Prompt: Reds manager Bryan Price (left) looks at relief pitcher Ross Ohlendorf after Ohlendorf was ejected in the ninth inning of Wednesday's game against the Pirates. (Photo: Kareem Elgazzar) PHILADELPHIA - Cincinnati Reds manager Bryan Price and reliever Ross Ohlendorf arrived in the visiting clubhouse at Citizens Bank Park on Friday only to get some bad news. After both were ejected on Wednesday after Ohlendorf hit a batter with a pitch, Major League Baseball had levied suspensions against them. Price was banned for one game, and spent Friday’s series opener against the Philadelphia Phillies in the luxury box reserved for the

visiting team’s general manager. Ohlendorf was hit with a three-game ban, which he chose to appeal. Neither saw it coming. “I haven’t been involved with this hit-by-pitch-ejection thing yet,” Price said. “I understood the ejection from the game but not the suspension. But I do know now, after being informed, that it is standard protocol that a pitcher will get three games and can appeal and a manager gets one and can’t.” Their ejections came in the top of the ninth against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Great American Ball Park after Ohlendorf hit David Freese with a fastball. Since both benches had been warned earlier in the game after two other hit batters, ejections of the pitcher and his manager were a foregone conclusion. It was the suspensions that caught them off guard, although they have become standard operating procedure for how MLB deals with beanball ejections. That fact has seemingly not filtered its way down to many. “I didn’t know, so I don’t think (many guys know),” Ohlendorf said. “It doesn’t happen all that often. I was surprised.” Ohlendorf maintained after his ejection that hitting Freese was unintentional, but said he understood he had to be removed from the game by rule in order to ease tensions. He doesn’t think a suspension is fair, though. “Whether I’ll win or not, I don’t know, but I thought the right thing to do was to appeal it,” he said. “Hopefully I do win, but we’ll see what happens.” Even if Ohlendorf does win, Price doesn’t expect the league to wipe his slate clean. It’s more likely, Price said, that the suspension will be reduced by a game or two when Ohlendorf’s case is heard. A date for his appeal has not been set. Managers are not given the recourse to appeal,


Prompt: Last updated on: July 12, 2013 13:08 IST The Supreme Court delivered a landmark judgment regarding leaders with a criminal background and said that they stand to be disqualified on date of conviction. The number of members of Parliament with a criminal background is 162, which means 30 per cent of those who govern the nation in the Lok Sabha have pending criminal cases. The person with the highest number of criminal cases (46) against him is Kameshwar Baitha, a Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader from Jharkhand. Here is a look at the top five MP’s with criminal cases: Kameshwar Baitha:

He won the 2009 elections from the Palamau constituency in Jharkhand. Aged 56, he has 46 pending criminal cases against him. He is worth Rs 5,70,000 as per his assets declaration. He has not been convicted as yet in any of the cases. The list of the cases pending against him are mentioned below: 22 charges related to attempt to murder 17 charges related to murder 6 charges related to voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means, 5 charges related to theft 4 charges related to voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means 3 charges related to voluntarily causing grievous hurt 2 charges related to dishonestly receiving stolen property 2 charges related to extortion 2 charges related to theft in dwelling house 2 charges related to kidnapping or abducting in order to murder 1 charge related to assisting in concealment of stolen property 1 charge related to assaulting President, governor, etc., with intent to compel or restrain the exercise of any lawful power 1 charge related to dacoity 1 charge related to culpable homicide not amounting to murder 20 charges related to rioting 20 charges related to rioting, armed with deadly weapon 17 charges related to every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object 15 charges related to assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty 13 charges related to voluntarily causing hurt 11 charges related to punishment of criminal conspiracy 10 charges related to wrongful restraint 8 charges related to mischief causing damage to the amount of Rs 50 7 charges related to mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house 5 charges related to wrongful confinement 4 charges related to mischief by destroying or moving, etc, a landmark fixed by public


Prompt: This is part one of a two-article series looking at the legacy of Appalachian culture in Detroit. The first I heard of the 20th century Appalachian influx into Detroit—the "Hillbilly Highway" migration, as it's often called—was my own move here in 2013. This was an Appalachian migration of sorts, as I was born and raised in West Virginia, though moved to Detroit from Brooklyn. I was part of a long line, it seemed: between 1940 and 1960, seven million Appalachians left their home. During World War II, men from all across the South came north to work in the war

factories, and then, when Appalachian coal jobs decreased due to automation, to booming industrial cities like Chicago and Detroit. I became curious about these Appalachians who'd arrived decades before I had, about what their experiences were like and where they ended up. The Hillbilly Highway was an out-migration with both push and pull. They also believed its workers to be "safe," or unlikely to unionize. It also helped that, according to Thomas Klug, Marygrove College history professor and director of the college's Institute for Detroit Studies, many Southern migrants planned to work up north then move home with their earnings. This plan dovetailed with auto companies' needs for seasonal workers to supplement their core staff of settled Detroiters, a more diverse group of higher-skilled workers and homeowners. "Employers want a highly mobile force that they can hire and fire, and when you fire them they leave, and when you want them, they come back," says Klug. "It fits in perfectly with the migrant strategy. You work really hard and make a lot of money relative to the sought, you take that money and go back, and maybe you can set up a gas station or buy a piece of land." In the Midwest as a whole, however—according to " Some migrants chose to leave Appalachia behind completely. One West Virginia-born couple interviewed in "Appalachian Odyssey" West Virginia University College of Pharmacy Guests at Parke-Davis Home Laboratories in Detroit (1959) Reading "Appalachian Odyssey" and the media of the time suggests a rough transition. The representation of Appalachia, and the South more generally, in popular media, tended to sketch a freakish "other." In a 1935 Harper's Magazine article, "The Hillbillies Invade Chicago," writer Albert Votaw describes Appalachian migrants as "clannish, proud, disorderly, untamed to urban ways," confounding "all notions of racial, religious


Prompt: Better broadband is coming as a result of improvements to wholesale plans announced by Chorus this morning, but an analyst says it may be a year before consumers benefit. Chorus said it would offer faster ultrafast broadband (UFB) plans as well as new copper broadband plans that would offer consumers the guaranteed ability to watch HD video online, without interruption when internet access usually came under strain at peak times. Telecom and Vodafone welcomed its announcement. Vodafone New Zealand chief executive Russell Stanners said Vodafone had long argued that the ultimate benefit of investing in fibre was speed and Chorus

had listened. Telecom spokesman Andrew Pirie said it was “pleased in principle” with Chorus’ proposals, for example with a speed hike for lower-cost ultrafast broadband services. But he said they would also require investment by service providers such as itself. Broker Forsyth Barr said in a research note that, because of that, it did not expect internet providers would retail plans based on the new wholesale services until the second quarter of next year. While Chorus’ improved wholesale products will in many cases cost little or nothing more, the price consumers will ultimately pay will be set by internet providers, which could charge a premium for the copper guarantee or any extra data they chose to provide with the plans. “Any internet provider needs to bear in mind that every time you get a new ‘input’ like this, there is quite a bit of time and effort required to build the systems to connect to it and sell it to customers,” Pirie said. For example, when Telecom launched services based on Chorus’ superfast VDSL copper broadband service, it had to spend $7 million, he said. Chorus will effectively increase the speeds provided by its cheapest “entry-level” UFB plan and announced other new and improved services, though in some cases slightly higher-priced wholesale plans, for both UFB and copper-based broadband. Chief executive Mark Ratcliffe said the plans offered more choice and better value. A “commercial” entry-level UFB service, which will wholesale for $40 a month from July, will offer a download speed of 100 megabits-per-second and an upload speed of 20Mbps. Chorus said that would effectively replace the entry-level UFB service it is contracted to provide under its UFB contract with the Crown, which offers speeds of 30Mbps (down) and 10Mbps (up) for $37.50, just $2.50 less. Spokesman Ian Bonnar said


Prompt: Reed Noss, Provost’s distinguished research professor at the University of Central Florida and president of the Florida Institute for Conservation Science, is the author of the forthcoming "Forgotten Grasslands of the South: Natural History and Conservation." Conservation problems take many forms; therefore, so must solutions. That said, because the loss, destruction and degradation of habitat is the major cause of the extinction crisis – driven ultimately by human population growth and over-consumption of resources – the protection and restoration of habitat for native species is the most important thing we must do to save species. Scientific estimates suggest that if

we are to reduce extinction rates appreciably, at least half of a typical region must be protected and managed with conservation of biological diversity as a major goal. This scale of protection will not be possible without a large reduction in the human footprint, that is, scaling back our population and consumption. Many zoos already contribute to habitat conservation, but the scale of these efforts must be expanded. Do zoos have a role to play in this solution? Certainly. Many zoos already contribute to habitat conservation, but the scale of these efforts must be expanded. Zoos also should better educate the public about proximate and ultimate causes of species loss. With climate change, the role of captive populations in zoos becomes more important. Many species – for example, on islands soon to be inundated by the rising oceans – will soon lose all of their habitat in the wild. We must take these species entirely into captivity, move them to a new habitat (often not a good idea), or freeze samples of their tissues in gene banks. The alternative to these measures is simply to document their extinction in the wild. Many species in the Florida Keys, like the Key deer (about the same size and attitude as a skinny Labrador retriever), will go extinct in the wild within the next few decades as their habitat disappears under the sea. Educational exhibits with Key deer in zoos will provide a valuable lesson to the public about how human-induced climate change has driven species to the brink of extinction. The alternative to taking Key deer into captivity would be relocating them to Caribbean islands similar to the Florida Keys, but but they would not be native there, so I am not convinced this is a good idea. They might have unanticipated


