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Online Demo & SCA Resources Welcome Combat Archery Calligraphy Brewing Heraldry Equestrian Costuming Dancing Cooking Music Youth Service More... Events FAQ Links Welcome to the SCA Online Demo The Society for Creative Anachronism is an international, non-profit, educational society celebrating pre-17th century history. It has members who study every aspect of medieval life. We are brewers, archers, calligraphers, heralds, fencers, spinners, blacksmiths, costumers, dancers, cooks and armoured fighters. We enjoy feasting, spinning, needlepoint, equestrian, leatherwork, beadwork, socializing, live weapons competition, period music, theatre and much more. If someone did it back then, you can bet someone is trying to do it now. The goal is to learn through doing. Doing and sharing ones subject knowledge with others. The SCA encourages historical research and recreation, and most importantly: preserving a code of conduct, mentality and philosophy that, in many ways, is lacking in the modern world. This Online Demo is meant to give a general overview of some of the aspects of the SCA. More information and links to groups in your area can be found on the Links page. DISCLAIMER : This is not an official publication of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). All of the information on this site has been submitted by members of the SCA, the source, or collected from Official SCA sites. All works are copyright their respective authors/creators unless noted otherwise. Only you can prevent forest fires. This product contains nuts and caffeine. Web hosting by http://www.hostgatordiscounts.org
Censorship is on the rise in the US, suspects James LaRue, director of the US Office of Intellectual Freedom (OIF). Every year, the OIF, a part of the American Library Association, tracks when parents and administrators “challenge” books by trying to remove them from schools curricula and libraries. This year, it recorded 323 attempts to ban books—about 50 more than last year—including books with young transgender characters and a series by actor and comedian Bill Cosby. LaRue says that this year a higher proportion of books actually went through as banned than in other years. Because the OIF’s database of attempted bans is based on self-reporting, LaRue notes that the true number of challenges in the US is likely much higher. He estimates that self-reporting captures only up to 18% of total challenges in the US. Here are the ten books Americans tried most frequently to ban in 2016: 1) This One Summer (2014), by Mariko Tamaki, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki (Macmillan) Courtesy Macmillan Synopsis: A graphic novel about two friends who spend the summer together on the verge of adolescence. Reasons for challenge: LGBT characters, drug use, profanity, sexually explicit The Caldecott-honored book was taken off library shelves at the public school in Henning, Minnesota, which serves kindergarten through 12th grade. “I deemed it as being vulgar. There was a lot of inappropriate language,” the superintendent told The Daily Globe. 2) Drama (2012), by Raina Telgemeier (Scholastic) Courtesy Scholastic Synopsis: A graphic novel about a middle school theater stage crew and their relationship ups-and-downs. Reasons for challenge: LGBT characters, sexually explicit, “offensive political viewpoint” The book was also a top challenged book in 2015. 3) George (2015), by Alex Gino (Scholastic) Courtesy Scholastic Synopsis: A book about a 10-year-old transgender girl desperate to play Charlotte in the school’s production of Charlotte’s Web. Reasons for challenge: LGBT characters, portrayal of transgender child According to the OIF, the book was successfully removed for “‘sexuality’ not appropriate at elementary levels.” 4) I Am Jazz (2014), by Jazz Jennings and Jessica Herthel, illustrated by Shelagh McNicholas (Dial Books) Courtesy Penguin Random House Synopsis: A picture book about a transgender girl named Jazz who loves pink. Reasons for challenge: LGBT characters, portrayal of transgender child The children’s book was also a top challenged title in 2015. That year a school in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin canceled a reading of the book meant to support a transitioning six-year-old student, after a religious group expressed outrage. 5) Two Boys Kissing (2013), by David Levithan (Borzoi) Courtesy Penguin Random House Synopsis: A novel for young adults about two teenaged boys who are in a 32-hour kissing marathon. Reasons for challenge: LGBT characters, sexually explicit The long-listed title for the National Book Award was a top challenged book last year. This year it was challenged for being on display with boys kissing on the cover. 6) Looking for Alaska (2005), by John Green (Dutton/Penguin) Courtesy Penguin Random House Synopsis: A book about a teenaged boy who changes schools and falls in love. Reason for challenge: sexually explicit The book, also on last year’s list, was challenged for one particular scene “that may lead a student to ‘sexual experimentation.'” 7) Big Hard Sex Criminals (2015), by Matt Fraction, illustrated by Chip Zdarsky (Image Comics) Courtesy Image Comics Synopsis: A woman who stops time when she has sex tries to rob a bank with a man with the same power. Reason for challenge: sexually explicit The book was challenged and successfully banned, according to the OIF. 8) Make Something Up: Stories You Can’t Unread (2015), by Chuck Palahniuk (Anchor) Courtesy Penguin Random House Synopsis: A collection of short stories by the author of Fight Club. Reasons for challenge: profanity, sexually explicit The book was challenged for being “disgusting and all around offensive.” 9) Little Bill series (1990s), by Bill Cosby, illustrated by Varnette P. Honeywood (Simon Spotlight) Courtesy Scholastic Synopsis: A series of books aimed at 4 to 8-year-olds about the life of a young Bill. Reasons for challenge: allegations of rape against the author High-profile allegations of rape and sexual assault against comedian and actor Bill Cosby have caused controversy over his books for young readers. “To my knowledge this is first time a book was challenged not because of what it was about but because of who wrote it,” says LaRue. 10) Eleanor & Park (2013), by Rainbow Rowell (Saint Martins) Courtesy Rainbow Rowell Synopsis: A novel about two misfits in love in the 1980s. Reason for challenge: profanity Parents in Chesterfield County Public Schools in Virginia wanted books on a summer reading list, include Eleanor & Park, removed or labeled with warnings. In 2013 parents in Minnesota also tried to have the “profane” book removed from libraries.
Hungry hero: John Wood (Picture: Archant Cambs) A pub landlord fought off four would-be muggers single-handedly in order to protect the fish and chips takeaway, including a pie, he had just bought. John Wood, 37, hit back at his stunned assailants when they demanded he give up his wallet and phone in an alleyway in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, last week. Mr Wood, who owns the Marshland Arms in nearby Marshland St James, needed 18 stitches however after being stabbed in the abdomen with a sharpened screwdriver. He credited his martial arts training with helping him fend off the muggers, who police are still trying to apprehend. ‘I only did aikido for a couple of years but it all comes back to you very quickly when you need it most,’ the pub landlord said after the incident near Frank’s Fish and Chip Shop. ‘They all came at me at once. I kicked two of them in the leg. They fell to the floor and couldn’t get up. As I did that another clipped me in the face. I turned around and hit him and he fell,’ he recalled. Advertisement Advertisement ‘I turned around again and the other one came at me with what I thought was a knife. He just lunged and I felt a sharp twang in my side. ‘I grabbed his hands so he couldn’t bring it out and stab again. I pulled it out myself, disarmed him and then hit him. I think he was knocked out. ‘Then I just got in my car and left. I didn’t even drop the chips. I did it all one-handed.’ Mr Wood added: ‘My supper wasn’t even squashed when I got home.’ After driving to his fiancée Claire Upton’s house Mr Wood required treatment at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn, where he was told the screwdriver had missed his lung by just 1mm. ‘It was a crazy moment when he walked in,’ said Ms Upton. ‘His face was a bit red where he had been hit and so we were looking for a plaster. ‘Then we served the chips. John had lost his appetite but the pie he got is still in the fridge.’ She added: ‘We haven’t had the heart to throw it out seeing as he worked so hard for it.’ Cambridge police said: ‘We have received an allegation of an attempted robbery in Wisbech which we are looking into. ‘Anyone who believes they may have information about this is asked to contact police on 101 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.’
Former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion Luke Rockhold is very confident heading into his title fight against current UFC Middleweight Champion Chris Weidman at UFC 194. "Fights usually go the way I see them, how I plan them out. Very few fights have not gone the way I see them. I see myself finishing Weidman within three rounds," Rockhold told media in Los Angeles (video via MMA Heat, starts at 19:48). Rockhold complimented Weidman's toughness and overall skill, as well as his ability to push a pace. When asked if he expects to fight Weidman twice if the champ is given an automatic rematch, Rockhold stated that he'll expect a trilogy of fights. "Or three times. I think me and Weidman are above the rest. I think I'm going to be like his big brother for his whole career after this fight," Rockhold laughed. Rockhold also went in depth as to how he would go about beating Weidman, who is a perfect 13-0 in his MMA career. "It's gonna be a closer first round. He's going to be tough, but I'm going to start stuffing his takedowns and threatening him on the ground if need be. We're going to find our way back to our feet and I'm going to start finding my groove. His pace is going to change and he's going to start backpedaling and I'm going to start teeing off." Although Rockhold is confident in his prediction, he realizes that Weidman is his toughest test to date, and expects the two to bring the best out of each other. "He believes in himself and I love it. That's the fight I want. I think it's going to bring the best out of me. I haven't even had a fight drag me to reach my potential. Weidman is the guy to bring me to that." Chris Weidman vs. Luke Rockhold will co-main event UFC 194 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The main event for the card will see current UFC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo and Interim UFC Featherweight Champion Conor McGregor unify the belts.
Two mass shootings in the past month—in Aurora, Colorado and Oak Creek, Wisconsin—have focused American attention once again on the issue of guns. Are guns a Jewish issue? Jewish organizations have expressed their opinions by their statements and their silence. Relevant Links Should a Jew Sell Guns? J. David Bleich, Berman Jewish Policy Archive. “Jewish law recognizes that indiscriminate sale of weapons cannot fail to endanger the public.” (PDF) “Jewish law recognizes that indiscriminate sale of weapons cannot fail to endanger the public.” (PDF) Dress Code? Natalie Weinstein, Gender Tree. One of the oldest authoritative interpretations of the Bible understands the prohibition over the wearing of a man’s clothes by a woman as an injunction against women bearing arms. One of the oldest authoritative interpretations of the Bible understands the prohibition over the wearing of a man’s clothes by a woman as an injunction against women bearing arms. Jews for Gun Control Eric Yoffie, Haaretz. Although a majority of American Jews want to restrict gun ownership, neither of the two main political parties represent their position. Although a majority of American Jews want to restrict gun ownership, neither of the two main political parties represent their position. Armed and Jewish Dennis Prager, Jewish Journal. There are two reasons for Jews to support gun ownership: the American value of the armed citizen, and the Holocaust’s lesson that people are not basically good. There are two reasons for Jews to support gun ownership: the American value of the armed citizen, and the Holocaust’s lesson that people are not basically good. Halakhic Hunting Mayanot Lecture. Hunting is permitted if it has positive benefits for humans or the environment. (Audio) Hunting is permitted if it has positive benefits for humans or the environment. (Audio) Jews for Guns Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership. “Founded by Jews in 1989, JPFO initially aimed at educating the Jewish community about the historical evils that Jews have suffered when they have been disarmed.” “Founded by Jews in 1989, JPFO initially aimed at educating the Jewish community about the historical evils that Jews have suffered when they have been disarmed.” The Reform movement’s Religious Action Center has decried the recent shootings and called for “common-sense gun control laws.” A blog on the Center’s website clarifies what the RAC thinks this means. “The most effective way to prevent gun deaths,” it says, “is to reduce the number of guns.” An earlier editorial by a RAC associate director went further. It decried the prospect of an armed and balkanized American society—and derided the argument that “only when Jews have guns have they been able to preserve Jewish honor and dignity.” The RAC’s answer to threats that Jews might face is tikkun olam. The president of the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly made a more interesting comment on the shootings. He condemned them, but also noted “the fragility of the fundamental social contract that binds us to each other in a civil society. Each and every assault on that unwritten contract,” he observed, “erodes our sense of security, and in so doing, threatens to make us that much less trusting, and less compassionate.” This is undoubtedly true—and unhelpfully abstract. It begs the question of whether it is the guns or the shooters that pose the real problem. The Orthodox Union condemned the shootings at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin as an assault on religious freedom—but did not mention guns. While Orthodox rabbis, like rabbis of other denominations, have undoubtedly sermonized on guns and violence, taking various positions, Orthodoxy’s Rabbinical Council of America issued no public statement about the recent events. Jewish exegesis related to guns is necessarily indirect. Biblical and talmudic texts generally require people to secure possessions of theirs, such as dangerous dogs, that pose safety hazards. There are prohibitions on selling weapons to idol worshippers and criminals, lest the weapons be turned against Jews. At the same time, there are complicating biblical and talmudic pronouncements about moral freedom and pikuah nefesh, saving a life. In one talmudic commentary on Deuteronomy, the prohibition on a woman’s wearing men’s clothing includes a ban on her wearing weapons, the quintessential male accoutrement. It follows that for men, wearing weapons is natural. But none of these sources figures in American Jews’ discussions of guns; instead, there is near blanket opposition. Why? At the center of the gun issue is power: To whom does the positive and negative power of weapons rightfully belong? Max Weber famously defined the state as an entity with a monopoly on violence; and the American Jewish attitude towards guns, following Weber, cedes all responsibility for the protection of individuals—of Jews—to government. American Jews, as opposed to Jews through most of history, unilaterally cede this power even though it is available to them. The issue is not simply Left versus Right. The Reform movement explicitly wishes to restrict or prohibit individual gun ownership. In contrast, Orthodox silence on the issue tacitly accepts both the legal status quo, which permits private guns, and social norms, under which Jews do not own guns. The denominational positions effectively converge. Guns are not for Jews. One pathological consequence of Jewish powerlessness has been the tendency to embrace weakness, rationalizing it and the suffering it produces as elevated and noble. Another pathology is guilt regarding whatever power one does possess. For American Jews, who are not shy about wielding their social and economic power, the choice to remain unarmed is perverse—but logical. Jews also follow the prejudices of their social class. Educated upper middle-class suburbanites, largely untouched by gun violence, are notably opposed to guns. Their opposition reflects intellectuals’ assumptions about the sources of and solutions to violence, and blame is assigned to the technology. True, the culture of the shooters themselves is identified as the problem in certain cases—say, neo-Nazis. But in other cases, such as inner cities, culture is quietly ignored: Highlighting it might be thought racist. Expiating a sense of privilege by restricting the rights of others is another hallmark of the educated upper middle class. In this sense, too, Jews emulate their fellows and embrace weakness. There is also a passive-aggressive element in the American Jewish attitude: It cedes a monopoly on violence to government not just in exchange for the government’s protection but as a way of establishing an entitlement to—of demanding—such protection. Government, correspondingly, offers sympathy to victims while accepting empowerment as their protector. Unfortunately, criminals and terrorists have not agreed to the bargain. Thus, the Jewish attitude, a form of pacifism, entails the occasional human sacrifice. But the American social contract uniquely specifies that government does not retain a monopoly on violence. The country was founded precisely in rebellion against such an idea, a rebellion that is burned into the nation’s founding documents. Moreover, the power of governments to threaten liberties is fact, not paranoid fantasy; Jews have been victims of state violence as much or more than non-state violence. The question of whether to place total trust in the state for protection does not have a self-evident answer. Then there is the problem of guns and Zion. How many American Jews are taken aback at seeing young Israeli men and women with assault rifles slung on their shoulders? How much alienation from Israel comes from the American Jewish desire that violence be impersonal and distant, rather than, as in Israel, intensely personal? Guns are an imperfect last defense against adversaries—governments, terrorists, home invaders. In rejecting guns, Jews elect to put their full faith in government—also imperfect, as well as haphazard, biased, even vindictive. Placing faith in government rather than in legal rights places faith not in laws but in human discretion. Such a choice in the haphazard and political is necessarily foolish. And faith in powerlessness is still worse, demeaning and potentially suicidal. COMMENTS Comments are closed for this article.
Originally founded in 1947 by the British as an Antarctic expeditionary base, Vernadsky Research Base was bought by the Ukraine in 1996 for the price of one British pound, since the cost to dismantle the base would have been too great. The coin Verdansky was purchased with still resides in the site’s most interesting location — the Vernadsky Station Lounge, one of the southernmost bars in the world. During the station’s British ownership, some of the carpenters repurposed a shipment of wood, meant to provide the station with a new pier, and built the small bar in a close approximation of a traditional English pub. The interior contains rustic wooden beams and aging pictures of famous Antarctica explorers above the seats. When the station was taken over by Ukraine, the bar received a bit of a makeover reflecting the newly Russian patrons, adding Cyrillic flags and other tchotchkes. In addition to the cosmetic changes, the bar now also offers vodka, distilled on site, for the bargain price of three dollars. If this is too much, the drink is free to any woman willing to donate her underwear to be displayed in the bar. Should you crave watching wild penguins while sipping bathtub vodka, the bar at the Vernadsky Base is open to any intrepid explorers willing to make the trek to the bottom of the world.
A top official in charge of Sweden’s immigration policy has been exposed as a jihadi sympathiser who described someone’s intention to join Islamic State as “beautiful”. Samiyah M Wasame, who serves on Sweden’s Migration Board, is accused of ‘liking’ numerous jihadi posts on Facebook. In one example, she ‘liked’ a picture of an AK-47 next to the words “Remember the Mujahdieen in your prayers… Because they are fighting on your behalf.” She also liked a black Islamic flag as well as a status by a jihadist who lamented the problems he was having travelling to Syria. She commented underneath, calling his decision “beautiful”. However, after being exposed by various Swedish newspapers, Wasame said the revelations were an example of “increased hatred of Islam and widespread Islamophobia” and showed the “strongly growing baiting of Muslims in today’s society.” Ivar Arpi, a writer for Svenska Dagbladet, responded to her criticisms by pointing out she had also ‘liked’ a picture of Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was convicted for the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing. She also ‘liked’ a picture of Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin as well as a message praising the release of a suspected IS recruiter and a quote by Ibn al-Khattab, a Chechen jihadist who is suspected of being involved in the 1999 bombing of a Russian apartment complex. According to a translation by InfoWars, news site Avpixlat says: “A Muslim fundamentalist who sympathizes with armed jihad and terrorism determines who should be granted asylum and a residence permit in Sweden. This at a time when the Security Service and experts on terrorism warn of a greatly increased risk of Islamic terrorists crossing into Europe by pretending to be refugees. Seldom has the expression “the fox guarding the henhouse” been illustrated so clearly in the material world.” In May, Breitbart London reported how Sweden was offering taxpayer-funded benefits to ‘alienated’ jihadists to lure them home. The Örebro municipality offered returning jihadists “psychological help to overcome traumatic experiences they may have suffered while fighting in Iraq and Syria,” with local councillor Rasmus Persson calling for terrorists to be offered jobs so they don’t “feel alienated”. One Swedish soldier who was stationed in Afghanistan condemned the plans, saying: “In a few months, I’m back in Sweden after being deployed in Afghanistan, against the Taliban and others who have really jeopardizing development in this very sore country. There is no permanent job waiting for me when I come home.”
Steven Acheson, an Iraq War veteran, at his apartment in Platteville, Wis., May 3, 2013. (Andy Manis/For The Washington Post) For men and women who have fought in the country’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, death behind the wheel is becoming another lethal aftereffect of combat. After they leave military service, veterans of the two wars have a 75 percent higher rate of fatal motor vehicle accidents than do civilians. Troops still in uniform have a higher risk of crashing their cars in the months immediately after returning from deployment than in the months immediately before. People who have had multiple tours in combat zones are at highest risk for traffic accidents. The phenomenon has been revealed by various pieces of evidence — research as well as observations of service members, veterans and counselors. The most common explanation is that troops bring back driving habits that were lifesaving in war zones but are dangerous on America’s roads. They include racing through intersections, straddling lanes, swerving on bridges and, for some, not wearing seat belts because they hinder a rapid escape. That’s probably not the whole story, however. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), suffered by thousands of veterans, increases aggressive driving. Drunken driving and thrill-seeking also are more common after combat, according to a few studies and the testimony of many veterans. Steven Acheson drives his car around Platteville, Wis., May 3, 2013. (Andy Manis/For The Washington Post) If further research supports the observations, motor vehicle crashes will join suicide and interpersonal violence as a fatal, if indirect, consequence of the war on terrorism. Motor vehicle crashes have long been a serious problem in the military. From 1999 through 2012, a period spanning peacetime and the two wars, as many active-duty military personnel died in noncombat motor vehicle crashes both on and off duty (4,423) as were killed in the Iraq war (4,409). “Before suicides became the leading cause of non-battle injuries, motor vehicle injuries were,” said Bruce H. Jones, a physician and epidemiologist who heads the Army’s injury prevention program at Aberdeen Proving Ground, in Maryland. War, however, worsens the problem. Men who served in the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan have a 76 percent higher rate of dying in vehicle crashes, and women a 43 percent higher rate, than people in the general population, according to an unpublished study by Han K. Kang, an epidemiologist with the Department of Veterans Affairs. The same phenomenon was seen in Persian Gulf War veterans and took five years to dissipate. Fatal motorcycle crashes in particular spiked during the wars. They accounted for 14 percent of military traffic deaths in 2001, but 38 percent in 2008. The absolute rate of motorcycle deaths also tripled over that period. “A lot of people come home and buy a motorcycle to have that adrenaline rush again,” said Steven Acheson, 27, a former forward observer in the Army and an engineering student in Wisconsin. He spent time at Fort Stewart in Georgia, where the post put vehicles from fatal crashes on display as a form of warning. “There was once six or seven completely mangled motorcycles out in front of the gate,” Acheson recalled. One of the best pieces of evidence that combat raises a person’s risk for car crashes comes from an in-house study by USAA, an insurance company in San Antonio that covers thousands of military personnel. The company offers a reduced-price insurance premium if vehicles are stored securely during deployment. Almost all of the company’s active-duty customers opt for it. As a consequence, USAA has before-and-after records for 171,000 deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Troops had more at-fault accidents in the six months after their return from deployment than in the six months before they left. The increase was highest for people in the Army (23 percent) and in the enlisted ranks (22 percent). Tellingly, there was a “dose-response relationship” between deployment and risk. Troops with three deployments had 36 percent more accidents, compared with 27 percent more in the twice-deployed and 12 percent in people deployed only once. But the problem isn’t just a carry-over of habits. One-quarter of the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans enrolled in a 60-day residential treatment program for PTSD in California said they drove after drinking. One-fifth said they used seat belts “less than sometimes,” in part because they get in the way of a rapid escape from a vehicle. “Failure to adapt the unique combat driving behaviors used in the current conflicts cannot be the only explanation for deployment-related risky driving behavior and excess . . . mortality,” wrote Mark A. Zamorski, a Canadian military physician, and Amanda M. Kelley, a civilian U.S. Army psychologist, in a report to NATO on the subject. “All of the likely mechanisms . . . could be mediated by distress or mental disorders,” they wrote. ‘You’re scaring me’ Todd Nelson was an Army logistician riding in the front seat of a Toyota Land Cruiser in Kabul in August 2007 when a car in an adjoining lane blew up. He lost his right eye, broke both jaws and had burns on 18 percent of his body surface. He’s had 43 operations under general anesthesia. When he was finally well enough to get back on the road, he drove for several months before his wife “made a comment about how aggressive I was being. She said, ‘You’re scaring me,’ ” Nelson, 40, recalled recently. He sped. He hated letting cars get in front of him. He swerved whenever he saw a vehicle with a low-hanging rear end suggesting a heavy load. “Hey, I drove much worse than this over there and nothing happened,” he says he told himself. In hindsight, he says, he’s embarrassed at how unaware he was. Of his wife, he says, “It was very patient of her to wait that long to tell me.” Nelson, who works in the recruiting department of USAA, broke the habit on his own. He timed how long it took him to drive to college each day in San Antonio and proved to himself that going the speed limit added little time to the trip. He made a game of counting the number of cars he would let merge on the way in and the way back. After a month, he said, he was back to driving pretty normally. He now goes out of his way to talk about it to other veterans. “I think we probably suffer with this more than we like to admit.” Acheson, the Wisconsin veteran, agrees. He spent 11 months driving a colonel around the Sadr City district of Baghdad in an up- armored Humvee in 2006. He drove courteously. “It was kind of our colonel’s motto when we were out there — ‘Show people respect,’ ” he said. He escaped injury. But he developed a habit of merciless attention to the road — noticing every curb line repainted or jersey barrier moved — that he’s never really lost. “When I see a vehicle on the side of the road, it puts me on edge,” said Acheson, a senior at the University of Wisconsin at Platteville. “I am constantly scanning. If I see a bag blow across the road a mile up, I say, ‘What is that?’ ” He has occasional — and unaccountable — moments of panic behind the wheel. Three years ago, he went to Long Island to visit an Army friend whose father was dying in hospice care. He helped carry the man’s body out of the house. Driving home, he was overcome by dread and anxiety. Somewhere in Indiana, in the middle of the day, he stopped, rented a motel room, called his mother and spent a sleepless night. He thinks drinking and driving is a largely unacknowledged part of the car-accident problem. “It’s just everywhere,” he said. “You just survived the war, so what do you mean I can’t drive drunk? If I can drive and shoot out my window, I can drive drunk. It’s that kind of mentality I saw a lot of soldiers taking.” Training materials The military is beginning to pay attention to the particular risks facing — and needs of — Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who resume driving when they get home. The Army gives out a brochure called “Post-Combat Driving: The American Road” that includes data from a survey that an occupational therapist at the University of Minnesota, Erica B. Stern, conducted with deployed and non-deployed reservists. (Forty-nine percent of returning troops said they were anxious when cars approached quickly; 25 percent said they had driven through stop signs in the previous month.) The publication has tips on how to increase self-control; one is to tape a drawing by one’s child to the dashboard. VA has new training materials for clinicians advising them to talk about driving with veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, some of whom are enrolling in the department’s driver-rehabilitation programs offered at 40 VA medical centers across the country, which have traditionally been used by people with physical disabilities. The VA hospital in Palo Alto, Calif., is conducting a study aimed at identifying the best techniques for relieving driving anxiety while on the road. Veterans drive hour-long trips near the medical center that incorporate their “triggers” — underpasses, bridges, construction sites, busy intersections. Their pulse and breathing are monitored. When they feel panic, they pull over and try various self-calming techniques. “We’ve had a lot more trouble recruiting participants than we expected,” said Steven Woodward, a VA psychologist running the study. “Why? I wish we knew.” Getting permission for the study from scientific review boards wasn’t easy. There haven’t been any disasters so far. Woodward hopes one day to extend it to an even more overlooked group — returning veterans who aren’t yet confident enough to resume driving.
Image caption Researchers found that blood sugar levels of all participants had returned to normal in one week. An extreme eight-week diet of 600 calories a day can reverse Type 2 diabetes in people newly diagnosed with the disease, says a Diabetologia study. Newcastle University researchers found the low-calorie diet reduced fat levels in the pancreas and liver, which helped insulin production return to normal. Seven out of 11 people studied were free of diabetes three months later, say findings published in the journal. More research is needed to see whether the reversal is permanent, say experts. Type 2 diabetes affects 2.5m people in the UK. It develops when not enough insulin is produced in the body or the insulin that is made by the body doesn't work properly. When this happens, glucose - a type of sugar - builds up in the blood instead of being broken down into energy or fuel which the body needs. The 11 participants in the study were all diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes within the previous four years. They cut their food intake drastically for two months, eating only liquid diet drinks and non-starchy vegetables. Fat loss After one week of the diet, researchers found that the pre-breakfast blood sugar levels of all participants had returned to normal. MRI scans of their pancreases also revealed that the fat levels in the organ had decreased from around 8% - an elevated level - to a more normal 6%. Three months after the end of the diet, when participants had returned to eating normally and received advice on healthy eating and portion size, most no longer suffered from the condition. It offers great hope for many people with diabetes. Prof Keith Frayn, University of Oxford Professor Roy Taylor, director of Newcastle Magnetic Resonance Centre at Newcastle University and lead study author, said he was not suggesting that people should follow the diet. "This diet was only used to test the hypothesis that if people lose substantial weight they will lose their diabetes. "Although this study involved people diagnosed with diabetes within the last four years, there is potential for people with longer-standing diabetes to turn things around too." Susceptibility question Dr Ee Lin Lim, also from Newcastle University's research team, said that although dietary factors were already known to have an impact on Type 2 diabetes, the research showed that the disease did not have to be a life sentence. "It's easy to take a pill, but harder to change lifestyle for good. Asking people to shift weight does actually work," she said. However, not everyone in the study managed to stay free of diabetes. "It all depends on how much individuals are susceptible to diabetes. We need to find out why some people are more susceptible than others, then target these obese people. We can't know the reasons for that in this study," Dr Lim said. Professor Edwin Gale, a diabetes expert from the University of Bristol, said the study did not reveal anything new. "We have known that starvation is a good cure for diabetes. If we introduced rationing tomorrow, then we could get rid of diabetes in this country. "If you can catch people with diabetes in the early stages while beta cells are still functioning, then you can delay its onset for years, but you will get it sooner or later because it's in the system." But Keith Frayn, professor of human metabolism at the University of Oxford, said the Newcastle study was important. "People who lose large amounts of weight following surgery to alter their stomach size or the plumbing of their intestines often lose their diabetes and no longer need treatment. "This study shows that a period of marked weight loss can produce the same reversal of Type 2 diabetes. "It offers great hope for many people with diabetes, although it must be said that not everyone will find it possible to stick to the extremely low-calorie diet used in this study." Dr Iain Frame, director of research at Diabetes UK, which funded the study, said the diet was not an easy fix. "Such a drastic diet should only be undertaken under medical supervision. Despite being a very small trial, we look forward to future results particularly to see whether the reversal would remain in the long term."
Come September 18th, 2017, the Calgary Flames will be a part of a split squad game against the Edmonton Oilers. Half the club will be playing in Rogers Place, one of the league’s newest arenas, and the other half will be playing in the Scotiabank Saddledome, the league’s oldest. The search for a new home for the Flames is one of the most controversial topics surrounding the team other than whether Brouwer should be protected in the expansion draft. It’s no secret that the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corp. (CSEC) and the City of Calgary have fundamentally different views on how a new arena should be funded. It’s a conversation that’s been going on publicly for almost two years, privately for likely many more, and a solution doesn’t seem to be in sight. With both public and private parties stubborn in their stance, it’s unclear how much longer Flames fans will have to wait before a new arena deal is finalized. In the meantime, we’ve put together a timeline of notable events regarding a new arena in Calgary. This story is constantly evolving and we’ll be adding to the timeline whenever anything interesting happens relating to the new arena. Please let us know if we’ve missed any dates (we know, we know, we should have included Kanye West passing over Calgary for his Saint Pablo tour). We’re hopeful that City Council and CSEC will work something out and set the right example regarding how to approach the new arena, you know, like have CSEC fund the whole thing (<– watch this video, start at 9:30 if you’re not a JO fan).
BEIRUT (Reuters) - An Israeli helicopter strike in Syria killed a commander from Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the son of the group’s late military leader Imad Moughniyah, Hezbollah said, in a major blow that could lead to reprisal attacks. Jihad Moughniyah, son of Lebanon's Hezbollah late military leader Imad Moughniyah, attends a ceremony marking his father's 40th death in Beirut's suburbs in this March 24, 2008 file photo. REUTERS/Khalil Hassan The strike hit a convoy carrying Jihad Moughniyah and commander Mohamad Issa, known as Abu Issa, in the province of Quneitra, near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, killing six Hezbollah members in all, a statement from the group said. It comes just days after Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said frequent Israeli strikes in Syria were a major aggression, that the group was stronger than before and that Syria and its allies had the right to respond. Shi’ite Muslim Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006, has been fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in Syria’s four-year war. Iran’s semi-official Tabnak news site said several of its Revolutionary Guards had also been killed in the attack, without giving further details. State-run Iranian television said the identity of the “martyrs” could not be confirmed. The Hezbollah-run al-Manar news channel said the Israeli attack suggested “the enemy has gone crazy because of Hezbollah’s growing capabilities and it could lead to a costly adventure that will put the Middle East at stake”. Israel’s military declined to comment, but an Israeli security source confirmed to Reuters that the Israeli military had carried out the attack. It was not immediately clear what role Jihad Moughniyah, in his 20s, was playing in the fighting in Syria. Hezbollah accused Israel in 2008 of assassinating his father, Imad Moughniyah, who was implicated in high-profile attacks on Israeli and Western targets and wanted by the United States. Israel denies any involvement in that killing. Nabil Boumonsef, a columnist at the Lebanon newspaper an-Nahar, said he believed the strike was a direct response to Nasrallah’s speech and could lead to a backlash. “Killing the son of Moughniyah is dangerous. I do not think that the group can be quiet now, now that the father and the son are killed. I expect that it will do something,” he said. Related Coverage Israeli security source confirms deadly attack on Hezbollah U.N. peacekeepers intensified their patrols on the border between Lebanon and Israel on Sunday night, local sources said. RETALIATION THREAT Imad Moughniyah was implicated in the 1983 bombings of the U.S. Embassy and U.S. Marine and French peacekeeping barracks in Beirut, which killed over 350 people, as well as the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires and the kidnapping of Westerners in Lebanon in the 1980s. The United States indicted him for his role in planning and participating in the June 14, 1985, hijacking of a U.S. TWA airliner and the killing of an American passenger. He was killed in a car bombing in Damascus in 2008. Jihad Moughniyah appeared in public for the first time a week after his father’s death to pledge loyalty to Nasrallah. “We are with you and we will go wherever you go. We will never leave the battlefield and we will never drop our guns, we answer for you Nasrallah,” Jihad, then aged 16, said wearing the group’s military uniform in front of thousands of mourners. Al-Manar television said earlier that a number of fighters were killed when they were checking an area in Quneitra when their convoy came under Israeli missile attack. Quneitra has seen heavy fighting between forces loyal to Assad and rebels including fighters linked to al Qaeda. Syrian state television said six people were killed in the attack and a child was wounded, without giving further details. Israel has struck Syria several times since the start of the war, mostly destroying weaponry such as missiles that Israeli officials said were destined for Hezbollah, Israel’s long-time foe in neighboring Lebanon. Syria said last month that Israeli jets had bombed areas near Damascus international airport and in the town of Dimas, near the border with Lebanon. Slideshow (2 Images) Nasrallah said on Thursday “the frequent attacks on different sites in Syria is a major breach. We consider (those) hostilities (to be) against all the resistance axis.” “(Retaliation) is an open issue,” he added. Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and some Palestinian factions consider themselves an “axis of resistance” against Israel.
Anyone who ever saw Mitt Romney try to sing “Who Let The Dogs Out” can tell you that Republicans have endured some clumsy moments when trying to capture the zeitgeist. This year was no exception. The most recent example surfaced earlier this week, when a meme circulated online painting presidential candidates Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Donald Trump, and Ben Carson as members of the Jedi order, just in time for the release of the latest Star Wars film. President Barack Obama, naturally, was depicted as the Emperor, flanked by Hillary Clinton as Darth Vader, as seen below: It is unclear whether any candidate was originally slated to “portray” Yoda. But with that canon-scarring image still in mind, here are five more instances this year when conservatives tried to portray themselves as “hip,” with uneven results. 1. Ted Cruz’s YouTube treasure trove Earlier this month, Cruz released 15 hours’ worth of “Project X” — unused footage originally shot for a campaign ad. Trevor Noah’s Daily Show took that opportunity to ask viewers to post their own takes on the material, resulting in the tag #CruzYourOwnAdventure taking off. One standout clip, “Cruz Fiction,” shows the world a mashup between the Texas Tea Party favorite and Quentin Tarantino that now seems oddly inevitable, as seen below. 2. Jeb Bush and the hoodie Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) has been hounded by Trump throughout the campaign for being “low-energy.” But contrary to the real estate magnate’s accusations, Bush has shown energy in some moments. Unfortunately for him, those moments were painfully captured on video and released by his campaign, as Bush can be seen struggling to put a hooded sweater on over his head. “Eat your heart out, [Mark] Zuckerberg,” Bush tells the Facebook head. It’s doubtful Zuckerberg has much to be afraid of, however, given that he probably realizes that “hoodies” tend to have a zipper in the front. 3. Marco Rubio: Straight Outta Florida Before being turned into a Jedi, Rubio spent some time earlier this year reminding people that he is a hip-hop fan. The Tea Party senator, who has described rappers as being like reporters in the past, stated his allegiance to West Coast artists like Tupac Shakur and Dr. Dre. He also shared his excitement online over the release of Straight Outta Compton, the filmed account of the early days of the gangsta-rap group NWA. But as Slate’s Ben Mathis-Lilley noted, his fanfare for the group doesn’t jibe with Rubio’s pride at being raised in “Ronald Reagan’s America”: The members of NWA were also born and raised in Ronald Reagan’s America. Reagan was the governor of California when they were children and the president when they were teenagers and young men. For them, Reagan’s America was not a good one. More than any other American leader, Reagan was responsible for popularizing resentment of welfare recipients and creating the modern war on drugs. As president, he treated poor black people as threats to be governed with force. And whether or not you think Reagan’s actions were justifiable, it’s impossible to deny that they are exactly what NWA was angry about. Perhaps more disappointingly, Rubio also says he likes the Wu-Tang Clan, yet can’t ever seem to identify any members of that group. 4. Donald Trump’s American Bandstand Despite being the Republican front-runner, Trump has failed to score much support when it comes to campaign theme songs. From the outset, Neil Young criticized the mogul when he used “Rockin’ In The Free World” to announce his campaign, reaffirming his support for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in the process. In September, Trump tried to use R.E.M’s “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” to express his criticism of a US-Iran nuclear agreement, only to be called an “orange clown” and denounced by the band. Trump found a brief moment of musical respite when Twisted Sister granted him the use of their hit “We’re Not Gonna Take It” that same month. But even frontman Dee Snyder — no stranger to controversy himself — felt Trump and his campaign had gone too far, and revoked the band’s permission this month. “When you have white supremacy groups aligning with you, and you don’t denounce them, you don’t say, ‘Wait a minute, I’m not with these people here,’ and draw some clarity, that’s a problem for me,” Snyder said in a radio interview. 5. Trump shows up on Saturday Night Live and nearly leaves it for dead Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric — as opposed to his anti-Muslim rhetoric — was fresh in the public’s mind when he was announced as a guest host for SNL, bringing protesters out to campaign against NBC, and spurring the offer of a $5,000 “bounty” for anyone who would call him a racist on the air. The money was collected by comedian Larry David, who said it as part of the monologue, rather than an authentic protest. But Trump’s lasting damage may have been to the show itself, which was pilloried in the press for featuring “anemic” sketches with the candidate, including one about his hair that was apparently so bad it did not even air. How bad was the episode? The AV Club called it the show’s “nadir,” while the team at Cracked magazine called it simply “dogsh*t,” as seen below.
