Prompt: You don’t have to be a classical music lover to recognize names of important classical composers. Bach Beethoven Brahms Wagner Liszt Rossini Except that the music of Rossini and others was considered popular music when it was first heard. And people who liked classical music scorned it. One French writer divided musicians into two kinds: classicists and Rossinists. So what else that we think of as classical music used to be considered popular? And what changed? Classical vs popular music In The Birth of the Popular Music Industry I noted that throughout much of the 18th century, there was no

distinction between popular and classical. Some people liked music they could fully grasp at first hearing. Others liked music whose beauty would reveal itself only after repeated hearing. They all attended the same concerts. The first group soon tired of hearing the same pieces too often. They wanted to hear something new, but not radically new. The second group especially appreciated the sophisticated music of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven. Concert life ceased entirely in Paris and London in the 1790s and didn’t reappear for about 20 years. Composers or performers of concertos could hire theater orchestras in Vienna, but they played badly. No other cities in Europe had enough influence to put their resident composers on the international stage. By the time concert life revived in these capitals, Haydn and Mozart were dead. There was no logical successor to Beethoven. After all, why would anyone learn to compose that kind of music? They couldn’t get it heard with no concert life. Twenty years later, mass audiences no longer remembered how to listen to that music. New piano music Mozart and Beethoven were piano virtuosos. Mozart made much of his living from playing concertos with orchestra. Beethoven did, too, until he lost his hearing. How could piano virtuosos make a living without access to an orchestra? They taught and performed in the homes of rich people. Aristocrats and the upper middle class opened their homes to an invited public to listen to famous performers. Once France recovered from the Revolution, Paris became the center for virtuoso pianists. Superstars like Henri Herz, Frédéric Kalkbrenner, and Johann Peter Pixis. As much businessmen as musicians, these pianists composed a flood of new pieces. They counted on their fame as performers and teachers to sell the sheet music. William Weber has called this kind of


Prompt: OTTAWA—Canadian auto parts companies and their unionized workers are criticizing an influential business group for urging the Liberal government to move forward quickly with a revamped Trans-Pacific Partnership. They say Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was right to hold off on signing a renewed TPP last month at the APEC summit in Vietnam and that the government’s critics of that decision are misguided. Flavio Volpe and jerry Dias, pictured here, say critics of the government’s decision on the TPP are misguided. ( Cole Burston / Toronto Star ) The presidents of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association and Unifor, Canada’s largest private

sector union which represents autoworkers, say that’s because the TPP is bad for the small and medium-sized auto parts companies and their employees. Read more: Canada’s decision to decline TPP agreement shouldn’t have been a surprise: Trudeau Article Continued Below Thomas Walkom: Why Justin Trudeau will eventually join the new Trans-Pacific Partnership Five things to know about the Trans-Pacific Partnership Flavio Volpe and Jerry Dias both say the Liberals need to go slow to undo the potential damage done to their sector when the previous Conservative government agreed to concessions in the original TPP that would have given Japanese carmakers an unfair advantage in the Canadian market. Earlier this week, the Business Council of Canada sent Trudeau an open letter signed by 18 chief executives, telling him Canada must immediately join the reconstituted version of the TPP, which Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of in January. John Manley, the council president, said it was imperative for the Trudeau Liberals to join because Asia will move on without Canada at a time when this country needs to diversify its trade portfolio. But Volpe said the Liberal government has taken a “thoughtful approach” that benefits small and medium-sized companies and their employees instead of racing for the “trophies” that completed trade agreements represent. “It’s not un-Canadian to try to get better terms before you get into bed with someone for decades,” Volpe said in an interview Wednesday. Article Continued Below “The U.S. is no longer in it, so there’s no reason to accept terms when the context has changed.” Dias said Manley represents the interests of the chief executives and large companies, not their workers. “It’s about allowing corporations to do anything they want,” said Dias. “It’s about a philosophy of free enterprise, as opposed to putting Canadians to work.” Volpe


Prompt: As President Barack Obama begins his second term, democratically returned to office by a majority of Americans who seem to buy what he is selling, it would profit us to pause a moment and examine the discrepancies between the vision he expounded in his inaugural address and the economic reality that surrounds us. This leads to a pivotal question: What, exactly, is the underlying purpose of Obamanomics, and how would we know? Logic offers two choices. We can take the president at his word, and then ask why the promised economic recovery, growth, prosperity, and equality, haven’t arrived yet. Or

we can ascribe darker motives to the policies that have brought our country to the brink of ruin. That raises the horrifying possibility—unlikely as it might sound—that precipitating an existential crisis in order to bring about radical change has been Obama’s underlying agenda all along. If we take the high road and accept Obama at his word, as most Americans have, we are led to three alternatives. The first is that the Keynesian nostrums applied to goose the economy—bailouts, stimulus spending, money printing, artificial suppression of interest rates, government “investments” in all manner of money-losing schemes, and a rapid expansion of the welfare state, all with the goal of increasing “aggregate demand”—are working fine. All we need is to give Washington a bit more time, a little more spending leeway, and a few more tax dollars extracted from those who can most afford it, and all will be well. The second possibility is that the president’s macroeconomic policies are not working because they are too modest. Therefore, we must let Washington double down and play an even larger role in the economy, or all will be lost. Notables such as The New York Times’ Paul Krugman imply that this is the only way to restore prosperity, and that the one thing holding us back is stingy Republican recalcitrance. The third possibility is that, noble intentions aside, the Keynesian plan is not working, cannot work, never has worked, and never will work. This implies we need to change course if we want to revive our struggling economy and restore our government to solvency. The political battle being fought in Washington ranges largely across these three possibilities. But suppose none of them represent reality. Suppose, just for the sake of argument, that the series of deeper and deeper crises the nation is


Prompt: For the last few years, as the South Carolina Gamecocks football team rose to heights that the program hadn't experienced in more than a century of history, there was one specter that haunted the dreams of Gamecock fans: When would Steve Spurrier retire? After all, no one else has ever been able to do what Spurrier has done in Columbia. And the track record of programs that hire head coaches to replace legends has been mixed at best. It seemed inevitable that the end of Spurrier's tenure would be a negative for South Carolina, something that the Gamecocks should try

to push as far into the future as possible. But as Kentucky won in Columbia on Saturday night for the first time in 16 years -- the first time since South Carolina went 0-11 during Lou Holtz's first season -- it became clear that Steve Spurrier leaving his position as head coach of the Gamecocks would not be the worst thing that could happen to the program. It became clear, at least to this me, that it is time for Steve Spurrier to retire. I don't type those words with any joy or even any anger, though there was certainly some of the latter as I watched South Carolina once again fall victim to the kinds of mistakes that have led a program that went 42-11 over a four-year span from 2010-13 to slump to 8-7 since the beginning of last season. I have always thought I would be one of the last South Carolina fans to abandon Spurrier or even suggest that he should go, because I have such a deep appreciation for what he has done in Columbia and because I like his attitude and outlook on college football. I love the fact that he's able to keep football in perspective and have fun both with the game and his comments about it. At this point, though, the only way for Spurrier to preserve his legacy and allow someone else to build on what he leaves behind is for him to quietly tell Athletics Director Ray Tanner that he will retire at the end of the season. Otherwise, he risks doing the kind of damage to South Carolina's program that Jackie Sherrill did to Mississippi State in his last few seasons, or that Bobby Bowden did to Florida State before finally giving way to Jimbo Fisher. And given


Prompt: What's Game Sack? Well, check out the video trailer above. That should give you the very basic gist of it. We like reviewing games, lots and lots of games each episode every two weeks. We try to put on the highest quality show we can and we're always looking for ways to make it even better. There's always room for improvement! We love making Game Sack. We wish we could do more but we have other obligations in life at the moment. Like awful jobs and stuff. But we like Game Sack so much more. That's why we make sure

to release episodes on a consistent basis. No long lulls wondering when the next episode will appear. No compromise in quality. Just a love for videogames and talking about them. We love showing you lots of different games, obscure and even popular ones. So what's the deal with this Patreon page or whatever this is? The first thing you need to know is that we're not going to put episodes or anything else behind a paywall. We're not going to give timed exclusives here. WE WILL HAVE NO TIERS. Everyone is equal. Donate any amount you'd like. By donating you're basically helping us out and it is 100% optional. Some of our videos make a lot less money than others. Not every subscriber watches every video. Not every subscriber even gets notified! A lot more people are using AdBlock on their browsers as well. If we had a more stable income that we could count on then we could cover topics and themes that may not be as popular from time to time. If you don't feel comfortable doing this, we understand and we still value you very much as a viewer of the show. But if you do donate, it helps us with equipment, computer costs, time, and stuff like that. Oh and it makes unprofitable but fun episodes, like "Our Gaming Memories" and "How to Clean Your Stupid Games" sting us much less! And we're always looking for ways to improve quality in all areas... except our wooden delivery. So basically by becoming a Patron you're helping us out and you can cancel or change your donation amount at any time. Only become a Patron if you truly feel comfortable with it and want to support the show in this way! You can also donate directly via Youtube


