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Josh Lewenberg TSN Raptors Reporter Follow\|Archive TORONTO - When we last saw Terrence Ross, the Raptors' soon-to-be third year swingman, he seemed understandably dejected after sleep walking through his first NBA playoff series. It was a humbling experience for the wide-eyed 23-year-old, a reminder of how much work is required to excel at the highest level of his profession and one that stayed with him for the summer months that followed. How often did he think about it? "Everyday." As training camp opened in Toronto earlier this week, he returned to a familiar environment. The roster, aside from a few minor tweaks, remains relatively untouched while the primary cogs in Dwane Casey's rotation appear unchanged, at least for the time being. The most noticeable difference has been Ross, himself. Often the first or second player out the door after practice, a shy young man that has been known to keep his time in front of the camera short and sweet, Ross both looked and sounded like a different person when he spoke to the media for over seven minutes on Monday. Physically, he's come to camp with an additional 15 pounds of muscle he put on during the summer, per request of the coaching staff. "I ate everything in sight," he said with a smile. "I tried to lift as much as I could. When I got [back to Toronto] I kind of tried to double that. I try to lift after every time I [play a] game. After every drill, I go back to the weight room and do a quick set of something. I'm just trying to constantly lift and trying to keep this size." The added strength will come in handy as Ross continues the transition to playing at the three-position, alongside DeMar DeRozan on the wing and defending bigger, more physical opponents. During Toronto's seven-game series with Brooklyn, Ross - like the rest of his teammates - was overpowered by the Nets' Joe Johnson, a player with roughly 45 pounds and 11 years of experience on the young Raptor. Further to his size, Ross projected an air of confidence. His posture was better, his voice deeper, he was chatty, reflective and, most importantly, accountable. Ross took responsibility for the final possession of Game 7, a broken play that resulted in Kyle Lowry's floater getting blocked at the rim, citing his poor spacing. Both Casey and general manager Masai Ujiri said they've seen the maturation in Ross throughout the summer. A year ago at this time he said he still felt like a rookie but now, entering his third NBA season, he understands that youth is no longer a viable excuse. "I don't feel like a rookie [anymore]," he told TSN.ca. "I feel like one of the younger guys but I don't feel like a rookie. I've been in too many situations and I've had enough playing time so I can't use that excuse anymore. So everything going forward is just manning up and taking it. If I mess up than I mess up, but right now I feel like I'm a different player and I've got to do a lot more than I did last year." He sounded different, but not unfamiliar. Why is that? "I just feel like wherever I am currently, I can always get better from that," Ross said. "I feel like even where I'm at now, I feel like there's a lot more to go. No matter how long I'm playing I'm always going to feel like there's something I can do to get better. I'm never going to be complacent or content where I'm at." "I just took it upon myself to just go a little further than what I did last year, and that's going to be my new thing, just do a little more than you did last year." This has long been the mantra of DeRozan, his self-made all-star teammate and mentor. Even at the age of 25, DeRozan, has taken on a leadership role with Ross, a player he can easily relate to. Prior to coming out of his shell over the last few seasons, DeRozan was just as timid. The one thing he's never lacked is a work ethic, something he believes is rubbing off on the younger Ross. The two spent most of the summer working out together in LA and Las Vegas. "Normally I always try to work out by myself," DeRozan admitted. "But as soon as we started working out at the beginning of the summer, I wanted to be with Terrence a lot to really push him and push him to another level so he could really see how hard I worked, and show him what it takes to be at that next level." Could Ross keep up? "Nah, he couldn't keep up," DeRozan joked. "He was close though." "It's hard to explain," said Ross, "but once you're on the court and you're with DeMar, he helps me break things down or he explains things to me that a coach or a different player couldn't explain. I mean, he's on my team, he's at the same position, he's a rising all-star. So just to have that type of advice it helps more than you can really explain." When DeRozan made his annual appearance at the Drew League, a summertime invitational in LA, he brought Ross along. "He always told me he wanted to come out there and play, and kept begging me and kept begging me," DeRozan said, later confirmed by Ross. "I asked DeMar, even before we left Toronto [at the end of] the season. I was like, 'man I'm trying to play on your Drew League [team], get me on your Drew League [team]'. When I [saw] him in the summer I was like, 'man get me on your Drew League [team], I need to be on your Drew League [team].'" When DeRozan travelled to the Philippines for an NBA showcase in July, he would check in with Ross to ensure his protégé was being consistent with his workout regiment. "Just pushing him and seeing how far he came this summer makes me feel like a proud big brother, so to speak," DeRozan continued. "Because I understand how good Terrence is and what he can do for us." "Eventually, I'm trying to get to where he's at and right now it's just going to take time," Ross said of his teammate. "He's done it all, he's seen it all. So right now I'm just trying to pick his brain and do the things he did when he was in my position to be successful." If you're going to hitch your wagon to someone, DeRozan is a wise choice. Ross, entering a crucial third season with the Raptors, has two years left on his rookie scale contract but is eligible for an extension next summer. In many ways Ross blossomed with increased playing time following the trade of Rudy Gay last winter. Known for his smooth shooting stroke, electrifying dunks and unexpected 51-point explosion, he found a niche as a corner three-point specialist and lively perimeter defender as a sophomore. Overall, the team had a record of 29-12 when Ross reached double figures in scoring. Casey has taken notice, recently suggesting that Ross could be in line for more designed play calls and late-game opportunities this season. With the return of James Johnson, a bigger and more experienced defender, the leash on Ross may be shorter than it was a year ago, despite higher expectations. The key for him will continue to be consistency and effort on the defensive end. "It's really a big season for [Ross]," Lowry acknowledged. "I think he's in that line of figuring out what he is and what he's going to be. I think he's prepared for that. Me as a veteran leader, I'm going to make sure he knows what it's about, what it is." "My job now," DeRozan added, "is to make sure [he] brings it every single night. And push [him]. You can't get tired, you can't get fatigued, you can't make excuses, you can't do none of this no more. You're not young no more, you're in the league, [he's] played at a high level, so there's no more excuses. It's just for me to bring that potential I know that [he has] out of him."
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has claimed that a woman he is alleged to have raped sent text messages admitting that he never assaulted her. In an affidavit published on the WikiLeaks website, Assange cites several SMS messages supposedly exchanged between his two alleged victims. The affidavit quotes one woman's text message as saying "it was the police who made up the charges". The alleged victim "did not want to put any charges on JA but that the police were keen on getting a grip on him", the affidavit continues. The victim also allegedly texted that she was "chocked [sic] when they arrested JA because she only wanted him to take a [STD] test". Assange claimed the messages were sent between 20 and 21 August 2010, and that he received paraphrased versions from his lawyers in December 2011. His lawyers have since been denied access to a full copy of the victims' phone records. The affidavit also links to a screenshot of a Twitter post, written in Swedish, that one of the women posted in April 2013, stating that she had not been raped. The tweet has been deleted. Assange, the founder of the whistleblower website, has been living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since June 2012 after claiming diplomatic asylum to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where he faces allegations of rape and sexual assault by two WikiLeaks volunteers. Assange states in the affidavit that he left the UK for Sweden on 11 August 2010 because he feared for his safety in the UK and had decided to manage his WikiLeaks interests from Scandinavia. Nine days later, the two women (identified as AA and SW in documents filed to the UK Supreme Court) went to the police. One of the women wanted Assange tested for sexually transmitted diseases. The duty prosecutor Maria Kjellstrand ordered his arrest on the same day. Assange claims in the affidavit that he stayed on in Sweden to clear his name but on a trip to Berlin a month later his suitcase containing three encrypted laptops and other information was "seized unlawfully" by the Swedish or German authorities. Assange claims that, while in Sweden, he had begun to suspect that the US was working with the Swedish government. "I file this affidavit in the knowledge that there will likely be pressure for this matter not to be investigated, but in the knowledge that the law requires an investigation," Assange writes in his court filing. "I request that Swedish judicial authorities act swiftly to question and arrest if necessary those who are likely to have information about or bear criminal responsibility for the actions taken against WikiLeaks and my person as detailed in this affidavit."
On Monday, March 10, Wall Street was tense, as it had been for months. The mortgage market had crashed; major companies like Citigroup and Merrill Lynch had written off billions of dollars in bad loans. In what the economists called a “credit crisis,” the big banks were so spooked they had all but stopped lending money, a trend which, if it continued, would spell disaster on 21st-century Wall Street, where trading firms routinely borrow as much as 50 times the cash in their accounts to trade complex financial instruments such as derivatives. Still, as he drove in from his Connecticut home to the glass-sheathed Midtown Manhattan headquarters of Bear Stearns, Sam Molinaro wasn’t expecting trouble. Molinaro, 50, Bear’s popular chief financial officer, thought he could spot the first rays of daylight at the end of nine solid months of nonstop crisis. The nation’s fifth-largest investment bank, known for its notoriously freewheeling—some would say maverick—culture, Bear had pledged to fork over more than $3 billion the previous summer to bail out one of its two hedge funds that had bet heavily on subprime loans. At the time, rumors flew it would go bankrupt. Bear’s swashbuckling C.E.O., 74-year-old Jimmy Cayne, pilloried as a detached figure who played bridge and rounds of golf while his firm was in crisis, had been ousted in January. His replacement, an easygoing 58-year-old investment banker named Alan Schwartz, was down at the Breakers resort in Palm Beach that morning, rubbing elbows with News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch and Viacom’s Sumner Redstone at Bear’s annual media conference. It was an uneventful morning—at first. Molinaro sat in his sixth-floor corner office, overlooking Madison Avenue, catching up on paperwork after a week-long trip visiting European investors. Then, around 11, something happened. Exactly what, no one knows to this day. But Bear’s stock began to fall. It was then, questioning his trading desks downstairs, that Molinaro first heard the rumor: Bear was having liquidity troubles, Wall Street’s way of saying the firm was running out of money. Molinaro made a face. This was crazy. There was no liquidity problem. Bear had about $18 billion in cash reserves. To read the complete story, pick up a copy of The Great Hangover: 21 Tales of the New Recession from the Pages of Vanity Fair* *(Harper Perennial), available online and at better booksellers now.
It's a clip showing him "clotheslining" — a wrestling move — a person with the CNN logo superimposed over their head, and then repeatedly punching the person. The president of the United States of America tweeted this video on Sunday morning: The clip is an edited version of Trump's appearance on WWE's WrestleMania 23 in 2007, in which he beat up the wrestling empire's head honcho, his longtime friend Vince McMahon, before shaving McMahon's hair. The edited version of the clip has circulated on Reddit's r/The_Donald — which has become a hub for followers of alt-right and far-right ideologies, and fervent Trump supporters — over the last few days prior to the president tweeting it. It is not clear how the president became aware of the clip. Trump's White House press team have attempted to focus the media's attention on the president's policy agenda in recent days, but seem to have been thwarted by the president himself, who has devoted time to stoking his Twitter feuds with CNN and the hosts of MSNBC's Morning Joe. The White House did not return requests for comment from BuzzFeed News Sunday. Trump's feud with CNN has escalated over the last week following the resignations of three reporters after a report into the Russia investigation was retracted. The president has started to refer to the network as "Fraud News Network," which appears at the end of today's video clip.
Drew Brees reached another incredible milestone on Sunday. The New Orleans Saints quarterback surpassed 70,000 passing yards for his career during Sunday's 23-13 win over the Atlanta Falcons, becoming the first quarterback to achieve the feat in fewer than 250 games. Brees is only the third quarterback in NFL history to reach the 70,000-yard plateau, joining Brett Favre (71,383) and Peyton Manning (71,940). Brees, however, hit the mark in 248 career games. It took Manning 258 games and Favre 293 games to cross 70,000. Brees, who entered Sunday's all-important NFC South showdown with 69,961 career yards, crossed 70,000 on a 12-yard screen pass to Mark Ingram in the first quarter. He completed his first four passes for 49 yards. The 17-year veteran has been a model of efficiency over the course of his career, passing for more than 4,000 yards for 12 straight seasons -- an NFL record. He's on pace to break the 4,000-yard barrier again this season for a resurgent Saints squad that clinched its first playoff berth since 2013 on Sunday. Brees, 38, is well on pace to break Manning's all-time passing yards record next season.
"People were starving to death," Daniel says now of his youth in North Korea. "Even when I went to school, I was working so hard in the fields I'd just sleep in class. I'd go to the fields at six, work for two hours, wash my face and go to school. I just felt like I had no future there." The April ice held firm, however, and he hurried across, scrambling up the opposite bank and into China. His plan was to find a job that beat scrounging scrap metal or toiling in the fields, the sum of his work experience in North Korea. Daniel, slender and about 5 feet 5 inches tall, was not a strong swimmer. Plunging into the frigid water might be a deadlier proposition than being caught by the soldiers who patrolled the area in their olive green uniforms and Russian-style ushanka hats, searching for defectors and smugglers. Those they caught were forced to pay bribes — or sent to prison camps. That day, the 19 year old woke up early and slipped silently out the door without saying so much as goodbye to anyone, knowing his family would try to stop him if he told them what he was about to do. It was two days before his little brother's 11th birthday. Daniel had been planning his escape for weeks. The 10-minute walk from his family's home to the frozen river that formed the border with China would be simple. Then he would sneak across the ice, which he thought would be solid enough to support his weight — though he couldn't be sure. If he pulled it off, he would make it out of North Korea. Read more Daniel had been planning his escape for weeks. The 10-minute walk from his family's home to the frozen river that formed the border with China would be simple. Then he would sneak across the ice, which he thought would be solid enough to support his weight — though he couldn't be sure. If he pulled it off, he would make it out of North Korea. That day, the 19 year old woke up early and slipped silently out the door without saying so much as goodbye to anyone, knowing his family would try to stop him if he told them what he was about to do. It was two days before his little brother's 11th birthday. Daniel, slender and about 5 feet 5 inches tall, was not a strong swimmer. Plunging into the frigid water might be a deadlier proposition than being caught by the soldiers who patrolled the area in their olive green uniforms and Russian-style ushanka hats, searching for defectors and smugglers. Those they caught were forced to pay bribes — or sent to prison camps. The April ice held firm, however, and he hurried across, scrambling up the opposite bank and into China. His plan was to find a job that beat scrounging scrap metal or toiling in the fields, the sum of his work experience in North Korea. "People were starving to death," Daniel says now of his youth in North Korea. "Even when I went to school, I was working so hard in the fields I'd just sleep in class. I'd go to the fields at six, work for two hours, wash my face and go to school. I just felt like I had no future there." It's impossible to verify the details of Daniel's 2010 escape. What is certain, however, is that after making his way many of thousands of miles, illegally crossing at least one more border, applying for asylum, and battling government red tape, he successfully found a new job — as a sushi chef in the San Francisco Bay Area. * * * Daniel, a pseudonym he chose to protect the family he left in North Korea, tells VICE News his story while seated at the dining room table in his one-bedroom Bay Area apartment. His place is modest; a black couch is the only piece of furniture other than the table, which is neatly arranged with clean wine glasses, a white tea set with a strawberry vine pattern, a vase of faux flowers, and woven placemats that say "Bless Our Home." Daniel is one of 186 refugees who have settled in cities across the US since the passage of the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004, which established a path for people fleeing the country to gain asylum in America. The group comprises a tiny percentage of defectors worldwide. The vast majority — more than 28,000 to date — have gone to South Korea, which has a special government program to help citizens from the northern half of the divided Korean peninsula adjust to new lives. All defectors take tremendous risks. In addition to the North Korean border patrols, defectors are often arrested and repatriated by authorities in China, which supports North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un's regime. People who get sent back face years of hard labor, abuse, and often death in brutal camps. But beyond the shared threat of bodily harm, the handful of North Koreans who opt for America over South Korea face an additional layer of cultural, psychological, and emotional challenges. North Koreans are scattered throughout the US in more than three dozen cities, from Los Angeles and Chicago to smaller towns in Idaho, Virginia, and Kentucky. Going from the isolated Hermit Kingdom to the land of fast food, consumer culture, and individual freedom is about as close to falling into an alternate universe as reality allows. And while those brave and lucky enough to reach America enjoy safety and freedom, life in the land of opportunity is daunting. Many defectors are essentially left to fend for themselves. With styled hair and neatly trimmed sideburns, Daniel could easily be mistaken for a Korean-American man who has lived in the country all his life. He seems healthy and lives comfortably. He owns a car, which would be an extravagant luxury back home. Yet he can't help but wax nostalgic about his old life. He lives alone, and it's been more than five years since he spoke to his family. "I miss everything," he says in Korean. "The smell of the ground. The dirt. Everything. I didn't really see how precious it was to be able to live with my family. I don't have that now." After scrambling across the Yalu river during his escape, Daniel says he began trekking deeper into the mountains toward a Chinese town about an hour away. He had been to China once before as a teenager, when he crossed over with a family friend he called Uncle. Related: After Turning Hundreds of North Koreans Away, Canada Now Vows to Accept Its Refugees Though leaving the country without permission is strictly forbidden, some North Koreans in the border region cross over to cities in northeast China, where there is a large ethnic Korean population, to earn money or bring back goods to sell. Uncle showed up one day in bad shape after being released from prison, where he had spent time after he was caught attempting to cross the border. "We fed him and shared our food with him," Daniel recalls. "Getting a meal from somebody else, it wasn't an easy thing back then, but because my father knew him, we treated him well." After about two months, Uncle was healthy enough to head back to China. Daniel talked it over with his family and decided to go along. They had been relatively prosperous for a number of years, tending fields of barley, corn, and potatoes, but his father developed rheumatism and lost the use of his left leg, limiting his ability to work. The family needed the extra cash their son could potentially earn over the border. Things did not go according to plan. Daniel was just 15 — too young to find work — and he ended up, as he puts it, "going from place to place" for nearly three years before returning home, sneaking past the border guards again to reunite with his family. But life in China had opened his eyes to the brainwashing he had undergone growing up in North Korea. In 2009, Kim Jong-il, the father of current leader Kim Jong-un, was still alive, and the country's economy was in shambles. The famine that killed hundreds of thousands of people in the late '90s was over, but food security was still a problem. North Koreans are taught to worship the Kim family, but Daniel had lost faith. "When I was 12 or 13, I completely believed the Dear Leader didn't go to the bathroom, that it was like a divine thing, that he was on a completely different level than us," he says. Shortly after he returned, Daniel's parents decided to move to the city on the Chinese border — Daniel declines to name it to protect his family — to be near his maternal grandmother. His discontent with the North Korean regime grew as he continued to witness hunger and deprivation all around. "I had tasted freedom, and my perspective got a lot bigger," he says. "Combined together it was political stuff, the brainwashing and indoctrination in North Korea. The things about the leader saying that we have a good life, but there are people starving and homeless people. I thought, That's not true." He began planning his second escape, keeping it a secret from his family."That's the only thing that breaks my heart," he says, expressing regret over his decision not to say farewell. "If I would have told my parents I was going to leave, they'd say 'Sometimes you have money, sometimes you don't, that's just how life is, you just have to survive. That's what's important — your life is important.'" * * * Daniel had spent time during his first trip to China at an underground Christian church, and so after his second escape, he planned to find another church that would take him in. It started to snow. He got lost and ended up wandering down a muddy road. "It was, like, six o'clock in the morning — I was scared," he recalls. "I stopped in front of a house. There was a dove holding a branch with its beak, and a cross too, I saw that in front of the house. I recognized it from before. It was a church. When I look back, it was kind of a divine intervention." He knocked, but nobody answered. After wandering for another half an hour, he circled back to the church and found a woman standing outside calling to him in Chinese. He approached hesitantly and she switched to Korean. She could tell he was a defector due to his clothes and appearance. "I was kind of scared, so I was avoiding her, but there was nowhere for me to go," he recalls. "It was very cold. My body was weak and I was exhausted. She told me to rest, so I just kind of let go of everything and I slept." Daniel had previously stayed with an elderly Chinese woman whom he came to call "Grandmother." Her phone number still worked, and she was delighted to hear from him. She picked him up and they traveled by bus to another city in the region. She introduced Daniel to a Christian missionary, who he says was knowledgeable about helping refugees escape to South Korea and the United States. "Some missionaries will just give you some money and tell you to go back to North Korea and spread the gospel, but that missionary didn't do that," Daniel says. "He asked me if I wanted to go to America or South Korea. I said, 'America.' I didn't really know anything about it at the time." The US fought against the North during the Korean war, and North Koreans are still bombarded with propaganda that portrays Americans as almost cartoonishly evil. Daniel says the forbidden-fruit aspect was part of the appeal. He knew from his past visit to China that the US was prosperous — the opposite of what his own government had told him. Daniel sits on the couch at his apartment. (Photo by Grace Kim/VICE News) "Anything related to America has a very bad connotation, but I was very curious," Daniel says. "I knew America was a rich country, I thought maybe I should go and experience it. North Koreans are taught not to like America, but that's kind of why I wanted to go." The missionary connected Daniel with a representative of Liberty in North Korea (LINK), a Los Angeles-based NGO that works with North Korean refugees. Since it was founded in 2004, LINK has shepherded more than 400 North Koreans through China and Southeast Asia to South Korea and the United States, where defectors can claim political asylum. Sokeel Park, LINK's director of research and strategy, makes it clear in a phone interview from his office in Seoul that his organization does not do "extractions" — meaning they don't arrange for people inside North Korea to make it out. Instead, LINK works with refugees like Daniel who have already fled, or gets "referrals" from defectors who have kept in contact with relatives via smuggled cellphones or other means and know an escape is coming. With China and North Korea both seeking to arrest defectors — and potentially the people who aid in their escapes — Park says "operational security" is crucial, so the first step upon meeting refugees is vetting. After LINK feels comfortable the defector is not an agent of the North Korean regime, the organization makes arrangements to smuggle the person from China's northeastern frontier to a third country, typically in Southeast Asia, where refugees are able to make contact with the US State Department. "It can happen very quickly," Park says. "They can go through the rescue route... in a matter of days." In years past, defectors could simply enter a US embassy or consulate in China and be guaranteed protection. Getting out of the diplomatic outpost and moving on to the next destination required approval from the Chinese government, however, and Beijing began forcing refugees to wait months or years before allowing them to continue on their way. China also cracked down by beefing up security outside the compounds to make it more difficult to get inside. "It was obviously politically inconvenient and embarrassing for the Beijing government to have to deal with that," Park said. "They just made a decision to shut it down and were successful with that." Others have gone west to Mongolia through China's Gobi Desert, but the terrain is so treacherous that most refugees attempt to head south instead. Daniel says LINK arranged for him to take trains and buses through China — a journey of some 3,000 miles — to a country in Southeast Asia that he does not name in order to protect LINK's staff and other defectors still using the same route. 'I didn't know why I was taken to a cell when I did nothing wrong. I was scared they would do something to me or send me away.' In some instances, North Koreans have been detained and sent back home even after leaving China. In 2013, authorities in Laos repatriated nine young defectors, reportedly telling them they were boarding a plane to South Korea that was actually headed back to China en route to Pyongyang. Earlier this year, Thai police arrested an American Christian missionary and charged the man with human trafficking after he helped seven North Koreans enter the country. But according to Park, such cases are rare. "In general, once you make it out of China into Southeast Asia, you're a lot more confident you're going to make it to your final destination, whether that's South Korea or the US," he said. Daniel knew that the Chinese authorities were on the lookout for defectors like him, but LINK had made arrangements. This meant Daniel was basically just along for the ride, hoping and praying that they would make it through undetected. LINK has a history of success when helping defectors escape — Park says their success rate is over 95 percent — but there are no guarantees. "I knew there was a risk," Daniel says with a shrug. "I got lucky." * * * After successfully navigating China, refugees like Daniel begin an entirely new journey. In the best-case scenario, the months-long wait to enter the US is spent in relative comfort. For some, however, it means sitting in an immigration detention center, stuck in diplomatic and bureaucratic limbo for more than a year. When President George W. Bush signed the North Korean Human Rights Act into law in 2004, he cleared the way for North Koreans to claim political asylum in the US, but the measure didn't add any special provisions to expedite their applications or create a system to address their highly unusual circumstances and needs. In the eyes of the US government, North Koreans simply became eligible to become refugees like people from Syria, Iraq, or Eritrea. "There is no special program for North Koreans," a spokesman for the State Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs told VICE News in a statement. "North Korean refugees access the USRAP (US Refugee Admissions Program) and are considered for US resettlement along with refugees of some 70 other nationalities worldwide." In practice, this means that North Koreans end up doing a lot of waiting around, sometimes behind bars in detention centers. Even in better circumstances, they usually aren't allowed to leave the home, diplomatic compound, or refugee processing center where they are being housed. Earlier this year, the George W. Bush Institute, the former president's nonprofit policy center, released a report on the lives of North Korean refugees in the US. The survey, which coincided with a campaign to raise global awareness about human rights abuses in North Korea, included in-depth interviews with 16 defectors whose backgrounds "reflected a range of living standards in North Korea varying from relatively comfortable to the verge of starvation." While almost all the defectors were pleased with their decision to come to the US, they also spoke candidly about frustrating months spent in purgatory with no updates on the status of their applications. "They took me to the cell, when I was first taken there I was so shocked," said one 44-year-old man who fled North Korea in 2001 and arrived in the US in 2010. "I was surprised because I didn't know why I had to stay in a place like that when I did nothing wrong. I was really scared and worried that they would do something to me or send me away." The report said many people encountered would-be US émigrés in China and Southeast Asia who "eventually found the waiting period too long and withdrew their applications for asylum in the United States and went, instead, to South Korea." In one remarkable case, the report described a North Korean who was "warned in advance on his way to Thailand that the wait for admission to the United States could be months or more, [so] he took an unusual and much more arduous journey from Thailand on his own through South America and Mexico." Asked about the report and any efforts to improve the lot of North Koreans stuck waiting in Southeast Asia for passage to the US, the State Department issued a carefully worded statement that effectively said they could do nothing to improve matters. "We urge all countries in the region to cooperate in the protection of North Korean refugees within their territories," the statement said, citing international protocols that govern the handling of refugees. "On many occasions we have expressed our views to other government officials." Fortunately for Daniel, his case proceeded faster than usual. He spent five months waiting in a location his Korean translator from LINK declines to divulge, citing security reasons. He read, watched TV, and tried to study English while preparing himself for what would be a first for him. "In North Korea, it's impossible to get on a plane," he says, still sounding awestruck at the thought of the experience. After a brief layover in South Korea, Daniel's flight touched down in Los Angeles. He was with a handful of other refugees, including two women who would become his roommates in the Bay Area. He called them his "sisters," and they received small stipends from a civil society group contracted by the US Office of Refugee Settlement. LINK provided additional support, and they all quickly found jobs. "One thing I regret is not studying English first and getting a job right away," he says. "But I had no choice other than to get a job." Daniel found work in the most American of places: a shopping mall, where he worked in a restaurant bakery from 6am until noon, then served as a busboy at another food court eatery from 12:30pm to 5pm. He managed to eke out a living, but he longed for more. He eventually got laid off from the bakery and quit his other job. He says he then spent a month depressed in bed. "I wanted to make a lot of money," he says. "I wanted to buy stuff other people had. I was very ambitious. I was greedy." * * * Joseph Kim can sympathize with Daniel's struggle to adjust. The 25-year-old was among the first group of North Korean refugees to arrive in the United States in 2006, and he was placed with a foster family in Richmond, Virginia, where he enrolled in a local high school. "They had no idea about North Korea," he recalls. "It was a really poor community and neighborhood. Teachers didn't really care whether we did homework or not. The students made me say the F-word, of course I didn't know what that means. I'm like 'Okay,' and I say it and they start laughing." Kim's background is bleak even by North Korean standards. His father died during the famine, and his mother sent his younger sister to China, he suspects to be sold as a bride or servant. He ended up homeless, one of the young children known in North Korea as Kotjebi, or wandering swallows, who roam train stations and public marketplaces in rags begging for food. He became a pickpocket and thief and spent time in a detention center before nearly starving to death on the streets. Hunger is no longer a concern — he recounts this story at a restaurant in Midtown Manhattan's Koreatown neighborhood over a massive lunch of Korean barbecue, kimchi, and banchan side dishes. He looks older than his years; like Daniel, he is short and wiry with a carefully coiffed tangle of black hair. Kim fled to China at 15 in search of his sister, and was eventually taken in by an elderly Chinese woman who, he says, treated him like her own grandson. Their underground Christian church connected him with LINK, who offered to take him to America. At first he didn't want to go; his pastor had to convince him by explaining the concept of freedom. "I knew what freedom meant, the word in the dictionary, but it didn't catch my attention until he elaborated what that means," Kim says, recalling a time when he was seldom allowed outside for fear of being snatched up by Chinese authorities. "It means you can go outside any time you want to go. That was really eye-opening. All I wanted to do was go outside and explore. That's what really changed my mind." Kim wrote a memoir, Under the Same Sky, about his escape and ongoing efforts to reconnect with his sister, and in it he describes how his US foster family kept a lock on their pantry because they had a tight budget for food. After being on the brink of starvation in North Korea, he found himself going hungry in the United States. He was eventually relocated to a new household, and says he holds no ill will against the people who first took him in. "I don't want to criticize them," he says. "I never shared my hunger, or I never asked for more food, mainly because I didn't know I had the right to ask." While groups such as LINK offer additional support and resources for a limited number of North Korean refugees, the majority receive limited assistance. Defectors interviewed by the Bush Institute all reported "sincere gratitude" for the opportunity they had been granted, but they also "expressed frustration over the fact they were ill-prepared to handle this on their own." 'The US government doesn't really recognize high school education from North Korea, and not many people defect with a high school diploma anyway. They have to start from the bottom.' North Korean defectors have a high prevalence of anxiety disorders and PTSD, and a survey of 140 female defectors in South Korea found that more than a quarter had been victims of sexual abuse or assault while in North Korea or during their escape; 45 said they had considered or attempted suicide. Some experience lingering health effects from malnutrition, and the Bush Institute report cited instances of North Korean immigrants having difficulty obtaining proper medical care in the US. "In North Korea, we have free healthcare," a 44-year-old woman who left in 2006 and arrived in the US in 2008 said. "There aren't too many drugs or services available, but we are treated for free. I got lucky and received surgery for free in North Korea. These health-related costs in the US are always beyond my comprehension." Since 1999, South Korea has had a special support center where North Korean defectors undergo three months of reorientation, learning how to accomplish basic tasks like shopping for groceries in a supermarket or withdrawing money from an ATM, a device that doesn't exist in the North. They also undergo job skills training and take classes to unlearn the warped history lessons taught by the North, then receive government financial support for up to five years. The US resettlement manager for LINK and the translator during one interview with Daniel, described North Korean refugees as "resilient" and "very driven," and said most find jobs in America soon after arriving. "They're equipped to find ways to be self-sufficient," the LINK translator said. "Finding a job is not really an issue; going to mainstream society is the bigger challenge." Like other non-English speaking refugees, the language barrier is a significant hurdle for North Koreans, and some end up self-isolating within Korean-American communities. Younger refugees like Kim have the advantage of being able to enroll in school and receive English lessons and an American education, but that's not typically the case for adults. "The US government doesn't really recognize high school education from North Korea, and not many people defect with a high school diploma in their hand anyway," the LINK translator said. "They have to start from the bottom." Kim is one of the success stories. He eventually transferred to a better high school in Virginia, became a top student, and moved to Brooklyn, where he enrolled in a community college. "I heard from someone if you can survive in New York City you can survive anywhere," he says. "I was like, 'Well, I want to go there.'" He enrolled this fall at Bard College in upstate New York, where he plans to study political science. He says the US should educate more North Korean defectors about their options, while also offering improved education once they arrive by offering support to NGOs like LINK, which specialize in making the transition smooth. "The US doesn't have to actually create a program, but they can be generous to support organizations that already do support them," Kim says. "I am convinced that they can do more." * * * After several hours of conversation with Daniel, the topic turned to American perception of North Korea. He had never heard of the movie The Interview, a comedy that stars James Franco and Seth Rogan as American journalists who plan to kill Kim Jong-un. He watched a trailer on his iPhone for about 90 seconds before turning it off and shaking his head. "Not funny," he said in English. Through a translator, he said he could see why some people would find humor in "the Leader" as he called the third-generation Kim. But for him, it wasn't a joke. Outlandish tales emerge from North Korea so regularly — like the one about Kim executing an "incompetent" turtle farmer — that human rights violations and food shortages are sometimes trivialized. And the fact is, it's getting harder to escape from North Korea. From 2007 to 2011, about 2,600 people fled each year to the South. The following two years, after Kim Jong-un assumed power following his father's death, border security tightened and defections fell by 44 percent. A 2014 survey found that less than half of Americans have heard of North Korea's prison camps. Despite the grim situation, a handful of defectors have attempted to go back over the years. In one case in South Korea, the government has refused to allow a 45-year-old woman to return to her husband, daughter, and ailing parents in the North. Beyond family considerations, North Koreans sometimes face alienation in South Korea. "It's this whole legacy," says Park, the LINK staffer based in Seoul. "There's general uneasiness and curiosity, and at times over-curiousity. If you're a North Korean refugee, that's not just one of your labels, it defines you and defines all the interactions you have." The depression that kept Daniel in bed for a month eventually lifted, and he found work in the kitchen at the Korean-owned sushi restaurant where he now works as a chef. He clearly takes pride in his craft, describing how the rice has to be "perfect" and the fish must be cut to just the right thickness, but it's also clear his life is missing something. When asked what he does for fun, he says, "Clean the house." He's also taken up golfing. "It's like a hobby, I don't really love it, but I'm trying to like it," he says. "There's nothing else to do on my off days." He has a few Korean friends — one has left behind a guitar with a broken string in his living room — but he hasn't kept in touch with his former roommates, the two women he lived with upon arriving in the Bay Area. The conversation keeps coming back to food — the plants for which his family would forage when making soup, or a dish of seasoned tofu with marinated rice that he can't seem to replicate here. While Daniel has managed to keep in contact with his Chinese "Grandmother," he has not been able to communicate with his family. Some defectors send money home via elaborate smuggling networks — an estimated $15 million goes back to North Koreans each year from family members in South Korea and the US — and he described feeling guilty for even his relatively humble lifestyle. "Financial stability, I used to think that was the most important thing, but not any more," he says. "Relationships, I think that's the most important thing in your life." Asked if he would tell his parents and siblings to attempt an escape, he says he would ask his younger sister and brother to consider it, but that his parents are likely too old. He still gets homesick, but he plans to apply for US citizenship next year and hopes to eventually open his own restaurant. Related: North Korean Meth, Motorcycle Gangs, Army Snipers, and a Guy Named Rambo "It's not a grand dream or anything, but I've realized it doesn't matter where you work, whether it's a restaurant or whatever, it's what kind of mindset you have," he says. "That's the most important." The only decoration on the walls of Daniel's home is a framed picture of Tuscany he bought at a local market. It shows a solitary Italian villa atop a hill surrounded by verdant farmland. He says years down the road, if North Korea opens up and it's safe to return, he would like to build a nice house and go back to farming, perhaps tending a flock of sheep. But for now, he's committed to his new life in America. "I had to become self-sufficient, and I did it," he says. "Sometimes I do feel miserable, but when I look back, I survived. I made it." Follow Keegan Hamilton on Twitter: @keegan_hamilton
Athens, Ohio, being the diverse town that it is, has an unsurprisingly high variation of opinions on marijuana, the persecution of its users and its legality. Thus, Athens County Sheriff Patrick Kelly and his Narcotics Enforcement Team’s recent confiscation of 47 pounds of homegrown marijuana — a total that is worth approximately $200,000 — was bound to spark discussion. The bust led to the arrest of Donald Gribbet, 44, who used a residence on Lafollette Road to grow the illegal substance on Sept. 10, according to the Sheriff’s Department website. Kelly was not surprised to find such a large amount of marijuana. “About this time during the year is when many of the harvests are starting to come in,” Kelly said. “It’s not uncommon to find bigger grow operations in the fall.” In fact, Athens County, as well as the entire region of Southeast Ohio, is notorious for growing both large quantities and high qualities of the drug. “This area has always been noted for its very good strands of marijuana,” according to Kelly.“Some choose to grow outside in fields, others tend to go inside grows, which have become more common. They’re more difficult to detect.” The recent drug bust was an indoor grow. When asked how it was detected, Kelly revealed that the police had the help of “a confidential informant.” Kelly said he and the police department will continue to deal with drug related crime in the same manner as they always had. “Since I’ve taken office in 2009, I’ve had a three approach way of dealing with the drug problem.” He listed the three approaches as enforcement (drug busts), education (teaching children in schools) and prevention (including treatment). Although Kelly believes marijuana usage to be a problem, he believes other narcotics take a higher priority. “I would say marijuana is not our major problem. The major problem we have is with heroin and methamphetamine,” Kelly said. In addition, Kelly mentioned prescription pill abuse is “absolutely” a bigger drug problem in Athens County than marijuana. Prescription pills are legal, “until someone decides to sell their pills, or trade their pills.” At that point, the police may intervene. Marijuana still remains an extremely profitable business venture for growers in Athens County, however. “A pound of pot, you can buy for $1500 to $2000 here,” Kelly said. Once grown or bought here, “You can take it to a larger city and get anywhere up to $6000 a pound.” Among the larger cities that buy Athens marijuana, Kelly listed Columbus, Cleveland, Detroit and Indianapolis. “If it’s good pot—if it’s anything like the stuff we got the other day—absolutely it will go for five to six thousand a pound,” Kelly said. “This stuff was very good pot. If you grabbed the bud, your fingers would stick to it.” Marijuana is a criminal offense in Ohio, meaning the police have an obligation to devote resources to drug busts such as this recent 47 pound seizure. However, Kelly expressed changes to the department should marijuana become legal. “If the law changes, then we would not have to spend as much resources on marijuana than we have in the past . . . It would be just like alcohol. It would be controlled,” Kelly said. The future of any legislation to legalize marijuana seemed to be questionable, according to Kelly. “I see possibly medicinal purposes [for marijuana] being legalized . . . I don’t see recreational use anytime soon,” Kelly said. “I don’t think the state’s ready for that yet. I see the statistics that say that they have done polls that people are in favor of marijuana legalization, but I think they’re checking the wrong polls.” As to whether or not it would be a good idea for Ohio to lax its marijuana laws, Kelly said “That’s not for me to decide. That is for our legislators to decide.” City officials were hesitant to offer any opinion on the subject. “I really haven’t formed an opinion. I would have to have more information,” City Council President Jim Sands said. “We do read reports of medical marijuana being perhaps a help to people in some limited medical circumstances,” At-Large Chris Knisely said. “I’d at least be interested in people being able to bring it to the ballot if there was sufficient interest. But I’m personally not decided yet.” Mayor Paul Wiehl also abstained from offering an opinion on marijuana prohibition. “I really don’t know the status of punishments that are out there for various infractions, so I couldn’t say whether they’re egregious or not,” Wiehl said. “I haven’t really studied it. It’s not really on my radar most of the time, unfortunately.” Regarding efforts to put medical marijuana on the ballot, Wiehl believes there could be many aspects to any petition. “It would be intriguing to to see what happens,” Wiehl said. “Do you add yet another drug to the spectrum of legal drugs? Is that a good thing or bad thing? Do you create a culture of drug use or social drug use? In other words drug use or drug abuse? There’s a school of thought that says there’s use and there’s abuse and how to distinguish one from the other. And the same thing applies to alcohol. Prohibition [of alcohol] didn’t work, obviously.” Athens residents and Ohio University students were not as reluctant to give their opinions on marijuana laws. “It should be legalized … too many resources are spent on it,” Curt Wholsapple, owner of Little Professor Book Center said. “I can’t believe that much drug activity is going on under our noses … We should get more cops out there, or legalize it, structure it. Do something,” Athens resident Jennifer Rood said. “I generally don’t really care, I guess,” Luke Longanbach, Ohio University student said. “There’s no reason that it shouldn’t be legal . . . That’s a lot of money wasted on something that is a very, very little problem.” Two first-year graduate students, Allison Dubois and Ricky Hopkins both offered similar sentiments, believing it a good thing for police to target those who violate drug laws. “I’m against [the legalization of marijuana],” Hopkins said. “I just graduated from school in San Francisco, where they did legalize marijuana, and I don’t like that.” “I am torn on the issue [of legalization],” Dubois said. Emily Hehnen, OU sophomore, was surprised that such a large amount of marijuana was being grown in Athens County. “That amount is just kind of shocking . . . I just can’t wrap my head around it entirely.” Hehnen said. “I don’t really think it’s a huge deal. If it were legalized, I wouldn’t really have a problem with it. I just think people have to be smart about using it, and I think it is helpful in some ways, especially medically.” Khari Harley, OU freshman, was in favor of the current illegality of marijuana. “It’s a good thing. I mean, it’s still an illegal drug, so they have to get it off the streets,” Harley said. “I am in favor of it being illegal.” Adrienne Covington, OU Freshman, said she knows the person who was busted for growing marijuana and his family personally. “It’s definitely a bummer, especially because he got ratted out. It’s completely life changing for his family,” Covington said. Covington views confidential informants and other inconspicuous tactics used to bust marijuana crimes “cheating.” “If they’re doing it in a safe way and in a way that they’re not normally going to get caught, then you shouldn’t get caught,” Covington said. This view of using confidential informants starkly contrasts Kelly’s view who labeled it as “good police work.” Regardless of differing moral opinions, Athens mayor, various city council members and Kelly agree that marijuana laws must continue to be enforced during its prohibition.
('(\'(\\\'(\\\\\\\'(\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\' Between the efforts of Jason King and Andreas Antonopoulos, Coins in the Kingdom might secure it\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s place as the most charitable Bitcoin conference of the year. At the end of the first day of the conference, Andreas Antonopoulos was approached by Chris DeRose for a signature on a unique piece of numismatic history: a Ten Trillion Dollar Zimbabwe Reserve Note. After the bill signing,\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\xc2\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\xa0Andreas was asked what charity he would most like to see a donation be given to. To this, Andreas responded \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\xe2\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\x80\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\x9cRAINN." A few weeks thereafter, a charity auction commenced and is currently live at cryptothrift.com.The auction is available to all members of the general public, and at the time of writing is currently selling at an approximate price of 500mBTC (half a Bitcoin). The details of the event, are clearly denoted in the item description alongside a note that all proceeds from the auction (and any funds sent to the custodian address) will be converted to fiat and donated to RAINN. Though dogecoiners are typically the ones credited for new and wacky twists on the charity scene, Bitcoiners aren\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t without their own sense of creativity and civic duty.In the bill being auctioned, alongside his signature, Andreas added the comment "Inflation Matters" to the bill. Certainly this quote neatly sums up the story of Zimbabwe\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s ill-fated national currency. The story of the ten trillion dollar Zimbawe note, though incredulous, is nonetheless true. In the first decade of our millenium, the Republic of Zimbabwe was experiencing inflation at rates unparalleled by any other economy in recent years. During this period, inflation rose sharply between the early years of the 2000\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s, up until the printing of the ten trillion dollar note, the last denomination that was printed, in April of 2009. Despite making inflation illegal in 2007 (yes, politicians really signed this decree into law), the government was unable to curb the runaway devaluation of its currency, and informally switched to using the US Dollar as its primary currency in 2009. As of today, an \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'unsigned\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\' Ten Trillion dollar bill is worth nothing past its\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\xc2\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\xa0novelty factor, and cannot be converted into any other currency.As for RAINN, "Chelsea Bowers," an official spokesperson of the organization suggested we re-iterate the organizations mission statement in our write-up of the auction. Their noble mission is as follows:RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) is the nation\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s largest anti-sexual violence organization and was named one of "America\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s 100 Best Charities" by Worth magazine. RAINN created and operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline (800.656.HOPE and online.rainn.org) in partnership with more than 1,100 local rape crisis centers across the country and operates the DoD Safe Helpline for the Department of Defense. RAINN also carries out programs to prevent sexual violence, help victims and ensure that rapists are brought to justice.When asked whether the organization intends to receive the funds in Bitcoin or fiat, Chelsea replied "At this time, we don\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t have a [way] to accept Bitcoin (although it sounds like it\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s something we should implement!)." Let\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s hope our charity efforts leave a positive impression on RAINN, and shows the world that Bitcoiners are commited to leaving a positive impact on the world around them.For more information on the auction, click here for the item listing. Permalink:\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\xc2\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\xa0http://bitcoinmagazine.com/17757/andreas-auction-of-ten-trillion-dollars-for-charity/ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\',)\\\\\\\',)\\\',)\',)',)
The controversial new slogan of the Tory party – ‘We’re going to fking kill you all’ doesn’t appear to have put off any potential voters. The slogan was unveiled yesterday by Prime Minister Theresa May at an event that made a Scientology meeting look uncreepy. The slogan has proved a surprise, not least because it contains neither the words ‘strong’ nor ‘stable,’ and it had been assumed that those were the only two words that Theresa May had been programmed with. The bigger surprise, however, is that the clear intention to murder the entire population still hasn’t turned off Tory voters. “No, I’ll definitely still vote Tory,” said Simon Williams, a Tory supporter who had his last original thought at the age of fourteen. “I mean, yeah, they’re going to kill me, but really there isn’t any option is there. You can’t vote Labour because that bloke Corbyn has got a beard and doesn’t like nuclear Armageddon. “So, regardless of the fact that he’s coming out with loads of polices, like more housing, more bank holidays, and tax reform that would literally benefit me more in the space of a week than Tory policies have done in my entire lifetime, I’m going to vote for the party whose slogan is ‘We’re going to fking kill you all’. “It’s just common sense.” Mr Williams then went to play on the third rail.
