) [Stuart groans some more, then vomits] Cartman's house, day. He's back at the computer in his room Cartman Okay, we'll try this again. [starts typing as BigBoned] Hi, everyone. I am a young boy looking for fun times with older male. I like to- [More quickly than before, his screen fills with cascading replies. He picks one] Oh, this one looks good: HungDaddy. [starts typing] Hello, HungDaddy. [reads the reply] "Hi. I'm eight and a half inches." Damn, dude, this guy's tiny. He must be a dwarf. [Says out loud:] Sorry, I'm not interested in being friends with midgets. [Types and says:] Midgets piss me off. Frowny face. [clicks and moves on] Lemme see, how about this one? The South Park docks, day. Cartman walks towards the end, where a man in trench coat and baseball cap looks out over the water. Cartman [draws close to the man] Mister Hammerhead? Mr. Hammerhead [turns around and is instantly recognizable] Hi there. Cartman Mr. Garrison?? Mr. Garrison [startled] Haah! Eric! Cartman You wanna be my friend? Mr. Garrison Oh, crap! Cartman That's cool, we can hang out. What do you wanna do first? Mr. Garrison Huh-uh, nothing! Nothing! [four agents appear and head for him] Agent Alright, scumbag, we got you! Mr. Garrison [voice quivering] Hey uh, uh, uh. Good thing you guys came. This... little boy was trying to have his way with me. Agent Nice try, buddy! We monitored your little online chat—now, you're coming with us! [the four agents, two on either side of Garrison, take him away] Mr. Garrison No-o! Cartman Why the hell does the FBI keep arresting all my friends? This has to be the work of Stan and Kyle! God, I hate those guys! South Park Clinic, day. Stan and Kyle stand before a picture window. Kyle See? I told you, dude. Those are dialysis machines. [elderly people are seen hooked up to them] Old people have to hook themselves into it with a tube, and it sucks all their body fluids out. Stan Oh, man, that's terrible. Kyle I know, hunh? Put your mouth against the glass like this. [plants his lips wide on the glass and blows out] Waaaaah! [as the seal takes hold, his cheeks puff up and the inside of his his mouth shows clearly — it is a blow face. Stan smiles] Stan Haha, he-yeah ha. [makes his own blow face] Haaaaah. Kyle [makes the blow face and wags his tongue at the patients] Bleuh-leuh-leuh-leuh-leuh. Stan [does the same] Blaaa-lalalalalalala. Cartman [walks up] Alright, just what the hell do you guys think you're doing?! Stan [looks and then faces him. Kyle follows] We're making faces at sick people. Cartman No! I mean, what the hell are you doing?! Why are all my mature adult friends being "mys-teriously" arrested, huh?! [Stan and Kyle are confused and look at each other] Stan We don't know. Cartman I'll tell you why! Because you guys are jealous and can't handle the fact that you're immature, and so you've started a government conspiracy against me! Kyle We don't know what you're talking about, lardbutt. Cartman Lardbut. Oh, that's so mature! Golly, I guess I was wrong about you guys, huh?! Stan You're not more mature than us, Cartman! Cartman YES I AM!! [Stan and Kyle back up a bit. Cartman turns and walks away] South Park Police Department, day. Mr. Garrison and Tony are in the cell, and Officer Barbrady sits at a desk with his feet up Mr. Garrison I'm telling you, this is all a terrible mistake, Officer Barbrady. Officer Barbrady Well, the FBI said I have to hold you here, so that's what I'm gonna do, Mr. Complainy Pants. Mr. Garrison O-ogh! [returns to the bed and sits] Tony Do you like having your back rubbed? Mr. Garrison Eat me, pervert! Tony Okay. [some commotion is heard outside. A group of men is seen approaching and the front door opens. The men walk in and approach the desk] Man We demand you release these men at once! Officer Barbrady Who are you? Man We are NAMBLA, the North American Man Boy Love Association, and we heard about these political prisoners you're keeping? Officer Barbrady Political prisoners? No, these are child molesters. Man Loving young boys has been around since the time of the Romans, pal! There's nothing wrong with it! We are an organization dedicated to showing that sex between a man and a young boy can be a beautiful thing! Other NAMBLA Men [ad lib] Yeah, uh-huh. Officer Barbrady [stands up] Uuuh, I don't know who you are, but these men aren't going anywhere until I hear from the FBI. Man Hate mongerer! Hate mongerer! Other NAMBLA Men Hate mongerer! Hate mongerer! Officer Barbrady Okay people [the men fall silent], I think you'd better move along before I arrest more of you! Man All these men wanted was to love a young boy! [pounds the table a few times] There is nothing wrong with love! Mr. Garrison I did not want love from a young boy! I like men my own age. [gasps and shrieks] Aah! I mean, I like women! What did I say?-Oh God! I love titties! Man You haven't heard the last of us, officer! Together we are strong. [turns and heads for the door] Come on, men! [the others follow him out, chattering] Officer Barbrady [sits back down and plops his feet up] Wow, they've got activists for everything these days. South Park Genetic Engineering Ranch, night with eery lightning overhead and thunder heard. Dr. Mephesto and Kevin are at a lab table Dr. Mephesto I've done it, Kevin. I've successfully spliced this chipmunk with a piece of provolone cheese. [the "cheesemunk"in the box groans] Do you know what this means, Kevin? No more will the world have to look in two different places for squirrels and provolone cheese. No more will mankind have to pick- [the doorbell rings] Who could that be? [walks over and opens the door] Why, it's little Eric Cartman. Cartman Dr. Mephesto, I need help. Dr. Mephesto Well of course, come in. Cartman [follows Mephesto and Kevin in] You see, unfortunately I have matured faster than all my friends. I wanna hang out with older friends, but I can't find any, so I was wondering if you could genetically engineer some older friends for me. Dr. Mephesto [stops and faces him] Oh, Eric, I'm afraid it's not that simple. Genetic engineering has not yet evolved to the state where I can just make people. Cartman Damnit! But I wanna hang out with older guys! Dr. Mephesto Oh. Well, I happen to be a member of an organization that can help you. It's called, NAMBLA. Cartman NAMBLA? Dr. Mephesto Yes. I have been a member for several years. I'm sure they'd let you join. You l-look about right. Cartman Hokay, thanks, Dr. Mephesto! [turns and walks out] Dr. Mephesto Sure! South Park Inn. "No Vacancy" "Welcome NAMBLA." Inside, the NAMBLA leader speaks to the group in a meeting room. On either side of him are portraits of men with boys on their laps. More picture line the walls Man [henceforth, NAMBLA leader] Fellow members of NAMBLA. As you know, hn hn, we continue to be discriminated against. Recently, the FBI has started to arrest men, who are doing nothing more than trying to start a sexual relationship with a young boy. Members Awwww. NAMBLA leader And now that all ethnic groups, homosexuals and women's are protected under civil-rights laws, [pounds on the podium] we want the same! Members [weakly] Yeah. Eager Man Yeh-hehah-hah. NAMBLA leader What we need is proof that young boys want to be members of NAMBLA. That they want love from us. We need a poster child, to show the world that it is a beautiful and wonderful thing and a- [Cartman enters and takes a seat. Men in the back row look on with some awe.] Can we... help you? Cartman Yes. I'd like to join your fine organization. Is that cool? NAMBLA leader You... do? Cartman Sure. NAMBLA leader [greatly relieved] Oho, thank you. Thank you, Jesus. Cartman [looks around] ...Sweet. South Park Clinic, day. Stan, Kyle, and Kenny stand before the picture window. Stan and Kyle make blow faces again. The patients are dismayed. Kenny soon tries to make a blow face but his ever present hood is still on. His parents walk up Mrs. McCormick Well, Kenny, the doctor confirmed it. I'm pregnant! You're gonna have a little brother or sister. Kenny (No!!) [the camera zooms in on him] Mrs. McCormick Yup, it's for sure! Stuart And he fixed my shattered left testicle, too! Mrs. McCormick Don't be out too late, Kenny. We need to start movin' stuff out of your room. [the parents walk away] Kyle Wow. Your mom's pregnant, Kenny. Stan Yeah. Now what are you going to do? Kenny (I don't know. But I've gotta think of something.) [turns around and walks away in his parents' direction] Cartman [rushes up from the other direction] Nyanyanyanyah nyah nyah! Nyanyanyanyah nyah nyah! I got into NAMBLA and you gu-uys didn't! Kyle What are you talking about, fatass? Cartman Oh, no big deal. I just found a group called NAMBLA with adult members, and they all think that I'm sure mature they want me to be their new poster child is all. [Stan and Kyle look at each other] It looks like I'm finally gonna have mature friends who I can relate to. Nyanyanyanyah nyah nyah! I'm too mature for you guys! Nyanyanyanyah nyah nyah! [turns and walks away] South Park Pharmacy, day. Inside, Kenny in his normal outfit, but with a blond wig, approaches the counter. Pharmacist Can I help you, young lady? Kenny [wearing a blonde wig] (Yes. I'm looking for some morning-after abortion-) Pharmacist Oh, you want some morning-after abortion pills. Well, they're right over there. [points to them. Kenny looks] Kenny (Thanks.) [walks over and looks at them. He sees "Morning After Abortion Pills," "Baby - B- Gone," "Get it outta me! (has an unknown, real woman's face pictured)" "Fetus Flusher" "Pregnant No More Super Size." He takes the "Pregnant No More" pills to the counter] Pharmacist Uh, I'm sorry, young lady, but I can't sell that to you without permission from your parents. [Kenny hands him a note that reads: I hereby give my daughter permission to abort her baby -Mother] Oh, well, alrighty then. Cash or charge? Kenny (Cash.) Kenny's house, day. Kenny's in the kitchen mixing a drink. It consists of cocoa, vodka, ...and the entire bottle of "Pregnant No More" pills. All 999 of them. In a mug. He finishes, drops down, and heads for the living room Kenny's house, living room. Stuart reads the paper, and Mrs.McCormick is knitting. Kenny enters with the mug Kenny (Look, Mom. I made you something to drink.) [a rat climbs onto the sofa headrest; Stuart shoos it away] Mrs. McCormick Oh, well that's very sweet of you, Kenny. You made my favorite drink for me. Kenny (Yeah.) [presents the mug] Mrs. McCormick But unfortunately, now that I'm pregnant, I can't drink. Kenny (What?) Stuart Well, I can still drink. [grabs the mug and starts chugging away] Kenny (No! Daddy!) [looks on as Stuart finishes the mug off] Stuart Ogh, that hits the spot. Makes me forget all about my shattered balls. [seeing Kenny looking at him] What? Wwhat's the matter? Uh, why don't you go make me another one of... of... [his stomach starts to churn, and he holds it] Who-o-oa. Mrs. McCormick What's the matter? Kenny (Uh oh.) Stuart Oh, God, I'm gonna crap my pants! [rushes to the bathroom] Kenny's house, bathroom. A sign saying "CRAPPER SWEET CRAPPER" hangs on the wall. Stuart drops his pants and briefs, hops on the toilet, and starts crapping Stuart Oohhh, God! [farts and craps in pain] Oooh, my balls! [Kenny appears at the door. Stuart turns around and vomits into the toilet. He alternates between crapping and vomiting, farting all the while] Ooh, God [more alternating between pooping and vomiting as Kenny just stares] Photo-Dojo, day. Members of NAMBLA surround the photographer as he takes pictures. NAMBLA Member Just a few more pictures, Eric. You make a perfect poster child. Cartman Thanks, dude. [poses in his beefcake swim pants for several shots before a curtain that says "I LOVE NAMBLA"] NAMBLA leader [arrives with some other members] Uh hey, Eric, we have a surprise for you. We want to have a big dinner and dance honoring you as our new poster child. Cartman Really? Awesome![continues to pose in various ways as camera shutter sounds are heard] NAMBLA leader Yes, and we you to um... invite all your young male friends. [the guys behind him start to drool] Cartman Oh. Well, sure. I have some friends who want to be mature, [looks back at the camera and mumbles] excluding Stan and Kyle, of course. NAMBLA leader Great, hnn. You go invite your little friends, and we'll get the hotel ready. Cartman KIIICK ASS! Kenny's house, day. Kenny's on the sofa watching television. Mrs. McCormick [off-screen] Kenny?? Don't forget to clean out your room so we can paint it for the baby. [Kenny hops off as one commercial ends. Another one draws his attention.] Announcer [echo on] Hey, are you feeling down? You need some excitement. And North Park Funland has just opened its newest ride! The John Denver Experience! [the ride is demonstrated] You'll be Rocky Mountain High with this, the most EXTREME, INSANE RIDE EVER BUILT. Two Guys ["ACTUAL TESTIMONIAL"] It was- Guy 1 [holds up right thumb] -fun. Guy 2 [holds up left thumb] -fun. Announcer Note: people with heart conditions and expectant mothers should not ride the JOHN DENVER! Open now! Come on down! Kenny (Mom!) [walks away] North Park Funland, day. People file in. The McCormicks are in line to go on the John Denver Experience Stuart Are you sure you should be going on this thing? Mrs. McCormick Oh, it's all right. [in a low voice] You know, I think maybe Kenny's been a little worried about the new baby. We have to show him that he's still our little boy. [the line moves forward. Kenny and his parents find seats in the first row. The ride itself is wrapped in the body of a small plane, with a wing serving as a ramp] Operator [speaks into a muffled PA system] Folks, please keep your hands and arms inside the John Denver Experience at all times. There's no sense in trying to unloop at the latch at any time during the ride at the John Denver Experience. Have fun. Stuart What did he say? [the ride swings up smoothly, but at the top it swings into high gear, slamming into the platform during one swing, into a building during another swing, and back and forth this way a few times. Mrs. McCormick is enjoying it quite a bit. The ride ends with a slam into a large pool, where the plane rests upside down] ...John Denver Experience. North Park Funland, John Denver Experience exit. Riders exit. The McCormicks are the last ones out Stuart Oh, God, my nose! I think I broke my nose! Mrs. McCormick Come on, Stuart, let's just get you to a bathroom. Stuart Oh, I'm not gonna make it! I'm gonna be sick! [heads for the nearest trash can and vomits into it. A woman carrying her baby moves away. He grabs his stomach] Oh, my stomach! [pulls down his pants and poops in the trash can] Oh, my nose! [sneezes blood into the trash can] Gross! [vomits, poops, and sneezes, and this goes on for quite a while. Kenny simply slaps his hand to his head and rolls his eyes.] South Park, day. Cartman runs into the boys in front of the South Park Clinic Cartman Oh, Stan, Kyle, just the guys I wanted to see! My NAMBLA organization is having a very important benefit in my