Prompt: Human puff-adder Bill Kristol drolly noted on Morning Joe this week that the shutdown is not "the end of the world". The Huffington Post's Sam Stein snapped back, "For these people affected by these cuts, it is sort of comparable to the end of the world." I have one quibble with Stein's otherwise satisfying smackdown: "For the people affected by these cuts" implies that there are people who are not affected by these cuts. Stein was talking specifically about the families and children across the country most likely to suffer when the government stops paying for Head Start programs and

nutritional aid, but they are only the most sympathetic victims of the shutdown. And there are a lot of them: Almost 9m mothers and children rely on the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (Wic). Most states will be able to operate for about a week on the money they have, but in the words of one administrator in Cook County, "We have no cushion. If our funding stream stops we will temporarily suspend service." The US Department of Agriculture is attempting to prop up the program in the states hardest hit – they announced this week a $2.5m grant to Utah. But the $125m they have on reserve is laughably small for a program that costs $7b a year – it's less than 2% of the total budget. If $125m was all the money the program had, it would operate for six days. But that's just women and children. The poorest of the poor, right? We're a civilized country; we won't let them starve. As Kristol told Stein, "Localities can help out. Churches can help out." Because obviously, up until now, localities and churches were just standing around twiddling their thumbs as lounged on divans and wondered if it was time to pick out new wallpaper or maybe treat themselves to a day at the spa. If you actually attend a church or do service work, I hope you've picked up the laptop from when you hurled it across the room just now. Already a huge patch in the patchwork of federal social services across the country, churches and private food banks have stretched themselves thin to cover the drop in federal aid that accompanied the sequester cuts last spring (Remember that? The last time we had a budget showdown?). The ripple effects of a Wic


Prompt: Two marathons a day To ski to the South Pole in any meaningful sense, you’ve got to start at the edge of the continent, which is a distance of 730 miles. It’s also uphill – by the time you reach the pole you are 9,300ft up. Temperatures range from -50C to -60C, although I had days when it reached -70C. If you feel a tad chilly, you have to put an extra scarf on. It’s a great place if you want to lose some weight because you burn up to 10,000 calories a day, which is the equivalent of running

two marathons a day for two months. So you have to get fit. I trained every day, including holidays. A typical working day for me was to get up at 4am and either drag some tyres up and down a hill for three hours or go for a 20-mile run. I’d also go for a mile and a half swim in a loch some days, but only in the winter – it was too warm in the summer. Breakfast would be a massive bowl of porridge, handfuls of dried fruit and a chopped banana on top. I’d wolf that down then eat six boiled eggs and six raw eggs. Then I’d go to work. At noon, I’d do another two hours of training, usually dragging tyres up and down Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh – my employer was very understanding. Lunch would be a whole chicken followed by a pint of cream down in one. The best time of day would be 3pm when I’d eat a whole cake or a couple of packets of biscuits. Then I’d be in the gym for a couple of hours in the evening. It’s that sort of dedication that you need to do a trip like this. Lunch would be a whole chicken followed by a pint of cream down in one. There was one very important thing I needed on this trip and that was someone else to go on the expedition with me. It’s a big decision. One thing you consider is size – two well-built men in a tent is a bit cramped. I got a tip-off in Glasgow about a woman called Fiona Taylor who could be right for the trip. Actually, she was perfect. She had that old-school grit – very determined and mentally tough. She’d never done anything


Prompt: Excerpt from an original document located at Jackson County, MO Election Board The Pro's and Con's of the Electoral College System Arguments Against the Electoral College the possibility of electing a minority president the risk of so-called "faithless" Electors, the possible role of the Electoral College in depressing voter turnout, and its failure to accurately reflect the national popular will. There have, in its 200 year history, been a number of critics and proposed reforms to the Electoral College system - most of them trying to eliminate it. But there are also staunch defenders of the Electoral College who, though

perhaps less vocal than its critics, offer very powerful arguments in its favor.Those who object to the Electoral College system and favor a direct popular election of the president generally do so on four grounds: Opponents of the Electoral College are disturbed by the possibility of electing a minority president (one without the absolute majority of popular votes). Nor is this concern entirely unfounded since there are three ways in which that could happen. One way in which a minority president could be elected is if the country were so deeply divided politically that three or more presidential candidates split the electoral votes among them such that no one obtained the necessary majority. This occurred, as noted above, in 1824 and was unsuccessfully attempted in 1948 and again in 1968. Should that happen today, there are two possible resolutions: either one candidate could throw his electoral votes to the support of another (before the meeting of the Electors) or else, absent an absolute majority in the Electoral College, the U.S. House of Representatives would select the president in accordance with the 12th Amendment. Either way, though, the person taking office would not have obtained the absolute majority of the popular vote. Yet it is unclear how a direct election of the president could resolve such a deep national conflict without introducing a presidential run-off election -- a procedure which would add substantially to the time, cost, and effort already devoted to selecting a president and which might well deepen the political divisions while trying to resolve them. A second way in which a minority president could take office is if, as in 1888, one candidate's popular support were heavily concentrated in a few States while the other candidate maintained a slim popular lead in enough States to win the needed


Prompt: At the start of the first world war, razor-sharp Marxist organizer Rosa Luxemburg described the world around her as existing within a turning point: it would be socialism or barbarism. She wrote, “either the triumph of imperialism and the collapse of all civilization as in ancient Rome, depopulation, desolation, degeneration––a great cemetery. Or the victory of socialism, that means the conscious active struggle of the international proletariat against imperialism and its method of war. ” (Junius Pamphlet, Ch. 1). This image of socialism or barbarism has been evoked many times throughout history in moments of historical crisis; each time the

struggle for liberation has fallen short. Shortly after writing this pamphlet, Luxemburg’s own Party betrayed her by siding with the imperialists in the Great War, and later had her murdered. Barbarism has continued to reign through cycles of working class and oppressed-led movements, full on insurrections, experiments and attempts to build something within the shell of the old. Barbarism has thrived and built upon its power tenfold, most sharply expressed last month in Charlottesville. This turning point, between socialism and barbarism, looms overhead, a translucent smog cloud that chokes us while allowing only glimpses of the sun behind it. This lived experience gets translated into our many varied expressions of ideology, from straightforward political pamphlets, like Luxemburg’s, to art, movies, TV and books. Our moment is constantly being captured and regurgitated in the varied theory-making methods around us, most notably in the dystopian-themed media of the last decade: The Walking Dead, The Hunger Games, Black Mirror, The Purge, Bitch Planet, West World, The Handmaid’s Tale, etc. Utopian and dystopian themed media as a broader trend pop up historically in moments of crisis: world wars, economic and political crises, mass uprisings and movements, etc. They express the day to day experience of socialism or barbarism. What makes today’s dystopian stories in the U.S. new and different is the way they illustrate the uniqueness of our time: the crisis of social reproduction, and the political vacuum in danger of being filled by anti-woman, anti-immigrant, white supremacist fascism. The Handmaid's Tale is the most populist dystopian story today, lifting off from Margaret Atwood’s original depiction, and expressed through a contemporary lens. The series reflects what coalesced into the Million+ Women’s March on Washington the day after Trump’s inauguration, followed by the International Women’s Strike on March 8th. There is simply a large constituency


Prompt: Have you ever noticed that whenever it comes time to stand on principle top Republican lawmakers always fold like a 20 dollar suit? This time it was John Boehner. It went down like this – the Democrats knew that if they played hardball and set up a government shutdown for the weekend of the Cherry Blossom Festival that Boehner would cave. Boehner took negotiations up to the last minute to make it “look good” for the Tea Party, but the truth is that Boehner wanted nothing to do with a government shutdown and the Democrats knew that. The Democrats drew

their lines in the sand on issue after issue and Boehner caved and caved and caved. So now it is time to fire John Boehner along with Barack Obama in 2012. Boehner must go. If the Tea Party is serious about cutting government spending then they must hold John Boehner accountable and go after his seat during the next primary season. The truth is that the “budget deal” is a complete and total joke. A one percent cut to the U.S. government budget is laughable. Is that why dozens of Tea Party activists were sent to Washington D.C.? If this is the “best” that can be done, the truth is that there is no hope of ever getting U.S. government debt under control. 38.5 billion dollars. Just think about that. The “whopping” 38.5 billion dollars in cuts represent about one percent of the federal budget. Who in the world is dumb enough to call that a victory? Wow – instead of the budget deficit being an all-time record $1.6 trillion this year it might only be an all-time record of $1.55 trillion. Any Republican that votes for this deal is a sellout. Of course we have known all along that most Republicans are complete and total sellouts. We would have never gotten into this mess if we had stayed true to the principles of our founding fathers. Did you know that Thomas Jefferson wanted to add one more amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would have banned all government borrowing? Why aren’t any of our “representatives” in Washington D.C. today making a proposal like this…. I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government to the genuine principles


Prompt: The Senate rejected a proposal Wednesday that would have repealed major parts of the Affordable Care Act, but Republican leaders were growing more confident about their chances of passing a more modest overhaul of the health care law later this week. Republicans appeared to be coalescing around a "skinny repeal" that would abolish the individual and employer insurance mandates and perhaps just one tax in an attempt to sustain their seven-year quest to unwind President Barack Obama's health-care law. But even if they succeed – and start negotiations with the House - they will face significant obstacles in accomplishing anything

more substantial. Top Republicans such as Sen. John Thune, S.D., the chamber's third-ranking Republican, said that although leaders have not yet found "the sweet spot" between conservatives and centrists, they had picked up support for a more modest plan because it did not include deep cuts to Medicaid. Some Republican senators were simply open to any legislation that could keep alive the roller-coaster push for an overhaul. "We're edging closer and closer" to getting 50 votes for a bare-bones plan, Thune said. He said leaders were betting that some Republicans who defected on votes this week would feel more pressure to support any bill that emerged from negotiations with the House to face a final vote in the Senate. "Voting on something at the end of the process when it's the only train leaving the station ... I think that's a different vote for a lot of people," he said. More than half a dozen centrists from states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act objected to the original Senate draft that was considered on Tuesday night. It would have cut the program for low-income Americans by $772 billion over 10 years and curtailed its long-term growth rate. Yet even if Republicans agree on a minimalist plan to alter the ACA, uniting with their House colleagues to enact a bill would be far more challenging. On Wednesday - even before the skinny repeal came up for a vote - some House conservatives were calling it untenable. Jacquelyn Martin / AP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, center, is followed by reporters as she arrives to vote on Capitol Hill on July 25, 2017. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, center, is followed by reporters as she arrives to vote on Capitol Hill on July 25, 2017. (Jacquelyn Martin / AP) (Jacquelyn Martin /