Prompt: “The sad thing is that there are so many people like me in that system” Davino Watson, US citizen falsely imprisoned by ICE agents, speaks out By Nick Barrickman 4 November 2017 The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit decision last month denying Davino Watson, a US citizen held illegally for nearly three-and-a-half years by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), of any right to sue for damages is a travesty of the judicial process and an attack on democratic rights. Davino Watson The criminal treatment meted out by the government to Watson exposes the decay of basic democratic

principles within the United States. It also reveals the fascistic atmosphere being cultivated within the various state immigration and law enforcement agencies, which operate outside of the law even as President Donald Trump vows to “unshackle” them. Watson previously served time in 2008 for a minor charge when he was detained by ICE agents and the preparations were made for his deportation, a process that would ultimately claim three-and-a-half years of his life. Efforts to provide contact information and documents proving his citizenship were either ignored or mishandled, with Watson being shuffled across the country with no access to the outside world. In 2016, Watson was awarded damages totaling $82,500, compensation for just 27 out of the 1,273 total days of his imprisonment. Last summer, the WSWS reported that even this minor sum had been clawed away from him by the courts, with judges stating that the two-year statute of limitations for suing the government had expired while he was imprisoned. Watson, clearly shaken by this traumatic experience, recently spoke at length with the World Socialist Web Site about his ordeal and the difficulties he has faced as a result. *** Nick Barrickman: You’ve been through a great ordeal. How have you been dealing with the recent court decision? Davino Watson: It’s devastating. There hasn’t been a “sweet moment” since this thing started. It’s been horrible. It hurts to see that the government ignored a lot of things in this case. I told them from the beginning that I am a citizen and showed them evidence, which they ignored. I think that if they would have paid attention I wouldn’t have spent three-and-a-half years in prison. As far as the lawsuit goes, this case is not so much about money, it’s about justice. I don’t feel that there was justice


Prompt: Most light emitters, from candles to light bulbs to computer screens, look the same from any angle. But in a paper published this week on the Nature Photonics website, MIT researchers report the development of a new light source — a fiber only a little thicker than a human hair — whose brightness can be controllably varied for different viewers. The fiber thus opens the possibility of 3-D displays woven from flexible fibers that project different information to viewers’ left and right eyes. The fiber could also enable medical devices that can be threaded into narrow openings to irradiate diseased

tissue, selectively activating therapeutic compounds while leaving healthy tissue untouched. The paper is the work of seven researchers affiliated with MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE), including Yoel Fink, a professor of materials science and electrical engineering and the RLE’s director; John Joannopoulos, the Francis Wright Davis Professor of Physics; lead author Alexander Stolyarov, a graduate student at Harvard University who is doing is PhD research with Fink’s group; and Lei Wei, a postdoc at RLE. The work was funded by the U.S. Army and the National Science Foundation, through MIT’s Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies and Center for Materials Science and Engineering. The newly developed fiber has a hollow core; surrounding this core are alternating layers of materials with different optical properties, which together act as a mirror. In the core is a droplet of fluid that can be moved up and down the fiber. When the droplet receives energy, or is “pumped” — in experiments, the researchers used another laser to pump the droplet — it emits light. The light bounces back and forth between the mirrors, emerging from the core as a 360-degree laser beam. Surrounding the core are four channels filled with liquid crystals, which vary the brightness of the emitted light; each liquid-crystal channel is controlled by two electrode channels running parallel to it. Yet despite the complexity of its structure, the fiber is only 400 micrometers across. (A human hair is usually somewhere around 100 micrometers in diameter.) In experiments, the researchers simultaneously activated liquid crystals on opposite sides of the fiber to investigate a hypothetical application in which a transparent, woven display would present the same image to viewers on both sides — not mirror images, as a display that emitted light uniformly would. But in principle, Stolyarov says, there’s no reason a fiber


Prompt: Stacey Tillman, a 47-year-old woman from Sandusky, Ohio, says she has donated over $300 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure each year for the past nine years. The issue is close to her heart, she says, because her aunt had breast cancer. This year, however, following the news that Komen has pulled breast exam funds from Planned Parenthood for political reasons, Tillman is sending her money straight to the family planning provider instead. "I donated $250 this morning, and then I'll see what I can do in a couple months if I can get more," she told HuffPost in

a phone interview. "I've had family members in financial difficulty that have used Planned Parenthood for pap smears and breast cancer screenings. They're getting my money now because they help the needy and the people who fell through the cracks." After partnering with Planned Parenthood for the past five years to provide cancer screenings to low-income patients, Komen announced on Tuesday that it would sever ties with the family planning provider because it is under investigation in Congress. However, the groups that prompted that investigation are anti-abortion advocacy organizations that have long criticized Planned Parenthood over the fact that some of its clinics offer abortions. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) both criticized and revoked their support for Komen on Wednesday. "I was perplexed and troubled to see the decision by Susan G. Komen for the Cure to cut off funding for life-saving breast cancer screenings through Planned Parenthood because of a political witch hunt by House Republicans. I truly hope that they will reconsider this decision and put the needs of women first," Boxer said in a statement. "I have been a big booster of the Susan G. Komen organization, but not anymore," Speier said on the House floor. One of Komen's own affiliates withdrew its support as well. The Connecticut affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure said in a statement on Wednesday that it "shares" people's frustration over the decision and that it will continue funding Planned Parenthood of New England. "The decision regarding the funding of Planned Parenthood was made by Susan G. Komen for the Cure National Headquarters," the group posted on its Facebook wall. "Susan G. Komen for the Cure Connecticut enjoys a great partnership with Planned Parenthood, and is currently funding Planned Parenthood of Southern New England. We understand,


Prompt: Attack on Titan is one of those rare anime/manga things I can say is really good and not as a guilty pleasure. A strange hybrid between the usual humans-take-on-monsters-using-amazing-powers (in this case, technology) and a horror story in which lots of people die extremely bloodily, it scratches an itch I didn’t quite know I had. In Attack on Titan world, all known humanity exists in cities within three massive circular walls, the reason being that the horrific Titans lurk outside those walls. Titans are massive human-like monsters with no genitalia, limited intelligence, incredible regenerative abilities, nigh-immunity to firearms, and seemingly

no desire or reason to exist except to devour humans. Considering they’re borderline invincible and capable of swatting a house into rubble with a single clumsy swing of a palm, it’s perhaps no surprise that people have opted for the relative safety of the walls. Things take a turn for the worse when a strange Titan appears and smashes through the outermost wall, allowing Titans to pour in, and massively cutting off the amount of land available to humanity. Suddenly there’s less space, less food, and more refugees. The one weakness of a Titan is to hack out the nape of its neck, which is obviously easier said than done when you’re talking about a twenty-metre beast that’s trying to grab you and eat you. As such, swords with replaceable blade and omnidirectional movement gear that grapples onto points and then boosts you towards them are key to staying alive and getting to the necks. In short, it’s a great concept for a game, and what little I’ve played of Attack on Titan: Wings of Freedom seems to indicate that it’s actually been handled pretty well. But has the PC port managed to pass basic training, or should it be left out for the Titans? Hmm. First up, launching the game gave me this slightly bizarre message: I’ve never seen anything like this before – or at least, not on a Steam game. I’ve occasionally seen similar in low-budget indie Japanese titles, but that’s about it. I clicked “Yes” and it worked fine; I have no idea if Attack on Titan: Wings of Freedom will have any issues should you dare to click “No”, but accepting compatibility mode seemed like a safe bet. Initial impressions are actually positive, insofar as the menus have all the proper keyboard buttons listed instead


Prompt: Hello all, In this newsletter, we will share the latest updates on the science side of the operation. We have spent the last month tweaking and playing with the specifics of our observing campaign. Also, with winter coming, we have been setting up some preparations for when the star is traditionally out of range. Updates to the Observations Astronomy is limited as a science in that we typically cannot do much in a laboratory setting. We can't build a baby star and scale it up, we can't repeat the Big Bang and watch it play out, and we definitely cannot

go out to WTF and see with our own eyes what is going on. Instead, we get really clever with how we use the light coming from these objects. You could then guess that astronomers want ALL THE STARLIGHT. This is kind of true, but it is possible to have too much starlight. When this happens in an image the star or object from which we counted too much light is called saturated. It looks at its worst like this: This is an image from ESO showing bleed lines (vertical stripes) on some bright stars. As you can probably guess, we have experienced some saturation issues in our data, but nothing as blatant as that image. Ours looks more like this: Do you see it? Not really, no. A better, and more analytical way to quantify this saturation is to look at a slice through the star and see what the profile of the counts looks like. We would expect a bell curve, a normal distribution. If the star was saturated, we would expect a plateau or a mesa in the counts. Here is one of the slices demonstrating saturation: So, how did this happen? Excellent question, internal dialogue! This is because we planned our observations with a very particular setup. We wanted as much light as possible without saturating. This required de-focusing (deliberately making our stars bigger and fuzzier on the chip) to avoid the saturation. Due to a hiccup in the telescope following the focus commands it was sent (which apparently affected other users as well), our images were actually focused rather than unfocused. These *focused* images were saturated, making light curves that look like this: This plot was put together quickly in AstroImageJ, which is freely available if you want to analyze some data on your own.