honor. Kyle They are? Cartman We're gonna have a big, mature party at this hotel, and I can invite all my mature friends that I want. And that means I'm gonna invite everybody! Except for you guys! Nyanyanyanyah nyah nyah! Nyanyanyanyah nyah nyah! Stan [angry] We don't wanna go to some stupid adult meeting anyway! Cartman Well, that's nice, 'cause you can't go. Kyle We don't wanna go! Cartman You can't go. Kyle We don't WANNA go! Cartman No, you CAN'T go. [turns around and walks away] Hey, Clyde, Butters, check this out Stan Dude, maybe we do need to start being more mature. Kyle Yeah. I guess we gotta try to get into that club, too. Kenny's house, day. He is asleep again in his room. Another nightmare appears. The scene is a delivery room at Hell's Pass Hospital. Kenny's mom is about to give birth, and Dr. Doctor is there with a nurse and Stuart Dr. Doctor You're doing fine, Ms. McCormick. [sees Kenny sneaking a peek] It's alright, Kenny. Come see the miracle of life. [Kenny approaches and is covered in amniotic fluid as his mom's water bursts] Kenny (Eeww.) Dr. Doctor I can see its head! Ms. McCormick You can? Dr. Doctor Push, now. Push hard! [Ms.McCormick holds onto Stuart's hand hard and pushes the baby out. The doctor shields his face] Oh my God. [the nurse screams in horror] Ms. McCormick What is it?? [the baby is shown; it is a mutant with long claws and a nasty disposition] Dr. Doctor [turns to run] It's ali- [the mutant baby decapitates Dr. Doctor, the nurse, and Kenny] Stuart Oh my God, it killed Kenny! Ms.McCormick Bad baby, bad! Kenny [sits up awake] (Huh. Huh??) [looks around and realizes he's awake] (That does it!) [jumps off, goes to the bathroom and gets a plunger. Then he leaves the restroom] Kenny's house, living room. Mrs. McCormick is reading a book when Kenny enters with he plunger Mrs. McCormick [lowers the book] Oh, hi Kenny. What are ya doin'? [he lifts the plunger and aims it at her] Uh what are you doing, Kenny? [he fixes his gaze on her] Kenny, what are you going to plunge? Kenny [rushes at her with the plunger] (AAAARRRRHHH!) Mrs. McCormick Aaaaaaah! [jumps off the sofa and runs away] AAAAA! [Stuart arrives as Kenny pursues his mom] Stuart Kenny, what the hell are you doing?! [follows them out] South Park Inn, day. Schmaltzy music plays as the camera looks at a large sign that says "I LOVE NAMBLA HONORARY DINNER" and has a picture of Eric posing under a spotlight at its center. Present in the ballroom are Cartman, Butters, several other boys, and the men they've partnered up with. The doors open and in walk Stan and Kyle, with their partners. Cartman [sees them] What the hell? [hops off his chair and walks towards them] Hey, what the hell are you guys doing here?! This is for mature people only! Stan We got invited too, fatass! Cartman Hunh. [rolls his eyes] Well, I guess nowadays, they allow any old schmucks into NAMBLA. NAMBLA Leader [now at the podium, a little giddy] Fellow NAMBLA members, it is great to see you all here. It seems like we have finally found a city that won't oppress us. NAMBLA Membe Oh, yeah. [others cheer] NAMBLA Leader First and foremost, I wanna recognize Eric Cartman, for putting us in touch with all of you pretty, young boys. Cartman [graciously, amid some applause] Thank you. Thank you very much. [takes a bow] Thank you. NAMBLA Leader Now, I know that many of us have already found partners in this fahine city, and I'd like to take a minute to hear some testimonials from members. Stan This is boring. Kyle Yeah. [yells] HEY, WHEN ARE WE GONNA GET TO SOME ACTION, HUH? Member 1 Ho hohohoho Member 2 Woohoohoohoohoo. [others react similarly, lustily] NAMBLA Leader [barely containing his glee] Ho, goodness! What a gift from God! Aha ha, we'll... "get" ...to it very soon, I assure you. But first, I'd just like to hear from a couple of you on your progress. Uh yes, Patrick. Patrick Uh I, I found a little eight-year-old named Buttehers. He's a beautiful [Butters lights up], bright, little boy. Butters Well, uh I sure am, I guess. Patrick And his skin is as soft as fresh linen. [the other men savor the statement] Stan [to Kyle] That seems kind of... weird. Butters Well, my skin is ssspringtime sssoft, I suppose. NAMBLA Leader Wonderful, heh hn. And how about you, Mr. Harris? Mr. Harris [with a stammer] Well, I want to announce that I may have found the dream boy of the decade. He's sexy, sassy, and full of spunk. His name is Timmy. Timmy TIMMMIHH, tih, Timmih? NAMBLA Leader Wuhell, members, I know we're all eager to get acquainted with our new partners and, so why don't we turn down the lights and start to dance! [the DJ starts the music again, and the boys and their partners take the dance floor. Stan and Kyle stay in their seats, as do Cartman and his partner.] South Park Elementary, 8:05 p.m., Cafeteria. The main doors are closed as the FBI shows up in force. Lead Agent Alright, I want those perverted bastards all taken in. Got it? Agents Got it! South Park Elementary, 8:05 p.m., Cafeteria. Inside, Mephesto holds court on the podium in front of a NAMBLA banner, but this NAMBLA is different... Mephesto [Kevin at his side] Hello, NAMBLA members. As the South Park representative- [the doors fly open and the FBI agents fill the room] Lead Agent [heading for Mephesto] Hold it right there! Agent 1 Freeze! Agent 2 Don't nobody move! Mephesto What's going on? [four rifles and a shotgun are pointed at him] Lead Agent Alright, sickos. Where are the children?! [the NAMBLA members look at each other confused] Mephesto What children? Lead Agent This... is... NAMBLA, right? Mephesto Yes. Lead Agent The North American Man/Boy Love Association? Mephesto [startled] What? No! [Points to the banner behind him] We're the North American Marlon Brando Look-Alikes. [a shot of the members is shown, and many of them do look like Marlon Brando] Blond Agent Aw, crap! We got the wrong NAMBLA. Mr. Garrison Aw, damnit, I'm in the wrong place. [gets up and walks out] Mephesto Don't tell me that that other NAMBLA is actually in South Park?! Lead Agent You know of them? Blond Member Know of them? We've been fighting with them for years over the rights to nambla.com! Brunet Member Yeah, those perverted bastards! Blond Agent Wow. You guys really do look a lot like Marlon Brando. Mephesto Thank you. Now, let's go get those other NAMBLA bastards before they hurt any of South Park's children! Members Yeah! Yeah! Black Member And let's kick their asses for stealin' our domain name! Members Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! South Park Inn, evening. NAMBLA members and their boys are still dancing. The NAMBLA leader steps up to the podium NAMBLA Leader [Cartman stands next to him] Alright, members, that's enough of that. [the music is stopped] It's time for all of us to retire to our respective rooms, and get to know our new young boys. [NAMBLA members rub their hands react lustily] Member 3 All right. Member 4 Alright. Kyle Dude. Being mature is boring! Stan Yeah. NAMBLA Leader Everyone come up and grab your room keys and we'll head upstairs, hm hm. South Park Inn, upstairs. French music begins to play, and the men and boys appear at the top of the stairs and go to their respective rooms. After a few moments... The Boys Aaaaah! [all pour out into the hallway] Stan Dude! I think these guys mean to have sexual encounters with us! Kyle I know, dude! Let's get the hell out of here! [music resumes. All the boys turn and head for the stairs, only to see shadows moving up the wall, and they stop in their tracks] Stan Aah! There's more of them! Quick, hide! [the boys run into room 1A. Mephesto shows up and leads the other look-alikes onto the hallway] Mephesto Alright, Marlon Brandos, they've got to be here somewhere. Let's try this room. [they enter 2E. The FBI then arrives amid much commotion] Lead Agent Let's get those perverts! [the agents fan out and enter all rooms except 1A and 2E. A waiter heads for the stairs with a tray, but naked NAMBLA members pour out of their rooms and startle him. The tray flies off his hand] Waiter Sacrebleu! [picks up the tray and heads back to the room he left. The NAMBLA members go into 1A] The Boys Whoa! [pour out of 1A and head down the hall to 2E. The door there opens and the Marlon Brandos peek out] The Boys and The Brandos Aaah! [the boys run to 1E, the Brandos go back into 2E, and the doors to both are shut] Mrs.McCormick [enters the hallway from the stairs] Kenny, no! Leave me alone [heads into 1C] Kenny (Come here, mom! Let me get it!) [follows her in. The agents pour out of the rooms and switch places, again avoiding 1A and 2E. Stuart arrives and looks around] Stuart Kenny?? [enters 2C. The waiter again heads for the stairs with the tray] Waiter Zis time, I will not drop zeh food. [makes it to the top of the stairs, but drops the tray when the NAMBLA members exit 1A] Allo! NAMBLA Leader It's clear. The cops are gone. Where's the boys?! [the NAMBLA members enter 2A] Waiter [picks up the tray and goes back down the hall, angrily] Sacre bleu! [the door to 2E opens and the Marlon Brandos step out] Mephesto I think the boys went in here. [the Brandos enter 1E] The Boys [all exit 1E] Aaaaaah! Timmy Timmih! [all enter 2D. A poodle on a ball exits 1C and enters 2D. The NAMBLA members exit 2A and head for 1C] NAMBLA Leader Maybe the boys are in here. Oh bo-oys? [the NAMBLA members enter 1C. Kenny's mom and Kenny exit 1C] Mrs. McCormick Kenny, GIVE IT UP! Kenny (Come on!) [both enter 2C. The waiter heads for the stairs again with the tray, but Marlon Brandos and FBI agents pour out of 1E] Waiter [falls backwards] Waaah! Lead Agent Alright, you're under arrest! Mephesto No! You've got the wrong NAMBLA again! Lead Agent Damnit! Agent Hey, we didn't try that room! [Brandos and agents head for 2A and enter. Two guys in vintage bikes ride across from 2D to 1D] Waiter [exasperated, gets up with the tray] Sacre bleu. [walks away, having given up on the stairs] South Park Inn, a room. The boys are safe, but tired Kyle [panting] Dude! We're surrounded by perverts. Cartman They're all over the place. Timmy Timmiihhh! Token [Token joins the group] What are we gonna do?! Stan Well, Cartman, you got everybody into this, you have to figure out a way to get everybody out. The Boys Yeah. Cartman Uuh, that's, that's fine. I know how to get us out. Kyle How? Cartman Well, look. Those perverts aren't going to rest until they've made love to one of us. Right? So,... somebody's just gonna have to go out there and... take one for the team. [the other boys are shocked at the thought] And I think, in all fairness, it should be Butters. [presents him] Butters Huh?? Uh-uh well, huh, why me? Cartman Now, are you a team player or not?! Butters Well, sure, u-uh I'm a team player-uh, I guess. Cartman Well, Butters, there is no I in "team." Butters Huh-you mean to expect me to go out there and let all those... huhu-horny old men... have their way with my fragile person?? Well just what team is this anyway?! Cartman Just go, Butters. We're running out of time. Butters Well uuh-uuh-alright then. [heads for the door. Stan sees him out and Cartman closes the door] Cartman Heh, he's such a dumba-a-ass. South Park Inn, hallway. Butters is there all alone Butters Well, alright men. Here, here I come. [puts his hands over his eyes and moves across the hall] I'm ready to take one for the team. [enters 1D.] Stuart [exits 2D] Kenny?! Kenny, I've had enough of your shenanigans! [enters 1E] NAMBLA Leader [inside 1E] Oh, one of the boys just came in. [the members surround him and being their activity...] Stuart What the-? No, wait, no, WAH, NO, WAAAAAH! [Butters steps out of 1D, listens in at the door to 1E, turns around and walks away.] South Park Inn, outside. The inn has been cleared, so everyone stands outside. An ambulance awaits a victim, who is soon on a stretcher Mrs. McCormick [voice shaking, approaches] Are you alright, Stuart? Stuart [sobbing] Don't touch me! I've had my nuts broken, body poisoned, have been made love to in the ass by three dozen 40-year-old men—I just wanna go home and take a, a hot bath! [the NAMBLA members are in cuffs] Lead Agent [to NAMBLA Leader] We've been after you for a long time, buddy! Do you know your rights? NAMBLA Leader Rights? Does anybody know their rights? You see, I've learned something today. [Stan and Kyle look at each other] Our forefathers came to this country because... they believed in an idea. An idea called "freedom." They wanted to live in a place where a group couldn't be prosecuted for their beliefs. Where a person can live the way he chooses to live. [Stan, Kyle, and Cartman look at each other] You see us as being perverted because we're different from you. People are afraid of us, because they don't understand. And sometimes it's easier to persecute than to understand. [Stan and Kyle look at each other, then at the NAMBLA leader] Kyle Dude. You have sex with children. NAMBLA Leader We are human. Most of us didn't even choose to be attracted to young boys. We were born that way. We can't help the way we are, and if you all can't understand that, well, then, I guess you'll just have to put us away. [shots of the agents, then the Brando look-alikes, then Stan and Kyle, who look at each other, then at the NAMBLA leader] Kyle [slowly, for emphasis] Dude. You have sex with children. Stan Yeah. You know, we believe in equality for everybody, and tolerance, and all that gay stuff, but dude, fuck you. Kyle Seriously. Lead Agent Alright, that's enough. You're all going to be put away for a long time. [The agents escort the NAMBLA members away. The members groan. The boys gather around Stan, Kyle, and Cartman] Kyle Well, Cartman? Cartman Well, what? Kyle Don't you think you owe everyone an apology for bringing NAMBLA here? The Boys Yeah! Cartman Alright, alright, I'm sorry I almost got you guys all raped. There. Stan And now, do you still think that you need to hang out with older, mature friends? Cartman No, I guess you guys will blossom into maturity someday. Just don't take too long. [the paramedics finish putting Stuart into the ambulance and head for the cab] Paramedic Okay, let's roll. [the siren goes on. The ambulance goes into reverse and crushes Kenny under its rear wheels, then speeds off] Hell's Pass Hospital, Delivery Room. Mrs. McCormick has a new baby in her arms, and Stuart looks at it with her Nurse [voice-over] Dr. Flores, dial 18- Stuart Coo, cootchy-coo, coohoohoohoo, cootchy-coo. Mrs. McCormick Our little angel, yes. Stuart Oh, he's so beautiful. I know it's been hard on both of us losing poor Kenny. But this new baby kind of reminds me of him. [a shot of the baby reveals a boy in a little orange parka with the hood tight on his face, like Kenny before him] Mrs. McCormick What should we name him? Stuart Well, seeing as though Kenny passed away, maybe we should name him ah,... Kenny. Mrs. McCormick Yes. Kenny's such a great name. My little Kenny, a brand-new Kenny. (The new Kenny then mumbles) Stuart God, this must be the fiftieth time this has happened. Mrs. McCormick Fifty-second.