Prompt: And yet what those elections really meant for my father was a chance to fight his sense of invisibility. My father understood, long before I did, that in the minds of the bourgeoisie — people like the publisher who would turn down my book a few years later — our existence didn’t count and wasn’t real. My father had felt abandoned by the political left since the 1980s, when it began adopting the language and thinking of the free market. Across Europe, left-wing parties no longer spoke of social class, injustice and poverty, of suffering, pain and exhaustion. They talked

about modernization, growth and harmony in diversity, about communication, social dialogue and calming tensions. My father understood that this technocratic vocabulary was meant to shut up workers and spread neoliberalism. The left wasn’t fighting for the working class, against the laws of the marketplace; it was trying to manage the lives of the working class from within those laws. The unions had undergone the same transformation: My grandfather was a union man. My father was not. When he was watching TV and a socialist or a union representative appeared on the screen, my father would complain, “Whatever — left, right, now, they’re all the same.” That “whatever” distilled all of his disappointment in those who, in his mind, should have been standing up for him but weren’t. By contrast, the National Front railed against poor working conditions and unemployment, laying all the blame on immigration or the European Union. In the absence of any attempt by the left to discuss his suffering, my father latched on to the false explanations offered by the far right. Unlike the ruling class, he didn’t have the privilege of voting for a political program. Voting, for him, was a desperate attempt to exist in the eyes of others. I don’t know for sure how he voted last month, in the first round of the presidential election, and I don’t know for sure how he will vote on Sunday, in the runoff. He and I almost never speak. Our lives have grown too far apart, and whenever we try to talk on the phone, we are reduced to silence by the pain of having become strangers to each other. Usually we hang up after a minute or two, embarrassed that neither of us can think of anything to say. But even if I can’t ask


Prompt: Last week, a prominent Arab archaeologist sent me a weblink to a doubly-depressing story from the Hasakeh region of north-east Syria. Bordering Turkey and Iraq, it’s long been one of the poorest areas in the country and now, with control of the area being contested by several of the factions engaged in Syria’s brutal civil war, its 1.7 million people, or those who haven’t already fled across the border, are among those most in need of humanitarian assistance. Watered by the Khabur river, Hasakeh has seen the birth of some of the earliest civilisations in the region. Indeed, one site,

Hamoukar, is considered by some archaeologists to be the oldest city in the world. Dozens of important sites, dating from the Stone Age onwards, have been identified, though few have yet been extensively studied. There’s no scope for investigations now into what this region has to offer in terms of discovering the origins of agriculture and early urban society. Such studies require a peaceful environment – and that is absent. The first depressing part of the story is that many sites are being severely damaged by illegal digging, searching for items that can be sold into the underground market for antiquities. Supplies of such artefacts grow dramatically in areas of conflict where the maintenance of law and order breaks down. Local inhabitants, desperate for income, plunder sites, destroying evidence of past civilisations in the search for goods they can sell on to unscrupulous dealers who then put them into the illicit market. Those dealers are often linked with gangs of thugs, thieves and bandits who are themselves to a considerable degree responsible for the level of insecurity that permits the unauthorised digging to take place. In Hasakeh, such plundering is now apparently widespread. One site that is being affected is that of Tell Ajaja, an important centre during the neo-Assyrian period, around 3,000 years ago. Pictures surfacing on the internet, if authentic, indicate that a number of major discoveries have been made, including large statues and bas-reliefs. If properly excavated and studied, they could yield much valuable information on this early phase of Syrian history. Instead, that opportunity to gain knowledge is being lost. And the second part of this depressing story? One of the videos recently posted on the internet shows some of the statues being smashed to rubble by gangs from the ultra-fundamentalist Islamic State of Iraq and


Prompt: Yvonne is a brown-white cow who in 2011 escaped from her farmer in Mühldorf, Germany, attracting media attention as she hid in the woods for many weeks. Farmers, police, and animal-rights activists were unable to find or capture her. History [ edit ] Yvonne, born in 2005, lived as a dairy cow for a mountain farmer in the Liesertal valley in the Austrian Alps. In March 2011 she was sold to a farmer in Aschau am Inn, Bavaria, who planned to fatten and slaughter her. On 24 May 2011 Yvonne escaped from her electric-fenced pasture and hid in woods near

the villages of Zangberg and Stefanskirchen[not in citation given (See discussion.)].[1] After her escape, Yvonne was bought by animal-rights activist Michael Aufhauser, who intended to capture her and transport her to his animal sanctuary, Gut Aiderbichl, a former farm in Deggendorf, Bavaria. Multiple techniques were used to find her and draw her out of hiding. Searchers used infrared cameras, a helicopter, and used other cows as lures, which consequentially also escaped and are being lured with additional cattle.[2] As all attempts to capture Yvonne failed, the cow received increasing attention from the mass media in Germany and Austria and later all over the world. Bild tabloid offered a reward of ten thousand euros for her recovery.[2] Yvonne could be located but not captured because animal-rights activists and police[who?] feared that any approach could drive her out of the area and onto streets. Yvonne's first owner reports that Yvonne has a very nervous character.[citation needed] The campaign to save Yvonne from the hunter's bullet was successful when the order to shoot on sight was rescinded permanently on 28 August 2011. It was decided to ask all helpers to leave the area, with a single hunter remaining to try to tranquilize Yvonne if possible. She would then be moved to the animal sanctuary owned by Michael Aufhauser. Concern grew, however, that with the approach of winter she might find it difficult to find proper food and shelter. Calls were made for food, water, and shelter to be provided in the forest for Yvonne.[citation needed] On 1 September 2011 Yvonne was captured in Unteralmsham, near Stefanskirchen, and taken to the Gut Aiderbichl animal sanctuary, where it is presumed that she will spend the rest of her days safely grazing at pasture.[3] Media [ edit ] U.S. producer Max Howard and Munich-based Papa Löwe


Prompt: The controversy over Kathy Griffin holding up a bloodied severed head of Donald Trump — an action which has led to her removal from CNN's New Year's Eve programming — reportedly spilled into the President's family when TMZ reported that the Trumps' 11-year son "Barron was in front of the TV watching a show when the news came on and he saw the bloody, beheaded image." TMZ says: "We're told he panicked and screamed, 'Mommy, Mommy!'" I was hoping against hope that the level of "discourse" hasn't sunk to the point where people who should know better would start attacking

Barron or using him to criticize the Trumps. Rosie O'Donnell and several others who should know better dashed those hopes Wednesday afternoon. I should have known that O'Donnell would among those who couldn't help themselves. In late November, she "shared a video that suggested that ... Barron might be autistic." She linked to "a seven-minute video compiling clips from the Republican National Convention, the presidential debates, and Trump’s acceptance speech that suggested (that then) 10-year-old Barron might be showing signs of autism." She defended what she did for three days, suggesting, among other things, as described by the Washington Times, that "that Barron was fair game because Mr. Trump is president-elect." It's amazing how quickly some on the left moved from "leave them alone" with Barack Obama's daughters to "Trump's boy is fair game." Over a week after her initial speculation, O'Donnell finally apologized to Melania Trump (but apparently not to the President-elect): "I apologize to @MELANIATRUMP - i was insensitive in my RT - i am sorry for the pain i caused - it was not my intent - i am truly sorry." Earlier Wednesday, O'Donnell responded to the TMZ report by using Barron's reported reaction to go after his father (HT Twitchy): O'Donnell is referring to the two men killed in Portland by a far-left Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein supporter. There is no way one can make sense of her claim that the man's hatred was "promoted by his (Barron's) father." But that's not the point. The point is to tie Donald Trump to any and every possible expression of hate, and to then hope that many of those who see her post don't learn the truth. Others are calling the TMZ report "fake news" and accusing those who are giving it any credibility of hypocrisy. One


Prompt: Ladder Safety by Nick Gromicko and Kenton Shepard Some common causes of ladder injuries include: A ladder is a structure designed for climbing that consists of two long side-pieces joined at uniform intervals by rungs or steps. It's important to use the right tool for the job, and that includes ladders, which come in different types and sizes for different applications. It's also important to exercise extreme caution while using a ladder, as a fall from a ladder can lead to serious injury and even death. mounting or dismounting the ladder improperly; losing one's balance; failing to set up the

ladder properly; over-reaching while on the ladder; and mis-stepping while climbing or descending. Statistics Concerning Ladder Dangers According to the World Health Organization, the United States leads the world in ladder deaths. Each year, there are more than 164,000 emergency room-treated injuries and 300 deaths in the U.S. that are caused by falls from ladders. Most ladder deaths are from falls of 10 feet or less. Falls from ladders are the leading cause of deaths on construction sites. Over the past decade, the number of people who have died from falls from ladders has tripled. Falls from ladders are the leading cause of ladder-related injuries, followed by using a ladder improperly, using a faulty or defective ladder, and simple carelessness. Some basic safety tips will help prevent injuries. And safety begins with understanding the types of ladders available and their common ues. Ladder Types According to the American Ladder Institute, there are nine different types of ladders. Not all of them are used by inspectors, however. The following types of ladders are used commonly by inspectors: a step ladder, which is a self-supporting ladder that is not adjustable in length, with a hinged design for ease of storage; a single ladder, which is a non-self-supporting ladder that is not adjustable in length, consisting of one section. This type of ladder is rarely used anymore because extension ladders are used instead; an extension ladder, which is a non-self-supporting ladder that is adjustable in length. It consists of two or more sections that travel in guides or brackets arranged so as to permit length adjustment; an articulated ladder, which has one or more pairs of locking articulated joints, which allow the ladder to be set up in several different configurations. It may be used as a step ladder or a single ladder;


