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Legal Reasoning (JUSTICE GINSBURG for the Court) Background Claim at Issue Claim 1 of the ’753 patent, which contains the limitations critical to this dispute, refers to a “heart rate monitor for use by a user in association with exercise apparatus and/or exercise procedures.” [...] The claim “com prise[s],” among other elements, an “elongate member” (cylindrical bar) with a display device; “electronic circuitry including a difference amplifier”; and, on each half of the cylindrical bar, a live electrode and a common electrode “mounted ... in spaced relationship with each other.” [...] The claim sets forth additional elements, including that the cylindrical bar is to be held in such a way that each of the user’s hands “contact[s]” both electrodes on each side of the bar. [...] Further, the EMG signals detected by the two electrode pairs are to be “of substantially equal magnitude and phase” so that the difference amplifier will “produce a substantially zero [EMG] signal” upon subtracting the signals from one another. Nautilus, Inc. at 4-5 (internal citations omitted). Markman Hearing In 2011, the District Court conducted a hearing to determine the proper construction of the patent’s claims, see Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc., 517 U. S. 370 (1996) (claim construction is a matter of law reserved for court decision), including the claim term “in spaced relationship with each other.” According to Biosig, that “spaced relationship” referred to the distance between the live electrode and the common electrode in each electrode pair. Nautilus, seizing on Biosig’s submissions to the PTO during the reexamination, maintained that the “spaced relationship” must be a distance “greater than the width of each electrode.” […] The District Court ultimately construed the term to mean “there is a defined relationship between the live electrode and the common electrode on one side of the cylindrical bar and the same or a different defined relationship between the live electrode and the common electrode on the other side of the cylindrical bar,” without any reference to the electrodes’ width. […] Id. at 6. Analysis Points of Agreement Although the parties here disagree on the dispositive question—does the ’753 patent withstand definiteness scrutiny—they are in accord on several aspects of the §112, ¶2 inquiry. First, definiteness is to be evaluated from the perspective of someone skilled in the relevant art. […] Second, in assessing definiteness, claims are to be read in light of the patent’s specification and prosecution history. […] Third, “[d]efiniteness is measured from the viewpoint of a person skilled in [the] art at the time the patent was filed.” […] Nautilus, Inc. at 8-9 (internal citations omitted). Point of Disagreement: How Much Imprecision Does §112, ¶2 Tolerate The parties differ, however, in their articulations of just how much imprecision §112, ¶2 tolerates. In Nautilus’ view, a patent is invalid when a claim is “ambiguous, such that readers could reasonably interpret the claim’s scope differently.” […] Biosig and the Solicitor General would require only that the patent provide reasonable notice of the scope of the claimed invention. Id. at 9 (internal citations omitted). SCOTUS Standard To determine the proper office of the definiteness command, therefore, we must reconcile concerns that tug in opposite directions. Cognizant of the competing concerns, we read §112, ¶2 to require that a patent’s claims, viewed in light of the specification and prosecution history, inform those skilled in the art about the scope of the invention with reasonable certainty. The definiteness requirement, so understood, mandates clarity, while recognizing that absolute precision is unattainable. The standard we adopt accords with opinions of this Court stating that “the certainty which the law requires in patents is not greater than is reasonable, having regard to their subject-matter.” […] Id. at 11 (internal citations omitted). “Insolubly Ambiguous” May Breed Confusion In resolving Nautilus’ definiteness challenge, the Federal Circuit asked whether the ’753 patent’s claims were “amenable to construction” or “insolubly ambiguous.” Those formulations can breed lower court confusion, […] for they lack the precision §112, ¶2 demands. It cannot be sufficient that a court can ascribe some meaning to a patent’s claims; the definiteness inquiry trains on the understanding of a skilled artisan at the time of the pa tent application, not that of a court viewing matters post hoc. To tolerate imprecision just short of that render ing a claim “insolubly ambiguous” would diminish the definiteness requirement’s public-notice function and foster the innovation-discouraging “zone of uncertainty,” United Carbon, 317 U. S., at 236, against which this Court has warned. Id. at 11-12. SCOTUS Refrains from Applying its standard “[M]indful that we are a court of review, not of first view,” Cutter v. Wilkinson, 544 U. S. 709, 718, n. 7 (2005), we decline to apply the standard we have announced to the controversy between Nautilus and Biosig. As we have explained, the Federal Circuit invoked a standard more amorphous than the statutory definiteness requirement allows. We therefore follow our ordinary practice of remanding so that the Court of Appeals can reconsider, under the proper standard, whether the relevant claims in the ’753 patent are sufficiently definite. [...]. Id. at *14 (some internal citations omitted). Conclusion
Robert Murray allegedly gamed the SEC's EDGAR system to submit a tender offer for the company, enabling him to manipulate Fitbit's stock price. A Virginia-based mechanical engineer has been charged with manipulating Fitbit’s share price by filing a phony tender offer for the company on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s EDGAR system. The SEC said Robert W. Murray, 24, purchased Fitbit call options on Nov. 10, 2016 minutes before filing the offer in which a sham company named ABM Capital sought to acquire Fitbit’s outstanding shares at a substantial premium. When the false filing became publicly available on EDGAR, the SEC said in a civil complaint, the share price spiked by more than 10%, enabling Murray to make a profit of $3,118, a gain of more than 350%. Murray has also been arrested on parallel criminal charges. He could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of securities fraud and wire fraud. “Murray created a fake tender offer for Fitbit to drive up its share price and then illegally profit from his manipulation of the market,” Joon H. Kim, the acting U.S. Attorney in New York, said in a news release. According to the SEC, Murray perpetrated his scam after conducting “detailed online research” that included studying two prior commission cases involving individuals who made false EDGAR filings to manipulate securities prices. On Nov. 8, 2016, the SEC said, he submitted a Form ID in the name ABM Capital to obtain login credentials to make EDGAR filings. The form allegedly falsely listed an executive of a Pennsylvania company with an office in Shanghai as the CFO of ABM and used the Shanghai office as ABM’s address. The following day, Murray allegedly spent $887 to purchase call options for a total of 14,900 Fitbit shares with strike prices of $8.50 and $9.00 per share and — less than 30 minutes later — filed a form on EDGAR stating that ABM Capital had offered $12.50 a share to acquire Fitbit. After the phony filing became publicly available through the EDGAR website on Nov. 10, the share price rose from $8.41 to a high of $9.28 on heavy trading. According to prosecutors, the sham tender offer resulted in a manipulation of the market by more than $100 million.
Greek banks opened their doors on Monday for the first time in three weeks. The banks were shut late last month to stem a rush of money out of the country's cash-starved financial system. The government also set 60 euro limits on daily withdrawals, causing hardship for residents and often long lines at ATM machines. The daily limit on ATM and in-person withdrawals at branches will continue now the banks are open, the Greek Finance Ministry said. But if Greeks don't want to wait in line each day to get their 60 euros ($65), they also will be able to go, say, once a week and take out 420 euros ($455) -- the weekly maximum -- which is a fairly high cap since it's more than many earn in a week. The reopening of the banks comes as Europe's central bank promised 900 million euros in new emergency funding for Greece on Thursday. Trading in Greek stocks and bonds remains suspended, however, due to other restrictions on financial transactions, the Athens exchange said Monday. Photos: What average Greeks think about the crisis Formal negotiations on a new bailout -- worth as much as 86 billion euros ($96 billion) -- can now begin after several European parliaments, including Germany's, voted in favor. European leaders agreed last week to offer Greece a new rescue -- its third since 2010. While the details of the bailout are being hammered out, Greece urgently needs cash to make debt repayments and pay other bills. On Monday, Europe handed Greece an interim loan worth 7 billion euros ($7.8 billion) to tide it over. Most of that was spent immediately clearing overdue debt of about two billion euros with the International Monetary Fund, and repaying more than four billion euros to the European Central Bank. There's another big repayment due to the ECB on August 20, so the pressure is still on. Related: Greece's economy could shrink another 4% -- Mark Thompson in London contributed to this article.
A common issue I see is understanding the flow of commands, events and queries within a typical CQRS ES based system. The following post is designed to clear up what happens at each step. Hopefully this will help you to reason about your code and what each part does. CQRS flow 1. A Command is generated from the UI Typically the UI displays data to the user. The user generates a command by requesting some form of change. 2. The Message Router or Bus receives the command The message bus is responsible to routing the command to it’s handler. 3. The handler prepares the aggregate root The handler gets the aggregate root and applies all previous events to it. This brings the AR (aggregate root) up to it’s current state. This is typically very fast, even with thousands of events, however, if this becomes a performance bottleneck, a snapshotting process can be adopted to overcome this issue. 4. The command is issued Once the AR is up to date the command is issued. The AR then ensures ensures it can run the command and works out what would need to change but DOESN’T at this point change anything. Instead, it builds up the event or events that need to be applied to actually change it’s state. It then applies them to itself. This part is crucial and is what allows ‘events’ to be re-run in the future. The command phase can be thought of as the behaviour and the apply phase is the state transition. 5. The command handler requests the changes At this point, assuming no exceptions have been raised, the command handler requests the uncommitted changes. Note that no persistence has actually taken place yet. The domain classes have no dependencies on external services. This makes them much easier to write and ensures they are not polluted by persistence requirements (I’m look at you Entity Framework). 6. The command handler requests persistence of the uncommitted events Here is when an event storage service comes into play. It’s responsibility is to persist the events and also to ensure that no concurrency conflicts occurs. You can read up on how to do this on a previous post of mine: How to handle concurrency issues in a CQRS Event Sourced system. 7. The events are published onto the Bus or Message Router Unlike commands which only trigger 1 command handler, events can be routed to multiple de-normalisers. This enables you to build up very flexible optimised read models. 8. De-normalisers build up the Read Model The concept of a de-normaliser can at first be a little tricky. The problem is that we are all trained to think in ‘entities’, ‘models’ or ‘tables’. Generally these are derived from normalised data and glued together into the form required for the front end. This process often involves complex joins, views and other database query techniques. A de-normaliser on the hand translates certain events into the perfect form required for the various screens in your system. No joins required at all, ever! This is makes reads, very fast and is the basis behind the claim that this style architecture is, almost, linearly scalable. Most people begin to get twitchy at this point when they realise that duplicate data may exist in the read model. The important thing to remember is that the ‘event stream’ is the only source of truth and there is no (or should be no) accidental duplication within it. This allows you to re-create the entire read model or just parts of it, at will. 9. Data Transfer Objects are persisted to the Read Model The final phase of the de-normaliser is to persist the simple DTO’s (data transfer objects) to the database. These objects and essentially property buckets and usually contain the ID of the aggregate they are associated with and a version number to aid in concurrency checking. These DTO’s provide the information the user requires, in order to form new commands and start the cycle over again. All this results in a Highly Optimised Read Side Model The read/query side is entirely independent of the commands and events, hence CQRS (Command Query Responsibility Segregation). The query side of the application is designed to issue queries against the read model for DTO’s. This process is made entirely trivial due to the de-normalisation of the read data. A. User requests data All the data is optimised for reading. This makes querying very simple. If you require values for a ‘type ahead drop down list’, just get the items from an optimised list designed especially for the task. No extra data need be supplied apart from that required to drive the drop down. The helps keeps the weight of the data payload light which in turn helps the appication remain responsive to the user. B. Simple Data Transfer Objects The read model just returns simple and slim DTO’s that are, as I said before easy to work with on the front end. In Conclusion CQRS’s biggest hurdle is it’s perceived complexity. Don’t be fooled by all the steps above. Unlike a ‘simple CRUD’ approach which starts off simple but quickly gains in complexity over time. This approach remains relatively resistant to increased complexity in the scope of the application.
11 September 2014 The proposed US-EU trade agreement, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) will include the NHS, trade minister Lord Livingston confirmed earlier this month, despite having promised the contrary. The deal will make the reversal of privatisation practically impossible by granting corporations the power to sue any government attempting to bring the NHS, as well as other public services, back into state ownership. “The Tories’ Health & Social Care Act of 2012 opened our NHS up to profit-making US private firms and a new trade deal threatens to make the sell-off permanent”, said Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite. This would be done through a paralegal structure, the Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanism (ISDS); cases would go through secret kangaroo courts rather than the domestic UK court system. The threat of ISDS could be used to prevent the UK government from passing publicly supported laws. An exemplary case is that of Phillip Morris International, the US tobacco giant. Phillip Morris has threatened to sue the UK for £11bn over potential loss of earnings from the proposed plain cigarette packaging laws. When Australia was sued by Phillip Morris on the same grounds, it won after a long and expensive legal battle, but crucially one which took place in the Australian domestic courts. We can look to NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, to see ISDS in practice. Mexico has lost at least five disputes due to the ISDS clause, the most of any country covered by NAFTA, totalling more than $200 million of penalty fees. A significant amount of these damages were awarded in cases brought against Mexico placing taxes on soft drinks containing high-fructose corn syrup. The US has not yet lost a single NAFTA arbitration. Should TTIP go through, it will further increase the powers of big business over public services, diminish regulation for environmental protection and food standards, and undermine workers’ rights. According to some estimates, more than a million jobs will be lost in the EU. All trade unions are vehemently opposed to the agreement, with delegates at TUC Congress unanimously backing a motion opposing it and calling for negotiations to be halted. Speaking at congress, assistant general secretary of Unite Gail Cartmail said, “Shame on this government because they have privatised our healthcare with no mandate…If health is protected, why is it in there? Take it out”. A poll commissioned by Unite revealed that 68% of voters in marginal Conservative seats were against the inclusion of the NHS in TTIP. As public awareness of this secret deal grows, so does public opposition, with a poll by 38 Degrees finding that 3 times as many people thought TTIP would be bad for Britain, as thought it would be beneficial.
The No. 10 seed Oregon women's basketball team meets No. 2 seed Duke on Monday with a spot in the Sweet 16 on the line. The Ducks and Blue Devils tip at 3:30 PM PT on ESPN2.PPG: 71.1 \| FG%: 45.0 \| 3FG%: 39.2 \| FT%: 72.3Notable: Oregon is playing in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2005. After a thrilling win over No. 7 seed Temple on Saturday, the Ducks are looking to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history. Oregon's three freshmen starters scored 52 of the Ducks' 71 points against Temple. The Ducks rank fourth in the NCAA in three-point percentage (39.2%) and 21st in the nation in field goal percentage (45.0%). Junior guardleads the nation, shooting 48.9% from deep.PPG: 74.0 \| FG%: 47.7 \| 3FG%: 39.0 \| FT%: 75.0Series Record: UO and Duke have never metNotable: Duke owns one of the best defenses in the NCAA this season, ranking third in opponent field goal percentage (33.4%), second in opponent three-point percentage (25.9%), 10th in points allowed (54.9 ppg) and 11th in block shots (182). Duke defeated Hampton, 94-31, in the first round on Saturday. The Blue Devils outscored the Pirates 31-2 in the second quarter. Rebecca Greenwell had 26 points and 10 rebounds while Leaonna Odom had 23 points.Oregon's game on Monday vs. No. 9 ranked Duke in the NCAA Tournament will be aired on ESPN2 at 3:30 PM PT. The game will also be broadcasted live on the radio in Eugene (KUGN 590 AM) and Portland (KBNP 1410 AM) with Terry Jonz on the call, Oregon women's basketball's longtime play-by-play man. Fans can find a free radio stream online via TuneIn.com/Ducks and the TuneIn app.The Ducks opened the 2017 NCAA Tournament on Saturday with a thrilling 71-70 win against No. 7 seed Temple. Down by six early in the fourth quarter, the Ducks rallied back to tie it, 62-62, with 4:56 remaining. Temple pushed its lead up to three on a pair of Feyonda Fitzgerald free throws with 1:17 left but the Ducks took the lead, 69-68, on ajumper with 25 seconds left. Fitzgerald scored again to give Temple a 70-69 lead with 16 seconds remaining. Buthit a game-winner for the Ducks with seven seconds left and block a Fitzgerald layup with one second left to give the Ducks a 71-70 win. Hebard finished with 23 points, one shy of the program's NCAA Tournament single-game scoring record of 24 points.had her third double-double of the season with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Ionescu had 16 points plus seven rebounds and seven assists.- The Ducks are 6-12 all-time in the NCAA Tournament.- This is Oregon's 13th trip to the NCAA Tournament.- Oregon's last appearance was in 2005.- The Ducks have never advanced beyond the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Oregon won first round games in 2005, 1999, 1997, 1994 and 1987 but lost in the second round each time.- The most points scored by the Ducks in an NCAA Tournament game was 80 in a win over San Diego State in 1997.- Alison Lang had the most points by UO player in the NCAA Tournament with 24 against Missouri in 1982. - Lang also owns the rebounds record with 20 in that same game against Missouri.- Missy Croshaw own's UO's NCAA Tournament record for three-pointers with five against Colorado in 1994.The last time the Ducks made the NCAA Tournament was in the 2004-05 season. No. 10 seed Oregon defeated No. 7 seed TCU, 58-55, in Seattle in the first round behind Catherine Kraayeveld's 23 points. The Ducks lost, 69-46, to No. 2 seed Baylor in the second round.In his third season at UO, this is' first trip to the NCAA Tournament with the Ducks. However, he is hardly a stranger to the tournament.- This is Graves' ninth trip in the NCAA Tournament.- He first went to the NCAA Tournament as the head coach of Saint Mary's in 1998-99. Graves then went dancing seven more times at Gonzaga.- Graves took Gonzaga to the Sweet 16 in three straight seasons - 2010, 2011 and 2012.- In 2011, Graves and 'Zags advanced to the Elite 8. The No. 11 seed 'Zags were the lowest seed ever to reach the Elite 8. They defeated No. 10 seed Vanderbilt, No. 2 seed Xavier and No. 7 seed Louisville before falling to No. 1 seed Stanford in the regional finals.After posting more triple-doubles than any freshman in NCAA history, guardhas been named the ESPNW national freshman of the year, the outlet announced on March 9. Ionescu tallied four triple-double this year, tied for the third-most in NCAA single-season history and the most of any freshman. Only Stanford's(5, 2020) and Youngstown State's Danielle Carson (6, 1986) have had more. Ionescu hit game-winning shots for the Ducks against both No. 20 California and No. 11 Washington this season as she averaged 14.4 points, 6.6 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game. Ionescu ranks 11th in the Pac-12 in scoring, 11th in rebounding and fourth in assists. She's also sixth in free throw percentage (81.9%), seventh in three-point percentage (41.3%), sixth in three-pointers made (2.2 per game), fourth in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.98), sixth in defensive rebounds (5.2 per game) and 10th in minutes played (32.4). In addition to her four triple-doubles, Ionescu posted seven double-doubles and was national player of the week after helping the Ducks defeat No. 15 UCLA and USC at home in the same weekend.With six players standing 6-foot-3 or taller, the Ducks are tied with Kansas State and Texas for the tallest roster in Div. I women's basketball this season. Oregon's tallest player is 6-foot-6 freshman forwardfrom West Seattle. She is the tallest player on the Oregon roster in 10 years (Jessie Shetters, 6-foot-6, 2003-07).Oregon starts three freshmen - G, Fand F- more than any other team in the NCAA tournament this year. Only Maryland, which starts both Destiny Slocum and Kaila Charles, has more than one freshman in the lineup. (Starter defined as having 20-or-more starts this season.)In Oregon's Pac-12 Tournament opening win over Arizona, freshmen scored 61 of Oregon's 70 points. Iin Saturday's win over Temple to open the NCAA Tournament, Oregon's three freshmen starters -and- combined to score 52 of the Ducks' 71 points. This season the Ducks are averaging 71.1 points per game overall and freshmen are scoring 45.7 points, 64.3% of the team's total.Oregon is one of the best shooting teams in the nation.- The Ducks rank 21st in the NCAA and third in the Pac-12 in field goal percentage at 45.0 percent.- Oregon is better from three, shooting 39.2 percent which is fourth in the NCAA and first in the Pac-12.- With all those made shots come assists. The Ducks rank 14th in the NCAA and first in the Pac-12 with 565 assists this season. Oregon is averaging 16.6 assists per game as a team, first in the Pac-12 and 18th in the NCAA.Oregon has played a whopping 13 games against top-25 teams this season. The Ducks are 4-9 in those contests with wins against then-No. 24 Michigan State, then-No. 20 California, then-No. 15 UCLA and then-No. 11 Washington.With a jumper as part of a big 13-point fourth quarter in Oregon's Pac-12 Tournament quarterfinal win over No. 11 Washington, juniorbecame the 28th player in Oregon women's basketball history to reach 1,000 career points. She now has 1,017 career points.- Freshman guardwas named Pac-12 freshman of the year by both the league's coaches and the league's media. She was also selected to the all-Pac-12 and Pac-12 all-freshman teams.- Freshman forwardwas selected to both the all-Pac-12 and Pac-12 all-freshman teams.- Junior guardwas named all-Pac-12 honorable mention. This is the first postseason honor in Bando's collegiate career.Oregon'sandbecame just the 17th and 18th freshmen in Pac-12 history to be named to the all-Pac-12 team. When looking around the nation, just two other freshmen were named to all-conference teams. In the Big Ten, Maryland's Destiny Slocum and Michigan's Kysre Gondrezick were both named all-freshman and second team all-conference. However, in the other power 5 conference - the SEC, ACC and Big 12 - no freshmen were selected to the all-league team.
Get the biggest daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email Everyone was talking about Back to the Future day yesterday - but Huddersfield went one better! October 21, 2015, is the date Marty and Doc travel to in the film Back to the Future Part II and all over the world, people were talking about it. The films feature a courthouse which bears a striking resemblance to Huddersfield train station - and last night, people were delighted when a DeLorean car like the one in the film appeared in St George's Square! The car is owned by Daniel Knight, 34, of Honley, who said: "Every kid from the 1980s loves the film and I always wanted to own a DeLorean. "All my life I've thought the train station looks like the courthouse from the film. We'd always talked about doing a remake in a Yorkshire comedy style but we didn't plan it - so yesterday just seemed like a good time to do it! "I already had all the props so we just said, 'let's go down and do it - we can't miss out on this!' "We met a the train station and took some pictures, then went to B&Q. The alternator packed in just before so we took it out and ran it on a battery - which died on the way past Dominoes!" Graphic designer Daniel said he found the car on eBay four years ago and had it shipped to Portsmouth, picking it up with his friend Tom Ingrey, who dressed up as Doc in the video. He said: "It was mess - it had no engine and had bits missing. "I've had it for four years now but it still needs work - I only got it running properly two months ago. The longest journey I've done in it was to the train station last night and other than that I've only been to Lidl in it! "We had a great time doing the race, and when someone put it on Facebook people just started turning up - everyone wanted pictures with the car. The buzz in town was amazing - there was a really good vibe and lots of happy people. "This morning Tom said he was still buzzing - and we have the memories forever."
Austin Dillon spent two years in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series before graduating to the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Then, after two years in the Xfinity Series, Dillon made the jump to the Sprint Cup Series in 2014. Like his older brother, Ty Dillon raced two full seasons in a truck — the same black No. 3 Chevy Silverado that Austin drove, no less — before moving up to the Xfinity Series last year. Article continues below ... While such a move appears likely, the youngest grandson of legendary team owner Richard Childress isn’t ready to punch his ticket to the sport’s premier level just yet. "I think that’s the furthest thing in the back of my mind right now," Ty told FOXSports.com on the recent Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour. "My main focus is winning races and championships in Xfinity. So many things are going to happen this year that is so unpredictable in my career and in my life, so I’m not worried about 2016 at all. … At this time next year, I’ll be thinking about 2016." Before a potential move up, Ty has some unfinished business: Namely, trying to follow in his older sibling’s footsteps in another way — by winning the Xfinity Series title in his second year on the tour. If Dillon can do that, joining the Sprint Cup Series in a fourth Richard Childress Racing car in 2016 seems almost inevitable. "It’s really, really big," said Mike Dillon, who is Ty’s father and the vice president of competition at RCR. "He’s got to obviously perform. We need to compete for that championship. There’s a lot of things that follow that, but he’s got to compete for that. And it helps trying to sell yourself to sponsors. We can’t do it without a sponsorship. So it’s a very important year for him, but every year is, you know?" To win the title, Dillon will have to beat reigning Xfinity Series champion and future Jeff Gordon successor Chase Elliott, who returns behind the wheel of the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet but has a different crew chief. "We plan on them having a letdown," Dillon said with a laugh. "They ran really well last year, but we worked hard and our team’s really taken the next step and we’re going to be great. Our whole program is looking forward to this year with a different attitude and a different confidence in our whole Xfinity Series program, especially our team. We know our potential has grown to twice as much as it was last year when we were winning races." "I think the second half of the year, we had an opportunity to win (the championship) last year, and I think we proved to ourselves we could beat every single one of those guys," Dillon said. "I think this year our main focus is to make sure we do it every single weekend, and we will win the championship." Among those who Dillon impressed in 2014 was his grandfather, a six-time Sprint Cup champion team owner. "He’s a hard racer, I’m telling you," Childress said. "I’m not taking anything away from Austin, but he’s a hard racer. Both of them are. But Ty will do well. I think he’ll make it to the Cup." "To finally be in a situation where I get to make my first start in the 500, it’s incredible, and I can’t wait for the opportunity," he said. "I’m not just going to sit back with starry eyes and try and take it all in; I’m going to go try and win the Daytona 500."
This maneuver is an oblique way for Texas Supreme Court to defy Obergefell without acknowledging what it’s doing. Texas Judicial Branch On Friday, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution does not clearly require states to extend spousal benefits to same-sex couples. The unanimous decision interprets the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges narrowly, questioning whether it compels states to treat same-sex couples equally to opposite-sex couples in any context outside of marriage licensing. Arkansas recently raised this argument at the United States Supreme Court and lost. The Texas Supreme Court’s decision may eventually meet the same fate. Friday’s decision in Pidgeon v. Turner revolves around spousal benefits for government workers. Texas law prohibits same-sex couples from receiving such benefits. After the Supreme Court struck down the federal same-sex marriage ban in 2013, the Houston city attorney advised then-Mayor Annise Parker that this prohibition ran afoul of the Constitution. While the Texas law remains on the books, Parker mandated that it no longer be enforced in Houston, ordering the city to “extend benefits” to government employees’ same-sex spouses who’d been legally married elsewhere. (At this point, Texas’ same-sex marriage ban had not yet been struck down.) Two taxpayers, Jack Pidgeon and Larry Hicks, challenged Parker’s directive shortly thereafter, arguing that by granting benefits to same-sex couples, Houston was “expending significant public funds on an illegal activity.” (When Parker left office, current Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner stepped in as the defendant.) A state trial court agreed and blocked the new policy. While the city appealed that decision, the Supreme Court issued Obergefell in June 2015, invalidating state-level same-sex marriage bans. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals applied Obergefell to Texas several days later in a case called De Leon v. Abbott, striking down the state’s bar on same-sex marriage. In light of these decisions, a state appeals court reversed the block on same-sex benefits in Houston and sent the case back down to the trial court “for proceedings consistent with Obergefell and De Leon.” Pidgeon and Hicks appealed the ruling to the state Supreme Court, which initially refused to take the case. After a group of high-profile Republicans urged the justices to reconsider, however, the court reversed course and heard arguments in March. (The justices on the Texas Supreme Court are elected and occasionally face primary challenges from the right.) Now the justices have ruled, and their decision is a blow to the constitutional equality of same-sex couples. According to the court, Obergefell “did not address and resolve” the “specific issue” of state spousal benefits. Therefore, the state appeals court erred in ordering the trial court to resolve the case “consistent with Obergefell and De Leon.” Instead, the Texas Supreme Court insisted, the trial court must settle the issue itself—keeping in mind that Obergefell “did not hold that states must provide the same publicly funded benefits to all married persons.” This maneuver is an oblique way for Texas Supreme Court to defy Obergefell without acknowledging what it’s doing. Obergefell declared that the Constitution grants same-sex couples “the constellation” of “rights, benefits, and responsibilities” that “the states have linked to marriage.” Its holding was not limited to marriage licensing. The Arkansas Supreme Court learned this lesson when it attempted to keep same-sex parents off their children’s birth certificates. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed that ruling in Pavan v. Smith, affirming that the Constitution prevents such “disparate treatment.” The Texas Supreme Court acknowledged Pavan but noted that the justices also agreed to hear Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, a constitutional challenge to LGBTQ nondiscrimination laws. This decision “to hear and consider Masterpiece Cakeshop,” the Texas Supreme Court insisted, “illustrates that neither Obergefell nor Pavan provides the final word on the tangential questions Obergefell’s holdings raise but Obergefell itself did not address.” That argument is bizarre. Masterpiece Cakeshop asks whether businesses have a First Amendment right to turn away same-sex couples. Obergefell and Pavan hold that the government may not treat same-sex couples differently from opposite-sex couples. No matter how the court rules in Masterpiece Cakeshop, its decision cannot abridge the rights and benefits that a state must afford to same-sex couples. It’s somewhat surprising that the Texas Supreme Court acknowledged Pavan at all because any plausible reading of that decision clearly resolves Pidgeon. In Obergefell, the court held that every state must extend the “privileges and responsibilities” of marriage to same-sex couples “on the same terms and conditions as opposite-sex couples.” In Pavan, the court clarified that all rights associated with marriage—not just marriage licensing itself—must be afforded to same-sex couples. The Texas Supreme Court essentially ignores this command in an insidious effort to preserve vestiges of the pre-Obergefell regime. Its gambit will almost certainly fail in light of Pavan. But it’s alarming to see the justices roll the dice anyway—possibly out of fear that a pro-gay decision could spur voters to kick them off the bench. (The court noted that it considered “emails, letters, and postcards” from individual citizens in deciding Pidgeon; judges do not normally take public opinion into account so directly when ruling on civil rights.) Neil Gorsuch, Donald Trump’s Supreme Court justice, is already encouraging lower courts to buck Obergefell and preserve anti-gay laws. State supreme courts are paying attention. And so, two years after Obergefell, the equal dignity of same-sex couples is once again in jeopardy.
Residents of 32,000 households in Augsburg allowed to return after 1.8-tonne second world war bomb is successfully defused Explosives experts have defused a large second world war bomb in the German city of Augsburg, clearing the way for thousands of evacuated residents to return and hold their Christmas celebrations at home. City police tweeted that they had “good news at Christmas” just before 7pm local time (18.00 GMT). Before that, they had been unable to say how long residents would have to stay away due to the sensitive explosives work being done. About 32,000 households with 54,000 residents in the city’s historic central district were forced to leave by 10am on Christmas morning so experts could handle the RAF bomb. The evacuation was the single largest evacuation operation in Germany since the end of the war. The bomb was uncovered last week during construction work in the city’s historic central district. Police said Christmas Day was the best time to defuse it because there was less traffic and it was more likely people could stay with relatives. The evacuation began at about 8am on Christmas Day. The process involved up to 900 police officers and involved police vans with loudspeakers urging those affected to leave before the 10am deadline. The evacuation area included the city’s Vincentinum hospital, where patients were transferred to other hospitals. Christmas morning services at the city’s medieval cathedral, famed for its boys’ choir, were also moved to another church. Schools and sports facilities were opened as shelters. The bomb, known as a blockbuster, was the largest of its kind dropped by the RAF during aerial attacks on Germany in the second world war. It weighs 1.8 tonnes and, if exploded, could damage all buildings within a one-mile radius. Augsburg was targeted in raids by the allied forces in February 1944. Large parts of the city were destroyed during attacks by hundreds of RAF and US fighters. Unexploded ordnance is still found across Europe, with communities in the UK, France, Germany and beyond occasionally facing evacuation when bombs are discovered. In 2011, 45,000 people were evacuated temporarily to remove a bomb in Koblenz, Germany. In February this year, the discovery of another unexploded second world war bomb in Victoria station, central London, forced the evacuation of the area. In May, a device was found under a school playground in in Bath, forcing hundreds of people to spend the night in a shelter set up at the city’s racecourse.
A toupée ( too-PAY) is a hairpiece or partial wig of natural or synthetic hair worn to cover partial baldness or for theatrical purposes. While toupées and hairpieces are typically associated with male wearers, some women also use hairpieces to lengthen existing hair, or cover a partially exposed scalp. The desire to wear hairpieces is caused in part by a long-standing bias against balding that crosses cultures, dating to at least 3100 BC. Toupée manufacturers' financial results indicate that toupée use is in overall decline, due in part to alternative methods for dealing with baldness, and to greater cultural acceptance of the condition. Toupées and wigs [ edit ] While most toupées are small and designed to cover bald spots at the top and back of the head, large toupées are not unknown. Toupées are often referred to as hairpieces, units, or hair systems. Many women now wear hairpieces rather than full wigs if their hair loss is confined to the top and crown of their heads. Etymology [ edit ] According to various sources referenced by Dictionary.com,[1] toupée is related to the French words "top," or "tuft;" tuft as the curl or lock of hair at the top of the head, not necessarily relating to covering baldness. Toupée is related to the diminutive toupe more recently (as of the 17th century).[2][3] History [ edit ] [4] An engraving of Julius Caesar showing both pattern baldness and signature wreath, which he used to cover his scalp. While wigs have a very long and somewhat traceable history, the origin of the "toupée" is more difficult to define, but one can reasonably infer that the first toupée was a piece of hair, worn on the head, with the intention of deceiving the viewer into believing the hair was natural, rather than a wig worn for decorative or ceremonial purposes. Use and attitudes in ancient history [ edit ] The desire for men to wear hairpieces is a response to a long-standing cultural bias against balding men that crosses cultures. Between 1 BC and AD 1, the Roman poet Ovid wrote Ars Amatoria ("The Art of Love") in which he expressed "Ugly are hornless bulls, a field without grass is an eyesore, So is a tree without leaves, so is a head without hair."[5] Another example of this bias, in a later and different culture, can be found in The Arabian Nights (c. AD 800-900), in which the female character Scheherazade asks "Is there anything more ugly in the world than a man beardless and bald as an artichoke?"[6] The earliest known example of a toupée was found in a tomb[7] near the ancient Predynastic capital of Egypt, Hierakonpolis. The tomb and its contents date to (ca. 3200 – 3100 BC.) At least two ancient Greek statues of men wearing toupées survive today, one identified as a Capitoline type, presently located in Thorvaldsens Museum in Copenhagen.[8] Julius Caesar is known to have worn a toupée. In dismay at his pattern baldness, he tried both wearing a toupée, and shaving his head.[9] Some state that he wore his trademark ceremonial wreath to disguise his shrinking hairline.[4] Roman men of the era were also known to paint their bald heads to appear to have locks of hair.[4] 19th century [ edit ] In the United States, toupée use (as opposed to wigs) grew in the 19th century. One researcher has noted that this is in part due to a shift in perceptions over the perceived value of aging that occurred at that time. Men chose to attempt to appear younger, and toupées were one method used. ...since 1800, the U.S. Census generally shows far more 39-year-olds than 40-year-olds. Furthermore, the costume of men switched from a design clearly intended to make the young look older to one that was clearly intended to make the old look younger. For example, this era saw the decline of the wig and the rise of the toupée.[10] 20th century [ edit ] By the 1950s, it was estimated that over 350,000 U.S. men wore hairpieces, out of a potential 15 million wearers. Toupée manufacturers helped to build credibility for their product starting in 1954, when several makers advertised hairpieces in major magazines and newspapers, with successful results. Key to the promotion and acceptance of Toupées was improved toupée craftsmanship, pioneered by Max Factor. Factor's toupées were carefully made and almost invisible, with each strand of hair sewed to a piece of fine flesh-colored lace, and in a variety of long and short hairstyles. Factor, also a Hollywood makeup innovator, was the supplier of choice for most Hollywood actors.[11] By 1959, total U.S. sales were estimated by Time magazine to be $15 million a year. Sears-Roebuck, which had sold Toupées as early as 1900 via its mail order catalog, tried to tap into the market by sending out 30,000 special catalogs by direct mail to a targeted list, advertising "career winning" hair products manufactured by Joseph Fleischer & Co., a respected wig manufacturer.[12] Toupées continued to be advertised in print, likely with heavier media buys (Advertising media selection) taking place in magazines with the appropriate male demographic. A typical "advertorial" can be found in Modern Mechanix. By 1970, Time magazine estimated that in the U.S., toupées were worn by more than 2.5 million men out of 17 - 20 million balding men. The increase was chalked up once again to further improvements in hairpiece technology, a desire to seem more youthful, and the long hairstyles that were increasingly in fashion.[13] 21st century [ edit ] Toupée and wig manufacture is no longer centered in the U.S., but in Asia.[14] Aderans, based in Japan, is one of the world’s largest wigmakers, with 35% share of the Japanese domestic market.[citation needed] From 2002 to 2004, new orders from Aderans's male customers (both domestic and international) slipped by 30%. Researchers at both the Daiwa Institute and Nomura Research – two key Japanese economic research institutes – conclude that there is "no sign of a recovery" for the toupée industry.[14] Sales for male wearers have continued to fall at Aderans in every year since, aside from 2016 where they increased slightly.[15] These numbers confirm the media consensus[14] that toupée use is in decline overall. No reliable sources have stated numbers for the estimated population of toupée users in the U.S. or internationally, so comparisons to past eras are difficult to make with any accuracy. Regardless, hairpiece manufacturers and retailers continue to market their goods in print, on television, and on the internet.[citation needed] Manufacture [ edit ] Toupées are often custom made to the needs of the wearer, and can be manufactured using either synthetic or human hair. Toupées are usually held to one's head using an adhesive, but the cheaper versions often merely use an elastic band. Toupée manufacture is often done at the local level by a craftsman, but large wig manufacturers also produce toupées. Both individuals and large firms have constantly innovated to produce better quality toupées and toupée material, with over 60 patents for toupées.[16] and over 260 for hairpieces [17] filed at the U.S. Patent Office since 1790. The first patent for a toupée was filed in 1921, and the first patent for a "hairpiece" was filed in 1956.[17] Hair weaves [ edit ] Hair weaves are a technique in which the toupée's base is then woven into whatever natural hair the wearer retains. While this may result in a less detectable toupée, the wearer can experience discomfort, and sometimes hair loss from frequently retightening of the weave as one's own hair grows. After about six months a person can begin to lose hair permanently along the weave area, resulting in traction alopecia. Hair weaves were very popular in the 1980s & 1990s, but are not usually recommended because of the potential for permanent hair damage and hair loss. Use and maintenance [ edit ] While toupée dealers attempt to match the toupée's color to the natural hair color of the wearer, sometimes the colors are not identical. This color mismatch is often exacerbated when a toupée is poorly cared for and fades, or the wearer's hair color turns gray while the toupée retains its original color. However a good salon will take this into account and will have the expertise to handle any problems. New technology has allowed hair manufacturers to mimic human hair, overcoming many of the weaknesses of human hair.[citation needed] While toupée dealers and manufacturers usually advertise their products showing men swimming, water-skiing and enjoying watersports, these activities can often cause irreversible wear to the toupée. Saltwater and chlorine can cause a toupée to "wear out" quickly. Many shampoos and soaps will damage toupée fibers, which unlike natural hair, cannot grow back or replace themselves. While dealers of toupées can in fact help many customers to care for their toupées and make their presence virtually undetectable, the hairpieces must be of very high quality to begin with, carefully fitted, and maintained regularly and carefully. Even the best-cared-for toupée will need to be replaced on a regular basis, due to wear and, over time, to the growing areas of baldness on the wearer's head and changes in the shade of remaining hair. Some recommend that if one chooses to use a toupée, three should be owned at any one time - one to wear while its counterpart is being cleaned, and a spare.[18] Alternatives [ edit ] Men typically wear toupées after resorting to less extreme methods of coverage. The first tactic is to make remaining hair appear thick and widespread through a combover. Other alternatives include non-surgical hair replacement, which consists of a very thin hairpiece which is put on with a medical adhesive and worn for weeks at a time.[19] Medications and medical procedures [ edit ] Propecia, Rogaine and other pharmaceutical remedies were approved for treatment of Alopecia by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the 1990s. These have proven capable of regrowing or sustaining existing hair at least part of the time. However, hair transplantation, which guarantees at least some immediate results, has often replaced the use of toupées among those who can afford them, particularly onscreen celebrities. Baldness as fashion, acceptance of hair loss [ edit ] Other trends leading to the decline in toupée use include a rise in acceptance of baldness by those men afflicted with it. Short haircuts, in fashion since the 1990s, have tended to minimize the appearance of baldness, and many balding men choose to shave their heads entirely. Chemotherapy and injury [ edit ] An important exception to the typical reasons for wearing a toupée is that recovering chemotherapy patients sometimes wear toupées. This type of hairpiece is technically referred to as a hair prosthesis. A positive self-image has often been said to assist in the recovery process, and doctors often help direct recovering patients to find hairpieces to help project their usual healthy appearance. This effort is particularly made when the recovering patient is a child, or a woman. Another exception is that if a person's head has been damaged by an accident, or through a surgical procedure, the victim or patient may wish to conceal scarring. Steven Van Zandt of the E Street Band wore a toupée in his role on The Sopranos to cover scarring he had received after a car accident several years prior. While performing onstage, and in his personal life, Van Zandt favors a bandanna. There are at least four charities that specialize in providing hairpieces for children who have lost hair due to Chemotherapy, medical treatment or head injury: Humor [ edit ] Toupées have a long and often humorous history in Western culture. The toupée is a regular butt of jokes in many media, with a typical toupée joke focusing on the wearer's inability to recognize how ineffective the toupée is in concealing his baldness. An early instance of "toupée humor" was an illustration by George Cruikshank in "The Comic Almanack" in 1837, in which he drew the effect of a strong wind, with a man's toupée whipped from his head.[20] In the 20th century, toupées were a source of humor in virtually all forms of media, including cartoons, films, radio and television. In the 21st century, toupées continue to be a source for humor, with a variety of internet sites devoted to toupées, with a special emphasis on suspected celebrity hairpiece wearers. Thaddeus Stevens, famed 19th century U.S. Congressman and abolitionist, was known for his humor and wit. On one occasion while in the Capitol, a woman requested a lock of his hair (collecting locks of hair was common at this time). Since he was bald and wearing a toupée, he ripped it off and gave it to her.[21] Known wearers [ edit ] Film and television stars of both past and present often wear toupées for professional reasons, particularly as they begin to age and need to maintain the image their fans have become accustomed to. However, many of these same celebrities go "uncovered" when not working or making public appearances.