Courtesy of Jamie Kapp This is Jamie Kapp, a 19-year-old artist who posted a very viral comic on white privilege and institutionalized racism. Jamie first made the comic "White Privilege" because she was angry and she wanted to vent. "I was mad that I had to explain such a simple issue as white privilege in a comic because it's something that people should read for themselves," she said. After seeing posts on Tumblr, where the comic was originally posted, and other places on the internet, she wanted to create something accessible that explained the concepts of white privilege and institutionalized racism. She put it on Tumblr, instead of her DeviantArt account or Facebook, because the community there is particularly dedicated to social justice. But for every social justice blog Jamie saw, there was a blog mocking it. She had never made a comic centered around race or anything remotely political before, the most popular comic of hers prior to this work being about relationships on the internet. The first feedback she received was mostly positive, comments like "this is how we white ally" or "this is how you do it." Her first negative message came in around the time the post had hit approximately 20,000 notes on Tumblr. That was also around the time BuzzFeed contacted her asking for her permission to share the comic. "I looked and said 'oh wait, there's a Facebook comment section [on BuzzFeed]. Oh no, this is not going to be good for me,'" Jamie said. A short time later, Jamie shut down her blog in reaction to the sheer number of hate mail and death threats she was receiving. This is what Jamie's Tumblr looks like right now. Jamie has a history of suffering from anxiety and other mental health issues like depression. "I took pills, I got medicated, I went to therapy," she said. "I kind of worked past the worst of it. But it's still kind of there in the back of my head. I do suffer from really bad self-esteem issues so I do tend to focus on the negative reviews rather than the positive, which is something a lot of people told me is bizarre." In an attempt to deter people from leaving hate messages and death threats, Jamie shut down her blog, calling it a hiatus, and now only gets online to check her email, websites for her schoolwork, and check in on her inbox on Tumblr. "People have flooded my inbox and basically signal boosted the comic more because I might be dead," Jamie said. "Which is kind of unfortunate for me because I'm not dead." Jamie's withdrawal from Tumblr galvanized people into sharing the comic more and promoting it more, but she would really just like to try and put the whole incident behind her. "I would like my message to be heard, but I would really like to come back and post on Tumblr some more."
The detention of five Iranian journalists, including prominent reformists Isa Saharkhiz and Ehsan Mazandarani, ostensibly on charges of facilitating Western influence, has touched off a flurry of speculation on a new round of factional fighting in Tehran. Factional tensions are indeed on the rise in Tehran as the country prepares for parliamentary elections early next year. These forthcoming elections are a key test for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who may be faced with an existential crisis if centrists and reformists fail to make significant inroads in the next parliament. But the latest crackdown also stems from deeper motives and genuine concerns within the security establishment about the political, economic and cultural vulnerability of the Islamic Republic following the nuclear-related Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPA) signed in July. Pursuant to the JCPA, Iranian conservatives and hardliners are anxious to keep the United States at bay, fearful that the nuclear agreement may act as a catalyst for alignment and understanding in other areas. These political forces appear to have the backing of Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenei who since the summer has repeatedly warned against deeper engagement with the US. In his latest positioning on the issue Khamenei went so far as “forbidding” further talks with the Americans. But keeping the United States fully at bay may be a tall order not just in the light of the JCPA but more importantly perhaps in view of the Islamic Republic’s growing political and diplomatic weight in the region. Factional strife From the outset of the victory of the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the issue of negotiations, let alone relations with the United States, has had significant adverse domestic ramifications. It led to the downfall of the first provisional revolutionary government in November 1979, as some of its key ministers were perceived to be on friendly terms with the Americans. Whilst the causes of the Iranian-American conflict are multi-faceted, suffice to say that more than three decades of intense political and ideological enmity (which produced limited military confrontations in 1987-88) has taken its toll on the political elites of both countries. In Iran, the mere hint of talks with the US was a taboo subject until 2007 when the conflict in occupied Iraq forced a limited engagement with the American authorities in that country. At present, prospects of further talks with the US coincide with growing factional tensions which pit President Rouhani and his allies against an increasingly combative conservative coalition. The tensions stem in part from a clear shift in the rhetoric and desired policies of Rouhani, who is perceived to be moving away from a centrist position to embrace reformist ideas. In tandem with his changing rhetoric, Rouhani has adopted a more confrontational stance toward his opponents, thus defying analysts who predicted he would seek compromise with the conservatives and hardliners. Rouhani has strongly criticised the detention of the journalists, in effect calling the arrests politically motivated, which in turn produced a sharp rebuke from Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, the head of the judiciary. Rouhani’s tentative adoption of reformist positions has brought the conservatives and the radical hardliners closer together and emboldened them to step up their opposition to the government. Fearful of a reformist comeback, which brings back painful memories of the years 1997-2005, the conservatives and hardliners are fully focused on blocking Rouhani loyalists from improving their position in the next parliament. Foreign policy is another sphere of contention, as the conservatives and hardliners scramble to put a brake on the remarkable momentum of Rouhani’s foreign policy team. Led by veteran diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif, Rouhani’s foreign policy team is the most capable since the Iranian revolution. Institutional opposition The Islamic Republic’s foreign policy, specifically further engagement with the United States, is the point at which institutional attitudes coincide with factional interests. Not surprisingly the latest wave of arrests connected to fears of American infiltration, which incidentally include Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese citizen with alleged “deep” ties to the US military, were carried out by the intelligence branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The Iranian security establishment is deeply wary of the United States, to the point of being perennially vigilant against American plans for gaining a credible foothold inside Iran. The media and civil society activists are seen by the security establishment as soft targets for the Americans. However, the biggest obstacle to further engagement with the US is Ayatollah Khamenei, who on this issue is in broad agreement with the conservatives and hardliners. Whilst not totally opposed to limited talks with the Americans, albeit with a grudging attitude, the Iranian leader is instinctively and profoundly opposed to consistent engagement with the US. In the prevailing circumstances, with Iran fully engaged on all the region’s fault-lines and conflicts, Khamenei’s core concern is to maintain revolutionary principles in the face of the Islamic Republic’s growing diplomatic weight. For the first time in more than 25 years, Khamenei’s anti-American position faces a serious challenge from Rouhani’s capable and emboldened foreign policy team which seeks to capitalise on the nuclear deal to place Iran’s relations with the West on a stable footing. This inevitably involves a degree of engagement with the US. The alignment of deep-seated institutional attitudes with factional considerations, and reinforced by the backing of Iran’s powerful leader, bodes ill for Rouhani’s foreign policy ambitions. Absent a major breakthrough in next February’s parliamentary elections, Rouhani either has to give up on his ambitions or risk a forceful reaction from his opponents. - Mahan Abedin is an analyst of Iranian politics. He is the director of the research group Dysart Consulting. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye. Photo: A handout picture of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, shows him (L) attending a graduation ceremony of naval cadets in the northern city of Noshahr on 30 September 2015. (AFP)
Recently I decided it was probably time for me to value and analyze each of the companies remaining in my portfolio from before I truly dedicated myself to learning and becoming a “true investor.” I had never valued any of the companies I am going to be writing about in the next several days. I have read at least one annual report and one quarterly report, along with a myriad of other articles about each of the companies in the time since I bought them, and I am going to offer my brief thoughts on each. I am also going to decide if I should keep, buy, or sell any of the companies after determining if I think any of them are under or overvalued. Vodafone Valuations and brief thoughts Vodafone (VOD) valuations done on September 10th, 2012. Valuations in millions of GBP, except per share information, unless otherwise noted. Valuations done using 2012 10K. Asset Reproduction Valuation Assets: Book Value: Reproduction Value: Current Assets Cash and Cash Equivalents 7138 7138 Short Term Investments 1323 1323 Accounts Receivable (Net) 3885 3302 Inventories 486 243 Prepaid Expenses 3702 1851 Other Current Assets 3491 1746 Total Current Assets 20025 15603 PP&E Net 18655 9328 Equity and Other Investments 35899 17950 Goodwill 38350 15340 Intangible Assets 21164 8466 Deferred Income Taxes 1970 1000 Other Long Term Assets 3482 1741 Total Assets 139545 69427 Number of shares are 5096 Reproduction Value: With intangible assets and goodwill: 69427/5096=13.62 GBP per share = $21.80 per share. Without intangible assets and goodwill: 45621/5096=8.95 GBP per share = $14.33 per share. EBIT and Net Cash Valuation Cash and cash equivalents are 7,138 Short term investments are 5,096 Total current liabilities are 24,025 Cash and cash equivalents + short-term investments – total current liabilities= 7,138+1,323-24,025=-15,564 -15,564/5,096=-3.05 GBP per share=-$4.78 in net cash per share. Vodafone has an EBIT of 11,187. 5X, 8X, 11X, and 14X EBIT + cash and cash equivalents + short-term investments: 5X11,187=55,935+8,461=64,396 8X11,187=89,496+8,461=97,957 11X11,187=123,057+8,461=131,518 14X11,187=156,618+8,461=165,079 5X=64,396/5096=12.64 GBP per share=$19.79 per share. 8X=97,957/5096=19.22 GBP per share=$30.09 per share. 11X=131,518/5096=25.81 GBP per share=$40.41 per share. 14X=165,079/5096=32.39 GBP per share=$50.71 per share. Revenue and EBIT Valuation Numbers: Revenue: 46417 Multiplied By: Average 6 year EBIT %: 15.87% Equals: Estimated EBIT of: 7366.4 Multiplied By: Assumed Fair Value Multiple of EBIT: 5X Equals: Estimated Fair Enterprise Value of VOD: 36832 Plus: Cash, Cash Equivalents, and Short Term Investments: 8461 Minus: Total Debt: 34890 Equals: Estimated Fair Value of Common Equity: 10336 Divided By: Number of Shares: 5096 Equals: GBP 2.03 per share=$3.27 per share The $3.27 per share is my low estimate of value. My base estimate of value using an 8X multiple was $10.16 per share, and my high estimate of value using an 11X multiple was $17.25 per share. Price to Book and Tangible Book Valuation Numbers: Book Value: 126431.8 Minus: Intangibles: 23806 Equals: Tangible Book Value: 102625.8 Multiplied By: Industry P/B: 1.7 Equals: Industry Multiple Implied Fair Value: 174463.8 Multiplied By: Assumed Multiple as a Percentage of Industry Multiple: 65% Equals: Estimated Fair Value of Common Equity: 113401.5 Divided By: Number of Shares: 5096 Equals: GBP 22.25 per share=$35.62 per share. The $35.62 per share is my low estimate of value. My base estimate of value using a 95% multiple was $52.05 per share and my high estimate using an 125% multiple was $68.49 per share. FCF and Cash Flow Valuation Numbers Operating Cash Flow: 12755 Minus: Capital Expenditures: 7852 Equals: Free Cash Flow: 4903 Divided By: Industry Median FCF Yield: 6.17% Equals: Industry FCF Yield Implied Fair Value: 79465 Multiplied By: Assumed Required FCF Yield As A % of Industry FCF Yield: 65% Equals: Estimated Fair Value of Common Equity of VOD: 51652.25 Divided By: Number of Shares: 5096 Equals: GBP 10.14 per share=$16.23 per share. Vodafone’s FCF yield is 5.41%. The companies I used as comparisons are Verizon, China Mobile, and AT&T. The $16.23 per share is my low estimate of value. My base estimate of value was $23.71 per share and my high estimate was $31.20 per share. Vodafone’s debt ratios are as follows: Current assets to current liabilities: 20025/24025=0.83 Total debt to equity: 34957/76935=45% Total debt to total assets: 34957/139576=25% Brief Thoughts and Conclusions Vodafone’s valuations are all over the place from a low of $3.27 a share to a high of $68.49 per share. My cost basis for VOD is $27.37 per share. After looking at its margins, reading its annual report and all that I have read since buying into Vodafone, I would use either the 8X EBIT and cash valuation, $30.09 per share, or my low estimate of value in the price to book and tangible book valuation, $35.62 per share, as my estimate of intrinsic value. I would probably lean towards the $30.09 estimate of intrinsic value just to be safe, meaning that I think Vodafone is about correctly priced. Knowing what I know now, I would not have bought into Vodafone when I did, or at this time, as it does not meet my minimum 30% margin of safety. Others reasons I would not buy into it at this time are: The high debt levels. Massive amounts of cap ex needed constantly. The problems that it has had in India and other countries lately . I do not think that Vodafone is a bad company by any stretch of the imagination, I just bought into them at too high of a price and for the wrong reasons; mainly its dividend. I really like that it is a truly global company with some very good assets, including being a 45% owner of Verizon. For now I am going to hold onto Vodafone until there is some kind of clarity from Verizon on its dividend payment strategy towards Vodafone, and/or until I find another company to buy as I think I will have a hard time making money at my currently too high cost basis in Vodafone, and I will possibly look to sell my stake in VOD when I find another attractive company. Advertisements
(KUTV) Someone fired a gun at two groups of rock climbers Monday in Utah's Little Cottonwood Canyon. Unified Police confirmed the shootings and said the only possible lead so far is a green sedan glimpsed by one of the climbers. There were no injuries but police said shell casings were recovered. Nate Lamb told 2News he was climbing with a friend in the pentapitch climbing area in the canyon, around 6:30 p.m. when he heard gunshots whistle past him. He said he was climbing, while his climbing partner was on belay, when the rock face exploded when struck by bullets about seven to 10 times. He estimated the impacts were around five to 10 feet away from him. Lamb said by the time he was able to get in a safe position and turn around, he was able to just see the green sedan driving away down the canyon. His friend reported seeing multiple doors open so it is believed that multiple people could have been in the car. Lamb said after he spoke to police, he spoke to some other climbers, further up the canyon, who had experienced a similar incident. Unified Police confirmed that two groups of climbers were shot at Monday.