Prompt: Month after month I've taken the "over" for the employment report ("over" the consensus), and that has been correct most months. However, for January, I'll take the "under" ... however I think there is a good chance that employment will be up 3 million year-over-year (it would take 192 thousand jobs added including revisions). Friday at 8:30 AM ET, the BLS will release the employment report for January. The consensus, according to Bloomberg, is for an increase of 230,000 non-farm payroll jobs in January (with a range of estimates between 215,000 and 268,000), and for the unemployment rate to be

unchanged at 5.6%. The BLS reported 252,000 jobs added in December. Here is a summary of recent data: • The ADP employment report showed an increase of 213,000 private sector payroll jobs in January. This was below expectations of 220,000 private sector payroll jobs added. The ADP report hasn't been very useful in predicting the BLS report for any one month, but in general, this suggests employment growth slightly below expectations. • The ISM manufacturing employment index decreased in January to 54.1%. A historical correlation between the ISM manufacturing employment index and the BLS employment report for manufacturing, suggests that private sector BLS manufacturing payroll jobs were unchanged in January. The ADP report indicated a 14,000 increase for manufacturing jobs in January. The ISM non-manufacturing employment index decreased in January to 51.6%. A historical correlation between the ISM non-manufacturing employment index and the BLS employment report for non-manufacturing, suggests that private sector BLS non-manufacturing payroll jobs increased about 115,000 in January. Combined, the ISM indexes suggests employment gains of 115,000. This suggests growth below expectations. • Initial weekly unemployment claims averaged close to 298,000 in January, up from 291,000 in December. For the BLS reference week (includes the 12th of the month), initial claims were at 308,000; this was up from 289,000 during the reference week in December. Generally this suggests a few more layoffs, seasonally adjusted, in January compared to the previous four months (employment gains averaged 284,000 per month for the previous four months). • The final January University of Michigan consumer sentiment index increased to 98.1 from the December reading of 93.6. This was the highest level in over ten years. Sentiment is frequently coincident with changes in the labor market, but this increase is probably mostly due to sharply lower gasoline prices. • On small business


Prompt: Arctic Methane Emissions ‘Certain to Trigger Warming’ As climate change melts Arctic permafrost and releases large amounts of methane into the atmosphere, it is creating a feedback loop that is “certain to trigger additional warming,” according to the lead scientist of a new study investigating Arctic methane emissions. The study released this week examined 71 wetlands across the globe and found that melting permafrost is creating wetlands known as fens, which are unexpectedly emitting large quantities of methane. Over a 100-year timeframe, methane is about 35 times as potent as a climate change-driving greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, and over

20 years, it's 84 times more potent. Permafrost terraces in Alaska. Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildife Service Alaska/flickr Methane emissions come from agriculture, fossil fuel production and microbes in wetland soils, among other sources. The study says scientists have assumed that methane emissions from wetlands are high in the tropics, but not necessarily in the Arctic because of the cold temperatures there. But a spike in global methane concentrations in the atmosphere seen since 2007 can be partly traced back to the formation of fens in areas where permafrost once existed, according to the study, led by University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada) biology professor Merritt Turetsky. The methane emissions stemming from melting permafrost could be critical to determining how fast the climate will change in the future. “Methane emissions are one example of a positive feedback between ecosystems and the climate system,” Turetsky said. “The permafrost carbon feedback is one of the important and likely consequences of climate change, and it is certain to trigger additional warming.” Warming and thawing permafrost stimulate methane release, which enhances the greenhouse effect, creating a feedback loop, she said. “Even if we ceased all human emissions, permafrost would continue to thaw and release carbon into the atmosphere,” Turetsky said. “Instead of reducing emissions, we currently are on track with the most dire scenario considered by the IPCC. There is no way to capture emissions from thawing permafrost as this carbon is released from soils across large regions of land in very remote spaces.” The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projected in its fifth assessment on climate change report that the earth’s average temperatures could warm by as much as 8.64°F above 1986-2005 temperatures if nothing is done to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Coastal erosion reveals the ice-rich permafrost underlying the Arctic Coastal Plain in


Prompt: Share +1 Pin 0 Shares If web pages are places dotted on a map, then links are the roads that join them together. Important websites, just like big cities, have a huge number of links, or roads, linking them to other places, and this is how search engines know which websites are more important than others. Link building is one of the most difficult and time consuming processes of any Search Engine Optimisation campaign. If you’ve just hired an SEO Agency, or if you’re embarking on your own SEO adventure, then you’ll want to get to grips with link building

early in the game. This will not only help you to understand what is required, but also what you can expect. There are many ways you can build links to your site, starting with: Natural Links – these happen when you create content which other website owners and bloggers want to link to. These can happen without any effort, other than the effort required to create share-worthy content. Some argue that these are the best and most valuable types of links, as they demonstrate that you produce trust-worthy content. Examples: Start a company blog which provides valuable industry information. Make your content, images for example, available under the creative commons licence, requesting a link-back when used. Manual Links -Your SEO agency may spend time submitting your website and content to other websites in an effort to get your content linked. This is when SEO starts to get time consuming. How can you make this easier? Make it mutual; offer to link to another site in exchange for them linking to yours. Offer partnership links between your regular business customers, or offer your customers a ‘valued customer’ style logo for their blog. If your customers are willing to show their support for you by liking you on Facebook, they may well be happy to include you on their website or blog. Post on industry forums and leave your link behind. Be warned, not all bloggers like this method and may delete your comments. Submitted Links – Your website ranking may also benefit from being listed on directories alongside similar websites. These will have to be submitted manually. And how will you know if it’s working? Like all SEO, the effects will not be visible over night, it requires a little patience. One of the easiest ways to see if your efforts


Prompt: Image caption Waking up too early and having problems settling back to sleep may have a negative impact on the heart, a study shows People who have trouble drifting off to sleep may be at increased risk of heart failure, researchers say. The study, published in the European Heart Journal, followed more than 50,000 people for 11 years. Scientists found those who suffered several nights of poor sleep were more likely to develop the condition, in which the heart fails to pump properly. Experts say further research is needed to see if a lack of sleep causes heart failure or

the link is more complex. "Luckily many of the things that reduce the chance of heart failure also reduce insomnia; good diet, exercise, weight loss and not smoking Dr Tim Chico, Univeristy of Sheffield Scientists at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology looked at more than 50,000 people aged between 20 and 89. At the beginning of the study, none of them were known to have heart failure. In this condition the muscles of the heart are often too out of shape to do their job properly - they may be too weak or too stiff to pump blood around the body at the right pressure. More than 750,000 people in the UK have heart failure and for the majority there is no cure. People with the disorder may feel increasingly breathless and exhausted. And as heart failure worsens, it can be difficult to get a full night's rest - but the Norwegian study is one of few to investigate whether poor sleepers without the condition are at risk of getting it in later life. 'Stress hormones' During the research, the participants were asked whether they had any difficulties getting to sleep or staying asleep and whether they felt fully restored after a night's slumber. People who had trouble falling asleep and remaining asleep each night were three times more likely to develop heart failure than those who reported no trouble sleeping. Those who experienced substandard sleep that failed to leave them fully refreshed were also at risk. And this link between a bad night's sleep and heart failure remained true despite researchers taking smoking, obesity and other well known triggers of insomnia and heart problems into account. The researchers say it is unclear exactly why poor sleep and heart failure are associated in this way. Dr Laugsand, lead


Prompt: CLEVELAND -- Indians owner Paul Dolan could soon have a financial partner. An investment banker hired by Dolan last year to search for a minority owner said Thursday that a "small group" of investors has been identified and a deal could be completed soon. Steve Greenberg, managing director of Allen & Company, a New York-based financial boutique that has brokered sports acquisitions in the past, said the pursuit of an investor has narrowed and Dolan's goal to bring in someone to ease his financial burden and add capital could be finalized by the end of the year. "Being a baseball

guy let me describe it this way," said Greenberg, whose father, Hank, was the Indians' general manager from 1950-59. "We're in the bottom of the seventh inning. It's not over yet, but we can see the outcome if we just get two innings of relief ball." Greenberg did not identify the group or what percentage of the team it would purchase from Dolan. The Indians owner, whose family bought the team from Richard Jacobs in 1999, has no intention of selling the majority share of the Indians, who went 81-80 this season and missed the playoffs for the seventh time in eight years. Greenberg has had major success in completing business deals. He created regional sports TV channels in Chicago and New York, helped the Wilpon family land a $400 million naming rights deal for Citi Field and worked with Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert on the purchase of the NBA's Cavaliers. Because Major League Baseball does not have a salary cap, mid-market teams such as the Indians are at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to signing free agents. Cleveland has to be selective and one or two bad signings, as was the case with outfielders Michael Bourn and Nick Swisher in 2013 to deals totaling $104 million, can have a debilitating effect. Greenberg doesn't think a minority investor in Cleveland will necessarily change Dolan's spending habits radically, but it can provide a stronger economic foothold. "I don't think it's going to be that kind of a game changer," Greenberg said when asked if an infusion of capital will alter the Indians' philosophy in building their roster. "I wouldn't expect that, but what I do think it does, however, is broaden the base of ownership. If there are years where you lose a little bit of money, it's not as