Missing for several months in North Korea, detained Canadian pastor Hyeon Soo Lim appeared in Pyongyang on Thursday. Photo by Kyodo/Yonhap SEOUL, July 30 (UPI) -- A Korean-Canadian pastor who was detained in North Korea in March appeared at a Pyongyang press conference Thursday and said he committed subversive anti-state activities. Hyeon Soo Lim, founder of Light Presbyterian Church in Toronto, went missing at the end of January in North Korea and was later confirmed as detained by the Canadian government. Lim had traveled to North Korea more than 100 times to work on nursing homes and orphanages but went missing earlier this year. On Thursday, Lim appeared before Pyongyang-based correspondents and said he was guilty of anti-state crimes, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported. Lim said before the press gathering that he used his own photographs taken in North Korea for a film titled The Reality of North Korea. He said he showed the footage to his congregation in Canada and made it publicly available on the Internet. "I frankly acknowledge that these are criminal acts," Lim said, according to Japan's Kyodo news agency. Lim said he was detained Feb. 2 in Pyongyang, a few days after traveling in the Rason Special Economic Zone in North Korea's northeast. Around this time, his family and community assumed Lim was under North Korea's 21-day quarantine, part of the country's strict border measures against the Ebola epidemic. The quarantine was lifted in early March. South Korean outlet CBS No Cut News reported Lim began his North Korea trips in 1994 and continued to provide humanitarian aid during the country's period of famine in the mid to late-1990s. Lim was planning to retire from the church in 2016 and pursue humanitarian work in North Korea full time, according to sources.
In case you hadn’t noticed, there has been a little thing called the Toy Fair going on this week and the internet won’t shut up about it. How does it affect us Bubbler’s though? That is a great question, one that I had assumed I’d be able to answer quite easily. For you, my dear Bubble Blabber enthusiasts, I have waded through site after site and over 1000 terrible convention floor photos to bring you some news. At a glance, Toy Fair is a wonderful place to be if you are a fan of the Walking Dead, Batman, Game of Thrones and Gaurdians of The Galaxy. Whilst I’m sure most of us love those things, you can only collect so many Batman figures (and there were sooo, so many Batman figures, I’m wondering if Bruce Wayne realises just how high profile he is) , what would really impress us is some upcoming toys featuring say, The Simpsons or maybe Family Guy…. Thankfully, a few toy manufacturers, and a very few websites, acknowledged the desire for animation themed toys and I came up with some cool merch. Thank you Jebus, as otherwise I just wasted an hour and a half of my life. First to catch my eye was Series 1 of Neca’s 25th Anniversary Simpsons figures: The Greatest Guest Stars. These have been advertised as designs on Neca’s website for sometime now (first pic below) but the finished figures were debuted at the Toy Fair. Photos courtesy of Coming Soon As you can see, these come as poseable 5″ toys or blind boxed mini figures. You can also buy a box set featuring all six characters from this debut collection. Photo from Comic Vine The only other Simpsons merch I could find is the already available Lego House and a tantalising tease of some upcoming mini-figures. This bad boy weighs in at £179!! So double that for dollars! Photos from Toy Ark Somewhat of a damp squib was Factory Entertainment’s Archer Towel and plush. The plush is new but the towel is not. Boo, you can do better, cool but not essential buying by any means. Fans of the excellent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on Nickleodeon would not be disappointed ( we may not usually cover TMNT but just go with it, this stuff rocks) as there was a ton of new gear from Playmates, ranging from action figures and sets to plushies, all brilliant. For us here at Bubble Blabber however, by far and away the best manufacturer this year is purveyors of excellent custom vinyls, Kidrobot. The company had everything for adult animation fans in their booth, from Futurama to South Park and all of it was fresh and original. Great stuff. Buy Kidrobot X Family Guy now. Buy Robot Devil now. all Kidrobot booth photos from PlasticKitty
THE Sydney Sixers have gone down to a Bangladesh CB XI in a rain-affected trial match at North Sydney Oval. The Sixers started their innings with a new look opening pair made up of English international Jason Roy and re-joining star Daniel Hughes. The pair immediately impressed, combining their aggressive styles to move the Sixers to 0/64 after six overs. Hughes raced to 47 off 33 balls thanks to some exquisite stroke play, however he was eventually undone off the bowling of Bangladesh captain Masrafe when he was trapped LBW in the 8th over. The scorecard from the Sixers innings against BCB XI #smashemsixers pic.twitter.com/za86zfBZZX — Sydney Sixers (@SixersBBL) December 14, 2016 Masrafe was economical all night, finishing with figures of 1/29. With Hughes gone, Roy took on the role of the aggressor, dominating the Bangladesh attack, including one six over mid-wicket that ended up out of the ground. He was eventually caught off the bowling of Taskin for 42 in the 12th over. This wicket caused a halt in momentum for the Sixers, losing quick wickets including that of other new English signing Sam Billings for 5 and captain Johan Botha for 5. Familiar to seasons past, it was Jordan Silk who injected new life into the Sixers innings. Silk produced an entertaining 35 off 29 deliveries, including one six that almost hit magenta teammate Steven O’Keefe in the commentary booth. O'Keefe narrowly dodges massive Silk six Despite some tight bowling from a firing Bangladesh attack, including a remarkable final over from Soumya Sarkar who finished with 3/5, the Sixers were still able to finish on 9/169. Imrul and Soumya opened the innings for the Bangladesh CB XI, chasing a modified total of 84 off 8 overs. Their run chase got off to a near perfect start, taking 17 for no loss off the first over. Sixers Academy player Soumil Chhibber came on to bowl the second over, and got the initial breakthrough bowling Imrul for 12. He impressed in his spell, taking final figures of 2 for 35. The Bangladeshi batting lineup was too strong in the end and they were able to close the game out with 7 wickets in hand thanks to some powerful hitting from Mahmudullah who scored 28 from 13 deliveries. The result delighted the thousands of Bangladeshi fans who braved the weather to see their heroes in action in what was an entertaining match. The scorecard from the BCB XI's rain-affected innings against the Sixers #smashemsixers pic.twitter.com/44BIDsk1KE — Sydney Sixers (@SixersBBL) December 14, 2016 The Sixers will now travel to Coffs Harbour where they will take on Hong Kong this Friday in their final trial before BBL\|06 begins on December 20.
The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit is Microsoft’s best-kept security secret. It’s easy to install EMET and quickly secure many popular applications, but there’s a lot more you can do with EMET. EMET won’t pop up and ask you questions, so it’s a set-it-and-forget-it solution once you set it up. Here’s how to secure more applications with EMET and fix them if they break. Know If EMET is Breaking an Application RELATED: Quickly Secure Your Computer With Microsoft’s Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) If an application does something your EMET rules disallow, EMET will shut down the application — that’s the default setting, anyway. EMET closes applications that behave in a potentially unsafe way so no exploits can occur. Windows doesn’t do this for all applications by default because it would break compatibility with many of the old Windows applications in use today. If an application breaks, the application will immediately shut down and you’ll see a pop-up from the EMET icon in your system tray. It will also be written to the Windows event log — these options can be customized from the Reporting box on the ribbon at the top of the EMET window. Use a 64-bit Version of Windows RELATED: Why the 64-bit Version of Windows is More Secure 64-bit versions of Windows are more secure because they have access to features like address space layout randomization (ASLR). Not all of these features will be available if you’re using a 32-bit version of Windows. Like Windows itself, EMET’s security features are more comprehensive and useful on 64-bit PCs. Lock Down Specific Processes You’ll probably want to lock down specific applications instead of your entire system. Focus on the applications most likely to be compromised. This means web browsers, browser plug-ins, chat programs, and any other software that communicates with the Internet or opens downloaded files. Low-level system services and applications that run offline without opening any downloaded files are less at risk. If you have some important business application — perhaps one that access the Internet — it may be the application you want to secure the most. To secure a running application, locate it in the EMET list, right-click it, and select Configure Process. (If you want to secure a process that isn’t running, open the Apps window and use the Add Application or Add Wildcard buttons.) The Application Configuration window will appear with your application highlighted. By default, all the rules will automatically be enabled. Just click the OK button here to apply all the rules. If your application isn’t working properly, you’ll want to come back into here and try disabling some of the restrictions for that application. Disable them one by one until the application works and you can isolate the problem. If you don’t want to restrict an application at all, select it in the list and click the Remove Selected button to erase your rules and put the application back to its default state. Change System-Wide Rules The System Status section allows you to choose system-wide rules. You’ll probably want to stick with the defaults, which allow applications to opt into these security protections. You could select “Always On” or “Application Opt Out” for these settings for maximum security. This may break many applications, especially older ones. If applications start misbehaving, you can revert to the default settings or create “opt out” rules for applications. To create an opt-out rule, right-click a process and select Configure Process. Uncheck the type of protection you want to opt out from — so, if you wanted to opt out of system-wide ASLR, you’d uncheck the MandatoryASLR and BottomUpASLR check boxes for that process. Click OK to save your rule. Note that we’ve enabled “Always On” for DEP above, so we can’t disable DEP for any processes in the Application Configuration window below. Test Rules in “Audit Only” Mode If you’d like to test EMET rules but don’t want to deal with any problems, you can enable “Audit only” mode. Click the Apps icon in EMET to access the Application Configuration window. You’ll find a Default Action section on the ribbon at the top of the screen. By default, it’s set to Stop on exploit — EMET will shut down an application if it breaks a rule. You can also set it to Audit only. If an application breaks one of your EMET rules, EMET will report the problem and allow the application to keep running. This obviously eliminates the security advantages of running EMET, but it’s a good way to test rules before putting EMET back into “Stop on exploit” mode. Export and Import Rules Once you’ve created and tested your rules, be sure to use the Export or Export Selected button to export your rules to a file. You can then import them on any other PCs you use and gain the same security protections without more fiddling. On corporate networks, EMET rules and EMET itself can be deployed through Group Policy. None of this is mandatory. If you’re a home user who doesn’t want to deal with this, feel free to just install EMET and stick with the recommended default settings.
Germany will import 1.2 million completely unskilled migrants this year, many of whom will go straight onto unemployment benefits, according to a leaked government document. The Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit, BA) October migration estimates document outlined a number of key statistics previously not in the public domain. Among the revelations is that fact over 80 per cent of migrants have no qualifications, the majority are under the age of 45, and the agency expects 400,000 new benefit claimants next year to be migrants. Leaked to the German weekly anti-establishment paper Junge Freiheit this week, but ignored by the national mainstream media, the document optimistically insists that despite the enormous cost of migrants to the country it was good news. Writ-large across the last slide of the presentation, they claim: “The integration of refugees is a chance for BA and society as a whole. But all must stand shoulder to shoulder”. The golden opportunity for BA to turn the migrant crisis to its advantage may be one reason for their optimism. As the document explains, the sheer number of new unemployment benefit applications that will need processing and managing means the agency will have to employ 3,500 new staff. The new claimants and the staff come with a cost, estimated to stand at €855 million next year (£620 million) in addition to the €35 billion already budgeted for 2016. The additional cost includes €640 million for benefit payments and €65 million for new staff — convenient empire building for the agency at a time of national crisis. Many of these new employees for the agency will be migrants – a neat fix to get new arrivals off the unemployment claimant count while still taking a salary from the state. The document even gives the experience of one such migrant, ‘Abdoulaye N.’, a 40-year-old from Niger, as an example of good practice. Being funnelled through the agencies early intervention programme, he was found a job at the Dortmund office as a “mediation specialist” for his fellow refugees. Similar employment programmes exist in European basket-case Sweden, where the national migration agency is growing at a rate of 100 employees a month – many of which are freshly arrived migrants. Many migrants will be more difficult to find jobs for – a fact the agency privately admits in the document. According to the figures laid out in infographics for the presentation, those arriving are overwhelmingly young and uneducated. Just eight per cent of migrants have any kind of academic qualification, while 81 per cent have none at all. If Germany received 1.5 million migrants, as the present — if rapidly ascending — figure has it, that means some 1.2 million people will arrive in the country without a level of education even as high as a school leavers certificate. The document also provides comparison between the age profiles of arriving migrants and native Germans. While in the ordinary population 32 per cent of citizens are between the ages of 15 and 35, among the migrant arrivals that figure is 73 per cent. The figures strongly contradict previous claims by the German Federal Office For Migration And Refugees, which made the claim that arrivals were in fact on average more highly educated than their new German neighbours, not less. Far from 90 per cent of migrants being educated, as has previously been claimed, these new figures seriously question the notion that Europe is being flooded with a new generation of ready to work doctors and lawyers. When approached by Breitbart London for comment, the Federal Employment Agency confirmed the document was genuine but would not comment on how it came to be released, and insisted the information contained was not “secret”.
HOUSTON -- Houston Texans fans are struggling to pick up the pieces of a 2015 season that was equal parts maddening, encouraging and logic-defying. A humiliating 2-5 start, followed by a thrilling 7-2 rally, was capped off by one of the worst playoff performances by a quarterback in NFL history. The man responsible for that performance (and for much of the roller coaster-quality of the season) is journeyman quarterback Brian Hoyer. "As a child, I never truly learned how to read an NFL defense," the embattled eighth-year quarterback admitted to reporters this week, claiming that it's held him back his entire life. Growing up near Cleveland, Ohio, Hoyer admitted to never even reading a playbook until well into his twenties. "Since first grade, the kids around me were talking coverage shells, route concepts and line calls," said Hoyer, 30, wiping a tear. "Can you imagine? All your friends knowing when to throw the curl and when to throw the flat. It's humiliating." When his parents Axel and Julie Hoyer found out years later that their child had made it so long without properly learning how to instruct his offensive line to pick up a zone blitz, they were baffled. "We feel like we failed him," said Axel, via phone. "As a parent, you think you know everything that's going on with your child... but we had no idea." Julie added that perhaps a lack of sports video games hindered Hoyer's development. "We should have bought him Tecmo Bowl," she lamented. Related: Texans to sue Rockets for "mediocrity infringement" The fundamental ability to differentiate between a Cover 3 shell and Cover 2 man under, Hoyer says, affected more than just his success in the NFL. "It's something that hangs over everything I do," bemoaned the former Michigan State Spartan. "I can't get through a game of "Risk" without getting into a land war in Asia." Hoyer went on to add that everyday obstacles like white picket fences still occasionally baffle him. "I mean, where's the freakin' gate?" Despite his struggles, Hoyer has carved out himself a healthy NFL career with three different teams. He wants to encourage parents to make sure their children are getting the proper teachings early in their lives. "Take the time and be a parent, you know? Sit down with your kids and do some good old fashioned film study. Break down their throwing mechanics if you have to," he implored. "Don't let them grow up not knowing how to properly diagnose a defense and make the right audible like I did." Hoyer's employer, Bob McNair, was supportive when pressed for comment. "It's a very difficult thing for the kid to admit to, and we're fully behind him for whatever he needs." McNair added that a renewal of Hoyer's contract, which is on its last year, is likely. "We don't dump a guy at his lowest around here. Texans fans can rest easy that he'll be our quarterback for a long, long time."
Ivanka Trump is taking a break from the campaign trail to vacation with friends. The daughter of GOP nominee Donald Trump shared a scenic snap with Wendi Deng Murdoch, the ex-wife of billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch, from Dubrovnik, Croatia. Trump, 34, was spotted with husband Jared Kushner in the city’s old town, seemingly taking a couple’s vacation without their three children – Arabella, 5, Joseph, 2, and Theodore, 4 months. Deng Murdoch was actually responsible for setting up Trump and Kushner. “Everything she has is available to her friends, which, believe me, is not common,” Trump told Vogue earlier this summer of her friend. “There’s nothing that doesn’t interest her, and she can hit five topics in a 35-second conversation. It’s really a whirlwind with Wendi. I can’t recall the last time I had a conversation with her that didn’t conclude with her connecting me to four people who might become great friends or great business opportunities.” WATCH: Ivanka Trump Shares Sweet Snap of New Son Theodore James! Trump donned a casual look for the day of sightseeing, pairing a white blouse with cut-outs that revealed a white bikini underneath with matching shorts. Both women wore funky sunglasses to complete their looks. Get push notifications with news, features and more. Trump’s vacation comes less than a month after introducing her father at the Republican National Convention and the GOP presidential nominee teasing that his daughter would be the first woman he’d name to his cabinet. “My role is daughter,” Trump told Harper’s Bazaar in the magazine’s September issue. “I’m his daughter.” And really, the mom of three isn’t all that interested in a political career, she told the magazine. “I made the mistake of once saying, ‘Never say never,’ ” she shared. “I do believe that in life there are so many things I’m doing today that I never thought I’d be doing, so I generally take that perspective. But I said that, and the headline was ‘IVANKA MIGHT RUN FOR OFFICE,’ so… But, no, it’s not something I think I would ever do.”
Last night was date night with the little lady, so if I have to suffer, so should the world. Drinking is like hitting your thumb with a hammer, it feels so good when you stop. Why You Should Be Skeptical Of That $5.4 Billion Deutsche Settlement (CNBC) A Deutsche Bank Settlement Rumor Overshadows US Equities (R.) Deutsche Bank Takes a Lashing From the German Public (WSJ) Global Trade Crashes Back To “Very Old Normal” (ZH) Global Corporate Default Tally By Far Highest Since 2009 (Barron’s) US Consumer Spending Drops, Clouds Fed Rate Hike Outlook (R.) Bundesbank President Rejects Calls for German Stimulus (WSJ) Record Numbers Left Homeless After Eviction By Private Landlords In UK (G.) Elephants Have Learned To Avoid Poachers By Hanging Out With Rangers (Konbini) France and Britain just beat Donald Trump to building a border wall Neonicotinoid insecticides linked to wild bee decline across England Canada approves $36 billion LNG ‘carbon bomb’ on B.C. coast Niger killer-drone base to become ‘major hub’ ensuring US strategic grip on Africa Danish Party distributes ‘anti-refugee’ spray to women, what could possibly go wrong? Propaganda Hides Climate Change From the Public Tensions Over Dakota Access Pipeline Intensify in Wake of Police Raid President Obama: ‘Patron’ of the Israeli Occupation ‘I stopped Netanyahu from catastrophic attack on Iran’ – Peres’ statement concealed ‘til death Aleppo Resident: ‘In A Few Days, We Will Run Out Of Everything’ 50 asylum-seekers stage riot, attack guards at refugee center in Berlin German mayor who wanted to accept more refugees beaten up ‘in xenophobic attack’ US and EU Sanctions Are Devastating Syrian Civilians Strange Deaths of JPMorgan Workers Continue Seven Popular Foods That Might Disappear Because of Climate Change The Super-Rich Are Cruising the Arctic’s New Passageway as the World Burns Reservoirs Account For 1.3% Of Emissions A rift tearing across the Larsen C ice shelf could usher in a period of retreat and the shelf’s eventual demise U.S. uses more gasoline than ever Chelsea Clinton Takes Private Jet To Clean Energy Conference Forget Paris, Scientists Say ‘Radical Change’ Only Way to Stay Below 2 Degrees Advertisements
If you’re at all familiar with the indie development scene, then chances are you’ve heard of DrinkBox Studios. Hailing from the snowy tundra that is Toronto, DrinkBox have been responsible for a collection of critically acclaimed isometric titles of recent years. Birthed from the remnants of Pseudo Interactive, DrinkBox were conceived under a 2006 coalition between former employees Chris Harvey, Ryan MacLean and Graham Smith. The first kick came in 2010 with the adorable Tales from Space: About a Blob. It was here that DrinkBox first set their now well-worn precedent for striking colour palettes and slick animations. A 2012 sequel, Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack, allowed the studio to hone their talent for quirk, humour and inventive game design. Just one year later, the team hit back with their newest project: the gloriously named Guacamelee! Bigger, bolder and more memorable than what had come before, Guacamelee! is still DrinkBox’s finest release to date. A gleefully cartoonish take on Mexican culture and Luchadores wrestlers, the game is satisfying as hell and a rollicking adventure to boot. Guacamelee! was metroidvania done exceedingly well: simple controls made for satisfyingly tight gameplay that was difficult to put down; animations boasted a meticulous attention to detail that remains largely unmatched to this day. The most exciting thing about DrinkBox is that their games have escalated in quality with every outing. With 2015 comes an all-new chapter. That game’s name is Severed: a first-person, touch orientated dungeon crawler with light RPG elements. I’ll admit, when I first heard this unlikely string of descriptors, I was a little disappointed. This was DrinkBox – a house dedicated to creating extraordinary platforming experiences – what do you mean there won’t be a jump button? But then I thought about it. DrinkBox will be the first to admit that touch games have a bad name. If your first thought is Fruit Ninja, stop. DrinkBox have always stood for much more than simple gimmicks. Their pedigree is such that I can say with certainty that Severed will be of a calibre we don’t often see. Choosing to dedicate nigh on two years to developing a Vita exclusive touch game in 2015 is, at the very least, testament to the fact that DrinkBox are doing what they have always done. No one asked for a Luchadores-inspired open world platformer in 2013, but everyone made damn sure to thank DrinkBox for it whilst they sat proudly atop the number one PSN sales spot for consecutive months. I wanted to get to the bottom of DrinkBox’s latest offering. In truth: I wanted everyone to be as excited for Severed as I am. With that, I sat down with designer Chris McQuinn to better understand why Severed belongs in this year’s gaming calendar. In the process, we chatted about everything from design obstacles, to tone and – most importantly – why the hell they’re called DrinkBox. Harry Bowers: So Chris, what made DrinkBox – a seasoned and proven creator of semi-traditional platform/action games – want to create a touch-reliant game? Chris McQuinn: There’s a few reasons, one being that we enjoy trying to make games that are a little different. This isn’t to say we still don’t love developing puzzle platformers, and 2D combat games, but, as a studio we feel it is important for us to try new ideas. Another reason is that Severed came out of our first internal game jam and we thought it was a cool concept so decided to run with it. HB: Touch screen elements in Guacamelee! and the Tales from Space series were pretty minimal. How has the team found adjusting to developing this significantly different style of gameplay? Have many unexpected obstacles presented themselves? CM: There is a learning curve when moving from a classic controller to a touch screen. Overall I feel the transition has been pretty smooth – although there have been a few extra hurdles. For example, there is a difference in difficulty when playing Severed with a mouse [the game was initially developed on PC] versus the touch screen on the Vita. At the moment the game is much harder using a mouse – so we have to be careful not to make it easier on the PC, only to find out it is way easier on the Vita. HB: Why do you think it is that touch titles have found themselves with a negative reputation over the years? Do you think this is unfounded? CM: In my view the negative reputation has come about, not because a game inherently uses touch, but rather because there are a huge mound of low quality phone games that just happen to have touch as the main input mechanic. Fantastic games using touch do exist, such as Monument Valley, Sword & Sorcery to name just a few, but unfortunately there are a lot of bad games that also use touch. HB: What makes Severed different? CM: Severed is among the group of excellent touch games – and a key component to doing this is to make a quality game. HB: And what do you feel it is that makes a “quality” touch game? Is it about depth, polish, or something else? CM: A quality touch game, in essence, to me, is really, just a quality game. Whether it is on a touch screen, or on Steam/PC, or console, I think the qualities that make a good game will have some, if not all of the components you mentioned. Usually at the core of a good game lies good game mechanics that are fun, so, if you can manage that you’re on your way to success. HB: DrinkBox is a team known not just for producing quality games, but quirk, comedy and doing things a little differently. What makes Severed a DrinkBox game? CM: All of our games have had a different tone from each other, although it is true that Mutant Blobs Attack and Guacamelee! had many similarities. Severed is a much bigger departure from our previous content, tonally speaking. Severed is a much darker game with a more serious atmosphere, so you’ll be seeing that side of us. Although, with that said, we do hope to provide the same quality of gameplay experience that people have come to expect from DrinkBox Studios. HB: How do these darker tones bleed into Severed’s gameplay? Did you find it difficult at first to convey this more serious style considering you’ve undertaken a new, front-facing perspective? CM: I feel the darker tones bleed more into the art style and story than the gameplay, although it’s tough to give examples without giving too much away. Since we are a jokey studio, we have had to catch ourselves from inserting too many goofy jokes. HB: What’s the one thing about Severed that you’re most excited for the world to experience? CM: Personally speaking, I’m most excited about releasing a game that explores touch based combat mechanics that is (hopefully) compelling. I’m also pretty excited be developing a game for the Vita; a console that we all love at the studio and has a community that have been great supporters of us. HB: Finally, out of sheer curiosity, how did you arrive at the name DrinkBox Studios? CM: Well, originally we had called ourselves “No a Number” (NaN), but realised that name was horrible. So we all got together to have a big brainstorming session and shouted out the dumbest possible company names, and DrinkBox just stuck. You can grab the original Guacamelee! for Vita, or the complete Super Champion Turbo Edition on PS4 for a pittance right now in the PSN Summer sale. We extend our thanks to Chris and the whole team at DrinkBox for their unfathomable participation. The studio is crunching hard right now to get Severed out this year. You can lend them your support over @DrinkBoxStudios, while you can find Chris directly via @kulz. Alternatively, if you’d like to find out more about the game, you can mosey on over to their website for some fancy new scrolling technology. Excited for Severed? Not sold on the whole touch thing yet? Or are you just curious where Tales from Space 3 is at? Then come discuss with us in the comments below! Or, if you fancy shouting at us directly, head to @PowerUpGamingUK for fun and frolics.
A second quake of the same magnitude hit in the same vicinity and at the same depth 30 seconds later, the US Geological Survey said. "A tsunami warning is now in effect which includes the coastal areas of Alaska from Unimak Pass, Alaska (80 miles northeast of Dutch Harbor) to Amchitka Pass, Alaska (125 miles west of Adak)," the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center said. "Those feeling the earth shake, seeing unusual wave action or the water level rising or receding may have only a few minutes before the tsunami arrival and should move immediately," warned the WCATWC. "Homes and small buildings are not designed to withstand tsunami impacts. Do not stay in these structures." The quake struck more than 1,000 miles west of the major Alaskan city of Anchorage. The centre monitors tsunami risk only for the west coast of North America from the Mexican border to Alaska, but other agencies said there was no threat for the rest of the Pacific. A tsunami warning means all coastal residents in the warning area who are near the beach or in low-lying regions should move immediately to higher ground and away from harbours and inlets, including those sheltered directly from the sea. Earthquakes of this size magnitude are known to generate tsunamis. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. The tsunami warning comes after a massive 9.0 quake and ensuing tsunami devastated large parts of the Japanese coast in March, killing more than 15,000 people. The tsunami warning was later cancelled.
Who knew pink had such power against heartless poachers? The activists behind the Rhino Rescue Project did, and they put that thought into action by using a pink dye to render useless the tusks of rhinos at the Sabi Sand South African game reserve. At present, fewer than 2% of more than 100 rhinos that have been injected with the mixture since 2011 have been poached. Because of its success, the method is now being implemented at other wildlife refugees. The photo above has been digitally altered to convey the success of the program, but in real life, the dye is actually invisible to the naked eye because it’s injected inside the horn. The reason why this method is so effective is because the dye is completely harmless to rhinos. But if humans handle it, they are likely to become sick, as well as destroy its potential medicinal use. This is because a chemicals used for killing parasites at the game reserves is added to the pink dye; it irritates humans without bothering the giant land animal. The dye also shows up on airport scanners – even if the horn has been ground into a powder. This makes it very easy for poachers to be recognized on the spot. The photo below is from the Rhino Rescue Project’s Facebook page. It shows an actual rhino after the process was completed. Bandages cover injection holes while the horn recovers. Dissimilar from elephant teeth or tusks, rhino horns are not ivory. They’re keratin, pretty much the same as human fingernails. The tubular structure of a rhino’s horn allows the dye to be injected under high pressure, where it will spread and stay inside for a full growing cycle – which is about three or four years. After that time period, it will be treated again. What are your thoughts? Share in the comments section below and raise awareness about poaching by sharing this article. Update (07/02/2015): True Activist notes that the Rhino Rescue Project’s True Activist notes that the Rhino Rescue Project’s methods are very controversial and have sparked heated debate. In response, the team has delved into the accuracy behind many of the claims shared in this article and reports the following: As the Rhino Rescue Project does its work on behalf of wildlife parks and game reserves seeking to protect their rhinos from poachers, its overall intent is not to ‘end’ poaching, but to sow doubt in the minds of poachers and horn buyers, thus reducing the amount of rhinos hunted illegally. Not all organizations are in support of the Rhino Rescue Project’s methods, such as The South African National Park Service. Government organizations such as this doubt the horn-poisoning method and its effectiveness. Such concerns may be valid, as a source presently living in South Africa reports that poachers presently grind up horns into a powder and mix it with viagra to bypass airport security. If this is true, however, it would still be unsafe for humans to handle as ectoparasiticides would be present from the pink dye mixture injected into it. In summary, though this method is very controversial and certain reserves have since stopped injecting rhino horns with the pink dye, this article is relevant to the global community as it promotes an idea – even if it is not foolproof – of how we, collectively, may put an end to poaching and prevent rhinos from becoming extinct. This article (Conservationists Have Been Dying Rhino Horns Pink To Ward Off Poachers… And It’s Working! ) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and TrueActivist.com.
Many iconic photos have been faked to promote an ideological agenda, manipulate the emotions of the viewer or ‘tailor’ reality to meet the needs of the story. There are many methods for creating “fauxtographs” (misleading captions, forced perspective, etc.), but this list sticks to a sampling of 10 digitally/manually manipulated photos presented to, and by, the mass media as real. These, and scores of other fauxtography stories, can be found at StinkyJournalism. They are hilarious and definitely worth your time. You can read the first list of fauxtos here. 10 Sarkozy Loses Weight Now this is Power. Paris Match is a celebrity magazine accused of airbrushing French President Nikolas Sarkozy’s love handles away. If only it were that easy (sigh). You may remember, Sarkozy was implicated as the person responsible for the firing of a Paris Match editor after the magazine published a photo of Sarkozy’s wife and a suspected lover. These photos reveal that since then, President Sarkozy may be receiving preferential treatment because of his connections to powerful businessmen, like media mogul Arnoud Lagardere– owner of Paris Match. [Source] 9 Steve Jobs This one is almost too close to call, but merits discussion because it matches the article copy so closely. In TIME magazine’s 2008 piece “Why is Steve Jobs skipping MacWorld?” they commented on the Apple CEO’s gaunt appearance, stemming from his battle with pancreatic cancer. And while Jobs did look thin, he didn’t look that thin. Or that tall. Mac Daily News then publicly accused TIME of squeezing the photo’s XY axis to make Jobs look sicker than he actually was. TIME disagreed, and attributed the error to incorrect pre-set height and width ratios for their website. TIME published the original photo with the proper XY axis a day later. [Source] 8 Oprah’s Extreme Makeover Oprah Winfrey is a syndicated talk show host and one of the worlds richest African American women. She came from humble beginnings, is very charitable to the poor and has always been… ‘a healthy woman of size’. So what possessed TV Guide to Photoshop her head onto a 1979 publicity photo of white actress Ann-Margret? (The original is in color). When shown the photo, Winfrey said she’d never have the guts to pose in a dress that revealing. TV Guide later admitted to using the photos without the permission of either woman, and warned its graphic artist to not be ‘so literal’ in the future. [Source] 7 James Purnell UK Culture Secretary, James Purnell, made a name for himself by leading attacks on rigged BBC phone-in competitions. But when he was not present for a photo-op at the Thameside hospital, he told organizers to doctor the picture with fellow MPs to make it look like he’d been there. In fact, the other MPs stood off to the side so there would be room to digitally add him into the photo. When the story broke, the media outcry was immediate, and led Jeremy Hunt to ask “How can broadcasters be expected to clean up their act if the secretary of state is telling people to doctor photographs?” Purnell survived the row, but stepped down from his Parliament seat in February 2010. [Source] 6 Media Awareness Network The Media Awareness Network (MNET) is a program for teachers and parents in Canada to “promote critical thinking in young people about the media.” But critical thinking was in short supply when MNET sourced a fake photo for its 2001 brochure. The cover photo combined multiple shots to present a beautiful (fake – above) view “from Parliament Hill on one end of the Rideau Canal, including a view of the world’s longest skating rink”. That wouldn’t have been so bad, but in the ‘About Us’ section, MNET really lays it on thick; saying “The idea behind our work is “based on the belief that to be functionally literate in the world today – (we must) be able to ‘read’ the messages that inform, entertain and sell to us daily.” Those messages presumably include marketing materials for education programs. MNET later explained that the issue wasn’t that they had sourced a fake photo, but rather that they had presented the image as a real Ottawa scene. MNET now uses the affair as a “teaching moment”, and probably has a good laugh about it. [Source] 5 Iberto Saiz In 2009, lberto Saiz, director of Spain’s National Intelligence Center, was accused of going on exotic fishing trips at the taxpayers’ expense. That was a problem, because he was going on exotic fishing trips at the taxpayers’ expense. But Saiz had a brainstorm, and asked his agents to doctor a photo disputing whether he was on the fishing trips at all. The resulting fake was astonishingly, stupidly, bad. Saiz is pictured in the center, holding the fish, so obviously his identity must be concealed. You’re probably ahead of me here: put someone else’s head on Saiz’ head. But the graphic ‘artist’ replaced Saiz’ head with the head of an agent in the same photo. The resulting ‘exonerating evidence’ showed the same man in two places at the same time. Needless to say, the fake failed the laugh test, and Saiz was sacked. [Source] 4 A Missile Too Many In July 2008, Iran conducted a controversial missile test to project its (alleged) military might, but they got a little more controversy than they bargained for. Newspapers around the world published an image of four Iranian missiles launching skyward, but the image was quickly discovered to be a fake. The smoke and clone flaw reared its truthful head again. Somehow, despite the Adnan Hajj controversy just two years earlier, this photo got past the editors of the Los Angeles Times, the Financial Times and the Chicago Tribune. Many websites and newscasts also fell for the fake (BBC News, MSNBC, Yahoo! News, NYTimes.com), and had to retract the story. [Source] 3 Charles Johnson Charles Johnson is the owner/editor of Little Green Footballs, the website that exposed the fake National Guard memos that brought down Dan Rather at CBS, and debunked the Adnan Hajj photos that gave rise to the term “fauxtography”. The LGF website has been invaluable in exposing the lazy, staged propaganda that passes for photojournalism in the embattled Middle East and some parts of the Arab world. Johnson has recently switched his center-right politics sharply left, in part because he believes many of his peers have embraced bigoted groups as allies against militant Islam. So the irony meter got buried into the hot squishy center of the planet when Little Green Footballs published a photo showing Vlaams Belang’s Filip Dewinter with Pro-Köln’s Markus Beisicht in front of what appears to be a neo-Nazi demonstration. But the banners are actually from Antifa, Antifascistische Aktion, a violent Leftist group. The master had been duped. The real photo was taken on the roof of the Flemish Parliament in Brussels. Johnson now claims he can’t tell which picture is the original, and maintains that it doesn’t matter if the photo was faked. This is essentially saying that photo is ‘fake but accurate’, which was the same argument Dan Rather used to defend the fake National Guard memos. [Source] 2 La Prensa Honduran newspaper La Prensa was accused of whitewashing political violence during anti-coup demonstrations on July 6, 2009. The photograph in question is of Isis Obed Murillo (deceased), being carried by friends after being shot by gunmen in Tegucigalpa. LaPrensa is famously pro-coup, and obviously airbrushed Murillo’s injuries out of the photo. The newspaper’s published explanation blamed unspecified “processing errors”, but bloggers were having none of it. Matthew Dubuque asks “What kind of random ‘process’ would ‘accidentally’ whitewash BOTH the blood on the ground AND the blood on his face while leaving ALL the rest of the photo intact?” [Source] 1 Lee Harvey Oswald In February, 1964, LIFE Magazine and the Detroit Free Press vied to be first to market with a photo of Lee Harvey Oswald holding a rifle that might have been the murder weapon. The infamous “back yard photo” appeared in the Free Press and LIFE, but were different: the Free Press photo was brighter and had no scope on the rifle, but the LIFE photo was darker and did show a scope on the rifle. These differences led people to believe the photo was a fake, and Oswald himself said the photo superimposed his head on another’s body. Complicating matters is his wife Marie’s statement that she took the photo in the spring of 1963. Gene Roberts (journalist for the Free Press at the time) said the rush to scoop LIFE led to alterations of the Oswald photo. Roberts told The Education Forum’s Adam Wilkinson that “We wanted to beat them (LIFE) to the punch.” He continued, “In the haste to get the photos in the paper, an airbrusher covered the sniper scope … with liquid chalk.” Due to limitations of print publishing at the time, this was an accepted technique to heighten contrast between dark and grey areas. [Source]
Speaker Anthony Rendon must bring single-payer health care up for a vote in the California Assembly Ro Khanna Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jun 26, 2017 Like so many in our state, I was deeply disappointed by Speaker Rendon’s decision to squash California’s single-payer health care bill on Friday. Our health system — here in California and across the nation — is fundamentally broken. It’s an unpleasant fact that people in our state are dying prematurely because they lack access to affordable insurance and care. Right now, three million Californians lack health insurance. Millions more will be in danger if President Trump and Republicans repeal the Affordable Care Act. Single payer is the only path forward to universal coverage. Economists say this bill will save us tens of billions of dollars in health costs each year. With so much to gain, it’s easy to see why more than 65% of California supports single payer. If Speaker Rendon continues to block this bill, he is denying the will of the people in our state. Let’s demand that Speaker Rendon reconsider his decision. This bill must be allowed to pass through committee.
There is an old word game where you try to get from one word to another through connections with other words. For example, you might get from “cold” to “stationary” via the word “frozen”, since “cold” and “frozen” are synonyms and “frozen” and “stationary” are synonyms, albeit for different meanings of the word “frozen”. I thought of this game when I started to learn the new graph theory functions in Mathematica 8. We can think of the words in the English language as the vertices of one large graph and the synonym connections between them as the graph edges. If you do that, it looks like this: So let’s see if we can generally solve this synonym chain problem. First we need to create this graph representation of English and its synonym connectivity. I can get the raw data from the built-in WordData function that accesses Wolfram\|Alpha‘s dictionary capabilities. The first problem is that the synonyms provided include idioms and phrases. While it might be useful to know that “zombie” means the same thing as “living dead”, I don’t think it’s in the spirit of the game to use phrases. So first I will create a function to eliminate these, so that we are left with only single words. Next we need a function to pull together all the synonyms for all the alternative meanings of a word. Now we just apply that function to every single word in the WordData source and de-duplicate the results. The character indicates an undirected graph edge. Now that we have a graph representation of the synonyms, we can use the efficient FindShortestPath function to get between any two connected words in the fewest number of hops. The rest of this function is just presentation. There is a lot of fun to be had out of this function, though sometimes the jumps that it makes can be hard to understand until you look up the more obscure meanings of some words in the dictionary. For me, the most fun is trying to connect seemingly opposite words. Some chains are very short, others quite long. Here are some examples: Once you get bored of this game, the obvious question becomes, “What is the longest such shortest chain?” Or to put it another way, “Which two words are furthest apart?” If you click the GraphPlot visualization of the data at the top of the post to see the large version, you will see that most of the words are in small clusters, many of only two or three words, but there is one large, highly interconnected group of words. It seems quite likely that that is the place to start looking. So I’ll start by getting the subgraph represented by the largest group of connected components. This subgraph has just under 20,000 vertices. The next largest group contains only 37 vertices, so we can probably just look at this cluster. Now, the brute-force method would be to call GraphDistanceMatrix on this and find all the shortest distances. If I were on a 64-bit platform, I might give that a go, but I would hit the memory ceiling on my 32-bit laptop, so I will have to use a more directed attack. First, I will find some candidate words by measuring the eccentricity of each word. Eccentricity is the longest shortest distance between a vertex and all other vertices. It doesn’t return which partner vertex is that distance, but this way I don’t have to store all that data for the 20,000 words that are not candidates, or for all the words that are closer than the maximum. (Unfortunately, due to a bug in the initial release, you will need Mathematica 8.0.1 or higher to run this next line.) By sorting the results, we can see here the 50 most eccentric words. So now we can see that the longest shortest paths are 24 steps long. Here are the candidate words from this subgraph: Now since this is an undirected graph, the word that partners with each of these words for the longest shortest path must also be from this set. So we just have to check the GraphDistance for each combination to find which word it pairs up with. What we see is that each has multiple words that are the same 24 steps apart. But very quickly we see that they form groups: “dejectedness”, “dispiritedness”, “downheartedness”, and “low-spiritedness” are all synonyms of “lowness”, and “aby”, “abye”, and “expiate” are all synonyms of “atone”. So once we have seen one example, the other 11 possible ways to join the two groups are uninteresting. Here is one of them: “Heterosexuality” and “heterosexualism” are obviously synonyms, but “nonrecreational” and “mulishness” are not related, so we have two more distinct cases here: There is another way to look at this. Instead of looking for the longest shortest path, we could look for the longest longest path. Of course we could go round in circles forever, so we probably want the longest chain that only visits each word once. If such a tour exists for our subgraph, then we can find it with FindHamiltonianCycle , but a quick test shows that there is no such path. So the challenge would be to find the largest Hamiltonian subgraph of this graph. Since the result will probably form a synonym chain that is thousands of words long, and too big for this blog, I will leave that as a challenge to the reader! Download the Computable Document Format (CDF) file
Sling TV, the low-cost, live TV streaming service, hasn’t yet saved Dish Network. According to the company’s latest earnings report, the TV provider still saw a net loss of 12,000 pay-TV subscribers. That loss indicates that its satellite service customer base is actually dropping dramatically, as Dish – as you may recall – now combines its satellite and Sling TV customers in an attempt to pad its numbers. Sling TV, after all, has grown to several thousand customers. Dish didn’t say how many subscribers Sling TV has, but analysts suspect that it has reached around 400,000, according to various reports. The company said in its earnings release that it ended the year with 13.897 million pay-TV subscribers compared with approximately 13.978 million at the end of 2014, or a decline of 81,000. The year before, it lost 79,000 net subscribers. Dish’s losses come at a time when other pay TV providers have seen gains. As DSL Reports this week noted, Charter, Time Warner and Comcast all added video subscribers in the fourth quarter. This has led some to believe that the cord cutting “fad” could be winding down. But that’s not actually the case. Instead, what seems to be going on is a lateral move of subscribers, it said. That is, customers are going from telco and satellite providers like Dish to others, who are promoting discounted bundles, broadband speed upgrades, and better set-top boxes. Or, as MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett put it, “Telco TV has seemingly hit a brick wall.” AT&T and DirectTV reported a net loss of 26,000 video subscribers in the last quarter, and Verizon Fios TV (disclosure: Verizon owns TechCrunch parent AOL) just had its worst quarter, with 20,000 customers added in Q4. (In Q4 2014, it added 116,000.) Meanwhile, Time Warner Cable added 30,000 customers in 2015. “It would be easy to blame cord-cutting, but what is really going on is the improbable resurrection of cable,” Moffett said. “Satellite is facing the same challenge. After a decade of being a net share donor, the big cable operators are taking back share,” he added. Dish, then, has been smart to hedge its bets by investing in Sling TV. The internet-powered streaming service represents its plan to retain a group of paying customers even as those still married to the idea of traditional TV head back to the cable companies, while those cutting the cord start shopping for over-the-top solutions. Dish’s cheap cable TV-like bundle offers a way for customers to watch the “best of cable,” along with ESPN, at prices that start at $20 per month. Combined with a digital antenna to watch network TV, you can slash your monthly bill for TV service. Dish also reported its 2015 total revenue was $15.1 billion compared to $14.6 billion in 2014. Subscriber-related revenue in 2015 was $15 billion, compared to $14.5 billion in 2014. Net income for the year was $747 million compared to $945 million in 2014. The company said its operating income was negatively impacted by an FCC spectrum auction expense of $516 million, and an impairment of long-lived assets expense of $123 million. For the year, Dish added 46,000 net broadband subscribers in 2015, bringing its total broadband subscriber base to approximately 623,000 compared to approximately 577,000 at the end of 2014.
