Prompt: LPL Financial last month was hit with a $2 million fine, and ordered to pay $820,000 in restitution, for failing to maintain adequate books and records documenting variable annuity exchanges, known as 1035 exchanges, according to the firm's profile on BrokerCheck. The previously unreported settlement with the Illinois Securities Department contributed to flat second quarter earnings at LPL Financial Holdings Inc., leading the firm's CEO, Mark Casady to tell analysts on a conference call Wednesday morning that “We are not happy with these results.” According to the BrokerCheck report, LPL Financial “failed to enforce its supervisory system and procedures in

connection with the documentation of certain salespersons' variable annuity exchange activities,” according to the BrokerCheck report. “LPL is pleased to have settled this matter following inquiries in which we cooperated fully with the State of Illinois,” said company spokeswoman Betsy Weinberger in an email. “With regard to the accuracy of surrender charges incurred in connection with variable annuity exchange transactions, the company is instituting enhanced procedures with a view to ensuring that these charges are accurately reflected in the firm's books and records as well as in any disclosures given to clients, and that advisers are adequately documenting the basis for their variable annuity recommendations,” Ms. Weinberger wrote. In its quarterly earnings report Wednesday morning, LPL reported that general and administrative expenses for the quarter ended June 30 increased 24% to $106.8 million from $84.5 million in the year-ago quarter. The increase in general and administrative expense was primarily related to the resolution of regulatory issues, the company said in a statement. Earnings per share were also flat year over year, at 42 cents. For the past year and a half, LPL has been dogged by state regulators examining sales of investment products, including nontraded real estate investment trusts. In February 2013, LPL Financial reached a settlement with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to pay at least $2 million in restitution and $500,000 in fines over the sale of nontraded REITs. Last year, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. fined LPL Financial $7.5 million for 35 separate significant e-mail system failures. LPL also was ordered to create a $1.5 million fund to compensate brokerage customers potentially affected by its failure to produce e-mail. BEEFING UP OVERSIGHT With regulators raking LPL over the coals, the company has spent the last year-and-a-half beefing up its oversight of complex products such nontraded REITs and


Prompt: RAMALLAH (Reuters) - The body of the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will be exhumed on Tuesday, eight years after his death, in an investigation to establish if he was murdered, a Palestinian official said on Saturday. Plastic sheets cover the mausoleum of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the West Bank city of Ramallah November 24, 2012. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman A French court opened a murder inquiry in August into Arafat’s death in Paris after a Swiss institute said it had discovered high levels of radioactive polonium on his clothing, which was supplied by his widow, Suha. Tawfiq al-Tirawi, in charge

of the Palestinian committee overseeing the investigation, told reporters in Ramallah on Saturday “it is a painful necessity” to exhume the body of Arafat, who came to symbolize the Palestinian quest for statehood throughout decades of war and peace with Israel. Tirawi said the Palestinians had “evidence which suggests Arafat was assassinated by Israelis”. Israel denies any involvement. The exhumation and renewed allegations of Israeli involvement could stir further tension between the Palestinians and Israel, which are observing a truce after a week of fierce fighting in Gaza. Any positive results for polonium could rekindle Palestinian hostility toward Israel and suspicions that a local collaborator may have poisoned him under directions from the Jewish state. Allegations of foul play have long surrounded Arafat’s demise. He died in a Paris hospital in November 2004, a month after being flown, seriously ill, from his headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah. French doctors who treated him in his final days said they could not establish the cause of death, and no autopsy was performed in deference to his widow’s request at the time, when Arafat died at 75. Eight years is considered a limit to detect any traces of the deadly radioactive substance, according to the Swiss Institute of Radiation Physics. Tirawi said Arafat’s body would be exhumed from its limestone mausoleum in Ramallah, away from the public or media presence, and separate samples will be taken by the French and Swiss forensic teams, as well as a Russian team of experts, who the Palestinians invited to help with the examination. After the investigation “the body of leader Abu Ammar will be returned (reburied) in a military ceremony that is befitting him as a leader of the Palestinian people”, Tirawi said, using Arafat’s non de guerre. Tirawi said results could take


Prompt: How did people figure out that the distant "father" of 1 in 200 males alive today lived 800-1200 years ago? Or that the father of all humans ("Adam") was alive 40-50,000 years ago? These estimates come from looking at differences in the Y chromosome over time. But wait a minute you might be saying. You just said that we can use the Y chromosome for historical studies because it can't recombine and so stays constant. Notice I said earlier that the Y chromosome passes from generation to generation virtually unchanged. It does change a little over time because of random

mutations (nothing is perfect including copying DNA). It is these rare mutations that let scientists date when things have happened in the past. Scientists use DNA to estimate when things have happened in the past by assuming a certain rate of mutations over time. Let's say that the Y chromosome gets 1 new mutation/generation (much higher than the actual rate). If this is the case, then if two people have 10 differences between them, then they are 10 generations apart. The mutation rate scientists have used in the past was based on circumstantial evidence because there was just too much DNA to sequence. Until now. For the first time, groups in Indiana and New Hampshire have figured out a mutation rate based on sequencing huge amounts of DNA from lots of the roundworm, C. elegans. How much DNA? An astonishing 4 million base pairs -- an impossible number just a few years ago. What the researchers found was that the mutation rate was 10 times higher than previously believed or around 2 mutations/generation for C. elegans. There are possible reasons that given the way the experiment was done, the mutation rate might have been artificially high. But, if the new number is true, it calls into question all sorts of things. For example, partly based on DNA evidence, scientists believed that chimps and humans separated about 5 million years ago. Was it actually 500,000 years ago? Humans began their migration out of Africa 100,000 years ago. Or was it 10,000? Did "Adam" live 50,000 or 5000 years ago? Some of these new numbers are obviously wrong. From archeological digs, we know there were people in Europe, Asia, and even the Americas more than 10,000 years ago. From fossil evidence we know that chimps and humans separated more than 500,000 years


Prompt: Then was not non-existent nor existent: there was no realm of air , no sky beyond it. The Rigveda (or Rig Veda) is a collection of over 1000 Vedic Sanskrit hymns to the Hindu gods.The oldest of the Hindu scriptures, which some have claimed date to to 7000–4000 BC, philological analysis indicates that it was probably composed in the north-western region of the Indian subcontinent, roughly between 1700–1100 BC; it has been noted that it shares some linguistic and cultural similarities with the Zend Avesta of Zoroastrianism, which has also been dated to similar time periods. Quotes [ edit ]

I laud Agni the priest, the divine minister of sacrifice, who invokes the gods, and is most rich in gems. May Agni, the invoker, the sage, the true, the most renowned, a god, come hither with the gods! Start of Hymn 1, as quoted in Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Vol. 23 (1864), p. 267 Variant translations: Agni I laud, the high priest, god, minister of sacrifice, The invoker, lavishest of wealth. Mandala 1, Hymn 1, verse 1 May Agni, the invoker, the sage, the true, the most renowned, a god, come hither with the gods! O ye who wish to gain realization of the Supreme Truth, utter the name of "Vishnu" at least once in the steadfast faith that it will lead you to such realization. V.I.15b.3 Just as the sun's rays in the sky are extended to the mundane vision, so in the same way the wise and learned devotees always see the abode of Lord Vishnu. V.I.22.20 Let me now sing the heroic deeds of Viṣṇu who has measured apart the realms of the earth, who propped up the upper dwelling-place, striding far as he stepped forth three times. They praise for his heroic deeds Viṣṇu who lurks in the mountains, wandering like a ferocious wild beast, in whose three wide strides all creatures dwell. V.1.154.1–2, as translated by Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty in The Rig Veda : An Anthology (1981), p. 226 They praise for his heroic deeds Viṣṇu who lurks in the mountains, wandering like a ferocious wild beast, in whose three wide strides all creatures dwell. Alone, he supports threefold the earth and the sky — all creatures. Would that I might reach his dear place of refuge, where men who love the gods rejoice. For their one draws close to the wide-striding


Prompt: Speaking as both a fan and a critic, I'm of the opinion that fanservice is like a spice; just the right amount in the right recipe and it's fantastic, but too much overpowers the dish. Not every anime series needs to be a subtle masterpiece of moving, insightful screenwriting. There's room on the shelf for risque pleasures and bawdy fun. Sometimes we all just want to ogle handsome dudes or hot ladies in skimpy outfits, or maybe we need to shout corny catchphrases as a giant robot goes through a ten-minute launch sequence. A little populist entertainment is good for

the soul, but that doesn't mean that we should be willing to put up with lousy anime in order to get it. To that end, I've put together a few modest requirements for the best animated comfort food of choice. For the sake of brevity, I'll be focusing on the most traditional (and most maligned) definition of fanservice : good-looking ladies or gentlemen in revealing outfits and suggestive situations. Consistency is Key The first step in making fanservice work is to ensure that it fits reasonably well into the context of the series. Different shows can get away with different things depending on their tone and subject matter. For example, a hot springs episode is a much easier sell in a goofy romantic comedy than it would be in a super-serious war drama. Fanservice scenes are almost always a detour from the more important parts of a series, but the change of direction is less jarring when the audience can reasonably imagine the characters getting caught up in silly, raunchy antics. As long as the creators are honest with themselves about what kind of show they're making, it isn't too hard to keep the tone consistent. Keeping the style and level of fanservice consistent is also important. When a show suddenly goes off the deep end after several tame episodes, the audience ends up feeling blindsided. I criticized an episode of Gourmet Girl Graffiti earlier this year for this exact problem: after half a season of odd but mild fanservice , the series abruptly tossed in a suggestive bath scene. It was hardly the most tasteless piece of animation out there, but it was way out of place in a slice of life series about girls freaking out over delicious food. Ultimately, all this talk about consistency boils down to