Prompt: It looks like Whispers of the Old Gods will indeed be the next expansion for Hearthstone. Whispers of the Old Gods will be the third expansion for Hearthstone, and will be the first official set added to the new Standard format. The set will include 134 new cards, 4 Old God legendaries, and 16 cards (cultists) that intract with C'Thun. Whispers of the Old Gods has a planned release date of late April or early May. You can start theorycrafting decks with our Hearthstone Deck Builder! Quick Information 134 New collectible cards Release date: April 26th, 2016 April 26th, 2016

Whispers of the Old Gods will be launched alongside the new Standard format You get 3 free packs for logging in during the Promotional period (we don’t know how long this will be) Your first pack will contain C'Thun and 2 copies of Beckoner of Evil and 2 copies of C’Thun and the 16 cultist cards will NOT be available in Arena, but all the other cards will be. Whispers of the Old Gods Pre-Order Everyone will receive 3 free Whispers of the Old Gods packs for logging in during the release event. You will also receive a C'Thun card along with 2 copies of Beckoner of Evil for free. The Pre-Order starts on March 14th. You will also be able to Pre-Purchase 50 Whispers of the Old Gods card packs for $49.99 (you can purchase these at a discount with Amazon Coins). Along with receiving the 50 packs at a discount, you will also receive this new C’Thun card back: Whispers of the Old Gods Card List Rate this item: 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 Submit Rating Rating: 3.0/5. From 1595 votes. Please wait... Discuss Card Rate this item: 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 Submit Rating Rating: 3.2/5. From 1534 votes. Please wait... Discuss Card Rate this item: 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 Submit Rating Rating: 2.4/5. From 1397 votes. Please wait... Discuss Card Rate this item: 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 Submit Rating Rating: 4.1/5. From 1665 votes. Please wait... Discuss Card Rate this item: 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 Submit Rating Rating: 2.3/5. From 1674 votes. Please wait... Discuss Card Rate this item: 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 Submit Rating Rating: 4.6/5. From 2539 votes. Please wait... Discuss Card Rate this item: 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 Submit Rating Rating: 2.5/5. From 1246 votes. Please wait... Discuss


Prompt: Greetings denizens of Agon. We’ll start this news with a public service announcement: Starting today characters that have been inactive for over a month will start getting placed in storage and clans with all characters getting stored will be disbanded. The content of their clan vaults will be lost and owned holdings will become neutral again. It will depend on when the character was last active, and it will happen progressively. Starting Friday, accounts that had only one month of game time will start going inactive. Some of you should already be inactive, but we chose to extend the first

month a bit due to the technical issues we’ve had on the first day and this past week end. You may already extend your game time by upgrading your bundle in the store. The longer bundles being cheaper per month. After an account becomes expired, it will have 1 week to upgrade until it loses access to bundles and will only get access to a monthly subscription at 9.99€. Remember that, either way, for each month of InDev purchased, you will get at least 1 extra week for Live launch. With this out of the way, we would like to give players an updated estimate of what we are expecting for the rest of the InDev period. In general we are happy with our velocity. We did a lot more than we expected to have done by now. There are more gameplay issues than we remembered, so we’ve had to change our priorities based on player feedback and fix more issues than planned, however we have had some very positive surprises on the engine side which balances out. In short, as of today we estimate that we’ll have an InDev that lasts the full 9 months, but with more features than planned. As you’ve probably noticed by now, we operate in Patch Cycles, with each cycle having general goals and features fitting a theme. Patch Cycles 1 and 2 were about foundational changes and we’ve spent quite a while working on improving the engine, fixing the player progression and the first iteration of behind the scene systems. Patch Cycle 3, the one we are in now, is very much about transitioning into expanding the game and switching to adding content. We believe that after Patch Cycle 3, or during Patch Cycle 4, the game will be marketable to at least


Prompt: It is easy to lose sight of the wood for the trees in a warzone like Kashmir's, and the state police appear to have done just that over the funeral of Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Abu Qasim on Thursday. He was killed earlier that day in an operation led by the Rashtriya Rifles. Senior police officers said this one killing had broken the back of militancy but seemed oblivious to how vividly the funeral demonstrated mass alienation. Those who attended the funeral or were in the vicinity spoke of their shock at the level of mass hatred against India which they witnessed.

Some estimates put the number of mourners at 20,000. Many young people drove from Pulwama and Shopian districts to the funeral site in Kulgam district. Observers noted an almost murderous zest in their emotions. Militants joined the boisterous crowd and fired volleys as a salute when Qasim was buried. Funeral prayers were read twice at different locations and people from the three districts argued over where the body would be buried. After the funeral, the police’s handling of the highly strung public smacked of a counterproductive ego battle. They damaged a large number of returning cars and locked up scores of boisterous young men. This sort of robotically repressive response tends to turn a battle victory between militants and counterinsurgency forces into a mass uprising that could change the contours of the war – to the forces’ disadvantage. A senior police officer was quoted as saying that, after Qasim had killed `super-cop’ sub-inspector Mohammed Altaf Dar earlier this month, it had become not just a professional duty but a personal one to kill Qasim. Taking umbrage at this remark, Hilal, an angry resident of Shopian, asked why it had not been the police’s duty to kill Qasim as long as his targets were army or para-military soldiers. He added bitterly that the police force was so incensed over Altaf’s killing because his successes used to bring them large amounts in reward. Such high-pitched support for a slain militant has been uncommon since about 1991, particularly for a Pakistani. Until relatively recently, people by and large did not quite identify with ‘guest militants’, and were wary of Lashkar’s blinkered religio-militant zeal. About a decade ago, people generally avoided sheltering or aiding them. Several factors have come together to change things so much. They need to be taken seriously, for this is


Prompt: In a recent interview, Billie Lourd revealed she will be back and bigger than ever in the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VIII. Lourd’s character, Kaydel Ko Connix, spoke one line to her mother’s character in The Force Awakens and now Lourd promises more from Connix in the next installment in the saga films. A FSW correspondent was able to catch up with Lourd following her interview and asked her to elaborate on what she referred to as a role that’s “bigger than ever.” Billie revealed that not only will her role be bigger and meatier this time around but Connix

herself will be bigger and meatier. Lourd elaborated that Connix will be pregnant in Episode VIII, carrying the child of a certain lead character. Billie refused to comment any further out of fear of being arrested but confirmed the baby does not belong to First Order characters Hux, Snoke, or Kylo Ren. SPECULATION TIME FAKERS! Now lets figure out whose child Lieutenant Connix carries. Our choices are: Poe Dameron – The obvious choice is the most eligible bachelor in the Resistance. Poe’s got the looks, the swagger, and he’s the best freaking pilot in the galaxy. The only thing harming this theory is the fact Poe may be gay with feelings for Finn. Finn – We only suggest Finn because Billie said it was a lead character. However, Finn would have just recently joined the Resistance by the time of Episode VIII and wouldn’t have been available to get it on with Connix before being put into a coma by Kylo Ren. We doubt Finn is the father. “Snap” Wexley – We all know that Snap’s reconnaissance skills are top-notch, so it seems likely he will have done his work sorting out the eligible ladies to carry on the snap seed for generations of rebels to come. Plus it just sounds cool to say, “My daddy Snap has done recon on bases bigger than your daddy.” Benicio del Toro’s “man in black” – It’s not completely outside the realm of possibilities to assume that del Toro will play a baby daddy Latino lover in Star Wars, given the new bent of Disney trying to represent ethnic groups in their films in a diverse way. In this theory, del Toro plays a poor campesino fruit farmer who illegally immigrates to galactic headquarters and impregnates his young wife citizen to get a


Prompt: Anthony Rizzo collided with San Diego Padres catcher Austin Hedges Monday night in what, by any definition of the term, was a dirty play. On Tuesday, in a decision that made absolutely no sense, Major League Baseball confirmed that the collision Rizzo initiated was illegal, but then opted not to discipline him in any way. Source: MLB told all clubs today that Anthony Rizzo had indeed violated the collision rule. Could have been discipline but ruled against it. — Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 20, 2017 The league did not believe Rizzo intended to hurt Austin Hedges or had crossed a

line with his slide. That line, it seems, is arbitrary. — Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 20, 2017 It's pretty clear Austin Hedges left a clear path to home. Say what you will about the rule, but Anthony Rizzo's slide absolutely broke it. pic.twitter.com/0OWPE5aMEe — Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 20, 2017 The Chicago Cubs first baseman went out of his way to plow into Hedges in an attempt to knock the ball loose. For his part, Hedges did what he was supposed to do: give the runner a clear path to the plate. Rather than take it, Rizzo went out of his way to lay a hit on Hedges. It was a clear violation of Rule 6.01 (i), the so-called “Buster Posey Rule” that reads as follows: ” A runner attempting to score may not deviate from his direct pathway to the plate in order to initiate contact with the catcher (or other player covering home plate), or otherwise initiate an avoidable collision.” Video of the play in question follows, watch how Rizzo crosses the baseline to his left and initiates contact, deviating from his path to the plate rather than taking the outside line that is clearly available to him: Your browser does not support iframes. Here’s another look with Padres manager Andy Green discussing it: Hedges had to leave the game with an injury and is now day-to-day. Baseball has since ruled Rizzo’s slide illegal. So why hasn’t Rizzo been punished? It’s absolutely ridiculous. Even a one-game suspension or a fine would be something. Instead, he’s in the lineup Tuesday night and Hedges isn’t because of a dirty play that violated a rule put in place for player safety. There’s no question that Major League Baseball is being extremely selective with its discipline here. You can’t just decide who


Prompt: It helps to have a thick skin when reporting on the nexus between Chinese money and Vancouver's sky-high property market. It also might help if that skin, like mine, isn't white. Accusations of racism flow thick and fast whenever an attempt is made to connect wealth-based immigration, primarily by rich Chinese, and housing prices here. Since influential condo marketer Bob Rennie delivered a speech to the Urban Development Institute in May, in which he said "sensational" stories making that link were "bordering on racism," an array of industry figures have lined up to support his proposition. But now, some in

the Chinese community are pushing back. "Guys like Bob Rennie, they are trying to stop full conversation and intelligent conversation by using words like 'racism,'" said long-time Chinatown activist David Wong. "People are afraid to speak when people start throwing that word around." Story continues below advertisement Mr. Wong, an architect who has campaigned on behalf of impoverished Chinese immigrants, said it was vital to have a frank discussion about the impact of rich immigrants on greater Vancouver, where average detached house prices top $1.2-million. "Every time people want to talk about this, they get labelled a racist, especially if they are non-Asian," said Wong. "That's nonsense. We've got to talk about it. The politicians are gutless because they are afraid they are going to lose the so-called ethnic vote." Mr. Rennie's May 15 speech was swiftly followed by a range of commentary that hewed closely to his line. On June 3, pro-development political consultant Bob Ransford warned in The Vancouver Sun that addressing unaffordability by restricting foreign ownership would "tread very close" to the historical discrimination of the anti-Chinese head tax. Two days later, University of British Columbia professor Tsur Somerville – whose Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate is sponsored by developers Grosvenor and Henderson Development, as well as the Commercial Real Estate Development Association – told CKNW Radio that although ignoring the issue would be "foolish," the debate risked descending into "prejudice, stereotypes and racism." Cameron Muir, chief economist for the B.C. Real Estate Association, meanwhile told The Vancouver Observer on June 5 that linking immigration to property prices "is beginning to sound suspiciously awkward." The debate is certainly getting awkward, though perhaps not in the way Mr. Muir suggests. Brandon Yan, a Vancouver city planning commissioner, summed it up in a Twitter critique of Mr.