The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), a lobby group that represents the major lobbying associations for music, movie, software, and book publishing in the United States, has released its submission to the U.S. government as part of the Special 301 process. The Special 301 process leads to an annual report invariably claiming that intellectual property rules in the majority of the world do not meet U.S. standards. The U.S. process has long been rejected by the Canadian government, which has consistently (and rightly) stated that the exercise produces little more than a lobbying document on behalf of U.S. industry. The Canadian position, as described to a House of Commons committee in 2007 (and repeated regularly in internal government documents): In regard to the watch list, Canada does not recognize the 301 watch list process. It basically lacks reliable and objective analysis. It’s driven entirely by U.S. industry. We have repeatedly raised this issue of the lack of objective analysis in the 301 watch list process with our U.S. counterparts. The lack of credibility stems in part from the annual IIPA submission. While the submission generates some media attention, this year’s falls squarely into the category of fake news. The IIPA focuses on three concerns: piracy rates in Canada, the notice-and-notice system for allegations of infringement, and fair dealing. None of the concerns withstand even mild scrutiny and each is addressed below. 1. State of Canadian Piracy Throughout the Canadian copyright reform process that led to the 2012 law, the IIPA and rights holder groups claimed that Canada was a piracy haven in need of copyright reform. Despite getting what it asked for – tough anti-circumvention rules similar to those found in the U.S., an ISP liability system, an enabler provision that makes it easy to target websites that primarily facilitate infringement, and retention of some of the biggest statutory damages for commercial infringement in the world – the IIPA has returned to the same playbook in advance of the review of Canadian copyright law scheduled for later this year. The IIPA claims are presented without much evidence, presumably because it isn’t available. The real Canadian story is that infringement rates have consistently declined in recent years. For example, the Business Software Alliance’s annual report last showed Canada at its lowest software piracy rate ever and well below the global and European averages. The decline will not come as a surprise to anyone following the explosive growth of digital services in Canada. As many predicted, the availability of affordable, convenient services is easily the best method to counter infringement. In the case of Canada, Netflix is seemingly too popular for many in the cultural community as the millions of subscribers have transformed the sector and conclusively demonstrated that Canadian consumers are willing to pay for good entertainment services. The growth of these services is not limited to video. SOCAN, Canada’s largest music copyright collective, recently reported record earnings from Internet streaming services which increased by more than 460 percent (which followed from previous records) again confirming that Canadian consumers are paying for music online too. But wait, says the IIPA. While it admits that Canadian law has been used to shut down piracy sites such as isoHunt and KickAss Torrents, it identifies a few other sites that it says have a Canadian connection. However, the IIPA neglects to mention that the U.S. government’s most recent report on notorious markets makes no reference to Canada. In fact, it identifies what it says are the most problematic online markets and sites in the world and the word “Canada” does not appear anywhere. More importantly, the IIPA acknowledges that the Canadian enabler provision has been effective in shutting down sites of this kind. The failure is not a function of Canadian law, but rather a failure of the IIPA and its members to use the very legal tools they demanded. 2. Notice and Notice The IIPA is also unhappy with Canada’s notice-and-notice system, which it says is inadequate, is not receiving full compliance from ISPs, and which hurts licensed services. As noted above, licensed services are experiencing record revenues and growth in Canada. Further, there has been no public evidence that ISPs are not compliant with the law. It would be surprising if there was given that ISPs face financial penalties for failure to comply with the law. With respect to whether the notice-and-notice system meets U.S. standards, it is worth noting that the U.S. government itself has acknowledged that it does. As part of the Trans Pacific Partnership treaty, the Canadian system was treated as equivalent to the U.S. system for the purposes of complying with ISP liability and safe harbour rules. All parties, including the U.S. and Canadian governments, asserted that no reforms would be needed in Canada to meet the TPP requirements. Moreover, promoting the U.S. system raises serious concerns, particularly since it is receiving increased scrutiny with reports that it generates millions of fake DMCA notices that have massively inflated claims of online infringement. In fact, Google has advised the Register of Copyrights that 99.95% of the processed URLs from Google’s trusted submitter program regarding search are machine-generated URLs that do not involve actual pages in the search index. In other words, the notice-and-takedown system is filled with fake notices and rife with abuse. The Canadian notice-and-notice system needs amendment, but not for the reasons articulated by the IIPA. The Canadian government never intended for notice-and-notice to be used by rights holders to send thousands of settlement demands and scare recipients into paying settlements. The Canadian government’s own public documents make it clear that there is no obligation to settle and even the movie industry has established a website that tries to set the record straight. The misuse of the notice-and-notice system is the real story and one that requires reform when the government turns to copyright. Notice-and-notice should not be used by rights holders to trick or scare users into paying hundreds of dollars for settlements as part of ethically questionable anti-piracy business tactics. Addressing the notice-and-notice loopholes in the system should be at the top of the 2017 reform list. 3. Fair Dealing The IIPA comments on Canada also focus on Canadian fair dealing law, as it points to the 2012 reforms and states “that none has had a more concrete and negative impact than the addition of the word ‘education’ to the list of purposes (such as research and private study) that qualify for the fair dealing exception.” Given that it is fair dealing/fair use week, it essentially to correct the record yet again. i. Fair Dealing Practices First, the attempt to link fair dealing practices in Canada with the 2012 legislative reforms are false. Fair dealing includes multiple purposes that can be relied upon by educational institutions, including research and private study. The addition of education in 2012 was always evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Indeed, the proof is in the Supreme Court of Canada’s fair dealing copyright decisions, which ruled against Access Copyright without the benefit of an education fair dealing purpose. The widely used fair dealing guidelines are based primarily on decisions from the Supreme Court of Canada, the Federal Court of Appeal, and the Copyright Board of Canada. Despite claims that fair dealing guidelines went beyond the law, Access Copyright has lost every legal attempt to challenge them. The courts and board have provided detailed guidance the scope of fair dealing, the appropriate test, and the applicability of insubstantial copying. Current practices have been influenced by what courts and tribunals have ruled, not what the government implemented in 2012. In fact, Canadian educators could rely far more on the 2012 reforms, including the use of Internet exception for education and the exception for non-commercial user generated content. It is important to note that Canadian fair dealing practices are not inconsistent with many jurisdictions around the world. For example, the U.S. fair use provision is far broader than fair dealing with recent fair use decisions involving the legality of university copying, digitization practices, and use of APIs. Fair use can be found in other countries, some of which have practices that involve far more generous copying than Canada. For instance, copying 20% of a book is viewed as fair use in Israel, double the Canadian guideline. Most recently, the Australian Productivity Commission, a government-backed think-tank, recommended the adoption of fair use in that country. ii. The State of Canadian Educational Publishers The IIPA repeats the oft-stated claim that Canadian educational publishers are struggling and seeks to draw a direct link to fair dealing. The claim is false. Publishers may be facing new challenges, but copyright is a minor part of the story as disclosed in their own corporate and legal filings. Pearson PLC, the world’s largest education company, recently warned of an unprecedented decline in the North American education publishing market. This primarily reflects U.S. developments and highlights how Canada is not an outlier in educational publishing. Pearson is not alone. Ariel Katz has previously debunked claims regarding Oxford University Press, whose recent annual reports acknowledge changing market conditions around the world, with the company noting: “the Higher Education textbook market shrank in important markets such as the UK, Canada, and the US, illustrating the contrasting array of market conditions to which OUP needed to adapt in 2014.” Nelson Education is the largest Canadian educational publisher and its President and CEO Geoff Nordal identified the primary economic challenges in an affidavit: In Canada, each province and territory has authority over curriculum development and education funding for the K-12 Market. Following a historic high in Canada in 2006 with respect to new curriculum development and spending, the K-12 Market contracted. The K-12 Market has been negatively affected by reduced spending on new curriculum by Canadian schools over the last five years, and in particular the spending decline in Ontario which represents the largest proportion of educational spending in Canada. In the higher education market, Nordal focused on the following issues: The Higher Education Market has been negatively affected by, among other things: a lack of clarity at universities with respect to ‘ancillary fees’; with certain institutions banning digital homework solutions with added fees; increased traction in the open textbook movement due in part to government funding in a number of provinces; and the use of used books, rental books and peer-to-peer sharing, impacting the demand for new textbooks at universities and colleges in Canada. The impact caused by used books and rental books is mitigated by revisions cycles and new textbook editions, the adoption of digital materials and increased use of custom and indigenous products. In addition, the Higher Education Market is in transition from traditional books to digital products, which is having a transformative effect on the business. Nordal’s emphasis on reduced provincial spending (for K-12) and the digital shift (for higher education) is consistent with the data from other sources. The 2010 report on K-12 publishing commissioned by Canadian Heritage also pointed to the long pilot periods delaying purchasing decisions and the increased use of alternative and digital resources. These findings are also consistent with a 2015 study prepared for Creative BC and the Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia. The study characterizes the challenge for educational publishing as follows: Scholarly and educational publishers share some of the same issues as trade publishers, but they face other unique challenges. Tablet and other nonprint use will increase in the school systems here and abroad, changing how educational materials are bought, used and updated. Scholarly publishers and trade publishers that sell into the academic market are struggling with the impact on their sales of Open Access and fair use policies, tailored subscription services such as Scribd’s Edelweiss, used book sales, student piracy and increased library use for class reading lists. None of this will surprise anyone on campuses or in schools in Canada. As the B.C. study on the publishing industry notes, open access and free online alternatives do represent a business threat to the conventional publishing industry. Several provinces have invested heavily in developing quality, peer-reviewed online materials that can be freely used by any school. For example, Open School BC, backed by the province, has modules in the sciences, social sciences, and languages. The B.C. Open Textbook Project has over 150 open textbooks that has saved students millions of dollars. E-learning Ontario has an online resource bank featuring thousands of resources from students from kindergarten to Grade 12. Meanwhile, Canadian post-secondary institutions continue to spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year on licensing from publishers. As the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) noted at the start of this academic year: The 31 member libraries of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) spent $293 million on information resources in 2014-15, demonstrating a clear commitment to accessing print and digital content legally and rewarding content owners accordingly. Universities are actively engaged in outreach to their faculty, staff, and students, educating them on their rights and responsibilities under the Copyright Act and ensuring that uses of material under copyright fall well within the provisions of the law. Where educational uses are more substantive and therefore fall outside of fair dealing, the content is either purchased to be added to licensed collections, or rights clearances are obtained and royalties are paid for these uses. Trained, knowledgeable library staff support these activities. The IIPA and its allies have engaged in a fake news effort to malign fair dealing in Canada. The actual numbers and evidence tell a far different story: paying for content remains by far the largest method of acquiring access to content for educational institutions. In fact, the spending from just the 31 CARL libraries on information resources are more than 14 times the total revenues for Access Copyright for all its licences. The Future of Canadian Copyright Reform The issue of copyright reform will unquestionably be on the policy radar screen starting later this year and continuing into 2018. Changes are needed: as discussed above, the government should address the misuse of notice-and-notice. With the Canadian recording industry now admitting that the WIPO Internet treaties were a wrong guess, the government should fix the fair dealing gap by creating a clear exception in the anti-circumvention rules for fair dealing. Further, it should consider expanding fair dealing to a fair use model (by adding “such as” to the list of fair dealing purposes), which would be more consistent with the intent of the law and create the necessary pro-innovative policies that we see in places like the U.S., Singapore, and Israel. As the government moves forward with the review process, it will be essential that the debate focus on the real state of Canadian copyright, not the fictional one portrayed by the IIPA.
WASHINGTON — Gregory B. Jaczko, whose three-year tenure as chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been marked by bitter battles with colleagues and with Congress, announced Monday that he would step down as soon as a successor was confirmed. The White House said it would name a successor “soon,” but it is unlikely that anyone will be confirmed to succeed Dr. Jaczko for many months, ensuring continued turmoil at the deeply divided agency. The commission’s inspector general is preparing a report to be issued in coming weeks that is expected to repeat some of the charges of mismanagement and verbal abuse of subordinates that have isolated Dr. Jaczko from other members. Dr. Jaczko, chairman since May 2009 and the longest-serving member of the five-member commission, was an outsider and a maverick when he joined the panel more than seven years ago. He has drawn sharp criticism for helping to end the government’s consideration of a proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert and for assuming some emergency powers at the commission after the triple meltdown of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi reactors in March 2011. He sought to address some longstanding safety problems at the 104 nuclear power reactors in the United States, but with a background in nuclear physics and nuclear policy and not in the nuclear industry, Dr. Jaczko was viewed with skepticism and mistrust by some industry insiders. Advertisement Continue reading the main story In a telephone interview, Dr. Jaczko (pronounced YAHTZ-koh) refused to talk about his clashes with other commissioners, which resulted in an internal commission investigation and Congressional hearings.
UPPER DEERFIELD TWP. -- When Gerald Sykes woke up in the hospital Saturday morning, one of the first things he asked his family was "did they get the bad guys that shot me?" "Jerry, you were shot by the police," his step-daughter Diana LaFalce told him. The 76-year-old man was "flabbergasted," LaFalce recalled Tuesday from her family's Upper Deerfield Township home where the shooting occurred. "His eyes got huge and said 'no way, that was not the police that shot me' and I said 'I'm sorry that absolutely was'." "He just kept shaking his head," LaFalce said. "He couldn't believe it." What began as a 911 hang-up on Friday night ended with Sykes laying in a hospital bed Tuesday morning, with three bullets still inside him. Officials say Sykes was shot by New Jersey State Police troopers after officers were sent to his Centerton Road home -- the wrong address, officials have since said -- to check on a 911 hang-up call. The New Jersey Attorney General's Shooting Response Team which is investigating the shooting said two uniformed officers were sent to the house in error. After no response at the front door, they went around back to a deck where they knocked and announced themselves, according to the investigation. Then there was "an exchange of gunfire" with one trooper firing four rounds and Sykes firing one round. The state does not say who fired first. Sykes' family say police fired and then Sykes -- armed with a shotgun with birdshot in it to wound intruders but not kill them -- shot back, thinking those on his deck were intruders. On Tuesday, LaFalce and Rich Kaser, a longtime family friend and attorney, walked around the Sykes' home as they recounted the events of that night. A pool of dried blood remained on the porch and step just outside of the front door. Scattered around the yard were gloves and other disposable protective gear left by the rescue squads. In the backyard, two sets of French doors line the deck -- one still marked with three bullet holes and shattered glass from where its believed the troopers fired through into the house. In the other door, lower, is a larger hole, apparently the result of the single shotgun blast fired by Sykes. LaFalce said the Sykes' miniature Doberman, Sarah, woke them up the night of the shooting. Margot Sykes, 80, looked out onto the deck and saw shadows and woke her husband. They both went into the great room and saw "dark figures" through the doors on their deck outside. It was then that Sykes retrieved his shotgun and soon after, the shooting took place. Around midnight, LaFalce got the call from her mother. "She was crying, close to hysteria," LaFalce recounted Tuesday. "She said 'Jerry's been shot. They shot him right through the door ...'" After calling 911 to summon help for Sykes, LaFalce and her husband, Ronald, "jumped into the car and drove right over," but Centerton Road, near her parents' home, was blocked. Later, when she was finally able to get information from police, she was told her mother was taken to the state police's Bridgeton station but she still didn't know what had come of her step-father. Her mother, her nightgown still covered in blood, told LaFalce what happened. Sykes himself had called 911, too. He was so weak from losing blood that he had gone back to his bed and made the call. "He told them 'Please send the police. I've been shot. I am going to die,'" Kaser recounted from his conversations with the family. Kaser said Sykes told him the 911 operator asked about guns in the house. "What are you worried about guns for? I am dying," Kaser said Sykes told the operator. LaFalce said the family believes it was about 45 minutes before an ambulance arrived. Her mother propped Sykes up the best she could on her shoulder and got him to the front door, but was told by a 911 operator that he had to come down the steps by himself, LaFalce said. He did, but then collapsed on the lawn. The family and their attorney say Sykes was handcuffed before being taken and flown to Cooper University Hospital, Camden. In previous requests for comment on details in the case other than what was provided in the Attorney General's Office's official statement, the state has said it could not comment, citing the ongoing investigation. The two unidentified troopers involved have been placed on paid administrative leave, authorities said. One of those two was injured by either the birdshot from Sykes' gun or flying glass, authorities believe. The couple, married for about 22 years and living for the past 15 years in the Centerton Road home that they built, still hasn't been contacted by any authorities, LaFalce said. Kaser, who has been one of Sykes' regular visitors at Cooper since the shooting, said he asked Sykes what he wanted to say about the incident. "He is angry that this happened because it should not have happened. He can't understand how or why it happened," Kaser said. "He still respects law enforcement, but he certainly is looking at that in a little bit different light." Bill Gallo Jr. may be reached at bgallo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow Bill Gallo Jr. on Twitter @bgallojr. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
CNN‘s post-speech discussion of Barack Obama’s State of the Union address included anchor Wolf Blitzer’s reaction to colleague Jake Tapper’s view that the president had outlined a liberal economic agenda. Blitzer’s analysis illustrates the logic behind corporate media’s longstanding efforts to dissuade politicians from advocating for progressive policies: TAPPER: Of course, most of the speech, the body of the speech, was a very progressive, very liberal economic message about trying to help the middle class…. [It] was about new tax cuts, about the $3,000 per child per year, paid sick leave or paid maternity leave, raising the minimum wage, lowering the cost of community college to zero. BLITZER: I think it’s fair to say, had he put forward all these new initiatives before the midterm elections–was afraid to do so, because he feared it could hurt Democrats who were up in a tough reelection or election season. As a result, he didn’t do any of those things before the midterms, but now after the midterms, [with] two years to go, he feels emboldened, almost liberated, ready to move on with these new very progressive or very liberal initiatives. According to Blitzer, policy proposals such as paid sick leave and maternity leave, an increased minimum wage and free community college are all liabilities to pragmatic Democrats concerned with winning elections–which explains Obama’s reticence prior to November’s midterm elections. However, public opinion polls show widespread support for those measures, including, in many cases, from Republican voters. A CNN poll (6/9/14) found 71 percent of the public supporting an increase in the minimum wage, including a majority of Republicans and conservatives. In November, voters in the Republican-leaning states of Arkansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and Alaska passed ballot initiatives to increase the minimum wage by large margins (Huffington Post, 11/4/14). A HuffPost/YouGov poll (6/20/13) found that 74 percent of the US public supports requiring companies to offer paid sick leave to their employees; paid maternity leave garnered 61 percent approval. In a number of recent polls, the idea of free community college received majority support (The Hill, 1/20/15)–one poll found that more Republicans favored the measure than opposed it, rather remarkable given that the idea was only recently popularized by President Obama himself. So it’s not voters’ preferences that, in Blitzer’s words, “could hurt Democrats” facing elections. A likelier reason is election funding. Political scientists Walter Dean Burnham and Thomas Ferguson observed that politicians largely depended on financing from economic elites (AlterNet, 12/18/14) in what were probably the most expensive midterms in history (Washington Post, 10/22/14): The president and the Democratic Party are almost as dependent on big money–defined, for example, in terms of the percentage of contributions (over $500 or $1,000) from the 1 percent–as the Republicans. To expect top-down, money-driven political parties to make strong economic appeals to voters is idle. In the context of low-turnout elections largely financed by economic elites, policies such as minimum wage increases and paid sick leave, which force financial concessions from the wealthy, do indeed “hurt Democrats.” It is in part this conflict that explains high-profile Democrats’ lack of advocacy on those measures. As The Atlantic reported (6/18/14), “Hillary Clinton isn’t against federally mandated family leave–she just doesn’t think it’s politically feasible”: “I think, eventually, it should be [implemented],” Clinton said at CNN‘s town-hall meeting Tuesday to promote her new book, Hard Choices. But she immediately qualified her position: “I don’t think, politically, we could get it now.”… A bipartisan poll conducted on behalf of the National Partnership for Women and Families, a pro-leave group, just after the 2012 election, found that 86 percent of Americans supported leave–including 96 percent of Democrats and 73 percent of Republicans. The poll inspired new hope that President Obama might take up leave in his second term. Instead–vindicating Clinton’s opinion that leave is politically impossible right now–the issue has all but disappeared. Although congressional Democrats had crafted the Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act, which provided employees with 12 weeks of paid leave, President Obama did not endorse the bill (The Week, 6/27/14). The Washington Post (6/23/14) found that “five and a half years after taking office, Obama has no proposal on the table for paid family leave.” Now that Barack Obama faces Republican majorities in both the House and Senate, Blitzer characterizes the president as “liberated” and “emboldened” to stake out a policy agenda that is now safely off the table. Policies that promote economic justice, which are broadly popular, are considered divisive within the corporate media until they’re rendered impossible. Then media pundits can wink at one other about how politicians are shrewdly courting voters with agendas they cannot possibly fulfill. And what does it look like when politicians heed the corporate media’s call for bipartisanship? Obama’s full-throated advocacy for the Trans-Pacific Partnership in his State of the Union is one example. The highly secretive, pro-corporate trade agreement threatens to exacerbate the very inequality that the president sought to highlight in his speech, and is opposed by leading economists and many top legislators of own party (Huffington Post, 1/20/15, 1/21/15). In an article headlined “Poll Finds Agenda Gap Between Leaders, American People,” the Wall Street Journal (1/21/15) noted President Obama’s priority of signing the trade deal was met by a public “virtually yawning at the prospect.” Only 20 percent considered it an “urgent priority,” the paper noted. Thomas Ferguson offered a simple commentary on this agenda gap (Real News Network, 12/27/14): “You’ve been running these sort of big money-driven elections for quite some time, and it’s policy disappointment that’s driving down the voter turnout.” A far better strategy, he suggested, would be “to do something for the population instead of the 1 percent.” If politicians were to ignore corporate pundits and instead energized otherwise-apathetic voters with an actual commitment to popular policies, they would offer a solution to voters’ yawns.
YourTango.com Is Traditional Marriage On Its Last Legs? by Dan Eldridge "...It probably wasn't so much the actual concept of marriage itself that rubbed me the wrong way. Rather, it was the style in which so many American couples practice their marriages: with constant arguments, with disdain and loathing, and with cheating and lies. ...I've been involved in an open relationship with my girlfriend for about two years now.... My girlfriend and I both occasionally see other women. Eventually we decided it might actually be, you know... nice to make a public commitment to each other, and to share that moment with our families and close friends. And after all, by that point we had both managed to admit to each other our respective desires to stay together forever. And yet neither Carrie Ann's opinion about traditional marriage, nor mine, had changed one bit: We still weren't interested. Nor were we interested in having a ceremony in a church, or on a beach, and we sure as hell weren't going to lay out $10,000 for a pile of cheap party favors, a photographer, and a big cake. And that was when it hit us: Maybe we actually were on the road to inventing something special.... When Carrie Ann spread the news to her family, she didn't pull any punches in her explanation of what it was that we wanted to do. And what we wanted to do, essentially, was to have a small ceremony in a private place. We wanted to publicly declare our love and our devotion to each other, and also our intention to remain together forever. Afterwards, we planned to have a small party of some sort. And that was it. In other words, we wanted to go through the process of getting married, but without the inclusion of a priest, or anyone else who had the power vested in him by the State of Pennsylvania to proclaim us man and wife. My own parents, when I tried to spell out the thought process behind our UnWedding, were understandably confused.... Is traditional marriage really on its last legs these days? Hell, I don't know. But I do know this: Ideas and suggestions for couples interested in an alternative to life-long monogamy seem to be all around us in the 21st century. I think that's a good thing, and I think it’s an honest way to begin a life-long partnership. ...While we may indeed be living in a freaky-deeky world, it’s a heck of a lot easier to navigate — and a whole lot more fun — when you’re living through it with a loving and devoted partner in crime. 1 To be exact, 39.7%. See page 3 and Table 7 in the To be exact, 39.7%. See page 3 and Table 7 in the report The U.S. crossed a demographic boundary in 2007. The National Center for Health Statistics announced last month that for the first time, 40% of babies born in the U.S. were born to unwed mothers.The rate of unmarried births has zoomed up since 2002, following several years of relative stability before then.Here in the pleasant, liberal Massachusetts suburbs, people didn't believe the headline. It was a typo, right? But out in Sarah Palin land, having babies without marriage has become almost the accepted norm. You can blame some of it on abstinence-only sex education, or parents who can't talk about contraception, or scarcity of abortion providers, or lousy opportunities in life for many girls and women. But among quite a few people (especially in places like Massachusetts), the un-marriage trend is the result of deliberate, carefully considered choice.And one reason is because "marriage" is supposed to mean "forsaking all others" forever after. But it doesn't have to be that way.At YourTango.com (successor tomagazine), columnist Dan Eldridge ruminates on his open relationship in a "Life Partnership" with someone who agrees with him that marriage stinks.And now they've decided to get married in all but name:He's done a lot of reading about polyamory and open relationships and finishes by asking,Read the whole article If you're interested in exploring un-marriage, including the legal ramifications, check out the Alternatives to Marriage Project Me? I'm happily married without a regret in the world.Eldridge's five earlier YourTango columns are:---------------------- Labels: marriage, open marriage
The refusal of some EU countries to accept Muslim refugees is “unacceptable”, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday as Germany called for quotas to divide the influx throughout the bloc. “That’s not right at all that some countries say: ‘generally speaking, we don’t want to have Muslims in our countries’,” Merkel told German public television channel ARD. During the interview, Merkel rejected Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel’s criticism that the conservatives had “underestimated” the challenge of integrating record numbers of migrants. Gabriel leads the Social Democrats (SPD) -- the junior coalition partner in Merkel’s government -- and his comments come as campaigning kicks off for a federal election next year and regional elections in Berlin and the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. He had also criticised Merkel’s catchphrase “Wir schaffen das” (“We can do this”), which she adopted during last year’s migrant crisis. In the spotlight The chancellor used the phrase at a news conference in late July after a spate of attacks on civilians in Germany, including two claimed by ISIS, that put her open-door migrant policy in the spotlight and dented her popularity. Merkel said the federal government had worked hard with state and municipal authorities to solve problems, changed laws and provided funding. Backing the idea of a quota system for taking in migrants, the German leader stressed that “everyone must do their part,” and that “a common solution must be found.” A common European migration policy is a highly controversial issue, which will be on the agenda of an EU summit next month, with eastern members the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia refusing to take in refugees under an EU-wide quota system championed by Berlin. Slovak President Robert Fico has vowed he would “never bring even a single Muslim” into his country. In 2015, Germany took in around a million asylum seekers, most from Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan, and this year it expects up to 300,000 more to arrive, the Federal Office for Migrants and Refugees (BAMF) said on Sunday. “We can ensure optimal services for up to 300,000. Should more people arrive, it would put us under pressure, then we would go into so-called crisis mode. But even then we would not have conditions like last year,” BAMF chief Frank-Juergen Weise told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper Merkel’s decision last September to open the doors to asylum seekers was seen in many European nations, notably those in the east, as an invitation for further mass migration. Some, like the Slovak leader, voiced fears of the emergence of a significant Muslim community in their countries. On Tuesday, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said he does not want a “large Muslim community... given the problems we are seeing” and that each EU member should be able to choose how many migrants to accept. German public sentiment is sharply divided when it comes to Merkel, who has not yet said whether she will stand for a fourth term in a general election expected in September or October next year. Decline in popularity Merkel’s domestic popularity has declined, a poll showed on Sunday, with 50 per cent of Germans against her serving a fourth term in office after a federal election next year. Support for Merkel has weakened after a string of violent attacks on civilians in July, three of which were carried out by asylum seekers. Of those, two were claimed by ISIS. This has raised opposition to Merkel’s open-door migrant policy. Half of the 501 people questioned in the Emnid poll for the Bild am Sonntag newspaper were against Merkel staying in office beyond the 2017 election, with 42 per cent wanting her to remain. Last Update: Monday, 29 August 2016 KSA 00:10 - GMT 21:10
Uh…holy Brita! Researchers from the Institute of Hygiene and Applied Immunology at the Medical University of Vienna studied a number of Austrian holy water springs and concluded that 86% of holy water contained fecal matter contaminated either the E Coli bacteria or Campylobacter, which causes explosive diarrhea. In addition, the study found that many of Vienna’s fonts contained so much bacteria that they could not be considered safe outlets for drinking. According to the researchers, busier churches had higher levels of bacteria. Dr. Alexander Kirschner of the Medical University of Vienna said holy water’s reputation for purity came from the Middle Ages, when local water sources were all contaminated. “In those days, the quality of the water in towns and cities was generally so poor that people were constantly developing diarrhoea or other diseases as a result,” Kirschner said. “If they then came across a protected spring in the forest that was not as polluted and drank from it for several days, their symptoms would disappear. So although in those days they were drinking healthier water, given the excellent quality of our drinking water today, the situation is now completely reversed.” [h/t DailyMail] [Image via screengrab] —— >> Follow Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry) on Twitter Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com
Die! Sitter! Die! : Rupert is the must see horror short film that you unfortunately won’t be able to see at this time. It will not be released as a short film, due to it being part of a planned anthology from the directing team of Sam and Lee Boxleitner. They are currently in talks with different studios and production companies about making the feature and hope to have it ready by Halloween 2017. This is an impressively gross and messed up dark comedy that boasts an excellent score, locations, cast, and some great moments of gore. Without spoiling anything, the story is basically a babysitting job that goes bad and gets super weird. The dialogue is terrific and the situations are a nice mixture of being comedic, violent, and creepy. The movie is crafted well and contains good camera movement, placement, and flow. The amazing looking house and its interior settings add extra production value and act as almost another actor in the picture. The score from Sam Boxleitner is outstanding and has a 1980’s Nightmare on Elm Street synth vibe to it, while mixing sounds that you would expect to hear from baby music. There are three principal actors that appear in this and they each do a wonderful job, especially co-director Lee Boxleitner. He absolutely kills it in his role. The situations are strange and unusual and that also leads to some glorious gore sequences and violence within the 25 minute production. This is superbly entertaining and I cannot wait to see what else the duo has in store for audiences when the anthology eventually comes out. While you can’t see the full short film, you can watch the trailer and continue to follow them on Facebook for future updates.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Hue Jackson is calling upon his old Raiders offensive coordinator Al Saunders to help him run the offense in Cleveland. Jackson interviewed Saunders last week and is expected to come on board soon, a league source told cleveland.com. One of the most respected minds in offensive football, Saunders, 68, served as Jackson's coordinator when he was head coach of the Raiders in 2011. Together, they coaxed 6,072 yards out of the offense -- second most in club history. They also produced 84 explosive plays of 20 yards or more for second in the NFL, and finished first in two-minute scoring offense. Jackson and Saunders, the former head coach of the Chargers from 1986-88, also worked together in Baltimore, coaching second-year quarterback Joe Flacco to his second playoff berth in 2009. CBS Sports' Jason LaCanfora first reported the Browns' interest in Saunders. In Oakland in 2011, Saunders had former Browns quarterback Jason Campbell playing some of the best ball of his career before breaking his collarbone against the Browns. Campbell was 4-2 at the time of the injury, and Saunders was convinced he was a playoff-caliber passer. "I've always felt Jason has the ability to be one of the premier quarterbacks in the National Football League,'' Saunders told cleveland.com in 2013. "I've worked with (Hall of Famer) Joe Montana and Kurt Warner and some of truly great ones in the National Football League, and there's only a few guys like that. But Jason has the skills and the personality -- and with the system that he's in right now -- to be able to perform at an elite level.'' Sanders, who came out of retirement in October to serve as interim coach Dan Campbell's senior offensive assistant in Miami after Joe Philbin was fired, has a more impressive resume than almost anyone in football. Related: Ray Horton interviewed for defensive coordinator Tuesday He took over for late Hall of Fame finalist Don "Air'' Coryell as head coach of the Chargers in 1986 and served as full-time head coach there in 1987-88. He also worked under Dick Vermeil in St. Louis, where he was part of the "Greatest Show on Turf'' Super Bowl champions. As associate head coach/receivers, Saunders helped the Rams set NFL records in 2000 in yards (7,075), passing yards (5,232) and points (540). Saunders, who's been a coordinator for the Chiefs, Redskins, Rams and Raiders, has been a part of 15 playoff teams, five division titles and one Super Bowl championship. On 20 occasions, his offensive units have ranked first in the NFL in either total offense, passing, rushing or scoring. If all goes as planned, Saunders will come to Cleveland and help his friend get the Browns' offense rolling. Jackson also interviewed Titans defensive coordinator Ray Horton in Cleveland on Tuesday and hopes to lure him away from the Titans, a league source told cleveland.com. Jackson will also nterview Vikings running backs coach Kirby Wilson to be his running game coordinator this week, likely on Wednesday, a source told cleveland.com. His Vikings contract expired on Tuesday. Jackson talked to former Lions coach Jim Schwartz last week about being his defensive coordinator, but Schwartz was hired by the Eagles Tuesday for that role.
HTC has removed the HDR microphone from HTC One's specs sheet, promo pages and local official websites. This is a result of the legal battle between Nokia and the supplier - ST Microelectronics. In case you've missed the news, HTC's flagship smartphone - the HTC One unwillingly got itself into trouble because of its HDR microphone. Nokia tried to issue a ban over the smartphone's sales in the Netherlands, but failed to do so (the preliminary ban was lifted just a day after the granted injunction). Anyway, HTC is working on a microphone of its own and the HDR microphone branding is no longer to be seen anywhere in the smartphone marketing materials. Of course, existing smartphones are safe and HTC claims it will continue to integrate the STM HDR microphone until the available supplies of those in its warehouses last. Here is the official HTC statement on the matter: Nokia has NOT obtained an injunction in the Netherlands, or anywhere else, against the HTC One. The Dutch proceedings were brought by Nokia solely against STM. HTC was not sued by Nokia in the Netherlands. The Dutch injunction prohibits STM from selling certain microphones to any company other than Nokia for a limited period. The judgment against STM states that HTC can continue to use microphones already purchased from STM in its products, because they were purchased in good-faith. Nokia's attempt to obtain a recall of microphones already sold to HTC failed. HTC will transition to improved microphone designs once its inventory of STM microphones is exhausted. So, HTC One is out of the woods and it's up to Nokia and STM to resolve their issues. Source
On yesterday’s edition of the 700 Club, Pat “You Can Get AIDS From a Towel” Robertson told a caller that she should not act as “an enabler” for her son, who had recently come out as gay and an atheist, but should instead love him the same way you would a “drug addict” in order to bring him back to, per the caller’s wishes “the path of Christ.” Said Robertson: You cannot go along and say “I agree with your lifestyle,” and so don’t be an enabler — any more than if he’s a drug addict; you don’t enable people to continue their drug habit. But you let him know you love him. Let him know God loves him….You don’t’ want to shun him. You want to have love, but you’ve got to let him know that you don’t approve of the things that he’s doing. Here’s the video, via Right Wing Watch: While Robertson’s comparison is patently offensive, should we really be that surprised? The Christian Right has spent years promoting a family-friendly “love the sinner; hate the sin” message, ever since they realized that calling for real hatred of gays isn’t in vogue anymore (at least not in America). And if you believe that homosexuality is a choice, something that you can choose not to feel or act on, then it’s easier to forgive “bad behavior” in hopes that it will eventually be corrected. This has sparked a burgeoning ex-gay rehab business that states are slowly but surely banning for children, as such programs amount to child abuse. In other words, the Christian Right has convinced itself that being gay is just another vice. Your son being gay isn’t all that different from your brother being an alcoholic. One might leave you worse off on Judgment Day, but both are nothing more than addictive habit that can be confronted and, with time and prayer, cured. Just don’t tell that to the adults who actually attend ex-gay rehab, which one straight journalist described as “literally the gayest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”
“We’re very descriptive… I’m always informing my patients of what I’m going to do, letting them know, ‘This is what’s going to happen, this is where I’m placing my hand,’” says Collins. Alonso adds, “We don’t push anyone to go beyond where they’re comfortable going. We have all our models, we describe everything, we try to inform people as much as possible…I’ve rehabbed postpartum moms without doing any internal work because some people felt uncomfortable with it, and that’s fine. There’s a lot of different ways we can start to access the pelvic floor or work the structures around the pelvic floor.” “And another thing that’s specific to the internal work is that there’s never going to be something we do to a patient that we haven't had done on ourselves. We’ve felt everything that we do,” says Schoonover. You may have heard about pelvic PT recently, especially how it’s standard postpartum care in France (yet another way that country supports mothers better than America). French OBGYNs prescribe postpartum women 10-20 sessions of pelvic physical rehab, and it’s covered as part of the country’s government health care plan. In America, pelvic physical therapy is still relatively new and it's typically an out of network service. Many moms and OBGYNs either don’t know this help exists or the extent to which it can help. Alonso, who has been working in this field for over decade, says she used to get European patients who had to fight with their U.S. doctors to get a prescription to see her. It’s not as difficult to get a prescription or recommendation anymore, but patients still need to ask.
A public sector union is taking the province to court to argue Ontario deliberately introduced a “flawed” welfare computer system that put the lives of vulnerable people at risk. The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) filed an application Tuesday for an injunction with the Ontario Superior Court, urging it to order that the problem-plagued Social Assistance Management System (SAMS) “cease to be used . . . until the system can provide reliable, timely, accurate benefits to the recipients” of welfare and Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) payments. Warren Thomas, president of OPSEU, said Wednesday that a new computer system for welfare payments "has introduced chaos into the ODSP and OW (Ontario Works) program.” ( Richard J. Brennan / Toronto Star ) And that means going back to the older computer system, said the union. “SAMS has introduced chaos into the ODSP and OW (Ontario Works) program,” OPSEU president Warren “Smokey” Thomas told reporters at Queen’s Park Wednesday. Meanwhile, CUPE Ontario, which represents about 2,500 municipal social service workers, is also calling for the province to pull the plug on SAMS and revert to the prior computer system until “serious structural problems’’ with SAMS are resolved. Article Continued Below Technical problems with the new $240-million computer system caused havoc late last month when numerous welfare recipients received no money or as little as $5, while another 17,000 individuals and families were initially assigned $20 million in overpayments by SAMS. The province says it acted quickly to stop most of that money from going out, and is moving to recoup what it says are about 90 remaining overpayments. But both CUPE and OPSEU say the underpayments and overpayment problems are far worse than the government claims. CUPE held a conference call with 500 of its members Tuesday night, many of them frontline Ontario Works case workers who complained about the continuing problems with SAMS. For example, with the system in place before SAMS, in order to change a client’s address there was one field on the screen where the caseworker filled in that information, explained CUPE Ontario president Fred Hahn. “With this new system you have to visit five separate screens, and there are 40 different clicks or entries that you have to make as a worker to change somebody’s address,’’ Hahn added. On the province’s claim there are 90 remaining overpayments, Hahn said that based on his discussions with his members the real number has to be “multiples of that.’’ Article Continued Below “There’s no way it’s just 90’’ Hahn said. “To date it is estimated that more than 36,000 Ontario families have been paid incorrect sums due to technical problems with the SAMS software,” Thomas said. Initially calling it a glitch, Premier Kathleen Wynne eventually apologized in the legislature for the technical mess. Thomas said the union “seeks a declaration that by knowingly implementing the flawed SAMS system, the Ministry of Community and Social Services violated the equality rights of social assistance recipients provided for under Section 15 of the Charter.” Thomas said in the meantime his members are “scrambling” to see that social assistance recipients “are not forced to go without” this Christmas. Community and Social Services Minister Helena Jaczek said the upcoming payments “remain on schedule.” “December’s payments for the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and Ontario Works remain on schedule. Additional oversight and validation steps have been taken, including early testing and review of the pay-run data to ensure payments remain on track,” Jaczek said in an email statement. The minister said she knows there have been problems. “I understand that this has been a challenging experience for our front-line case workers and I want to continue to thank them for their ongoing efforts and patience. We share their dedication to helping their clients, and I know that they have been working hard so clients continue to be well served through the SAMS implementation process,” she said. Jaczek noted her ministry has initiated the following measures to assist staff and municipal delivery partners: A payment hotline, which Ontario Workers (welfare) staff can call to receive support for any specific functional issues they may be encountering. An email address for access and login problems. Job aids and troubleshooting guides. Twice-daily communications updates. Direct technical assistance help lines for ODSP staff. The Liberal government and OPSEU are currently in contract negotiations, but Thomas said his union would have gone to court regardless. With files from Donovan Vincent
After a seven-day stretch in which no homicides were recorded in New York City, five occurred in 10 hours on Friday and Saturday, and another person was killed on Sunday morning. Four killings occurred in the Bronx, and two in Brooklyn. As of Sunday morning, no arrests had been made. Despite the six homicides, the number of killings this year is down over 25 percent compared with 2012. And last year, the city recorded its lowest annual homicide total, 419, in at least half a century. The first killing occurred at 6 p.m. on Friday in the South Bronx. Two friends were standing in front of 680 Tinton Avenue near the John Adams Houses when a gunman opened fire, the police said. Tyrek Singleton, 28, of the Bronx was shot in the torso and pronounced dead at Lincoln Medical Center.
(CNN) When retiree Stephen Paddock checked into his 32nd-floor suite at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino last Thursday, nothing appeared unusual. Paddock had booked room 32135, described by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Joseph Lombardo as one large suite with uninterrupted views of the Las Vegas Strip. The former accountant would've had a clear view of the Route 91 Harvest festival, a three-day country music event taking place in an open-air, ground-level venue across the Strip, some 400 yards away from his hotel. On Sunday night, as the crowd of about 22,000 people listened to headliner Jason Aldean below, Paddock smashed two windows of his suite -- one in the front and one on the corner -- and fired into the crowd, ultimately killing 58 and injuring hundreds of others. The attack was the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history The latest revelation came Tuesday afternoon when police said Paddock set up cameras inside his hotel suite and in the hallway. Police are not aware whether the devices were transmitting -- the FBI is investigating their use -- but Lombardo told reporters he thinks the shooter might have used them to watch for people approaching his room. The hotel suite Housekeepers said they "saw no signs of anything" suspicious in the two-room suite, Nevada Rep. Dina Titus told CNN. Paddock had 23 guns inside the suite, as well as hammers, Assistant Sheriff Todd Fasulo said. The arsenal "was pretty well hidden," Titus said. Photos published by the Daily Mail of the United Kingdom show a body purportedly inside Stephen Paddock's Las Vegas hotel room at the Mandalay Bay. The gunman had brought "in excess of 10" suitcases to his room over several days, Lombardo told reporters Monday. Authorities believe Paddock brought the weapons into the hotel by himself, but they did not provide specifics. Police tape lines the doors of the room where gunman Stephen Paddock opened fire during a concert. Room 32135, the suite from which Paddock fired, has striking, unobstructed views of the Las Vegas Strip, according to videos from two guests who stayed in the room last year. Windows that nearly stretch to the ceiling wrap around the room. There is a separate bedroom and a living room, which has a bar. Photos published by the UK's Daily Mail showed a body purportedly inside Paddock's hotel room, along with semiautomatic rifles, including one with a scope and a barrel support mount. A stack of magazines and shell casings were seen near the guns. So was a hammer. Police tape covers the room's double doors, one of which appears to have been broken down, video of inside the room showed. Long guns, a hammer and a stack of ammunition magazines for rifles are seen in a photo published by the Daily Mail in the United Kingdom. The raid As the first shots rang out Sunday, first responders realized that the gunfire was raining down on the crowd from a vantage point up high. "It's coming out a window," a first responder shouts on dispatch audio obtained by CNN. Attention soon focused on the Mandalay Bay hotel, several floors up and several hundred feet away. CNN law enforcement analyst Art Roddick said he was struck by the planning that went into the attack. "Firing from an elevated position is always what you want to do, so I would not be surprised if we have some video of him actually standing in that venue looking up at Mandalay Bay and trying to figure out which room is going to give him the best advantage. "You can see those windows are knocked out, one in the front and one in the corner, which gave him two different angles to shoot from and that's all part of this planning," Roddick said. The presence of other hotel guests in the rooms surrounding Paddock's meant that police couldn't return fire from the ground, he explained. JUST WATCHED Officers hear gunfire approaching killer's room Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Officers hear gunfire approaching killer's room 03:21 Police entered the hotel to begin working their way to the shooter's sniper nest. "A team of six officers that approached security, they went up the elevators after discussing the situation with the security and obtaining intelligence," Lombardo said. "And they checked each floor by floor until they located where they believe to be the room," the sheriff said. High up on the hotel's residential floors, a first responder radioed in: "I'm inside the Mandalay Bay on the 31st floor, I can hear automatic fire coming from one floor ahead... one floor above us." "Subsequently they approached the room, received gunfire, they backed off and SWAT responded," Lombardo said. Undersheriff Kevin McMahill said once the first responders had "isolated this individual to the two rooms, our SWAT team used the explosive breaching to go in and confront the individual." JUST WATCHED Shooter's angle prevented people from escaping Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Shooter's angle prevented people from escaping 02:06 A SWAT officer is heard on police radio: "We need to pop this (door) and see if we get any type of response from this guy. See if he's in here or if he's actually moved somewhere else." Once inside the room, police found the shooter dead, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot. Lombardo said police believe Paddock "killed himself prior to our entry." The attack was a threat police could not have prepared for, McMahill said. "These folks were attacked by a man from 32 stories up with automatic rifle fire and so I don't really know how you plan for that. We just didn't see it coming." This article has been updated to reflect a change in the victim death toll.