Prompt: Commercial surrogacy is a booming industry in India, and in recent years the ranks of childless foreign couples looking for a low-cost, legally simple route to parenthood have been joined by gay couples and singles. The measures mark the first step to the regulation of "surrogacy tourism" in India. The rules say foreign couples seeking to enter into a surrogacy arrangement in India must be a "man and woman (who) are duly married and the marriage should be sustained at least two years". The rule changes, posted on the Indian home ministry's website, were denounced by fertility clinics and gay

rights activists as "discriminatory". "Parenting is everybody's right and now we're withdrawing that right," said Dr Rita Bakshi, who heads the International Fertility Centre in New Delhi. "These rules are definitely not welcome, definitely restrictive and very discriminatory," she told AFP. "This is a huge heartbreak for homosexual couples and singles," commented fertility doctor Anoop Gupta. Gay rights campaigners also denounced the changes to the rules on surrogacy, which was legalised in 2002. "It's totally unfair - not only for gay people but for people who are not married who may have been living together for years, and for singles," Mumbai gay rights advocate Nitin Karani told AFP. India is a popular destination for gay couples seeking children even though it remains a largely conservative country and only decriminalised consensual sex between homosexuals in 2011. The home ministry would not comment on the changes which stipulate that would-be parents provide proof that their home country will give citizenship to any baby born of a surrogate mother. There have been several publicised cases of babies born through cross-border surrogacy in recent years who have been trapped in citizenship limbo because their parents' countries refused them passports. Surrogacy is banned in some European countries and is subject to strict regulation in the United States. The new India rules, which also state applicants must apply for a medical instead of a tourist visa, come as legislation to regulate the industry has yet to be passed by parliament. The bill says only women aged between 21 and 35 can act as surrogates but sets no minimum payment for the mother. Critics have said a lack of legislation governing surrogacy encourages "rent-a-womb" exploitation of young, poor Indian women. While the government has been pushing the country as a medical tourism destination, the issue of wealthy


Prompt: DONALD Trump wasn’t the only holder of an honorary degree from a Scottish institution to court criticism. ROBERT MUGABE Robert Mugabe was stripped of his honorary degree from the University of Edinburgh earlier last decade. Photo: Jesse Awalt During the early 1980s, Mugabe was awarded an honorary degree for services to African education by the University of Edinburgh, Twenty-three years after it was awarded to the oppressive ruler, Mugabe’s degree was revoked by the same institution off the back of concerns over human rights injustices which he has presided over. The removal of this award made him the first international

personality to be stripped of an honorary degree by a British university. SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH While the nature of Attenborough’s accomplishments is not controversial, the face of countless wildlife documentaries is believed to hold at least 32 honorary doctorates from universities across the UK, making him Britain’s most academically awarded celebrity. Sir David Attenborough has approximately 32 degrees to his name. Image: Sarah Ward When asked by the media as to why he accepts the degrees, the broadcaster and naturalist said: “It’s a compliment from the academic world. It’s a real compliment - it would be churlish not to accept one.” DONALD TRUMP Back in 2010, Trump was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Business Administration at the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, thanks largely to his company’s efforts in building the Trump golf resort in Menie, Aberdeenshire. Now, the US presidential candidate’s qualification has come under fire from more than 17,000 signatories who are demanding that the university strip him of the qualification following his intent to ban Muslims from entering America if elected. Calls against Trump have intensified after a series of “unrepentant, persistent verbal attacks on various groups of people based on nationality, religion, race and physical abilities” have been made during his campaign speeches and he has since had his degree removed. RICHARD DAWKINS The outspoken evolutionary biologist was rewarded with an honorary degree from the University of Aberdeen 150 years after Charles Darwin had published his magnum opus “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection”. While the November 2009 award was widely accepted, some religious and social organisations opposed the Doctor of Science award because of its recognition of Darwinian principles. MOHAMMAD KHATAMI Scotland’s oldest university bestowed upon the ex-Iranian President the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in 2006, amid


Prompt: Autonomous vehicles will be in wide use in as little as three years, slipping into traffic before transportation departments and disrupted industries have a chance to prepare, experts said in Chicago today. "The majority of people I talk to have no idea they're coming so soon," said Lauren Issac, manager of sustainable transportation for the engineering and planning firm Parsons Brinkerhoff. As Isaac discussed autonomous vehicles with other experts at the National Shared Mobility Summit in Chicago, a scenario unfolded of how driverless cars may emerge in the U.S.— with the potential to save up to a trillion dollars and

a gigaton of carbon emissions. 1. Robo-Taxis And Driverless Freight Isaac believes autonomous trucks will appear first on the highways, hauling freight for companies that cannot resist avoiding the cost, inefficiency, maintenance, liability and loss that they incur now because of human drivers. The Rocky Mountain Institute, which has studied autonomous vehicles as a route to reduced carbon emissions, concurs. "Our research indicates that the first thing that's going to roll out, she's probably right, will be level-three freight, some kind of trucks going across our highways," said Jonathan Walker of the Rocky Mountain Institute. "In the cities it's going to be Robo-Taxis, and it's going to be sooner than we think. In three years we're going to see some kind of automated taxi service, probably in the Bay Area, maybe in Austin." If the traditional cab companies don't leap to autonomous cabs, the disrupters will. "Uber is chomping at the bit to bring autonomous vehicles on," Isaac said, "so they don't have to deal with all their employee issues." Will autonomous taxis be affordable? With lower overhead, it's likely. And some rides may be free. "What if the bar or the restaurant or Walmart or Target, they pay for your trip? because they're essentially using these vehicles to bring customers to them," Walker said, "so you might actually see free robo-taxis in three years." 2. Commute Services "Next. I won't break out any names, but you're going to see the tech leaders who specialize in consumer experience very interested in getting high-end people to and from their jobs in luxurious autonomous vehicles," Walker said. Apple? Tesla? "The business models make the most sense if these vehicles are shared, and the tech companies in the Silicon Valley who specialize in consumer adoption are going to figure out a way to


Prompt: Major League Soccer's All-Star Game against Real Madrid is Wednesday, but no Minnesota United players made the trip to Chicago. The Loons were one of nine MLS teams left without an All-Star rep. Coach Adrian Heath said three of his players were on "standby" in consideration for selection: midfielders Ibson and Kevin Molino as well as forward Christian Ramirez. "I'm not sure it's as by as much voting as people think," Heath said of the All-Star roster, which is comprised of fan vote choices and picks from All-Star and Chicago Fire coach Veljko Paunovic and league commissioner Don Garber. "Obviously,

it would have been nice to have had some representative. But as I say, I'm not sure there's been too many better players than Ibson this year. In fact, I guarantee you there hasn't been." At least the Loons won't be missing any key pieces heading into a 7 p.m. Saturday matchup with defending MLS champions the Seattle Sounders FC. (Except Heath wasn't too impressed with his team's intensity level at training Tuesday at the National Sports Center.) Midfielder Rasmus Schuller (thigh), defender Marc Burch (groin), defender Thomas de Villardi (Achilles) and Ramirez (hamstring) all trained separately. Ramirez is "day-to-day," according to Heath. Midfielder Sam Cronin was also absent, away on "league business," but will return Wednesday. Defender Joe Greenspan returned to practice after recovering from a concussion. He had surgery on his broken nose and is wearing a mask, a la Bobby Shuttleworth. The team also had three new college players in training with the squad: Rafael Andrade Santos, a senior midfielder from VCU; Ricky Lopez-Espin, a senior forward from Creighton and also a Shattuck St. Mary's product under United academy director Tim Carter, and Elvir Ibisevic, a sophomore forward from Nebraska-Omaha. Also, Molino made the league's Team of the Week on Monday for his two-assist performance in a 4-0 victory against D.C. United on Saturday. Right-back Jerome Thiesson was an honorable mention on the bench. And as far as a transfer window update, Heath said there has been a lot of phone calls going around the league. "The problem you have at this time is, nearly everybody wants your best players. Like we want somebody else's best player," Heath said. "But sometimes if people are bringing somebody in from outside ... then that sometimes opens up people that you might think normally might not be available." Heath mentioned


Prompt: This article is about the light machine gun. For the semi-automatic hunting rifle, see Browning BAR The Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) is a family of American automatic rifles and machine guns used by the United States and numerous other countries during the 20th century. The primary variant of the BAR series was the M1918, chambered for the .30-06 Springfield rifle cartridge and designed by John Browning in 1917 for the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe as a replacement for the French-made Chauchat and M1909 Benét–Mercié machine guns that US forces had previously been issued. The BAR was designed to be

carried by infantrymen during an assault[1] advance while supported by the sling over the shoulder, or to be fired from the hip. This is a concept called "walking fire" — thought to be necessary for the individual soldier during trench warfare.[2] The BAR never entirely lived up to the original hopes of the war department as either a rifle or a machine gun.[3] The U.S. Army, in practice, used the BAR as a light machine gun, often fired from a bipod (introduced on models after 1938).[4] A variant of the original M1918 BAR, the Colt Monitor Machine Rifle, remains the lightest production automatic firearm chambered for the .30-06 Springfield cartridge, though the limited capacity of its standard 20-round magazine tended to hamper its utility in that role.[4] Although the weapon did see some action in World War I, the BAR did not become standard issue in the US Army until 1938, when it was issued to squads as a portable light machine gun. The BAR saw extensive service in both World War II and the Korean War and saw limited service in the Vietnam War. The US Army began phasing out the BAR in the late 1950s, when it was intended to be replaced by a squad automatic weapon (SAW) variant of the M14, and was without a portable light machine gun until the introduction of the M60 machine gun in 1957. History [ edit ] John M. Browning, the inventor of the rifle, and Frank F. Burton, the Winchester expert on rifles, discussing the finer points of the BAR at the Winchester plant The US entered World War I with an inadequate, small, and obsolete assortment of domestic and foreign machine gun designs, due primarily to bureaucratic indecision and the lack of an established military doctrine for their employment.