Prompt: Sponges and Foams Japanese Mats: Filter Sponges/Foams Natural Sponge Plastic and Nylon Scrubbies/Strippers/Scourers Pot Scrubbies Scour Pad Floor Buffer Stripping Pads Body Scrubbers Flosses,Pads and Fibers Polyfiber Filter Sock Felt LFS Filter Pads Matala Fiber Pads LFS Bio-Media Cannister Media Bio-Balls Bio-Bale Lava rock Bio-Wheels ? Plants and Refugiums Recently I have noticed a great increase in questions having to do media and which should be used in the askers particular situation.I thought I would put some effort into creating a "Guide" of sorts that may possibly be of some help to people with filter media questions, especially those who

are somewhat new to the hobby or are just breaking into the DIY scene.I figured I would post many of the frequently used (or asked about) medias along with a few of the main upsides and downsides of said media.If anybody sees a commonly used media that I left out or just one that fits the guide feel free to add,although preferably in roughly the same format as to emphasize simplicity and improve the overall flow of the "Media Guide".with that said,let us begin withSurface area/cu.ft.:120Upsides: A fairly easily obtained and inexpensive material suitable for both bio-media as well as a pre-filter media.Often available in bulk.Downsidesn the low side as far as surface area, compresses somewhat over time.Overall: Excellent choice for bio-media in a sump with no lack of space.I had mine stacked about 12" high and the compressed somewhat over about a years time...perhaps flipping them occasionally can prevent this.Surface area/cu.ft.: roughly 75-175 depending on porousnessUpsides: An excellent all around choice of media in most applications.Technically you could run sponges or foam of varying porousness in your entire sump.Holds up well under "Rinse and re-use" conditions.Downsides: Clogs.not the highest in terms of surface area.If you have a rather large bio-load or somewhat of a lack of space you may want to look into media with a higher surface area.Rather pricey if needed in large quantity as well, IMHOOverall:A good pre-filter or bio-media however frequent rinsing will be needed if you are using this as your primary source of mechanical filtrationSurface area/cu.ft.:100Upsides:Rather inexpensive.descent micro-polisher.Downsides:Clogs easy.Not as porous as one would think,so water doesn't flow well through the center....although giving them a few good pokes with a kitchen knife works wonders.I am told they break down over time,although I have seen them successfully used in a sump for around 8 months.Overall:Not


Prompt: Somehow, however, this seems rather difficult for some people to understand. There are scores of commentators on the Left who think that both candidates are the same, or at least equally bad, and at the end of day it doesn’t matter who comes to power anyway. Some even say that people should abstain from voting altogether in order to not take part in a fundamentally oppressive and rigged system. Not voting is not an option because Trump must not win. One star intellectual on the Left, Slavoj Žižek, recently went so far as to say that it would be better

to have Trump in the White House because, as the dialectical process would seamlessly have it, a psychopath running the most powerful nation on earth will finally jolt people into action against the system. This kind of puritanical approach is the preserve of those who are detached from reality and live lives ensconced in privilege — those who think it’s possible to be morally impeccable when it comes to making consequential, real life decisions. But real life decisions come with all sorts of contradictory pressures and demands — and often for the better. Voting for Hillary Clinton is the only right choice. The Green Party’s Jill Stein is not a viable option. If you’re in a “safe state,” one that Trump can’t possibly win, then by all means vote for Stein. But if you’re in a swing state, vote Hillary. Not voting is not an option because Trump must not win. Credit will go to those who come out and vote for Hillary, realizing the need to do so given the danger that Trump poses. Those who think they’re too pure to get involved in matters of society will have to answer for their inaction if Trump wins. Refusing to vote is also an insult to those who fought and gave their lives to win the right to vote. The women’s movement and the civil rights movement were epic battles that included demands for the franchise to be extended to the oppressed and marginalized. The right-wing has always been about voter suppression. In Trump, you have a candidate who has incited all kinds of hatred against the very people whose ancestors gave so much to be able to vote. “Make America great again” is his unsubtle call to reverse historic gains, as legendary performer and activist Harry Belafonte noted in


Prompt: Unbox Therapy/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET There's something insanely glorious about buying expensive phones and immediately trying to break them. And given that the bendability of the iPhone 6 Plus is very likely being discussed at the highest levels of government today, we need to garner as much evidence as we can. Fortunately, Lewis Hilsenteger of Unbox Therapy, the man who performed the original bend-it-and-beckon that shocked the world, has returned with a more comprehensive demonstration. This time, he decided to test the iPhone 6 (rather than the eminently bendable 6 Plus) against stiff competition, such as the HTC One

M8, the Nokia Lumia 1020 and the Moto X. There have also been complaints, you see, that inserting the iPhone 6 into various, perhaps slim-fit, pockets also causes an unseemly warping. Once Hilsenteger applied his expert pressure, he identified a small dent in the iPhone 6's form. He did, though, claim that it's far less bendy than the 6 Plus. Clearly, it's impossible to know whether he used precisely the same force as he did with the 6 Plus. He insisted, however, that the smaller size of the phone contributed to its additional sturdiness, an argument some logicians might admire. The really rather gorgeous HTC One M8 cracked under pressure. The allegedly unmistakable sound of loose glue permeated the ether. The screen emerged a touch from its perfect casing too. The Moto X is, in Hilsenteger's estimation, "solid." It stood as firm and unbending as a guard in a silly hat outside Buckingham Palace. This phone was, for him, the biggest surprise. The Lumia did apparently make some cracking noises. There was a little movement, but still not so much that it caused alarm. Those of academic minds and pedantic natures will offer that these particular phones may or may not be perfect examples of their type. They could have been the ones made on a Friday night or on a joyous Monday morning. It's also impossible to know if Hilsenteger was beginning to lose his strength after so much testing. Fame, too, can sap the energy somewhat. I hope, though, that the idea of sitting in a bar, say, and attempting to bend your phone until it makes noises and/or its screen pops out will quickly pass. This is no way to accompany a decent sauvignon blanc or even an average craft beer. Whichever phone you have bought, please


Prompt: President Donald Trump and Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May have pushed back his official state visit to the United Kingdom to allow the real estate mogul to dodge protests over his administration's right-wing policies, new reporting reveals. Originally set for June, the visit had sparked uproar because of Trump's now-halted Muslim ban, and a petition to stop the state visit referencing Trump's "well documented misogyny and vulgarity" has gathered the signatures of over 1.8 million Britons. The U.K.'s Sun, which first reported on the delay, writes: A senior [U.K.] government source said: "Trump still really wants to come this year,

but he wants the heat to die down a bit first. The two made the decision after Trump told May about his worries in a phone call two weeks ago, the news outlet writes. The U.K.'s Independent adds: Trump's election and resulting policies have received widespread criticism from politicians, who have threatened to try and ban him from parliament entirely. The decision to invite the President to the U.K. has also been greeted by some of the largest street protests in recent years, and activists have promised to protest any trip that Mr. Trump does eventually make. SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT Help Keep Common Dreams Alive Our progressive news model only survives if those informed and inspired by this work support our efforts The Sun reports that the visit has now been provisionally scheduled for October 5 to 8, a time when the Parliament will be in recess. Trump would therefore not have to face any Members of Parliament protesting the visit. For the Stop Trump Coalition, the delay indicates the two leaders "are running scared"—and that the protests work. [block:block=30] "Trump's visit will be delayed until at least October to 'let the heat die down.' But we promise that it's only going to get hotter," the coalition said in a statement Wednesday. "The opposition to this state visit, and to Trump's policies, is growing every day. Whether he comes in Spring or Autumn, or to London, Birmingham, or Scotland, we will meet him in huge numbers to say that the politics of hate and prejudice are not welcome here." On top that, the coalition says, the prime minister must herself stop pushing policies that echo those of the Trump. "Theresa May has badly miscalculated. The British people don't want this racist, misogynist billionaire anywhere near them. At the


Prompt: If you gasped when you opened your Nova Scotia Power bill this month, you are not alone. The utility says as many as 100,000 customers may have bills that were estimated because of the large amount of snow this winter. Snow banks prevented the company's staff from actually reading many meters, so the power corporation estimated the bill. "So in their cases, they received an estimated bill and that was based on their usage for the previous year," said Bev Ware, a spokesperson for Nova Scotia Power. "The bills they are now receiving are based on what they actually did

use." Ware says usage was also higher because it was 10 per cent to 20 per cent colder this winter. The Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board says it was given some early notice that meter reading was a problem, but didn't know so many customers were affected, says executive director Paul Allen. However, he adds that estimated bills are allowed and the utility board has no jurisdiction so long as the correct rate is applied. "I was shocked and upset and wondering why we owed that much," Wolfville resident Tammi Parnell said about her bill. Parnell said her usual bill is $200. "This most recent bill, more than triple that." At the Parker Street Food and Furniture Bank in Halifax, staff are hearing about higher-than-average bills, too, even though some people say they are barely using their heat. "They would just turn the heat in one room or they would just bundle up , wear extra layers of clothing inside the home just to keep themselves warm," worker Cynthia Louis said. The power company also said meters that were read in one billing period may not have been read correctly. "We're now finding out with … meter readers going back and being able to get a close-up reading that those readings back in February and March were not accurate. They were under-read … but they were back from the meter at the time so it was difficult for them to see," Ware said. Whatever the reason, people like Parnell are still trying to come to terms with their bill. "A little stressed out," she said. "It's not good when you get a bill that big and you're not expecting it." The power company said it is confident that their systems are working correctly and the right rates have been