If you are curious about how racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric, and organizations dedicated to propagating the same are able to slip into the mainstream, do yourself a favor and listen to NPR’s Wednesday morning interview with Breitbart senior-editor-at-large Joel Pollak. NPR apparently felt the need to invite on a Breitbart mouthpiece to put in a good word for Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s newly announced senior policy adviser. Bannon previously led Breitbart, a publication beloved by the so-called alt-right, a loose coalition of white nationalists, “identitarians,” neo-Nazis, anti-Semites, racists, and misogynists who were ecstatic over Bannon’s appointment. Pollak’s segment was a master class in obfuscation and a primer on how to flip the script and turn totally justified accusations of bigotry, misogyny and anti-Semitism into “reverse racism.” “Let’s hear a defense of Steve Bannon,” NPR host Steve Inskeep began, offering a view of exactly what direction this interview would take. Pollak started by launching into a gushing assessment of Bannon, calling him “a national hero,” and talking about how it’s so great we’ll have someone “so calm under pressure in the White House.” (Maybe this is true, though it contradicts accusations against Bannon of domestic abuse, sexual harassment and being a “verbally abus[ive]” “bully” “who is prone to a lot of tirades” by former staffers.) When Inskeep interjected to ask about Bannon’s tireless work to turn Breitbart into the alt-right outlet of choice, Pollak attempted to distance the site from the movement it has nurtured on a steady diet of xenophobia, racism, sexism and anti-Semitism. “The only alt-right content we have is a single article out of tens of thousands of articles, which is a journalistic article about the alt-right by Milo Yiannopoulos, and Allum Bokhari, which basically went into this movement, and tried to figure out what it was all about,” Pollak said. “That’s not racist; that’s journalism.” And just like that, Bannon’s site was suddenly unaffiliated with the alt-right movement—though Bannon himself boasted in August that Breitbart is the “platform of the alt-right.” Inskeep didn’t push Pollak on this point, though Bannon’s own words suggest that he either disagreed with his spokesperson or fabricated the link in order to be seen as the voice of the alt-right. Either way, aren’t both of these things problematic—tthat Bannon is either with the racists or wants to be? Isn’t it worth questioning why Bannon would seek to tie his publication to a movement whose founders have been unequivocal in their racism and anti-Semitism? (Prominent white supremacist Jared Taylor has said that while there are “areas of disagreement” among alt-righties, “the central element of the alt-right is the position it takes on race.” Richard Spencer, who coined the term alt-right, has talked about the “Jewish question,” called for forced sterilization of racial minorities and advanced the idea of “peaceful ethnic cleansing.”) What does this tell us about the morals of both Bannon and Breitbart? How scary is it that this man is advising a volatile, inexperienced president-elect who found out only two days ago what a president does? We won’t know, at least not from this interview, because Pollak’s response went basically unchallenged. Inskeep followed up by asking Pollak about a Breitbart article headlined, “Hoist it High and Proud,” published just two weeks after the Charleston massacre of nine black churchgoers, which is a very tactful, classy move. The piece encouraged its alt-right readers to proudly wave the Confederate flag (as Dylann Roof is seen doing in countless photos). It included this passage: “While your supporters are trashing the monuments and reputations of the forefathers of so many Americans, Barack, you might just want to remind us again which state of the Union, north or south, your ancestors resided in during the traumatic years 1861-1865? Or did Kenya not have a dog in that fight? The Confederacy was not a callous conspiracy to enforce slavery, but a patriotic and idealistic cause for which 490,000 men were killed, wounded or taken captive.” Pollak defended all this as part of a debate about the Confederate flag and history and heritage, which is fine if you think we should fly the flags of slaveholders and traitors to the United States, while going on and on about nationalism. I’ll give him that’s an arguable point; racists certainly argue it all the time. Inskeep gave a passive rebuttal to the piece, noting that “Alexander Stevens, the vice president of the Confederacy, declared the cause was slavery.” Here’s when Pollak seized on the opportunity to pull out the most overused tool in the racist and racist-apologist’s arsenal: the reverse-racism card. “NPR is taxpayer-funded, and has an entire section of its programming, a regular feature, called Code Switch, which from my perspective is a racist program,” Pollak said, continuing: “I’m looking here at the latest article, which aired on NPR, calling the election results ‘nostalgia for a whiter America.’ So NPR has racial and racist programming that I am required to pay for as a taxpayer. So, you know, you can read Breitbart, you can read something else—I don’t think that’s racist, to talk about the history of the Confederate flag. There are people who disagree with that, as a symbol, but you’re picking on one opinion article. Breitbart is a 24-hour news website that provides coverage from within a conservative worldview.” For starters, Trump ran on promises to get rid of Muslims and lawless Mexicans, tweeted erroneous facts about black criminality (just one of his many retweets from white nationalists) and built a coalition among people who, studies show, had negative views of blacks and Muslims. The tagline for Trump’s campaign was “Make America Great Again.” America has been getting browner, but Trump’s folks voted for a previous America that was whiter and thus, in their estimation, “better.” There’s little Inskeep could have done here, since I get that there’s zero chance of winning an argument with a racist who is paid to deny racism, but there you go. I could get into all the ways that Code Switch, which is dedicated to discussions of “race and identity,” isn’t racist. Talking about issues of race isn’t racism, but people like Pollak use this argument when it benefits them and trash it when it doesn’t. Never mind how badly he contradicted himself while absolving Bannon of any responsibility for the actual racist content that ran on his site, but pulled out an article from Code Switch and held it up as an affront to the taxpaying populace, who he probably imagines are all white. In the topsy-turvy world of Breitbart and racist denial in general, there is no racism — not in headlines bemoaning diversity, or Bannon’s on-the-record complaints about there being too many Asian tech CEOs — except on websitese dedicated to issues facing people of color. Bannon has spent four years ensuring that Breitbart contains all the red meat the alt-right can feast on, from an entire section tagged “black crime” to frequent contributions from Jason Richwine, whom the Daily Beast notes “resigned from the conservative Heritage Foundation when news broke that his Harvard dissertation argued in part that Hispanics have lower IQs than non-Hispanic whites.” That, Pollak should be told, is actual racism. Textbook. But I really want to get to this, the moment just after Inskeep pointed to a 2011 quote from Bannon in which he labeled feminists “a bunch of dykes that came from the Seven Sisters schools.” In response, Pollak went into a whole spiel about Bannon’s hiring of gay writer Milo Yiannopoulos—the same Yiannopoulos he referred to earlier as the author of “the only alt-right content” on Breitbart, while failing to note that Yiannopoulos is a celebrated champion of the alt-right. (Yiannopoulos previously called Richard Spencer “dangerously bright” and was kicked off Twitter for racially terrorizing Leslie Jones, which only upped his alt-right standing.) But here’s the nugget from Pollak: “There is a political correctness in this country that would say that if you said that once [called feminists “dykes”] on a radio show that you should be drummed out of public life. I would defy you to find a person in the LGBTQ community who has not used that term, either in an endearing sense or in a flippant, jovial, colloquial sense. I don’t think you can judge Steve Bannon’s views.” This is rife with the same lame things white racists love to repeat. They fault “political correctness” for every despicable view they hold, pretending that not being able to utter racist and xenophobic rants makes them victims; oppressed martyrs marching for free speech and the ability to publicly call black people the names their daddies did. It’s maybe the biggest lie ever told, not least of all because it isn’t even true: Breitbart’s entire catalog of articles is proof. Racists still say whatever they want, and they are currently shouting it out loud, in ways both verbally and physically violent. They aren’t opposed to political correctness, they’re opposed to the consequences of being vile. And they’re feeling pretty good right now, because two of the worst examples of their ilk are now in the highest echelons of government. At the very least, Inskeep could have pointed out that political correctness hasn’t seemed to hinder Bannon at all, that this is a man who now will skulk the halls of the White House and have the president-elect’s ear. As long as media keep letting these people create an alternate reality where they aren’t challenged, where it is okay to rant about “dykes,” where it’s no biggie to tailor a publishing empire to avowed racists, where false equivalencies convert discussions of racism into manufactured reverse racism, we’ll stay here. Pollak, who says he’s an Orthodox Jew according to Jezebel (and therefore a perfect spokesperson to trot out at times like this), is on a press jaunt that will likely last for a while, so we;ll probably see lots more of this. For the record, here’s how the conversation ended: INSKEEP: I want to invite a yes/no question, because we’ve just got a few seconds here. This is a question that’s just on a lot of people’s minds. Is Steve Bannon—and by extension, Donald Trump—winking at racists? Not quite embracing their views, but trying to get their support and their votes? Yes or no? POLLAK: Absolutely not. INSKEEP: Not at all? POLLAK: Not at all. INSKEEP: OK. Joel Pollak, thank you very much, really appreciate the time. No, thank you, NPR, for giving this guy a chance to come on and defend hate as no big deal, and for contributing to the ongoing effort to normalize all this stuff. I’m sure it’s very appreciated by the 300 people—and counting!—who’ve been attacked, harassed and harmed by those inspired by Bannon and Trump.
Please enable Javascript to watch this video ST. LOUIS (KTVI) – Sunday afternoon the St. Louis police departments’ bomb and arson squad was summoned to Willmore Park off Hampton in South St. Louis. The department told Fox 2 that a closed metal fryer was found in the park next to a fence away from the public. Officers arriving on the scene cordoned off a large portion of the park. One park goer told Fox 2 that an officer ask her and her family to move away from the area as the police worked to determined what was in the fryer. The bomb squad eventually decided to neutralize the fryer by blowing up the fryer. The contents and metal fragments were taken away for further study. Just before 7 pm the all clear was given and the park was returned to normal use.
Anthony Novak momentarily celebrates his August 11, 2016 jury acquittal after his criminal trial for mocking Parma police on Facebook. That was before reality set in: he realized that he could still be subjected to retaliation were he to continue his free-speech activities. (Photo credit: Michelle Novak; used with permission.) CLEVELAND, OHIO - Today, Anthony Novak, a city of Parma resident, filed a federal civil-rights complaint [UPDATED OCT. 18, 2017: First Amended Complaint] alleging that Parma, two of its police officers ― Kevin Riley and Thomas Connor, and an as-yet-unidentified law-enforcement agent at the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force violated Mr. Novak's First Amendment right to criticize the police. The complaint alleges that in March 2016, the Parma defendants deployed the City's Police Department's full resources―including irrelevant child-pornography investigative specialists, tools, contacts, and techniques―to punish Mr. Novak for criticizing the Department's officer qualifications, insensitivity to racial injustice, and other issues of public concern. In addition to parody posts announcing that the police passed a law to starve the homeless out of Parma, and would be conducting free experimental abortions in police vans, the spoof account criticized the Parma officers' intelligence ("We No Crime"), qualifications (disdaining civil rights), racial sensitivity (ignoring an armed white robber to hunt an African-American loiterer), and raised other issues of public concern. According to the complaint, when Parma police officers learned about the account, they stopped what they were doing and moved swiftly to punish Mr. Novak for mocking them. The officers sent letters to Facebook and news outlets threatening Novak, and launched a criminal probe, even though, the complaint alleges, they would have known that his speech was not a crime. The complaint further alleges that even after seizing all of Mr. Novak's computers, video game consoles, and cellphones―some of which Parma has still not returned to him a year-and-a-half later―they had no evidence of a crime. They arrested Mr. Novak and nevertheless arranged for him to be criminally charged. But in August 2016, a jury acquitted Mr. Novak after a short criminal trial―even though the prosecutors asked that the jury not be instructed on Mr. Novak's First Amendment rights. "Police officers are supposed to protect our rights, not violate them," said Subodh Chandra, one of Mr. Novak's attorneys. "As Americans, we have the right to criticize government officials―including police officers―even if those criticisms are insulting or petty, without fearing criminal prosecution. Parma's retaliation against Mr. Novak for his speech is expected in banana republics, not America. Parma apparently failed to train its officers to respect fundamental constitutional freedoms." Mr. Novak's claims against Parma, its police officers, and an as-yet-unidentified law-enforcement official include numerous alleged violations of the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, as well as federal and state-law claims for privacy violations, malicious prosecution, false reports, perjury, falsification, obstruction of justice, and other claims. The complaint alleges that Mr. Novak's speech continues to be chilled as he fears renewed retaliation were he to continue his parody Facebook page about Parma police. He thus seeks an injunction against Parma to protect his future speech. The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, and captioned, Novak v. City of Parma, et al., Case No. 1:17-cv-02148. It is assigned to Judge Dan Aaron Polster. Subodh Chandra, Ashlie Case Sletvold, Patrick Kabat, and Marvin C. Brown IV of The Chandra Law Firm LLC represent Mr. Novak. The federal civil-rights complaint [UPDATED: First Amended Complaint filed on October 18, 2017) can be found here, while the exhibit to the [First Amended] Complaint, which is the complete transcript of the August 2016 criminal trial that Mr. Novak endured before the jury acquitted him, can be found here.
Stratis, a powerful and flexible Blockchain development platform, has announced the Breeze Wallet which is said to redefine transactional privacy in the Bitcoin space and introduce new privacy features. Chris Trew, founder and CEO at Stratis, chatted with Cointelegraph about the project explaining what makes it so innovative. According to Trew, privacy protection is a huge issue in the cryptocurrency space: “The security and the integrity of the system is backed by cryptography, much in the same way that Bitcoin is. The Breeze Wallet will offer its users a level of privacy not available in any existing Bitcoin wallet. It provides an end-to-end privacy solution for Bitcoin and Stratis users, that works with today’s Bitcoin protocol and does not require any forks.” Moving privacy protection to the next level Breeze Wallet is indeed a quite ambitious Blockchain project. It is a result of several years of development on various components and features that aim to build a cryptocurrency wallet moving privacy protection to a whole new level, and not only when it comes to making transactions but also when connecting to the network and downloading Blockchain data. Breeze Wallet combines the innovative TumbleBit solution and privacy enhancements introduced by the Full Block Secure Payment Validation System. Stratis aims to offer a truly trustless and decentralized privacy protocol on the Stratis Blockchain and its private chains while working with financial services regulators to ensure full compliance. Why TumbleBit? Trew explained that the TumbleBit solution is indeed the perfect fit for Breeze Wallet. Here’s why. First of all, TumbleBit transactions are truly private and unlinkable, meaning that no participants, including the tumbler, can steal coins. Moreover, no one, including the tumbler, can deanonymize user transactions. TumbleBit addresses the Bitcoin privacy issue by utilizing off-chain transactions, which cannot be linked by any participant or the Tumble itself. These off-chain transactions do not require any changes to the Bitcoin protocol. Besides, TumbleBit allows thousands of users to set up payment channels with the same intermediary. Allowing all participants to send Bitcoins to one another through an intermediary. These payment channels between the intermediary and all participants are replaced by sophisticated cryptographic puzzles. Trew explains: “If User A can provide the solution to the puzzles, he can claim a Bitcoin. The trick with TumbleBit is that User B buys the answers to these puzzles from the intermediary for a Bitcoin. User A then sends the answer to User B as payment, which User B will accept as one Bitcoin can be claimed. Most importantly, this process is completed utilizing several layers of cryptography. This ensures that the intermediary does not know which solution he sold to which User A, nor do the User A know which puzzle solution they gave to User B. As such, once the users claim their Bitcoins, the intermediary sees that puzzles are solved. But due to the anonymity in numbers, the intermediary cannot link any of the participants to each other.” Disrupting Bitcoin space TumbleBit is compatible with the Bitcoin protocol, which makes it the only viable choice for this particular purpose. The Stratis team is hopeful that the deployment of TumbleBit will bring additional benefits for building Bitcoin-to-Stratis exchange protocol making Stratis available to millions of BTC users globally. Besides, TumbleBit provides significant benefits when it comes to addressing scaling issues, however, the Stratis team preferred not to reveal any details on that matter at this time. Adam Ficsor, one of the contributors to the TumbleBit research paper and the official implementation of TumbleBit NTumbleBit, is assisting in the development of full block SPV wallet in C#. Ficsor commented: “Everyone who is not using Bitcoin Core has already had all their addresses linked together by third parties. This is not a theoretical "assume the worst case" strategy, this is a reality. The third parties are either the central servers your wallet relies on or in the case of SPV wallets, all Blockchain surveillance companies. Bitcoin Core retrieves all the information the Bitcoin network has, thus defeating network analysis attacks. Of course, running Bitcoin Core is not a walk in the park, a full-block downloading SPV wallet would be a much lighter solution. This is why Bitcoin Core has it in the pipeline and why we are also developing one. Even if you are not interested in using TumbleBit, but you care about your privacy, you should consider changing wallets." Nicolas Dorier, the developer of NTumbleBit, the official implementation of the TumbleBit protocol, is among the project contributors. Stratis has recently expanded a team of developers to work on this project and to accelerate its development. The first release of the Breeze Wallet is expected within two months. Once again, Breeze Wallet is an ambitious project but is believed to revolutionize the Bitcoin space and certainly increase the competition on the market of Bitcoin wallets. When released, it will become the first wallet which addresses privacy issues without the need for soft or hard forks.
Over the past two years, I have been discovering the joys of gardening, the importance of growing my own food and adjusting to the significant changes this has had on my life. Not only that though, gardening has broadened my horizons, opened my eyes to a whole world of environmental interests that I’d never gave a second thought to in the past. It’s no longer just about having a bit of fun going out in my wellies, weeding and watering (though that does continue to be the my favourite thing to do in the world). I have become hugely interested in our environment, in climate change, our agricultural heritage, our wildlife and countryside and in particular, our future. Our very precarious future. I’m a firm believer that this planet of ours is headed for an absolutely huge food crisis if we don’t soon get our act together. I’ve come to realise the absolute necessity for me to do my bit, however small that may be, in order to make a modicum of a difference, and perhaps help alleviate my guilt at the complete disregard for this planet we live on up until this point in my life. With this in mind, I have become keenly aware of the danger our very delicate ecosystems are in. Rapid environmental changes and diminishing biodiversity are leading to mass extinctions species the world over. Biodiversity, as it is defined, is the degree of variety of life. This usually refers to the diversity of species, ecosystems and genetics in any given region. In terms of growing food, genetic diversity is vital. A lack of diversity in crop varieties causes serious problems. The perfect example of this is the Famine in Ireland in the 19th century, this famine was a direct result of only planting two varieties of potato, both of which were highly suupespitible to the blight which essentially destroyed the whole island’s potato crop. I’ve begun to do some reading and research on environmental and conservational organisations in Ireland in order to develop a further understanding of the challenges facing us, and perhaps get myself involved in order to contribute in some way towards a sustainable future. About six months ago, I discovered The Irish Seed Savers Association , based in Scariff, Co. Clare. Their main goals, as stated on their website are “……the conservation of Ireland’s very special and threatened plant genetic resources. Our work focuses on the preservation of heritage varieties form all over the world that are suitable for Ireland’s unique growing conditions.” The Irish Seed Savers Association was set up in 1991 by Anita Hayes, initially based in co Carlow, they moved to Scariff, Co. Clare in 1996. In this time, their work in the conservation of seeds and heritage varieties of vegetables and fruit had been significant. They have established a seed bank of over 600 vegetable varieties (which is of course, of serious interest to me). They have a special interest in apple trees, and have an orchard on site where they have established the Native Irish Apple Collection, with 140 unique varieties of apple tree. They’ve also established the Native Irish Grains collection which contains 48 different varieties of grain. The importance of their work in the conservation of our botanical heritage is undeniable. Once a species is extinct, it is gone forever. The more people making an effort to prevent or delay this possibility, the better. I have recently discovered that the Irish Seed Savers Association is under threat of closure due to a lack of funding. They have put out an appeal to the public to help raise much needed money to keep their work going. The have set up an Indiegogo campaign in the hopes of raising €100,000, but unfortunately to this date they have only been able to raise €10,000. You can help by becoming a supporter, when you sign up, you will receive five packs of organic vegetable seed, three varieties of organic seed potatoes, twice yearly magazines, a 10% discount on workshshops and free admission to their 8 hectare site in Scariff, complete with orchard, gardens, a café and a shop. The charity also provide many workshops and classes on site which look super. It looks like a beautiful place to visit, I think I’ll have to take a week off and go visit Co. Clare this year. If you can support in any way, I’d urge you to do so, even if it’s only to spread the news, read about their work, tell others about it, share this article, share links to their website, they need all the help they can get to continue on with their very worthy cause. For more information on the appeal and the association itself, visit www.irishseedsavers.ie For more information on biodiversity in Ireland, visit www.biodiversityireland.com
National Defense vs Welfare Robert Frank writes, [E]quating taxation and theft was not a compelling position in the first place. A country without the power to tax couldn’t field an army and would soon be overrun by a country that had one. Its residents would then have to pay taxes to that country. Presumably, the second and third statements above are supposed to support or explain the first statement … only they don’t. “If I don’t do X, then something bad will happen; therefore, X is not a form of theft” is an invalid argument. So is “If I don’t do X, then someone else will commit a theft; therefore, X isn’t theft.” These are non sequiturs. At best, the premises might be said to show that taxation is justified even if it is theft. That is a perfectly understandable view. But that won’t do to support the rest of what Frank wants to say: namely, that a basic-income-plus-public-work scheme is ethically permissible. From the premise that taxation is justified to prevent a Russian invasion (or similar event), it does not follow that taxation is justified to implement a social welfare program. Compare this case: Jean Valjean steals a loaf of bread to feed his sister’s children. Assume that the children would otherwise have starved. It does not follow from this that he didn’t really steal the bread. At most, what follows is that the theft was justified. But one cannot now go on to infer that it would be permissible for me to steal bread for some entirely different purpose – for instance, to feed the ducks at the local pond. Stealing to feed the ducks might be justified nonetheless – but some other argument would have to be given. Similarly, stealing in order to provide social welfare might be justified, but some argument other than the appeal to national defense would need to be given.
ICE Finally Admits It Totally Screwed Up; Next Time, Perhaps It'll Try Due Process from the just-a-tip dept While the folks at Homeland Security refused to even admit that they had totally screwed up and seized a domain with 84,000 (mostly legal) websites last week, apparently someone at Homeland Security finally realized that the press wasn't going to keep accepting them refusing to answer questions about it. So, it's finally come clean and admitted they seized all of mooo.com, despite the vast majority of it being legal I would think that mooo.com's operator has an incredibly strong legal case against Homeland Security if he decides to bring it.That said, Homeland Security's statement on the matter is pretty (unintentionally) funny in that it doesn't seem to apologize for this blatant First Amendment violation, nor the lack of due process, but does say that authorities are "reviewing" what happened to avoid future mistakes. Oh really? Here's a simple suggestion:It's pretty simple, really. If, rather than just seizing domains with absolutely no notice whatsoever, Homeland Security and the kids at ICE actually had toand allow for an adversarial hearingthe domain got seized, then somewhere in the process before 84,000 voices got shut up by the US government, someone might have pointed out that most of the content on mooo.com was perfectly legal, and Homeland Security could have focused on the few users who were breaking the law. But, you know, that would involve actually, and that seems like way too much for Homeland Security these days. Filed Under: domain seizures, due process, first amendment, homeland security, ice, mistakes, mooo.com, prior restraint
FYF Fest 2017 saw the Los Angeles city festival expand even further from its roots as the small Echo Park party back in 2004. The festival moved to three days for the first time, though Friday’s music didn’t kick off until most people were out of the office for the weekend. The festival doubled down on what made it popular — multiple left-field bookings that were unique to it like Missy Elliott, Bjork, Iggy Pop, as well as few if any mainstream radio successes. FYF Fest is the festival you prefer if you grew out of Coachella once they started booking a pop-heavy lineup. But with stars like Beyonce, Janet Jackson, and even Brad Pitt showing up unexpectedly to take in this weekend’s festivities, how long can it hold onto the cool crown? We’re nearly into August and you can call it a recency bias, but FYF Fest 2017 is my favorite festival of the year and a hard one to top with the fall coming up. Now let me give a rundown of what I found to be the best and worst this year while I nurse these bruises I acquired in the moshpit during Nine Inch Nails last night. BEST: Frank Ocean not only shows up, but dazzles The third time is the charm, I guess. For me, I’ve been scheduled to see Frank Ocean perform twice in the last three years before this weekend, only for him not to ever make it to the stage. FYF Fest 2015 was harsh on Los Angeles Frank worshippers, as he pulled out the week of the festival, leaving Goldenvoice scrambling to replace him with Kanye West. He was supposed to perform at Hangout this year before cancelling due to “production delays beyond his control” and was replaced by Phoenix (he also cancelled Sasquatch). But Frank would thankfully not fool me three times. I am not well-versed on his catalog but was pretty impressed by the show overall. The attention to detail was easy to notice, and the Brad Pitt appearance was one of the most bizarre but memorable things I’ve ever witnessed at a festival. I just want to know what that conversation was like — “Hey Brad, it’s Frank. Would you mind coming to my L.A. performance and holding a phone to your ear while Spike Jonze filmes you and I sing a song? Great!” Overall, Frank set the bar high with all the anticipation and delivered, which is all you could ask for. He showed a level of fragility in the way he started a song over that you don’t often see from top-level musicians, and a reminder that these heroes of ours are human. WORST: General lack of surprise guests When you book a festival in Los Angeles, it comes with a heavy expectation that you’re going to get some unexpected drop-ins during major performances. FYF Fest has generally leaned away from what their parent festival Coachella has become known for, but why? You book Anderson Paak at the same festival A Tribe Called Quest is playing — why not bring them together for the excellent “Movin’ Backwards” from Tribe’s latest (and final) album? Both acts put on two of the better sets of the entire weekend regardless, but there was an opportunity for some hip-hop legends pass the torch off to one of the genre’s fastest-rising talents. Considering it was by their own words ATCQ’s last Los Angeles performance, it would have been a magical way to highlight it. When Brad Pitt holding a phone to his ear during a Frank Ocean performance is the most-talked about surprise guest of the weekend, it’s a slight letdown. If you were an in-the-know FYF attendee, you may have been stoked when Beach Fossils brought out Rachel Goswell from Slowdive during their set, if you were early enough on day 1 to catch it. BEST: Daily lineup breakdowns The FYF Fest brass has truly figured out how to configure the best daily schedules of any festival so as not to piss many people off. They put all of the old-head R&B and hip-hop on Saturday with some of the genre’s best of today. Rock icons Trent Reznor and Iggy Pop performed on Sunday, with youthful entrants Cherry Glazerr and Temples playing daylight sets. There also weren’t many soul-crushing conflicts. The worst for me personally was Anderson Paak vs. Slowdive — but I can’t imagine there was a ton of crossover fans between the two. For the most part people jumped from set to set with little breaks in between, further illustrating the strength of the festival’s lineup. WORST: Route leaving the festival FYF Fest has finally fixed the problem that plagued them for so many years — the speed of entry into the festival. I made it in without much waiting each day, but I went on the early side all three days. That said, even people who showed up later didn’t have complaints about how long it took to get in. Security was pretty quick and smooth. That said, leaving the festival grounds was a bitch each time. As far as I knew, there was only one way they were letting people leave each night, and you had to walk the length of the block the festival entrance runs across. It wasn’t bad walking a few blocks from there to catch a ride, but an additional exit point would have been nice. BEST: The moshpit during Nine Inch Nails I enjoy Nine Inch Nails, but I wouldn’t call myself a superfan. Growing up with older brothers, I listened to and enjoyed ’90s alt-rock like the thirty and fortysomethings that packed to the front waiting for Trent Reznor and Co. Though not overly familiar with their entire back catalog, their show with Soundgarden was my first experience ever at the Hollywood Bowl and a highly memorable one. So I decided I was gonna get as close as I could after Solange ended, and I got to 10 feet from the front. Once the band hit the stage, I realized very quickly how rough it was going to be in there. I got slammed into for 90 minutes, but it was all worth it. They put on one of the most intense rock shows I’ve ever seen, and being able to see the emotion in Trent Reznor’s face up close as he shouted, whispered, sang beautifully was a special thing. It was also cool to see so many whose best physical days were behind them endure the pain of people surfing on top of them and being run into full speed. A special bond is formed when you withstand that kind of physical abuse together, knowing full well you’re going to pay for it the next day. To the tiny woman with the elbows like razorblades who jammed them into my back for the last 20 minutes of the show Sunday night with so much angst — respect. WORST: Screen malfunctions during shows Pretty minor here as there were very few things to complain about at this year’s FYF Fest. But the screens at the main stage and lawn stage had some issues (mostly on the first two days) that distracted a bit from what was happening on stage. This was especially noticeable during Bjork, when red dots were all over the left screen. I wasn’t sure if this was part of her visuals, and someone answered my query on Reddit by saying they saw her show with the same visuals and the red dots weren’t there. There was also a noticeable delay between the screen and reality for several sets, which was bothersome. One thing to add, as FYF Fest’s talent budget increases, here’s hoping their production increases in the same scale. Nine Inch Nails performed with a much scaled-back version of their usual production (or at least what I remember from the Hollywood Bowl show. Five favorite sets of FYF Fest 2017: Nine Inch Nails — Being in the pit for this one is what made it stand out for sure. A warmup gig in Bakersfield aside, this was NIN’s first real show in three years, since I first saw them at the Hollywood Bowl. There were longtime diehards all around me, and people shook off accidental elbows to the face like they were nothing. Their ability to go super fucking hard but then also play some beautiful quiet tunes in between is rather impressive. Anderson Paak — It’s been a whirlwind 18 months for the Los Angeles resident since dropping his second full-length Malibu last January. He sold out the Palladium in a day last December and by the time FYF Fest came around this past weekend, everyone knew all the words. The peak unadulterated moment of fun of the weekend was when he jumped into “Come Down” two songs into the set, everyone breathless by the song’s finish. His level of musicianship is up there with the best — the way he switches up song arrangements from show to show is remarkable. Few people in the world have as much swag as Anderson Paak, and on that night not a single person in Los Angeles could match his. He will be headlining major festivals by the end of his next album cycle. Solange — I’m taking my 7-year-old niece to one day of Outside Lands in a few weeks, her first music festival. After Sunday, Solange is the act I’m most excited for her to see. The amount of detail involved in her choreography and production was not lost on the crowd, old fans and new. Her backup singers doubled as dancers, her brass section was impeccable, and her voice was pitch perfect. It’s amazing how she’s grown as a performer, and her humility in thanking the fans for taking that journey with her was a nice touch. Erykah Badu — Halfway through her set, the neo-soul queen rattled off a list of nicknames that’s more than most musicians have hits. Erykah Badu aka Sara Bellum aka Low Down Loretta Brown, the list went on and on and on. She’s earned them all. She’s one of the true divas left and she lived up to that by arriving on stage more than 20 minutes late, not apologizing, and ripping through a mesmerizing set that had people laughing, and also in tears. My favorite part was when she asked what decade people were from, and then told the ’90s babies she’d been waiting for them to be mature enough to handle her shit — which was now. “The last time I saw y’all you were suckin’ on my titties,” she followed up. I’d watch her do standup comedy. Iggy Pop — One day, Iggy Pop’s skin will make someone a fine leather coat. Until then, he proved he can still rock out with the best of them that are a third his age. He’s one of the last remaining holdovers from an era of rock n roll debauchery we will never see again thanks to today’s lack of privacy. He didn’t waste any time getting to the hits, and also shouted expletives at his band and the crowd with pleasure. The most rock n roll moment was when he paused between songs to shoot a snot rocket out of his nose and everyone around me winced in disgust. It was fantastic. FYF Fest 2017, you won’t soon be forgotten. Thanks for staying true to your original mission statement more than a decade later. OTHER BEST + WORST FESTIVAL RECAPS:
The ENOT camps’ true purpose is reflected in the fact that its “main instructor,” Roman Telenkevich, at the same time heads “The Union of Donbas Volunteers.” Furthermore, ENOT is bringing to these camps young people from all existing hotspots in Eurasia, such as Transnistria and South Ossetia, and from places some may want to turn into hotspots, such as Belarus and the Balkans. At a public conference at the end of September, some 400 young people, most in their teens, publicly showed their commitment to Russian imperial and xenophobic values. The majority were from these various places across the post-Soviet space, including a number—unspecified by Belarusian sources—from Belarus (Belsat, September 24). In early 2016, the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian government actively recruited Belarusians to take part in paramilitary camps inside Belarus. When Belarusian opposition figures protested, Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs said it had investigated and found no problems, a possible indication of collusion between some in that institution and other institutions in the Belarusian government. That possibility is now a probability given that several Belarusian officials have visited the ENOT camp this fall and even been willing to speak with journalists about it, insisting that there is nothing wrong with young Belarusians wanting to gain such paramilitary instruction and even suggesting that such people will form a useful addition to the country’s Armed Forces in the future (Belsat, September 24). But as Belsat points out, such assertions whitewash what is happening: “There can be no doubt as to the radical right views of the ENOT graduates.” Moreover, following a beating in Russia of a citizen of Tajikistan, the ENOT company website published a call to “destroy the nest of insolent illegals.” That Belarusians are again being drawn into this is worrisome, Belarusian democrats say, not only for what it says about the intentions of this group in Russia itself but also because of what it suggests are Moscow’s plans for these people on their return to Belarus (Belsat, September 24). ENOT leaders, Belsat and BelarusPartisan argue, claim that they have set up cells of Belarusian graduates of these camps near Moscow in the Belarusian cities of Borisov, Mohylev and Bobruisk. No one has been able to confirm the existence of such organizations, an indication that such claims may be part of a propaganda effort intended to destabilize Belarus by spreading fear. But that too is one of the reasons why the Russian camps exist: They show that Moscow could establish such organizations if it wanted to and that the Belarusian security services are unable or unwilling to do anything about it (Belsat, September 24; BelarusPartisan, September 25, November 24). That the ENOT Corporation is involved in such efforts is suggested by a recent comment by Anton Gorokhov, one of the company’s leaders, after a visit to Belarus: “We came for talks with the local organs of power. There is a commercial interest” in the services we provide. However, he added, “at the request of your officials, no details are to be released.” At the same, he said, “the goal of the talks is the formation of a joint program for the preparation of young people for service in the army” (BelarusPartisan, September 25). Most disturbingly of all, Gorokhov said that he had conducted talks “above the regional level” (BelarusPartisan, September 25), an indication that he may have made contacts with Belarusian officials in Minsk. If that is so, it illustrates that the Russian hybrid war of subversion against Belarus may be truly taking off, to the detriment of Belarusian rights and freedoms and even independence.
Kevin Pietersen has marked England's retention of the Ashes by proclaiming that it would never have been possible without his rebellion against the former coach Peter Moores that caused both men to lose their jobs. Pietersen was replaced as England captain after a troubled tour of India two years ago when he was scathing about Moores' ability as an international coach in a confidential report to the England and Wales Cricket Board and issued what amounted to a "him or me" ultimatum. Moores was also sacked, leaving English cricket in crisis and paving the way for the appointment of Andrew Strauss as captain, the promotion of Andy Flower to coach, and the gradual progress to a united and disciplined Ashes-winning tour. Pietersen, joyful at England's Ashes success, believes that his actions have now been vindicated. "You know what – I have never said this before – I lost the captaincy, I got rid of the captaincy for the good of English cricket, and we would not be here today if I had not done what I did then. There is no way in this world that we would have succeeded under that regime and would have won the Ashes again in Australia after 24 years. Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower need all the plaudits for an unbelievable 18 months and an unbelievable preparation for this team, and they are the right leadership for this team." Pietersen will be accused of reopening old wounds but it was a strikingly candid assessment from a man who persistently speaks his mind. England's Strauss-Flower combination has brought integrity, planning and unity to English cricket, with captain and coach sharing a similar philosophy. Pietersen and Moores, whatever their respective talents, lacked that empathy, and players and coaching staff were often at odds in India about the best way forward. It was inevitable that Moores, a thoroughly decent individual and a respected county coach, struggled to create the same focus and togetherness after inheriting a team that was whitewashed 5-0 in Australia four years ago. Today Moores, now the Lancashire coach, was keener to praise England's success than to respond directly to Pietersen, especially with one Test remaining and the series not yet won. "This is an important time for England to get focused for Sydney and I know that will be Andy Flower's priority," he said, having remained close to Flower since bringing him into the England setup as batting coach. "Nobody knows what would have happened if me and KP were still there as coach and captain, just as nobody knows what would have happened if KP had got his way and me and Andy had both been sacked. That's in the past and I've never wanted to speculate much about it. I'm just delighted for Andy and all the players, including Kevin, that they've done so well." Pietersen was, meanwhile, generous in his praise for the captain, saying: "Straussy is a solid bloke and character, a simple person who does things systematically and does things very well for everyone else. He looks after himself after he has looked after everyone else which is a great quality of a great captain. What he has achieved has not been achieved for 24 years and I have always had utmost respect for Straussy." When Strauss agreed to pick up the pieces of a fractured England dressing room, Pietersen was one of the first people he rang. Pietersen recalled: "When he gave me the phone call and said, 'The ECB want me to captain; are you OK with that?' I said go for it, Straussy, you're a top man. I said I'm a good mate of yours, go for it, do whatever you need to, and I've been proved right. It was a good decision by the ECB." Perhaps for the first time since his rebellion Pietersen has rediscovered absolute contentment in an England dressing room. His rebellion – which even his greatest supporters feel was misconceived – is now consigned to the past, his hurt at being depicted as the bad guy largely assuaged, his confidence that he is a valued member of a successful team once again high. He was asked if Strauss had proved himself a better captain than Pietersen himself would have proved. "That is such a difficult question," he said. "Who knows? All I can say is they have done an incredible job and I am so happy for both of them. They are very good at keeping us level-headed and grounded and solid. Sure, we will celebrate this win for a day or so and then we will talk about Sydney and trying to win this series 3-1. "It's the best feeling in my career, nothing beats this. As an Englishman, winning in England in 2005 was amazing after it had not been done for a certain amount of years, but people always talked about the fact that when you go to Australia it is a different kettle of fish and the last time we came here we got hammered. "This time we have come here knowing the preparation has been right, knowing what to expect from the crowds, from the public in the street, people in hotels and taxi drivers to players out in the middle. We were told to beware of this and we knew what to expect. We always thought we would do a lot better than last time, I was confident of that and that has proved right." Pietersen is not the only player to be have been bemused by Australia's creeping respect for English cricket. This is a changing country, more rounded, in many ways more impressive. But the edge of its sporting culture, certainly in terms of cricket, seems to have softened, perhaps merely because of a run of relative failure, perhaps forever. Even four years ago, barely a day would pass without anybody connected with an Ashes tour being accosted by someone and told how useless England was – the cricket team and the nation. Those experiences have lessened. "We felt that respect before we started the Tests. The last time we came here we got hammered. As we got off the aeroplane people in hotels, taxi drivers, everybody just abused us. This time before the first Test, we were talking about it among ourselves, we were saying: 'No one is abusing us here, this can't be a bad thing.' Australia's confidence was down." Pietersen believes that a win in Sydney, and a 3-1 scoreline, would be an accurate reflection of England's superiority. "We want to win in Sydney and take the Ashes back to the UK properly. Taking the Ashes home is the focus, though, and I know the country is going nuts about this, on Twitter my phone has gone ballistic." There is a real danger if Pietersen overtweets that Ricky Ponting will not be the only player missing the final Test because of a finger injury. He heads for Sydney full of himself. It seemed the right time to ask him about his wink at Ponting during the Melbourne Test. Pietersen was given "not out" on a TV referral for a catch at the wicket and the Guardian reported exclusively that Ponting's subsequent heated debate with the umpire Aleem Dar was inflamed by Pietersen's tongue-in-cheek suggestion that he had hit it. "Listen, the technology was there for everybody to see, umpires make their decision. If I had nicked it I would have been out. I was out two runs later, so who cares? But I have been called a wind-up merchant before."