Prompt: 8.1K Shares Share Originally published in two parts at Skepchick and Queereka and cross-posted here with permission. Disclaimer: I’ve chosen to focus this article on trans women only for the sake of brevity and clarity. It is not my intent to contribute to the ongoing cultural erasure of trans men, and I believe their voices, experiences and identities deserve to be heard and understood. Cis readers, please note that much of this can be applied to transsexuality in general. Debunking myths is one of those things that us skeptics are supposed to do, right? Okay then… (my triskaidekaphilia isn’t showing,

is it?) Myth 1. Trans women are just really, really, REALLY gay. This one is impressively persistent, and unbelievably common. It was even pulled out recently while Lance Bass, an openly gay man, was guest-hosting Access Hollywood. The truth is fairly simple: gender identity and sexual orientation have nothing whatsoever to do with one another. A fairly common adage used to address this misunderstanding is “sexual orientation is about who you want to go to bed with, gender identity is about who you want to go to bed as.” My own preference in addressing it is to simply point out the existence of trans lesbians (that is, trans women who are attracted to other women). Problem solved. Let’s go have tea and scones. Or so one would hope, anyway. I think a lot of this confusion stems from how strongly we associate behaviour with gender. The cultural assumption of heterosexuality is so intrinsic, we see gay men as being somehow in defiance of what it is to be a man. They become regarded as female-like or transgender simply by engaging in a mode of sexuality that is more common amongst women than men, even though many gay men express themselves in an almost hyper-masculine way. This misconception is amplified by our overemphasis of sex and sexuality when thinking about gender and what gender means, so we can end up regarding any expression of gender as being about sexuality. Such as the widespread assumption by men that women dress nice or stylishly or sexily primarily as a means of attracting men, rather than simply an expression of their own identity and feelings that day. This myth is damaging to both trans women and gay men alike. It also often leads to trans issues being swept aside or subsumed within broader discussions


Prompt: A man accused of murdering his girlfriend in her bedroom is now saying she accidentally choked to death while performing oral sex. He wants a judge’s permission to show the jury his penis to prove it. Richard Henry Patterson, 65, of Margate, admitted from the start that he choked his girlfriend, Francisca Marquinez, 60, on Oct. 28, 2015. But he never said how. And while his request is unusual, Patterson’s attorney Ken Padowitz said it is key to his argument, which he called a variation on the “rough sex” defense that has been used in numerous trials across the country

over the years. The heart of the argument, which is not often successful, is similar in each case: The victim died by accident while engaged in consensual sexual activity. “Dr. [Ronald] Wright, an expert witness and former Broward County medical examiner, will testify that … her death is consistent with being accidentally sexually asphyxiated during oral sex,” Padowitz wrote in the motion. “It is material and relevant. The view by the jury is essential for them to fully understand Dr. Wright’s testimony and the defense in this case.” Wright was Broward’s chief medical examiner from 1980 until 1994. Since then he has testified in hundreds of cases, usually for the defense in criminal cases. He declined to comment Friday. If the disrobing were to take place, Padowitz requested that it happen outside of public view, with only Broward Circuit Judge Michael Ian Rothschild, lawyers, a bailiff, the jury and the defendant present, according to the motion filed May 1. The victim’s son criticized the defense strategy. “It’s a desperate man trying a desperate tactic," said Marquinez’s son, Omar Andrade, 41, who lives in New York. “He’s just trying to get off the hook.” He described his mother as kind, friendly and independent. Andrade said he met Patterson only once or twice, shortly after Marquinez began dating him in the summer of 2015. “I didn’t think anything of him in particular,” he said. His mother’s death and Patterson’s murder charge were a shock, he said. She never gave Andrade any indication that there was something dangerously amiss. Marquinez’s neighbors in Margate’s Royal Palm Garden community, Eddie and Christianne Pathik, said Marquinez was unhappy in her relationship with Patterson. “Two days before she died, they were arguing, shouting at each other,” Eddie Pathik said, translating for his Portuguese-speaking wife. “She was trying


Prompt: 'Naughty' joke gets Santa Claus fired from Macy's SAN FRANCISCO John Toomey has been known as "Santa John" at the Union Square Macy's for more than 20 years -- but no more. John Toomey has been known as "Santa John" at the Union Square Macy's for more than 20 years -- but no more. Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close 'Naughty' joke gets Santa Claus fired from Macy's 1 / 7 Back to Gallery Santa Claus has been canned from Macy's, and he's anything but jolly about

it. His fans aren't happy, either. And there are many. John Toomey, known for 20 years at the Union Square Macy's in San Francisco as "Santa John," was told Saturday he'll have to take his "ho, ho, hos" elsewhere because an adult couple complained about a joke he cracked. The joke has been in his Santa bag for decades. But after thousands of tellings, the 68-year-old retired caretaker for the elderly finally hit the wrong recipients - apparently an older woman and her husband, who considered it inappropriate. Toomey - who stays in Oroville most summers and winters in San Francisco while he does the kiddie-on-the-knee gig - said he'd never had complaints before about the joke, which he saves for the occasional grown-up who visits him. "When I ask the older people who sit on my lap if they've been good and they say, 'Yes,' I say, 'Gee, that's too bad,' " Toomey said Monday. "Then, if they ask why Santa is so jolly, I joke that it's because I know where all the naughty boys and girls live." The kids who sit on his lap, he said, get only his trademark laugh and questions about what toys they want. Macy's spokeswoman Betsy Nelson said the store cannot comment because the matter involves personnel. But several workers used words including "devastated" and "overreaction" to describe their take on Santa John being booted from his throne at Santaland on the seventh floor. They all asked not be named because store policy forbids them from speaking publicly about such matters, but their un-yule-ish gloom was palpable. "People make a pilgrimage to see him every year, some for as long as 15 years," said one worker. "Everyone loves him. Everybody's just heartsick about this." Many customers said that with his gentle manner,


Prompt: Squeeze on consumer spending is the worst in peacetime for a century, new research shows Households are facing the most savage peacetime squeeze on consumer spending in almost 100 years. Figures show that only during the Second World War did spending suffer a deeper fall. Even the Great Depression saw nothing on this scale. Analysis by the independent Centre for Economics and Business Research shows an 8.4 per cent fall in real consumer spending per household between 2007 and the end of this year. The comparable figure for 1939-1945 was 14 per cent. Consumer spending: Only during the Second World

War did it suffer a deeper fall Chief executive Douglas McWilliams said only in the slump of 1919-1920 was there possibly a peacetime drop on today’s scale. The extraordinary figures are published today ahead Tuesday’s expected downgrading of economic growth in the third quarter. The first estimate showed the economy roaring back to health, with growth of one per cent from July to September. But it is now thought that this may have exaggerated the recovery from recession and that the second estimate is likely to see the rate of expansion cut to 0.9 per cent, or lower. The psychological impact could be out of proportion to the size of the reduction, according to Howard Archer of independent consultancy IHS Global Insight. ‘The fact of no longer having a “one” in front of the decimal point and having a nought instead may weigh with some people,’ he said. ‘More worrying is the possibility of a flat or negative number in the fourth quarter. Much will hinge on spending over Christmas.’ He said higher than expected inflation may make people more concerned and this, in turn, could make worries about negative growth in the first quarter of next year into a self-fulfilling prophecy. A recession is defined as two successive quarters of negative growth, so shrinkage in this quarter and the next would plunge Britain into a slump for the third time in less than five years. Trevor Williams, chief economist at Lloyds Bank wholesale markets, said: ‘The second estimate could be lower, perhaps 0.9 per cent instead of one per cent. ‘As for the fourth quarter, I would expect that to be flat, or even slightly negative. But the prospects of a triple-dip recession are more remote. There is no obvious reason why we would get a negative reading in


Prompt: Museum hopping is a favourite Vancouver past time during the rainy winter months … but it isn’t necessarily cheap. Full-price admission to the city’s top museums and galleries can run from $15 to $25 and up. Except, that is, for one magical day of the year when you can visit five of the city’s cultural attractions for $5. Winter Wander returns this Jan. 23, transforming waterfront Vanier Park, home to a bumper crop of museums, into a moving cultural feast. Located in Kitsilano, at the edge of English Bay, Vanier Park is a favourite with sun worshippers, dog walkers and

kite flyers in the summer months. But tucked away in this idyllic setting are some of the city’s largest museums and cultural attractions. In the space of a short walk, you can: learn about downtown’s neon era at the Museum of Vancouver; explore the first ship to circumnavigate North America at the Vancouver Maritime Museum; stare deep into the night sky at the planetarium inside the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre; and browse through endless stockpiles of old photos at the City of Vancouver Archives. This year’s Winter Wander takes place from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 23. Apart from the bargain museum access, there will be live entertainment, plus plenty of street eat options from the city’s top local food trucks. The $5 admission price gets you access to all five cultural attractions, and kids 5 and under are free. Tickets are available at any of the participating venues. Here are some more detail on each of the five offerings: Museum of Vancouver: Vancouver-focused exhibits show what the city was, is, and can be. Permanent exhibitions tell the city’s stories from the early 1900s to the late 1970s and are complemented by contemporary, groundbreaking feature exhibits. H.R. MacMillan Space Centre: This non-profit community resource brings the wonders of space to Earth. See real rocket engines and space suits or sit back and zip off to outer space inside the Planetarium Star Theatre. Vancouver Maritime Museum: Explore exhibits on pirates, shipwrecks, lighthouses and more in this seafaring museum. The highlight is the restored RCMP Arctic schooner St. Roch, which in 1944 made a voyage through the treacherous Northwest Passage. City of Vancouver Archives: Step into the city’s official archives, where records documenting the Vancouver’s public and private history are preserved. Browse through more than 1 million old photographs or pore