Prompt: NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The value of U.S. homes grew on a monthly basis in May for the first time in nearly three years, according to 20-city index released Tuesday. The month-over-month increase was 0.5%, according to the report from financial data company Standard & Poor's and economists Case-Shiller. It was the first increase in the monthly index since July 2006. On an annual basis, home prices in the 20 cities fell 17.1%, but it was the second straight month that the year-over-year decline lessened. "This could be an indication that home price declines are finally stabilizing," said David Blitzer,

chairman of the index committee S&P, in a prepared statement. While acknowledging that the report was good news, Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Economy.com, downplayed the importance of a single month's statistics. "I think it's a temporary respite," he said. "It reflects the recent decline in foreclosure sales, and prices will continue to fall over the next several months." Robert Shiller, the Yale economist who co-founded the index and who's famous for warning that the housing boom was, in fact, a bubble, said the decrease in foreclosure sales does show up in the index statistics as a plus for home prices. That's one reason he did not want to sound too optimistic; foreclosures could take off again. "And we could get more economic bad news, but it does look encouraging," he said. He added that he thought that Washington's efforts have boosted the nation's spirits, an important factor for the housing market. "The government has done a lot to support the housing market," he said. "Confidence has improved. People are talking about 'green shoots.' People are thinking it's time the recession came to an end. The stock market is up." Cleveland gains: The improvement in the index was as broad as it was deep, with 13 metro areas showing gains, compared with eight in April. Two, New York and Tampa, Fla., showed no change. The biggest winner was long-suffering Cleveland, where prices rose 4.1%. The city still falling the most was Las Vegas, where prices declined 2.6%. The report added to the list of positive housing market indicators. These include rising new home sales, increased home building and increased pending sales. Paul Bishop, the managing director of research for the National Association of Realtors, was glad to see the upturn but did not want to overemphasize the results of


Prompt: The goal is without question the most exciting aspect in soccer. It is often such a rare feat that it is celebrated with all the gusto of winning a championship. RELATED: NCAA Regional rankings | United Soccer Coaches poll It is also an art form for those talented enough to be masters of the goal. They come in many forms, sometimes off a head, other times the bicycle kick mesmerizes us, while others are simply golden. Here's a look at five of the more exciting goal scorers in DII soccer this season. WATCH: Julian Stewart's bicycle kick may be DII

goal of the year The record setter California Baptist has yet to lose this season. Sitting at a perfect 12-0-2, the Lancers are fueled by one of DII soccer's best offenses, scoring 3.15 goals per match. That mark is in large part due to their record-setting senior forward Aidan Apodaca. Spoke to Aidan Apodaca, the NCAA leader in goals scored. (video cred: California Baptist Athletics) pic.twitter.com/Ou0Ik3EM0K — Wayne Cavadi (@UofDWayne) October 25, 2017 Apodaca leads the nation in goals with 25, averaging nearly two a match. It is a breakout for the senior, who had 19 total goals in his three years with the Lancers prior to this season. "I believe what makes someone a prolific goal scorer is the ability to have short term memory," Apodaca said. "What I feel is different this year than ones previous is not dwelling on the misses and mistakes, taking every opportunity. If the ball doesn't go the way you want it to, so what. It also helps to have an amazing group of guys that believe in you and lift you up, none of this would be possible without any of them." His remarkable season sees him shatter program records seemingly on a weekly basis. His 25 goals and 42 points are program single-season records. Earlier this season Apodaca set the single-game record with a five-goal performance against Northwest Nazarene. The Lancers won that match 5-0. It was just another day at the office, scoring thrilling goal after thrilling goal. "Scoring a goal will never get old," Apodaca said. "I always get eager and excited to score and when it happens I feel like a kid again. My favorite goal this year would have to be my second against Fresno Pacific. Scoring the first and then coming back to the half line


Prompt: Looking for C++17 - Urbana Proposals from Core, Modules, Networking, Reflection and Undefined Behavior published at 01.11.2014 12:56 by Jens Weller The second part of my series about the proposals for Urbana, where the next C++ committee meeting will be held. The papers grand us a first view on a distant future - C++17. I also published last weekend an alternative listing of the proposals by mailing and subgroup. And maybe you also want to read the first part about proposals for concurrency. This time it will be all subgroups with relative few papers combined, evolution and library then will

follow with one or two postings each. I might get interrupted by my conference though... Core The core working group deals with the language as it self, so its proposals are really a bit special. From the paper: This paper proposes to adjust the wording for exceptions to achieve the following goals: Exception specifications as a semantic concept are separated from the grammar term exception-specification The description of throw-expression is integrated into clause 5. The changes are intended to be editorial only, not changing semantics. Due to the size of the changes, it seems prudent to have a full CWG review for these instead of leaving the issue to the project editor alone. Not much more to say. Wording only. From the paper: This paper presents the proposed resolution for core issue 330 as reviewed in teleconferences of WG21's Core Working Group, substantially cleaning up the wording around qualification converions. Other than allowing the qualification conversions asked for in the issue, it also changes reinterpret_cast so that it may now cast away constness So, this is another very detailed paper on a very special issue. I guess most people could ignore it, but it shows to what details the committee works on C++. Standardization is just not about adding new features, it is also about keeping the standard valid in a logical and very detailed way. String-literals have five encoding-prefixes, while character literals only have 4. u8 is the missing one, which this paper seeks to fix, adding u8 as an encoding prefix for character literals. Again, this paper is mostly the changes in wording for the C++ Standard. This is a first draft of the technical specification about the needed extensions to C++ for making Concepts a reality. Keypoints which will need to be added to C++ for Concepts


Prompt: The Samsung Group is a South Korea-based conglomerate company that includes a number of subsidiaries. It's one of the largest businesses in Korea, producing nearly one-fifth of the country’s total exports with a primary focus in the electronics, heavy industry, construction, and defense industries. Other major subsidiaries of Samsung include insurance, advertising, and entertainment industry businesses. Samsung History With only 30,000 won (about $27 USD), Lee Byung-chull started Samsung on March 1 in 1938, as a trading company based in Taegu, Korea. The small company of only 40 employees started as a grocery store, trading and exporting goods produced in

and around the city, like dried Korean fish and vegetables, as well as its own noodles. The company grew and soon expanded to Seoul in 1947 but left once the Korean War broke out. After the war, Lee started a sugar refinery in Busan that was called Cheil Jedang, before expanding into textiles and building the (then) largest woolen mill in Korea. The successful diversification became a growth strategy for Samsung, which rapidly expanded into the insurance, securities, and retail business. Samsung was focused on the redevelopment of Korea after the war with a central focus on industrialization. Samsung entered the electronics industry in the 1960's with the formation of several electronics focused divisions. The initial electronics divisions included Samsung Electronics Devices, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Samsung Corning, and Samsung Semiconductor & Telecommunications. Samsung built their initial facilities in Suwon, South Korea, in 1970, where they started producing black and white television sets. Between 1972 and 1979, Samsung began selling washing machines, changed to Samsung Petrochemical and then Samsung Heavy Industries, and by 1976, had sold its 1 millionth B&W television. In 1977, they started exporting color TVs and established Samsung Construction, Samsung Fine Chemicals, and Samsung Precision Co. (now called Samsung Techwin). By 1978, Samsung had sold 4 million black and white television sets and started mass producing microwave ovens before 1980. 1980 to Present In 1980, Samsung entered the telecommunications hardware industry with the purchase of Hanguk Jenja Tongsin. Initially building telephone switchboards, Samsung expanded into telephone and fax systems which eventually shifted to mobile phone manufacturing. The mobile phone business was grouped together with Samsung Electronics which began to invest heavily in research and development throughout the 1980's. During this time Samsung Electronics expanded to Portugal, New York, Tokyo, England, and Austin, Texas. In 1987 with the death of


Prompt: Editor’s Note: This Op-Ed was written and submitted to Breitbart Texas by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Politics has a nasty habit of trumping good policy. In the case of so-called sanctuary cities, it also manages to overwhelm our otherwise well-honed commitment to the rule of law. Next year, Travis County will welcome a new sheriff, Sally Hernandez, into office. The sheriff-elect has taken a careless stance on immigration in that she has fervently and publically rebuked her predecessor’s policy of cooperating with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, when it requested that the sheriff’s office hold inmates

so that they might be removed from the country. Were we to take the sheriff-elect’s campaign promises at face value, Austin would be the first Texas municipality to fully qualify as a “sanctuary city.” The sheriff-elect defends her radical departure of existing law by attempting to wrap immigration enforcement in a swath of social justice causes. She doesn’t think, for instance, that “you solve the criminal justice process by deporting them.” Likewise, she calls ICE’s policies “discriminatory” and has urged for a more “progressive” approach to “treat everybody fairly and equally.” Never mind that ICE’s current deportation standards originated in the Obama Administration which, at least since 2011, has chiefly focused its enforcement effort at undocumented immigrants convicted of the most violent and heinous crimes. Popular attacks aside, the government has little interest in breaking up families; nor do they seek to deport victims who bring incidents of misconduct to the attention of authorities. Hernandez’s reasoning is one of ideology, not facts. It advances a narrative that lauds the appearance of compassion towards immigrants but never truly confronts the policy’s substance or how non-compliance can hurt the very audience that sanctuary cities are said to help. Had Hernandez done so, she would have realized that sanctuary cities are the policy equivalent of a dead end. Nothing moves forward. Not public safety. Not the rule of law. Certainly not the men, women, and children who thirst for the American Dream but have had the forbearance to pursue it through appropriate means. Indeed, our nation enjoys a proud history of lawful immigration. You might even call it our country’s cultural backbone. And you would be hard pressed to find a constituency on either side of the political aisle who wants that tradition to stop. Sanctuary cities, however, implicate different concerns. Exit polls


