Prompt: A searcher walks through the debris of a deadly mudslide in Oso, Wash. At least 18 people have been confirmed dead. Up to 30 more are probably entombed in a thick gray muck, swallowed by the land, perhaps never to be seen again. March 29, 2014 A searcher walks through the debris of a deadly mudslide in Oso, Wash. At least 18 people have been confirmed dead. Up to 30 more are probably entombed in a thick gray muck, swallowed by the land, perhaps never to be seen again. Elaine Thompson/AP People are still unaccounted for after a March 22

massive landslide in rural northwest Washington state killed at least 18 people, authorities said. People are still unaccounted for after a massive landslide in rural northwest Washington state killed at least 16 people and forced evacuations of the area because of fears of flooding, authorities said. People are still unaccounted for after a massive landslide in rural northwest Washington state killed at least 16 people and forced evacuations of the area because of fears of flooding, authorities said. LoAnna Langton saw the mountain move. It roared. It shook. It tossed aside trees — 100 at a time, she said — as it tumbled in an avalanche of mud and rock toward her back door. It moved so fast she immediately gave up any hope of surviving. Langton gathered the children and hugged them close, so they would be buried in the same spot. “I just knew,” she said, “we were going to die.” But Washington state’s deadliest natural disaster since the 1980 Mount St. Helens volcanic eruption — and one of the worst in a century — came to a miraculous stop in Langton’s back yard. Elsewhere in her small rural town of Darrington, residents were killed in a variety of ways: Some were swept off a highway in their cars, others were crushed by huge mud balls that demolished everything in their path, and many simply disappeared. At least 18 people have been confirmed dead, and up to 30 more are likely entombed in a thick gray muck, swallowed by the land, perhaps never to be seen again. For two tiny logging towns — Darrington’s population is 1,400 and Oso’s is 180 — the death on such a wide scale is unimaginable. Bogged down by relentless rain that continued Saturday, workers have failed to unearth many bodies, all but


Prompt: A procedural mistake made during the latest OUSA Executive meeting (Monday 8 May) has provided Critic with an unintended and exclusive insight into Otago University’s controversial plans to drastically increase the amount of closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV), the large majority of which will be located outside of the University’s campus. These plans involve implementing 60 extra CCTV cameras through four phases at a total cost of over $1.2 million, a figure that does not include ongoing maintenance. The first of the of four phases to be implemented (see map) will see 17 cameras being installed in the ‘north zone’, with

five on Castle Street and seven on Leith Street North among others; the second, ‘south zone’, will total 10, spreading along Albany Street, Hyde Street and Frederick Street; the eastern zone, with 14 in total, include four cameras as far east as Harbour Terrace; the fourth, most numerous, and the last phase to be implemented, will involve 18 cameras, which will be spread from the top of Albany Street to the corner of Warrender Street and George Street. Although the university has been working on this plan since at least 2015, Otago University have stated they “are still waiting to hear back from OUSA, what form they wish this to take. However, we are also looking at other ways to communicate with a potentially wider body of students who may not be represented by OUSA...Discussing this plan with Critic is one step in this process.” Despite several meetings with Proctor Dave Scott, Vice Chancellor Harlene Hayne, and weekly communication with the Otago University Communications Office, Critic has not been approached nor spoken to in relation to this plan at any stage this year or last year. The only information we have received is that which we requested last week. Apart from President Baird, OUSA Executive members had not heard of these plans until the meeting on Monday 8 May, with complaints being levelled at Baird for not having informed them of what Deputy Proctor Andrew Ferguson would be speaking about in the meeting. Additionally, when asked to outline “specifically what form(s) of student consultation will be undertaken?” the university’s response was: “So far, the consultation discussions we have had have been with yourself, Joe [Higham], and also with Hugh and the student reps on council [of which the OUSA President is the only one]. We are currently trying to work