Prompt: Where Two Big Thirsts Collide: The Nexus of Energy and Water By Terrence Henry Email Tweet Photo by Terrence Henry/StateImpact Texas A Conversation with Michael Webber We’ve arrived in the dog days of summer in Texas, when air conditioners across the state stretch our power supplies thin. It’s also dry: the state is in a third year of drought, with reservoir levels at 63 percent full overall, down significantly from a year ago. In short, Texas needs more water and more power, and the two are highly dependent on each other. Where those thirsts for more power and water collide

is referred to as the ‘Energy-Water Nexus,’ and it’s a subject University of Texas at Austin professor and Deputy Director of the UT Energy Institute Michael Webber has spent a lot of time on. “Energy uses a lot of water, and water uses a lot of energy, and this fact is surprising for a lot of people, just how much they use of both,” Webber says. For instance, energy needs water to grow biofuels, drill and produce oil and gas, cool power plants and power hydroelectic dams, Webber says. And water needs energy to be heated, treated, cleaned and moved. Getting water cleaned up and into our homes makes up over 12 percent of our nation’s energy use, Webber says. We sat down with Webber to talk about these issues in advance of a lecture in Austin Tuesday, August 6 about “The Global Nexus of Energy and Water.” The talk is free and open to the public, at 5:45 pm at the AT&T Conference Center. (More details here.) Q: So energy needs water, and water needs energy, and I would imagine that this nexus is even more pronounced here in Texas. A: These days in Texas, it seems like we’re worried about the grid being on edge. We’re worried about drought, and these things sort of play into each other’s hands in a bad way. As we have more drought, we have less water available for our dams to make electricity, we also have less water available for cooling our power plants. And as that water gets hot from heat waves, water is less effective as a coolant, and so the power plants perform with lower efficiency. So a water strain or water constraint becomes an energy constraint, so it’s true also that if you have an energy constraint –


Prompt: [Editor's Note- 27th Sept. is Bhagat Singh's birthday. We all will see a barrage of facebook shares and pictures that thursday and some of us might also go ahead and click on share. But do we really understand what did Bhagat stand for? This year, we wanted to do something different. We wanted to learn and spread the thought process which changed the course of our freedom fight. In this series, author tries to put forward those thoughts and tries to explain, in a minimalist fashion, what they mean. Please feel free to draw your own inferences and share with

us.] Some people leave their footsteps so prominent that one cannot overlook them; Shahid Bhagat Singh was one of them. This legendary martyr was one of those sons of our motherland who didn’t let her down. One of the few crazy ones for whom notion of getting educated and finally getting settled like society wanted him to was not worth the try. You may have 250 plus followers on twitter who follow every single word you say, but do you really do something that significant which make people listen to you, make them follow you in REAL WORLD? We are part of that generation where majority of the youth consider bollywood & hollywood heroes as real heroes. In this part of the series, we are presenting Bhagat ji’s thoughts which inspired the youth at that time; but every word stands true for today as well. Even at the age of 18, Bhagat was a greater visionary than most of the leaders of that we have today. He truly understood the power of youth and knew how important it was to unite youth for the cause of Independence. Following excerpts are from the manifesto of Naujawan Bharat Sabha founded by him in the year 1926: “Those who want to be free must themselves strike the blow. Young men, awake, arise; we have slept too long! We have appealed to the young only. Because the young bear the most inhuman tortures smilingly and face the death without hesitation. Because the whole history of human progress is written with the blood of young men and young women. And because reforms are ever made by the vigour, courage, self sacrifice and emotional conviction of the young men who do not know enough to be afraid and who feel much more than they think” Name


Prompt: Master Francke, “Saint Thomas of Canterbury” (c. 1424) Put Off Your Old Self and Be a Man — Pure and Simple If you think God is calling you to fatherhood, then have courage and start choosing virtue, especially when it's difficult. “Most dads accept that part of the job is a willingness to be the unfashionable one.” — William McGurn Young man, I’m not your dad. Still, what I’m about to relate is what I tell my own sons, and it’s probably what your own dad told you in one form or another. Think of this as a reminder of

his sage advice – or, if he hasn’t gotten to it yet, a stopgap until he does. It’s Father’s Day weekend, which is a good time to consider your own potential for fatherhood, physiologically and otherwise. The physiological part you know very well – how could you not? Your sexual appetite started surfacing years ago, and now it’s in full voracious swing. And you’re well aware of what that sexual appetite is oriented to: babies! Hopefully, dad was in on your making the connection between sex and babies. Hopefully he also helped you see that the baby part of sex is one of the most important reasons sex is meant for marriage. Maybe the most important reason (CCC 2366). OK, let’s assume you got all that at some point. Since then, you’ve gotten plenty other messages (from friends, public health officials, the internet) that point in another direction. Those messages tell you, among other things, that (1) sex needn’t be reserved to marriage, (2) you can’t be expected to control your sexual urges, and, consequently, (3) indulging your premarital sexual appetite requires some kind of “protection” – protection from communicable diseases, yes, but most especially protection from…fatherhood. They call it birth control, but it’s really kid avoidance and, for guys, a gutless dad dodge – and that’s only when it works the way it’s supposed to (which it doesn’t always). I’m guessing the rationale you heard for the dad dodge went along these lines: you’re young; you have your whole life ahead of you; you can’t be burdened with the responsibilities of caring for a child. The funny thing, though, is that those arguments against youthful fatherhood really strengthen the case for it: It’s good to become a father when you’re young – when your brain is still pliable enough


Prompt: In light of Triple Eight’s proposed appeal arising from last Sunday’s Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, CAMS has today released a short Q&A paper regarding the process for such an appeal. Triple Eight has lodged a “Notice of Intention to Appeal” the 15 second penalty levied against Car 88 in the closing stages of Sunday’s race. A “Notice of Appeal” must subsequently be lodged in order to progress the appeal and a date for hearing the appeal will then be set. Supercars Chief Executive James Warburton said: "While the race has been run and won, the appeal process against decisions of

the stewards is open to any team at any Supercars race. “It is important to note that Supercars operates in compliance with the highest global standards and that the same appeal process applies to other motor sport categories such as Formula One. “The process and any appeal hearing takes place completely independently of Supercars and the CAMS stewards." Q: How is an appeal lodged? A: The appellant must lodge a Notice of Intention to Appeal and an appeal fee of $10,000 (plus GST) with the Stewards within one (1) hour of being advised of the Steward’s decision. If the Appeal or elements of the Appeal are successful, the Court has a discretion to refund part or all of the fee. On what grounds can a decision be appealed? The appeal can be against the severity of the penalty, an error in the application of the rules, and/or an allegation that natural justice has been denied by the Stewards. Does that mean the Appellant has to put their whole case forward in one hour? No, only the Notice of Intention to Appeal must be lodged in that time frame. The Appellant has 92 hours from when they were advised of the Steward’s decision to lodge the Notice of Appeal. The Notice of Appeal must contain all relevant matters the Appellant wishes to have addressed by the Court. Who will hear the Appeal? The Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) appoints a Supercars National Court of Appeal. The Court is made up of three individuals with the requisite legal and motor sport knowledge to decide the Appeal. In respect of each appeal, as soon as the relevant persons have confirmed their appointment, CAMS will make an announcement. Where and when will the appeal be heard? Under the Rules, any Appeal will be


Prompt: The College Football Playoff committee released its first rankings to great fanfare. The list is sensible, with proper credit given to teams with good wins and/or acceptable losses, and there is a pretty obvious explanation for why and where these rankings differ from, say, the AP Poll or F/+ rankings. Ole Miss ranks three spots higher via the committee, thanks both to the win over Alabama and, in theory, a lower level of recency bias (the Rebels lost just last week) in the committee room. TCU ranks three spots higher than in the AP poll, potentially because it wasn't dragged

down by preseason rankings. Notre Dame, lacking any sort of marquee win, ranks four spots lower than in the AP poll. We'll see how things like recency and conference leads factor moving forward. I still feel it's misguided for the committee to put out weekly updates. It serves no purpose but to open up opportunities for unexplained movement and criticism. Still, this was a pretty good start. Now let's figure out what to expect moving forward. *** Each Wednesday, I've been using the F/+ rankings and the win probabilities derived from them to peer into the future a bit. (For example, here's last week's ACC piece.) Odds change as more evidence becomes available and the rankings themselves shift, but it's a good way to look at odds, expectations and potential pratfalls. With all of the power conferences now getting updated each Wednesday at Football Study Hall, let's turn our gaze here to the national title race. We'll start with the most obvious question. Of the teams ranked in the committee's current top 25, which ones are the most likely to finish with the best records? Below are two tables, one showing you both the differences between the Playoff rankings and F/+ rankings and teams' current projected win totals, and one showing you each team's odds of finishing with a given regular-season record. Rankings and win projections Team Record CFP rank AP rank F/+ rank Projected wins Mississippi State 7-0 1 1 4 10.53 Florida State 7-0 2 2 11 10.51 Auburn 6-1 3 4 2 9.41 Ole Miss 7-1 4 7 1 10.21 Oregon 7-1 5 5 5 10.57 Alabama 7-1 6 3 3 9.92 TCU 6-1 7 10 7 10.37 Michigan State 7-1 8 8 10 10.26 Kansas State 6-1 9 11 17 8.96 Notre Dame 6-1 10 6


Prompt: Supporters of convicted journalist Barrett Brown may sue the FBI for demanding the identities of individuals who donated to his legal defense fund, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. U.S. Magistrate Judge Maria-Elena James wrote in a 26-page order published Tuesday that individuals tied to the “Free Barrett Brown” defense fund may pursue claims against the government in connection with its use of a subpoena targeting the journalist’s supporters. Mr. Brown, 36, was arrested in 2012 and charged in relation to a data breach involving Strategic Forecasting, or “Stratfor,” a Texas-based private intelligence company. The U.S. attorney’s office in Dallas said

he conspired with the computer hacker who breached Stratfor in 2011 and then threatened an FBI agent investigating the matter. He ultimately entered a plea deal and was released from prison last November after spending more than four years behind bars. Kevin Gallagher, the creator of “Free Barrett Brown,” sued the government in San Francisco federal court this past February after learning that the Dallas prosecutor’s office used a subpoena to quietly obtain the names and other personal information of individuals who made seemingly anonymous donations to the writer’s defense fund. Prosecutors investigating the criminal case against Mr. Brown said the subpoena was necessary to determine if the accused could afford to hire an attorney, but lawyers representing Mr. Gallagher and an anonymous donor argued that the government sought “completely irrelevant” information that was meant to intimidate and silence the journalist’s supporters. Judge James ruled Tuesday that attorneys for Mr. Gallagher and the anonymous donor may sue the government for allegedly violating the Stored Communications Act, a federal statute that requires investigators to obtain a search warrant before seizing electronic messages. “Defendants’ proffered purpose for serving the subpoena— that they needed to determine whether Mr. Brown could afford his own attorney— was pretextual,” the judge wrote Tuesday, adding that WePay, the website that processed the donations, made the total amount of contributions to the fund publicly available. “Defendants have failed to articulate any facially reasonable explanation for requesting donors’ identities,” she added “This defeats Defendants’ arguments that the [plaintiff’s complaint] did not plausibly allege a retaliatory motive and that the Government’s legitimate purpose in issuing the subpoena outweighs potential First Amendment concerns.” The judge said plaintiffs can sue the government for allegedly violating the federal communications statue but dismissed a claim brought under the California Constitutional Right to Privacy Act.