Prompt: The Fest is almost upon us and we couldn't be more excited over here at Punktastic. Celebrating its 15 year anniversary (woah), the seminal punk festival held annually in Gainesville, FL comes around each Halloween weekend and brings with it sunshine, beers, friends, hugs, smiles and some of the best music the punk/emo/hardcore scenes have to offer. There are hundreds of bands playing all weekend with something for everyone, but we've picked ten bands that we think you simply can't miss this year. Ready? Here we go: Alaska When: Sunday, 6:30pm – 7:00pm Where: Palomino Hailing from Henderson, Nevada, this

four-piece plays a unique blend of math and post-hardcore that sets Alaska apart from a lot of their contemporaries. Since the release of their sophomore album ‘Shrine’ in October 2015, the band has relentlessly toured over the US and recently completed an EU/UK jaunt with the wonderful Gulfer from Montreal. With an incredibly intense live show, and one of the tightest drummers in the scene in Nick Strader (seriously, just peep this guy when you watch them), Alaska should be one of the first bands on your schedule. You won’t be disappointed. Arms Aloft When: Friday, 9:50pm – 10:30pm Where: The Wooly Fest veterans Arms Aloft return once more and bring with them a new record, the impeccable ‘What A Time To Be Barely Alive’. Released through a plethora of DIY labels all over the world, plus a US release with Red Scare Industries, the record sees Arms Aloft perfect the sound they’ve been crafting over the past nine (yup, nine) years. Each year, the show at Fest feels more and more like a homecoming party for these four scamps from the Midwest. You’re all invited, and you’ll have the best time. Come down, the bar isn’t gonna drink itself dry. Cayetana When: Sunday, 12:30pm – 1:10pm Where: Bo Diddley Plaza Philadelphia trio Cayetana were a breath of fresh air in the punk scene when they dropped their debut LP ‘Nervous Like Me’ back in September 2014. Fast forward two years and they’re opening the biggest stage on the final day of The Fest. Cayetana are clearly three best friends who are just having a blast playing music together and the fact this music is so goddamn good makes watching this band an unbelievably fun time. Guaranteed to put a smile on your face and help get you ready for


Prompt: SHE’S famed for her vegetarianism, having penned seven veggie cookbooks, and been at the pinnacle of the London food scene. She’s counted Sir Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox and Prince Charles among her clients. But these days Nadine Abensur is more likely to be chowing down on a burger than a Brussels sprout. The French-Moroccan chef and author followed a strict plant-based diet for 29 years after an incident when she was 19-years-old that shocked her into a meat-free lifestyle. “I was at uni and I remember walking past a butcher’s shop in the north of England in 1976 and a

truck pulled up with a whole dead cow in the back. It was obliterated. I just took one look at it and was completely horrified,” Nadine says. “So I became vegetarian overnight.” Looking back now, however, Nadine says her food choices during those almost three decades were misguided. “I can honestly say that for every single day of those 29 years I felt unwell and I was in complete denial about it because I assumed, like everyone else did, that I was on a healthy diet. I ate lots of vegetables.” Nadine’s food journey began early. Born in Casablanca to French-Jewish parents, her paternal grandparents arrived in Morocco – on foot – in 1917 following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Nadine’s mother came from a long line of Spanish Jews, who’d gone to Morocco from their home country following the Spanish Inquisition. “(My family are) really, really sophisticated and varied and brilliant cooks. Every single one of them was a brilliant cook. So I saw a lot as a child.” In 1950s and ’60s Morocco, wealthy families often had servants, so Nadine would have people cooking for her during her early years. Yet when she stepped into the kitchen herself, she says it came naturally. “It was in my blood,” she remembers. “When I started cooking I just knew how. I never had to have a lesson or go and train with anybody. “It was just in there.” And it still is, despite her drive to break free of her cooking pigeonhole. “People would say to me: ‘Oh, you’re such a brilliant cook’, and I would bristle because I’m so much more than that. It used to really upset me. So when I came to Australia I was determined to do something else.” On the trail of the late


Prompt: Has an airline refused compensation after a flight delay or cancellation? Thanks to the European Court of Justice, you can demand at least £225. Barrister Richard Colbey explains Many passengers who have tried claiming compensation from an airline for a cancelled flight will have encountered refusals based on "exceptional circumstances". Until earlier this month, at least in airline speak, it could mean not only extraordinary events – like the foiled terrorist attack which forced Glasgow airport to close – but technical defects. European law entitles passengers whose flights are cancelled or substantially delayed to a minimum of €250 (£225) compensation.

The airline is only excused liability if it can show its failure was caused by these ill-defined exceptional circumstances. Friederike Wallentin-Hermann had booked Alitalia tickets for herself, her husband and daughter from Vienna to Brinidisi in south-east Italy, via Rome. The first leg of her flight was cancelled at very short notice, leaving her to take a roundabout route on Austrian Airlines, which resulted in them reaching their destination nearly four hours late. The cancellation was due to a "complex" turbine engine failure, which took 10 days to fix. Predictably, the airline claimed this was an "exceptional circumstance". Wallentin-Hermann decided to pursue her claim for the standard compensation, plus a small amount for telephone charges, in her local commercial court. Airlines have tended, since the current compensation regulations were introduced in 2004, not to defend claims from those passengers who actually use the courts. Most prefer not to risk setting an unfavourable and incontrovertible precedent, which could make it harder to fob off the majority who give up before resorting to litigation. Alitalia, however, decided to put its head above the pulpit, fighting the matter not only in the Austrian courts, but, when unsuccessful, appealing to the European Court of Justice. The resulting decision will be welcome confirmation for passengers that routine technical faults are not "exceptional". The court's reasoning recognised that airlines invariably face technical problems. Checking for, and fixing these, is an inherent part of their business. The mere fact that an airline has complied with the legal minimum maintenance requirement will not exempt it from liability when something mechanical goes wrong. The judgment does not go so far as to rule that mechanical defects could never amount to exceptional circumstances. The court recognised that a warning by the aircraft manufacturer leading to the removal from service of


Prompt: German Chancellor Angela Merkel had a warm meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday that stood in sharp contrast to her growing split with President Trump. (Filip Singer/European Pressphoto Agency) President Trump escalated his feud with Berlin on Tuesday, even as Germany’s leader and Trump’s own spokesman tried to defuse the conflict, which has sent tremors through Washington’s core postwar alliances. Before the presidential tweets began flying early Tuesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel reaffirmed the importance of Germany’s ties to the United States. But she pointedly did not back down from earlier comments about Europe’s need to rely on

itself rather than its friends. The dispute started as Trump sped through meetings in Europe last week and appeared to leave a trail of bruises in his wake. It heated up after Merkel did little over the weekend to hide her disappointment with Trump’s refusal to commit Washington to the climate change treaty. And it was further inflamed Tuesday at 6:40 a.m. Washington time when Trump fired a white-hot shot straight at Berlin’s glass-and-concrete chancellery. “We have a MASSIVE trade deficit with Germany, plus they pay FAR LESS than they should on NATO & military. Very bad for U.S. This will change,” Trump wrote in his early-morning tweet. The fight has had few obvious practical consequences so far. But Merkel’s meetings this week — first a chummy meeting with India’s leader on Tuesday and then a sit-down with the Chinese prime minister on Wednesday — were bracing reminders of the trade ties being forged outside the United States as Washington moves toward a sharply more nationalist and protectionist agenda. (Reuters) Merkel refused to give ground Tuesday, even as she sought to ease the dispute with a rhetorical hug. “Transatlantic relations are of paramount importance,” Merkel said alongside Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Berlin. “What I did was merely to point out that in light of the present situation, there are yet more reasons that we have to take our destiny in Europe into our own hands.” [As Merkel seeks allies elsewhere, Modi visits Berlin bursting with friendliness] The Modi meeting was planned long before the dust-up with Trump. But the cheerful body language between the two leaders was difficult to miss. “We are meant for each other,” Modi said to Merkel, smiling widely, as both leaders made positive comments about a European Union-India trade deal in the works. German