Press release - 2 May, 2016 Amsterdam, 2 May 2016 - www.ttip-leaks.org Today Greenpeace Netherlands releases secret documents of the EU-US TTIP negotiations. On www.ttip-leaks.org the documents will be made available for everyone to read, because democracy needs transparency. “These documents make clear the scale and scope of the trade citizens of the United States and the European Union are being asked to make in pursuit of corporate profits. It is time for the negotiations to stop, and the debate to begin. Should we be able to act when we have reasonable grounds to believe our health and wellbeing is at risk, or must we wait until the damage is done? Were our governments serious in Paris when they said they would do what was necessary to protect the planet, and keep climate change under 1.5 degrees? Environmental protection should not be seen as a barrier to trade, but as a safeguard for our health, and the health of future generations. We call on citizens, civil society, politicians and businesses to engage in this debate openly and without fear. We call on the negotiators to release the latest, complete text to facilitate that discussion, and we ask that the negotiations be stopped until these questions, and many more have been answered. Until we can fully engage in a debate about the standards we and our planet need and want” - Sylvia Borren, Executive Director Greenpeace Netherlands. Which documents are we releasing? The documents that Greenpeace Netherlands has released comprise about half of the draft text as of April 2016, prior to the start of the 13th round of TTIP negotiations between the EU and the US (New York, 25-29 April 2016). As far as we know the final document will consist of 25 to 30 chapters and many extensive annexes. The EU Commission published an overview stating that they have now 17 consolidated texts. This means the documents released by Greenpeace Netherlands encompass 3/4 of the existing consolidated texts.[1] Consolidated texts are those where the EU and US positions on issues are shown side by side. This step in the negotiation process allows us to see the areas where the EU and US are close to agreement, and where compromises and concessions would still need to be made. Of the documents released by Greenpeace Netherlands, in total 248 pages, 13 chapters offer for the first time the position of the US. How have the documents been handled? The documents we received had clearly been treated to make it possible to identify individual copies. Prior to release they have been retyped and identifying features removed. We have not altered content of the documents and have preserved the layout. For this reason we are not offering access to the original documents. How do you know the documents are genuine? After receiving the documents both Greenpeace Netherlands and Rechercheverbund NDR, WDR und Süddeutsche Zeitung, a renowned German investigative research partnership have analysed them and compared them to existing documents. The Rechercheverbund, which consists of different German media outlets, has covered, amongst other big stories, the Snowden leaks and the recent Volkswagen emissions scandals. What are the first conclusions from the documents? From an environmental and consumer protection point of view four aspects are of serious concern. Long standing environmental protections appear to be dropped None of the chapters we have seen reference the General Exceptions rule. This nearly 70-year-old rule enshrined in the GATT agreement of the World Trade Organization (WTO), allows nations to regulate trade “to protect human, animal and plant life or health" or for "the conservation of exhaustible natural resources" [2]. The omission of this regulation suggests both sides are creating a regime that places profit ahead of human, animal and plant life and health. Climate protection will be harder under TTIP The Paris Climate Agreement makes one point clear: We must keep temperature increase under 1.5 degrees to avoid a climate crisis with effects on billions of people worldwide. Trade should not be excluded from climate action. But nothing indicating climate protection can be found in the obtained texts. Even worse, the scope for mitigation measures is limited by provisions of the chapters on Regulatory Cooperation or Market Access for Industrial Goods. [3] As an example these proposals would rule out regulating the import of CO2 intensive fuels such as oil from Tar Sands. The end of the precautionary principle The precautionary principle, enshrined in the EU Treaty[4], is not mentioned in the chapter on Regulatory Cooperation, nor in any other of the obtained 12 chapters. On the other hand the US demand for a ‘risk based’ approach that aims to manage hazardous substances rather than avoid them, finds its way into various chapters. This approach undermines the ability of regulators to take preventive measures, for example regarding controversial substances like hormone disrupting chemicals. Opening the door for corporate takeover While the proposals threaten environmental and consumer protection, big business gets what it wants. Opportunities to participate in decision making are granted to corporations to intervene at the earliest stages of the decision making process. While civil society has had little access to the negotiations, there are many instances where the papers show that industry has been granted a privileged voice in important decisions. [5] The leaked documents indicate that the EU has not been open about the high degree of industry influence. The EU’s recent public report [6] has only one minor mention of industry input, whereas the leaked documents repeatedly talk about the need for further consultations with industry and explicitly mention how industry input has been collected. END Notes [1] The documents we are releasing are [chapter 1.1.] National Treatment and Market Access for Goods This chapter addresses trade in goods between EU and US. [chapter 1.2.] Agriculture This chapter deals with trade in agricultural products and illustrates EU-US disagreements on matters such as genetically modified organisms. [chapter 1.3.] Cross-Border Trade in Services This chapter addresses trade in the service industry sector. [chapter 1.4] Electronic Communications This chapter addresses Internet and telecommunications issues. [chapter 1.5.] Government Procurement This chapter deals with purchases by government entities within the EU and US. [chapter 1.6.] Annex Government Procurement The annex of the previous chapter, with additional information about a US-proposed chapter on anti-corruption. [chapter 1.7.] Customs and Trade and Facilitation This chapter addresses differences among various customs regulations. [chapter 1.8.] EU – US revised tariff offers These are the respective positions regarding tariffs. [chapter 2.1.] Regulatory Cooperation In this controversial chapter EU and US aim for joint regulations on products and services, for example for food and cosmetics safety. [chapter 2.2.] Technical Barriers to Trade This chapter addresses differences between EU-US regulations and the ways in which they affect trade. [chapter 2.3.] Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures This chapter deals with the protection of plant and animal health. [chapter 3.1.] Competition This chapter deals with competition between parties. [chapter 3.2.] Small and Medium-sized Enterprise This chapter addresses enterprises smaller than multi-national corporations. [chapter 3.3.] State-owned Enterprise This chapter addresses nationalised enterprises. [chapter 4.] Dispute Settlement This chapter deals with resolving disagreements between the EU and the US. [chapter 5.] Tactical State of Play Not intended for public viewing, this document describes EU-US disagreements and shows how much private industry influences the TTIP negotiations. [2] Most of the WTO's agreements were the outcome of the 1986-94 Uruguay Round of trade negotiations. Some, including GATT 1994, were revisions of texts that previously existed. [3] Nothing in the relevant Articles 10 (Import and Export Restrictions) and 12 (Import and Export Licensing) of the Chapter on National Treatment and Market Access for Goods shows that necessary trade related measures to protect the climate would be allowed as a trade restriction under GATT Article XX (see footnote 1). [4] “The precautionary principle is detailed in Article 191 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (EU). It aims at ensuring a higher level of environmental protection through preventative decision-taking in the case of risk. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=URISERV%3Al32042 [5] e.g. “While the US showed an interest, it hastened to point out that it would need to consult with its industry regarding some of the products” – Chapter ‘Tactical State of Play’, paragraph 1.1, Agriculture. [6] ‘The Twelfth Round of Negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)’ http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2016/march/tradoc_154391.pdf Contacts: Dutch media please contact Greenpeace Netherlands, +31 (0)6 21 29 68 95, Brussels media please contact Greenpeace EU press desk, +32 (0)2 274 1911, International media please contact Greenpeace International press desk (24 hours), +31 (0)20 718 2470,
The dust has settled on an extravagant pit-stop in Dublin, Ireland, where the O2 Arena played host to ten fights in front of a jubilant crowd. The atmosphere was eccentric, none so more for the Irish fighters who were competing on home soil. And the Irishmen did not disappoint their countrymen’s ruptures, as they went a perfect 5-0 on the night. Conor McGregor etched ever closer to stardom under the UFC stage lights, trumping “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 14 winner, Diego Brandao, in the main event. McGregor, a former two-time champ under the Cage Warriors banner, is slowing earning a place among the UFC’s elite whilst established himself as one of the outfit’s most marketable international stars. In the co-main event, McGregor’s team-mate and another potential star on the horizon, Gunnar Nelson, kept his unblemished record in tact by dispatching Zak Cummings in the second stanza. The Renzo Gracie-Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt product continues to startle his opponents with a combination of his unorthodox striking style and grappling prowess, leaving us to wonder if there’s anyone in the 170-lbs ranks capable of figuring out the 25-year-old’s weaknesses. Elsewhere on the card, Ian McCall topped Brad Pickett via decision in an important 125-lbs affair while the highly touted Norman Parke destroyed Naoyuki Kotani’s UFC home-coming with a second round TKO rout. So with that, it’s that time again where we at MMASucka.com play “matchmaker” and derive match-ups that could materialize for the main card winners. Sitting on the matchmaker’s armchair is no easy task by any standards so if your solutions differ from ours, state them in the comments section below. Let’s get started! *** Name: Norman Parke (20-2-1) Who he should face next: Diego Sanchez (25-7) You could be forgiven for not noticing Norman Parke’s unbeaten start to his UFC career or the fact that he’s racked up a nice run of four wins. And while the Irishman blames his lack of finishes for that regard, a tussle against a fighter of Diego Sanchez’s caliber next could finally propel Parke to the type of exposure he deserves and a spot in the top 12 as well. Besides, the 27-year-old made matchmaker Joe Silva’s job a tad bit easier by dropping Sanchez’s name out right off the bat in his post-fight interview. And with both fighters matching up pretty evenly in all facets of the game, it wouldn’t actually be bad idea to grant Parke his wish. Name: Ian McCall (13-4) Who he should face next: John Lineker (24-7) McCall quickly cemented a place on the list of candidates for Demetrious Johnson’s 125-lbs throne, after throbbing Brad Pickett immaculately with a lopsided decision victory on Saturday night. While his ambitions to face the champ for a third time are bold, it’s safe to say ‘Uncle Creepy’ is still at least a fight away from that no.1 contenders’ spot. Former Jungle Fight champ John Lineker, meanwhile, has piled up an impressive 5-2 run in his stint with the UFC thus far. After finally sorting out his weight issues (for this fight, at least) in his ‘Fight of the Night’ performance victory over Alptekin Özkiliç, the hard-hitting Brazilian would be a perfect foe for McCall next. Name: Gunnar Nelson (13-0-1) Who he should face next: Ryan LaFlare (11-0) Ryan LaFlare was Gunnar Nelson’s original opponent before he was removed from the running order and replaced by Zak Cummings. As such, while it’ll be sensible to have both men booked against each other once again, it’d be a perfect chance for Nelson to topple over LaFlare’s number 14 spot in the UFC rankings too. Furthermore, with the duo holding unscathed and almost identical records, this will be an intriguing match-up on paper that’s sure to wet the appetites of fight fans. Name: Conor McGregor (15-2) Who he should face next: Winner of Dennis Bermudez (13-3) vs. Clay Guida (31-14) McGregor looks to be the next big thing in the UFC but in order for the 26-year-old to start progressing up the ladder, ‘Notorious’ needs to set a date with fighters in the top ten rankings first. Dennis Bermudez and Clay Guida fit those bills perfectly, and with those two set to slug it out at UFC on FOX 12 next week, McGregor might want to keep his eyes peeled on possibly facing the winner next. For full UFC Fight Night 46 results, click here. *Pictures credit: Ultimate Fighting Championship Follow Thinesh on Twitter (@ThineshJohnMMA), and keep up with the latest MMA news from MMASucka via Twitter (@MMASucka) and Facebook
Starting in December, Idir Makhlaf (pictured left), will step away from live touring as part of Blasterjaxx to become fully focused on their studio work from home. The decision to leave all touring duties to Thom Jongkind wasn't an easy one as he expressed the journey that led to this tough decision in a lengthy Facebook post today. You can read the full press statement below: "PRESS STATEMENT A message from Idir I have not been feeling well for a while. And when I say a while I mean the better part of the last year. Pretty much I’ve been feeling pretty awful for the most part of the three years we’ve been conquering the world with Blasterjaxx but its only recently that I’ve really been able to pinpoint what’s been going on. At first I was so caught up in the insanity of instantaneous success that I didn’t notice. I drank more, slept less, ate worse you know…the ‘usual’. As a result I felt – naturally – I had less time to work out, speak with friends and family and also less time to put in the much needed hours of production work. I like to think I’m a professional and so the level of stress I initially felt from the pressure to keep everything going I brushed off as ‘part of the job’. And so you carry on. The fact that the anxiety I was starting to feel when new dates were looming was becoming increasingly bigger is just something I pushed to the side – there was a job to be done after all… And even when I couldn't see it myself - I am surrounded with a good team of people, who were pointing out that drinking while having a lung infection and being on antibiotics wasn't a healthy choice, that the excuses I started to voice for not getting on a flight were verging on the ridiculous. But they all made sense to me at the time. Basically I was becoming a bit of an asshole to the people around me. We tried all kinds of things to reduce the anxiety and stress, from touring less, putting in more free time, taking more expensive but more relaxing travel options. We build the studio we felt we missed on the road, I bought the house I needed as my own place to call home, I moved my girlfriend from the states to the Netherlands. It helped initially, I felt better but the idea of being on the road was suffocating me… I just could not think straight and my spells home were just there to help me recover ever so slightly before needing to go back on the road. I LOVE performing, if only there was a Scotty to beam me from home to stage I’d be all for that. And then it hit me…my first panic attack…I couldn’t breathe…my head was spinning and I had to go on stage in less than an hour…I didn’t know if I wanted to faint or throw up. The doctor came and ordered me to run around the block a few times. And prescribed me some pills…the runs helped but the pills felt GREAT. That was a fantastic solution! Now I took some pills before the flight too! And then BAM in the car on the road just back home not even touring…another panic attack…At this point I didn't even need to do many more dates before we were to have another month off…I started not sleeping at home, what if the pills were the only thing that could keep me going, what if the fans saw I could not really keep it together, that I felt I was going insane…what if, what if… Ultimately it was my manager who sat me down and made me take a good look at myself and my situation. We spoke about physical and mental health and how much of that is still a taboo in our world. Pretty soon after I figured out that actually to be able to continue with Blasterjaxx I needed to step back and get off the road. Physically and mentally I am not wired to be on the road like this and I need to make the right decision before things start going wrong past a point of no return. I don t want to be one of those guys, cancelling dates and checking into hospital with ‘exhaustion’. It s a heavy decision, not just for me but also for Thom, who I’ve shared this whole journey with and who has supported me throughout all this. Blasterjaxx will always be Thom and me, just that our roles will change. From December onwards Thom will take the stage as Blasterjaxx by himself and we’ll continue the studio work together as before, just that I ll be doing my bits strictly from the studio at home. We’ve completely synched our studio set ups to ensure we can continue our integrated production process as before and I know Thom will be kicking ass on the stage like he always does. I know that I am opening myself to criticism, that there are still many that expect you to just ‘man up’, that there will be people trying to take advantage. But having experienced the real challenge of maintaining a healthy body and mind; opening up like this is the least I can do to keep you all informed about what’s really going on. I know I will be ok – I have the best partner/team and most of all fans in the world. Thom: Everyone who knows us, knows how close we are. Me and Idir are brothers for life, and even though I am sad that I won’t have Idir with me on the road every single day it was killing me to see idir go through what he was going through and I am glad we’ve found a solution. We really need this new set up to ensure the growing future for Blasterjaxx, to allow our sound to evolve to something even bigger and better and to ensure the endurance of the Blasterjaxx sound, but most importantly to ensure Idir’s health. Note from mgmt: Blasterjaxx will perform as a duo for all dates until November 28th." Major kudos for Idir for taking the tough step to open up to fans in this manner. The past few years has been tough on major big room duo's starting with the tragic loss of a member of The Bingo Players, then the unfortunately news of one half of Dada Life contracting cancer, and now Blasterjaxx. I wish Idir and Thom the best and hope Blasterjaxx remains as strong as ever in the future.
A few weeks ago we told you about our two Data Services for Hadoop-based applications, the Managed Big Data Platform service (in Unlimited Availability) and the Cloud Big Data Platform (in Early Access). Working hand in hand with Hortonworks, we are giving you a choice of architectures for your Hadoop applications, whether you need a custom-built Hadoop architecture based on specific dedicated hardware, or a dynamic, API-driven programmable Hadoop cluster in our public cloud. Today, we are pushing the ball further as we move our Cloud Big Data Platform from Early Access into Limited Availability. WHAT HAVE YOU TOLD US? The users of our Cloud Big Data Platform in Early Access come from a variety of industries and backgrounds, from online marketing and ecommerce working on recommendation engines and user sentiment analysis, to hospitality and retail looking at product performance, and to education and science working to improve people’s lives. We have learned a lot from you. These three statements summarize what we are hearing: “Big data” technologies are better understood : while many of you were just “testing the water” in the past two years or so, today you are taking a really good look at how to utilize Hadoop in your applications. There is more clarity and understanding of the technology, its uses and limitations, as the tooling around Hadoop continues to evolve and mature. : while many of you were just “testing the water” in the past two years or so, today you are taking a really good look at how to utilize Hadoop in your applications. There is more clarity and understanding of the technology, its uses and limitations, as the tooling around Hadoop continues to evolve and mature. “Big data” projects are more actionable: we see more pragmatic approaches in implementations, with a focus on visible value. We see less and less abstract, ambiguous “big data discussions” with unclear goals and hyped expectations, and more practical uses of the technology for projects that drive real business value, as it should be. we see more pragmatic approaches in implementations, with a focus on visible value. We see less and less abstract, ambiguous “big data discussions” with unclear goals and hyped expectations, and more practical uses of the technology for projects that drive real business value, as it should be. Doing “big data” is still hard: From a technical perspective, we hear that these projects are still hard for you. There is still a lot of work that we as an industry need to do to make sure the technology is manageable, performant and scalable to make these initiatives less difficult to carry out. We are glad to be doing our part to help you with these projects. FROM EARLY ACCESS TO LIMITED AVAILABILITY Today, our Cloud Big Data Platform is moving from Early Access to Limited Availability. Limited Availability is the last phase we use here at Rackspace prior to the service being delivered in Unlimited Availability in a few months. We hope to get as many customers on the service as we can, but we will unfortunately not be able to accept everybody yet. However, let us know what you are working on and will definitely consider your application. The most important aspect for us is making sure we deliver on our promise of being Fanatical across the lifecycle of your initiative, which is why we have our Early Access, and now our Limited Availability program. What does this mean to you beyond the new capabilities we have built in? It means three things: We are broadening the pool of customers we are accepting into our service. we are accepting into our service. We now offer the full Fanatical Support and Rackspace Cloud SLA for your workload to enable you to bring production applications to the service. for your workload to enable you to bring production applications to the service. We are going to start billing you for the resources you consume. This is important for YOUR accounts payable team or personal credit card! To sign up for Limited Availability, visit the Cloud Big Data Platform page at http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/big-data. Click on the “CONTACT US” button and fill out that simple contact form. A Racker will contact you to get you on board. Once we grant you access to the service, you will then simply provision a cluster right from Cloud Control Panel or using the API. CHOICES OF NODES You will have two options for your deployment depending on your data and compute requirements. See below. It is worth emphasizing here that the 1.3TB instances will share the compute node, but the 11TB instances are all single tenant. Remember that Hadoop keeps three copies of your data by default. To account for your total storage footprint, remember to multiply by three the estimated source data volume you have, and then to decide how many nodes you will need to provision. And yes, to repeat, the free period is over and you will start getting billed for the resources you consume. WE ARE AVAILABLE IN LONDON! Cloud Big Data Platform is now available in London! The hourly and equivalent monthly prices will be as follows: £0,27 per hour (£197,10 per month) for the 1.3TB instance £2,16 per hour (£1.576,80 per month) for the 11TB instance NEW CAPABILITIES FOR LIMITED AVAILABILITY We have added a number of new capabilities to the Cloud Big Data Platform over the past few weeks to prepare it for Limited Availability. Here are some of them: A Rackspace Cloud SLA for your production workload : Limited Availability environments are production-ready. The Rackspace Cloud SLA applies, which includes 99.9% instance availability per month (excluding scheduled maintenance) and 100% network availability (also excluding scheduled or emergency maintenance). : Limited Availability environments are production-ready. The Rackspace Cloud SLA applies, which includes 99.9% instance availability per month (excluding scheduled maintenance) and 100% network availability (also excluding scheduled or emergency maintenance). Fanatical Support : We have the Hadoop teams ready to help you in your design and deployment. As we said above, “doing big data” can be difficult, and our Hadoop Support teams are ready to help you be successful in your application. : We have the Hadoop teams ready to help you in your design and deployment. As we said above, “doing big data” can be difficult, and our Hadoop Support teams are ready to help you be successful in your application. Network Performance : This is significant. For example, in a simple network throughout test, our Early Access environment in DFW saw 480Mbps. We repeated that test in our Limited Availability environment and now see about 5.2Gbps in DFW, ORD and LON. That is an improvement of about 10 times. : This is significant. For example, in a simple network throughout test, our Early Access environment in DFW saw 480Mbps. We repeated that test in our Limited Availability environment and now see about 5.2Gbps in DFW, ORD and LON. That is an improvement of about 10 times. More storage : We raised the limit of node storage to 11TB per node. : We raised the limit of node storage to 11TB per node. Single tenancy available : Our 11TB instances are single-tenant. Your application will have the whole node all to itself. : Our 11TB instances are single-tenant. Your application will have the whole node all to itself. Cloud Files Connector: We have improved the integration between the service and our object storage in Cloud Files. WHAT DID WE NOT GET TO FOR LIMITED AVAILABILITY? One thing we have not made available in Limited Availability is Hortonworks Data Platform 2.0. In Limited Availability, we support Hortonworks Data Platform 1.3. Some of you are interested in the new goodies in newest codebase. Particularly, we hear that you want: YARN to move beyond batch into online and interactive queries : You want to do more than MapReduce (batch) queries. We heard that you are exploring Giraph, Storm, HBase and Tez for your applications requiring interactive, online and streaming patterns. : You want to do more than MapReduce (batch) queries. We heard that you are exploring Giraph, Storm, HBase and Tez for your applications requiring interactive, online and streaming patterns. Better SQL semantics : We heard that you are looking for improved SQL semantics in access to your queries, and are interested in exploring how HIVE is evolving through the Stinger initiative. : We heard that you are looking for improved SQL semantics in access to your queries, and are interested in exploring how HIVE is evolving through the Stinger initiative. Higher Hadoop availability: through the improvements in the latest bits of HDFS, better handling of name node failures in Hadoop, snapshots and NFS, among others. Rest assured that our engineers are hard at work to make this available in our Managed and Cloud Big Data Platform services. Expect more news from us as we learn more from you in this Limited Availability phase and work towards Unlimited Availability. We are making sure that there is an ample supply of storage and compute nodes available for your needs in our datacenters, we want to enhance the API, UI and overall programmability. LET ME SEE MORE! If you have one hour to spare, watch the video below entitled “Apache Hadoop on the Open Cloud” with Nirmal Ranganathan from Rackspace and Steve Loughran from Hortonworks. In it, they cover: An overview of the service, and its OpenStack architecture Using the Control Panel and API to provision and manage a cluster of Hadoop nodes Processing location data from Wikipedia, off of Cloud Files object storage Rendering the data on a simple Google Map You can click on the video below. To find out more, visit the developer documentation and the Getting Started Guide, or go directly to our Cloud Big Data Platform website. As usual, let me know what kinds of cool apps you are working on @jrarredondo.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange charged that President Obama lied in his Friday speech about the National Security Agency. Obama announced several proposals to change how the NSA collects surveillance on Americans and foreign governments. Assange was interviewed on CNN after the speech. “We heard a lot of lies in this speech by Obama,” Assange said. “I think it’s embarrassing for a head of state to go on like that for 45 minutes and say almost nothing.” ADVERTISEMENT Obama proposed a number of changes to the NSA, including an end to the metadata collection program as it currently exists, the creation of a panel of public advocates on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA), and imposing heavier scrutiny on how the U.S. monitors communications abroad. Assange said the speech wouldn’t have happened without the leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who disclosed the details of these programs. Obama was “dragged, kicking and screaming” to the address, Assange said. “Although those national whistle blowers have forced this debate, this president has been dragged, kicking and screaming to today’s address. He is being very reluctant to make any concrete reforms,” he said. “Unfortunately today we also see very few concrete reforms.” Obama is just pushing the debate further down the road, Assange said, by delegating some of these decisions to a divided Congress and panels of lawyers. Assange’s WikiLeaks organization first came to light when it began publishing classified U.S. diplomatic cables in 2010. Assange helped Snowden seek temporary asylum in Russia last summer.
Lumawake, an innovative iPhone dock designed to work with both 30-pin and lightning dock connectors, today kicks off its own pre-orders in a self-run crowdfunding attempt to bring its product to market. The team faced rejection from Kickstarter just one short week ago, after that crowdfunding platform changed its hardware project rules to minimize their role in the overall platform mix. Now it’s back, and the team tells me they’re confident that going it alone in the manner of App.net and Lockitron will help make sure that Lumawake makes it to market. So what exactly does Lumawake do? Well it’s an iPhone dock, which means it’ll charge your device, and it’s made to be used with replaceable modules to help make sure that it’ll work with both iPhone 4/4S and the iPhone 5, using either the legacy dock connector or the new Lightning port. And, as indicated by the “luma” portion of its name, it features a soft-lighted top, which you can customize through your device. But the real magic is in the Lumawake’s more advanced, intelligent functions, including its ability to monitor your sleep patters from a bedside table via IR motion sensors, wake you when you’ll feel most rested, and work together with home automation systems to ensure that as you’re waking up, your house will be, too. The Lumawake is no ordinary dock. It has a built-in microprocessor, the aforementioned LEDs and motion sensors designed to be as accurate as wearable monitors, but without having to stay with you in bed as you sleep. Using a free app, it can be used to schedule wake and sleep events, like turning off lights or the TV as you nod off, or starting the coffee maker when it wakes you up in the morning. And thanks to those built-in lights, it can simulate a sunrise to try and ease the transition from bed to waking life. This slideshow requires JavaScript. Already, Lumawake has partnerships with SmartThings and Belkin’s WeMo , two home automation solutions that should help it perform a variety of wake up and bedtime tasks. Lumawake’s Scott Roehrick, the company’s Chief Outreach Officer, told me in an interview that the startup is working on a number of other partnerships, too. Lumwake also is an existing Apple MFi licensee, meaning it should have no problem getting the devices approved from the perspective of Apple sign-off on its designs. Lumawake is looking for pre-orders from early adopters of $149 per unit, using the Selfstarter.us open-source crowdfunding platform created by Lockitron for its own fundraising efforts. Lockitron was also turned down by Kickstarter, but went on to raise $1.5 million on its own for its remote home locking system. Roehrick says that going it alone should help Lumawake gain more attention, since it’s still an exception rather than the rule, and also says it means they can set additional rules, like the one they’ve established that says they don’t collect any funds from backers until they’re actually ready to ship a physical device to their homes. “At the end of the day, I think we’re confident enough in our product that we can just go off and do it,” he said. “It’s kind of scary… it was incredibly intimidating, but Lockitron was the first to do it and they’re Y Combinator as well, so they have that advantage. It’s a calculated risk, and we’re not 100 percent sure it’ll work… but we think there’s going to be a movement to do this, and we want to be one of the first.” The SmartDock is definitely an impressive-looking product, and one that goes well beyond your typical, relatively inert bedside smartphone stand or even speaker dock. The company is putting a lot on the line by trying to crowdfund itself, without the benefit of a brand like Kickstarter to back it up, but the possibilities it entails are exciting, and that’s likely going to go a long way towards convincing a highly motivated group of early adopter, gadget-loving risk-takers.
I remember the exact place where they were kept. They hovered together, trapped tightly between two wood slabs until they could be freed. I tried to ignore them, but they called out to me, over and over, in a deep low-pitched moan. Aliiiiiiiiissa. Aliiiiiiiiiissa. In third grade I discovered these three books of short stories in the library at Mason Ridge Elementary which would basically ruin my life. Advertisement The first time I saw them, I slid a slim black-spined volume off the shelf and settled down on the orange carpet. I mean, really, how scary could Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark be? A few minutes later I stood up, visibly shaking as I made my way to the librarian’s desk. I was terrified. I was also hooked. It was a vicious cycle. I’d check them out, reading them only during daylight and in the company of others, choosing an innocuous and demon-free zone like the kitchen table. Then I’d return the book, spending three to five nights sweating under my sheets, swearing with absolute certainty that The Thing was standing just outside my bedroom door. Oh, you remember The Thing, right? That’s from the audiobook, which I’m really glad I didn’t know about back then For a few weeks I would avoid that corner of the library entirely. But once I got up the nerve to revisit the shelf, I would check them out again. It didn’t matter if I had read them before. If I practically knew every word by heart. If the thought of seeing certain pages made me quite literally feel sick to my stomach. I wanted to read them over and over and over. Advertisement The two men responsible for my childhood psychosis were Alvin Schwartz and Stephen Gammell. Schwartz, the author, was careful to note that these were not his stories, rather they were collected from folklore. Somehow this made them even more terrifying to me, because collected from folklore meant they could absolutely be real. But as many a child of the 80s will tell you, although the stories might have indeed been scary, the illustrations by Gammell were what kept us choking back tears as we rallied the nerve to close the closet door before we went to bed why was the closet door open anyway what was that scraping sound in the closet?????? I mean. Advertisement I still have kind of a hard time looking at that. Some parents, concerned about their kids’ welfare, tried to get the books banned. Not mine, by the way, who let their eight-year-old cozy up with a paperback plastered in rotting corpse fragments. Oh, she’s reading, isn’t that wonderful! But it appears that the puritans were successful. A few years ago, to celebrate the books’ 30th anniversary, Gammell’s artwork was swapped out with some awfully vanilla illustrations: Advertisement Seeing the new versions makes me wonder about the future of today’s youth. If I had encountered the sanitized version, I probably would not have spent all those hours engineering a foolproof way to breathe while hiding my entire body beneath two Laura Ashley pillow shams. But would I also have as active imagination as I do today? Probably not. Scaring yourself—and I truly believe this—is an important part of growing up. It has made me a better person. Of course, it is also why, I cannot bring myself to watch The Blair Witch Project again. I re-read a few of the stories and they are indeed still very scary—they totally hold up. I cannot wait until my daughter is old enough to read these herself. But I feel very strongly that she have the exact same experience I did. I’m finding her the originals right now. Advertisement
In early April, the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to declassify nearly 500 pages of a report on "enhanced interrogation," frequently characterized as torture, under the George W. Bush administration. Now, McClatchy has obtained and published a two-page list of findings, confirming that the Senate believes the CIA impeded legal oversight, went beyond limits set by the Department of Justice, and misrepresented the program, which the report describes as far more brutal than previously known. Committee chair Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has previously condemned the program as "a stain on our history that must never again be allowed to happen," even accusing the CIA of breaking into Senate computers to erase evidence. The 6,300-page full report was based on classified information and will not be released in its entirety; the executive summary and other pieces must go through a declassification review by the CIA and White House. McClatchy's documents present broad conclusions that nonetheless paint a damning picture. "The CIA's use of enhanced interrogation techniques was brutal and far worse than the agency communicated to policymakers," says one statement. Another calls the CIA's claims about how many people were subject to its enhanced interrogation techniques, including stress positions and waterboarding, inaccurate. "The CIA did not conduct a comprehensive or accurate accounting of the number of individuals it detained and held individuals who did not meet the legal standard for detention," it says. Former CIA director Michael Hayden said during his tenure that that the number was around 30. The CIA allegedly provided false information to the Department of Justice and actively avoided oversight by it as well as Congress, the White House, and the CIA Office of Inspector General. It also is said to have "manipulated the media" by coordinating the release of classified information that made the program appear more effective than it was. In reality, the Senate report concludes, it provided little intelligence value and sometimes actively hampered the missions of other agencies, and the CIA did little to evaluate how well it actually worked. Agency members who acted inappropriately or committed "serious violations" in the program, meanwhile, were allegedly rarely held accountable. In 2005, the agency destroyed 92 tapes of interrogation recordings as scrutiny of its techniques mounted. More recently, it supposedly attempted to suppress evidence of its own internal report, which called the effectiveness of the program into question.
Patrik Laine might be the closest thing to Alex Ovechkin since the Russian superstar broke into the league more than a decade ago. Laine, one of the most promising prospects to come out of Finland in a quarter century, is an offensive juggernaut guaranteed to be one of the first players off the board on June 24. He has the size, speed, shot and hockey sense to make an immediate impact in the NHL. “Laine is a player with great offensive instincts and a nose for the net,” NHL Director of European Scouting Goran Stubb told NHL.com in December. “He is not only a sniper, he’s also a very effective playmaker and passer who knows his defensive duties. He has matured both on and off the ice.” Here’s what you need to know about the Finnish winger: Age on June 24: 18 From: Tampere, Finland Current Team: Tappara Tampere Position: Left Winger Shoots: Right Height: 6-foot-4 Weight: 206 pounds Twitter account: @PatrikLaine29 NHL Central Scouting Rank (European): 2nd Jeff Marek’s Take: When the play sets up in the offensive zone there is nobody better in the draft. Dynamic goal scorer. Playing in Team Finland garb helped raise his draft stock… At the beginning of the season, Laine was projected by most to be a top-10 pick — Damien Cox had him ranked as the No. 4 prospect in October — but there wasn’t necessarily huge buzz around his name. His stock progressively improved throughout the season, however, and following tremendous performances at the world juniors and World Championships he was essentially locked in at No. 2 behind Auston Matthews. Laine registered seven goals, six assists in seven games and was named a WJC tournament all-star en route to winning a gold medal with Finland. He then proved his mettle against stiffer competition at the World Championships in May. He finished with 12 points in 10 games, tied for the tournament lead in goals with seven and was named tournament MVP. Despite his excellent individual performance throughout the tournament, Finland fell short to Canada in the gold medal game. Laine was devastated and it resulted in this heartbreaking moment captured by Pavel Golovkin of The Associated Press. Laine is the type of player that lays it all on the line when he’s out there. He won the Jari Kurri Trophy… In addition to all the acclaim he received during international play, Laine was solid for his club team Tappara Tampere. He finished third on the team in goals (17) and fifth in points (33) in 46 regular season games but took his game to a new level in the playoffs. He led them to a Liiga championship in April where he registered a playoff-high 10 goals in 18 games and earned the Jari Kurri Trophy, which is the Finnish equivalent of the Conn Smythe. (This compilation video says nine goals, but he did score 10 in the playoffs) He’s drawing comparisons to the Great 8… It’s somewhat of a faux pas to compare anyone to Alex Ovechkin unless it’s truly warranted. Ovechkin has more goals and points than any player since making his NHL debut in 2005. In fact, his 525 goals during that time is so far ahead of the pack the next best mark is Jarome Iginla’s 361 tallies. Still, people keep mentioning Laine in the same breath as the Washington Capitals sniper and for some very obvious reasons. Although he doesn’t throw his body around quite as often as Ovie, Laine does play a physical game and they’ve got a similar body type. Being a right-handed shot that plays on the left side, his excellent one-timer is often on display. Not to mention his laser-quick release is very much Ovechkin-like. Check out this snipe job. Laine’s favourite player as a kid was Ovechkin so it’s quite poetic he’s the player considered most similar to No. 8 to come along in the last decade. During a Finland-Russia World Championship game, Ovechkin hammered Laine along the boards. After the game Laine was quoted as jokingly saying, “Yeah, I won’t wash this jersey ever because he hit me.” His Draft Lottery day interview was legendary… During the 2016 NHL Draft Lottery broadcast, Daren Millard conducted a FaceTime interview with Laine and it quickly became the stuff of legend. “As somebody who’s been in this business for almost 25 years, that is top three strangest interviews. Out of respect for somebody I’m forgetting, I’ll say top three. Otherwise, I’d go straight to No. 1 as one of the strangest conversations I’ve ever had with an athlete,” Millard said during a live taping of the Tape II Tape podcast on Sportsnet 590 The Fan. “He marches to the beat of his own drum.” In fairness to Laine it was 3 a.m. in Finland at the time of the interview but check it out for yourself. He has the Jets and GM Kevin Cheveldayoff thrilled… Originally in the No. 6 slot, the Winnipeg Jets leapfrogged the Flames, Blue Jackets, Canucks and Oilers to win the No. 2 pick during the NHL Draft Lottery. Presuming the Maple Leafs do what’s expected of them and select Auston Matthews with the first pick, this leaves the Jets free to take Laine. The thought of a right-handed, goal-scoring winger from Finland donning a Jets uniform is something Winnipeg fans have yearned for since the days of Teemu Selanne in the mid-’90s. “I thought we struck it rich,” Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff told Hockey Central at Noon on Sportsnet 590 The Fan. “The emotion of having the opportunity to draft second for us was fantastic. We’re really excited about that opportunity.” Jets centre Mark Scheifele added: “He’s pretty unbelievable. He’s obviously young, and sometimes you can tell that, but his skill level [and] his shot is outrageous. He skates really well. You can tell he’s going to be a very special player. I know if we end up getting him, he’ll definitely be a huge improvement to our team. He’ll fit in well for sure.” LAINE THINKS LAINE SHOULD GO NO. 1 There’s no questioning the confidence of this 18-year-old kid. In an interview with Sportsnet’s Kristina Rutherford at the combine, Laine didn’t even let the full question get asked before he answered. ‘If you were an NHL GM and you had to draft…’ “Me,” Laine says. “Me.” After Matthews was the consensus No. 1 overall pick for more than a year, it was surprising to see Laine come up and challenge him in the last few months. Still, most onlookers agree that what will keep Matthews ahead of Laine on the draft day order is the fact Matthews plays the highly desired centre position, while Laine is a winger.
Last week, the Japanese soccer team the Urawa Red Diamonds played before an empty stadium. And it's not because they're unpopular. It was punishment for allowing fans to put up a "Japanese Only" banner in the stands. Team officials said a small group of supporters hung the banner in a stadium entranceway during a home game on March 8. "The team was expected to take the banner down right away," said Time magazine's Tokyo correspondent Kirk Spitzer. "The team management says they learned about the banner being put up about an hour into the game. They said that they did not deem this to be racist, discriminatory or derogatory towards foreigners so they left it up." The story went viral after fans posted photos of the banner online. Urawa Reds’ officials later apologized and said they had banned about 20 members of a supporters’ group responsible for hanging the banner. "The fans say that it really wasn’t meant in any racist or derogatory way," said Spitzer. "They simply didn’t want any foreigners sitting in their section who might not understand the group cheers and might not participate." League officials ordered the Urawa Reds to play their next home game in an empty stadium. During Sunday’s match, stadium billboards were replaced with signs promoting the UN's Sports for Peace program and players’ uniforms sported the program's logo. At a pre-game ceremony, Uwara's team captain Yuki Abe said the players pledged to “stamp out racism, be it discrimination against race, skin color, gender, language or religion or background, and will not tolerate any discriminatory or insulting language or behavior.” Japan's national team qualified to play in the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil this summer. But the fans will have to keep those "Japanese Only" banners at home. "I’m sure that the authorities here will remind everyone to be on their very best behavior when they go to Brazil," Spitzer said.
NEW LOUD SOUND 96dB in Orp as a continuous blast. Please note this sound is not as loud as what Orp will produce. 96dB in Orp as a user actuated "BeepBeep". Please note this sound is not as loud as what Orp will produce. WHAT WE'VE HEARD ABOUT ORP: Here's a small sample: "I ring my bell all the time, but it's not loud enough! I sometimes want a real horn, especially around cars. The Orp looks really promising and could help level the playing-field out on the roads." -Jonathan Maus, BikePortland.org Editor and Publisher ORP Smart Horn brings bike light and horn together as one- "Taking back the road one head-turning honk at a time, the Orp Smart Horn hopes to curb biker incidents with a redesign of the classic bike bell". -Paul Ridden, GizMag.com ". -James Thorne, COOL HUNTING.com "When riding in traffic it often isn’t enough to hope that you are being seen, sometimes you need to let the cars know you’re there". -Peter Suciu, BikeRadar.com "...we rarely see contraptions like this. Orp is a new Kickstarter project that jams a light and horn into the same device. Great idea..." -Colin, BikeRumour "I like the two levels of noise the Orp has and the attention grabbing light is nice addition as well." -Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson, Kent's Bike Blog "The Orp is something that I’d be happy to attach to my handlebars." -Andreas, London Cyclist " Smart horn - a light, a horn, and a hell of a warning..." -Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson,-Andreas, -Sarah Barth, Road.cc, "Simple and genius!" -Troy Turner, Yanko Design "A bike light that does it all – swaps easily from bike to bike, charges via USB for people on the go, and makes an alert sound in varying degrees of intensity. It sounds too good to be true." -Ayleen, ORbike.com ORP -This is a little animated jingle that an Orp enthusiast made. It is completely unsolicited. Click on the links and check it out. Danielle Hayes and team, WMAJ "Of a more compact design in the ORP Smart Horn being developed by Tory Orzeck. This two tone, 96db horn mounts on your handlebars and also conveniently doubles as a headlight so your dash doesn't get all cluttered up with additional gadgets." -Byron Kidd, TokyoByBike.com "It got him thinking about safety. Horns and lighting devices existed but not, that he knew of, as a single product -- one that could possibly make a difference on a loud, busy street filled with cars." -D.K.Row,The Oregonian -should be The Orpegonian "The product is called the Orp and is a pretty ingenious little device; it contains a very powerful light and an very loud horn." Dave Bank, Wired's Geek Dad "On top of the sound[s] it plays, the Orp works as a strobe lamp, using LEDs to pump out 87 lumens. The hope is to make cyclists visible and audible to drivers who might otherwise strike them accidentally." Alex Davies, Business Insider "While I know that Frodo and Bilbo will never have to fight the evil Smorn in their travels towards Mordor, it is nice to know that Strider would be able to find them if they pulled the Wail Tail in a time of need." John Biggs, Tech Crunch -------------------------------------------------------------- CONNECT WITH ORP You know Orp is all over the web but we know you need more. Help spread the word and follow Orp on Facebook and Twitter! ORP PROTOTYPE DEMONSTRATING LIGHT AND SOUND ORP IS THE SMALLEST, LOUDEST BIKE HORN EVER. ABOUT THE PROJECT FIRST, THE PROBLEM: bikes are almost invisible to cars and trucks High gas prices, global warming, and increasing waistlines have encouraged many of us to ditch our cars and get on our bikes. We live here in Portland, Oregon, considered one of the most bike friendly places in the world. There are bike paths, bike lanes and designated bike friendly roads throughout the city. But no matter what, our rides mean sharing the road with cars. Having said that, bicycle versus vehicle accidents have steadily increased in Portland as more people take to the road on their bikes. Our project was prompted by both this phenomena as well as a few particularly well documented accidents in Portland involving cyclists and commercial trucks. The problem was that the cyclist was neither seen nor heard. Both were Right Hooks: THE IDEA: Make bikers more visible and /or more "hearable". THE SOLUTION: A combination dual tone, high decibel bike horn and front beacon light. This is our latest 3D Orp prototype minus the surface mount printed circuit board. In production, Orp's skin will be a better matte finish. ORP ANATOMY It's super small. It's super bright. It's super LOUD. The current bike bells on the market work reasonably well on bike paths and quiet streets. However, in louder, traffic clogged streets, the bell just doesn't have the decibels to pierce through the ambient traffic noise let alone a highly insulated modern car. The decibel scale is logarithmic. Every 3 decibels is twice as loud. Think Richter scale for earthquakes. This graphic shows Orp's sound output relative to other sound makers. Friendly sound - 76dB in Orp Please Note this sound is not as loud as what Orp will produce. Loud Sound - 96dB in Orp Please note this sound is not as loud as what Orp will produce. NEW LOUD SOUND - 96dB in Orp Continuous Blast Please note this sound is not as loud as what Orp will produce. NEW LOUD SOUND - 96dB in Orp as a user actuated "Beep Beep" Please note this sound is not as loud as what Orp will produce This sound is closer to a typical vehicle horn and is very similar to a Vespa scooter horn in real life. Really long story short, we developed this super loud, dual decibel horn. Only after that did we discover the Piezo speaker and its circuitry barely taxed the battery to drive the sound. Sitting right there in front of us, we had everything we needed to add LEDs. So, we ended up combining two products: a beacon light and a horn into one small and (we think) beautiful product. While by no means can Orp claim to prevent traffic accidents, Orp's goal is to make cyclists visible and audible. ORP'S AMAZING FEATURES 1. A Dual Decibel Horn and Wail Tail Orp's Horn has 2 modes: soft and WAY loud The Wail Tail is the ergonomic and intuitive switch controlling the horn. When you need to alert other cyclists or pedestrians, a small displacement {up or down} of Orp's Wail Tail produces a friendly chirp at 76 decibels. When you're in traffic, and you need to let cars know where you are, then just push a little harder {up or down} and Orp's "HERE I AM!" sound emits an ear blistering 96 decibels. This is FAR louder than the most popular bike bells. 2. A High Power Multi-Mode LED Beacon Light Orp has two high power Nichia LEDs putting out 87 lumens with 4 modes: Slow Strobe Fast Strobe Constant On And, when the loud 96dB horn is activated, Orp fires both LEDs into a fast strobe and we up the amperage to deliver 92 lumens making Orp even more visible {and "hearable"}. 3. Smart Power on and off modes To Power Up Orp, you have to press the power button for 3 seconds. At this point the Horn is ready to be activated. You can then hit the button again to activate the different lighting modes. To Power Down Orp, you again press on the top button for 3 seconds to fully deactivate your Orp. This way there's less chance of Orp 's horn or lights going off when it's not on your bike. 4. A High Power Rechargeable Lithium Ion Power Cell We wanted to be super small and as green as we could. No more buying and throwing away expensive batteries. Orp easily recharges with the Orp Power Pack (yeah, it's just a USB cable with a micro USB plug). In our tests, the lithium ion power cell lasts 6 hours with the LEDs in the Constant-On Mode and up to 12 hours in the Slow-Strobing Mode. Actual battery life is dependent on usage and environmental conditions, so your results may vary. Orp napping and recharging while working on packaging concepts. 5. LED Battery Status Monitor A green light or red light will flash momentarily as you change between beacon light modes to indicate if your battery is good to go (green) or near dead (red). 6. Small Dimension and Light Weight Orp is really small and underweight, in a good way. See specs below. 7. Easily Removable for Recharging and Theft Protection Orp's skin grows into a functional tail strap appendage. It's lugged to grip your handlebars year-round but easily detaches to go with you after your ride. SPECIFICATIONS THE ORP DEVELOPMENT TEAM I'm a former GE Plastics and Nike industrial designer. In addition to developing Orp, I also run my own boutique (that's a nice word for small) industrial design firm, FUSE. For the last 16 years, FUSE has created great products for big and small companies. Our projects have run the gamut from athletic shoes, sporting gear, office furniture, high tech electronics packaging and building and construction products. We've even won a few awards along the way (check us out at fuseid.com). The Orp team is comprised of myself, another industrial designer, a mechanical engineer, an electrical engineer and a sound designer. Before Orp, our history has included taking many client products from the concept stage all the way through production in a timely and fiscally responsible fashion. WHERE WE ARE NOW We have a working prototype that has been tested in the field {see below}. We call it an engineering mule as it's bigger than the production-ready Orp.It's bigger because it uses the hand soldered Printed Circuit Board. This is the functional model with the hand soldered Printed Circuit Board. The production surface mount board will be smaller allowing the product to shrink in size like the black, orange and white Orps on this page. OUR LATEST PROTOTYPES: These are rapid prototypes of all the molded ready-for-production parts. Production parts for the hard plastics will be polycarbonate. The skin wilth its integral tail/ strap is silicone. This is the schematic layout of the surface mount PCB with all components and their trace relationships. This is a screen capture of the surface nount printed circuit board in progress. Everything fits. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION A utility patent has been filed and Orp's unique sounds have been protected.We've added an additional IP protection as we've developed more unique innovations as we've developed product. PROJECT MANAGEMENT We've conservatively priced out all components at low, Kickstarter quantities and received quotes from our electronics vendor and molder. We've planned a realistic picture of costs and timing to account for the inevitable production hiccups. We've been talking to our key vendors all along the way and have gotten quotes for tooling, production parts and the electronics for both domestic and Asian manufacturing. Being this is a relatively low priced consumer product {compared to a computer or medical device}, production will likely happen in China. Once were funded we'll execute the surface mount board prototypes here in Oregon. Our 3D prototypes on this page are ready to receive these boards.We'll test and optimize the final design as needed and then head to the factory for commercialization. We'll ship from Orp headquarters in Portland, Orpegon. I mean, Oregon. WHY WE NEED KICKSTARTER We need Kickstarter pre-orders to fund production tooling: - Injection molding - Silicone molding - Surface mount fabrication for the electronics: This is where the production circuit boards are optimized to be as tiny as possible and machine assembled. That means an Orp that's super small, bright and loud! -Lastly, FCC certification ORP COLORS AND MODELS AVAILABLE AS REWARDS REWARDS ORP AS A HOLIDAY GIFT What a good idea! If you pre-order an Orp Smart Horn during this holiday season we'll make sure to email you this Happy Hornidays Holiday image above by December 23rd, 2012 whether we're funded or not. Hopefully we'll be funded and you or your intended recipient will get an Orp next summer. A SPECIAL ORP FOR THAT SPECIAL SOMEONE We at Orp have formulated a special Orp in honor of Valentines Day. Now's your chance to say "I Orp You" and really mean it by pledging for this limited edition Carbon Black and Burning Love Aorta Red Orp. If you pledge for this special "I Orp You" Orp, We'll send this card to you via a special link by February 9th 2013 and you can present this promissory Orp to your Valentine. This Orp is also great if you have a thing for Red and Black and/or VW GTI's. This Orp will be delivered by September 2013. DEVELOPMENT PROCESS GALLERY THANKS! With Kickstarter and your Orp pre-orders, we have the amazing opportunity to design and build a product without compromise. It's a product we think is needed and we hope you'll love. We thank you in advance for your support. Finally, we hope you'll tell your bike riding friends and turn them into Orp wanters as well. CREDITS A big thanks to the Orp development team: Ivan Epling, Industrial Designer Cory Pearman, Mechanical Engineer (and co-repairman) Vince O'Malley, Electrical Engineer Jason Wells, Sound Designer Tim Ploeger, Awesome ID Intern Dan Sweet, Web Designer EXTRA CREDIT The Orp video above was done by Jelani Memory. That's his real name and he is amazing. Special thanks to: Derek Johnson of 3D Systems in South Carolina Brian Zeck and Jay Debender of River City Bicycles Portland, Oregon Brad Johnson and Julie Beeler who have been listening to me about this for two years. Patrick Calderon and Johanna Calderon for all their guidance.
on August 17, 2017 Answer: And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him” ( Mark 4:41 ) Isaiah 45:7 God does control everything that happens on earth and in the universe. He is the Creator of all. He can cause a tsunami and He can will that no tsunami come. But from the Book of Genesis we know that God created all things perfectly. Tsunamis, death, divorce, earthquakes, floods, fighting . . . all the bad things in the world . . . are because of sin. It’s not God’s fault these things happen—it is because of sin. Sin came into the world through Adam’s choice to disobey God—we all sin because of Adam. When we sin, it is like telling God we don’t want Him in our lives and that we prefer to do it our way. Terrible things in our lives show us what living without God—without His grace, mercy, and protection—may be like. But those terrible things also show us just how much we need Him! Please remember, Sam, we are all sinners and sin is the most terrible thing in our lives. Because of our sin against God, bad things happen. It is so amazing that even though we don’t deserve it, God sent Jesus who was punished in our place so that we could be forgiven. Those who believe in Jesus will one day live in a place where the bad things will finally be over for good!