SOON after it attacked America on September 11th 2001, al-Qaeda issued a book by its co-founder, Ayman al-Zawahiri, setting out a grand strategy. “Knights under the Prophet’s Banner” explained that striking America, not local regimes, would galvanise Muslims everywhere; jihadists had to cleave “to the masses” and needed a “base in the heart of the Muslim world” to achieve eventual success. In the event, al-Qaeda was chased from Afghanistan and dispersed by American forces, which eventually killed its leader, Osama bin Laden. In Iraq, the jihadists were nearly wiped out as the masses turned against them, for a time. And with the subsequent collapse of Syria and Iraq, al-Qaeda was eclipsed by its rebellious progeny, Islamic State (IS), which declared a caliphate in 2014 and has inspired jihadists—and earned the enmity of everyone else—ever since. Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks. Yet the threat from al-Qaeda never disappeared. Its central leadership remains committed to attacking the West; its regional branches are active; and Mr Zawahiri remains at large. The IS caliphate looks likely to be dismantled as American-backed forces close on its strongholds of Raqqa and Mosul. By contrast, Mr Zawahiri’s dream of a secure base for al-Qaeda in the Arab world may be turning into reality. So, at least, fear Western governments. Al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch, Jabhat al-Nusra (“The Support Front”), has taken a central role in the fight against Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Mr Zawahiri’s deputy, Abu Khayr al-Masri, released by Iran in a prisoner swap last year, has moved to Syria with several other senior al-Qaeda figures, Western officials say. There is talk that al-Qaeda may soon declare an Islamic “emirate” (one notch down from a caliphate). Such worries go some way to explaining the terms of the latest ceasefire in Syria negotiated by America and Russia. Its central bargain is this: if the Russians restrain Mr Assad and allow humanitarian supplies into besieged areas held by rebels, America will join Russia in targeting Jabhat al-Nusra (as well as IS). The first such joint operations since the end of the cold war will start if the ceasefire holds for a week after coming into force on September 12th. John Kerry, the American secretary of state, and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, did not agree on a future government for Syria, let alone a timetable for Mr Assad to step down. But Mr Kerry rejects the notion that America has, in effect, bowed to Russia and its intervention to prop up Mr Assad: “Going after Nusra is not a concession to anybody,” he says. “It is profoundly in the interests of the United States to target al-Qaeda.” But America risks being seen as doing Mr Assad’s bidding. “This is a conspiracy against the Syrian people to bring their revolution to an end,” says Mostafa Mahamed, the Nusra front’s English-language spokesman. “We are one of the strongest forces fighting the regime, and the world knows it.” On the eve of the Kerry-Lavrov deal, someone appears to have made a down-payment: an unknown aircraft struck a meeting of rebel commanders, killing Abu Omar Saraqib, a prominent Nusra figure. Whoever carried it out, rebels of all persuasions mourned his death. “Saraqib was the engineer of the military operations of one of the strongest rebel alliances in Syria. His death will weaken the revolution,” says Zakaria Malahfeji of Fastaqim Kama Umirt, a rebel faction in Aleppo that receives military support from America. Such sentiments say much about the failures of American policy in Syria, and the success of al-Qaeda’s belated pragmatism. Think global, act local Jabhat al-Nusra has played a long game. Like IS, its roots lie in al-Qaeda’s jihad against American troops (and increasingly against Shias) in Iraq; both later grew in Syria’s blood-soaked soil. But whereas IS doubled down on its anti-Shia sectarianism and the “management of savagery”, Jabhat al-Nusra sought to learn from the excesses of Iraq. IS favours ostentatious brutality, the extermination of rivals and the imposition of strict sharia rules. It took the fast lane to the caliphate, and calls on supporters worldwide to attack the West by whatever means. Jabhat al-Nusra, by contrast, seeks to win the respect of brutalised Sunnis by fighting Mr Assad; sharia strictures have, for the most part, been light; the caliphate is a long-term objective, to be established when conditions are ripe. Jabhat al-Nusra has formed alliances with more moderate groups; and it has focused on the fight in Syria rather than global jihad. In July Jabhat al-Nusra declared it had severed “external” ties with al-Qaeda, and rebranded itself Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (Front for the Conquest of the Levant, or JFS). Western counter-terrorism experts tend to dismiss the move as cosmetic. But in Syria it proved contentious enough that some hardline jihadists left. JFS now seeks a full merger with other rebel groups; purists think that its global ambition will be diluted by the nationalist Syrian rebel agenda. David Petraeus, a former CIA chief, has suggested talking to its “reconcilable” elements. Some are even pushing Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy to Syria, to start putting out feelers to the front. “Al-Nusra is still an integral part of al-Qaeda despite the name change. The danger is that they are acquiring popular support. If it continues to grow then it could become a genuine mass movement,” says Charles Lister of the Brookings Institution, an American think-tank. “With a large enough majority behind them they could establish an emirate, a kind of protected territorial base on the borders of Europe that the international community would find very hard to root out.” There is little evidence so far that the group has sought to carry out attacks against the West. Indeed its leader, Abu Muhammad al-Julani, says Mr Zawahiri has expressly forbidden him from doing so. But counter-terrorism officials worry that it is just a matter of time. America has been targeting what it calls the “Khorasan group” within the front, a nucleus of al-Qaeda figures who have moved to Syria and were allegedly plotting international attacks. For the most part, though, American bombing has been directed at IS. The front’s fighters have acted as the shock troops of the Sunni rebellion, especially in northern Syria. Its cadre of suicide-bombers, known as inghimasi, was used with devastating effect to breach the Syrian regime’s lines before rebel assaults. “Al-Nusra’s fighters have become to the opposition what Russian and Syrian jets are to the regime,” says a seasoned observer. Soon after its rebranding, JFS was instrumental in breaking the siege of rebel-held Aleppo. The respite was brief but earned JFS the gratitude of many in the city. Other units have little choice but to work alongside the front. It has attracted many recruits; more than two-thirds of its roughly 7,000 fighters are thought to come from Syria. They see it as a better-trained, better-equipped, more disciplined force that takes greater care of its wounded. It has even drawn fighters from IS. Though Syrian rebel groups are more or less keeping the ceasefire, few will obey America’s order to separate from JFS. They fear that, should fighting resume—as after an abortive ceasefire in February—Mr Assad’s forces will reclaim territory. Many think strikes against JFS would be like “ripping a vital organ from the body of the revolution”, as one Syria-watcher puts it. The softer side of jihadism Like IS, the front presents itself as a quasi-government in areas where it is dominant. Its Department of Relief paves roads, repairs electricity lines, pumps water and rebuilds damaged infrastructure. To prevent looting, its police guard marketplaces. It subsidises bread, runs flour mills and bakeries, offers Islamic education, provides health care and ensures rents remain low for families displaced by the fighting. At “family fun days” locals compete in games of tug-of-war and enter raffles to win TVs. Many regard the front as less corrupt than other rebel factions. By controlling the judicial system, and access to marriage certificates and property deeds, it seeks to settle disputes and steer locals towards its ideology. “They don’t intervene in people’s affairs like before. Even around Idlib, their main stronghold, you can see girls and women not wearing the niqab,” says Sami al-Raj, an activist from Aleppo. “Many people consider it the only rebel group that can protect their property and money. You rarely find robbery in the areas it controls.” Already in 2013, before the split with IS, Mr Zawahiri was urging moderation on jihadists. Except for some places—such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Saudi Arabia—they should as far as possible avoid clashing with local regimes. They should resist fighting “deviant sects” like Shias, and “avoid meddling” with non-Muslim minorities. The priority should be to strike America “until it bleeds to death both militarily and financially”, he said in a public missive. “Our struggle is a long one and jihad is in need of safe bases and consistent support in terms of men, finances and expertise.” The move from avoiding unnecessary friction to taking care of populations is a new stage in al-Qaeda’s pragmatism, which has been visible in Yemen, too. With the collapse into civil war last year, caused by Shia rebels’ armed takeover of much of the country and a Saudi-led intervention to push them back, al-Qaeda took control of the port of al-Mukhalla. It kept it running, levying taxes on oil imports. It administered the city through existing tribal structures. Supplies of water and electricity increased. Visitors described security as better than elsewhere in Yemen. “They wanted to show that they could rule better than anyone else,” says Elisabeth Kendall of Oxford University. By and large, she says, they succeeded. In April, though, special forces from the United Arab Emirates, with the reported help of American ones, put an end to al-Qaeda’s “Hadramawt province”. Its fighters moved east into al-Mahra, prompting internecine fighting for control of smuggling routes into Oman. Far from the rivalry in Syria, al-Qaeda is flirting with a nascent IS offshoot in Yemen. Harried by American strikes, and more involved in local conflicts, jihadists have not been able to attack the West on the scale of 9/11. But 15 years on, says Nicholas Rasmussen of America’s Counterterrorism Centre, “the array of terrorist actors around the world is broader, wider and deeper than at any time since that day.” IS and al-Qaeda may yet swap roles. If and when the IS caliphate is destroyed, say Western officials, it might go global, dispersing among its regional franchises, or turning to full-blown international jihad. It would thus become a bit like the al-Qaeda of yesteryear. And if there is no reasonable settlement to the war in Syria, al-Qaeda will plant stronger local roots. Its future emirate, should it come to it, may be more firmly supported by the local population, and therefore even harder to extirpate, than the barbarous IS caliphate.
For the past two years, Republicans in Washington have accused a number of outside conservative groups and individuals of enforcing purity for profit. You know the drill. John Boehner started it. Every time conservatives opposed anything John Boehner or Mitch McConnell wanted, their allies would attack the opposing conservatives claiming the conservatives were making money off opposing the Republicans. “Mark Levin was in it for the ratings, have you seen the Senate Conservative Fund’s offices, wonder how much Erickson is getting, HAFA is just fundraising, the Club for Growth is scaring people into giving them money, etc., etc., etc.” They made all these accusations and more. Instead of claiming these conservatives were putting profit ahead of purity, these guys were claiming that conservatives were making money off enforcing purity to the detriment of the greater party good and the advancement of the agenda incrementally. At this point we have to stand back and notice one particular thing. The conservatives being attacked as making money by enforcing purity are standing firm against Donald Trump and for the legacy and ideas of the Republican Party. The Republicans in Washington who have made the accusations are now all rallying around Donald Trump. They are exposing themselves as willing to put profit ahead of principle, never mind purity. John Boehner, Judd Gregg, and the rest would rather Donald Trump than Ted Cruz because they know Trump is malleable and transactional. Cruz actually believes what he says and the K Street gravy train would be disrupted. These guys never cared about the interests of the party or the country, they just used claims about both to disguise their pure self-interest. Turns out all the Republicans attacking conservatives for making money off enforcing purity are the ones who were in it for the money all along.
Blackhawks Wed Apr 13 2011 Humbled by a frustrating, injury-plagued season, the Blackhawks begin their defense of last year's Stanley Cup title as the eighth and final seed in the Western Conference. Their reward for scratching out a playoff berth on the final day of the regular season: a date with the Vancouver Canucks, Presidents' Trophy winners with a league-best 117 points. There's no doubt the 97-point Hawks are underdogs against a powerful Vancouver team led by star forwards Daniel and Henrik Sedin and goalie Roberto Luongo, but No. 8 seeds have a better chance in hockey than any other sport. Here are three things Chicago can do to pull off the upset, starting with Game 1 on Wednesday (9 p.m., CSN): 1. No room for error in goal Calder Trophy contender Corey Crawford has had a phenomenal rookie season, but he will be facing the terrifying Sedins on their home ice. Crawford might also have the pressure of matching his counterpart Luongo, who is going into the playoffs with a career-low 2.11 goals against average and a .928 save percentage that ranks second-best in his 11 seasons. Crawford also will have to live up to the standard set last year by Antti Niemi, a breakout star of Chicago's Cup run who outplayed Luongo when these teams met in the West semifinals. While Crawford has easily outshined veteran backup goalie Marty Turco, moving into the starting spot early in the season, he'll need to play out of his head throughout the Vancouver series to give the Hawks a chance. 2. Defense is imperative If the Blackhawks can't keep the puck in Vancouver's end, they'll be in major trouble. This could pose a problem against the Canucks' sheer size and strength, but the Hawks will need to use their speed and skating skills to control the game. Chicago might get help from forwards Dave Bolland and Troy Brouwer, who might make their returns to the ice just in time for the first round of playoffs. Bolland missed the past 14 games after suffering complications from a concussion he received on March 9 in Tampa, while Brouwer has missed the past three with a shoulder injury from the Montreal game on April 5. The duo can help out the Hawks defense in keeping the Sedins in their own zone and drawing penalties from the twins. Either Bolland or Brouwer could take some defensive pressure off the first line, allowing the Jonathan Toews-Patrick Kane team to get to work offensively. Speaking of Kane, look for him or Tomas Kopecky to be hanging around the goal when the Hawks are on the offensive. No doubt coach Joel Quenneville will try to find someone to fill Dustin Byfuglien's cherry-picking spot from last year. 3. Avoid key penalties The Blackhawks can't afford the bad penalties that haunted them in early March. The team will have to come out calm and steady, avoiding any costly mistakes that could lead to Canucks power plays. This is especially true for defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson, who cost the team valuable minutes after sloppy delay-of-game penalties during consecutive games. Although the Canucks aren't the first team Blackhawks fans think of as rivals, this is a grudge match. The Canucks have been knocked out of the playoffs by Chicago the past two seasons, and they're ready to make up for it this time. This could lead to more scuffles than usual, and Chicago has to make sure they don't throw the first punches that could lead to time in the box.
News » Canadian Study Shows Marijuana Effective in Treating Pain A new study released in the Canadian Medical Association Journal has offered more credibility to medical marijuana. The study involved twenty one adults suffering from eight post-traumatic or post-surgical pain. Over a two month period, the subjects were randomly assigned to a group given either marijuana with a tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) potency of 2.5 percent, 6 percent, or 9.4 percent, which the control group given a placebo. The patients receiving the marijuana treatment were rotated over all four strengths of the medicine, including the placebo. When using the highest concentration THC, patients reported that they were most relieved of pain, as well as reported improvement sleeping. Given the time frame of the study, the researchers admit that this sheds little light on the effectiveness of marijuana in treating long-term chronic pain, however others feel that it is. One 28 year old from Toronto using marijuana to treat her chronic pain says “as a cannabis user, it can be really hard to get people to take you seriously. To me, this study is vindication.” Previously prescribed traditional painkillers, she reported unpleasant side effects as compared to her new MMJ treatment, including increased lucidity. “I know what’s going on now. I have a clear head.” [source The Globe & Mail] Tags: Canada, medical, science, THC
GREEN BAY, Wis. -- T.J. Lang avoided any major structural damage to his injured left ankle, and the Green Bay Packers' starting right guard will not need surgery, according to a source. However, the Packers won't know until next week whether he will be available for their post-bye game against the Chicago Bears on Nov. 9. "Not sure about a timetable yet," the source said. The injury was diagnosed as a sprain. Lang was injured at the end of the first series in Sunday's 44-23 loss at the New Orleans Saints. He appeared to land awkwardly while blocking an extra point. He played just five snaps on offense and the lone special teams snap. He left the Superdome in a walking boot and did not speak to reporters. However, he tweeted a message earlier this week. Optimistic about the ankle injury and thankful for the bye! Thanks for the kind words. — TJ Lang (@TJLang70) October 27, 2014 Second-year pro Lane Taylor finished the game in Lang's spot. However, if Lang can't play against the Bears, the Packers may opt to use JC Tretter at right guard instead of Taylor. Tretter, who was slated to be the starting center this season, is eligible to come off the injured reserve/designated to return list this week. Given how well rookie Corey Linsley has played in Tretter's spot, it's unlikely the Packers will go back to Tretter at center. The Packers are monitoring several other injuries during their bye week. They were without three defensive starters -- safety Morgan Burnett (calf), cornerback Sam Shields (knee) and defensive end Datone Jones (ankle) -- against the Saints.
Share 0 SHARES FANS of UFC superstar Conor McGregor were given a fright today as the “Notorious” one sensationally quit the sport, only to learn that it was all a prank by Jose Aldo, who “fraped” McGregor after he left his Twitter account logged in by mistake. Aldo, who lost his UFC Championship to McGregor in just 13 seconds, hurriedly typed ‘I’ve decided to retire young. Thanks for the cheese. Catch Ya’s later ‘on Conor’s Twitter account, on the office computer of a Los Angeles gym, where McGregor had been training. When questioned, Aldo admitted he had committed the frape, and clarified the cryptic “cheese” message. “Yeah, I wanted to say ‘Thanks for everything Jose’, but the autocorrect was on” said Aldo, giggling mischievously. “Needless to say, the internet went mad altogether. It was hilarious. He may have knocked me out in record time, but who is the real winner, overall? I think it’s me, don’t you agree?”. McGregor, currently in the middle of a sparring session against a giant pile of money, is still unaware that the frape that took place, or that his iPhone has melted into a puddle due to notifications.
Late last year, a Sea Shepherd operative caught some damning video footage: two shipping containers owned by Maersk — the self-described “world’s largest container shipping company” — being offloaded on a Hong Kong street, filled with shark fins. The ocean advocacy group released the video Monday along with a conciliatory message: Shipping companies like Maersk are partners in stopping the shark fin trade; it’s the exporters who seek to break the rules who are the enemy and must be stopped. Since 2010 Maersk has banned the transport of shark fins on its containers. Sea Shepherd documented shipments of shark fin by this and other major carriers who had banned fin transport over the course of a three-month investigation. When shark fins are shipped without the rest of the body, it usually means that the rest of the shark went to waste. Once the sharks are sliced off, sharks are often returned to the ocean still alive where they suffer a slow and painful death. But the discovery of the shipments put Sea Shepherd in a tricky spot — many species of shark fin are not illegal for global trade, and so the organization relies on the cooperation of shipping companies like Maersk to implement and enforce wholesale shark fin transportation bans. In other words, some public pressure is required to convince companies to do their best to avoid shark fin shipments, but it’s not in the interest of shark advocates to make them out to be the bad guys. “We see these responsible companies as victims of the ruthless shark fin trade who will stop at nothing to continue their barbaric trade,” according to the Sea Shepherd video. Shark fins are often labeled “dried seafood” or another generic term to avoid transportation bans. Sea Shepherd is known for its no-holds-barred approach to ocean wildlife conservation, but this video is devoid of the typical shocking scenes of suffering sharks and mountains of fins. The closest you’ll see is just the tip of a single shark fin poking out from a shipping bag. INVERSE LOOT DEALS Meet the Pod The first bed that learns the perfect temperature for your sleep, and dynamically warms or cools according to your needs. Buy Now This is certainly a calculated approach — Sea Shepherd needs the cooperation of Maersk and other shippers more than they need public outrage. A news release issued with the video highlighted new actions and promises by Maersk, Cathay Pacific Airways, and Virgin Australia Cargo to better enforce shark fin transportation bans as a result of the Sea Shepherd investigation and negotiations that followed. Ultimately, trade in shark fins stops when no one wants to buy them anymore. Shark fin soup remains a popular dish for weddings and other celebrations in parts of Asia, and shark fins are used in traditional medicines. The most effective pressure to end this demand will come from within the cultures where it is present, and not from outsiders looking in. Fortunately, a Chinese-led movement to end shark finning has already gained significant momentum. In 2006, former NBA star Yao Ming pledged not to eat shark fin soup, and has been credited with appeasing the Chinese appetite for the dish. Major wedding banquet halls in China and Hong Kong have taken shark fin off the menu.
DHS Wants To Expand 'See Something, Say Something' To Retailers Selling You Pressure Cookers from the well,-more-than-they-do-already dept "See something, say something" continues to be the Dept. of Homeland Security's favorite words. Concerned that its sprawling reach and 100-mile, border-encompassing "Constitution-Free Zone" aren't protective enough, it has routinely called on the American people to report anything suspicious activities their fellow Americans might be participating in… like taking pictures of public structures… or using a hotel's side exits. Now, the DHS wants to take it further. The DHS wants to turn every retail store into the haphazard debacle that is the TSA's screening process. No, store employees won't be frisking your kids or detaching medical equipment from your friends and neighbors, but they will be making uninformed decisions about your purchases. (via Ben Swann) Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said his department will be issuing new guidance to retailers this week giving them pointers on how to spot potential terrorists among their customers by looking at what they're buying. While saying the government cannot prohibit sales of some everyday materials, Mr. Johnson said retailers should be trained to look for anyone who buys a lot from what he described as a "long list of materials that could be used as explosive precursors." He said it was an extension of the "If you see something, say something" campaign launched by his predecessor, former Secretary Janet Napolitano, which tries to enlist average Americans to be aware of their immediate environment. Since it would be impossible to train thousands of retail store employees properly, this will likely take the form of an item watchlist, one that will be constantly subject to change. It will probably also instruct employees to view perfectly normal shopping behavior as suspicious.As has been the result of previous "see something, say something" efforts, this new directive will create another massive database of false positives for Fusion Center employees and local law enforcement to deal with. Johnson specifically cited pressure cookers (while stating the government couldn't actually forbid their sale) as one example. If so, then this directive has no chance in hell of catching terrorists and is guaranteed to serve up a lot of unsuspecting (and unsuspicious) consumers for further government examination.Pressure cookers are a legitimate item that thousands of consumers use. Now, they're viewed as the equivalent of buying a U-Haul truck full of fertilizer. Past incidents are prompting future actions, much as they do with the TSA (shoe bomber? off with your shoes!). Constantly being one step behind the clumsiest terrorists isn't going to keep the country any safer. It's just going to make it a worse place to simply "go about your business."Johnson says the DHS is looking for "explosive precursors," which could be nearly anything. Because retail outlets don't share customer purchase data with each other, this may result in the DHS attempting to justify the requisition of data from multiple retailers using credit/debit card numbers as a starting point. (Just business records , folks. No Fourth Amendment to see here.) And as has been common for forever now, people using cash to purchase stuff will be viewed as extra suspicious.This is another dangerous, stupid step that won't catch terrorists but will generate tons of budget-justifying busywork for the DHS, and put more people on the government's radar who've done nothing more suspicious than buy things they need or want. Filed Under: dhs, explosive precursors, homeland security, jeh johnson, pressure cookers, retailers, see something say something
Nokia plans to launch an iPad competitor based on Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system next year, the company’s French division manager let slip in an interview with newspaper Les Echos. The tablet would launch next summer and would be the first such product from the Finnish phone maker. "In June 2012, we will have a tablet that runs on Windows 8," Paul Amsellem told the Parisian daily. The potential launch date of the tablet also gives an indication to when Windows 8 would actually ship to consumers, as Microsoft is yet to give details on the launch schedule for its upcoming OS, besides a fall 2012 teaser. Amsellem also confirmed Nokia is preparing another high-end Windows Phone 7 device, set to follow-up the Nokia Lumia 800, the first phone born out of the company’s partnership with Microsoft. The Lumia 800 launches today in Europe and is set to arrive in the US in early 2012. Using a car analogy, Amsellem said the Lumia 800 was a BMW Series 5, and that Nokia has in the pipeline a Series 7 equivalent, with better specs. To get an idea of what the higher-end ‘Series 7’ Nokia phone would bring, you can look at some of the shortcomings of the Lumia 800: the phone does not have a front camera, no 4G, 512MB of RAM and just a single-core processor. The flagship model has been tipped as the Nokia Ace or 900, as Nokia dropped some hints and displayed what is believed to be a rendering of it at the London Design Museum. Samsung is also planning to release a Windows 8 tablet in the second half of 2012, the company announced last week. Samsung’s Windows 8 tablet will be a modified version of the company’s Series 7 slate, which runs Windows 7. An earlier version of a Samsung Windows 8 tablet, given out to press and developers at the BUILD conference in September, had a 11.6-inch 1366-by-768 pixel display, an Intel second-generation Core i5 processor and 4 GB of RAM. The first to get their hands on the early Windows 8 tablet remarked it was bulkier than the iPad and most Android tablets, and pointed out the noisy fan inside. Follow Daniel Ionescu and Today @ PCWorld on Twitter
Gov. Bruce Rauner is rich. So are Democratic challenger Chris Kennedy and potential Democratic candidate J.B. Prizker. Do the non-rich have a chance? The 2018 race for governor of Illinois is shaping up to be a war of rich men, with wealthy Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican, putting $50 million into his re-election fund on Dec. 23, the Chicago Tribune reported. Democratic businessman Chris Kennedy, a son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy, is running for the Democratic nomination. He managed the family-owned Merchandise Mart and other properties; he is chairman of Joseph P. Kennedy Enterprises Inc., the family's investment company; and he heads Top Box Foods, a Chicago nonprofit. He's also a former president of the University of Illinois board of trustees. Kennedy is actively campaigning throughout the state. He told Opinion Editor Wally Haas and me that he is running because Rauner is taking the state in the wrong direction — Illinois has gone without a budget since June 30, 2015. It's looking increasingly likely that the state will not have a budget through 2018 because Rauner and House Speaker Mike Madigan are locked in a grudge match of competing priorities. Rauner wants to enact his "turnaround agenda" of pro-business reforms as part of a state spending plan, while Madigan says those things shouldn't be in the budget because they would hurt the middle class. Kennedy said Rauner is the culprit in this dispute. He dismissed Rauner's agenda as "phantom fantasy." "First, there's nothing more important than passing a budget. Gov. Rauner, by not passing a budget, has turned the state's budget problems into a statewide economic crisis. Let's pass a budget and put that behind us," Kennedy told us. According to Fortune.com, Madigan, who is also chairman of the state Democratic Party, said Kennedy would make an "excellent candidate" for governor after he spoke to the Illinois delegation at the Democratic National Convention in 2016. Whether that was meant as a green light to Kennedy or just a compliment is hard to say. But it certainly doesn't hurt Kennedy's chances within influential Democratic Party circles. And why not? Rather than raising millions of dollars to assist a candidate for governor, a self-funding Kennedy would free Madigan to raise funds for state legislative candidates, Cook County candidates and statewide candidates in 2018. And the Kennedy name still has a certain star quality. Ah, but there's another wealthy Democrat who might run. He's J.B. Pritzker, manager of Pritzker Group, an investment company. He is the son of Donald Pritzker, co-founder of the Hyatt hotel chain. J.B. Pritzker told Bloomberg News that he would "spend what it takes" if he were to become a candidate. There are at least a couple of non-rich Democrats either running or considering a run. Chicago 47th Ward Alderman Ameya Prashar says he will run. Others who could run are state Sen. Daniel Biss, D-Evanston, and Rep. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill. However, they would actually have to raise their own money. U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-East Moline, and state Treasurer Mike Frerichs, have said they will not run for governor in 2018. Next year is shaping up to be good for Democrats, what with President Donald Trump's proposed budget that slashes funding for everything from after-school programs and Meals on Wheels for the elderly to mass transit operations in cities, and hundreds of other domestic programs. Meanwhile, Rauner's favorability is dropping, according to a poll released Wednesday by Southern Illinois University's Paul Simon Public Policy Center. "Thirty-six percent (of those polled) somewhat approve or strongly approve of his performance, while 58 percent somewhat disapprove or strongly disapprove. That compares with a 40 percent approval rating and 55 percent disapproval rating last October," the poll said. Speaker Madigan's ratings are negative, too. The poll found that 61 percent somewhat or strongly disapprove of Madigan's performance and 26 percent somewhat or strongly approve. However, Madigan only has to run in his southwest Chicago district, which his organization controls. He won't be on the ballot opposite Bruce Rauner. Spending one's own money doesn't guarantee victory for wealthy candidates in Illinois. Anyone remember Blair Hull? In 2004, he spent $24 million of his money to win the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. An obscure state senator, Barack Obama of Chicago, won that contest and went on to become quite successful in national politics from what I hear. And how about Jim Oberweis? The successful Chicagoland businessman is chairman of Oberweis Dairy and founder of Oberweis Asset Management. According to Vote Smart, Republican Oberweis ran for U.S. Senate in 2014, U.S. House in 2008, Illinois governor in 2006, and U.S. Senate in 2004 and 2002. He lost those races. He did win a state Senate seat in 2012 and 2016 and represents the 25th District in the Aurora area. Chuck Sweeny: 815-987-1366; csweeny@rrstar.com; @chucksweeny
It was October of 2011, and tensions in hockey's tough guy community were running high. Three members of their fraternity – Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien and Wade Belak – had passed away at a young age in relatively quick succession, and the subsequent attempts in the media to make sense of and connect their unrelated deaths led to a high profile spat between Hockey Night in Canada's Don Cherry and a group of former fighters he had called out as "a bunch of pukes." Clarifying his thoughts in a subsequent Coach's Corner appearance, Cherry added the term "mad dog" to the sport's already lengthy list of fighter-related terminology. Story continues below advertisement "It's a tough sport, like I said, but I would not have a mad dog sitting on the bench only to get on [the ice] for two minutes," Cherry bellowed. "You should never, ever have a guy sit. I had four 20-goal scorers who were my tough guys, and that's the way you do it." It's rarely the way it's done in today's NHL, however. And the end result of having a few mad dogs around is what happened between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres in their preseason dust up on Sunday night. One designated fighter (Jamie Devane) knocked out a relative non-fighter (Corey Tropp), who appeared to be a willing combatant with the much bigger man. The super goon™ (John Scott) was then called into action to retaliate and went after a skilled player (Phil Kessel). A melee ensued, equipment was tossed on the ice and debates raged into the next day over who exactly had broken "the code" to cause such a fracas. "It was pretty stupid, right?" Kessel said of 6-foot-8, 270-pound behemoth Scott going after him, the start of a sequence that led to a 10-game suspension to teammate David Clarkson for leaving the bench to intervene. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement "I knew I had to have a response for what happened the shift before," Scott explained in the typical rationale, "and I said, 'Phil, we're going to have to go here, just to let you know.'" "I never believed in my wildest dreams that the attack would come directed at that type of player," Leafs coach Randy Carlyle said. "But I was wrong." The presence of this type of goon is a relatively new phenomenon in the game, one that actually came about after Don Cherry had checked out of coaching and retired to the broadcast booth. There have been 252 seasons in NHL history where a forward has had 100 penalty minutes while failing to record more than five points – all by heavyweights with a limited skill set beyond punching opponents – and 247 of those were after 1985. The usage of a fighter along those lines actually appeared to peak sometime between 1995 and 2005, with a high of roughly 20 players filling the John Scott role back in 1997-98. The rise (and fall) of the goon The prevalence of players whose only purpose is to fight is a relatively recent phenomenon in the NHL, one that peaked in the late 1990s but which still exists today. This chart shows the number of forwards that had 100 PIMs but five points or less in that season. Story continues below advertisement Since then, the super goons have fallen out of favour in many organizations, with many GMs opting for skill over brawn as both the speed of the game and parity in the league have increased. But the Leafs are trending in the other direction. After leading the league in fighting majors a year ago with 44 – 10 more than the next highest team, the Columbus Blue Jackets – Toronto is tied for that honour again in preseason with 12 fights in five games. (What makes that all the more impressive is the fact the Leafs main fighters, Colton Orr and Frazer McLaren, are both out with injuries.) Carlyle, in fact, has no fewer than seven players among the 31 in camp who don't mind dropping the gloves, something his teams have become well known for and which has caused a type of goon arms race in their division. Montreal bulked up with George Parros and Brandon Prust. Story continues below advertisement Ottawa added a heavy in Matt Kassian. The Sabres, meanwhile, may be in for a tough season as they rebuild, but they won't ever go meekly given they boast one of the "bigger" threats in Scott and others like Steve Ott and Cody McCormick. But the problem for the Leafs in all this is that having so much of their identity tied to this type of player can come with some fallout. For one, Toronto's fourth line struggled a year ago, was played sparingly and left the tough minutes for their teammates, something that hurt even more if injuries hit during games. For another, the culture of always being ready for a fight – originally instilled by former GM Brian Burke – can lead to rash actions like Clarkson's, especially considering he wasn't the only Leaf attempting to hop the bench despite the automatic 10-game suspension for doing so. "I was kind of being held back," said Nazem Kadri, one of the Leafs smaller, finesse types. "Lupes [teammate Joffrey Lupul] did a good job of keeping me on the bench. But we did have to think it through." Story continues below advertisement "When the flames get that high, you're somewhat helpless other than pulling people back and yelling and screaming 'get back, get back, don't get involved,' " Carlyle said. The mess the Leafs find themselves in, in other words, could have been a lot worse. Kadri could have been suspended, or Kessel could have been hurt by Scott, or netminder Jonathan Bernier dinged up in his own unnecessary bout. But you can also certainly see why some Leafs players are confused as to their roles when these melees start, as fighting is being rewarded constantly in the organization. How else can one explain that some of this year's final cuts will be Jamie Devane, Troy Bodie and/or David Broll? Or that both Orr and McLaren have received multiyear, one-way deals in recent seasons? Clarkson, meanwhile, has been looking for trouble throughout preseason – including an early bout with a much bigger player in Philadelphia Flyers defenceman Nicklas Grossman – which could be a result of his big new contract and trying to prove his worth. Story continues below advertisement Fighting has now been equated with winning in Toronto, even if it was the Leafs skill that gave the Boston Bruins fits during last year's playoffs far more than their fists. "The game is physical game and if you want to people to be physical you don't surround yourself with players that are not physical," Carlyle said of his philosophy. "If you watch the games in the playoffs, it's about earning space and the courage to go in certain areas, take a check to make the play. "Toughness is… just as important for us from a standpoint of body checks and blocked shots. That's team toughness. Everybody looks at team toughness, and describes it as specifically fighting, and I don't think that's correct. Fighting is part of it but usually physical confrontation leads to that." That wasn't really the case on Sunday. Fighting was the it – the cause of all hell breaking loose on the ice. For all the blame thrown around in the aftermath, the real danger came as a result of the one-dimensional punchers that started it and not a big hit or a blocked shot or anything else. "The code" wasn't adhered to – by one side or the other – and with all these mad dogs around, there wasn't a whole lot of "thinking it through" going on. Someone or something was bound to get hurt, and, in this case, it just may have been the Leafs playoffs chances. @mirtle
It would have been delightful to have heard more of this "We Can't Wait for Congress" jobs campaign from President Obama about two years ago. But better late than never. The latest iteration is Friday's announcement of a $4 billion initiative to upgrade energy efficiency in public and private buildings, saving an estimated $40 billion annually and generating tens of thousands of jobs. And it won't cost taxpayers a dime. Happily, the plan can be accomplished without seeking impossible-to-get approval from that retrograde cabal of Congress which seems to believe any energy not extracted from hydrocarbons is Satan-spawned. The concept is simple enough, one that was proposed as far back as the Carter administration: If you don't consume a unit of energy in the first place, you don't have to produce that energy. If you don't consume it, you don't have to pay for it. If you don't have to pay for it, you can spend the money on something else. The cheapest energy of all is energy you don't have to generate in the first place. And if the source of that unconsumed, unpurchased energy is, say, coal, you get the added benefit of not adding more CO 2 to our already overburdened atmosphere. Win-win-win. It's so smart that backing has even come from the right-wing Chamber of Commerce, which has opposed almost every environmental initiative since Rachel Carson published her first book half a century ago. The program announced today is part of the Better Buildings Initiative rolled out last February. BBI's goal is to leverage federal and private money to reduce energy consumption in commercial buildings by 20 percent by 2020. Several BBI projects are already under way. Obama added to those today by pledging to make $2 billion available for upgrades to federal buildings. Through the efforts of former President Bill Clinton, CEOs, mayors, university presidents and labor leaders also pledged to generate 2 billion additional dollars in private capital to retrofit "1.6 billion square feet of office, industrial, municipal, hospital, university, community college and school buildings." To achieve the business-friendly, taxpayer-friendly, environment-friendly outcome of the program, upfront money has to be invested. That translates into jobs. So, actually, it's a win-win-win-win. Exactly how many jobs is not known, although the Chamber says 35,000 just from the $2 billion in private investment. The Political Economy Research Institute estimated in June that BBI overall would generate 114,000 jobs. These, PERI says, would be in: • Lighting manufacturing and installation; • Heating, ventilating, and air conditioning equipment manufacturing and installation; • Water heating manufacturing and installation; • Motors and drives manufacturing and installation; • Office equipment (computers, copiers, telephones, etc) manufacturing and installation; • Control system manufacturing and installation; • Building envelope component (windows, doors, insulation, roofing, paints, coatings, etc.) manufacturing and installation; • Building operations, maintenance and commissioning. So how does the administration leverage $2 billion without seeking congressional approval? Through a too-little-used technique called an Energy Savings Performance Contract. Here, courtesy of Christopher Mims, is how that works: The feds pay nothing, and the contractor itself pays for the retrofit. Then the feds pay the contractor what they were paying before, for energy. The contractor keeps the difference between new, lower energy bills and what they're paid, until the cost of the retrofit is paid off. Then the contract ends, and the feds reap all the efficiency benefits from there on out. It's a similar financing mechanism as, for example, SolarCity, which offers homeowners solar panels for free. It's hard to see how investing somebody else's money to upgrade buildings to make them consume less energy while pocketing the financial gains from this lowered energy consumption and creating jobs and reducing environmental impacts is a bad thing. It's also hard to see why this wasn't done on a large scale in the Reagan, Bush I, Clinton and Bush II administrations. Or perhaps it's not so hard given that none of those administrations generated anything like a forward-looking, environmentally sound, comprehensive energy program. Here we are still without one almost 35 years since Jimmy Carter introduced his and 30 since Ronald Reagan mangled it.
Tunisian protesters planned a rare national strike for Monday as protests entered their 18th day [AFP] Online activists have attacked and at least momentarily disabled several Tunisian government websites in the latest act of protest against the country's embattled leadership. As of Monday afternoon, local time, at least eight websites had been affected, including those for the president, prime minister, ministry of industry, ministry of foreign affairs, and the stock exchange. The attack, which began on Sunday night, coincided with a national strike, planned to take place on Monday, that organisers said would be the biggest popular event of its size since Zine El Abidine Ben Ali assumed the presidency. The strike comes on the day that school students return from their holiday. Ben Ali's administration has tightly restricted the flow of information out of Tunisia since widespread protests began on December 17, following 26-year-old Mohamed Bouazizi's suicide attempt. But reports of civil disobedience and police action filtered out on Twitter on Monday, with some users reporting the use of tear gas by security forces. The loosely organised hacker group Anonymous claimed responsibility for the cyber attack, which it called "Operation Tunisia", an apparent arm of the group's broader effort - termed "Operation Payback" - aimed at taking retribution against governments and businesses viewed as hostile to the similarly amorphous document-leaking group WikiLeaks. Operation Tunisia came just days after a similar attack on Zimbabwean government websites;in that case, Anonymous said that it had targeted Robert Mugabe's administration for actions taken by officials to suppress information about the thousands of secret US diplomatic cables that WikiLeaks has released. But on Monday, Anonymous and its followers sought to tie their cyber attack to the ongoing protests and social unrest in Tunisia, not WikiLeaks. In a manifesto reportedly posted on the prime minister's website but later removed, the group said that it was "enraged" at the Tunisian government's behaviour, and that Ben Ali's administration had "unilaterally declared war on free speech, democracy, and even [its] own people". "Anonymous is willing to help the Tunisian people in this fight against oppression," the statement said. "Cyber attacks will persist until the Tunisian government respects all Tunisian citizens' right to free speech and information and ceases the censoring of the internet". Denial-of-service attack Sami ben Gharbia, a Tunisian exile living in Europe who monitors online censorship in the country, told Al Jazeera that Monday's sabotage was the first time he had seen an international group like Anonymous target a Tunisian website. Gharbia said he had witnessed the hackers planning the "denial-of-service" attack in a chat room arranged by Anonymous and that it appeared Tunisian users were among those participating. The protests in Tunisia, which have led to three confirmed deaths, have garnered comparatively little attention in the Western media, which closely followed developments in 2009 in Iran when hundreds of thousands of citizens protested presidential election results. Western governments have been similarly reticent about voicing criticism of Ben Ali's government, or its response to the protests. The country is a popular European tourist destination and has been praised by the World Bank for its financial policies. But many within the country say the image of calm and success belies simmering resentments and unemployment rates that reach 25 per cent in certain areas. High-level corruption In private, the US has said that Tunisia's corruption - a contributor to the unemployment driving many to protest - is getting worse. A 2008 diplomatic cable signed by Robert Godec, the US ambassador, and released by WikiLeaks in December describes both low- and high-level corruption in the country that scares away foreign and domestic investors. "Whether it's cash, services, land, property, or yes, even your yacht, President Ben Ali's family is rumoured to covet it and reportedly gets what it wants," the cable states. Gharbia said Monday's cyber attack probably will not affect protests "on the ground" but may serve as a "good story" to attract the mainstream media and embolden online activists in Tunisia. "It might give a sense of solidarity to Tunisian bloggers who have been witnessing censorship for years now, to see such actions targeting the main body of the censorship," he said.
Post-Listing Update: This Suitcase Cycle did not meet reserve with just one bid up to $1,500 on eBay. The 1974 Honda CL125 was a one-cylinder scrambler that with a 122cc piston that weighed just 196 pounds. What makes this specific example so special is that it has been converted by a third party company to fit into a suitcase for easy transport on airplanes! The story begins in the ’60s, when the concept of “general aviation” began to take off. Average citizens could earn their pilot’s license and travel for business and/or pleasure. But once you got to an airport far from home, ground transportation could be a problem. A former United Airlines pilot, Lawrence Shapiro, saw a need that could be satisfied with motorcycles. Suitcase Cycles sold about 1,000 bikes before production came to an end – according to Shapiro this came due to product liability laws. ” “This was a time when everyone began being sued for anything and everything. Plus, some of our suppliers were told by Honda and Suzuki not to sell motorcycles to us. They still did but I believe they suffered consequences from the big boys.” For more information on Suitcase Cycle, check out this link from Check-Six, an aviation history site. I highly recommend you check out this page, which shows a few photos of a bike being loaded into a Cessna 172. This specific Honda CL125 Suitcase Cycle (VIN: CL125S1105203) has covered just 2,342 miles over its 40 year life. It’s been garaged and covered its whole life, and I adore all the “Suitcase Cycle” branding all over the place. Find this Honda CL125 Suitcase Cycle for sale in Palm Desert, California with an opening bid of $1,500 and a BIN of $4,800 here on eBay.
VANCOUVER, BC – Vancouver Whitecaps FC announced today the addition of defender Chris Serban, midfielder Brett Levis, and midfielder/striker Jovan Blagojevic to the club’s WFC2 roster ahead of the team’s inaugural season in the United Soccer League (USL). Per club policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed. Building the pyramid: The importance of WFC2 "Chris and Brett are both very good players and they’ve obviously done well in the CIS, but also proved themselves with the Whitecaps FC U-23 team," said WFC2 head coach Alan Koch. "With Jovan, it’s exciting to continue working with a player that I’ve coached for the last few years and who continues to get better. I’m really looking forward to having all three players with us this season." WFC2 defender Chris Serban Joined Whitecaps FC Residency program in 2014 Named 2014 CIS Rookie of the Year with UBC Started all five matches for Canada at the 2015 CONCACAF U-20 Championship Serban, 19, returns to the club after playing one season at the University of British Columbia (UBC) under head coach Mike Mosher. During his first season of college soccer, Serban won the Lou Bilek award as Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) Rookie of the Year after helping the Thunderbirds to the fewest goals conceded in the Canada West conference. Serban on WFC2 A native of Calgary, Alberta, Serban joined the Whitecaps FC Residency program in February 2014 after playing with Calgary Chinooks. During the 2013-14 United States Soccer Development Academy (USSDA) U-18 season, the 5-foot-10 defender started all 15 matches he appeared in for the Blue and White, helping the ‘Caps to second place in the Northwest Division. In addition to his time in the Residency program, Serban also started 11 matches for Whitecaps FC U-23 in the United Soccer Leagues (USL) Premier Development League (PDL). Internationally, Serban has made eight appearances for the Canadian U-20 men’s national team, including starting all five matches for his country at the recent 2015 CONCACAF U-20 Championship. WFC2 midfielder Brett Levis Played for Whitecaps FC U-23 in 2014 CIS First Team All-Canadian and Canada West leading goalscorer in 2014 Helped University of Saskatchewan win first Canada West Championship Levis on the first week of training Levis, 21, joins WFC2 after a fine career at the University of Saskatchewan under the guidance of head coach Bryce Chapman, who also serves as head coach of the Whitecaps FC Saskatchewan Academy Centre. Over the course of his four seasons with the Huskie program, Levis scored 29 goals and recorded 16 assists in 50 matches, including leading the Canada West Conference with nine goals in 2014. For his efforts, Levis was named a CIS First Team All-Canadian in 2014, and a Second Team All-Canadian the previous two years. Last summer, the native of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan started 12 of his 14 appearances with Whitecaps FC U-23 in the USL Premier Development League (PDL), scoring two goals and recording four assists. In 2013, Levis had a remarkable season with Victoria Highlanders FC, starting all 17 of his appearances and leading the team with 12 goals and five assists. The young midfielder started his soccer career with Saskatoon Youth Soccer Club. Levis won a provincial high school championship in 2010 with Centennial Chargers and represented team Saskatchewan at the 2009 Canada Games. WFC2 midfielder/striker Jovan Blagojevic Scored 38 goals in 71 appearances with Simon Fraser University 2014 West Region Player of the Year and GNAC Player of the Year Ended his GNAC career fifth on the conference all-time points list Blagojevic talks about joining WFC2 Blagojevic, who Whitecaps FC selected in the third round of this year’s MLS SuperDraft (54th overall), spent the last four seasons with the Simon Fraser University (SFU) Clan. SFU is the only Canadian university competing in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). READ: Blagojevic "living a fairytale" with hometown team The 23-year-old midfielder/striker is coming off a spectacular senior season, leading the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) with 18 goals in 18 matches. He also scored a conference-high seven game-winning goals and led SFU to their third consecutive national tournament appearance. Blagojevic, who was born in Serbia before moving to British Columbia at the age of two, was named the 2014 West Region Player of the Year and GNAC Player of the Year in addition to earning second team All-American honours. He ended his GNAC career fifth on the conference all-time points list with 90 and tied for fifth in goals scored with 38. Come and see the next generation of Whitecaps FC stars as USL arrives in Vancouver. With Season Tickets available for as low as $118, WFC2 matches will be a unique and affordable experience for fans, families, students, and supporters. The first 1,100 fans to sign up for Season Tickets will be recognized as founding members of the WFC2 Starting 11, a membership group that offers exclusive rewards and experiences. Become a part of the team and secure your Season Ticket Membership today Chris Serban Position: Defender Height: 5-10 Weight: 160 pounds Date of Birth: November 15, 1995, in Bistrita, Romania Hometown: Calgary, Alberta Citizenship: Canada / Romania Status: Domestic Last Club: University of British Columbia / Whitecaps FC Residency How Acquired: WFC2 free agent signing on February 24, 2015 Brett Levis Position: Midfielder Height: 5-08 Weight: 155 pounds Date of Birth: March 29, 1993 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Hometown: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Citizenship: Canada Status: Domestic Last Club: University of Saskatchewan / Whitecaps FC U-23 How Acquired: WFC2 free agent signing on February 24, 2015 Jovan Blagojevic Pronunciation: yo-van blah-go-ye-vich Position: Midfielder / Striker Height: 6-00 Weight: 165 pounds Date of Birth: April 6, 1991 in Belgrade, Serbia Hometown: Coquitlam, British Columbia Citizenship: Canada / Serbia Status: Domestic Last Club: Simon Fraser University How Acquired: Selected 54th overall in the 2015 MLS SuperDraft by Whitecaps FC on January 20, 2015, signed to WFC2 on February 24, 2015
Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco, who took a hard hit on his left knee during Monday night's game, will not undergo an MRI, league sources told ESPN NFL Insider Ed Werder. Flacco was hit by the helmet of Detroit Lions linebacker DeAndre Levy, who had dived at the reigning Super Bowl MVP midway through the fourth quarter of Baltimore's 18-16 win. Medical personnel examined Flacco on the sideline, and the Ravens do not believe the injury is serious enough to merit an MRI, sources told Werder. Flacco, who stayed in the game and orchestrated Baltimore's last-minute go-ahead drive, said the hit caused his knee to "cave in" but that his knee felt "fine" and "strong." "He fought through that," Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. "Joe Flacco is one tough guy. He's a great player in crunch time." Flacco downplayed the hit Sunday, even though he still had a slight limp after the game. "It wasn't really bothering me once the initial hit [happened]," said Flacco, who was 20-of-38 for 222 yards. "I was probably more scared than anything from just what I felt, and also just trying to get a couple of yards out of it." Flacco, who has not missed a game in his six-year NFL career, told WBAL radio in Baltimore that he would be fine playing with a knee brace. The Ravens (8-6), who are battling for the AFC's second wild card, host the New England Patriots (10-4) on Sunday. ESPN.com Ravens reporter Jamison Hensley contributed to this report.
Iran’s media charm offensive following last month’s landmark nuclear deal has crossed a new frontier with a visa for a reporting trip and and high-level interview granted to a BBC correspondent for the first time in six years. Kim Ghattas, the BBC’s Washington-based State Department correspondent, was allowed to spend a week in Iran and interviewed one of the country’s vice-presidents, Masumeh Ebtekar, despite the deep hostility of Tehran hardliners to the corporation. Ebtekar, a reformist, said that Iran’s agreement to limit its nuclear activities in return for the end of sanctions represented a step forward. “It means a new era of working with the world in terms of different dimensions of trade, cultural exchanges,” she said. “It means that Iran is going to be a more prominent player in this part of the world.” The BBC interview was the latest sign of a concerted effort by Tehran to ease access for international media and to improve the image of the Islamic Republic following the Vienna deal, the result of months of intensive negotiations with the US and five other world powers. The BBC’s last Iran correspondent, the late Jon Leyne, was thrown out after the 2009 presidential election when hardline Mahmoud Ahmadinejad returned to power while his Green movement opponents claimed victory and cried foul. Efforts to appoint a replacement correspondent went nowhere slowly. But arrangements for Ghattas’s trip reflected continuing Iranian sensitivities: she was apparently selected for the assignment because she is Dutch and not a UK national. It was also agreed that none of the material would be broadcast on the BBC Persian TV channel, which is extremely popular with ordinary Iranians but strongly disliked by the government. The only BBC journalist to have visited Iran since 2009 was its chief international correspondent, Lyse Doucet, who travelled to Tehran with the party of the EU’s foreign policy chief after the nuclear agreement in Vienna. The Guardian, along with other UK-based news organisations, has been granted Iranian visas – and high-level access – in recent months despite the closure of both countries’ respective embassies since 2011. European and US media have also benefited from the thaw. The recent reporting trip by the American Jewish newspaper the Forward marked an obvious attempt to reach out to an audience sceptical of the value of rapprochement with the Islamic Republic. Earlier this month, the Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, said the ministry of culture and Islamic guidance had annulled the suspension of the BBC’s licence. Tasnim described the BBC as a “media organisation associated with the intelligence apparatus of England’s monarchical regime”. The culture ministry denied the story, clarifying that permission had been granted to the BBC to report from Iran for one week and that its Tehran bureau would not reopen. The access excluded BBC Persian. Visas had been given to a group of independent Dutch journalists working for the BBC, it said. According to the Fars news agency, 17 foreign media organisations have been granted press visas this month alone, including the Forward, France’s Arte channel, Science magazine, Le Monde and France Culture, as well as the BBC. But hostility to BBC Persian shows no sign of abating. Fars accused Iranian film-makers of having links to it, while the hardline Vatan-e-Emrooz newspaper ran a front-page story showing a fox in front of No 10 Downing Street under the headline: “The sound of the fox’s prowling”, referring to the BBC’s return to Iran. Vatan-e-Emrooz also accused BBC Persian of recruiting talented Iranians and linking them to the British intelligence services. Last month Iran’s state TV broadcast live the US secretary of state, John Kerry, being questioned on the nuclear deal during a congressional hearing. But the broadcaster stole the live feed and translation from BBC Persian. The BBC retaliated by relocating its logo to the centre of the screen, which brought an abrupt end to the broadcast on Iranian state TV. The US and other western governments are watching closely for signs of substantive changes beyond media policy. The espionage trial of Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post reporter held in Iran for more than a year, ended last week and the verdict is expected to be announced later this month. Rezaian has been accused of collaborating with “hostile governments” but the Post and his family vehemently deny the charges against him. Analysts believe he is the victim of an internal feud between the administration of President Hassan Rouhani, which favours improved relations with the west, and his conservative opponents, who are intent on demonstrating the limits of his power.