Prompt: Chanting “Long live the Intifada,” University of Texas at Austin activists recently stormed a class to protest and disrupt a talk by a guest lecturer. Waving Palestinian flags and shouting anti-Israel epithets, twelve members of the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) entered the public event, sponsored by Institute for Israeli Studies Professor Ami Pedahzur and hosting Stanford University military historian Dr. Gil-Li Vardi. Throughout the incident — during which Pedahzur insisted that the invasive students either “sit down and learn something” or leave — the PSC activists filmed everything on their cellphone cameras. Since that episode, which took place on Friday,

November 13, mere hours before Paris was brutally attacked by ISIS terrorists, Pedahzur, professor of government and founding director of the Institute for Israel Studies, has become the focus of a PSC intimidation campaign. This includes a petition circulated by the PSC and claims that Pedahzur was violent. “We were met with physical force and intimidation,” the PSC said in a statement. A UT Austin professor as well as an attendee escalated what was supposed to be a reading of a prepared two-minute statement, culminating in professor Ami Pedahzur physically pressing his body against a PSC member, nose-to-nose in a move to physically intimidate the student. Pedahzur had to be restrained by 3 people. Watching the video of the episode, which was uploaded to YouTube by PSC members immediately after they crashed the event, one gets a sense of the menacing nature of the demonstration — on the part of the students, not those trying to subdue them. In an exclusive interview with The Algemeiner on Tuesday, Pedahzur described the incident, the first of its kind he says he has experienced in his career — as professor of government, the Arnold S. Chaplik Professor in Israel and Diaspora Studies and founding director of the Institute for Israel Studies — and the ongoing nightmare he is now living as a result of it. Wearing a disguise on campus and fearing for the safety of his family and students says it in a nutshell. “Along with the PSC petition smearing my name and accusing me of inappropriate behavior, I’ve received death threats,” Pedhazur said. “But no one at the university has offered to protect me or my students. That is why I went to the police last Monday to request protection for my class — titled ‘Suicide Terror’ — which is in


Prompt: Barcelona football star Lionel Messi last night wrote his way into the history books after notching up the Guinness World Records title for the most goals in a calendar year by netting his 86th goal of 2012. The 25-year-old Argentine edged past Gerd Mueller's long-standing record of 85 - set in 1972 - to set a new benchmark, which includes goals for club and country. Messi clinched the record after hitting the target twice in Barca's 2-1 win over Real Betis on Sunday. The Three-time World Player of the Year drilled in an angled shot after 16 minutes to equal

the German's record before adding a second with a shot driven low in the 25th minute to set the new mark. video Speaking after the match, Messi told Spanish TV station Canal Plus: "I always say the same, it's nice for what it means but the victory is more important as it maintains our lead over the other teams". Mueller, who netted 72 for Bayern Munich and 13 for West Germany when he set the previous benchmark in 1972 and was 27 at the time, was among the first to congratulate Messi, telling Sport1.de: "My record stood for 40 years - 85 goals in 60 games - and now the best player in the world has broken it, and I'm delighted for him. "He is an incredible player, gigantic." Messi's attempt to break the record looked uncertain after he was stretchered off during Barcelona's Champions League draw with Benfica on Wednesday with a knee injury. However, despite admitting he thought he had kicked his last ball "for a long time because of the pain", the injury to his left knee was eventually found not to be as bad as initially feared, allowing him to start against Betis. Messi's path to the record has included 74 goals for Barcelona and 12 for Argentina in 66 games. He could still add to his final tally, with the striker set to feature in two league matches and one King's Cup tie before the end of the year. Nicknamed "The Flea" for his small frame, Messi passed Cesar Rodriguez's 57-year-old milestone of 232 goals to become Barcelona all-time leading scorer. Messi's month-by-month goal tally January 7 February 10 March 13 April 9 May 8 June 4 July 0 August 7 September 5 October 10 November 9 December 4 Messi's goal breakdown Barcelona Copa del


Prompt: In Anthropology, Dinosaurs & Fossils, Research News, Science & Nature / 23 November 2015 By John Barrat New research by a team of archaeologists has revealed a curious connection between our traditional Thanksgiving dinner and the taste buds of prehistoric mammoths and mastodons. Today, domestic pumpkins and squash are in a close co-evolutionary agricultural relationship with humans, with big benefits for both species. “If you think in terms of the total number of squash plants now growing in the world, squash has been a big beneficiary of domestication,” says archaeologist Bruce Smith of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History,

and co-author of a study just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Tens of thousands of years ago in North America squash (Cucurbita spp.) had very different evolutionary partners—mastodons, woolly mammoths and elephants—a relationship that influenced its gourds to be much smaller—baseball-sized—than what we know today and with bitter toxic flesh. Bitterness was the plant’s natural defense against small herbivores and rodents which would have nibbled away and eaten the gourd’s seeds. Cucurbitacin, a compound that caused the bitter flavor, is also a toxin. Mastodons, mammoths and other giant herbivores ate these wild gourds and swallowed the seeds because their taste buds didn’t register the bitterness. Their bodies also were large enough to absorb the toxins without harm. Squash seeds found in fossilized mammoth dung is clear evidence that these prehistoric giants ate the bitter squash and that the wild plant relied on them to disperse its seeds, the scientists report in their paper. “The plant’s strategy was to allow large herbivores to eat its gourds, and then the seeds would pass through and be deposited some distance away with a little fertilizer in the form of mastodon/mammoth poop to help them to start growing,” Smith says. The strategy worked. Wild squash was once prolific across the North American landscape. Following this theory, paper co-author Logan Kistler of Pennsylvania State University and colleagues, analyzed the genomes—an organism’s complete DNA profile, including all of its genes—of an array of mammals of various sizes, specifically looking at genes that allow taste detection of bitter compounds. Small mammals with diverse diets tended to have more genes for bitter-taste reception, they found. Larger animals such as elephants have fewer of these genes and therefore have less of an ability to taste bitter plant compounds. In Africa today several bitter species


Prompt: Bitcoin’s saving grace for scalability (at least in the eyes of the vast majority of Bitcoin Core contributors) should be ready for use this summer. The Lightning Network, which is a generalized network of payment channels that enables instant bitcoin transactions with practically no fees, could be live as soon as this summer. This new protocol layer built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain has received a lot of attention and hype over the past couple of years, and a fix for transaction malleability via Segregated Witness has resolved some of the code and design complexities involved with the network.

Lightning Network co-creator Joseph Poon recently supplied some comments to CoinJournal in regards to the current status of the project and when it will be available for general use. Poon claimed a functional version of the Lightning Network should be ready this summer. Testing on SegNet As of now, this particular implementation of the Lightning Network concept is being tested on SegNet, which is a test network for Segregated Witness. In his comments to CoinJournal, Poon stated: “We are currently testing Lightning against SegNet. Tadge Dryja and Olaoluwa Osuntokun have been integrating Segregated Witness in our software. In fact, I believe Tadge was the first person to make a witness block larger than 1MB on SegNet 3 when testing the mempool.” Tadge Dryja is the other co-author on the original Lightning Network white paper. Recently, Olaoluwa Osuntokun has also been working on bringing more privacy to the network for micropayments. The code for this project is available on GitHub, and Poon added, “It should be in a testable state on SegNet 4 very soon.” Ready When Segregated Witness Goes Live When asked whether the Lightning Network will be available once Segregated Witness is merged into Bitcoin Core, Poon responded: “A basic, functional version of Lightning Network should be ready when the Segregated Witness soft-fork goes live on Bitcoin, presuming it gets merged and activated this Summer. Hopefully it gets in this Summer, as this will enable entirely new decentralized use cases for Bitcoin which were not possible before on any financial system due to custodial risk underwriting.” At the recent 2016 MIT Bitcoin Expo, Joseph Poon discussed how the Lightning Network causes people to reimagine the Bitcoin blockchain as a court for smart contracts rather than a simple payment network. In another recent interview with Bitcoin Magazine, Bitcoin Core contributor


Prompt: Photo by Mark Mainz/Getty Images Beware of strange websites with candy? The most viral (and, depending on your point of view, perhaps vile) site of today has to be Take This Lollipop. But wait, don’t click on it yet! Let me tell you about it first, so you know what you’re getting yourself into. When you open up the site and click on an image of a blue lollipop, you’re prompted to allow Take This Lollipop to access your Facebook profile. This is standard stuff; for instance, if you want to use your Facebook profile to comment on a website—say,

Slate—you agree to such access. But Take This Lollipop demonstrates exactly what you agree to when you hit “OK.” In a stunning display of interactivity, the site shows a creepy video, a couple of minutes long, showing a dirty, creepy man, his fingerstips caked with grime as he points his way to Facebook. There, he accesses … your profile. The site takes the information from your Facebook page and seamlessly weaves it into the video. You watch as the stalker looks at your photographs, your recent status updates, your list of friends. Then he pulls up Google Maps and finds directions to your home (geographic data contained in your profile). He hops into a car, your profile photograph taped to the dashboard. The scene ends as he gets out of the car, presumably to track down his target—you. As horror movies go, the plot’s pretty thin. But it’s still jolting to see yourself cast as the victim. It is unsettling to watch, particularly because the technology is so good. Here’s an example of the site in action. So what’s going on here? Is it a public service announcement? A viral campaign for an upcoming horror movie? As several observers have noted, it’s nearly Halloween. Jason Zada, a digital marketer who has worked on such projects as OfficeMax’s Elf Yourself, has taken credit for Take This Lollipop. The idea isn’t totally novel: Intel’s Museum of Me also mines your Facebook account, and a German site similarly puts you into a video with an eerie end. But Take This Lollipop is nevertheless creating a stir online. Fast Company’s Jacob Berkowitz sees past the creepy and is excited by the business opportunities: [T]he format itself is a great showcase for the potential of socially-enabled, seamlessly interactive video as genre entertainment. Here it’s horror,