Author's Note: To respond to a few reviews, don't worry, this will eventually all lead to some serious Elsanna development, it's just going to take a while of them both growing as people. Anna still really doesn't know who she is, as she spent fifteen years pretending to be someone else, and Elsa has all but buried herself in her career. They're only just now re-entering each other's lives and remembering what they mean to each other. Reza Novaria: Yes, Anna is somewhat of an idiot presently. She still has no idea what she's doing in relationships and hasn't really learned healthy patterns for them. It's why Esmeralda and her really can't work. The guest reviewer that asked about Esmeralda's belated poly explanation: Yeah, she should have told her before their date, but she chickened out. As much worldly experience as Esmeralda has, she doesn't have a lot of relationship experience and she'd been wanting this for the past year. She also thought she had more time, she didn't expect the inexperienced formerly straight girl to jump into bed with her on their first date. So yeah, she should have told her, and that's on her, but that's why she hadn't. Trigger Warning: Explicit mention of self harm and suicide, as well as conversion therapy. Elsa and Anastasia glared daggers at each other across courtroom 2B of the Manhattan County Courthouse. They hadn't spoken since their Sunday dinner, not that communication had been common before then. Mr Thompson and an associate sat beside Ms. Agnarrsen, while Ms Hawkins sat beside Ms. Romanov. The bailiff called for everyone to rise, and they did as instructed. "The honorable Judge Frollo," he finished, as a stern, pompous looking old man, with features of carved bone, rose before them. "Be seated," he snarled. I've won the case already, Elsa mused, knowing the judge's predilections for what he considered virtue. I can't believe he didn't recuse himself. Hopefully Anastasia doesn't manage to see to that. "Your honor," Anastasia challenged, right on cue. "You don't think you may be," she considered her words for a moment, "a poor choice for this trial?" She hasn't dealt with him before, or she wouldn't have said that. "You think I am incapable of being impartial?" the judge asked, waving a hand before him as if swatting away her words. Anya blanked. "No, your honor," she caught herself before she shoved her foot any further down her throat, "I apologize, I know you to be a fair and honorable man." "Very well then, let's have your opening statements." Anastasia stood, her suit jacket almost catching on the chair. She caught it before she took the chair with her and managed to maintain her composure as she approached the jury box. She took in a breath and closed her eyes, drawing forth the speech she'd spent the previous night memorizing. "You see before you a grievously harmed woman, and the man who killed her child –" "Objection!" Elsa immediately called. "If she wanted to establish that, there should really have been a criminal trial." Frollo smirked, he never laughed at a flippant remark, but he made it clear when he appreciated it. "Sustained. Jurors, disregard that remark." Anya glared at her ex-girlfriend, it was completely acceptable to say such a thing. "You see before you a grievously harmed woman, and the man who led her child to suicide." She glanced at Elsa nervously. The objection had had even more of an effect than Elsa had dared to hope. "A man whom she had sought out for help, and who instead made her son hate himself so much that he felt he had to take his own life. The man before you is a monster, and should be treated as such." Alistair looked questioningly at Elsa, but she shook her head. The associate remained silent. "He took her money under the pretense of offering a cure for this woman's child, and instead gave them both only pain. Do not let him off the hook for the death he helped cause." She glanced from juror to juror, only a few had seemed moved by it, the objection had screwed her, Elsa seemed to always manage to do that. She took her seat. Elsa rose, her shin length blue and silver dress swishing against the desk as she walked. She calmly approached the jury box, a sad smile on her face. "It is truly tragic that Jim Hawkins lost his life, my client grieves for the loss of his former patient, but he did not cause it. It is true that Jim Hawkins did see Mr. Thompson, to help him cure himself of his gayness, he was a young man full of hate," she hesitated for a fraction of a second before continuing, "hate for himself, which his mother only exacerbated. She let him believe that who he was was wrong, and that he needed to be cured. My client offered to do precisely that, but Mr. Hawkins stopped attending his sessions. As we will show, there were two months without a single session with Mr. Thompson before Mr. Hawkins killed himself. Perhaps if he had continued his therapy, he'd still be with us." She smiled warmly at her old friend and took her seat. Anastasia glared at her former best friend for a solid minute. "Ms. Romanov," Judge Frollo called, his voice sounding weary of her slacking, "Are you going to call a witness or were you hoping that angry looks would win you the case?" "Of course, your honor," she sighed. "The plaintiff calls Sarah Hawkins to the stand." The woman rose from her seat next to the redhead and approached the witness stand. The bailiff swore her in and she took her new seat. "Ms Hawkins," Anastasia began, "Why did your son begin seeing Mr. Thompson?" "Objection," Elsa called again. "Speculation." Frollo grinned again, staring down at the increasingly annoyed lawyer. "Well, Ms Romanov, can you justify that question." "As Mr. Hawkins mother, she would be best suited to say what he was feeling at the time, now that he is no longer with us." Frollo sneered at the woman but relented. "I'll allow it." Ms. Hawkins looked between her lawyer and the judge, silently asking for permission to speak. "I said I'd allow it," Frollo repeated. "Right," she swallowed. "He was having unnatural urges, and I felt that he needed help." Well now that certainly makes things easier. "My pastor recommended Mr Thompson, he said that he had helped several members of his congregation." Easy objection, but she's only building my case for me. "How did he act after he started seeing Mr. Thompson?" "He seemed a lot better," Ms. Hawkins admitted. Anya gaped at her client. Elsa knew her well enough to know that she'd rehearsed that question, the answer had changed. Sucks for her. "I know I said before that he seemed moodier, but that didn't happen at first. It did eventually, he seemed distraught after a couple months of seeing Mr. Thompson, so I insisted that he stop, but at first he seemed like he had a new lease on life, like he'd finally rid himself of those urges that had been controlling him." Anya managed to recover impressively quickly. "You say he seemed distraught later, could you elaborate?" "Yes, he started cutting himself. He hadn't done it in years. He said that Mr. Thompson wasn't helping, that he only made him feel worse, that he said –" "Objection!" Elsa shouted, jumping from her seat. The bastard claimed he hadn't been expressing any suicidal ideations. Anastasia gave a loving look to her dear friend as she calmly reminded her, "This would fall under the 'catch-all' exception to the hearsay rule, Ms. Agnarrsen." The judge nodded. "Overruled." "Ms. Hawkins, would you continue?" Anastasia asked, her eyes never leaving her opponent's. "Mr. Thompson said that he was too weak, that he was pitiful, and that cutting himself only proved it. That if he didn't start acting like a man then he may as well not even bother seeing him." Elsa collapsed into her chair, glowering at her client. Fuck. "Your witness, Ms. Agnarrsen," Anya announced jovially. "Your honor, a moment to confer with my client?" Elsa asked shakily. Frollo nodded. She leaned past the associate, to whisper right in the man's ear. "Is anything she said untrue." He shook his head, fear blanketing his face. Then an idea sparked in his eye. "But he did see me again after that. Twice more actually." Elsa's face warped into a predatory grin. "Perfect," she whispered, before turning back to the judge. "I'm ready, your honor." She walked to the witness stand, her eyes even with the seated woman. "Ms Hawkins, I am truly sorry for what happened to your son," she announced. "Are you going to ask a question?" Anya heckled, prompting a quick fall of the gavel. "You pushed him to seek treatment, didn't you, Ms. Hawkins?" Elsa asked. Her demeanor had regained its former placidity and her voice was calm. "I wouldn't say that I pushed," she replied. "Firmly suggested then?" "I suppose," she sighed. "I just don't think it's healthy, those desires. People like you –" That damn celebrity status. "No offense, but you're degenerates. He needed help, I didn't want him to end up overdosing in some alley." Elsa's anger got the better of her. "Do I look like I'm overdosing in an alley?" She blinked; the question had startled her. "Well, no, but it just leads to indecent behavior." "Were you aware that numerous studies show that what actually leads to that behavior is a lack of parental support and acceptance?" Elsa asked. Anastasia should have objected, she must have been as pissed off as Elsa was. Hardly professional of her. "I was not," she gulped. "It's also what leads to suicides." That one prompted an objection. Better, hate to think you're losing your touch. "Retracted. Is it true that Jim went back to see Mr. Thompson after the incident you described?" "It is," she allowed, clearly confused. "How did he behave after his next session?" It was a dangerous question, but any damage it did could likely be undone during her direct with her client. "He seemed better, at first. He stopped cutting, he started playing sports. It seemed like he turned around. Then he started withdrawing again. I realized it had to be Mr. Thompson so I insisted that he stop seeing him. I thought it had helped, he seemed happier, but he never got any better. Then, when I came home one night –" "No further questions," Elsa interrupted her, pivoting on her heel and returning to her seat, while the witness sobbed in the stand. "Ms. Romanov, do you have any more questions?" Frollo asked. "Yes, your honor." She was once again standing before her witness. "Ms Hawkins, referring to that study my colleague mentioned, I understand this must be very difficult for you, but how did your support for your son change after he left Mr. Thompson's care?" So that's why she didn't object. I walked right into that one. "After he stopped seeing Mr. Thompson, I can't say that I was exactly okay with it, but I understood that this wasn't a thing that could just magically be changed. He had started dating someone, I tried to be supportive, I'd let him have his friend – his boyfriend over. I met him a few times. It was difficult for me, but you can't believe that I caused my son's death!" "Thank you, Ms. Hawkins, no further questions." Elsa stood. "Your honor, may I ask a recross?" "Of course, Ms. Agnarrsen," he replied, gesturing for her to continue. She stayed at her table as she asked, "This relationship, were there any problems with it before your son's untimely death?" Never ask a question you don't know the answer to, Elsa, rule one, this will bite you in the ass, you're acting desperate. "Yes," she sighed. "They broke up a few days before." Pay dirt. Anya gave her another dirty look. "Ms. Romanov, you may call your next witness," Frollo announced. "The plaintiff calls Lawrence Bartlett to the stand," Anya replied. A heavy set man wearing a cheap purple suit entered from another room. The bailiff swore him in and he took the stand. "Mr. Bartlett, would you please state for the record why you're here?" Anastasia asked. "I was a former patient of Mr. Thompson," he replied. "What were you seeing him for?" He took in a nervous breath, fidgeting the whole while. "He was supposed to help me stop being gay." "How long were you his patient?" "I saw him for three years," he admitted. "In that time did you manage to be," Anastasia swallowed, forcing the last word out, "cured?" "For the first year it seemed like I was getting better, I even managed to have my first girlfriend." "Then what happened?" "We broke up. And I spiraled." "Could you elaborate?" Anastasia asked, walking around the witness stand. "She found out that I had these urges and she left me. When that happened, I lost it, I started screwing every guy in sight." "To steal a line from the defense, how did that make you feel?" She smiled, her gaze level with Elsa's. One of the juror's chuckled lightly "At the time, I felt terrible. Now I know that I shouldn't have, that I only felt terrible because that's what Mr. Thompson taught me to feel. There's nothing wrong with who I am, and he made me hate myself for it!" "What did that lead to?" "After a few weeks of living like that, but still seeing him every week, he had me convinced that I was just too weak, that I could be straight if I only wanted to. I couldn't take it anymore. I was so tired of hating myself, of not being able to stand the man looking back at me in the mirror. So I tried to end it all." "Who would you say is responsible for that?" She asked, her voice soothing. "He was!" Lawrence screamed, pointing a finger at Alistair. "He made me hate myself so much that I couldn't see any other way out of it." "No further questions." The associate next to Elsa, whom she had not bothered to learn the name of, attempted to stand, Elsa stopped her. She wasn't making that mistake again. She approached the witness. "Why did you go see Mr. Thompson in the first place?" Elsa asked. "What do you mean?" Lawrence gaped, confusion clear on his face. "I wanted to be cured." "So you already hated who you were before you saw him?" "Well, I suppose, but he only made it worse!" "You just said for the first year, he made you better, is that not true?" "Well it was –" "No further questions." She took her seat again. Anya continued to glower at her. "Ms. Romanov, do you have a re-direct, or would you like to call your next witness?" Frollo asked impatiently. Anastasia chewed on her lip. "I have no further questions for Mr. Bartlett and I call Dr. Joshua Sweet to the stand," she finally answered. A few minutes later, a large man, wearing a pale grey suit appeared before the courtroom. "Dr. Sweet, would you state your credentials for the court?" Anastasia asked. "I'm a board certified psychiatrist, and a member of both the APA and the AMA. I've been working with patients for the last twenty years, first as a psychologist then as a psychiatrist after I obtained my medical degree. I've worked with a number of people who underwent conversion therapy and have had to be treated for PTSD due to it." Of course she saved him for last. "I have here a study that you published, that I would like to enter into evidence," she handed the judge, Elsa, and the witness copies of the paper. "Would you enlighten us on your study?" "Of course. It's one of a number of studies going over the damages of conversion therapy. As I mentioned early, many patients display symptoms of PTSD, and there isn't any evidence that someone's orientation can actually be changed," he explained, indicating various passages in the paper to emphasize his points. "What are some of the potential results of attempted conversion therapy?" "It can be very damaging to patients, it often results in self-destructive behavior, negative self image, and in extreme cases, suicide." "In your expert opinion, was Mr. Thompson responsible for Mr. Hawkin's death?" "Objection, leading the witness," Elsa called. "Sustained." The gavel hammered again. "No further questions." Elsa took her place before the witness. "Dr. Sweet, have you ever personally examined Mr. Thompson's particular methods of conversion therapy?" She asked, resting a hand lightly on the corner of the witness stand. "I haven't worked with him in particular, but from my research, all methods of conversion therapy are more or less equally damaging." "More or less? So you assert that some are more damaging than others?" "Well of course, everything could always be worse. The ones that try to beat kids into being straight, are certainly more damaging than the therapists who just tell them to be straight." "So it's possible that my client's methods aren't as damaging?" "I haven't worked with him, I don't know what his methods are." "No, you don't, so you can't say with any clarity what his methods may entail or cause, correct?" "I suppose not, but in my experience they are all incredibly harmful." "Is it true that you also never worked with Jim Hawkins?" she asked, clasping her hands behind her as she turned slightly toward the jury to judge their reaction. "That is correct." "Could other factors, such as having been recently dumped by his boyfriend, or having a mother who pushed him into therapy in the first place have led to Jim Hawkins' suicide? Dr. Sweet hesitated for a moment. "Of course, a number of things could have led to that, I can't say with certainty which one." "No further questions." "Ms. Romanov, do you have a re-direct?" Judge Frollo asked. "I have no further questions, and no more witnesses at this time," she replied, sighing lightly. "Wonderful. It's lunch time, I'll call an hour-long recess, and then the plaintiff can call their first witness." The gavel sounded again, and Frollo rose to exit the room. Both of the people to Elsa's left stared at her. "Can I help you?" she asked, desperate to go get food. She'd skipped breakfast, as she always did when Tiana was out of town. This time she was shooting another episode of a TV show. "Are we going to win?" Alistair asked, his fingers tapping out a staccato on the table. Elsa pinched the bridge of her nose, sighing heavily. Just let me get some food so I don't faint during your direct. "Can't say that just yet, but I mitigated most of the damage they could have done, there's no reason to think that you'll lose." "Even after –" "Even after everything, now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go get some food." "I'll go with you," the associate suggested, rising from her chair. Elsa ignored the toadie, heading to her car. She would be more capable of dealing with this, once her stomach was no longer so empty. The shorter woman had trouble keeping pace with Elsa's stride, but her more sensible shoes allowed her to catch up at the entrance to the courthouse. "Just let me eat alone," Elsa sighed, "I need time to breathe." The younger woman pouted but left her alone. She may have said something in response, but Elsa wasn't listening as she headed for her car. She drove to Oaken's, she needed some comfort food, this fight with Anastasia was taking a lot out of her. I just hope it doesn't cost me equity. When she arrived at the counter, Oaken greeted her warmly. "Hoo hoo, Elsa, it's been a few days." "Yeah, Tiana insisted I actually eat breakfast while she was in town," she replied, yearning for silence. "The usual?" "With a hot chocolate," she answered, handing him a ten and taking a corner seat so she could gaze out the window and prepare herself for the rest of the trial. Maybe skipping breakfast every morning isn't the best plan. At least I had some coffee. Her hot chocolate and chocolate croissant were brought to her table. Elsa took a bite of the croissant as she watched the pedestrians walk by. With my next two witnesses and a decent closing I'm pretty certain I'll win, that's not even really up for debate. I'm going to make equity. I just might lose Anastasia in the process. They hadn't exactly been close the last year, but losing her from her life forever was still somewhat of an overwhelming prospect. She blew on the hot chocolate while she mentally went over her questions and closing again. Back in courtroom 2B, the case of Hawkins v Thompson resumed. The honorable Judge Frollo banged his gavel and silence resumed. "Is the defense ready to call their first witness?" He asked once everyone was seated. "Yes, your honor," Elsa answered. "The defense calls Alistair Thompson to the stand." A few moments later, Elsa approached her client in the witness stand. "Mr Thompson, what makes you entitled to help these people?" she asked. "I'm a board accredited therapist, with my masters from Ohio State University," he replied, having regained his composure over the course of the recess. "What would you say is your success rate?" "Well, it depends on what you consider success. Around a third of my patients manage to completely overcome all urges, a third manage to live healthy lives while still occasionally dabbling in their less savory urges, and another third simply don't put in the work." "Which third would you say Mr. Hawkins was in?" "He simply didn't put in the work," Alistair explained, sounding on the verge of tears. He really is a good actor. "What could you have done differently to prevent this tragedy?" "Nothing, I'm afraid. I confronted him when I found out that he was cutting. I do not approve of self harm, but he said that was the furthest it has ever gone, and he had no desire to die." "Objection," Anastasia called. "Ms. Romanov," Frollo explained in the most belittling way possible, "I do believe you already explained that the catch-all exception covers this. Overruled, sit down." Alistair continued. "He seemed to be doing better after I confronted him. Maybe if he'd continued his therapy with me, this wouldn't have happened." "No further questions." Anastasia approached the witness stand. "As already demonstrated in Exhibit A, are you aware that your practice has been time and again shown to only cause harm to your patients?" Anya asked. Mr. Thompson smirked. "None of these studies were done with my practice, other conversion therapists may be hacks, most of them aren't even accredited, but I know what I'm doing and I've been able to help a number of people." "Do you have any evidence to back that up?" Ms. Romanov asked, her own smirk rivaling that of the witness. "I believe that would be my lawyer's next witness," he replied slyly. "Then let's get to that," she announced, "No further questions." "The defense calls Eli La Bouff to the stand," Elsa announced. A few minutes later, she stood before her witness. "Mr. La Bouff, could you explain your relationship to Mr. Thompson?" "I'm a patient of his," he answered. "I've been seeing him for over ten years." "Has he managed to help you?" He took in a deep breath, it was fairly clear he was uncomfortable talking about his past. Glad he didn't chicken out today. "He's helped me a lot. When I first started seeing him, I'd been very troubled. I was doing unspeakable things, I was snorting cocaine, sleeping with men, my life was not a good one. Since he started treating me, I've managed to get my life into a much better place. I've shaken those cravings, I have a wife and a beautiful daughter. I'm even able to hold a steady job. I don't know what I would have done without Mr. Thompson." "Thank you, no further questions." Anya promptly took her place. "Did you ever meet Jim Hawkins?" she asked. "Perhaps in the waiting room." "No, I didn't." "So you can't really say anything about his mental state or how Mr. Thompson was treating him?" "I'm only here to attest that Mr. Thompson helped me a great deal and that he can help others too." "No further questions." Elsa was out of witnesses. A few other patients had come forward offering to testify, more than she had expected, but just repeating the same thing over and over again wasn't going to help. She didn't want to overwhelm the facts of the case with redundant information from character witnesses. "I have no redirect and no further witnesses, your honor." "Very well," the judge answered. "Ms. Romanov, your closing statement." Anastasia stood and straightened her suit. The fitted navy number made her look older than she was. "You have seen the harm that conversion therapy can do. You have seen the harm that Mr. Thompson himself has done. He caused Mr. Bartlett to attempt to kill himself, and everything suggests that he caused the same thing for Mr Hawkins, he just had more luck with that attempt. Conversion therapy is an incredibly dangerous practice. Ms. Agnarrsen will argue that there were other causes that contributed to Mr. Hawkins' death, but she can not change the fact that Mr. Thompson was one of those causes. You can't let him get away with that. Alistair Thompson is a monster who makes money teaching people to hate themselves and forcing them to be someone else. His actions caused Ms. Hawkins's son's death. Next it could be your son," she looked from one juror to another, "or your daughter. The preponderance of the evidence suggests that he played a role in Jim Hawkins's death, it's up to you to make sure he pays for it." She blinked back her tears and took her seat. Even I feel bad after hearing that, and I'm a cold-hearted bitch, I'm sure the jury ate it up. Let's not let it sink in. Elsa approached the jury box, her steps unhurried. "There's no denying that Jim Hawkins's death was a great tragedy, I've maintained that this entire time. I weep every time another one of us is victimized. This child was mistreated by his mother and forced to see a therapist that he clearly didn't want to see. However, it was only when he was out of my client's care that this tragedy occurred. He hadn't seen Mr. Thompson in two months, he had just been dumped, and his mother has explicitly stated that she was still having trouble accepting him. He didn't kill himself due to therapeutic malpractice, he killed himself because he was a sad, hurt boy, who felt like no one loved him. You can disagree with my client's practice all you want, I certainly do, but that doesn't make him responsible for what happened. Don't make an innocent man pay, because a boy's mother refused to accept him. You're better than that." Wow, I only hate myself a little. She took her seat, letting out a long exhale and staring up at the ceiling. Whatever happened next, it was out of her hands now. "Ms. Romanov, do you have a rebuttal?" Frollo asked, looking as if he desperately wanted the answer to be no. "Yes, your honor." Anastasia walked before the jury, looking each of them in the eye. "It's true, there were a lot of factors that contributed to Jim Hawkins's death, but he wasn't an unloved and unaccepted boy. His mother took her time, but she met his boyfriend, she embraced who he was, she only had to get away from the influence of people like Alistair Thompson to do so. A man she trusted to help her son, and who caused his death. There's no escaping that. Make him pay." She took her seat again. Neither she nor Elsa met the other's eyes. "The jury will now break to deliberate," the bailiff announced before the jurors filed out of the room.
The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act initiative has officially qualified for the November ballot, according to the Oregon Secretary of State office. If approved by voters the initiative would make both marijuana and industrial hemp legal under state law. Marijuana would be legalized for adults over the age of 21, and the initiative would allow the commercial sale of marijuana through highly regulated state-licensed stores. The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act will appear on the ballot as “Measure 80.” The vast majority of the tax revenue generated by the sale of marijuana would go to the state general fund. Eight percent of the money raised as a result of the initiative would be set aside for drug treatment and education programs. An additional two percent would be used to promote hemp products. A survey from earlier this month by Public Policy Polling found Oregon voters closely divided on the issue of marijuana legalization. According to the poll 43 percent of Oregon voters think the use of marijuana should be legal, while 46 percent think marijuana should be illegal. This makes Oregon now the third state this year to have a marijuana legalization initiative qualify for the November ballot. It joins Washington State and Colorado, both of which had legalization initiatives qualify for their respective ballots earlier in the cycle.
Yesterday we freed several hundred illegally caught bluefin tuna, just a week after our ship the Steve Irwin left Malta. Having recently returned from an eventful anti-whaling campaign in Antarctic waters, I've discovered the Mediterranean brings different challenges. The engine room has turned into a sauna and sleeping is hard with the soaring heat radiating through the deck above. We are in one of the most overfished seas in the world and have been patrolling the area south of Malta for illegal fishing operations. In summer the waters of the Mediterranean are calm and warm. Warming up from the east, once the temperature near the surface reaches over 20C, it is an ideal spot for bluefin tuna populations to spawn. The bluefin tuna is a highly prized fish, which finds its way into the Asian markets as a sushi delicacy. But this increasing demand for the fish has taken its toll on the Mediterranean populations, of which 85% has disappeared in the last 50 years. Day and night we encounter fishing vessels. Our radar is dotted with targets but until yesterday all of the French, Italian and Tunisian vessels we have come across had fishing permits and were frequently escorted by French or Maltese patrol ships. It is no surprise they don't take chances, with both Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace currently active in the area. With European navy and coastguard vessels patrolling the waters around Malta and in the Tyrrhenian Sea, we decided to enter Libyan waters, an area known for illegal and unregulated fishing. The country claimed a 62 mile fishing zone off its coast in 2005 and has since stopped any independent observers or patrol vessels from entering. Inspectors from the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), which manages the bluefin tuna fishery, have been hindered from doing their work. Illegal fishing is believed to be widespread in the area, with one important bluefin tuna spawning area in the Libyan zone of the Gulf of Syrte attracting many fishermen. Greenpeace planned to head into Libyan waters a couple of years ago, but shelved the plan. While neither the EU, nor other Mediterranean countries acknowledge Libya's new fishing zone claim, no nation has dared to enter the disputed waters. The situation is getting desperate for a fish that is set on a course towards extinction in the near future. In recent years, many attempts to give bluefin tuna added protection through the conventional political processes have failed. In this light, the willingness to directly intervene against illegal fishermen in this most lucrative type of fishing operations might be one of the last chances to get attention for the issue and get the species better protection to ensure its survival. While the atmosphere on the ship is good, there is a slight hint of nervousness, not knowing what lies ahead. We all realise we are in the waters of a country which has facilitated illegal fishing for many years and might not back down from using force to hinder us. However, our crew is defiant and ready to take the risks necessary to see the mission through. As the US senator and environmentalist Gaylord Nelson once said: "The ultimate test of man's conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard". • Wietse van der Werf works as ship's carpenter and engineer on the Sea Shepherd vessel Steve Irwin
If you live halfway up a mountain in rural Peru, and if you have no access to running water, farming can be a difficult task. In a town called Villa Lourdes, villagers receive deliveries of fresh drinking water three times a week from Lima—and they used to have to schlep a good deal of that water up the hill to irrigate their crops. That's until a different, all together more elegant solution presented itself: Fog. Using 'Atrapanieblas'—large nets erected on the hillside—farmers like Maria Teresa Avalos Cucho take advantage of the daily fog to capture condensation, harvesting between 200 and 400 liters a day from each panel—which is then stored in tanks, and gravity-fed to the crops below. It's efficient. It's resilient. And it's a hell of a lot more economical than paying truck drivers to bring water each day. According to the fabulous Permaculture Magazine , where I found this particular gem of a video, harvesting fog also has particular potential in coastal areas where the alternative is energy-hungry desalination. As we've noted before, fog harvesting also has been utilized in urban areas to bring fresh water to the slums Check out ClimateTechWiki for more on the technicalities of fog harvesting.
There were friends, fellowship, and of course, an abundance of food on hand as the Alabama offensive line spent the weekend enjoying a bonding trip at Lake Wedowee. All were needed as the Crimson Tide looks to build chemistry across the unit while taking a break from its taxing summer workout regime. “That's the big part of the offensive line," Alabama center Bradley Bozeman said during SEC Media Days last week. "Our whole room is filled with great guys that are great competitors. We're going to go up there and chill.” Don't miss: Texas A&M players have respect for hard-hitting Mack Wilson Perhaps no one needed the mini vacation as much as Bozeman, who joined teammates Calvin Ridley and Minkah Fitzpatrick as the three members of the Tide to represent Alabama during SEC Media Days in Hoover, Ala., last week. The humble offensive lineman deflected praise and pushed aside possible distractions with the same amount of ease he manhandled defenders on the field last season. By the end of Alabama’s turn in front of cameras on Wednesday, it was obvious why head coach Nick Saban had selected the Handley, Ala., native to handle the event. “It’s an awesome experience, to be selected by my coaches to represent my teammates,” Bozeman said. “There’s a lot of guys that deserve to be up here to represent the University of Alabama football team, and I’m blessed that I’m here.” Don’t let Bozeman’s modest nature fool you, the 6-foot-5, 314-pound lineman is one of the most important members on the Tide’s roster. While he didn’t accompany fellow Alabama linemen Jonah Williams and Ross Pierschbacher on the SEC Media Days preseason All-SEC first team, Bozeman, a second-team selection, returns as the Tide’s leader up front this season. Dubbed Alabama’s “unsung hero” by head coach Nick Saban, Bozeman started all 15 games last season, helping the Tide lead the SEC in scoring offense with 38.8 points per game. This year the veteran lineman projects to be the only senior on a young starting offensive line. That’s a role he isn’t taking lightly. “It’s the little things that determine scoring a touchdown or kicking a field goal,” Bozeman said. “It’s part of the process, you have to do everything correctly no matter if you want to or not. We have to with our leadership, that’s part of it. Our leadership can’t waiver.” While Bozeman will be critical in making sure the line stays in check, a big part of Alabama’s success will depend on how some of its younger players adapt to the next level. Williams, Pierschbacher and Bozeman have cemented their roles on the left side of Alabama’s line. However, the Tide saw plenty of uncertainty on the right side this spring. “I feel like coming out of the spring that we had four players who really demonstrated that they could play winning football on the offensive line,” Saban said. “And I felt like we had four or five other players who certainly showed signs that they could be that player that made the fifth starter, whether at right guard or right tackle. “I think all those players have competed very well this summer. And it will be interesting to see how they mature in fall camp. And I don't think that decision is going to get made until sometime in fall camp.” Lester Cotton, who earned third-team honors in the preseason Media Days poll, figures to land one of the two open spots on the right side. The junior started at both guard and tackle during the spring and appears capable at both positions. That leaves one spot open as the Tide heads into fall camp. Redshirt freshman Deonte Brown earned a start at right guard during Alabama’s second spring scrimmage, while redshirt sophomore Matt Womack started two scrimmages at right tackle. The Tide will also bring in a pair five-star freshman in Alex Leatherwood and Jedrick Wills. Leatherwood, an early enrollee, was the No. 1 offensive tackle and No. 4 player overall in the 2017 class. Wills, who came in over the summer, was rated as the No. 5 offensive tackle and No. 25 overall player. “We have a couple new freshman that have shown some potential over the summer,” Saban said. “And it's all going to be about who can develop and who can play with the most consistency and who is the best fit with the other four players that have all started games for us in the past.” Bozeman echoed Saban’s praise, saying that both Leatherwood and Wills have “worked their tails off” this summer. That grind will continue for the next seven weeks as Alabama prepares for its season opener against Florida State on Sept. 2. With their weekend by the water now in the rearview mirror, it’s back to business until then. “They all want the spot,” Bozeman said. “It’s not really given to anybody, so you are going to have to earn it.” Comment Inside The Talk Of Champions Message Board Here
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Since the Browns returned in 1999, they've never had a defense this good. Not even close. It's only five games and much can change, but the fact is that Ray Horton's defense is ranked No. 4 in the NFL. The highest the Browns have ever been before is 10th in 2011, under Dick Jauron. After that, it's 15th with Dave Campo in 2004, the season the Browns finished 4-12 and coach Butch Davis quit after 11 games because he was having panic attacks -- or something. Ah, the memories for those who follow the orange helmets. Which is why I wanted to write this story, risking the possibility of jinxing the defense. There is more behind the three-game winning streak than all the quarterback talk about Brian Hoyer and Brandon Weeden. Some weeks, the defense has been good. Other weeks, it's been close to great, as was the case in the 17-6 victory over Cincinnati. Offensive coordinator Norv Turner mentioned the defense at his Thursday press conference. He said the offense has to continue to keep away from turnovers, "so we give our defense a chance to keep playing like they've been playing." The impressive aspect is how solid the defense has been in nearly every aspect: Third in sacks, seventh vs. the pass, eighth vs. the run, ninth in points allowed. It's the type of quick, swarming, aggressive defense that the front office and head coach Rob Chudzinski pictured when they hired Horton, who lost his job as Arizona's defensive coordinator following a head coaching change. In his job interview with the front office, Chudzinski said he favored a 3-4 defense because he found it harder to face than the 4-3 played by the 2012 Browns. Chudzinski didn't know Horton on more than a very casual basis. CEO Joe Banner was very impressed when interviewing Horton for the head coaching job. When Banner decided on Chudzinski, he suggested the new coach meet with Horton. The two men talked for several hours, and Chudzinski was sold on Horton and his defensive style. Like it or not -- and I think most fans love it -- Horton brought his version of the Steelers defense to Cleveland. He had been a Pittsburgh assistant from 2004-10. Making the investment The front office decided to back Horton with two major free agent signings worth up to a combined $74 million -- Desmond Bryant and Paul Kruger. The first-round draft pick was Barkevious Mingo, a 4-3 defensive end converted to outside linebacker. Horton often asks his players to "trust" him and his judgment. Well, the front office and Chudzinski have trusted Horton to transform the 23rd-ranked defense in 2012 into a totally different model. Bryant, Kruger and Mingo are huge additions. Bryant leads the team with 3.5 sacks, right behind is Mingo at 3.0. But consider that the Browns' 18 sacks have been recorded by 13 players. Outside linebackers coach Brian Baker has done a tremendous job taking Jabaal Sheard and Mingo -- both 4-3 defensive ends -- and converting them into 3-4 linebackers. That doesn't always work. Mingo missed the first two games with a bruised lung. Sheard has missed the last two with a knee injury. Veteran linebacker Quentin Groves hasn't played for three weeks with an ankle injury. The grand plan was for the Browns to have four outside linebackers rotating in to keep the pressure on the quarterback. But in most games, they've only had two healthy. Kruger is the only outside linebacker to play in all five games. "(Horton) puts us in position to make plays and gives us some free rein," said Kruger. "He trusts us to make plays." Up front matters Defensive captain D'Qwell Jackson set the tone by accepting Horton immediately. One of the first phone calls Horton received after being hired was from Jackson. Drafted in 2006, Jackson was getting his fifth defensive coordinator. The same is true for Ahtyba Rubin, drafted in 2008. Both veterans embraced Horton, who talked about the need to "overlook the past performance and history" of the defense. Horton knew that for some players, the changes in coaches and schemes kept coming -- Jackson went from the 3-4 to 4-3 to 3-4 -- but the results were the same. For the Browns, it was either 5-11 or 4-12 with a defense that could not stop the run. Horton intended to change that. "We can talk about trust, but the best way to get by past (losing) performances is to go out and play well," said Horton. That's what the team has done. Younger players such as second-year safety TaShaun Gipson almost worship Horton. "I've never heard anyone like him," said the undrafted free agent from Wyoming. "He's so intense, so inspirational." Horton praises the "character" of his team, especially the veterans. He talked about how they have "overcome adversity" and how they "are doing the work" in the classroom and film rooms. Horton's hiring was greeted with great expectations, and so far, he and his players have delivered. BROWNS DEFENSIVE IMPROVEMENT Category 2013 2012 Overall 4th 23rd Sacks 3rd 11th Pass 7th 25th Rush 8th 19th Points 9th 19th
The Cleveland Browns have a 'very strong and sincere' interest in hiring Peyton Manning in some capacity according to CBS Sports' Jason La Canfora. "Browns owner Jimmy Haslam's interest in having Peyton Manning join his franchise in a prominent team president/top executive role is very strong and sincere, league sources said." La Canfora believes Manning's competitive nature will drive him back to the game sooner rather than later. He has been in no rush to decide his next career decision to this point. The former NFL quarterback is likely seeking some ownership stake in any venture he takes on. The Tennessee Titans and New Orleans Saints are believed to be his preferred destinations. It is unknown if an opportunity would be available with either of those organizations. Manning played at the University of Tennessee so he has strong connections to the state. His family is from the state of Louisiana. Haslam is reportedly willing to offer a potential share in the franchise. His relationship with Manning dates back to the quarterback's high school recruitment. He is a high-standing booster for the Volunteers. The relationship between the two could lead Cleveland to having a fighter's chance. La Canfora believes it is a certainty that the Browns make key personnel decisions this off-season that would include head coach Hue Jackson and Executive Vice President of Football Operations Sashi Brown. The 41-year old played 14 seasons with the Indianapolis Colts before finishing his career with the Denver Broncos. He was a 14-time Pro Bowl selection as well as a two-time Super Bowl champion. For his career, he completed 6,125-of-9,380 passes for 71,940 yards, 539 touchdowns and 251 interceptions. Manning was the No. 1 overall selection in the 1998 NFL Draft.
Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses. 17 Arrested, 27 Injured in Madrid Clashes After Massive March Against Austerity March 22, 2014 Russia TV, March 22, 2014 Madrid -- Anti-austerity demonstrators crowd into Colon square as they take part in a demonstration which organisers have labeled the "Marches of Dignity" in Madrid, March 22, 2014 Protesters clashed with police in Madrid as thousands of people trekked across Spain to protest austerity which they claim is destroying their country. Under the banner "no more cuts!" the protesters called for an end to the government’s "empty promises." Police arrested 17 protesters and 27 were said to be injured during the clashes which took place after the march, El Mundo newspaper reported, posting graphic video footage of the arrests. Twenty of the injured are said to be police officers. One of them is reported to be seriously injured. Protesters were seen throwing stones and firecrackers at police. According to witnesses, officers used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators. Clashes broke out during a final speech at the demonstration when protesters tried to break through a police barrier. Riot police took charge by beating protesters with batons, AP reported. “A group of the protesters have been facing scuffles with police, particularly young protesters with their faces covered apparently attacked one of these police barricades,” RT’s Egor Piskunov reported from Madrid. “Ambulances were seen at the spot. Lots of police there as well.” Piskunov added that the rally is still going on with “very heavy police presence around the hotels.” Six “columns” of trains, cars and buses, as well as bands of pedestrians have travelled from Extremadura, Andalusia, Valencia, Murcia, Asturias, Galicia and Aragon, among other Spanish regions, to converge on Madrid in mass protest this Saturday. The demonstration itself has been dubbed 22-M, Marches for dignity. Eight groups of activists are expected to move into the Spanish capital at different points throughout the course of the day. As a precautionary measure, the Madrid authorities have closed roads in the center of the city and asked people to use public transport whenever possible on Saturday. In addition, the Spanish authorities have deployed 1,650 riot police to keep the situation under control in Madrid. The protest movement is demanding an end to the so-called Troika-style cuts in Spain, more jobs and affordable housing. “Why am I here? I’m sick of this government. With all the promises they never fulfill. They said they were going to create more jobs and lower the taxes but it’s a lie! Instead, unemployment rose from 4 to 6 million. This is the only way we can fight back,” one of the protestors, who had been on the road since March 9, told RT correspondent Egor Piskunov. A large proportion of the protesters who have made their way on foot to the Spanish capital are unemployed and plan to camp in Madrid until their demands are met. “There are too many reasons: my sons have to work every day from 8 in the morning to five of the next morning only for 400 euros per month! Also I'm a teacher and I know what cuts in the public sector mean,” said another activist. “All these evictions - this is insane. I'm marching to Madrid because I can't walk to Berlin or Brussels. We must stop them and the Troika!” Hundreds of people are evicted from their homes every day in Spain. The General Council of the Judiciary reported that 49,984 forced evictions had been carried out across the country last year, which averages about 185 a day. A fireman stands in front of demonstrators, some of them waving flags of the Spanish second republic, during a march dubbed "the Marches for Dignity 22-M" to protest against austerity in Madrid on March 22, 2014. (AFP Photo / Gerard Julien) The number of evictions reached an all-time high in Spain in 2012 with over 500 a day, according to a report by the BBC. This combined with an unemployment rate of 26 percent, the second highest in Europe after Greece, has left many Spanish citizens with nowhere to turn. This is reflected in the growing number of suicides in the country, with the country’s National Institute of Statistics estimating that at least 8 people take their lives every day in the country. Pepe Caballero, one of the organizers of the protests said the Spanish government is trying to return Spain to the Franco era. “What the government wants is to go back to the Franco years and keep the working class from demonstrating in the streets and saying what our main problems are. We won't allow that to happen and they know it,” Caballero told RT, adding that the protest movement will change Spain from the “bottom to the top.” At the beginning of this month, the Spanish Minister of Employment Fatima Banez said that Spain had finally pulled itself out of the recession and registered economic growth. However, the Spanish Union of Workers dismissed Banez’s announcements as “government propaganda.”