The FBI spent 10 months investigating Omar Mateen in 2013 and 2014 — including secretly recording his conversations and monitoring his Internet communications — after the Orlando nightclub killer had claimed to co-workers that he had “family connections to al-Qaida” and made “inflammatory” statements that raised concerns about possible ties to terrorism, FBI Director James Comey said today. The FBI closed out that probe in May 2014 after Mateen, during the course of two FBI interviews, told agents he had made those statements “in anger” because he thought his co-workers were discriminating against him and were “teasing him because he was a Muslim,” Comey said. Comey revealed those details — as well as evidence uncovered during a second aborted FBI probe of Mateen that took place just a few months later — during the course of a news conference at bureau headquarters. He told reporters that the FBI’s investigation has uncovered “strong indications” that Mateen had become radicalized and potentially inspired by foreign terrorist groups. But, he added, “so far, we see no indication that this was a plot directed from outside the United States and we see no indication he was part of a network.” And, Comey emphasized, the investigation is far from over. “We are going through the killer’s life, especially his electronics, to understand as much as we can about his path and whether there was anyone else involved, either in directing him or in assisting him.” Comey also revealed new details about Mateen’s conversations with a 911 dispatcher early Sunday morning as the American-born perpetrator was carrying out the bloodiest gun massacre in U.S. history, killing 49 people and wounding more than 50 others, at Pulse, a popular gay nightclub. During the course of three phone conversations with the dispatcher, Comey said, Mateen pledged allegiance by name to the head of the Islamic State group, a reference to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Mateen also claimed solidarity during those calls to the Boston Marathon bombers and an American suicide bomber who blew himself up in Syria in 2014, the FBI director said. But Comey also noted that some of Mateen’s comments, both Sunday morning and in the earlier statements that had triggered the FBI’s previous investigations, were “contradictory” and raised questions about precisely what terrorist groups he supported. For example, Comey noted, Mateen had been reported by his co-workers in 2013 to have claimed he was a member of Hezbollah — a Shia terrorist group that, Comey said, was a bitter enemy of the Islamic State. Comey’s comments will probably invite more scrutiny of the bureau’s handling of its probes of Mateen — both of which were “preliminary” investigations. Mateen was on a terror watch list during the first probe but was taken off when the investigation was closed. Nor did either of the two probes into Mateen lead to further inquiries. Just two months after the first investigation into Mateen was closed, the bureau in July 2014 opened up a second probe after Miami-based FBI agents learned he had ties to Moner Mohammed Abusalha, an American suicide bomber who blew himself up in Syria that year fighting for the Nusra Front, the al-Qaida affiliate in that country. Mateen and Abusalha had known each other — “casually,” Comey said — because they both attended the same south Florida mosque, the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce. Once again, the FBI questioned Mateen and then closed out the probe after concluding he did not have “any significant ties” to Abusalha, Comey said. But during the course of that second probe, the FBI director added, one witness told agents that he had become concerned after Mateen mentioned to him that he had listened to videos made by Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born radical cleric who played a key role in radicalizing multiple terror suspects and was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in 2011. The witness, however, told agents his concerns about Mateen abated after the suspect “got married and had a child and got a job as a security guard.” Comey acknowledged that the bureau’s earlier contacts with Mateen would invite scrutiny. “We will continue to look forward in this investigation and backward,” he said. Even as the bureau seeks to determine what caused Mateen to commit the massacre, “we’re also going to look hard at our own work to see whether there is something we should have done differently. So far, the honest answer is, I don’t think so. I don’t see anything, in reviewing our work, that our agents should have done differently. But we’ll look at in an open and honest way, and be transparent about it. “Our work is very challenging,” he added. “We are looking for needles in a nationwide haystack, but we are also called upon to figure out which pieces of hay might some day become needles. That’s hard work.” Related slideshows: Slideshow: Victims of the Florida nightclub shooting >>> Slideshow: Front page coverage of the Orlando mass shooting >>> Slideshow: World reacts to Orlando mass shooting >>> Slideshow: Shooting rampage at Florida nightclub >>>
This post introduces the concept of address mixing in Bitmessage - what it is, why it is useful, and how it could be done. This post does not contain a complete algorithm nor claim to know the best solution to the problem, but is rather intended to start a debate on the best way to achieve the goals described in the following section: What is address mixing? Address mixing is when a group of people who knows the Bitmessage addresses of each other, works together to create a list of alternate addresses owned by the same group of people, but without knowing who owns which address. In other words, everybody creates a new address and shares it with the others in such a way that no member of the group (or anybody outside of the group) can deduce which of the new addresses belong to a specific person of the group. The idea is that of a trustless mix network - i.e. one that doesn't require anyone to trust anyone else for the process to work. For this purpose, we assume that any adversary has knowledge of the people in the group, as well as any CMLs or DMLs used by the group. Why is address mixing useful? Address mixing potentially has a lot of use cases, but the most obvious is the case where a group of people wants to anonymously send messages to each other without revealing who is the sender, while still convincing everybody that the sender is a member of the group. One could easily imagine a scenario where this group of people wants to conduct a completely anonymous survey (or maybe an election) while ensuring that only the responses of group members are regarded as valid. Messages in Bitmessage only provide pseudonymity; if you know the identity of the person behind the sender address, he or she is not anonymous at all. This is undesirable in certain scenarios where the senders of messages wish to be completely anonymous to the group. Of course, decentralized mailing lists (DMLs or chans) already provides the functionality of sending anonymous messages to a group (and, in fact, the address mixing schemes proposed here will make use of chans), but receiving a message anonymously in a chan only proves that the sender knows of the chan, and not that the sender is an accepted member of the group of people using the chan. How could address mixing be done? There are a number of ways to implement address mixing in Bitmessage, and this post will introduce two such ways, each with their own advantages and drawbacks. Both will be using chans as a means of broadcasting information to the other people in the group. The first approach is rather simple, but allows an attacker armed only with knowledge of the chan to disrupt the mixing. The second approach (binary mixing) is somewhat more complex, isn't so easily disrupted as the first one, but introduces some other drawbacks. In the following, each person is assumed to know the following: His/her own address A i and new anonymous address A' i . and new anonymous address . A list of addresses of everybody in the group L={A 0 , A 1 , …, A \|L\|-1 }. Furthermore, the resulting list of anonymous addresses will be denoted L'={A' 0 , A' 1 , …, A' \|L'\|-1 }. Simple mixing Simple mixing works by having two separate rounds of message exchange, a registration round and a signing round, where each round has a deadline and the end of the registration round signals the start of the signing round: Registration round Everyone broadcasts1 a registration message from their anonymous address to the chan. Signing round All members of the group now hold a list of anonymous addresses received from the registering round. Each member then verifies that their own anonymous address (A' i ) is on the list, signs the normalized list with his or her public address (A i ), and broadcasts this signature to the chan. 1 Alternatively, the person could anonymously broadcast a message containing the new address in the message content, but this method ensures that someone actually has the private keys for the address. Considerations A few checks must be made in order for this mixing scheme to function properly: Firstly, when the registration round ends, the members must check if there are more anonymous addresses than original addresses, i.e. if \|L'\|>\|L\|. If this is the case, the mixing must be canceled since at least one of the anonymous addresses are not eligible. On the other hand, if there are fewer anonymous addresses than original addresses, i.e. \|L\|>\|L'\|, we assume that one or more members have not participated in the mixing, and we can choose to abort or continue depending on what we want to use the anonymous addresses for. Secondly, when the signing round ends, everybody must then check that there is exactly as many unique2 signatures as there is anonymous addresses. If there are fewer signatures, it implies that one or more anonymous addresses are not to be included in L', and if there are more signatures, it means that one or more members have signed the list of addresses without owning one of these addresses3. Also, the members must be sure that they are signing the same list of addresses. All signatures must then have signed the same list in order to be considered valid. If a members receives a different list signature than its own, it means either (a) that one or more anonymous broadcast messages from the registration step has been dropped for some participants or (b) that the other member is acting maliciously. Either way, this signature cannot be considered valid for this mixing. 2 A unique signature means that if multiple signatures arrive from the same address, only one signature is counted. 3 This isn't really a problem for the integrity of the list L', but is disallowed for simplicity. Advantages This scheme provides anonymity in contrast to "ordinary" Bitmessage messages which only provide pseudomity. Only 2× \|L\| messages are required to be broadcast in order for the mixing to work. messages are required to be broadcast in order for the mixing to work. The scheme is pretty simple and easy to understand. Drawbacks It is very easy for an attacker to cancel a mixing by anonymously broadcasting an address which cannot be signed in the signing round. A dishonest member could sign the list of addresses without having provided one of his own, thus either canceling the mixing or allowing an non-eligible person to include their anonymous address. Everyone has to be connected to the network and perform an action during each of two rounds in order to participate4. 4Although the actions can be automated, the member's client still has to be connected to receive and send broadcasts. Evaluation of simple mixing The simple mixing scheme is, as the name hints at, very simple. But that simplicity comes at a cost: Any attacker with knowledge of the chan can completely disrupt a mixing just by broadcasting (almost) any address. In the next mixing scheme, we introduce a protocol that makes it considerably harder for anyone not in the group to do that. Binary mixing The binary mixing scheme is broken up in log\|L\| rounds as opposed to only two rounds before; every member is placed as a leaf in a binary tree, and each pair of siblings in the tree exchange addresses and recursively builds up the complete list of anonymous addresses L'. In the first round, each of the \|V\|/2 pairs of members V i and V i+1 (we'll call them Alice and Bob) join up and do the following identical steps: Alice sends her anonymous address V' Alice to Bob and waits for Bob to do the same with: Having received Bob's anonymous address, Alice compiles this address and her own in a list, sorts the list, signs it with her private key and sends the list L' AB and signature Sig Alice (L) to Bob. Bob does the same: When Alice receives the message with the address list and signature from Bob, she compares the list to her own and (if they are equal) decides deterministically5 whether she or Bob should represent the pair in the new round. When she and Bob have both done that, they broadcast the decision: Alice and Bob have now mixed their addresses in a list, and the next round begins when every pair has confirmed that the current round is complete. In the next round, each representative from the first round is paired up to form \|V\|/4 pairs. In the same way as the first round, Alice and the representative from the other pair mix their lists of anonymous addresses, and end up with a list of four anonymous addresses. This process repeats itself until there is only one pair and one list of all the anonymous addresses. Each round involves broadcasting 3×\|V\| messages, and with log\|V\| rounds, this mixing phase requires 3×\|V\|log\|V\| messages in total. 5 For example, by taking the first bit in a hash of the addresses Advantages An outside attacker cannot easily disrupt the mixing phase. We can simply choose to disregard any messages from anyone who is not in the list L Not everyone needs to be online during the entire process; half of the members only need to be there for the first round, a fourth of them for the second round, etc… Drawbacks Higher complexity than the previous mixing protocol. Instead of O( \|V\| ), this requires O( \|V\| log \|V\| ) messages. ), this requires O( log ) messages. Any adversarial member who wants to disrupt the mixing can either (1) not participate or (2) broadcast fake representatives in the third step. If a member is paired up with an adversary in the first round, he is not anonymous. In fact, his degree of anonymity depends on how many mixing rounds he takes part of before (if ever) mixing with an attacker. The attacker, however, must be in control of one or more of the legitimate member addresses. Evaluation of binary mixing The binary mixing scheme eliminates the risk of outsiders disrupting the mixing as was easily done in the simple scheme - now only members can do that. However, this improvement also came at a cost; the protocol is more complex message-wise (and thus time-wise). Conclusion In this post, I have introduced the concept of Bitmessage address mixing and a few examples where it will be useful. I do realize, however, that the two proposed protocols are far from perfect, and I must say that this is still a work in progress. I am hoping to get some comments on the ideas and designs from the community in order to improve upon the work and get closer to something really useful.
Peter Hapak for TIME Francis Lawrence, director of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Suzanne Collins, author of The Hunger Games Trilogy With The Hunger Games: Catching Fire opening in theaters on Friday, Nov. 22, TIME book critic Lev Grossman recently sat down for a long and wide-ranging conversation with Hunger Games creator-writer Suzanne Collins and Catching Fire director Francis Lawrence. The interview has been divided into five parts, running Monday through Friday. This first installment starts with Collins and Lawrence describing the mental state of our favorite heroine… Compare Katniss at the beginning of Hunger Games and Katniss at the beginning of this movie. How is she different now? Francis Lawrence: Well, Katniss is different because she’s been through the games. I think that was one of the things that really interested me most about the material and about this book was that we get to start to see the kind of effects that the games have on people, the effects that violence has on people. How do you show that change? FL: Even though she’s in the place she loves in the forest, I think that there’s a look to her, I would call it the thousand-yard stare. She’s still disturbed by things, and can’t get certain thoughts and images out of her head. And pretty quickly she has flashbacks to the games, within minutes of the opening. Suzanne Collins: She’s got a lot of classic post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. She has nightmares. She has flashbacks. And in the beginning you can see she’s practicing avoidance. She’s completely pushed Peeta to arm’s length, you know? She’s trying to stay away from him. Why? Because everything associated with him except some very early childhood memories are associated with the Games. She’s conflicted to some degree about her relationship with Prim because she couldn’t save Rue. So she’s dealing with all that, and her method of dealing with it is to go to the woods and be alone and keep all of that as far away as possible, because there just are so many triggers in her everyday life. But of course, what happens right at the story is it’s beginning of the Victory Tour, and that means that she’s going to have to go to every district and stand there and look at the families of the dead children. Some of them in some districts, like District 1, she killed both tributes. She killed both Marvel and Glimmer. So it’s this nightmare waiting to happen. And then just to make it extra awful, Snow visits her with the threat, so she’s something of a wreck at the beginning. I have a daughter who’s 3 who’s super-obsessed with Little Bear, and I always think it’s funny that you wrote both those and The Hunger Games, too. Where is the overlap between the Suzanne Collins who wrote Little Bear, which is so sweet and warm and cozy, and the Suzanne Collins who wrote the Hunger Games books? SC: All the writing elements are the same. You need to tell a good story. Even though the Little Bears are 7-and-a-half minutes, I wanted them to be well structured. You’ve got good characters. You want to tell a compelling story that will reach that audience. All the elements are the same. You’re just writing a different story, and sometimes you shift a little bit because the concerns of the age group that you’re writing for are different. People think there’s some a dramatic difference between writing Little Bear and the Hunger Games, and as a writer, for me, there isn’t. My two favorite characters from the series make their debuts in Catching Fire: Finnick and Johanna. Tell me about them—they’re so complex, so right on the edge between unspeakably awful and incredibly appealing. SC: They’re two of my favorite characters too. Finnick and Johanna are people who have now lived the victor life. They haven’t only gone through the horrors of the Hunger Games, they came out on the other side of it, which was supposed to be a life of luxury and pleasure for the rest of your life, and found out it was anything but. They’ve been prostituted by the Capitol. If they try and resist in any manner, they’re punished by people they love being killed or tormented in some way. So they’ve both developed these kind of personas which are their Capitol personas, which is all Katniss has ever seen of them. But of course underneath – they’re sort of onion characters, and as you peel back the layers you find more and more about what they’ve experienced. Haymitch is another one – all of the victor tributes are, really. What was the casting process like? How did you find your Finnick and your Johanna? FL: We saw loads of people for both. It was a really tricky casting process, but Sam, who plays Finnick – he was one of the first people I saw. And we kept seeing more and more and more people, and I ended up choosing Sam in the end more for what we know about Finnick as the story progresses rather than just what we think of him in that first scene. Sam can be very charming and very flirtatious and he’s handsome and in great shape, so I knew he could do that. But what I really liked was the real emotional side of him. SC: They had him read both scenes – scenes from the entrance and scenes later when he’s broken down. FL: Exactly. And then I was seeing a bunch of girls for Johanna, and there was a bunch of these girls who were just coming in and acting bitchy. And I didn’t buy them. Johanna is supposed to be, or feel, a bit unhinged and unpredictable. You can’t really act that; you kind of have to just be it. I knew Jena Malone was coming in and I knew some of her work before, though I never met her. She walked into the room in character. Her eyes were red, she was mad about something – I mean, she intimidated me when she walked into the room. And then she did the scenes and it was unbelievable. She just owned the character in a way that nobody else had come close to. And she got the role really pretty quickly after that. Suzanne, you work on the script and you see some of the casting, the auditions. Are you on set? SC: I visit on set, but I feel like –I go to visit and to watch, but there’s nothing really for me to do in terms of work. It’s like, you get to the set and everybody has a job but you. I feel very comfortable about whatever’s transpiring on the set whether I’m there or not, which is nice. Hawaii though, right? It must have been tempting. FL: We tried to get her down there. SC: I get sun poisoning in three seconds. In the second part of the interview, running tomorrow, Lawrence explains what drew him to the project.
‘No-brainer’: Corey Crawford will start Game 2 for Blackhawks NASHVILLE, Tenn. — You could have made an argument for Scott Darling. A halfway decent one, too. After Darling’s historic — yes, historic, as in doing something nobody else has done in the history of the sport — Stanley Cup playoff debut on Wednesday night Joel Quenneville could have leaned on the old “ride the hot hand” adage and kept his $36-million, Stanley Cup-winning goaltender on the bench in favor of the out-of-nowhere rookie sensation. Darling was that good in the Blackhawks’ 4-3 double-overtime victory over the Nashville Predators in Game 1. All he did was make 42 saves and set a playoffs record by playing 67 minutes, 44 seconds in relief without allowing a goal. He’s the second goalie in NHL history to win his playoff debut while allowing no goals and playing more than 60 minutes, joining Normie Smith of the Detroit Red Wings, who did it in 1936. His toe save on Ryan Ellis in the third period basically saved the game for the Hawks. So Quenneville wasn’t exaggerating when he called it “one of the greatest relief performances you’re going to see.” But this is still Corey Crawford’s team. And it’s still Corey Crawford’s net. “It’s kind of a no-brainer,” Quenneville said Thursday, when he announced Crawford as his Game 2 starter. There’s no goalie controversy here. And sportswriters’ and radio hosts’ loss is the Hawks’ gain. The way they see it, they now have two goalies they know can win in the playoffs. “It’s been one of our strongest positions this year, if not the strongest,” Niklas Hjalmarsson said. “We’ve got great goalies in this organization.” Crawford — who said he felt more nervous on the bench than he usually does on the ice — was one of the first players to greet Darling after Duncan Keith scored the game-winner, greeting him on the ice with open arms and a wide smile. The towering Darling pulled Crawford in for a hug. It’s more bromance than competition. “He’s played awesome since he’s been here,” Crawford said. “We jelled together, we push each other to be at our best. I wasn’t really surprised the way he played [in Game 1]. It was great to see him do that. I’m happy for him, and happy to get the win, too.” While Darling won the Hawks a playoff game, Crawford got them into the playoffs in the first place. He gave up two or fewer goals in 17 of his last 24 appearances, keeping the team afloat after the offense disappeared in the wake of Patrick Kane’s clavicle injury. He shared the Jennings Trophy — awarded to the primary goalie on the team that allows the fewest goals — with prohibitive Hart Trophy favorite Carey Price of Montreal. He finished the season 32-20-5 with a .924 save percentage and 2.27 goals-against average. In his playoff career, he’s 32-23 with a .919 save percentage and 2.25 GAA. During the Hawks’ run to the Cup in 2013, he was the team’s best player (even according to Conn Smythe winner Patrick Kane), posting a .932 save percentage and a sparkling 1.84 GAA. Quenneville said he pulled Crawford after he allowed three goals on 12 shots in the first period to shake things up and added, “sometimes you get lucky,” noting that it’s the first time he’s ever pulled Crawford in the playoffs. Crawford said he was frustrated at the time, but having a short memory has always been one of his strengths. “I kind of got a free pass off it,” Crawford said. “The guys played well after it. Darls was awesome.” Crawford has a history of bouncing back in a big way. After a middling performance in Game 4 at Minnesota last year, Crawford nearly singlehandedly won the next two games, stopping 61 of 63 shots, to win the series. And before that, after allowing eight goals in losses in Games 1 and 2 to St. Louis, he had a 34-save shutout in Game 3 to turn the series around. Darling is the story. But Crawford is still the guy. “It was an easy decision,” Quenneville said. “It was probably tougher to pull him out. He’s our starting goalie, he’s been our strength all year long. It was one period.” Email: mlazerus@suntimes.com Twitter: @marklazerus
Earnings Per Share (EPS) One of the easiest metric to calculate and one where most financial sites provide, earnings per share (EPS) is one of the most important measure of a companies strength. Obviously, the higher this number, the more money the company is making. Calculating EPS To calculate this ratio, simply divide the company’s net income by the number of shares outstanding during the same period. If the number of shares out in the market has changed during that period (ex. a share buyback), a weighted average of the quantity of shares is used. Importance of EPS The significance of EPS is obvious, as the viability of any business depends on the income it can generate. A money losing business will eventually go bankrupt, so the only way for long term survival is to make money. Earnings per share allows us to compare different companies’ power to make money. The higher the earnings per share with all else equal, the higher each share should be worth. EPS is often considered the single most important metric to determine a company’s profitability. It is also a major component of another important metric, price per earnings ratio (P/E). When we do our analysis, we should look for a positive trend of EPS in order to make sure that the company is finding more ways to make more money. Otherwise, the company is not growing and thus should be considered only if you are confident that it can at least sustain its income. What to Watch Out For Sometimes, there will be one-time events that will either benefit or hurt the earnings per share. For example, a company get a one-time tax break from the government that will benefit the earnings tremendously. These events, while contribute to the bottom line, should be taken out of our analysis because it will shrew the trends. Lasting Thoughts Nowadays, financial websites already have earnings per share calculated so there is no reason for us not to take a look at it in our analysis. One important point to remember is that while websites provide this automatically, it may be different (due to timing of the calculation, whether it is forward, trailing EPS etc). Therefore, it is important to do your own calculation when doing a comparison of two companies to make sure you understand fully how the numbers are calculated to avoid big surprises. You may also want to check out this article on the same subject: Anticipating Earnings Per Share (EPS). Promote or Save This Article If you like this article, please consider bookmarking or helping us promote it! If you like this article, please consider bookmarking or helping us promote it! Print It \| Email This \| Del.icio.us \| Stumble it! \| Reddit \| Related Posts
The "whataboutism" was strong in the aftermath of the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., that left three people dead and dozens more injured after one young neo-Nazi — inspired by ISIS tactics, I guess — decided to ram his car into a crowd of counter-protesters before trying to sneak away from the scene like a coward. Informed America was incensed that President Donald Trump, in the immediate aftermath, failed to perform what should be one of the easiest, most uncontroversial duties of any presidency: to immediately call out white supremacists and neo-Nazis (which I will mostly use interchangeably, as I'd argue there isn't much of a difference) as traitors to country, as antithetical to the values that the U.S. holds dear. Instead, Trump condemned "hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides," as if "many sides" drove that car into a crowd of people, and "many sides" convened to march through the University of Virginia campus shouting Nazi rallying cries such as "Blood and soil" and "Jews will not replace us." Trump's failure to name this distinct form of hatred was an omission so grievous that it actually compelled a group of Republicans to emerge from their festering cesspool of partisan loyalty and urge the president to "call evil by its name," in the words of Colorado Senator Cory Gardner. (Trump relented two days later and called out the groups by name.) Mr. President - we must call evil by its name. These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism. <a href="https://t.co/PaPNiPPAoW">https://t.co/PaPNiPPAoW</a> —@SenCoryGardner Nevertheless, Trump had his loyal-erdefenders — supported by a group of unyielding contrarians, right-wing rabble-rousers and, neo-Nazis — who demanded the public reserve some of its scorn for those other groups supposedly causing trouble over the weekend: Antifa and Black Lives Matter (BLM). "Whatabout them?" they asked, incensed by this apparent double standard. In normal times, this intellectually lazy attempt at deflection would not be dignified with a response. But we are not in normal times: the White House chief strategist is adarling of the white nationalist movement; the president is winning praise from prominent white supremacists; and neo-Nazis have adopted a 21st-century uniform of khaki pants and citronella torches (the only greater enemy to the white purity movement than blacks and Jews is mosquitoes, I take it) and are marching openly, by the thousands, bearing swastikas, militia uniforms and paraphernalia celebrating the apparent wisdom of Adolf Hitler. The U.S. president addressed "evil" racism in a speech from the White House Monday in which he called the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacists "repugnant" and counter to American values. The statement comes days after a deadly, racially charged attack in Charlottesville, Va. 0:19 To be sure: Nazis and their sympathizers have been around for decades, both before the Second World War and after. But the fact that they are gathering now in such large numbers, without even bothering to cover their faces, and many with the belief that the president of the United States is on their side, makes this period entirely unprecedented. Neo-Nazis are supposed to be on the fringe. Instead, we have the president's allies attempting to deflect public attention from the distinct, unrivalled evilness that is white supremacy and neo-Nazism. Yes, other groups have committed acts of violence. And no, that should not be tolerated. But — and I can't believe I actually have to say this — there is no moral equivalency between neo-Nazis and groups like Black Lives Matter and Antifa. Neo-Nazis and white supremacists are associating themselves with a group that was (and still should be) America's enemy. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) The legacy factor is one obvious reason. Neo-Nazis are associating themselves with a group that was (and still should be) America's enemy — responsible for the extermination of millions of innocent people. The U.S. literally fought a war against these people. And now, disgruntled undergrads with no understanding of history are buying backyard torches at the local Home Depot because they're feeling a bit hard done by. I can hear the responses already: But Communists killed people, too! They were America's enemies also! Antifa militants are basically neo-Stalinists! This argument would perhaps be more credible if Antifa was instead called the Red Army and its mission was to eliminate enemies of the state. Sure, a few weirdos in the group will fly hammer-and-sickle flags and wear Mao Zedong T-shirts, but the word "Antifa" does not harken back to lynchings and concentration camps and slavery. Communists were once America's enemies, yes, but Antifa never was. Clashes broke out at a Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., with the governor later declaring a state of emergency 0:44 More importantly, while groups like Antifa and BLM might engage in violence at times — no one is disputing that — the major difference is that their existence is not predicated on hatred of others. Antifa was founded to resist fascism and racism. BLM was created to bring attention to the systemic violence and racism black people in the U.S. endure. No doubt there are members of both groups who hate members of their perceived "oppressor class," but the point is these groups can still exist without them. A white supremacist group, on the other hand, cannot exist without individuals who believe people of colour are genetically inferior. There is no such thing as a neo-Nazi who doesn't despise Jews. Hatred is their raison d'être. When people insist BLM and Antifa be subject to the same censure as neo-Nazis, they are failing to see the bigger picture: fighting for the right to be a fascist is not the same as fighting for the right to exist. This column is part of CBC's Opinion section. For more information about this section, please read this editor's blog and our FAQ.
One of the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan's (D-N.Y.) enduring insights was that genuine politics are a continuing argument about the future. "The central conservative truth," he wrote, "is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself." Coming, as he did, from a generation whose realists on both sides of the congressional aisle esteemed moderation as politics' royal road, Moynihan well might wonder whose truth could save our current politics from the broad, bitter, popular anger pouring like a lava flow across the electoral landscape. There really isn't any issue of culture and politics worth discussing at the moment except this rage, its origins, content, implications and duration. Each of the four books under review here attempts to do that with some success and, in crucial aspects, with surprising unanimity. Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson, the authors of "Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer — and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class," are highly regarded political scientists at Yale and UC Berkeley, respectively. Scott Rasmussen and Douglas Schoen — "Mad as Hell: How the Tea Party Movement Is Fundamentally Remaking Our Two-Party System" — are successful pollsters. Though there are differences in emphasis in their analyses (and, certainly, in their prescriptive passages) the four, like the other two authors in this review, are agreed on the origins of the broad populist insurgency we've come to call the "tea party." Since the 1970s, they point out, a series of booms, dazzling, technology-based gains in productivity and the exponential growth of two-income households have camouflaged bitter economic reality: The American economy, once a great engine of broadly distributed prosperity, has become a machine that enriches a tiny few and gives the vast majority of blue- and white-collar working families little more than growing insecurity. Both "Winner-Take-All Politics" and "Mad as Hell" cite the crucial work of UC Berkeley economist Emmanuel Saez, who has shown that by 2007, the top 10% of American earners were taking home a staggering 49.7% of the nation's annual wages, a concentration "higher than any year since 1917," and one that "even surpasses 1928, the peak of the stock market bubble in the 'roaring 20's.'" That actually understates the situation because, "according to Saez' calculations … in 2007 the top .01% of American earners took home 6% of total U.S. wages, a figure that has nearly doubled since 2000." According to the Census Bureau, while blue-collar wages have been absolutely stagnant since the Carter administration and actually have fallen 2.5% during this decade, the median income of the top 1% of U.S. households has increased a stunning $250,000. The Great Recession, with its catastrophic loss of jobs occupied by college-educated white-collar workers, has spread the corrosive insecurity and hopelessness that has afflicted so many traditional industrial workers across the social landscape. Rasmussen and Schoen map the contours of this new American geography of desperation. What they convincingly show is that economic stagnation and the collapse of equality and opportunity have produced an equally catastrophic decline in confidence in every sort of public institution — including political parties, big business, big labor, the media and mainline organized religion. People no longer believe in what's come to be called "the American dream." Instead, people know things are bad, and they believe things will get worse. "Winner-Take-All Politics" argues that all this has come to pass not simply because of faceless economic forces, but through an unending series of federal regulatory and legislative decisions that favor the wealthy and the interests of the institutions they control. These are decisions dating back to the 1970s and have remained consistent whether Democrats or Republicans controlled the White House and Congress. The derivative financial instruments that played such a key role in triggering the Great Recession, for instance, were unregulated because of decisions made during the Clinton administration. Hacker and Pierson cite the particularly relevant work of Princeton scholars Larry Bartel and Martin Gilens, who have shown that, since the 1980s, U.S. senators' votes have usually coincided with the views of the wealthiest third of their constituents and rarely with the opinions of the poorest third of their state's residents. The historically unique populist movement that calls itself the tea party is the loosely organized expression of the consequent enraged hopelessness, abetted by technological shifts in the media, notably the Internet, 24-hour cable news and talk radio. The tea party is unique because it is neither a left-wing nor a right-wing populist tendency, but one that simply wants as much of government as possible to just go away. Hence the movement's theological faith in the Constitution they imagine the framers drafted. In "Boiling Mad," Kate Zernike, a national correspondent for the New York Times, examines the tea party's origins and operations while putting a human face on its adherents. Her concise, elegantly written book is a refreshing reminder of what traditional journalism — so often despised and discounted these days — can contribute to the public conversation. Zernike points out that the tea party is lodged in the Republican Party mainly as a matter of convenience and disdains the GOP establishment as surely as it does the Democrats. As one activist told her: "To get rid of the Democrats, you have to get rid of the Republicans." She also gives a convincing portrait of the movement's most ardent activists, who mainly are libertarian conservatives in their 20s and 30s and suburban mothers, who want to raise their children in security and free of any outside interference. Their prominence, Zernike reports, seems likely to engender tensions with the movement's older foot soldiers — voters in their 60s and older who rely on Social Security, Medicare and veterans' benefits that the younger tea partiers regard as part of the "big government" problem. So, too, the social issues that many tea party adherents want to put on the table, but which the "purists" regard as a distraction from the crucial economic and governmental issues. Zernike is particularly good at presenting the way in which the movement has taken inspiration from the works of various, obscure constitutional eccentrics, particularly "The 5000 Year Leap" by W. Cleon Skousen, who believed that the framers did not intend separation of church and state and that "under no circumstances is the federal government to become involved in the public welfare. The founders felt it would corrupt the government and also the poor." Will Bunch, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who now blogs for the Philadelphia Daily News, sets out in "The Backlash" to chart the darker fringes of the populist extreme that have acquired a new energy since the election of Barack Obama. This is the dark undercarriage of the popular juggernaut the other three books describe, and Bunch gives a sobering account of the ugly old passions that have found new life and of the opportunists, such as Fox personality Glenn Beck, who believe they can profit from desperation. Unlike the other authors, who see something new in the tea party, Bunch argues that this is old wine in new skins — and a bitter vintage in either case. timothy.rutten@latimes.com
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank cut interest rates to record lows on Thursday, launched a series of measures to pump money into the sluggish euro zone economy, and pledged to do more if needed to fight off the risk of Japan-like deflation. For the first time, the ECB will charge banks for parking funds at the central bank overnight in an attempt to force them to lend to small- and medium-sized businesses. The measures were also aimed at easing pressure on the strong euro, which is threatening economic recovery and importing disinflation. Euro zone inflation has been stuck in what Draghi has called “the danger zone” below 1 percent since October, mainly because of weaker commodity and food prices, but also because of wage and other adjustments in euro zone crisis countries. The bank stopped short of full-fledged quantitative easing (QE) - printing money to buy assets - but ECB President Mario Draghi said more action would come it necessary. Asked why the ECB had not gone ahead with QE, he told a news conference: “We think (what we’ve done is) a significant package. Are we finished? The answer is no. We aren’t finished here. If need be, within our mandate, we aren’t finished here.” RBS economist Richard Barwell said this comment would fuel market expectations for more action: “We doubt the knee-jerk response to further bad news will be ‘give the June package more time’; expectations of a broad-based asset purchase programme will rapidly start to build,” he said. Draghi outlined a four-year 400 billion euro ($544.86 billion) scheme giving banks that have been holding back credit due to looming stress tests an incentive to increase lending to businesses in the euro zone. “Now we are in a completely different world,” Draghi said, citing “low inflation, a weak recovery and weak monetary and credit dynamics”. The package, adopted unanimously, was aimed at increasing lending to the “real economy”, he said. Other steps included extending the duration of unlimited cheap liquidity for euro zone banks, injecting about 170 billion euros by stopping tenders that withdrew funds spent on past government bond purchases, and preparing for possible future purchases of asset-backed securities to support small business. Projections published by the ECB showed inflation would be just 0.7 percent this year, 1.1 percent next year and 1.4 percent in 2016, a downward revision and far below the ECB’s target of below-but-close-to 2 percent. “If required, we will act swiftly with further monetary policy easing,” he said, adding that the policy-setting Governing Council was unanimous in its commitment to use unconventional instruments if needed “to further address risks of too prolonged a period of low inflation”. Most of the measures had been widely anticipated. The euro initially fell to a four-month low of $1.3505 after Draghi’s statement before recovering to trade above $1.3600, slightly up on the day. European shares rose and yields on the government bonds of stressed euro zone countries fell. FRANCE HAPPY, GERMANY SILENT French President Francois Hollande, who has been calling for months for ECB action to weaken the euro’s exchange rate, which Paris argues is holding back economic recovery, welcomed the central bank’s decision. The International Monetary Fund, which has also pressed the ECB to take robust action, welcomed Thursday’s announcements a “very proactive stance”. German Chancellor Angela Merkel declined comment, noting that the ECB took its decisions independently of governments. Her finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, said low interest rates were not a long-term solution. Low rates are unpopular in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, because they are seen as penalizing savers. Conservative German economist Hans-Werner Sinn of the Ifo institute said the ECB’s moves smacked of desperation and would not work. “This is a desperate attempt, with ever cheaper money and penalty rates on deposits, to shift capital flows to southern Europe in order to stimulate growth there,” he said. Draghi said interest rates would stay low for a prolonged period but after Thursday’s cut, he omitted a previous regular line that they could go lower. He added that “for all practical purposes” interest rates had reached the bottom. Asked how long it would take for the measures to work their way though into the economy, he said: “Most likely we will see immediate effects in the money markets and we will see delayed effects in the real economy attributable to this programme ... It will probably take three or four quarters.” The headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) are pictured in Frankfurt June 6, 2013. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski The ECB lowered the deposit rate to -0.1 percent. It cut its main refinancing rate to 0.15 percent, and the marginal lending rate - or emergency borrowing rate - to 0.40 percent. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a bigger cut in the refinancing rate to 0.10 percent from 0.25 percent. (Full Story) ($1 = 0.7341 euros)
Back from his first start since welcoming an addition to his family, Lance Laing scored a brace to lead North Carolina FC to a 3–1 win over Jacksonville Armada FC Saturday night at Sahlen’s Stadium in Cary. It was the first loss of the season for the Armada (2–4–1, 10 pts.) as NCFC (3–2–2, 11 pts.) leapt over Jacksonville to temporarily sit in second place in the NASL, three points behind Miami FC. San Francisco and New York also won this weekend, so NCFC starts the week in fourth. Laing, who came into the game with two goals and two assists on the season, wreaked havoc on the Armada defense for over 70 minutes. He became involved early as he found James Marcelin in the 27th minute for an equalizer then rattled off a late goal in the first half and a penalty kick in the second to collect the brace. But Jacksonville jumped out to a 1–0 lead after NCFC defender Christian Ibeagha was whistled for a foul in the box in the 12th minute. Jack Blake opened the scoring by putting away the PK. Later, a threat by Laing was met with a hard tackle from Armada left-back Drew Beckie who was given a yellow card for the effort. On the free kick, Ibeagha took the delivery and nearly found the back of the net with his head, but Patterson-Sewell batted it away in the 27th minute. On the subsequent corner, attempts by Laing and Ibeagha were batted away, but it was Marcelin who took his first touch outside the box and drilled it past Patterson-Sewell to tie the game. Then in the 41st minute, Laing came up big to put NCFC up with a curling shot that found the top right of goal for his third of the season. NCFC had some early struggles in midfield with three turnovers in the first 20 minutes, but clamped down and was helped with strong defensive play by Paul Black and Steven Miller with Ibeagha and Marcelin playing up, but falling back in time to assist in the back. “We had some sloppy give-aways early,” NCFC head coach Colin Clark said to WRAL at halftime. Laing had another opportunity in the 64th minute. Driving into the box, he was taken down from behind by Beckie, but no foul was called much to the dismay of Clark and the home crowd at WakeMed Soccer Park. Four minutes later, Laing got the whistle on Beckie and earned the brace with a drilled ball slightly right but past Patterson-Sewell to put North Carolina FC up 3–1. Austin Da Luz came close with a delivery in the 74th minute with a header, but Patterson-Sewell was up to the task with a diving save, keeping the score 3–1 NCFC. Laing came off in the 76th minute after notching his third and fourth goals of the season. His replacement Tiyi Shipalane had an open run in the 81st minute after taking a pass from Albadawi, but his shot sailed over the crossbar. The NCFC defense almost got caught off-guard as Jacksonville’s Charles Eloundou (formerly of the Charlotte Independence) took an open touch inside the box for a score, but it was waived off for offside in the 87th minute. North Carolina FC will hit the road for its next three games. On Wednesday night, they will take on Carolina Dynamo in the second round of the U.S. Open Cup at Macpherson Stadium in Greensboro. They will return to NASL play with a trip to Puerto Rico FC on May 20 for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff before facing Jacksonville Armada FC at 4 p.m. Sunday, May 28.