Well, that might be a slight exaggeration, but these CSS tricks are sure to help improve your toolset! We wanted to drop this article as we use these CSS gems on almost every site we design, yet once upon a time never knew they existed. We’ve also ordered the list so each tip should follow the last in terms of practive & usability. Hopefully they will give you some new experimentation for your next designs 🙂 1. Reset browser defaults then reset the browser font size We start with the first lines of CSS any design should use! We know we’ve mentioned the reset before, but it’s a priceless tool. The first part of this is to use the Yahoo UI Reset CSS Package. This resets browser inconsistencies, giving you a fresh & clean foundation to build upon. If you don’t want to download the 9mb file, the code is below: body,div,dl,dt,dd,ul,ol,li,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,pre,form,fieldset,input,textarea,p, blockquote,th,td {margin:0; padding:0; } table { border-collapse:collapse; border-spacing:0; } fieldset,img { border:0; } address,caption,cite,code,dfn,em,strong,th,var { font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; } ol,ul { list-style:none; } caption,th { text-align:left; } h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { font-size:100%; font-weight:normal; } q:before,q:after { content:”; } abbr,acronym { border:0; } Secondly, we like to reset the browser font size to 10 pixels, by using the following line: html {font-size: 62.5%;} This is a good font size to work with, as you can then use em units. For example, paragraphs at 12 pixels and header 1 at 20 pixels? Then write… p {font-size: 1.2em;} h1 {font-size: 2em;} 2. Design centered horizontally (fixed width) Most websites at current are fixed width. Its debatable whether liquid or fixed is the way to go, but usually your client’s audience & market dictate this. To center your layout, apply this CSS code to the wrapper/container div of your page: div#container {margin: 0 auto;} 3. Controlling position:absolute, relatively Setting elements with position:absolute allows for complete control over its positioning through a distance of either top, left, right or bottom. This distance is calculated from the page boundary (body), unless we nest it inside an element set to position:relative This may sound confusing, so look at the example below: Relatively Absolutely! If we did not set position:relative to the outside div, then the nested div’s position would instead be relative to the next element up until it finds one, such as the page boundary. You can use this to help with complex layouts. 4. Position an element center screen If you’d like to position something perfectly center on screen, then use the CSS below div.popup { height:400px; width:500px; position: absolute; top: 50%; left: 50%;} div.popup { margin-top: -200px; margin-left: -250px;} You must specify the width and height of your div explicitly, and then give it negative margins half of dimensions for top and left, which brings the div back center screen. 5. Global rules that can be re-used .left {float: left;} .right {float: right;} img .left { border:2px solid #aaaaaa; margin: 0 10px 0 0;} img .right { border:2px solid #aaaaaa; margin: 0 0 0 10px; padding: 1px;} Setting yourself a few CSS selectors at the opening of your stylesheet can aid your development. Whenever they are required you can simply add the tag depending on your choice. Our example shows the use of this with images within a blog post, the result of which is here to the right! 6. IE6 double margin on floated elements A common problem found when working on a design, reasons behind which we’re not even going in to! But it is there alongside all the other lovely ways IE6 likes to feel individual. To correct this problem use display:inline. div {float:left;margin:40px;display:inline;} 7. Simple navigation bar It’s always useful to have a default navigation bar to paste into your designs. The CSS here turns a standard unordered list into a horizontal bar of lovely links! First comes the XHTML: <div id=”navbar”> <ul> <li><a href=”http://www.peakflowdesign.com”>Peakflow Design</a></li> <li><a href=”http://www.google.com””>Google</a></li> <li><a href=”http://zenhabits.net/”>Zen Habits</a></li> </ul> </div> Followed by the CSS: #navbar ul li {display:inline;margin:0 10px 0 0;} #navbar ul li a {color: #333;display:block;float:left;padding:5px;} #navbar ul li a:hover {background:#eee;color:black;} 8. Table-less contact form As we now proceed with building websites table-free, focusing on using DIVs instead (until CSS3 it seems), it’s great to be able to style forms also in the same manner. No longer are tables needed to hold columns and fields in order, all we need is some neat CSS. Found over at JeddHowden.com, we float each form input’s label next to the input box. XHTML: <form action=”form.php” method=”post”> <fieldset> <legend>Personal Information</legend> <div> <label for=”first_name”>First Name:</label> <input type=”text” name=”first_name” id=”first_name” size=”10? value=”” /> </div> <div> <label for=”last_name”>Last Name:</label> <input type=”text” name=”last_name” id=”last_name” size=”10? value=”” /> </div> <div> <label for=”postal”>Zip/Postal Code:</label> <input type=”text” name=”postal” id=”postal” size=”10? value=”” /> </div> </fieldset> </form> CSS: form div {clear:left;display:block;width:400px;zoom:1;margin:5px 0 0 0;padding:1px 3px;} form div label {display:block;float:left;width:130px;padding:3px 5px;margin: 0 0 5px 0;text-align:right;} 9. Footer hooked to browser bottom This is an old gem, and all credit goes to The Man in Blue. This CSS hook allows you to ensure your footer stays at the bottom of the browser window. Here is the XHTML: <body> <div id=”nonFooter”> <div id=”content”> Place all page content here </div> </div> <div id=”footer”> Place anything you want in your footer here </div> </body> Followed by the CSS: html, body { height: 100%; } #nonFooter { position: relative; min-height: 100%; } * html #nonFooter { height: 100%; } #content { padding-bottom: 9em; } #footer { position: relative; margin-top: -7.5em; } 10. Multiple classes applied to one element This is not so much useful code, as more of a useful feature most people overlook within CSS selectors. Any element you apply classes to, can have as many classes as you like. For example: .red {color: red;} .bold {font-weight: strong;} We can apply both of these to a paragraph if wanted, by doing the following: <p class=”red bold”>This text will be red yet also bold!</p> Hopefully we may have enlightened some readers and given you some ways to use useful CSS in real websites. Sorry that this is the only article we’ve written this week, but our work flow has been quite hectic! Enjoy your weekends and we will have some new content for you Monday 🙂
Coordinates: Point Udall (Orote Point) is the headland on the right in this view of Apra Harbor's mouth Point Udall, also called Orote Point, is the westernmost point (by travel, not longitude), in the territorial United States, located on the Orote Peninsula of Guam. It lies at the mouth of Apra Harbor, on the end of Orote Peninsula, opposite the Glass Breakwater of Cabras Island which forms the northern coast of the harbor. Naming [ edit ] The point is named for former Arizona congressman Morris "Mo" Udall. It was called Orote Point until it was renamed Point Udall in May 1987. Earlier that month, H.R. 2434, tables by U.S. Congressman Denny Smith of Oregon, proposed renaming the point "to honor the service and accomplishments of Morris Udall."[1] While the proposed resolution was referred to the House Subcommittee on Insular and International Affairs,[1] the name was officially designated as Point Udall by Governor of Guam Joseph Franklin Ada later that month. In 1968, the easternmost point in the United States, Point Udall, Virgin Islands, had been named for Udall's brother, Stewart.[2] In a 1987 statement in regards to H.R. 2434, Congressman Smith and Guam's nonvoting congressional delegate Ben Blaz explained that "America's day would begin and end at a Point Udall."[1] When Mo Udall died in 1998, President Bill Clinton issued a statement saying in part "It is fitting that the easternmost point of the United States, in the Virgin Islands, and the westernmost point, in Guam, are both named 'Udall Point.' The Sun will never set on the legacy of Mo Udall."[3] This was also noted in the Congressional Record by Rep. George Miller of California.[4] History [ edit ] Point Udall was the site of Orote Field airbase during World War II. It was built by Japan during their occupation of the island from December 10, 1941 to July 21, 1944. Beginning in May 1944 and continued during the second Battle of Guam, the airfield was attacked from the air and American troops established their beachhead on either side of the Orote Peninsula on July 21 in order to seize the airfield and the deep water harbor nearby. The airfield was recaptured by July 30.[5] Many sources still call it Orote Point, such as the US Military's Orote Point Lanes bowling alley.[6] See also [ edit ] References [ edit ]
RENO – Following Monday’s signing of Dane Kelly, Reno 1868 FC has signed Jordan Murrell, Brenton Griffiths and Matthew LaGrassa. Murrell and Griffiths are expected to solidify backline while LaGrassa will play as a box-to-box midfielder. “Each of these players has something special to bring to the team,” said Ian Russell, head coach of Reno 1868 FC. “I hand-picked these players because of their work ethic and experience.” Jordan Murrell Murrell, 23, progressed through the Canadian national team’s U-18, U-20 and U-23 programs, and holds significant experience in the Premier Development League and United Soccer League. While attending Syracuse University, Murrell played for the Ocean City Nor’easters and K-W United FC of the PDL. Murrell later played for the USL’s Real Monarchs and most recently the Pittsburgh Riverhounds. Brenton Griffiths Griffiths, 25, played at the international level for Jamaica’s U-17 and U-20 teams. He was then selected by the Colorado Rapids in the second round of the 2013 Major League Soccer Supplemental Draft. Griffiths was later recruited for the USL’s Orange County Blues where he played four seasons. After his 2015 campaign with the Blues, he earned All-League Second Team honors. Matthew LaGrassa LaGrassa, 23, played four years at California Polytechnic State University. During his time at Cal Poly, he also played for the Des Moines Menace and Ventura County Fusion of the PDL. LaGrassa later returned home after signing with Sacramento Republic FC and proved himself as an essential player in their midfield. Greater Nevada Field will host up to 18 matches in 2017, with 16 coming as regular-season matches for Reno 1868 FC during their inaugural USL campaign. The USL previously announced that the regular season will expand to 32 matches beginning in 2017. The club will play its first preseason match against the MLS’ San Jose Earthquakes on February 18. Since the franchise was announced in September 2015, Reno 1868 FC has unveiled its club name, colors, crest and home jersey kit. Ian Russell, a former assistant coach of the San Jose Earthquakes, was announced as 1868 FC’s head coach on November 22. The away kit and additional coaching staff will be announced at a later date.
Commanders Ever wonder what our World of Tanks developers are working on for the next update? Take a look at the summary of our latest Supertest of Update 9.14! The Supertest is available only to carefully selected test players. However, we wanted to take this opportunity to share its contents, before you get the chance to test it yourself in the upcoming Public Test, available for all players. Important: Any and all info presented in this article is preliminary and, as such, it may be subject to change, modification or complete deletion upon the official release, depending on the outcome of the test. Features Feature Description Improved Vehicle Movement Physics and Improved Sounds The work on Improving the Vehicle Movement Physics and the Sounds has come to its final stage. In terms of the Super Test, there will be final tests conducted before the release of the Common Test of Version 9.14. You'll be able to find out more details about the changes on the portal a little later. Vehicle draw distance and spotting range on minimap The minimap has been supplemented with circles to show the vehicle draw distance, the maximum spotting range and the player's current spotting range. The spotting range circle depends on many factors that affect the value of the vehicle's view range (set equipment like Coated Optics / Binocular Telescope, crew skills / perks, consumables, etc.). The opportunity to switch on/off draw distance display and spotting range circles has also been added to the settings. Improved mechanics of activating First Aid Kit and Repair Kit Changed the logic of using Small Repair Kits and Small First Aid Kits. The new system will work as follows: if all the modules (crew members) are intact, then when activating Small Repair Kits and Small First Aid Kits the system won’t show a menu for choosing specific module or crew member. Simplified vehicle module research for beginners To simplify the process of familiarising new players to the game, the research system for Tiers I and II has been changed. Tier I Vehicles will have just one module available for research - a gun. Tier II vehicles will get the opportunity to research one module of each type (engine, gun, suspension, radio, turret). Goal-setting Personal Missions (Manoeuvres) for Tiers IV-V Beginners will receive special goal-setting personal missions, that are intended to introduce the game specifics of different vehicle types in World of Tanks. Vehicles
Back story: I knew I was going to eventually buy a Wii U for Smash but the release of Mario Kart 8 was a good enough incentive for me to become a Wii U owner. I bought Super Mario 3D World, hoping to play with my sister but it turned out to be too hard for her to play enjoyably. Teaching her how to drift in Mario Kart 8 wasn't going well either. In short, she is not a gamer, the only game she really liked so far in her life was Tiny Thief in the App store. I also bought Brawl while I waited for the Smash 3DS release and I tried teaching my sister how to play Brawl as well. She liked Kirby, because he can jump a lot, and she ended up playing like any other child, just jumping high in the air and Down-B. Smash on the 3DS came out and I ended up buying Animal Crossing: New Leaf as well for my sister because of some buy one get one 50% deal. New Leaf was perfect for her, very casual, nothing intense, she loved it very much and naturally she was fascinated how Villager was in Smash 4. She wanted to try him out and unknowingly, teaching her Smash with Villager turned out to be extremely effective/ideal, and I'm here to share with you why. All of Villagers standard attacks are visually distinguishable. Villager's Fsmash=Bowling ball, Dsmash=Shovel, USmash=Fireworks, Ftilt=Umbrella, DTilt=Weed pull, UTilt=Stick.. Even the Grab looks like the most grabbiest grab in the game. Compared to, let's say, Marth where all his moves is slashing his sword. This makes it extremely easy to communicate and makes it easy to distinguish the properties of Tilts and Smashes. Telling kids that "Up tilt can kill as well and is faster than Up smash" and expecting them to catch on is not going to click. But with villager I can just communicate through Villagers distinguishable moves, "Bowling ball is slow but very powerful. Umbrella is quick!" "Do the stick twirl!" "Weed! Weed!" When she tried other characters, it was extremely easy for me to communicate through Villager's moves rather than X-Smashes/X-Tilts but of course now she understands what the difference between all the tilts/smashes and I don't tell her to "bowling ball." Villager has relatively easy kill moves my sister can pull off (versus Pikachu where you have to work your *** off). She knows Backthrow and Up tilt can finish the job. She also loves Shovel to Fireworks-- Satisfying and easy to pull off combo at high percentage. But most importantly, my sister learned to use Aerials because of Villager . You absolutely cannot expect kids to space properly with Kirby's F-air. or tell kids they should RAR Mario's B-air because it's better for approach. You just won't convince kids the importance of Aerials. But my sister LOVES to hit people with sling shot, and because of Villager's extremely kid friendly recovery, she is not afraid whatsoever to jump off the stage and turnip (which the move itself is pretty easy to hit cuz it lingers for so long)--she doesn't use Nair with as determined purpose though. (Side note: I remember I made her only use Sling shot 4s FFA in 3D land. It's surprisingly fun to jump around and do nothing but sling shot on that side scrolling stage. Try it sometimes! No seriously try it.) TL;DR It's easy to visualize (hence communicate) and feel the purpose of each of Villager's move. My sister is now trying to find her second main ( so far it's Peach or Sheik ZSS confirmed ) , I couldn't help but smile when my sister said, "wow I hate Villagers grab, it's so slow. And Villager's Fsmash is so short it's annoying." when she's trying out other characters. Reddit Link She wins against Level 8 bots 80% of the time now. She was 50% against Level 9 bots on the 3DS. The Wii U Level 9 AI is pretty tough and seems much more sophisticatedly programmed. Keep in mind I've been training her for about over a month now. She knows how to Shield-grab, she knows her options after sending out her lloyd, she knows how to fast fall into sling shot on the ledge, she doesn't spot dodge much at all (we'll be working on that next). It's been a step by step process, mixing it up with a lot of fun FFA's and occasional 1v1's. Now she 1v1's more often, and rarely plants trees and hides behind it anymore (I have to remind her now to get the tree so she can use the axe).My sister is now trying to find her second main (, I couldn't help but smile when my sister said, "wow I hate Villagers grab, it's so slow. And Villager's Fsmash is so short it's annoying." when she's trying out other characters. __________Edit: For those who are eager to start helping your kids/loved ones out,Make sure you yourself know how to play Villager as well. Eventually teaching the follow options after sending out lloyd is great because you move on and focus on cool, basic strategies that is relatively easy to comprehend. (i.e. After lloyd: "do they jump over it? then you jump and sling shot. Are they shielding? Run and grab them! You can even jump and lloyd and run underneath with it and do the pot trip attack!").