Prompt: Everybody knows mock drafts aren’t real. They are fun, but they are “mocks” meant as, hopefully, educated guesses. What, though, if they were real? A number of team sites around SB Nation are looking at what would have happened since 2010 if teams just went by the final mock drafts of ESPN analysts Mel Kiper Jr. and Todd McShay. So, let’s join the party. Which players would the Giants have selected since 2010 had they just followed the advice of Kiper and McShay in Round 1? Would they have done better? Worse? What impact might those choices have had. Let’s

go year-by-year. 2010 Giants (15th overall): DE Jason Pierre-Paul Kiper: OLB Sean Weatherspoon McShay: MLB Rolando McClain I think it’s pretty clear that the Giants ended up with the best player. Weatherspoon was a talented player who went 19th overall to the Atlanta Falcons, four picks after the Giants took Pierre-Paul. He has been an injury-prone disappointment, though, playing in only 65 of 96 potential regular-season games (44 starts). He has missed more than half the season twice due to injuries. McClain? Please. A 2013 “retirement.” Two drug suspensions in the past two seasons. He may never play again. 2011 Giants (19th overall): CB Prince Amukamara Kiper: OT Anthony Castonzo McShay: RB Mark Ingram This one is really interesting. Amukamara was a good but not great player for the Giants, but played in only 55 of 80 games. Castonzo has been a six-year starter at left tackle for the Indianapolis Colts. Ingram has averaged 4.4 yards rushing throughout his career and is coming off a career-best season in which he gained 1,043 yards for the New Orleans Saints and averaged 5.1 yards per carry. It’s pretty easy to argue that both Castonzo and Ingram have had better careers than Amukamara, and are currently more important players. 2012 Giants (32nd overall): RB David Wilson Kiper: TE Coby Fleener McShay: OT Jonathan Martin Sadly, injury wrecked Wilson’s career after just 21 games. Could, Fleener, who has 233 career receptions and four straight seasons of at least 50 catches, have been the tight end the Giants have been searching for all these years? What happened to Jonathan Martin in Miami was unfortunate, but he only played three seasons in the league. In the end, seems pretty clear Kiper had the best idea here. Both Fleener and Martin were available when the Giants picked


Prompt: The High Cost of Treating Gun Violence Victims Hits Southerners Especially Hard A new Stanford study tapped a massive database to show how shootings strain hospitals and taxpayers. The cost of treating gunshot survivors is greatest in states with the highest rates of firearm ownership and the most permissive gun laws, new research shows. More than 4 in 10 shooting victims admitted to hospitals between 2006 and 2014 were concentrated in 16 Southern states and the District of Columbia, according to a study published this week by two researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine. Of initial hospital admissions for

firearms injuries, 43 percent were in the South. The West and Midwest each had 20 percent of hospitalizations, while the Northeast claimed 16 percent. More than a third of patients treated in the South were uninsured. Dr. Thomas Weiser, an associate professor of surgery, and Sarabeth Spitzer, a medical student, analyzed inpatient hospital records to conclude that the initial hospitalization of patients wounded by guns over the eight-year period cost Americans more than $6.6 billion. The researchers used a sample of more than 250,000 patients admitted to American hospitals with gunshot injuries. The average cost per hospitalization was $24,746. Patients with government-funded Medicaid or Medicare were responsible for roughly 40 percent of costs in the survey period. Uninsured patients were accountable for about a quarter of the costs. The costs attributed to the South alone were $2.7 billion. Stay Informed Subscribe to receive The Trace’s newsletters on important gun news and analysis. Email address The Canon Sent every Saturday. Our guide to the week's most revealing, must-read reporting on gun issues. The Daily Bulletin Sent weekday mornings. Get up to speed with The Trace’s latest articles and other important news of the day. Leave this field empty if you're human: The medical community is in near unanimous agreement that owning a gun increases the risk of being shot, whether intentionally or in an accident. As Americans continue to purchase firearms at breakneck pace, this reality has public safety implications: Every year, roughly 110,000 people are shot in the United States. This epidemic also has financial ramifications for the institutions that must treat victims: Most of the roughly 80,000 people who are wounded by a bullet annually enter the healthcare system, incurring massive costs. “For every one person who dies from a gunshot, there are three or four people who survive,”


Prompt: Only five beers into our 2014 journey and we’ve already had two beers with gingerbread men on the label. (Albeit this time, one of them dismembered.) And three beers that seem to feature ginger even when they don’t (like the 2014 Anchor Christmas Ale). And I have insider knowledge that at least one more beer in the series is ginger heavy. Friends, this may be a movement. If you like ginger, no problem. Otherwise, well. This entry is from the Boston Beer Company, otherwise known as Samuel Adams. It wouldn’t be that much of a stretch to fill an entire