Erin McLeod grew up amidst hockey fever in 1983 in Edmonton, Canada. Local team the Edmonton Oilers would go on to the win the Stanley Cup six times by the close of the decade, largely thanks to the legendary Wayne Gretzky. At the age of five, McLeod and her two sisters, Megan and Cara, moved with the family to Calgary, where the Winter Olympics were being held that year. It would provide the springboard for Erin, the middle-child, to channel her energy into the dream of becoming an Olympic athlete, whatever the discipline. “I was obsessed with hockey,” admits McLeod. “It was a big time for Edmonton, my Grandma was a huge fan and still is to this day – she’s 97. “Sport kind of hit me when the 1988 Calgary Olympics came around. My whole family was watching in the living room when Elizabeth Manley, a figure skater, performed and she had the skate of her lifetime, everyone was balling their eyes out. It was at that point I remember thinking I wanted to go the Olympics.” McLeod would go to the Olympics on three separate occasions, but there were bumps in the road. They started before McLeod had even got through her teenage years. Her parents signed her up for dance classes, taekwondo and a range of other sports, but it was soccer that grabbed her the most. “My dad was my coach and that was nice for me,” she recalls. “I was a midfielder, but my buddy got injured one game and she was the goalie. If you ever talk to anyone who plays outfield, when the coach asks who wants to go in goal then you say no. But she was my friend so I wanted to help her out, then I never left!” McLeod’s dad, Doug, was an oil engineer, a job that required him to move around the world on a regular basis. It would take McLeod, still just 14 at the time, to Jakarta in Indonesia, along with the rest of her family. It was a world away from the national parks of Western Canada and threw McLeod straight into a world of poverty and the riots that were ongoing in the country at the time. “When you’re young you just go with things a little bit more,” she says. “I don’t think I recognised the significance of what I’d seen there or learned until I was much older. “It was considered a third-world country, a street would have beautiful houses and people would have cooks or gardeners, then someone on the same street living in a cardboard box, literally. As a young girl I didn’t understand it. It was an 85% Muslim country and during the riots the Christian part of the city was torched. Maybe at the time I was a little bit clueless but it opened my mind. Life got so dangerous in Indonesia that McLeod and her family were forced to leave in 1998, they would eventually return, but for McLeod it was far from a permanent thing. The teenager was also beset by an eating disorder and affected by body image issues. One year later McLeod, now 16, took the decision to move back to Calgary, leaving her family behind and moving in with her grandmother in order to pursue her dream of becoming a soccer player. “When I first went to Indonesia I was on an international team and that really helped my education. Where I grew up, if you got good grades you were a loser and here if you got bad grades you were a loser. “Once I got too old to play with the boys, I started playing with the girls but soccer wasn’t really their thing. The drop off was huge, my goal was to go to the Olympics and I knew I had to change environments for that to happen. I believe everything happens for a reason, I’d lost my grandfather to a heart attack and when I moved back with my grandmother it was made us so much closer – still to this day I call her roomie.” McLeod was soon on the right path, attending Southern Methodist University before moving on to Penn State to enjoy a successful spell playing for the Nittany Lions. Things were going well, at just 21 and whilst still a student, McLeod went to the 2003 Women’s World Cup, where Canada would eventually finish fourth after defeat in the semi-finals. But McLeod wasn’t entirely happy, the goalkeeper soon became her own worst critic, despite what seemed like a fast rise to the top level of international football. “The more successful I became, the harder I got on myself,” she says. “When I was young, if I made a mistake I was pretty self-critical. In 2003, I was a sub goalkeeper and nobody expected anything of us – we finished fourth. “I remember feeling so pissed off that tournament, Karina LeBlanc started and then our coach Even Pellerud put in Taryn Swiatek. To be fair, she played a marvellous tournament, but I was young and naïve and I wondered why I wasn’t the next choice, I didn’t understand it.” It provided McLeod will all the motivation to try and become the best goalkeeper in the world, no matter the cost. “I was so determined from that point on to outwork my competition. I wanted to be better at their strengths and better at their weaknesses. I had so many confidence issues because I compared myself to other keepers so much, I couldn’t figure out what keeper I wanted to be. I remember a conversation with my coach and I said I wanted to be like Hope Solo, when I should have just been Erin McLeod. “My keeper coach told me I was one of the best in the world. Most people would be like ‘Hey, thank you for the compliment’, but I was insulted that I wasn’t THE best. I couldn’t quantify it at all, when I made a mistake I thought ‘the best wouldn’t make a mistake’, I got so confused and disappointed, I guess I was kind of stuck in a hamster wheel.” Life would soon get even more complicated for McLeod. A successful spell with Vancouver Whitecaps followed the World Cup, but concerns about her sexuality, a disappointing 2007 tournament and the first of three ACL injuries would soon arrive on the scene almost at once. The 2007 Women’s World Cup would see Canada fail to get out of their group, whilst the Olympics a year later gave McLeod her first taste of what she’d always dreamed of, but it turned out to be a bittersweet occasion. “The sexuality thing actually came a lot sooner, quite quickly after the 2003 tournament,” McLeod recalls. “I wasn’t really figuring it all out, the hardest part about coming out is how it effects those closest to you. My parents wanted to protect me and initially it was hard, but as soon as I knew I had their love and support it wasn’t an issue anymore. I had a conversation with my mother about how much I wanted to be out but she was so worried about me getting hurt, and I could totally understand that.” But matters on the pitch would soon take centre stage, with McLeod in goal for Canada in a quarter-final against rivals USA, she injured her right knee as the USA went 1-0 up with less than 20 minutes played. Canada would eventually go out losing 2-1, and McLeod was replaced by Karina LeBlanc in the 19th minute. It was an injury that would see another drop in confidence, but McLeod now looks back and admits the injury came as a “blessing”. “I was no longer enjoying the game at all,” she says candidly. “Before the game I wanted to get hurt, I wanted some excuse to get away for a bit. Maybe after my third ACL I should have probably wished for something else,” she laughs. “But it allowed me to get back to what mattered, why I was playing the game and those moments have been a reminder of what matters. Even now, I watch training videos every day, the line of obsession and healthy learning can be blurry. In 2008 I was like ‘Why am I doing this?’ It had to become more about the love of the game rather than being critical of myself.” McLeod set off on what she describes as a “very personal journey” to teach herself how to deal with mistakes. But certain issues wouldn’t go away, McLeod still had issues surrounding her sexuality and is honest about the problems that persisted, and still do, within the game, even from her own team mates. “How do I put this? A culture exists in women’s soccer where there are assumptions about sexuality. It was difficult for some of my straight team mates who were like ‘Oh no’, because I was close to some of them. “I wasn’t really part of the ‘Straight Club’”, she laughs. “I think it was more about them not wanting other people to think they were gay, I don’t think it bothered them that I was, but I remember things they said about guys at bars thinking they might be gay and that was just bizarre to me. But there are assumptions that on a women’s soccer team you’re gay, it’s the same in a lot of women’s sport. “I’ve been very lucky in the last couple of teams I’ve played where it just doesn’t matter. You’re professional, you show up, you go home and do what you want – I feel very lucky to be a part of that.” After three years without club football after leaving the Whitecaps, McLeod would join Washington Freedom in 2009 in the now defunct Women’s Professional Soccer League. On July 24th 2010, McLeod injured the same ACL in the 84th minute of a match against FC Gold Pride, ending her season before leaving the club after they relocated to Florida. A move to Sweden followed, but 2011 would end in relegation and a move back to North America. 2011 though also presented McLeod with her third crack at a Women’s World Cup, this time with Canada under the guidance of Italian legend Carolina Morace. It turned out to be a disaster, Canada went out without so much as a point and Morace would take the brunt of the blame from her players. “I know I didn’t have the best performance in that tournament, none of us did,” McLeod says honestly. “I loved my goalkeeper coach, it was a completely Italian staff and we were training a bus ride away from Rome [the tournament itself was in Germany]. “I was so frustrated after that tournament because I gave it everything that I had, we worked our asses off.” McLeod describes the tournament as “devastating”, but it opened up a new path for her and her team mates. Morace was out and replaced by New Zealand’s English head coach John Herdman. “John came on board, talk about flipping a programme around,” she says. “We were 16th out of 16 in 2011, it couldn’t have been any worse, then a year later we win bronze in London at the Olympics, which is crazy when you think about it. “In 2011 we found it really easy to blame Carolina because she called all the shots and gave us no responsibility. John came in and gave us that, he gave us respect and admitted some of us had more experience than him. He did all the right things, he let us take control. When things went wrong we couldn’t blame John, we had to blame ourselves.” McLeod also admits that Herdman has had a hugely positive effect on not just on women’s soccer in Canada, but on McLeod herself. “100%. I’ve been lucky to have John as a coach, he believed in the connection within the group and there has to be trust for that to happen. I’d been team mates with people for 10 years and I didn’t know their families, I didn’t know if they were dating, we got to know each other a lot more.” Within less than a year of taking over, Herdman led his team into the 2012 Olympics in London. It would possibly provide McLeod with the toughest on-field moment of her career, but end with what she’d dreamed of since watching Elizabeth Manley do the same in 1988 – a medal. In the semi-final match against the USA at Old Trafford, a repeat of their 2008 encounter when McLeod first injured her ACL, the game would become one of the most memorable and remembered matches in women’s football history. Canada led three times during normal time thanks to a hat-trick from Christine Sinclair. With ten minutes to go, McLeod and her team mates were 3-2 up when she was penalised for holding onto the ball too long by Norwegian referee Christine Pedersen. An indirect free-kick was awarded, and when Marie-Eve Nault was adjudged to handball the resulting attempt, McLeod faced Megan Rapinoe in order to keep the score at 3-2. Rapinoe scored, sending the game into extra-time. Heartbreakingly for Canada, Alex Morgan headed home in the 123rd minute of the game to send the US into the final of the Olympics. “People always ask me how I managed to get over that,” recalls McLeod. “But in the moment, we were so focused. Don’t get me wrong, I felt like I’d let the team down, but all I was thinking about was the next play. I remember after that handball asking myself if the game was fixed. I was joking with myself but it was just crazy and it was gone in a flash. “I was pissed with myself, but my team mates were great. I think Sincy got in trouble for some comments in the press but everyone had my back.” Less than three days later, Canada had an opportunity to right the wrongs against France in Coventry. Whilst robbed of an opportunity to walk out against Japan at Wembley later that night, Canada were only focused on a bronze medal. “The way I played against France is the best game I’ve ever had,” says McLeod. “In a way, it was my way of responding and I was proud I didn’t let that USA game define me. Those are the moments, when the whistle went against France I fell to my knees and remember thinking all the BS I’d been through had been worth it and that I’d do it all again, that feeling was enough. “After that US game, Sinclair said ‘I don’t know about you guys but I’m not going home without an effing medal’. We just made this pact that we wouldn’t leave without one and that’s what we did. I remember Desiree [Scott] clearing one off the line and Kaylyn [Kyle] throwing herself around, we couldn’t have left anything more out there.” McLeod adds, “Sonia Bompastor [France international at the time] came up to me a few days later and said ‘We don’t have what you had, you’d do everything for each other’. People call me soppy, although I prefer emotional, but I’m all heart, it was such a victory because we did it together.” It was the prompt for much better things for McLeod, spells with Chicago Red Stars and Houston Dash in the new National Women’s Soccer League followed, and she was a continued regular under Herdman during the build up to Canada hosting the Women’s World Cup in 2015. 12 months before the tournament, McLeod decided it was time to go public about her sexuality off the back of controversy surrounding the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and the country’s gay propaganda laws. “I had the discussion with my mum, I’d been thinking about it a long time. I didn’t want people thinking it was a celebrity stunt to get attention, that’s what I was most afraid of. I told my mum I that I was doing it because I didn’t want people to have to come out anymore. “Mark Tewksbury, a Canadian swimmer, came out in the 1990s and when the Sochi thing happened he was the only one to talk about it, because he was the only one openly out. From the 1990s, I was like ‘are you kidding me?!’ It had to change.” And it did. McLeod came out publicly during an interview on CBC less than a year before representing her country in her home Women’s World Cup and confirming she was in a relationship with Houston team mate, and USA international, Ella Masar. “After Sochi I was so pissed, I couldn’t imagine not having my best friend there when I won an Olympic medal, the person who has been there through everything. I was angry. “My favourite story looking back is how different things are generationally. My nephew came over and couldn’t understand it all. He was like, ‘But Ella’s American’, he wasn’t even phased by the fact it was two women!” The couple kept it quiet, but they would marry in Vancouver the day after the Women’s World Cup ended in the same city. It wasn’t the fairy tale ending McLeod may have hoped for on the field, with Canada bowing out 10 days earlier at the hands of Mark Sampson’s England. “Directly after the tournament we were all devastated,” McLeod remembers. “We felt we could go all the way and that was upsetting. We were always a little bit nervous, we were a bit in quicksand. I was nervous, it was hard for me to sleep. “It was challenging to play at home and to host and I’m not trying to bash any of the teams, but until the final it felt like there was no stand-out country. Maybe the tournament was a bit too soon for us, I don’t know, but we didn’t reach our peak.” The disappointment though didn’t get in the way of McLeod and Masar’s happiness, the couple both joined European giants FC Rosengard in Sweden after the tournament, where they both remain to this day, residing in Malmo with their chihuahuas Max and Sven. Unfortunately for McLeod, now into her thirties, there was one final blow waiting around the corner. During a friendly tournament in December 2015, the keeper went up for a cross with Brazil legend Marta, and knew instantly when she landed what had happened. “It was such a familiar feeling,” she says. “But I had some rehab and got healthy again, although I had a lot of tape on my leg. We played Costa Rica in February and it was a game which would send us to the Olympics. “I took off for a cross and when I landed I knew that whatever I had left was gone. I played on, we qualified and the next day my knee was blue. I had rehab again back with Rosengard, I played 10 minutes of a Champions League game and I was so happy because playing in the Champions League was a big dream of mine. My surgeon got me back in a year, if it had been any longer it might have been the end of my career, so I guess I was kind of lucky!” Looking back almost twenty years to her time in Indonesia and the issues she struggled with there, McLeod admits there’s a lot of “pressure” on girls, especially in football. “There is a lot of pressure, definitely,” she says. “In Sweden, people can be pretty harsh towards people who are a little bit overweight. There’s a lot of importance around nutrition and every team that I’m on there’s girls that borderline have a disorder. I remember the national team under Carolina there was a lot of emphasis on nutrition, making sure you were a certain weight, they’d check your rooms for snacks. “Social media is an interesting thing, it’s much more open now and I think that’s wonderful. But it’s become a problem in a sense too, a lot of it’s not real and people are posting about their perfect lives and looking a certain way. Girls and women are sexualised a lot.” McLeod is now targeting one final go at the Women’s World Cup in France in 2019, before the Olympics come around once again in Tokyo a year later. But with an urge to return home and spend more with family, the future now holds very different plans for both McLeod and Masar. Both are set to leave Sweden in the very near future, and whilst Masar knows the destination of her next move within Europe, McLeod is heading back home to concentrate on getting back in the national team. “I will not stay in Europe and have decided to go home,” says the 34-year-old. “I have been asked about coming in with Canada at the end of November so my goal right now is that camp. “I hope to play in the NWSL next year as the schedule is more conducive for competing with the national team. I am grateful for my time here at FC Rosengard, like at any club I’ve been at, the players and my relationships with them will be something I always cherish.” Regarding her wife, McLeod added, “Ella is playing out of her mind right now and I do believe she will continue to do so. I am extremely proud of her, as you can imagine, for the opportunity that lies ahead. I can’t think of anyone who deserves it more.” No matter what lies ahead for McLeod, who now awaits the possibility of being allocated to an NWSL club for the 2018 season, the goalkeeper has a range of other things to occupy her during the upcoming months. “I design a lot of tattoos, I do a lot of art work and I’m really passionate about those things. I’m doing some online business courses too on top of my advertising degree. I was out for over a year so I’m looking forward to what comes next, I believe I’m still yet to peak…” Advertisements
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MasterCard has spoken out against bitcoin’s perceived risks and called for regulators to create a “level playing field” for payments systems. The statements were made as part of an ongoing Australian inquiry into digital currencies, headed by the Senate Standing Committee on Economics. In a document, the credit card company argues that all financial services should be held to the same standard, stating that it is imperative all consumers and merchants are able to conduct business and commerce in a way that is safe and simple for all. The statement says: “It is our view that all participants in the payments system that provide similar services to consumers should be regulated in the same way to achieve a level playing field for all. Moreover, any regulations should be technology neutral to ensure that they can and do apply to all new providers of payment services to consumers, especially with advancements in technology.” MasterCard went on to stress that consumer protection, anti-money laundering (AML), counter -terrorist financing (CTF) and stability should be the cornerstones of any regulation of electronic payments, including digital currencies. The company supports the definition of a digital currency as any type of digital unit that is used as a medium of exchange, but lacks the attributes of a real currency, while being convertible into real currency. “Examples of a digital currency include bitcoin (the predominant digital currency) and Ripple,” MasterCard says. Consumer and other risks MasterCard “strongly advocates” the application of industry standards on any payment service, including digital currency, explaining: “It must be safe, stable and reliable for consumers; it must provide an accepted value guarantee without exposure to significant fluctuation and risk; and it must offer all the basic protections that consumers and other stakeholders (regulators, governments, banks and merchants) have come to expect.” Digital currencies currently lack the basic protections consumers expect from MasterCard products, the firm argues, thus exposing them to a number of risks with limited recourse. The company says that any regulation adopted in Australia should address the anonymity provided by digital currencies, as a way of combating illegal activities. “Contrary to transactions made with a MasterCard product, the anonymity of digital currency transactions enables any party to facilitate the purchase of illegal goods or services, to launder money or finance terrorism and to pursue other activity that introduces consumer and social harm without detection by regulatory or police authority,” the company said. Volatility is another problem identified by the company, saying it can create “significant losses” for adopters and hinder the utility of digital currencies as a reliable means of payment. The lack of a trusted third party was also seen as a risk, since digital currencies are not backed by banks, administrators or regulators that could intervene in a time of crisis. “This means that consumers have no recourse if a digital currency loses its value or if the digital currency system fails,” MasterCard said. Industry group speaks out Ron Tucker, chairman of industry lobby group the Australian Digital Currency Association (ADCCA), said his group was “delighted to see so many submissions” to the inquiry. While not everyone is going to agree on regulatory specifics at this stage, he added, it is important to remember that bitcoin and other digital currencies are new technologies that require new and innovative forms of government oversight. “To try and put bitcoin into a pre-existing regulatory structure would be counterproductive and would disadvantage Australia in the global FinTech marketplace … the technology behind bitcoin means it is safe, secure, transparent and accountable. A transaction cannot be hidden, nor is anonymous.” Fact-finding mission The Senate first tasked the Economics References Committee with examining the impact of digital currencies in early October. Submissions closed on 28th November, with a total of 31 individuals and organisations contributing to the inquiry. The Senate held its first hearing on digital currencies last week. Ripple Labs, CoinJar, BitAwareAustralia, the Bitcoin Foundation, the Bitcoin Association of Australia and the Australian Digital Currency Commerce Association have all filed submissions, along with the Reserve Bank of Australia, the Australian Bankers’ Association, the Australian Taxation Office and, of course, MasterCard. The committee is scheduled to report its findings in March 2015. We have reached out to the Australian bitcoin community and we will update the article upon receiving comment. MasterCard image via Yuri Samsonov / Shutterstock.com
Get the latest news and videos for this game daily, no spam, no fuss. Nintendo's upcoming Wii U shooter Splatoon finally has an official release date. The game will launch exclusively for Wii U on May 29, Nintendo has announced. A family-friendly twist on the classic arena deathmatch formula, Splatoon challenges players not to shoot their opponents directly, but to cover as much of the level's walls and floor in your team's own paint color. The game also boasts some unique and interesting movement abilities and of course contains some of Nintendo's trademark charm. Check out the video above to see Splatoon in action. You can also read GameSpot's recent preview here and check out some screenshots in the gallery below. Nintendo has also announced new Amiibo toys based on Splatoon. You can read more about them through GameSpot's coverage of yesterday's Nintendo Direct broadcast.
Donald Trump. Screenshot/MSNBC President Donald Trump on Monday repeatedly mocked Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for tearing up while standing alongside Iraqi and Syrian refugees and condemning the president's executive order temporarily barring travel from seven Muslim-majority countries. "I noticed Chuck Schumer yesterday with the fake tears," Trump told reporters on Monday during a meeting with small-business leaders. "I'm going to ask him who was his acting coach, because I know him very well. I don't see him as a crier." "If he is, he's a different man," he continued. "There's about a 5% chance it was real. But I think they were fake tears." On Sunday, Schumer, a New York Democrat, held a press conference alongside refugees from Iraq and Syria. Those two countries are among seven from which travel to the US is barred for 90 days. Syrian refugees are barred indefinitely, while refugees from other countries will be barred for 120 days. The other five countries with US travel bans are Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Iran, and Yemen. The order was met with chaos over the weekend, as legal residents holding green cards were detained in airports, sparking massive protests and leading to condemnation of the order from business leaders and politicians on both sides of the aisle. Federal judges in four states issued a temporary stay preventing authorities from deporting travelers who were stuck in airports because of the order, but the long-term legality of Trump's action remains unclear. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly on Sunday ordered green-card holders from the countries to be allowed into the US. Chuck Schumer. Screenshot/CNN During Schumer's press conference, he teared up when discussing what he said was a "mean-spirited" and "un-American" order. "It was implemented in a way that created chaos and confusion across the country, and it will only serve to embolden and inspire those around the globe who will do us harm," he said. "It must be reversed immediately." He promised that Senate Democrats would introduce legislation to overturn the executive order and "move it as quickly as we can." "And I, as your senator from New York, will claw, scrap, and fight, with every fiber in my being, until these orders are overturned," he said. A Schumer representative commented on Trump's remarks to an NBC News reporter: Watch both Trump's and Schumer's comments below:
Bitcoin has a bit of James Bond flair to it. Encryption, secret keys, anonymity and the ability to send money around the world instantly as part of a growing shadow economy is all good fun. But Sound Wallet takes this latent spy esthetic to a delightfully extreme new level by taking a BIP38 encrypted key and converting it into a sound file which, to the casual listener, will just sound like static. Listen to that sound with an app called AndroSpectro (or Audacity with the right settings), though, and out of the static emerge the characters that comprise the encrypted key. But that wasn’t extreme enough for bitcointalk user krach. Sure, you can have him email you the .wav file, or burn it onto a CD, but you can also have him cut it into a 7″ vinyl record. And that is unbelievably groovy. The resulting record is clear, with edges that are just a bit rough. The card that came with it explains: “This record was hand shaped and individually cut in real time using a vintage 1940s Presto 75A recording lathe. It is a unique piece. It is not the same as a traditional pressed record. It was not made in a factory. It was hand carved from an 8ft sheet of polycarbonate plastic, shaped, sanded, waxed and cut in real time by one person.” The burst of gentle static at the beginning of the record contains the key, but then the recording transitions smoothly into some harsh electronic music. This is a great touch, as anyone snooping through your record collection will think it’s just an obscure recording. This is such a fun object. It would be a great way to hide a key in plain sight, certainly, but it’s also such an elaborately conceived and constructed wallet that it feels like a piece of art.
by BRIAN NADIG Construction of a 50,000-square-foot distribution warehouse is planned for a 1.6-acre parcel in the Knox Industrial Corridor in Portage Park. The site once was occupied to Chicago Imports, 4150 N. Knox Ave., but the company’s warehouse was destroyed in a fire in 2007. Railroad tracks run along the rear of the property, and during the extra-alarm fire Metra stopped trains from running through the area. Alderman John Arena’s chief of staff Owen Brugh said that the property is vacant except for the foundation of the former Chicago Imports building. A construction permit for the warehouse is pending with the city Department of Buildings. Brugh said that the company that acquired the property plans to construct the warehouse before it has a tenant for the site. He said that the developer’s willingness to proceed without a guarantee of rental income is an indicator that the local economy is improving and that the area is suitable for commercial development. In 2014 a makeshift sign was temporarily posted on the property stating that a homeless shelter would be built there. A local resident had been seeking support for a shelter to serve homeless people who congregate along the railroad embankment.
Bob Brennan isn’t one to mince words. “The world runs on software,” he says. “The software wasn’t written with a hostile environment in mind. We can button it up better than every other company, and the secret sauce is that we don’t need access to the source code. We have an entirely different approach that disrupts the whole notion of the software supply chain.” There’s a touch of bravado in Brennan’s voice, but for good reason. He is the chief executive of Veracode, a Burlington, Mass.-based cyber security firm founded by Symantec veterans in 2006. (If his name sounds familiar, he was once the CEO of Iron Mountain, the enterprise information management company.) Veracode, which has 350 employees, promises to protect large companies from threats that come through their web and mobile applications. Worrying about your network? Brennan insists that it’s an old way of thinking. The worst attacks, he says, are coming through your corporate apps. “Despite increased spending on security, there is still an unprecedented level of attack, and it’s coming from web pages—applications,” he says. “Development has become a really complex environment where release cycles are measured in weeks and you rely on a supply chain with unknown origins. It’s made application security an acute issue. This category is going to be bigger than network security because applications are going to have a more prominent profile in how we operate with businesses.” On Thursday, Veracode announces that it has raised $40 million in a late-stage funding round led by Wellington Management Company with participation from its existing investors. The sum brings the company’s total raised to $134 million. It gives it capital to invest in expansion in markets where it lacks a strong presence, such as Asia, South America, and the U.S. federal government. It also paves its path toward what seems to be an inevitable initial public offering. “We want to be able to take a very measured approach toward going public and not have the pressure to do that,” Brennan says. “Having Wellington on board allows us to march at that without worrying about how the markets are doing or hitting an IPO window. Our business model is a compound annuity: [customers] pay per application per year, and while they do retire applications, they add many more. It’s quite attractive.” Veracode counts three of the top four banks in the Fortune 100 as its customers. Its services, which promise to methodically and dynamically root out threats at the application layer in a number of ways, are cloud-based and sell with a subscription model. It competes with some of the world’s largest software companies: Hewlett-Packard, IBM, WhiteHat Security. “Our competition is really the old way of doing things,” Brennan says. The company is also riding a wave of increased interest in cyber security, from the board of directors on down. “Security has historically been bolted on to infrastructure. The CISO was at the little kids’ table,” he says, using the term for chief information security officer. “Now the CISO is in the board room.” During a recent dinner, he adds, the CISO of a major bank told him that he has twice as many software developers as Microsoft. The steady march of “hacked!” and “breach!” news headlines certainly helps. “When Heartbleed hit, we were able to go to all of our customers and say, here’s where you have OpenSSL, and here’s how you get away from it,” Brennan says. “We can do that in days.” To deal with this new way of threats, he adds, companies must completely rethink the way they build and buy software. “We’re making an argument with the largest companies in the world that this is an area that they have to go deep on for a very long time,” he says. “The business has tremendous potential. I like our chances.” Update, September 11, 2014: My colleague Dan Primack reports in Fortune‘s Term Sheet newsletter that Veracode’s funding was done at a post-money valuation of nearly $500 million.
Artificial sweeteners may contribute to soaring levels of diabetes, according to a controversial study that suggests the additives could exacerbate the problem they are meant to tackle. Researchers in Israel found that artificial sweeteners used in diet drinks and other foods can disrupt healthy microbes that live in the gut, leading to higher blood sugar levels – an early sign of diabetes. Sweeteners such as saccharin, aspartame and sucralose are widespread in western diets and are often used to cut calories or prevent tooth decay. The additives are so common that scientists behind the latest study called for a reassessment of the “massive usage” of the chemicals. “Our findings suggest that non-caloric artificial sweeteners may have directly contributed to enhancing the exact epidemic that they themselves were intended to fight,” the authors write in the journal Nature. Eran Elinav, a senior author on the study at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, said that while the evidence against the sweeteners was too weak to change health policies, he had decided to give them up. But the study has left many experts unconvinced. The findings draw largely on tests of just one sweetener in mice, raising doubts about their relevance for people, and to other sweeteners. Large studies in humans have found that sugar substitutes can help people maintain a healthy weight and protect against diabetes. “This new report must be viewed very cautiously,” said Stephen O’Rahilly, director of the Metabolic Diseases Unit at Cambridge University, “as it mostly reports findings in mice, accompanied by human studies so small as to be difficult to interpret.” Brian Ratcliffe, professor of nutrition at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, said: “Most of the effects that they report relate to saccharin with little or no effect of aspartame. Their paper ought to be limited to ‘saccharin’ in the title rather than attributing the effects to all artificial sweeteners.” The UK is poised to fall in line with World Health Organisation recommendations to halve sugar intake to 5% of daily calories, a move expected to drive sales of diet drinks and low-calorie foods. In the first of a series of experiments, the Israeli group found that mice fed on three artificial sweeteners – saccharin, aspartame and sucralose – developed high blood sugar levels. But when the mice were given antibiotics to kill off their gut microbes, the ill effects disappeared. The scientists then focused on saccharin. They transferred gut microbes from mice fed on the sweetener to different mice that had no gut bacteria of their own. Soon after, the recipient mice developed high blood sugar levels themselves. Genetic analyses of the gut microbes from mice fed on saccharin found that as a group they behaved differently, breaking down more carbohydrate in the diet than normal. The scientists ran tests on 400 people and found that those who consumed the most artificial sweeteners had different gut microbes than others, and on average were heavier and more glucose intolerant. In their final set of experiments, the scientists gave seven people the maximum allowed daily dose of saccharin for a week. Each dose was enough to sweeten around 40 cans of diet cola. At the end of the week, four in seven had high blood sugar levels and their gut microbes mirrored the changes seen in mice fed on the additives. To round off the study, the researchers transferred bugs from the people who developed high blood sugar after massive doses of artificial sweeteners into mice that had no gut bugs of their own. These mice went on to develop high blood sugar too. According to Elinav, the study shows that artificial sweeteners may contribute to higher blood sugar in mice and some people. One possible explanation is that artificial sweeteners let some microbes thrive at the expense of others, leaving a population that extracts more energy from the diet than normal. “This large body of work we’ve performed should be studied further because of the potentially harmful effects that could be happening from sweetener consumption to very large subsets of the population,” said Eran Segal, a co-author of the paper. There are studies that report more diabetes among people who consume lots of diet drinks. But in many cases it is impossible to work out what is to blame. Lots of people are already fat and on course to develop diabetes when they turn to diet drinks to lose weight. Nita Forouhi, head of nutritional epidemiology at Cambridge, said the study suggested artificial sweeteners were not the “innocent magic bullets” they were intended to be. “But it does not yet provide sufficient evidence to alter public health and clinical practice,” she said. Christopher Corpe of King’s College London, who studies how the gut senses sugars, said that future work needed to draw on much larger numbers of healthy and obese or diabetic people who consume more realistic amounts of artificial sweeteners.
Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, today said that Italy's decision not to send its marines back to India to stand trial for killing two Indian fishermen was "enemy action" and India should "forget diplomacy" and take action.Raising the issue in the Rajya Sabha, Mr Jaitley quoted from a James Bond novel by Ian Fleming to say: "Once it happens in chance, twice is a coincidence, three times in enemy action."The BJP leader said the government should consider action against Italian ambassador Daniele Mancini, who had assured the Supreme Court that the marines would return to India after voting in Italy's national elections last month."The ambassador had on behalf of the government of Italy submitted to the Supreme Court. Once you have submitted, you don't have diplomatic privileges," Mr Jaitley said.He said Italy had "broken every rule of democracy" and its action was comparable to "state-sponsored terrorism". "We've heard of state-sponsored terrorisms, but this by a democratic country which ostensibly claims to be committed to the rule of law, this seems to be the first such case of a state-sponsored deception and a state-sponsored abduction," Mr Jaitley said."The law minister may examine the post-constitutional treaties, including Vienna convention... it cannot overwrite the constitution of the country. We should forget diplomacy," he added.The Supreme Court in February allowed the marines, Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, to fly to Italy to vote in the February 24-25 elections. The marines are accused of killing Indian fishermen off the Kerala coast in February last year; they say they mistook the fishermen to be pirates.Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone had been standing trial in India, first in the Kerala High Court and then in a special court appointed by the Supreme Court. The apex court was given an undertaking that the marines would return in four weeks to face legal proceedings in India. The Italian embassy on Monday informed New Delhi that the marines would not be returning.
Senator Ted Cruz, who apparently has nothing to do on Sunday evenings, has spent the night in a Twitter battle with Mark Hamill, aka Luke Skywalker. The force awakened when Hamill directed some Twitter shade at Ajit Pai, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and architect of the ruling on net neutrality. "you are profoundly unworthy 2 wield a lightsaber," he wrote. "A Jedi acts selflessly for the common man-NOT lie 2 enrich giant corporations. Btw-did you pay John Williams his royalty? @AjitPaiFCCorpShill." He ended the slam with the perfect Star Wars-related insult: "#AJediYouAreNOT." Cute video Ajit "Aren't I Precious?" Pai 🤮-but you are profoundly unworthy 2 wield a lightsaber-A Jedi acts selflessly for the common man-NOT lie 2 enrich giant corporations. Btw-did you pay John Williams his royalty? @AjitPaiFCCorpShill #AJediYouAreNOT pic.twitter.com/SpIcOEySUY — @HamillHimself (@HamillHimself) December 16, 2017 Cruz responded to Hamill's tweet — accidentally tagging the wrong Twitter account in the process — partly to defend his position on net neutrality and partly to attempt to correct Hamill's Star Wars knowledge. .@HammillHimself Luke, I know Hollywood can be confusing, but it was Vader who supported govt power over everything said & done on the Internet. That's why giant corps (Google, Facebook, Netflix) supported the FCC power grab of net neutrality. Reject the dark side: Free the net! https://t.co/nARkMvIEYk — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) December 17, 2017 "Luke, I know Hollywood can be confusing, but it was Vader who supported govt power over everything said & done on the Internet," he wrote. "Reject the dark side: Free the net!" Cruz, it seems, is trying to explain to the man who played Luke Skywalker what does and does not belong on the dark side. Big mistake.
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Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray has strongly criticised party’s ally BJP and stated that he has ‘virtually lost faith in the BJP-led central and state governments over several issues, including the GST and demonetisation, in the past three years.’ Advertising The party leader’s blunt statement came on the eve of his ceremonial, annual birthday-eve interview that he gave to the Shiv Sena’s mouthpiece, ‘Saamana’. Thackeray, who turns 57 on July 27, spoke on various issues with Saamana Executive Editor, Sanjay Raut, a Rajya Sabha MP. Talking about the recent implementation of the Goods and Services Tax, Thackeray said, “It’s a complete mess. We won’t keep quiet. We were the first to point out how GST will hit the people. Now, they must decide whether to bear it beat it. See, in Gujarat small traders took to the streets opposing GST and they were mercilessly beaten up.” “We have opposed GST, since under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, everything is sought to be ‘centralised’. Is this a true democracy? Unlike the former Prime Minister, the late Rajiv Gandhi, who implemented Panchayati Raj right at the grassroots level,” Thackeray said, targeting the Modi government. Thackeray claimed that the Shiv Sena managed to ‘save’ Mumbai and 27 other municipal corporations in the state by getting reimbursement of the losses they suffered due to the closure of the Octroi checkposts from July 1 – when GST came into being. He appealed to the government to clarify whether its policies are for the overall common good or not and cited the example of last year’s demonetisation. “Just today, I read that 1.50 million people lost jobs directly due to demonetization, meaning six million (dependents) will suffer a hit. Who will provide for these six million their daily ‘dal-roti’?”, questioned Thackeray. He also pointed out how he was the first to speak out against demonetization as it created immense hardships for the masses, they stood months in queues, many died, but nobody bothered. Advertising Replying to a question about the possibility of being called a ‘traitor’, Shiv Sena president replied- “Ask the people losing their jobs who is the real ‘traitor’. I am not talking about Modi, but the government machinery. Whenever Shiv Sena speaks anything, it’s considered ‘anti-government’. But that is wrong, we are always with the people.”
A top Claypool aide at CPS resigns amid residency questions Jason Kierna last June 20, at a public hearing at Mather High School on the North Side on lead testing in the Chicago Public Schools.\| Ashlee Rezin / Sun-Times The Chicago Public Schools’ facilities chief — one of schools CEO Forrest Claypool’s hires from the city agency he formerly headed — has resigned from his $165,000 post amid residency questions. Jason R. Kierna, 30, has headed Claypool’s lead testing and mitigation efforts in schools, and also has been involved in the ongoing move to privatize the management of all school buildings. Kierna, who gave notice Wednesday, did not return messages seeking comment. His last day on the job will be Friday, Feb. 3. Since February 2015, he and his wife have owned a home in La Grange Park. He was allowed to live there, rather than in the city, at his previous job, with the Chicago Transit Authority, where he also worked for Claypool. But he was supposed to move to the city within six months of being hired by CPS in January 2016, under the school system’s residency requirement. His current driver’s license and car registration and his wife’s driver’s license show two North Side addresses where they formerly lived. His wife’s current car registration shows the La Grange Park address. That’s also the address where the couple’s property-tax bill is mailed. Kierna pays $800 a month for an apartment on the Far Northwest Side, according to a lease and copies of rent checks provided by a CPS spokeswoman, though his family has remained in La Grange Park. The Chicago Board of Education at times has approved “special needs” waivers of the residency rule, but Kierna didn’t apply for one. In August 2015, it gave a two-year waiver to Ronald DeNard, Claypool’s $225,000-a-year senior vice president of finance, who owns a home in Flossmoor. That came over the objection of Inspector General Nicholas Schuler, who said the residency waiver might raise concerns “of preferential treatment for favored insiders.” “As it has done in the past, the Board of Education can grant a waiver for a limited period of time to allow a candidate from outside Chicago to begin working for the district,“ a district spokesman said at the time. According to CPS’ residency policy: “The question of an employee’s residence is principally one of where employee intends to live and have his or her one true, permanent home or domicile to which an employee intends to return following an absence. In disputed cases, the burden of proof rests with the employee.” The policy says determining residency “shall consider, but not be limited to, the following factors: voter registration, place of filing tax returns, property ownership, driver’s license and car registration.” CPS has recently toughened its policy for students found to have falsified home addresses to gain an advantage in selective-school admission, banning them for life from all test-in schools. In December, Schuler’s office put out a report detailing cases of students booted out of schools and staffers fired and tagged with a “do not hire” designation that will prevent them from returning to work for CPS. One case targeted a Highland Park family who rented a studio apartment in Rogers Park so their two kids could go to Northside College Prep. Another involved a Berwyn family whose daughter attended the popular Andrew Jackson Elementary School — and said they were renting an apartment in in a Chicago building belonging to a family member in time for their son to apply to selective high schools. All of these children were removed from CPS schools and both families hit with five-digit tuition bills. CPS also sent word of the Berwyn parents’ residency issue to their employer, the City Colleges of Chicago, which, like the public schools system, requires workers to live in the city.
Rachel Maddow last night caught up with that strange domestic terrorism case out of Maine that we reported on awhile back as part of a larger trend we're seeing of ratcheted-up rhetoric and increasingly violent expressions coming from the American far right since Barack Obama's election. Maddow: But should this guy have been found out -- I dunno, before he died? And, post-9/11, have we focused too much on stopping Bin Laden again at the expense of potentially stopping the next Timothy McVeigh? Good question. And the answer is clearly yes. The Maine incident is only the latest in a long string of cases of serious domestic terrorism emerging from the extremist Right since 9/11. Some of the others include: -- The anthrax killer. -- The far-right "Patriot" who constructed a sodium cyanide bomb capable of killing hundreds. -- The Alabama militiamen who plotted to go on an anti-Latino killing rampage. -- The ex-Army Ranger who planned an anti-abortion killing spree. -- The young skinheads who wanted to kill 107 black people and cap it off with Barack Obama. There has also been outright malfeasance on the part of the FBI when it came to investigating far-right extremists in the past eight years. That appears to be changing -- the FBI has been public about its concerns regarding the resurgence in white-supremacist hate groups and their activities and recruitment since Obama's election. We'll have to see if that translates into tackling the problem seriously.
The United States shows greed for energy exploration by promoting new oil and gas deals that are moving the world closer to a petroleum collapse, nonprofit organization Sustainable Energy Institute Founder Jan Lundberg told Sputnik. WASHINGTON (Sputnik), Anastasia Levchenko — On Thursday, US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced the Obama administration intends to offer about 45 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas development in two lease sales in March. "Do we really need all this energy? The United States has energy gluttony," Lundberg said on Friday. "Energy sphere is corrupt…common people know that things will go wrong, oil accidents will happen spoiling water and there will be release of carbon dioxide killing our planet." According to BOEM Director Abigail Ross Hopper, Gulf of Mexico lease sales reflect the US administration's commitment to facilitate the orderly development of offshore energy resources while protecting the human, marine and coastal environments. "Without a raw conservation ethics, without a nature-oriented culture, the destruction and waist is going to go on until we have a petrol collapse." © East News / Julie Dermansky New US Oil Exploration Deals Serve Government, Not Planet - NGO The only solution that can avert the upcoming environmental catastrophe is a world-wide law for a carbon fee, or a carbon tax, he added. The area lease sales are scheduled to take place on March 23 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The two offshore sales in March are the ninth and tenth ones under the Obama administration’s Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017. The Sustainable Energy Institute was established in 1988 to to reduce dependency on oil while lessening pollution. In 2000, Lundberg also founded Sail Transport Network started that seeks to resurrect renewable-energy travel and freight.
UK politics: irony at the top of the list 13/05/2014 Follow @eureferendum As long as the Labour Party was in the ascendency, with the Conservatives cast as the losers, it was playtime for UKIP supporters. Since Labour was going to get in anyway, the Tories could be given a "right good kicking", with no danger of their dustbin vote actually changing anything. But now we see the "shock" To an extent, this was always going to happen – the classic two-party squeeze – although, for the time being, the UKIP vote is holding up at 15 percent. This, though, is before Mr Cameron's "cast-iron promise" on an EU referendum has had a chance to exercise whatever effect it might. And that really does place UKIP supporters in a quandary. There can be no doubt now that Mr Cameron has boxed himself into a corner. If he gets to be prime minister after the 2015 general election, then he is committed to a referendum. Moreover, Cameron has played his hand so badly that he will be facing the electorate without a credible renegotiation to offer them, giving the outers the best opportunity they will get in a decade or more to force an exit from the EU. Therein lies As long as they could pretend that the Tories had no chance of winning, the decision was easy to make. But if Mr Cameron looks as if he could renew his lease on No. 10, the UKippers are going to have to think again. Are the seriously going to turn down a chance of voting in a referendum, and getting us out of the EU, just for the sake of giving the Tories a kicking? They can, of course, dig their heels in and assert that Mr Cameron is not to be trusted – "cast-iron Dave" has already reneged on his promise, and there is nothing to stop him from doing so again. And they may be right in their assessment, but if they don't take a chance, how will they ever know? On the other hand, they have to ask themselves what they are putting at risk. At the very worst, we end up with a Conservative government instead of a Labour administration led by Mr Miliband. And should then Mr Cameron then refuse a referendum, one can only imagine that the revenge would be terrible. One could then see UKIP in the 2020 election do real damage to the Tories. A more sanguine assessment, however, may advise caution in 2015. Although Mr Cameron might find it very hard to win an "in-out" referendum, it remains well within the capability of the anti-EU movement to lose it. Unable to unify behind a coherent exit plan, or agree a campaign strategy, one can easily see the bickering groupuscules so alienating the electorate that the vote goes Mr Cameron's way by default. The real judgement call we may have to make, therefore, is not whether there will be a referendum but whether we can win one. If on balance we feel that the chances of winning are slight, then we would be better off voting against the Tories in the 2015 general election, in order to stop Mr Cameron giving us a referendum. Therein lies the ultimate irony. The "eurosceptics" may decide to vote UKIP to block a referendum that we can't win, not least because UKIP itself will so damage the cause that it will stop us winning. Thus we end up staying in the EU, to protect us from the risk of losing a vote which will take us out. In other words, we must stay in to keep alive any hope that we can some day leave. One might suggest here, that in the long list of the things that one couldn't make up, this has to be pretty close to the top. FORUM THREAD As long as the Labour Party was in the ascendency, with the Conservatives cast as the losers, it was playtime for UKIP supporters. Since Labour was going to get in anyway, the Tories could be given a "right good kicking", with no danger of their dustbin vote actually changing anything.But now we see the "shock" ICM poll putting the conservatives into the lead, voters are having to face the prospect that playtime is over – there is a real contest in the making, where every vote will count. The idea of a guilt-free kicking – still an option for the euros – becomes less attractive for the general election.To an extent, this was always going to happen – the classic two-party squeeze – although, for the time being, the UKIP vote is holding up at 15 percent. This, though, is before Mr Cameron's "cast-iron promise" on an EU referendum has had a chance to exercise whatever effect it might.And that really does place UKIP supporters in a quandary. There can be no doubt now that Mr Cameron has boxed himself into a corner. If he gets to be prime minister after the 2015 general election, then he is committed to a referendum.Moreover, Cameron has played his hand so badly that he will be facing the electorate without a credible renegotiation to offer them, giving the outers the best opportunity they will get in a decade or more to force an exit from the EU.Therein lies the conundrum to which we alluded earlier. The UKIP supporters have got to make up their minds which they want most – an "in-out" referendum or a chance to damage the Tories.As long as they could pretend that the Tories had no chance of winning, the decision was easy to make. But if Mr Cameron looks as if he could renew his lease on No. 10, the UKippers are going to have to think again. Are the seriously going to turn down a chance of voting in a referendum, and getting us out of the EU, just for the sake of giving the Tories a kicking?They can, of course, dig their heels in and assert that Mr Cameron is not to be trusted – "cast-iron Dave" has already reneged on his promise, and there is nothing to stop him from doing so again. And they may be right in their assessment, but if they don't take a chance, how will they ever know?On the other hand, they have to ask themselves what they are putting at risk. At the very worst, we end up with a Conservative government instead of a Labour administration led by Mr Miliband. And should then Mr Cameron then refuse a referendum, one can only imagine that the revenge would be terrible. One could then see UKIP in the 2020 election do real damage to the Tories.A more sanguine assessment, however, may advise caution in 2015. Although Mr Cameron might find it very hard to win an "in-out" referendum, it remains well within the capability of the anti-EU movement to lose it. Unable to unify behind a coherent exit plan, or agree a campaign strategy, one can easily see the bickering groupuscules so alienating the electorate that the vote goes Mr Cameron's way by default.The real judgement call we may have to make, therefore, is not whether there will be a referendum but whether we can win one. If on balance we feel that the chances of winning are slight, then we would be better off voting against the Tories in the 2015 general election, in order to stop Mr Cameron giving us a referendum.Therein lies the ultimate irony. The "eurosceptics" may decide to vote UKIP to block a referendum that we can't win, not least because UKIP itself will so damage the cause that it will stop us winning. Thus we end up staying in the EU, to protect us from the risk of losing a vote which will take us out. In other words, we must stay in to keep alive any hope that we can some day leave.One might suggest here, that in the long list of the things that one couldn't make up, this has to be pretty close to the top.