Open source software strategy The European Commission has updated its strategy for internal use of Open Source Software. The Commission, which is already using open source for many of its key ICT services and software solutions, will further increase the role of this type of software internally. The renewed strategy puts a special emphasis on procurement, contribution to open source software projects and providing more of the software developed within the Commission as open source. The specific objectives of the renewed strategy are: Equal treatment in procurement The Commission will ensure a level playing field to open source software when procuring new software solutions. This means that open source solutions and proprietary solutions will be assessed on an equal basis, being both evaluated on the basis of total cost of ownership, including exit costs. Contribution to communities The Commission services will increasingly participate in open source software communities to build on the open source building blocks which are used in the Commission's software. Clarification of legal aspects In order to enable easy collaboration with the open source communities, Commission developers will benefit from appropriate legal coaching and advice on how to deal with the intellectual property issues relating to open source software. Open-source and interoperable Commission-developed software Software produced by the Commission services, in particular software produced with the objective of being used outside the Commission, will be open sourced and published on the Joinup platform and will use the European Union Public License (EUPL). The software produced should aim to be interoperable and use open technical specifications. Transparency and better communication The updated strategy emphasises an improved governance, an increasing use of open source in the domain of ICT security and the alignment of this strategy with the EC’s ISA Programme, facilitating the modernisation of cross border and cross sector eGovernment services. Action plan Together with the strategy, a comprehensive action plan has been created, addressing all 10 points above. It is scheduled for execution during the period 2015-2017. This action plan involves coordination of many activities with different services at the Commission in order to ensure that the principles of the strategy are followed internally. The activities include: Inventory Product management and procurement processes Promotion of standards External diffusion of EC produced software OSS based architecture stack Compatibility of licences Clarifications and recommendations to developers Service around OSS used at the Commission Actions around communities, follow-up, participation As these actions are mostly internal, the visible outcome will be the provision of equal opportunities in procurement, publication of the clarifications for developers, usage of the OSS in published developments, etc. as expressed in the strategy. History The Commission's strategy for the internal use of Open Source Software was first adopted in 2000, and has since been updated three times. Open source strategy in the Commission: history The use of open source software at the Commission increases and is extended to new areas with every new version. Open source software strategy 2014-2017 1. The Commission shall continue to adopt formally, through the Product Management procedure, the use of OSS technologies and products 2. The Commission shall ensure a level playing field for open source software and demonstrate an active and fair consideration of using open source software – taking account of the total cost of ownership of the solution 3. For all future IT developments, the Commission shall promote the use of products that support recognised, well-documented and preferably open technical specifications that can be freely adopted, implemented and extended. Interoperability is a critical issue for the Commission, and use of well-established standards is a key factor to achieve it 4. For the internal development of new information systems, in particular where deployment is foreseen by third parties outside the EC infrastructure, OSS shall be the preferred choice and used whenever possible 5. The Commission shall further clarify the legal context around the internal use of OSS and make this clarification available to interested parties. The main topics to be addressed include: licensing schemes, Intellectual Property Rights, equal opportunities in the context of procurement and participation in OSS communities 6. The Commission shall further develop guidelines and best practices allowing the setup of OSS and mixed solutions covering the full set of professional services, including deployment of OSS solutions in its data centres at the same level of service as the proprietary ones 7. The Commission shall continue to develop and adopt best practice and tools emerging from OSS communities while applying state-of-the-art governance practices, particularly in the domain of security. In addition, the EC will facilitate and promote the creation of communities for those OSS products released by the Commission and facilitate participation in external OSS communities 8. OSS plays an important role in e-Government projects and shall be therefore considered within the framework of these activities 9. The collaboration between Commission teams in charge of the internal and external OSS strategies shall be further enhanced in order to achieve convergence, in particular through alignment with and reuse of validated solutions produced by the ISA programme 10. The ICT ecosystem is extremely dynamic, innovative, and constantly evolving; as such it impacts many areas of the Commission's policies. Within this context, DIGIT shall continue to play an active role in promoting partnerships focusing on OSS between the European Institutions and other stakeholders
Change can be a good thing. Without change, several of history's momentous events would never have come about. We would be currently living a life so much dissimilar to what we know it would hardly be recognizable. Change is not always good, though. Some things are better left the way they were. I'm not sure what Wizards of the Coast was thinking when they started this grand venture, but I'm hoping they missed the mark and are just too embarassed to admit it. Change can be a good thing. Without change, several of history's momentous events would never have come about. We would be currently living a life so much dissimilar to what we know it would hardly be recognizable. Change is not always good, though. Some things are better left the way they were. Wizards of the Coast have been a rising force in the gaming world since the advent of Magic: The Gathering. They have taken great leaps of faith in a card game that was sure to fail, it was so different from the norm. But, in the face of adversity, Magic flourished. Now WotC is turning it's visionary viewpoint on a tried and true favorite of gamers around the world, AD&D. Dungeons & Dragons has went through a few changes already, from first edition to second edition, from basic to advanced. I have played D&D for 16 years now and was never so happy as to see 2nd edition grace the shelves of bookstores and game shops. It was new, refreshing and an answer to many problems and questions that arose out of 1st edition. Don't get me wrong, 1st edition was a blast to play and was a revolutionary step in roleplaying. 2nd edition, however, raised the standard even higher, adding new elements to the rules, changing some monsters and adding new ones. Some creatures were removed from the game, a few to placate angry parents who thought there was a satanic undertone to the game and a few to balance out the worlds created by the designers and gamers alike. Over all it is the best game, I feel, to ever come out of man's imagination and creativity. Now we have AD&D, 3rd edition. I'm not sure what Wizards of the Coast was thinking when they started this grand venture, but I'm hoping they missed the mark and are just too embarassed to admit it. From the few bits and pieces about the 3rd edition I've seen, many changes have taken place, so much so that the original core set of rules almost seems non-existant. THAC0 has been removed entirely, relying on a challenge rating of the creature being fought by party members as well as a rating assigned to the party themselves. Action or battle also consists of feats, instead of proficiencies. Saving throws have been reduced to 3 categories and initiative has been reverted to highest number goes first. Initiative Initiative has always preceded any other action in a round of AD&D combat mode. Your necromancer wants to cast that spell he's been drooling over? Roll initiative. Your paladin took personal affront to the orc spitting on his holy symbol? Roll initiative. It's been the basis of combat and action since the game began. I have nothing against the change back to higher goes first. However, the roll is now made with a d20 instead of the d10 previously used. This may not be that big a deal, and certainly wouldn't make the game any less enjoyable, were it not for the fact that there are now all kinds of variables to add or subtract from the initiative roll. No longer do you have to take into account weapon speed or the casting time of spells, but now you have the feats and other special bonuses, etc. to make your roll higher or lower, depending on what it calls for. I'm sure the thought all this would make combat rounds much easier, but I fail to see their line of thinking. Adding in that many variables to take into account for such a simple part of the round as initiative does not seem, to me, to be beneficial and would take much more time rather than make the play more fast paced. Another change to initiative is the fact that you keep the same roll throughout the combat session. If you go third on the first round, you go third for each subsequent round. Unless you choose to focus your action, wherein you lose your action for that round but are allowed to automatically go first next round. Why not just keep the tried and true method of deciding who goes first each round? Armor Class and THAC0 Since the change between 1st edition and secone edition, THAC0 has been an integral part of combat. It was a simple equation to figure out how hard it was for you to hit whatever you decided to attack. The monster's AC is 0, you're a 2nd lvl warrior, so you need a base roll of 19 to hit the offending foe. Simple, right? Apparently Wizards of the Coast didn't think so. They wanted to simplify the rules for D&D even more and do away with THAC0, replacing it with a greater number of variables to add or subtract from your ability to damage a certain adversary. Challenge ratings, difficulty ratings, etc.. There are now so many different pluses and minuses that I wonder if the rulebooks will resemble algebra textbooks from high school. You can hit if your (blahblah) is added to the initial roll of (ugh), then subtracting your (squeak) from the base number of (honk)... OK, I'm generalizing and probably making it sound more complicated than it really is. But in my mind it's more difficult to do all this than to just keep it the way it was. Which brings me to Armor Class. They've changed that, too. Now, the higher your AC, the better. An AC of 20 is incredibly good for the defender and disheateningly bad for the attacker. What was wrong with the way it was? Nothing that I, nor the group I've had the fortune of DM'ing and playing with for years, could see. I don't claim to know everything about the 3rd edition of our favorite roleplaying game (and the cause of many late, sleepness nights of pizza and bloodshed). I don't claim to be an expert on 2nd edition. What I am is a concerned gamer. Concerned with the path Wizards of the Coast has chosen for my favorite roleplaying game of all time. What's next? Will Tiamat become the very model of a modern major general? Will Elminster become a necromancer? Will umberhulks become the choice pet for kings and queens the land over? How many licks does it take to get to the center of... OK, you get my point.
29 Min read time Share: On using privilege to challenge the state. Since we often cannot see what is happening before our eyes, it is perhaps not too surprising that what is at a slight distance removed is utterly invisible. We have just witnessed an instructive example: President Obama’s dispatch of 79 commandos into Pakistan on May 1 to carry out what was evidently a planned assassination of the prime suspect in the terrorist atrocities of 9/11, Osama bin Laden. Though the target of the operation, unarmed and with no protection, could easily have been apprehended, he was simply murdered, his body dumped at sea without autopsy. The action was deemed “just and necessary” in the liberal press. There will be no trial, as there was in the case of Nazi criminals—a fact not overlooked by legal authorities abroad who approve of the operation but object to the procedure. As Elaine Scarry reminds us, the prohibition of assassination in international law traces back to a forceful denunciation of the practice by Abraham Lincoln, who condemned the call for assassination as “international outlawry” in 1863, an “outrage,” which “civilized nations” view with “horror” and merits the “sternest retaliation.” In 1967, writing about the deceit and distortion surrounding the American invasion of Vietnam, I discussed the responsibility of intellectuals, borrowing the phrase from an important essay of Dwight Macdonald’s after World War II. With the tenth anniversary of 9/11 arriving, and widespread approval in the United States of the assassination of the chief suspect, it seems a fitting time to revisit that issue. But before thinking about the responsibility of intellectuals, it is worth clarifying to whom we are referring. The concept of intellectuals in the modern sense gained prominence with the 1898 “Manifesto of the Intellectuals” produced by the Dreyfusards who, inspired by Emile Zola’s open letter of protest to France’s president, condemned both the framing of French artillery officer Alfred Dreyfus on charges of treason and the subsequent military cover-up. The Dreyfusards’ stance conveys the image of intellectuals as defenders of justice, confronting power with courage and integrity. But they were hardly seen that way at the time. A minority of the educated classes, the Dreyfusards were bitterly condemned in the mainstream of intellectual life, in particular by prominent figures among “the immortals of the strongly anti-Dreyfusard Académie Française,” Steven Lukes writes. To the novelist, politician, and anti-Dreyfusard leader Maurice Barrès, Dreyfusards were “anarchists of the lecture-platform.” To another of these immortals, Ferdinand Brunetière, the very word “intellectual” signified “one of the most ridiculous eccentricities of our time—I mean the pretension of raising writers, scientists, professors and philologists to the rank of supermen,” who dare to “treat our generals as idiots, our social institutions as absurd and our traditions as unhealthy.” Who then were the intellectuals? The minority inspired by Zola (who was sentenced to jail for libel, and fled the country)? Or the immortals of the academy? The question resonates through the ages, in one or another form, and today offers a framework for determining the “responsibility of intellectuals.” The phrase is ambiguous: does it refer to intellectuals’ moral responsibility as decent human beings in a position to use their privilege and status to advance the causes of freedom, justice, mercy, peace, and other such sentimental concerns? Or does it refer to the role they are expected to play, serving, not derogating, leadership and established institutions? • • • One answer came during World War I, when prominent intellectuals on all sides lined up enthusiastically in support of their own states. In their “Manifesto of 93 German Intellectuals,” leading figures in one of the world’s most enlightened states called on the West to “have faith in us! Believe, that we shall carry on this war to the end as a civilized nation, to whom the legacy of a Goethe, a Beethoven, and a Kant, is just as sacred as its own hearths and homes.” Their counterparts on the other side of the intellectual trenches matched them in enthusiasm for the noble cause, but went beyond in self-adulation. In The New Republic they proclaimed, “The effective and decisive work on behalf of the war has been accomplished by . . . a class which must be comprehensively but loosely described as the ‘intellectuals.’” These progressives believed they were ensuring that the United States entered the war “under the influence of a moral verdict reached, after the utmost deliberation by the more thoughtful members of the community.” They were, in fact, the victims of concoctions of the British Ministry of Information, which secretly sought “to direct the thought of most of the world,” but particularly the thought of American progressive intellectuals who might help to whip a pacifist country into war fever. John Dewey was impressed by the great “psychological and educational lesson” of the war, which proved that human beings—more precisely, “the intelligent men of the community”—can “take hold of human affairs and manage them . . . deliberately and intelligently” to achieve the ends sought, admirable by definition. Not everyone toed the line so obediently, of course. Notable figures such as Bertrand Russell, Eugene Debs, Rosa Luxemburg, and Karl Liebknecht were, like Zola, sentenced to prison. Debs was punished with particular severity—a ten-year prison term for raising questions about President Wilson’s “war for democracy and human rights.” Wilson refused him amnesty after the war ended, though Harding finally relented. Some, such as Thorstein Veblen, were chastised but treated less harshly; Veblen was fired from his position in the Food Administration after preparing a report showing that the shortage of farm labor could be overcome by ending Wilson’s brutal persecution of labor, specifically the International Workers of the World. Randolph Bourne was dropped by the progressive journals after criticizing the “league of benevolently imperialistic nations” and their exalted endeavors. The pattern of praise and punishment is a familiar one throughout history: those who line up in the service of the state are typically praised by the general intellectual community, and those who refuse to line up in service of the state are punished. Thus in retrospect Wilson and the progressive intellectuals who offered him their services are greatly honored, but not Debs. Luxemburg and Liebknecht were murdered and have hardly been heroes of the intellectual mainstream. Russell continued to be bitterly condemned until after his death—and in current biographies still is. Since power tends to prevail, intellectuals who serve their governments are considered the responsible ones. In the 1970s prominent scholars distinguished the two categories of intellectuals more explicitly. A 1975 study, The Crisis of Democracy, labeled Brunetière’s ridiculous eccentrics “value-oriented intellectuals” who pose a “challenge to democratic government which is, potentially at least, as serious as those posed in the past by aristocratic cliques, fascist movements, and communist parties.” Among other misdeeds, these dangerous creatures “devote themselves to the derogation of leadership, the challenging of authority,” and they challenge the institutions responsible for “the indoctrination of the young.” Some even sink to the depths of questioning the nobility of war aims, as Bourne had. This castigation of the miscreants who question authority and the established order was delivered by the scholars of the liberal internationalist Trilateral Commission; the Carter administration was largely drawn from their ranks. Like The New Republic progressives during World War I, the authors of The Crisis of Democracy extend the concept of the “intellectual” beyond Brunetière’s ridiculous eccentrics to include the better sort as well: the “technocratic and policy-oriented intellectuals,” responsible and serious thinkers who devote themselves to the constructive work of shaping