Prompt: Will Justin Herbert be able to beat back Terry Wilson and Travis Jonsen to remain the Oregon signal caller this fall? There is no more visible player on a football team than the starting quarterback. They're typically the face and leader of the program. It's why teams with excellent defenses and supporting casts don't typically win titles with subpar signal callers. That brings us to the first of our position breakdown series for spring football: quarterback. In these breakdowns we'll aim to explain what's at stake for each position, who the major players are and what do we hope to

learn as spring football kicks off on April 5. What we know: Justin Herbert can play football. That might be over-simplified, but the Sheldon product was fabulous last season in seven starts as a true frosh. He threw for 1936 yards, 19 touchdowns with just four interceptions. While the Ducks went just 2-5 with him behind center, that's not as much an indictment of the sophomore's abilities as it is on the previous staff's inability to lead a winning football team. We also know that there's a new sheriff in town. While the arrival of Willie Taggart has rejuvenated what was a growingly apathetic fanbase, it also means that nothing is guaranteed for Herbert. Herbert was excellent in the vision of the previous regime, but does he fit what Taggart and company will want to do at Oregon? That's perhaps the most pressing question surrounding the program entering this spring. Who returns: Justin Herbert, 6-6 225 pounds, sophomore; Terry Wilson, 6-3 205 pounds, freshman; Travis Jonsen, 6-3 215 points, sophomore; Taylor Alie, 6-0 185 pounds, senior. Who's new: Braxton Burmeister, 6-1 195 pounds, freshman. What's intriguing: We mentioned the mystery behind whether Herbert fits Taggart's vision or not. That's a reasonable inquiry given how South Florida operated the last two years. Both Taggart and Helfrich ran a spread offense, but the comparisons end there. Bulls quarterback Quinton Flowers ran for an astounding 1530 yards last season and 991 the year before. That's a ton. The last two years Flowers ran it 389 and threw it 607 times. Conversely, Herbert ran it 58 times and threw it 255 times last year. Basically Flowers threw it 1.5 times per every rush, while Herbert threw it 4.5 times per every rush. Are you sensing the difference? None of this is to say that


Prompt: This article is over 7 years old Survey in wake of phone-hacking scandal finds only 14% of respondents trust red-tops 'to do what is right' Almost 70% of the British public distrust red-top tabloids in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal, according to a new survey. In a study of 2,100 UK adults in January, 68% of respondents said they did not trust red-tops – including the Daily Star, the Daily Mirror and the Sun – "to do what is right". However, faith in the UK media overall actually rose 15% last year among a separate group of 5,600 adults

who described themselves as university-educated people who regularly follow the news. The Edelman Trust Barometer, published on Tuesday, is an annual survey that measures Britons' trust in the government, business, media and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). US firm Edelman is one of the biggest global PR and communications groups. This is the first time that Edelman has asked a representative sample of UK adults about how much they trust the media, so year-on-year comparisons are unavailable. Ed Williams, chief executive of Edelman UK, said the survey shows "a separation between TV and radio, serious news including broadsheet newspapers, and social media and tabloid papers at the other end of the scale". He added: "Those who said their trust in media had decreased cited 'phone-[hacking] stories', 'scandal' and 'politics' – those were the trends." Just 14% of the group of 2,100 adults trust red-top newspapers "to do what is right", according to the survey, as trust in quality titles and TV news also suffered a decline. The huge fall leaves red-tops trailing behind social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, as information sources that the public trust in this way. Edelman's study suggests that broadcasters including the BBC and Sky News are among the most trusted media organisations, ahead of quality titles such as the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph. Trust in media organisations (click for bigger image). Photograph: Edelman Almost 58% of those surveyed said they trust the broadcasters, compared with 47% for quality titles and 39% for "online news sources", such as the Huffington Post. Only 26% of respondents said they trust mid-market newspapers, including the Daily Mail and Daily Express, while 45% said they distrust them. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian


Prompt: ANALYSIS/OPINION: There’s just no way around this: President Obama looked America in the eye and lied. The president was so hellbent on “fundamentally transforming” the country with his health care takeover that he intentionally deceived you — he lied — not once or twice, but over and over again. In 2010, the year Obamacare was signed into law, I wrote “Obamacare’s Unkeepable Promises” in The Washington Times. These false promises were easily predictable and are finally now being exposed. It’s starts with nine words that are unmaking an American presidency. “If you like your plan, you can keep it.” —

Barack Obama, June 2010 Already, 5 million Americans have lost their health insurance plans directly because of the president’s law. By next year, as Obamacare starts tearing through employer-based insurance plans, that number will rise to between 50 million and 100 million Americans. However, this was just one of Mr. Obama’s egregious Obamacare lies. The list goes on. “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period.” — Barack Obama, June 2010 How can you keep your doctor, though, if your doctor cannot keep his practice? As health insurance companies buckle under the weight of Obamacare, they are narrowing their provider networks in hopes of controlling costs. This, of course, means that your doctor may no longer be allowed to participate in your plan. Other doctors are dropping or limiting Medicare and Medicaid, and some are even dropping out of all private insurance as well. Still others are leaving the practice of medicine altogether. You won’t be able to keep them. “I will not sign a [health care] plan that adds one dime to our deficits.” — Barack Obama, September 2009 The president originally claimed Obamacare would reduce the deficit by $100 billion in the first decade. Aiding and abetting this lie was Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who buried her own report that showed Obamacare would cost $400 billion more than promised in the first decade. It gets worse. The Government Accountability Office’s long-term projection reveals Obamacare raises the deficit over $1 trillion. “I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital-gains taxes, not any of your taxes.” — Barack Obama, September 2008 Mr. Obama is


Prompt: I have spent most of my 20s in emotionally abusive relationships. Until a year ago, I thought I was the worst kind of damaged goods, a girl who could only love men who hurt her. I know there are three sides to every story. In this article, you're going to hear one; mine. I don't write this with venom. The men I've been involved with were handsome, smart, charming and talented. There were good times. The bad times outweighed them. Most people don't know I've been in (to clarify again) emotionally abusive relationships. From the outside, I'd bet my life

looks pretty great. Some parts of it always were. I guess I am proof that there is no likely candidate for abuse. For a long time, I found my romantic past embarrassing, confusing and very sad. I didn't want to talk about my experiences because I thought that my kind of pain was self-inflicted. If I was stupid enough to stay, I deserved it. But when "the Jian Ghomeshi thing" happened, it was all I could think about. When people first sided with Ghomeshi and not his victims, I was so mad I started shaking. When I started listening to Serial, I had recurring dreams about Hae Min Lee. I was obsessed with figuring out who killed her. Then, I started dreaming of all my ex-boyfriends again. Trauma is a funny thing. It hides in the shadowy corners of your mind, resurfacing when all you want is for it to be erased from your memory forever. I'm writing this for a lot of reasons. Some of them are: I think abusive relationships are an epidemic in our society. It could help someone understand their friend, their sister, their daughter who keeps going back. It could help someone who keeps going back. Because articles like this helped me. Because what trauma really wants is a voice. To anyone who needs help, You think you are crazy. You're anxious all the time. Your heart beats quickly. You have a lot of questions for your boyfriend that you don't feel like you can ask. You wonder if you're always being lied to. You spend a lot time in the past, likely when you first fell in love him. You apologize constantly. When you explain your fights to anyone who will listen, no one understands why you're apologizing. You are always confused. You're high


Prompt: Trump calls out SNL for trying to alter the public’s perceptions of him: Watched Saturday Night Live hit job on me.Time to retire the boring and unfunny show. Alec Baldwin portrayal stinks. Media rigging election! Even Vanity Fair calls it what it is: Saturday Night Live caught a lot of flak last season for inviting NBC star and presidential hopeful Donald Trump to host an episode. But we’ve come a long way since last November and while NBC continues to get scrutiny for pandering to the former Apprentice boss, S.N.L. itself has made a big effort this season to distance

itself from cozying up to Trump. And, three weeks into the season, Trump has finally taken notice. Processing his thoughts on Twitter early Sunday morning, Trump formalized his disapproval of Alec Baldwin’s pouting impression… Baldwin’s popular Trump impression isn’t the only way the show is trying to put some distance between itself and Trump. In other words, this is free political advertising for Hillary Clinton – and it should be illegal. I hope Trump remembers when he takes office. There are all sorts of ways the governmental machinery can be used to exact punishments for citizens, without actually needing any official legal reason to do so. Obama has made the new guidelines into “whatever you can get away with,” and I think we should go with those. It is obvious that Alec Baldwin was substituted for Darryl Hammond for a reason. When the cameras cut to Trump and Hillary in the first debate, before either said a word, Trump made what I would call the Trump-face. It is a squinty eyes with puckered lips, looking out of the corners of his eyes to the side. Nicole Wallace on NBC after the debate commented that none of Trump’s people must have coached him to realize that he was being filmed even when he wasn’t talking, because when the first shots of the candidates were put up, Trump almost looked like, in her words, “a Saturday Night Live skit.” I think Trump knew exactly what he was doing, and I think he was purposely impersonating Darryl Hammond doing an impersonation of Donald Trump. The instant I saw that expression on Trump, almost like a reflex, I laughed, and entered a cognitive mode where I was prepared to be entertained. It was a positive, amused, ready to laugh state, all because I felt


Prompt: 1/20 Team Lotus Type 49 1967 by Ebbro (Available From HobbyLink Japan – HLJ.com) It’s an iconic combination of colour – British racing green and lemon yellow. Built by Colin Chapman and Maurice Philipe the Lotus 49 was the first real F1 car that included the engine as a stressed component of the race car. Initially it was considered a handful with the 408 horsepower output, after Colin Chapman negotiated with Ford they built the DFV engine specially for this race car. It would prove to be a good partnership as for many years later almost the entire grid of

F1 was to be powered by this engine. Names such as Graham Hill, Jim Clark, Jack Brabham, Jo Siffert, Jochen Rindt have all driven the car which was to become one of the sport’s most recognised cars, and has also been considered ‘the most beautiful F1 car of all time’. The Kitset It comes moulded in black, green, chrome, grey, and clear yellow for wind shields. It was a tooling that was done under the Ebbro brand name, although Tamiya had a hand in the creation of this kitset which is quite possibly why the model fits together seamlessly and was a pleasure to build. The decals are thick, however with decal solution they conform to the body very nicely. They are bold in colour and do not allow the paint colour beneath to seep through. Options are included in the kit for US/UK/Mexican/Italian/Dutch Grand Prix races, and the drivers included are Graham Hill and Jim Clark. Cockpit & Monocoque The base detailing in this kit for the cockpit is good, and there is a lot of room left for addition of small details such as wiring. I added a small amount to the rear of the instrument cluster just to bump things up. The main monocoque consists of 5 pieces and despite having 5 pieces coming together to create one, the seam lines are almost unrecognisable once glued together. Suspension & Engine The suspension on the Lotus is one of beauty, lots of chrome (reflected in the kitset) and a traditional simplistic structure. Included in the kit is two options for braking, a set of normal disc brakes, and a set of vented disc brakes. This kit I decided to run the vented versions. Right out of the box, I had concerns about the car sitting flat on all


Prompt: by Michelle Fox It’s been a wild ride in indie publishing the last few days. A media attack on erotica quickly spun out of control, shutting down book stores and wiping some indie authors off the face of the internet. Below, we recount the sequence of events wreaking havoc across the publishing industry. How the Book Banning Started On Wednesday October 9th, an article in UK ‘news publication’ Kernel Mag triggered a widespread banning and blocking of self-pubbed books. Action was taken across multiple booksellers, and, while the initial focus was on erotica, the problem soon spread to other genres.