Last week the head of Indonesia’s National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), Bambang Brodjonegoro, announced that the government is committed to moving the nation’s capital from Jakarta in Java. While Mr Brodjonegoro did not specify where the new capital will be located, options floated in the past include Palangkaraya in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia’s largest island and where former president Sukarno considered setting up a new capital in 1957, and Jonggol in West Java. Vice president Jusuf Kalla is said to prefer Mamuju, the capital of West Sulawesi Province. Of the three Jonggol would appear to be the most unlikely. Past comments indicate that when the move comes it will not be to somewhere else on Java. In fact, the official reason being given for the move is that there is too much imbalance between development on Java compared with other Indonesian islands. There is however another reason. Jakarta is (not so slowly) sinking, while sea levels are rising. At the current rate large segments of Jakarta could be underwater within a decade. The mean sea level in Jakarta Bay is rising by up to 0.57cm (0.22 inch) annually, while the city is also sinking at about 7.5cm (2.95 inch) per year on average; its coastal neighbourhoods are sinking even faster, at a rate of 25cm (9.84 inch) per year. While moving a capital city is a slow and expensive undertaking, Indonesia President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) could very well be remembered in history as a progressive leader whose foresight saw the Indonesian capital saved from the effects of climate change, when other governments are ferrying their civil servants to work by boat. Climate Change Only Part of The Problem Google Maps Recent research shows that planning now to relocate may be a wise strategy. Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), and Jakarta could all be underwater within the next ten years. While the rise in sea levels brought on by climate change is a well-publicised threat, unsustainable urban development practices are equally damaging and concerning. In all three of Asean’s sinking cities groundwater extraction is necessary to maintain an adequate supply of potable water; this causes the land underneath the cities to sink, a phenomenon known as land subsidence. High-rise developments only further compress the already unstable land. As vacant land in the three cities has become increasingly scarce – and expensive – natural drainage channels have been filled in for construction – sometimes legally, but often not. Many of Bangkok’s khlongs have been paved over for roads, while some have morphed into golf courses, or apartment blocks; a luxury district has been built on what was once a wetland in Ho Chi Minh City. During the monsoon season rainwater that once drained into these canals or wetlands finds its natural pathway obstructed, flooding streets and buildings instead. The combined effects of climate change, land subsidence, and elimination of drainage systems mean that these cities are slipping into the sea faster than they are growing. While Jakarta is the most at risk with some 40 per cent of the city below sea level, the Thailand capital of Bangkok is not far behind. More than half of Bangkok sits less than 0.5 metres (about 1.6 ft) above sea level. According to the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA), the city is sinking at up to 3cm (1.18 inch) a year, while a 2010 Joint Thailand-Europe Research Study (JTERS), found that the water level in the Gulf of Thailand is rising at up to 0.40cm (0.16 inches) annually. In Ho Chi Minh City the situation is just as dire. Sea levels off the coast of Vietnam are rising at 0.29cm (0.11 inch) per year, and from 2006 to 2010 Ho Chi Minh City sank on average 0.80cm (0.31 inch) per year. In response some city residents in Ho Chi Minh City and Jakarta are raising the floor of their houses annually to avoid increasingly higher floodwaters. However, these strategies save only individual households from sinking, not entire cities. Those who can’t afford the high cost are set to see their investment in their home liquidated in more ways than one. The vital role that these cities play to their respective countries, and the region’s, economic stability means their future can not be left up to fate. In Thailand the Bangkok metropolitan area contributed 30 per cent to 2014 Thailand GDP. In the same year, Ho Chi Minh City contributed 21 per cent to Vietnam’s GDP, while Jakarta contributed 13 per cent to 2012 Indonesia GDP. Indonesia isn’t the only country to consider relocating its capital city; the topic has been flagged periodically in Thailand; while Myanmar actually did so in 2005, building the city of Naypyidaw from scratch and moving its government operations there from Yangon. Relocation a Temporary Respite For Jakartans Only With hundreds of thousands of civil servants and their families likely to be offered transfers to the new location, Jakarta Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat has welcomed the initiative, pointing to lower traffic congestion and cleaner air as two of the benefits. However, while the relocation will provide some temporary benefits to Jakartans, it will have little effect on the rate in which the city is sinking beneath the sea. For Jakarta to gain even a modicum of respite from the speed with which climate change is bearing down on it, it must dramatically reduce the amount of water it is pulling from beneath the ground. This is no better reflected than in a 2015 study by researchers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (TIT). The study found that while a three-meter (about 9.9ft) high dyke would be sufficient at the present to prevent floods in Jakarta, if land subsidence continues at its current rate the dyke would be completely ineffective by 2040. Similarly a 2015 report by Dutch water research institute Deltares found that since strict regulations capping the proportion of groundwater permitted in Bangkok City’s water supply at 10 per cent were introduced in 1977 land subsidence has slowed significantly. However, despite the proven efficacy of stopping groundwater extraction, the practice continues unabated in all three of Asean’s sinking cities, despite all having introduced restrictions to curb groundwater extraction. In Indonesia it easy to understand why. About 40 percent of Jakarta’s residents are not connected to the city’s water supply leaving them no choice but to rely on groundwater. Additionally, although government buildings have access to piped water, many still draw their water from underground aquifers. In Ho Chi Minh City a lack of coordination between relevant government agencies is hampering effective water management, while in Bangkok corruption, lax enforcement, inadequate monitoring, and greed all have a role to play. Flawed Solutions Thus, most discussion on saving Asean’s sinking cities have focused on adapting to increasing floods; pumping water from one flooded location to another, and then from there to somewhere else. Water management firms from the Netherlands, where about a quarter of the land lies below sea level, have been sharing their water management expertise with officials in all three of Asean’s sinking cities. Multibillion-dollar seawall designs, such as Jakarta’s Great Garuda and Bangkok’s Wetropolis, have been in the pipeline for years. However, of all the proposals to rescue Asean’s sinking cities, only the plan to move Indonesia’s capital has reached more than the initial publicity stage. It is easy to see why. For one, the plans are flawed: The Wetropolis project has been dismissed as unrealistic, while the Great Garuda is highly likely to wreak even more havoc on Jakarta’s environment. Moreover, Asean’s sinking cities lack the funding and government efficacy required to fully implement the Dutch firms’ recommendations. Despite the dire warnings neither Vietnam nor Thailand seem overly concerned, despite the many historic buildings such as the Grand Palace and numerous stupas containing Buddha relicts that Thailand will need to relocate if they are not to be lost to the sea. Land Prices With Bangkok land prices currently about US$18,733 per square meter (about 10.76sq.ft) any decision to move the capital would likely have as big an economic impact on the country as the 1997 Asian financial crisis, totally destroying the wealth of more than a few prominent Thai society families. Among those with a big investment in Bangkok land is the the Crown Property Bureau (CPB) with some 1,343ha (3,318 acres) of prime Bangkok land worth about $251.584 billion. Similarly in Vietnam where all land is owned by the state and leased to private corporations and individuals, maintaining land prices and rental incomes is an important consideration. In 2015 one square meter (10.76 sq.ft) of land in Ho Chi Minh City’s central business district was valued at US$7,600. Willson Kalip, Indonesia country head for international real estate firm Knight Frank, said that while the idea of relocating the Indonesia capital is good, it will take a long time to properly execute. Noting that the move did not have the support of all of the business community, Mr Kalip said the idea was still subject to “many factors including the economy, social, business flow, funding, politics, and more.” While the effect the announcement will have on Jakarta property prices may not be felt for some time, Mr Kalip said whichever city is chosen for the new Indonesia capital is going to see rapid increases in land prices and the opening up of many new opportunities. While Governor Hidayat might be pleased at the notion of the government moving out of Jakarta, with the national capital relocated to some far off distant location the pressure on Indonesia lawmakers to spend inconceivable amounts of money defending Jakarta from the effects of climate change is unlikely be as intense. Likewise, lawmakers are unlikely to find large groups of Jakartans making the lengthy journey to protest in front of the new parliament about jetskis racing along Jalan Mangga Dua Raya, or having to wade knee-deep to and from work in what is being billed as Indonesia’s new business and finance centre. Feature video Michigan Engineering Related:
Vox Sentences is your daily digest for what's happening in the world, curated by Ella Nilsen. Sign up for the Vox Sentences newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday, or view the Vox Sentences archive for past editions. North Korea fires its latest missile over Japan; the flood waters in Texas continue to rise; violence in Myanmar reaches a tipping point. Japan’s terrifying Tuesday morning After staying fairly quiet for a couple weeks, North Korea fired yet another missile early this morning directly into Japanese airspace, a very bold move on its part. [Vox / Alex Ward] Things in Japan got pretty tense; sirens went off and the government warned people to seek shelter as the missile flew over an island in the North called Hokkaido, which is home to about 5.3 million people. [The Independent / Joe Sommerlad] This isn’t the first time North Korea has flown missiles over Japanese airspace, but it’s a very rare occurrence, precisely because it risks starting a military conflict. Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has a pretty hawkish reputation, but he’s shown no indication that he’s going to pursue a military option right now. [Foreign Policy / Michael Penn] Experts say the move to fly a weapon over Japan was a deliberate way to heighten tension in the region, but North Korea stopped short of pointing a missile at the American territory of Guam and inflaming tensions with the United States. [Washington Post / Anna Fifield] In the US, President Donald Trump reiterated that “all options are on the table,” but didn't make any dramatic statements like his vow to rain “fire and fury” on North Korea a few weeks ago. [CNN / Jeff Zeleny, Dan Merica and Kevin Liptak] South Korea actually responded most strongly to the latest test, flying fighter jets and dropping bombs on its border with the North as a show of force. This is especially noteworthy, given that new South Korean President Moon Jae-in has so far preached diplomacy with North Korea, and now seems to be shifting his message. [Vox / Alex Ward] vox-mark Vox Sentences The news, but shorter, delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and European users agree to the data transfer policy. For more newsletters, check out our newsletters page Houston just broke a rainfall record As of this evening, rainfall from Hurricane Harvey has officially surpassed 50 inches, breaking a record for the continental United States. (Hawaii holds the record for 52 inches of rain, but it's likely that Harvey floods could reach that.) [Vox / Brian Resnick] The rain is continuing to fall on Texas, and floodwaters are rising further as a flood control dam in Houston started to spill over this afternoon. Police say 13 people have died in the storm, with 3,500 people rescued so far. [NYT] President Trump and first lady Melania Trump visited Texas today, and Trump vowed to get the state a comprehensive relief package as fast as possible. [CNN / Deirdre Walsh, Ted Barrett, Ashley Killough and Jeremy Diamond] It’s tough to tell exactly how much the hurricane will cost Texas, but some have estimated it could be around $50 billion in combined damage and lost economic activity. [Houston Chronicle / Collin Eaton] Harvey could also have a big impact in Washington, DC, where passing a budget is the big item on lawmakers’ agenda when they return from summer vacation. Trump has made it clear he’s willing to shut down the government if Congress doesn’t give him the money for the Southern border wall, but if Harvey funding is attached to a larger bill, it could make it much more difficult for the president to fight. [Vox / Jeff Stein] That’s because shutting down the government would effectively suspend recovery efforts and prove devastating for thousands of flood victims. [Vox / Jeff Stein] In addition to the Texas floods, there are new worries about the storm moving east to neighboring Louisiana, which is no stranger to devastating weather. [NOLA.com] Myanmar’s Muslims are fleeing en masse The United Nations and human rights organizations are criticizing Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi for not doing enough to stop violence against Muslims in that country and pushing out human rights organizations trying to investigate recent clashes. [The Guardian / Oliver Holmes] Violence in the Southeast Asian nation is intensifying, as government forces battle militants from the country’s Muslim minority, known as the Rohingya. [Financial Times / Amy Kazmin] Fighting between Muslim militants and the Buddhist government security forces has left 100 people dead and thousands more Rohingya civilians fleeing across the border into neighboring Bangladesh. [Sky News] The Rohingya have been persecuted in Myanmar for years; the government doesn’t recognize them as citizens and has designated them as illegal immigrants. [Reuters / Ruma Paul and Nurul Islam] The government of Suu Kyi, a former recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, recently accused members of international aid organization of aiding “terrorists,” prompting outcries from the UN that they are inflaming tensions rather than trying to calm things down. [The Guardian / Oliver Holmes] Suu Kyi’s rise to power was initially seen as a turning point toward democracy for Myanmar, a country that had been under military dictatorship for decades. But many say she has not been able to reform the country and is still being influenced by military leaders, evidenced by the continuing crackdown on journalists. [NYT] Miscellaneous The incredible science behind the floating masses of fire ants in Hurricane Harvey floodwaters (and why you should definitely not touch them). [Wired / Matt Simon] Minnesota and Virginia are in a protracted battle over a Confederate flag captured by Minnesota soldiers in the Civil War. Virginia wants it back; Minnesota isn’t budging. [Twin Cities Pioneer-Press / Rachel Stassen-Berger] A German nurse who told police he liked putting people under deadly anesthesia to practice reviving them has been implicated in more than 80 deaths dating back to the '90s, and people are asking why it took so long to arrest him. [NYT / Melissa Eddy] In case there was any confusion as to who she is, first lady Melania Trump wore a baseball hat emblazoned with the acronym "FLOTUS" while visiting the Texas floods today. [The Cut / Gabrielle Paella] The Newseum in Washington, DC, has been struggling financially for years, and some are wondering if it's going to have to downsize or close. [Washington Post / Margaret Sullivan] Verbatim Watch this: What 2017's total eclipse looked like from 9,700 feet above sea level. [Vox / Joe Posner] Read more Why Houston’s flooding got so bad, according to storm experts Hurricane Harvey is a humanitarian disaster. It will also send gas prices soaring. The terrific and terrible summer 2017 movie season, explained DREAMers like me have flourished under DACA. Trump might take it all away. Taylor Swift's new song evokes 2 iconic movies in both style and content
State Sen. Steve Glazer ties BART bond support to labor issues State Sen. Steve Glazer, elected on a relentless campaign to prevent strikes by BART workers, threatened Wednesday to oppose an expected November bond measure to fund improvements to the transit system. At a news conference at the Walnut Creek BART Station, Glazer, D-Orinda, surrounded by a handful of council members from cities east of the East Bay hills, accused BART of financial mismanagement and said voters should not approve a bond measure — expected to be at least $2 billion — if it’s placed on the fall ballot. Glazer was particularly critical during the media event of the two four-day strikes by BART workers in 2013 — and the resulting contract, which included a 15 percent raise over four years. He also objected to a BART “me too” policy that gives managers raises that match what the unions negotiate, as well as a provision that prohibits the transit agency from training replacement workers until the union contract expires. BART’s contracts with its workers will expire at the end of June 2017. Unless BART and its unions negotiate new, “financially responsible” labor agreements before November, Glazer said, he will oppose the bond measure. Glazer said 31 elected officials, including Assemblywoman Catharine Baker, R-San Ramon, Contra Costa County Supervisor Mary Piepho and city council members agree with him. “Why should we reward bad behavior with billions of dollars in new taxes?” he said. Glazer said the workers would not necessarily have to “revisit their salary choices,” but would need to bargain a new package for themselves and eliminate the replacement training restrictions. Managers, he said, would need to end the “me too” raises. BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost did not say whether the transit agency would attempt to bargain a new contract now, but pointed toward the importance of the bond measure. “We ought to be working together with local officials to solve the Bay Area's transportation crisis,” she said. “The state has already slashed transit funding by double digits and it will only get worse. BART has record ridership and the freeways are jam packed. The Bay Area needs BART to be a viable option to help minimize traffic for everyone, and the only way to ensure that is to rebuild the aging infrastructure that is causing delays and service disruptions.” Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com
Chicks Dig Accordions! Vintage Vinyl and Squeezebox Groupies TO HELL with the electric guitar. That may attract a flock of dirty groupies, but the real chick magnet is the accordion. Sure, it has a reputation as being even less sexy than a French horn, but don’t believe the hype. A look at this stack of old accordion LPs, and you’ll quickly see that the instrument of desire isn’t the guitar, drums or microphone, it’s the mad love machine called The Accordion. (Lots more vintage gold on Flashbak.com) Women love to rub against the bellows and stroke the keys sensually. It’s well known among accordionists that instruments are often damaged by females attempting to dry hump unguarded instruments. A tip for new accordionists: When you’re finished playing, be sure to put it in a safe place away from potential hump damage. The lure of substance abuse is no stranger to rock stars, but nothing compared to the world of accordionists. As John Woodhouse demonstrates in the album above, with the simple press of a key, and buxom maidens appear out of the woodwork offering libations. What is it about the bellows-driven sounds of this magical box that makes women shed their clothes and become mad with passion? Indeed, there is something primal, something bestial about it. As Nicholas Cage once said, “I am not a demon. I am a lizard, a shark, a heat-seeking panther. I want to be Bob Denver on acid playing the accordion.” Is it getting hot in here, or is it just the Accordion Erotica? A comely young female perched atop a diatonic button accordion… If ever there was an image of raw sexuality this is it. And another example… Women posed suggestively atop the hoods of sports cars and bearskin rugs are staples of erotic photography. But nothing compares to the seductive power of a woman on an accordion. Nothing. Tom Waits once said, “A gentleman is someone who can play the accordion, but doesn’t.” He never met Mister Blot. Yes, there was always a groovy chick by his side, but Mr. Blot was never anything but gentlemanly. Yes, he was into all kinds of deviant sexual practices, black magic, and ritual torture… but always with a consenting partner. (Lots more vintage gold on Flashbak.com) Since the accordion delivers such a powerful hypnotic spell towards the opposite sex, accordionists must be very careful when wielding this instrument. With great power comes great responsibility. Look at the wingspan of that accordion! Like Dracula spreading his cape, Dick Cortino opens wide the accordion’s bellows, and the ladies swoon at his feet. Raves, keggers, and bachelor parties are fine, but nothing can compete with the wild orgy that is the accordion party. While these parties tend to result in either jail time or death, they are still worthwhile for the unique experience they provide. (Except in Bangkok. Avoid accordion parties in Bangkok. Don’t ask why. Just don’t.) A rare look at the fabled accordion party. Appearances can be deceiving –their benign veneer betrays the unbridled hedonism about to explode. Lyle Schaefer’s album cover provides a glimpse into the home life of an accordionist. It’s not all sex, drugs and accordions; sometimes it’s just tea by the fire. Of course, there’s always a French maid tending to his instruments (plural intended). Notice the bull lurking in the background, jealously eyeing the accordionist. The matador may be the star of this show, but it’s the guy with the squeezebox taking home the señoritas. “Meu Casamento” translates to “My Wedding” in Portuguese, but that doesn’t explain the odd headgear and broken gourd. I can only assume it’s a native custom? Whatever the reason, this girl would be waaaaay out of Zenilton’s league were it not for his prowess with an accordion. “You can have your accordion, but you’ll have me first.” Remember the advice given earlier: Don’t turn your back on your accordion for even a moment. You may be forced to, yet again, barter with sex. The accordion’s music is the language of love, which knows no geopolitical boundaries… well, except the Swiss. The Swiss’ hatred for the accordion burns with the fury of a million suns. I could go into the history behind it, but it is a painful story. So, out of respect for our Swiss readers, I’ll refrain. Important historical fact: All manner of famous people from around the world have been accordionists including Charles Darwin, Gandhi, Jimmy Stewart, Charlie Chaplin, Richard Nixon, Thomas Hardy and famed serial killer Ed Gein. Jonathan Coleman’s Polka Project is from 1984. By then, the accordion’s mystique had sadly dwindled. Yet, as the album cover indicates, its ability to drive the girls wild is still very much alive. THE END Lots more vintage gold on Flashbak.com Yeoman Lowbrow Posted: 4th, April 2014 \| In: Key Posts, Music Comments (3) \| TrackBack \| Permalink
Having The Talk: Discussing Gender Equity With Your Team This is Zara Cadoux's 2017 URCA presentation, Having The Talk: Discussing Gender Equity With Your Team. Zara is a co-founded of USA Ultimate Girls Ultimate Movement (GUM); a driving force behind both 99 Days Of Ultimate Women (happening now!) and 28 Days Of Food, Frisbee, and Feminism; a founding member of Baltimore and D.C.-based women's club Backhanded Ultimate, and a proud alumnus of the Vassar College Boxing Nuns. She also has five years experience as a coach. There's been plenty of discussion about gender equity in ultimate lately, especially in online forums. But do we really know how to talk about it? Some of the heated exchanges recently suggest otherwise. If you're wondering how to begin talking about this with your team, our URCA Contributor Zara Cadoux gave a comprehensive talk to one of our conferences about having a constructive and healthy conversation. "I believe in the power of education." That's how she begins. Cadoux knows that different teams will need different solutions and conversations, but that education is a must for teams that want to grow in a healthy way and build relationships with each other and across their ultimate communities. In this talk, she provides a set of helpful suggestions and strategies to use when approaching and leading these conversations with your team. Cadoux breaks her talk out into three steps, beginning with a very important message for coaches and leadership: do your own work first. This step is filled with good advice, in particular her point about setting expectations for what you want to achieve with your team. There are also easy ways to identify what we tell ourselves when we want to avoid these conversations (she debunks them), tips on managing expectations with your team, and excellent working definitions for the hard questions you might receive like, "What's the difference between equity and equality?" In particular, Cadoux shows and adept approach to shaping these conversations for you and your team. No one approach will fit all, and one poignant part of her talk addresses how she might work with a men's team that wants to support a female or mixed counterpart but isn't sure how. Three Key Takeaways Have an open mind. You won't make it anywhere if your holding tightly to preconceived notions, about anything really. This is good advice for all learners. Know how much buy-in you have with your team. You need to be attuned to your relationship with your team and other leaders before initiating or leading these talks. Be clear about your goals. Cadoux provides a variety of goals and ways to set them, but don't initiate these conversations with your team without knowing where you want to end up. Parting Thoughts Cadoux one points getting comfortable being uncomfortable (a Tiina Booth classic lesson). One of the most difficult parts of approaching this topic (and others regarding class, race, and ability) is understanding that change is often palpable and uncomfortable. We may be more willing to try throwing a flick in a new and weird way, but we still feel the change in our body when we step out in a new way. The difference is that we often approach throwing knowing that we want to learn and having a clear motivation. Working through discomfort in a conversation about gender equity can be more of a slog, and all parties need to be aware of this. Don't let perfection be the enemy of progress. Cadoux says it well. Establishing a culture of equity on your team (regardless of division and age) takes incremental work. Almost all teams will need multiple conversations (and maybe multiple seasons) to build and equitable culture. We need these definitions and strategies now. Support the URCA Classroom and get access to Cadoux's talk and dozens more whenever you need it. Our URCA Classroom Includes Our entire URCA Library! New content available every month Physics of Disc Flight mini-course with Alex Davis How to do game footage analysis with Keith Raynor Access to all of our expert URCA coaches. Have a question for them, just ask! If you enjoyed this piece, you'll also enjoy Ben van Huevelan's Winning with Spirit available in our library. Join our URCA Classroom Here!
Liam Neeson won’t be able to bring his infamous “particular set of skills” to Canada, thanks to political correctness. A film starring the actor was denied access to the Banff and Jasper national parks by Parks Canada, which wouldn’t issue a film permit because the film features an aboriginal gang leader. Legendary Metis Canadian actor Tom Jackson was cast in the role, making it a diverse production. But even still, Parks Canada told the location manager of the film that the movie didn’t align with Parks Canada’s values and priorities. If the roles were reversed—Neeson played the bad guy and Jackson played the aboriginal detective—it seems like the government would be fine with it. Take a look at some National Film Board grant recipients and you’ll find that not all arms of the government mind controversy in film. In fact, in some cases it’s desirable. But not for Parks Canada, which protects our public spaces by picking and choosing which fictional storylines are allowed to be shot there. Photo source: Twitter/@KootenayAlex
Pirro: Steinle Family Found Out Kate's Life 'Worth Nothing on Political Market' Bondi: Federal Charges Mean 'We're Going to See Some Justice' for Steinles Tom Homan, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said illegal border crossings are at a 45-year low because President Donald Trump has taken border security seriously. According to numbers from ICE, federal immigration authorities deported fewer illegal immigrants in 2017 than in 2016, even as they arrested far more people suspected of being in the United States illegally. ICE removed approximately 226,000 people from the country in the 2017 fiscal year, which ended on September 30, down six percent from 2016. During the same time period, the agency arrested more than 110,000 people, a 42 percent increase over the prior year. "Under this president, who's now letting us do our job and taking the handcuffs off the men and women of the Border Patrol and ICE, arrests are up," Homan said on "America's Newsroom." "The overall removals are down because the Border Patrol has reported a 45-year low in illegal border crossings." He said that number dropped dramatically because Trump has taken border security seriously. "That's why overall deportations are down," Homan said. "However, if you look at ICE deportations, people that are arrested in the interior and were removed, those numbers are up almost 40 percent." Watch more above. Acting ICE Director: Sanctuary City Policies Are a Threat to Public Safety Clarke: Build The Wall or Illegal Immigrant Felons 'Will Keep Coming Back' Father of Boy Killed By Illegal Immigrant: Steinle Jury Full of 'Left-Wing Nutjobs' Sessions: Trump, DOJ Doing Everything Possible to Reverse Sanctuary City Policies
There are already Students for Sanders and Students for Hillary clubs at Penn State. Now, with the primaries quickly approaching, one student has established a “Students for Trump” club. Though not yet an official student organization on campus, the club is recognized by Trump’s campaign and the overarching Students for Trump organization. Senior Ryan Belz, a long-time member of the Penn State College Republicans and former UPUA presidential candidate, decided to launch this upcoming Students for Trump chapter because of our generation’s importance in being politically active. “With the Pennsylvania primary quickly approaching on April 26, and the general election coming in November, I felt it was a perfect time to start up a Students for Trump chapter at Penn State,” Belz said. Belz has supported Trump avidly for years — even before he decided to officially run for president. “The way he has been able to run his organization, master the art of the deal and how he has the mentality to never give up shows he is what America desperately needs,” Belz said. “Since I could vote at 18, I have always written in ‘Donald J. Trump,’ because he is exactly what this country needs. Whether it’s Ted Cruz or Hillary Clinton, America does not need a proven liar in the Oval Office. American needs someone who is not afraid to say ‘You’re Fired’ to the establishment within the Beltway.” Penn State College Democrats Communications Director Luis Rolfo isn’t quite as enthusiastic about a Trump America. He threw some significant shade at his campus supporters in the Daily Collegian, even going so far to suggest Students for Trump members have a higher propensity to commit hate crimes. “There have been instances of hate crimes around the Penn State community since I’ve been here, and it would not surprise me if those past or future perpetrators gravitate to this club,” Rolfo said. Let’s not forget the last time Trump made news at Penn State: The weak jokers who so badly hurt great Penn State University should have fought the NCAA instead of making a deal- http://t.co/b9E5eC9pam — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 5, 2014 Your ad blocker is on. Please choose an option below. Sign Up Sign up for our e-mail newsletter: OR Support quality journalism: About the Author Erin Servey Erin Servey writes and copy-edits for Onward State. She's a Junior Schreyer Honors Scholar and Paterno Fellow at Penn State, studying English and psychology, with a French minor. Editing, poetry, and photography are her passions. Send questions and comments via e-mail ([email protected]) and follow her on Twitter (@ErinEServey). East Renovation Continues With Approval For Sproul, Geary Halls Penn State’s Board of Trustees approved the next phase of East Halls renovations at its meeting Friday, setting the stage for construction to begin on Sproul and Geary Halls.
While no renderings have been released yet, permits have finally been filed for Extell’s future tower at 225 West 57th Street, the tower’s height finally has a number: 1,550 feet. For those keeping score, that’s over 1.5 times as tall as One57, Extell’s other supertall that just recently topped out, one block to the east. More impressive than topping One57 is the tower’s dominance over New York’s other new supertalls. The ‘roof heights’ of both One World Trade Center and 432 Park Avenue fall just under 1,400 feet in height. That means that the Nordstrom Tower will likely be New York’s undisputed tallest building after completion, as filing applications typically only include a building’s height to its highest occupied floor. With the addition of mechanical floors and any roof element that will likely be present, the tower’s height could be well over 1,600 feet! The application indicates the building will only have 88 floors. Part of the reason for the low number of floors – for a 1,500 foot building – is that the bottom of the structure will be occupied by Nordstrom, and the floors of the department store will have ceiling heights of at least twenty feet. That means the Nordstrom store alone could rise 200 feet or more. The square footage of each of the building’s sections adds up to over 1.2 million square feet, and the Nordstrom store looks as though it should have approximately 280,000 square feet of space. Extell held a contest for the building’s design, with the winning architect rumored to be Herzog & de Meuron. If Herzong & de Meuron did indeed win the contest–their most notable mark on the skyline is the soon-to-be-built 56 Leonard Street–then New Yorkers will definitely see something spectacular rise. Herzog & de Meuron’s work is consistently of the highest caliber, and the Nordstrom Tower is the perfect opportunity for the firm to showcase their absolute best. The application indicates the building will hold only 233 apartments, so the building will likely follow the super-luxury footsteps of 432 Park Avenue and One57. Below is a leaked design from the competition, by the architectural firm SHoP. That version of 225 West 57th Street looked as if it would rise roughly 1,250 feet. Also noticeable is how the building is broken up into several different sections. If the DOB permits are any indication, that should be the case with the chosen design, as well. Renderings are eagerly anticipated.
Manila (Reuters) — The Philippines has turned down a Chinese proposal to start bilateral talks, its foreign minister said on Tuesday, because of Beijing's pre-condition of not discussing a court ruling that nullified most of its South China Sea claims. Perfecto Yasay said he had met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of a summit of Asian and European leaders on the weekend and after raising the topic of last week's ruling, it became clear that was a no-go area. China has angrily rejected the verdict by the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the initial case as illegal and farcical. It has repeatedly said it will not change its approach or its sovereignty claims in the South China Sea. "They said if you will insist on the ruling, discussing it along those lines, then we might be headed for a confrontation," Yasay said during an interview with the news channel of broadcaster ABS-CBN. "But I really honestly feel that this is something they have to make on a public basis but I also sensed there was room for us to talk very quietly using backdoor channelling." Also read: What you need to know about the Arbitral Tribunal's ruling Yasay said Yi had proposed bilateral talks but only on issues "outside, or (in) disregard of, the arbitral ruling," which he declined because it was not in the Philippines' national interests. Yasay's account of the meeting highlights the challenge ahead for the Philippines, a U.S. ally, in getting China to comply with the decision which has ramped up tensions in the vital trade route. The ruling laid out what maritime rights Manila had and where Beijing had violated its rights under international law, including its massive construction works on Mischief Reef. Manila wanted to enforce the points of the complex ruling step-by-step but as a priority had asked China to let its fishermen go to the Scarborough Shoal without being harassed by its coastguard, Yasay said. China's coastguard was preventing Filipino boats from fishing around the hotly contested Scarborough Shoal, fishermen and officials said on Friday, and China's air force has released pictures showing bombers recently flying over the area. Also read: Filipino fishermen still barred from Scarborough Shoal China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion of trade moves annually. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have rival claims. Yasay said hoped the ruling would lead to other Southeast Asian countries issuing a joint statement, adding that it could help neighbours also locked in disputes with China. "We are not yet engaged in bilateral talks with anyone," he said. "But I would like to see how we can pursue certain provisional arrangements so that it would lead to opening of bilateral or multilateral engagements should that be necessary."
Kicking off the bidding for next season, Aston Martin Racing joins the ranks of Model F1 hopefuls. Close, but no cigar After a failed attempt at joining this year’s grid, the team returns with plans to join next season. Although the attempt failed, the bid gathered enough support in just 24 hours, to be the 3rd choice after Stefan GP and Haas, who secured the two coveted spots on this year’s grid. The team now hopes to spend the season to gather enough support to get the call to race. “We’re going about this as if it’s a regular season”, says Aston Martin Co-Team Principal /u/jeppe96. “We’ll be running sims for all the races to get into the flow, as well as releasing a livery, being an active part of the community and of course recruiting more members for Aston Martin.” Surprise bid When the failed bid was entered at the beginning of the current season, it was a surprise to /u/jeppe96. “I had already let McLaren know that I would be leaving to start my own team at the end of the season. I’ve been an Aston fan in WEC and GT racing for a long time, and when the opportunity to create a team presented itself, I just knew I had to take it. I was really surprised when another bid was made, but also happy that I wasn’t the only one with the idea to bring an Aston team to MF1”, he says. “After the bid failed, I contacted /u/rustyiesty and suggested we try again in a joint bid, and here we are.” Interest to join growing Although the team currently only has two active members, a few people from other teams have already shown interest in joining Aston Martin. “I won’t go into specifics, but one or two people have let us know that they would be interested in joining, should the bid prove successful”, says /u/jeppe96, who emphasizes that in order to guarantee success, the team will need to focus heavily on recruitment. “We can’t run a successful team with just two people. So we definitely need more.” Advertisements
An advocacy group has offered Donald Trump sensitivity training to help him better understand people with disabilities after he appeared to mock a reporter. Speaking at a rally in South Carolina on Tuesday, the Republican US presidential candidate mocked Serge Kovaleski, a reporter who has contested Mr Trump’s claims that thousands of people celebrated in New Jersey after the 9/11 attacks. The US billionaire had previously cited an article written by Mr Kovaleski for the Washington Post in 2001 to back up his claims of the celebrations. The article said that some people had been detained in New Jersey after they were “allegedly seen celebrating the attacks and holding tailgate-style parties on rooftops”. Mr Kovaleski - who has arthrogryposis, a condition that affects joint movement and weakens the muscles around them - told CNN this week that he had no recollection of seeing “thousands” of people celebrating. He said: “We did a lot of shoe leather reporting in and around Jersey City and talked to a lot of residents and officials for the broader story. Much of that has, indeed, faded from memory. “But I do not recall anyone saying there were thousands, or even hundreds, of people celebrating. That was not the case, as best as I can remember.” Following Mr Kovaleski’s comments, Mr Trump mocked the reporter on Tuesday, flailing his arms and hands as he spoke: “Now the poor guy. You ought to see this guy: ‘Uhh, I don’t know what I said. Uhh, I don’t remember.’ He’s going: ‘I don’t remember. Maybe that’s what I said.’” Speaking with politico.com, a spokeswoman for the New York Times said: “We think it’s outrageous that he would ridicule the appearance of one of our reporters.” A Thanksgiving Day statement from the Ruderman Family Foundation, which works to promote more inclusive policies for people with disabilities, condemned Trump. “It is unacceptable for a child to mock another child’s disability on the playground, never mind a presidential candidate mocking someone’s disability as part of a national political discourse,” said Jay Ruderman, the foundation president. ”Our presidential candidates should be moral examples for all Americans and not disparage people with disabilities, who make up 20 percent of the American population.” Ruderman said Trump would benefit from a “series of sensitivity training sessions” and offered to provide them. Trump has not publicly acknowledged the incident yet but has attacked the New York Times on Twitter, calling the organisation “dopes” and criticising various business moves. One tweet reads: “So, since the people at the @nytimes have made all bad decisions over the last decade, why do people care what they write. Incompetent!” He also tweeted that the paper is “poorly managed” and that the paper should be “focused on good reporting and the papers [SIC]financial survival and not with constant hits on Donald Trump!”
It took longer than anyone had imagined, but humanity finally arrived. After a century of dreams and plans and excuses, Mars was ours. China came first; in 2029 their grand hundred-strong expedition revealed more about Mars than fifty years of probes. It was meant to confirm the Middle Kingdom's new place as the true leader of humanity. Instead, it was taken as a challenge. All the great nations sent their own explorers in their nuclear spaceships. Each expedition brought back greater and greater trophies for their home nations; core samples of the dry ice caps, videos of liquid brine flowing freely over the surface, specimens of subterranean bacteria native to the Red Planet, and even fossils of ancient pseudo-vertebrates that swam the oceans of prehistoric Mars. But this was all just a preamble to what was to come. In 2039, America launched the first prototype ship propelled by Mach effect thrust (MET drive) a method of propulsion theorized fifty years earlier by the physicist James Woodward. By utilizing an ancillary feature of the theory of relativity, these new engines could produce stationary thrust without ejecta, essentially converting electricity directly into acceleration. These new engines were orders of magnitude more efficient than the liquid oxygen engine of the First Space Race, and even the helium-3 fusion rockets of the period. With these, colonization of Mars was not just feasible, but practical. The great powers were inspired, and they all were eager for this great challenge, to colonize another world, not like the orbital cities and surface mines of the moon, still heavily dependent on Earth economically and materially, but a truly self-sufficient second homeworld for humanity. The world's space agencies drafted plans for interplanetary cargo ships driven by MET engines, huge orbital mirrors that could melt the dry icecaps and bathe the planet in new heat and warmth, engineered bacteria that could thicken and warm the atmosphere, others that could purify the soil, and most ingenious of all, a magnetoshield to be placed in orbit of Mars tidally locked with the sun, thus permanently protecting the Martian atmosphere from being slowly eroded by solar wind. These plans and more were exchanged and agreed upon in the international submit on Martian colonization in 2042-3. There the nations of Earth would divide up Mars between them. The first step would be taken by the most premier nations in the world, China, the United States, the European Union, India, Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Iran, the Arab League, and the African Union. As Mars grew more habitable, others would follow. The first stage of colonization would be in the region of Hellas Planitia. This was by far the deepest region of Mars, so much so that liquid water could already exist there for short period in the height of summer. The claims were staked, the programs were passed through congress after congress, and the plans were finalized. Hundreds of billions were poured into warming, shielding, and planting the great basin. Microbes were designed to break down the toxic chemicals in the Martian soil, modified grasses, algaes, and invertebrates were introduced. Then came small trees, cacti, mammals, birds, and fishes. The seas of Hellas were home to shallow water fishes, crustaceans, mollusks, algae, plankton, and sponges, modified for the highly saline water. They made up a marine ecosystem that was sustainable, but much less productive than the seas of Earth. Stunted evergreens derived from trees in the Rocky Mountains were grown to accelerated maturity in greenhouses and planted in the lower altitudes by drones. Tough steppe grasses from the Tibetan Plateau and the Mongolian Plains were spread over the middle altitudes, and the high scrub and desert lands with species from the Andes, Himalayas, Gobi, Sahara, and Sonora. In addition to thousands of insects, rodents, birds, and other small animals brought to populate the planet, a few large animals like guanacos, goats, yaks, Tibetan wolves, jackals, and even a strain of woolly kangaroo were introduced soon. The first colonist arrived on their new home in 2051. That was when things started to go wrong. Despite all pomp and circumstance and resources spent, Hellas Panitia was still dry, thin aired, infertile, and desolate. Farming this land, even with the most modern techniques, was a hard life indeed. The goal of the project was not to create a subsistence economy, but the poor soil and thin, cold air of Mars required the vast majority of the population to work in food production. Compounding the problem, the genetically engineered crops had difficulty surviving, especially after the accidental introduction of pests that flourished in the underdeveloped Martian ecosystem. This led to still more obstacles. Mars was still heavily dependent of Earth for resources, technology, and occasionally even foodstuffs. To mitigate the trade imbalance, Mars needed industry and exports. This presented a problem. The one plentiful resource on mars was iron, and that could be collected from the moon or the asteroid belt without the extra cost and difficulty of getting through an atmosphere. Added to that, the low yields of Martian farms left too little of the population free to develop advanced sectors of the economy even for domestic use, perpetuating Mars's dependence on extra-Martian resources and expertise, leaving their home governments to foot the bill. By the close of the 2050s, there was a strong movement on Mars to switch to vertical farming, a technique that was proven but still formative on Earth. This would be both tremendously difficult and expensive, and many back on Earth were already struggling to justify the enormous amounts of money, time, and genius thrown into Mars. Still, most of the patrons went ahead with the plan, but it never saw fruition. Despite how skillfully the Chinese had projected the air of the modern superpower, their country was wracked with deep divisions. The fifth generation of CCP leaders had failed to address many of the problem left to them by their predecessors. The division of wealth between the urban coast and the rural interior grew steadily worse, the male-female population imbalance and the low birth rate contributed to the systemic breakdown of the social fabric, growth of the middle class slowed, tens of millions of blue collar workers were unemployed by machine labor, and China's ecosystems continued to degenerate. Added to the trillions spent on Mars, things would finally snap in 2062. Popular uprising gave birth to the Second Chinese Civil War. The chaos in China spilled over to worsen friction between European and Asian Russia, leading to protests, riots and even the threat of the Russian Federation collapsing. These events provided an excuse for the Earthly powers to cut funding for their Martian programs, as many of them pursued interventionist or containment policies against the troubled regions. And once the sponsors were out, they were out for good. Mercury, the Asteroid Belt, Venus, and Titan would be the focus of colonization thereafter. The orbital mirrors and the magnetoshield had been designed to function indefinitely with very little maintenance, and the biosphere was established enough to survive and continue warming the planet, so Hellas Planitia would remain habitable indefinitely, and prolonged exposure to the low Martian gravity, in addition to causing severe motor, circulatory, skeletal, and joint problems for many immigrants, rendered those born there incapable of surviving off of their homeworld, so the Marian colonies themselves would continue, regardless of Earth's level of interest. But while the settlers continued their hard lives without Earth's aid, they would still share in Earth's problem. The 2060s and 2070s would see the arrival of a second wave of colonists, this one consisting of refugees, political exiles, or anyone else with reason to be off of Earth. Central Asian nomads fleeing the chaos of their homeland were deported to the Viking Grassland; Falun Gong practitioners, the victims of decades abuse by the Chinese government, were granted a homeland by the international community in Chinese Martian territory; the Saudi royal family and their retainers were settled in Arab League territory after the fall of their government; the United States established penal colonies; Israel sponsored the deportation of millions of Palestinians; the African Union resettled most its Pygmies on Mars due to the loss of their traditional lands and the persistent persecution; and many other hardline cultural and religious groups set down their own roots. Hellas Planitia was known as a rugged frontier land with a diverse and hearty population, but a backwater, a land of little real relevance, a contemporary take on Wild West romanticism. The one-time poster child of space colonization, had become, in a word, quaint. Stories from the Red Planet: Viking Grassland, Mars-2073 Arab Territory, Mars-2085 New Freetown, Mars-2062
Why HIV Spreads Less Easily In Heterosexual Couples HIV is sexist. A woman is twice as likely to catch the virus from an infected partner in a heterosexual relationship than a man is. And homosexual men are at even greater risk. They're more than 20 times as likely to get infected from an HIV-positive partner than partners in a heterosexual relationship. Now scientists at Microsoft Research and the Zambia-Emory HIV Project have a clue about why these disparities exist. Only the strongest, most evolutionary "fit" versions of the virus tend to infect a man when he has sex with an HIV-positive woman, scientist report Thursday in the journal Science. In other words, particular versions of the virus, with particular DNA sequences, are most likely to pass from a woman to a man. This reduces the chance an infection occurs during sex. The restriction is less when women have sex with an HIV-positive man. And, most likely, reduced even further when men have sex with men. So the chance of an infection increases in both situations. As HIV replicates inside a person, mutations are introduced into its DNA. This results in a large number of different HIV versions swarming about the body — each with its own genetic code. But when HIV is transmitted through sex, usually only a single version of the virus establishes a long-term infection. So the process is almost like a filter, letting only certain viruses through. This made scientists wonder: Is there something special about the HIV versions making it through the filter? To figure this out, a team at Microsoft Research and Emory University analyzed data from a decades-long study on HIV transmission between "discordant" heterosexual couples in Zambia. These are couples in which one person is HIV-positive and the other is HIV-negative. During the study, the team gave the couples condoms and taught them other ways to prevent passing along HIV to their partner. But in 137 couples, transmission did occur sometime during the decade. In these cases, the team compared the viruses of the newly infected person with those of the partner. They found that HIV was most likely to be transmitted when its genetic code had a particular pattern. These versions of the HIV genes seem to make the virus good at initially infecting and replicating within a person. Turned out, this pattern is the average DNA sequence that scientists find when they examine HIV strains in people from around the globe. "The average sequence in the population is probably average because it works best, and we found that that is true," says Jonathan Carlson, a computational biologist at Microsoft Research, who contributed to the study. To establish a long-term infection through sexual contact, an HIV virus must first infect a single cell on the genitals. Then the virus multiples and spreads to adjacent cells. "Fitter" viruses are more efficient at infecting new cells and then replicating themselves, Carlson says. And the higher the initial barrier to this initial infection, the fitter the virus has to be to complete this process. Different parts of the body provide various levels of protection from the virus. The cells on the penis are tougher to infect than those in the vagina or anus. Trauma, such as open sores or ulcers in the genital area, can also increase the chance of infection. "What was most striking was that risk factors that were known to affect the risk of transmission affected the selection," says Eric Hunter, a virologist at Emory University, who also contributed to the study. They found that viruses in newly infected men were more "fit" than the viruses in newly infected women. But when men had genital ulcers or inflammation, they were also infected with less fit versions of the virus. And though their research was restricted to heterosexual couples, they anticipate that anal sex between homosexual men would provide a lower barrier to infection, and result in the transmission of less fit versions of the virus. These findings suggest that an effective vaccine might not have to protect against all versions of the virus, just those that are most likely to be transmitted, says Boston University's Manish Sagar, who wasn't involved with the current study. "You could envision a vaccine that weakens the virus in chronically infected people and needed to be administered only once," he says. "Their disease isn't weakened, but their virus is weakened. So when they have sexual contact, the chance of transmission is lowered." In other words, this would be a vaccine given to people already infected with HIV to prevent them from spreading the virus.
× NOPD incident report on Will Smith shooting released NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – The police incident report from the night former Saint Will Smith was shot and killed following a traffic accident and an argument has been released. The report gives the police narrative on what happened that night. Read the report here The most noteworthy part of the incident report says the responding officer, Amanda Williams, had a body camera on, and it was active during the investigation. Will Smith was shot and killed around 11:30 p.m. April 9 near the intersection of Sophie Wright Place and Felicity Street. According to the report, the initial police call was for a 94 — meaning illegal use of weapons — once officers arrived on the scene and noticed Smith then the call was changed to a 30S — meaning a homicide by shooting. When officers arrived, a female victim, Raquel Smith, was on the sidewalk. She had been shot in the leg. The second victim, Will Smith, had several gunshots wounds to his body and was partially inside the front driver’s side of a silver Mercedez-Benz SUV, the report states. According to the report, Will Smith was pronounced dead at 11:45 p.m. Two men were also detained at the scene. One of the men was alleged shooter Cardell Hayes. Hayes is in custody facing a second-degree murder charge. Officers then discovered a .45-caliber, semi-automatic model SR45 Ruger gun sitting on the hood of an orange Hummer. The magazine was removed from the weapon, the report said. Hayes was driving an orange Hummer the night of the shooting. According to the report, “Officer Williams, while wearing latex gloves, cleared and secured the firearm. Officer Williams discovered a live 45 auto round in the chamber of the firearm. Officer Williams observed the magazine to be clear of rounds.” The report did not mention the two other guns which were reported by investigators days later.
Buy Photo Gov. Scott Walker acknowledges applause before his budget address Wednesday in the Capitol. (Photo: Mark Hoffman / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)Buy Photo MADISON – Gov. Scott Walker is banking on saving $60 million in taxpayer funds over two years by changing the way public employees get health insurance, but legislators are deeply skeptical of the proposal. In the state budget he unveiled Wednesday, the governor detailed plans to shift the state to a self-insurance system to cover employee health care costs. But his fellow Republicans who control the Legislature questioned whether the state could generate the savings Walker is counting on and said the change could hurt the insurance market for individuals and small businesses. Republican legislators have resisted the proposal in the past. "I still have the same concerns I had before," said Rep. John Nygren (R-Marinette), co-chairman of the Joint Finance Committee that will make changes to the budget over the coming months. RELATED: Walker's budget includes tax cuts, halt to east-west I-94 plan RELATED: Walker's administration quickly reverses itself on fire sprinkler decision The state's current approach gives employees a choice of health-maintenance organizations aligned with local providers. That forces them to compete on price and quality, particularly in the Madison area. Under a self-insured program, the state would pay the actual cost of providing health care to its employees, instead of paying premiums to HMOs. The state and its employees would routinely set aside money — similar to premiums — to cover those costs. Critics caution the state could wind up paying more for health care under such a system. "I'm doubtful these savings are actually there," Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said of Walker's plans. The state Group Insurance Board approved the changes Wednesday, but lawmakers would need to sign off on them for them to take effect. Read or Share this story: http://on.jsonl.in/2kPKbi2
Unemployment in the troubled eurozone region hit a record high of 12.2% last month. The latest official data from Eurostat shows nearly 100,000 additional people were out looking for work in April compared with the previous month, when unemployment was pegged at 12.1%. The usual suspects -- Spain and Greece -- are facing the highest levels of unemployment. The latest data show unemployment levels of roughly 27% in both countries, with youth unemployment well above 50%. Meanwhile, Austria and Germany have the lowest jobless levels out of the 17 countries that use the euro currency. Austria's unemployment was just below 5% in April and Germany's unemployment was 5.4%. In total, 19.4 million people in the eurozone were unemployed in April. To put that in context, Australia's population was just over 22 million at last count, a stark reminder of just how many people are struggling in Europe. Related: The 5 most competitive countries in the world High youth unemployment has been particularly worrisome for politicians and European officials. Eurostat data show eurozone unemployment among those under the age of 25 topped 24.4% in April. The latest numbers were released just two days after top officials from the European Commission instructed EU member states to focus more of their efforts on growth-centric policies to promote competitiveness and employment. "This year's recommendations call on all countries to be more ambitious when it comes to growth-boosting economic reforms," said Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso. Officials are particularly concerned about rampant youth unemployment, and are trying to assist eurozone nations in implementing programs that will help place youth into jobs and training programs. Spending cuts and tax increases have formed the core of the eurozone's response to its credit crisis over the past few years, as it struggles to bring sovereign debt under control.
What’s new for the .NET Native Compiler and Runtime in Visual Studio 2015 Update 2 Last week we released an update to the Visual Studio 2015 Tools for Universal Windows Apps (UWA). The release includes improvements across the libraries, runtime, and compiler. This means that development is faster and applications will be more responsive and easier to maintain. Applications such as NCAA March Madness Live and TuneIn Radio are already available in the Store built using our new .NET Native tools! The latest version for Visual Studio 2015 Tools for Universal Windows Apps has been released as an update for Visual Studio 2015 Update 2. It can be obtained by installing Visual Studio 2015 Update 2 or modifying Visual Studio 2015 Update 2 if it is already installed. When prompted with the list of features to install, validate that Tools (1.3.1) and Windows 10 SDK (10.0.10586) has been checked, which is located under the Universal Windows App Development Tools section. Once the Visual Studio 2015 Tools for UWA update has been installed, existing projects will use the latest compiler and runtime after they have been recompiled. Modify Visual Studio 2015 Update 2 The following steps can be taken to modify Visual Studio 2015 Update 2 and install the latest UWA tools: Open the Visual Studio 2015 Setup, which can be found through Control PanelProgramsPrograms and Features. Select Modify. Ensure that Tools (1.3.1) and Windows 10 SDK (10.0.10586) has been checked, which is located under the Universal Windows App Development Tools section. Select Next and validate the Selected Features are correct. Select Update. Update .NET Core Libraries The .NET Core libraries are distributed as NuGet packages at NuGet.org. Here’s how you can get the latest .NET Core packages: Navigate to the NuGet Package Manager which can be found by going to ToolsNuGet Package ManagerManage NuGet Packages for Solution. Select the Updates tab. Select the Microsoft.NETCore.UniversalWindowsPlatform NuGet package (the UWP metapackage for .NET Core) on the left and check the projects that are being upgraded. Ensure that the Version is listed as Latest Stable 5.1.0. Select Install. What’s New in the .NET Native Compiler and Runtime Better Reflection Support – Universal Shared Generics .NET apps use reflection a lot, either directly or as part of a library that they use. Reflection will now work “out of the box” for many more apps. We love reflection as much as you do and want you to enjoy using it with .NET Native! Reflection enables you to inspect or instantiate types in a late-bound fashion (e.g. not using new). That’s very useful for loosely coupled architectures or for dynamic scenarios. Dynamism is a challenge when compiling to native code, since all of the code must be known and compiled at compile-time. One dynamic scenario is making new generic types at runtime. We call List<T> an open type since it needs the T defined. We call List<MyValueType> a closed type since T has been defined. Within a program, we call these closed types generic instantiations. List<MyValueType> can be thought of as a third type, neither List<T> or MyValueType, but the generic instantiation of that combination. Generic types are a combination of shape (members) and behavior (method bodies). The shape and behavior is compiled to native code. The native code for List<MyValueType> and List<MyReferenceType> are not the same. That means that the .NET Native compiler must find all generic instantiations so that there is code to execute for each generic at runtime. The wonderful expressiveness of the reflection APIs makes finding all of the generic instantiations via static analysis quite difficult. In particular, code using Type.MakeGenericType and MethodInfo.MakeGenericMethod can be arbitrarily complex. This challenge led us to adopt a new path for native compiling generics. We came to the conclusion that we needed a more general purpose way to compose generics at runtime. We call this new feature Universal Shared Generics (USG). Most generics will still have highly optimized code that is specific to their composition. However, in the case where type specific code has not been generated, a USG version will be available. Better Stack Traces with HockeyApp With this release and HockeyApp, you can now get high fidelity, actionable stack traces from their applications in production. We’ve done work to ensure client side collection is more robust and that the HockeyApp backend can properly generate human readable stacks. This functionality was announced at //build and is now available. It’s fast and easy to get started with HockeyApp for UWP. Faster WinRT Interop We’ve made WinRT interop faster and have seen speedups as high as 8x in our lab compared to the UWP 1.2 tools. This will be particularly useful for applications that have pages with a high number of XAML elements as well as IoT stream processing scenarios. Faster Native Code A number of incremental and feature-level improvements to code quality are included in this release. Targeted improvements include, but aren’t limited to: Improved auto-vectorization Reduced overhead of enumeration of IEnumerable<T> collections collections Whole program inlining analysis Profile Guided Optimization (PGO) of the SharedFramework Together, these features lead to reduced working set, smaller code size, and better generated code quality for .NET UWP applications. Previous releases of the .NET Native compiler utilized the same inlining optimizer as the CLR JIT compiler. Because the JIT compiler is tuned to generate code quickly, it makes local decisions about which methods to inline. Ahead-of-time compilation allows the .NET Native compiler to evaluate inlining decisions while considering the full scope of your application. With 1.3.1 this is now done using the same whole program inlining engine used for high performance C++ applications, enabling significant improvement for many scenarios. Profile-Guided Optimizations allows the compiler make better code generation decisions by giving it information about what happens in an application at runtime. We have applied PGO optimizations to the SharedLibrary component using data we’ve collected from a variety of UWP applications. We’re excited to enable this class of optimizations for general usage in a future version of the UWP tools. Sharing the same optimizing backend as the C++ compiler allows .NET Native to use the advanced optimizing technologies that have been developed for high performance C++ code. We will continue to light up features that this integration allows. Development Time Compiler Improvements Many of the internal data structures and algorithms of the .NET Native compiler are now much more efficient. Most apps will see a reduction in the memory used by the compiler and a small reduction in compile time. For a subset of applications and libraries, these improvements are the difference between compiling successfully and taking hours and hours to build. We’ll continue to make optimizations and improvements to accommodate the wide variety and scale of code in the growing UWP ecosystem. Provide Feedback We want to thank you for your feedback as it has been instrumental in guiding our work! Please continue to send questions and suggestions to dotnetnative@microsoft.com. We look forward to hearing from you and seeing what great things you will build. This post was written by Matthew Whilden, Software Engineer and Stacey Haffner, Program Manager on the .NET team.
The common Bitcoin debate is around whether it’s a viable currency or commodity and if the $1100 peak was just speculative insanity. (eg. an NYT editoral by Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman) Then the technology experts chime in and say Bitcoin is so much more than a tradable commodity… it’s a “protocol” that solves the “Byzantine General’s Problem” with a “distributed general ledger” and THAT’S a big deal. (eg. an NYT editorial by Marc Andreessen) Good luck digging in to that… I hope you’ve got some motivation, time and cryptography knowledge handy! There’s an easier analogy if you’re vaguely familiar with the evolution of Linux and Windows since the late 90s. Remember when Linux was a polarizing new crazy idea and Windows had 95+% market share? Let’s imagine for a second that Bitcoin today is like Linux in the late 90s, and the US Dollar is like Windows… Microsoft Windows was the hegemonic end-all operating system like the US Dollar is the hegemonic end-all global currency. Linux is free software built by a bunch of random people around the world, just like Bitcoin is free software with a mythical anonymous founder named Satoshi. The analogy is relevant because: Windows and Linux are operating systems. You need them to make computers do stuff. Linux is free, so companies could do more interesting things without being beholden to Microsoft. A lot of that stuff happened to be on the internet. US Dollar and Bitcoin are trust networks. You need strong trust networks so people can confidently exchange stuff and do business. Bitcoin is free, so companies might be able to have more interesting exchanges and marketplaces without being beholden to banks and governments. A lot of that stuff will probably be on the internet.