Introduction Are you a Backtrack/kali freak? Ever thought of having a similar distribution in your arsenal dedicated for Android Security? “Android Tamer” is the solution to fulfill your needs. What is Android Tamer? Android Tamer is a Linux based distribution developed for Android Security Professionals. This distribution is based on Ubuntu 10.04LTS which includes various popular tools available for Android Development, Penetration Testing, Malware Analysis, ROM Analysis and Modification, Android Forensics etc. This article walks you through various tools available in “Android Tamer” and how they fulfill our real life android Security needs. Prerequisites: Machine with Virtual Box installed. RAM: 512Mb (minimum) Bringing it UP: We can download the latest version of android tamer from its official website ( http://www.androidtamer.com). Currently there are two versions available. Once after downloading, extract the zip file which gives a VMDK file which can be opened with virtual machines like VMware Workstation or VirtualBox. It is suggested to use this VMDK file in virtual box rather than VMware since it is optimized for Virtual Box. To know more about VMDK files, please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMDK . Now, open up Virtual Box and create a new virtual machine instance and boot the VMDK file to start running “Android Tamer”. It greets us with a brand new window which needs a username and password to login. The default username:password is tamer:android. Description of Available Tools: “Android Tamer” has several popular tools preinstalled with the following as its main sections. ROM Modding Reverse Engineering Pen Testing Malware Analysis Forensics Development Vulnerable Lab Tools Rooting Let’s now explore each section and see the existing tool set and how they can be useful. Reverse Engineering: This section contains the most popular Android Reverse Engineering tools which include dex2jar, JD-GUI, APKTOOL etc. APK Analyser is another important tool available in Reverse Engineering Section. APK Analyser is a powerful framework which allows us to disassemble byte codes, analyze application architecture, performing byte code injections in Android Apps and the list goes on. This is one of the best tools available to analyze android apps and comes preinstalled with Android Tamer. Malware Analysis: This is one of the finest sections which includes some great automated tools for Android Malware Analysis. DroidBox is one among them. We can simply, go and use droidbox from its command line by navigating to the directory /Arsenal/Droidbox. In general you may find it difficult to set up droidbox in your local machine as it has some dependencies to be installed to run the tool. Android Tamer sets everything ready for you. AndroGuard is another great set of python tools preinstalled for malware analysis. This is one of the best tools I have seen on internet for Android Malware Analysis.After its release, there are a lot of other tools built based on AndroGuard.You can go ahead and see the documentation available at their official link ( https://code.google.com/p/androguard/ ). Pen Testing Pen testing Section is the right place for you, if you are looking for a strong set of tools to audit the security of your Android Apps or Smart Phone. This contains tools required to audit both “browser based apps” and “native apps”. Tools for testing browser based apps include, BurpSuite, w3af, Firefox with all the required plugins, OWASP ZAP etc. It comes preinstalled with Mercury Framework which is one of the best ones available for auditing android apps. It basically looks for vulnerabilities in IPC end points of an application. Android Tamer also contains Smart Phone Pentest Framework by Bulb Security. Smart Phone Pentest Framework has metasploit kind of functionality to audit the security of your smartphone. Development Development section is one my favorite sections which allows you to write your POC apps during your pentest. Let’s assume, you have identified content provider leakage vulnerability in an application and want to write a malicious app as a Proof of Concept to exploit the identified vulnerability. Tools available in development section come handy to fulfill your needs. It is not recommend for users to use this section for fulltime development as it eats a lot of memory and system goes slow. Eclipse + ADT: Android Tamer contains Eclipse IDE integrated with ADT bundle which enables us to write Android Apps. DDMS:Dalvik Debug Monitor Service is an excellent solution to do things such as interacting with the file system, controlling the emulator, pulling and pushing files from/to the device or emulator, debugging applications etc. Android NDK: Android Native Development Kit enables us to write low level applications in C/C++. Forensics: Android Tamer consists of some preinstalled digital forensic tools. AFLogical Open Source Edition: AFLogical is another popular logical data extraction tool made for Android Platform. It pulls all available MMS, SMS, Contacts, and Call Logs from an Android device and presents the data to the examiner. Sleuthkit is another command line tool integrated to perform in depth analysis of file systems. This tool also has a Graphical User Interface version named AutoSpy. Rooting and ROM Modding : If during your pentest or forensics / device assessment you come across a device which is non rooted and you need to root in order to get gain more insight then the default installation also comes packages with android version specific rootkits. such as Gingerbreak, ZergRush, psnneuter etc. At times it might be required to check for or modify existing ROM's or analyze content on existing rom backup in such scenario's dsixda kitchen is provided which works adds rom modding capabilities to the system. In order to flash these customized packages back into the device we need flashing utilities like fastboot, Flashtools, heimadal etc as flashing tools. It is also combined with some common tools like QT-ADB which acts as a filemanager kind of utility for devices utilizing the ADB interface. Final Words: If you are looking for a framework for your all your android security needs, Android Tamer could be one of the best tools that you can look into.
Whistleblowing group WikiLeaks unveiled plans Saturday to field candidates in at least three states in Australia’s elections and said it would be “embarrassing” if Julian Assange won but could not take his seat. Assange, Australian-born founder of the controversial WikiLeaks site, announced that he would run for the Senate last year and is pushing ahead with the plan despite being holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since June. Greg Barns, a lawyer who is Assange’s newly-appointed campaign director, said the WikiLeaks Party had secured candidates to run in at least three states when Australia goes to the polls on September 14. Aside from Assange, who is expected to be on the upper house ticket for the state of Victoria, Barns said WikiLeaks would present several other “high quality candidates” including a state running mate for the WikiLeaks chief. That would allow the party to take the Victoria seat even if Assange, who sought Ecuadorian asylum in a bid to dodge extradition to Sweden where he is wanted over sex crime allegations, is unable to return to Australia. Britain refused to grant Assange safe passage out of the country, leaving him stranded in Ecuador’s London embassy, and Australia — his place of birth — has been outspoken about his whistleblowing activities. Barns said the WikiLeaks Party “certainly think we’re in the mix to win a Senate seat in each of the three states”. “It would be up to the government to secure the opportunity for Mr Assange to come back to Australia,” Barns told reporters. But he added: “It would be internationally embarrassing for the voters of Victoria not to be able to have in the senate the person for whom they voted on September 14.” Despite the swirl of allegations against him, the WikiLeaks founder is a popular figure in Australia. Assange said last month that he believed the US would drop its grand jury investigation of his diplomatic memo leaks and Britain would follow suit were he to win a seat in the Australian election. To persist would risk an “international diplomatic row” Assange told the Australian news website The Conversation. Barns denied that Assange’s Senate bid was merely a strategy to secure his release from the embassy and return to Australia. “If that were the case he would simply put his name down for the Senate, run in the ungrouped category and hope to get elected,” he said. Assange’s father John Shipton, chairman of the WikiLeaks Party, echoed Barns’s remarks, saying his son was “very firm” in his commitment to politics. “This is the political manifestation of an event that’s been unfolding for 10 years,” said Shipton. “In this way, transparency can have the arm of accountability with some political authority and power behind it.” Assange has vowed to be a libertarian and “fierce defender of free media” if he is elected to the 76-seat Australian Senate. The WikiLeaks Party said more than 500 people had already signed up as members — the threshold to be registered with the Australian Electoral Commission — and that they came from across the political spectrum.
TWITTER France is on high terror alert following various attacks this year French authorities rushed to a church in central Paris amid reports of an attack. Journalist Jean-Pierre Duthion said that police officers were "worried about the crisis situation but did not want to create panic" on Twitter. The police in Paris took to Twitter to say that the area near the Saint-Leu church, between Les Halles and Etienne Marcel was cordoned off and ordered people to avoid the area. A police officer: "There is a crisis situation, we don't want to create panic situation." Étienne Marcel#Paris #France — Jean Pierre Duthion (@halona) September 17, 2016 Intervention en cours des forces de l'ordre sur le 1er arrdt de Paris, évitez le secteur. — Préfecture de police (@prefpolice) September 17, 2016 Mr Duthion also said that there were rumours that this could be a hostage situation. A helicopter was flying over the scene on Saturday afternoon and the police were called at 4:30pm. The journalist at the scene said that police officers were "worried" and "they continued to ask each other" what happened in Etienne Marcel. Twitter Police have cordoned off the area in Paris We are worried about a crisis situation but we do not want to create panic French police There were also reports on Twitter that police squads were on standby in the area. Police have said that the operation is now over, but they were worried at the time. GETTY Police rushed to an area near the Saint-Leu church A police officer: "There is a crisis situation, we don't want to create panic situation." Étienne Marcel#Paris #France — Jean Pierre Duthion (@halona) September 17, 2016 Un hélicoptère en survol à Étienne Marcel à proximité du lieu de l'attentat. #EtienneMarcel #Paris pic.twitter.com/kYKmbU5LgP — Remy Buisine (@RemyBuisine) September 17, 2016 At around 5:30pm, Mr Duthion said the police are leaving, there is no security any more and police trucks have left the area of Etienne Marcel. The Government has released a press release confirming that the event was a false alarm and the details are still being investigated. Twitter Police scrambled to the scene in central Paris
Islamic State leaders fleeing Mosul, US military says A US military official says there are signs that leaders from Islamic State have fled Mosul as Iraqi forces advance on the jihadists’ stronghold. “We’ve seen movement out of Mosul; we’ve got indications that leaders have left,” BBC News quoted Major General Gary Volesky, the commander of US-led coalition ground forces in the fight against Islamic State, as saying. “Make no doubt the Iraqi security forces have the momentum,” Volesky said. Iraqi government forces are moving towards Mosul from the south, while their Kurdish allies have been fighting on the eastern and northern frontlines. It is estimated that as many as 5,000 IS fighters are still in the city, the British broadcaster said. Volesky, however, did not specify who had fled, nor did he say where they had gone to. It’s not clear where the militant group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Some say he is still in Mosul, while others says he has fled the northern Iraqi city. It is possible that fighters leaving the city were simply deployed to the frontlines, according to the BBC’s Middle East analyst Alan Johnston says. It is generally believed that hardcore IS militants are still in Mosul with the intention of defending the city, which is their last major stronghold. The charity Save the Children says 5,000 people from the conflict area have fled to a refugee camp over the border in Syria in the last 10 days, with another 1,000 waiting at the border. In a worst case scenario 1 million people could be displaced by the Mosul campaign, requiring emergency housing and food, Reuters quoted UN officials as saying. The United Nations has warned that some 100,000 people may arrive in Syria from the Mosul area. Iraqi officials and residents of Mosul say Islamic State is preventing people from leaving the city but civilians are fleeing from outlying districts and villages, the news agency reported. – Contact us at [email protected] CG
Mac users have always wished for a modern, top-of-the-line graphics card in their computers. Apple has never answered those prayers. Has this situation changed with the Late 2016 15″ MacBook Pro which sports a Radeon Pro discrete GPU? The short answer is no. The long answer is yes, if your primary objective is performance per watt. The AMD Radeon Pro GPU lineup comes in three options. The base 15″ model comes with the Radeon Pro 450 and 2GB of dedicated video memory. The higher spec 15″ has the Radeon Pro 455, also with 2GB of dedicated video memory. The top dog Radeon Pro 460 has 4GB of VRAM and is only available as a build-to-order configuration. Going from the base 450 to 460 costs $200 while the 455 to 460 upgrade costs $100. My educated guess on a stand-alone price for this Radeon Pro 460 graphics card is $400. The Radeon Pro 460 shares many similarities with the RX 460, a desktop graphics card. These two cards are part of AMD Polaris 11. They have the same PCI ID (67EF) in macOS. In fact, the main difference is power consumption. Apple underclocked and undervolted the Radeon Pro GPUs in its Late 2016 15″ MacBook Pro laptops to cap power consumption at no more than 35W. The Desktop RX 460 consumes more than twice that figure at 75W. And because we’re comparing apples to oranges, I opted to go with the least expensive RX 460 I could find that has 2GB VRAM and costs $80. Let’s see how this $80 budget graphics card performs against the top-of-the-line Radeon Pro 460. For this comparison, I installed the RX 460 graphics card into the AKiTiO Node ($269) Thunderbolt 3 eGPU enclosure. Total cost for this RX 460 eGPU build is $349. The RX 460 eGPU tests were conducted on a Late 2016 13″ MacBook Pro (Thunderbolt 3) and an Early 2015 11″ MacBook Air (Thunderbolt 2). I also tested the RX 460 in a 2010 Mac Pro tower via the PCIe slot to get a baseline for this card. Benchmarks on Radeon Pro equipped Late 2016 15″ MacBook Pro laptops were contributed by our forum members (special thanks to Relvce and benr). These raw performance numbers speak for themselves. Polaris 11 Mac Luxmark 3.1 Geekbench 4 Valley 1.0 Heaven 4.0 RX 460 PCIe 2010 Mac Pro 5,920 77,676 1,094 564 RX 460 eGPU 2015 11" MBA 5,849/7,384(iGPU+eGPU) 68,458 1,005 510 RX 460 eGPU 2016 13" MBP 5,935/8,389(iGPU+eGPU) 70,750 1,002 511 Radeon Pro 455 2016 15" MBP 5,901(iGPU+dGPU) 39,009 798 404 Radeon Pro 460 2016 15" MBP 4,567/6,056(iGPU+dGPU) 47,452 895 495 Apple touts the new 15″ MacBook Pro and its Radeon Pro discrete GPU lineup as providing the best performance per watt bar none. This is true. However, it’s a steep price to pay for a card that scores lower in all four benchmarks than its $80 desktop counterpart. The RX 460 eGPU simply outperforms the Radeon Pro 460 and costs less. The true potential of external graphics cards for Macs and ultrabooks doesn’t stop at budget GPUs such as the RX 460 though. You can go all out with a GTX 980 Ti or R9 Fury X with liquid cooling. For the speed freaks among us, pairing more than one eGPU to a Thunderbolt computer is also possible. They don’t yield 100% performance compared to Desktop PCIe speed but can easily run circles around Apple’s top-of-the-line Radeon Pro dGPU.
Amid the various upgrades announced for Apple’s(s aapl) new iPad was a hot new wireless technology. You might think I’m referring to the tablet’s 4G LTE mobile broadband support, but I’m not. I’m talking about the far less sexy, but no less important, inclusion of Bluetooth 4.0, making iPad the first Bluetooth Smart Ready tablet. Advertisement Prior iPads and nearly all other tablets on the market today, save the Kindle Fire(s amzn), offer Bluetooth support, but those have used the older Bluetooth 3.0 specification. The newer Bluetooth 4.0 technology brings improved power efficiency as well as expanded functionality; particularly when it comes to health-related gadgets and apps. For example, I recently bought and reviewed the latest heart-rate monitor to hit the market; the Wahoo Blue HR. It works like any similar monitor available today, but thanks to its use of low-powered Bluetooth 4.0, the battery inside will last from one to two years. Perhaps that’s not a big deal for something used a few times per week, but consider its importance with other computing accessories. The Bluetooth SIG says it best: “Not only will a consumer be able to buy an ultra-efficient Bluetooth Smart keyboard that won’t require a change of batteries for the life of their new iPad, they can also track the data that might be securely coming off of their many Bluetooth Smart devices through apps on their new iPad.” That means no more fumbling with or carrying spare batteries to use when a Bluetooth keyboard or mouse dies; that’s important for people as they turn to tablets in the place of a traditional PC (subscription required). For Bluetooth headsets, this could mean recharges every few weeks instead of every day or two. Or, as I’ve alluded to recently, more people can use a growing number of mobile devices to track their health and provide a history to their doctors, as the Bluetooth SIG describes: Diabetics can seamlessly and securely track their blood sugar levels from their Bluetooth-enabled glucose meter through an app on their new iPad. At their next visit, they can simply show a chart of their blood sugar levels over the past six months on their new iPad (in full HD) when the doctor asks how their readings have been since the last check-up. When it comes to wireless capabilities on the new iPad, most will fixate on the fast mobile broadband speeds enabled by the 4G LTE support. But don’t count out Bluetooth 4.0 as a hot technology in the iPad. As more Bluetooth Smart gadgets hit the market, the new iPad is already prepared to take advantage of them.
It’s no secret that one of the areas that Windows has the advantage of Linux, is gaming. It’s not that Linux as an OS isn’t capable of running quality games, it’s just that game manufacterers don’t think the Linux gamers can make them any money. For that reason, it’s always nice when a game is released with a native Linux version, like World of Goo a couple of months ago, and Savage 2. Now, the same people who are responsible for the latter are working on a game called Heroes of Newerth. It’s being beta tested at the moment, and yes, the good people of S2 Games provide Windows, Mac and Linux version (both 32-bit and 64!). Even better, one of the communities it’s reaching out to for the beta test is the Linux community, by providing Phoronix 400 beta keys they could hand out. And as could be expected, 400 won’t be nearly enough. The interest in this was huge. When I asked for a beta key yesterday, the reply forum was on its third page, which means I was one of the first. I then left for a walk, and when I came back the page count had reached 12. A few hours later when I went to sleap it was 31, now it’s 38 and the 400 invites are pretty much gone. And that’s not even counting the people who misunderstood and requested their key by mail or in the wrong thread. Phoronix has already asked for, and received, new keys, and they guarantee that if you’re using Linux and you’re interested in testing this, there will be a key for you. Now, because the beta is closed, I can’t tell you that much about the game and I certainly can’t show you any screenshots or videos, but if you have a Facebook account you can become a fan. There’s some content there that give you a pretty good idea of what the game is about. In any case, if you ever played DotA, which is a Warcraft 3 mod, you’ll know exactly how the game plays. If you haven’t, but you have played Warcraft 3, just imagine a bunch of Heroes who decided to drop all the building and raising armoes and just kick the crap out of eachother instead. It’s a little more complicated than that, but the gameplay is definitely faster than in Warcraft 3, and strategy is still present but very different. I can also reveal that I suck at this game 😀 I played one and a half game and managed to kill absolutely no one. Getting killed, on the other hand, was incredibly easy. I set all kinds of records, but not the good ones. I had a lot of fun though, and my teammates were understood the sheer noobness of my endeavors, though some did go “What in the name of all that’s good and holy are you doing?” But the best part of this game? Fast, because I didn’t have to run it in wine. Beautiful, because I didn’t have to run it in wine. At the correct screen resolution, because I didn’t have to run it in wine. And it worked as good as the Windows version, because I didn’t have to run it in wine. If you manage to get your hands on a beta key, go and try it out. It’s well worth it. San Advertisements Like this: Like Loading... Related
The National Rifle Association took to Twitter Monday to make light of the robbery of Kim Kardashian at gunpoint in Paris, which occurred despite France’s strict gun control laws. Wait, criminals held @KimKardashian at gunpoint in Paris? How is that possible? Does anyone know if they passed a background check first? — NRA (@NRA) October 3, 2016 It’s shocking that these criminals did not subject themselves to Paris’ strict #guncontrol laws before committing this awful crime. — NRA (@NRA) October 3, 2016 The NRA even took a tweet from gun control activist Shannon Watts and incorporated it into the tweetstorm. This is why women and mothers want stronger gun laws. @NRA opposes closing background check loophole that allows criminals to get guns. https://t.co/2Ft64129WL — Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) October 3, 2016 Stronger gun laws… like the ones they have in Paris? #askingforafriend https://t.co/xHUhViDtpN — NRA (@NRA) October 3, 2016 Kardashian has previously advocated for gun control measures and met with leaders of the gun control movement. [Image via screengrab] — >>Follow Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) on Twitter Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com
MONTREAL—Lev Tahor, the radical Jewish group accused of raising their children in squalid conditions, has operated for more than a decade as a religious charity with millions of dollars flowing through its accounts, the Star has learned. The group that is alleged to exert strict control over its members’ liberty, health and finances amassed nearly $6 million in assets at its peak and regularly pulled in annual revenues of hundreds of thousands of dollars for the operation of its reclusive community in Ste-Agathe-des-Monts, north of Montreal. Lev Tahor community members head off toward morning prayers at their new location in Chatham, Ont. ( Rick Madonik / Toronto Star file photo ) Financial filings show Lev Tahor’s two charitable guises — Congregation Riminov and the Society for Spiritual Development — are run by the group’s spiritual leader Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans and an eight-person inner circle. Congregation Riminov was registered as a tax-exempt religious charity in 2001, shortly after Helbrans moved from Israel to Canada, where he would later be granted political asylum (the rabbi was deported to Israel after serving prison time in New York for the second-degree kidnapping of a young religious recruit). The charity had a rapid rise in its financial performance under its stated goal: “the operation of a synagogue and provision of assistance to those in need.” Article Continued Below From a draw of $114,865 in its first year, Congregation Riminov brought in more than $1.9-million in 2005 and claimed land and property assets of $5.6 million in 2006. It is unclear what became of those assets and those donations when Congregation Riminov lost its charitable status in 2007 for not filing mandatory information with the Canada Revenue Agency. It took some time before Lev Tahor’s other charitable organization, the Society for Spiritual Development, picked up the slack. It was registered as a charity in 2004, aiming “to create a centre for meditation and prayer, (to) establish schools, to develop spiritual and religious ideals (and) provide assistance to needy people,” according to its annual filings with the federal tax agency. “We do a lot of stuff. We do our schooling, synagogue, our kosher (food) stuff. There’s also the books we are printing,” said Mayer Rosner, a Lev Tahor leader in Chatham-Kent, Ont., who served as vice-president of Congregation Riminov from 2003 to 2007. The Society for Spiritual Development’s financial success had been more modest until recently. Annual revenues between 2004 and 2010 ranged from $20,000 to $36,000 while the organization spent between $15,000 to $89,500 carrying out its operations. But in 2011, the community received a donation from another, unnamed, registered charity to the tune of $4.3 million, CRA filings show. That was the same year that Lev Tahor came onto the radar as a potentially dangerous group. Media in Canada and in Israel took notice when an Israeli judge ordered two teenaged girls returned to their homes after they were sent to Quebec to live with the group. According to news reports at the time, family members feared the girls would have their property taken and would be forced into marrying members of the sect. In 2012, the Society for Spiritual Development transferred $3.3 million to another Jewish charity in Quebec, the Canadian Friends of Holy Land Institutions. Article Continued Below Israel Lowen, president of the Canadian Friends group, said Lev Tahor’s charity had received a sum of money with the expectation it would develop a project for the community’s use. When those plans fell through, the money was passed on to his group. Lev Tahor’s Rosner refused to say who provided the $4.3 million but confirmed it was for an unspecified development that “didn’t work out.” Rosner did say that the Lev Tahor charities receive donations from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, as well as backers in Israel. An Israeli source with knowledge of the Lev Tahor group said community members survive mainly on government welfare payments that are given to the group’s leadership. The money is allegedly then rationed out to the 40-odd families, which has been described as a method of exerting control over members. “Already the payments to families in Quebec are generous. It’s what, $1,700, $2,000 for a family that has five or six children?” said the source in Israel who has assisted former Lev Tahor members. “But the money doesn’t go to the families. The money goes to the sect’s leadership.” “That’s full of baloney and you don’t find that anywhere in any records because it’s not true,” Rosner said when asked about the claim. “There’s no proof of that and you won’t find any proof because it doesn’t happen. It doesn’t exist. That’s all I can tell you.” Fourteen children from two Lev Tahor families who fled last month to Chatham-Kent were ordered into foster care on Nov. 27 after Quebec child-welfare workers found evidence of neglect , poor hygiene and psychological abuse during visits to their homes in Ste-Agathe-des-Monts. Investigators documented unkempt houses where children slept on beds with urine-soaked sheets, surrounded by garbage; cases of children being forcibly removed from their homes and made to live with other families, as well as poor health- and dental-care and a home-schooling regime that failed to meet provincial standards. Children’s Aid officials in Ontario have not commented on the case and have so far failed to act on the Quebec judge’s order . Other details about the investigation, as well as testimony from a former Lev Tahor member who escaped the group’s clutches, are protected by a publication ban issued by Judge Pierre Hamel, who cited a “serious risk of harm” to the 14 children ordered to foster care as well as the larger community. Arnold Markowitz, a social worker and psychotherapist with New York’s Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services who has experience working with cult members and their families, said Lev Tahor has historically drawn its members from within the orthodox Jewish community, where it is difficult to identify how the group differs from other Hassidic sects. His first case involved three teenaged boys who went to Brooklyn for a summer of religious study with Helbrans. The summer ended and they never came home, he said. The most recent case involved an orthodox boy from New Jersey who was convinced by an older relative to come visit him in Quebec. “In the context of the Jewish community, and of orthodoxy, it’s not unusual for children . . . to go and live at a yeshiva (Jewish religious school) and to be away from home,” Markowitz said. “It is unusual that they wouldn’t be in contact.” Read more about:
Man involved in Bridgeport Amber Alert deported in 2013 Copyright by WTNH - All rights reserved Ailyn Hernandez (left), and Oscar Hernandez (right) (Photos: Connecticut State Police) [ + - ] Video BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (WTNH) -- The man who was involved in the Bridgeport Amber Alert on Friday was deported in 2013. ICE spokesperson Shawn Neudauer released the following statement: Oscar Obedio Hernandez, a citizen of El Salvador, was issued a Final Order of Removal by an immigration judge on Oct. 29, 2013. He was removed from the United States by ICE officers in Hartford, CT on Nov. 27, 2013. He has prior felony convictions from 2002 for assault and threatening, as well as several misdemeanor convictions. ICE has placed an immigration detainer with the Bridgeport (Connecticut) Police Department." Governor Malloy's Spokesperson sent a statement to News 8 regarding Hernandez's history: "Our local laws are designed to protect our residents and also ensure that those in harm's way feel safe seeking help from law enforcement. That's why convicted violent felons are detained for deportation under our state laws that the governor has consistently and strongly supported." Police found 6-year-old Aylin Hernandez safe, after she was believed to have been taken from the scene of a fatal stabbing at her home in Bridgeport on Friday morning. Pennsylvania State Police say her dad, Oscar Hernandez, is in custody. It is unclear why Oscar Hernandez fled to Pennsylvania. Police are continuing their investigation. Copyright by WTNH - All rights reserved Pennsylvania State Police at crash scene involving Oscar Hernandez. (Photo: WTAJ) Copyright by WTNH - All rights reserved Pennsylvania State Police at crash scene involving Oscar Hernandez. (Photo: WTAJ) Bridgeport #AmberAlert is over. 6 year-old Aylin has been recovered, her father is in handcuffs, caught outside Altoona, PA. - Kent Pierce (@kentpierce8) February 24, 2017 According to Bridgeport Police Chief Armando Perez, dispatchers received multiple 9-1-1 calls of a dispute. Officers responded to a "horrific" scene on Greenwood Street around 2:45 a.m. where two people were stabbed. Perez said that it is Aylin's mother, 26-year-old Nidia Gonzales, who was found dead at the scene. Officials say another woman was also stabbed at least 14 times and was taken to St. Vincent's Hospital where she is in critical but stable condition. She is expected to survive. Police have not released her name. #Bridgeport Police confirm it is the mother of missing 6 year-old Aylin Hernandez who was stabbed to death in her Bridgeport home. - Kent Pierce (@kentpierce8) February 24, 2017 Just after 4:30 a.m., an Amber Alert was issued, and area agencies immediately began looking for the child. Officials believed that Aylin was with her father, 39-year-old Oscar Hernandez, who police say fled their Greenwood Street home following the homicide. Bridgeport's police chief is visibly shaken by how terrible the stabbing scene was inside home of missing girl. pic.twitter.com/r6LfJejmug - Kent Pierce (@kentpierce8) February 24, 2017 According to officials, Oscar Hernandez had been home when Aylin's mother, whom he has a dating relationship with, and her friend came home, prompting the attack. Police Chief Perez added that the apartment was filled with alcohol bottles, and Hernandez has a criminal history; as well as a protective order in place involving a different female. Copyright by WTNH - All rights reserved Stabbing crime scene (WTNH/ George Roelofsen) Copyright by WTNH - All rights reserved Stabbing crime scene (WTNH/ George Roelofsen) AMBER ALERT UPDATE 6 YO AYLIN SOFIA HERNANDEZ: veh is an Enterprise rental car 2017 silver Hyundai Sonata CT reg AG91925. Call 911 w/info pic.twitter.com/E5ERXeGIuJ - CT State Police (@CT_STATE_POLICE) February 24, 2017 Around 9:30 a.m., Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim gave a press conference with the newest updates on the Amber Alert. Police were looking for a silver 2017 Hyundai Sonata with the license plate number AG91925, that Hernandez was traveling in. Copyright by WTNH - All rights reserved (WTNH/ Brian Spyros) Around 11:30 a.m., Pennsylania State Police announced that Oscar Hernandez had been taken into custody, and Aylin Hernandez had been safely recovered. UPDATE: The suspect is in custody and the child has been recovered. https://t.co/JV4m1AKsFu - PA State Police (@PAStatePolice) February 24, 2017 Once the child was found, the Amber Alert was canceled. AMBER ALERT CANCEL: Bridgeport Police are cancelling the AMBER Alert activated regarding Aylin Hernandez. The child was safely recovered. - NewYorkStatePolice (@nyspolice) February 24, 2017 News 8's sister station WTAJ reported that Oscar Hernandez was involved in a car accident on I-99 near Altoona, Pennsylvania. Officials say law enforcement had been looking for Oscar and Aylin Hernandez in a silver 2017 Hyundai Sonata. A trooper from Phillipsburg saw the vehicle along I-99 and tried to conduct a traffic stop. According to officials, Oscar Hernandez refused to pull over and a pursuit began and other troopers became involved. Officers say Hernandez was travelling at a high rate of speed and struck a truck trailer that was also travelling along the interstate. After the impact, a vehicle struck the back of Hernandez's vehicle and another vehicle and then struck the rear of the initial vehicle. Hernanzdez was taken into custody and transported to the hospital for treatment of his injuries. Copyright by WTNH - All rights reserved Pennsylvania State Police at crash scene involving Oscar Hernandez. (Photo: WTAJ) Copyright by WTNH - All rights reserved Pennsylvania State Police at crash scene involving Oscar Hernandez. (Photo: WTAJ) WTAJ said one police cruiser was involved in Hernandez's car accident. The amount of damage the cruiser sustained is unclear. The troopers involved in the accident were treated for minor injuries. Aylin Hernandez was taken away from the crash scene by ambulance for minor injuries. Northbound traffic along I-99 is being re-routed around the scene. That portion of I-99 is expected to be closed for several hours as the crash is being reconstructed. Officials say criminal and traffic charges will be forthcoming against Oscar Hernandez. "We are all absolutely relieved that after this horrible tragedy that resulted in the death of a young mother in Bridgeport, her six year-old daughter was not harmed, and is being held safely in custody," said Mayor Joe Ganim. "I want to thank everyone for their support and the combined efforts of police, the media, and the general public. This was not the work of one agency. With everyone's quick assistance to this case and the Amber Alert, the suspect was apprehended and we are grateful for the safe return of Aylin Hernandez." Bridgeport Police Chief AJ Perez said, "This is never a good situation, but we are pleased to report the perpetrator has been apprehended, is being detained, and the little girl is safe and in the custody of officials. We can thank the excellent investigative work of our Bridgeport Police Department as well as local police, state police, and law enforcement across the country."
In the CSS Grid Layout Specification, a grid is defined as the following - The grid is an intersecting set of horizontal and vertical grid lines that divides the grid container’s space into grid areas, into which grid items (representing the grid container’s content) can be placed Err… what? 🤔 CSS Grid Layout introduces a lot of new concepts; there are 17 new properties to learn, and many more new terms to understand. This can make getting started with CSS Grid Layout difficult, as new terms reference other terms and you can get into a spiral of confusion. So, here are the basic concepts and terminology of CSS Grid Layout, explained. The Grid Container and Grid Items A Grid starts with the grid container. This, as it's name suggests, is the element that contains the elements of the grid. A grid container is created by setting the display property to any of the following values: .grid-container { display: grid; /* Will create a block-level grid container / display: inline-grid; / Will create an inline-level grid container / display: subgrid; / Used on grid items that are also grid containers */ } The grid container can be thought of like the flex container in the Flexible Box Layout Module (created with display: flex or display: inline-flex ), or a basic Table (created with display: table or display: inline-table ). A grid container establishes a new grid formatting context for its child elements, which are now grid items. Special rules apply to grid items, for example - The float and clear properties do not apply to grid items and properties do not apply to grid items The vertical-align property does not affect grid items property does not affect grid items The ::first-line and ::first-letter pseudo-elements do not apply to the grid container Grid Lines Grid lines are the horizontal and vertical lines which divide the grid. Each grid line has a referencing number, starting from the outer-most border of the grid container. The grid line number is used when placing grid items within the container. We can specify that a grid item be placed at a specific grid line, or span one grid line to another. .grid-container { display: grid; grid-template-columns: 100px 100px 100px; grid-template-rows: 100px 100px 100px; } .grid-item { grid-column: 2; grid-row-start: 1; grid-row-end: 3; } Grid lines can also be referenced by an author-given name. The example below will achieve the same result, but using named grid lines. .grid-container { display: grid; grid-template-columns: 100px [grid-item-start] 100px [grid-item-end] 100px; grid-template-rows: [grid-item-start] 100px 100px [grid-item-end] 100px; } .grid-item { grid-column: grid-item-start / grid-item-end; grid-row-start: grid-item-start; grid-row-end: grid-item-end; } Grid Columns, Grid Rows, and Grid Tracks A grid column is the space between two adjacent vertical grid lines. The size of a grid column is determined by the grid-template-columns property. On the other hand, a grid row is the space between two adjacent horizontal grid lines. It's size is determined by the grid-template-rows property. .grid-container { display: grid; grid-template-columns: 65px 1fr 65px; grid-template-rows: 100px 100px 100px; } A grid track is a just generic term for either a grid column or a grid row. Grid Cells A grid cell is the intersection between a grid column and a grid row. It is a space bound by exactly four grid lines, which makes it the smallest available space within the grid. Grid Areas A Grid area is any area of space within the grid container that is bound by four grid lines. It must consist of at least one, but potentially more, adjacent grid cells. This means that all grid cells are also grid areas. We can make an element a grid area by using the grid-area property, and assign that area to a space in the grid using the grid-template-areas property (or longhand grid-template-columns or grid-template-rows properties). For example to assign the element, .outlined , to the space outlined in purple above, we can do this - .outlined { grid-area: outlined; border: 2px solid purple; } .grid-container { display: grid; grid-template-areas: "outlined outlined ." "outlined outlined ." ". . ."; grid-template-columns: 100px 100px 100px; grid-template-rows: 100px 100px 100px; } The Grid The grid itself is the sum of all these parts. Revisiting the definition from the start, The grid is an intersecting set of horizontal and vertical grid lines that divides the grid container’s space into grid areas, into which grid items (representing the grid container’s content) can be placed Hopefully, this definition is a little more clear!
CCSF faculty pack hall as cuts weighed S.F. EDUCATION Angela Thomas speaks during the City College of San Francisco Board of Trustees meeting to vote on proposals to trim $2 million from the budget. Angela Thomas speaks during the City College of San Francisco Board of Trustees meeting to vote on proposals to trim $2 million from the budget. Photo: John Storey, Special To The Chronicle Photo: John Storey, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close CCSF faculty pack hall as cuts weighed 1 / 1 Back to Gallery Over the objections of labor leaders, trustees of the nearly bankrupt City College of San Francisco were expected to dismantle a long-standing system of faculty leadership on Thursday night to streamline governance and save $2 million. The move would send dozens of department chairs back to the classroom from the administrative positions they have held for years, earning extra pay for that work while being released from teaching. Deans would largely take their place, as is customary at other colleges. Trustee Steve Ngo has called the system a "peculiar and dysfunctional management regime that inevitably existed for its own sake, answered to no one, and (served to) attack anyone who wanted to change the status quo." Faculty members packed the small auditorium at 50 Phelan Ave. and crowded the halls and an overflow room at the college's main campus to protest what they said was a shakeup done behind their backs. They urged trustees not to dismantle the system. "Shame on you," said Debra Wilensky, an instructor in English as a second language. Faculty union president Alisa Messer told the trustees, "Rather than engaging us, rather than consulting us or even arguing with us" college officials acted unilaterally. Messer urged the trustees not to change the system and fought back tears as she considered the downsizing of the college. Downsizing is what the trustees were expected to do on Thursday, perhaps for the first time. The college is fighting to keep its accreditation and could be forced to shut down because trustees have been diffident in their approach to cuts, making only limited reductions even as state funding for City College plunged by $25 million since 2008. Closing a budget gap Now City College must find a way to close a $15 million budget gap expected for the 2013-14 school year, Vice Chancellor Peter Goldstein told the trustees, letting them know that if voters reject Prop. 30, a tax measure on the Nov. 6 ballot, the school's budget would drop by another $11.4 million. The Accrediting Commission for Junior and Community Colleges has given the college until March 15 to repair 14 major deficiencies, including a muddled and bureaucratic leadership structure. Overhauling that was just one of several painful decisions on Thursday's agenda. Another was whether to close the Bernal Heights State Preschool to save $84,000. It's one of four college-run child care centers that are supposed to serve as laboratories for child-development majors and where parents learn parenting skills. Not all of the programs offer college credit, however, and City College spends $700,000 a year to run them. The trustees also were to vote on whether to end summer hours at the other three centers. The trustees approved the hiring of a "special trustee," giving veto power on all accreditation-related decisions to Bob Agrella, retired head of the Sonoma County Junior College District. In closed session, the trustees gave Agrella an eight-month contract at $1,000 per work day, roughly $160,000, and a taxpayer-funded car. Uncollected fees The other issue on the jam-packed agenda was for the trustees to tell administrators what to do about a practice that has cost City College $8.5 million over many years: letting students take classes without paying enrollment fees. College officials revealed for the first time last month that the school loses $400,000 a year by not collecting the fees.
Don’t miss another post like this one! Sign up to get my posts delivered to your inbox here. Every time I post about my kitchen, it seems that you guys love the DIY kitchen island the most. And I love that you love it the most. That piece is pretty special to me. So special that I regularly threaten to be laid out on it when I die. {Insert Grunt Labor rolling his eyes here.} If you have read about the full kitchen makeover renovation, you know it has come a really long way. We knocked down walls, moved appliances, painted cabinets, took out cabinets, dealt with rude plumbers and much more. And it was all worth it. So, here is how we built our DIY kitchen island. DIY Kitchen Island First off, I apologize for the lack of photos of us actually building it. I was pregnant during the process (which was an adventure) and honestly, after it taking a couple hours to figure out how to build it, I wasn’t sure if it would even turn out well. Luckily, I was wrong. The good news for you is that since it did take us a few hours and a few curse words and few cross looks to figure it out, we figured out it was actually pretty easy in the end. So, really if you have basic DIY skills, you can build this island. First off, let me give you the dimensions: It’s five feet long, two feet (and a smidge over) wide and right at about three feet in height. For us, its the perfect size. It functions as a great workspace, we can eat breakfast at it, but it doesn’t take over the entire kitchen. Here’s the materials we used: The legs are old porch columns we purchased from a local architectural salvage store. If you can’t find salvaged porch columns, you can always find them at Home Depot or another local hardware store. We made a frame of 2x4s to go around the columns at the top and at the base. We used wood screws to attach all the 2 x 4s to the columns. The bottom shelf is barn wood that came from my great grandfather’s farm. After the frame was completed, we just used a finish nailer to nail the barn wood into both sides of the 2 x 4s. The top is the same countertop material that is in the rest of the kitchen. There is more info on those countertops here. We did add some 1 x 4s between the 2×4 frame on top (underneath the counter) to give the countertops a little more support. The screws weren’t too noticeable at the bottom, but were at the top. So, after the countertop was installed, we added decorative trim around the top to hide the screws. Its the same trim we used on our built-in bathroom shelving. A coat of white paint and my barstools make it complete. After we finally got our dimensions figured out, it took about an hour (without the countertop – we had pros put that in) to construct. All in all, excluding the countertop, we have less than $100 in it. If you didn’t want a regular countertop, like ours, you could always just opt for wood. You can see more of the kitchen details here or tour our entire renovated rancher here. What do you think of our DIY Kitchen Island? Want more DIY Kitchen Island ideas? Then don’t miss these 7 Kitchen Island Ideas you haven’t thought of… Want more kitchen ideas? 10+ Kitchen Ideas for Decorating, Organizing, and Storage Sign up to get my posts delivered to your inbox here. You know you don’t wanna miss any of this crazy. Stalk Me Here: Bloglovin / Pinterest / Facebook / Twitter / Google+ / Instagram
Notorious ransomware variant CryptoWall 3.0 has caused a staggering $325 million in damages so far, according to a major new report backed by some of America’s biggest cybersecurity companies. As part of its first major project, the Cyber Threat Alliance discovered over 4,000 malware samples relating to CryptoWall 3.0, 839 C&C URLs and five second tier IP addresses used for command and control. North America was most heavily targeted, most likely because of its affluence, accounting for around half of all victims. Over 406,000 attempted infections were discovered by the team—primarily via phishing emails (67.3%) and exploit kits (30.7%). Most phishing emails were sent in the January-April 2015 time frame, with the attackers seeming to change tactics thereafter to concentrate on exploit kits, the report claimed. Angler EK was the most popular exploit kit used. Interestingly, the alliance also believes that those behind CryptoWall 3.0 could be a single group. The report noted: “It was discovered that a number of primary wallets were shared between campaigns, further supporting the notion that all of the campaigns, regardless of the campaign ID, are being operated by the same entity." Unfortunately for those unlucky enough to get infected by CryptoWall 3.0, the report paints the picture of a highly efficient operation running solid encryption, meaning victims usually do have to pay up to get their files back. Even an FBI Special Agent was quoted as saying last week that it might be better for infected businesses to just pay the ransom. The Cyber Threat Alliance was founded last year by Intel Security, Fortinet, Palo Alto Networks and Symantec and has since added to its membership. The group’s aim was to see if a more open approach to information sharing among nominal rivals in the cybersecurity space could advance research. To that end, each member must share at least 1,000 samples of new Portable Executable (PE) malware per day that are not observed on VirusTotal over the preceding 48 hours at the time of sharing, as well as other criteria. Information sharing has become a controversial topic in the US after much criticized info-sharing legislation CISA was passed despite opposition from some major tech firms.