Authors quickly discovered that the Kernel Mag piece misrepresented several individual authors, as well as the erotica genre as a whole. However, it was too late to stop other media outlets from spreading the misinformation, which caused Amazon, Kobo and WH Smith (who carries Kobo’s catalog of books) to react without a full understanding of the situation. Internet Marketers Use Erotica as a Cash Machine The first flaw in Kernel Mag’s anti-porn campaign? The article portrayed the problem as (mostly self-pubbed) erotica and then featured books published primarily by internet marketers, not authors. Authors can easily spot these ‘marketeers’ because they study the erotica book listings in the course of their market research, an expertise that no media outlet has developed. Internet marketers routinely outsource story production to third world countries and are known to publish hundreds of stories at a time. The quality is low, the covers are in-your-face graphic and the titles are keyword stuffed to the point that even Google gags on all the search terms. It’s not an issue of genre, but a business model used by some marketers to extract profit with no concern for quality. This isn’t the first time internet marketers have caused problems for booksellers and indie authors. Before they hit erotica, they slammed the non-fiction category. In 2011, Amazon struck back by deleting the mass produced non-fiction. Now that erotica is under attack, the profiteers will either move on to another genre or become more savvy about how to stay under the radar. Media Accuses Legitimate Authors of Illegal ‘Fiction’ Other indie books originally targeted by Kernel Mag, ones written by actual authors, were wrongfully accused of bestiality and rape. Two examples: Dog Gone It by Chelsea Fox was singled out because of a dog on the book cover, not because


Prompt: The ACC does not have its own standalone cable sports network, but that does not appear to be getting in the way of spreading the ACC brand across the country. On the eve of the ACC Football Kickoff, the ACC released a statement claiming the conference will have football games airing in an estimated 90 million homes this fall. Part of this is having fun with numbers to make things sound better than they really are. For instance, not all 90 million home sin the country are going to be plugged into ACC football for the entire season. This is

just more about the potential reach of the conference through various partnerships with broadcast outlets and more. But it sure sounds like a nice, juicy number when the SEC is getting pumped about reaching an estimated 45 million customers on the brand new SEC Network launching next month. Do not take away from the growth of the syndicated ACC Network, because there has been some great progress made in a short period of time. According to the press release numbers, the ACC Network has increased the number of households it can reach from 27 million in 201 to 90 million in 2014. “Our goal is to continue delivering ACC content to as many fans as possible,” said ACC Commissioner John Swofford in a released statement. “We are proud of our partnership with ESPN, Raycom and the Fox regional networks. It’s these relationships that allow us to maximize the exposure for our schools and conference.” With the growth being shown by these numbers and with the Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC dabbling to various degrees of success with their own respective networks, could an actual, standalone ACC Network still be on the way? The idea has been out there for a while now, and the model and framework is now in place with ESPN launching the SEC Network, assuming ESPN would be the broadcast partner for an actual ACC Network. Having a network would likely lead to a financial boost to the ACC, helping it catch up with other power conferences, and if a Division IV split comes of age, then having its own network may be in the ACC’s best interests for years to come. Swofford may be asked about the idea when he opens the ACC Football Kickoff in Greensboro, North Carolina on Sunday, especially with the buzz surrounding


Prompt: Invictus is headed to the CrossFit Games for the 9th year in a row! We have launched limited edition 2017 Legacy T-shirts and Tank tops to celebrate the success. Get yours before they are gone, and be a part of the Invictus family no matter where you are watching the Games this year. Open Letter to Regionals Athletes Written by Invictus Athlete Josh Littauer Walking into the gym on a typical Monday, Wednesday or Friday at 5:30AM, I love that I can expect a few of the same things. I know that Vanessa will have already warmed up 30 minutes,

Daniel will be telling jokes and laughing before the punchline and Leah will warm everyone’s hearts as she laughs the most recognizable laugh you’ve ever heard. There are kind welcomes and hellos, questions about work, inside jokes only 5:30AM people would know, and a generally very energetic group for that early in the morning. These are little things I have greatly come to appreciate over the past 9 months or so participating in a normal CrossFit class. My presence in CrossFit gyms has been an interesting one since I started in 2012. When I first tried a CrossFit workout, I was told that I should compete, and that someday I could be one of the best in the world. Not knowing any better, I jumped right in began to do as much CrossFit as my body would allow. Within a few months I had competed in multiple local competitions and by the time I did my first CrossFit Open in 2013, was told the following year I should try to make the Regional Competition. From there I began training multiple times a day, doing extra skill work, more squat cycles, working with lifting coaches, and pushing myself as quickly towards progress as I could. Sure enough the following year in 2014, I qualified for my first Regional. From here my fitness took a different turn. I definitely was no longer a normal class attendee, I had special programming, supplements, therapists, and diets to help me achieve a goal of going to the CrossFit Games. This carried on for two more years as I became increasingly isolated from the rest of the CrossFit community and most often was the only one in the gym for either of my training sessions. I was caught up in myself, my own progress, my needs,


Prompt: I’ve always managed to dodge the bullet and avoid the addictive pull of Pokémon. Leave it to a button-mashing brawler with plastic figurine accessories to finally get me hooked. At first glance, Pokémon Rumble U isn’t much to look at. With its simplistic controls and repetitive gameplay, you might feel inclined to dismiss it as yet another cash-in of the popular Nintendo franchise. But despite its faults, there’s actually much more to Rumble U than meets the eye, making this a satisfying and fun little title for fans of the series and newcomers alike. The gameplay is nothing to rave

about. It’s incredibly basic. Using either the Gamepad or Wii Remote, you move your character around tiny arenas and attack using one of two buttons as countless hordes of Pokémon charge you head on. If you and your team of four Pokémon (human co-op or CPU controlled) survive the onslaught, then you’re left to battle the stage’s giant-sized boss Pokémon. Upon victory, you’re ranked according to the points you’ve collected and are presented with all the Pokémon that you’ve managed to catch for the round. That’s pretty much all there is to it. Rinse and repeat. There’s very little room or need to strategize a plan of attack. It really boils down to how powerful your Pokémon are and whether or not you’re lucky enough to unlock more of them.[singlepic id=15820 w=320 h=240 float=right] You may have already guessed it, but most of the appeal does not derive from the monotonous gameplay. While I do admittedly enjoy a mindless brawler from time to time, the real fun in this game comes from the satisfaction of completing challenges to unlock new levels, hoarding coins to upgrade your character (if you purchase the optional figurines) and of course collecting Pokémon. I’m not gonna lie, it really is all about the Pokémon, all 649 of them. There’s something about these odd little creatures that just makes you need to collect them. I’m sorry, but it happens. I don’t know if it’s because they’re each so uniquely designed with creative names like Leafeon and Heatran or if its because each Pokémon has different skills and power levels, but every time you find a new one, there is a slight yet noticeable release of endorphins into the bloodstream, leaving you temporarily warm and gooey inside. I imagine this sense of satisfaction is even more magnified


Prompt: When Shell launched its drilling operations off the Alaska coast in 2012, it promised to employ “world-class technology and experience to ensure a safe, environmentally responsible Arctic exploration program.” What the world got instead was an epic failure: “Shell experienced a series of problems and accidents last year, among them the grounding of a drilling rig, the Kulluk, which was stuck for several days off Kodiak Island. The Coast Guard said it found 16 safety and environmental violations on the other drilling rig used by Shell, the Noble Discoverer…Regulators also charged that both drilling rigs violated air pollution permit limits.