Gusty winds failed to return Thursday morning in San Diego County wildfire areas and authorities said it was a window of opportunity to make further gains against flames that burned homes and drove tens of thousands from their homes. Emergency officials said a significant number of firefighting aircraft had become available, including four air tankers and 22 military helicopters. Ten of the military helicopters were being used to battle a blaze that grew 24 square kilometres on the Marine Corps' Camp Pendleton. Despite its growth, the fire was 20 per cent contained and was no longer considered a threat to communities. A U.S. military helicopter drops water to help stop an approaching wildfire in San Marcos, Calif., on May 15, 2014. (Mike Blake/Reuters) Twelve other military helicopters were available to the county, where the biggest concern was a 3-square-kilometre blaze at the city of San Marcos. That fire was 5 per cent contained and thousands of people remained evacuated, but officials told a news conference they were beginning to assess repopulating areas. Fires began erupting Tuesday amid high heat, extremely low humidity and gusty Santa Ana winds. By Wednesday, nine fires were burning. Asked about the possibility of arson, county Sheriff Bill Gore said he wouldn't prejudge the investigations. He noted that sparks from vehicles can easily ignite brush in such dry conditions. The wildfires forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes and shut down schools and amusement parks, including Legoland. Firefighters contended with temperatures approaching 38 C and gusty winds as they tried to contain flames fueled by brush and trees left brittle by drought. Extremely high temperatures were again expected Friday, but winds were expected to be light to moderate, with localized gusts. Forecasters predicted a return of the normal sea breeze on the western edge of the county later in the day. Efforts were focusing on San Marcos, a university city where hundreds of new evacuation orders were issued early Thursday. 3 San Diego County homes gutted More than 20,000 evacuation notices were sent to residents Wednesday, and a California State University campus with nearly 10,000 students in the middle of final exams was shut down at least through Thursday. Graduation ceremonies were cancelled. San Diego County officials said that the blaze had destroyed three homes. The blaze in the coastal city of Carlsbad, about 48 kilometres north of San Diego, was the most destructive of the fires so far. Many schools across the county were closed Thursday. Officials expected some wouldn't reopen until next week. Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for San Diego County, which would free up special resources and funding for the firefight, and state fire officials were creating a central command centre for the blazes. Drought conditions have made fire danger extremely high throughout much of California. Officials have encouraged residents in fire-prone areas to prepare evacuation plans and clear brush from near their homes.
A few months after taking up his post as the IAF’s ninth commander in October 1977, Maj.-Gen. David Ivry was invited to a special meeting. Sitting around the table were defense minister Ezer Weizman and representatives of the IDF Operations Directorate and the Mossad. The participants were sworn to secrecy as they began speaking about the country’s options in the face of Saddam Hussein’s continued construction of a 70-megawatt, uranium-powered French reactor near Baghdad. The Jerusalem Post At the time, Israeli efforts were focused on the diplomatic track, getting France to cut off its assistance to Iraq. Israel remained unconvinced by France’s promise that it would retain supervision over the rector and ensure that it was not used to develop a nuclear weapon.For the IDF, it was a period of peacemaking.Anwar Sadat had recently visited Israel, and the air force was beginning to plan the evacuation of its bases from the Sinai Peninsula – including Etzion, the one that would be used two years later to launch the attack in Iraq.Nevertheless, it was time to prepare a military option.But to do so, Ivry had to come up with a good excuse for why his staff needed to prepare a bombing mission in Iraq. Luckily for him, around the same time, there were intelligence reports that a Soviet Tupolev 22 supersonic bomber was going to land at Iraq’s Habinia Airfield.He told his staff that the government was considering attacking the airfield, and to prepare a way to get there.In the 30 years since Operation Opera – Israel’s bombing of the Osirak reactor on June 7, 1981 – Ivry has given few interviews. In honor of the 30th anniversary of the historic bombing last month, he agreed to sit down withthis week and retell the story.Ivry, 77, is today president of Boeing Israel.Since completing his term as IAF commander, he has served in some of the country’s most senior and sensitive defense-diplomatic positions. He was deputy IDF chief of General Staff, director-general of the Defense Ministry, chairman of Israel Aerospace Industries, head of the National Security Council and ambassador to the United States.He remembers the operation like it was yesterday, and the interview with the former fighter pilot is a stark reminder of the many challenges Israel faces as it evaluates its options to stop Iran’s race for nuclear power.The considerations, debates and military complications in the years leading up to the 1981 operation are similar to those the government and IAF of 2011 face as they consider military options to stop Iran. Throughout the interview, on more than one occasion, there is a sense that Iraq is Iran and Hussein is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.A few weeks after being instructed to draw up the plans, Ivry’s staff – despite some members’ claims that it was impossible – presented him with a number of creative ideas how to get IAF Phantom and Skyhawk fighter jets to Iraq. 1979 was spent modifying the midair refueling systems on the IAF’s Hercules transport aircraft so they could service Phantoms, and technology was developed so Skyhawks could refuel one another.“In general, the plans were not all that attractive because of the refueling problem,” Ivry says.The real breakthrough came later that year, when US secretary of defense Harold Brown came to Israel. It was a few months after the Islamic Revolution in Iran, and the US had 75 F-16 fighter jets that were on order for the Iranian Air Force but could no longer be delivered. Israel was in negotiations for its own first order of 75 F-16s and was in the middle of ironing out questions about integrating Israeli technology into the planes.“Weizman called and asked that I join him in the meeting,” Ivry recalls. “I came in, and he asked if the IAF would be interested in receiving the Iranian F-16s. I said yes.”The answer was not simple, since it meant that Israel would receive planes that did not have its own ingenious technology, but in the back of his mind, Ivry was thinking about Osirak and how the F-16s could solve Israel’s refueling problems.The first planes arrived in July 1980 – had Israel turned down the offer, it would have begun to receive its order in 1982 – and Ivry immediately ordered his pilots to begin testing the aircraft’s range, and to push them to the max.In the beginning of 1981, Ivry got the green light from Prime Minister Menachem Begin to move ahead with the attack. The plan was to attack on a Sunday, when the facility would be mostly empty and the French scientists would not be at work. The attack would be at dusk so that if needed, Israel would have a long night to rescue downed pilots.Ivry presented the plans to the cabinet on a number of occasions. He was aware that he needed to project confidence. As the commander of the IAF, all eyes were on him in the meetings. He had to believe in the plan, convince the chief of General Staff at the time, Raful Eitan, and then explain to the cabinet how it would work.“If the IAF commander says it’s not possible, then there is no operation,” he explains.But not all of the country’s defense chiefs were in favor of the strike. The Mossad chief at the time, Yitzhak Hofi – like Meir Dagan, who recently voiced opposition to attacking Iran – was against it, as was the head of Military Intelligence, Maj.-Gen. Yehoshua Sagi.The major concern was the fallout of the strike – the effect it would have on the peace process with Egypt, how it would impact relations with France and the US, and the assessment that ultimately a strike would only set back Saddam’s nuclear program by two to three years.Ivry did not spend much time thinking about the philosophy behind the need for the strike. While Begin spoke about preventing a second Holocaust and termed Osirak an existential threat for Israel, Ivry focused on the fine details of the plan, reviewing how the planes would get there, at what angle they would come in for the bombing, and how they would fly back home.The possibility of nuclear weapons in Saddam’s hands, he explains, was simply a reality with which Israel could not live.“If you decide that nuclear weapons in Iraq is an existential threat, then there are not a lot of questions that need to be asked,” he says.The first date given for the bombing was May 10.Ivry and the pilots flew down to Etzion Air Force Base. The planes were loaded with the bombs, and the pilots were beginning to ignite the engines when Ivry got a call to stop. The head of the opposition at the time, Shimon Peres, was against the bombing, and Begin needed more time.The next date set was June 7. On Friday, June 4, the commander of the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet was changing command, and Eitan wanted Ivry to fly with him to Naples. They left on Thursday night and returned Friday afternoon. With them on the plane was the US military attaché to Israel, who had caught a ride to the ceremony.“On the way back, I radioed Tel Aviv and spoke with the head of operations, who gave me the code word that we had a green light for the operation for Sunday,” he says. “After we landed, the attaché went to his weekend, and I went to Jerusalem for one last meeting with Begin, Eitan and [Foreign Minister Yitzhak] Shamir.”What also helped in preventing the world from realizing what was happening was the international crisis that had evolved following Syria’s deployment of sophisticated surface-to-air missile systems in Lebanon. Begin had promised that Israel would attack if they were not moved.“Everyone thought we were busy with Lebanon, and this was to our advantage, even though it also insulted some of our allies since they were caught completely off guard,” Ivry says.The day of the operation, Ivry and Eitan spoke with the pilots. Eitan spoke about the significance of the operation. Ivry focused on the details – the route, the altitude, the way to evade Iraqi air defense systems and what direction to come in and bomb the target.“We knew that the planes would get there and succeed in bombing the reactor,” Ivry says. “Our biggest concern was about the return flight and whether a plane would be shot down. Since the planes did not have any fuel to spare, they would not have been able to use their thrusters to maneuver if they were intercepted.”Just after 5:35 p.m., the leader of the eight F-16s that had flown 1,600 km. from the Etzion Air Force Base in the Sinai Peninsula broke radio silence and said the words “Everyone Charlie” – the call that meant all the planes had dropped their bombs and were heading back home.For Ivry, the Osirak bombing was not the IAF’s greatest aerial achievement under his command.That title would go to the 1982 bombing of the 17 surface-to-air missile systems that Syria had deployed in Lebanon, without losing a single aircraft – one of the most impressive operations carried out by a Western country to suppress Soviet air defense systems.The bombing of the reactor resonated more for the deterrence it created for Israel.“It was a few years after the Entebbe operation and helped show the world that Israel could really go anywhere it needed to,” Ivry explains.Ten years later, US Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney presented Ivry with a photo of the bombed-out reactor taken by a US satellite after the First Gulf War.At the bottom of the photo, which hangs in Ivry’s Tel Aviv office as a constant reminder of the threats and challenges that Israel continues to face, Cheney wrote: “With thanks and appreciation for the outstanding job you did on the Iraqi nuclear program in 1981, which made our job much easier in Desert Storm!” When it comes to Iran, one would expect the man who commanded the bombing of Osirak to be more forthcoming. But Ivry is careful with what he says.He insists that the government needs to exhaust all available options before using military force, diplomacy and sanctions. Otherwise, he says, the people will never forgive their leaders.But, he says, those who claim that delaying the program by only a couple of years is not worth the risk, could be wrong.“The situation can evolve in between,” he explains. “The same was said about Saddam, and in the end he never got it.” Join Jerusalem Post Premium Plus now for just $5 and upgrade your experience with an ads-free website and exclusive content. Click here>>
Not even the passion of Old Firm rivalries can excuse what has happened to Lennon Bill Shankly once famously said: 'Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you it's much more serious than that!' It was typical Shanks, underlining his passion and commitment for the game he loved. But two vastly contrasting incidents involving managers over the past few days have, for me, shown that however deeply our involvement is with football, there are limits which dictate its rightful place in our lives and they should not be transgressed. No excuse for it: Celtic boss Neil Lennon was targeted by a letter bomber For different reasons, Neil Lennon at Celtic and Gerard Houllier at Aston Villa have been the subject of headlines which have overshadowed their managerial responsibilities - Lennon with the shocking revelation that he and others in Glasgow had received potentially fatal letter bombs; Houllier with the sad news that he had been taken into hospital with chest pains, reminding everybody of that terrible day in 2001 when he had to undergo life-saving heart surgery after collapsing during a match at Anfield when he was managing Liverpool. I don't think anybody would believe what happened to Neil was acceptable; it doesn't matter how passionate your support is for your respective football club. Hopefully, the matter will be dealt with adequately and properly. Nobody deserves that. You go to work for your club and you work as hard as you can - and you can't tell me you deserve to be treated as Lennon has been under any circumstances. Walter Smith works just as hard at Rangers as Neil does at Celtic and you wouldn't like to think such a thing would happen to him, either. The fact that people outside football have also been similarly affected shows that this is not just about Celtic and Rangers. I know there was a bit of aggravation when they played each other in a Scottish Cup replay recently, but they've moved forward from that. The police have done a fantastic job, as have both clubs. In recent years, all-seater stadia have helped a great deal. The whole atmosphere is charged but it's not like it used to be and that's a great compliment to both sets of fans. Football plays an important part in many lives - let's keep it away from all the other stuff. Of course, Celtic and Rangers face each other this afternoon with a lot at stake as far as the Scottish title is concerned and, being a former Celtic player and manager, I'm often asked how the Old Firm game rates when it comes to all the derbies I've been involved in. My answer is always the same: there is no local derby more important than the one you are involved in at the time. Try telling a Liverpool or Everton fan that the Glasgow Old Firm match is more important, and the same goes for United and City in Manchester; Arsenal and Tottenham in north London; Newcastle and Sunderland; even Burnley and Blackburn or any time local rivals face each other. It is very difficult to qualify which is the biggest, the best, the most passionate - they all mean the same to the people who follow the clubs. How can anybody say one occasion is bigger than another? It isn't. Obviously, in Glasgow there is a religious undercurrent to the support which makes it different but, when it comes down to the plain football element, the passion and rivalry is no greater than the others I've mentioned. Get well soon: Aston Villa boss Gerard Houllier Without inside knowledge of Houllier's situation, it seems he is happy and cheerful, even to the extent of talking to his coach, Gary McAllister, about training, which is really typical of the man. What Gerard went through when he was managing Liverpool was horrendous. And for him to come back to work and do as well as he has been doing at Villa is a great testament to him. It shows how much he loves and cares for the game. Inevitably , there will be speculation about his future at Villa Park, but I know how difficult it would be for Gerard if football was not part of his life. I am speaking for many people who admire him as a football coach and manager when I wish him a speedy recovery and the best of health for the future. The day he returns to pick up where he left off will be a good one for football. Fergie knows the way to the finishing line Even after Manchester United's win against Everton, some will say you still have to have an open view on who is going to win the Premier League. But at the same time there is no doubt that the other two teams in the top three would be happy to swap places with Manchester United. United are nearly there and they've just got to push it over the line. Sure, they have to play Chelsea at home and go to Arsenal - and they've got Schalke on their minds. But Sir Alex Ferguson has been doing this for years and he'll know how to manage it. Experienced: Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson knows what it takes to win titles Clearly Schalke's Champions League form is a lot better than how they've been doing in the Bundesliga. They were in the bottom half of the table when they went to Milan and beat Inter with a really impressive performance. It's not going to be an easy game for United by any means but, and this is no disrespect to the German club, I am certain Fergie would rather be playing them than either of the two Spanish sides in the other semi-final. To be fair, he is also getting a few people back from injuries at just the right time. Darren Fletcher may be still suffering from a virus but Nani, Antonio Valencia and Anderson are all fit again. Ryan Giggs is still there and even Rio Ferdinand has played a few games recently. So Fergie has a few more players to choose from. As far as the other game is concerned, Real managed to beat Barca in the Copa del Rey. They defended well and caught their opponents on the break. But the big thing about Pep Guardiola's team is they are always capable of scoring away from home.
Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet.com Monday, October 19, 2009 The U.S. government effectively attacked Iran yesterday after its proxy terror group Jundullah launched a suicide bomb attack against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard at their headquarters in Pishin, near the border with Pakistan. Leaders of the Al-Qaeda affiliated Sunni terrorist group Jundullah have claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in Iran that killed over 40 people yesterday. The group is funded and trained by the CIA and is being used to destabilize the government of Iran, according to reports out of the London Telegraph and ABC News. In the aftermath of the attack, which killed at least five commanders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard along with scores of others, media reports have swung between Iranian accusations of US and British involvement and blanket denials on behalf of the U.S. State Department. However, the fact that Jundullah, who have since claimed responsibility for the attack and named the bomber as Abdol Vahed Mohammadi Saravani, are openly financed and run by the CIA and Mossad is not up for debate, it has been widely reported for years. “President George W Bush has given the CIA approval to launch covert “black” operations to achieve regime change in Iran, intelligence sources have revealed. Mr Bush has signed an official document endorsing CIA plans for a propaganda and disinformation campaign intended to destabilize, and eventually topple, the theocratic rule of the mullahs,” reported the London Telegraph in May 2007. Part of that destabilization campaign involved the the CIA “Giving arms-length support, supplying money and weapons, to an Iranian militant group, Jundullah, which has conducted raids into Iran from bases in Pakistan,” stated the report. Jundullah is a Sunni Al-Qaeda offshoot organization that was formerly headed by alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The fact that it is being directly supported by the U.S. government under both Bush and now Obama destroys the whole legitimacy of the “war on terror” in an instant. The group has been blamed for a number of bombings inside Iran aimed at destabilizing Ahmadinejad’s government and is also active in Pakistan, having been fingered for its involvement in attacks on police stations and car bombings at the Pakistan-US Cultural Center in 2004. The group also produces propaganda tapes and literature for al-Qaeda’s media wing, As-Sahab, which is in turn closely affiliated with the military-industrial complex front IntelCenter, the group that makes available Al-Qaeda videos to the western media. In May 2008, ABC News reported on how Pakistan was threatening to turn over six members of Jundullah to Iran after they were taken into custody by Pakistani authorities. “U.S. officials tell ABC News U.S. intelligence officers frequently meet and advise Jundullah leaders, and current and former intelligence officers are working to prevent the men from being sent to Iran,” reported ABC news, highlighting again the close relationship between the terror group and the CIA. In July 2009, a Jundullah member admitted before a court in Zahedan Iran that the group was a proxy for the U.S. and Israel. Abdolhamid Rigi, a senior member of the group and the brother of the group’s leader Abdolmalek Rigi, who was one of the six members of the organization extradited by Pakistan, told the court that Jundullah was being trained and financed by “the US and Zionists”. He also said that the group had been ordered by America and Israel to step up their attacks in Iran. Jundullah is not the only anti-Iranian terror group that US government has been accused of funding in an attempt to pressure the Iranian government. Multiple credible individuals including US intelligence whistleblowers and former military personnel have asserted that the U.S. is conducting covert military operations inside Iran using guerilla groups to carry out attacks on Iranian Revolution Guard units. It is widely suspected that the well known right-wing terrorist organization known as Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), once run by Saddam Hussein’s dreaded intelligence services, is now working exclusively for the CIA’s Directorate of Operations and carrying out remote bombings in Iran. After a bombing inside Iran in March 2007, the London Telegraph also reported on how a high ranking CIA official has blown the whistle on the fact that America is secretly funding terrorist groups in Iran in an attempt to pile pressure on the Islamic regime to give up its nuclear program. A story entitled, US funds terror groups to sow chaos in Iran, reveals how funding for the attacks carried out by the terrorist groups “comes directly from the CIA’s classified budget,” a fact that is now “no great secret”, according to a former high-ranking CIA official in Washington who spoke anonymously to The Sunday Telegraph. Former US state department counter-terrorism agent Fred Burton backed the claim, telling the newspaper, “The latest attacks inside Iran fall in line with US efforts to supply and train Iran’s ethnic minorities to destabilise the Iranian regime.” John Pike, the head of the influential Global Security think tank in Washington, said: “The activities of the ethnic groups have hotted up over the last two years and it would be a scandal if that was not at least in part the result of CIA activity.” The timing of the bombing that targeted Iranian Revolutionary Guard members yesterday was clearly orchestrated to coincide with talks between representatives from Iran, Russia, France, the U.S. and the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna today concerning Iran’s nuclear intentions.
Photo: Mont-Blanc Blades of Glory: Mont-Blanc’s prototype contains 15 nodes made up of ARM-core processors. A European private-public consortium wants to make supercomputers using smartphone and tablet CPUs. And not just any supercomputers. They’re shooting for the moon—aiming for exaflops (1018 or quintillions of floating-point operations per second), some thousandfold faster than the top of today’s high-performance heap. Supercomputing has always offered a kind of turboboosted reflection of everyday computing. In the 1970s and ’80s, Cray supercomputers and their ilk were like supercharged mainframes, with just handfuls of processors that had each been designed for speed. In the 1990s and 2000s, as PCs and then laptops predominated, supercomputers became agglomerations of hundreds, thousands, and now even millions of PC and server cores. (The world’s fastest supercomputer today is China’s Tianhe-2, powered by 3.1 million Intel Xeon cores but capable of only about 5 percent of an exaflop.) So in the tablet and smartphone age, it was probably only a matter of time before someone decided to make supercomputers out of the engines of present-day digital life. The thinking goes that because ARM cores are designed to run on small smartphone and tablet batteries, a supercomputer built around them could yield more speed with less power. In an age when high-performance computing, or HPC, is often constrained by heat production and electricity consumption, that could mean a more scalable machine. Mont-Blanc, as the effort is called, began in late 2011 at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, known for housing a supercomputer in a 19th-century cathedral. It’s now got 14 partners and €22 million in backing through September 2016, and it recently unveiled a prototype blade server meant as a stepping-stone toward a full system. The prototype contains Samsung dual-core Exynos 5 CPUs—each a system-on-a-chip that includes ARM’s Cortex-A15 core with a GPU. It would consume between one-fifteenth and one-thirtieth as much energy per processor as today’s HPC systems, its proponents project. Jean-François Lavignon, president of the European Technology Platform for High Performance Computing, says that today Intel x86 CPUs still offer the best performance for most supercomputer customers. And he expects that x86 processors combined with accelerators, such as GPUs, will continue to dominate the Top500 list of the world’s fastest high-performance computers. But, he says, ARM-based computing appears to be a wise investment for the future. ARM cores are an interesting but hardly universally agreed upon path to exascale computer architecture, says Jack Dongarra, professor of computer science at the University of Tennessee, in Knoxville. For instance, in December Japan announced its plans to build an exaflop supercomputer by 2020 using the usual processors. “The Japanese exascale system, which will use commodity processors with an accelerator, will draw about 30 to 40 megawatts of power,” he says. “One megawatt per year in the United States is about a million dollars. So just to turn it on and power it will cost you between $30 million and $40 million.” Either path that high-performance computing takes will not just have to make power consumption manageable but also reduce the challenge of writing code for what are sure to be extremely complex machines. Such code will have to run a few billion concurrent threads of instructions instead of the mere 12 million Tianhe-2 does today. Addison Snell, CEO of HPC consulting firm Intersect360, says that HPC customers today, unsure of what next-generation supercomputing will look like, could be wary of investing too much in ARM-based systems out of fear that the software won’t be there to support them down the line. On the other hand, he says, there’s no guarantee that x86-based supercomputing is going to remain the dominant model for the 2020s either. ARM architecture could yet prove itself to be the secret sauce needed to make the best exascale computer. Or not. This article originally appeared in print as “Europe Wants a Smartphone Supercomputer.” A correction to this article was made on 21 May 2014.
Diseases of affluence is a term sometimes given to selected diseases and other health conditions which are commonly thought to be a result of increasing wealth in a society.[1] Also referred to as the "Western disease" paradigm, these diseases are in contrast to so-called "diseases of poverty", which largely result from and contribute to human impoverishment. These diseases of affluence have vastly increased in prevalence since the end of World War II. Examples of diseases of affluence include mostly chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and other physical health conditions for which personal lifestyles and societal conditions associated with economic development are believed to be an important risk factor — such as type 2 diabetes, asthma, coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, peripheral vascular disease, obesity, hypertension, cancer, alcoholism, gout, and some types of allergy.[1][2] They may also be considered to include depression and other mental health conditions associated with increased social isolation and lower levels of psychological well being observed in many developed countries.[3] Many of these conditions are interrelated, for example obesity is thought to be a partial cause of many other illnesses.[citation needed] In contrast, the diseases of poverty have tended to be largely infectious diseases, or the result of poor living conditions. These include tuberculosis, malaria, and intestinal diseases.[4] Increasingly, research is finding that diseases thought to be diseases of affluence also appear in large part in the poor. These diseases include obesity and cardiovascular disease and, coupled with infectious diseases, these further increase global health inequalities.[1] Diseases of affluence started to become more prevalent in developing countries as diseases of poverty decline, longevity increases, and lifestyles change.[1][2] In 2008, nearly 80% of deaths due to NCDs — including heart disease, strokes, chronic lung diseases, cancers and diabetes — occurred in low- and middle-income countries.[5] Top ten causes of death in high income/affluent countries [ edit ] According to World Health Organization (WHO) the top 10 causes of deaths in the high income countries/ affluent countries in 2016 were from Ischemic heart diseases Stroke Alzheimer disease and other dementia Trachea, bronchus and lung cancer Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Lower respiratory infections Colon and rectum cancers Diabetes Kidney diseases Breast cancer Except for the lower respiratory infections all of them are non-communicable diseases. In 2016 WHO reported 56.9 million deaths worldwide, and more than half (54%), were due to the top causes of death previously mentioned.[6] Causes [ edit ] Factors associated with the increase of these conditions and illnesses appear to be things that are a direct result of technological advances. They include: Less strenuous physical exercise, often through increased use of motor vehicles Irregular exercise as a result of office jobs involving no physical labor. Easy accessibility in society to large amounts of low-cost food (relative to the much-lower caloric food availability in a subsistence economy) More food generally, with much less physical exertion expended to obtain a moderate amount of food Higher consumption of vegetable oils and high sugar-containing foods Higher consumption of meat and dairy products Higher consumption of refined flours and products made of such, like white bread or white noodles More foods which are processed, cooked, and commercially provided (rather than seasonal, fresh foods prepared locally at time of eating) Prolonged periods of little activity Greater use of alcohol and tobacco Longer life-spans Reduced exposure to infectious agents throughout life (this can result in a more idle and inexperienced immune system as compared to an individual who experienced relatively frequent exposure to certain pathogens in their time of life) Increased cleanliness. The hygiene hypothesis postulates that children of affluent families are now exposed to fewer antigens than has been normal in the past, giving rise to increased prevalence of allergy and autoimmune diseases.[7] Diabetes mellitus [ edit ] Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disease characterized by increase blood glucose level. Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes. It is caused by resistance to insulin or the lack of production of insulin. It is seen most commonly in adults. Type 1 diabetes or juvenile diabetes affects mostly children. This condition is due to little or lack of insulin production from the pancreas.[8] According to WHO the prevalence of diabetes has quadrupled from 1980 to 422 million adults.[9][10] The global prevalence of diabetes has increased from 4.7% in 1980 to 8.5% in 2014.[8] Diabetes has been a major cause for blindness, kidney failure, heart attack, stroke and lower limb amputation.[8] Prevalence in countries of affluence [ edit ] The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report in 2015 indicating that more than 100 million Americans have diabetes or pre-diabetes. Diabetes was the seventh leading cause of death in United States in 2015.[11] In developed countries like the United States, the risk for diabetes is seen in people with low socioeconomic status (SES).[12] Socioeconomic status is defined by the education and the income level of a person.[13] The prevalence of diabetes varies by education level. Of those diagnosed with diabetes:12.6% of adults had less than a high school education, 9.5% had a high school education and 7.2% had more than high school education.[14] Differences in diabetes prevalence are seen in the population and ethnic groups in USA. Diabetes is more common in non-Hispanic whites, who are less educated and have a lower income. It is also more common in less educated Hispanics.[15] The highest prevalence of diabetes is seen in the southeast, southern and Appalachian portion of the United States.[15] In the United States the prevalence of diabetes is increasing in children and adolescents. In 2015, 25 million people were diagnosed with diabetes, of which 193,000 were children.[15] The total direct and indirect cost of diagnosed diabetes in US in 2012 was $245 billion.[14] In 2009, the Canadian Diabetes Association (CDA) estimated that diagnosed diabetes will increase from 1.3 million in 2000 to 2.5 million in 2010 and 3.7 million in 2020.[16] Diabetes was the 7th leading cause of death in Canada in 2015. Like United States, diabetes in more prevalent in the low socioeconomic group of people in Canada.[16] According to the International Diabetes Federation, more than 58 million people are diagnosed with diabetes in the European Union Region (EUR), and this will go up to 66.7 million by 2045. Similar to other affluent countries like America and Canada, diabetes is more prevalent in the poorer parts of Europe like Central and Eastern Europe.[17] In Australia according to self-reported data, 1 in 7 adults or approximately 1.2 million people had diabetes in 2014-2015. People who were living in remote or socioeconomically disadvantaged areas were 4 times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes as compared to non-indigenous Australians.[18] Australia incurred $20.8 million in direct costs towards hospitalization, medication, and out-patient treatment towards diabetes. In 2015, $1.2 billion were lost in Australia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) due to diabetes.[19] In these countries of affluence, diabetes is prevalent in low socioeconomic groups of people as there is abundance of unhealthy food choices, high energy rich food, and decreased physical activity.[20] More affluent people are typically more educated and have tools to counter unhealthy foods, such as access to healthy food, physical trainers, and parks and fitness centers.[21] Risk factors [ edit ] Obesity and being overweight is one of the main risk factors of type 2 diabetes. Other risk factors include lack of physical activity, genetic predisposition, being over 45 years old, tobacco use, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.[14] In United States, the prevalence of obesity was 39.8% in adults and 18.5% in children and adolescents in 2015-2016.[22] In Australia in 2014-2015, 2 out 3 adults or 63% were overweight or obese. Also, 2 out of 3 adults did little or no exercise.[23] According to the World Health Organization, Europe had the 2nd highest proportion of overweight or obese people in 2014 behind America.[24] In developing countries [ edit ] According to WHO the prevalence of diabetes is rising more in the middle and low income countries. Over the next 25 years, the number of people with diabetes in developing countries will increase by over 150%. Diabetes is typically seen in people above the retirement age in developed countries, but in developing countries people in the age of 35-64 are mostly affected. Although, diabetes is considered a disease of affluence affecting the developed countries, there is more loss of life and premature death among people with diabetes in the developing countries.[25] Asia accounts for 60% of the world's diabetic population. In 1980 less than 1% of Chinese adults were affected by diabetes, but by 2008 the prevalence was 10%.[26] It is predicted that by 2030 diabetes may affect 79.4 million people in India, 42.3 million people in China and 30.3 million in United States.[27] These changes are the result of developing nations having rapid economic development. This rapid economic development has caused a change in the lifestyle and food habits leading to over-nutrition, increased intake of fast food causing increase in weight, and insulin resistance.[26] Compared to the west, obesity in Asia is low. India has very low prevalence of obesity, but a very high prevalence of diabetes suggesting that diabetes may occur at a lower BMI in Indians as compared to the Europeans. Smoking increases the risk for diabetes by 45%. In developing countries around 50-60 % adult males are regular smokers, increasing their risk for diabetes.[26] In developing countries, diabetes is more commonly seen in the more urbanized areas. The prevalence of diabetes in rural population is 1/4th that of urban population for countries like India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka.[27] Cardiovascular disease [ edit ] Cardiovascular disease refers to a disease of the heart and blood vessels. Conditions and diseases associated with heart disease include: stoke, coronary heart disease, congenital heart disease, heart failure, peripheral vascular disease, and cardiomyopathy.[28] Cardiovascular disease is known as the world's biggest killer. 17.5 million people die from it each year, which equals 31% of all deaths. Heart disease and stroke cause 80% of these deaths.[29] Risk factors [ edit ] High blood pressure is the leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease and has contributed to 12% of the cardiovascular related deaths worldwide.[29] Other significant risk factors for heart disease include high cholesterol and smoking. 47% of all Americans have one of these three risk factors.[30] Lifestyle choices, such as poor diet and physical inactivity, and excessive alcohol use can also contribute to cardiovascular disease. Medical conditions, like diabetes and obesity can also be risk factors.[30] Prevalence in countries of affluence [ edit ] In the United States, 610,000 people die every year from heart disease which is equal to 1 in 4 deaths. The leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States is heart disease.[30] In Canada, heart disease is the second leading cause of death. In 2014, it was the cause of death for 51,000 people.[31] In Australia, heart disease is also the leading cause of death. 29% of deaths in 2015, had an underlying cause of heart disease.[32] Heart disease causes one in four premature deaths in the United Kingdom and in 2015 heart disease caused 26% of all deaths in that country.[33] People of lower socio-economic status are more likely to have cardiovascular disease than those who have a higher socio-economic status.[34] This inequality gap has occurred in developed countries because people who have a lower socio-economic status often face many of the risk factors of tobacco and alcohol use, obesity as well as having a sedentary lifestyle.[35] Further social and environmental factors such as poverty, pollution, family history, housing and employment contribute to this inequality gap and to risk of having a health condition caused by cardiovascular disease. The increasing inequality gap between the higher and lower income populations continues in countries such as Canada, despite the availability of health care for everyone.[36] Alzheimer's disease and other dementias [ edit ] Dementia is a chronic syndrome which is characterized by deterioration in the thought process beyond what is expected from normal aging. It affects the persons memory, thinking, orientation, comprehension, behavior and ability to perform everyday activity. There are many different forms of dementia . Alzheimer is the most common form which contributes to 60-70 % of the dementia cases. Different forms of dementia can co-exist.Young onset dementia which occurs in individuals before the age of 65 contributes to 9% of the total cases. It is the major cause of disability and dependency among old people.[37] Worldwide, there are 50 million people who are suffering from dementia and every year 10 million new cases are being reported. The total number of people with dementia is projected to reach 82 million by 2030 and 152 million in 2050 .[37] Prevalence in countries of affluence [ edit ] According to CDC, Alzheimer is the 6th leading cause of death in U.S adults and 5th leading cause of death in adults over the age of 65. In 2014, 5 million Americans above the age of 65 were diagnosed with Alzheimer. This number is predicted to triple by the year 2060 and reach up to 14 million. Dementia and Alzheimer has been shown to go unreported on death certificates, leading to under representation of the actual mortality caused by these diseases.[38] Between 2000 and 2015, mortality due to cardiovascular diseases has decreased by 11%, where as death from Alzheimer has increased by 123%. 1 in 3 people over the age of 65 die from Alzheimer or other forms of dementia. Furthermore, 200,000 individuals have been affected by young onset dementia. In United States, Alzheimer affects more women than men. It is twice more common in African-Americans and Hispanics than in whites. As the number of older Americans increases rapidly, the number of new cases of Alzheimer will rise too .[39] East Asia has the most people living with dementia (9.8 million) followed by Western Europe (7.5 million ), South Asia (5.1 million) and North America (4.8 million).[40] In 2016, the prevalence of Alzheimer was 5.05% in Europe. Like in United States, it is more prevalent in women than in men.[41] In the European Union, Finland has the highest mortality among both men and women due to dementia.[42] In Canada, over half a million people are living with dementia. It is projected that by 2031 the number will go up by 66% to 937,000. Every year 25,000 new cases of dementia are diagnosed .[43] Dementia is the second leading cause of death in Australia. In 2016, it was the leading cause of deaths in females. In Australia 436,366 people are living with dementia in 2018. 3 in 10 people over the age of 85 and 1 in 10 people over the age of 65 have dementia. It is the single greatest cause of disability in older Australians .[44] Rates of dementia are higher for indigenous people. In people from the northern territory and western Australia the prevalence of dementia is 26 times higher in the 45-69 year old group and about 20 times greater in 60-69 year old group.[45] Risk factors in countries of affluence [ edit ] The risk factors for developing dementia or Alzheimer's include age, family history, genetic factors, environmental factors, brain injury, viral infections, neurotoxic chemicals, and various immunological and hormonal disorders.[46][47] A new research study has found an association between the affluence of a country, hygiene conditions and the prevalence of Alzheimer in their population. According to the Hygiene Hypothesis, affluent countries with more urbanized and industrialized areas have better hygiene, better sanitation, clean water and improved access to antibiotics.[48] This reduces the exposure to the friendly bacteria, virus and other microorganisms that help stimulate our immune system. Decreased microbial exposure leads to immune system that is poorly developed, which exposes the brain to inflammation as is seen in Alzheimer's disease.[49] Countries like the UK and France that have access to clean drinking water, improved sanitation facilities and have a high GDP show a 9% increase in Alzheimer's disease as opposed to countries like Kenya and Cambodia.[49] Also countries like UK and Australia, where three quarters of their population lives in urban areas, have a 10% higher Alzheimer's rate than in countries like Bangladesh and Nepal where less than one tenth of their population live in urban areas.[49] Alzheimer's risk changes with the environment. Individuals from the same ethnic background living in an area of low sanitation will have a lower risk as compared to the same individuals living in an area of high sanitation who will be exposed to a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's. An African-American in U.S. has a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's as compared to one living in Nigeria.[48] Immigrant populations exhibit Alzheimer disease rates intermediate between their home country and adopted country. Moving from a country of high sanitation to a country of low sanitation reduces the risk associated with the disease.[48] Mental illness [ edit ] People that face poverty have more risks related to having a mental illness and also do not have as much access to treatment. The stressful events that they face, unsafe living condition and poor physical health lead to cycle of poverty and mental illness that is seen all over the world.[50] According to the World Health Organization 76%-85% of people living in lower and middle income countries are not treated for their mental illness. For those in higher-income counties, 35%-50% of people with mental illness do not receive treatment.[51] It is estimated that 90% of deaths by suicide are caused by substance use disorders and mental illness in higher income countries. In lower to middle income countries, this number is lower.[52] Prevalence of mental illness [ edit ] One in four people have experienced mental illness at one time in their lives and approximately 450 million people in the world currently have a mental illness.[50] People that face poverty have more risks related to having a mental illness and also do not have as much access to treatment. The stressful events that they face, unsafe living condition and poor physical health lead to cycle of poverty and mental illness that is seen all over the world.[50] India, China, and the United States are the countries with the highest levels of mental illnesses of anxiety, depression and schizophrenia according to WHO. The U.S. is reported to have the highest level of depression worldwide.[53] In the U.S., approximately one in five adults has a mental illness or 44.7 million people.[54] In 2016, it was estimated that 268 million people in the world had depression.[52] The range of people that have depression by country is from 2% to 6% of the population with the United States, Greenland, and Australia having higher rates of depression. Anxiety disorders, such as generalized anxiety, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder impacted 275 million people around the world in 2016. The range of population impacted by anxiety disorders globally is from 2.5%-6.5%. Countries, such as the Australia, the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Iran, the United States and a number of countries in Western Europe appear to have a higher prevalence of anxiety disorders.[52] Cancer [ edit ] Cancer is a generic term for a large group of disease which is characterized by rapid creation of abnormal cells that grow beyond their usual boundaries. These cells can invade adjoining parts of the body and spread to other organs causing metastases, which is a major cause of death. According to WHO, Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally. One in six deaths worldwide are caused due to cancer, accounting to a total of 9.6 million deaths in 2018.Tracheal, bronchus, and lung cancer is the leading form of cancer deaths across most high and middle-income countries.[55] Prevalence in countries of affluence [ edit ] In United States, 1,735,350 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in 2018. Most common forms of cancer are cancer of the breast, lung, bronchus, prostrate, colorectal cancer, melanoma of skin, Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, renal cancer, thyroid cancer and liver cancer. Cancer mortality is higher among men than in women. African-Americans have the highest risk of mortality due to cancer.[56] Cancer is also the leading cause of death in Australia. The most common cancers in Australia are prostrate, breast, colorectal, melanoma and lung cancer. These account for 60% of the cancer cases diagnosed in Australia.[57] Europe contains only 1/8 of the world population, but has around one quarter of the global cancer cases, with 3.7 million new cases each year. Lung, breast, stomach, liver, colon are the most common cancers in Europe.[58] The overall incidences among different cancers vary across countries.[59] About one in two Canadians will develop cancer in their lifetime, and one in four will die of the disease. In 2017, 206,200 new cases of cancer were diagnosed. Lung, colorectal, breast, and prostate cancer accounted for about half of all cancer diagnoses and deaths.[60] Risk factors [ edit ] High prevalence of cancer in high-income countries is attributed to lifestyle factors like obesity, smoking, physical inactivity, diet and alcohol intake.[55] Around 40% of the cancers can be prevented by modifying these factors.[61] Allergy/Autoimmune diseases [ edit ] The rate of allergies around the world has risen in industrialized nations over the past 50 years.[62] A number of public health measures, such as sterilized milk, use of antibiotics and improved food production have contributed to a decrease in infections in developed countries. There is a proposed causal relationship, known as the "hygiene hypothesis" that indicates that there are more autoimmune disorders and allergies in developed countries with fewer infections.[63] In developing countries, it is assumed that the rates of allergies are lower than developed countries. That assumption may not be accurate due to limited data on prevalence.[64] Research has found an increase in asthma by 10% in countries such as Peru, Costa Rica, and Brazil.[63] See also [ edit ] Social determinants of health The China Study : 2005 book on the relationship between the consumption of animal products and selected illnesses : 2005 book on the relationship between the consumption of animal products and selected illnesses Affluenza: "placing a high value on money, possessions, appearances (physical and social) and fame" may increase risk of mental illnesses General [ edit ] References [ edit ] Further reading [ edit ]
A veteran w/lots of gas left in the tank lol RT @steelers: We have signed veteran RB @DeAngeloRB to a 2-year contract pic.twitter.com/546d2IgnEg — DeAngelo Williams (@DeAngeloRB) March 13, 2015 In a response to the Steelers' announcement they signed him to a 2-year contract, the newest Steelers running back DeAngelo Williams made sure to point out to Steeler Nation he has "lots of gas left in the tank." Some might "lol" over that, but for Williams, the Panthers all-time rushing leader, he very well could be finishing up an outstanding career in Pittsburgh. He turns 32 years old April 25, and has just over 1,600 career touches, spanning 117 games and nine NFL seasons. To whatever degree Williams will be counted on for the Steelers in 2015, he feels confident in what he has left. Le'Veon Bell, the Steelers' unquestioned starter and 2014 All Pro selection, is likely to begin the 2015 season on the reserve-suspended list, stemming from an arrest for DUI in August. He's since entered a diversionary program, but accepting such a plea deal in the league's collective bargaining agreement brings with it a mandatory suspension. Williams will likely be asked to carry the ball for the Steelers in that time. Perhaps he took some exception with being referred to as a "veteran" in the tweet. Clearly the team meant no disrespect, but a player anxious to prove doubters wrong is a player a team can count on to be ready when needed.
At least six people have been injured in Calais, after French riot police used tear gas to stop men from boarding trucks en-route to the UK. International charities say that conditions at the nearby Jungle refugee camp are at a “crisis point” following weeks of heavy rain. French media outlets reported that about 800 migrants occupied a bypass leading to the port, and began throwing projectiles at passing trucks, in a bid to slow them down, so they could be mounted. Twitter images have emerged of vehicles with broken windshields, and forcibly opened cargo compartments. Belgian truck hit - scene on shut m way pic.twitter.com/l13IsFS3w0 — alex thomson (@alextomo) November 26, 2015 “It’s a war out there and we’re in the middle,” truck driver Jamie Baker told the news website Breitbart. Truck with door ripped open pic.twitter.com/OKD8e7bX6f — alex thomson (@alextomo) November 26, 2015 A unit of the riot police force, now garrisoned in Calais, was dispatched, to cordon off the area, and push back the potential stowaways. Access to the port, which also serves as the entryway into the Eurotunnel, was closed. As shielded officers pushed the migrants back into the nearby camp, known as the Jungle, which accommodates at least 4,500 people, its inhabitants began to throw rocks. Police responded by lobbing tear gas grenades inside. "Once again, we can only note that public order was seriously undermined for several hours," said center-right Calais mayor Natacha Bouchart via Twitter. "If the military can participate in securing our capital, it must also do so for Calais, which is currently experiencing an emergency situation.” Alors que les forces de police se sont trouvées en grave difficulté hier soir, je réitère mon appel à l’intervention de l’armée à #Calais — Natacha BOUCHART (@NatachaBouchart) November 26, 2015 Bouchart, who has previously requested army assistance, also called for the arrests of activists from the anarchist movement No Borders, who she says have been inciting migrants to engage in violent behavior. A host of charities working at the camp, which has doubled in size over the past two months, as more asylum seekers arrive from the Middle East, Africa, and Afghanistan, report deteriorating conditions. What have we become to let people live in conditions like this?I have never in my life experienced anything as... Posted by Hummingbird Project- Calais Aid and Solidarity on Monday, 23 November 2015 “The situations in Calais and at camps around northern France are all at crisis point,” Elaine Ortiz, the founder of the Hummingbird Project, which runs soup kitchens and medical aid points, told the Independent. “There has been lots of bad weather. The tents, if those inside are lucky to have one, are not holding up because the camp is becoming a swamp.” There has been an outbreak of the infectious skin disease scabies at the Jungle, and Medecins du Monde, another charity, says that migrants broke into its portable clinic and kitchen. Earlier this week, the French legal body, the Council of State, ordered local authorities “to begin installing more water taps, toilets and rubbish collection services [at the Jungle], to clean the site and to allow access for emergency services” within one week.
Star Wars is quite possibly the best film franchise of all time because not only are (most of) the films a blast to watch, but they are incredibly easy to spoof. I wrote about the original Star Wars parody, 1978’s Hardware Wars, a while back and I had a lot of fun doing that. Lately I’ve been wondering what is the absolute best Star Wars parody. I can’t decide because each one has its strengths and weaknesses, and there isn’t one that clearly sticks out above the rest. Let’s go through my four favorites and see if we can come to a consensus on which one is the superior parody. Spaceballs – Mel Brooks’ last good movie of his career is a hit-and-miss affair. I love the go-for-broke beginning that takes the joke about an extremely long spaceship and milks it for all its worth long past when it should have stopped being funny. That’s a good metaphor for this film. It runs out of funny material somewhere in the second half and has to resort to a bunch of half-hearted jokes that don’t have much to do with Star Wars. I did enjoy the climactic Schwartz fight between Dark Helmet and Lonestar, though, especially when they accidentally slice a member of the film crew in half and bicker over who is responsible. That was one of my favorite moments from the whole film when I first saw it as a kid. Even though Spaceballs is a less-than-perfect film, it still has plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. Here are some of my favorite lines: “Go past this part. In fact, never play this again.” “Light Speed is too slow. We’re gonna have to go right to… Ludicrous Speed.” “These are not them! These are their stunt doubles!” “What’s the matter, Colonel Sandurz? Chicken?” “Radar about to be jammed.” “Did you see anything?” “No, sir! I didn’t see you playing with your dolls again.” George Lucas in Love – This is a bit of an oddball entry. My mom found this short film years ago when I was a teenager, and she invited a bunch of my siblings and I to watch it with her. We found it absolutely hilarious. It’s a Star Wars-themed sendup of 1998’s Shakespeare in Love. The problem is that I still haven’t seen Shakespeare in Love, so I’m not sure if I’m getting all of the subtle humor in this film. But as far as I can tell, this is a nearly flawless parody. Sure, it shows Lucas typing his Star Wars screenplay on a typewriter in 1967 while he was still at college, even though he famously handwrote the first treatment in a green notebook after completing his first hit film American Graffiti in 1973. But those historical inaccuracies can be forgiven because the story is so well told. Despite being only eight minutes long, George Lucas in Love manages to tell a convincing love story and be an interesting character study, as well. Oh, and it’s full of brilliant in-jokes for anyone familiar with George Lucas’ life and films. Best lines: “Could you talk forward?” “Maybe you weren’t meant to write agricultural space tragedies.” (In unison) “Mom? Mom!?” Hardware Wars – What can I say about this film that I haven’t already said in my other review of it? It is 13 minutes of bliss. The acting is purposefully silly, a tiny red Cookie Monster fills in for a giant Wookiee, and there are funny names for everything like Planet Basketball, Ham Salad, and Augie Ben Doggie. Plus, what kind of twisted genius decided to have Cookie Monster take one look at the Princess’ crazy hair buns and start chomping away at one of them? This movie is daring and disjointed, and I love every minute of it. This was my clear favorite for years until George Lucas in Love and Thumb Wars came out in 1999 and threw a monkey wrench in the works. Best lines: “You’ll laugh! You’ll cry! You’ll kiss three bucks goodbye!” “I can’t understand you. Are you talkin’ to me?” “Get us out of here!” “Take it easy, kid. It’s only a movie.” “Jeepers! What is it, Augie Ben Doggie? Did you feel a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced?” “No, it’s just a little headache.” “Can this thing do Light Speed?” “You bet your asteroid, kid. Hold on.” Thumb Wars – I didn’t think anything could top Hardware Wars in terms of making fun of every aspect of Star Wars that could be exploited on a ridiculously small budget. This film may have proven me wrong. It takes advantage of somewhat better special effects to give a much more ambitious take on the Star Wars saga. It incorporates some elements of The Empire Strikes Back into A New Hope to create a 30-minute film that feels surprisingly large in scope. The scenes are all fast-paced, but there is still plenty of time to take in the impressive miniature sets and allow jokes to be enjoyed to the fullest. The fact that Thumb Wars is more than double the length of the other two short films gives it more opportunities to make the audience laugh, and it takes advantage of every one of them. There are a number of jokes that don’t work, like when Loke Groundrunner takes a closer look at the hologram, and the running gag involving “Touch your tongue to mine.” But most of this film is wall-to-wall comedy that will leave you in stitches. Best lines: “If there were thumbs in space and they got mad at each other, there would be… Thumb Wars!” “I am Oobedoob Benubi. I have the silliest name in the galaxy.” “You are bad! You are bad, and we are good! Your badness will be the end of you, and our goodness will be our triumph. Bad is bad. Good is good. Bad, bad, good, bad. Good, good, bad, good, bad… good.” “All right, you thumbs, listen up. A one-armed man killed my wife, Sabrina, a working girl. And now I’m a fugitive and in clear and present danger. I should be presumed innocent, but they’re playing patriot games with me. Raiders, Regarding Henry, Blade Runner, Air Force One.” The Verdict Thumb Wars has the most jokes that work perfectly, but it also has more jokes that fall flat than the two short films. The material and style of George Lucas in Love and Hardware Wars make them only sustainable for a short amount of time while Spaceballs and Thumb Wars manage to stick around for much longer without wearing out their welcome too much. If I have to put them in order from favorite to least favorite, I would have to say: 1. Thumb Wars 2. Hardware Wars 3. George Lucas in Love 4. Spaceballs It’s really a tossup between Hardware Wars and George Lucas in Love for the second spot because they’re both so good. Thumb Wars is just a little better at capturing the Star Wars story and exploiting all of its silliness. As Hardware Wars succinctly declares, “May the farce be with you.” This is the Deja Reviewer bidding you farewell until we meet again. All images are the copyright of their respective owners. Advertisements
Indigenous peoples in California relied on traditional gathering to provide for all of their food and medicinal needs. California's landscapes produce hundreds of indigenous plant species that have been used thousands of years prior to European contact. And many of these plants and their preparations as medicine informed modern pharmacopeia, most notably aspirin, which is derived from the bark of the willow tree. Native herbalism continues to be relevant today. There is a resurgence of traditional medicinal practices in Native communities and a growing interest in this knowledge in popular culture. In this video, we explore how Native herbalism is practiced today and how a holistic approach to health and the environment can inform healthy living. Co-produced by KCETLink Media Group and the Autry Museum, this six-part multimedia series and one-hour documentary special are presented in association with California Continued, a groundbreaking exhibition now on view at the Autry.