Prompt: If there’s one consolation that summer’s almost over, it’s that the best books of the year are on their way. Take a look at this year’s dazzlingly rich fall novels, stuffed with works from Elena Ferrante, Jonathan Franzen, Margaret Atwood, and John Irving, to name just a few. The Story of the Lost Child, Elena Ferrante Ferrante’s final Neapolitan novel follows Lila and Elena as they wrestle with their fraught, decades-long friendship. (Sept. 1) Purity, Jonathan Franzen In Franzen’s long-awaited doorstop of a novel, a girl named Purity embarks on a journey through South America to find herself. (Sept. 1)

Did You Ever Have a Family, Bill Clegg He may be better known as a literary agent and memoirist, but Clegg’s debut novel—about a woman named June who loses her entire family in one fell swoop—has been long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. (Sept. 8) Fates and Furies, Lauren Groff In Groff’s stunning novel, one seemingly perfect marriage (and its secrets) is shown from both sides over 24 years. (Sept. 15) The Heart Goes Last, Margaret Atwood Atwood trains her oft-twisted eye on a down-on-their-luck married couple who stumble upon a town where residents can be comfortably unemployed…but there’s a catch. (Sept. 29) Gold Fame Citrus, Claire Vaye Watkins As a drought cripples Southern California, some people are sent to internment camps while others scavenge to survive. (Sept. 29) City on Fire, Garth Risk Hallberg It’s hard to believe this layered, 944-page 1970s New York epic is a debut: The glitter and grime of the city’s punk heyday are captured in gorgeous detail as multiple stories converge. (Oct. 13) Welcome to Night Vale, Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor From the creators of the podcast comes this novel about a Southwestern town full of ghosts, aliens, and shape-shifters. (Oct. 20) The Mark and the Void, Paul Murray The financial crisis is drenched in humor in this tale about a banker whose life becomes more interesting when a downtrodden author starts fictionalizing it. (Oct. 20) The Japanese Lover, Isabel Allende The global best-seller’s latest saga traces the love story between a Japanese gardener and a Polish refugee in World War II-era San Francisco. (Nov. 3) The Mare, Mary Gaitskill When a young girl from Brooklyn stays with a wealthy upstate New York couple through the Fresh Air Fund, she learns to ride horses, and a new world unfolds. (Nov. 3) Twain &


Prompt: The Kremlin critic was leaving to get a train to the provincial city of Nizhny Novgorod to hold a rally when he was arrested (AFP Photo/Evgeny FELDMAN) Moscow (AFP) - Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who aims to unseat Vladimir Putin in presidential elections next year, was detained by police ahead of a rally on Friday and could face up to a month in jail. In the latest attempt to thwart the Kremlin critic's campaign, police held Navalny after he left his apartment with the aim of attending a meeting in the provincial city of Nizhny Novgorod. Moscow police said

Navalny was detained "over multiple calls to participate in an unauthorised public event." Navalny was released in the evening, telling journalists waiting for him outside the police station, "I feel fine." "We are not going to stop what we do, whatever the obstacles," he said, adding that he would to fly to Orenburg in southwestern Siberia on Saturday and to the northern city of Archangel on Sunday. The 41-year-old stands accused of repeatedly violating a law on organising public meetings -- punishable by up to 30 days in jail. His spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, said he had been instructed to appear before a judge at 1200 GMT on Monday. Navalny was detained prior to arriving at his last two rallies in Moscow on March 26 and June 12, serving sentences of 15 days and 25 days for organising unauthorised protests. Navalny said earlier he did not receive any official explanation for being held. "I am sitting in a reception room and looking at a portrait of Putin," he said on Twitter. The anti-corruption crusader linked his detention with another -- bigger -- rally scheduled in Saint Petersburg, Russia's second city and Putin's hometown, on October 7, the president's birthday. Navalny's campaign chief, Leonid Volkov, was detained in Nizhny Novgorod ahead of the rally, saying on Twitter he would be held overnight before a court hearing Saturday. The city authorities said they had refused Navalny permission to hold the event. Some 200 to 300 people turned up, an AFP photographer at the scene saw. - Underdog - Navalny has said he wants to stand for president next March, but the authorities have said he is ineligible because he is serving a suspended sentence for fraud. Putin, who has led Russia since 1999, is widely expected to seek and win another six-year Kremlin


Prompt: For much of the Western world, physical pain ends with a simple pill. Yet more than half the world's countries have little to no access to morphine, the gold standard for treating medical pain.Freedom from Pain shines a light on this under-reported story. "For a victim of police torture, they will usually sign a confession and the torture stops," says Diederik Lohman of Human Rights Watch in the film. "For someone who has cancer pain, that torturous experience continues for weeks, and sometimes months on end."Unlike so many global health problems, pain treatment is not about money or a lack

of drugs, since morphine costs pennies per dose and is easily made. The treatment of pain is complicated by many factors, including drug laws, bureaucratic rigidity and commercial disincentives.In India, the first stop in the film and the world's largest grower of medicinal poppy for developed countries, there are severe restrictions to the use of morphine domestically. In 27 out of 28 states in India, narcotics laws are so strict that doctors fear prescribing it, and patients literally scream for relief. Drug companies have little incentive to manufacture morphine for the domestic market because of reporting requirements and small profit margins.In the Ukraine, the film reveals that access to pain medication is halted by outdated, Soviet-style bureaucracy, arbitrary limits on doses, and a lack of oral morphine. As a result, many patients experience prolonged bouts of untreated pain, particularly in rural areas. In the Ukraine, we learn that Artur, a former decorated KGB colonel suffering from prostate cancer, sleeps with a gun under his pillow - his only way out, should he decide his pain is too great.Nadia, a single mother living in Kiev, tells of the anguish of living with a son in constant pain. Vlad, her son, was diagnosed with terminal cancer and sent home from the hospital with nothing but the meagre government dose of pain killers. Nadia recounts how his agony grew to the point where he once attempted suicide, nearly throwing himself from a fourth story window. It would be another three long years of mother and son battling with severe pain until Vlad died.Until the Ukrainian leadership acts to remove the barriers to palliative care, it falls to defiant individuals like Sergey Psiurnyk, a modern-day Robin Hood, to ensure that suffering people get the morphine they need. Riding with Psiurnyk as he makes his


Prompt: / Credit: Dreamstime The more power a business leader thinks they have, the worse they get at calling the shots, new research shows. A study by University of Southern California professor Nathanael Fast has determined that in the business world, unconstrained power can hinder decision-making. "The overall sense of control that comes with power tends to make people feel overconfident in their ability to make good decisions," Fast said, noting the research aimed to make leaders more conscious of the pitfalls that they can fall prey to. The research points to British Petroleum executives who downplayed potential risks associated with

their oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, claiming it was virtually impossible that a major accident would ever occur. The oil well exploded in 2009, killing 11 workers and costing an estimated $100 billion in cleanup costs. "What we found across the studies is that power leads to overprecision, which is the tendency to overestimate the accuracy of personal knowledge," Fast said. [3 Steps to Becoming a Better Leader] To explore this tendency, researchers conducted multiple experiments that manipulated power by randomly assigning participants to high-power or low-power roles. They were then asked to bet money on their ability to answer six trivia questions. In the study, those who were made to feel powerful actually lost money betting on their knowledge, and those who didn't feel powerful took fewer betting risks and didn't lose their cash. Top decision-makers find ways to avoid this problem, Fast said. "The most effective leaders bring people around them who critique them," Fast said. "As a power holder, the smartest thing you might ever do is bring people together who will inspect your thinking and who aren't afraid to challenge your ideas." The irony: The more powerful leaders become, the less help they think they need, according to the research. "Power is an elixir, a self-esteem-enhancing drug that surges through the brain telling you how great your ideas are," said Adam Galinsky of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and one of the study's co-authors. "This leaves the powerful vulnerable to making overconfident decisions that lead them to dead-end alleys." The research, "Power and Overconfident Decision-Making," was also co-authored by Niro Sivanathan of the London Business School and Nicole Mayer of the University of Illinois, Chicago. The study appears in the current issue of the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.