Prompt: Mewes is here to talk his new movie, the Clerks legacy, and the future of Jay and Silent Bob. TMS: We typically never talk politics around here. But dude, who do you think you're gonna vote for this crazy election season? JM: Honestly. I haven't been following it. I will actually vote however my wife tells me to vote. So that's gonna be what it is. I hadn't voted up until a couple years ago. Because I had a felony, I was told I was not allowed to vote. I just assumed they were right and I never did any

type of research about it, so I just never voted because I thought I wasn't allowed to. My wife researched it and it was somewhat true. You can't vote while you're on probation. But after you're off, you can vote. So, I just started voting when Obama came around. So, I had never voted before and I was like 'Who am I? Am I democrat or am I Republican?'. TMS: I think you're a Democrat. JM: My wife gave me some input about what's what and this year it's the same thing. I'll listen to what she says. I guess I should know a little bit more and should be more supportive about that stuff but I think I'm playing with my baby too much and traveling. When I am home and I have downtime, I read comic books and play video games. Maybe I shouldn't be doing so much of that. TMS: So, how is it being a parent? Seems crazy that Jay has a baby!!! JM: I had no idea how much time a baby takes. I knew but I didn't know. I didn't know that when she started walking I'd be literally chasing her around the house because I'm so petrified that she's gonna fall and hit her head or something. So, I literally chase her around. She wants to go up her slide and down her slide in the living room. She wants to get on her scooter which she's just learning how to get on. It's a blast. I love it. TMS: What's up with Vigilante Diaries? Where can people see it? And what do you want them to know about the movie? JM: This Friday it'll be out on VOD, iTunes, and in some theaters. I'm very excited about it. It started out as


Prompt: DENVER (CBS4) – Responding to a CBS4 investigation, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation has acknowledged at least 56 of the DUI blood tests it conducted in the last six months were incorrect. “The initial results in each of those 56 cases showed lower alcohol levels for the drivers than when additional quality assurance retesting occurred,” said Susan Medina, a spokesperson for the CBI. “There is no indication that any defendant was inappropriately charged with an offense based on test results showing an erroneously high level of alcohol in a driver’s bloodstream.” The CBI opened labs in July 2015 in Pueblo

and Grand Junction and since then has done about 1,500 DUI blood tests for the Colorado State Patrol and other law enforcement agencies. Medina said the faulty tests amounted to about 4 percent of the DUI testing the labs have conducted since last July. The CBI said it learned of its erroneous lab results “in recent months“ when an independent lab checked two blood samples that had also been tested by the CBI and the independent lab — ChemaTox — discovered what the CBI calls “anomalies.” ChemaTox told CBS4 it notified state authorities of the problems in December 2015. The CBI said it then checked some of its other DUI alcohol results and confirmed its lab testing problems. “While a thorough review remains in progress,” said CBI, “it is believed the cause of the anomalies has been identified and corrected.” Medina declined to say if the problem was human error, testing equipment, or some other factor. Sarah Urfer of ChemaTox labs told CBS4, “I contacted CBI and said, ‘Look, we had an anomaly and it’s 24 percent different.'” Urfer said the anomalies are important “because those are people’s lives at stake.” David Miller, a Denver-based defense attorney who defends DUI clients, told CBS4 the CBI needs to come clean. “It creates a problem with the integrity of the system. They’re not saying what the problem is so we don’t know what the problem is, so we’re going to have to get full disclosure to start with. I think it’s up to prosecutors now to look at each case and see if the convictions are proper in the first place and notify the client or lawyer as to what’s happening,” said Miller. He said the CBS4 investigation revealing the faulty testing shows a “huge problem. It’s a big deal if you’re


Prompt: Special Status Whatsapp groups and Facebook pages are abuzz with activity, ahead of the event, planned on January 26. With the resounding success of the jallikattu saga in neighbouring Tamil Nadu, it is now the turn of Andhra Pradesh to follow suit. Only this time, the purpose is to ensure that the Centre accords ‘special status’ to the state. Several Whatsapp groups and social media pages are abuzz, as Andhraites plan a day-long protest at the RK Beach in Visakhapatnam on Republic Day this year. Thousands are expected to gather at the beach in support of their long-standing demand that

'special status' be accorded to Andhra Pradesh. The hashtag #APDemandsSpecialStatus is currently one of the trending topics on social media in the state, with enthusiasts urging people from all over AP to gather at the beach in a massive show of solidarity for the cause. "We have been coordinating with several hundred people through Whatsapp groups and Facebook pages for the protest. We are trying to mobilize as many people as we can for the protest,” says Satish -a student from Visakhapatnam- who plans to be a part of the protest along with his friends. Speaking to The News Minute, organisers say that arrangements are being made to provide free transportation to the venue. “We have already spoken to three autorickshaw unions. They support our cause and have promised to make available at least 40 autos in the RK Beach area to provide free transport to protesters," says Sai Keshav, one of the organisers who is coordinating with youngsters from Guntur to ensure maximum participation. Like many others, Keshav and his friends plan to reach Visakhapatnam on the previous day itself. "People are seething with anger at the gross neglect of the state by the Centre for so long. There is so much of potential in here, but what do we get…absolutely no support from the Centre," he fumes. Speaking about what exactly sowed the idea of such a protest, Keshav replies: "When we saw the jallikattu protest in Marina, we were inspired to start our own protest for our very own cause. Just the way the youth of Tamil Nadu got an ordinance passed in favour of jallikattu, we too shall seek to put pressure on the Centre to pass a ‘special status’ ordinance for AP." He also claims that there are many active Whatsapp groups that function solely


Prompt: BARNESVILLE, Ohio -- Rick Santorum on Saturday said the entire Republican Party should voice its support for Senate candidate Todd Akin of Missouri -- including the top of the party's presidential ticket. After holding a rally for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney here in the heart of Ohio's coal country, Santorum told NBC News that an Akin victory is essential for the GOP to regain control of the Senate and repeal President Barack Obama's health care law. The only way for that to happen, Santorum said, is for the GOP establishment to give the embattled Akin its full-fledged support. "The

entire Republican Party should stand up and say, 'You know what? He's our candidate, it's too important for the future of our country not to have a majority of the Senate in this upcoming election," Santorum said when asked if Romney needs to publicly support Akin. "I'm hoping everybody will join in and support the cause." The former Pennsylvania senator and unsuccessful president candidate joined South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint in announcing their support of Akin on Wednesday. "I don't know what the Republican establishment -- what their objective is, but if they want to repeal Obamacare, we better hold the Senate. And to hold the Senate, we better win Missouri," Santorum said. Akin has taken heat from both sides of the aisle after using the term "legitimate rape" and saying women have a biological way of preventing unwanted pregnancies while he gave a now-notorious explanation of his views on abortion. "My feeling is that we can win the presidency, but if we don't have 51 senators, we're not going to be able to repeal Obamacare," said Santorum. Romney's former rival has been active campaigning for the presidential candidate in the Buckeye State. It's a primary Santorum nearly won on Super Tuesday, and his support was particularly strong in this part of the state, heavy with blue-collar workers and not far from his home of Pittsburgh. Despite recent polls showing Romney needing to make up significant ground in Ohio, the former senator remained optimistic about the state turning red. "I'm confident that Mitt Romney will win Ohio, will when the presidency," he said. "People here understand how dangerous this president is." That danger, Santorum said, stems from the president's energy policy, which he claims makes the U.S. more dependent on foreign oil. It is a message the Romney campaign hopes


Prompt: The aim of this study was to investigate the cognitive as well as the emotional demands of black humour processing. The results of the current study show three distinctive groups with respect to comprehension as well as preference of black humour. The most surprising result is that subjects who show the highest values with respect to black humour preference and comprehension show high values with respect to intelligence, have higher education levels and show lowest values regarding mood disturbance and aggression. On the other hand, subjects who show average verbal and nonverbal intelligence scores as well as high mood disturbance

and high aggressiveness show the lowest values with respect to comprehension and preference of black humour. These findings support the notion that humour processing depends on cognitive as well as emotional aspects (e.g. Ruch and Ekman 2001; Vrticka et al. 2013) and suggest that this also accounts for black humour processing which seems to be a complex information-processing task. Previous studies suggested that aggressive mood leads to the preference of aggressive humour (e.g. Bowker and Etkin 2014; McCauley et al. 1983; Prerost 1983). Therefore, it would not have been a surprise for this study to show that subjects who enjoy reading cartoons dealing with nasty or morbid contents also show high levels of aggression. Quite surprisingly, it could be shown that subjects who present high levels of aggressiveness (i.e. aggressiveness directed against others) are most likely to dislike black humour and show lower values with respect to black humour comprehension than subjects with low aggression values. It can be hypothesized that higher levels of aggressiveness and associated levels of arousal lead to decreased levels of pleasure when reading black humour wits, an assumption which contradicts the results of Prerost (1983). Furthermore, it could be shown that subjects who are in a bad mood are most likely to dislike black humour and show lower values with respect to black humour comprehension than subjects who show low mood disturbance. These results support studies which show that subjective humour response is influenced by pre-existing mood (Neumann et al. 2001) as well as the notion that bad mood impairs the involvement in humour rather than facilitating the appreciation of aggressive humour (Ruch and Köhler 1998). According to Mindess and colleagues (1985), preference for sick humour is related to the ability to treat nasty contents as playful fiction. Seemingly, only those subjects who have no