Joe Flacco's Ravens are tied with the Steelers, Patriots and Texans for the AFC's best record at 10-3, but is anybody paying attention? "I just think we're disrespected as an organization when it comes to the media," Flacco told WNST-AM this week. Baltimore's knocked off Pittsburgh twice this season in convincing fashion, and the Ravens have been one of the conference's consistently successful teams for over a decade, but Flacco sometimes wonders about a dearth of national love. "We're not a very big market," he said. "The bottom line is we don't need a lot of help because we have a great fan base every week and we win football games. We're not a losing football team that needs to be out there in the media and be talked up like we are all-world. We are." Flacco appears baffled by the coverage of the Broncos this season, a team that's won two less games than the Ravens, albeit in spectacular fashion. "I mean, look at Tim Tebow," he said. "I like Tim, but you have a tendency to want to -- I don't want to see Tim do bad -- but look what happens after he wins a football game. If you watched SportsCenter today, it was Tim Tebow then something else, Tim Tebow then something else, and Tim Tebow then something else. When we beat the Steelers, were we on TV? No. I couldn't even find a Baltimore Ravens highlight. I think that's kinda the way it is around Baltimore. We don't always get our respect but you gotta deal with it and go out there every week and just win football games." Relive every game this season online and on-demand with enhanced viewing features, including the "All-22" coaches film. Relive every game this season online and on-demand with enhanced viewing features, including the "All-22" coaches film. Get NFL Game Rewind As for Flacco's complaint about not getting Tebow-level coverage, honestly, Obama could make that gripe right now. (As a sidenote here: Can anyone argue that Ray Lewis, for instance, isn't well-covered? The average football fan has seen him lead his little pregame, sideline pep session every Sunday since Bill Clinton was in the White House.) This quarterback and his team will get their due if they achieve the heights many feel they are capable of this season, especially in an AFC ripe for the picking. Thanks, SportsRadioInterviews.com.
Today the Blockchain technology in not just a distributed ledger Bitcoin transactions are based on, but a cutting-edge technology that becomes widely used by ambitious startups, giant software companies, major world banks and even governments. Just as decades ago the Internet came to change our ordinary lifestyles, the Blockchain may change the future. Blockchain technology seems to have come to stay, despite being in its early stages yet. Like previous inventions and developments, the journey from concept to implementation involves conquering challenges ranging from acceptance, trust, adoption, and more. Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency experts speaking to CoinIdol.com told about the future development of Blockchain technology. From concept to implementation, several factors will come into play as the Blockchain develops. However, proper use cases, constant work and patience are factors that cannot be overemphasized if implementation must be achieved soon for the Blockchain. Insufficient use case criteria Speaking to Coinidol on the subject is the Executive Director of Strength in Numbers Foundation, a US "Digital Trust" established to develop and certify pro-social cryptocurrencies for public benefit, David V. Duccini. Duccini points out that one of the factors that has slowed acceptance of the Blockchain is insufficient use case criteria. ”There will certainly be more broadstream acceptance when we have really good criteria and use cases for things other than value attribution”. Duccini says that bitcoin is a kind of “stored value”, and most other altcoins according to him are “brand only coins with no actual utility” “I think one of the best use cases is what Nathan Wosnack and team are working on with regard to land and title registries”. He concludes by explaining that the Blockchain is a protocol, a technology. Saying that we may demand that certain things use one, in the same way that we now require that certain documents have notary or medallion stamps on them for attestation. There’s still a long way to go Founder of Bitcoin Alliance India, and CEO at SearchTrade, Vishal Gupta, says that the Blockchain is a distributed trust network and its acceptance is around the ideological trends within the system. Gupta says to Coinidol: “The technology around the implementation of the Blockchain is still at a very nascent stage. I don't see it being mass adopted by large institutions any time soon. All the half baked news outlets that keep publishing about banks adopting is deceiving since most of these guys are still trying to learn or at best test this solution. After 8 years of development, industry is still struggling with standardised implementation of managed wallet services and we see hacks and thefts year on year. To me, most of the benefits spoken about are still theoretical and could take around 5 to 10 years before they reach product grade reliable code”. It all depends on the industry In his own opinion, Nathan Wosnack, CEO at Ubitquity, says that it all depends on the industry and the implementation of the blockchain. “To say blockchain by itself is vague. The technology doesn't matter so much as the why, the customer and the use of said blockchain”. He says. Wosnack makes clear that if there is a market demand, and if there is a pain point to address, blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt and change an entire industry. Often, using a tech before there is a problem, is putting the cart before the horse. Patience is key For Kumar Gaurav, Founder and CEO at Cashaa, the journey from concept to implementation is a process that requires work and patience. According to Gaurav, first the Blockchain industry must “Overcome the Hype” and secondly a repeated process of “try, fail and try again” is the certain route to achieve implementation of the technology. However, Gaurav agrees that the developments seen so far within the Blockchain ecosystem are positive enough to encourage acceptance and implementation. He says: “I think the development is underway and we have to keep patience, it is not easy to suddenly replace the old functional system with some new architecture, it will take time. Many firms have already developed some good use cases where trust based system can replace the current mechanism. Development will take time but it will happen faster than the development of internet”. Gaurav points out the numerous projects that are underway by companies like Deloitte, PwC, Allianz, Accenture, Philips Healthcare and many others. Also, startups like Abra, Bitpesa and Cashaa, that he says are solving real world problems by using the current potential of the Bitcoin Blockchain for services which are directly being used by the average user. “We will see more startups and projects very soon which will help in building a complete ecosystem faster and leaner”, he concludes.
What is toybox? Toybox combines many common Linux command line utilities together into a single BSD-licensed executable. It's simple, small, fast, and reasonably standards-compliant (POSIX-2008 and LSB 4.1). Toybox's main goal is to make Android self-hosting by improving Android's command line utilities so it can build an installable Android Open Source Project image entirely from source under a stock Android system. After a talk at the 2013 Embedded Linux Conference explaining this plan (outline, video), Google merged toybox into AOSP and began shipping toybox in Android Mashmallow. Toybox aims to provide one quarter of a theoretical "minimal native development environment", which is the simplest Linux system capable of rebuilding itself from source code and then building Linux From Scratch and the Android Open Source Project under the result. In theory, this should only require four packages: 1) a set of posix-ish command line utilities, 2) a compiler [1] , 3) a C library, and 4) a kernel. This provides a reproducible and auditable base system, which with the addition of a few convienciences (vi, top, shell command line history...) can provide a usable interactive experience rather than just a headless build server. Why is toybox? The 2013 toybox talk at ELC was devoted to this question, and has the following sections: The 2015 toybox talk starts with links to three previous talks on the history and motivation of the project: "Why Toybox", "Why Public Domain", and "Why did I do Aboriginal Linux (which led me here)?". If you're really bored, there's even a half-finished a history page. The toybox maintainer's earlier minimal self-hosting system project, Aboriginal Linux, got its minimal native development environment down to seven packages in its 1.0 release (busybox, uClibc, gcc, binutils, make, bash, and linux) and built Linux From Scratch under the result. That project was the reason toybox's maintainer became busybox maintainer, having done so much work to extend busybox to replace all the gnu tools in a Linux From Scratch build that the previous maintainer handed over the project (to spend more time on buildroot). Despite the maintainer's history with busybox, toybox is a fresh from-scratch implementation under an android-compatible license. Busybox predates Android, but has never shipped with Android due to the license. As long as we're starting over anyway, we can do a better job. These days, toybox is replacing busybox in Aboriginal Linux one command at a time, and each toybox release is regression tested by building Aboriginal Linux with it, then building Linux From Scratch under the result with the new toybox commands. The list of commands remaining is tracked in the roadmap, and the replacing busybox in Aboriginal Linux is one of the main goals for toybox' 1.0 release. Building LFS requres fewer commands than building AOSP, which has a lot more build prerequisites. In theory some of those can be built from source as external packages (we're clearly not including our own java implementation), but some early prerequisites may need to be added to bootstrap AOSP far enough to build them (such as a read-only version of "git": how does repo download the AOSP source otherwise?) [2] What commands are planned/implemented in toybox? The current list of commands implemented by toybox is on the status page, which is updated each release. There is also a roadmap listing all planned commands for the 1.0 release and the reasons for including them. In general, configuring toybox with "make defconfig" enables all the commands compete enough to be useful. Configuring "allyesconfig" enables partially implemented commands as well, along with debugging features. Relevant Standards Most commands are implemented according to POSIX-2008 (I.E. The Single Unix Specification version 4) where applicable. This does not mean that toybox is implementing every SUSv4 utility: some such as SCCS and ed are obsolete, while others such as c99 are outside the scope of the project. Toybox also isn't implementing full internationalization support: it should be 8-bit clean and handle UTF-8, but otherwise we leave this to X11 and higher layers. And some things (like $CDPATH support in "cd") await a good explanation of why to bother with them. (POSIX provides an important frame of reference, but is not an infallable set of commandments to be blindly obeyed. We do try to document our deviations from it in the comment section at the start of each command under toys/posix.) The other major sources of commands are the Linux man pages, the Linux Standard Base, and testing the behavior of existing command implementations (although not generally looking at their source code), including the commands in Android's toolbox. SUSv4 does not include many basic commands such as "mount", "init", and "mke2fs", which are kind of nice to have. For more on this see the roadmap and design goals. Download This project is maintained as a git archive, and also offers source tarballs and static binaries of the release versions. The maintainer's development log and the project's mailing list are also good ways to track what's going on with the project. What's the toybox logo image? It's carefully stacked soda cans. Specifically, it's a bunch of the original "Coke Zero" and "Pepsi One" cans, circa 2006, stacked to spell out the binary values of the ascii string "Toybox", with null terminator at the bottom. (The big picture's on it's side because the camera was held sideways to get a better shot.) No, it's not photoshopped, I actually had these cans until a coworker who Totally Did Not Get It tm threw them out one day after I'd gone home, thinking they were recycling. (I still have two of each kind, but Pepsi One seems discontinued and Coke Zero switched its can color from black to grey, presumably in celebration. It was fun while it lasted...) Footnotes [1] Ok, most toolchains (gcc, llvm, pcc, libfirm...) are multiple packages, but the maintainer of toybox used to maintain a fork of tinycc (an integrated compiler/assembler/linker which once upon a time did build a bootable linux kernel before its original developer abandoned the project), and has vague plans of trying again someday. The compiler toolchain is _conceptually_ one package, implementable as a single multicall binary acting like make, cc, as, ld, cpp, strip, readelf, nm, objdump, and so on as necessary. It's just the existing packages that do this kinda suck don't. (In theory "make" belongs in qcc, in practice llvm hasn't got its own make so toybox probably needs to add it after 1.0 to eliminate another gpl build prerequite from AOSP.) [2] The dividing line is "Is there an acceptably licensed version Android can ship, or do we have to write one?" Since android is not "GNU/Linux" in any way, we need to clean out all traces of gnu software from its build to get a clean self-hosting system.
On Wednesday, Dr. Ron Paul made his rounds across television's favorite puppet shows. He appeared in person on MSNBC and CNN and got plenty of airtime from closet groupie, Rachel Maddow. The interview on CNN was the most telling of the cycle. While Wolf Blitzer tried to get Paul to talk nicely about Mitt Romney, he was not having any of it. Asked by Wolf if he ever plans to endorse Romney, Ron said, “No. Not ready. No way.” Well, it doesn’t get much more clear than that does it? When asked to weigh in on U.S. military possibilities in Egypt and Syria, Paul said that “neo-conservatives are gleeful over (the prospect if intervention) and delighted because this is what they have been agitating for.” Wolf inquired if he’d take a speaking spot at the convention and Ron said, “I would probably take care of the opportunity if I could give my speech.” Wolf talked about the lawsuit by Paul supporters challenging the binding of delegates, to which Paul basically said he has no control over the delegates. He even said that he thinks the Convention is primed for some debate on the floor. No matter what the outcome, I suspect that the days leading up to, including, and after the RNC are going to be better than any reality show the networks could come up with. One thing is for sure, Ron Paul looked re-energized for the summer battle that is upcoming.
Scientists have created the ‘black hole of sunlight’ - a new nanoparticle-based material that absorbs and converts more than 90 percent of captured sunlight to heat. Research from the US have developed a super-Sun-absorbing material that will help concentrating solar power (CSP) plants to generate more electricity and run for longer - a huge step towards making solar a viable alternative to fossil fuels. Traditional power plants burn coal or fossil fuel to create heat in the form of steam. This steam then turns a giant turbine that generates electricity from spinning magnets and conductor wire coils. One of the most promising clean energy technologies are CSP plants, which create the steam needed to turn the turbine by using sunlight to heat molten salt. A world-first CSP plant in Australia has already proved that the steam generated by solar power is pressurised and hot enough to match that produced by fossil fuels. Most CSP plants generate energy by using hundreds of thousands of large, reflective mirrors that concentrate sunlight at a tower that has been painted with a light-absorbing black paint material. Importantly, this electricity generated from the power of the Sun can be fed directly into our existing grid, and, because the mirrors can be used to concentrate light even on cloudy days, it overcomes many of the issues of solar panels. But one downside is that the material that is currently used degrades quickly and needs to be reapplied once a year, meaning that CSP plants are shut down and no power can be generated in this time. To combat this problem, scientists have developed a material that has a longer life cycle and allows for greater conversion of captured sunlight into heat. Researchers from the University of California in the US created the new “multiscale” material by covering it in thousands of scale-like particles ranging from 10 nanometres to 10 micrometres. The material can withstand temperatures greater than 700 degrees Celsius, allowing it to more efficiently trap and absorb sunlight. It can also tolerate exposure to air and humidity, enabling it to survive for many years in the outdoors. More importantly, these unique properties allow the material to convert more than 90 percent of captured sunlight to heat. "We wanted to create a material that absorbs sunlight that doesn't let any of it escape," said Sungho Jin, engineer and one of the researchers, in a press release. "We want the black hole of sunlight." CSP plants can produce around 3.5 gigawatt-hours of power per year, which is enough to power more than 2 million homes. The technology can easily retrofit existing power plants, as both use the same process to generate electricity. The team are continuing their research by further extending the usage life of the material, and hope that the breakthrough will finally prove that solar is not only a cheaper and more sustainable source of energy than fossil fuels, but also that it's more efficient. The findings are published in the journal Nano Energy. Source: EurekAlert
The Vancouver Park Board voted on Monday night to put in place a "good neighbour" campaign for False Creek in an effort to avoid the dangerous spiking E. coli levels seen last year in the city waterway. Vancouver Coastal Health has been erecting beach advisory signs in and around False Creek warning of the E.coli levels and intends to leave them up for the summer season, according to park board documents. Now, the park board plans a social awareness campaign encouraging people to clean up dog waste, not dump chemicals in storm drains, and for boaters to use discharge pump-out stations to get rid of their on-board waste. Park board commissioner Sarah Kirby-Yung says the campaign will be launched as soon as possible, before the busy boating season. "People don't intend to contribute to it but sometimes they're just not aware and certainly we have other boaters come in from other areas that may not be aware of the regulations." Park board wants to avoid a repeat of last year Last August, E.coli counts rose so high in many parts of Vancouver, Vancouver Coastal Health closed five beaches. In False Creek, which is seldom used by swimmers but popular with paddlers, the levels rose to 26 times higher than what is safe for swimming and five times the acceptable limit for kayakers. Terry Parsons, a member of the False Creek Racing Canoe Club and a paddler for a dragon boat team, said last year several people got pink eye after water was splashed into their boats. "People with health conditions should not be on the water at all. For a major in-city water way, it should be in better condition." The park board plans to work with groups including the Georgia Strait Alliance on the awareness campaign.
Chad Gender Male Origin Word/name Old English given name, "Ceadda" Other names Related names Chadd Chad is a masculine given name of Anglo-Saxon/Welsh origins. It is the modernized form of the Old English given name Ceadda, influenced by the Welsh word cad meaning "battle". It is also a short form (hypocorism) of Charles and Chadwick. Until the 20th century, Chad was very rarely used as a given name. According to the Social Security Administration, Chad first entered the top 1000 names for male children in the United States in 1945, when it was the 997th most popular name. Its popularity suddenly peaked beginning in the mid 1960s, reaching rank 25 in 1972 and 1973. From the mid 1970s, its popularity began a gradual decline, reaching rank 236 in 2000 and rank 667 as of 2013.[1] Given name [ edit ] Surname [ edit ] Fictional characters [ edit ] See also [ edit ]
Tony Snell NBA Stats \| Basketball-Reference.com: Shooting generated by a site user This report was generated using the SHARE link located just above the stat tables on the site. Give it a try! User's Notes: 2-Pt Field Goals 3-Pt Field Goals % of FGA by Distance FG% by Distance Dunks Corner Heaves Season Age Tm Lg Pos G MP FG% Dist. 2P 0-3 3-10 10-16 16 <3 3P 2P 0-3 3-10 10-16 16 <3 3P %Ast'd %FGA Md. %Ast'd %3PA 3P% Att. Md. 2014-15 23 CHI NBA SF 46 710 .461 16.7 .472 .228 .117 .017 .111 .528 .553 .780 .333 .333 .350 .379 .574 .050 8 .944 .274 .538 1 0 Career NBA 123 1941 .411 17.3 .471 .174 .128 .033 .136 .529 .490 .656 .364 .353 .429 .341 .571 .031 14 .978 .264 .389 1 0 View Original Table Generated 2/24/2015. Provided by Basketball-Reference.com Generated 2/24/2015. Please report any abuse.
4. What is Free Speech in France? As Jon Stewart put it in The Daily Show, Free speech in France doesn’t look like free speech to a lot of Americans. I know it’s not easy to understand: Free Speech is free speech and that’s it, right? Well, no. Free speech in the U.S. is as much the product of American history as the French “Liberté d’expression” is the product of French history. Some things are forbidden in France. Everything that is considered as “incitation to racial hate,” for example. In 2006, this is the accusation upon which several Muslim organizations sued Charlie Hebdo after the publication of the cartoons of Mohammad. Charlie was not condemned by the court, who defended the right to “satire”. (But it’s worth noting that the judgement stated that one of the cartoon “clearly suggested that terrorist violence is inherent to Islam”.) The rules are very specific: You cannot say that the Holocaust didn’t exist, for example. And there has been several condemnations for this (including of the former leader of the far-right party, the National Front). France also voted for a law two years ago forbidding anyone to deny that the Armenian genocide ever existed. And the country has also a law to prohibit political parties or organizations that call themselves Nazis or fascists. Another example ? Last week, the demonstration initiated by an anti-Muslim organization, Riposte Laïque, have been forbidden in Paris. Mathieu Davy, a French lawyer, explains in the New York Times : “There are clear limits in our legal system. I have the right to criticize an idea, a concept or a religion. I have the right to criticize the powers in my country. But I don’t have the right to attack people and to incite hate.” This doesn’t mean that France is perfect in terms of free speech (far from it, really) : after the Charlie Hebdo attack, like after 9/11, several persons have been prosecuted in France for “Vindication of terrorism”. >> This article in the New Yorker explains better than I do why France’s law are this way, in terms of Free Speech and Religion >> This article from Damien Leloup and Samuel Laurent in Le Monde explains very well what free speech is according to the French law and what are the the differences in several cases (it’s all in French, sorry, but if you insist a lot, they may translate it) It’s also worth noting that the cultural norms about what you can say or write is different between our two countries. It’s not only a question of law or constitution. An example? Almost all the French newspapers published at least one cartoon published by Charlie Hebdo about Islam after the shooting. A lot of American media refused to do so (you may have read this on the Public editor’s NYT blog). In France, it is seen as courage and resistance, an act of freedom from publishers. A claim that there is a right to blasphemy, a right a lot of French people think is really important.
It is two decades this year that Robson & Jerome became the most unlikely of chart stars in the UK. Robson Green and Jerome Flynn managed to score several number one singles in the mid-1990s with covers of old classics. After Robson told Digital Spy that he doesn't look back at his singing career too fondly, we thought it would be a good time to look back at the duo's short-lived but massively successful music career. 1. Yes, that is Bronn from Game of Thrones Let's get this out of the way. To this day, we still have chats with people who had no idea that the double 'ard Bronn and Jerome off Robson & Jerome are the same person. Who would have thought that Jerome would become such a badass? He also currently plays gruff Bennet Drake in Ripper Street. 2. The partnership began in Soldier, Soldier Green and Flynn (it feels weird calling them that) had starred in ITV period drama Soldier, Soldier since 1991, before one episode saw them performing 'Unchained Melody' together. If this happened today, the Righteous Brothers version would probably just rise up the charts via downloads. But, baby boomers in their droves demanded an official CD release, and they got one via... 3. It was Simon Cowell's fault A then-unknown music executive called Simon Cowell instantly put together contracts for the pair to record a studio version of 'Unchained Melody', capitalising on the 'fan of Heartbeat' target audience. Robson isn't too fond of Cowell today, after the TV judge's authorised biography had its fair share of negative comments about their work together. Plus, Green's second wife was Cowell's former assistant Vanya Seager. The pair have one son together, and separated in 2011. 4. They have one of the best-selling singles of all time Their version of 'Unchained Melody' is in the top 20 of the best-selling songs ever, shifting a staggering 1.8 million copies in 1995. It also spent seven weeks at number one. So, in a year full of new Oasis, Take That and Michael Jackson songs, Robson & Jerome were by far the best-selling act. Their second single 'I Believe'/'Up on the Roof' was also number one for four weeks. 5. Geeky chart fact alert Robson & Jerome are the only act in UK chart history to score a number one with a 'Triple A-side' single. We're not quite sure how the vinyl and cassette copies would have worked, but 'What Becomes of the Brokenhearted'/'Saturday Night at the Movies'/'You'll Never Walk Alone' had two weeks at the top in 1996, making it their final chart entry, keeping their 100% number one record intact. 6. Their albums were also pretty darn popular Don't think it was just the singles that your gran went out and bought, as Robson & Jerome's two studio albums both topped the chart. Robson & Jerome was also the 1995 Christmas number one, while Take Two settled for the festive number two spot. Both albums were full of cover versions of classic tunes. 7. They kept some amazing tunes off number one 1995 was quite a good year for pop. We had 'Back for Good', 'Kiss From a Rose' and 'Gangsta's Paradise' for a start. But there were a handful of great tracks that were denied a deserved number one by Robson & Jerome. Pulp's 'Common People', U2's 'Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me', Perez Prado's 'Guaglione' and Oasis's 'Wonderwall' were criminally denied number one positions in 1995. 8. Jerome had to stop being a monk to make his comeback If you wondered where Flynn was between Robson & Jerome and Game of Thrones, then it was because he lived a largely reclusive life at a dilapidated farm in Pembrokeshire, while becoming a member of controversial guru Andrew Cohen's organisation. He eventually left the group several years later, describing it as "a very intense spiritual life,â€‰equivalent to being a monk for eight years". 9. Robson Green is now one of the best anglers around Since Soldier, Soldier and Robson & Jerome, Green has steadily starred in a number of successful TV dramas, including Strike Back, Wire in the Blood, Grantchester and Waterloo Road. He has also hosted a series of angling documentaries including Extreme Fishing and brand new show Ultimate Catch, showing off his genuinely impressive fishing skills in the process. 10. There's a chance Jerome didn't sing much on the records In 2008, producer Mike Stock claimed that the pair, particularly Flynn, didn't sing large portions of their songs. In true Milli Vanilli style, they were replaced or patched with uncredited singers to reach the higher notes. He said: "Des Dyer was brought in to assist with the Jerome part - because his voice and Jerome's were similar. The Robson part was done by a totally different singer and the high note was a totally different guy."
TOP OF THE SEVENTH: CUBS 5 – (4) 5 NATIONALS Dusty Baker is back to Wrigley, and I’m sprinting, huffing and puffing away from a pack of 2003 NLCS flashbacks—Mark Prior on the mound, Luis Castillo at the plate, Steve Bartman in the crowd. And the very same, toothpick-chewing Dusty Baker, manning the dugout. But I pinch myself and figure (or hope) I’m safe. This Cubs team is different, this Wrigley Field is different, thirteen years later. New ownership, new management, new coaching staff. New rosters of players, many times over. A new clubhouse, and a renovated, expanded bleachers. A massive jumbotron in left field. And a team that’s 22-6. The very best in baseball. But they’re up against a playoff-hungry Nationals team, with MVP Bryce Harper lurking in right-field, thinking of nothing but his likely return here in October for an NL-pennant battle, against a team he knows will be in his way, thinking—we’ve I’ve got to send a message here. In the TV booth, alongside the regular pair, is Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald, talking off-season training camps and looking to atone for the disaster that was last week’s 7th-inning stretch from Warren G. How can he, a singer (rapper), and Ozzy Osbourne, another singer (snarler?), account for the two worst all-time stretches at Wrigley Field? Mike Ditka’s goofery gets just spared here, barely, with a narrow third-place ranking in this race to the embarrassing bottom. On the mound is Travis Wood, the longest-tenured piece of this youthful Cub team, with a 5-4 lead and Ben Revere stepping up to the plate. The pitch, and a double down the first-base line, bouncing along the dirt to the brick right-field corner wall, Heyward fielding it and throwing in to Zobrist as Revere charges like the British are coming, around second for a triple. Joe Maddon trots out of the dugout, in his winter beanie, gesturing to the bullpen for Adam Warren to come on, and that’s that for Woody. The Cubs have won five in a row, having just swept the Pirates, and it’s been two straight against this Nationals team, with a cheeky two-out rally an inning earlier that’s putting the series sweep in sweet, tempting view—Arrieta on the mound for Sunday’s finale. Warren comes in with a few warm-up pitches, readying for Danny Espinosa. Behind the catcher at home, just above the shallow brick wall, the seats at Wrigley are packed in tight, bucking the trend of every other stadium to install cushy, wide-armrested seating behind home in reserved VIP sections—leaving half-empty blemishes in the most TV-visible sections in sports. But Wrigley’s keeping it real, for now, same seats for all. Espinosa strikes out, on an up-and-down curveball. Then, at last, it’s Bryce Harper, who gets yet another intentional walk, sixth so far in the series. Reaching Barry Bonds levels of respect/fear from opposing managers. Update: He’s got six more on Sunday alone, to tie the single-game record. So they opt for Ryan Zimmerman instead, no easy out himself. Check-swing strike, 1-2 count. A big at-bat here, as we’ll see whether the walk-one-slugger-for-another tactic works or falls flat on its face. The count now 2-2, the fans whistling, jostling for space enough to holler, and Zimmerman bat-waggles in the box, then hits a soft bouncer to La Stella, who turns on a dime and whips out one to Zobrist for the 5-4-3. But the runner’s safe at first. Tie game. Maddon challenges, the umps confer, the call stands. Just, just safe as the ball bounces in the dirt before Rizzo’s glove. “How’s replay in college football, do you like it?” asks Len Kasper. “Absolutely,” says Fitzgerald, “when the call goes your way!” Har har har. Jason Werth lines out to Fowler for the third out. Fitzgerald’s 7th-inning stretch coming (it goes… solid: 7/10) It’s been a close and exciting game to watch. Now #LetsGetSomeRuns and secure that #W! pic.twitter.com/KkDItwwpnj — #VoteCubs (@Cubs) May 7, 2016 BOTTOM OF THE SEVENTH: CUBS 7 (5) – 5 NATIONALS Seagulls have started to assemble in right-center. For what purpose is anybody’s guess, but it doesn’t look friendly. Take notice, all ye who enter here (that’s looking at you, Bryce Harper). Jason Heyward comes up first, striking out on a foul tip into the glove of Wilson Ramos. And it’s quite windy now, with Sammy Solis’ jersey flapping in the breeze, as he delivers to Kris Bryant. Ball one. Then three more. So it’s with a man on first, when Anthony Rizzo comes up, set on playing spoiler to Bryce Harper’s 2016—coming for his MVP, coming for his pennant. He hits one up in the air to shallow left, waiting on an outside pitch and drops it down the line. It bounces onto the dirt, spins wickedly and up into the Bartman seats, off the adam’s apple of an eager fan and into the lap of his date. The rare ground-rule double at Wrigley, keeping Bryant at third. Now Ben Zobrist’s up, hotter than any other Cub at the moment, and it’s another intentional walk. David Ross then lines out to second. But then, with the last chance of the inning, up steps Addison Russell, another two-out situation, sharpening his bat to mark another tally in the long row of big moments on the season. A 2-2 count, two outs, two men on, tie game, and Russell flicks a defensive swing through the zone at a low outside fastball, and it’s up, trailing down the first-base line, going foul, right up along the wall, Harper tracking it down, the open-air bullpen scattering, the fans screaming and berating, as a flock of forty-plus gulls takes flight. And the ball shoots down out of the sky, through a sea of feathers, flaps and squawks, and off the glove of Harper, bouncing down onto the chalk, as he slams into the padding and throws the recovered ball into the relay man. It’s too late, two runs have scored, Russell’s left his mark again. And the MVP, for all his influence, has come up short—and held to nothing on offense from a series of bold walks. The seagulls went into distract mode, Harper missed the catch, Cubs score 2! #Cubs — Drunk Cubs Fan (@Drunkhawksfan) May 7, 2016 Rizzo slides home with the pride of Cubs nation behind him, Harper walks back to his position, his shirt half-unbuttoned, ticked off, sunglasses and eye-black masking the inner battle between mouthing off at the fans or keeping quiet, keeping stoic, keeping the faith that his Nationals team won’t screw the pooch for another season. It’s that part of the year when it’s no longer the nervous starts of still-frozen April, nor the free-flowing windy battles of summer Chicago, but somewhere in between. That in-between spot with the Cubs at 22-6 (now 24-6), and a whole city of fans wondering: Are we dreaming? Follow @big_inning Previously: 4th Inning: STL vs. CHC 8th Inning: CHC vs. CIN 7th Inning: TOR vs. CHW 9th Inning: TBR vs. TOR 11th Inning: PIT vs. STL 3rd Inning: WSH vs. ATL 7th Inning: BAL vs. BOS
5 Data Integration Technology Trends for 2018 Smart technologies such as AI, chatbots and augmented analytics generate overwhelming amounts of data. Here are some important integration trends that will give your enterprise an edge. Learn more. Open source software is making its way into the systems that touch our everyday lives, from our banks to the stores where we shop. Open source is also found in some of the IT systems that manage traffic flow on city streets, state highways and in the skies. In fact, throughout the overlapping transportation and travel industries, open source has a very big footprint. So, open source is taking over traffic flow management throughout the transportation industry, right? Not yet. It probably will not be a pervasive source in handling ground traffic flow any time soon. However, there are factors that suggest it will ultimately get there. "No open source software to support traffic flow exists. We're building it as we go. The process is analogous to tracking dots on a map," Margaret Sorentino, senior software engineer at Wireless Matrix, told LinuxInsider. Seeking a Breakthrough Wireless Matrix develops fleet management solutions and provides wireless data communications services. The company relies on mobile phone and satellite technology. The company also makes vehicle tracking software in real time locations over a Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery model. The GPS (global positioning system) signal is sent over cell waves and is captured on the company's data screens. Several of the company's products are based on open source tools. These tools let drivers download traffic alerts to their mobile phones while they are navigating through traffic. "Everyone is jumping on open source as a way of controlling cost. Traffic flow management is a good market to be in," she said. Academic Progress Much of the work on developing new traffic management solutions is taking place through collaborative efforts between researchers and practitioners. One such endeavor is a project run by the University of California in Davis (UC Davis) and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). Working with several states, researchers are developing a traffic management system based on open standards and open source software. Known as the "Advanced Highway Maintenance and Construction Technology," or AHMCT, the researcher center has cobbled together a working system for an Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS) that uses open standards, open software and commodity computer hardware. Researchers hope to greatly reduce ATMS deployment and maintenance costs, thus freeing funds for additional ATMS deployment. Researchers hope their efforts will eventually economize the cost of maintaining current traffic management systems built around high-cost, proprietary, single-source ATMS components. The goal is replace these aging systems with multi-sourced commodity hardware combined with open source software that has no annual licensing fees. UC Davis and company are focusing on an existing open source ATMS package used by the Minnesota Department of Transportation called the "Integrated Roadway Information System," or IRIS for short. If successful, the use of open source technologies will lead the Californian highway department to helping the state achieve annual savings in the millions of dollars, according to university researchers. Flying Progress A similar system is in use to control traffic above ground as well. The Federal Aviation Administration has adopted an open source air traffic management system. The FAA is replacing its old proprietary systems using Java, Web service, open source and Oracle applications. Part of the upgrade involves swapping out Unix for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, according to published accounts. The FAA is using a real-time system called the "Enhanced Traffic Management System" to predict traffic surges, gaps and volume across the national airspace. For around US$15 million under the original $25 million price tag, the FAA implemented the new system and spent two-thirds less time than originally projected doing it. The transition to open source resulted in being able to use greater hardware flexibility and software control. Promise Exists Open source architecture is often the primary choice in South American and European countries, which are in many cases required by law to use non-proprietary software if such a solution exists. The travel and transportation industries, of which traffic management is a growing subset, includes a wide variety of systems. "Open source is becoming more prevalent in international markets based in South America and Europe. That will have a strong influence on U.S. market counterparts to develop new systems with open source," Guibert Englebienne, CTO of Argentinean software development and maintenance company Globant, told LinuxInsider. A solid 95 percent of Globant's customers are based in the U.S. and England, he said. He is seeing a greater emphasis of open source products blending with existing proprietary products in the U.S. market. "We see all the major players moving towards Linux running JBoss or Tomcat or Apache," Englebienne added. The U.S. market will create open source platforms and customize them to their varying traffic management needs, he noted. Community Support One example of forces in motion to drive open source towards better managing traffic flow in the U.S. is the OpenTraffic project. The community contributes software for use in ATMS applications to the transportation industry. Its goal is to produce high-quality software guided by industry and worldwide standards that remains free to download, use and distribute. Since OpenTraffic is an open source project built around the Eclipse integrated development environment and application framework, private industry developers can add proprietary device support. The Eclipse platform is written in Java and provides modeling tools, a deployable application platform (RCP) and a tools library for application development. The Eclipse model is conducive to shared development because its applications are built around plug-ins. These highly modular and flexible components do not require access to source code. In addition, OpenTraffic can be branded and highly customized to match the needs of the required transportation management user. Also, plug-in developers can contribute them as open source projects or retain ownership as proprietary software. Making Inroads Traffic flow management in the U.S. may see better methods brought about by open source architecture as the transportation and travel industries realize the efficiency and cost gains open source provides. Take, for instance, the view of an open source technologies expert. "Open source offers capabilities for higher traffic monitoring. It can have really beneficial effects. It is possible that open source has the added benefit of having the car on the Internet," David "Lefty" Schlesinger, director of open source technologies for Access Systems America, told LinuxInsider. As an example, consider the OnStar phenomenon and other GPS systems. "OnStar gives you a flavor of what you can do in the automotive environment," he said.