policy within established institutions and to ensuring that indoctrination of the young proceeds on course. It took Dewey only a few years to shift from the responsible technocratic and policy-oriented intellectual of World War I to an anarchist of the lecture-platform, as he denounced the “un-free press” and questioned “how far genuine intellectual freedom and social responsibility are possible on any large scale under the existing economic regime.” What particularly troubled the Trilateral scholars was the “excess of democracy” during the time of troubles, the 1960s, when normally passive and apathetic parts of the population entered the political arena to advance their concerns: minorities, women, the young, the old, working people . . . in short, the population, sometimes called the “special interests.” They are to be distinguished from those whom Adam Smith called the “masters of mankind,” who are “the principal architects” of government policy and pursue their “vile maxim”: “All for ourselves and nothing for other people.” The role of the masters in the political arena is not deplored, or discussed, in the Trilateral volume, presumably because the masters represent “the national interest,” like those who applauded themselves for leading the country to war “after the utmost deliberation by the more thoughtful members of the community” had reached its “moral verdict.” To overcome the excessive burden imposed on the state by the special interests, the Trilateralists called for more “moderation in democracy,” a return to passivity on the part of the less deserving, perhaps even a return to the happy days when “Truman had been able to govern the country with the cooperation of a relatively small number of Wall Street lawyers and bankers,” and democracy therefore flourished. The Trilateralists could well have claimed to be adhering to the original intent of the Constitution, “intrinsically an aristocratic document designed to check the democratic tendencies of the period” by delivering power to a “better sort” of people and barring “those who were not rich, well born, or prominent from exercising political power,” in the accurate words of the historian Gordon Wood. In Madison’s defense, however, we should recognize that his mentality was pre-capitalist. In determining that power should be in the hands of “the wealth of the nation,” “a the more capable set of men,” he envisioned those men on the model of the “enlightened Statesmen” and “benevolent philosopher” of the imagined Roman world. They would be “pure and noble,” “men of intelligence, patriotism, property, and independent circumstances” “whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country, and whose patriotism and love of justice will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or partial considerations.” So endowed, these men would “refine and enlarge the public views,” guarding the public interest against the “mischiefs” of democratic majorities. In a similar vein, the progressive Wilsonian intellectuals might have taken comfort in the discoveries of the behavioral sciences, explained in 1939 by the psychologist and education theorist Edward Thorndike: It is the great good fortune of mankind that there is a substantial correlation between intelligence and morality including good will toward one’s fellows . . . . Consequently our superiors in ability are on the average our benefactors, and it is often safer to trust our interests to them than to ourselves. A comforting doctrine, though some might feel that Adam Smith had the sharper eye. • • • Since power tends to prevail, intellectuals who serve their governments are considered responsible, and value-oriented intellectuals are dismissed or denigrated. At home that is. With regard to enemies, the distinction between the two categories of intellectuals is retained, but with values reversed. In the old Soviet Union, the value-oriented intellectuals were the honored dissidents, while we had only contempt for the apparatchiks and commissars, the technocratic and policy-oriented intellectuals. Similarly in Iran we honor the courageous dissidents and condemn those who defend the clerical establishment. And elsewhere generally. The honorable term “dissident” is used selectively. It does not, of course, apply, with its favorable connotations, to value-oriented intellectuals at home or to those who combat U.S.-supported tyranny abroad. Take the interesting case of Nelson Mandela, who was removed from the official terrorist list in 2008, and can now travel to the United States without special authorization. Twenty years earlier, he was the criminal leader of one of the world’s “more notorious terrorist groups,” according to a Pentagon report. That is why President Reagan had to support the apartheid regime, increasing trade with South Africa in violation of congressional sanctions and supporting South Africa’s depredations in neighboring countries, which led, according to a UN study, to 1.5 million deaths. That was only one episode in the war on terrorism that Reagan declared to combat “the plague of the modern age,” or, as Secretary of State George Shultz had it, “a return to barbarism in the modern age.” We may add hundreds of thousands of corpses in Central America and tens of thousands more in the Middle East, among other achievements. Small wonder that the Great Communicator is worshipped by Hoover Institution scholars as a colossus whose “spirit seems to stride the country, watching us like a warm and friendly ghost,” recently honored further by a statue that defaces the American Embassy in London. What particularly troubled the Trilateral scholars was the ‘excess of democracy’ in the 1960s. The Latin American case is revealing. Those who called for freedom and justice in Latin America are not admitted to the pantheon of honored dissidents. For example, a week after the fall of the Berlin Wall, six leading Latin American intellectuals, all Jesuit priests, had their heads blown off on the direct orders of the Salvadoran high command. The perpetrators were from an elite battalion armed and trained by Washington that had already left a gruesome trail of blood and terror, and had just returned from renewed training at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The murdered priests are not commemorated as honored dissidents, nor are others like them throughout the hemisphere. Honored dissidents are those who called for freedom in enemy domains in Eastern Europe, who certainly suffered, but not remotely like their counterparts in Latin America. The distinction is worth examination, and tells us a lot about the two senses of the phrase “responsibility of intellectuals,” and about ourselves. It is not seriously in question, as John Coatsworth writes in the recently published Cambridge University History of the Cold War, that from 1960 to “the Soviet collapse in 1990, the numbers of political prisoners, torture victims, and executions of nonviolent political dissenters in Latin America vastly exceeded those in the Soviet Union and its East European satellites.” Among the executed were many religious martyrs, and there were mass slaughters as well, consistently supported or initiated by Washington. Why then the distinction? It might be argued that what happened in Eastern Europe is far more momentous than the fate of the South at our hands. It would be interesting to see the argument spelled out. And also to see the argument explaining why we should disregard elementary moral principles, among them that if we are serious about suffering and atrocities, about justice and rights, we will focus our efforts on where we can do the most good—typically, where we share responsibility for what is being done. We have no difficulty demanding that our enemies follow such principles. Few of us care, or should, what Andrei Sakharov or Shirin Ebadi say about U.S. or Israeli crimes; we admire them for what they say and do about those of their own states, and the conclusion holds far more strongly for those who live in more free and democratic societies, and therefore have far greater opportunities to act effectively. It is of some interest that in the most respected circles, practice is virtually the opposite of what elementary moral values dictate. But let us conform and keep only to the matter of historical import. The U.S. wars in Latin America from 1960 to 1990, quite apart from their horrors, have long-term historical significance. To consider just one important aspect, in no small measure they were wars against the Church, undertaken to crush a terrible heresy proclaimed at Vatican II in 1962, which, under the leadership of Pope John XXIII, “ushered in a new era in the history of the Catholic Church,” in the words of the distinguished theologian Hans Küng, restoring the teachings of the gospels that had been put to rest in the fourth century when the Emperor Constantine established Christianity as the religion of the Roman Empire, instituting “a revolution” that converted “the persecuted church” to a “persecuting church.” The heresy of Vatican II was taken up by Latin American bishops who adopted the “preferential option for the poor.” Priests, nuns, and laypersons then brought the radical pacifist message of the gospels to the poor, helping them organize to ameliorate their bitter fate in the domains of U.S. power. That same year, 1962, President Kennedy made several critical decisions. One was to shift the mission of the militaries of Latin America from “hemispheric defense”—an anachronism from World War II—to “internal security,” in effect, war against the domestic population, if they raise their heads. Charles Maechling, who led U.S. counterinsurgency and internal defense planning from 1961 to 1966, describes the unsurprising consequences of the 1962 decision as a shift from toleration “of the rapacity and cruelty of the Latin American military” to “direct complicity” in their crimes to U.S. support for “the methods of Heinrich Himmler’s extermination squads.” One major initiative was a military coup in Brazil, planned in Washington and implemented shortly after Kennedy’s assassination, instituting a murderous and brutal national security state. The plague of repression then spread through the hemisphere, including the 1973 coup installing the Pinochet dictatorship, and later the most vicious of all, the Argentine dictatorship, Reagan’s favorite. Central America’s turn—not for the first time—came in the 1980s under the leadership of the “warm and friendly ghost” who is now revered for his achievements. The murder of the Jesuit intellectuals as the Berlin wall fell was a final blow in defeating the heresy, culminating a decade of horror in El Salvador that opened with the assassination, by much the same hands, of Archbishop Óscar Romero, the “voice for the voiceless.” The victors in the war against the Church declare their responsibility with pride. The School of the Americas (since renamed), famous for its training of Latin American killers, announces as one of its “talking points” that the liberation theology that was initiated at Vatican II was “defeated with the assistance of the US army.” Actually, the November 1989 assassinations were almost a final blow. More was needed. A year later Haiti had its first free election, and to the surprise and shock of Washington, which like others had anticipated the easy victory of its own candidate from the privileged elite, the organized public in the slums and hills elected Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a popular priest committed to liberation theology. The United States at once moved to undermine the elected government, and after the military coup that overthrew it a few months later, lent substantial support to the vicious military junta and its elite supporters. Trade was increased in violation of international sanctions and increased further under Clinton, who also authorized the Texaco oil company to supply the murderous rulers, in defiance of his own directives. I will skip the disgraceful aftermath, amply reviewed elsewhere, except to point out that in 2004, the two traditional torturers of Haiti, France and the United States, joined by Canada, forcefully intervened, kidnapped President Aristide (who had been elected again), and shipped him off to central Africa. He and his party were effectively barred from the farcical 2010–11 elections, the most recent episode in a horrendous history that goes back hundreds of years and is barely known among the perpetrators of the crimes, who prefer tales of dedicated efforts to save the suffering people from their grim fate. If we are serious about justice, we will focus our efforts where we share responsibility for what is being done. Another fateful Kennedy decision in 1962 was to send a special forces mission to Colombia, led by General William Yarborough, who advised the Colombian security forces to undertake “paramilitary, sabotage and/or terrorist activities against known communist proponents,” activities that “should be backed by the United States.” The meaning of the phrase “communist proponents” was spelled out by the respected president of the Colombian Permanent Committee for Human Rights, former Minister of Foreign Affairs Alfredo Vázquez Carrizosa, who wrote that the Kennedy administration “took great pains to transform our regular armies into counterinsurgency brigades, accepting the new strategy of the death squads,” ushering in what is known in Latin America as the National Security Doctrine. . . . [not] defense against an external enemy, but a way to make the military establishment the masters of the game . . . [with] the right to combat the internal enemy, as set forth in the Brazilian doctrine, the Argentine doctrine, the Uruguayan doctrine, and the Colombian doctrine: it is the right to fight and to exterminate social workers, trade unionists, men and women who are not supportive of the establishment, and who are assumed to be communist extremists. And this could mean anyone, including human rights activists such as myself. In a 1980 study, Lars Schoultz, the leading U.S. academic specialist on human rights in Latin America, found that U.S. aid “has tended to flow disproportionately to Latin American governments which torture their citizens . . . to the hemisphere’s relatively egregious violators of fundamental human rights.” That included military aid, was independent of need, and continued through the Carter years. Ever since the Reagan administration, it has been superfluous to carry out such a study. In the 1980s one of the most notorious violators was El Salvador, which accordingly became the leading recipient of U.S. military aid, to be replaced by Colombia when it took the lead as the worst violator of human rights in the hemisphere. Vázquez Carrizosa himself was living under heavy guard in his Bogotá residence when I visited him there in 2002 as part of a mission of Amnesty International, which was opening its year-long campaign to protect human rights defenders in Colombia because of the country’s horrifying record of attacks against human rights and labor activists, and mostly the usual victims of state terror: the poor and defenseless. Terror and torture in Colombia were supplemented by chemical warfare (“fumigation”), under the pretext of the war on drugs, leading to huge flight to urban slums and misery for the survivors. Colombia’s attorney general’s office now estimates that more than 140,000 people have been killed by paramilitaries, often acting in close collaboration with the U.S.-funded military. Signs of the slaughter are everywhere. On a nearly impassible dirt road to a remote village in southern Colombia a year ago, my companions and I passed a small clearing with many simple crosses marking the graves of victims of a paramilitary attack on a local bus. Reports of the killings are graphic enough; spending a little time with the survivors, who are among the kindest and most compassionate people I have ever had the privilege of meeting, makes the picture more vivid, and only more painful. This is the briefest sketch of terrible crimes for which Americans bear substantial culpability, and that we could easily ameliorate, at the very least. But it is more gratifying to bask in praise for courageously protesting the abuses of official enemies, a fine activity, but not the priority of a value-oriented intellectual who takes the responsibilities of that stance seriously. The victims within our domains, unlike those in enemy states, are not merely ignored and quickly forgotten, but are also cynically insulted. One striking illustration came a few weeks after the murder of the Latin American intellectuals in El Salvador. Vaclav Havel visited Washington and addressed a joint session of Congress. Before his enraptured audience, Havel lauded the “defenders of freedom” in Washington who “understood the responsibility that flowed from” being “the most powerful nation on earth”—crucially, their responsibility for the brutal assassination of his Salvadoran counterparts shortly before. The liberal intellectual class was enthralled by his presentation. Havel reminds us that “we live in a romantic age,” Anthony Lewis gushed. Other prominent liberal commentators reveled in Havel’s “idealism, his irony, his humanity,” as he “preached a difficult doctrine of individual responsibility” while Congress “obviously ached with respect” for his genius and integrity; and asked why America lacks intellectuals so profound, who “elevate morality over self-interest” in this way, praising us for the tortured and mutilated corpses that litter the countries that we have left in misery. We need not tarry on what the reaction would have been had Father Ellacuría, the most prominent of the murdered Jesuit intellectuals, spoken such words at the Duma after elite forces armed and trained by the Soviet Union assassinated Havel and half a dozen of his associates—a performance that is inconceivable. The assassination of bin Laden, too, directs our attention to our insulted victims. There is much more to say about the operation—including Washington’s willingness to face a serious risk of major war and even leakage of fissile materials to jihadis, as I have discussed elsewhere—but let us keep to the choice of name: Operation Geronimo. The name caused outrage in Mexico and was protested by indigenous groups in the United States, but there seems to have been no further notice of the fact that Obama was identifying bin Laden with the Apache Indian chief. Geronimo led the courageous resistance to invaders who sought to consign his people to the fate of “that hapless race of native Americans, which we are exterminating with such merciless and perfidious cruelty, among the heinous sins of this nation, for which I believe God will one day bring [it] to judgement,” in the words of the grand strategist John Quincy Adams, the intellectual architect of manifest destiny, uttered long after his own contributions to these sins. The casual choice of the name is reminiscent of the ease with which we name our murder weapons after victims of our crimes: Apache, Blackhawk, Cheyenne . . . We might react differently if the Luftwaffe were to call its fighter planes “Jew” and “Gypsy.” The first 9/11, unlike the second, did not change the world. It was ‘nothing of very great consequence,’ Kissinger said. Denial of these “heinous sins” is sometimes explicit. To mention a few recent cases, two years ago in one of the world’s leading left-liberal intellectual journals, The New York Review of Books, Russell Baker outlined what he learned from the work of the “heroic historian” Edmund Morgan: namely, that when Columbus and the early explorers arrived they “found a continental vastness sparsely populated by farming and hunting people . . . . In the limitless and unspoiled world stretching from tropical jungle to the frozen north, there may have been scarcely more than a million inhabitants.” The calculation is off by many tens of millions, and the “vastness” included advanced civilizations throughout the continent. No reactions appeared, though four months later the editors issued a correction, noting that in North America there may have been as many as 18 million people—and, unmentioned, tens of millions more “from tropical jungle to the frozen