The Environmental Protection Agency imposed more than $1 million in fines in a settlement agreement.” The dramatic breakdown of the project had many, including the National Wildlife Federation, hoping that Shell would see the error of its ways and abandon plans to drill in this delicate environment. The Chukchi Sea, the area off the Alaska coast where Shell has focused its drilling operations, is one of the most pristine, breathtaking and unique settings on the planet—ringed seals, whales, polar bears, walruses and millions of shorebirds, seabirds, and waterfowl call the Chukchi home. Unfortunately, despite the accidents and mishaps of 2012, Shell a few weeks ago announced plans to resume exploratory drilling operations in 2014. Risky Business for Arctic Wildlife National Wildlife Federation has long opposed drilling in the Arctic—the potential for disaster is simply too high. While drilling always comes with the potential for a major spill, the chance of this happening in Arctic waters is much greater. Icebergs, hurricane-force winds, extreme cold and darkness are all major threats to drilling operations. In the likely case of an oil spill, no technology currently exists to cleanup oil in the Arctic’s icy waters. Even if the technology did exist, it is unclear how quickly responders would be able to reach the spill to begin the cleanup process. Despite Shell’s claims that it is “Arctic Ready,” the simple truth is that an oil spill in this region could cause long-lasting and devastating impacts to this habitat and its wildlife. For the plants and animals that call the Chukchi Sea home, a drilling disaster or spill could destroy vital denning, hunting and migratory habitat. For the ringed seal and polar bear, two animals currently listed as “threatened” on the Endangered Species Act list, the impacts of drilling will be felt even if a


Prompt: Recently, education reporter Jay Mathews of The Washington Post has been writing about reading in the public schools, two of those pieces appearing here and here. One reason for doing so stems from a report issued by Renaissance Learning, a reading program that helps teachers and parents determine how well children understand the reading they do for homework and on their own. Because of the popularity of the program, Renaissance Learning has a vast database on the books kids in public schools from kindergarten to 12th Grade actually read voluntarily and for class. The most recent findings, for the 2008-09

school year, are now released in a paper entitled “What Kids Are Reading: The Book-Reading Habits of Students in American Schools” (here’s for the link). The list of most popular titles for Grades 9 through 12 show just how powerful the social element of reading is at that age. The top four spots (!) are held by one author, Stephanie Meyer — Twilight, New Moon, Breaking Dawn, and Eclipse. (At Border’s Books yesterday, I asked for the jigsaw puzzles and the man directed me to a rear wall, adding, “We only have six or seven puzzles, and nearly all of them are New Moon stuff.”) At No. 5 sits To Kill a Mockingbird, then comes Night (Wiesel), A Child Called “It” (Dave Pelzer), Of Mice and Men, Animal Farm, Brisingr (Christopher Paolini), Romeo and Juliet, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Giver, and seven more works of literature. That makes only two nonfiction works in the entire list, prompting Mathews to comment: “Educators say nonfiction is more difficult than fiction for students to comprehend. It requires more factual knowledge, beyond fiction’s simple truths of love, hate, passion and remorse. So we have a pathetic cycle. Students don’t know enough about the real world because they don’t read nonfiction and they can’t read nonfiction because they don’t know enough about the real world.” This dilemma is increasingly discussed in English Language Arts circles as more and more ELA standards are oriented toward abstract reading skills. Those standards will say things like “Students identify the main thesis in a text” and “Students detail the evidence used to support a contention in a text” — essential capacities, to be sure. To a decreasing degree, however, they ask for students to demonstrate specific “domain knowledge” such as “Students characterize, with examples, major periods


Prompt: UPDATE 04.07.12 -- We are both humbled and excited to announce that we've made our goal! We are absolutely touched by the support we've received from everyone who encouraged this campaign to succeed. Every single one of your contributions helped us surpass this milestone, and now we know with absolute certainty that "Battle Lizard" will very shortly see the light of day. A tremendous THANK YOU from Keegan, Eric and the Battle Lizard team for generously giving us the resources we need to finish our film! Though we have succeeded in raising enough funds to complete the film itself, there

are still many more aspects to the entire project that require even more funding out of pocket. As of today, we still have 5 days left. So, let's keep it going! That's 5 more days to raise funds to cover everything else, including our recent and final pickup day, the Kickstarter and Amazon fees (10%), official website design, festival submission fees, DVD / Blue-Ray printing, distribution, and costs to produce the Kickstarter video. That's close to $4,000 worth of additional expenses, on top of what we already raised to finish the film. We know it's a lot to strive for, but with the campaign still going strong, we really believe we can jump this final hurdle. Help us over the next 5 days spread the word, post the link to facebook, twitter, blogs and newsletters. This is our final attempt to reach for the stars, and we're going to get there! ******************************** UPDATE 04.02.12 -- A big shout out to Edward Fonseca for coming aboard as our first official Associate Producer / Velociraptor! We're so amazed by all the contributions we've received so far from friends and supporters, we're confident that means things will start to pick up this week before the deadline. Edward, thank you for your courageous pledge and we look forward to seeing you at the Premiere! ******************************* UPDATE 03.26.12 -- Sweet! 1,600+ likes on the Battle Lizard Kickstarter page! Some AMAZING friends from around the world have bravely stepped forward and pledged to help us complete our film. We won't forget your generous offer. Thank you. There's still a ways to go - more than 80% within 17 days - but we KNOW it's possible. If everyone else who liked our page pledges $10, we'd reach our goal instantly. It's that easy! So in the meantime,


Prompt: Last Thursday night, a gay couple was brutally beaten by a group of two men and six women who were “visibly intoxicated.” NBC Philadelphia reports, “Witnesses say someone in the group asked, 'Is this your f****** boyfriend?' When one of the victims told them yes, the group allegedly attacked them, punching and kicking them in the face, head and chest.” One of the attackers grabbed a victim's bag and fled. At least one of the victims was taken to the hospital for fractures to his face and had to have his jaw wired shut. Generally after an attack of this

kind, the investigation can draw out indefinitely. The Philadelphia Police Department said it was looking for as many as 12 people in relation to the attack. But today Philadelphia's ABC News syndicate reported that some of the suspects are expected to surrender to police in the near future. Why the sudden change of heart? A number of good actors on various social media used Twitter, Facebook, and some CCTV footage to track down the attackers and alert police of their possible identities. When the Philadelphia police released grainy CCTV footage of the group of attackers on YouTube on Tuesday, Greg Bennett, a former Real Housewives of New Jersey star, tweeted the video with the message, “Video of the 10-12 pieces of garbage suspected of a gay bashing in Philly. Spread it round.” Bennett, who has hundreds of thousands of followers, received a photo from one of his followers of a group of people at a restaurant in the area who looked similar to the people in the CCTV video. At that point, a Twitter user called @FanSince09 retweeted the image from the restaurant and discovered that the restaurant was called La Viola. The Twitter user then went to Facebook to find out who had checked into La Viola on Twitter on Thursday night and found at least three people who checked into the restaurant and whose faces seemed to match those in the CCTV video. @FanSince09 reportedly took that information to the police, and Philadelphia Detective Joseph Murray tweeted this morning, “S/O to @FanSince09 This is what makes my job easy. Sure, it's up to me to make the arrest but we are all in this together.” Since then, sources have told various news outlets that the people in the photo were former students of a local Catholic high school


Prompt: Kurdish Peshmerga fighters march during a training camp conducted by trainers from the German military forces as German defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen visits the camp in Arbil, the capital of the Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq, on October 27, 2015. AFP PHOTO / SAFIN HAMEDSAFIN HAMED/AFP/Getty Images ORIG FILE ID: 545785266 (Photo11: SAFIN HAMED, AFP/Getty Images) The Pentagon is considering plans that would place U.S. advisers closer to ground combat in Iraq and Syria in a move that could amount to a major escalation in its war against the Islamic State, a senior defense official told USA

TODAY. The potential move reflects growing concern at top government levels that U.S. military operations in Syria and Iraq are not making sufficient progress against the Islamic State. The official, who is familiar with the plans, was not authorized to discuss the possible changes publicly because no decisions have yet been made. The options under consideration include placing U.S. advisers alongside local combat units in Iraq and embedding a small number of U.S. advisers with Syrian forces fighting the Islamic State, the official said. The White House would need to approve any U.S. military expansion on the ground. President Obama has warned against expanding the U.S. role beyond its defined mission and inadvertently ushering in another Mideast war. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Wednesday that U.S. strategy in both countries would remain limited to supporting local forces working to defeat the Islamic State. Last week, American Special Forces soldiers accompanied Kurdish units on a successful mission to rescue 70 prisoners from the Islamic State. A U.S. soldier, Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler, was killed in the fighting. The Pentagon said U.S. forces would assist in future raids if conditions warranted. The U.S. military currently has about 3,400 troops in Iraq, mostly serving in an advise-and-assist mission for Iraq’s military. Marine Gen. Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged this week that the military is considering new options in Iraq and Syria but declined to give specifics. “We're continuing to examine ways to enhance the effectiveness of our operations,” he said in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee. The Pentagon hopes moving advisers closer to combat will bolster local forces' advance in the key cities of Ramadi, an influential Sunni city in western Iraq, and Raqqa, the de facto Syrian capital of the Islamic State, also known as


Prompt: "I love your site! It's a great tool - just what every college student needs!" -Lauren Aguirre, SMU class of 2016. "Using textbooksplease.com saved me over $800 dollars (two months rent!) when compared to the prices my school's book store offered me." -Ricky Bureau, A&M class of 2014 "If you're tired of getting ripped off at the bookstore textbooksplease.com is a fantastic alternative! I saved $480 on my textbooks and it was so easy!" -Scarlet Gray, SMU class of 2014. "I used beta versions of Textbooks Please for six straight semesters, and I saved over $500 each time. This site

is invaluable to college students. Textbooks Please is basically money in your pocket." -Savannah Niles, SMU class of 2013. "This site is amazing! I saved over $300 on ONE book. All college students should use this website when looking for textbooks. It saves so much time and money." -Caitlin Reeves, TAMU-Commerce Class of 2015. "Thank you so much for creating this website and passing it on!!! I just bought my textbooks for next semester and saved $300, #sohappy!! Wow, I used to try to look at the different websites to compare prices manually and it took so long, and then with your program it went so fast!!" -Nicole Hartman, SMU Class of 2016. "You saved me like $600! I found my contracts book for like $12 + shipping when it would usually be like $200. I think my mom wants to send you a thank you card, haha." -Ariana Hamilton, University of Houston Law School. "I got my books $870 cheaper than at the SMU bookstore. Textbooks Please is a lifesaver!" -Johna Rutz, SMU class of 2016. "My Name is Nashae Morin and Christian Genco saved my life with www.textbooksplease.com!! Literally made my life 1000% easier and less stressful! THANK YOU!!...I'm telling all my friends too lol! It was so super helpful!" -Nashae Morin. "Thanks! I used textbooksplease.com last week and it saved me a ton of cash! If I bought all of my textbooks from the SMU Barnes and Noble, it would have been at least $300 more. GREAT website!" -Blake Rainey, SMU class of 2015. "I just used the site, it looked and worked great, and I saved a ton." -Sean Grady, SMU class of 2016. "textbooksplease.com proved to be a great resource, I bought 5 textbooks for the price of 1 and got them all in about