OPEC and non-cartel members may be employing a wrongheaded approach to shrinking a global supply glut, according to Dieter Helm, economist and Professor of Energy Policy at the University of Oxford in the U.K. Speaking at the International Petroleum Week in London last week, Helm struck a decidedly dour outlook on the oil industry, arguing that history suggests prices are only heading one way—down. That means, if you are a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Counties or another major oil producer, you should boost production, rather than scale it back. “For the NOC’s (National Oil Companies) in the Middle East and elsewhere, increasing production is quite a good idea, because you’re going to need the money and you might as well get your stuff out of the ground now rather than later. So, the opposite of what’s currently happening,” Helm said. Read: Why oil prices will never return to $100 a barrel, in one chart After months of speculation, negotiations and anticipation, OPEC and 11 non-OPEC producers, including Russia, came together in December and hammered out a historic deal to curtail oil production. The idea was to make a dent in the world’s oversupply, which has hammered prices that peaked at more than $100 a barrel back in 2014. The deal has largely been credited with lifting oil prices US:CLJ7 UK:LCOJ7 about 20% in recent months and has been hailed as a success by the participating nations. Read: OPEC output deal made ‘remarkable impact’ on oil prices, Qatar minister says But Helm says—regardless of any OPEC action—prices are going to fall, which means oil today is worth more than oil tomorrow. From that perspective, there is no incentive to leave oil in the ground longer then necessary as you would make less profit on it in the future than you would right now. Read: The 3 major risks keeping oil executives up at night Even $50 oil is high in historic view Of course, the big question is whether oil prices will in fact head lower in coming years. Delegates at the London conference were optimistic that prices could remain around $55 or higher, but historic data offer a different outlook, according to Helm. “$50 oil is a very high price for oil and over the next decade or so the price of oil will probably carry on gradually falling, as it did for 100 years, between 1870-1970,” he said. Helm says there isn’t a direct correlation between demand for oil and a rise in prices (i.e., higher demand doesn’t necessarily result in higher fuel prices), based on historical data. “It didn’t [between 1870 and 1970]. And it probably won’t in the future,” he said. BP As the chart from BP BP, +0.02% BP., -0.55% shows, oil prices—adjusted for inflation—gradually moved lower for a century, before political unrest in the Middle East in the 1970s coincided with a sharp rally. Then prices reverted closer to their historic average until oil prices jumped above $100 amid the Arab Spring in 2011. Higher oil prices may have encouraged a ramp up in production, particularly in the U.S., which created such a supply glut that prices came crashing down in 2014. Crude oil bottomed out below $27 a barrel in Feb. 11, 2016 and has since soared to trade around $54, partly due to OPEC’s efforts. “So, OPEC may have cobbled together something for six months, in my view relatively ineffectively, but this is a temporary dam and it is very, very likely that it will fail,” Helm said. The Oxford professor and author of several oil-related books also offered other arguments as to why its game-over for rising oil prices. The sharper focus on climate change will decrease demand for fossil fuels, he said, while digitization means less need for transporting people and goods around. To be sure, not everyone is downbeat on the future for oil. Citigroup strategist earlier this week said Brent oil could rally to $70 by year-end, while Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at the PRICE Futures Group, said they have been targeting $73-a-barrel for U.S. crude and $71-a-barrel for Brent since January. At the International Petroleum week conference in London, which featured some of the oil industry’s key figures, the sentiment among oil executives was relatively upbeat. “Some have started to predict the near end of our industry. I could not disagree more. I’m confident that we will play a constructive part as the world will need a lot of oil and gas even in a [climate change] scenario,” said Jens Økland, executive vice president at Norwegian oil giant Statoil STL, -1.08% Want news about Europe delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to MarketWatch's free Europe Daily newsletter. Sign up here.
Cops applaud presidential candidate By Jim Kouri web posted January 7, 2008 While most of the politicians vying for their party's nomination for President of the United States pay lip service to the nation's law enforcement officers, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) is actually doing something to earn the respect and gratitude of America's cops, according to many police officers and organizations. For example, the American Federation of Police -- with well over 100,000 members -- recently praised Ron Paul for introducing a bill that would help cops obtain topnotch body armor that would withstand rounds fired from most firearms. Rep. Paul's bill -- HR 3304 -- would amend the Internal Revenue Code to provide for a tax credit to law enforcement officers who purchase their own body armor. "I urge all police officers and concerned citizens to contact their congressmen and ask them to support Rep. Paul's bill," said Deputy Sheriff Dennis Wise, president of the American Federation of Police. "I would also like to applaud Congressman Ron Paul for his support and forward thinking in trying to help make law enforcement officers across our nation safer each day," said Wise. Rep. Ron Paul appears to be popular with many US cops. "He's never found it necessary to force police officers to stand with him for photo opportunities the way other presidential candidates such as Hillary Clinton do," said New York Police Officer Edna Aguayo. One police officer claims cops in New York and other states are forced to pose with the likes of Senators Hillary Clinton and John McCain. If an officer refuses, he or she is charged with insubordination by their superiors. "It's a joke how these cops are used as props during election campaigns. But Ron Paul doesn't pay cops lip service -- he actually works to help them enforce the law," said another cop forced to pose with Sen. Clinton during one of her staged "rallies." Public opinion service Rasmussen Reports recently released data from its October 12-14 polling that indicates that Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul leads his GOP opponents against Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton among likely voters ages 30-49. He is the leading White House contender for the key demographic, polling higher than Clinton among baby boomers. Congressman Paul polls in at 47%, compared with Clinton's 44%, among likely voters aged 40-49. The 30-49 demographic has been a key indicator in recent elections, and one in which Republicans tend to fare well in hotly-contested elections. In 2004, exit polls reveal that George Bush beat John Kerry 53% to 46% among 30-44 year olds, and all accounts indicate that this will be the most instrumental demographic in the 2008 presidential election as well. â€œRon Paul is the only Republican candidate who can beat Hillary Clinton,â€ claims political strategist Kent Snyder. More than 3,000 police officers' lives have been saved by body armor since the mid-1970s when the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) began testing and developing body armor and performance standards for ballistic and stab resistance. Recognition and acceptance of the NIJ standard has grown worldwide, making it the performance benchmark for ballistic-resistant body armor. Body armor can provide protection against a significant number of types of handgun ammunition, but law enforcement personnel must keep in mind that armor is categorized and rated for different threat levels. Additional protection should be worn for SWAT team operations, hostage rescues, or Special Operations assignments, when officers may be exposed to a weapon threat greater than the protection provided by regular duty armor, according to the National Institute of Justice. Rank-and-file police officers also applaud Rep. Paul for his pro-sovereignty stance. "The talk must stop. We must secure our borders now. A nation without secure borders is no nation at all. It makes no sense to fight terrorists abroad when our own front door is left unlocked," said the Texas congressman during a campaign rally. In addition, Congressman Ron Paul believes that the Second Amendment is "not about duck hunting." It is an individual right that is guaranteed. He stated that he believes it is about the citizenry having the ability to restrain tyrannical governments and would be dictators. He believes the Second Amendment is about self-defense from criminal attack and from governments that break away from the chains of the Constitution. According to a poll conducted by the National Association of Chiefs of Police, more than 75% of the nation's police officers agree with Rep. Paul's stance on gun ownership including private citizens carrying concealed weapons for personal protection. Just recently Congressman Paul opposed the reauthorization of the Clinton-Feinstein semi-auto gun ban. He opposes gun and gunowner registration. And Paul opposes government permission systems that force law-abiding citizens "prove" their innocence before buying or owning firearms. AFP president Dennis Wise agrees with Rep. Paul's stance on gun control. "When our founding fathers assembled to write one of the greatest papers ever written -- our Constitution -- they put down the amendments ... in the order of their importance," said Wise. Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and he's a staff writer for the New Media Alliance. Kouri also serves as political advisor for Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Michael Moriarty. He's former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for several major organizations. He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country. Kouri writes for many police and security magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer and others. He's a news writer for TheConservativeVoice.Com and PHXnews.com. He's also a columnist for AmericanDaily.Com, MensNewsDaily.Com, MichNews.Com, and he's syndicated by AXcessNews.Com. He's appeared as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, Fox News, etc. His book Assume The Position is available at Amazon.Com. Kouri's own website is located at http://jimkouri.us Send a link to this story Home
Updating the job numbers with the new numbers that are out today continues to show that virtually all the jobs created this year have been part time jobs. So far this year there have been 848,000 new jobs. Of those, 813,000 are part time jobs (for both economic reasons and noneconomic reasons ). As can be seen in the above screen shots from the BLS.gov, the total part-time jobs changed from 26.437 million in January to 27.250 million in August. To put it differently, an incredible 96% of the jobs added this year were part-time jobs . (It isn't clear to me why we see the differences in part time for economic and noneconomic reasons.) However, these numbers raise a question about whether the employer mandate that has already been forcing some companies to move to part-time workers so as to avoid government imposed penalties is having a significant impact. Might the relationship between the recent part time jobs and overall job growth be stronger as we were getting closer to what people thought would be the implementation of Obamacare's employer mandate ? Might we now see a divergence with the very recent one year delay in the employer mandate? Or was the 2012 election the defining event for firms to begin to study the impact more? Data from the . UPDATE 4: Using the sum of the part-time economic and noneconomic reasons. The relationship that appears to exist this year seems interesting. Using the numbers from Table A6 63% of jobs added this year were part-time jobs, which is still an amazingly high number. UPDATE: The BLS.gov also provides a sum of these two numbers ( available here ) where they get a total of 532,000 (thanks to the " Department of Numbers " for pointing this out and to Nick for emailing me about their post). That implies that Department Numbers uses this number Part-Time for Economic Reasons (LNS12032194) and Usually Work Part Time Noneconomic Reasons (LNS12005977). At least part of what is going on has to do with the seasonal adjustment of the components produces a different result than seasonally adjusting the total. I can't see any reason that looking at the total makes more sense than looking at the sum of the two components. Indeed, a strong case could be made that it is better to seasonally adjust the components and not just the total. In any case, whether it is 63% or 96% or someplace in between, it is still a large portion of the increase in jobs that is due to part time employment. Steve Bronars, a friend and a labor economist, argued that the most useful comparison might be to look at only Usually Work Part Time Noneconomic Reasons (LNS12005977). In that case, there was an increase in part-time workers of 875,000, but only an increase in jobs of 848,000. Thus, the increase in part-time jobs equals 103% of the increase in jobs from January to August. UPDATE 2: Ben at the Department of Numbers now says that the percentage using Table A-6 is 59%, not 63%, but that is using a different time period. It is easy to verify the 63% using the "total part-time" number for the change from the beginning of the year (January through August) (63% = 532,000/848,000). 532,000 = 27,999-27,467. 848,000= 144,170-143,322. It seems pretty clear to me that the number to compare the 96% to is 63%, not 59%. Labels: Economy, obamacare
Putting a stop to sex trafficking is a big deal. It’s appalling that in 2015, in the United States, people can be taken against their will and forced or coerced to perform sex acts for money—money they often don’t see a dime of, as it’s taken by pimps. That’s just wrong. However. It’s also just wrong that in an effort to stop sex trafficking, law enforcement sometimes busts escort services run by women (or men) who are of age, fully consenting, and have chosen sex work as their career path. These people are sex workers, not trafficking victims. There’s a big difference. When law enforcement arrests sex workers (or busts an escort service full of freely-choosing adults), and then tells the media they’ve rescued sex trafficking victims, that’s a slap in the face to actual sex trafficking victims, who have suffered a great deal of trauma. It doesn’t do much to help those actual victims. Sex work and sex trafficking are not the same thing. Just like sex is not the same thing as rape. So why do we conflate the two, treating them like the same thing? Why do sex workers and trafficking victims all fall under the label of “prostitutes” or “victims,” depending on your point of view? Is it just because our society condemns sex work as being immoral? Are we equally disgusted by people who choose to work in sex of their own free will, and by pimps who abduct children (the average age a child is trafficked is 12 to 14) and force them to have sex with multiple strangers a day? Isn’t the issue here, at its root, sexual freedom (or just freedom, plain and simple)? Because if that’s the issue, then we’re confused about what it means. I’ve been wondering about why we combine the two issues lately. When did this start? One theory is proposed in the report The Road North, released by Sex Workers Project in New York. Sex Workers Project works to make the world safer for sex workers AND trafficking victims, recognizing that each group needs different services. In The Road North: The Role of Gender, Poverty and Violence in Trafficking from Mexico to the US, a good theory is explored. To understand it, you have to look at the US’s history with slavery, and the population demographics during that time. During the trans-Atlantic slave trade and indentured servitude, race was the main dividing line between who was a slave and who wasn’t. But there was also economic status. Poor people would often become indentured servants to others in order to pay a debt (paying a debt is a common way people become slaves). In school, I was taught that indentured servants in Colonial America served their masters for four years to pay their passage to America, and then they were free. However, USHistory.org states: “Only about 40 percent of indentured servants lived to complete the terms of their contracts . . . . It’s hard to believe, but the practice of indentured servitude in America did not end until the early 1900s.” Anyway, back in the late 1800s, privileged women—who were not slaves, were economically well off, did not work, were Christian, were white, and had a lot of time on their hands—saw that, despite the official end of slavery, many people were still enslaved, especially poor women. So the ladies got to work. Here’s The Road North, which cites one of their sources for this information: “In the latter half of the 19th century, efforts to curb the sale and movement of women for forms of forced labor arose alongside the development of social service as profession (Augustín 2007; Ditmore 2009). At this time well-to-do white Christian women, took a particular interest in the crusade to save women of lesser economic stature, who may or may not have been working in prostitution under force.” They were the first feminists and the first social workers. And they were very, piously, uncompromisingly Christian. They looked at their low-income sisters in prostitution, and they saw victims. They saw women who couldn’t get out of poverty, or couldn’t escape cruel, abusive men. They saw women who were, essentially, slaves. And if they did encounter a woman who made her own choice to be a sex worker, our first ladylike Christian crusaders likely saw her as a victim of the economy. A lot of things have changed in the United States since the 1800s (and even the 1900s). However, we have always been big on Judeo-Christian values. What’s “right and wrong” from a Judeo-Christian perspective are inescapable elements of our cultural framework, and our institutions. In this morality-based framework, prostitution always creates victims. In this framework, there is no such thing as a respectable sex worker who has made her own choices and actually provides a service to society. She’s just a whore. “The belief that women are either forced into prostitution, or are promiscuous and deviant, continues to be reflected in current US policy and law enforcement efforts to address human trafficking and prostitution. For example, under the Trafficking Victims Protect Act (TVPA), service providers can only receive federal funding to serve victims of human trafficking if they pledge to ‘oppose the legalization or practice of prostitution.’” The fight against trafficking in the US is still largely fought by anti-prostitution feminist or religious organizations And it’s a damn shame, because while the fight against sex trafficking is important, “evidence suggests that most trafficking victims are not forced to work in the sex industry.” They’re involved in forced labor. So in our preoccupation with sex, we’re overlooking the majority of trafficking victims and slaves in our country. And that’s the theory about why we conflate sex work with trafficking. What do you think? Sound plausible? Or do you think that we just equate sex work with sex trafficking because money is involved in both? Or because both are morally repugnant to people? To learn more, I suggest reading The Road North. It’s a long report, so you can skip ahead to page 14 to read more about what I’ve written here. *** L. Marrick is an author, ghostwriter, and suitcase entrepreneur—which is a hipster way of saying she travels and works from her laptop. Her memoir, “Working Girl: 132 Somewhat Moral Values I Learned from a Sex Worker,” tells about when she answered a shady classified ad and wound up working as a sex worker’s personal assistant. Her professional website, Copy&Sundry, is where she connects with ghostwriting and blogging clients. © L. Marrick 2014. The content of this article, except for quoted or linked source materials, is protected by copyright. Please contact the author at the above links to request usage. We Fund Your Projects! 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Since its reveal at this year's E3, Call of Duty: WWII has spent much of its time teasing and demoing its incoming installment's multiplayer features. Last week, Sledgehammer Games announced both its PC beta dates and its system requires, and now the developer is lining up new information on its single player campaign. As revealed via the game's official Twitter feed, a 'Story Trailer' is due later today—while the remainder of the week will feature trailers and info segments named 'Meet the Squad', 'Meet Your Allies', and 'Real Battles. Real History' respectively. Welcome to the Front Lines: Starting Sept 18, we're bringing you a week of #CODWWII Campaign intel. Prepare for your final mission briefing. pic.twitter.com/BziHIzxcQ5September 15, 2017 As Shaun reported last week, the Call of Duty: WWII PC beta is set to run September 29 through October 2. Taking place on Steam the beta is open to everyone, meaning preorder are not required for access. Call of Duty: WWII is due November 3, 2017. Find out if your PC makes rank by checking out its system requirements.
— SeaWorld San Diego is offering free admission to active-duty military, veterans, and their families through the end of 2017. In order to be eligible for the free admission, you must have military identification and must order the tickets by Sept. 30. Park president Marilyn Hannes said, “The service and sacrifice our veterans have given our country is something that should make us all proud.” “At SeaWorld, we appreciate all they have done and we are again extending our appreciation by offering them free admission to the park. We hope they can spend a great day with us at the park with their families and friends.” Veterans also have to register online at the Waves of Honor website in advance. Those using the free admission to the park will be granted up to three additional guests.
Taste the happy! Last fall, it was announced that Arrested Development would be bringing back the whole cast to make new episodes for Netflix, premiering in 2013. As every fan of the show knows, we’ve been teased with more banana stand goodness since the moment the show went off the air in 2006. But we now have another step in the right direction: Ron Howard tweeted a photo last night that shows someone (presumably showrunner Mitch Hurwitz) in the writers’ room, along with the message “Arrested Development for Netflix. IT’S ALIVE. This is what the writer’s room looks like.” Jason Bateman also gave an update on Twitter, writing, “Taken at AD mission control, today! All systems are go. Filming for the new episodes starts in four weeks. Woo!” along with a photo. No specific release date has been announced, but it’s looking like — finally — the wait is almost over. And, since it’s actually happening, a plea to the writers: It certainly would be easy to, but please don’t forget about Ann. Read more: The return of ‘Arrested Development’: Tony Hale talks Lucille 2 and hopes for an iPad hand — EXCLUSIVE ‘Arrested Development’ officially back! Revived series coming to Netflix
Luke Thompson played 20 games across four seasons at the Crows THE AXE has continued to swing at West Lakes, with Adelaide delisting another three players in defender Luke Thompson and rookies Alex Spina and James Battersby. The latest departures finalised the club's list heading into November's NAB AFL Draft. The Crows have made nine changes since the end of season 2014, waving goodbye to retired veterans Ben Rutten and Jason Porplyzia, while cutting Jared Petrenko, Lewis Johnston and Shaun McKernan. Head of football David Noble thanked Thompson, Spina and Battersby for their service. Thompson played six games in 2014 to bring his overall tally to 20 in four seasons. "They are all good young people who were popular around our club," Noble said. "Luke, in particular, had a terrific attitude and work ethic." The club has filled two of the seven vacancies on its senior list by recruiting Hawthorn pair Kyle Cheney and Luke Lowden during the NAB Trade Period. Small forward Charlie Cameron will also be upgraded from the rookie list, which leaves four senior spots to fill at the draft.
Paris-Nice has been a staple of the cycling season since as far back as 1933, and though it’s formally nicknamed the ‘Race to the Sun’, as the riders head from the French capital to the splendid southern coast, it’s also known more informally as the first test for would-be Tour de France winners. Bradley Wiggins won this eight-day tour on route towards TDF 2012 glory, and Alberto Contador did the same in 2007 and 2010 (though, of course, he’s since had the ’10 win taken off him due to a positive test for clenbuterol). Contador’s fate was the same as Floyd Landis, who won Paris-Nice and then the Tour de France in 2006, but had his own title stripped away only four days later. But the prestige and tradition of Paris-Nice still remains strong. Paris-Nice has had to compete with an Italian upstart since 1966, the coast-to-coast Tirreno-Adriatico race. The T-A is often a hillier affair, and so steals away much of the climbing talent; this year it’s caught the eye of Roman Kreuziger, Domenico Pozzovivo, Vincenzo Nibali, Alejandro Valverde, and Tejay Van Garderen. But there’s plenty of talent to go around, and Paris-Nice will feature Contador, as well as Geraint Thomas, Richie Porte, Tom Dumoulin, and Tony Gallopin. There’s also a whole constellation of secondary climbing and general classification talents on hand, so the long week won’t be short of exciting racing. The route has also been subject to change and variations in recent years, and this year is no different. On stage 1, for instance, we can look forward to four gravel sections towards the end of the course. This is sure to make the general classification riders a little nervous, especially if the wind picks up — Strade Bianche has shown the damage that can be done by a powerful breakaway on loose road surfaces and into headwinds. But if all goes to plan, we’ll be seeing only marginal time gaps up until stage 5, when the mountains will separate wheat from chaff. The usual final-stage time trial up the Col d’Èze has been replaced with a more regular stage in and around Nice. Last year Richie Porte took the G.C. on the climbs, but it’ll be harder going on this final sawtooth profile, which saves the Col d’Èze till the very end. It’s quite possible that the final podium selection will be made up this last hard climb. Prologue At only 6.1km, it’s a short prologue which opens the race on Sunday. Riders with power and time trial skills will be targeting the win here, but, due to the short length, we won’t be seeing time gaps of much significance. Still, a day in yellow is a day in yellow, plus there are bonus seconds on the line throughout the week, so expect strong performances from the usual suspects: Tom Dumoulin, Niki Terpstra, Geraint Thomas, Lars Boom, Jos Van Emden, Matthias Brändle, and, on a good day, Sylvain Chavanel. The pre-race favourite was Rohan Dennis, but sadly the BMC powerhouse is out with sinusitis. There is also a little rain forecast, which might mean an advantage to the earlier riders to start. Stage 1 This must surely be a day for the sprinters. Stage 1 utilises the flat and exposed roads of the end of year classic Paris-Tours, but the race organisers are having a giggle by throwing in those gravel sections, each between 600m and 1400m. Alexander Kristoff, Marcel Kittel, and Andre Greipel are the standout favourites for this, and the drag race between all three will be exhilarating. However, there’s a chance for classics men like Sep Vanmarcke and Philippe Gilbert to steal the show, if they work hard for a late attack on the peloton. However, Tom Boonen and Stijn Vandenbergh will most likely be too busy guarding Kittel to go on the attack. The Sky classics trio of Ian Stannard, Luke Rowe, and Geraint Thomas might also be worth keeping an eye on here. Finally, we’re expecting Alexis Gougeard to go on the attack on the gravel, after his sensational ride in the Omloop. Stage 2 The longest course of the week, and again on exposed roads. If the wind picks up, expect panicked echelon riding and looks of concern on the faces of the G.C. riders. The finish in Commentry (we can already imagine Carlton Kirby’s ‘Commentry/commentary’ jokes) isn’t the flattest on earth, so it’s not a guaranteed sprint finish here. Riders like Tim Wellens and Julien Simon might want to try their luck on the run in, and the bumpy finish might just let a rider of their type take the win. If the attacks don’t stick, then take your pick from Kristoff, Kittel, and Greipel once more. Stage 3 The first summit finish this year is at Mont Brouilly. It’s only 3.5km in length but maxes out at a ferocious 14%, so specialist climbers and puncheurs will be targeting this stage. The race visited Brouilly in 2014 and it was then Tom-Jelte Slagter and Geraint Thomas who went over the top, with the Dutchman winning the stage. This time the race will take the climb, descend back down again, and then swoop back around for the summit finish. We like Philippe Gilbert, Michael Albasini, Diego Rosa, and Tony Gallopin for this sort of short, sharp climb. Expect fireworks from the G.C. men, too; in case they end up fighting for the stage, look to Geraint Thomas, Alberto Contador, and Tom Dumoulin. Stage 4 Oh, look at that pancake flat finish in Romans-Sur-Isère. For novelty’s sake, let’s try a different permutation on the order: Greipel! Kittel! Kristoff! The parcours don’t really suit a breakaway, and it’s hard to see the second-tier sprinters (like Nacer Bouhanni) doing too much to upset the big three here. Stage 5 This is where the race will really get interesting. The riders will go up part of Mont Ventoux (a taster of the full climb which will be used in the Tour de France), going from Bédoin towards Chalet Reynard. This means they take on the harsh inclines of the woods, but miss out on the lunar landscape above the tree-line. This is a sage decision, given that the summit will be pretty frosty at this time of year. The profile, and the likelihood of strong winds, make this a good opportunity for a strong and cooperative break. In that case, look to the likes of Tommy Voeckler and Pierre Rolland. Rolland always likes to accrue the polka-dot points on stages like this, and Voeckler’s no stranger to going long. However, if the group does come back together this will likely come down to sprint, perhaps from a 50-plus strong peloton. In that case, it’ll be down to whomever has survived to sprint it out. Greipel has managed to stay in contact on days like this in that past, but our money’s on Alexander Kristoff. Stage 6 The last two stages of the tour both start in Nice this year, and stage 6 includes many of the local training roads used by the professionals that live in the area and in nearby Monaco, so this should be very familiar territory for much of the peloton. This is also likely where the G.C. will be decided, as it’s the toughest summit finish in the race. Expect a controlled race throughout the day, with teams like Tinkoff driving a strong pace in order to catch the breakaway on the final climb. And then look to Alberto Contador, Tom Domoulin, Geraint Thomas, and Romain Bardetto light up the last climb. We’ll also find out what’s happened to Richie Porte‘s form on this difficult ascent, and whether or not he’s bounced back after a miserable Tour of Oman. We’ve also got our eyes on Ion Izagirre, Rui Costa, Simon Yates, Louis Meintjes, and Serge Pauwels, and if any of those riders are significantly down on G.C., they may well be allowed to sneak off for a stage win. Stage 7 Stage 7 is the final loop around Nice and features the famous Col d’Èze as the final climb, before a no-holds-barred descent to the line. Romain Bardet is an awesome descender, so he should be the one to watch here. There’s also a good chance that a rider like Philippe Gilbert, or, better still, Tony Gallopin might be able to open up a gap on the descent, but that means cresting amongst the leaders on the last climb. Much will depend on the outcome of the previous stage in terms of how this one is raced; if it’s tight at the top of the G.C., expect the top climbers to go hell for leather over the Col d’Èze. If not, then a more relaxed approach to the tough climbs might allow a break to go up the road right up to the line. If so, we’d bet on Pierre Rolland being amongst them to clean up in the KOM contest. It’s the sort of stage Dimension Data have thrown their forces at in the past, so why not a last roll of the dice from the hardworking Daniel Teklehaimanot or Nathan Haas? All profile and route pictures courtesy of Procyclingstats. Picks: Andy is picking Geraint Thomas. He can climb, he can descend, he’s got a handy turn of pace for the finish, and he’s capable of going long. He’s also a good outside bet for the prologue win. There’s no doubt ‘G’ will be riding to win this, and, given Sky’s previous training programmes for the Tour de France, his team will surely be expecting him to show good form this week. Chris likes Tom Dumoulin. He’ll have a hard job keeping up with Contador on the longer climbs, but who won’t? Plus he’s shown great consistency in races of this length, has a powerful all-rounder build that suits this mixed course, and he’s got some pretty solid lieutenants around him (Laurens Tem Dam, Simon Geschke, et al). He’ll be ruing the decision to take out the final time trial this year, but he might just pick up a healthy handful of bonus seconds in the prologue, and that might be enough to keep him at the head of the field. James is picking Romain Bardet. He looked good in Oman, and the minimal time trial kilometres in this year’s race, coupled with Bardet’s potential for explosive attacks on the climbs, marks this Paris-Nice as a possible first big tour win for the Frenchman. He’s sure to be amongst the lead bunch on the longer climbs, and, with Nibali in Italy all week, his descending skills are unrivalled. Given the long downhill to the line on the last stage, Bardet might be first in Nice in every sense.
Jon Stewart handed "The Daily Show" over to the program's British correspondent John Oliver on Thursday night (video below). “I’m headed to where stars are born. The Middle East in the dead of summer,” announced Stewart. The host told his audience that he was temporarily leaving his Comedy Central show to direct the film "Rosewater" about Iranian journalist Maziar Bahari, who was arrested after appearing on "The Daily Show" in 2009, reports Mediaite.com. “One of the things he was interrogated about was being in contact with an American spy,” explained Stewart. Thanks to an international campaign, Bahari was released and wrote a book called And Then They Came For Me. He and Stewart adapted the book into a script for the film. ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website While Stewart talked about the project, Oliver placed Stewart’s pen collection down his pants and measured the drapes on "The Daily Show" set. Source: Mediaite.com — undefined
Man charged with stealing his own barrister’s phone in court Mobile phone (c) RayTango Bobby Heath is charged with swiping the phone at Bexley Magistrates’ Court Share Email this article to a friend To send a link to this page you must be logged in. A criminal has been charged with stealing his barrister’s mobile phone during an appearance at Bexley Magistrates’ Court. Bobby Heath, 25, was in court last Friday on charges of possessing cannabis and driving without insurance – and is alleged to have taken the phone during the case. Heath, of Simnel Road, Lee, admitted both offences and was ordered to pay a £165 fine, £150 costs and a £20 victim surcharge. He was also given six points on his driving licence. Charges of driving a vehicle without the owner’s consent, driving without a licence and riding a motorcycle without protective headgear were dropped. He was bailed to reappear at court on Tuesday, June 2 on the new charge.
After a lower back strain kept him out of last weekend's practices, New Orleans Saints tight end David Thomas returned to the field for Tuesday morning's practice. Thomas said he "definitely" feels 100 percent. "It was nice to get back out there," he said. "It was kind of frustrating to not be out there the last few days, but I feel a lot better and I'm excited to get back to work." This injury was just one in a long line of issues that have derailed Thomas in recent years. When he arrived in New Orleans in 2009, Thomas had no problem staying healthy. He started 15 games during the regular season and three postseason games. In 2010, he was out for a short time with a knee injury, but still started 13 times. But in 2011, he sat out for the majority of the season with two concussions, one that forced him to sit out five games and another that landed him on the injured reserve and caused him to miss the last eight games of the season. Thomas played in five games and finished the season with five receptions for 16 yards. It was Thomas' least productive season since 2007, when he was placed on the injured reserve list in early October with a foot injury. "I wouldn't be out here if I was worried about it," he said. "That was part of the reason I wanted to be so thorough with the decision. At this point, I've moved on and I'm just excited to get going." Interim Saints coach Joe Vitt praised Thomas' ability to block as well as catch the ball, saying Thomas is "probably the most versatile offensive player that we have." Vitt also lauded Thomas' leadership skills during minicamp earlier this summer, saying younger players would be stupid not to look up to him. Thomas isn't the most vocal of players, though. "I've always just been more of a lead by example kind of guy," he said. "As I've gotten older, I've kind of realized that the young guys are always looking for help, they're always looking for knowledge and I feel like I've got a little bit. I don't have all the answers, but I try to help out the guys with what I do know. It's exciting to see so many guys making progress." When he was a young player looking for advice, Thomas learned from tight ends Daniel Graham and Ben Watson while he was in New England. "Those guys never held back anything from me, even though the reality is that everybody is fighting for jobs," he said. "I just try to take that approach to help him to be the best player he can be and for me to be my best and we can both help the team that way." Thomas emphasized how important it is for each player on the team to know his role and execute it. "I think everybody's just looking to do their job," he said. "I've never really thought about how I lead. Just try to do my job and if that means I'm being a good leader, then so be it."
Late night host Jimmy Kimmel, recently lauded by journalists as “brave” and “America’s conscience” for taking up liberal crusades, failed to call out decades-long sexual abuse allegations against a powerful Hollywood mogul/Democratic donor. The explosive story, featuring disturbing accusations from stars such as Ashley Judd, broke on the New York Times website at 2:07pm. Yet Jimmy Kimmel Live totally skipped it. The same is true of CBS’s Late Night With Stephen Colbert and NBC’s Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. But the avoidance of the story was particularly galling considering self-styled moral crusader Kimmel recently lectured conservatives to pray “for God to forgive them.” But when a powerful Hollywood executive allegedly preys on women for decades, Kimmel can’t stand up for them. Jimmy Kimmel Live is produced from Los Angeles and regularly features Hollywood celebrities. Is “brave” Kimmel just unable to stand up for the powerless? Or perhaps it’s because Weinstein is a powerful Democratic donor, as noted by CNN: Weinstein was a prominent Democratic donor, giving money to both former President Barack Obama and the party's 2016 nominee, Hillary Clinton. He primarily donated to Democrats, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. The Daily Beast first reported Leahy would donate funds contributed by Weinstein. "If the Democratic Party purports itself to be the champion of women, they ought to lead by example in returning or donating the donations received from Harvey Weinstein," America Rising PAC's executive director Alexandra Smith said in a news release. The group noted donations to major politicians, like Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Chuck Schumer, Martin Heinrich and Kirsten Gillibrand. Weinstein also donated $99,032.32 to the DNC and $21,200 to the DCCC, according to America Rising PAC. <<< Please support MRC's NewsBusters team with a tax-deductible contribution today. >>> Even the liberal Daily Beast noticed the hypocrisy: And, while the choir of liberal-leaning late-night hosts has gleefully teed off on accused sexual predators of the conservative persuasion, on Thursday night, they chose to steer clear of the sexual harassment/assault allegations against one of their own: Hollywood power liberal Harvey Weinstein. Only The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah mentioned the Weinstein scandal — and only in passing. During a segment on football player Cam Newton laughing at a question from a female reporter, Noah ad-libbed, “It’s funny, right? Because women, they don’t know the things — Look, Harvey Weinstein!” Not exactly bold, but still braver than Kimmel. (On Thursday, the NBC Nightly News also skipped the Weinstein scandal. For more, go here.)
E3 2016 has been poor of major announcements and fresh-looks, but This actually will be one of the best discoveries that came out of the games expo. It looks line the guys at Neowin came across a working version of Hyperkin's Smart Boy - a gadget That can turn your smartphone into a fully Functioning Game Boy. The device was originally tested as an April fools joke last year, but the Smart Boy received a wide variety of positive responses such that the company began development. Now, that E3 has launched a working model of the most famous device, complete with a cartridge slot That Allows you to fire up your version of Pokemon Blue and play it on your phone's screen. The gadget Appears to Have receive a small design change since the original at the announcement, and the same unit comes with button layout and different color scheme just like the original Nintendo's handheld console. This Smart Boy was set to be Compatible with Android devices and iPhone s , but according to the last known report this device will only be compatible with android devices only. Still, there's no sign of what will come in the future, and there will be definitely more details available soon, Neowin are preparing to release this unique toy in December 2016. For more gadgets and all different products visit Alibayzon gadget section.
Marc Randazza The June 3, 2015 judgment was written by a former magistrate judge and currently a JAMS arbitrator Stephen E. Haberfeld. The arbitrator determined that Randazza had violated his fiduciary duties owed to the studio as its attorney and employee, committed numerous ethical violations, breached his employment contract, and caused it hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages over the course of his employment. Those violations include an attempt to secure for himself a $75,000 bribe from an opposing party in a copyright infringement litigation (Liberty Media v. Oron), spoliation of evidence, representing potentially adversary clients (tube sites that infringe upon Liberty Media’s content) in violation of the employment contract, taking control of client funds in his trust account, and so on. We criticized Randazza on more than one occasion. Together with German IP harvesters (Matthias Schroeder Padewet et al), Randazza committed dozens of shakedown lawsuits against alleged file sharers from June 2009 to August 2012. We covered some of these cases; tech media (Techdirt, TorrentFreak) also paid attention. Randazza is regarded as a hero by many respected and honest people, primarily for his First Amendment work (for example, instrumenting the best anti-SLAPP law in the country). However, if you purport to do noble work, you don’t do it with your hands that dirty. Otherwise you let your allies down the big way by giving fatal ammunition to the foes. Liberty Media’s press release. Interim arbitration award: On 6/15/2015 the studios filed a petition to confirm arbitration award in the Clark County Court in Las Vegas (search by party “Randazza” or case # A-15-719901-C). This court, like the majority of other local courts, doesn’t provide online access to documents. According to the case page, Randazza represents himself while the plaintiffs are represented by Wendy Krincek. The hearing on plantiffs’ and defendant’s motions is set to 7/23/2015. Coverage Updates 7/23/2015 For some unexplained reason (a typo in the docket text?) the hearing in the Clark County Court in Las Vegas initially scheduled for today took place on 7/9/2015 at 9:00 am, so this update is a bit overdue. Attorneys attended: for the plaintiff — Wendy Krincek and Ethan D. Thomas; for the defendant — Michael K. Wall (a partner in a law firm where current Nevada Lieutenant Governor Mark Hutchinson is also a partner). Apparently, Judge Jim Crockett doesn’t want this case to linger, he set a tight motion schedule despite defense’s objections, according to the hearing minutes: Court reviewed the Contract between Mr. Randazza and Plaintiff and can see an agreement to Binding Arbitration. In fact, this is one of the things the parties agreed to. Ms. Krincek concurred. Mr. Wall objected for the record. Court stated this dispute is subject to Binding Arbitration and inquired of counsel if an Arbitration has taken place. Ms. Krincek stated not to her knowledge. Mr. Wall informed the Court that there was an Arbitration. Ms. Krincek stated she is here for attorney’s fees and costs, and believes the Arbitrator was going to award something for spoliation of evidence. Court stated there was back and forth discussions whether Mr. Randazza has performed some or many of the obligations that the Arbitrator ordered him to do. Court stated that would be impossible for this Court to determine from it has seen in the documents. Court queried counsel whether there has been compliance and what remains to be resolved in this case. Court queried Mr. Wall if Mr. Randazza or he give the Court insight on what his expected challenges or objections to the Arbitration decision are. Mr. Wall stated he recently received this from this client. There is factual evidence that it will show there will be challenges to the determination themselves and understands the difficulty of the situation. He feels there have been legal Arbitration in California and may have jurisdictional challenges. They have statutory time to look into those challenges and requested time to file an Opposition as the Statute allows. Court queried counsel if California counsel is not willing to cooperate with Mr. Wall. Mr. Wall stated he is cooperating and will provide documents and act as co-counsel to the deft. COURT ORDERED, Mr. Wall to file his brief as to why Binding Arbitration is flawed legally or jurisdictionally within 30 days of today’s date by 8/10/15. Mr. Wall objected and argued that he has 90 days pursuant to Supreme Court and the District Court does not have authority to change the 90 days. Further, his client is out of the country until after 8/10/15, requesting at a bare minimum exactly what the Statute guarantees them pursuant to Nevada Supreme Court and that is until 9/1/15 to file the document requested by the Court. Ms. Krincek objected and requested Defendant’s opposing brief to the Motion to Confirm Arbitration Award be filed in 30 days. Further argument by Mr. Wall in opposition to this Court changing the time period in which to file an opposing brief. The Court disagrees with Mr. Wall and ORDERED, defendant’s opposition to be filed in 30 days by 8/10/15. FURTHER ORDERED, Plaintiff will have two weeks to file a Reply brief by 8/24/15, and the motion is CONTINUED to 9/3/15. Mr. Wall stated he will file his opposition, but will be filing his motion to set aside or correct the award by 9/1/15. Upon inquiry by Mr. Wall, COURT ORDERED, if Mr. Wall if going to file a Motion to Set Aside or Vacate the Award it is to be filed by 8/10/15. 9/3/15 @ 9:00 A.M. PLTF’S MOTION TO CONFIRM ARBITRATION AWARD…DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO SET ASIDE OR VACATE ARBITRATION AWARD. 9/4/2015 On 8/28/2015 Marc Randazza filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition. He listed 1-10 million as estimated assets and 10-50 million as estimated liabilities (that’s why Chapter 13 is not an option). As a result, the Clark County case (a petition to confirm the arbitration award) was automatically stayed / administratively closed. This situation is tricky: Randazza essentially declared that the arbitration is so burdensome that bankruptcy is the only choice. However, he implied it before the said arbitration was finalized, and the bankruptcy is seemingly aimed at preventing the finalization. So expect Liberty to continue pushing for the final arbitration decision (moving to resume the closed case). (Docket.) 9/30/2015 As I predicted, Liberty/Excelsior moved to modify the automatic stay so the arbitration would be finalized: Creditors Excelsior Media Corp. and Liberty Media Holdings, LLC (“E/L”) hereby move for an order modifying the automatic stay to allow the completion of the pending pre-petition arbitration between E/L and Debtor through the confirmation of all awards to a judgment entered by the Nevada State Court. That judgment will then be filed as a claim against Debtor and E/L will seek an order determining the judgment to be non-dischargeable. 8/2/2015 As you noticed, I don’t actively follow this dispute, yet once in a while I check the docket. One recent filing deserves an update: on 7/7/2016, Liberty filed its second amended complaint. It reiterates the creditor’s previous claims, particularly asking for […]a decree determining that all debts determined to be owing by Defendant to Plaintiffs which are the subject of this action are deemed and adjudicated to be non-dischargeable […] The complaint corroborates previous accusations in attorney’s unethical conduct, and makes new ones. 9/3/2016 On 7/25/216, State Bar of Nevada initiated a disciplinary action against Randazza based on the dispute with Liberty Media: ¹ The arbitration was triggered by the employment agreement (reportedly drafted by Randazza): it had a provision that in a case of a dispute parties must submit themselves to arbitration by JAMS. It was Randazza who demanded arbitration after his August 2012 resignation — that’s why he was listed as the claimant. It took unusually long — 2.5 years, and an unusually meticulous arbitrator was drawn.