12-pack with different Samuel Adams beers that could be loosely considered holiday beers or winter warmers. We might get around to them all eventually—Old Fezziwig, White Christmas, Chocolate Bock, Holiday Porter, Cold Snap…. As I noted back in 2012 when enjoying the Samuel Adams Winter Lager, one could drink a different beer each week from the Samuel Adams roster and still be going after an entire year. This particular brew is one of 16 beers in the brewery’s Small Batch Series, all high ABV beers in 22-ounce bottles that might best be shared, which is exactly what happened tonight. We put the Merry Maker to the eponymous test, we being the Shakespeare group that gets together every month or so to read through the Bard’s works. This has been going on for quite awhile—coming up on twenty years—and we’ve been through every play at least twice, most three times, some four times. We also snack, drink, gossip about town politics, solve worldly problems. In short, we have enough fun that we just keep going, reading on even through the deaths of several members, absorbing Shakespeare into our beings to whatever degree we do. We swap parts, don’t get overly histrionic, don’t delve into knotted analysis. Mostly we just read and let the words wash over us. And that’s plenty. We rarely make it through an entire play in one evening. So it was finishing up the “The Tempest” tonight, a play with its fair share of enchantment and merriment. But it also has that compelling valedictory feeling that suggests Shakespeare knew he was winding up his career, and I had the pleasure of reading Prospero tonight when he makes that marvelous speech: Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted


Prompt: Express is the most popular Node.js web framework and the fourth most depended-upon package on the NPM registry. As a result of its popularity, there are an abundance of tutorials and examples for getting started with new Express apps - we too have created a "getting started" MEAN stack tutorial for the Heroku DevCenter. However, "getting started" apps generally don't show you how to handle the more serious parts of real-world systems. In this post we are going to demonstrate how a production Node.js application might connect to multiple MongoDB databases. Our example will demonstrate how to create a single

connection pool to a MongoDB deployment and how to structure an Express app to reuse that pool across multiple modules. You can find the code for this example here: https://github.com/mlab/express-mongodb-setup Update 2018-03-07: This tutorial has been updated for version 3.0.4 of the mongodb driver. You can see a previous version of the code for this example on GitHub. What is a connection pool and why is it important? A connection pool is a cache of authenticated database connections maintained by your driver, from which your application can borrow connections when it needs to run database operations. After each operation is complete, the connection is kept alive and returned to the pool. When properly used, connection pools allow you to minimize the frequency of new connections and the number of open connections to your database. It's important to minimize the frequency and number of new connections to the database because creating and authenticating connections to the database is expensive - these processes require both CPU time and memory. When we reuse connections by using a connection pool we avoid this resource cost to the server, and also benefit from lower latency since the app doesn't need to wait for an authentication to finish before a query can be sent. The default pool size in the Node driver is 5. If your app typically needs more than 5 concurrent connections to the database, you can increase the value of the poolSize setting. Common mistake in connection management for Express apps A common mistake developers make when connecting to the database is to call MongoClient.connect() in every route handler to get a database connection. For example, code like this: app.route('/foo', (req, res) => { MongoClient.connect('url', (err, client) => { ... }) }) app.route('/bar', (req, res) => { MongoClient.connect('url', (err, client) => { ...


Prompt: People wait in line to vote in the Arizona Presidential Primary Election at Mountain View Lutheran Church in Phoenix, Ariz., Tuesday, March 22, 2016. (David Kadlubowski/The Arizona Republic via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT The Associated Press By BOB CHRISTIE, Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — Bruce Weiss stewed after waiting 2½ hours in line outside a downtown Phoenix polling place, where juice drinks, snacks and circus animal cookies were handed out by citizens hoping to pacify thousands who turned out to cast ballots in Arizona's presidential primary. The scene was repeated Tuesday as thousands stood in lines that wrapped around sidewalks at