north.” This was all well known decades ago—including the advanced civilizations and the “merciless and perfidious cruelty” of the “extermination”—but not important enough even for a casual phrase. In London Review of Books a year later, the noted historian Mark Mazower mentioned American “mistreatment of the Native Americans,” again eliciting no comment. Would we accept the word “mistreatment” for comparable crimes committed by enemies? • • • If the responsibility of intellectuals refers to their moral responsibility as decent human beings in a position to use their privilege and status to advance the cause of freedom, justice, mercy, and peace—and to speak out not simply about the abuses of our enemies, but, far more significantly, about the crimes in which we are implicated and can ameliorate or terminate if we choose—how should we think of 9/11? The notion that 9/11 “changed the world” is widely held, understandably. The events of that day certainly had major consequences, domestic and international. One was to lead President Bush to re-declare Ronald Reagan’s war on terrorism—the first one has been effectively “disappeared,” to borrow the phrase of our favorite Latin American killers and torturers, presumably because the consequences do not fit well with preferred self images. Another consequence was the invasion of Afghanistan, then Iraq, and more recently military interventions in several other countries in the region and regular threats of an attack on Iran (“all options are open,” in the standard phrase). The costs, in every dimension, have been enormous. That suggests a rather obvious question, not asked for the first time: was there an alternative? A number of analysts have observed that bin Laden won major successes in his war against the United States. “He repeatedly asserted that the only way to drive the U.S. from the Muslim world and defeat its satraps was by drawing Americans into a series of small but expensive wars that would ultimately bankrupt them,” the journalist Eric Margolis writes. The United States, first under George W. Bush and then Barack Obama, rushed right into bin Laden’s trap. . . . Grotesquely overblown military outlays and debt addiction . . . . may be the most pernicious legacy of the man who thought he could defeat the United States. A report from the Costs of War project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies estimates that the final bill will be $3.2–4 trillion. Quite an impressive achievement by bin Laden. That Washington was intent on rushing into bin Laden’s trap was evident at once. Michael Scheuer, the senior CIA analyst responsible for tracking bin Laden from 1996 to 1999, writes, “Bin Laden has been precise in telling America the reasons he is waging war on us.” The al Qaeda leader, Scheuer continues, “is out to drastically alter U.S. and Western policies toward the Islamic world.” And, as Scheuer explains, bin Laden largely succeeded: “U.S. forces and policies are completing the radicalization of the Islamic world, something Osama bin Laden has been trying to do with substantial but incomplete success since the early 1990s. As a result, I think it is fair to conclude that the United States of America remains bin Laden’s only indispensable ally.” And arguably remains so, even after his death. There is good reason to believe that the jihadi movement could have been split and undermined after the 9/11 attack, which was criticized harshly within the movement. Furthermore, the “crime against humanity,” as it was rightly called, could have been approached as a crime, with an international operation to apprehend the likely suspects. That was recognized in the immediate aftermath of the attack, but no such idea was even considered by decision-makers in government. It seems no thought was given to the Taliban’s tentative offer—how serious an offer, we cannot know—to present the al Qaeda leaders for a judicial proceeding. At the time, I quoted Robert Fisk’s conclusion that the horrendous crime of 9/11 was committed with “wickedness and awesome cruelty”—an accurate judgment. The crimes could have been even worse. Suppose that Flight 93, downed by courageous passengers in Pennsylvania, had bombed the White House, killing the president. Suppose that the perpetrators of the crime planned to, and did, impose a military dictatorship that killed thousands and tortured tens of thousands. Suppose the new dictatorship established, with the support of the criminals, an international terror center that helped impose similar torture-and-terror states elsewhere, and, as icing on the cake, brought in a team of economists—call them “the Kandahar boys”—who quickly drove the economy into one of the worst depressions in its history. That, plainly, would have been a lot worse than 9/11. As we all should know, this is not a thought experiment. It happened. I am, of course, referring to what in Latin America is often called “the first 9/11”: September 11, 1973, when the United States succeeded in its intensive efforts to overthrow the democratic government of Salvador Allende in Chile with a military coup that placed General Pinochet’s ghastly regime in office. The dictatorship then installed the Chicago Boys—economists trained at the University of Chicago—to reshape Chile’s economy. Consider the economic destruction, the torture and kidnappings, and multiply the numbers killed by 25 to yield per capita equivalents, and you will see just how much more devastating the first 9/11 was. Privilege yields opportunity, and opportunity confers responsibilities. The goal of the overthrow, in the words of the Nixon administration, was to kill the “virus” that might encourage all those “foreigners [who] are out to screw us”—screw us by trying to take over their own resources and more generally to pursue a policy of independent development along lines disliked by Washington. In the background was the conclusion of Nixon’s National Security Council that if the United States could not control Latin America, it could not expect “to achieve a successful order elsewhere in the world.” Washington’s “credibility” would be undermined, as Henry Kissinger put it. The first 9/11, unlike the second, did not change the world. It was “nothing of very great consequence,” Kissinger assured his boss a few days later. And judging by how it figures in conventional history, his words can hardly be faulted, though the survivors may see the matter differently. These events of little consequence were not limited to the military coup that destroyed Chilean democracy and set in motion the horror story that followed. As already discussed, the first 9/11 was just one act in the drama that began in 1962 when Kennedy shifted the mission of the Latin American militaries to “internal security.” The shattering aftermath is also of little consequence, the familiar pattern when history is guarded by responsible intellectuals. • • • It seems to be close to a historical universal that conformist intellectuals, the ones who support official aims and ignore or rationalize official crimes, are honored and privileged in their own societies, and the value-oriented punished in one or another way. The pattern goes back to the earliest records. It was the man accused of corrupting the youth of Athens who drank the hemlock, much as Dreyfusards were accused of “corrupting souls, and, in due course, society as a whole” and the value-oriented intellectuals of the 1960s were charged with interference with “indoctrination of the young.” In the Hebrew scriptures there are figures who by contemporary standards are dissident intellectuals, called “prophets” in the English translation. They bitterly angered the establishment with their critical geopolitical analysis, their condemnation of the crimes of the powerful, their calls for justice and concern for the poor and suffering. King Ahab, the most evil of the kings, denounced the Prophet Elijah as a hater of Israel, the first “self-hating Jew” or “anti-American” in the modern counterparts. The prophets were treated harshly, unlike the flatterers at the court, who were later condemned as false prophets. The pattern is understandable. It would be surprising if it were otherwise. As for the responsibility of intellectuals, there does not seem to me to be much to say beyond some simple truths. Intellectuals are typically privileged—merely an observation about usage of the term. Privilege yields opportunity, and opportunity confers responsibilities. An individual then has choices.
October 21, 2015 "Western" Media Silent As Iraq And 4+1 Inflict Huge Islamic State Defeat Update Oct 22: An detailed Iraqi account of the Baiji operation: Baiji District Recaptured by Iraq’s Forces in Rapid Offensive The US-led international coalition played a minimal role at best during this weeklong offensive. From Oct. 13th-20th, the coalition conducted a grand total of just 10 strikes on Da’ish positions ‘near Baiji’. On Friday, as fighting in the district was winding down and militants were fleeing north towards Mosul or northeast towards Hawijah, the coalition dropped one bomb on one artillery piece. That’s it. While abysmal, it’s hardly surprising due to the heavy presence of the Hashd Al-Sha’abi, which the coalition actively tries to avoid aiding. End Update - original piece follows Yesterday saw a huge defeat of the Islamic State but "western" media hardly noted it. Iraqi Hashd militia and the Iraqi army defeated the Islamic State fighters in Baiji refinery and Baiji city. This was a big success: Footage aired by the state-run TV showed Iraqi troops waving flags from rooftops in Baiji as thick black smoke billowed into the air. ... Baiji is the second most significant area recaptured in Salahuddin over the past months as pro-government forces retook the provincial capital of Tikrit in late March after weeks of clashes with the militants. The liberation of Baiji could be a prelude to Iraq’s highly-anticipated offensive into Mosul, which has served as the de-facto capital of Daesh in Iraq. The road from Baghdad to Mosul runs south to north through Balad, Samara, Tikrit and Baiji. Tikrit was liberated in March and the fight about the Baiji refinery and Baiji city had waged since. The victory now opens the road towards Mosul, Iraq's second biggest city and in the hand of the Islamic State. The success can be attributed mostly to Iraqi militia supported by Iran. The 4+1 intelligence and operations room in Baghdad, where Iraq, Iran, Russia, Syria and Hizbullah as well as the Hashd coordinate their efforts, advised throughout the operation. The U.S. was not involved as it does not want to work with the Hashd militia and Iran. When looking through the daily strike reports of the U.S. lead operation Inherent Resolve one finds hardly any air strikes against IS forces around Baiji. The few that took place hit some IS "machine gun position" or "tactical fighting position". Hardly the effort that was needed to free the city. Indeed it took the Iraqi air force to do the real work: Zaid Benjamin @zaidbenjamin Inherent Resolve Spx Steve Warren: Dealing with small pockets in #Beiji refinery. Iraqi air-force mounted 40 airstrikes & the coalition 4. Iraqi militia did the groundwork and the Iraqi air force covered the attack. The operation proceed under advice from Russia and Iran. The U.S. was not involved. It is no wonder then that "western" media are mostly silent about it. There is nothing about the Iraqi victory in the Washington Post and the New York Times gives it just one sentence in a piece about the Joint Chiefs chairman. This after wall-to-wall coverage when the Islamic State first captured the refinery. Even the small mention in the NYT manages to deceive its readers about the leading party of the operation: The American-led coalition is putting pressure on the militants on several fronts. Backed by American air power, Iraqi forces are on the outskirts of Ramadi, which was taken by the militants in May. Iraqi forces and Shiite militias captured the Baiji oil refinery, north of Baghdad, on Friday and are trying to expand the territory under their control there. On Tuesday, the Iraqi military said it had secured the nearby town of Baiji after days of fighting. The casual reader of that paragraph will assume that the "American-led coalition" and "American air power" was responsible for the liberation of Baiji. But besides four minor airstrike in as many days that "American-led coalition" was not involved at all. The Iraqi militia supported by Russia and Iran are clearly steeling the Pentagon's show. The U.S. fears the replacement of its sham campaign against the Islamic State by a real one run by Russia and Iran. The Joint Chiefs chairman Dunford even threatened the Iraqi premier with love deprivation: If Russia did begin flying missions over Iraq, it would preclude the United States from flying, Dunford told the Iraqi leaders. They understood the situation, he said, and Abadi told him that Iraq has not asked the Russians to fly missions over Iraq and Russia has not offered to launch strikes inside Iraq. Officially Abadi has not asked. But Iraqi requests were made to Moscow and answered positively. Iraq will wait a few month and then compare the Russian success in Syria with the U.S. success in Iraq. Should the campaign in Syria be more successful than the U.S. led one in Iraq it surely would consider switching its partners. In Syria meanwhile the "moderate rebels" open more joined operations rooms with Ahrar al-Shams and Jabhat al Nusra. There is new talk about a unification of the "moderate rebels" of Ahrar al-Shams and the "moderate rebels" of Al Qaeda: Zaid Benjamin ‏@zaidbenjamin Ahrar ash-Sham forge alliance with Jabhat al-Nusra one day after a CNN interview with #Qatar's FM saying that Ahrar has no links to al-Qaeda Russian intelligence picked up talks between the the Islamic State and Nusra/al-Qaeda commanders about a united effort against the Syrian government. The reality that all these groups submit to the same ideology and aims will soon become even more evident. That will make it more difficult for the U.S. and Turkey to continue with their sham campaign against the Islamic State while supporting the "moderates" that are joined with that professed enemy. Meanwhile Russia continues its political efforts to end the fighting in Syria. The Syrian president Bashar Assad visited Moscow for talks with the Russian president Putin. He also had an intimate dinner with the highest figures of the Russian government - Putin, Medvedev, Lavrov and Shoygu attended. After the visit the Russian president had phonecalls with the Turkish president Erdogan and the Saudi King Salman today. The foreign ministers of Russia, the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Turkey will meet Friday in Vienna. There is either a deal in the making ... or the war on Syria will escalate further. Posted by b on October 21, 2015 at 01:26 PM \| Permalink Comments next page »
QBert Rebooted Comes To SHIELD A classic in gaming QBert originally was released in 1982 by Gottlieb and went on to become one of the most successful arcade game of all time. Today SHIELD owners are getting their own piece of the Qbert pie with Qbert Rebooted: SHIELD Edition. Remastered for SHIELD, Qbert Rebooted: NVIDIA SHIELD Edition features the Classic pixel perfect 2D arcade version of Qbert Arcade and an all-new action-packed version of the arcade mega-hit. Dodge enemies, evade death, and navigate your way through villainous isometric levels in this iconic, critically acclaimed game. The game introduces new enemies, playable characters, power-ups, traps, gem collecting, and is chock full of new challenges that it will leave you feeling victorious or demanding a do over. Qbert Classic stays true to the original in all its jagged 2D pixel art glory, now optimized for touch screen control. As the title character, players jump around an isometric cube pyramid and convert each block’s color while avoiding familiar adversaries Coily, Ugg, Slick, Sam, Wrong Way and Red Ball. Levels become progressively harder with more enemies blocking your path and the tiles requiring multiple jumps to change to the required color. Qbert Rebooted takes the arcade classic and catapults it into the 21st century with 3D game play yet remains faithful to the original. Featuring hexagonal blocks instead of squares, Qbert Rebooted introduces new enemies, playable characters, power-ups, traps, gem collecting and characters, and new ways to play. The game includes the following new features exclusive to SHIELD: Eight Music Tracks By Env, New Particles & Lighting System, and Physically Based Shaders. Starting today the game will be available on the Google Play Store for both SHIELD TV and SHIELD Tablets for only $5.99.If you haven’t picked up a Nvidia SHIELD TV or Tablet device yet you’re missing out and I highly recommend picking one up to play games such as this. Game Features: 2 Fun Play Modes, Classic Arcade and Qbert Rebooted! 8 Exclusive Music Tracks By Env! * Improved Graphics & Frame Rate * New Particles & Lighting System * Physically Based Shaders * TV User Interface with NO ADS! * Coily and the rest of the crew are back with 3 New Enemies :- Homer, Uppercut and Treasure Chest * 30+ New Levels in 3D Rebooted Mode * Earn Crazy Qbert Variants like Qzilla, Qbot, Qknight and more Anthony Garera Anthony is usually tinkering with everything and anything because there's always one more thing to do, reviewing games and apps and complaining about things normal people don't think about. More Posts - Website Follow Me:
Some call this a dream job. Many don’t. Whoever says there are no second chances didn’t know that Columbia is now taking applications for what’s arguably the best job in the world. Last year, Columbia created two positions for Director of Toughness. The unique position was designed to allow two adventures the chance to travel the world for six months while testing Columbia apparel. The duo traveled to exotic, beautiful, and intriguing destinations—through four continents, with adventures in the U.S., Costa Rica, Uganda, Ecuador, Chile, and Japan. The program was so successful that after the original Directors of Toughness completed their tenure, Columbia is now seeking applications for two more positions—this time for nine months of travel, gear testing and, of course, plenty of fun. Aside from the obvious perks of traveling the globe and testing game-changing gear and technology, the new Directors of Toughness will receive a full-time salary and benefits. “The travel was real. We bounced around the globe from Uganda to Chile, Japan to Manitoba,” says original Director of Toughness, Zach Doleac. “Being a Director of Toughness was non-stop adventure. I got to expand on passions I already had (skiing, mountain biking, mountaineering) and was introduced to a handful of new ones (rafting, ice climbing, jungle trekking, fishing).” The twist? Columbia is conducting in-person interviews—but you have to get to the site. It’s the first challenge for future Directors of Toughness. Interviews will be held in four remote locations—two in the U.S., another in Canada, and one in the UK. So not only is this a job for “tough testers” but it will be the “toughest interview to get to.” Reaching the interview destinations shouldn’t be a problem for anyone with the chops to apply. No one says that it’s a “cake” job where you sit at a desk all day. “At times traveling can be isolating. We had to drop everything and leave our jobs, friends, and family for 6-months,” explains Doleac. “At the time, it was difficult to appreciate the opportunities we were getting because of how fast we were moving around. But going back and watching the culminating video, holy $h*t!! Who wouldn’t want that job?! I’m definitely applying again under a pseudonym!” These testing adventures will be posted on social media channels with the tag #TestedTough. Full disclosure: The Directors of Toughness need to be fairly hardcore. The Directors of Toughness will be full-time beta testers, as well as brand ambassadors and social media gurus. They are expected to venture out in ridiculous conditions, push themselves to the limit, and record their adventures in print and on camera. There’s not a lot of downtime with the job, but then, who needs down time!