David C. Mohr, a professor of preventive and behavioral medicine, is the director of Northwestern University's Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies. A large body of clinical research shows that web-based and phone applications can treat depression and anxiety. These applications — called behavioral intervention technologies (B.I.T.s) — differ in style from traditional face-to-face forms of therapy, but the aim is the same: to help people understand their difficulties, and take steps to reduce symptoms. To do this, most B.I.T.s include straightforward steps for improved wellbeing, as well as interactive features, which build cognitive and behavioral skills that identify and challenge negative thinking patterns. To be effective, B.I.T.s require repeated use over a number of weeks — an obstacle because many people with depression or anxiety have trouble staying engaged long enough to make substantial improvements. But even a small amount of support from a coach or therapist via phone calls or messaging, can lead to improvements similar to that of face-to-face psychological treatments. Apps have the potential to provide mental health services on a much broader scale to those who can not afford or have access to them. Therapist or coach-supported B.I.T.s have been so successful that many countries have integrated such apps into their health care systems, including Australia, the Netherlands and Britain. The question, then, is no longer whether apps are effective, but, rather how best to design them. At Northwestern University’s Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies, psychologists, physicians and software engineers create products that help people manage their mental health. For example, our Daily Feats app provides checklists with successive goals to activate people who are depressed. Another app, Aspire, helps people identify personal strengths and values, and prompts them to begin acting with a greater sense of meaning and purpose. The Thought Challenger app uses cognitive behavioral techniques to challenge negative thinking. Of course, B.I.T.s are still an emerging field, and they are not a panacea. But as nearly 80 percent of Americans with mental health disorders receive no mental health care whatsoever, apps could provide cost-effective services more broadly. The big challenge in the U.S. will be how to provide people with coverage, since our health care system pays on a fee-for-service basis, and preventive care is often not covered by insurance. Another complication is that consumers don’t have reliable information about the quality of the thousands of apps. Countries that are implementing B.I.T.s provide guidelines for only some of what is available in today’s marketplace. What's more, certification requirements for B.I.T. coaches have not been defined. When implemented correctly, though, B.I.T.s can significantly broaden the availability of mental health care. The technology, however, should not be greeted as a replacement for more traditional treatments, which are severely under-funded but still necessary for many. Join Opinion on Facebook and follow updates on twitter.com/roomfordebate.
For the first time researchers have identified the lifelong changes in gene expression in the brains of people born with Down syndrome (DS). The findings, which appear in the journal Neuron, may lead to possible therapies for DS patients. DS occurs in one out of every 691 live births and is the most common genetic cause of intellectual disability, affecting approximately 400,000 Americans. The underlying developmental and genetic causes of this intellectual disability in DS are not fully known and because of this lack of knowledge, no treatment is currently available. A multi-institution team of researchers led by Tarik Haydar, PhD, associate professor of anatomy and neurobiology at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Nenad Sestan, MD/PhD professor of neuroscience at Yale School of Medicine, compared gene expression in different regions of the brains of humans with DS across development and adulthood. They discovered that the establishment of white matter in the brain, which is the insulation of the brain nerve fibers, (i.e. axons) is altered from toddler to adult periods of development. This finding was unexpected given the current theory that many changes leading to intellectual disability occur prenatally in DS. They also showed that the white matter changes in the brain are due to specific developmental defects in a class of brain cells called oligodendrocytes that form the white matter of the brain, and that this causes slower nerve transmission. “This discovery of the genetic changes that alter communication within the brain uncovered a completely new target for therapies in the brains of people with DS,” explained Haydar. “These findings may allow researchers to design strategies to promote brain functioning and improve quality of life, he added. The researchers also believe these findings may have profound implications for individuals with other developmental disabilities, such as autism.
On the streets of New York City no one bats an eye at seeing an over six feet tall drag queen hail a cab, but the interesting part is the two hour transformation it takes. Pennsylvania native Justin Honard created Alaska in 2007. SOUNDBITE: Justin Honard, drag queen, saying: "I started because I just had to. It was like a calling, like a nun, you know?" Honard says he owes his career to veteran drag queen RuPaul and his reality competition show "RuPaul's Drag Race," of which he was runner up during the fifth season in 2013. SOUNDBITE: Justin Honard, drag queen, saying: "I started doing drag right as 'Drag Race' came into being. So it's very like parallel. And I saw what it was doing for the queen's who got on the show. And I was like, 'I want to do that.'" For the 31-year-old, the process of becoming Alaska, who's look is a combination of Britney Spears and legendary drag queen Divine, is more than just makeup and hair and clothes. SOUNDBITE: Justin Honard, drag queen, saying: "When all the pieces come together, some sort of magically shift happens. And that's the important thing. It takes forever to put it on, takes two hours. But in that process something, it's like alchemy." Performing in drag has made Justin's alter ego a household name and has sent him around the world. Currently he is touring on of the European leg of "RuPaul's Drag Race Battle of the Seasons" but said his favorite part about doing drag is creating a space were people feel free, happy and liberated. SOUNDBITE: Justin Honard, drag queen, saying: "It's sort of jams the systems of gender that are so harshly in place in our culture. And it sort of confuses that for a second. We're not just the clothes that we wear, we're not just what it says on our drivers license." Honard described the tour, which will feature past winners and fan favorites from "RuPaul's Drag Race" as part concert and part magic. However, as soon as the magic is over, so is Alaska. SOUNDBITE: Justin Honard, drag queen, saying: "Drag hurts, it hurts. There's things glued to your eyes and your ears and hair and your fingers. When the clock strikes midnight I'm like ready for her to go away." "RuPaul's Drag Race Battle of the Seasons: 2016 Extravaganza Tour," now in its third consecutive year, will start its U.S. shows in Seattle, Washington in April and conclude in Nashville, Tennessee in June.
China has become one of the world’s largest two economies, and is wealthy enough to buy up at least $1.3 trillion of the U.S. debt. But that hasn’t stopped Uncle Sam from continuing to send foreign aid to Beijing. In 2014 the U.S. State Department and its USAID program provided nearly all of the $12.3 million in taxpayer-funded aid set aside for China. And another $6.8 million is on tap for Beijing this year, according to ForeignAssistance.gov. In the big picture of things, China’s aid package — mostly centered around pollution and pro-democracy programs — is a mere drip from a foreign aid spigot that has been as great as $50 billion annually in recent years. But taxpayer watchdogs say it’s a classic example of the U.S. government not being able to reign in aid on projects whose effectiveness is immeasurable and could easily be funded by the country itself. “The idea that China needs this foreign aid, and that it can make any difference in China, is laughable,” said Ian Vasquez, director of the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. “In essence, what we’re doing is borrowing from China and giving some of that money back to China, so it’s a loan with interest. This is an expensive way to do business,” Mr. Vasquez said. For sending Americans’ tax dollars to a well-heeled country capable of helping itself, the Department of State and USAID win this week’s Golden Hammer, a weekly award given by The Washington Times to highlight examples of questionable federal spending. SEE ALSO: China threatens to arm Hawaii separatists who want kingdom A spokeswoman for USAID said this year’s funding was being directed to programs in Tibet, an unrecognized state within the People’s Republic of China that has continually sought independence from the country. USAID will contribute $4.5 million to the total requested $7 million. “Programs will help Tibetan communities improve their livelihoods, promote sustainable development and environmental conservation, and preserve their threatened cultural traditions. Funds will build upon prior successes such as the establishment of a digital archive of classical Tibetan texts and knowledge maps, which has been accessed by over 17,000 Tibetans to date. “Also, at the direction of Congress — and not included in the President’s [fiscal year] 2016 request — USAID currently provides assistance to China to address environmental conservation and strengthen rule of law,” the spokeswoman said, adding that those funds are directed to NGOs and U.S. educational institutions, not directly to the Chinese government. A spokesperson for the State Department did not respond to a request for comment. William Wilson, a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation who spent several years working in Beijing, said the aid is meant to be an investment to promote U.S. interests that will eventually produce a return for the U.S. in terms of greater environmental protections, greater human rights and improved democracy and rule of law. He said taxpayers shouldn’t be too concerned unless the money ends up being wasted on unsuccessful projects. “It’s small; it’s to promote American interests. The big question is, is it working? That’s hard to say,” Mr. Wilson said. “Does it have a positive rate of return? If it doesn’t, then it’s a waste of money.” But Mr. Vasquez argued that if China isn’t already making an effort with its own resources to fix those problems, then it’s unlikely that the aid projects will be successful. “If the U.S. thinks there isn’t much of an interest without the U.S. paying for stuff, then that aid isn’t very promising,” he said. Critics say that China has not proven itself to be a good economic partner for America, costing the U.S. billions annually in intellectual property theft and continually blocking U.S. exports to the country. “It’s fine to make a deal with China that benefits Americans. If China wants to buy a stake in an oil field in Texas or a hotel somewhere, that’s fine. But it’s different for American taxpayers to give China any amount of money when they’re not poor, and they’re not a cooperative partner; they do a lot of things to harm the American economy,” said Derek Scissors, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. “When it’s a voluntary transaction, buying Chinese goods is fine, but taking money [away] from the American taxpayer — even a tiny little bit of money — [should] not [go to] the Chinese.” Experts agreed that the amount of money being funneled to China is relatively small compared to the scale of moneys flowing to foreign aid projects on the whole, and given China’s financial stability and strained economic partnership with the U.S., that small amount of aid could easily be revoked. “It’s a small amount. Seven million is a drop in the bucket, so why send any at all?” Mr. Wilson asked. “We’re not talking about sanctioning them, we’re talking about not taking a little bit of taxpayer money and not giving it to them because they don’t deserve it,” Mr. Scissors said. Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
Zangief’s Spinning Pile Driver can be very devastating when it connects in Street Fighter V. It is one the greatest assets in Zangief’s whiff punish game. However, it is about become even more powerful. It has now been discovered that the EX version of Spinning Pile Driver can interrupt certain block strings. If you perform a reversal EX SPD on a block string with a three frame gap, it will cause the next move to whiff and Zangief will react with a SPD for your opponent’s troubles. Here is an example on Karin with her crouching strong, standing strong blockstring. This stuffs all of her options outside of crouching strong, crouching forward. Another example involves Akuma’s crouching fierce, crouching strong block string. It is also noted that if you activate V-Trigger, it also causes the second move to whiff. Source: RagingStormX
President-elect Barack Obama is assembling a new and influential cadre of counselors just steps from the Oval Office whose power to direct domestic policy will rival, if not exceed, the authority of his Cabinet. Presidents have long strived to centralize influence in the White House, often to the frustration of their Cabinet secretaries. But not since Richard M. Nixon tried to abolish the majority of his Cabinet has a president gone so far in attempting to build a West Wing-based clutch of advisers with a mandate to cut through -- or leapfrog -- the traditional bureaucracy. Obama's emerging "super-Cabinet" is intended to ensure that his domestic priorities -- health reform, the environment and urban affairs -- don't get mired in agency red tape or brushed aside by the ongoing economic meltdown and international crises. Half a dozen new White House positions have been filled by well-known leaders with experience navigating Washington turf wars. But some see the potential for chaos within the administration. "We're going to have so many czars," said Thomas J. Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "It's going to be a lot of fun, seeing the czars and the regulators and the czars and the Cabinet secretaries debate." Carol M. Browner, who ran the Environmental Protection Agency in the Clinton administration, is taking on a broad new portfolio with responsibility for Obama's ambitious agenda on the environment, energy and climate change. Bronx politician Adolfo Carrion Jr. is expected to serve in another new White House post, implementing Obama's education and housing agenda for cities. Former senator Thomas A. Daschle will become the first Cabinet secretary in decades to have an office in the West Wing and a separate, newly created White House title: director of the Office of Health Reform. Daschle's confirmation hearing to become secretary of health and human services begins today. In interviews, several top Obama advisers said they are extending to domestic affairs a model of governance that has long been used in foreign policy, in which the national security adviser manages diplomatic and military matters from a perch in the White House that offers him or her ready access to the president. "Given the enormity of the challenges we face, it is critical to have someone in the White House every day, reporting to the president, coordinating policy and giving these issues the important focus they deserve," said Obama spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter. "It allows for efficient, streamlined decision-making." But Bruce Herschensohn, a professor of foreign policy at Pepperdine University who was deputy special assistant to Nixon, said Obama's plans for the White House could do the opposite.
On December 2nd, Christie’s will host the PEN American Center’s First Editions/Second Thoughts benefit, an auction of first-edition books annotated by their authors. (Last year, PEN English held an inaugural version of the event, at Sotheby’s in London.) Among the offerings is a copy of Don DeLillo’s 1997 novel “Underworld,” its original cover featuring a bird flying near the Twin Towers, the silhouette of a church in the foreground below.* Inside the eight-hundred-page book are four hundred pages of DeLillo’s handwritten notes, providing anecdotes, playful commentary, and his recollections of writing the book. I recently spoke to DeLillo, via fax, about the process of revisiting the novel, which he had said was a “somewhat grudging experience” that turned into “several days of pure pleasure.” DeLillo was given the option of annotating “Underworld” or “Americana,” but felt that his distance from the latter was too great. “I have fairly clear recollections of writing the book—the room, the desk, the painting on the wall, the feeling that after two years of work (of an eventual four years) I now considered myself a novelist,” he said. “But I was fairly certain that the text itself would resemble foreign matter.” In rereading “Underworld,” he said that he was sometimes surprised—by the space given to the Bronx storylines (“These are words and phrases and curses meant to be delivered orally … sounds and actions, not alphabetic symbols set down on a page”), by the power of certain turns of phrase, and by the process of rediscovering his own work seventeen years after its publication. “I found it interesting to become curious about something that I myself had written,” he said. Here are a selection of pages from the annotated book, accompanied by further comments from DeLillo: "My editor was waiting for the manuscript … and I kept telling her that I was working on a new first sentence. I kept writing it and rewriting it and there must be a record of this somewhere in the archive—but would these pages be located in box number one or in the last box?" “The sentence in question, when I encountered it after seventeen years, was a complete surprise. I did not recognize a word of it and I think that what hit me hardest (in the best sense) was the end of the sentence: ‘the subway seals you durably in the stone of the moment.’ ” “When I exchange messages with translators, it almost always occurs to me that the pleasure I take in working certain words and phrases toward a rhythm, a pattern, even a visual design—this effect is lost in translation. But the contact with the men and women themselves, in conversation or in print, leaves me always with a certain satisfaction, a sense that we’ve made a worthwhile effort to gain a common end.” “I knew the story could not end with the baseball game and I would soon know, importantly, that the narrative had to leap ahead, roughly forty years into the future, and then work its way back towards the 1950s. This is what made the novel, this was its shape and function.” *A previous version of this post incorrectly identified the structure on the cover as a mausoleum. Photographs courtesy the PEN American Center.
Forget the debate around the security or insecurity of the iPhone 5s's fingerprint reader. The latest version of the iPhone's operating system currently offers a gaping hole in its old-fashioned passcode lockscreen. Jose Rodriguez, a 36-year-old soldier living in Spain's Canary Islands, has found a security vulnerability in iOS 7 that allows anyone to bypass its lockscreen in seconds to access photos, email, Twitter, and more. He shared the technique with me, along with the video above. As the video shows, anyone can exploit the bug by swiping up on the lockscreen to access the phone's "control center," and then opening the alarm clock. Holding the phone's sleep button brings up the option to power it off with a swipe. Instead, the intruder can tap "cancel" and double click the home button to enter the phone's multitasking screen. That offers access to its camera and stored photos, along with the ability to share those photos from the user's accounts, essentially allowing anyone who grabs the phone to hijack the user's email, Twitter, Facebook or Flickr account. I tested the technique on an iPhone 5 running iOS 7, and it worked. Rodriguez's video shows it working on an iPad, too. It's not yet clear if the same exploit can bypass the lockscreen of an iPhone 5s or 5c, but Rodriguez tells me he believes it will. I've reached out to Apple for comment and I'll update this post if I hear from the company. Update: A spokesperson from Apple tells me that the company "takes security very seriously and we’re aware of this issue. We’ll deliver a fix in a future software update." Another update: A week after this story was originally published, Apple issued a software update that fixed the bug, along with another lockscreen bypass vulnerability. Rodriguez has a track record of finding lockscreen bypass bugs in iOS, many of which he says he dug up while killing time in his old job as a driver for government officials. "I had a lot of time to look at the scenery, break the phone or write poetry while waiting for my boss, and I don't write poetry and already knew the landscape by heart," he tells me via instant message and Google translate. So he spent hours "trying everything that goes through my head...I submit my iPhone to cruel methods of torture." Rodriguez found a trick to bypass the lockscreen of iOS 6.1.3 in March, and then another one in iOS 7 beta. Though that beta bug was fixed in later versions of iOS 7, Rodriguez was able to find a new one within an hour of downloading the latest iPhone operating system by adapting tricks that worked on iOS 5 and 6. (He also tells me that this will be his last "hunting trip" for iPhone lockscreen bugs, as he has a new office job that demands more of his time.) The latest version of iOS patches 80 security vulnerabilities, according to a post on Apple's security mailing list. Clearly the company's security team also missed a big one. Update: A reader points out that anyone hoping to avoid this vulnerability until Apple issues a fix can prevent control center from appearing on their lockscreen by accessing "settings," then "control center." Some users are also reporting the trick isn't working on their phones and tablets, though it may just take a little finesse to figure out the timing. — Follow me on Twitter, and pre-order the upcoming paperback edition of my book, This Machine Kills Secrets: Julian Assange, the Cypherpunks, and Their Fight to Empower Whistleblowers, a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice. Related on Forbes:
Floating Water Is it really possible to fill a glass with water and turn it upside down without spilling? this clever science trick is a popular after-dinner science stunt, but make sure there’s a bowl close by to catch your mistakes. The temptation is just too great, and you know you’re going to do it again. Just make sure the card doesn’t become completely soaked and accidentally fall apart. This could be a huge surprise for everyone! The final step takes guts. Slowly take your hand away and the card will stay in place . . . and so should the water (keep your fingers crossed). Keep your hand on the card and turn the cup upside down. Hold the cup over the bowl just in case you accidentally spill. Before you get started, make sure the index card or playing card is large enough to completely cover the mouth of the glass. Fill the glass or plastic cup to the top with water. How Does It Work The secret is right in front of your nose—it’s the air that we breathe. Air molecules in the atmosphere exert pressure on everything. Scientists know that at sea level air molecules in the atmosphere exert almost 15 pounds of pressure (okay, 14.7 pounds if you want to be exact) per square inch of surface area. Your body is used to feeling this kind of air pressure, so you don’t notice it. When you first turn the cup upside down, the pressure of the air inside the cup and the air pressure outside the cup are equal. If you look closely, however, you’ll notice that just a little water leaks out between the card and the cup. This happens because the force of gravity naturally pulls down on the water. When some of the water escapes, this causes the volume of air (the space above the water inside the cup) to increase slightly. Even though the amount of air above the water stays the same, the volume occupied by the air is now greater and the air pressure inside the cup decreases. The pressure of the air outside the cup is now greater than the pressure inside the cup and the card stays in place. All of this is possible because the water creates an airtight seal between the rim of the cup and the card. When the seal is broken (even a tiny bit), air enters into the cup, equalizes the pressure, and gravity pushes the water out. Poking a thumbtack-size hole in the cup allows air to seep into the cup from the outside. The pressure of the air molecules both inside and outside the cup stays the same, gravity takes over, the card falls, and the water spills. Watch out for the carpet! Take It Further Repeat the experiment but this time change the amount of water in the cup. Does it make any difference? What about if you switch the container? Will a wider cup hold the card better than a narrower cup? Does the temperature of the water have any effect on the water staying inside the cup? Try the experiment using a paper cup or plastic cup but this time, using a thumbtack, poke a small hole in the bottom of the cup. What do you predict will happen if air is allowed to sneak into the cup?
Sherri Papini — the California mom who mysteriously vanished in November before reappearing weeks later, after an alleged abduction by two Hispanic women — was previously suspected of various misdeeds by her immediate family, according to newly released documents obtained by PEOPLE. Papini’s relatives made multiple calls to law enforcement about her between 2000 and 2003, according to incident reports from the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office in California. Get push notifications with news, features and more. However, authorities say the years-old cases don’t “have anything to do” with the ongoing investigation into Papini’s disappearance and none of them resulted in charges or arrests. Papini’s family rebuked the new reporting as “shameful,” in a statement to ABC News. Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko has told PEOPLE that investigators have no reason “not to believe” Papini’s account of how she went missing. No arrests have been made in her alleged abduction, and no motive has been confirmed. The newly released incident reports, which were first published by the Sacramento Bee on Thursday, shed some light on Papini’s previous behavior and relationships with her family. For example, in December 2003, her mother, Loretta Graeff, alleged to authorities that the then-21-year-old Papini was “harming herself and blaming the injuries on [her],” according to a copy of the incident report. Graeff was seeking advice on how to handle the situation, Shasta County sheriff’s Lt. Pat Kropholler tells PEOPLE. In another incident in 2000, Papini’s father alleged she had vandalized his home; in another call in 2000, her sister said she suspected Papini kicked in her back door while allegedly trying to break in. Lt. Kropholler says the first incident report was cleared as a vandalism, although Papini’s father reported a burglary. In the second report, Kropholler says nothing appeared to actually be missing from the residence, according to the sister. Papini’s father called the sheriff’s office again in 2003 to claim that Papini had made an unauthorized withdrawal of money from his checking account. Kropholler says it may have been a mistake or a misunderstanding, however, because of a mix-up between cards — and that the funds were returned. Investigators were aware of these previous law enforcement calls during their work on Papini’s disappearance, Kropholler says. “This really doesn’t have any bearing on her case,” he says, adding, “There is no evidence here that shows this is a hoax or this didn’t occur.” From left: Sherri Papini and her husband, Keith. Courtesy Keith Papini Multiple calls to Papini’s family on Thursday were not returned. In their statement, the family said, “Sherri Papini and her family are the very recent victims of an extremely violent crime that has painfully and dramatically changed the course of their lives forever. “It is shameful that a media outlet [the Sacramento Bee] would intentionally exploit Sherri and Keith Papini and their young children’s trauma for the sole purpose of clickbait and selling papers.” The family asked for privacy (they have not spoken publicly in 2017). “This newspaper’s decision to aggressively seek out and publish unsubstantiated online activity and distort phone conversations from 16 years ago is victim-blaming at its most egregious,” their statement continued. “It is our hope that the media will honor their privacy as they work through this difficult time.” Papini’s disappearance in the fall sparked national headlines, as her husband pleaded for assistance in finding her. She has told investigators she was snatched at gunpoint during a morning jog on Nov. 2 near her home in Redding, California, by two Hispanic women. She described one of the women as having long curly hair, thin eyebrows and pierced ears; and the other as older, with straight black hair and gray and thick eyebrows. Both women allegedly spoke Spanish the majority of the time, Papini said. • Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. Her husband, Keith, said in a previous statement to PEOPLE that during her 22 days of alleged captivity, Sherri was beaten and branded — her nose broken and her long blonde hair chopped off. He said that “rumors, assumptions, lies and hate have been both exhausting and disgusting.” Sherri was found early Thanksgiving morning on a roadside about 150 miles from her home, looking “panicked and frightened,” according to a 911 caller. “Anyone who knows Sherri knows she is a sweetheart and wouldn’t say a mean thing to anyone,” a family friend told PEOPLE in December. “So if that kind of person was taken, then it could happen to anybody in your community. And that definitely shook the community to want to find her and puts everyone on high alert.” “I wouldn’t judge this case without having all the facts, and obviously it is an ongoing investigation and we can’t release everything,” Lt. Kropholler tells PEOPLE after the release of the previous incident reports. “I am hoping some day we come to a successful resolution.” The incident reports are not the first claims made about Sherri’s character: In 2003, someone using her maiden name and claiming to be from her hometown wrote a bizarre and racist post on a white supremacist website detailing how they got into physical fights with Latinos during high school. Investigators said the post was “being looked into,” but Sherri’s father told PEOPLE in December that she didn’t write it and that it was the work of “some punks.” One of her friends seconded that, saying, “It was not her; it is not who she is.”
The first NBA Africa game was played in South Africa in 2015 and the stars are coming out for the second, including Kristaps Porzingis, Kyle Lowry, Victor Oladipo and others. Team World won the inaugural game 101-97 over Team Africa two years ago in Johannesburg’s Ellis Park Arena, with team captains Chris Paul and Luol Deng taking home the MVP honors. Deng is back to lead Team Africa along with Thabo Sefalosha while Dirk Nowitzki and Kemba Walker will be Team World’s captains. This year’s game is on August 5, and will be played in the Ticketpro Dome in Johannesburg at 5:00 pm CAT (that’s 11:00 am Eastern). Tickets are on sale at ticketpro.co.za. A livestream will be available at Kwesesports.com. Full rosters for the game, courtesy of the NBA:
SINGAPORE - Hidden behind lock and key lies a 1942 British bunker where explosives were stored. Back then, carts on a railway track would send ammunition into the underground bomb-proof facility. About the size of two five-room flats, the well-preserved structure will open to the public for the first time in more than seven decades next month. The National Heritage Board (NHB) announced today that it will be conducting eight English and two Chinese tours of the Armament Depot. It is part of their efforts to commemorate Singapore's fall to the Japanese 73 years ago and its subsequent liberation three years later. The bunker is the last of six others that used to dot Talbot's Hill in Woodlands. It is nestled in a dense forest that comes with a clear coastal view of Johor Bahru in Malaysia. The ammunition supported the British Naval Base's operations nearby. The historic site was later used by the Japanese to store their own ammunition which included anti-aircraft weapons and rifles. Reaching the bunker requires a trek through muddy water and careful navigation across thick vegetation and creeping vines. The bunker lies behind two large steel doors and a pool of water where small fishes dwell, has to be crossed first before one can get to the the dim facility. The site was handed over to the Ministry of Defence in 1971. The ministry called it the Sembawang Ammunition Depot and gave it a fresh coat of paint. It was decommissioned in 2002 and both the bunker and the land were returned to the state. NHB's group director of policy Alvin Tan said: "We hope that Singaporeans will get to learn more about World War II history and remember the wartime bravery, resilience and sacrifices of soldiers, Prisoners of War and civilians through these activities." Each NHB tour can take about 25 people and members of the public can start booking slots on Thursday. More information will be released on the board's website and Facebook page. Some of the artefacts will go on display in a separate exhibition later this month. melodyz@sph.com.sg
After a nearly six-week strike, Verizon workers are celebrating a huge victory on Friday after a deal was reached in principle with the telecom giant that will bring gains for union members and end one of the nation's largest work stoppages in recent history. The deal, announced Friday afternoon by U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, reportedly includes a four-year contract between Verizon and its two biggest unions, CWA and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). Between the two labor groups, nearly 40,000 workers have been on strike since mid-April over charges that Verizon was refusing to grant basic protections such as fair contracts, stopping pension cuts, and preventing the offshoring of jobs. CWA president Chris Shelton said Friday that the "addition of new, middle-class jobs at Verizon is a huge win not just for striking workers, but for our communities and our country as a whole. The agreement in principle at Verizon is a victory for working families across the country and an affirmation of the power of working people." SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT Help Keep Common Dreams Alive Our progressive news model only survives if those informed and inspired by this work support our efforts Workers are expected to be back on the job next week, Perez said. IBEW president Lonnie R. Stephenson said the groups will be sharing details of the agreement in the coming days. "This tentative contract is an important step forward in helping to end this six-week strike and keeping good Verizon jobs in America," Stephenson said. "My thanks to our members, along with those of the CWA, who made numerous sacrifices to finally come to this point. They look forward to returning to work serving their customers, working under a strong pro-worker and pro-jobs contract." Shelton added, "This proves that when we stand together we can raise up working families, improve our communities and protect the American middle class."
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump tells RT's Larry King that he doesn’t dislike Hillary Clinton, but that she’s not the person to make America great again – and that their televised duel Wednesday was more fun than baseball. This is Trump’s first appearance on Politicking since October 2013, when he first hinted at running for president. This time, the billionaire businessman discusses the current election, the hacking of the Democratic National Committee, his comments about the Iraq War, and Wednesday’s showdown with Clinton at a veterans’ forum. Mainstream media Opening up the interview, King asked Trump: “What surprised you the most about running for office?” Trump pointed to the media’s “tremendous dishonesty.” “I mean, they'll take a statement that you make, which is perfect,” Trump said, “and they'll cut it up and chop it up and shorten it or lengthen it, or do something with it, then all of a sudden, it doesn't look like as good as it did when you actually said it.” Iraq On the issue of defeating the Islamic State in Iraq, Trump slammed Clinton and President Barack Obama for their role in pulling US troops out of Iraq in 2013. King then interjected: “The timetable was arranged by Bush for the leaving.” “Well, you know what, Larry,” Trump countered, “I’ll tell you what, let's look to the future.” King kept on the point, however, offering Trump the opportunity to criticize the Bush administration as well as Obama and Clinton. “It's a war we shouldn't have been in, number one,” Trump reiterated, “and it's a war that when we got out, we got out the wrong way. That's Obama.” Hillary Clinton Asked about Clinton, Trump told King, “The bottom line is, Larry, she doesn’t have what it takes.” That, Trump clarified, did not necessarily mean he did not like her as a person. “No, it's not about liking or disliking,” the Republican nominee said. “I mean, I wish she did a phenomenal job, and we wouldn’t have all these problems.” “I wouldn’t be running,” Trump continued. “I'd be having dinner with you some place maybe.” Campaigning King then asked Trump whether or not he was looking forward to the upcoming debates against Clinton. “Nothing in life is easy,” Trump answered. “It's not going to be easy, but it is something I look forward to, absolutely.” The Republican candidate shrugged off speculation that Russia may be trying to influence the 2016 US election. “It’s probably unlikely,” he told King. “Maybe the Democrats are putting that out, who knows?” “I just want to make sure that the election is 100 percent fair,” Trump said. Mexican immigration King’s final question was on immigration, specifically on Mexican immigration. “Let's get something clear, because I've known you a long time. What are your feelings about Mexican immigrants? What in your gut do you feel about this?” King asked. But Trump never answered, seemingly dropping off the line, despite King reassuring his audience that the phone connection was not lost.
How often do you have sex? The answer may depend partly on where you live. As it turns out, some U.S. cities are hotbeds for love-making, while others are less than lustful. And where people are making the most whoopee might surprise you ("sin cities" like Las Vegas, Miami, and New York didn't even make our list). Read on as we reveal the 10 most-and least-sexually active cities in America. 10 Sexiest Cities in America The following U.S. cities are copulation capitals-if Census Bureau birth rates and A.C. Nielsen data on contraceptive sales are any indication. We've also factored in statewide birth and fertility rates from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Amazon.com city-by-city sales of books about sex, and sales from several nationwide erotica outlets. 1. Denver, Colorado. Visitors flock to the mile-high city for its breathtaking natural beauty. But the gateway to the Rockies may offer something more: copious amounts of sex. In addition to impressive birth rates per capita, contraceptive sales are 189 percent higher within the city limits than the national average (sales of female contraceptives are a whopping 278 percent higher). 2. Portland, Oregon. Microbreweries, rose gardens, and coffeehouses aren't the only thing Portland residents have to smile about. This Pacific Northwestern town's contraceptive sales per capita are 127 percent higher than those of most U.S. locales. Plus, the city ranks sixth in sales at Pure Romance, a company that offers an exclusive line of products for "relationship enhancement." 3. Ann Arbor, Michigan. Home of the prestigious University of Michigan, this quintessential college town was hailed as the sexiest city in America by Amazon.com. Why? According to the online bookseller, which calculated the types of books they sell to cities across the country, books about sex account for 24 percent of Ann Arbor's residents' romantic purchases. 4. San Antonio, Texas. The second-largest city in the Lone Star state, San Antonio is known as a multicultural Mecca filled with historic landmarks-and apparently, fornication. The Alamo City's contraceptive sales per capita are as high as Portland's, and when it comes to condom sales in particular, San Antonio is the U.S.'s second-leading location. What's more, according to the CDC, Texas boasts the nation's second-highest birth rates (17.1 percent). 5. Boise, Idaho. The most populous city in the Gem State, Boise boasts a 25-mile riverfront greenbelt as well as a high quality of life. What's more, it's a hotbed for sex, boasting the country's second-highest birth rates per capita (interestingly, the city also ranks tenth when it comes to condom sales). 6. Seattle, Washington. The birthplace of grunge, Microsoft, and Starbucks has more than loud music, high-tech gadgets, and espresso to offer. In fact, the Emerald City's contraceptive sales per capita are 127 percent higher than those of the rest of the country. In addition, the city ranks second when it comes to sales at Babeland, a women-friendly erotica shop. 7. Washington, D.C. Sex and politics may make dangerous bedfellows, but that's not prompting Washington politicos to embrace abstinence. Contraceptive sales are a whopping 189 percent higher in the nation's capital than the rest of the country, and when it comes to sales at Babeland, the city ranks fifth. 8. Alexandria, Virginia/Salt Lake City, Utah (tie) As it turns out, Virginia really is for lovers, with Alexandria leading the nation in romantic purchases at Amazon.com, including books about relationships. Meanwhile, Salt Lake City boasts the country's third highest birth rates per capita, with contraceptive sales that are 107 percent higher than those of most American locales. 9. Cincinnati, Ohio. Known for its scenic, small-town charm, Cincinnati, not Las Vegas, may be the real "sin city." Although its birth rates have been declining for decades, residents of the Midwestern metropolis buy contraceptives at a 70 percent higher rate than the rest of the country; when it comes to sales at Pure Romance, Cincinnati ranks third. 10. Cambridge, Massachusetts. This academic hub, which houses both Harvard and M.I.T., is also the city with the most relationship savvy: 58 percent of its romantic Amazon.com purchases are books about relationships. Cambridge's lower-than-average birth rates kept it from earning a top spot on our list, but it's interesting to note that in 1991 Massachusetts became the first location to institute a statewide condom availability program in its high schools. 10 Least Lustful Cities in America When it comes to making love, these 10 locales appear to be lagging behind. 1. Jacksonville, Florida. Also known as Jax or J-ville, this Southern city boasts warm weather, sandy beaches, and tons of attractions. But if you're looking for intimacy, you may want to go elsewhere: Low birth rates and slow contraceptive sales lead experts to believe it's more subdued than steamy. 2. Greensboro, North Carolina. It's known for its well-developed textile, furniture, and tobacco industries, but according to the data, Greensboro may be sexually repressed. Although statewide birth rates are higher than average, in Greensboro, they're lower, and when it comes to erotica and sex-book sales, this town isn't even on the map. 3. Pomona, California. Its proximity to Los Angeles might make you think Pomona is sexually savvy. But don't be fooled: Birth and fertility rates are fairly low in this city, and even though it houses California State Polytechnic University, contraceptives aren't exactly flying off the shelves. 4. Jersey City, New Jersey. Located on the west bank of the Hudson River, across from Lower Manhattan, Jersey City is considered part of the New York metropolitan area. But if you're expecting Sex and the City-style dalliances, you may be disappointed. Fortunately, there's an upside to the abstinence: Jersey City boasts one of the lowest teenage pregnancy rates in the country. 5. Providence, Rhode Island. Known as the Renaissance City, Providence has struggled to improve its poverty rates over the past few decades and is now touted as one the best quality-of-life cities in the country. Even so, sex is not its strong suit: Birth and fertility rates remain low, and its contraceptive and erotica sales seem to have stalled. 6. Montgomery, Alabama. The capital and second most populous city in Bama is trailing the rest of the country when it comes to contraceptive and erotica sales. Perhaps the city is still wary about sex after an epidemic of early syphilis (ES) struck more than 1,000 of its residents in the early 1990s. 7. Montpelier, Vermont. It may seem counterintuitive, but Vermont-often considered the most liberal state in the union-has the lowest birth rate in the country (10.6 percent, compared with 21.2 percent in uber-fertile Utah). The state's capital is no exception and doesn't boast enough contraceptive sales to offset its contracting population. 8. Lexington, Kentucky. Judging by its lack of contraceptive sales, this bluegrass city isn't exactly a sexual epicenter. Fortunately, it offers residents lots of other advantages, particularly when it comes to education: Lexington recently ranked tenth in a list of America's most educated large cities and thirteenth in literacy. 9. Baltimore, Maryland. .For more than four decades, this city's population was in serious decline. Although it has bounced back a bit in recent years, sadly a high percentage of its pregnancies are to teen mothers, and contraceptive and erotica sales remain extremely low. 10. Manchester, New Hampshire. Like its neighboring Vermont, New Hampshire is lagging behind the rest of the country when it comes to births (the state's birth rate is 11.2, making it the third lowest, behind only Vermont and Maine). However, there's a silver lining to the sexless cloud: Like Jersey City, Manchester's teenage pregnancy rate is quite low, and the city is estimated to have the lowest rate of HIV/AIDS in the country.
In response to reports that Russian hackers attacked voting systems in 39 states, Congressman Joe Kennedy III has introduced a bill to create a National Russian Threat Response Center. The center would be responsible for synchronizing and analyzing information pertaining to continued Russian aggression across the intelligence community and among international allies. “Russia’s attack on our election was not guided by party affiliation but instead by a deep desire to weaken trust in our institutions and shake the very foundation of our democracy,” said Kennedy. “Without a strong, coordinated response from our government, adversarial assaults on our electoral system, economy and national security will only become more sophisticated and sustained in the coming years.” “By uniting our agencies and our allies against this common threat, our Response Center will ensure our government is ready and willing to respond to any future meddling before it takes root,” said Kennedy. Modeled after the National Counterterrorism Center, the Russian Response Center would include representatives from the Departments of State, Defense, Justice, Homeland Security and Treasury, as well as the Central Intelligence Agency. Kennedy said it would be housed within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and would coordinate with the Global Engagement Center. A son of former U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II, the Congressman is the grandson of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. “Bobby” Kennedy and a great-nephew of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy. He has represented Massachusetts’ 4th congressional district since 2013. Connect with NJTODAY.NET Join NJTODAY.NET's free Email List to receive occasional updates delivered right to your email address!
One has to wonder why Democrats are fond of shooting themselves in the foot. The nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court will not shift the balance of the court. He is a replacement for Justice Antonin Scalia. Yet Democrats, in their ever-growing inability to “get it” are going to filibuster Gorsuch’s nomination. From The Washington Post: Gorsuch “declined to answer question after question after question with any substance. … All we have to judge the judge on in his record,” Schumer said. Sen. Robert Casey (D-Pa.) — one of 10 Democratic senators facing reelection next year in a state that Trump won — also announced on Thursday that he would oppose Gorsuch and join other Democrats in filibustering him. Schumer’s vow to help block Gorsuch with a filibuster did not include calls for the rest of his chamber to join him in opposition — a sign that he is leaving political space for more moderate Democrats, especially those facing reelection next year, to potentially side with Republicans under political pressure sparked by a multimillion-dollar ad campaign bankrolled by conservative groups in hopes of securing Gorsuch a filibuster-proof vote tally. But growing Democratic opposition will anger Republicans who are hoping to swiftly confirm Gorsuch before a two-week Easter break. Senior Republicans have vowed that Gorsuch will be confirmed no matter what — a veiled threat to Democrats that they will upend Senate tradition and change the chamber’s rules so that a Supreme Court nominee can be confirmed on a simple majority vote. The so-called “nuclear option” was used by Democrats in 2013 to change Senate rules and make it easier to confirm executive branch nominees and picks to serve on lower federal courts. But Supreme Court nominations were not included in that rules change.
Your browser does not support HTML5 video tag.Click here to view original GIF Yeah, I’m not ashamed to admit this: I feel slightly less comfortable when I’m under a tunnel than when I’m not. It’s not that I think that the tunnel will collapse on me but it’s because I know the sky absolutely won’t. This tunnel would put my fear into overdrive because this one looks like it would totally collapse because it has no permanent support work (seriously) and the entire construction process looks like piecing together Lego bricks (not joking). And yet it can support so much weight and still stand up together. Sorcery is at play, obviously. But it’s also the work of the Zipper truck system. Lock Block Ltd writes: This video shows the versatility of the Zipper truck system. We are able to create tunnels with openings very quickly with no permanent support work. This arch can be used as a mining reclaim tunnel or storage vault with top access. Advertisement They really just put the blocks together and then hope it all sticks after the truck pulls out of the tunnel... and it totally does.