churches, community centers and government buildings after the number of places to vote were cut back as a cost-savings measure. Some voters took shelter from the sun under umbrellas. Others brought lawn chairs. Still others gave up and went home. The last voters entered polling spots after midnight. "It's like a complete, total failure of government," Weiss said. Waits dragged on as long as five hours in Maricopa County — home to metro Phoenix and 1.2 million voters eligible to cast ballots — but where only 60 polling places were open. By Wednesday, the mayor of Phoenix said the cutbacks were about more than saving money. Mayor Greg Stanton, a Democrat, called for a federal investigation into whether election officials illegally put fewer polling locations in poor or minority-heavy areas. Stanton in a letter to the Justice Department also cited examples of other policies adopted by elections officials and the state Legislature that have created "a culture of voter disenfranchisement." Arizona's Republican governor called the primary day foul-ups "unacceptable," and others demanded the resignation of the county's top elections official, Recorder Helen Purcell. Purcell initially put the blame on voters, stirring a clamor on the Internet. Her name was a trending topic on Twitter. But Wednesday she backtracked, saying she failed to anticipate the effect of intense voter interest on primary turnout. "I made bad decisions based on the information I had, obviously, or we wouldn't have had long lines," Purcell told The Associated Press. In the 2012 presidential primary, there were 200 places for voters to cast ballots in the county, which is heavily Republican. By comparison, Pima County — home to more liberal Tucson, Arizona, and a quarter of Maricopa County's population — had 124 voting locations Tuesday. Ramped-up interest in the presidential primary was also seen Tuesday


Prompt: In the last few years, water ice and salts capable of melting this ice and producing liquid saline water (brine) have been detected on Mars. Moreover, indirect evidence for brine has been found in multiple areas of the planet. Here, we simulate full diurnal cycles of temperature and atmospheric water vapor content at the Phoenix landing site for the first time and show experimentally that, in spite of the low Mars-like chamber temperature, brine forms minutes after the ground temperature exceeds the eutectic temperature of salts in contact with water ice. Moreover, we show that the brine stays liquid for

most of the diurnal cycle when enough water ice is available to compensate for evaporation. This is predicted to occur seasonally in areas of the polar region where the temperature exceeds the eutectic value and frost or snow is deposited on saline soils, or where water ice and salts coexist in the shallow subsurface. This is important because the existence of liquid water is a key requirement for habitability. Key Words: Mars—Ice—Perchlorates—Brine—Water—Raman spectroscopy. Astrobiology 16, 937–948. 1. Introduction The discovery of water ice and perchlorates at the surface and in the shallow subsurface of Mars is interesting because they could produce liquid saline water (brine) under Mars' present-day environmental conditions. Water ice was discovered in the shallow subsurface of polar and midlatitude regions (Boynton et al., 2002; Feldman et al., 2002; Mitrofanov et al., 2002; Byrne et al., 2009; Smith et al., 2009). Salts capable of melting this ice at Mars' present-day environmental conditions and producing brine were discovered in the polar and equatorial regions (Hecht et al., 2009; Glavin et al., 2013; Ming et al., 2014), suggesting that they are distributed globally. Evidence for salt hydrates and brine has been found in regions ranging from polar to equatorial latitudes (Rennó et al., 2009; Cull et al., 2010a; McEwen et al., 2011; Martín-Torres et al., 2015; Ojha et al., 2015), in spite of the martian air (Lewis et al., 1999) and top regolith (Meslin et al., 2013) being extremely dry and bulk deliquescence (brine formation by absorption of water vapor only) at Mars' low temperatures being too slow to explain the observed phenomena (Fischer et al., 2014). We studied experimentally the formation and the persistence of brine throughout the diurnal cycle at the Phoenix landing site using Raman scattering spectroscopy and imaging. A previous study suggests that brine formation from


Prompt: As previously reported in by the Columbus Free Press, the Romney family, namely Mitt, Ann, G Scott and Tagg Romney, along with Mitt’s “6th son” and campaign finance chair have a secretive private equity firm called Solamere Capital Partners. This firms ties to Romney’s campaign and bundlers is already well documented, along with its connection to the manufacture and distribution of voting machines. What is not as well documented is a subsidiary of that private equity firm hiring employees of a failed firm tied to a Ponzi scheme that has a long history of money laundering for Latin American drug