Prompt: “ The Only Thing Necessary for the Triumph of Evil is that Good Men Do Nothing…” This quotation, in popular knowledge attributed to Edmund Burke , sounds so banal, that these days almost no one really thinks how true it is. And how often we, supposedly good people , find a good reasons to stay passive; to keep distance; to wait until we know for sure what is going to happen, until we take no risk, reacting. And I am not even talking of these, who believe they have no real influence at all. I do not even think of

those, whose metaphorical plates are already more than full. No, this story is different. And, as it is usually with my stories, it is about Rojava Revolution. Better safe than sorry? Thanks to a common friend, I had a very nice and inspiring meeting today. It is always good to meet somebody whose political views are at least close to mine. Bookchin’s communalism isn’t really popular around here, and I would be surprised finding more than maybe 5 people in Thessaloniki, actually considering themselves Bookchinists. So, in such an exclusive company, I did what I normally do to innocent victims around me: started my Rojava pitch. The gentleman I met agreed with the fact that it is pretty interesting issue and mentioned that his millieu is already discussing it. However, if it comes to practical involvement, he was a bit cautious. We would like to know – he said – who are we dealing with. Those people – he continued – were Stalinists few years ago. Then they were ordered to become Bookchinists. So they are Bookchinists now. How can we know – he asked – who will they be next year? So we rather keep our distance – he concluded – until we are convinced. And when I asked what actually could convince him that it is a good idea to get involved in support for Rojava, I could only admire the radical honesty of his answer – I do not know. Well, of course I was frustrated. But there was no maliciousness in his attitude. Just honest-to-boot belief that one should not get involved until one is absolutely sure what is going to happen. And – on the brighter side – enough openness to make him promise me to discuss the issue with his comrades and perhaps to


Prompt: For decades, gonorrhea patients could expect to quickly dispatch the long-dreaded sexually transmitted disease with a time-tested round of antibiotics. But the ever-mutating gonorrhea bacterium is becoming resistant to the dwindling number of medicines used to fight it, and public health authorities are raising alarms about the emergence of an untreatable “superbug” that will reverse decades of progress in lowering infection and transmission rates around the globe. On Thursday, officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are scheduled to release new treatment guidelines to slow the growth of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea in the United States. These guidelines are

coming none too soon, said William Smith, executive director of the National Coalition of STD (Sexually Transmitted Disease) Directors. “It is pretty clear that we have already seen significant resistance to the existing [gonorrhea] treatments, and internationally, we have seen complete treatment failures,” he said. “So right now is the time to be just ahead of this, and to try and figure out how we can control it a bit longer with the existing resources that we’ve got.” “Complete treatment failure,” Mr. Smith said, means just what it sounds like — “that you have a chronic, active, ulcerative, infectious disease.” Adaptable scourge Gonorrhea, which has been known since biblical days, was a global scourge until the 1940s, when sulfa drugs were developed to vanquish it. But the bacterium, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, proved to be a master of mutation. Over time, it learned how to survive against entire classes of antibiotics, including penicillins, tetracyclines and fluoroquinolnes. Now only two drugs — ceftriaxone or cefixime — are recommended to treat gonorrhea. Both usually are fortified with another antibiotic. In recent years, however, cases of complete treatment failure have been reported in Europe, Asia and Canada. In July 2011, researchers said a gonorrhea strain, named H041, was identified in the throat of a Japanese sex worker. The H041 strain was dubbed a “superbug” because it was resistant to all known antibiotics. When researchers cultivated it with other gonorrhea strains, it produced even more resistant strains of the sexually transmitted infection. Antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea is “a major global threat,” Dr. Edward W. Hook III told a CDC webinar in May. If this gets out of control, it “could take us back more than 60 years, to a time when treatments for gonorrhea were not reliably effective and when there were no alternative therapies,” said Dr. Hook,


Prompt: A journey is best measured in friends, rather than in miles – Tim Cahill We had met in Delhi after a gap of 25 years on the occasion of silver jubilee of passing out of college. It was then that four of my classmates and I had decided to go on an all women’s trip to relive our old camaraderie in a new place, in a different city, maybe in a different country. Thus, began the search for a tour company and we got in touch with SOTC holidays for their World Tour Packages. For us Indians, Russia generally does

not come across as a top destination of choice for tourism as it is perceived as a cold and distant place, off the radar. But, that was precisely the reason why we chose Russia. As Aldous Huxley has said – To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries. SOTC Holidays suggested a customized tour package for us to two Russian cities – Moscow and St Petersburg. We decided to grab this opportunity to see the present capital and the past capital of Russia. It took us about a month of planning and coordination to finalize the tour and finally in the 3rd week of August, we set off on a five day trip to St Petersburg and Moscow. Our itinerary included 3 days of stay in St. Petersburg and 2 days in Moscow, with guided city tours scheduled on the 2nd and 5th day of the trip. Delhi was the starting point of our group tour (three of my friends stay in Delhi). Boarding the early morning flight from Delhi, we landed in Moscow. From there we got onto the flight for St. Petersburg. Strangely, we had to check out our luggage at Moscow and after completing the immigration, check in again on the flight to St Petersburg. It was a short flight. In one and a half hours, we were in St. Petersburg, the city known for its art, splendid architecture, beautiful gardens, magnificent cathedrals and the largest museum in Europe, Arrival at St Petersburg A young lady named Jane received us at the airport at St Petersburg and accompanied us to our hotel in the van. On the way, she briefed us a little on the city. The driver spoke only Russian though. The weather was pleasantly warm. We reached hotel Marco Polo by


Prompt: TuneCore Artist Jennifer Paige has been busy. Her new duo Paige & Palermo released their debut EP, Stay, to rave reviews. MTV.com‘s Buzzworthy says “the two croon, resembling a more electronica-tinged Lady Antebellum, or even shades of Fleetwood Mac.” Jennifer took the time to share some tips with us on how artists can get press without a publicist… As an indie artist, when someone asks my budget, I wanna laugh. Umm…what can we do for zero dollars? Even fair and small expenses can add up quickly and derail the indie artist. It’s all money coming out of our pockets –

no Daddy Warbucks, no major label Cash Cow paying our expenses. We put all of our hard-earned money into making a record, and there’s nothing left for promotion. But without promotion, no one will ever hear our music. Thankfully, music is a force like no other – and it can spread like a wildfire. I know. My debut single, “Crush,” did just that – it blazed up the worldwide charts before the ink had dried on my first contract, before I had my first photo shoot – before I could even say “PR!” With the Internet and social media by our side, it’s possible now more than ever to be heard on the world’s stage, but we must learn to think like a publicist. Here’s the cold hard truth...We’re on our own, kids! Time to get smart. Time to be resourceful. We NEED blogs to feature us. We NEED people to follow us and be engaged on social media. We NEED radio to play our songs. We NEED fans to come to our shows. We NEED you, Ellen… and you too, Oprah!!! But how? I promise you, if you take the time to do this stuff well, you WILL get press. AND THAT WILL TRANSLATE TO MORE FANS AND MORE MONEY IN YOUR POCKET – WHICH MEANS YOU CAN KEEP DOING WHAT YOU LOVE. 7 Game-Changing Ways to Get Press Without a Publicist 1) Make it easy for them. It’s your job to define your story and tell the world why it is that you need to make music. Laura Goldfarb at Red Boot Publicity explains, “Getting coverage is much more likely to happen if your story is compelling and your content is streamlined throughout all available social media outlets. So much of PR is about pushing your brand to


Prompt: As the backlash against Judge Aaron Persky grows, new details regarding his lenient six-month sentence for convicted rapist Brock Turner continue to emerge. The latest is truly appalling, and finally explains the thinking behind the otherwise inexplicable sentence. A transcript of the Brock Turner sentencing hearing quotes the judge as saying, "I take him at his word." Yes, you heard that right: He believes Turner's version of the events. Believe it or not, it gets worse when you hear the full context. Turner's lawyer had argued at the June 2 hearing that Turner admitted to "digitally penetrating" the women, but

that Turner claims he recalls the victim giving consent. Judge Persky believed him. Here's what he said: "I mean, I take him at his word that, subjectively, that's his version of events. The jury, obviously, found it not to be the sequence of events." In essence, this implies the judge disregarded the jury's conviction and used his own judgment to decide the punishment for the three felony charges. According to The Washington Post, Judge Persky also remarked that Turner's regret or guilt was real — despite Turner never accepting the charge. Post reporter Susan Svrluga wrote, "He said he believed Turner felt genuine remorse." But then he also acknowledged that the victim didn't think Turner acknowledged what he'd done. "In essence, [Judge Persky] said the defendant doesn’t have to agree with the verdict to feel truly sorry," Svrluga pointed out. This can only further undermine the judge's decision. Persky was already under fire for saying that a longer prison sentence "would have a severe impact" on Turner. He gave the former Stanford student six months in county jail even though the DA had asked for six years in state prison. The victim described her experience in a letter which went viral. "I am a human being who has been irreversibly hurt," she wrote, explaining why she thought such a lenient sentence was a mistake. She said that the judge "should not create a culture that suggests we learn that rape is wrong through trial and error." On Tuesday, a letter was published from a juror which accused the judge of disregarding the jury's convictions in the case. "It seems to me that you really did not accept the jury's findings. We were unanimous in our finding of the defendant's guilt and our verdicts were marginalized based on your own personal