The purpose of this article is to answer any questions you might have about starting to train in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and your first class in particular. Every school is different, but this article will help you understand how MOST Brazilian Jiu-jitsu schools operate. You’ll find a glossary of basic Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu terms at the bottom of this article. This is to help you understand any technical words used here or in your first class. Just Visiting? At most schools you can watch a class, meet the teacher and ask some questions before ever getting on the mats. What to Wear Before you come to your first class, you’ll need to figure out what to wear. You usually don’t need to own a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gi for your first class. T-shirts, board shorts and sweat pants are all fine. Sometimes you can wear a gi or uniform from another martial art (ask the instructor about this issue). You will need to buy a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gi if you continue training. Do NOT wear anything with extra pockets, belt loops or baggy fabric. These are dangerous since fingers and toes can get caught in them. Baggy cargo shorts are a common example of what not to wear. If you already own them, you can wear any protective gear (knee braces, ear guards, mouth guard, cup, etc.) you feel you need, with the exception of wrestling shoes (some clubs allow shoes, others don’t). Athletic tape can be used to protect injured fingers or toes. Hygiene Make sure your finger and toe nails are well-groomed. If you have long hair, you’ll want to put it up in a ponytail or bun during class. You should also remove any piercings to prevent injuries. Your First Class You’ll probably want to show up a couple minutes early to introduce yourself to the instructor and check out the school (if you haven’t visited already). You’ll often need to sign a waiver. Before class starts, you’ll have a chance to get dressed and stretch out on the mats. Be sure to get everything ready before class starts so you don’t have to miss anything. Warm-ups Some teachers use a very light warmup, whereas others start the class with a heavy-duty conditioning session. Most classes start with a group warm-up, such as running laps and doing push-ups, followed by solo drills like forward and backward breakfalls and shrimping. Those last three moves will probably be new to you, so just watch what everyone else is doing and try to copy them. These are to help you learn how to fall safely and move your hips on the ground. Don’t worry if you don’t get the exercises correct at first—no one does on their first day, and they take a little practise. Just give it your best try and the instructor or a higher belt will make sure you learn to do it right. Techniques After warm-ups, you’ll be partnered with someone and go to your own section of the mats to be taught your first lesson. At some schools you will practice a beginner curriculum, and at others you will simply do whatever techniques are being taught that day. An example of a beginner curriculum might be learning and drilling the following four techniques: Upa mount escape. Guard pass to side control. Taking mount from side control. Americana armlock(no-gi) or cross collar choke (with gi). I think it will help you learn these techniques if you understand why they are taught. Position Before Submission One of the core principles of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is “position before submission”. By “position” is meant the relative position of your body to your opponent’s. By “submission” is meant an action that causes your opponent to submit (surrender), such as an armlock or choke. It can be demonstrated that different positions in grappling offer varying degrees of control, and that those with the most control offer the best leverage for submissions and striking, with the least threat of counter-attack or escape. It is from this that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu teaches you to seek and advance towards dominant positions and only attempt submissions once these are obtained. This also includes escaping from inferior positions to a neutral or dominant position. You can see this principle contained in the four techniques we talked about earlier: You start in a bad position (under mount) and escape to a relatively neutral position (in the guard), then advance (pass guard) to a dominant position (side control), and then take an even more dominant position (mount), at which point you have the control and leverage to effect a submission (americana or cross collar choke). You would not want to escape from mount to then try an americana or cross collar choke from inside their guard. This breaks the principle of “position before submission,” since you’re trying to jump to the submission before gaining real control. They still have more than enough control to stop you from submitting them and it puts you in danger of being submitted. Each technique flows one into another, from position to position, and ends with a complete reversal of who is mounted. Once you’ve learned all four techniques, you and your partner can drill them all back and forth, switching off each time someone ends under mount. While these techniques may seem basic, if you could consistently perform them successfully against resisting opponents, you’d be well on your way in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Positional Drilling Usually resistance drills and sparring follow the instruction and repetition of techniques. This will be your first chance to try out what you just learned against a fully resisting partner in a live drill. And as such, it’s important that you understand some basic rules for all live drilling and sparring: Basic Rules* No striking, punching or kicking. * No eye gouging or hair pulling. * No twisting or grabbing fingers. * No slamming (picking someone up and dropping them). * No heelhooks (twisting the foot or knee). * No neck cranks. Remember that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is designed to be trained safely without serious injury. These rules are to help keep you and your training partners safe and healthy. Tapping The normal way you signal submission in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is to tap your opponent three times. When you tap, make sure you do it hard enough that your partner can feel it; or tap yourself or the mat where they can see and/or hear it; or verbally tap by saying “Tap!”; or loudly tap the mat with your foot so they can hear it. Likewise, be aware of your training partner tapping and stop whatever you are doing when he does so. Tapping is just part of training and there is no shame in it. Don’t worry about winning or losing. Just try the techniques you’ve learned to the best of your ability and tap when you need to, ideally before it hurts. Passing the Guard The most common group drill is Passing the Guard. It’s purpose is to develop a strong guard passing game. I’ll explain one way it is typically done (but there are many variations of this drill). Everyone lines up along the wall while a number of guys lay out in the middle of the mat. Then people from the line pair up with those on the mat and get in their guard. When they are ready to go, they slap hands and get to it. The person with guard has the goal of sweeping, submitting or taking the back of the person on top. The person on top has the goal of passing guard to a dominant position and holding it for at least 3 seconds. Dominant positions include side control and mount, like you learned earlier. Whenever someone succeeds at their goal, they stop and the “loser” goes back to the end of the line while the “winner” stays out and takes guard on the next person in line. Sparring At most schools the class concludes with live sparring. You may be assigned a sparring partner(s), and usually you’ll change partners after every round. At the start of each round, you’ll begin by facing your partner on your knees. When you’re both ready shake hands and start to “roll”: try out your techniques, stopping whenever one of you taps and restarting from knees. Some schools start with timed rounds, but allow you to continue doing “free sparring” with no time limits after class is officially over. After Class With class over, you might have more questions, now you’ve trained for the first time. If you enjoyed the class and want to continue training, you can also discuss prices and setup a schedule. You will need a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gi for continued training. Most instructors sell gis, but you can also buy them at most martial arts stores and at many online stores. I hope this answers any questions you might have about what your first day could be like at a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu school. Good luck in your future training. Matt Kirtley (www.tampabjj.com) Glossary Americana — A basic submission where the arm is bent and twisted towards the head in order to crank the shoulder. Also called American armbar, bent armlock, chicken wing, hammer lock, paint brush, top wrist lock, ude garami, and v-lock. breakfall — The techiques for safely falling to the ground, such as after a throw. To breakfall means to execute a safe fall to the mat. Also called rollovers and ukemi. gi — The uniform worn when training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Also called kimono. guard — A number of positions in grappling where the person on bottom is defending themselves and controlling the person on top using their legs. Closed guard is where the position is held with one’s legs wrapped around their opponent’s waist with their ankles crossed. Open guard guard pass — A technique done in order to get around or “pass” someone’s guard, ending with them securely holding a dominant position. Attempting to perform these techniques against an opponent is called passing the guard. heelhook — A submission where the heel is used to twist the leg and possibly tear the knee. mount — A dominant position in grappling where the person on top sits straddled across the torso of the person on bottom. In a self defense situation, the person with mount would be able to strike without much threat of being struck back. In grappling, mount offers the leverage and control to effect chokes and armlocks. The person on the bottom is considered mounted. no-gi — Refers to training without the gi, usually wearing shorts and a T-shirt shrimp — A drill done to train proper hip movement while on one’s back. It is an important part of many escapes and techniques. It is called “shrimping” because one bends in half like a shrimp as they scoot along the mat. Also called elbow escape or hip escape because of it is used in combination with the elbow in several escapes. side control — A number of dominant positions in grappling where the person on top pins the opponent, usually with chest to chest contact. Also called crossbody, cross-side and side mount. Many particular holds from side control have specific names, such as 100 kilos and scarf hold. sweep — A technique done from guard to put an opponent on their back and allow one to come up on top. To sweep means to successfully perform such a technique. take the back — To gain one of the most dominant positions in grappling (called rear mount) on an opponent’s back. From here, one can strike (in self defense situations) or choke with little fear of retaliation. weave — The type of fabric a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gi is made from. Single weave is one of the thinnest types, making it good for hot weather training. Double weave is twice the thickness of single, and gold weave is somewhere between the two. Summer weave is the lightest and most easily torn. upa — A bridging movement where you lie on your back and lift your hips off of the ground. Used in the basic bridge-and-roll mount escape. Comments ( )
Politicians from the three main parties and football supporters' groups have united in calling for the Football League to make public who owns its clubs after the league approved as "fit and proper" the offshore owners of Leeds United while keeping their identity private. The sports minister, Gerry Sutcliffe, said: "Fans of any football club have a right to know who the owners are. We want to see greater supporter representation in the running of football clubs and far greater accountability. The League should insist on clubs making public to their supporters who owns them." He was joined by the Conservative shadow sports minister, Hugh Robertson, who argued: "As with Parliament and many other areas of public life, transparency is going to be an increasing requirement and expectation. That includes publicly identifying the owners of football clubs. Football should reform its governance, to include greater supporter representation on the board of clubs." That call was echoed by the Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate, Phil Willis, who has long criticised the anonymity of Leeds' ownership, routed via companies in offshore tax havens. "At the very least, supporters of a club have a right to know who owns it. As an act of faith and goodwill, I hope the Leeds United board now publish the documentation they have presented to the Football League so that all sense of mystery can be removed." The Premier League does now require its clubs to publish the names of all shareholders with stakes of 10% or more, but the Football League does not. Instead, clubs must tell the League's chairman, Lord Mawhinney, and three other senior executives, who the ultimate owners are, but the information is not made public. Leeds have declined requests from the Guardian, following the League's ratification, to say who the ultimate owners are. The only response this week came from Peter Boatman of Château Fiduciare, the Geneva-based financial administrator of Leeds' holding company, Forward Sports Fund. "It is not necessary for you to have that information," he said. The politicians were joined by the Leeds United Supporters Club, the national Football Supporters' Federation and Supporters Direct in calling for League clubs' owners to be publicly identified. "Like all football clubs, Leeds United's character is that of a public institution wrapped in a privately owned business and that creates a mismatch," said Dave Boyle, the chief executive of Supporters Direct. "The authorities can recognise that public nature by sending a clear message: you can remain a private anonymous citizen, and you can own a football club, but you cannot do both." Boatman was named last May as an FSF director and confirmed this week he had passed the fit and proper person test. He pointed to the progress Leeds have made on the field and financially this season, and said questions about who owns the club would be seen as unwelcome criticism with the club pushing for promotion. He added that no information has been withheld from the League. Summing up Leeds' position under the current ownership, Boatman said: "The situation at the football club has improved immensely, which is very satisfying when some other clubs are in serious financial trouble. We have never denied information to the Football League and although I cannot confirm or deny who the shareholders are, the only thing I can say about the structures we control is that they are all above board." The League's approval of Leeds' owners follows inquiries it began in October after the Guardian revealed that the club's chairman, Ken Bates, had revised his account of its ownership at a court case in Jersey. In January last year, Bates' solicitors told Jersey's royal court, which is hearing a dispute between Leeds and a finance company, Admatch, that he and his long term financial adviser, Patrick Murrin, jointly owned "management shares" in the club's holding company, the Forward Sports Fund. In May, Bates swore an affidavit stating that the previous statement had been "not correct" and "an error on my part". In fact, he stated, he did not own a management share in FSF. The affidavit attached a letter from Château Fiduciare, which said FSF had 10,000 shares, owned by shareholders who have not been named. The League confirmed it had written to Leeds seeking clarification because directors and 30% shareholders in its clubs must be identified to it and passed as fit and proper people who have no recent criminal convictions and have not run a football club into insolvency twice. The League made no further comment until a spokesman said last month: "The Football League has concluded its enquiries regarding Leeds United's fit and proper persons test documentation and has addressed the issues raised with the club. Following further information from Leeds, the League is now satisfied that the club is compliant with Football League regulations." No further details have been released. Sutcliffe this week acknowledged the moves the League has made in securing detailed financial information from clubs and requiring outstanding tax to be paid, but said "more can still be done" to make clubs more transparent. A League source said clubs currently have "no appetite" to introduce a rule requiring their owners to be made public. Mawhinney, who is due to retire this month after seven years in which he has overseen a series of reforms, did indicate that he believes the League should go further. "We have come a long way," he said. "Clubs cannot play in our league unless we know who the beneficial owners are. Could we do more? Yes – but it is a matter of priorities. Eventually I think football will be strengthened if the ownership of clubs goes public."
Interested game developers may sign up immediately to develop games around disaster relief Seattle June 9, 2011 What if we could use a game to lessen the impact of natural disasters? This question is the driving force behind GameSave, a new event with a goal of creating games that can literally save lives in the face of hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and other natural disasters. The first ever GameSave event will kick off on June 10; game developers will have five weeks to develop a game that addresses the issues and needs surrounding natural disaster preparedness, action, and relief. Developers may sign up until June 15. Following the earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan, the need for effective disaster education became apparent to Gameranx.com lead editor Annie Dennisdóttir Wright and her friend Willow Brugh of Geeks Without Bounds. Both Wright and Brugh are based in Seattle, and realized that their area could be at risk of a major earthquake. As they discussed the work of renowned game designer and bestselling author Jane McGonigal, they became intrigued by the idea of games being used for good, practical, sustainable applications - including disaster education. That conversation led to the creation of GameSave, a competition for developers with a simple mission: save the world, one game at a time. As McGonical and others have shown, games can be an incredibly powerful resource and can be harnessed for real life problem-solving. Games are used in schools, childrens museums, and according to a 2010 report by the Entertainment Software Association, 67% of American households now play video games. The idea of using gaming for disaster mitigation has been discussed among the gaming community for some time, but it was recently brought further into the public eye by President Obamas recent call for the expansion of education technology into the realm of video games. In 2010 the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced their funding for the development of a game called Disaster Hero (due out this year) in order to teach children and their parents, caregivers and teachers how to prepare for various emergencies. The goal for GameSave is to create a variety of games around disaster mitigation; developers may build games in any medium they choose - board games, mobile games, video games, etc. Brugh believes, Theres no one-size-fits-all approach. Some people may like a role-playing game, while others may like an action-packed game. By involving a large number of developers who are all competing to create the coolest game, were ensuring that theres going to be a game for everyone which will potentially save more lives, says Brugh. At GameSave, Wright is looking forward to participation from Game companies, designers, developers, artists, and anyone who believes that gaming is more than mindless entertainment. She continues that a competitive environment "will make the entire thing a much more robust pool of gray matter from which to find a solution. And its also a better application of the underlying principle - the event itself is a game, and instead of getting one game from a single team, you pit other teams against each other and get several games in the end. Competing teams of game developers and emergency relief professionals will create a complete game concept and working demo aimed at an aspect of disaster relief. Teams can be assembled in two ways: A team can be composed of independent individuals who organize themselves initially through our registration site and wiki. Teams can also be sponsored as a unit by their respective employers. There will be an organization and planning period where team members will be expected to communicate with one another via wiki, which will serve as the main hub of team organization, or via any other methods they so choose. After the initial goals and rules are delivered to each team, members may return home and continue to collaborate and polish their concept for submission. Participation is possible even if travel is not, because all location-specific happenings and presentations will be live-streamed. Additionally, travel scholarships are available as sponsorship allows. Each GameSave concept or demo will be judged by a panel of experts in the fields of game design and emergency management. The awards ceremony and reception is scheduled for mid-July in San Francisco. To register for GameSave, please visit the GameSave eventbrite: http://gamesave.eventbrite.com/ GameSave video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUSInXi9Dtc About GameSave GameSave is an event series with the goal of creating new games to aid in disaster preparedness, action, and relief. Teams of game developers compete against each other for five weeks to create the game that is most likely to help save lives in the event of a natural disaster. GameSave was created as a collaboration between Gameranx and Geeks Without Bounds. Follow GameSave founders on Twitter: @chernobylheart and @willowbl00
#AlphaGo won game 3 and the match! Historic moment. In complete awe of Lee Sedol's incredible genius, and proud of the amazing AlphaGo team! — Demis Hassabis (@demishassabis) March 12, 2016 #AlphaGo won game 3, claims match victory against best Go player of last decade, Lee Sedol https://t.co/MbtYm64lhL pic.twitter.com/goHJvxCPUI — Google (@google) March 12, 2016 Update (3:30AM ET): And it's over! AlphaGo has won the match, extending its streak to 3-0 over the legendary player. We are currently awaiting a post-match press conference from the team behind DeepMind/AlphaGo and Sedol. Match four and five will still take place as scheduled, on Sunday and Tuesday. Update 2: The press conference is under way. Google co-founder / Alphabet head honcho Sergey Brin kicked things off, celebrating the fact that Google could instill Go's "beauty" in a computer. Sedol also commented on his performance through a translator, saying that looking back, he could not have won the first match because he underestimated the capabilities of AlphaGo. In the second match he noted missed opportunities, and finally that "'I was unable to overcome the amount of pressure I was experiencing" in today's third game. The legendary player hopes that people will continue to pay attention for the final two matches of the series, and said that "Lee Sedol is the one who lost today, not humanity."
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As a WordPress developer, you’re always looking for ways to better reuse your code between projects. Your time is valuable and you don’t want to reinvent the wheel each time you start a new project. Object-oriented programming can help you with that. In a previous post, I covered why you should learn it. Now it’s time to take things further by going over the main feature for code reuse. You’ve probably heard about it before. It’s called “inheritance“. Inheritance, what’s that? Inheritance is about maximizing the code reuse between your classes. It allows you to create a hierarchy between your classes. That hierarchy creates a “is-a” relationship between your classes. That’s why a lot of examples follow the formula: class Car extends Vehicle (Car is a Vehicle) class Dog extends Animal (Dog is an Animal) They aren’t practical examples, but they highlight that relationship. The take away from those examples is that you need to learn to see the relationship between your classes. Once that happens, you’ll be able to leverage inheritance to create reusable code for your projects. Visibility revisited When I covered encapsulation, I mentioned three possible access levels for properties and methods. Public Private Protected “Public” meant that anyone could access the property or method. Meanwhile, “Private” meant the opposite. You could only access it internally. It’s time to flesh out those definitions a bit more. When using inheritance, defining a property or method as private restricts it to the class that defined it. Its children can’t access it. Meanwhile, protected grants access to the entire class hierarchy. This means that child classes can access it. The inheritance toolkit Before going ahead with a practical example, let’s go over some of the tools that you can use with inheritance. A good understanding of that toolkit will allow you to leverage inheritance to its full potential. Interfaces Interfaces are the most basic tool in your inventory. You should see an interface as a contract. By implementing an interface, your class agrees to implement specific methods. You can only define public methods in an interface. By only offering a contract, you let others worry about the implementation. All that you care about is that the methods in your contract exist. Let’s look at a small example. interface Post_Interface { /** * Get the CSS class. * * @return string / public function get_class(); /* * Get the post type. * * @return string / public function get_type(); } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 interface Post_Interface { /* * Get the CSS class. * * @return string / public function get_class ( ) ; /* * Get the post type. * * @return string / public function get_type ( ) ; } The Post_Interface represents a small contract for WordPress posts. It has two methods: get_class and get_type . Any class that implements Post_Interface will need to have these methods. Built-in PHP interfaces PHP is full of useful interfaces that you can use to make your life easier. For example, Countable allows you to pass your object to the built-in count function. class Posts implements Countable { /* * @var Post_Interface[] / protected $posts; // ... public function count() { return count($this->posts); } } $posts = new Posts(); $num_posts = count($posts); 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 class Posts implements Countable { /* * @var Post_Interface[] / protected $posts ; // ... public function count ( ) { return count ( $this -> posts ) ; } } $posts = new Posts ( ) ; $num_posts = count ( $posts ) ; The Posts class above contains multiple instances of Post_Interface objects. Because Posts implements the Countable interface, we can pass Posts to the count function. This gives us an easy way to get the total number of Post_Interface objects in Posts . Interface inheritance Interfaces can also inherit from other interfaces. That’s the case with the built-in interface Traversable . Traversable allows you to use your object in a foreach loop, but you can’t use it directly. You need to implement either Iterator or IteratorAggregate which are its child interfaces. class Posts implements IteratorAggregate { /* * @var array / protected $posts; // ... public function getIterator() { return new ArrayIterator($this->posts); } } $posts = new Posts(); foreach ($posts as $post) { // Do stuff } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 class Posts implements IteratorAggregate { /* * @var array / protected $posts ; // ... public function getIterator ( ) { return new ArrayIterator ( $this -> posts ) ; } } $posts = new Posts ( ) ; foreach ( $posts as $post ) { // Do stuff } This example shows our Posts class implementing the IteratorAggregate . There’s just a small problem. We can’t have our getIterator return our posts array as is. That’s because of the IteratorAggregate contract. It says that getIterator needs to return an object implementing a Traversable interface. Lucky for us, there’s a PHP class designed to turn an array into a Traversable object. That’s why getIterator returns an instance of ArrayIterator . It’s a class that turns an array into Traversable object. Now, we can loop through the posts in our Posts class. Implementing multiple interfaces While a class can only have one parent class, it can implement as many interfaces as it wants. This is a powerful feature of interfaces. You can have a single class fulfill as many contracts as it wants. class Posts implements Countable, IteratorAggregate { /* * @var array / protected $posts; // ... public function count() { return count($this->posts); } public function getIterator() { return new ArrayIterator($this->posts); } } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 class Posts implements Countable , IteratorAggregate { /* * @var array / protected $posts ; // ... public function count ( ) { return count ( $this -> posts ) ; } public function getIterator ( ) { return new ArrayIterator ( $this -> posts ) ; } } For example, our Posts class now implements both Countable and IteratorAggregate . This lets you pass a Posts object inside the count function and in a foreach loop. Both will work. Abstract classes Let’s say you want to reuse your code in your classes, but each class has just a tiny difference between how they behave. You could implement it partially, but the other classes would need to do the rest of the work. That’s what abstract classes do. They partially implement the logic in a class, but leave some details for the child classes. Abstract methods are the methods that a child class needs to implement. They function the same way as a method defined in an interface. The one difference is that you can define an abstract method as protected. You can view an abstract class as an interface where you already coded some of the logic. You should know that, because they are incomplete, you can’t instantiate abstract classes. abstract class Abstract_Post implements Post_Interface { /* * @var int / protected $id; /* * Get the CSS class. * * @return type / public function get_class() { return $this->get_type() . '-' . $this->id; } abstract public function get_type(); } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 abstract class Abstract_Post implements Post_Interface { /* * @var int / protected $id ; /* * Get the CSS class. * * @return type / public function get_class ( ) { return $this -> get_type ( ) . '-' . $this -> id ; } abstract public function get_type ( ) ; } In the case of the Abstract_Post class shown above, we know some common details for all classes. Every post will have a post ID. It will also output its CSS class the same way. get_class concatenates the post type and its ID together. But we don’t know its post type yet. That’s why get_type uses the abstract keyword. It lets us use get_type in get_class without the need to code it. We’ll leave that to the concrete classes. Concrete classes Concrete classes are the classes that your code will end up using. They might implement one or more interfaces and/or extend an abstract class. The important thing is that you can instantiate these classes. class Attachment extends Abstract_Post { /* * Get the post type. * * @return string / public function get_type() { return 'attachment'; } } $attachment = new Attachment(); $attachment->get_class(); 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 class Attachment extends Abstract_Post { /* * Get the post type. * * @return string / public function get_type ( ) { return 'attachment' ; } } $attachment = new Attachment ( ) ; $attachment -> get_class ( ) ; Now, it’s time to code the get_type method. For our Attachment class, we make it return attachment . It’s the same value as the existing WordPress post type. Because we’ve completed our class, we can instantiate it and use it. Overriding methods Here is a scenario: You defined a method in your parent class. It works for 90% of the use cases, but not in that one child class. What can you do? Well, you can override the method! You override a method by defining that method again in a child class. Doing so replaces the old one and allows you to add that custom logic you wanted. class Video extends Attachment { /* * Get the post type. * * @return string / public function get_type() { return 'video'; } } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 class Video extends Attachment { /* * Get the post type. * * @return string / public function get_type ( ) { return 'video' ; } } In our Video class, we overrode our get_type method. Instead of returning attachment , it’ll return video . The parent method is still available if you want to use it. All you need to do is use the parent keyword. This is useful when you only want to alter the output of the parent method. class Picture extends Attachment { /* * Get the post type. * * @return string / public function get_type() { return 'picture-' . parent::get_type(); } } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 class Picture extends Attachment { /* * Get the post type. * * @return string / public function get_type ( ) { return 'picture-' . parent :: get_type ( ) ; } } In this final example, the get_type method for the Picture class won’t return attachment . Instead, it’ll return picture-attachment . attachment comes from our call to parent::get_type() . Final keyword There might be some cases where you don’t want others to extend your class or override your method. That’s where the final keyword comes in. It prevents someone from extending a class or overriding a method. There’s rarely a case for a class to be final, but you might see final methods in some cases. You generally use a final method when the method is crucial to the functioning of a class. In that case, overriding the method might have dire consequences. Making sure you get the right type of object How can you make sure that you are receiving the correct type of object in your code? You don’t want errors because someone didn’t give you the correct object. Let’s look at two options available to you so you don’t get errors in your code. Type hinting Type hinting is a useful tool when using inheritance. It allows you to force a function or method to accept only a specific type as a parameter. This saves you the need to do the validation in your code. That said, receiving an invalid parameter will cause a fatal error in PHP. /* * Save post to the database. * * @param WP_Post_Interface $post / function save_post(WP_Post_Interface $post) { // You are sure $post implements WP_Post_Interface } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 /* * Save post to the database. * * @param WP_Post_Interface $post / function save_post ( WP_Post_Interface $post ) { // You are sure $post implements WP_Post_Interface } Validating in your code You can also check the object type in your code as well. PHP has two ways for you to do it. You can use either the is_a function or the instanceof operator. This is how WordPress likes to do it since it allows for defensive coding. Using this form of validation prevents PHP fatal errors. /* * Save post to the database. * * @param mixed $post / function save_post($post) { // You are not sure $post implements WP_Post_Interface if (!$post instanceof WP_Post_Interface) { return; } // You are sure $post implements WP_Post_Interface } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 /* * Save post to the database. * * @param mixed $post / function save_post ( $post ) { // You are not sure $post implements WP_Post_Interface if ( ! $post instanceof WP_Post_Interface ) { return ; } // You are sure $post implements WP_Post_Interface } The point of the above example is to show the before and after state within our save_post method. Before our instanceof check, our post variable could be anything. But after it, we’re sure that post implements WP_Post_Interface . That’s the better question to ask. Is it the correct class or just an interface? While it’s up to you, using interfaces for validation allows for the most flexibility. When you’re validating a class, you’re telling them how to interact with your code. You’re asserting more control over it as a result. They have to use your class or they can’t do anything. Validating using an interface allows others to build what they want. You’re not forcing them to use your classes. You just want them to use the contract that you created. A practical example with WP_Widget WordPress widgets are an excellent showcase on how to use inheritance. There is a clear relationship between the WP_Widget class and all its children. That distinct relationship allows for a large amount of code reuse. You can see the impact of it by the small size of the child classes. How it currently works To develop your own custom widget, you need to extend the WP_Widget class and add your own logic. WordPress expects you to override the widget method. Otherwise, it will throw a fatal error. class WP_Test_Widget extends WP_Widget { public function widget($args, $instance) { echo 'test'; } } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 class WP_Test_Widget extends WP_Widget { public function widget ( $args , $instance ) { echo 'test' ; } } You can find more information about making widgets in the codex. Leveraging inheritance As an exercise, let’s rewrite parts of the code to use inheritance. This should give you a good idea of how to use the tools described earlier. Defining an interface Let’s start by defining the interface WP_Widget_Interface . You want to create a baseline contract for all widgets in WordPress. By doing so, we establish which methods WordPress deems necessary for a widget class. interface WP_Widget_Interface { /* * Register the widget. / public function register(); /* * Echo the widget content. * * @param array $args * @param array $instance / public function widget($args, $instance); } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 interface WP_Widget_Interface { /* * Register the widget. / public function register ( ) ; /* * Echo the widget content. * * @param array $args * @param array $instance / public function widget ( $args , $instance ) ; } You’ll notice that the interface has only two methods. This isn’t a mistake. You want to limit the interface to required methods only. The only public methods that WordPress uses are register and widget . All other methods are internal. It is worth noting that some methods need to be public due to the nature of the callback system. That said, they should not be part of the interface. WordPress does not need to be aware of them for you to fulfill your contract. Taking a look at WP_Widget Now that we have defined an interface for widgets, let’s take a better look at the WP_Widget class. Let’s rework it while maintaining the behaviour expected by WordPress. Managing property and method visibility WP_Widget uses only public methods and properties. The documentation defines private methods as methods meant for internal use. We’re going to rework the visibility of the methods and properties. That’s because we want them to follow encapsulation principles. This means that only a few functions are public. There’s the register and widget methods. We defined those in the interface. Also, you have the three callback methods which should also be public. All other methods are for internal use only. This means that you should define those methods as “protected”. This goes for the properties as well. Using an abstract class The WP_Widget class is an ideal candidate for an abstract class. WordPress expects each child object to implement its own widget method. By using an abstract class, we’re deferring the need to implement the method to the child class. No need to use a “die”! Using the final keyword WP_Widget documentation highlights methods that shouldn’t be overridden but leaves it at that. We’re going to use the final keyword to lock down those methods. We are, again, formalizing a behaviour that WordPress expects. The result You can see the result below. This isn’t an exact copy of all the methods. It highlights the changes discussed earlier. abstract class Abstract_WP_Widget implements WP_Widget_Interface { /* * @var array / protected $widget_options; /* * @var string / protected $id_base; /* * @var string / protected $name; /* * @var array / protected $control_options; /* * @var bool / protected $number = false; /* * @var bool / protected $id = false; /* * @var bool / protected $updated = false; /* * Constructor * * @param type $id_base * @param type $name * @param type $widget_options * @param type $control_options / public function __construct( $id_base, $name, $widget_options = array(), $control_options = array() ) { } /* * {@inheritdoc} / final public function register() { } /* * Generate the actual widget content. / final public function display_callback($args, $widget_args = 1) { } /* * Generate the control form. / final public function form_callback($widget_args = 1) { } /* * Deal with changed settings. * * @param mixed $deprecated Not used. / final public function update_callback($deprecated = 1) { } /* * Echo the settings update form. * * @param array $instance Current settings / protected function form($instance) { } /* * Constructs name attributes for use in form() fields. * * @param string $field_name * * @return string / protected function get_field_name($field_name) { } /* * Constructs id attributes for use in form() fields. * * @param string $field_name * * @return string / protected function get_field_id($field_name) { } /* * Update a widget instance. * * @param array $new_instance * @param array $old_instance * * @return array / protected function update($new_instance, $old_instance) { } } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 abstract class Abstract_WP_Widget implements WP_Widget_Interface { /* * @var array / protected $widget_options ; /* * @var string / protected $id_base ; /* * @var string / protected $name ; /* * @var array / protected $control_options ; /* * @var bool / protected $number = false ; /* * @var bool / protected $id = false ; /* * @var bool / protected $updated = false ; /* * Constructor * * @param type $id_base * @param type $name * @param type $widget_options * @param type $control_options / public function __construct ( $id_base , $name , $widget_options = array ( ) , $control_options = array ( ) ) { } /* * {@inheritdoc} / final public function register ( ) { } /* * Generate the actual widget content. / final public function display_callback ( $args , $widget_args = 1 ) { } /* * Generate the control form. / final public function form_callback ( $widget_args = 1 ) { } /* * Deal with changed settings. * * @param mixed $deprecated Not used. / final public function update_callback ( $deprecated = 1 ) { } /* * Echo the settings update form. * * @param array $instance Current settings / protected function form ( $instance ) { } /* * Constructs name attributes for use in form() fields. * * @param string $field_name * * @return string / protected function get_field_name ( $field_name ) { } /* * Constructs id attributes for use in form() fields. * * @param string $field_name * * @return string / protected function get_field_id ( $field_name ) { } /* * Update a widget instance. * * @param array $new_instance * @param array $old_instance * * @return array */ protected function update ( $new_instance , $old_instance ) { } } Changing the validation in WordPress We have a proper interface for widgets. We can make changes to the_widget function. Instead of validating based on the WP_Widget class, we will use the interface. function the_widget($widget, $instance = array(), $args = array()) { global $wp_widget_factory; $widget_obj = $wp_widget_factory->widgets[$widget]; if ( !is_a($widget_obj, 'WP_Widget_Interface') ) return; // ... $widget_obj->widget($args, $instance); } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 function the_widget ( $widget , $instance = array ( ) , $args = array ( ) ) { global $wp_widget_factory ; $widget_obj = $wp_widget_factory -> widgets [ $widget ] ; if ( ! is_a ( $widget_obj , 'WP_Widget_Interface' ) ) return ; // ... $widget_obj -> widget ( $args , $instance ) ; } Meanwhile, WP_Widget_Factory should also validate an object to see if it’s a WP_Widget . It doesn’t. That’s a bug I submitted to Trac. Here is a possible way we could handle it. class WP_Widget_Factory { var $widgets = array(); function register($widget_class) { $widget_obj = new $widget_class(); if ( !is_a($widget_obj, 'WP_Widget_Interface') ) return; $this->widgets[$widget_class] = $widget_obj; } // ... } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 class WP_Widget_Factory { var $widgets = array ( ) ; function register ( $widget_class ) { $widget_obj = new $widget_class ( ) ; if ( ! is_a ( $widget_obj , 'WP_Widget_Interface' ) ) return ; $this -> widgets [ $widget_class ] = $widget_obj ; } // ... } It comes down to practice Inheritance is one of the most powerful features of object-oriented programming. The amount of time you save with the code reuse is incredible. That said, it can also be the hardest thing to grasp for newcomers. Being able to see the relationship between your classes takes time and practice. So keep at it!
The club of U.S. central bankers appears jittery, but it’s not because of interest rates, unemployment, or mortgage-backed securities. It’s because of Congress. The Fed appears particularly nervous that Congress will pass Rand Paul’s audit bill and some version of the Federal Reserve Accountability and Transparency Act (the FRAT Act). Alan Blinder, a former vice chair at the Fed, recently took to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to blast the idea of restricting the Fed with, among other things, the FRAT Act. Richard Fisher and Charles Plosser, presidents of Federal Reserve District Banks in Dallas and Philadelphia, respectively, criticized the audit idea in an interview with The Hill last week. Plosser noted that the Fed is already subject to limited audits. He also warned that Paul’s audit bill “runs the risk of monetary policy decisions being based on short-term political considerations instead of the longer-term health of the economy.” Fisher, a bit more animated, queried: “Who in their right mind would ask the Congress of the United States — who can’t cobble together a fiscal policy — to assume control of monetary policy?” Excellent question. I could provide a fairly long list, but I’ll stick to one name: Milton Friedman. Friedman is on record arguing for the Fed to be put under direct control of Treasury or Congress. In a 1984 interview he reiterated his position: I said before that either bringing it under the Treasury or putting it under Congress would give you more small mistakes. It would worsen monetary policy from month to month, or even year to year, but it would prevent major disasters. You would not have had the Great Depression; you would not have had the inflationary rollercoaster of the last 20 years. Just to be clear, he also said: So I’m not overly optimistic about what congressional control can do. However, it would be better than what we have now. As you can see, I am not in favor of the independence of the Federal Reserve. This is a democracy. And I believe that money is too important to leave to [a] central bank, that it is intolerable that a group of nonelected people should have the power to create a major inflation or a major recession. Entirely aside from the economic effects I believe it is not an acceptable political system. To repeat, as a minor change I’d have the Fed made part of the Treasury. As an alternative, it would be better to have the Fed more directly under congressional control. I think it’s pretty safe to say Friedman was in his right mind. Regardless of what Fisher thinks, it’s just as valid to ask who in their right mind would not want Congress in charge of monetary policy. By all means, let’s have this debate. It’s far from insane to argue that Congress – the political body the U.S. Constitution charges with the power to “coin Money” and to “regulate the Value thereof” – should be held directly accountable for monetary policy. Besides, the notion of Federal Reserve “independence” borders on pure fiction. It is true that nobody from Congress or the Executive branch calls Janet Yellen every day to tell her exactly where to set the fed funds target. But that’s pretty much the extent of the Fed’s independence. There are so many pieces of evidence which prove – and that’s a word I rarely use – the Fed is not really immune to even short-term political pressure that it’s hard know where to start. First, the Fed is nothing but a creature of Congress – it was created via the Federal Reserve Act in 1913. Originally, the Treasury Secretary served on the Federal Reserve Board. It’s pretty hard to argue the Fed was politically independent under that arrangement, which lasted until the 1930s. And the Fed is the fiscal agent of the U.S. government. The more U.S. debt the Fed holds, the more it enables deficit spending. Congress also gave the Fed its (inappropriately named) dual mandate, the directive which requires the Fed to focus on full employment. In what universe are federal debt, deficit spending, and unemployment non-political issues? Aside from these minor quibbles, it’s not as if Congress – or the Chief Executive – has a history of leaving the Fed alone. They actually have a history of threatening the Fed and, sometimes even following through. So many scholars have done such an incredible volume of work in this area that I can’t possibly give everyone the tribute they deserve. So I’ll simply link to two papers which, between them, point to most of the original sources. (I apologize to anyone I’ve left out). One paper is authored by Thomas Cargill and Gerry O’Driscoll, the other is by Daniel Smith and Peter Boettke. (As an aside, the O’Driscoll paper is also a good source for empirical papers that counter statistical evidence of the supposed benefits of Federal Reserve independence). The Smith-Boettke paper is one of the most comprehensive looks at this issue I’ve seen. It runs through examples of every Fed Chair since 1951, the supposed start of Fed independence. Here are just a few examples (with Fed Chair dates provided): William Martin (1951 - 1970). President Eisenhower directed his Treasury Secretary to put the “utmost pressure” on Chairman Martin to “get a greater money supply throughout the country.” When Martin refused, Eisenhower pressured him to resign or reconsider. Martin reconsidered. Arthur Burns (1970 - 1978). President Nixon repeatedly worked with Burns to secure easy monetary policy with the view that it would help win elections. On one of Nixon’s famous tapes, Nixon and Burns openly mocked the idea of Federal Reserve independence. G. William Miller (1978 - 1979). President Carter found Miller uncooperative, so he replaced him as Fed Chair (he made Miller his Treasury Secretary). Paul Volcker (1979 - 1984). Ronald Reagan openly cultivated a working relationship with Volcker and repeatedly asked him for tighter monetary policy. Alan Greenspan reports that, in one meeting, Reagan reminded Volcker that the Federal Reserve Act was subject to change. Alan Greenspan (1987 - 2006). Alan Blinder, appointed to the Fed Board by President Clinton, publicly suggested Greenspan was catering to Clinton. Ben Bernanke (2006 - 2014). A 2012 New York Fed publication notes: “The U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve System have long enjoyed a close relationship…. This relationship proved beneficial during the 2008-09 financial crisis, when the Treasury altered its cash management practices to facilitate the Fed’s dramatic expansion of credit to banks, primary dealers, and foreign central banks.” Perhaps the Fed’s defenders have some other definition of independence in mind? It’s sort of paradoxical, but one good way for the Fed to resist political pressure would be to follow a monetary policy rule. This idea, of course, is also being pilloried. Alan Blinder is a well-versed critic of rules-based policy. He recently suggested that, while a policy rule – such as the Taylor rule – would be a “useful benchmark” in “normal” times, we wouldn’t want the Fed tied to a rule in bad times “out of fear of congressional browbeating.” But if Congress does tie the Fed to a rule, who would they browbeat? Incidentally, two economists actually won a Nobel-prize for showing that rules-based monetary policy would produce better economic outcomes than a pure discretionary framework. So maybe the idea has some merit. Blinder also warns against curtailing the Fed’s emergency lending powers, an action he sees as “the biggest threat to the Fed and the economy.” But the Fed has a long and miserable record of lending to insolvent/failing banks and nonbanks. That kind of lending has always been – and always will be – a political issue. The Fed could easily avoid such conflict because there is no clear economic rationale for the Fed to provide direct loans to private firms. The truth is the Fed can implement monetary policy and provide liquidity to the banking system without emergency lending powers. And if nonbanks have trouble getting credit in a crisis, well, maybe there’s a good reason. Voters recently rejected the big-government, big-business cronyism they got in the wake of the 2008 crisis. Over these next few months, Congress’ actions will reveal whether they got the message. If Congress engages in real Federal Reserve reform, we’ll know the answer. Norbert J. Michel is a research fellow specializing in financial regulation for The Heritage Foundation’s Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies. He is also a co-author of “Opportunity for All, Favoritism to None”.