Prompt: In the last week or two I have seen many references in the media, which show a dramatic shift in positive trends regarding Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO). Today I saw that Hellman's Mayonnaise is the latest brand going non-GMO, and that Chipotle is the first national food chain that is going non-GMO. One of the largest baby formula makers, Similac, recently said that they would start offering a non-gmo version of their formula. Pizza Hut and Taco Bell are removing all artificial ingredients from their products, with the CEO of Pizza Hut saying that he is making the changes in

response to customer demands. Big business invests a great deal in making their desires known to our government. In order to create change we as citizens must use whatever means available to inform our representatives in government of our own desires for health and wellness. Governments Are Starting to Get on Board Vermont is the first state to require the labeling of genetically-modified food. Even though the majority of Vermonters want the labeling, big business is now taking the issue to court. If Vermont wins the case then many states will follow suit. Maine and Connecticut also have the same law, but will only implement them if Vermont wins the case. Ben and Jerry's have also gone non-GMO and the founders of the company are campaigning in Washington, D.C. to encourage our government to support the cause of labeling GMO foods. Neil Young just wrote a song called "Rock Starbucks." A line on the song is "Yeah, I want a cup of coffee, but I don't want a GMO." He is on a campaign to boycott Starbucks until they cut their ties with Monsanto and to go GMO-free. Many Countries and Regions Ban GMOs and Glyphosate More and more countries are going either GMO free or glyphosate (a herbicide that has been recently reported to have cancer causing toxins) free. Shri Lanka and the Netherlands are the latest two countries to ban glyphosate along with Mexico, Russia, South Africa, France, Chile, and Brazil. There is a growing list of countries that are banning the sale of GMOs altogether. Almost every day I get a new Facebook post stating that another region in some country around the world is banning GMOs, which shows public outcry is growing against GMO crops. As I am writing this article I just saw two posts


Prompt: ST. LOUIS — Peter Chiarelli knew this was going to happen. The Team North America co-general manager said as much back in February. “It’s a cross between pro scouting and amateur scouting,” he said of trying to pick the Under-24 team for this fall’s World Cup of Hockey. “These players change way more than 25- or 26-year-olds. An older player can have a lull in his game, but you know what you’re going to get. These guys, their swings are huge.” Case in point: Chiarelli politely dismissed Auston Matthews’ chances of making this team back in March. “He’s got an

uphill road,” he said then. Now, how can they not include Matthews, who looked very much at home playing for Team USA at the world championships? Meanwhile, Jonathan Drouin was on his self-imposed holdout from the Tampa Bay Lightning back when they named the first 16 players for Team North America. Today he has 12 playoff points, the second-most of any player eligible for the U-24 team. The U-24 player who has the most points? Robby Fabbri, another player who was barely on Chiarelli and Bowman’s radar three months ago. General managers will flesh out their World Cup rosters on Friday, May 27 adding seven players apiece. Watch it live on Sportsnet at 6 p.m. ET and world-wide at sportsnet.ca here. Here’s our projected Team North America roster, by position: GOAL Already named: Matt Murray (PIT), Connor Hellebuyck (WPG), John Gibson (ANA). The three goalies were all named in March, but Murray’s playoff performance has changed everything. Remember, when the format was first devised, Chiarelli and Bowman petitioned organizers for some relief in goal, because they were afraid they wouldn’t have a U-24 goalie that could allow their team to compete. Now? They’ve got to be feeling mighty good about Murray, who was barely up from the AHL when he was named to the squad in March. DEFENCE Already named: Morgan Rielly (TOR), Aaron Ekblad (FLA), Ryan Murray (CBJ), Seth Jones (CBJ). Rielly and Murray are lefties, while Ekblad and Jones are right-handed shots. Lefty Shayne Gostisbehere became a force for Philadelphia this season, while righty Colton Parayko (St. Louis) will make a perfect partner for him, with his ability to stay at home and defend, as well as unleash a cannon of a one-timer when asked to. They’ll both be added this week. “At the beginning of the season


Prompt: The world’s first monkeys with genes modified through a DNA engineering method known as Crispr/Cas9 were born in a lab. The scientific breakthrough by Chinese researchers could become a cornerstone for research and prevention of human genetic disorders. Researchers at Nanjing Medical University and Yunnan Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedical Research in Kunming in China have created two genetically modified macaques with targeted mutations using the CRISPR/Cas9 system. “Our study shows that the CRISPR/Cas9 system enables simultaneous disruption of two target genes in one step without producing off-target mutations,” study author Jiahao Sha told the Science Daily. “Considering that many

human diseases are caused by genetic abnormalities, targeted genetic modification in monkeys is invaluable for the generation of human disease models.” The researchers introduced single-cell macaque embryos with modified Ribonucleic acids (RNAs) to generate the genome-editing process. RNA is a ubiquitous family of large biological molecules that perform multiple vital roles in the coding, decoding, regulation, and expression of genes. Using the Crispr method, Chinese scientists were targeting three genes in the experiment – one that regulates metabolism, another that regulates immune cell development and a third that regulates stem cells and sex determination. The birth of the genetically modified monkeys was not an easy process. Scientists had to target the genes in 180 single-cell monkey embryos. Eighty three of those 180 embryos were injected into female macaques, yielded only 10 pregnancies. Only one pregnancy so far led to the birth of a pair with simultaneous mutations in two genes. According to coauthor of the study Wezhi Ji, researchers discovered multiple changes in their target genes at different stages of embryonic development. But the newborn macaques are still too young for researchers to determine if their experiment had an effect on physiology or behavior, though “data from this species should be very useful for curing human disease and improving human health,” says Ji. Monkeys are a natural choice to study human disorders because of their close similarities to Homo Sapiens, although past scientific endeavors of precision gene modification in primates have failed. Inserting, deleting, and modifying DNA in human cells and other animal cells has been performed in labs within the confines of petri dishes. The method of gene modifications was also applied to various rodents and zebrafish, however with the birth of two monkeys the study published in Cell magazine, shows that Crispr can produce practical primates with genomes


Prompt: My Favorite Films by Hideo Kojima My Favorite Films by Hideo Kojima Translated by Marc Laidlaw This will be the final article in my column about films that have influenced Metal Gear Solid (MGS). In the previous seven articles, I've introduced to you ones that played a part in shaping the series. Here's a recap of them. The Great Escape, Dir. John Sturges - US (1963) The Guns of Navarone, Dir. J. Lee Thompson - UK/US (1961) Escape from New York, Dir. John Carpenter - US (1981) North by Northwest, Dir. Alfred Hitchcock - US (1959) Planet of the Apes,

Dir. Franklin J. Schaffner - US (1968) Dawn of the Dead, Dir. George A. Romero - US (1978) The James Bond Series - various I've said over the years in interviews throughout the world, "Just like the human body is 70% water, I'm 70% film". While this is a figure of speech, there is some truth to it. I learned, or rather was taught, much from film, including things I didn't learn in school or from my parents. Through film, I've met different races and cultures, seen the world through the eyes of other generations, and adopted ideologies. I've been to new countries and exotic lands, and gone to outer space as well. I've traveled to the distant past and far into the future. I've fought in ancient conflicts and fictional wars. I've even experienced what it's like to be something other than human. Part of my sustenance growing up was the virtual experiences I had through this medium. There's nothing unique about this. I'm sure everyone in my generation is the same, for films are no longer mere diversions. All of the films I've seen, regardless of their content, are part of my virtual life. I've been shaped by my actual experiences, but also by my virtual experiences through film. However, the seven listed above are by no means the only ones that had a hand in MGS. And many others influenced me as a person, with my current self a result of the battle they fought with my actual experiences. Even if they didn't directly contribute to MGS, they are without a doubt part of my chromosomes, DNA and memes. That's how I'd define my "favorite films". So for this final article, I'd like to try to list my all-time top thirty (excluding the previous seven). There are


Prompt: 37k SHARES SHARE THIS STORY President Donald Trump’s war with the intelligence community is about to go nuclear, says former NSA analyst and national security expert John Schindler. The intelligence community’s efforts to do their jobs and expose the connections between the Trump camp and the Russian government have been met with insults and attacks from our hypersensitive President as he attempts to paint them as the enemy and sides with the Russians against the men and women who work tirelessly to keep our nation safe from foreign threats. Just this morning, Trump decided to smear last night’s bombshell report

on the Trump camp’s continued contacts with Russian officials during the election as “illegal:” The real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by "intelligence" like candy. Very un-American! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 15, 2017 This is only the latest in a long string of attacks – like that time Trump compared the intelligence community to “Nazis” – that Schindler says is aggravating the intelligence community – with potentially devastating consequences: US intelligence is not the problem here. The President's collusion with Russian intelligence is. Many details, but the essence is simple. — John Schindler (@20committee) February 15, 2017 Progress? The President was calling US "intelligence" Nazis only a few weeks ago — now they're merely un-American.https://t.co/5y1T8EHCJy — John Schindler (@20committee) February 15, 2017 Now we go nuclear. IC war going to new levels. Just got an EM fm senior IC friend, it began: "He will die in jail."https://t.co/e6FxCclVqT — John Schindler (@20committee) February 15, 2017 Putin never viewed Trump as anything more than a useful lunatic. Moscow wants political chaos in America — and oh boy are they getting it. — John Schindler (@20committee) February 15, 2017 In this tweet, IC is shorthand for “intelligence community” and EM for “email.” If we take these tweets at face value, Trump’s continued insistence on berating the intelligence community for their work and siding with the Russians over our own national security apparatus is going to come back to haunt him. The only thing “illegal” about this entire scandal are the secret communications that the Trump campaign was conducting with agents of the Russian Federation during and after the election – and every move the Trump administration makes only deepens the suspicion that the Russian government is blackmailing our so-called President – and that is an unacceptable


Prompt: Heya and welcome to yet another PARPG news update! This is a just a mini update to yesterday’s release announcement. My permanent departure I’m sorry to say so but it turned out that I won’t have more free time on my hands in April. There have been changes in real life and I simply don’t have the time and the energy to continue my job in project management. That’s why I’ve decided to ship this first techdemo release of PARPG and retire after that. The reason why I’m announcing my departure now, is that the increased public interest due the

recent release hopefully helps to find a new maintainer for the project. I do still strongly believe in the concept of an old school isometric 2d RPG but unfortunately time for me has run out. Unfortunately not many of the formerly involved devs are still active at this point. But I’m sure that a new project manager can find a new interested developers for such a project. Lessons learned articles In case I got some free time on my hands in the next weeks, I’ll start to post a couple of personal lessons learned articles at a new blog. The articles will cover my experiences working on PARPG: what turned out to be working well, what didn’t work out at all, what could have been done better or tackled from a different angle. Hopefully these articles are useful for everyone who works in a similar field in a software project. They hopefully turn out to be even more useful for everyone who considers to pick up and revive this project. PARPG infrastructure To increase the chances that somebody actually picks up the project, I’ll leave the entire infrastructure (blog, forums, wiki, trac, svn, etc.) in place for at least another full year. I’ll pay for the hosting and will be around and do my best to support anyone willing to take over. Maintainer / project manager tasks In case you wondered what kind of tasks a maintainer / project manager would have to take care of, take a look at this list at the wiki. Ways to contact me In case you want to discuss becoming the new maintainer of the project, feel free to contact me via IRC or email. That’s all concerning PARPG for today. Not sure who will post the next update at this blog. In case