While the company initially wanted a higher rate, they settled at one percent due to the size of the market: “We told them we could compensate price for volume, said Doss. "All companies want to enter Egypt because of the huge market, but we are not letting them in unless they offer good prices. We hope to treat a million patients in Egypt.” The company’s reduced prices came after the World Health Organization worked with Gilead directly to help spread the drug's usage. So what determines who gets a discount and who doesn't? It's simple. Gilead admits their “global pricing model is based on a country’s ability to pay.” While the countries that most need and cannot afford the drug were greatly helped, many other nations may not be able to negotiate such as low price. Isabelle Meyer-Andrieux, an advisor at Doctors Without Borders, finds that “a major concern for us is the price for middle-income countries,” such as Ukraine and China. Meyer-Andrieux believes that the wealthier countries, which had a lower rate of hepatitis C infection, will earn Gilead enough to subsidize the reduced price in developing countries: “They don’t have to treat so many patients to reimburse the $11 billion.” Of the 130 million to 185 million people in the world with hepatitis C, about ninety percent of them reside in the world’s poorest nations, as this 2013 article from the journal Science shows. The World Health Organization hopes that with the price will be further deceased for middle income countries through tiered pricing and generic versions of the medication. So far the tiered pricing has set the British cost to $57,000 for a full treatment, Germany to $66,000 and Canada to $55,000. Though the tiered pricing certainly offers some reduction in cost, many health leaders are left unimpressed by the so-called discounts. “When you're starting from such an exorbitant price in the U.S., the price Gilead will offer middle-income countries like Thailand and Indonesia may seem like a good discount. But it will still be too expensive for many of these countries to scale up treatment”, said Rohit Malpani of Doctors Without Borders. As for the $1,000 a day American price for the extremely effective (and life-saving) medication, Gilead is holding firm that they “think the price is fair. It’s a one-time cost that is your lifetime cost.” In a letter on March 20, Representative Henry Waxman called for Gilead to explain their United States pricing structure to Congress, as part of an inquiry that remains ongoing. This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire. We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.
First responders work at the site of the March 26, 2015, East Village explosion and fire. (credit: CBS2) — Two bodies have been found in the rubble of last week’s East Village building explosion, police said. The bodies were discovered about two hours apart from each other Sunday afternoon. Two men went missing Thursday when the blast and fire leveled three apartment buildings on Second Avenue at East Seventh Street. Though police have not released the identities of the deceased, Tyler Figueroa confirmed one of the two found is his brother, 23-year-old Nicholas Figueroa, CBS2’s Matt Kozar reported. “I know that since he’s not alive he still in our hearts and that he will always be there, and God has another angel to look after,” Tyler Figueroa said. The other body is believed to be 26-year-old Moises Locon. His family provided the medical examiner with DNA samples to help identify the remains. It could take up to a week before they have a definite answer, Kozar reported. The two men were believed to have been in the sushi restaurant on the ground floor of one of the collapsed buildings. PHOTOS: East Village Explosion During a news conference Sunday, FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said the bodies were found about 20 feet away from each other. Firefighters using binoculars from the upper floors of a building next to the debris pile spotted the bodies. Nigro said they don’t expect to find any more victims. “Two people that have been reported missing, we think we found those two,” Nigro told reporters, including 1010 WINS’ Roger Stern. Emergency workers had been painstakingly looking for signs of the two, scooping through piles of loose brick, wood and debris with their hands and using dogs to search the debris. Authorities acknowledged the chances of finding either person alive were slim. An official with knowledge of the operation told The Associated Press that rubble removed from the scene was being taken to a secure location to be screened again for human remains.
A year after the failed coup attempt in Turkey thousands of Turkish nationals have fled to seek asylum in Germany with over three thousand coming this year so far. In the first half of 2017 more than 3,200 Turkish nationals have claimed asylum in Germany, most of them fleeing the government of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan who has heavily cracked down on anyone suspected of being involved in the failed coup last year. The German Federal Agency for Migration and Refugees has said that the number of asylum applications has drastically increased since last year’s coup Die Welt reports. Since the coup attempt on July 15th, 2016 BAMF says that among the Turks claiming asylum have been many government officials. They say so far 205 Turkish civil servants have applied for refugee status and an astounding 209 diplomatic personnel have as well. President Erdogan and the Turkish government blames the Gülen Movement which is headed by Fethullah Gülen, an Imam living in exile in the United States, for inciting and plotting the failed coup. Since the resolution of the incident, the Turkish government has made thousands upon thousands of arrests of armed forces personnel, civil servants, judicial officials and even many journalists. One of the most well-known journalists to have been arrested after the coup is German Die Welt reporter Deniz Yucel. The Turkish government alleges that Yucel was involved in terrorism activities and earlier this year German Chancellor Angela Merkel demanded his immediate release. Prior to the coup, the main asylum seekers from Turkey were members of the Kurdish minority. Kurds made up the majority of the Turks claiming asylum in 2016 numbering 4,400 of the total 5,742 Turkish asylum seekers. In the aftermath of last July President Erdogan has managed to heavily consolidate power by winning a referendum which combined the office of Prime Minister with his Presidency. In the run up to the referendum, the Turkish government attempted to campaign in Germany to sway its large Turkish population but were met with resistance from German officials and Turkish politicians were banned from speaking at rallies increasing tensions between the two countries. Even if the Turks claiming asylum are able to achieve refugee status they may not be out of reach of Erdogan and his government. Earlier this year it was revealed that Imams of the Turkish-German Islamic Association DITIB were actively spying on mosque-goers on behalf of the Turkish government. Gulen supporters and Kurds have also described increased harassment and threats of violence from Erdogan supports and groups like the ultra-nationalist Grey Wolves have been active in Germany as well.
Show full PR text Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Introduces PlayStation®4 (PS4™) PS4's Powerful System Architecture, Social Integration and Intelligent Personalization, Combined with PlayStation Network with Cloud Technology, Delivers Breakthrough Gaming Experiences and Completely New Ways to Play NEW YORK, Feb. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) today introduced PlayStation®4 (PS4™), its next generation computer entertainment system that redefines rich and immersive gameplay with powerful graphics and speed, intelligent personalization, deeply integrated social capabilities, and innovative second-screen features. Combined with PlayStation®Network with cloud technology, PS4 offers an expansive gaming ecosystem that is centered on gamers, enabling them to play when, where and how they want. PS4 will be available this holiday season. Gamer Focused, Developer Inspired PS4 was designed from the ground up to ensure that the very best games and the most immersive experiences reach PlayStation gamers. PS4 accomplishes this by enabling the greatest game developers in the world to unlock their creativity and push the boundaries of play through a system that is tuned specifically to their needs. PS4 also fluidly connects players to the larger world of experiences offered by PlayStation, across the console and mobile spaces, and PlayStation® Network (PSN). The PS4 system architecture is distinguished by its high performance and ease of development. PS4 is centered around a powerful custom chip that contains eight x86-64 cores and a state of the art graphics processor. The Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) has been enhanced in a number of ways, principally to allow for easier use of the GPU for general purpose computing (GPGPU) such as physics simulation. The GPU contains a unified array of 18 compute units, which collectively generate 1.84 Teraflops of processing power that can freely be applied to graphics, simulation tasks, or some mixture of the two. PS4 is equipped with 8 GB of unified system memory, easing game creation and increasing the richness of content achievable on the platform. GDDR5 is used for this memory, giving the system 176 GB/second of bandwidth and providing a further boost to graphics performance. The end result for gamers is new games with rich, high-fidelity graphics and deeply immersive experiences that shatter expectations. Shared Game Experiences Social interaction is central to PS4 experiences, so new features were built into the actual foundation of the system's hardware architecture. PS4 provides dedicated, "always on" video compression and decompression systems that enables seamless uploading of gameplay. For the first time ever, gamers can share their epic triumphs with the press of a button. Gamers simply hit the "SHARE button" on the controller, scan through the last few minutes of gameplay, tag it and return to the game-the video uploads as the gamer plays. Gamers can share their images and videos to their friends on social networking services such as Facebook. PS4 also enhances social spectating by enabling gamers to broadcast their gameplay in real-time to friends using live internet streaming services such as Ustream. During live broadcasts, friends can make comments on the streamed gameplay and, if a gamer gets stuck on a challenging level, friends can also join the game in completely new ways. For example, friends can offer health potions or special weapons when a player needs them most during actual gameplay. Furthermore, users can connect their Facebook account with Sony Entertainment Network account. Through PS4, users are able to deepen their connections through co-op play or "cross-game chat". PS4 Second Screens PS4 integrates second screens, including PlayStation®Vita (PS Vita), smartphones and tablets, to wrap gamers in their favorite content wherever they are. A key feature enabled by second screens is "Remote Play" and PS4 fully unlocks its potential by making PS Vita the ultimate companion device. With PS Vita, gamers will be able to seamlessly pull PS4 titles from their living room TVs and play them on PS Vita's beautiful 5-inch display and intuitive dual analog sticks over Wi-Fi networks1. It is SCEI's long-term vision is to make most PS4 titles playable on PS Vita2. A new application from SCE called "PlayStation®App" will enable iPhone, iPad, and AndroidTM based smartphones and tablets3 to become second screens. Once installed on these devices, users can, for example, see maps on their second screens when playing an adventure game, purchase PS4 games while away from home and download it directly to the console at home, or remotely watch other gamers playing on their devices. Immediate Gameplay PS4 radically reduces the lag time between players and their content. PS4 features "suspend mode" which keeps the system in a low power state while preserving the game session. The time it takes today to boot a console and load a saved game will be a thing of the past. With PS4, gamers just hit the power button again and are promptly back playing the game at the exact point where they left off. Additionally, users can boot a variety of applications including a web browser when playing a game on PS4. PS4 also enables games to be downloaded or updated in the background, or even in stand-by mode. The system takes it one step further by making digital titles playable as they are being downloaded. When a player purchases a game, PS4 downloads just a fraction of the data so gamers can start playing immediately, and the rest is downloaded in the background during actual gameplay. Personalized, Curated Content On the newly designed PS4 menu screen, players can look over game-related information shared by friends, view friends' gameplay with ease, or obtain information of recommended content, including games, TV shows and movies. The long-term goal of PS4 is to reduce download times of digital titles to zero: if the system knows enough about a player to predict the next game they will purchase, then that game can be loaded and ready to go before they even click the "buy" button. PS4 will further enrich users' entertainment experiences, by meeting their potential needs. Gaming in the Cloud Launched in November 2006, PlayStation Network, a network service for PlayStation users, now operates in 67 countries and regions4 around the world with the total number of downloaded content of more than 2.8 billion5. In addition to a variety of games available in PlayStation®Store, PS4 users will be able to enjoy a variety of services offered by PSN, such as Sony Corporation's Music Unlimited, a cloud-based music subscription service and Video Unlimited, a premium video service, as well as various content distribution services. By combining PlayStation Network with Gaikai Inc's cloud technology, it is SCE's goal to make free exploration possible for various games. In the future, when a gamer sees a title of interest in PlayStation Store, they can immediately start playing a portion of the actual game - not a stripped down version of the game. With Gaikai and PlayStation Store, gamers will be able to experience appealing games and only pay for the games they actually love. PlayStation Network and the cloud will offer additional value to PlayStation gamers. SCE is exploring unique opportunities enabled by cloud technology with the long-term vision of making PlayStation libraries including an incredible catalog of more than 3000 PS3 titles6 that is unmatched in the industry, mostly ubiquitous on PS4. SCE will announce new details of PS4 and its robust lineup of games from 3rd party developers and publishers, the independent gaming community and SCE Worldwide Studios, as well as further enhancements to the entire PlayStation ecosystem between now and the holiday 2013 launch. 1 Depending on network environment or titles, users may not be able to play games outside comfortably. 2 Exept games that require peripherals such as PlayStation®4 Eye ). 3 Depending on the version of OS or other conditions, users cannot use the application. 4 Number as of December 31st , 2012 5 Number as of February 19st , 2013 6 Number as of December 31st , 2012, including free trials.
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) - The last known living 9/11 search dog has died in a Houston suburb at age 16. Bretagne, a golden retriever, was euthanized Monday at a veterinary clinic in the Houston suburb of Cypress, according to a statement from the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service. Bretagne was 2 years old when she and her handler, Denise Corliss, were part of the Texas Task Force 1 sent to the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan after the terrorist attack brought down the buildings on Sept. 11, 2001. They spent 10 days at the scene searching rubble for human remains. About two-dozen first responders lined the sidewalk leading to the veterinarian's office and saluted Bretagne as she walked by for the final time Monday, The Houston Chronicle reported. An American flag was draped over her body as she was carried out of the facility. Bretagne retired from active duty at age 9. At 15, she was taken by Corliss to the 9/11 memorial and participated in an interview with Tom Brokaw of NBC News. Corliss told NBC's "Today" that in recent weeks Bretagne began experiencing kidney failure and slowing down. Bretagne was nominated for a Hero Dog Award from the American Humane Association in 2014. An online biography posted by the organization says that Bretagne served as an ambassador for search and rescue dogs in retirement, often visiting elementary schools. Bretagne and Corliss met with former President George H.W. Bush at his presidential library late last year. A post on the Texas Task Force 1 Facebook page remembers "the valiant effort and dedication to finding a victim trapped in a destroyed building that Bretagne showed us on a regular basis."
UPDATE: One of the individuals wanted for questioning in the shooting death of 26-year-old Emmett Wood has turned himself in to authorities. Michael "AJ" Hatcher arranged to meet with Owasso Detectives at the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office to surrender, Monday. Hatcher was interviewed by Owasso Police and placed under arrest for Armed Robbery and Murder, related to the deadly shooting at the Kum & Go in Owasso on July 24th. __ UPDATE: The Owasso Police Department is searching for three individuals as persons of interest, in the shooting death of 26 year-old Emmett Wood, last Friday. Police have identified three men, Jacob (Jake) Pepper,18, Michael (AJ) Hatcher,23, and Antonio (Tony) Pruitt, 22. Anyone with information on the whereabouts of these individuals is urged to contact the Owasso Police Tip Line at 918-272-COPS. __ UPDATE: Owasso Police identified the man killed in a shooting at an Owasso Kum & Go as 26-year-old Emmett Tyler Wood of Sperry. __ Owasso Police responded to a shooting call at 86th Street North and Main around 6:15 p.m. Friday. When police arrived at the Kum & Go, they found a man lying on the ground with a gunshot wound. The victim was rushed to a Tulsa hospital. Owasso Police Lieut. Nick Boatman tells Tulsa's Channel 8, they're looking for a red Chevy pick-up truck, believed to be the suspect's vehicle. Officials are also looking through surveillance video to help with the investigation.
Droughts, wildfires, heat waves, intense rainstorms—these are all extreme weather phenomena that occur naturally. But climate change is now increasing the frequency and magnitude of many of these events. Flooding in Paris and the Arctic heat wave are just two instances where climate change contributed to extreme weather in 2016—and there are many more examples. Yet how do scientists know that global warming influenced a specific event? Until recently, they couldn’t answer this question, but the field of “attribution science” has made immense progress in the last five years. Researchers can now tell people how climate change impacts them, and not 50 or 100 years from now—today. Scientific American spoke with Friederike Otto, deputy director of the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford, about how attribution science works and why it’s a critical part of helping communities prepare for and adapt to climate change. [An edited transcript of the interview follows.] What exactly is attribution science? Whenever an extreme event happens, usually people ask, "Did climate change play a role?" We aim to provide scientific evidence to answer that question within the news time frame—so within two weeks of the event occurring. Are researchers trying to connect specific extreme events or patterns of extreme events to climate change? They’re doing both. My work focuses on specific extreme events—for example, the last attribution study we did was on the heat wave in the Arctic that’s currently happening. All extreme events have different forcings [factors that influence Earth’s climate], and one of the forcings can be climate change. With this research, we can now say an event of this magnitude has been made more or less likely due to climate change, or we can say what was once a one-in-150-year event in the past is now a one-in-50-year event. How does attribution science work on a technical level? What kind of methods do researchers use, and what kind of evidence do they look for? It's kind of like when you roll a die and you roll 10 sixes in a row. You become suspicious that something's wrong with that die, but from these 10 rolls, you can’t determine that it’s a loaded die. To be able to do that, you have to roll over and over again, do statistics on the numbers you roll, and only then will you be able to get an answer. That’s the same way we study an extreme weather event. We simulate what is possible given the current forcings, and we figure out the likelihood of this event occurring in today's climate. Of course we don't have observations of the world that might have been without climate change—what would be the normal die. So we have to simulate that world by removing the anthropogenic warming from the climate models, or by doing statistical modeling on observations of the late 19th and early 20th century. Then we determine what would have been possible weather in a world without climate change. If the likelihoods of the extreme weather event we're interested in are different [between these two worlds], then we can say climate change caused this difference. It can be a difference in intensity or frequency. You said that your team can provide an answer within a news cycle. How is it possible to be so fast? We use peer-reviewed methods, so we basically just apply the same methods used in previous studies to a new event. It's a little bit like doing a seasonal forecast. We also have all the model simulations done in advance, so that if an extreme event happens, we just need to do the analysis. How do you separate global warming's effect from other factors, like El Niño? In our experimental set-up, we simulate the event in today’s world, and then we remove anthropogenic emissions from the climate model's atmosphere, and do the same experiment again. So the only thing we have changed is the anthropogenic forcing. In the simulations, the world we live in and the world that might have been have the same large-scale patterns, like El Niño. So we’re asking, "Assuming everything else being equal, what is the influence of greenhouse gas emissions?" How do scientists interpret extreme weather events where they find no climate change signal? This result is not unexpected and not inconceivable. For example, we know that increased global mean temperature raises the risk of heat waves, just because the baseline is warmer. But it's not just the temperature that is influenced by climate change. For instance, in the recent two-year São Paulo drought, there was more precipitation and more evaporation. In the end, these two effects canceled each other out, and the drought risk itself did not change. Climate change had no impact on the overall risk of drought in this case—but it had an impact on the individual components. We also look at what's the influence of climate change today. It may well be that for some events we don't see an influence today in a world that is one degree warmer. But just because we don't see a signal now, doesn't mean that this is an event that will never be affected by climate change. Are scientists more confident of climate change's contribution to certain types of extreme weather events versus others? There are events where we expect to see an increase, like heat waves and extreme rainfall. In particular, the signal is already quite large with heat waves. Other events are much more complicated. With droughts, for example, the feedback with the land surface plays a huge role, and the atmospheric circulation plays a much more important role. There are also events like hurricanes, where you need very high-resolution models to be able to say something about it—that’s a situation where the technology is just not there yet. I’ve heard scientists say that 20 years ago they couldn’t answer the attribution question. What has allowed the field to advance? The science really only came into existence within the last five years. We first had a technical breakthrough—you need to be able to simulate weather over and over again, and that was technically impossible even in the 1990s. Only in the 2000s did it become an option because of greater computing power. Then in 2003 the methodology to do this kind of research was suggested—the idea that we could use advanced computing power to look at extreme events in this way. But it still needed some conceptual work. In the last five years, we really had a conceptual breakthrough. What’s next for attribution science? The next big challenge is to work on disaster-risk reduction, and on the impacts of extreme events. Because the question people ask is not, “What is the risk of three-day rainfall in Paris?” The question they ask is, "What's the risk of flooding in Paris?" And that depends not only on the meteorological event, but also on other factors, like the size of the river catchment, the management of the river, and all these aspects of vulnerability and exposure. This may seem obvious, but why is attribution research important? Three things: one is that we don't currently know very well what the actual impacts of climate change today are. We can predict the large-scale changes, but global average temperature increase does not kill people. What kills people are extreme weather events. This research allows us to get a more comprehensive picture of what climate change actually means. Second, it provides scientific evidence to the public discourse. When extreme events happen, people ask if climate change played a role. Quite often in the past it has been a politician who has answered that question, and it was completely independent of any scientific evidence. This research also allows us to make better planning decisions. When we know a drought is becoming more likely by a factor of 10 because of climate change, then we know we need to focus our adaptation efforts on that. What extreme event in 2016 had the clearest connection to climate change? The heat wave in the Arctic that’s ongoing. It has been made orders of magnitude more likely due to climate change.
In a small community hall in London’s Soho, a group of young gay men gather. They are 16 to 25 years old. They come from all walks of life but they have two key things in common: They are vulnerable and they are living with HIV. Some of these young men are sex workers, homeless, and drug users. Many have been victims of sexual harassment. Others have traded sex for basic necessities to survive. “Being homeless has made me have sex with people that can provide me with a place to sleep and this means I have little choice about the kind of sex I have,” said 16-year-old Russell. He is, in many ways, the new face of the HIV epidemic—not just in Britain, but also across the world. Globally, young people are now carrying the burden of HIV. According to a 2012 UNAIDS report, youth between the ages of 16 to 25 account for 40 percent of all new adult HIV infections. Each day, more than 2,400 young people become infected with HIV. It is appropriate, then, that this year’s theme for World AIDS Day is “Focus, Partner, Achieve: An AIDS-free generation.” We need to set the tone for a different approach to youth engagement in HIV treatment and prevention. In the U.K., an estimated 107,800 people are currently living with HIV, based on the latest report from Public Health England. Within that figure, the report says, the number of infections among men who have sex with men (MSM) between the ages of 15 and 24 has increased in the past decade from 8.7 percent to 16 percent. In the United States, the story is similar. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that in 2010, young gay and bisexual men (aged 13-24 years) accounted for 72 percent of new HIV infections among all people in the same age range and 30 percent of new infections among all gay and bisexual men. The good news is we now live in a world where treatment of the virus has improved dramatically. Medication can now be taken in a single pill rather than a complex cocktail of tablets. Other drugs have been developed that increase protection against infection, adding another weapon in the armory, albeit a costly one, beyond condoms. So given better public information, better prevention options, and better treatment, why are an increasing number of young gay men, especially in major urban areas around the world, getting infected with HIV? One possible answer is that my own generation, which has fought so long and hard to raise awareness and improve the rights of HIV-positive people, thinks it can use past approaches to deal with the challenges of the future. But that is misguided. The scare messages of the 1980s are no longer relevant in a world where living with HIV, though still a challenge, is no longer an automatic death sentence. The demystification of HIV because of the advancements in treatment has changed the narrative of the virus from skulls and graves to healthy and longer lives. However, this has reduced consciousness of risk among young people, making the message of fear meaningless. The emerging epidemic among young people is not because they really do not get the message about HIV. It is simply that we have failed to understand and examine the factors that are putting young gay men at risk. We need to listen more closely to people like Jason, sitting in that Soho meeting. “I have been through many care homes, many times I was abused by my carers and when I ran away from the care system, I had no option but to do what I have to do to survive,” he said. “I made many mistakes and the result is an HIV infection.” The latest Metro report showed an increase in the number of young LGBT people sleeping on the streets and running away from home because of homophobia and neglect. Charities like Stonewall Housing and the Albert Kennedy Trust, which provide housing support, are finding it hard to cope with the increasing number of homeless young LGBT people. In America, the lingering effects of the 2008 economic crash and consequent repossession of homes, coupled with homophobia, has forced more and more young gay men—black men in particular—to take risks to survive. Another factor is the reluctance in some states to invest in sex education in schools—a sex education that is all-inclusive and explains the intricacies of sex and how infections are contracted during intercourse. The pending Sex and Relationships Education (Curriculum) Bill in the U.K. should be given prominent attention, as this will further equip young people to be in control of their health and well-being. We must realize the need to focus on young people and most importantly young gay men if we are to continue to make progress in the battle against HIV/AIDS. But that focus must not be condescending or judgmental. It has to be empowering and inclusive. The best way to get young people involved in their own health is to work with them. The top-down approach to HIV prevention won’t work. We should partner with them to get the message across, have them at the table, and listen rather than preach. An AIDS-free generation is achievable, but only if we allow young people to develop their own prevention messages and lead their own support groups. Our role, as the generation that lived through the worst ravages of HIV/AIDS, should be to offer our experience and knowledge—to guide but not dictate. Adebisi Alimi is a lecturer in pre- and post-colonial sexual orientation and gender identity in Africa at Berlin’s Freie Universtat and a fellow at the Aspen Institute.
just look at the pretty pictures Introduction How this Huckberry Saga Got Started No VC Funding Grow Intelligently Pay for Growth Earn Growth Who is the Huckberry Section 1: It’s All About the Dopamine Communication Strategy Structural Strategy “Hey - I found something cool for reading that email - I gotta remember to open it again next time” “Hey - this is on the Huckberry site - if they make content this awesome then they are pretty awesome.” If the reader digs the quality of the content then the people who make it should also be pretty awesome as well - again a positive feedback loop for reading the email. everyone Recently paid / fixated on buying something cool Newer subscriber in the Huckberry Beginning to trust Huckberry Content is seen almost as the consolation prize Invest in the introduction to contextualize the rest of the email Analytically evaluates product as “would that jacket work for me?” The sale header images are important for quickly contextualizing products Emphasizes the ‘Closing Sales’ section for product breadth HB Journal Diversions are stumbled upon as a cool feature Longer term subscribers Found cool products & brands Purchase a couple of times See HB Journal Discovered awesome content in Diversions Email open is driven by desire to engage Uses the aesthetic design to feel what’s going on Looking for products to catch his eye Interested in discovering cool products Attention to ‘Closing Sales’ driven by FOMO Knows the HB Journal Expecting Diversions awesomeness Section 2: Telling a Story with Dope Product What am I seeing Why am I seeing it How will this work for me What’s the site? What am I looking at? How do I navigate around the site? How do I get back to where I was? Who are these people? Can I trust them? This is a badass, super-in-depth, critical deconstruction of what's driving the most successful startup in my world,. Read it, save it, like it, share it, or if it's too long -- you'll get the idea of why this tookto properly articulate the magic of what's going on here.If you want to pick-up the PDF version of this monster & support great content like this - pick it up onfor $20 ().In this glorified world of startups where the majority of them primarily look to otheras the way of doing business - there is this rare exception when you stumble onto a product that makes you say “Yes! This is how it’s supposed to be!!!” We all shared this feeling during both the iPhone & iPad announcements - it was simply how a smartphone & tablet were ‘supposed’ to be.In Feb ‘12, the founder of anstartup pinged me with a couple of questions from an article & with an intro to his new company. The format of the email had this tone of “we are doing something epic - you should pay attention” that immediately perked up my ears. The second that I jumped over to the site & pieced together what they were doing - I got gooseflesh (). This little, gave me that iPhone “this is how it’s supposed to be” chills. Here are some excerpts from my notes immediately after checking outfor the first time:produces a magazine-quality publication that it calls “the” with insanely dope articles like thisor the design aesthetic of Dieter Rams (). It was content that I wanted to read but would not have followed / been attention to the places where it would have been otherwise. To make a comparison, Red Bull isn’t an energy drink company, they are an marketing / adventure addicts financing themselves by selling energy drinks.wasn’t a normal retailer - they sell product to pay for the sick articles & content the founders always wanted to read.In stark contrast to the “discount product as much as possible” to generate revenue -approach was to source sick product that subscribers would fall in love with & any discounts would be added bonuses. After looking at the product selection, the Fry meme of “shut up & take my money” immediately popped into my head.Emails were crafted with brand intros, brand pages had the story about the company, product pages identified & explained features - the entire company was built around giving the customer reasons to care about the product & reasons to buy it. It was simply awesome!After spending some time pouring over the site & basically awestruck with the brilliant experience thatwas building - I replied asking when they wanted to hang out (trying to contain my tween-at-a-One-Direction-concert-like excitement). As a guy who loathes formal ‘meetings’ & has a “doing business with friends” philosophy - when they said “let’s hangout” - I knew it was going to be a fun meeting.On a brisk Friday, I rode over to North Beach and walked up three flights of stairs to theoffice where design, photostudio, customer service, marketing, warehouse, and 4 desks all were nicely packed into about 500 sq. ft. This was awesome because it was decidedly different from the $1m+ seed round- it was clear that there was a unique story behind this company. To give you idea of the character of the founders, when UPS would deliver about 50 cartons from a brand - they would be carried up one by one up three flights of stairs, unpacked, then pick-n-packed for each order, and then the guys would walk them down with the UPS guy for fulfillment the next day. This is the type of down & dirty startup-gumption that’s really fun.We did the normal 5-min intro that turned into an hour of geeking out over gear, knives, backpacks, and bikes - after that, we were all kinda cool that it was going to be a fun lunch. What followed will be one of the most memorable experiences of my life - mainly because I had the single greatest meal of my life,for the record) and the conversation was flowing like an ‘87 Chateau Margaux - it was epic!After hanging out with theguys for several hours, I was 120% completely sold thatwas building something special. Over the past 18-mos, I have been enthralled with thestory and after filing a 62 Freedom of Information Act requests ().There are 2 major reasons thatis a special company.During that lunch - we hit the subject of seed rounds and afundraise several times from a couple of different angles. Each time bothemphatically responded that they would not interested in and would not be a round of financing. Considering that nearly every startup I speak to with even a modicum of traction raises a $1m seed round - this almost vehement aversion to raising outside financing kinda caused my head to spin at this pleasant surprise.put up $20k to startupwith the goal of building a company that they were proud of. It’s the kind of language that Nick Offerman uses when discussing the pride of building a canoe - it’s a symbol of craftsmanship and ingenuity.is primarily male-focused with a consistent outdoor / camping / adventure theme - the best analogy that I can make as to how they view building it is:“Going ‘camping’ in a $1m RV isn’t really camping - it’s place shifting.is like a Marine Corp soldier who is dropped in the Sierra Nevada mountains with a top of the line kit.”view raising a round like going ‘camping’ in a $1m RV where all the modern comforts & tech the RV insulate the camper from the realities of nature. They are intimately connected with the product and customer in the same way that the Marine Corp connect with geography, population, and culture for extended campaigns. For example,is custom platform based on how they believe the retail experience should be not how any other company works. They are building out theretail experience prudently - piece by piece, brick by brick based on what’s in the best interest of the customer.This is probably my favorite part ofanswer only to thefamily & customers driven by a sense of craftsmanship. During one of our conversations, Rich commented that:This was a statement that was really cool and has stayed with me for almost two years. It’s in stark contrast to the Andrew Mason /style of growth - where the only thing that mattered was getting a person’s email address. By not raising a round - the growth metrics, although impressive, are ancillary to building product that when you step back & look at it - you are proud of the product. This way of thinking perfectly encapsulates the, founder of, philosophy of building a 100 year company.Additionally - we have had many conversations about how startups scale & grow for the sake of growth or for purposes of raising another round of financing. During one of our many conversations,said:is a remarkable company because of the prudent focus of building long-term friends at the right speed dictated by what’s best for them - not investors or the market.of the daily show regularly that he doesn’t want big government, he wants smart government. In the same vein -doesn’t want to grow big - they want to grow intelligently.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------There are essentially two ways to grow as a startup, you can:This is what I mean by paying for growth - raise a big seed round, hire a sick PR firm on an extremely expensive retainer, and then push your way into high profile publications to generate demand for your startup. Once the PR train is off to the races - customer growth surges because people are ‘interested in checking you out’ not really because they have bought into the startup (i.e. BBM for Android / iPhone). These aren’t the type of customers thatwants precisely because they are not the customers thatis a startup that they will get.The guiding philosophy ofishave repeatedly said that when you send the right email structured in the right way with the right products over a period of time - you earn respect of and builds stronger relationship with the customer. And let’s face it - a decent PR firm charges a $10k/mo retainer and on a $40k startup budget - that doesn’t get a whole lot of value.From my perspective they see paying for growth as a manager saying “respect me because I am your manager” versus earning respect as “here are my actions, you decide whether to give me your respect.”The earn it model comes from basis of respecting the user’s inbox - ifis going to build a relationship with the user, they will need to create a model that compels the user to open the email & start forming the relationship with them. There are two primary ways thatworks to accomplish this:The products they sell must be something that a majority of theteam would buy themselves AND from brands they respect. The goal is to have, at the very minimum, a user open the email and see a bunch of cool gear to drool over.Basically,has modeled itself on Top Gear where ya technically Top Gear reviews cars, but we all really watch it to see Jeremy Clarkson shred the tires of a new Ferrari. The way that I can explain it is:In the process of consistently showing great product from awesome brands -builds a positive brand relationship with the customer who is left thinking “ya those Benchmade knives are sick” regardless if they purchase it.As you remember from the opening section, the first thing that stood out to me aboutis the quality of the. Where most retailers see their blog as a medium to promote themselves or the products they sell,sees it as the way to open the door.Thehas articles that are so incredibly interesting & exciting in way that commands the reader’s attention. Great content also serves as a distributed means of earning a spot in your inbox - great content is shared and this opens the door for customers as a brand touchpoint.Here are some of my favorite articles from 2013:There are three main characteristics of each of these articles:1. They communicate the sense of adventure2. All are visually striking3. Unmistakably CoolGreat content is shared with friends simply because it’s fun to tell the world you found something awesome. The goal ofisn’t to sell you on signing up for, it’s a brand touchpoint that prompts the reader to pay attention and think “Whoa! These guys are dope - I gotta remember to flag this for the next time I see something from them.” The point is to progressively earn the users respect and get them to buy intoas a brand.The best way to think about the“Earn It” model is to think about it like a scoring system from the perspective of the reader:Stumble across interestingArticleSee a cool brand in theStoreInteresting Subject in a HB email that prompts you to openPurchase something fromRead entire HB email & click on a link in DiversionsEventually as the user assigns points -gains cred & earns the loyalty & business of a customer. However, it’s not enough to earn the respect and then simply abuse the customer by pushing them to spend money. Huckberry believes that they need to constantly earn their respect - the adage of “what have you done for me lately” comes to mind. Should Huckberry drop the ball on product or content, the user will get bored and unsubscribe.The most important part of this model is the last section ofemails - the Diversions. Diversions are three of the best articles from around that web that are the last shot thattakes to deliver value to readers. So if the user scrolls through the products and doesn’t find something interesting -can get get a + 1 from the user by sending them to a great article from around the web. Even though these are not on thesite - it doesn’t matter becausestill gets the +1 in the users mind for sending them to something great & thus positively rewards the user for investing in opening the email.So I guess the next line of questioning goes to the fact that does this actually work? Does combining great great with great content actually work? This is how the Huckberry model breaks down:We already know that Huckberry smashes & I mean slaughters benchmark averages - they average better than 3.1x more engagement than retail averages:All of this circles back to the grow intelligently thesis -'s primary focus is to earn the respect of users. When you earn their respect, you begin forming a long term relationship that is like setting a concrete foundation for a house. As the collapse of the Groupon-style business model demonstrates - startups without this foundation collapse.is designed from the bottom up to not let this happen.Now that I have gushed over how cool the company is - let’s start critically analyzing what they are down to create a framework. There are 6 aspects to focus on:. This ‘97 jam kicked off the pop-rap preoccupation with cash & flaunting cash that pretty much hasn’t stopped 15 years later. The track basically talks about how the only thing that is important is to make money and then spend it on really expensive stuff. If we were to apply this to the world of startups - this track should be the anthem to the OMGpops & Groupons of the world - companies that enjoyed immense success (i.e. a hit single) and then collapse when the spotlight moves on.The only thing thatcares about is Dopamine delivered to the customer in a positive feedback loop. That’s mission #1 - everything else waits untilstarts delivering value to customers & earning a spot in their inbox. Once they earn a spot in the inbox - it’s about delivering value to encourage continuing to open emails. That’s what’s hard - constantly delivering a valuable contribution to the consumer regardless if they purchase to match get the right sale.is doing something right because their statistics are pretty impressive:These numbers clearly demonstrate thatis doing something special in their long term approach to building a relationship with customers. There are three primary components to themodel that all work together to provide a constant source of positively reinforcing dopamine to encourage the interaction. The three aspects are:firmly believes in taking the time to send the right email rather than sending a bunch of emails - it’s the quantity has a quality all of it’s own as Yishan Wong would say.Each email is an additive experience with sections successively building upon one another as well as priming the user to theThemodel is built to deliver value to differently depending on the intent of the user. The nature of and relationship with the audience,built a way to generate substantive value for the two primary focuses of readers.3a. Transactionally / Purchase Focused Users3b. Experientially / Consumption Focused UsersSomehow the prevailing ‘wisdom’ inis “if we just send enough emails to customers - then we’ll be in your inbox on the day you want to buy something & BAM! We win!” cough Bonobos cough. Basically - this is like a midfielder wildly punting shots from center pitch to score the winning goal. If you’re going to take a shot - utilize the midfield & strikers to strategically set up the right shot.With retailers and especially the majors like Groupon or Gilt - the constant barrage of emails is simply foolish. Plan & simply - emails that always pitch product is like a guy at a party who won’t stop talking about how much money he makes, how many girls he sleeps with, or name dropping how important his meetings are - everyone gets tired of hearing that because it’s annoying.The epitome of this model is Bonobos - they send a billion emails that basically deliver zero value to the user beyond pitching product. Let’s take a closer look at a recent email from Sept 11th -This strategy hasn’t been working all too well for Bonobos. One of the main reasons is that this brand touchpoint delivers almost zero value (i.e. no reward / dopamine) for the user’s investment (i.e. opening the email). The overwhelming majority of us are not even conscious that this cost / benefit scenario is happening. It functions like a - 1 point in our subconscious scoring system that disincentivizes us from opening the next email. After all, whyI open the next email when this one wasn’t useful for me?What’s happening is the interaction is informing the experiential knowledge-base in our brain that begins to establish a connection between Bonobos emails & a lack of value for me. The brain begins to discount the value of evening receiving these emails because they don’t deliver value for the utterly simple investment of opening the email.This essentially defines how's communication strategy systemically differs from other retailers. In early ‘13 I was hanging out at theoffice and we were making fun of this technique, whensaid:'s strategy is to send +/- five or six really well done emails per month that methodically deliver value to the reader.followed up a bit later with:Whensaid that - the flare gun erupted in the night sky and the structural nature of themodel became increasingly apparent. Over the past year - I have been paying especially close attention to how they accomplish this. Although most of my comments / analysis would not be confirmed or denied - this is what I see going on.The structure of every email is designed to deliver value (i.e. dopamine) to the reader in a way that works to foster a relationship. This is the basic anatomy of theemail:Each part of the email serves a specific function designed to create a deeper more valuable experience for the user. Let’s break out each of the main parts and really dive into how the goal of each section is designed to deliver value.The introduction is the story that will unify the product narrative of the entire email. This will prime the brain to guide the expectations of what is coming next. The Introduction is provides the opportunity forto explain what you are seeing & why you will like the productsHuckberry is a business that sells products that people want to buy. They aren’t a daily deal site where the core value proposition is basically an outlet mall a la Gilt. The goal is to introduce great products from interesting brands for the primary purpose of piquing the reader’s interest to check out more. The goal here is to get the reader excited about discovering something cool - that delivers a positive feedback loop or that Dopamine reward to the brain.If the reader decides to purchase - that’s awesome! But that’s not the goal - the goal is to deliver value. Whendelivers value it creates a positive feedback loop that will encourage the next open.I swear to god that the retail side of Huckberry is merely the financing vehicle that allowsto build the magazine that they always wanted to read -. When the reader sees something interesting in the. For the HB Journal articles that are on thesite - clicking on these articles fosters a double-positive feedback loop:There are three primary components of the content section that work together to contribute value to the user:The structure of theemail is designed to systematically offer a payoff at different places for the reader’s investment in simply opening the email. I keep referring to opening an email as an ‘investment’ but you would be surprised by how highly the subconscious values this action when there is no reward for taking it.The goal of structuringin the way they have is to deliver value & earn a spot in the user’s inbox. The more time that I have spent analyzing theModel - the structure isn’t the magic that blows my mind - it’s the fact that the same email has been designed to deliver different value to readers with completely different user intent.It’s the same product (an email) without anyorstrategies -sends the same version of the email to. However, the structure of the email, how it’s designed, logically laid out, and delivered to the reader delivers different rewards to the reader based on their mood / intent when reading it.Without getting overly complicated, there aretwo different focuses for thereader:Now let’s look at how each of these different focuses deliver different value propositions & positive feedback loops to the user.The Transactional / Purchase Focus is definitely the more challenging style to deliver a valuable experience for because if the intent isn’t rewarded, it adversely impacts the feedback loop. The people whofall into this category are:Obviously the goal ofis to sell product as frictionlessly as possible - the customer sees something they want & they should be able to acquire it. However,sees this type of user as an opportunity to communicate the value of continuing to engage with- it’s never about the sale today when you can get 10 orders over the course of the relationship.That being said - the story that narrates how a Transactionally Focused user will work through the email is:The structural nature of theexperience is designed to address the goal of buying something while systemically building credit to start trustingmore and becoming a more engaged fan.When a customer has an objective - in this case “I want to buy something” - the retailer needs to be constantly support delivering value to enable them to achieve that goal. When barriers get in the way of the user in the pursuit of that objective (like checkout login error) - all of the retailer’s momentum grinds to a halt.You know how YouTube incessantly annoyed users about “using your real name” for like a damn year. If the objective of the user is to watch a simple YouTube clip - then interfering with that mission pisses people off. Although YouTube was trying to do a good thing for the entire community by promoting real names for comment civility - they approached it in a bullhorn / strong armed way that pissed users off - I refuse to change out of spite for how annoying this was.Themethodology involves consistently communicating visual context to the user to support them in accomplishing his goal. The subject of the email creates keywords in the user’s head that is refined during theintroduction.The reader probably skimmed the subject but every subject gives a pretty good idea of the narrative for the email. The reason that's email subjects are important is because simply reading the subject & making the decision to open the email starts the brain pre-processing the contents of the email. For example, in the emailimplicitly delivers a meta-knowledge transfer of:These keywords set expectations about what will be contained in the emails - they form the basis of a story in the brain (i.e. I am going to open this email and see things related to the graduate - these 5 things are what I associate with the graduate, so it’s reasonable to assume that. The value in the introduction is to refine that list of contextual clues:gently provides clues to the next products. The omission of “plastics” is a clear sign thatisn’t going to be advocating the future of business. This is why I have so much respect for- the amount of thought, effort, investment, & sophistication required to pull this off as a product is more advanced than anything that I have ever seen.This introduction casually guides the customer with keywords contextual clues that set the expectation (i.e. the next product isn’t going to be a skateboard). Since the user’s focus is to “buy something cool” - the first association in the user’s mind is “will this work for me?”Once the context has been set & a narrative is forming in the user’s mind - the goal of the transactionally focused customer is to figure out something to buy. The primary evaluation criteria is “will this work for me” because the purchase is a function of fitting into the existing closet / style of the customer.users image headers that are visual guides to quickly provide a ton of information. Here are some of the headers from the same,email:If the header’s story connects & the customer likes it - awesome! Dopamine, sweet, beautiful Dopamine hits the brain. If the one image doesn’t connect, the user can quickly transition to the next brand without leaving a bad taste in your mouth.The Closing Sales section are the products / brands thatalign with this particular email - obviously, they can’t all matchtheme of the email, but theteam tries. The incentive for the customer is to quickly move through the 12 - 15 brands in this section that might scratch that “I want to buy something itch.” If there is something that catches his eye - Boom! Dopamine!The goal is deliver value for looking at the email & prove the value ofover time.The overwhelming majority of's subscribers fall into the Experientially focused category. There are generally:Even the structure of the email and all of its contents are exactly the same as the Transactionally Focused user - the Dopamine payoff is different because of how this user will experience each section & what he will focus on. This is how this story plays out:This is the type of relationship thatis the absolute Best of the Best at cultivating - the entire experience is built around creating an environment that encourages this. When users begin to interact withemails over time - it becomes glaringly obvious that the point is to build a connection with the reader in order to build a friendship.The structural ways thataccomplishes this are:emails look damn good - anyone who looks at the email as a whole can tell that a lot of thought & effort was put into creating them. Groupon used to pride itself on how they use copy editors to make their emails funny.This systemically different fromapproach in that the email is about delivering a quality experience that makes the user feel like the company cared enough to spend the time to do it right. Considering all the automated crap that we all receive - it’s rewarding (i.e. Dopamine) when you receive a quality product.The Experientially Focused user has spent time with& built a level of trust in the fact that they will introduce awesome products to him. When the Experientially Focused customer finds something cool - it signifies the payoff for the investment of opening the email.It’s not about acquiring the product - simply that continuing to receive the emails will lead to finding more cool stuff. The interwebs is a way too big & it requires way too much work to stay follow 20 different blogs of cool gear - no one has the time to do that. That’s whydelivers value because it functions like a trusted filter for the best products.The more focus that a user pays to theis the strongest indicator that the user is trustingmore and more. We all are extremely busy & remember to go to a blog is a challenge that the majority of the internet has given up on.Thesection provides the “Editor’s Picks” for the articles that the user should read. When the user readers a great article - it creates this positive feedback loop that “Thoseguys are cool because cool people write cool stuff.”After the user experiencing that feeling after 3 or 4 articles - the level of trust increases dramatically. This creates an incentive to open the nextemail because the user can trust that there will be something valuable in theThe Diversions section is a fairly unique part of themodel because it sends the user completely away from anyproperty. There ONLY purpose of this is to deliver something valuable to the reader - you aren’t on thesite, it doesn’t promote them, or putin a position to make money from you.The goal is to earn the readers trust in the same way that your buddy would post a great article on your Wall because you will like it. Discovering greatis hard enough between- so having a resource that can point you in the direction of 3 great articles is really valuable.Our conscious mind can function because our brains are filtering billions of data points (i.e. stimuli) our constantly - where there are a series of connected events (i.e. people screaming & smoke in a building) the conscious mind is notified for the person to take action. Our brains are always trying to interpret the world around us and logically connect the dots - we are constantly creating stories that rationalize what’s going on in the world around us.We are built on stories - we love them. However, when the dots don’t connect and we lose track of the story - it’s jarring to us and then the brain invests the CPU cycles to try & figure it out.When it comes to retail - the story is incredibly important. There needs to a logical build for:When the story is nailed - the barriers to entry (i.e. buying a shirt) drops dramatically because the story makes sense. This is why affiliate business models for blogs don’t work all that well - the user is in a content consumption mode (i.e. passive interaction) in a stylized space (i.e. a pretty blog). However, when the reader clicks an affiliate link, it slams the reader to a completely different site with a different design transforming the experience from passive consumption to active transactional.When in a content consumption mode - clicking on a link implicitly means that more content will be presented to the user - it’s logical. However, when it comes to clicking on an affiliate link, the action hammers the brain with tons of new data. From the mindset of the user:This experience is jarring to the majority of consumers on the web (obviously - the tech-savvy understand the concept of an affiliate link & prime the brain with the expectation that things will change).The story is all that matters & retailers, as a whole, are terrible at telling stories that create a compelling retail experience. Here isat the Edinburgh film festival closing his speech with the power of story: Continue Reading In the previous section, we talked about how the's focus is on creating value and delivering a hit of Dopamine to readers. We are going to take this a step further and talk about how themodel is built on creating story narratives to drive an unparalleled retail experience.Everyemail tells a story that is designed to connect the dots for the reader to enable retail. Here is how the structure of the email dynamically builds a story that the reader can connect with:The subject of every email tells a story - it grabs the readers attention & works to prime with with contextual clues about what’s going to be in the email. The subject is the unifying theme that will make the email gel together.This is the header image that starts off the email - it’s designed to be a visual representation of the email’s subject to begin connecting the dots for the reader. If the theme is camping and the outdoors - the header image is the first visual clue that serves as the image to unify the experience.Here are some of my favorite header images:This has always been one of the coolest features of themodel. Telling a story creates a narrative that the reader can get behind & support. The commentary serves as the primer to the rest of the email and provides contextual cues to help guide the subsequent sales.Men especially, but people in general, are visual animals - a picture is worth a thousand words. A picture evokes memories & experiences that are refined by the introduction to fit a story.that drove me insane:Setting up the story properly makes it easier for the user to get behind a story. Additionally, the waysetups emails with high quality introductions they create a segway into the supporting brands section.These are the brands thathas paired with the theme of the email - these are not randomly thrown together. These supporting brands are methodically selected & organized to create a valuable experience for the reader. Each brand starts with a header image set on a visual background and supported by a sentence or two describing the products.Emails that just show a bunch of products are distracting primarily because the brain is constantly scrambling to connect the dots and create stories to fit everything together. Again - this is why programmatic email marketing deals have a long way to go to rival the value created by a person using a brain.Here is one of my favorite examples of how a supporting brand sells a story:Put simply - this visual tells a story about the brand, provides an overview of the products, and primes the reader to investigate more - the image answers the who/what/where style questions without almost any meaningful cognitive investment by the user.Reading requires that users buy-in and make a decision to invest their attention in learning more. Throughout this article, we have placed an enormous value on rewarding the user for the seeming simple investment in opening an email - when you require that a reader devote attention & focus the payoff required by the user increases dramatically.Should the email not deliver a value for the investment - it jades the rest of the email (i.e. I spent time looking at that crappy product) and skews the next items on the table. Users rarely double down and think “oh that sucked - I better look pay even more attention to the next thing” - that just doesn’t happen.From the narrative subjects of the emails to the introductions, and supporting brand stories - the entire structure of theemail is designed to logically pull the reader through a story and drive a better retail experience.If you are working on a new project for ‘14 or working on strategy during the holidays, please pick up a copy of it here:available for $30
Resident robbed on Woodlands bike pathway THE WOODLANDS - Montgomery County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a robbery in the 2100 block of Lake Robbins Drive around 1:20 p.m. Friday. The complainant reported that he was on a bike pathway, located at the northeast corner of Town Green Park by the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, when a male wearing a red-colored hoodie approached him. Reportedly, the male showed what the complainant believed was a handgun in the front right-side pocket of his hoodie and demanded his wallet and personal property. The complainant complied with the demands of the perpetrator, who fled on foot in an unknown direction. MCSO Units responded to the location but were unable to locate the assailant. Description of the perpetrator is a young adult black male, reportedly wearing a red hoodie. The investigation is ongoing and investigators are in the process of reviewing evidence. Anyone with information is requested to contact Senior Sgt. J. Malmay, with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office Crime Reduction Unit, at 281-297-6524 or Crime Stoppers. Crime Stoppers will pay up to a $1,000 cash reward for information leading to an arrest or indictment of a felony crime. Call 800-392-STOP (7867). Anonymous tips also can be made through the Montgomery County Crime Stoppers Web page at www.montgomerycountycrimestoppers.org.