A-LEAGUE players have raised grave concerns about the state of A-League pitches, with “rock-hard” North Sydney Oval in the gun for Melbourne Victory’s Round 9 clash away to Central Coast Mariners. The Professional Footballers’ Association will submit reports to Football Federation Australia after repeated complaints about the state of surfaces this season. The Herald Sun understands Gosford’s Central Coast Stadium was booked last Friday as FFA contemplated moving the Newcastle Jets-Brisbane Roar clash from Hunter Stadium. Six days earlier the Jets hosted Melbourne Victory, the first game at the stadium since a $1.3 million resurfacing. media_camera North Sydney Oval will be used for Victory and the Mariners’ clash in round nine. The three pitches that have caused angst among players are: - Adelaide Oval: Too hard and grass too short, difficult to turn/change direction; - Hunter Stadium: Turf planted only days before the Round 5 game and it moved underfoot; - North Sydney Oval: Cricket pitches can’t be moved, will remain hard. PFA chief executive Adam Vivian confirmed: “The PFA has a number of concerns regarding the suitability of North Sydney Oval for professional football. “This is not the first occasion this season when the players have expressed their concerns regarding the playing surfaces at some stadiums. “The PFA has received strong feedback from players in relation to surfaces at Hunter Stadium and Adelaide Oval. media_camera The Adelaide Oval surface was criticised for being too hard and the grass too short. “In an effort to assist FFA and clubs in ensuring a safe workplace, the PFA has tabled the introduction of workplace site inspections. “Whilst to date the players have been frustrated with the response to this initiative, they remain committed to ensuring both FFA and the clubs provide world class working conditions with player health and safety at the forefront of all decision-making.’’ A cricket game was being played at North Sydney Oval on Saturday when a Victory delegation inspected the surface ahead of the December 5 clash with the Mariners. Victory officials are said to be hugely concerned about player safety with the cricket pitches unable to be removed as they’re not drop-in pitches. media_camera Joel Griffiths of the Jets makes a tackle on the Hunter Stadium surface. Players and officials were left scratching their heads when the Hunter Stadium turf gave way after the surface was laid just days before the Jets-Victory clash despite an eight-week since the last time a game was played there _ a Newcastle Knights NRL fixture. Each pitch gets a rating by a player from each team after the game, and it’s understood that Adelaide Oval and Hunter Stadium were both rated 1 out of 5, with the Adelaide Oval surface describe as “a rock”. Several players have copped injuries after playing on the aforementioned grounds, while last week Victory attacker Gui Finkler did not train for five days after the Jets game after pulling up sore. “The ground is hard and slow,’’ Finkler told the Herald Sun after the game. “There is no water on top, it makes it harder to play football. “If you put water on the pitch before the game it would be much better.’’ Originally published as A-League players pitch surface concerns
Holocaust caused an unholy row in Parliament this month. Prime Minister Tony Abbott summoned the noun to describe Labor's lollygagging over submarine contracts: "There was a holocaust of jobs in defence industries under member opposite." To be fair to the PM, he promptly withdrew his remark, apologising for any offence. Going by the media meltdown, that offence was palpable. Forums erupted, intensified no doubt by the recent anniversary of the Auschwitz liberation, some 70 years ago. Sinker. Credit:Simon Letch While the rhetoric was gauche, the analogy regrettable, the same gaffe has lent us a chance to delve deeper into the word, to understand how it's come to be such a sacrament. Say the word in isolation, and almost every listener will link holocaust to the murder of six million Jews during World War II. Even without a capital H, that brutality has become the word's foremost association.
Agust D - So Far Away (Annotated by dansmesyeux) This annotation contains a literal and interpretive translation. The literal translation is a word-for-word, 100% literal meaning translation of the lyrics. A bit of the emotive/poetic meaning of the original might be lost in this translation. The interpretive translation is a translation that tries to keep the meaning of the original Korean, while also keeping the rhyme scheme, line breaks and other poetic elements of the original Korean lyrics by translating them to English. A bit of strict literal accuracy might be lost in this translation. In order to give the full sense of the lyrics, I’ve presented both types of translations here. Reading both would be a good way to supplement both strengths and weaknesses of each type of translation. There are also different annotations for both Korean lyrics and the literal translation lyrics. Korean 하고 싶은 게 없다는 게 진짜 뭣 같은데 흔한 꿈조차 없다는 게 한심한 거 알어 다 아는데 하란 대로만 하면 된다며 대학가면 다 괜찮아 1 그런 말들을 믿은 내가 병신이지 나 죽지 못해 살어 술이나 좀 줘봐 오늘은 취하고 싶으니 제발 말리지 마 뭐든 좋아 백수 새끼가 술 마시는 건 사치지만 2 취하지도 않음 버틸 수가 없어 모두가 달리는데 왜 나만 여기 있어 모두가 달리는데 왜 나만 여기 있어 모두가 달리는데 왜 나만 여기서 있지 so far away 나에게도 꿈이 있다면 날아가는 꿈이 있다면 don’t fall away 나에게도 꿈이 있다면 날아가는 꿈이 있다면 dream 그대의 창조와 삶의 끝에 함께하리 dream 그대의 자리가 어딜지라도 관대하리 dream 결국 시련의 끝에 만개하리 dream 시작은 미약할지언정 끝은 창대하리 3, 4 그래 씨발 죽지 못해서 살아 하고 싶은 게 없단 건 말야 무엇보다 괴로운데 외로운데 주변에선 하나 같이 정신차려 란 말뿐이네 화풀이해 상대는 뭐 나뿐인데 뭘 화풀이해 매일 아침에 눈 뜨는 게 숨 쉬는 게 무섭네 5 친구와 가족 조차 멀어져만 가네 시간이 흐르면 흐를수록 더 조급하네 나 혼자인 기분 나 혼자인 지금 모든 게 사라졌음 해 신기루 처럼 사라졌음 해 사라졌음 해 이젠 빌어 먹을 나조차도 사라 졌음 해 이렇게 세상에 나 버려지네 그 순간 하늘과 멀어지네 떨어지네 so far away 나에게도 꿈이 있다면 날아가는 꿈이 있다면 don’t fall away 나에게도 꿈이 있다면 날아가는 꿈이 있다면 dream 그대의 창조와 삶의 끝에 함께하리 dream 그대의 자리가 어딜지라도 관대하리 dream 결국 시련의 끝에 만개하리 dream 시작은 미약할지언정 끝은 창대하리 (x2) 그대의 창조와 삶의 끝에 함께하리 (don’t fall away) 그대의 자리가 어딜지라도 관대하리 결국 시련의 끝에 만개하리 시작은 미약할지언정 끝은 창대하리 so far away (x4) so far away 나에게도 꿈이 있다면 날아가는 꿈이 있다면 don’t far away 나에게도 꿈이 있다면 날아가는 꿈이 있다면 so far away don’t fall away (x2) dream 그대의 창조와 삶의 끝에 함께하리 dream 그대의 자리가 어딜지라도 관대하리 dream 결국 시련의 끝에 만개하리 dream 시작은 미약할지언정 끝은 창대하리 – 1 ‘It will all be ok when you go to college’: A common way to pacify students (esp. middle/high school) into agreeing to go on a more commonly trodden path (i.e. not music) so that they will at least go to college and not fail at life/embarrass their parents by not going to college 2 In South Korea - an extremely capitalist country - it is embarrassing to be unemployed as it means you have almost no status in society at all. Hence, Agust D is saying it is a luxury for an unemployed person (unemployed fucker/백수새끼) to be wasting money on alcohol 3 The language used in this verse is pretty archiac. Most commonly used (at least in modern times) in history dramas to emphasize that someone is being really serious with their words. (reword this later) 4 The last line of this verse is a direct reference to a bible verse - Job 8:7: ‘And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great.’ (ESV) It’s been changed only a little from the Korean: ‘네 시작은 미약하였으나 네 나 중은 심히 창대하리라’ (욥 8:7) 5 ‘무섭네’ (it’s scary/is frightening) is pretty much whispered - you can’t hear it that well Literal translation it’s really shit not to have anything to want to do (with your life) 1 I know that not to even have such a common thing as a dream is pathetic I know all that you said it would be ok as long as I just did what you told me to do it will all be ok when you go to college I who believed those words am a stupid fucker I live because I can’t die just give me some alcohol today I want to be drunk so please don’t try to stop me anything is good although for an unemployed SOB to be drinking alcohol is a uselsess luxury if I can’t even be drunk I can’t stand it everyone is running but why am only I here (x2) everyone is running but why am only I standing here so far away / if I had a dream too 2 had a dream of flying (away) don’t fall away / if I had a dream too had a dream of flying (away) 3 dream / I will be with thee in thy birth and the end of thy life dream / mayest thou be treated generously wherever thy seat may be dream / mayest thou be finally after the end of tribulations be in full bloom dream / even though the beginning may be weak, mayest the end be grand yeah fuck I live because I can’t die you know, to not have anything I want to do is more painful than anything, lonely but around me as one they only tell me to wake up to take it out on somebody, well the other person (in this) is only me so what do you mean, take it out on somebody 4 every morning opening my eyes, breathing is scary even from friends and family I’m becoming farther apart the more time flows the more urgent it gets the feeling that I am alone, now, where I am alone I wish everything would disappear like a mirage wish it would disappear wish it would disappear now I wish even fucking myself would disappear like this I’m thrown away to the world in that moment I become farther from the sky I’m falling so far away / if I had a dream too had a dream of flying (away) don’t fall away / if I had a dream too had a dream of flying (away) dream / I will be with thee in thy birth and the end of thy life (don’t fall away) dream / mayest thou be treated generously wherever thy seat may be dream / mayest thou be finally after the end of tribulations be in full bloom dream / even though the beginning may be weak, mayest the end be grand (x2) I will be with thee in thy birth and the end of thy life mayest thou be treated generously wherever thy seat may be mayest thou be finally after the end of tribulations be in full bloom even though the beginning may be weak, mayest the end be grand so far away (x4) so far away / if I had a dream too had a dream of flying (away) don’t fall away / if I had a dream too had a dream of flying (away) so far away / don’t fall away / so far away / don’t fall away dream / I will be with there for thee in thy birth and the end of thy life dream / mayest thou be treated generously wherever thy seat may be dream / mayest thou be finally after the end of tribulations be in full bloom dream / even though the beginning may be weak, mayest the end be grand – 1 ‘하고 싶은 게’ in Korean here implies something be- yond wanting something to do - it implies ‘what you want to do in the future,’ a career path 2 I wish I could translate the ‘나에게’ better, but it’s hard to find an English equivalent. This roughly means ‘to me,’ and it should roughly translate to ‘if I had a dream to me too,’ This doesn’t fully capture the beauty of the Korean word though, which is almost a possessive thing, like you have it for yourself, but it comes to you. I tried to capture that in the interpretive translation. 3 ‘날아가다’ in ‘날아가는 꿈’ doesn’t really mean ‘flying’ straight out - it means more like ‘taking wing’ or ‘flying away to there.’ Envision a bird flying across the sky (‘flying away to there’) rather than the strict motion of a bird flying (‘flying’). However, in English ‘flying away’ means something more like ‘escaping something,’ which is not the meaning of ‘날아 가다. So the translation of this phrase I compromised and put ‘away’ in parenthesis next to ‘flying’ so that both meanings of the English phrase could be implied. 4 Basically he is asking a rhetorical question of how is he supposed to follow their advice at all when the other person in this is only him Interpretive translation to not have anything to want to do is really shit to not even have such a common thing as a dream is pathetic I know I know all of it “it will be ok as long as you just do as you’re told,” you said, “if you go to college it will all be alright” to have believed those words, I’m a stupid fuck I live because I can’t die just give me some alcohol today I want to get drunk so don’t try to stop me anything’s good though for an unemployed fucker to be drinking is a useless luxury if I can’t even get drunk I can’t stand it everyone’s running but why am only I here everyone’s running but why am only I here everyone’s running but why am only I standing here so far away / if I had a dream for me also had a dream of flying don’t fall away / if I had a dream for me also had a dream of flying dream / I will be with thee in thy birth and the end of thy life dream / mayest thou be treated generously wherever thy seat may be dream / mayest thou after the end of tribulations finally be in full bloom dream / mayest the end be grand, even though the beginning may be weak yes, fuck, I live because I can’t die to not have anything you want to try is more than anything, painful, lonely but around me like one person, “wake up” they just say, “take it out on someone” the other person’s just me so, what’d you mean, “take it out on someone” at every morning, to open my eyes, to breathe, is frightening even from friends and family I’m drifting away the more time flies and flies it’s more urgent the feeling I’m alone, now where I am alone wish everything disappeared wish like a mirage it disappeared wish it disappeared now wish even fucking myself disappeared like this I’m abandoned to the earth in that moment I fall apart from the sky I’m falling so far away / if I had a dream for me also had a dream of flying don’t fall away / if I had a dream for me also had a dream of flying dream / I will be with thee in thy birth and the end of thy life dream / mayest thou be treated generously wherever thy seat may be dream / mayest thou after the end of tribulations finally be in full bloom dream / mayest the end be grand, even though the beginning may be weak (x2) I will be with thee in thy birth and the end of thy life (don’t fall away) mayest thou be treated generously wherever thy seat may be mayest thou after the end of tribulations finally be in full bloom mayest the end be grand, even though the beginning may be weak so far away (x4) so far away / if I had a dream for me also / had a dream of flying don’t fall away / if I had a dream for me also / had a dream of flying so far away / don’t fall away / so far away / don’t fall away dream / I will be with thee in thy birth and the end of thy life dream / mayest thou be treated generously wherever thy seat may be dream / mayest thou after the end of tribulations finally be in full bloom dream / mayest the end be grand, even though the beginning may be weak Please do not repost. Annotation and translation by dansmesyeux (dansmes-yeux @tumblr). Feel free to ask any questions in the ask box :)
"Three years ago, we commissioned a track-by-track Purple Rain tribute album to accompany our oral history marking the movie and soundtrack's 25th anniversary — it was a lot of fun seeing what people came up with, and it was a chance to mix newer artists we loved with people who were directly connected to the movie like Apollonia, who sang on Greg Dulli's cover of "When Doves Cry." So when it came time to start planning for our Nevermind 20th-anniversary issue, that was something we wanted to try again. We cast a pretty wide net that included staff favorites like Titus Andronicus and JEFF the Brotherhood and EMA, with an eye towards mixing styles — Charles Bradley's soul reinterpretation of "Stay Away" is probably the best example of that. But the most intriguing angle was getting bands like the Meat Puppets and the Vaselines, who were famously covered by Nirvana, to finally repay the favor, and with "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Lithium," respectively, Nevermind's two best-known songs, at that. This band, and of course this record in particular, is something that Spin has covered a lot over the past 20 years, so doing this in a way that felt exciting and different was imperative. But of course, with a project like this, where we're asking busy artists to contribute on their own time, and on their own dime, it's pretty understandable that someone might not come through in time. When "On a Plain" was still missing past our deadline, we asked Michael Benjamin Lerner, who records as Telekinesis and who we're big fans of, to step in as a favor. He recorded the song at his home studio by himself in one day over the Fourth of July weekend — he played all the instruments — and got it right to us, not only saving our hides, but giving us what might be one of the best songs on the album. It's actually my favorite song on Nevermind, so I was particularly excited about this one — it's not a radical reinvention or anything, but it's that perfect blend of heavy and light. And so, yeah, we owe Michael a nice bottle of something or other."

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