Prompt: B. Sherwood Lollar et al. A scientist takes a sample of water from a mine deep underground in Ontario, Canada. The water turned out to be 2.6 billion years old, the oldest known water on Earth. By Charles Q. Choi LiveScience A pocket of water some 2.6 billion years old — the most ancient pocket of water known by far, older even than the dawn of multicellular life — has now been discovered in a mine 2 miles below the Earth's surface. The finding, announced in the May 16 issue of the journal Nature, raises the tantalizing possibility that ancient

life might be found deep underground not only within Earth, but in similar oases that may exist on Mars, the scientists who studied the water said. Geoscientist Barbara Sherwood Lollar at the University of Toronto and her colleagues have investigated deep mines across the world since the 1980s. Water can flow into fractures in rocks and become isolated deep in the crust for many years, serving as a time capsule of what their environments were like at the time they were sealed off. In gold mines in South Africa 1.7 miles (2.8 kilometers) deep, the scientists previously discovered microbes could survive in pockets of waterisolated for tens of millions of years. These reservoirs were many times saltier than seawater, "and had chemistry in many ways similar to hydrothermal vents on the bottom of the ocean, full of dissolved hydrogen and other chemicals capable of supporting life," Sherwood Lollar said. [Strangest Places Where Life Is Found on Earth] To see what other ancient pockets of water might exist, Sherwood Lollar and her colleagues investigated copper and zinc mines near the city of Timmins in Ontario, Canada. "As the prices of copper, zinc and gold have gone up, mines now go deeper, which has helped our search for long-isolated reservoirs of water hidden underground," Sherwood Lollar said. 'Mind-blowing' find "Sometimes we went down in cages — they're not called elevators underground — that dropped us to the levels we wanted to go," Sherwood Lollar told OurAmazingPlanet. "Other times, we went down ramp mines, which have curling spiral roadways, so we could actually drive all the way down." The scientists analyzed water they found 2 miles (2.4 km) deep. They focused on noble gases such as helium, neon, argon and xenon. Past studies analyzing bubbles of air trapped within ancient rocks found that


Prompt: PLAYA VISTA, Calif. -- Kevin Garnett has officially signed on as a consultant this week with the LA Clippers. Garnett will occasionally help out at practices but will not be on the bench at games or travel with the Clippers, a team representative said. Garnett was with the team in Irvine during training camp, working out with the Clippers' big men before the season. "He's stayed in touch," Clippers assistant coach Mike Woodson said. "He's had some communication, I'm sure, with some of the players throughout the course of the season since camp. "He's hired in here as a consultant.

So I'm sure he'll be in and out when it presents itself for him to work with our guys. And I think when he's here, it's important for our bigs to take advantage of him being out here on the floor. Because he brings so much to the table, has so much to offer for the game of basketball, it's not even funny." Garnett reconnected with then-Boston teammates Paul Pierce and Brandon Bass before working with DeAndre Jordan prior to Clippers practice Tuesday. "Amazing. Amazing. Amazing," Jordan said about Garnett's new role with the Clippers. "Besides him cussing me out, we played against each other. He's a great spirit and a great basketball mind, a Hall of Fame guy. Someone I looked up to coming up and even playing against. So any pointers he can give me, or tips, it's great. I just want to be a student when he's here. "He's one of the main reasons why I talk so much, talk so loud when I'm out there. Because when I'm watching film of him or playing against him, the presence that he has -- on both ends of the floor -- is something that's contagious. And you want take things from that from people like that, especially if that's already in their personality." Garnett was a 15-time All-Star and league MVP in 2004 before retiring this past offseason. He won the 2007-08 championship with the Celtics along with Pierce under current Clippers coach Doc Rivers. "I mean, you gotta take experience in terms of what KG's done," Woodson said. "I'm happy he's a part of our family now. He's always been a part of Doc's family. And I just think as we move forward, he's going to help DJ a lot. I mean, all of our players. I


Prompt: This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form. AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We turn now to North Dakota, where on Thursday hundreds of police with military equipment raided a resistance camp established by Native American water protectors in the path of the proposed $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline, which has faced months of resistance from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and members of hundreds of other tribes from across the Americas. On Thursday afternoon, over a hundred officers in

riot gear with automatic rifles lined up across North Dakota’s Highway 1806, flanked by multiple MRAPs—that’s mine-resistant ambush protected military vehicles—sound cannon, Humvees driven by National Guardsmen, an armored police truck and a bulldozer. Water protectors say that police deployed tear gas, mace, pepper spray and flash-bang grenades and bean bag rounds against the Native Americans and shot rubber bullets at their horses. This is a video shot by Unicorn Riot, followed by a Facebook Live video from Sacheen Seitcham of the West Coast Women Warriors Media Cooperative. SACHEEN SEITCHAM: They’ve been pepper-spraying. They’ve maced. They’ve tasered. They’ve thrown percussion bombs and smoke grenades at us. All for water. Over 300 pigs. We are protecting the water. They’re protecting oil. That’s what’s happening. AMY GOODMAN: Water protectors set up a blockade of the highway using cars, tires, fire in order to try to protect their camp, parts of which were demolished by police. Four people locked themselves to a truck parked in the middle of the highway in order to stop the police advance. Elders also led prayer ceremonies in front of the police line. Some were arrested in the middle of prayer. In total, more than 100 people were arrested. Ahead of the police raid, the Federal Aviation Administration also issued a temporary no-fly zone for the airspace above the resistance camps for all aircraft except for those used by law enforcement. Police appeared to be evicting the frontline camp in order to clear the way for the Dakota Access pipeline company to continue construction. Company cranes and bulldozers were active Thursday just behind the police line on the site of the sacred burial ground where Dakota Access security guards unleashed dogs on Native Americans on September 3rd. We’re going to turn to Dallas Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental


Prompt: This article is about the John Carpenter film. For other uses, see In the Mouth of Madness (disambiguation) "Sutter Cane" redirects here. For the rapper, see Sutter Kain In the Mouth of Madness is a 1994 American horror film directed and scored by John Carpenter written by Michael De Luca. It stars Sam Neill, Julie Carmen, Jürgen Prochnow, David Warner and Charlton Heston. Informally, the film is the third installment in Carpenter's Apocalypse Trilogy, preceded by The Thing and Prince of Darkness.[2] Plot [ edit ] In the midst of an unspecified disaster, Dr. Wrenn (David Warner) visits John Trent

(Sam Neill), a patient in a psychiatric hospital, and Trent recounts his story: Trent, a freelance insurance investigator, has lunch with a colleague, an owner of an insurance company, who asks Trent to work on his largest insured: investigating a claim by New York-based Arcane Publishing. During their conversation, Trent is attacked by a man wielding an axe who, after asking him if he reads Sutter Cane, is shot dead by a police officer before he can harm Trent. The man was Cane's agent, who went insane and killed his family after reading one of Cane's books. Trent meets with Arcane Publishing director Jackson Harglow (Charlton Heston), who tasks him with investigating the disappearance of popular horror novelist Sutter Cane (Jürgen Prochnow), and recovering the manuscript for Cane's final novel. He assigns Cane's editor, Linda Styles (Julie Carmen), to accompany him. Linda explains that Cane's stories have been known to cause disorientation, memory loss and paranoia in "less stable readers". Trent is skeptical, convinced that the disappearance is a publicity stunt. Trent notices red lines on Cane's book's covers which, when aligned properly, form the outline of New Hampshire and mark a location alluded to be Hobb's End, the fictional setting for many of Cane's works. They set out to find the town. Linda experiences bizarre phenomena during the late-night drive, and they inexplicably arrive at Hobb's End in daylight. Trent and Linda search the small town, encountering people and landmarks described as fictional in Cane's novels. Trent believes it all to be staged, but Linda disagrees. She admits to Trent that Arcane Publishing's claim was a stunt to promote Cane's book, but the time distortion and exact replica of Hobb's End were not part of the plan. Linda enters a church to confront Cane, who exposes her to his


Prompt: UPDATE: Large geomagnetic storm brewing means Northern Lights tonight The National Weather Service said the aurora should be visible tonight as far south as Missouri, where clear skies allow. A strong magnetic storm is expected to hit Earth over the next two days. The strength of the magnetic storm means northern lights could be visible as far south as the Detroit and Chicago areas. A large sunspot erupted September 4, 2017, throwing a coronal mass ejection (CME) toward the earth. A coronal mass ejection is a huge explosion of magnetic field and plasma from the Sun's corona. When CMEs impact

the Earth's magnetosphere, they are responsible for geomagnetic storms and enhanced auroras, according to NOAA. NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center has issued a Strong Magnetic Storm Watch for the nights of Sept. 6 and Sept. 7. This means northern lights will possibly be visible farther south than during a typical northern lights event. Northern lights forecasts use a rating system called the kP index to gauge how likely northern lights will be visible at a certain latitude. Northern lights are typically visible as far south as a kP value of 7. On the map above, I drew the expected location of the kP=7. So northern lights may be visible as far south as the Detroit area, Chicago, Cleveland, Des Moines and Syracuse, NY. But you won't be able to see the northern lights in the big cities. You will have to get out into the countryside where it's completely dark. To get updated info on the northern lights, go here. There is a good factor pointing toward seeing the northern lights in the next two nights. Skies at night should generally be more clear than cloudy in the Great Lakes region. We will have afternoon showers pop up both today and Thursday. At night those showers should diminish. While the skies may not clear entirely in all locations, the spotty showers will just leave isolated clouds in most areas. The negative to watching northern lights tonight and Thursday is a nearly full moon. The bright full moon we have been enjoying the past two nights will throw light up into the sky. The extra moonlight won't totally block out northern lights hopes, but could make them harder to see in marginal northern lights areas. Get a nap in this evening, and head to a dark location toward midnight. Any questions