For units of measure primarily used in countries where English is not the main language, see the article specific to that country, a list of which can be found in the systems of measurement article. For unusual units of measure invented primarily for amusement, see List of humorous units of measurement An unusual unit of measurement is a unit of measurement that does not form part of a coherent system of measurement; especially in that its exact quantity may not be well known or that it may be an inconvenient multiple or fraction of base units in such systems. This definition is deliberately not exact since it might seem to encompass units such as the week or the light-year which are quite "usual" in the sense they are often used; if they are used out of context, they may be "unusual", as demonstrated by the Furlong/Firkin/Fortnight (FFF) system of units. Many of the unusual units of measurements listed here are colloquial measurements, units devised to compare a measurement to common and familiar objects. Length [ edit ] Rack unit [ edit ] A typical section of rack rail, showing rack unit distribution. One rack unit (U) is 1.75 inches (44.45 mm) and is used to measure rack-mountable audiovisual and computing equipment (hence, 24000U = 1 Verst.) Rack units are typically denoted without a space between the number of units and the 'U'. Thus a 4U server enclosure (case) is seven inches (177.8 mm) high. Hand [ edit ] The hand is a non-SI unit of length equal to exactly 4 inches (101.6 mm). It is normally used to measure the height of horses in some English-speaking countries, including Australia,[1] Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and the United States. The light-nanosecond was popularized as a unit of distance by Grace Hopper as the distance which a photon could travel in one billionth of a second (roughly 30 cm or one foot): "The speed of light is one foot per nanosecond."[2] In her speaking engagements, she was well known for passing out light-nanoseconds of wire to the audience, and contrasting it with light-microseconds (a coil of wire 1,000 times as long) and light-picoseconds (the size of ground black pepper). Over the course of her life, she found many uses for this visual aid, including demonstrating the waste of sub-optimal programming, illustrating advances in computer speed, and simply giving young scientists and policy makers the ability to conceptualize the magnitude of very large and small numbers.[3] A metric foot (defined as 300 mm, or about 11.8 inches) has been used occasionally in the UK[4] but has never been an official unit. Horse [ edit ] Horses are used to measure distances in horse racing – a horse length (shortened to merely a length when the context makes it obvious) equals roughly 8 feet or 2.4 metres. Shorter distances are measured in fractions of a horse length; also common are measurements of a full or fraction of a head, a neck, or a nose.[5] Boat length [ edit ] In rowing races such as the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, the margin of victory and of defeat is expressed in fractions and multiples of lengths. The length of a rowing eight is about 62 feet (19 m). A shorter distance is the canvas, which is the length of the covered part of the boat between the bow and the bow oarsman. A football field is often used as a comparative measurement of length when talking about distances that may be hard to comprehend when stated in terms of standard units. An American football field is usually understood to be 100 yards (91 m) long, though it is technically 120 yards (110 m) when including the two 10 yd (9.1 m) long end zones. The field is 160 ft (53 yd; 49 m) wide. [6] A Canadian football field is 65 yd (59 m) wide and 150 yd (140 m) long, including two 20 yd (18 m) long end zones. Media in the UK also use the football pitch as a unit of length, although the area of the association football pitch is not fixed, but may vary within limits of 90–120 m (98–131 yd) in length and 45–90 m (49–98 yd) in width. The usual size of a football pitch is 105 m × 68 m (115 yd × 74 yd), the dimensions used for matches in the UEFA Champions League. Block [ edit ] A city block (in most US cities) is between 1⁄ 16 and 1⁄ 8 mi (100 and 200 m). In Manhattan, the measurement "block" usually refers to a north–south block, which is 1⁄ 20 mi (80 m). Sometimes people living in cities with a regularly spaced street grid will speak of long blocks and short blocks. Within a typical large North American city, it is often only possible to travel along east–west and north–south streets, so travel distance between two points is often given in the number of blocks east–west plus the number north–south (known to mathematicians as the Manhattan Metric).[7] Tall buildings [ edit ] The Empire State Building is taller than 4 American football fields stood on end, including their end zones. Throughout the world, well-known tall structures such as the Empire State Building (449 m or 1,473 ft) are often used as comparative measurements of height. In the UK, well-known structures such as the Blackpool Tower (158 m or 518 ft),[8] are commonly used by British newspapers or reference books to give the comparative heights of buildings or, occasionally, mountains. In Canada, the Toronto CN Tower (553 m or 1,814 ft) is used as a unit of length.[9][10] In France, the Eiffel Tower and Mont Saint-Michel are commonly used as units of height or volume. The Montparnasse Tower (Paris) is also – but less – used as a measurement for modern buildings, mostly in Parisian Area. The Earth's circumference [ edit ] The circumference of a great circle of the Earth (about 40,000 km or 25,000 mi or 22,000 nmi) is often compared to large distances. For example, one might say that a large number of objects laid end-to-end at the equator "would circle the Earth four and a half times".[11] According to WGS-84, the circumference of a circle through the poles (twice the length of a meridian) is 40,007,862.917 metres (43,753,130.924 yd) and the length of the equator is 40,075,016.686 metres (43,826,571.179 yd). Despite the fact that the difference (0.17%) between the two is insignificant at the low precision that these quantities are typically given to, it is nevertheless often specified as being at the equator.[citation needed] The definitions of both the nautical mile and the kilometre were originally derived from the Earth's circumference as measured through the poles. The nautical mile was defined as a minute of arc of latitude measured along any meridian. A circle has 360 degrees, and each degree is 60 minutes, so the nautical mile was defined as 1⁄ 21,600 of the Earth's circumference, or about 1,852.22 metres. However, by international agreement, it is now defined to be exactly 1,852 metres (6,076 ft). The metre was originally defined as 1⁄ 10,000,000 of the distance from a pole to the equator, or as 1⁄ 40,000,000 of the Earth's circumference as measured through the poles. This standard made the historical metre 0.0197% longer than the modern standard metre, which is calculated based on the distance covered by light in a vacuum in a set amount of time. Earth-to-Moon distance [ edit ] The distance between the Earth's and the Moon's surfaces is, on average, approximately 380,000 km or 240,000 miles. This distance is sometimes used in the same manner as the circumference of the Earth; that is, one might say that a large number of objects laid end-to-end "would reach all the way to the Moon and back two-and-a-half times". The abbreviation for the Earth-to-Moon distance is "LD" which stands for "Lunar Distance", used in astronomy to express close approaches of Earth by minor planets. Siriometer [ edit ] The siriometer is a rarely used astronomical measure equal to one million astronomical units, i.e., one million times the average distance between the Sun and Earth. This distance is equal to about 15.8 light-years, 149.6 Pm or 4.8 parsecs, and is about twice the distance from Earth to the star Sirius. Area [ edit ] Barn [ edit ] One barn is 10−28 square metres, about the cross-sectional area of a uranium nucleus. The name probably derives from early neutron-deflection experiments, when the uranium nucleus was described, and the phrases "big as a barn" and "hit a barn door" were used. Additional units include the microbarn (or "outhouse")[12] and the yoctobarn (or "shed").[13][14] Brass [ edit ] One brass is 100 square feet (9.29 m2) area (used in measurement of work done or to be done, such as plastering, painting, etc.). It is also equal, however, to 100 cubic feet (2.83 m3) of estimated or supplied loose material, such as sand, gravel, rubble, etc. This unit is prevalent in construction industry in India.[15][16] Square [ edit ] The square is an Imperial unit of area that is used in the construction industry in North America,[17] and was historically used in Australia by real estate agents. One square is equal to 100 square feet (9.29 m2). A roof's area may be calculated in square feet, then converted to squares. Cow's grass [ edit ] In Ireland, before the 19th Century, a "cow's grass" was a measurement used by farmers to indicate the size of their fields. A cow's grass was equal to the amount of land that could produce enough grass to support a cow.[18][19] On this schema, an association football field is used to help to conceptualize the size of a polo field. A football pitch, or field, can be used as a man-in-the-street unit of area.[20][21] The standard FIFA football pitch is 105 m (344 ft) long by 68 m (223 ft) wide (7,140 m2 or 0.714 ha or 1.76 acres); FIFA allows for a variance of up to 5 m (16 ft) in length and 4 m (13 ft) in width in either direction (and even larger discretions if the pitch is not used for international competition), which generally results in the association football pitch generally only being used for order of magnitude comparisons.[22] An American football field, including both end zones, is 360 by 160 ft (120.0 by 53.3 yd; 109.7 by 48.8 m), or 57,600 square feet (5,350 m2) (0.535 hectares or 1.32 acres). A Canadian football field is 65 yards (59 m) wide and 110 yards (100 m) long with end zones adding a combined 40 yards (37 m) to the length, making it 87,750 square feet (8,152 m2) or 0.8215 ha (2.030 acres). An Australian rules football field may be approximately 150 metres (160 yd) (or more) long goal to goal and 135 metres (148 yd) (or more) wide, although the field's elliptical nature reduces its area to a certain extent. A 150-by-135-metre (164 by 148 yd) football field has an area of approximately 15,900 m2 (1.59 ha; 3.9 acres), twice the area of a Canadian football field and three times that of an American football field. Morgen [ edit ] A morgen ("morning" in Dutch and German) was approximately the amount of land tillable by one man behind an ox in the morning hours of a day. This was an official unit of measurement in South Africa until the 1970s, and was defined in November 2007 by the South African Law Society as having a conversion factor of 1 Morgen = 7003856532000000000♠0.856532 hectares.[23] This unit of measure was also used in the Dutch colonial province of New Netherland (later New York and parts of New England).[24][25] Countries, regions, and cities [ edit ] Wales (red) in the UK (pink) The area of a familiar country, state or city is often used as a unit of measure, especially in journalism. Wales [ edit ] Equal to 20,779 km2 (8,023 sq mi), the country of Wales is used in phrases such as "an area the size of Wales"[26] or "twice the area of Wales".[27][28] England is 6.275 times the size of Wales, and Scotland is roughly four times the size of Wales. Ireland is four times larger than Wales, and France is about twenty-five times larger. In older British and Commonwealth atlases, it was common to show a known area at the same scale, and the usual area to show was either Wales for smaller scales, or Great Britain for larger areas.[citation needed] The British comedy show The Eleven O'Clock Show parodied the use of this measurement, by introducing a news article about an earthquake in Wales, stating that an area the size of Wales was affected. The Radio 4 programme More or Less introduced the idea of "kilowales" – an area 1,000 times the size of Wales. The Register introduced the nanowales (20.78 m2).[29] The measurement has been adopted by rainforest conservation charity Size of Wales, aiming to conserve an area of rainforest equating to the area of Wales. On 1 March 2013, the charity announced that they had succeeded[30] in conserving an area of rainforest the size of Wales and will continue to operate to sustain and increase the protected area.[31] The United States [ edit ] In the United States the area of the smallest state, Rhode Island (1,545 sq mi or 4,000 km2), the largest of the contiguous 48 states, Texas (268,601 sq mi or 695,670 km2), and, less commonly, Alaska (656,425 sq mi or 1,700,130 km2) are used in a similar fashion. Antarctica's Larsen B ice shelf was approximately the size of Rhode Island until it broke up in 2002. In the 1979 movie The China Syndrome, radiation is expected to contaminate "an area the size of Pennsylvania". Any state may be used in this fashion to describe the area of another country. The US Central Intelligence Agency uses Washington, D.C. (61.4 sq mi or 159 km2) as a comparison for city-sized objects.[citation needed] Other countries [ edit ] In the Netherlands, its smallest province, Utrecht (1,386 km2 or 535 sq mi), is often used as a comparison for regions in general. The country of Belgium (30,528 km2 or 11,787 sq mi) has also often been used when comparing areas, to the point where it has been regarded as a meme[32] and where there is a website dedicated to notable areas which have been compared to that of Belgium. The Isle of Wight (380 km2 or 147 sq mi), an island off the south coast of mainland England, is commonly used to define smaller areas. In Denmark, the island of Bornholm (588 square kilometers) is often used to describe the size of an area. In Germany, the Saarland (2,569.69 km2 or 992.16 sq mi) is often used to define areas.[33] In Brazil, it is common to compare relatively small areas to the state of Sergipe (21,910.4 km2 or 8,459.7 sq mi), the smallest in the country. Smaller areas are sometimes compared to the cities of São Paulo (1,521.11 km2 or 587.30 sq mi) or Rio de Janeiro (1,221 km2 or 471 sq mi). Volume [ edit ] Metric ounce [ edit ] A metric ounce is an approximation of the imperial ounce, US dry ounce, or US fluid ounce. These three customary units vary. However, the metric ounce is usually taken as 25 or 30 ml when volume is being measured, or grams when mass is being measured. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) defines the "food labeling ounce" as 30 ml, slightly larger than the 29.6 ml fluid ounce.[34] Shot [ edit ] Three shot glasses of varying shape and size The shot is a liquid volume measure that varies from country to country and state to state depending on legislation. It is routinely used for measuring strong liquor or spirits when the amount served and consumed is smaller than the more common measures of alcoholic "drink" and "pint". There is a legally defined maximum size of a serving in some jurisdictions. The size of a "single" shot is 20–60 ml (0.70–2.11 imp fl oz; 0.68–2.03 US fl oz). The smaller "pony" shot is 20–30 ml (0.70–1.06 imp fl oz; 0.68–1.01 US fl oz). According to Encyclopædia Britannica Almanac 2009, a pony is 0.75 fluid ounces[clarification needed] of liquor.[35] According to Wolfram Alpha, one pony is 1 U.S. fluid ounce.[36] "Double" shots (surprisingly not always the size of two single shots, even in the same place) are 40–100 ml (1.4–3.5 imp fl oz; 1.4–3.4 US fl oz). In the UK, spirits are sold in shots of either 25 ml (approximating the old fluid ounce) or 35 ml.[37] A board foot is a United States and Canadian unit of volume, used for lumber. It is equivalent to 1 inch × 1 foot × 1 foot (144 cu in or 2,360 cm3). It is also found in the unit of density pounds per board foot. In Australia and New Zealand the terms super foot or superficial foot were formerly used for this unit. A system of measure for timber in the round (standing or felled), now largely superseded by the metric system except in measuring hardwoods in certain countries. Its purpose is to estimate the value of sawn timber in a log, by measuring the unsawn log and allowing for wastage in the mill. Following the so-called "quarter-girth formula" (the square of one quarter of the circumference in inches multiplied by 1⁄ 144 of the length in feet), the notional log is four feet in circumference, one inch of which yields the hoppus board foot, 1 foot yields the hoppus foot, and 50 feet yields a hoppus ton. This translates to a hoppus foot being equal to 1.273 cubic feet (2,200 in3; 0.0360 m3). The hoppus board foot, when milled, yields about one board foot. The volume yielded by the quarter-girth formula is 78.54% of cubic measure (i.e. 1 ft3 = 0.7854 h ft; 1 h ft = 1.273 ft3).[38] Cubic ton [ edit ] A cubic ton is an antiquated measure of volume, varying based on the commodity from about 16 to 45 cu ft (0.45 to 1.27 m3). It is now only used for lumber, for which one cubic ton is equivalent to 40 cu ft (1.1 m3). Cord and rick [ edit ] A cord of wood The cord is a unit of measure of dry volume used in Canada and the United States to measure firewood and pulpwood. A cord is the amount of wood that, when "ranked and well stowed" (arranged so pieces are aligned, parallel, touching and compact), occupies a volume of 128 cubic feet (3.62 m3).[39] This corresponds to a well-stacked woodpile, 4 feet deep by 4 feet high by 8 feet wide (122 cm × 122 cm × 244 cm), or any other arrangement of linear measurements that yields the same volume. A more unusual measurement for firewood is the "rick" or face cord. It is stacked 16 inches (40.6 cm) deep with the other measurements kept the same as a cord, making it 1⁄ 3 of a cord; however, regional variations mean that its precise definition is nonstandardized.[40] The twenty-foot equivalent unit is the volume of the smallest standard shipping container. It is equivalent to 1,360 cubic feet (39 m3). Larger intermodal containers are commonly described in multiples of TEU, as are container ship capacities. Double decker bus [ edit ] The approximate volume of a double-decker bus, abbreviated to DDB, has been used informally to describe the size of hole created by a major sewer collapse. For example, a report might refer to "a 4 DDB hole".[41] An acre-foot is a unit of volume commonly used in the United States in reference to large-scale water resources, such as reservoirs, aqueducts, canals, sewer flow capacity, irrigation water[42] and river flows. It is defined by the volume of one acre of surface area to a depth of one foot (43,560 ft3) which is about 1,233.48 m3 (325,850 US gal; 271,330 imp gal). Olympic-size swimming pool [ edit ] An Olympic-size swimming pool holds over 2 acre-feet of water. For larger volumes of liquid, one measure commonly used in the media in many countries is the Olympic-size swimming pool.[43] A 50 m × 25 m (164 ft × 82 ft) Olympic swimming pool, built to the FR3 minimum depth of 2 metres (6.6 ft) would hold 2,500 m3 (2,500,000 l; 550,000 imp gal; 660,000 US gal; 2.0 acre⋅ft). The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines the Olympic swimming pool as 1 million litres, which is the approximate volume of the smaller FR2 pool.[44] Royal Albert Hall [ edit ] The Royal Albert Hall, a large concert hall, is sometimes used as a unit of volume in the UK, for example when referring to volumes of rubbish placed in landfill.[45] It is famously used in the line "Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall." in The Beatles song "A Day in the Life".[46] The volume of the auditorium is between 3 and 3.5 million cubic feet (between 85,000 and 99,000 cubic metres).[47] Melbourne Cricket Ground [ edit ] A common measure of volume in Australia, and in the state of Victoria in particular, is the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the largest stadium in Australia and 13th largest in the world.[48] The volume of the Melbourne Cricket Ground is 1,574,000 cubic metres, or about 630 Olympic swimming pools.[49] The seating capacity of the Melbourne Cricket Ground (approximately 95,000 as of October 2015 ) is also used as a unit measure of the number of people. Sydney Harbour [ edit ] Sydney Harbour ( Port Jackson ), contains enough water to fill the Melbourne Cricket Ground 357 times or about 238,000 Olympic swimming pools. A unit of volume used in Australia for water. One Sydney Harbour, also called a Sydharb (or sydarb), is the amount of water in Sydney Harbour: approximately 562 gigalitres (562,000,000 cubic metres, or 0.562 of a cubic kilometre); or in terms of the more unusual measures above, about 357 Melbourne Cricket Grounds, 238,000 Olympic Swimming pools, or 476,000 acre-feet.[50][51][52] The Grand Canyon [ edit ] With a volume measure approximately 4 orders of magnitude greater than a Sydharb, the volume of the Grand Canyon may be used to visualize even larger things, like the magma chamber underneath Yellowstone[53] and other things.[54][55] According to the National Park Service, the volume of the Grand Canyon is 4.17 trillion cubic metres (5.45 trillion cubic yards)[56] which is 4,170 km3 (1,000 cu mi). Flow rate [ edit ] Miner's inch [ edit ] The volume of water which flows in one unit of time through an orifice one inch square or in diameter. The size of the unit varies from one place to another. Mass [ edit ] Grave [ edit ] In 1793, the French term "grave" (from "gravity") was suggested as the base unit of mass for the metric system. In 1795, however, the name "kilogramme" was adopted instead. Bag of cement and bag mix [ edit ] The mass of an old bag of cement was one hundredweight ~ 112 lb, approximately 50 kg. The amount of material that, say, an aircraft could carry into the air is often visualised as the number of bags of cement that it could lift. In the concrete and petroleum industry, however, a bag of cement is defined as 94 pounds (~ 42.6 kg), because it has an apparent volume close to 1 cubic foot.[57] When ready-mix concrete is specified, a "bag mix" unit is used as if the batching company mixes 5 literal bags of cement per cubic yard (or cubic metre) when a "5 bag mix" is ordered. Jupiter [ edit ] Jupiter When reporting on the masses of extrasolar planets, astronomers often discuss them in terms of multiples of Jupiter's mass ( M J = 1.9 ×1027 kg).[58] For example, "Astronomers recently discovered a planet outside our Solar System with a mass of approximately 3 Jupiters." Furthermore, the mass of Jupiter is nearly equal to one thousandth of the mass of the Sun. Sun [ edit ] Solar mass ( M ☉ = 7030200000000000000♠2.0×1030 kg) is also often used in astronomy when talking about masses of stars or galaxies; for example, Alpha Centauri A has the mass of 1.1 suns, and the Milky Way has a mass of approximately 6×1011 M ☉ . Solar mass also has a special use when estimating orbital periods and distances of 2 bodies using Kepler's laws: a3 = M total T2, where a is length of semi-major axis in AU, T is orbital period in years and M total is the combined mass of objects in M ☉ . In case of planet orbiting a star, M total can be approximated to mean the mass of the central object. More specifically in the case of Sun and Earth the numbers reduce to M total ~ 1, a ~ 1 and T ~ 1. Time [ edit ] George Gamow discussed measurements of time such as the "light-mile" and "light-foot", the time taken for light to travel the specified unit distance, defined by "reversing the procedure" used in defining a light-year.[59] One light-nanosecond is roughly 30 centimeters (29.9792458 cm exactly), or about a foot (30.48 cm). Shake [ edit ] In nuclear engineering and astrophysics contexts, the shake is sometimes used as a conveniently short period of time. 1 shake is defined as 10 nanoseconds.[60] Jiffy [ edit ] In computing, the jiffy is the duration of one tick of the system timer interrupt. Typically, this time is 0.01 seconds, though in some earlier systems (such as the Commodore 8-bit machines) the jiffy was defined as 1⁄ 60 of a second, roughly equal to the vertical refresh period (i.e. the field rate) on NTSC video hardware (and the period of AC electric power in North America). Microfortnight [ edit ] One unit derived from the FFF system of units is the microfortnight, one millionth of the fundamental time unit of FFF, which equals 1.2096 seconds. This is a fairly representative example of "hacker humor",[61] and is occasionally used in operating systems; for example, the OpenVMS TIMEPROMPTWAIT parameter is measured in microfortnights.[62] Sidereal day [ edit ] The sidereal day is based on the Earth's rotation rate relative to fixed stars, rather than the Sun. A sidereal day is approximately 23 hours, 56 minutes, 4.0905 SI seconds. Decimal time systems [ edit ] Decimal Time clock reading 2.50 DT equivalent to 6 AM standard time The measurement of time is unique in SI in that while the second is the base unit, and measurements of time smaller than a second use prefixed units smaller than a second (e.g. microsecond, nanosecond, etc.), measurements larger than a second instead use traditional divisions, including the sexagesimal-based minute and hour as well as the less regular day and year units. SI allows for the use of larger prefixed units based on the second, a system known as metric time, but this is unusual. There have been numerous proposals and usage of decimal time, most of which were based on the day as the base unit. For instance, in dynastic China, the kè was a unit that represented 1⁄ 100 of a day (it has since been refined to 1⁄ 96 of a day, or 15 minutes). In France, a decimal time system in place from 1793 to 1805 divided the day into 10 hours, each divided into 100 minutes, in turn each divided into 100 seconds; the French Republican Calendar further extended this by assembling days into ten-day "weeks". Ordinal dates and Julian days, the latter of which has seen use in astronomy as it is not subject to leap year complications) allow for the expression of a decimal portion of the day.[63] In the mid-1960s, to defeat the advantage of the recently introduced computers for the then popular rally racing in the Midwest, competition lag times in a few events were given in centids (1⁄ 100 day, 864 seconds, 14.4 minutes), millids (1⁄ 1,000 day, 86.4 seconds) and centims (1⁄ 100 minute, 0.6 seconds) the latter two looking and sounding a bit like the related units of minutes and seconds. Decimal time proposals are frequently used in fiction, often in futuristic works. In addition to decimal time, there also exist binary clocks and hexadecimal time. Sol [ edit ] The United States-based NASA, when conducting missions to the planet Mars, has typically used a time of day system calibrated to the mean solar day on that planet (known as a "sol"), training those involved on those missions to acclimate to that length of day, which is 88,775 SI seconds, or 2,375 seconds (about 39 minutes) longer than the mean solar day on Earth. NASA's Martian timekeeping system (instead of breaking down the sol into 25×53×67 or 25×67×53 SI second divisions) slows down clocks so that the 24-hour day is stretched to the length of that on Mars; Martian hours, minutes and seconds are thus 2.75% longer than their SI-compatible counterparts.[64][65] The Darian calendar is an arrangement of sols into a Martian year. It maintains a seven-sol week (retaining Sunday through Saturday naming customs), with four weeks to a month and 24 months to a Martian year, which contains 668 or 669 sols depending on leap years. The last Saturday of every six months is skipped over in the Darian calendar. Dog year [ edit ] There are two diametrically opposed definitions of the dog year, primarily used to approximate the equivalent age of dogs and other animals with similar life spans. Both are based upon a popular myth regarding the aging of dogs that states that a dog ages seven years in the time it takes a human to age one year. One seventh of a year, or approximately 52 days. [66] When this definition is used, a standard calendar year is known as a "human year". When this definition is used, a standard calendar year is known as a "human year". A standard (365-day) calendar year of a dog's life, whereas a "human year" is the period of a dog's (or other animal's) life that is claimed to be equivalent to a year of a human being's life (or seven calendar years).[67] When these units are used, measurements in both "dog years" and "human years" are often included together, to more clearly indicate which name is used for each unit.[66] In fact, the aging of a dog varies by breed (larger breeds tend to have shorter lifespans than small and medium-sized breeds); dogs also develop faster and have longer adulthoods relative to their total life span than humans. Most dogs are sexually mature by 1 year old, which corresponds to perhaps 13 years old in humans. Giant dog breeds and bulldogs tend to have the strongest linear correspondence to human aging, with longer adolescences and shorter overall lifespans; such breeds typically age about nine times as fast as humans throughout their lives.[68] Galactic year [ edit ] The most common large-scale time scale is millions of years (megaannum or "Ma"). However, for long-term measurements, this still requires rather large numbers. Using as a measure the time it takes for the solar system to revolve once around the galactic core (GY - not to be confused with Gyr for gigayear), approximately 250 Ma, yields some easily memorizable numbers. In this scale, oceans appeared on Earth after 4 GY, life is detectable at 5 GY, and multicellular organisms first appeared at 15 GY. Dinosaurs became extinct about 1⁄ 4 GY ago, and the true age of mammals began about 0.2 GY ago. The age of the Earth is estimated at about 20 GY.[69] Angular measure [ edit ] Furman [ edit ] The Furman is a unit of angular measure equal to 1⁄ 65,536 of a circle, or just under 20 arcseconds. It is named for Alan T. Furman, the American mathematician who adapted the CORDIC algorithm for 16-bit fixed-point arithmetic sometime around 1980.[70] 16 bits give a resolution of 216 = 65,536 distinct angles. Binary degree, binary radian, brad [ edit ] A related unit of angular measure equal to 1⁄ 256 of a circle, represented by 8 bits, has found some use in machinery control where fine precision is not required, most notably crankshaft and camshaft position in internal combustion engine controllers, and in video game programming. There is no consensus as to its name, but it has been called the 8-Bit Furman, the Small Furman, the Furboy and more recently, the miFurman, (milli-binary-Furman). These units are convenient because they form cycles: for the 8-bit unit, the value overflows from 255 to 0 when a full circle has been traversed, so binary addition and subtraction work as expected. Measures are often made using a Gray code, which is trivially converted into more conventional notation. Grade (also grad, gradian, gon) [ edit ] Coordinates were measured in grades on official French terrestrial ordnance charts from the French revolution well into the 20th century. 1 grade (or in modern symbology 1 gon) = 0.9° or 0.01 right angle. One advantage of this measure is that the distance between latitude lines 0.01 gon apart at the equator is almost exactly 1 kilometer (and would be exactly 1 km if the original definition of 1 meter = 1⁄ 10,000 quarter-meridian had been adhered to). One disadvantage is that common angles like 30° and 60° are expressed by fractional values (331⁄ 3 and 662⁄ 3 respectively) so this "decimal" unit failed to displace the "sexagesimal" units equilateral-vertex — degree — minute — second invented by Babylonian astronomers. Angular mil [ edit ] Estimating angular mils by hand The angular mil is used by many military organisations to measure plane angle and so to triangulate distances, given an object's apparent and actual size. It is approximately the angle which has a tangent of 1⁄ 1,000 ; in NATO standard, this is rounded to 1⁄ 6,400 of a circle, although other definitions are in use. Its name derives from Latin: millesimus ("thousandth") and so the fact it is used mostly by the military is coincidental to its name.[71] Energy [ edit ] Electronvolt mass [ edit ] It is common in particle physics, where mass and energy are often interchanged, to use eV/c2, where eV (electronvolt) is the kinetic energy of an electron accelerated over one volt (6981160000000000000♠1.6×10−19 joules), c is the speed of light in a vacuum (from E = mc2). This definition is intuitive for a linear particle accelerator when accelerating electrons. 1 amu = 931.46 MeV/c2 Even more common is to use a system of natural units with c set to 1, and simply use eV as a unit of mass. Gasoline gallon equivalent [ edit ] In 2011 the United States Environmental Protection Agency introduced the gallon gasoline equivalent as a unit of energy because their research showed most U.S. citizens do not understand the standard units. The gallon gasoline equivalent is defined as 33.7 kWh,[72] or about 1.213×108 joules. Efficiency or fuel economy can be given as miles per gallon gasoline equivalent. Tons of TNT equivalent [ edit ] The energy of various amounts of the explosive TNT (kiloton, megaton, gigaton) is often used as a unit of explosion energy, and sometimes of asteroid impacts and violent explosive volcanic eruptions. One ton of TNT produces 4.184×109 joules, or (by arbitrary definition) exactly 109 thermochemical calories (approximately 3.964×106 BTU). This definition is only loosely based on the actual physical properties of TNT. Hiroshima bomb and Halifax explosion [ edit ] Hiroshima bomb explosion Halifax explosion The energy released by the Hiroshima bomb explosion (about 15 kt TNT equivalent, or 6×1013 J) is often used by geologists as a unit when describing the energy of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and asteroid impacts. Prior to the detonation of the Hiroshima bomb, the size of the Halifax Explosion (about 3 kt TNT equivalent, or 1.26×1013 J), was the standard for this type of relative measurement. Each explosion had been the largest known man-made detonation to date.[73] Foe [ edit ] A foe is a unit of energy equal to 1044 joules (≈9.478×1040 BTU) that was coined by physicist Gerry Brown of Stony Brook University. To measure the staggeringly immense amount of energy produced by a supernova, specialists occasionally use the "foe", an acronym derived from the phrase [ten to the power of] fifty-one ergs, or 1051 ergs. This unit of measure is convenient because a supernova typically releases about one foe of observable energy in a very short period of time (which can be measured in seconds). Other metric-compatible scales [ edit ] Power: Ton of refrigeration [ edit ] The rate at which heat is removed by melting one short ton (910 kg) of ice over twenty-four hours is referred to as a ton of refrigeration, or sometimes a ton of cooling. This unit of refrigeration capacity came from the days when large blocks of ice were used for cooling, and is still used to describe the heat-removal capabilities of refrigerators and chillers today. One ton of refrigeration is equal to 12,000 BTU/h exactly, or 3.517 kW. Flow: Amazon River [ edit ] The volume of discharge of the Amazon River sometimes used to describe large volumes of water flow such as ocean currents. The unit is equivalent to 216,000 m3/s (cumecs).[74] Flow: Sverdrup [ edit ] One Sverdrup (Sv) is equal to 1,000,000 cubic metres per second (264,000,000 USgal/s). It is used almost exclusively in oceanography to measure the volumetric rate of transport of ocean currents. Energy intensity [ edit ] The langley (symbol Ly) is used to measure solar radiation or insolation. It is equal to one thermochemical calorie per square centimetre (4.184×104 J/m2 or ≈3.684 BTU/sq ft) and was named after Samuel Pierpont Langley. Its symbol should not be confused with that for the light-year, ly. Kinematic viscosity [ edit ] One of the few CGS units to see wider use, one stokes (symbol S or St) is a unit of kinematic viscosity, defined as 1 cm2/s, i.e., 10−4 m2/s (≈1.08×10−3 sq ft/s). Angular velocity [ edit ] MERU (Milli Earth Rate Unit), an angular velocity equal to 1/1000 of Earth's rotation rate: 1 MERU = 0.015 degrees/hour ≈ 0.072921 microradian/second. Sometimes used to measure the angular drift rate of an inertial navigation system.[75] Electromagnetic flux [ edit ] In radio astronomy, the unit of electromagnetic flux is the jansky (symbol Jy), equivalent to 10−26 watts per square metre per hertz (= 10−26 kg/s2 in base units, about 8.8×10−31 BTU/ft2). It is named after the pioneering radio astronomer Karl Jansky. The brightest natural radio sources have flux densities of the order of one to one hundred jansky. Metre of water equivalent [ edit ] A material-dependent unit used in nuclear and particle physics and engineering to measure the thickness of shielding, for example around a nuclear reactor, particle accelerator, or radiation or particle detector. 1 mwe of a material is the thickness of that material that provides the equivalent shielding of one metre (≈39.4 in) of water. This unit is commonly used in underground science to express the extent to which the overburden (usually rock) shields an underground space or laboratory from cosmic rays. The actual thickness of overburden through which cosmic rays must traverse to reach the underground space varies as a function of direction due to the shape of the overburden, which may be a mountain, or a flat plain, or something more complex like a cliff side. To express the depth of an underground space in mwe (or kmwe for deep sites) as a single number, the convention is to use the depth beneath a flat overburden at sea level that gives the same overall cosmic ray muon flux in the underground location. Strontium unit: radiation dose [ edit ] The strontium unit, formerly known as the Sunshine Unit (symbol S.U.), is a unit of biological contamination by radioactive substances (specifically strontium-90). It is equal to one picocurie of Sr-90 per gram of body calcium. Since about 2% of the human body mass is calcium, and Sr-90 has a half-life of 28.78 years, releasing 6.697+2.282 MeV per disintegration, this works out to about 1.065×10−12 grays per second. The permissible body burden was established at 1,000 S.U. Banana equivalent dose [ edit ] Bananas, like most organic material, naturally contain a certain amount of radioactive isotopes—even in the absence of any artificial pollution or contamination. The banana equivalent dose, defined as the additional dose a person will absorb from eating one banana, expresses the severity of exposure to radiation, such as resulting from nuclear weapons or medical procedures, in terms that would make sense to most people. This is approximately 78 nanosieverts - in informal publications one often sees this estimate rounded up to 0.1 μSv. Molar mass of cellulose [ edit ] In the pulp and paper industry, molar mass is traditionally measured with a method where the intrinsic viscosity (dL/g) of the pulp sample is measured in cupriethylenediamine (Cuen). The intrinsic viscosity [η] is related to the weight-average molar mass (in daltons) by the Mark-Houwink equation: [η] = 0.070 M w 0.70.[76] However, it is typical to cite [η] values directly in dL/g, as the "viscosity" of the cellulose, confusingly as it is not a viscosity. Iodine, bromine and kappa number [ edit ] In measuring unsaturation in fatty acids, the traditional method is the iodine number. Iodine adds stoichiometrically to double bonds, so their amount is reported in grams of iodine spent per 100 grams of oil. The standard unit is a dimensionless stoichiometry ratio of moles double bonds to moles fatty acid. A similar quantity, bromine number, is used in gasoline analysis. In pulp and paper industry, a similar kappa number is used to measure how much bleaching a pulp requires. Potassium permanganate is added to react with the unsaturated compounds (lignin and uronic acids) in the pulp and back-titrated. Originally with chlorine bleaching the required quantity of chlorine could be then calculated, although modern methods use multiple stages. Since the oxidizable compounds are not exclusively lignin and the partially pulped lignin does not have a single stoichiometry, the relation between the kappa number and the precise amount of lignin is inexact. Demography and epidemiology [ edit ] Demography and quantitative epidemiology are statistical fields that deal with counts or proportions of people, or rates of change in these. Counts and proportions are technically dimensionless, and so have no units of measurement, although identifiers such as "people", "births", "infections" and the like are used for clarity. Rates of change are counts per unit of time and strictly have inverse time dimensions (per unit of time). In demography and epidemiology expressions such as "deaths per year" are used to clarify what is being measured. Prevalence, a common measure in epidemiology is strictly a type of denominator data, a dimensionless ratio or proportion. Prevalence may be expressed as a fraction, a percentage or as the number of cases per 1,000, 10,000 or 100,000 in the population of interest. Micromort [ edit ] A micromort is a unit of risk measuring a one-in-a-million probability of death (from micro- and mortality). Micromorts can be used to measure riskiness of various day-to-day activities. A microprobability is a one-in-a million chance of some event; thus a micromort is the microprobability of death. For example, smoking 1.4 cigarettes increases one's death risk by one micromort, as does traveling 370 km (230 miles) by car. Numbers of people: Stadium capacities [ edit ] The large numbers of people involved in demography are often difficult to comprehend. A useful visualisation tool is the audience capacity of large sports stadiums (often about 100,000). Often the capacity of the largest stadium in a region serves as a unit for a large number of people. For example, Uruguay's Estadio Centenario is often used in Uruguay,[77][78] while in parts of the United States, Michigan Stadium is used in this manner.[citation needed] In Australia, the capacity of the Melbourne Cricket Ground (about 100,000) is often cited in this manner. Hence the Melbourne Cricket Ground serves as both a measure of people and a unit of volume.[79][80][81] Struck by lightning [ edit ] "Struck by Lightning" is often used to put highly-infrequent events into perspective. Among the ~300 million people in the United States, there are ~300 people struck by lightning annually and ~30 killed, making a lightning strike a one in a million event and a death a one in ten million event; given a mean life expectancy of slightly over 75 years, the chances of an American ever being struck in their lifetime is about 1 in 13,000.[82] For example: “A person is about 15 times more likely to be struck by lightning in a given year than to be killed by a stranger with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or chronic psychosis.”[83] Computer and information science [ edit ] The growth of computing has necessitated the creation of many new units, several of which are based on unusual foundations. Data volume [ edit ] A CD-ROM can easily store the entirety of a paper encyclopedia's words and images, plus audio and video clips Volume or capacity of data is often compared to various famous works of literature or to large collections of writing. Popular units include bibles, encyclopaediae, the complete works of Shakespeare, and the Library of Congress. When the Compact Disc began to be used as a data storage device, the CD-ROM, journalists had to compare the disc capacity (650 megabytes) to something everyone could imagine. Since many Western households had a Christian Bible, and the Bible is a comparatively long book, it was often chosen for this purpose. The King James Version of the Bible in uncompressed plain 8-bit text contains about 4.5 million characters,[84] so a CD-ROM can store about 150 Bibles. The print version of the Encyclopædia Britannica is another common data volume metric. It contains approximately 300 million characters,[85] so two copies would fit onto a CD-ROM and still have 50 megabytes (or about 11 bibles) left over. The term Library of Congress is often used as an unusual unit of measurement to represent an impressively large quantity of data when discussing digital storage or networking technologies.[citation needed] It refers to the US Library of Congress. Information researchers have estimated that the entire print collections of the Library of Congress represent roughly 10 terabytes of uncompressed textual data.[86] Nibble [ edit ] A measure of quantity of data or information, the "nibble" (sometimes spelled "nybble" or "nybl") is normally equal to 4 bits, or one half of the common 8-bit byte. The nibble is used to describe the amount of memory used to store a digit of a number stored in binary-coded decimal format, or to represent a single hexadecimal digit. Less commonly, 'nibble' may be used for any contiguous portion of a byte of specified length, e.g. "6-bit nibble"; this usage is most likely to be encountered in connection with a hardware architecture in which the word length is not a multiple of 8, such as older 36-bit minicomputers. FLOPS [ edit ] In computing, FLOPS (FLoating point Operations Per Second) is a measure of a computer's computing power. It is also common to see measurements of kilo, mega, giga, and teraFLOPS. It is also used to compare the performance of computers in practice.[87] BogoMips [ edit ] A measure to determine the CPU speed. It was invented by Linus Torvalds and is nowadays present on every Linux operating system. However, it is not a meaningful measure to assess the actual CPU performance. KLOC: computer program length [ edit ] A computer programming expression, the K-LOC or KLOC, pronounced kay-lok, standing for "kilo-lines of code", i.e., thousand lines of code. The unit was used, especially by IBM managers,[88] to express the amount of work required to develop a piece of software. Given that estimates of 20 lines of functional code per day per programmer were often used, it is apparent that 1 K-LOC could take one programmer as long as 50 working days, or 10 working weeks. This measure is no longer in widespread use because different computer languages require different numbers of lines to achieve the same result (occasionally the measure "assembly equivalent lines of code" is used, with appropriate conversion factors from the language actually used to assembly language). Error rates in programming are also measured in "Errors per K-LOC", which is called the defect density. NASA's SATC is one of the few organisations to claim zero defects in a large (>500K-LOC) project, for the space shuttle software. An alternative measurement was defined by Pegasus Mail author David Harris: the "WaP" is equivalent to 71,500 lines of program code, because that number of lines is the length of one edition of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace.[89] Ticks [ edit ] The "tick" is the amount of time between timer interrupts generated by the timer circuit of a CPU. The amount of time is processor-dependent.[90][91] Purchasing power parity [ edit ] Big Mac Index [ edit ] A McDonald's Big Mac hamburger, as advertised in the United States The Economist's Big Mac Index compares the purchasing power parity of countries in terms of the cost of a Big Mac hamburger.[92] This was felt to be a good measure of the prices of a basket of commodities in the local economy including labour, rent, meat, bread, cardboard, advertising, lettuce, etc. A similar system used in the UK is the 'Mars bar'. Tables of prices in Mars Bars have intermittently appeared in newspapers over the last 20 years, usually to illustrate changes in wages or prices over time without the confusion caused by inflation.[93] The cost of a cup of coffee (or sometimes latte) from a coffeehouse or cafe is often used as a measurement of two vectors: the relatively diminuitive expense of something frivolous, versus the power of collective contributions towards something important. Campaigns implore something to the effect of, "for the cost of a cup of coffee, you can help stamp out diabetes."[94][95][96] Other [ edit ] Centipawn [ edit ] Chess software frequently uses centipawns internally or externally as a unit measuring how strong each player's situation position is, and hence also by how much one player is beating the other, and how strong a possible move is.[97] 100 centipawns = the value of 1 pawn - more specifically, something like the average value of the pawns at the start of the game, as the actual value of pawns depends on their position. Loss of a pawn will therefore typically lose that player 100 centipawns. The centipawn is often used for comparing possible moves, as in a given position, chess software will often rate the better of two moves within a few centipawns of each other. Garn [ edit ] The garn is NASA's unit of measure for symptoms resulting from space adaptation syndrome, the response of the human body to weightlessness in space, named after US Senator Jake Garn, who became exceptionally spacesick during an orbital flight in 1985. If an astronaut is completely incapacitated by space adaptation syndrome, he or she is under the effect of one garn of symptoms.[98] Mother Cow Index [ edit ] Formerly used in real estate transactions in the American Southwest, it was the number of pregnant cows an acre of a given plot of land could support. It acted as a proxy for the agricultural quality, natural resource availability, and arability of a parcel of land.[99] Nines [ edit ] Numbers very close to, but below one are often expressed in "nines" (N — not to be confused with the unit newton), that is in the number of nines following the decimal separator in writing the number in question. For example, "three nines" or "3N" indicates 0.999 or 99.9%, "four nines five" or "4N5" is the expression for the number 0.99995 or 99.995%.[100][101][102] Typical areas of usage are: The reliability of computer systems, that is the ratio of uptime to the sum of uptime and downtime. "Five nines" reliability in a continuously operated system means an average downtime of no more than approximately five minutes per year. (See high availability for a chart.) The purity of materials, such as gases and metals. Pain [ edit ] A woman wincing in pain The dol (from the Latin word for pain, dolor) is a unit of measurement for pain. James D. Hardy, Herbert G. Wolff, and Helen Goodell of Cornell University proposed the unit based on their studies of pain during the 1940s and 1950s. They defined one dol to equal to "just noticeable differences" (jnd's) in pain. The unit never came into widespread use and other methods are now used to assess the level of pain experienced by patients. The Schmidt sting pain index and Starr sting pain index are pain scales rating the relative pain caused by different hymenopteran stings. Schmidt has refined his Schmidt Sting Pain Index (scaled from 1 to 4) with extensive anecdotal experience, culminating in a paper published in 1990 which classifies the stings of 78 species and 41 genera of Hymenoptera. The Starr sting pain scale uses the same 1-to-4 scaling. Pepper heat [ edit ] ASTA pungency unit [ edit ] The ASTA (American Spice Trade Association) pungency unit is based on a scientific method of measuring chili pepper "heat". The technique utilizes high-performance liquid chromatography to identify and measure the concentrations of the various compounds that produce a heat sensation. Scoville units are roughly 1⁄ 15 the size of pungency units while measuring capsaicin, so a rough conversion is to multiply pungency by 15 to obtain Scoville heat units.[103] Scoville heat unit [ edit ] Chili peppers. The Scoville scale is a measure of the hotness of a chili pepper. It is the degree of dilution in sugar water of a specific chili pepper extract when a panel of 5 tasters can no longer detect its "heat".[104] Pure capsaicin (the chemical responsible for the "heat") has 16 million Scoville heat units. Proof: alcohol concentration [ edit ] A (nearly empty) bottle of 151° proof rum Up to the 20th century, alcoholic spirits were assessed in the UK by mixing with gunpowder and testing the mixture to see whether it would still burn; spirit that just passed the test was said to be at 100° proof. The UK now uses percentage alcohol by volume at 20 °C (68 °F), where spirit at 100° proof is approximately 57.15% ABV; the US uses a "proof number" of twice the ABV at 60 °F (15.5 °C). Savart [ edit ] The Savart is an 18th-century unit for measuring the frequency ratio of two sounds, it is equal to 1⁄ 1000 of a decade. Still used in some programs, but considered too rough for most purposes[clarification needed]. Cent is preferred. Telecommunications traffic volume [ edit ] The erlang, named after A. K. Erlang, as a dimensionless unit is used in telephony as a statistical measure of the offered intensity of telecommunications traffic on a group of resources. Traffic of one erlang refers to a single resource being in continuous use, or two channels being at fifty percent use, and so on, pro rata. Much telecommunications management and forecasting software uses this. Waffle House Index [ edit ] Waffle House Index is used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to determine the impact of a storm and the likely scale of assistance required for disaster recovery. The measure is based on the reputation of the Waffle House restaurant chain for staying open during extreme weather. This term was coined by FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate. X-ray intensity [ edit ] The crab is defined as the intensity of X-rays emitted from the Crab Nebula at a given photon energy up to 30 kiloelectronvolts. The Crab Nebula is often used for calibration of X-ray telescopes. For measuring the X-ray intensity of a less energetic source, the milliCrab (mCrab) may be used. One crab is approximately 24 pW/m2. See also [ edit ] References [ edit ]
In general I tend to live my life opposed to wretched excess, avoiding conspicuous consumption wherever possible. Buyer’s remorse is a familiar feeling, and occasionally I even feel it over something as innocuous as a bag of potato chips. I’m not sure I can explain, then, why I’m giddy over this gilded Austin Healey, but nevertheless here we are. This weird piece of automotive history makes me want to empty my retirement accounts and head to New York next week to bid on this horribly ostentatious motor. This car was originally built for the 1958 Earls Court Motor Show as the brainchild of Healey’s PR manager, Ken Gregory. Mr. Gregory figured that in order to upstage the competition, he’d need to bring a car that was truly eye-grabbing. Donald Healey was initially receptive to the idea, but balked at the cost of 24-karat gold plating. He scratched the idea, and only changed his mind after Ken found a buyer for the car, deliverable once the show was over. This A-H 100-Six, dubbed “Goldie” was among the greatest pieces of marketing genius of 1958, as it drew unprecedented attention to the relatively small British sports car brand. Affectionately called the “Big Healey,” the 100-6 is perhaps the definitive Austin-Healey product, in part because of Goldie. Advertisement Prior to the Motor Show, a production-ready car was plucked from the line and prepared. The car was given a special coat of ivory paint, and every single piece of brightwork normally given a chrome plating, was instead given a gold plate finish. According to Ken Gregory’s autobiography, the finish was applied to everything, “right down to the tiniest trimming washers and screws: the wire wheels, disc brakes, bumpers, and instruments were given the same treatment.” Speaking of disc brakes, this was the only non-competition Austin-Healey to be fitted with Dunlop four-wheel disc brakes, adding to the car’s appeal. The car was a hit with the international motoring press as well, garnering a lot of attention for A-H that a traditional advertising spend could not. In addition, the buyer for this car was actually the Daily Express newspaper, who used the car as a giveaway to their readers, publicizing the car for weeks following the show. Healey got paid for the car before he even agreed to build it, and then got tons of extra value from the deal. That’s a win-win. Advertisement Now, if you’re the Bruno Mars type with a penchant for that 24K magic, you might want to get yourself to the RM Sotheby’s ICONS auction in New York City on Wednesday, December 6th. This car is lot #143 with a pre-auction estimate of between $350,000 and 550,000. You can check out the full listing and more of the car’s unique history here.
If the reaction to the cancellation of BBC3 drama In the Flesh taught us one thing, it’s that Brits are good at kicking up a fuss when our favourite shows are cancelled. In Bolivia, however, they take their television even more seriously. Advertisement More than 2,000 extremely peeved Simpsons fans took to the streets last week to protest after Bolivian network Unitel tried to shift Springfield’s first family to a new time slot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bDLVV3MJqM Unitel itself reported on the protests in La Paz, Santa Cruz and Cochabamba, where fans turned out in all manner of costumes to demand that the network reverse its decision. (Can we just take a moment to appreciate this guy? He’s certainly done his Homer-work.) Lisa Simpson would be proud; in the end, people power won out. Latin Times reports that not only did the network return the show to its original time slot, they rewarded demonstrators’ efforts by increasing the daily dose from 45 minutes to two hours. We think such success calls for another gratuitous GIF: Could the BBC follow suit with In The Flesh? Best get your zombie gear out and give it a go… Read More: In The Flesh is cancelled: Twitter reacts Advertisement Read More: In The Flesh cancelled by BBC3
Deliberations at the current NATO summit in Wales may or may not produce a reduction in tensions over Ukraine. But one thing is certain: irrespective of how the stand-off is eventually resolved, Vladimir Putin will emerge with his reputation powerfully enhanced. Basically Putin is the new Napoleon, and the Ukraine crisis is his diplomatic Austerlitz: he will keep Crimea and will considerably enhance the ability of Russian-speaking minorities in Ukraine’s eastern provinces to stand up to Kiev. (Even the Economist magazine, one of Putin's fiercest critics, concedes as much. Click here for a commentary just posted at the Economist’s site.) As for Barack Obama’s reputation, don’t ask. A Google search this morning for “Obama + wimp” produced more than a million hits. Nothing that he or his aides are likely to achieve in Wales will do much to improve his image. Yet Obama’s critics are fundamentally wrong in blaming his impotence on personal failings. The problem is not Obama; it is America. Over the last sixty years, and in particular over the last thirty, America has thrown away almost all the once vast leverage it enjoyed to set the global diplomatic agenda. In doing so, it acted in the name of an idealistic cause, globalism, but at the end of the day its idealism has not been reciprocated. Even America’s ostensibly closest allies are now prepared more or less at will to flout America's wishes (even if they often pay sincere-sounding lip service to American objectives). As I have pointed out previously, even such an ostensibly deferential ally as South Korea is not prepared to support Obama's sanctions. Japan meanwhile has sounded at best only lukewarm -- understandably so because before the crisis blew up it had come close to resolving a territorial dispute with Russia that had festered for nearly 70 years. (In February the Japanese and Russians announced they would hold a summit on the dispute in October or November and as recently as late August Tokyo did not demur when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced the summit was still on.) Then there is China, which is openly making hay out of the crisis and can be expected to provide a sort of underground railroad in shipping vital Japanese and Korean producers' goods to Russia. Even in Europe, few American allies are prepared to do much heavy lifting for Obama. As John Bruton, a former Irish prime minister, has pointed out, Italy, Spain, Cyprus, Greece, and even Bulgaria are relatively sympathetic to Russia. Only Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia are seriously alarmed by Putin. Most other European nations are in between and have their own reasons for withholding total support from Obama's initiatives. It requires just a moment’s reflection to remember why America’s diplomatic clout once loomed so large – and why that clout has now almost disappeared. Three reasons in particular explain the sea change: Production technology. Almost right across the industrial waterfront, the United States once led the world in production technology. This positioned it as a sort of industrial fairy godmother courted by countless other nations desperate to boost their productivity with transfers of America's more efficient industrial knowhow. Things are different now. The problem is that if you don’t produce much, you don’t have much production technology. Any nation that seeks transfers of the most advanced production technology these days must go elsewhere, most notably to Japan and Germany (ironically these two nations owe their leadership in large part to their earlier skill in winkling world-beating technologies out of the United States). Finance. As by far the world’s largest exporter of capital in the early post-World War II era, the United States was once courted by any nation in need of external financing. That was a lot of nations. Unfortunately the United States has long since migrated from being, on net, a capital exporter to a capital importer. For decades now it has ranked among the ne’er-do-wells of modern diplomacy with a begging bowl constantly out for foreign capital inflows. Its net foreign liabilities are now in real terms the largest of any Great Power since the late-era Ottoman Empire. Ironically among the most publicized of the Obama administration’s sanctions on Russia is that many major Russian corporations are being denied access to American capital markets. As a slap on the wrist, this is about effective as denying a resident of the Amazon rainforest access to the water resources of the Sahara desert. The fact is that Russia exported a net $75 billion of capital last year and much of that was invested in U.S. Treasury bonds. Meanwhile America's net capital imports totaled $361 billion. It is the United States that needs Russian capital, not the other way around. Of course, to some observers the key issue is that Russian corporations are now denied the “financial engineering skills” of the likes of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Citigroup. This might make sense if Putin respected Wall Street. In reality he likely regards American investment banks with about as much warmth as the Great Lakes power station industry regards the current infestation of zebra mussels. Basically the Obama administration is doing Putin’s work in getting the Wall Street pests out of Russia's hair. If Putin were to sell Russia's holdings of U.S. Treasuries he could put significant pressure on both the dollar and U.S. interest rates. His power to cause financial trouble is one reason the East Asians feel the need to placate him. Although he is not central to their effort to keep the dollar propped up, any move by him to exit the dollar would make it harder for the East Asians to keep their currencies from going through the roof. Trade. In days of yore when the United States protected its markets, its allies and other foreign nations vied with one another for privileged access to those markets. Not anymore. Now that the United States has bought into global free trade via its entry into the World Trade Organization, it has unilaterally signed away all the enormous leverage it once enjoyed in trade relations. There was a time when U.S. Presidents spoke softly and carried a big stick. These days they bawl through a 50,000-watt sound system and carry a feather duster.
The video will start in 8 Cancel Get the biggest Business stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email A well known chip shop has been put up for sale after more than 35 years in the same family. Tribells has been selling fish and chips in Llandudno for 80 years and was bought by the Sinacola family nearly four decades ago. Now owner Paul Sinacola - whose father Frank bought the site - has placed the restaurant and takeaway on the market for £1.29m. He said: “I have worked here for 35 years now, ever since I was a teenager and it is time to retire from the chip shop business and do something different. “It continues to be very successful and I expect there to be interest. “All my life has been spent in chip shops so I will really miss it when it is sold but it’s time for a new start. “Until that happens though it is business as usual here and we don’t know how long this will take.” The restaurant is based in a prominent site on Lloyd Street in the heart of Llandudno. The sale includes the remainder of the building and the site next door. Estate agent Kings Commercial say these could be converted into several high quality apartments. A spokesman added: “Having successfully operated in the town for over 80 years and under current ownership for the last 40 years, this business has become very highly renowned and earned itself an excellent reputation for offering the highest quality fresh produce at competitive prices along with a warm local smile. “The business therefore enjoys an extensive and loyal customer base attracting repeat trade from the immediate vicinity as well as neighbouring villages and towns.” See the listing details here.
Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. July 17, 2017, 10:02 PM GMT / Updated July 17, 2017, 11:20 PM GMT By Andrew Rafferty President Donald Trump celebrated U.S.-made products on Monday, and in doing so he brought renewed attention to his own family's production and sale of goods made overseas. "We want to build, create and grow more products in our country using American labor, American goods, and American grit," Trump said at a White House event touting products made in all 50 states, kicking off the administration's "Made in America"-themed week. "We are going to put that brand on our product because it means that it's the best," Trump added. He then signed an executive order aimed at better supporting American companies and protecting U.S. workers. But White House aides have struggled to answer questions about the Trump Organization's and Ivanka Trump's decision to manufacture a number of products overseas in places like China and Mexico. Ahead of the event, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said it would be "inappropriate" to comment on how the president's actions could impact Trump's or his daughter's business, but indicated the administration is working to bring more manufacturing back to the United States. "The president's been a very successful businessman on a number of fronts, on a number of area and industries, and to understand very first hand what the tax burden, what the regulatory burden do to a business that wants to grow or expand here or hire here," Spicer said of the apparent disconnect between the president's message Monday and his family's current business practices. "So I think he actually is in a very unique way understands the challenges that our regulatory system and our tax system put on businesses that want to hire here, that want to grow here," Spicer said. The Washington Post reported last week that Ivanka Trump relies "exclusively on foreign factories" to manufacture her products. A spokeswoman for her told reporters Sunday she would get back to them about whether the week's theme would encourage the first daughter to move her clothing line to the United States. Along with producing products overseas, Trump has been criticized for hiring foreign workers for his Mar-a-Lago resort, calling it "very, very hard" to find workers to fill those jobs. His Virginia winery operated by his son also relies on visa programs to bring in foreign workers.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Bank of America funded 13.7 billion in residential home loans and home equity loans during the second quarter of 2014. Bank of America has reported a 43% drop in its second-quarter profits after a fall in mortgage revenue and a rise in legal costs. The bank, the US's second largest, said net income of $2.3bn (£1.34bn) was down from $3.4bn (£1.99bn) a year earlier. Its finances have been hit recently by huge payments to the authorities to fend off accusations of wrong-doing. In the past year, its earnings per share have fallen from 32 cents (19p) to 19 cents (11p). In April the bank agreed to pay $9.5bn for misleading US mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the financial crisis in 2008. It then agreed separately to pay $783m (£470m) in fines and refunds, for mis-selling payment and identity theft insurance to nearly three million credit card customers. The bank's chief financial officer Bruce Thompson acknowledged the rise in litigation costs and praised the bank for doing "a good job managing expenses". He also said that during the quarter the bank's credit losses remained "near historical lows." The bank's results come as analysts have noted a split in the US lenders' quarterly results between banks that cater mainly to U.S customers and those with a more prominent global presence. Domestic-orientated banks have been helped by a pick-up in the U.S economy. International traders have not fared so well, with Citigroup seeing an almost 10% fall in its share price and GoldmanSachs's shares dropping 7%. Wells Fargo, which is responsible for one out of six US home loans, saw its share price rise 3% on Friday.

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