Israel has taken significant steps to ease the Palestinian Authority's financial difficulties, fearing that instability in the West Bank threatens the PA's future, and that the Israel Defense Forces could eventually become the target of demonstrations there. During a conference of donor countries in New York on Saturday, Israeli representatives presented the package of steps being taken to assist the PA, even though donor nations have not been rushing to meet the Palestinians' requests for aid. While until a few months ago the whole issue of transferring the tax monies that the Israeli government collects on behalf of the PA was a bone of contention in the Netanyahu government, recently Israel has been making these payments on time, and even paid NIS 380 million as an advance this summer in order to help PA employees receive their salaries. At the donor conference, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and Coordinator of Government Activity in the Territories Maj. Gen. Eitan Dangot cited several other moves, including Israeli approval of 14 projects proposed by USAID to build and renovate schools and clinics for Palestinians in Area C, which is under full Israeli control. Israel has also added 5,000 permits for Palestinians to work within the Green Line along with 2,000 overnight permits that allow laborers who work in construction and farming to sleep on site, bringing the number of overnight permits to 9,000. All told, some 48,000 Palestinians can now work legally within the Green Line, while some 26,000 work in industrial zones in settlement regions, and an estimated 30,000 more are working in Israel without permits. Thus, over 100,000 Palestinians are earning their livelihoods directly from Israel, receiving salaries that are at least double the salaries paid in the West Bank, the Israeli representatives said. They also noted the ongoing progress at removing IDF checkpoints and other steps that ease Palestinian movement. Israel is also working to obtain financial aid for the PA from European countries, as several Arab countries that had pledged $300 million to the PA have yet to fulfill their pledges. Keep updated: Sign up to our newsletter Email * Please enter a valid email address Sign up Please wait… Thank you for signing up. We've got more newsletters we think you'll find interesting. Click here Oops. Something went wrong. Please try again later. Try again Thank you, The email address you have provided is already registered. Close Earlier this month there were several Palestinian demonstrations in the West Bank against the rising cost of living, particularly the rising prices of food and fuel. Although the demonstrations petered out last week, both the PA and Israel fear that the ongoing economic instability puts the PA at risk. Nor is the unrest over: Today a strike of public transportation in the West Bank is planned, while on Wednesday a general strike throughout the West Bank is scheduled. Strike organizers include workers organizations affiliated with Fatah, which is trying to direct the public's anger toward PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who is not a Fatah member. Israel has also provided some relief for the Gaza Strip. Dangot told the donors that Israel will gradually allow the export of furniture and textiles from Gaza to the West Bank for the first time since 2007. Israel has made this promise before, but now it seems ready to fulfill it. In addition, Israel has permitted building materials into Gaza that Dangot said would suffice for 16 educational, residential and infrastructure projects that are to go up with international financing, including the construction of six schools for UNRWA and road repairs. Israel also permitted the transfer of NIS 100 million from a West Bank bank to Gaza, so that salaries could be paid to those Gaza residents who are still defined as PA employees. Although neither Israel nor Hamas is admitting it publicly, they seem to have arrived at a status quo that both are being careful to maintain. Israel is gradually reducing its restrictions on the entrance of goods into Gaza and isn't butting heads with the Hamas regime. Hamas, which is trying to also establish solid economic ties with Egypt (something it has yet to achieve ), is being careful not to provoke Israel overtly, although it turns a blind eye to rocket firing and other pinpoint violence by more radical groups. Palestinians during a protest against the rising cost of living in the West Bank city of Ramallah, September 11, 2012. Reuters
Michael Appleton for The New York Times New York State regulators are calling for a nationwide moratorium on transactions that life insurers are using to alter their books by billions of dollars, saying that the deals put policyholders at risk and could lead to another taxpayer bailout. Insurers’ use of the secretive transactions has become widespread, nearly doubling over the last five years. The deals now affect life insurance policies worth trillions of dollars, according to an analysis done for The New York Times by SNL Financial, a research and data firm. Related Links Graphic : Insurance Captivity These complex private deals allow the companies to describe themselves as richer and stronger than they otherwise could in their communications with regulators, stockholders, the ratings agencies and customers, who often rely on ratings to buy insurance. Benjamin M. Lawsky, New York’s superintendent of financial services, said that life insurers based in New York had alone burnished their books by $48 billion, using what he called “shadow insurance,” according to an investigation conducted by his department. He issued a report about the investigation late Tuesday. The transactions are so opaque that Mr. Lawsky said it took his team of investigators nearly a year to follow the paper trail, even though they had the power to subpoena documents. Insurance is regulated by the states, and Mr. Lawsky said his investigators found that life insurers in New York were seeking out states with looser regulations and setting up shell companies there for the deals. They then used those states’ tight secrecy laws to avoid scrutiny by the New York State regulators. Insurance regulation is based squarely on the concept of solvency — the idea that future claims can be predicted fairly accurately and that each insurer should track them and keep enough reserves on hand to pay all of them. The states have detailed rules for what types of assets reserves can be invested in. Companies are also expected to keep a little more than they really expect to need — called their surplus — as a buffer against unexpected events. State regulators monitor the reserves and surpluses of companies and make sure none fall short. Mr. Lawsky said that because the transactions made companies look richer than they otherwise would, some were diverting reserves to other uses, like executive compensation or stockholder dividends. The most frequent use, he said, was to artificially increase companies’ risk-based capital ratios, an important measurement of solvency that was instituted after a series of life-insurance failures and near misses in the 1980s. Mr. Lawsky said he was struck by similarities between what the life insurers were doing now and the issuing of structured mortgage securities in the run-up to the financial crisis of 2008. “Those practices were used to water down capital buffers, as well as temporarily boost quarterly profits and stock prices,” Mr. Lawsky said. “And ultimately, those practices left those very same companies on the hook for hundreds of billions of dollars in losses from risks hidden in the shadows, and led to a multitrillion-dollar taxpayer bailout.” The transactions at issue are modeled after reinsurance, a business in which an insurance company pays another company, a reinsurer, to take over some of its obligations to pay claims. Reinsurance is widely used and is considered beneficial because it allows insurers to spread their risks and remain stable as they grow. Conventional reinsurance deals are negotiated at arm’s length by independent companies; both sides understand the risk and can agree on a fair price for covering it. The obligations drop off the original insurer’s books because the reinsurer has picked them up. Mr. Lawsky’s investigators found, though, that life insurance groups, including some of the best known, were creating their own shell companies in other states or countries — outside the regulators’ view — and saying that these so-called captives were selling them reinsurance. The value of policies reinsured through all affiliates, including captives, rose to $5.46 trillion in 2012, from $2.82 trillion in 2007. The chief problem with captive reinsurance, Mr. Lawsky said, is that the risk is not being transferred to an independent reinsurer. Also, the deal is not at arm’s length. And confidentiality rules make it difficult to see what secures the obligations. The New York State investigators subpoenaed this information and discovered that some states were approving deals backed by assets that would not be allowed in New York; Mr. Lawsky referred to “hollow assets,” “naked parental guarantees” and “conditional letters of credit.” “Weaker collateral requirements mean the policyholders are at greater risk,” he said. Insurers, unlike banks, have no prepaid fund like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to make customers whole in the event of a collapse. That’s why Mr. Lawsky said he feared that taxpayers might have to be called to the rescue again. Because New York has standing to investigate only life insurers based in the state, the administration of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is calling for other states, or the federal government, to “conduct similar investigations, to document a more complete picture of the full extent of shadow insurance written nationwide.” Until then, Mr. Lawsky said, the deals should not be permitted. New York State has already stopped approving them, but other states have not. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has been examining the same type of transactions, but its members are sharply divided about their potential risk and what, if anything, to do about it. The group’s proposals must be adopted by 42 state legislatures to become effective. That seems unlikely; many states have recently passed laws allowing the formation of captives. Gov. Rick Perry made Texas the latest contender for the business when he signed such a law this month. A new federal entity created under the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, the Federal Insurance Office, has also been monitoring the trend and is scheduled to discuss possible federal responses at an advisory committee meeting on Wednesday. Any federal action would be fought hard by the states, which have regulated insurance for more than 150 years. New York’s investigators could not disclose which companies are the biggest users of reinsurance through captives because of the secrecy laws of other states. Their report did describe some of the transactions in detail, but with the names of the companies removed. The separate analysis by SNL Financial, by contrast, was based on public regulatory filings. It did identify the life insurance companies that are the biggest users of the transactions, both in and out of New York. They include Transamerica, MetLife, Prudential, Hartford, Genworth, John Hancock, ReliaStar and Lincoln National, among others. Another insurer, Allstate, turned up in the sample even though its primary business is property and casualty, because it owns some life insurers. The big users generally appear to be publicly traded companies, which have to meet Wall Street’s expectations for earnings growth and returns on capital. Life insurers that are owned by their policyholders, called mutual companies, do not have that pressure, and some, like State Farm, Guardian and New York Life, appear not to be reinsuring through captives at all. MetLife said in a statement Tuesday that it “holds more than sufficient reserves to pay claims on its policies” and added that it used reinsurance subsidiaries “as a cost-effective way of addressing overly conservative reserving requirements” for certain insurance products. If it had to set aside that level of reserves more conventionally, it said, it would either have to borrow — putting its credit rating at risk — or raise the money by selling stock, dragging its returns below the level its stockholders require. “Access to reinsurance subsidiaries significantly reduces costs to policyholders and in some cases is necessary to enable insurers to continue to offer certain coverage,” MetLife said. Prudential said in a statement, “Our captives are capitalized to a level consistent with ‘AA’ financial strength rating targets of our issuing insurance entities.” It said that many of its captive reinsurance transactions were done in Prudential’s own home state, New Jersey, so the same regulators could see both ends of the deals. In other cases, Prudential said it reinsured obligations through a captive entity in Arizona, Pruco Re, whose reserves were “subject to asset adequacy testing by our actuaries.” The company said these practices were disclosed to investors. Other companies using this type of reinsurance said their transactions had been reviewed and approved by regulators, and helped them use capital efficiently. They also said the practice allowed them to charge lower prices, and in some cases made it possible to keep selling types of insurance that would otherwise have been discontinued. They also said it was appropriate to support their captives with contingent letters of credit in cases where the likelihood of big payouts was remote. The Hartford said that it had sold its life insurance business to Prudential, and was no longer in the business of writing new life policies and reinsuring them. Allstate said that captives and special-purpose vehicles were “a minor part of Allstate’s reinsurance business.” SNL Financial’s data also made it possible to see which states are courting the transactions most eagerly — Vermont, South Carolina, Arizona, Hawaii, Iowa and Missouri. “If we let our guard down and ignore this regulatory race to the bottom, taxpayers and insurance policyholders are the ones who could get left holding the bag,” Mr. Lawsky said in his report.
St. Augustine, Florida Then & Now P. Marlin 2018 Series Castillo de San Marcos View of St. Augustine from Castillo de San Marcos in unknown year and 2018. The Castillo de San Marcos in 1946 and 2018. St. Francis Barracks The St. Francis Barracks are the former site of an old Franciscan Monastery, constructed in 1588. The building was converted to military barracks by the British in 1763 and then from 1783 to 1821, it was a Spanish garrison. The United States Army has occupied the space since 1821 and in 1907 the Florida National Guard Headquarters was established here. Photos reflect 1895 and 2018 time periods. Matanzas River In 1902 one could stop for a hot bath on the walk from the Bridge of Lions to the Castillo de San Marcos. The same view in 2018. What was originally Dr. Vedder's Curiosities Museum (1900 time period) can be seen on the left (yellow building today). 65-69 St. George Street Someone takes a peak out of the door at number 65 St. George Street (first building on right - 1900). Today it is Tedi's Old Tyme Ice Cream. It's always interesting to see what buildings have been torn down. 65-69 St. George Street Same building as above in 1903. 54 St. George Street Today the second building on the left is St. Augustine Art Glass. This building was once Dodge's Curiosity Shop and before that, the Don Juan Paredes house, built between 1803-1813. Notice the building further down on the left (with the dormers) is in the original photo as well. The building on the right is gone. The Hotel Alcazar (Lightner Museum) Looking across to the Alcazar Hotel in 1902 and 2018 with today's horse and buggy. Marine & Cadiz Streets A view of the Pablo Cafeteria in the original photo. I'm not sure if any of the original buildings are still standing or the year the original photo was taken. City Gates Views of the City Gates: 1875, 1900 and 2018. Views of the City Gates: 1890s and 2018. 2013, 2014, 2015 & 2016 Series City Gates St. Augustine city gates built 1808, photographed in 1865 and 2013. Dodge's Curiosity Shop Fifty-four St George Street was originally the Don Juan Paredes house built between 1803-1813, then became Dodge's Old Curiosity Shop. Photographed in 1905 and 2013. St. George Street Little kids on St. George Street photographed in 1894 and 2013 (notice chimney lines up). St. George Street I was able to locate G.S. Beverly Plumbing (no longer there) on St George street in an old directory which led to this location, notice the balcony is the same. Photographed in 1908 and 201. Corner of St. George Street The corner of St George Street and Cathedral Place has none of the character and charm that existed in the 1930s. Photographed in 1937 and 2013. The Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse The oldest wooden schoolhouse was built in early 1700's, the chain was added in the late 1930's to keep it from blowing away in a hurricane. Photographed in 1937 and 2013. The Old Coquina Lighthouse on Anastasia Island The old photo shows the remains of the old Coquina Lighthouse which fell into the sea in 1880. Near the same area in the newer photo, the foundations of the old lighthouse can be seen at low tide in the shell mound just in front of the wooden pier. Old Spanish Watch Tower (blog) Old Spanish Chimney A woman and her daughter visit the old Spanish chimney on Anastasia Island in 1924. Today, the same view. St. Augustine Lighthouse, Anastasia Island The old lighthouse photo was taken in 1888 and the new photo in 2014. View of St. Augustine from the Lighthouse A view from the lighthouse looking toward St. Augustine. The Cathedral Place office building and the Castillo de San Marcos are visible in the distance, with the Bridge of Lions is barely visible behind the trees. The original photo was taken after 1930, the new photo in 2014. King Street 1902 and 2015. The Oldest House A National Historic Landmark, the González-Alvarez House (14 St Francis Street) is the oldest surviving Spanish colonial dwelling in St. Augustine, Florida. While evidence exists that the González-Alvarez House site had been occupied since the 1600s, the present house dates to the early 1700s. Construction began on the house around 1723 and it reached its final form in 1790. These photos are from 1905 and 2015. Hospital Street A man pushes a cart down Aviles (originally Hospital Street) and Cadiz (originally Green) Streets in St. Augustine in 1897 and 2015. Dr. Vedder's Museum Dr. Vedders museum on old Bay (now Menendez) and Treasury streets specialized in curiosities such as live alligators, snakes and other 'unusual' items. The original photo is of Dr. Vedder standing next to the museum in 1894. The original building burned down in 1914. Sanchez House The Sanchez House, 7 Bridge Street, was built in 1791 by Jose Simeon Sanchez, one of the Spanish colony of Florida's first and foremost statesmen. Crafted of coquina stone, the house hosted the prosperous and distinguished Sanchez family until the 1950's. Jose's lovely daughters, the "Sanchez girls", were known for their long black hair and Galician beauty. From the 1930's and today, the photo below is also the Sanchez House with full views. Text from Sanchez House website. Murat House The Murat House, 250 George Street, was rented by one of St. Augustine's most celebrated French citizens, Charles Louis Napoleon Achille Murat, the crown prince of Naples. The famous prince resembled his powerful uncle, Napoleon Bonaparte, and was known for shared mannerisms as well. Murat came to St. Augustine in the spring of 1824. I believe the original is the 1920's or 30's. Ponce de Leon Hotel (Flagler College) These lovely ladies were probably sweltering under a summer day's heat at the beautiful Ponce de Leon Hotel in St. Augustine (1890 - built by Henry Flagler). Now Flagler College, a visit is still like a step back in time. The Hotel Alcazar (Lightner Museum) In 1930 The Alcazar Hotel in St. Augustine had the world's largest indoor swimming pool. Today it is the Lightner Museum. City Gates Turn of the 20th Century at the St. Augustine City Gates. Rodriguez-Avero-Sanchez House The Rodriguez-Avero-Sanchez House at 52 St. George Street was built during the First Spanish Occupation (1565-1763). The original photo was taken around 1936 which makes the coquina wall replacing the dress shop a little mysterious. Ponce de Leon Celebration Day The Ponce de Leon Event, celebrating Ponce de Leon's landing in St. Augustine, started in 1883 and continued for many years. This view was taken at the corner of Avenida Menendez Street and Cathedral Place (Bridge of Lions) in April 1927 and September 2016. Ponce de Leon Hotel (Flagler College) The days of leasure and luxury at the Ponce de Leon Hotel.
Seattle Seahawks Super Bowl XLIX Phantom Champs Merchandise Well that was certainly the best last few minutes of a Super Bowl I can ever remember watching, what an incredible game, an incredible finish! Congrats to the New England Patriots on winning their 4th Super Bowl championship, it’s nice to see the city of Boston finally get a championship team… they’ve had quite the hard luck with their sports teams lately. /sarcasm If the Seattle Seahawks had managed to go that last half-yard without throwing an interception here’s what their Super Bowl XLIX “Back to Back” championship merchandise would have looked like. As always, this post was not meant to kick Seahawks fans while they were down, merely for the curiosity of what the alternate universe would have had in store for us. None of this merchandise is for sale, sorry, what little was produced usually finds its way to charities around the world to help clothe the less fortunate.
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT The men are understood to be ISIS fighters who were killed by the Libyan Army Executioners walk up to a row of prisoners and shoot them dead with rifles Killers then turn on their heels and walk back before the sequence is repeated A shocking video has emerged showing 18 prisoners in orange jumpsuits getting shot in the back of the head from point-blank range in summary executions in Libya. The men, understood to be ISIS fighters, are shown kneeling in four rows and facing away from their killers. ADVERTISEMENT Executioners can be seen walking up slowly behind their targets before firing a spray of bullets from what look like semi-automatic assault rifles into the backs of their heads before another line of killers repeat the sequence. It comes amid tensions between jihadists and Libyan forces in Benghazi after strongman Khalifa Haftar - a former soldier under the Gaddafi regime who has risen through the ranks to commander of the Libyan National Army - declared victory in the eastern city. Scroll down for video Executioners, thought to be from the Libyan National Army, take aim at their targets - supposedly ISIS fighters in the country The killers spray their targets with bullets long after they have fallen to the ground in a heap Eighteen blindfolded prisoners in Guantanamo Bay-style jumpsuits line up to face their deaths Resize The gruesome video, seen by MailOnline, shows all 18 men in orange jumpsuits falling to the floor after being shot, but it it not clear who is pulling the trigger and giving the orders. It is claimed by the Libyan Express the commander of the eastern Saiqa Force of Operation Dignity Mahmoud Al-Werfalli conducted the massacre. He was also said to have ordered the killings by the Libyan Observer, who reported he had been promoted by Haftar, leader of the Libyan National Army, for his alleged role in killing policemen in May. It is understood those killed were ISIS fighters in Libya, according to Al Jazeera, who again claimed it was Al-Werfalli reading the charges before his proteges shoot the detainees dead. In the video, a man can be seen reading from a piece of paper and men in military uniform can be seen walking up to their targets, taking one each, and unleashing a flurry of bullets on the command of their leader. The kneeling men fall to the ground face-first, which doesn't stop the gunmen from shooting. Eventually, they turn on their heels and walk back together in a line before a new set of executioners walk forward and kill the next line of prisoners. A man in an orange jumpsuit located in the second line appears to fall forward in an attempt to fool the executioners, but he is dragged back onto his knees and callously shot in the head in the second round of killings. The sequence continues until all 18 men are dead. The first row of prisoners are taken out by the first line of executioners in the video dated July 17 Five prisoners lay face-down in the dirt after being shot in the back of the head at point-blank range Dust rises from the ground in the desert as the executioners stand behind the men they have killed Executioners holding up their semi-automatic assault rifles before pulling the trigger and killing their targets The video is dated July 17, which means it would have come just days after the UN's human rights spokeswoman Liz Throssell said called for the Libyan National Army (LNA) which controls the eastern part of the country to investigate summary executions of prisoners. ADVERTISEMENT The UN's human rights body and voiced concern at the fate of those still in their custody. The LNA is pushing to expand its presence in central and southern Libya, where it has been vying for control with forces linked to the UN-backed government in Tripoli and other opponents. LNA leader Khalifa Haftar has gained ground with Egyptian and Emirati support, and Western states say Haftar must be part of any solution to Libya's conflict UN human rights spokeswoman Liz Throssell said: 'We are deeply concerned that, after recent fighting in Benghazi, people taken prisoner by members of the Libyan National Army, which effectively controls eastern Libya, may be at imminent risk of torture and even summary execution. 'Reports have suggested the involvement of Special Forces, a unit aligned with the LNA, in torturing detainees and summarily executing at least 10 captured men.' A member of the self-styled Libyan National Army, loyal to the country's east strongman Khalifa Haftar, rides in a tank as it drives down a street through the rubble in Benghazi's central Akhribish district on July 19, 2017 following clashes with militants Smoke billows from buildings during clashes between members of the self-styled Libyan National Army, loyal to the country's east strongman Khalifa Haftar, and militants in Benghazi's central Akhribish district on July 19, 2017 A picture shows a damaged building in Benghazi's central Akhribish district on July 19, 2017. Libyan military strongman Khalifa Haftar on July 5, 2017, announced the "total liberation" of second city Benghazi, which was overrun by jihadists three years ago The Libyan National Army announced last March that it would conduct investigations into alleged war crimes but has not shared any information, Throssell said. 'We urge the LNA to ensure there is a full, impartial investigation into these allegations,' she said. Throssell also called on the group to suspend Mahmoud al-Werfalli from his duties as a Special Forces field commander pending the conclusion of such an investigation. A video circulating on social media in March allegedly showed al-Werfalli shooting dead three men who were kneeling and facing a wall with their hands tied behind their backs, Throssell said. In June, two further videos appeared to show summary executions carried out by LNA fighters on his orders. 'One of these videos, which emerged on 9 June, shows four men kneeling with their hands tied behind their backs who are shot dead as al-Werfalli watches,' she said. 'The latest video, which was posted on social media this month, seems to shows LNA fighters kicking and taunting prisoners, while al-Werfalli is apparently heard accusing two men who have their hands tied behind their backs of belonging to terrorist groups,' she said. ADVERTISEMENT The LNA has declined comment on the images.
If "exciting place to eat" doesn't come to mind when you hear the word "Newark," you haven't been paying very close attention. The New Jersey city that, for many, is just the place where their planes land has developed a beautifully rich restaurant scene over the past few years, albeit one devoid of big names—until now. Celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson will be opening a restaurant in downtown Newark in mid-November, the New York Post reports. Called Marcus B and P, the restaurant draws inspiration from the city's history and immigrant identities. "We are addressing Newark’s current need and preparing for what is coming,” Samuelsson told the Post. "We will mirror the culture and history here, that is similar to Harlem, and we have a chance to be more ‘farm to table’ here than we can be in Manhattan. We are 15 minutes away from the source of our incredible hazelnuts and honey, for example.” Samuelsson opened his iconic Harlem restaurant, Red Rooster, in 2010, in large part centering the neighborhood as a hot place to eat. We imagine the chef's new spot will help bolster Newark's food scene, as well, drawing even more big New York names to start projects across the river. "I am inspired by the Atlantic history and diverse culture of Newark. It’s a port town, and I come from a port town as well,” Samuelsson said, adding that the new restaurant will feature handmade pizzas and pastas. Newark is already worth the PATH commuter rail ride from Manhattan, for breakfast, lunch or dinner. If you're feeling casual but also inordinately hungry, Tops Diner in East Newark (dubbed one of the "most famous" restaurants in New Jersey) draws hour-long lines for a reason: their Monte Cristo French toast, ribs, benedicts and extensive menu of somewhat reimagined diner fare are immaculately executed. Alternatively, stroll Newark's four-square-mile Ironbound district for a slew of old-school Portuguese, Spanish and Brazilian eateries. (Iberia Peninsula, an institution since 1924, serves spectacular Spanish and Portuguese dishes, heavy on seafood and barbecued meats. Fernandes Steakhouse is the place for Brazilian. Krug's Tavern is the only dive bar that serves hamburgers we dream about.) Not irrelevant: In March of this year, Newark's first Whole Foods opened. Marcus B and P, which will also have a bar serving (you guessed it) craft cocktails, is set to open in mid-November at 56 Halsey St.
What Happens When Stores Let Customers Return Whatever They Want? Enlarge this image toggle caption Bugsy Sailor/Flickr Bugsy Sailor/Flickr Sunny Pettinati walked into the L.L. Bean store in Yonkers, N.Y., clutching a plastic bag and looking a little embarrassed. "I'm returning a sweater that I purchased, I think, about 10 years ago," she said. The sweater had sat in a drawer, unworn, for years, and she was trying her luck with the store's famously lenient return policy. It turned out to be painless. A few taps on the keyboard, and the saleswoman handed her a gift card worth the full value of the sweater. L.L. Bean has an astonishingly lenient return policy. The company has taken back a live Christmas wreath that had turned brown and a shirt ripped by a rescue crew after a car accident. My own Planet Money colleague, Lisa Chow, has been returning her L.L. Bean backpacks for two decades whenever a zipper breaks. She's gone through three or four backpacks this way. Every time, they send her a new one free. I asked Steve Fuller, L.L. Bean's chief marketing officer, if Lisa was gaming the company's system. He was a model of nonjudgment. "If she believes her zippers should last a longer time, we'll respect that and we'll refund her money or give her a new product until she's happy," he said. L.L. Bean customers seem more worried than Fuller about the return habits of their fellow shoppers. "A customer will come to the desk after watching a return, and she or he will say: 'I can't believe you're taking this back. I hope these people aren't ruining it for the rest of us,' " Fuller said. L.L. Bean competitor REI used to have a return policy like L.L. Bean's. "I've seen some 15-year-old shoes that went directly into the trash in a toxic waste bag," Tim Spangler, REI's senior vice president for stores, told me. But REI began to worry it was getting a reputation as a sucker. Customers started giving it nicknames like "Rental Equipment Inc." "Rent Every Item" was another. Some called it "Return Every Item." Two years ago, REI noticed that the number of people returning really old stuff was increasing. Some customers talked about their returns on social media, which led to even more people bringing in their old junk to get refunds. It was hurting profits. After intense debate and customer surveys, Spangler and his team unveiled a new policy: From now on, you get only a year to return your stuff. "I don't want to be in the business of looking somebody in the eye behind the counter and questioning the morality of their return," Spangler said. "I want to be able to say, 'Look, it's outside the confines of what we agreed upon when you bought it, or it's within it, and we're going to take care of you,' and leave it at that." For his part, Fuller of L.L. Bean says his company is sticking to its policy. He says he's never been in a meeting where someone questioned the value of the guarantee. The only question he gets is whether the company talks about it enough. If anything, L.L. Bean seems to be welcoming the customers REI might be willing to let go. Behind its store counters, the guarantee is written in giant text. And there are a few reasons why this may be better business for L.L. Bean. Many of its sales are mail order, so it's less convenient for customers to return stuff. And, Fuller says, the crazy return stories are great marketing for the company. "How many times has your colleague talked about the fact that she's returned that backpack, and L.L. Bean gave her a new one without question?" Fuller said. "That's really the value of the guarantee." As a business practice, it's expensive. As advertising, it's cheap.
Earlier this month, the Americans dedicated a new memorial on the shores of the Niagara River commemorating one of the last invasions of Canada to be launched from U.S. territory. The Fenian invasion of 1866 monument marks the point from where approximately 1,000 Irish-American Fenian insurgents invaded the Fort Erie area intending to take Canada hostage in a campaign to force the British out of Ireland. The Fenian invasion culminated on June 2, 1866, with Canada’s first modern battle, the Battle of Ridgeway, our first fought in the age of telegraph and steam railroads. The iconic and historically inaccurate image of the Battle of Ridgeway. Troops did not fight in the depicted Napoleonic line style but 'skirmished' from behind cover as per modern battlefield tactics. The Irish Fenians were uniformed in mostly blue U.S. army tunics while the Canadians fought in both traditional scarlet of Hamilton's 13th Batallion (today the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry) and in the 'rifle green' of the Queen's Own Rifles. Credit: Library and Archives Canada, C-018737 <3-BattleRidgeway.jpg> ( Library and Archives Canada ) Ridgeway was the first battle fought exclusively by Canadian soldiers and led entirely by Canadian officers — no British troops participated in the combat — and it was the last battle fought against foreign invaders in what would become Ontario. It was also an unmitigated disaster when untested Canadian troops from Hamilton and Toronto, including two rifle companies of University of Toronto student volunteers, came up against battle-hardened Irish American Civil War veterans of the Fenian “Irish Republican Army” (IRA) — the first known use of that term. After U.S. navy gunboats cut off Fenian supply lines across the Niagara River and as Canadian and British forces began to close in, the invaders withdrew to their base in Buffalo on June 3. Many on both sides of the border credit the Fenians with cementing Canadian nationhood. These include New York State Senator Timothy Kennedy, who led the campaign to raise the monument in Buffalo’s Tow Path Park, the Niagara riverside launching point for the incursion. Article Continued Below “The Fenian invasion has a unique place in Buffalo’s history,” he said. “The Fenian Brotherhood, battle-hardened American veterans, first fought to keep our nation united and strong in the Civil War. Then, by launching this invasion, they significantly contributed to the national independence of Canada and eventually Ireland. The Fenian invasion demonstrated that freedom and democracy are forces that no amount of oppression can stop. Even outnumbered and outgunned, the Fenians valiantly battled the British Crown forces. They played a pivotal role in Canada’s independence, and they helped inspire Irish freedom.” While Americans celebrated the invasion of Canada and their role in the “national independence of Canada,” most Canadians have never heard of the Battle of Ridgeway, in which the first modern Canadian soldiers were killed: nine riflemen from one of Canada’s oldest continually serving military units, Toronto’s Queen’s Own Rifles Regiment (QOR). Three of the dead were U of T students plucked from their final exams and thrown into combat the next day. Canada’s pre-Confederation local military defence was the responsibility of the colonial minister of militia and attorney general, John A. Macdonald, and the subsequent debacle threatened his confederation plans and his ambition to lead the future Dominion of Canada’s first government. A cabal of politicians and prominent upper class volunteer militia officers conspired to cover up the disaster through a series of military boards of inquiry. They were so successful that to this day the transcripts of the testimony in one of the inquiries have never been published, while the Battle of Ridgeway, despite being so critical in Canada’s Confederation history, is the battle that most Canadians have never heard of. Ridgeway is not commemorated, its casualties are not recognized in our National Books of Remembrance and their gravestones (scattered across southern Ontario and in Toronto) do not have National War Grave status and are uncared for by the government. A private effort by veterans of the Queen’s Own Rifles recently restored the nine abandoned gravestones that had nearly vanished in the winds and rains of the last 146 years. The same can be said for the battlefield in the village of Ridgeway near Fort Erie. It is vanishing as housing developments threaten to swallow up the unmarked historic site. Bob Dunk, president of the Queen’s Own Rifles Association of Canada, laments, “In the United States, every site of even the smallest skirmish in the Revolutionary War or Civil War is sacred ground, cared for and protected by the National Park Service as historic national sites. Yet the ground of Ridgeway, on which Canada’s first soldiers died, except for a tiny cairn and plaque in a small far and out-of-the-way corner, are forgotten and ignored.” Yet there is hope that Canadians will come to restore the memory of our first casualties. While plaques in the Moss Park Armoury at Queen and Jarvis Streets in Toronto where the QOR is currently stationed commemorate soldiers from the regiment who fell in every conflict Canada fought in from South Africa to Korea (75 QOR recently served in Afghanistan without casualties), only this year will a plaque finally be unveiled in memory of the “Ridgeway Nine” — the first to fall for Canada — during the scheduled royal visit in May by Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, who is currently the honourary commanding officer of the regiment. Despite the focus on the bicentennial of the War of 1812, this year is appropriate for remembering the Battle at Ridgeway and the “last invasion” of Canada. June 2 falls on a Saturday this year, as did the battle in 1866. The town of Ridgeway, as part of its Ridgeway Reads literary festival, will be host to a conference of historians and the unveiling a new painting depicting the battle. And the QOR Association has petitioned Ontario Lieutenant Governor David Onley to help lobby Ottawa for official recognition of the “Ridgeway Nine.” Peter Vronsky is a historian at Ryerson University and author of Ridgeway: The American Fenian Invasion and the 1866 Battle That Made Canada. His website on the Battle of Ridgeway is www.ridgewaybattle.ca
The Biphobia Just Outside 3/8/2017 If I’ve already seen them that day, sometimes I’ll take the long way. I’ll go out the side door, all the way around the long city block. Deep in the winter of the midwest, the cold is better than hearing it one more time. “Do you have a moment for gay rights?” When you work on a college campus, you get accustomed to sidewalk staffers attempting to engage you. After a long, full day it can be heartening to see them out there after hours, gloves clasping clipboards. Passionate for the cause. But what happens when that cause is at odds with your humanity? What happens when they look to you, emboldened with the world of good they are doing, and erase your existence? Over the years I’ve had many experiences with “LGBT rights” organizations reaching out with requests in one hand while erasing my community membership with the other. I’ve learned engagement is often rife with reminders that biphobia is deep and wide in the bones of what built these places. Even in attending small scale events, it takes energy to fortify myself, to protect myself, to get what I need and get out without getting knocked all the way down. I keep trying, hoping to find reflections of myself in others. But the isolation that breeds in the spaces between the places we are supposed to be safe and the reality of what we encounter can be stifling, suffocating, tangibly devastating to our well being. As a way to engage with the queer community in a new city, I volunteered for an LGBT library. I worked my last shift shortly after I started dating a man. I was afraid to find out I no longer belonged, and there were no clear messages during the many months I volunteered there that told me differently. Years ago, I was on a date with a fellow bi femme at a queer festival in that same big city. We stopped at the Human Rights Campaign booth so she could make one of her regular donations. As I stood by while she filled out the form, the HRC rep forcefully pointed at the categories, telling her “Here, here, here you can check for ‘ally.’” And now, sometimes every day for weeks at a time, Human Rights Campaign canvassers stand outside of my workplace. They are full of the vigor and determination of youthful dedication. I hear their cheery chorus and my anxiety surfaces, tethered only by a sinking feeling. They span the wide walk and as my pedestrian commute approaches I steel myself, knowing what they are going to say. Do I let myself turn inward for the moment, ignoring others and paying heed to the hurt these encounters bring to bear? Do I just barely acknowledge them as I hurry past, enabling their continued harm? Do I summon the energy it takes to confront them on their judgment, tell them not to erase me, us? I’ve done all of these. By turning inward, I ignore the humanity in others. By hurrying by, I ignore it in myself. Engagement puts me in further harm’s way and requires others to be open to the message. All along I know when I walk by tomorrow they’ll be replaced by new faces spouting same old words. “Do you have a moment for gay rights?” A simple question that erases every queer person that doesn’t identify as gay. To this day, these organizations gather funding in our name as service providers for the entire LGBTQIA community—then enable work that erases us, evades us, harms us. Organizations need to not only train people to use inclusive language—they need to reveal and reinforce why using exclusive language is so harmful. Bi people have been a driving force behind queer rights for always. We make up over half of the LGB population. But our calls for inclusion and support have gone unanswered, biphobia ignored, our part in communal queer history obfuscated and erased. As I struggle with the messages I’ve received that have harmed and stayed with me, as I’ve disengaged without the clear welcomes I needed and never recieved, barriers to community and services have been internalized. And sometimes, the very presence of an “LGBT rights” organization makes me want to stay inside. Sometimes when faced with an encounter with a place that is supposed to be a home to me, I choose to take the long way around. The bi community has always had a moment for LGBT organizations. These are the places we reached out to when we were first exploring our queerness only to find our welcome came with caveats. The places we’ve given unpaid labor to because there weren’t any bi programs or designated funds, and no bi staff members that felt comfortable being visible. These are the places we’ve volunteered at, donated to, worn the badges of proudly. The same badges so often uncovered years later during a search for a pen at the back of a drawer, having gathered dust since learning one too many times LGBT didn’t mean all of us. Do I have a moment for gay rights? This question rolls to the front of my mind every time I see a large organization ignore biphobia for another calendar year, then make a rote statement on a day of awareness bi people founded and fought to bring attention to. There’s another question that should be asked, the question bi people have been asking as our community fights to thrive in the background. The question these organizations turn away from time and time again. We’ve always had a moment for gay rights. When will “LGBT rights” organizations have more than a mere moment for ours? Find community and resources in our series Self Care for Bi People: Acknowledging the Barriers and Self Care for Bi People: Taking the Care You Need.
Fast forward to the present and the share of first home buyers in Australia is even smaller than in 2003 - in August they made up just one in 15 borrowers in NSW, and one in eight borrowers in Victoria. And yet housing affordability is hardly registering in political debate. It should be. First home buyers are giving up at a time when conditions are relatively favourable for them. Interest rates are at historic lows and mortgage repayments as a proportion of average disposable incomes are lower now than for most of the past 15 years. Some economists say these are the best home buying conditions in years. So what's going on? Some first-time buyers are being outbid by the rush of investors who have jumped into housing on the hope of quick capital gains. But I think many are baulking at the deposit hurdle. That hurdle has been raised considerably because house prices have risen faster than incomes over time - from 2.5 times the average disposable household income in 1985 to about 4.5 times last year, the Reserve Bank estimates. Low interest rates have allowed borrowers to service the bigger loans made necessary by those high price rises. But low borrowing costs have not helped make saving for a deposit any easier. The jump in house prices relative to income means it's harder than ever to scrape together a home deposit big enough to allow manageable mortgage repayments. Research by economist Judy Yates, an associate professor at Sydney University, shows that for most of the 1980s, home buyers needed to have saved about the equivalent of a full year's average income to secure a loan they could comfortably repay that was still large enough to purchase a median-priced dwelling. By 2010, the corresponding deposit size had increased to roughly four times average annual income. The latest surge in Sydney house prices - 13.2 per cent so far this year according to RP Data-Rismark - has lifted the deposit hurdle further. Arab Bank Australia analyst David Scutt estimates that property price gains in this year alone have pushed the standard 20 per cent deposit on the average Sydney house up by nearly $12,700. That's enough to dampen the resolve of any saver. No doubt the sheer mortgage size faced by first home buyers has also caused some to give up. Even if a lender tells a young couple they can borrow half a million dollars, many just don't want to do it. Home ownership rates nationally have been in decline since the mid-1990s for all but the oldest households. The largest fall is among households in the 25-44 age bracket. The latest Bureau of Statistics data on home ownership shows the share of families that rent is now equivalent to those who own a home outright, as a growing number of young people appear to be giving up on the dream of buying a house. The decline in home ownership rates is most pronounced in Sydney, where the share of households owning their home outright has slumped by more than 13 percentage points since 1995-96. Almost 35 per cent of the city's households are now renting. It could be that the latest crop of potential home buyers has a different outlook on property ownership and would prefer to rent a property in desirable locations rather than taking on a mortgage. But the falling home ownership rate among younger age groups threatens to create some tricky political and social challenges. Those who never own a home miss out on the massive tax benefits governments give to owner occupiers - about $35 billion a year, a recent Grattan Institute report shows. They also miss out on the $6.8 billion in tax benefits that flow to property investors annually. These policies will become harder to justify if the proportion of renters keeps growing. Housing is also Australia's main source of household wealth accumulation, so those who do not own property will miss out on those gains. Yates warns that disparities between home owners and non-home owners will eventually create a big, intergenerational wealth gap. It is time housing affordability made its way back near the top of the national policy agenda.
About a month ago, I was eating at a restaurant in West Hollywood with a friend. We’d already devoured faux In-N-Out burgers, the contents of the dim sum and sushi carts, and a generous helping of fries. She didn’t seem particularly concerned about our Falstaffian night of consumption. “I’m getting ready to go to a caftan party,” she told me. Instead of a bachelorette party, a friend of hers was having a house party with caftans as a required dress code. When I returned to New York, I saw that Christina Hendricks is also a fan of caftan parties (and even got Jimmy Fallon to wear one). One can only hope that, like juicing, injecting vitamin B-12, using hella as an adverb, and doing those weird IV drips, caftan parties are a chill West Coast trend that’s headed east very soon. That’s how it always starts: Your much-cooler-to-the-point-where-they’re-slumming friend tells you about it, then a minor celebrity raves about it, then everyone is suddenly doing it. It’s now late May, which means that women’s publications are in full bikini-body crisis mode. A Vogue headline blares, “How to Get a Beach Body in Two Weeks.” Self magazine might as well display a visible forehead vein: Get that bikini body or else! (“SUMMER SEXY STARTS NOW,” screams their current cover.) These articles emphasize a Spartan regimen of salt-reduction, dry brushing, and tiny, fishy meals. Perhaps there’s the occasional Pyrrhic “cheat day,” but overall these prescriptions do not spell “summer fun.” But getting a caftan body — now, that is far more pleasurable. Below, the Cut’s steps to getting yourself caftan-ready for the warmer months. (The best news: Literally every step but the first is optional.) 1. Select a caftan of your chosen gauge and length. Stroke its gauzy fabric and whisper into its folds. 2. Let your flesh settle into the crevices of your comfortable, comfortable caftan. 3. Crumbs? Let them fall where they may, swaddled in your caftan. 4. Throw out your razor. 5. Throw out your bra. 6. Throw out the aloe vera lotion you bought last summer. You will not be getting sunburned this summer. 7. Release your inhibitions. Feel the rain on your skin. The Bargain Amazon Find (That Looks Expensive) The One That Goes With Everything Photo: Courtesy of the Vendor $25 at H&M V-Neck Woven Kaftan Simple, chic, and black — what else do you need? $25 at H&M Buy If You Love Prints But Don’t Want to Look Too Over-the-Top Photo: Courtesy of the Vendor $35 at H&M Patterned Kaftan Dress The subtle pattern is beautiful and adds just enough color. $35 at H&M Buy The One to Wear to the Beach Photo: Courtesy of the Vendor $48 at ASOS Monki Wide Sleeve Caftan Toss it over your bathing suit and you’re good to go. $48 at ASOS Buy If You Want Something Modest Photo: Courtesy of the Vendor $88 at Nordstrom KATE SPADE NEW YORK charmeuse caftan This feels very old-school Elizabeth Taylor and I love it. $88 at Nordstrom Buy The Dolce-Inspired One Photo: Courtesy of the Vendor $118 at Anthropologie Pool to Party Lemon Squeeze Caftan The lemon pattern looks very similar to Dolce & Gabbana’s iconic version, but only costs a fraction of the price. $118 at Anthropologie Buy The Trendy Pick Photo: Courtesy of the Vendor $162 at Revolve Show Me Your Mumu JADEN TUNIC DRESS Just in case you’re looking for one that all the influencers are wearing on Instagram — you’re welcome. $162 at Revolve Buy For the Minimalist With an Eye for Design If You Want Something Airy Photo: Courtesy of the Vendor $191 at Shopbop 9seed Tunisia Short Sleeve Caftan This slinky caftan looks extra expensive thanks to its flowy silhouette, creamy ivory color, and raw hem detailing. $191 at Shopbop Buy If You Want Something That Could Be Dressed Up Photo: Courtesy of the Vendor $245 at Net-a-Porter SPLENDID + Margherita Capri cotton and modal-blend terry dress Designer Margherita Missoni wears this dress from her collaboration with Splendid very often on Instagram — even to fancy parties! $245 at Net-a-Porter Buy The Celeb-Favorite Photo: Courtesy of the Vendor $415 at Revolve Eleven by March 11 ADELE MINI DRESS Gigi Hadid, Jessica Alba, and Reese Witherspoon all count themselves as fans and for good reason — the embroidery and colorful tassels feel especially festive for warm weather. $415 at Revolve Buy If you buy something through our links, New York may earn an affiliate commission.