amazingxkcd Profile Blog Joined September 2010 GRAND OLD AMERICA 15736 Posts #2 + Show Spoiler [Polls] + The world is burning and you rather be on this terrible website discussing video games and your shallow feelings amazingxkcd Profile Blog Joined September 2010 GRAND OLD AMERICA 15736 Posts #3 All aboard the hype train! \o/ The world is burning and you rather be on this terrible website discussing video games and your shallow feelings prech Profile Joined March 2014 United States 2947 Posts Last Edited: 2015-05-16 20:11:58 #4 Too much talent... relegating, Sea, Kwanro, Killer, Shuttle, to this prelim round Wonder how they're going to broadcast this, with so many matches going on... we may have to rely on watching VODs after the fact At least it's not a Bo1 and (hopefully) we don't see some crazy upsets! Exciting, SSL 11 is finally upon us!Too much talent... relegating, Jaehoon to this prelim roundWonder how they're going to broadcast this, with so many matches going on... we may have to rely on watching VODs after the factAt least it's not a Bo1 and (hopefully) we don't see some crazy upsets! Liquipedia Qikz Profile Blog Joined November 2009 United Kingdom 10996 Posts #5 Gogo Hyuk and Kwanro. SKT fighting~! FanTaSy's #1 Fan \| STPL Caster/Organiser \| SKT BEST KT \| https://twitch.tv/qikzsd amazingxkcd Profile Blog Joined September 2010 GRAND OLD AMERICA 15736 Posts #6 On May 17 2015 04:44 Qikz wrote: Gogo Hyuk and Kwanro. SKT fighting~! lol skt zergs lol skt zergs The world is burning and you rather be on this terrible website discussing video games and your shallow feelings FlaShFTW Profile Blog Joined February 2010 United States 8205 Posts #7 wait did tossgirl race switch to protoss? shes listed as toss right now. Writer #1 KT and FlaSh Fanboy \|\| Woo Jung Ho Never Forget \|\| Author of the SC:R Power Rank Qikz Profile Blog Joined November 2009 United Kingdom 10996 Posts #8 Is someone going to upload vods of these? I won't be able to watch live unless I use mobile data while in the passanger seat of a car >_< FanTaSy's #1 Fan \| STPL Caster/Organiser \| SKT BEST KT \| https://twitch.tv/qikzsd Alucen-Will- Profile Joined October 2014 United States 3998 Posts #9 Is sayle going to cast this at all? I'd love to tune it to an english cast if possible as my korean is still not the best c3rberUs Profile Blog Joined December 2010 Japan 11274 Posts #10 Are they going to play all the groups? That's a lot games o.o I probably won't make it to the end >.< Writer Movie, 진영화 : "StarCraft will never die". N.geNuity Profile Blog Joined July 2009 United States 5007 Posts #11 I hope they dont try to do 12 bo3s starting at 1900 kst lol And if it isnt all broadcast that would be lame iu, seungah, yura, taeyeon, hyosung, lizzy, suji, sojin, jia, ji eun, eunji, soya, younha, jiyeon, fiestar, sinb, jung myung hoon godtier. BW FOREVERR BLinD-RawR Profile Blog Joined April 2010 ALLEYCAT BLUES 43985 Posts Last Edited: 2015-05-17 01:51:55 #12 On May 17 2015 09:11 Alucen-Will- wrote: Is sayle going to cast this at all? I'd love to tune it to an english cast if possible as my korean is still not the best if you can understand korean then you're already doing better than almost all of us, that said you'd have to look at Amazingxkcd for some good english casting, maybe with BisuDagger. don't expect sayle to cast until the Ro8. if you can understand korean then you're already doing better than almost all of us, that said you'd have to look at Amazingxkcd for some good english casting, maybe with BisuDagger.don't expect sayle to cast until the Ro8. Moderator Woo Jung Ho, never forget.\| Twitter: @BLinDRawR amazingxkcd Profile Blog Joined September 2010 GRAND OLD AMERICA 15736 Posts #13 On May 17 2015 10:50 BLinD-RawR wrote: Show nested quote + On May 17 2015 09:11 Alucen-Will- wrote: Is sayle going to cast this at all? I'd love to tune it to an english cast if possible as my korean is still not the best if you can understand korean then you're already doing better than almost all of us, that said you'd have to look at Amazingxkcd for some good english casting, maybe with BisuDagger. don't expect sayle to cast until the Ro8. if you can understand korean then you're already doing better than almost all of us, that said you'd have to look at Amazingxkcd for some good english casting, maybe with BisuDagger.don't expect sayle to cast until the Ro8. ah <3 I plan to wake up to cast any available matches (hopefully I dont oversleep zzzz) ah <3I plan to wake up to cast any available matches (hopefully I dont oversleep zzzz) The world is burning and you rather be on this terrible website discussing video games and your shallow feelings BLinD-RawR Profile Blog Joined April 2010 ALLEYCAT BLUES 43985 Posts #14 On May 17 2015 10:59 amazingxkcd wrote: Show nested quote + On May 17 2015 10:50 BLinD-RawR wrote: On May 17 2015 09:11 Alucen-Will- wrote: Is sayle going to cast this at all? I'd love to tune it to an english cast if possible as my korean is still not the best if you can understand korean then you're already doing better than almost all of us, that said you'd have to look at Amazingxkcd for some good english casting, maybe with BisuDagger. don't expect sayle to cast until the Ro8. if you can understand korean then you're already doing better than almost all of us, that said you'd have to look at Amazingxkcd for some good english casting, maybe with BisuDagger.don't expect sayle to cast until the Ro8. ah <3 I plan to wake up to cast any available matches (hopefully I dont oversleep zzzz) ah <3I plan to wake up to cast any available matches (hopefully I dont oversleep zzzz) Moderator Woo Jung Ho, never forget.\| Twitter: @BLinDRawR repomaniak Profile Joined January 2009 Poland 253 Posts #15 On May 17 2015 09:11 Alucen-Will- wrote: Is sayle going to cast this at all? I'd love to tune it to an english cast if possible as my korean is still not the best dude do u need some time off from the forums? i think rejecting korean language while watching starcraft is like walking to a bar for water. dude do u need some time off from the forums? i think rejecting korean language while watching starcraft is like walking to a bar for water. Elyvilon Profile Joined August 2008 United States 6666 Posts Last Edited: 2015-05-17 02:32:47 #16 WOO Brood War! It's been a while. Prepare your Style Start SBENUs? Liquipedia Probemicro Profile Joined February 2014 3708 Posts Last Edited: 2015-05-17 02:35:56 #17 and apparently that would be held earlier in the day, like 4pm. C1 - (P) vs (fake) iloveoov (T) C2 - (T) vs D.Villa[Shield] (Z) C3 - (T) vs (Z) Mae.pOse online qualifiers left out of OP?and apparently that would be held earlier in the day, like 4pm.C1 - (P) Hi vs (fake) iloveoov (T)C2 - (T) Minam vs D.Villa[Shield] (Z)C3 - (T) Icarus vs (Z) BisuDagger Profile Blog Joined October 2009 Bisutopia 16634 Posts #18 On May 17 2015 10:59 amazingxkcd wrote: Show nested quote + On May 17 2015 10:50 BLinD-RawR wrote: On May 17 2015 09:11 Alucen-Will- wrote: Is sayle going to cast this at all? I'd love to tune it to an english cast if possible as my korean is still not the best if you can understand korean then you're already doing better than almost all of us, that said you'd have to look at Amazingxkcd for some good english casting, maybe with BisuDagger. don't expect sayle to cast until the Ro8. if you can understand korean then you're already doing better than almost all of us, that said you'd have to look at Amazingxkcd for some good english casting, maybe with BisuDagger.don't expect sayle to cast until the Ro8. ah <3 I plan to wake up to cast any available matches (hopefully I dont oversleep zzzz) ah <3I plan to wake up to cast any available matches (hopefully I dont oversleep zzzz) I'm traveling to Seattle for work next week and Alabama the same day I return from Seattle. June will be my return to casting. Until then enjoy some epic xkcd. I'm traveling to Seattle for work next week and Alabama the same day I return from Seattle. June will be my return to casting. Until then enjoy some epic xkcd. Moderator Ofiicial Afreeca Starleague Caster: http://afreeca.tv/ASL2ENG2 GTR Profile Blog Joined September 2004 47912 Posts #19 if xkcd doesn't wake up in time i'll offer to cast i guess but don't consider it a permanent solution Commentator Twitter: @GTR1H Stream: http://www.twitch.tv/GTR1H 9heart Profile Joined January 2011 Canada 495 Posts #20 On May 17 2015 13:55 GTR wrote: if xkcd doesn't wake up in time i'll offer to cast i guess but don't consider it a permanent solution i can co-cast if you want also GO KILLER i can co-cast if you wantalsoGO KILLER Larva appears to have gone for a 3 hatch spire into lurker into hive before muta, into defiler guardian...off 2 base... 1 2 3 4 5 9 10 11 Next All
Feature It is far more common to find routers with critical flaws than without – Craig Young It's sad that end-user education about strong passwords, password safes, and phishing can be undone by something as innocuous as the blinking box in the corner of your room. – Peter Adkins Introduction Home and small business router security is terrible. Exploits emerge with depressing regularity, exposing millions of users to criminal activities. Many of the holes are so simple as to be embarrassing. Hard-coded credentials are so common in small home and office routers, comparatively to other tech kit, that only those with tin-foil hats bother to suggest the flaws are deliberate. Hacker gang Lizard Squad crystallised the dangers – and opportunities – presented by router vulnerabilities when over the Christmas break they crafted a slick paid denial of service stresser service that operated on hacked boxes. Customers were found paying to flood targets of choice with gigabits of bandwidth stolen from what the black hats claimed were a fleet of half a million vulnerable and subsequently hacked routers. A year earlier, security boffins at Team Cymru warned that an unknown gang had popped 300,000 routers in a week, altering the DNS settings to point to malicious web entities. Those routers were hacked through a self-propagating worm (PDF) that researchers had already warned about, but not yet seen. It used a mix of brute force password guessing of web admin consoles, cross-site request forgery, and known un-patched vulnerabilities. Arguably the most infamous hack in recent months was Check Point's so-called Misfortune Cookie discovered in December 2014. This vulnerability was thought to impact a staggering 12 million routers across 200 models from big names such as Linksys, D-Link, TP-Link, ZTE, and Huawei. Affected routers could be hijacked with a crafted cookie that allows attackers to meddle with just about everything on the units, from password theft to alterations to DNS and infection of connected devices. In October Rapid7 had chipped in with its own research, warning that NAT Port Mapping Protocol configurations in 1.2 million routers was sufficiently borked that remote attackers could spy on internal traffic. Security is 'abysmal' "Router security remains abysmal, especially among the cheapest brands,” says John Matherly, founder of the popular Shodan search engine, which crawls for internet-connected devices. “Backdoors, no automated patching and default usernames and passwords are just a few of the problems that many SOHO routers continue to face.” Matherly last month dug up an estimated 250,000 routers used in Spain that were using the same SSH keys, placing those configured for remote access at heightened risk. He also points to research published two days later by Entrust Solutions hacker Nabin Kc, who found 200,000 home routers contained a firmware backdoor, a flaw replicated across 10 different vendors who seemed to be re-branding a vanilla router. Matherly says badge-engineering seems a common practise for vendors that compete on price over form or function. “It seems that the rate of security problems discovered with routers is only limited by the number of security experts that take the time to analyse the devices,” he says.
The inquiry into the death of Baha Mousa is due to report by the end of the year. It will detail how Mousa died in Iraq in September 2003, allegedly brutalised by British soldiers in a "free for all"; and how it was that he and nine other men in the same incident were allegedly hooded, forced into painful stress positions, and deprived of sleep, food and water. The Guardian article this week, which reported that many more civilians died in army custody than previously thought, should shock the conscience of the nation. The evidence of Lieutenant Colonel Mercer to the inquiry reveals that as early as May 2003 – four months before Mousa's death – there were "a number of deaths in custody" with "various units". It appears there were, by then, at least nine deaths. The Ministry of Defence refuses to answer questions from us or the Guardian as to where, how or why these Iraqis died, and refuses to confirm or deny whether any of these deaths were ever investigated and if so with what outcome. Although we are acting for one family referred to in the article, we have no idea about the other cases. And the story could be a lot worse: an ex-Royal Military Police (RMP) major told BBC radio last October that there were "hundreds" of similar cases. Further, there are thousands of torture allegations being made by more than 100 Iraqi clients in new cases. We applaud the efforts of those who have succeeded in obtaining an inquiry into alleged British complicity in torture by various overseas regimes. But the public and the government also need to face up to our history of actual torture. The evidence from the Mousa inquiry and the allegations in these other cases may allow a chilling comparison to be made with the worst excesses of the US at Guantánamo Bay or Abu Ghraib, with the Stasi in the cold war, or the British in post-colonial wars. Apart from the techniques banned by the Heath government in 1972 (hooding, stressing, food and water deprivation, sleep deprivation, the use of noise), which returned as standard operating procedure in Iraq, the array of allegations is staggering: mock executions; the use of tiny refrigerated spaces; electric shocks; forced nudity; threats of rape to female relatives; prolonged solitary confinement; loud, hardcore pornography played incessantly; disorientation by various means; simulated drowning; dog attacks; masturbation and other sexual acts; urinating on detainees; giving urine not water to drink; as well as systematic abuse through rifle-butting, kicks, punches, forced exertion and prolonged shouting at detainees. The MoD insists our brave soldiers behaved impeccably save for a few rotten apples and that there is no evidence of coercive interrogation techniques. Now the Iraq historic allegation team, comprising of RMP investigators and others, will investigate whether anyone should be prosecuted by a military court martial. However, these other deaths in custody are not being investigated; the thousands of allegations of the use of coercive interrogation make it difficult to see how much more evidence of systemic issues is needed; and the RMP is a discredited and failed organisation that is incapable of dealing with these cases, and in any event its soldiers are the subject of some of the allegations. The damage caused to the French in Algeria by its use of torture is well known. The same damage may have been caused to the British battle for Iraqi hearts and minds. To perpetuate that damage by this alleged cover-up would be immeasurably stupid: as we now know from Bloody Sunday, when the state is involved in wrongdoing the nation requires not a Widgery but a Saville.
FEBRUARY 3--A naked burglar covered in chocolate and peanut butter was arrested early Tuesday after workers found him inside a Kentucky supermarket. Andrew Toothman, 22, was collared by State Police troopers who responded to a 911 call from the Food World IGA market in the city of Neon (pop. 770). Pictured in the above mug shot, Toothman was charged with burglary, criminal mischief, and indecent exposure. A court citation filed yesterday notes that Toothman--who was only wearing a pair of black boots--had “peanut butter and chocolate smeared all over person.” Troopers noted that the store’s front door was “busted out,” and that several fire extinguishers had been discharged. Peanut butter and chocolate were also spread on the market's floor and in the manager’s office. But the most bizarre bit of vandalism, investigators reported, involved NyQuil, the popular cold and flu remedy. “There was nyquil on the floor that spelled out sorry,” according to the February 2 citation. Toothman admitted to breaking into the market, troopers noted. The Kentuckian is being held in the Letcher County jail in lieu of $25,000 bond. (1 page)
Software application developers earn large salaries in the United States, $96,260 a year on average. But in metropolitan San Jose they earn $131,270, the highest in the country. There are many partial explanations for this—local cost of living, differences in education levels, experience, and industry—but none of them quite account for it. It turns out that developers living in San Jose have acquired the specific skills most valued by employers. As the map below shows, there is a huge amount of variation in earnings for software application developers across regional labor markets. In large metropolitan areas like New York, they earn $105,000, but in Louisville, they earn just $72,000. Average Salary of Software Application Developers by Metropolitan Area, 2013 Similar patterns could be shown for other occupations, of course; for even within the same job title, people vary by education and experience, and regions vary by company and industry mix, productivity and export orientation, which all affect salaries and regional housing prices. The surprising thing, when it comes to software developers and other skilled occupations too, is that none of these factors can fully account for the San Jose premium. Software developers in San Jose are typically slightly less experienced, and while their levels of education are higher—including their likelihood of having majored in engineering or computer science—the difference is not enough to explain their elevated earnings. Likewise, the cost of living in San Jose is remarkably high, but comparable to other major cities. So what distinguishes San Jose software developers? To figure this out, I analyzed a database of 29 million job vacancies advertised online during 2013 as compiled by the analytics firm Burning Glass. Of these, roughly 1.4 million were for software application developers, making it the most in-demand occupation. In total, 3 million ads also contained salary information, which I could use to estimate the average value of each distinct skill advertised. Author Jonathan Rothwell Former Brookings Expert Senior Economist - Gallup In San Jose, the skills advertised for software developers are particularly valuable. The average vacancy requires higher value skills in San Jose than almost any other metropolitan area, even using national rather than local salary values. For example, 8.4 percent of ads for software developers in San Jose requested Java, a widely used programming language, associated with an average salary of $98,000 across all U.S. ads mentioning both it and a salary requirement. Yet, for the United States as a whole, just 5.7 percent of software developer ads required Java. In New York City, the share was 6.7, and it was 4.7 in Louisville. Other high-value programming languages and skills were disproportionately advertised in San Jose, such as Linux, C++, Python and the term “software engineering.” These skills were much less commonly required for jobs in Louisville and even New York. Only 0.2 percent of software jobs required Python in Louisville and 1.7 in New York City, compared to 2.8 percent in San Jose. It is valued at $100,345. These and other skills contribute to the high premium enjoyed by Silicon Valley computer workers, but they could be profitably learned by a much larger swath of people, as online educators like Treehouse, Udacity, and Code Fellows aim to demonstrate.
I've picked a hell of a time to pen a love letter to Mercy. As these words are being written, the Overwatch-playing internet is having kittens over the long-awaited arrival of Doomfist - Talon elder, social Darwinist and a pugilist whose right hooks show up on a seismograph. Doomfist is yet another damnably cool addition to a line-up of damnably cool characters, all of them worthy of a game by themselves. His most terrifying facet may be his passive ability, which applies a fresh layer of overshield for every punch that connects, allowing a rampaging player to weather the concentrated wrath of the other team. But he's still going to need a medic at some stage, particularly if he falls into Sombra's clutches, and who better to supply the juice than a cybernetic valkyrie from Switzerland. Part of Mercy's thrill is that she actively leans into a healer stereotype many shooters hurry to distance themselves from, a departure possible because Blizzard's stock in trade is not, after all, shooters, but strategy, MMO and role-playing games, where support roles are a honoured profession rather than a tedious odd-job, palmed off on greenhorns. Consider her radiant halo, her saintly smirk, her habit of theatrically enquiring "Must violence always be the solution?" while the team limbers up. Consider her sole offensive ability, a paltry sidearm used to polish off wounded targets when there's absolutely no other option. From afar this would seem to propagate certain smelly patriarchal ideas about care being a woman's - no, a lady's vocation, but as ever with Overwatch's wanton plundering of pop clichés, there's a degree of irony to Mercy's matronly demeanour. "So that's what it feels like," she declares archly, when somebody takes the time to amplify her damage. In any case, the brilliance of Mercy is that her healing capacities are anything but expressive of some demure gender-normative passivity, a question of throwing down auras and waiting for the team's heavy hitters to drop by. Rather, they unite with her eccentric movement abilities to create a high level playstyle that is, I think, unprecedented in shooters, a blend of agility and aggression which views team mates as handholds first, patients second. Mercy's pistol shots do reasonable damage, especially if you land a headshot, but it's hardly a match for, say, Soldier 76's rifle. Using Guardian Angel, Mercy can lock onto and swoop towards any ally within a generous range, including (in one of the many macabre touches that speckle Overwatch's wholesome veneer) the effervescing souls of the recently slain. The immediate effect is to transform a dawdling, fragile medic into a flanker on par with Genji, flitting across a killzone to rescue a cornered Reinhardt or shelter behind D.Va's anti-projectile field. There's a short cooldown on Guardian Angel and you can use Mercy's self-buffing glide to fill in the gaps, so it's possible to effect some exhilarating, Bionic Commando-esque combos, providing of course you keep the players you're grappling between in rude health. Given a halfway-capable tank, this lends itself to some amazing double acts - one of my fondest memories is of tackling all six opponents with a single Zarya player, hurtling around behind her on a whisper of health while she sponged up rockets and shut down our attackers, one by one. All of which makes earning her affection a matter of some urgency for any character built to dish it out, rather than take it. The unspoken question in most Overwatch locker rooms is "who is Mercy's favourite today?" Will she side with Reinhardt, that ponderous, dependable stormfront, or take a risk on an offensive class? Be sure to greet and thank her repeatedly, and maybe throw in an emote for good measure. But don't get in her face too much, for heaven's sake - Mercies are nothing if not contemptuous of attention-seekers, particularly those who wield a katana and are drawn to trouble like spaniels to dropped icecream. Overwatch's healing heroes are as different from each other as from other classes. Ana is a snake in the grass, spitting nerve agent. Lucio is a boisterous troll, always trying his luck up-close. Zenyatta is a wandering mystic who backs up his otherworldly aphorisms with billiard balls to the face. The implications of Guardian Angel extend beyond the timeless tank-or-DPS-and-healer tango, however - it catalyses team cohesion and positioning like few other classes, because everybody needs to be within line of sight of Mercy for her to work her magic. You'll want a Hanzo up high not just for the sake of reconnaissance and nailing the other team's supports, but so she has somewhere to retreat to when Reaper is closing in. You'll want a Soldier 76 on the corner so she can tuck herself out of view, powering him up while he slaps down his own healing ability, and perhaps a Bastion a few metres behind so she can swoop back and super-charge the rearguard when ambushed by Tracer. There's an interesting comparison to draw with Lucio, whose fire-and-forget area-of-effect heals make him the more obvious way of fostering teamplay (and who is far better equipped to fend for himself should his allies desert him, bounding along walls or the payload to the immense annoyance of the attacking team). Lucio's AOE focus also, however, sets up the team nicely for an enemy crowd control Ultimate like Zarya's gravity bomb, whereas Mercy's very particular set of skills permit allies to space themselves out. If he's a pulsing electro-house track, gathering everybody together into a joyful mob, she's more of a loosely woven jazz number, allowing individual performers to strut their stuff without slipping out of rhythm. And then, of course, there's her own necromantic Ultimate, Overwatch's original and (even post-nerf) most enduring comeback move - the equivalent of grabbing a skidding car by its fender in order to hurl it back onto the road, just before it crashes into a tree. True, it lacks the raw gratification of say, Doomfist's Ultimate, an air-to-ground nuclear slam which flattens anybody it doesn't kill outright. But when the smoke clears and the reverberations die away, there's nothing like the horror of seeing every slaughtered foe restored to full vitality in a blaze of gold, as Mercy triumphantly emerges to claim her Play of the Game. "The wonders of modern medicine," indeed.
NEW DELHI: Putting the blame for Congress’s defeat on the Manmohan Singh government , an in-house inquiry is learnt to have found inflation as the reason for the party’s worst-ever performance in Lok Sabha elections. The AK Antony panel is also learnt to have listed indiscipline, corruption and media as the factors that contributed to the Congress collapse.Price rise, which dogged the entire tenure of UPA-2, drove voters away from Congress, the panel is learnt to have said. Almost every leader from states that the probe panel interacted with is learnt to have told the Antony panel that persistently high food prices neutralized the effect that Congress campaign was supposed to have on its supporters and the middle class.The picking on inflation, a direct indictment of the government, comes alongside the panel calling the defeat a collective failure and absolving key party campaigners of responsibility.According to sources, there is also stress on how the perception of corruption against the UPA killed its chances with voters. The three-year-long NDA campaign over various scams, especially 2G, dented the credibility of the Congress regime beyond repair.While inflation and corruption are known reasons for the rout that blew away the ruling party, sources said the Antony panel has also pointed out that indiscipline cost the Congress dearly.The split between chief ministers and party presidents and general factionalism in state units prevented the party from pulling in one direction. Infighting was a feature of UPA government in the form of turf wars among central ministers that virtually jammed policy-making and presented UPA-2 as a divided house.An in-house Congress panel has called the party's defeat in Lok Sabha poll a collective failure, absolving key party campaigners like Sonia Gandhi and Rahul of any responsibility.Also, the refusal of various leaders to contest elections, like party biggie and UPA’s finance minister P Chidambaram, hurt the party’s prospects.The Antony committee also listed media as a reason for the Congress debacle. The focus on one man, Narendra Modi , squeezed Congress out of the game of projection, feel Congressmen.Before he started his probe, Antony said the party suffered because of the perception that it was biased in favour of religious minorities. The warning was seen as an indication that there was a gravitation of Hindu voters towards the BJP as a result of the impression of “minority appeasement” about Congress.The Antony inquiry was to lay the ground for a shake-up in the Congress organization. However, party leaders believe the reshuffle may be put off till the string of assembly elections coming up around October.
Aged care nurse who abused ex-partner's sons and forced boy's head down toilet avoids jail Updated An Adelaide aged care nurse who sexually exploited his former partner's two young sons has avoided a jail term after the judge declared he was unlikely to be a danger to other children. The District Court heard the 37-year-old flicked the boys' genitals while putting on their nappies at Edwardstown and encouraged them to urinate on each other and their mother. The man, who worked at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation of a child. Judge Paul Cuthbertson said the crime was not sexually motivated and the man regarded the behaviour as "mischievous and funny rather than an attempt to corrupt minors". The man also pleaded guilty to aggravated assault for forcing the head of one boy into a toilet and flushing it. The crimes came to light after the boys' mother attempted suicide, bringing the man to the attention of child protection officers. Judge Cuthbertson sentenced him to more than 19 months in jail but suspended the term, partly because of the man's mental health. I think it is unlikely you'll be a danger to children in the future and I think it is appropriate that you get some psychological help. Judge Paul Cuthbertson "The children first regarded you as a father figure," he told the man during sentencing. He said he accepted the man did not commit the offences "for prurient or sexual reasons". "The offending was more acts of mild cruelty which you took to be humour, rather than sexually motivated," he said. "You committed these offences because you thought they were amusing and that probably your diminished responsibility arising from your mental issues is the reason you thought this offending was amusing and continued with it. "I think it is unlikely you'll be a danger to children in the future and I think it is appropriate that you get some psychological help." The man is currently an aged care nurse and deregistration is now likely. Topics: sexual-offences, assault, crime, child-abuse, courts-and-trials, sa, adelaide-5000 First posted
The large-scale structural ingredients of the brain and neural connectomes have been identified in recent years. These are, similar to the features found in many other real networks: the arrangement of brain regions into modules and the presence of highly connected regions (hubs) forming rich-clubs. Here, we examine how modules and hubs shape the collective dynamics on networks and we find that both ingredients lead to the emergence of complex dynamics. Comparing the connectomes of C. elegans, cats, macaques and humans to surrogate networks in which either modules or hubs are destroyed, we find that functional complexity always decreases in the perturbed networks. A comparison between simulated and empirically obtained resting-state functional connectivity indicates that the human brain, at rest, lies in a dynamical state that reflects the largest complexity its anatomical connectome can host. Last, we generalise the topology of neural connectomes into a new hierarchical network model that successfully combines modular organisation with rich-club forming hubs. This is achieved by centralising the cross-modular connections through a preferential attachment rule. Our network model hosts more complex dynamics than other hierarchical models widely used as benchmarks.
A week ago, rapper Shaquon Thomas posted a video making fun of a rival gang while pretending to hold a gun in his hands. "You don't even know how to shoot," Thomas rapped in the video, titled "Shooters." Early Friday, the 20-year-old Thomas was gunned down about a block from where he recorded that video on the streets of Uptown. It's an area where three street gangs -- the Conservative Vice Lords, the Gangster Disciples and the Black P Stones -- have been locked in a long-running feud. Thomas was a Gangster Disciple, according to police. Around 1:35 a.m. Friday, he was with a friend in the 4800 block of North Kenmore Avenue when a gunman walked up and started shooting, authorities said. Thomas was hit twice in the back and taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 3:01 a.m. It was at least the third time someone had tried to kill Thomas in the last year and a half, according to police. The other two times, innocent bystanders died. • In February 2014, a masked gunman opened fire at a McDonald's restaurant at Pratt Boulevard and Clark Street. Markeyo Carr, 17, who had grabbed a few bucks from his mother before heading to the McDonald's, was shot in the head and collapsed in the driveway. Thomas and two other teens were wounded. • In July, a man fired shots in the 1300 block of West Devon Avenue and hit Wil Lewis in the back and the head as he waited for a bus. The 28-year-old was about to start a new job as a photographer. He was killed less than a mile from his home. Investigators suspect all three shootings stemmed from gang rivalry. A law enforcement source said Thomas may actually have been shot at other times, too. Thomas has posted several rap videos under the name Young Pappy. In them, he raps about shooting gang rivals. In a video titled "Homicide" posted in April, he raps "we pop out at night but you can still get smoked at noon. ... Head shots rolling up on the dead ops (opposition). I don't lack, I got my gat (gun)." In the video posted a week ago, Thomas raps, "Gotta a whole lotta shooters on the squad, gotta squad for the shooters. ... If I catch an op, I'm smokin' them." Thomas had several arrests on his record. Most of them were for misdemeanors, like criminal trespassing, reckless conduct, theft and marijuana possession. In 2013 he was convicted of felony weapon possession and sentenced to two years of probation. But Cook County court records show he violated that probation and was sentenced to one year in prison. In January he was arrested and charged with felony marijuana possession and misdemeanor reckless conduct. According to a police report, Thomas was found with about 20 grams of marijuana with an estimated street value of $200. Most recently he was among roughly 30 people charged after a SWAT team was involved in a five-hour standoff at his home in the 6300 block of North Lakewood Avenue in the Edgewater neighborhood. Court records show he was charged with disorderly conduct and marijuana possession, both misdemeanors. Police reported no one in custody in his shooting Friday morning.
SPRING HILL — Vicky Brannon's heartache turned on a heartbeat Saturday. It was both Valentine's Day and National Organ Donor Day, and, for the first time in more than 18 years, Brannon heard her dead son's heart beating. In July 1996, Matthew John McIntyre II, 14, the quiet one among her three sons, was visiting friends across the street from the family's home in Fulton, N.Y., when he was shot and killed by a 17-year-old acquaintance. Police called the shooting an accident; Brannon calls it murder. A shared girlfriend was involved, Brannon alleges. Brannon rode beside her son in the ambulance to University Hospital in Syracuse, N.Y. She was sent to a waiting room while Matthew was whisked to an exam room. "The first I heard was a doctor who came in and told me I needed to think about organ donation," she recalled last week. "It was difficult in that I couldn't accept that he was gone. They talked to me and explained that was the best thing I could do. He was dead, but at least his organs would live." Matt's brother, Chad Henderson, 16, and knowing vaguely about organ donation at the time, said last week, "I felt fine about it. I thought it was a good thing. We'd been that kind of family. Give what you can. Matt was like that, too." Matt's heart, liver, pancreas and both kidneys were harvested and transplanted into recipients living on life's edge. "When we left the funeral home that day, there was a double rainbow," Brannon said of the vivid memory. • • • The following year, Brannon was lying in bed in a state of continuing depression, the TV offering background distraction. Her attention snapped to the screen at a message about organ donation. Matt's photo appeared on the screen. His organs had saved three lives, the infomercial reported. Brannon wrote and sent Matthew's photo to the three via the New York Organ Donor Network, as per protocol. Such networks generally don't share donor-recipient information for a year after surgeries — and even then not unless both parties express wishes to make contact. Only the patient who received a kidney and the pancreas responded immediately. Brannon wondered, particularly, about the heart recipient. "That was the biggest part of him," she said. Two days after seeing the infomercial, Brannon moved to Florida to help care for her ailing mother. Thus, she missed receiving a letter from the parents of Jennifer Lentini in Hicksville, N.Y. Then 14 years old, and with Matthew's heart beating in her chest, Lentini had enthusiastically responded, seeking to meet her donor's family. But the family got no word. "I remember when I turned 18 (the legal age allowing her own communication) I wrote a letter to Donor Services. I never heard," she said. She faithfully wrote similar letters until age 25, when the family's home was gutted by fire. "Dad grabbed files. Mom grabbed the dog," she said. All else seemingly was lost. • • • Lentini's ordeal had begun at age 13 with stomach pains, finally resulting in exploratory surgery. "I had cardiac arrest on the operating table," she recollected last week. Her parents were told she was dying. "I received last rites." While the teen held on, doctors informed her parents she likely could survive with a heart transplant to replace a purportedly defective one. She lay for three months and a day in New York Presbyterian Hospital until, on July 6, 1996, a young, healthy heart arrived. "All we knew was I got it from a 14-year-old named Matthew. He was a victim of an accident with a gun," Lentini said. Lentini's ongoing recovery hasn't been without pitfalls. "Your immune system is shot after a transplant," she said. "A cold can keep you home a week. For the flu you can be hospitalized. I can't grow any hair on my head. Drugs alone are expensive. I take 20 pills a day. I graduated from high school and college, but I was a little slower than most people. "It's been a bit of a bumpy road. But I've been given 18 years more, so far, than I should have had." She will turn 32 next month. • • • Such are the history and thoughts that Lentini has wanted to share with Matthew's family. Recently, the box of files her dad saved from the long-ago fire was opened, revealing Brannon's letter and Matthew's photo in its midst. Lentini decided to renew her search. Her lawyer found Matthew's obituary. From it, "we started looking on Facebook, messaging people we thought might be connected," Lentini said. Matthew's brother Chad, now living in Detroit, responded. "We talked for what, an hour and a half? Two hours?" Henderson inquired of Lentini on Saturday in the living room of his mother's Spring Hill home. The room was engulfed in chatter, an exchange of memorial gifts and joyful tears. Gathered were Brannon; Chad Henderson; Lentini; her boyfriend, Thomas Bolger; and Henderson's 4-year-old daughter, Savannah. The new, extended family finally met. Erin Daly, a prosecutor in the Hernando County State Attorney's Office and a liver donor who had met Lentini at a New York Organ Donor-sponsored marathon, helped to facilitate the gathering. She had encouraged Lentini to pursue the wherewithal to make the trip to Florida via an Internet fundraising site. Lentini raised $2,400 in 11 days. "We all had a few tears when we met," Lentini of their initial gathering in the terminal at Tampa International Airport. The group took in a few sites en route to Spring Hill, arriving still breathless with excitement. "It doesn't feel real to me," Lentini said. "It feels like we've been talking for years." "I feel so close to her," Brannon added. Lentini slipped out a stethoscope, pressed the ear pieces to Brannon's head and placed the diaphragm on her chest. Above the mother's smile, a tear trickled down her cheek. "She's got him beating in her," she said. Contact Beth Gray at [email protected]
Image copyright AFP / Angela Gui Image caption Angela Gui said she was still waiting to hear from her father a week after his release Sweden says its citizen Gui Minhai, one of the five jailed "Hong Kong booksellers", has been released from prison in China. But Mr Gui's daughter, Angela, said no-one had seen him or spoken to him a week after his supposed release. Mr Gui's Hong Kong publishing house sold books about the personal lives of China's political elite. He disappeared in Thailand in October 2015 before mysteriously turning up in detention in mainland China. Mr Gui was officially in prison after confessing to a fatal road accident which allegedly took place in 2003. His daughter says the confession was forced. The four other members of the publishing company detained in China were previously released. Three remained silent about their detention. But one, Lam Wing-kee, who has no family on mainland China, said the confessions shown on Chinese television were forced, read from a script written by Chinese officials. He also alleged one of the men, Lee Bo, had been abducted from Hong Kong against his will - something Mr Lee has not confirmed himself. Allegations that Mr Lee and Mr Gui were abducted across international borders in an extrajudicial process sparked international concern. Chinese officials say he and the four other men detained all went to China voluntarily. 'No idea where' On Tuesday, after Mr Gui's release was announced, his daughter Angela Gui said: "I still do not know where my father is." A spokeswoman for the Swedish foreign ministry confirmed that information about Mr Gui's release had come from the Chinese authorities and said Sweden was seeking clarification. No other official details were available. Ms Gui, who lives in the UK, released a statement saying the Swedish embassy had been told, in advance that her father would be released on 17 October. She said that when Swedish officials arrived on the morning of his release, they were told by prison officials that he had already left at midnight. "They were also told that he was 'free to travel' and that they had no idea where he was," she added. "Neither I nor any member of my family nor any of his friends have been contacted. It is still very unclear where he is. I am deeply concerned for his wellbeing."