Prompt: One of King of the Cage's champions is currently in a dispute with the promotion, with Lowen Tynanes saying he is currently stuck in a 3-year deal contract he did not sign. Although not specifically named by the talented prospect, KOTC representative Bobby Burguland did state Tynanes' former coach, Kai Kamaka, as the person who signed the deal for him. Shortly after the report ran on this site, Kamaka has decided to release an official statement. He maintains that while he did sign the dotted line, it was done with Tynanes' consent. "I asked if he was able was able

to email back the contract to KOTC and he replied "No, because I don’t have a scanner". I asked him if he wanted me to sign for him and email it back for him and he replied, "If can coach", meaning yes," Kamaka tells Bloody Elbow as part of his statement, "I told Lowen that I would do it since I had a scanner." Kamaka also disputes that this was all done without his fighter's knowledge, alleging that Tynanes' contract with KOTC was discussed with him on numerous occasions. As for motivation for bringing up this forgery issue, Kamaka speculates that Tynanes may simply be looking to "capitalize on the moment" after breaking out as an MMA star. "I would like to see Lowen in the cage as well. I believe he has the potential to be the next BJ Penn for Hawaii and I have said this time and time again. I honestly believe things just moved a lot faster then he expected and now that it has, he is trying to capitalize on the moment." "If it were not for KOTC opening up opportunities for Lowen, he would still be fighting in small amateur shows. KOTC kick started his career by giving him the URCC fight and the ONEFC contract to represent KOTC. With that being said, I wish Lowen all the best for his future." More details from Kamaka are available on full statement below where he airs his side of things: There is a lot of missing pieces to this story. The only part being exposed is that Mr. Lowen Tynanes is the victim and had no knowledge of the contract and so forth. I want to clarify that Terry Tribelcock and I are very close and our relationship is not only based on fights, though


Prompt: President Barack Obama bases his surrender to Iran’s nuclear ambitions on the notion that his olive branch is reversible. In effect, he believes, it can’t hurt to talk. That’s a notion inculcated into diplomatic culture, and put forward by at various times by accomplished diplomats like Nicholas Burns and Ryan Crocker. It’s also a notion which is demonstrably wrong. A nuclear deal isn’t like mail ordering a child’s toy with 100-percent guarantee on returns. Once Obama went down the path toward even a framework agreement—never mind that the framework seems increasingly illusionary by the day—he effectively ceded any and all

momentum to the Iranians. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif once studied in the States. He speaks English. But spending time in America and speaking English does not make a foreign ideologue sympathetic to America; rather, it simply enables that ideologue to be able to communicate more easily with Americans. Just as after a visit to Damascus as senator, John Kerry became convinced of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s reformist nature, now as secretary of state, Kerry has allowed Zarif to substitute charm for sincerity. Hence, Zarif’s triumphalist gloating upon his return to Tehran: Bahman Kalbasi, a correspondent for BBC TV Persian Service, tweeted, “State TV host: ‘But the US says the architecture of sanctions stays?’ Zarif laughs: It has already collapsed.” Rouhani, likewise, has been triumphalist as he once again lives up to his reputation as the regime’s “Mr. Fix-It,” getting the financial relief the Iranian leadership so craved at little or no cost to the Islamic Republic itself. The sanctions, Obama promised, would “snap back into place” if Iran didn’t meet its obligations. But since the death fatwa against author Salman Rushdie, through the early days of Critical Dialogue (when, against Europe’s outstretched hand, Iranian hitmen assassinated dissidents in downtown Berlin), and after the 1994 bombing of the Jewish community center, the Iranian government understands that the European Union cares more about mercantile issues than human rights or international security. Nor does Russian President Vladimir Putin even bother about the pretense of caring about human rights. Zarif is right; international sanctions crafted and carefully pushed through the Security Council by men like John Bolton (something Obama and partisans forget) have effectively been squandered upon the altar of Obama’s ego and Kerry’s ambition. There is no going back. Deal or no deal on June 30, Iran’s goal in negotiations has


Prompt: Salim Abu al-Qi’an’s family live in Israel’s Negev desert in the “unrecognized” Bedouin village of Umm al-Hieran, 9km from the nearest source of clean water. “There is no water in the village. We truck it in. It costs about 50 shekels [US$13.4] per cubic metre of water,” explained the 53-year-old village leader. “There is a pipe that’s about 8km long, but it’s too old, and the planning authorities don’t allow us to put a new one under the ground. We are asking for better access to water, a new pipe that should be close to the village.” The Israeli authorities

forced Umm al-Hieran residents to move to the area where the village now sits in 1956, shortly after the military had evicted them from their original homes in the Wadi Zuballa area of the Negev desert. In 2004, the villagers faced a new threat of expulsion, as the Southern District Planning Committee unveiled a master plan which involves once again displacing Umm al-Hieran, and building the Jewish community of Hiran in its place. According to the Israeli government, the 500 residents of Umm al-Hieran are trespassers who are illegally squatting on state land. Some 80-90,000 Bedouin citizens of Israel live in unrecognized villages in the southern Negev, according to a report by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. As a result of their unrecognized status, nearly every structure in these communities can be demolished at any time, and residents do not receive basic services from the state, including electricity, paved roads, healthcare facilities, schools, and water. Constitutional right In June 2011, however, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the right to water was a constitutional right, and that the state must guarantee a “minimum access to water” for the residents of the unrecognized villages. Still, the court did not specify what constituted a fair minimum. Shortly thereafter, a Haifa court, acting as a water tribunal, rejected Umm al-Hieran’s application to be connected to the local water network. The court argued that the villagers had minimum access to water, and suggested they buy water from private citizens in towns connected to the water network, or move into nearby government-planned Bedouin townships. According to Sawsan Zaher, an attorney at Adalah, the Legal Center from Arab Minority Rights in Israel, which has represented al-Qi’an’s family and the residents of Umm al-Hieran in their legal struggle, the water tribunal’s decision means that “a


Prompt: The Intel Core i7-7700K benchmarks have leaked out, showcasing the performance of the company’s fastest 7th generation Kaby Lake processor. The flagship Core i7-7700K CPU is based on the latest 14nm Plus FinFET process which delivers better clock gains and power efficiency over existing Skylake chips. The quad-core, multi-threaded chip features clock speeds of 4.2GHz base and 4.5GHz boost. It packs 8 MB of L3 cache and is rated at 91W TDP. Intel Core i7-7700K Benchmarks With Stock and OC Speeds The Intel The Core i7-7700K performance testing was performed on a MSI Z170A Gaming Pro board. The chip scored

17,049 kilo nodes per second in Fritz Chess benchmark, while Cinebench R15 CPU performance is rated at 913 points. In 3DMark 11, the chip hit 8467 points on the extreme preset using the GTX 1070 card. The Core i7-7700K benchmarks reported scores of 30188 MB/s Reads, 31137 MB/s Writes and 27000 MB/s Copy speeds, with the native memory speed of 2133 MHz. During all tests, CPU temps varied around the 60C mark at the reference clock speeds. Let’s move to the Core i7-7700K benchmarks with 5.0GHz OC. The memory speeds were pushed to 4133 MHz, bringing in some impressive memory intensive gains. In Cinebench R15, the chip managed to hit 1089 points while Fritz Chess score comes out to be 19891 Kilo Nodes per second. Both tests were performed with the native memory clocks; however the memory speed did bump to to 3100 MHz in 3DMark 11 with the chip scoring 8664 points on the extreme preset. Core i7-7700K Overclocked to 4.9GHz at 1.29V Apart from benchmarks, a Facebook user Luning Duan has posted screenshots of the Core i7-7700K processor overclocked to 4.9GHz easily at just 1.26V. He shared CPU-Z and AIDA64 screen captures showing the chip’s overclocked settings as well as Prime95 CPU stress test. The first attempt results in the Core i7-7700K hitting 4797.65MHz using a x48 multiplier and 1.296V. This however results in one of the cores flirting with a 100C temperature. In his second attempt, Duan manages to overclock the chip to 4,901.18MHz with a x49 multiplier and 1.264V. This time, one of the cores hovered around the 90C mark, while other three mostly stayed in the low to mid 70C range. We suspect this to be on air cooling, though Duan doesn’t say. Either way, there should be some headroom for overclockers to play with.


Prompt: Turkish Cymbal Making 23.2.2017 by Engin Altunlu As the resident “Turk” of the Bbop team, I thought that it could only be relevant for me to talk about the history of the renowned Turkish cymbals. Throughout the world of music and the many musical styles which exist today, Turkish cymbals remain highly respected for their unique and diverse sound. The production in many companies is still carried out in the traditional way. The History: Cymbal production began in Turkey in the 1200s. The cymbals created at the time were created for just one purpose: the marching band of the Ottoman

Army. These cymbals were crafted by Armenian master artisans. The secret to their production has remained just that, a secret, ever since. The man behind the formula for the perfect cymbal was Avedis Zilciyan (Zildjian): “Zilci”, means “Master creator of cymbals” in Turkish and “Yan” means “the son of” in Armenian. Thus, “the son of the cymbal master”. In 1623, with the permission of Sultan Murat IV, the now world-renowned company Zildjian was founded. Towards the end of the 7th century, Westerners had discovered the existence of these cymbals and began to incorporate them into their orchestras. During the 1780s, the cymbals began to be used in Military bands as well as Haydn’s and Mozart’s Orchestras. In 1851, Avedis Zildjian’s son, Kerope Zildjian (whose name is found in the K-series) began to show cymbals in expositions, helping the company's transition into the European market. In 1909, with the aid of the Ottoman Empire, the company was able to build a second factory elsewhere. The cymbals produced bore the description “Made in Turkey, Istanbul” and later in modern times, were used by some of the world’s most famous musicians such as The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Cream, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Guns N’ Roses and many more. This craft passed through the generations until when, after the death of the final grandson Mikal Zildjian, the world awaited the end of the legend and its secret cymbal formula. It was however, the 9 year old apprentices of the final artisan who saved the legacy. They knew everything! Their names were Mehmet Tamdeger and Agop Tomurcuk, and the company was to be called Istanbul. Thanks to them alone, the legend could continue to live until today in Istanbul. In 1981, the company started to reproduce the traditional cymbals in an Istanbul studio.