Share Popular gaming peripheral maker Razer has a new weapon stashed up its sleeve for PC gamers on a budget called the Abyssus V2. Simply put, the gadget’s theme is “less is more,” meaning Razer crammed the most important tournament-grade features into one sleek form factor that’s affordable to all gamers, whether they’re casual or hardcore. Shipping later this month, the upcoming Abyssus V2 builds on the original’s foundation by utilizing an improved form factor designed for playing with claw, palm, or fingertip grip styles using a left or right hand. That’s right: This mouse isn’t just for right-handed gamers, which is good news for those of us who are typically left out when it comes to cool new PC gaming mice. The upcoming mouse will pack a “true” 5,000 DPI optical sensor for better responsiveness and sensitivity. The specifications add to this, showing that mouse will communicate your actions back to the desktop or laptop at 1,000Hz (ultrapolling), offer 30g of acceleration, and a maximum tracking speed of 100 inches per second (IPS). There’s a dedicated button to adjust the sensor’s DPI sensitivity in five customizable stages. As for other buttons, there are only four that can be programmed through the company’s free Razer Synapse software. The buttons are based on the company’s Hyperesponse switches promising a lifespan of 20 million clicks. The two main buttons sport a contoured groove design that’s backed by in-mould textured, rubberized grips mounted on each side of the device for optimized lift-off and swiping gameplay. Finally, the upcoming mouse will feature Razer’s iconic reptile logo and a mouse wheel that lights up your PC gaming in three colors: green, blue, and light blue. Users can choose to illuminate one “static” color, cycle through two selected colors in a breathing effect, or throw in the third color using the same effect. Given this is a bang-for-your-buck type of gaming mouse, there’s no other bells and whistles to report on. The device will measure 4.6 (L) x 2.5 (W) x 1.5 (H) inches and sport a plastic tail of unknown length. Given this is Razer’s baby, expect a generous length for PC gamers who need lots of room for their twitch skills. Again, Razer doesn’t say exactly when the Abyssus V2 ships this month, but it will be made available both on Razer’s website and Amazon when the device becomes available. However, it can be pre-ordered now through Razer for a mere $50. UPDATE: As a clarification, the Abyssus V2 is a three-button mouse with buttons on the left click, right click, and the scroll wheel.
VIERA, Fla. -- Bryce Harper is only 21 years old, but he seems exponentially more seasoned and mature than the kid who strode into Washington Nationals camp two years ago with that Sports Illustrated cover boy glow. Two hours before a spring training game, he sits at his locker with a growth of beard and his red Nationals cap turned backwards, thoughtfully sifting through a series of questions about his past, present and future in the game. He's wearing a gray T-shirt with the words "PED Free" blazoned across the chest. You were expecting maybe "That's a clown question, bro"? The beard grants Harper access to the hirsute brotherhood led by locker mates Jayson Werth and Adam LaRoche, who've gone full-throttle Zach Galifianakis this spring. And the T-shirt affirms that he will do things according to his own internal compass. If he's going to be anointed as a face of baseball moving forward, he might as well carry the designation with pride and never besmirch the Harper family name. "Natural is the way to go," Harper says. "I've always said that. I work my butt off and I want to be as clean as I can forever. I pride myself on that. I have a great family and I would never want to put them or this organization through that." It's been almost two years since Harper and Mike Trout arrived on the same momentous day (April 28, 2012) as bookend East and West coast sensations. While Trout recently made news with a pre-arbitration record $1 million contract and is primed for a much more lucrative long-term deal after two straight MVP runner-up finishes in Los Angeles, Harper has been living a relatively serene existence in Florida. The Nationals play about an hour from the nearest Grapefruit League camp and their budding superstar is -- dare we say it? -- under the radar. In his second year in the majors last season, Bryce Harper played 118 games. AP Photo/Alex Brandon He's coming off a perfectly fine season that in many respects surpassed his Rookie of the Year turn in 2012. Harper's on-base percentage improved significantly (from .340 to .368), and he produced almost identical home run and RBI totals in exactly 100 fewer plate appearances than his first year. But 2013 was more noteworthy for setbacks, injuries and some teachable moments, all of which coalesced into a YouTube staple during a 6-2 Washington victory at Dodger Stadium on May 13. Harper, pursuing a long fly ball by A.J. Ellis, lost his bearings and did a face plant into the wall before emerging groggy and with a cut on his neck. As a student of baseball history, Harper might have appreciated that the great Vin Scully did the narration. The play ensured that Harper would continue to lead the majors in Pete Reiser and Aaron Rowand references. It also elicited the standard mix of admiration and concern from scouts, who love ballplayers with big motors but prefer that they remain concussion-free whenever possible. Learning on the fly Harper's good and bad experiences are gradually helping him find the right balance between aggressive and reckless. As he's quick to point out, he was a catcher and third baseman before breaking into professional ball as an outfielder with Hagerstown in the South Atlantic League in 2011. Less than 400 career outfield starts later, he knows he still has much to learn. "I'm sure a lot of people thought, 'Oh, he was playing too hard and he ran into a wall,'" Harper says. "But it wasn't a matter of playing too hard. I had a terrible route and no clue where I was. My feet were messed up and my head was all over the place. It was a freak accident, and I hope it never happens again." The knee is healthy now after offseason surgery, and Harper is swinging the bat with authority, running with confidence, and always a candidate to spring a surprise. After going hitless in two at-bats against Justin Verlander on Sunday, he came to the plate against Detroit lefty reliever Phil Coke in the seventh inning and tried unsuccessfully to beat out a bunt. Harper did it with the full blessing of manager Matt Williams, who told reporters, "It's a weapon that he has available to him when he wants to use it. It's an option for him at any time. To have that within his arsenal is good. It doesn't mean he has to do it all the time." The knee injury -- which came with a side order of hip soreness -- did a major number on Harper's platoon splits last year. He posted a slash line of .214/.327/.321 against lefties, and his inability to push off his back leg put a significant crimp in his power. "My knee gave out when I swung," he says. "Some days it would feel good and there were others when I couldn't walk to first base. I was in a lot of pain. It wasn't a lot of fun." Oil changes, anyone? Harper's belief that he can will his way through hard times with hard work is a family heirloom. Several years ago, when he was playing for the College of Southern Nevada, his father, Ron, told reporters that he still has to do his household chores like any other responsible son when he's living under the family roof. That arrangement remains in place even though young Bryce has graduated from teen to adult. When he went home to Nevada during the offseason, Harper took out the trash, pitched in with the yardwork and even mixed in an oil-and-filter change or two. "Absolutely," he says with earnestness. Most days, he's at the park by 7 a.m., so when the games are complete, he collapses on the couch at his spring residence with the TV remote and watches sports. In Viera, Harper spends as much time as he can hanging out with his older brother, Bryan, a minor league pitcher in the Nationals' system. Harper has always had an excellent rapport with his Washington teammates. When he arrived as a hot-shot rookie, his work ethic and effort helped defuse potential resentment or eye-rolling. But two years ago, the media crush was so pronounced that he was destined to be an island unto himself on occasion. Now the vibe is more relaxed, and Harper is less a curiosity or a precocious little brother than a supremely talented peer. He's fortunate to be in a clubhouse with the likes of Ryan Zimmerman, Werth and LaRoche, who've helped round out some of his rough edges without killing his swagger. "The game has changed a lot since I was 20 years old," Zimmerman says. "I got one-tenth the hype that Bryce or Trout got, deservedly so. Obviously, social interaction is great for the game and the fans, but this new generation also has to deal with a lot more pressure and attention than we ever did. "People have to remind themselves that Bryce is young. He didn't go to [a major] college or spend a lot of time in the minor leagues, so he's basically learning at this level, which is hard to do. Sometimes this seems kind of unfair, but it doesn't matter if you're 18 or 21 or 30. When you've been in the big leagues for three years, you're expected to take that next step." In contrast to, say, teammate Stephen Strasburg, who is generally friendly and accommodating but seemingly ill at ease with attention, Harper is in his element mingling with the media and the general public. He has an awareness and appreciation for baseball history that are refreshing by modern-day standards, and he understands his place in the big picture. "I still have people coming up to me and asking me random stuff, and fans going crazy," Harper says. "I enjoy that. It's a blessing to have people ask me for my autograph. When they're not talking to you and asking for your autograph, that's when things go downhill from there." Even though the expectations might be slightly lower this spring, and the media crunch is less pronounced, and Williams and new arrival Doug Fister are the most prominent storylines at Washington's camp, something is quietly churning beneath the surface in Harper's world. "I think he loves the pressure and the hype, and when that hype goes down a little, he probably takes it personally," LaRoche says. "I can see him having a huge year if he's healthy. He just needs to be consistent and get to where that 0-for-8 or 0-for-10 doesn't turn into a 2-for-40. He'll mentally get strong to where he knows how good he is and it won't even register what he's done in the past week. He'll have that kind of confidence where he's gonna put up some huge years." After two impressive, productive, formative years in the majors, Bryce Harper's inner competitor tells him that he has something much bigger on the horizon. There's no better time to prove it than now.
The Howard County Council voted Wednesday to create a special taxing district in Laurel at its final session of the summer. The newly approved legislation allows for the establishment of a special taxing district as part of a tax incremental financing deal, or TIF, for a proposed 64-acre development near the Laurel Park racetrack and MARC station. The county must create the special taxing district in order to freeze any future tax gains from the development and direct that money to fund the effort. Councilwoman Jen Terrasa and Councilman Calvin Ball voted against the bill, while council members Jon Weinstein, Greg Fox and Mary Kay Sigaty voted in favor. The legislation passed at the meeting does not in itself create a TIF, but instead allows the designated area to have the possibility of a TIF in the future, thanks to the special taxing district. "I don't see our establishing a special taxing district as a green light to go completely ahead," Sigaty said during the meeting. "It certainly allows for options, and I think options are indeed what all areas need." Ball reiterated his concerns about the TIF and the taxing district before casting his vote, saying that he finds it troubling that no one from the community has expressed support for the project. He also said he would like to have more conversations about the project and its impact with the state government and the developer, track owner Stronach Group. The project proposed by Stronach Group includes plans for 1,000 residential units, 127,000 square feet of retail space, 650,000 square feet of office space and two parking garages with 350 spaces each. The parking garages will support the enhanced MARC station, which currently operates as a flag stop but would have service expanded to three scheduled stops in the morning and three in the evening. Courtesy of Greenfield & Kress An artist's illustration of the proposed Laurel Park Station development. An artist's illustration of the proposed Laurel Park Station development. (Courtesy of Greenfield & Kress) (Courtesy of Greenfield & Kress) Residents spoke out against the project at the council's public hearing July 17, saying that it does not offer many benefits to residents, and would instead congest traffic in the area. During what was the final meeting before the council begins its August break, council members also voted to officially table the controversial adequate public facilities and mulching bills. So many people signed up to testify on the bills at the July 17 hearing that the bills were tabled to allow more speakers the chance to testify at a continuation hearing on Sept. 11.
Last weekend of fixtures before the mid-season break and the results will show how the Airtricity League is shaping up as we enter enter the second half of the season. 1) Can St Pats keep their run(s) going in Dundalk? Heading into tonight’s game in Oriel Park, Pats are defending a lot of impressive streaks. They (i) are unbeaten in 13 league games, (ii) have won the last 7 away league games, (iii) are unbeaten in Dundalk since 1998, (iv) have won the last 7 games in all competitions and (v) haven’t conceded a league goal in 5 games. Killian Brennan was awarded the SWAI/Airtricity Player of the Month award yesterday and Pats players were 4 of the top 5 vote-getters. So, clearly all is set up for Dundalk to repeat their win in Inchicore earlier this season. If they do, and again, they’re due, then they’ll be right in the title hunt only 6 behind Pats with a game in hand. Dundalk’s home form isn’t as impressive as their away form (2 wins compared to 7) but Stephen Kenny will be looking to improve that, starting tonight. 2) How many goals will the League’s two most in-form strikers score in Bray v Derry? Advertisement Derry City’s Rory Patterson has been the most impressive striker in the League this season. The Northern Ireland international has 12 goals in the league and unlike everyone else, hasn’t gone three games without a goal. Jason Byrne, despite what Pat Morley thinks, scored his 202nd all time LOI goals last week on the way to scoring 4 just a week after another hat-trick. Tonight they face off as in-form Bray Wanderers (4 wins and a draw with Sligo in last 5 games) host second placed Derry City. With 39 goals in the last 10 combined games for these sides, goals are definitely on the cards 3) Will Sligo score? They have to, right? UCD have conceded 5 in each of their last 2 league games. They’ve conceded 23 in 9 away games and haven’t conceded le4) ss than 2 in all of them. Tomorrow night they travel to Sligo Rovers to face a side that hasn’t scored in any of its last 4 games. A remarkable stat for any team, never mind for the champions who started the league season with 8 wins. They’ve only won once since though and now sit in 3rd place, 7 points behind St Pats (albeit with a game in hand). Danny North played nearly 20 minutes last week but it remains to be seen if he’s fit enough to start. Whoever starts for Sligo should be confident that they’ll at least get chances to score this time. Advertisement 4) Tonight’s Bohs/Shels game may be the “Dublin Decider” of who’s relegated Shelbourne are currently 8 points behind UCD and Bohemians at the foot of the Premier Division. A loss tonight to Bohs would almost certainly mean, even at the half way stage, they won’t be able to catch team. While 11 points may only be 4 wins, the fact Shels have 1 all season should tell that story. There is light for Shels tonight though. Bohs have only picked up 2 points in the second series so far (Shels have none!) and have the league’s second worst home record. For Shels to have any chance of survival they need goals quickly. After 16 games, they have yet to have a player score more than once this season. The previously reliable Philly Hughes has none. 5) Will Shamrock Rovers continue their quiet revival at home to Limerick? Rovers are now up to 5th place and have 3 wins, 3 draws in last 6 games. Of course their ‘revival’ has been anything but quiet but media attention will always focus of big clubs clearly underperforming. Tonight they host a Limerick side who haven’t won in 4 and smarting from a 3 goal defeat to Pats last week. Limerick had previously been competitive in each game and with former Hoop Barry Ryan outstanding in goal all season, manager Stuart Taylor will be hoping that Limerick can keep it tight in Tallaght. Rovers win in Cork was the first time in 8 that they had scored 2 and they haven’t conceded 2 in 18 league games so Taylor may get his wish Whatever happens, enjoy the games!
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent the views of Townhall.com. A cascade of embarrassing details has poured out over the last few weeks on how special counsel Robert Mueller's staff is a gang of Democratic partisans with a rooting interest in Hillary Clinton in 2016. Mueller deputy Andrew Weissman even attended the doomed election-night Clinton "victory party" in New York. Those news items are pouring out from every direction except the "news" media. The network anchors can barely mention the fact that senior FBI agent Peter Strzok was removed from Mueller's team months ago for exchanging anti-Trump, pro-Hillary text messages with the woman with whom he was having an affair, who was another FBI official. Or that former Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr met with ex-British spy Christopher Steele and the opposition-research firm Fusion GPS, which assembled a dossier of unverified dirt on President Trump. They're not outraged that Mueller and Justice Department officials have kept these facts from Congress. Mueller is stonewalling Congress; the media are stonewalling the public. It's apparently distasteful to report that among the 15 Mueller lawyers, nine are Democratic donors -- several of whom contributed to Clinton's 2016 campaign. Jeannie Rhee donated to Clinton and former President Obama and defended The Clinton Foundation against a racketeering lawsuit. Rhee even represented Clinton personally to prevent the release of her emails. Aaron Zebley represented Justin Cooper, the former Clinton aide who helped set up her private email server and destroyed several of her mobile devices to obstruct investigations. This information isn't disturbing to the "objective" media. Reporting it is. CNN host Don Lemon found it "shocking" that there has been a "huge rise in anti-Mueller and FBI rhetoric from right-wing media recently." This is how CNN greets facts it doesn't like: It says they are merely "rhetoric" from ideologues. They run against The Narrative. To see how The Narrative is concocted, see Time magazine's gushing tribute to Mueller in its Person of the Year issue -- as if a June cover story titled "The Lie Detector" wasn't enough. In the issue, he's called "A prosecutor known for rigor and rectitude goes after the president's men." Time's Massimo Calabresi gushed, "the special counsel has held the country in his thrall" with "rare bipartisan support and a team of veteran cops and prosecutors." Why, "There is barely a handful of people in all of America with the reputation and experience to take on the task of untangling a multipronged Russian influence operation." Mueller is snidely juxtaposed against "the arrival in our nation's capital of a roguish figure elected on the exhilarating notion that rules are to be flouted." This is how Democratic hacks write copy. Somehow, the Clintons have never been roguish figures who demonstrated that all the rules in their way would be ignored. On the criticism of Mueller's partisanship and stonewalling, Time says: "The pressure has hurt the President more than the prosecutor. Mueller is a lifelong registered Republican." There was no mention in its ridiculous puff piece of any Democratic partisanship on Mueller's staff. None at all. For contrast, recall Time's Men of the Year issue at the end of 1998. Back then, anti-Kenneth Starr commentary wasn't "shocking." It was mandatory. Time insisted Starr had engaged in a witch hunt and "disastrously" included stark sexual details in the Starr Report. The magazine responded to Clinton's impeachment with moral equivalence, saying: "The more Starr pushed, the more Clinton stalled. And in the end, each drove the other to a kind of madness." Time concluded that "like Bill Clinton, he still dreams of being found not guilty." But Time now insists Mueller is "the personification of the idea that rule of law remains paramount." There's a reason these "news" magazines have crumbled: They are only trustworthy if what you want to read is a Democratic National Committee talking-points memo.
For Donald Trump's private jet, see Trump Force One Trump Shuttle, Inc. was an airline owned by Donald Trump from 1989 to 1992. The landing rights and some of the physical assets necessary to operate the shuttle flights were originally part of Eastern Air Lines and known as the Eastern Air Lines Shuttle. It operated hourly flights on Boeing 727 aircraft from LaGuardia Airport in New York City to Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C., then known as Washington National Airport, as well as charter service to other destinations. Its IATA designator code was TB (later reassigned to Jetairfly).[1] History [ edit ] Formation [ edit ] In the late 1980s, both Eastern Air Lines and Pan American World Airways operated air shuttle services in the northeastern United States, which were highly profitable even though the two airlines, as a whole, were not.[2] As the financial outlook for Eastern became more pessimistic in the late 1980s, the carrier began to sell its routes and aircraft. It organized its profitable shuttle operation into a separate company headed by Bruce Nobles with the intent of selling it to raise cash. Eastern president Frank Lorenzo met Donald Trump at a party, and subsequently negotiated the sale of the shuttle to Trump for $365 million, more than the projected cost to start up a similar airline, but justifiable if the airline achieved a high market share.[3] For that price, Trump got a fleet of 17 Boeing 727s, landing facilities in each of the three cities that the shuttle fly to, and the right to put his name on the company and its airplanes.[4] The shuttle had previously been a "no-frills" operation for business travelers, but Trump announced that he would convert it to a luxury airline.[5] After reaching an agreement with Trump in October 1988, Eastern filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Many passengers switched to the competing Pan Am Shuttle, and the previously profitable Eastern Shuttle began losing money. Trump attempted to use the situation to negotiate a lower price and to acquire additional aircraft from Eastern. America West Airlines submitted a more attractive competing offer on May 10, but failed as its financing was not in place. Trump's offer was approved by the bankruptcy court in May 1989.[5] In June 1989 the deal was completed, financed through a loan from a syndicate of banks led by Citibank.[6] The new Trump Shuttle operation launched on June 8, 1989, and by the end of August had returned to a strong market share of 40-50%. Trump pushed to make the new shuttle a luxury service and a marketing vehicle for the Trump name. Its aircraft were newly painted in white livery and the interiors redecorated with such features as maple wood veneer, chrome seat belt latches, and gold colored lavatory fixtures. The airline also was a leader in the adoption of advanced technologies; it introduced some of the first passenger self-service check-in kiosks in coordination with Kinetics at its LaGuardia base and partnered with LapStop, a startup firm which rented laptop computers to passengers. The airline was also an early adopter of the GTE Airfone in-flight telephone system.[3][5] Flights offered free meals, including chicken and steak on some flights, as well as complimentary champagne, beer and wine.[7] Both Trump and Pan Am spent millions on advertising campaigns around this time in an attempt to maintain a strong competitive position.[2] August 1989 incident [ edit ] In August 1989, a Trump Shuttle flight arriving in Boston incurred a nose gear failure upon landing due to maintenance errors by Eastern personnel prior to the acquisition. Trump personally flew on the next Trump Shuttle flight to Boston in order to manage the media reaction to the incident.[3] Financial difficulties [ edit ] The company was never profitable.[4] Passenger traffic on the shuttle began to decline in November 1989. In late 1989 the U.S. Northeast entered an economic recession which depressed demand, while the August 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait caused jet fuel prices to double.[3] While costs of running the airline rose, many of the corporate customers using the shuttle were cutting travel budgets. Trump's casino business was simultaneously encountering serious difficulties, and Trump was forced to cede control over several business holdings to his bankers in June 1990 in order to avoid personal bankruptcy. The airline ran out of cash and defaulted on its debt in September 1990.[5] Trump Shuttle conducted some charter operations around this time to monetize the shuttle's spare aircraft. In June 1990, the airline carried Nelson Mandela on his eight-city tour of the United States.[8] During the Gulf War of 1990-91, the airline received a government contract to ferry U.S. military personnel between the key domestic bases of Dover AFB, Charleston AFB, Travis AFB, McChord AFB, and Kelly AFB; during the 2016 presidential campaign, Sean Hannity reported, and the Trump campaign confirmed, that Trump had sent his own aircraft to ferry troops during the war, apparently referring to these charter operations.[9] Sale [ edit ] Trump had personally guaranteed $135 million of the shuttle's debt. Following the default, Citibank made arrangements for Northwest Airlines to take control of the shuttle in exchange for relieving Trump's personal liability on its debt, and all sides were reportedly close to an agreement by April 1991.[6] Delta Air Lines agreed to buy the competing Pan Am Shuttle in July, and Northwest announced that its acquisition of the Trump Shuttle was cancelled in August, reportedly due to the Trump Shuttle's unions demanding parity with Northwest employees and Trump refusing to discount the price to reflect this.[5] USAir ultimately reached an agreement in December 1991 to take operational control of Trump Shuttle for up to ten years, with an option to buy it after five years.[10] Bankers involved in the negotiations said that Trump would be relieved of at least $100 million of his guarantee, and possibly as much as $110 million, leaving him owing between $25 and $35 million in the closing out of his ownership of the company.[10] On April 7, 1992 Trump Shuttle ceased to exist when it was merged into a new corporation, Shuttle, Inc., which began operating as the USAir Shuttle on April 12, 1992. US Airways subsequently purchased the remainder of Shuttle, Inc. on November 19, 1997, and the service subsequently operated under the name US Airways Shuttle. Shuttle, Inc. remained as a subsidiary of US Air Group until July 1, 2000, when it was merged into US Airways. In October 2015, US Airways merged with American Airlines, at which point the shuttle became the American Airlines Shuttle. Co-branded services [ edit ] A sister airline, Trump Air, operated a scheduled helicopter service between LaGuardia Airport and Wall Street Heliport to provide connections with Trump Shuttle flights at LaGuardia.[11] Trump Air also operated between New York City and East Hampton Airport from 1989 to 1992, and between West 30th Street Heliport and Steeplechase Pier in Atlantic City to serve Trump's casinos. The airline used a combination of Sikorsky S-61 and Boeing Chinook helicopters.[12] See also [ edit ] References [ edit ]
A Generation of Domination Today saw the 21st consecutive season in which Arsenal have finished above their North London neighbours in the Premier League. Below is a table showing each team’s league performance and the difference between the two teams at the end of each season. Also shown is the date that Arsenal were mathematically guaranteed to finish above Tottenham and how many games were left that season. League Position Points St Totteringham’s Day Arsenal Tottenham Difference Date Games remaining 1995-6 5 8 2 5 May 0 1996-7 3 10 22 9 April 5 1997-8 1 14 34 28 March 9 1998-9 2 11 31 6 April 6 1999-0 2 10 20 16 April 6 2000-1 2 12 21 17 April 5 2001-2 1 9 37 18 March 8 2002-3 2 10 28 24 March 7 2003-4 1 14 45 13 March 10 2004-5 2 9 31 2 April 7 2005-6 4 5 2 7 May 0 2006-7 4 5 8 21 April 3 2007-8 3 11 37 9 March 9 2008-9 4 8 21 11 April 6 2009-0 3 4 5 9 May 0 2010-1 4 5 6 7 May 3 2011-2 3 4 1 13 May 0 2012-3 4 5 1 19 May 0 2013-4 4 6 10 28 April 2 2014-5 3 5 11 4 May 4 2015-6 2 3 1 15 May 0 After years of early domination by Arsenal, Tottenham started to get their act together. However, even their best league performance in living memory finished with the wheels spectacularly falling off in the closing weeks of the season and continuing the now, inevitable, tradition being continued. Bruce Rioch, Arsene Wenger, all of the Arsenal players of the last 21 years – we salute you. Please see below a depiction of St Totteringham by Jordan Wiebe —————– Don’t forget to subscribe to the blog (top right). —————– The books…
UPDATE [11:15 a.m.]: On Friday morning, ABC, CBS, and NBC continued their blackout on the latest Gallup poll numbers showing President Obama's approval rating at an all-time low of 38 percent. The blackout also continued regarding any polls on the President and his job approval/disapproval ratings. The "big three" networks disinterest in the President's poll numbers continued despite multiple polls showing his approval rating below 40 percent and the gap between those who approve and disapprove of the job he's doing at over a dozen points. Instead of covering these poll numbers as they did throughout the administration of President George W. Bush, the networks devoted plenty of time to stories that they deemed important. Both ABC's Good Morning America and NBC's Today covered a dog in Poland who was dressed up as a giant spider to scare unspecting passerbys as part of a prank. On CBS This Morning, the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine joined the program and gushingly promoted the magazine's annoucement that they will endorse political candidates who support gay marriage, contraception, and abortion. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The evening newscasts for the major broadcast networks came and went on Thursday night and ABC, CBS, and NBC refused to cover a new poll from Gallup that showed President Barack Obama’s approval rating at an all-time low of 38 percent. After the CBS Evening News made mention of a CBS News poll on Tuesday showing only 36 percent of Americans approving of how Obama was doing his job when it came to foreign policy, it reverted back to joining ABC and NBC in ignoring any and all polls concerning President Obama and his job performance. The poll, which was taken over a two-day period from Monday to Wednesday, ties Obama’s previous all-time low in Gallup’s Daily Tracking Poll from October 2011. This most recent poll also reported that 56 percent of Americans disapprove of the way the President is doing his job and thus places the disparity between Obama’s approval and disapproval ratings at 16 percent. According to Real Clear Politics, this is the fourth poll in the last month to place Obama’s approval rating below 40 percent (with the other three coming from Reuters/Ipsos polls). Obama’s sagging poll numbers come as he’s in Europe this week at a NATO conference with multiple crises on the foreign policy front, ranging from Russia’s aggressive measures in Ukraine to the continued rise of the Islamic terrorist group ISIS in Iraq and Syria as they beheaded a second American journalist in a video released Tuesday. Back home, the midterm elections are nine weeks away from Tuesday, where the control of the House and Senate are up for grabs on November 4 as Republicans are expected to stay in control of the House while numerous Democratic Senators for reelection running in Republican-friendly states could result in Republicans gaining control of the Senate as well, leaving the President without a friendly chamber in Congress. While the networks could have chosen to even provide a news brief on this polling data, they found other stories to cover instead. As I noted earlier this evening, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir covered Google paying out millions of dollars to parents whose children downloaded apps without parental consent while both the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley and NBC Nightly News highlighted the discovery of a new, massive dinosaur that weighed 65-tons when it walked the earth.
BREAKING: Michael Moore is still wrong … about most things. But especially about socialism. Look at this ridiculous tweet where he’s mooning over the late, “great” Hugo Chavez. Seriously. Hugo Chavez declared the oil belonged 2 the ppl. He used the oil $ 2 eliminate 75% of extreme poverty, provide free health & education 4 all — Michael Moore (@MMFlint) March 6, 2013 What? Umm … yeah, Venezuela's in great shape https://t.co/yoseuuZJRj — Guy Benson (@guypbenson) March 6, 2017 Yeah, maybe Michael should spend a few days down in Venezuela, see socialism firsthand. It’s not. @MMFlint He stole a billion dollars while jailing, killing, and silencing opposition. Can see why you admire him. Putz. — Instapundit.com (@instapundit) March 6, 2013 But free health and education, dude. @mmflint Really? I guess you don't like 'civil liberties' and enjoy shortages of food. THAT'S #HugoChavezLegacy — Kimberly Morin (@Conservativeind) March 6, 2013 Michael could probably go a few months with no food … C’MON, we hardly ever pick on his weight because it’s a cheap shot but this was BEGGING for it. sits in corner @MMFlint Hey Mike, can you explain how Chavez died richer than Mitt Romney? Because I can't quite figure that one out. — Scott McKay (@TheHayride) March 6, 2013 Chavez gave away so much free education that he umm … well, wait, he was rich because … nope, got nothin’. @MMFlint We knew you wouldn't disappoint us, you communist. — Jim Treacher (@jtLOL) March 6, 2013 We knew he’d continue to disappoint us. FIFY. Gotta love Chavez and all the abundance he created in his grocery stores @MMFlint pic.twitter.com/kBjzh8EIXX — Ben McDonald (@Bmac0507) March 6, 2017 So much free stuff! Sir, have you ever been in Venezuela? There is no milk ? for babies ?? not even diapers @MMFlint people are eating garbage. Are you insane? — Claudia Papo (@claudiapapo) March 5, 2017 Yes, yes he is insane. @MMFlint I hear the socialist diet plan going on there works wonders! — Velvet Sugar (@TMIWITW) March 6, 2017 @MMFlint Michael Moron takes time between bites to put his pork-pie fingers to the Twitter page and spews ridiculous propaganda. #Original — Susan_Wright (@SweetieWalker) March 6, 2013 @MMFlint My in-laws and their employees lived in fear of his benevolent govt. nationalizing their business. Such a great guy… — Lisa B. (@politeracy) March 6, 2017 @MMFlint You should thank God you have autonomic systems in your body. If you had to use intellect to keep your heart beating…epic fail. — Alan J. Sanders (@AlanJSanders) March 6, 2017 If he had to focus on his own existence he’d have less time to sit on Twitter and make stupid statements about Hugo Chavez, and then what would we write about? Related:
Amid the burgeoning hype for Yu Suzuki's long-awaited and successfully crowdfunded Shenmue 3, Sega—publisher of Shenmue and Shenmue 2—announced it was "investigating" the possibility of remasters for the original games last May. While noting it was "not as simple as porting the games to the current platforms," it appears Sega Europe has since registered the domain names ShenmueHD.com and ShenmueRemastered.com. As reported by Gematsu, both domain names were filed in September and can be viewed via domain search site WhoIs here and here. Although Sega has made clear its desire to redo Ryo Hazuki's Dreamcast-dwelling open-world adventures in the past, community manager Dan Sheridan discussed the challenges of doing so via a Q&A session last year. "Sadly, it's not as simple as porting the games to the current platforms, as we would need to ensure that any HD remaster lives up to the quality of the original titles," said Sheridan. "And with games as immersive as Shenmue 1 and 2, there are further complications from licensed products that were included in the original games. That said, we'd love to do it, and are currently investigating how to make it a reality." As it stands, both proposed domains return blank pages however HD remakes of the original games—now over 17 and 15 years old, respectively—would be wonderful ahead of the incoming Shenmue 3, particularly given the fact the second series entry ended on a cliffhanger. We've reached out to Sega for comment and will update as and when we hear back.
New Delhi: Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday became the first Indian state to move to a January-December financial year, setting the stage for a similar (though not immediate) shift by the central government. Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggested at the NITI Aayog’s governing council meeting last month that states should take the lead in changing the financial year to January-December. Such a shift will help in better economic and political management of the country and also help the Indian economy integrate with the global economic architecture. Last year, a committee headed by former chief economic adviser Shankar Acharya recommended changing the fiscal year to January-December. Since then, there have been reports that the government is seriously considering this. The government’s act of moving forward the Union Budget’s presentation, from the last day of February to 1 February was seen as a precursor to this. If the financial year is to start on 1 January, the Union Budget ideally needs to be presented in late November. Currently, India follows a April-March financial year (a legacy of the British Raj) and all macroeconomic data, including the government’s budget, are compiled and prepared for the same period. Most Indian companies also do the same. Most other countries follow a January-December financial year. S.K. Mishra, secretary to Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, confirmed that the state has decided to change its financial year. “It’s one of the major reforms that the government is planning to initiate keeping in mind global practices," he added over the phone. It makes sense for the entire country to do this, said D.K. Joshi, chief economist at credit rating firm Crisil Ltd. “The Union government will have to take the lead and everyone (states) will have to shift together. It will have to be uniformly applied across the country. It is already difficult to sync with the global accounts which have a calendar year." In 2001, the National Democratic Alliance government, under prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, changed the time of presenting the budget to 11am, from the British era practice of presenting it at 5pm. On Tuesday, the Business Standard newspaper reported that the “Union government is taking preparatory steps to switch over to a new financial year cycle that will start from January and end in December". “To begin with, the next Union budget presentation date is likely to be advanced by about a month, to prepare the ground for a change in the financial year," it added.
Continuing the trend of comics being more progressive than the movies based on them, the Batgirl comic series is making history in Wednesday's new issue. Batgirl #45 features the wedding of Batgirl Barbara Gordon's best friend, Alysia Yeoh — a transgender woman. As noted by MTV News, this is the first wedding featuring a trans character in any major comic. Just two years ago, DC Comics wouldn't even permit a marriage between two women, much less such a wedding where one of the characters is trans. Luckily, things have changed since then; Wonder Woman even acted as the officiant for a lesbian wedding in an August issue. Alysia came out to Barbara in a 2013 issue. Her wedding to activist wife Jo was a longtime goal for writers Brenden Fletcher and Cameron Stewart, who took over creative control of the publication in 2014. "This was something we talked about when we took the book over and we didn't know if we were ever going to get a chance to play it out, because we had so much heavy lifting to do in our first arc that there wasn't room to play up this plot," Fletcher told MTV News. "And we didn't know that we were going to be successful at all and get to do any more than six issues." The wedding itself features Alysia in a dress designed by artist Babs Tarr, with her new spouse in a suit. "She kind of dresses older, like a really Madewell kind of flavor," Tarr told MTV News, referencing the clothing brand. "So I kind of wanted to give her something really traditional and beautiful and elegant." Alysia and Jo will be absent from the next few issues for their honeymoon. There's a twist coming in Batgirl #50 that MTV News reports will involve Alysia. Perhaps, as speculation states, she'll be becoming a hero herself? If so, she'll be creating new history — par for the course for this character.
click to enlarge Images via St. Louis County Police/Google Earth A jorts-wearing thief is wanted in at least three Walgreens robberies, police say. This guy wears jorts and robs Walgreens stores. Contact us or the fashion police if you can identify. pic.twitter.com/mZgxVp4knh — St. Louis County PD (@stlcountypd) August 9, 2017 Some weirdo wearing jorts is robbing Walgreens stores in the Metro region, and St. Louis County cops are on it.The department broke the grim news yesterday, tweeting out a photo of this creep so that we could see for ourselves the darkness that lies in the hearts (and wardrobes) of man."This guy wears jorts and robs Walgreens stores," reads the somber pronouncement.The jorts (They're jeans! They're shorts! They're jorts!) were dark in color. The rest of the suspect's outfit included a white hat, black-rimmed glasses and a maroon T-shirt "with eagle outstretched on the front," according to police. He's about average height with a medium build, maybe 40 years old.Police say he was pretending to be just some average shopper on Tuesday evening, wandering up to counter of the Walgreens at 2700 Telegraph Road with a few items. But as soon as the clerk opened the cash drawer, jorts guy overpowered her, snatched the money and took off, according to police.He drove off in a newer-model, blue Toyota Avalon with Missouri plates. When investigators started looking into it, they matched his description to a pair of other Walgreens robberies carried out in the previous 24 hours.Police are looking for him, but he's still out there. They ask if you see him to call Office Michael Moore at 314-615-0162. Keep your eyes peeled, people.
ST. LOUIS - We’ll never forget the day “The Great One” came to St. Louis. It was Feb. 27, 1996 - exactly 20 years ago - when the Blues acquired Wayne Gretzky from the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for Craig Johnson, Patrice Tardif, Roman Vopat, a first-round draft pick in 1997 and a fifth-round pick in 1996. “The Kings asked me if I’d like to play in St. Louis, and I told them I’d love to play in St. Louis,” Gretzky said at a press conference following the trade. “They wanted me, they’re excited to get me. I’m thrilled to be there.” Gretzky joined a group of Blues forwards that included Brett Hull, Dale Hawerchuk and Shayne Corson. His defense included future Hall of Famers in Al MacInnis and Chris Pronger and a legendary goaltender in Grant Fuhr, who had won four Stanley Cups with Gretzky in Edmonton a decade earlier. "I weighed all my options and just said it makes perfect sense for me to become a St. Louis Blue,” Gretzky told Dan O’Neill of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch recently. “My wife's from St. Louis. We can live in St. Louis and raise our family there. That's our home and … there were no alternatives, really. Ultimately, they pulled the trigger and I became a St. Louis Blue.” Gretzky would play in 18 regular season games for the Blues, scoring eight goals and 13 assists (21 points). In13 postseason games, he added 16 more points (two goals, 14 assists), helping the Blues pull to within one game of the Western Conference Finals in 1996. Ultimately, the Blues were eliminated by the Detroit Red Wings in the second round that season - in a double-overtime Game 7 thriller. With Mike Keenan serving as the Blues’ Head Coach and GM, Gretzky opted not to re-sign in St. Louis. Instead, he was off to the New York Rangers, where he spent his final three seasons and retired in 1999. “I often look back at it and think ‘Oh my gosh, if things would have turned out differently, I’d probably still be in St. Louis full-time,’” Gretzky said. “But, you know, the good Lord works in mysterious ways and sometimes that doesn’t happen. But I have nothing but fond memories. “You know, I’ll go into a grocery story or something in St. Louis and people are wearing Blues jerseys or Blues hats and they’ll ask me how I’m doing,” Gretzky added. “It’s a sports city, it really is. People there are the salt of the earth, that’s what makes it such a special place.”
This color is better :) The power behind the ZL1 1LE is the 650-horsepower, supercharged LT4 engine backed by a six-speed manual transmission featuring Active Rev Match. Brembo brakes, including red calipers with the 1LE logo, are also included. Additional standard features include dual-zone automatic climate control, Bose premium audio system, heated/ventilated front seats and heated steering wheel. The improved track performance is driven by four key elements: Aerodynamics: New aero features including a carbon fiber rear wing, specific air deflectors and dive planes on the front fascia produce grip-generating downforce to help the car stick harder and drive faster in turns. Adjustable suspension: The ZL1 1LE features racing-derived, lightweight Multimatic DSSV® (Dynamic Suspension Spool Valve) dampers front and rear for exceptional wheel and vehicle control. The front-end ride height is adjustable with the front dampers, which are used with all-new, adjustable camber plates. The rear stabilizer bar also offers three-way adjustability. All of the components are designed for quick changes at the track for optimal performance and a quick return to street settings when the track day ends. Wheels and tires: New, lightweight forged aluminum wheels are an inch wider but an inch smaller in diameter, front and rear, than standard ZL1 wheels and are used with new Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar 3R tires that deliver max lateral grip of 1.10g. Developed exclusively for the Camaro ZL1 1LE, the 3R tires are designed to warm up faster to help maintain more consistent grip and speed, lap after lap. The overall footprint grows approximately 10 percent over the ZL1, but the wheel-and-tire package weighs about 3.3 pounds (1.5 kg) less per corner. Lighter weight: The lighter wheels and dampers, along with reduced thickness rear glass and a fixed-back rear seat, contribute to an approximately 60-pound (27 kg) lower curb weight than a standard ZL1 Coupe. My general point : 8/10 My point to exterior design : 8/10 point to interior design : 6,5/10 point to front bumper : 7,5/10 point to rear bumper : 8/10 point to headlights : 8,5/10 point to rearlights : 9/10

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