Mr McIntyre described the gap between company growth and employee wages as "the income challenge" and the key economic challenge of 2015. Real gross domestic income, which adjusts for the terms of trade, rose 0.2 per cent quarter-on-quarter and was 0.2 per cent lower over the year. Australian workers earned an average of 0.5 per cent less over the three months. Mr McIntyre said waning commodity prices and the dwindling mining boom were pushing incomes and employment growth down. "It's a slow moving, continual drain," he said. Flow-on effects The end of the commodity boom, which peaked in 2012, has been sending successive waves of economic stress through the Australian economy, Mr McIntyre said. The first hit was to mining company profits, then the federal budget through declining tax receipts, and now the effects have filtered through to households. Workers offloaded by mining and associated construction companies almost always returned to the labour force via lower-paid paid jobs, he said. We're working harder, producing more but we're earning less. James McIntyre, Macquarie Group. "Their wages will usually drop from those high mining levels and they will also re-enter other industries and the surplus of workers pushes wages growth down, and it challenges employment growth." Wage stagnation Wages rose by 2.3 per cent over the year to March, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data, which is the lowest rate of growth since the series began in 1998. As wage growth struggles to match inflation, people have less disposable income and become less willing to buy goods and services. This dents consumer and business confidence, which slows business investment and new job creation. ANZ's co-head of Australian Economics Felicity Emmett also pointed to the broader impact of soft growth in national income. "This weakness in income will continue to flow through to softer growth in the real economy and keep growth below trend for some time," Ms Emmett said. "The drag from the wind back in mining investment still has a long way to run and is likely to be much sharper over coming quarters as large-scale liquefied natural gas projects approach completion." 'Worst is still to come' Capital Economics senior Asia economist Daniel Martin went further and said although the first quarter GDP results may be positive but "the worst is still to come". "While the headline GDP figure might be seen as cause for encouragement, the breakdown is far less reassuring. The falls in investment show that non-mining investment is failing to fill the hole left by the end of the mining boom. The latest private capital expenditure survey suggests that this is not going to change within the next year or two." Critical to Australia's financial strength is an effective transition away from a mining-led economy to a more well-rounded and services-led economy. But hopes for a transition towards to non-mining investment-led growth were battered last week after last weeks disappointing capital expenditure data. The data revealed not only had mining and manufacturing fallen by 14 and 9 per cent respectively, but so too had non-mining investment, down 4.8 per cent from last quarter.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption PM Najib ended indefinite detention without trial in 2012 - but the new law brings it back Malaysia has passed a controversial anti-terrorism bill, which the government says is needed to tackle the threat from Islamic extremists. The bill reintroduces indefinite detention without trial - something the prime minister had repealed in 2012. Human Rights Watch called the move "a giant step backwards for human rights". It was passed hours after the police announced the detention of 17 suspected militants believed to be planning attacks in the capital, Kuala Lumpur. Home Minister Zahid Hamidi said those arrested, the youngest just 14, were planning to attack police stations and army bases to gather weapons. Two of the suspects had just returned from Syria, police said. 'Grievous blow' Debate on the anti-terrorism bill went late into Monday night in parliament. Under the legislation, suspects can be held without trial for up to two years, with multiple extensions allowed after that. Decisions on their detention will be made by a terrorism board, rather than the judiciary. Image copyright AFP Image caption Malaysia is worried about the effect of nationals fighting with Islamist militants in the Middle East It also allows the authorities to revoke travel documents, both Malaysian and foreign, of people travelling to or from Malaysia to support or engage in terrorism. The bill still needs approval from the Senate, but the chamber is dominated by the ruling coalition and it is expected to pass. Malaysia scrapped its Internal Security Act - which permitted indefinite detention without trial - in April 2012 amid public concern it was using the legislation to stifle political debate and lock up critics. But it replaced the colonial-era law with powers that permitted 28-day detention. Opposition lawmaker N Surendran, quoted by AFP news agency, said the new anti-terror law was "open to abuse and is a grievous blow to democracy". Image copyright EPA Image caption Cartoonist Zunar is one of several government critics accused of violating the sedition law in recent months Analysis: Jennifer Pak, BBC News, Kuala Lumpur Malaysians largely supported Prime Minister Najib Razak's call for an anti-terror bill last year after he revealed that 19 suspects linked to the Islamic State militant group had escaped court charges due to insufficient proof. But Mr Najib is under pressure from his party also to be tough on government critics after his coalition lost the popular vote in the last election. In recent months, a number of high-profile dissidents have been detained under the sedition act. Activists say the new bill is another tool to silence opposition. Officials assure Malaysians that the proposed law cannot be used against people with different political beliefs. But Malaysia's Bar Council says this is a "false comfort" because the bill is vague. It comes down to trust. And Mr Najib's image as a reformer has taken a battering. Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch said that by "restoring indefinite detention without trial, Malaysia has re-opened Pandora's Box for politically motivated, abusive state actions". Malaysia - a Muslim-majority nation - says it is concerned about the effect on domestic security of those who have fought with or support Islamic extremists in Syria and Iraq. In January, Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said 67 Malaysians were known to have gone to Syria and Iraq, including five who had been killed. One hundred and twenty people suspected of links to the Islamic State militant groups were being held in Malaysia, he said. But the government has also been clamping down on critics in recent months. Journalists, activists and opposition figures have all been targeted by the equally controversial sedition law, which regulates speech deemed to incite unrest or religious and social tensions. Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, meanwhile, remains in prison after being convicted of sodomy - an act which is illegal in Malaysia but for which few are ever prosecuted. He says the case against him is aimed at keeping him out of politics.
Bill would provide paid parental leave for workers through new payroll tax GovTrack.us Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jan 25, 2016 Paid parental leave came to national attention in October when Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI1) agreed to serve as Speaker of the House with the condition. that he would spend almost every weekend with his family in Wisconsin, instead of crossing the country and holding fundraisers as previous speakers had. The United States is the only industrialized country not to offer paid parental leave, and one of only three countries in the world along with Suriname and Papua New Guinea, according to UCLA’s World Policy Center. H.R. 1439, the Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act, was introduced in March 2015 by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT3) to establish just such a policy, along with its Senate counterpart S. 786 introduced by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). The House bill was referred to the Ways and Means Committee, which Ryan chaired at the time, but he did not bring the bill up for a vote. Ryan’s successor, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX8), has not either. The House bill has 115 co-sponsors, all Democrats. What the bill would do The bill would provide workers with up to 12 weeks of partial income paid for by the federal government, up to 66 percent of their monthly wages, for taking time off for any of several conditions, including the birth or adoption of a child. This legislation would apply to all workers in all companies, regardless of seniority, tenure, or company size. The money would come from a new 0.2% payroll tax, or about $1.50 a week for a typical worker, according to the National Partnership for Women and Families. What supporters say Currently, the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993 mandates that employers provide 12 weeks of family leave, but it doesn’t have to be paid leave. The Council of Economic Advisers last year found that only 39 percent of workers report being allowed paid family leave from work. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said in tweets, “Millions of hard-working moms & dads want work/life balance too, @PRyan [Paul Ryan] — but can be fired just asking for time off to care for a sick kid … Family time should not be a privilege reserved for the Speaker of the House. You deserve it — and so does everyone else.” Ryan’s alternative proposal However, a Ryan spokesperson told the Huffington Post, “Mr. Ryan is supportive of paid family and medical leave — he offers it to his staff — but believes the decision is best left to the employer, not the government.” Instead, Ryan has co-sponsored bill H.R. 465, the Working Families Flexibility Act, introduced by Rep. Martha Roby (R-AL2) last year. The bill would allow employers to offer time off for overtime worked, instead of extra pay, with a rate is 1.5 hours off for every hour worked overtime. However, that bill has come under criticism from Democrats and left-leaning advocates, who argue that it takes away the safety function of overtime laws and would “make parenting a privileged pursuit.” The bill, which has 149 Republican co-sponsors but no Democrats, passed the House in 2013 with three Democratic votes and eight dissenting Republicans, but never received a vote in the Senate. The Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act is highly unlikely to be enacted.
Do you want to be involved in the Node.js Engineer Certification? We are currently looking for volunteers that will help define the scope of what we’re testing a Node Engineer to be competent in for the Node.js Certification. What’s the commitment? We’ll do 6 workshop sessions (2–3 hours per session) with a distributed team of awesome folks. The team will work with a psychometrician/facilitator who will lead the group along with the education community manager to establish the tasks within each domain a Node.js Certification candidate would be expected to perform after having worked approximately 1 year of professional full-time work as a Node.js Engineer. Doesn’t sound like your cup of tea right now, but want to know what else is out there? Never fear! We will need other committee volunteers: Item Writers and Cert Advisory Board volunteers, but this is a little further out. We’ll file issues for these too, but feel free to express interest and get in contact with more info. Items we will tackle in this working group: Define Certification(s), the number of levels (parallel or sequential), titles, program goals. Thus far, the direction this is heading is one certification being offered for a Competent Node.js Engineer (approximate 1 year professional Node experience and being able to complete the series of tasks we create as the certification) Define Scope Statement of Certification. This will be determined in our Job Task Analysis workshop. The JTA working group will attend these workshop sessions online and determine the basic underpinnings of what we think a Node Engineer needs to know in order to be considered competent. Conduct Job Task Analysis (JTA) which is to define the Domains of work and corresponding Tasks within each domain a Certification Candidate should be able to perform (as mentioned above, happens in a workshop setting with the JTA committee/working group) Define the Exam Blueprint containing the specific exam Domains and Tasks and their relevant weight within the exam (Domains and Tasks will be open sourced. Blueprint will be secure and not public facing(for keeping exam valid as a testing mechanism), the scripting and test runner that verifies the correct/incorrect answers for the certification will also be open sourced). I’m in! What’s next? Please head to this GitHub post to ask any other questions that you may have and/or to contact tracyhinds@linuxfoundation.org.
DENVER, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- A Denver area babysitter said her pet parrot may have saved the life of a 2-year-old girl by raising a ruckus when the toddler started choking. The babysitter, who gave her name as Meagan, said she was using the bathroom in her home while babysitting for the 2-year-old, Hannah, when she heard her parrot, Willie, screaming wildly, KCNC-TV, Denver reported Monday. "Willie started screaming like I'd never heard him scream before and he started flapping his wings," Meagan said. "Then he started saying 'mama baby' over and over and over again until I came out and looked at Hannah and Hannah's face was turning blue because she was choking on her pop tart." Meagan said she performed the Heimlich maneuver and stopped the young child's choking. "If (Willie) wouldn't have warned me, I probably wouldn't have come out of the bathroom in time because she was already turning blue, her lips were blue and everything," Meagan said.
Illustration: Matt Golding. The government relies on Mr Shaw's vote for its survival and, therefore, his goodwill. On Friday Ms Bellmaine confirmed that the balance-of-power MP had worked hard on behalf of Gould Street residents who had long campaigned over the Crown land, which is fenced off from the public. ''He has seen from the beginning that this is an issue,'' she said. ''His office has been brilliant. It's an issue that has been going on for decades, but the former Labor MP Alistair Harkness didn't want to know about it.'' In March, Ms Bellmaine described Mr Shaw as the hardest-working MP Frankston had ever seen. ''Everyone in Frankston adores him.'' Ms Bellmaine denied there was any conflict of interest for Mr Shaw. She said sale of the land was in the wider community's interest because residents would do a better job of looking after it. ''Council won't maintain it. If the residents didn't have the land, everyone would have a mess behind their homes.'' Mr Smith's office confirmed on Friday that he had written a letter to the council, but Mr Smith and the council have refused to release the full letter. An extract of the letter provided by Mr Smith reads: ''The sale of part of Kananook Creek Reserve is one solution that may resolve this issue and allow the council to manage the reserve for all Victorians.'' Before Mr Smith sent the letter, the government and the council had been negotiating fixed-term licences for residents who occupy sections of the Crown land. A meeting was held in Mr Shaw's office about 18 months ago to discuss a solution. But negotiations stalled, with residents rejecting the offer of licences and, instead, pushing for ownership of the Crown land. In a written statement, Frankston Council chief executive Dennis Hovenden said the minister's letter was a departure from the government's previous stance on the contested land. ''As land managers of Crown land we noted the state government's policy position has changed on this issue since our last discussion,'' he said. A source said the minister's ''sudden change of heart'' was unusual. ''[The minister] has indicated that he is willing to sell the land and is pushing for an arrangement for the residents.'' Revelation of the minister's Christmas-period intervention in Frankston is likely to embarrass the government, which has been trying to distance itself and the Liberal Party from the controversial MP. The council has been pressing for residents to vacate the Crown land, and wants to revegetate the corridor to improve a walking track along Kananook Creek. A spokeswoman for the Environment Minister said the land had been problematic for 40 years, and the previous Labor government had failed to resolve the long-running issue. She said the minister's intervention was not unusual. ''This is an inherited issue which was unresolved from the previous Labor government,'' the spokeswoman said. ''The minister will continue to work with the local council and community to resolve this long-standing matter.'' Ms Bellmaine has built a swimming pool that appears to abut the Crown land boundary. Ms Bellmaine said the fence at the back of her property was in the same location as it was when she moved in. She denied building on the Crown land. Frankston Council is the manager of the Crown land, but a decision to sell ultimately rests with the government. Mr Shaw was contacted for comment, but did not respond before deadline. Previous state governments have been unwilling to sell the Crown land. A number of Gould Street residents have signed up to licensing arrangements and pay an annual fee to occupy a designated section of the land. Frankston mayor and Liberal Party member Darrel Taylor did not answer calls yesterday. He is believed to be eyeing Liberal preselection for Frankston. Premier Denis Napthine has ruled out Mr Shaw running for the Liberal Party at the November election. Chaotic scenes erupted in Parliament last year when Mr Shaw declared that Speaker Ken Smith had ''degraded'' Parliament, with the Labor opposition exploiting the poisonous relationship between the pair. It is not known whether Mr Shaw will support the embattled Speaker when Parliament resumes on February 4. henrietta.cook@fairfaxmedia.com.au rmillar@fairfaxmedia.com.au
In response to NFL player Colin Kaepernick’s recent protests about police abusing their power, the Santa Clara police union over the weekend threatened to stop providing security at the stadium where Kaepernick’s San Francisco 49ers play. In a letter sent to the 49ers management Friday, the Santa Clara Police Officers’ Association acknowledged that Kaepernick “exercise[d] his right of free expression” when he refused to stand for the national anthem to bring attention to racial disparities in police shootings. But the union added that it has a “duty to protect its members and work to make all of their working environments free of harassing behavior,” then threatened to stop offering security at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. Police officers voluntarily agree to work at Levi’s Stadium. If enough officers don’t sign up for the event, the local police chief can assign officers to a game at the stadium. In a statement to USA Today, Santa Clara Police Chief Michael Sellers rebuked the letter: “I will urge the [Santa Clara Police Officers' Association] leadership to put the safety of our citizens first. I will work with both sides to find a solution. In the meantime, I will ensure we continue to provide a safe environment at Levi’s Stadium.” “Many of us in the law enforcement community have been saddened and angered by Kaepernick's words and actions,” Sellers said. “His blanket statements disparaging the law enforcement profession are hurtful and do not help bring the country together. As distasteful as his actions are, these actions are protected by the Constitution. Police officers are here to protect the rights of every person, even if we disagree with their position.” Kaepernick grabbed headlines over the past several weeks after he refused to stand for the national anthem before preseason games and later wore socks with cartoon pigs in police outfits. He’s said that “there is police brutality. People of color have been targeted by police.” He specifically called out the San Francisco Police Department, arguing, “We have cops in the SFPD that are blatantly racist and those issues need to be addressed.” (The SFPD has been mired by scandals involving racist text messages over the past couple of years, including several “jokes” that repeatedly use the n-word.) The police union’s boycott threats essentially prove Kaepernick’s argument. As Adam Stites pointed out at SB Nation, “Kaepernick’s message boils down to police being selective about who they choose to serve and protect. Officers threatening to pull their services from 49ers games because of his comments essentially validates them.” What’s more, there really are racial disparities in police forces — even though police unions across the country have repeatedly protested such claims from the Black Lives Matter movement over the past several years. There are big racial disparities in how police use force It is obviously true, as the police union points out in its letter, that not all cops are bad or racist. But the problem is not whether some individual police officers can do a good job. The key issue here is whether there are systemic racial disparities in how police use force. The data certainly shows there are very big disparities. An analysis of the available FBI data by Vox’s Dara Lind shows that US police kill black people at disproportionate rates: They accounted for 31 percent of police killing victims in 2012, even though they made up just 13 percent of the US population. A 2015 study by researcher Cody Ross that looked at police shooting data also found, “There is no relationship between county-level racial bias in police shootings and crime rates (even race-specific crime rates), meaning that the racial bias observed in police shootings in this data set is not explainable as a response to local-level crime rates.” There are many systemic issues at play here: how police are disproportionately deployed in minority neighborhoods, how cops are encouraged to make as many arrests and issue as many tickets as possible, how they — like much of the public — hold subconscious biases against black people. Some police officers have acknowledged these issues. Some New York City officers said that they actively target minority communities, for example, to meet informal quotas for stops and arrests effectively set in place by higher-ups. “When you put any type of numbers on a police officer to perform, we are going to go to the most vulnerable,” Adhyl Polanco, a New York City police officer, told New York’s WNBC. “We’re going to [the] LGBT community, we’re going to the black community, we’re going to go to those people that have no boat, that have no power.” This is what Kaepernick is protesting: not individual police officers but a system that pushes even good cops to do the wrong thing and potentially act in racist ways. Police unions are often the most ardent defenders of police While Kaepernick’s protest is relatively new, the attitude behind the police union’s letter is not — time and time again, police unions have been some of the biggest, most outspoken defenders of police. For example, in 2014, Cleveland Browns player Andrew Hawkins wore a shirt calling for “Justice for Tamir Rice and John Crawford,” both of whom police in Ohio shot and killed after reportedly mistaking toy guns they were holding for real firearms. Then–Cleveland Police Patrolman Union president Jeff Follmer quickly fired back in a statement to local news station NewsNet5, calling Hawkins's actions “pretty pathetic” and demanding an apology from the Browns. When Hawkins refused to apologize, Follmer told MSNBC's Ari Melber that the Rice shooting — in which a 12-year-old boy died after a police officer shot him within two seconds of getting out of his squad car — was “justified.” Follmer also suggested Rice’s death was his own fault. “If you’re wrong, you’re wrong. If you’re right, then the courts will figure it out.” “I think the nation needs to realize that when we tell you to do something, do it,” he said. “If you’re wrong, you’re wrong. If you’re right, then the courts will figure it out.” To some degree, this is police unions merely filling their roles: Unions are required under the “duty of fair representation” covered by the National Labor Relations Act and state laws to give the best possible protections — including legal aid and support in job negotiations — to all their members. But they’re not legally required to use inflammatory rhetoric, like effectively blaming a 12-year-old for his own death, or to get into public fights with NFL players and their teams. The 49ers organization, for its part, isn’t backing down so far. In statements, the team has said they respect Kaepernick’s right to protest: “In respecting such American principles as freedom of religion and freedom of expression, we recognize the right of an individual to choose to participate, or not, in our celebration of the national anthem.”
Since Trump's travel ban was halted last week, the intake of refugees from the seven targeted countries has more than doubled. Analysts said that the move is a coordinated effort by the State Department to let in as many refugees from these countries as possible, in case the ban is reinstated by the Supreme Court. The travel ban halted all citizens from predominantly Muslim countries Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya and Yemen from entering the U.S. for at least 90 days - regardless of their immigration or residency status in the U.S. Since Trump's travel ban was halted on February 3, the State Department has nearly doubled its intake of refugees from the seven banned countries The order also put America's refugee program on an immediate 120-day halt, and stopped all refugees from Syria from entering the U.S. refugee program indefinitely. The executive order caused chaos as soon as it was signed on January 27, with customs officials unsure what to do about people from the seven countries arriving at U.S. airports - unaware of the order. Critics quickly filed challenges to the ban in court and on February 3, Judge James Robart halted the order on the basis that it was likely violating the law. Since then, people from the seven countries are being allowed to enter the country and many are rushing to return to the U.S. in case the doors close again. The State Department appears to be ramping up their efforts to let refugees from the seven countries into the U.S. as well. Syrian refugee Baraa Haj Khalaf, (center), holds a bouquet of flowers as she greets people during her arrival at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on February 7 In the week since the ban has been halted, 1,186 refugees have been let into the country - 882 of them from the seven travel ban countries. That's nearly double what the State Department was letting in in the week before Trump signed the order. The intake of Syrian and Iraqi refugees has changed the most dramatically since the order was halted. Between Trump's inauguration on January 20 and when he signed the ban on January 27, Syrians made up just 14 per cent of the total refugees being let into the country. Since February 3, Syrians now make up 30 per cent of all refugees entering the country. Iraq went from 10 per cent of all refugees before the ban to 21 per cent after. Jessica Vaughan, policy studies director at the right-wing think tank Center for Immigration Studies, told the Washington Times the new numbers show that the State Department is prioritizing refugee resettlement over the security of American citizens. Refugee intake from the travel ban countries, from Trump's inauguration and after the court order halt Country Jan. 20 - Jan 27* Percentage of total refugees Feb. 3 - Feb. 10** Percentage of total refugees Iran 155 7% 109 9% Iraq 218 10% 252 21% Libya 0 0% 0 0% Somalia 228 11% 130 11% Sud an 37 37% 32 3% Syria 296 14% 359 30% Yemen 1 .04% 0 0% Total: 935 44% 882 74% * January 20 was the day Trump was inaugurated; The 27th was the day he signed the travel ban order ** February 3 is the day that the travel ban was halted, thus opening the doors to immigration from the target countries Source: The Refugee Processing Center 'There's no doubt in my mind they would be doing whatever they could to get people in before something changes because, from their perspective, their motivation is to resettle these folks. It would not be the first time that State Department officials have prioritized facilitating someone's entry to the United States over security concerns,' Vaughan said. But those who work in refugee resettlement say the increase could be a coincidence, since the highest priority refugees - such as ones with urgent medical issues - are likely to be from the seven banned nations anyway. 'What I would hope for is we find a way to communicate with this administration and find a way to sit down and understand why are these, what I'll call alternative facts, about the danger of refugees being presented, because it's just not correct,' Erol Kekic, executive director of the Church World Service's refugee program, told the Washington Times. Trump's reason for halting immigration from the seven countries is that he doesn't believe that citizens from these nations are being screened enough before they enter the U.S. He says stopping immigration until the system can be revamped will prevent domestic terrorist attacks. Many in the refugee resettlement community argue that the process is already strict enough, and that terrorists aren't disguising themselves as refugees to get into the U.S., but Trump got an unlikely supporter in his beliefs from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad this week. The Syrian President said that some of the refugees that are fleeing his country are 'definitely terrorists'. In addition to the growth of ISIS - which has taken over a large swath of Syria - the country has been embroiled in a Civil War between Assad's supporters and rebels since 2011. Assad's forces - backed by Russia - have been accused by the UN of committing war crimes on their own people in the struggle.
"Her career was ruined by this one guy asking for sex on this night. And, realistically, she would have been much better to have given him a blow job on that night," Dr McMullin said. "What I tell my trainees is that, if you are approached for sex, probably the safest thing to do in terms of your career is to comply with the request; the worst thing you can possibly do is to complain to the supervising body because then, as in Caroline's position, you can be sure that you will never be appointed to a major public hospital." Centre Against Sexual Assault Victorian spokeswoman Carolyn Worth said the comments were "appalling" and "irresponsible" because perpetrators thrive on not being challenged about their behaviour. "I would have thought highly trained professionals would be able to operate a better system than that," she said. "I actually don't think that's acceptable advice in this day and age." Domestic Violence Victoria chief executive Fiona McCormack said the comments were "outrageous" and "pretty extraordinary".
NASA stated that US astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will start a one-year scientific research in space in March 2015. MOSCOW, January 16 (Sputnik) — US astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will start a one-year scientific research in space in March 2015, NASA said in a statement Thursday. While such a long interstellar experience is nothing new for the Russian cosmonauts, four of whom have already had missions of one year and even more, Kelly will be the first ever US astronaut to spend a year in space. © Photo : Roscosmos NASA Says There is No Space for Politics Among American, Russian Astronauts "In March 2015, American Astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian Cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will begin collaborative investigations on the International Space Station (ISS). They will reside on the ISS for a year, which is twice as long as typical U.S. missions," the statement read. The statement noted, that the astronauts will be involved in the scientific experiments "on the medical, psychological and biomedical challenges faced by astronauts during long-duration space flight." According to US media reports, Kelly's twin brother Mark, who is also an astronaut, will participate in the experiment as well, as NASA intends to compare the effects of weightlessness on people with similar genetics.
Talk about cutting-edge science. A new study conducted by researchers in Australia shows that women prefer men with heavy stubble over clean-shaven guys and guys sporting light stubble or full beards. And what sort of men's facial hair do straight guys think is preferable among their peers? In the study, published in the May issue of the journal Evolution & Human Behavior, full beards and heavy stubble edged out light stubble and the clean-shaven look. For their research, University of New South Wales professors Barnaby J. Dixson and Rob C. Brooks presented photos of 10 smiling men to 177 heterosexual men and 351 women, according to MedicalXpress. Each man in the photos was shown in four ways -- clean-shaven, with five days of beard growth (light stubble), 10 days of growth (heavy stubble), and with a full beard. The researchers then asked the women and men to rate the men in the photos according to their attractiveness, finding heavy stubble to be the clear winner among women. What explains the hankering for heavy stubble? "Our findings confirm that beardedness affects judgments of male socio-sexual attributes and suggest that an intermediate level of beardedness is most attractive while full-bearded men may be perceived as better fathers who could protect and invest in offspring," the researchers concluded in the abstract of their study. Dixson and Brooks hypothesize that facial hair makes men seem more mature and masculine but also more dominant and aggressive, the website of the Australia edition of Men's Health reported. "Men, judging other men, might be sensitive to the overall level of masculine threat and aggression signaled through full beards," the researchers wrote, according to the website. "Women, by contrast, may balance...a competitive masculine partner against the costs of mating with a too-masculine partner."
CLOSE President Donald Trump said Monday that he intends to declare North Korea a state sponsor of terror. Trump called the move a long overdue step and part of the U.S. "maximum pressure campaign" against the North. (Nov. 20) AP President Trump (Photo11: Evan Vucci, AP) WASHINGTON – President Trump said Monday he plans to declare Kim Jong Un's government a state sponsor of terrorism, as he seeks to ratchet up the pressure on North Korea over its nuclear weapons program. "The North Korean regime must be lawful. It must end its unlawful nuclear and ballistic missile development, and cease all support for international terrorism – which it is not doing," Trump said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House. In decrying Kim's "murderous regime," Trump cited the recent death of American citizen Otto Warmbier after he was taken into custody in North Korea. He also appeared to reference North Korea's support of an assassination of Kim's half-brother Kim Jong Nam, a political rival who sustained a nerve agent attack at a Malaysia airport in February. “In addition to threatening the world by nuclear devastation, North Korea has repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism including assassinations on foreign soil,” Trump said. More: Otto Warmbier's parents push lawmakers, White House for North Korea terror designation Trump made the announcement one week after returning from a trip to Asia, where he asked China and other countries in the region to tighten the financial and diplomatic vise on North Korea. As part of that effort, Trump said his Treasury Department on Tuesday will announce an additional economic sanction on North Korea, and "it will be the highest level of sanctions by the time it's finished over a two-week period." Trump said the terror declaration "should have happened a long time ago." Yet the United States has previously declared North Korea to be a state sponsor of terrorism – for two decades, in fact, from 1988 to 2008. The George W. Bush administration took the country off the list in 2008 as part of an ultimately failed agreement with North Korea to curb its nuclear weapons program. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the Trump administration still hopes that diplomatic efforts will be successful in persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program. In the meantime, Tillerson said, the United States will continue to impose sanctions, and "continue to turn the pressure up on North Korea by getting other countries to join and take actions on their own." Last month, 12 senators — six Republicans and six Democrats — urged Tillerson to put North Korea back on the list of countries that the U.S. considers sponsors of terrorism. North Korea would join Iran, Sudan and Syria on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terror. Designating the rogue nation as a sponsor of terror would give the U.S. another pressure point against North Korea. It would also be a “diplomatic setback” for the country, Marc Thiessen, a former Bush aide and foreign policy expert, wrote in a recent op-ed arguing in favor of the move. “The additional sanctions that come with a re-designation may not make much of a difference in North Korean’s behavior, but they are one piece of a larger strategy for isolating and squeezing the North Korean regime,” Thiessen wrote. Trump and other supporters of the new listing have said the case of Warmbier, an American student who died of injuries sustained while in custody in North Korea, was part of the impetus for the decision. Kim's government had sentenced Warmbier to 15 years hard labor over claimed he tried to steal a poster from a staff-only section of a hotel in North Korea. CLOSE It’s no secret that President Trump and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un have been feuding for months. But the Pyongyang’s state media evidently had enough of Trump's insults to the dignity of their “supreme leader.” Buzz60 During ten minutes of remarks at the start of his Cabinet meeting, Trump also expressed optimism that Congress would pass a tax cut. "Hopefully, that will be a great big, beautiful Christmas present," Trump said. He also said the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent demonstrates the need for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. "We're going to have the wall as part of what we're doing, we need it. It's rough territory, that's where the drugs are coming in, a lot of things are happening along the border," he said. Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2iAA6mD
It's been called “Netflix for pirates." Popcorn Time is a new open source app for downloading and watching movies. It's dead simple: a list of movie genres on the left and a wall full of movie posters on the right. That's it. Click a poster, and you're presented with the option to "Watch it now." Under the hood, Popcorn Time runs BitTorrent software optimized for streaming. This means almost no waiting for a download to finish; the movie starts playing immediately. This immediacy and simplicity is by design. "I have a lot of friends who don't understand torrents and I wanted to make it easy and effortless to use torrent technology," says one of the app's designers, going only by the name Sebastian, in an interview with TorrentFreak. "It reminds me of Napster. It's so easy," says Gil Zvulony, a Toronto-based internet lawyer who has seen the application. It may be easy, says Zvulony, but's it's not legal. "Its primary use is to make copyrighted material available. It doesn't have any other use. It clearly infringes copyright according to the Canadian copyright act." Screenshots on the Popcorn Time website show movie posters for very old public domain movies such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920), The Phantom of the Opera (1925) and The Three Stooges: Malice in the Palace (1949). But if you actually download the software and look at what's available, it's almost exclusively pirated material, including recent Oscar nominees such as 12 Years a Slave, American Hustle, Gravity, Frozen… almost all of it copyrighted. The Popcorn Time website carries a loud, yellow warning: "Downloading copyrighted material may be illegal in your country. Use at your own risk." Zvulony thinks the app's creators are playing dumb, and are aware that people will use their software to infringe copyright. Potential damages Using Popcorn Time to download and watch movies may infringe copyright, but here in Canada, the financial risk to individuals is small. Back in 2012, Bill C-11 capped damages for non-commercial copyright infringement at $5,000. "That's really for the worst type of case," explains Zvulony. Realistically, he says, "you're looking at $100 or $200 in terms of damages awarded, which makes it extremely uneconomical for movie studios to go after individual downloaders." Though BitTorrent has a reputation as a "pirate" tool, it also has many non-infringing uses, such as the distribution of educational content for non-profit organizations. That said, piracy and copyright infringement seems to get the most attention. For me, Popcorn Time feels significant because of how it pulls BitTorrent movie piracy from a world of sketchy torrent sites full of porn ads and scammy pop-ups into a simple, streamlined interface. For years, services like iTunes and Netflix have been able to compete with piracy by offering the paid options in a cleaner, safer environment. With Popcorn Time, it seems as though the bar has been raised on the pirates' side. "It's like an arms race," says Zvulony. "There's always new innovation."
A MASSIVE decline in revenues could force the Newman Government to adopt many of the Costello Review's most controversial recommendations, including asset sales. The Courier-Mail can reveal the Government's Budget in June will predict a fiscal deficit for 2013/14 of more than $8 billion, compared to the $4.6 billion estimated in November. Combined with this year's deficit of $10 billion, the total red ink racked up by the Government could exceed $18 billion by the middle of next year if no action is taken. Huge writedowns on stamp duty, royalties and payroll revenue predictions are responsible for the bulk of the state's fading fiscal fortunes. The deficit figure comes despite the Government reining in spending by more than $5.5 billion last year by cutting thousands of public servant jobs and cancelling funding for programs. A senior Government source yesterday described the Budget position as "unsustainable", saying "there is simply no money left". "The Government has to look at all options to stop the problem we inherited from Labor which is getting worse," the source said. "A return to surplus in 2014/15 is going to be very tough. "The Government has little option other than to make further hard decisions." High-level discussions are under way to decide where further spending reductions could be identified. The Government is also considering the far-reaching recommendations in former federal treasurer Peter Costello's review of state finances. The Costello Review, which the Government will release by the end of the month, recommends a massive suite of asset sales to reduce debt and infrastructure payments. It comes as a new front in the war between the Newman and Gillard governments opened up yesterday, with the latest stoush centred on more than $725 million in disaster payments. Treasurer Tim Nicholls said the state may not be reimbursed for the damages bill because the Gillard Government was making unreasonable demands before releasing the money. However, Attorney General Mark Dreyfus insisted the money was paid in May 2012 but the Queensland Auditor General had refused to sign off on the state's spending to prove it went to the recovery effort. Additional reporting Robyn Ironside and Steven Scott Originally published as Asset sales loom as state debt soars
In 2014, Americans spent $70 billion on the lottery. When I read this fact back in May, I thought it was one of the craziest stats I had ever seen. That’s over $630 for every household in the U.S.! It sounds absurd. Then again, the very concept of state-run lotteries is absurd. From “don’t drink and drive” and “just say no to drugs” to “buckle up for safety” and “the truth about smoking,” our government takes a protectionist and proactive stance. Yet, when it comes to the lottery, the government spends about $1 billion per year in advertising that encourages risky behavior! “for every dollar raised for the state by a lottery an additional 52 cents must be taken in to pay the expenses of raising that dollar” – John Locke Foundation analysis of the South Carolina Lottery Taking the New York Lottery as an example, this is why lotteries are so inefficient. Where does the money go? After taxes, winners receive only about 31 cents in prizes for each dollar of ticket sales. About 51 cents go to taxes, city, state, and federal. The remaining 18 cents are the Lottery’s expenses. These costs are what make lotteries so inefficient. In short, for every tax dollar it raises, the New York Lottery must raise an additional 36 cents to pay for the expenses of raising that dollar. For comparison, t he IRS expends less than a cent for each dollar it raises. no part of that dollar ends up with the public education system. Like most other state lotteries, New York’s lottery was founded for the “ You may be wondering why. Like most other state lotteries, New York’s lottery was founded for the “ sole purpose ” of funding public education. So why isn’t that where the money ends up? When lotteries give money for education, tax dollars get pulled out and spent elsewhere Most state lotteries pre-commit, or earmark, their money for a particular cause, usually education. This should come as no surprise if you’ve ever seen a lottery commercial. Supporting a “good cause” is one of the primary messages they use to promote themselves, both to players and to the voting public. It’s true that lottery money does go to into a special fund for education. But that only serves to free up tax dollars, which get pulled out of education and spent elsewhere. And in the end the schools are no better off. In the case of New York, the state Comptroller called this idea a “myth” in a 1998 report, stating “lottery earnings have been earmarked for education primarily as a public relations device.” A 2013 investigation by City Limits reached a similar conclusion. And it’s not just a problem for New York. Many studies have examined the question on a national level and found the same to be true everywhere. Whatever money lotteries provide for education is offset by a reduction in funding from the state. “…the introduction of an education lottery fails to significantly increase state education expenditures. Instead, unrelated expenditures increase. Thus, the lottery does not change government’s contribution to education.” – Centre for Market and Public Organisation “Earmarking funds for education may serve to make lotteries more politically viable but has no practical impact on budget allocations”– Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research If it’s more efficient to raise money through taxes, and it all ends up in the same place anyway, why do we have lotteries at all? You may point out that there is one key difference between lotteries and taxes, which makes the two incomparable. Lotteries are not taxes because they are voluntary, right? The lottery is not a tax. The inflated price of lottery tickets is. It’s common to hear people call the lottery a tax on people who are bad a math / a tax on the stupid, but is it really fundamentally different from a tax? I wrote a post back in June examining the lottery as a tax, and it led to several debates about this very question. To settle the matter, I reached out to an expert, Professor Ross Rubenstein, an education policy and public finance researcher at Georgia State who has authored several papers on lotteries. According to professor Rubenstein, “Revenues raised by lotteries can be viewed as an excise tax on one item – lottery play.” He sums it up well in this article published in the National Tax Journal. If a competitive market existed for lottery products, it is unlikely that each firm’s profits would approach 35 percent of revenues. Although purchases of lottery tickets are “voluntary,” the implicit tax on a dollar spent on a lottery product is not voluntary, just as sales taxes paid on purchased goods are not voluntary. Choosing to play the lottery is voluntary. But much like sales taxes, the inflated price of lottery tickets is not. It is illegal for anyone but the state to run a lottery. So unlike casinos, which face competition from other casinos, lotteries operate as a monopoly, so they can set their pricing artificially high, or equivalently, their payout rates artificially low. Update: If you are not satisfied with this explanation, see: Is the lottery a tax? It’s not a tax on the stupid. It’s a tax on addicts, and their families. More than half of U.S. adults play the lottery occasionally, but only a small percentage of those players account for most of the sales. According one report, 54% of lottery sales come from only 5% of players (roughly 2.5% of U.S. adults). Pathological gambling is classified by the American Psychiatric Association as an addiction. It affects an estimated 1.7% of U.S. adults. And contrary to the casino-going stereotype, more gambling addictions are related to lottery than any other game. As shown in the chart, pathological gambling is more common among people with less income and lower levels of education, which raises an obvious question. How can someone making less than $15,000 afford to spend so much on the lottery? State lotteries portray their income as coming from entertainment budgets or as a substitute for other forms of gambling, but the data tells a different story. Money for lotteries literally comes off their families’ plates Between 1982 and 1998, 21 states introduced a lottery. This is how low income household spending changed in response. Nearly all of the lottery gambling was paid for by spending less on non-gambling items, including clothing, food, and rent. These numbers are the average over all low income households. For the families that do play the lottery, particularly families of problem gamblers, the spending reductions would be substantially greater. “the effect of lottery advertising is to create an impression that winning is easy” – Report to the National Gambling Impact Study Commission Lotteries are exempt from the Federal Trade Commission truth-in-advertising laws. Instead, the states are self-regulating, allowing lotteries to get away with misleading and predatory advertising far beyond what private businesses are allowed. Take, for example, the Louisiana Lottery’s Tic Tac 2s instant win game. On the back of the ticket, it states, “approximate odds of winning are 1:4.82.” What it doesn’t mention is that more than half of these “winners” don’t actually win anything of value, just another losing ticket. The odds of winning a cash prize, which is all anyone cares about, are only 1 in 10.1. And even then, most will only win $2 or $3. The odds of winning a prize worth more than $30 are 1 in 2944. Lotteries also intentionally direct these advertisements to low income and minority communities. For example, in Ohio’s marketing plans for its SuperLotto game, it stated that advertisements should coincide with the receipt of “Government benefits, payroll and Social Security payments.” The California Lottery released a document in 2013 seeking “African American Consumer Market Advertising Services“ In one “blighted neighborhood” of Chicago, the Illinois Lottery put up a billboard with the slogan, “This could be your ticket out.” What is the solution? Lotteries are portrayed as a form of voluntary entertainment that serves a good cause. But as the data shows, they are really just a predatory and inefficient tax. They exploit families that are struggling with addiction, and they do so by misleading them into thinking winning is easy. Is the solution to ban lotteries altogether? I don’t think so. There is clearly demand for this type of gambling, so the focus should be on providing it in a way that is not exploitative. The government should get out of the lottery-for-profit business. Their incentives are completely at odds with the government’s responsibility to protect the welfare of its citizens. The government could offer a lottery alternative that actually benefits the players, such as prize-linked savings accounts . So far, most state governments have prevented businesses from offering them , though there are a few exceptions. The most notable are Michigan, Nebraska, Washington and North Carolina, all of which allow credit unions to offer prize-linked accounts. Collectively, they have generated $94M of savings, with 60% of the participants identified as “financially vulnerable.” Allow private businesses to offer lotteries and compete with each other. Doing so would improve the odds for players, and it would allow the government to regulate them without conflicts of interest. At the very least, if state governments are going to continue offering lotteries, they need to be regulated at the federal level and with the same standards as private businesses. In practical terms, there is one thing you can you do right now. If you have 30 seconds to spare, you can join the conversation at Stop Predatory Gambling. My latest project, Elementus, aims to bring transparency to the cryptocurrency market. Check out our blog for some crypto-related data visualizations. Follow Metrocosm

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