cartels and to the Iran-Contra scandal. As reported by ThinkProgress, Solamere Capital Partner’s subsidiary Solamere Advisors is a investment advisory group, providing advice to Solamere clients and boosting sales. Would-be corporate pugilist Tagg Romney is a director. According to the New York Times, all but one of its 11 employees came from the Charlotte office of the Stanford Financial Group, the US investment arm of convicted felon R. Allen Stanford’s offshore banking and fraud network that comprised a host of companies including the Stanford International Bank, Stanford Capital Management, The Bank of Antigua, Stanford Trust and Stanford Gold and Bullion. Three of these employees, Tim Bambauer, Deems May, and Brandon Phillips, received incentive compensation related to their direct sales of securities linked to a fraud that brought down this banking network. Tim Bambauer has left his position as managing partner at Solamere Advisors. May and Phillips remain employed as partner and chief compliance officer respectively. Allen Stanford is currently serving a 110-year prison sentence for convictions on 13 counts of fraud. His companies were placed in receivership. $8 billion of Stanford’s stolen money has yet to be recovered and the victims are in court to recover those funds and incentive pay bonuses to Stanford employees (including Bambauer, May and Phillips) for fraudulently getting people to invest in an operation that later bilked many of them out of their life’s savings. Stanford’s shady history and criminality did not begin with the fraudulent investments that lead to his downfall, nor was it unknown at the highest level of United State’s Government. In a 2006 diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks, the US Ambassador to Antigua advised “Embassy officers do not reach out to Stanford because of the allegations of bribery and money laundering. The Ambassador managed to stay out of any one-on-one photos


Prompt: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders attacked Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton over her record on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, during Thursday’s debate. Sanders attacked Clinton’s previous promotion of natural gas saying, “[w]hen you were Secretary of State, you also worked hard to expand fracking to countries all over the world.” Clinton admitted Sanders was correct, but stated during the CNN debate, “I don’t think I’ve changed my view.” Clinton specifically claimed that “for both economic and environmental and strategic reasons, it was American policy to try to help countries get out from under the constant use of coal, building coal plants all

the time, also to get out from under, especially if they were in Europe, the pressure from Russia, which has been incredibly intense. So we did say natural gas is a bridge.” Clinton promoted fracking for natural gas in other countries during her tenure as secretary of state, saying in 2010, “[t]he United States will promote the use of shale gas.” The Department of State helped advise African and other world leaders on the benefits of fracking during her tenure, connecting them with American energy experts and organized visits to drilling sites in America. The State Department hosted several conferences on fracking in other countries while Clinton was secretary of state and sent U.S. experts to help foreign officials develop fracking programs. State’s fracking program continued under Secretary of State John Kerry, known as the Unconventional Gas Technical Engagement Program. Much of the fracking proposed by the Department of State would have been done on public lands in other countries, but Clinton now supports phasing out fracking on public lands in America. Clinton claimed in the debate that by the time the Enviromental Protection Agency finishes regulating fracking, there will be much less of it in America. The Hillary Clinton campaign immediately hung up when contacted in December by The Daily Caller News Foundation about the presidential candidate’s record on fracking. Environmentalists have accused Clinton of “soft climate denial” for her fracking history and her criticism of Sanders’ environmental record. Friends of the Earth Action, which has endorsed Sanders, claimed Clinton lied about the Vermont senator’s environmental record during an interview earlier this month. Friends of the Earth claims to have “over 2 million members and supporters around the world,” but is poorly funded compared to more established environmental groups. Larger environmental groups, such as the League of Conservation Voters,


Prompt: A unique synthesis of the latest findings in the quantum physics and chemistry of water that tells you why water is the “means, medium, and message of life” - more Glyphosate/Roundup, falsely claimed by Monsanto to be safe and harmless, has become the world’s most widely and pervasively used herbicide; it has brought rising tides of birth defects, cancers, fatal kidney disease, sterility, and dozens of other illnesses - more GM Microbes Invade North America While the attention of the world is focused on genetically modified (GM) crops, GM microbes have been released for at least six years with little

or no public awareness or debate. Prof. Joe Cummins reports. A number of GM microbes are being widely deployed since their first release six years ago. Sinorhizobium meliloti is a bacterium added to soil or inoculated into seeds to enhance nodule formation and nitrogen fixation in the roots of legumes. It was released for commercial production in 1997. The other commercial GM microbes are designated as bio-pesticides. These include GM Agrobacterium radiobacter k1026, used to prevent crown gall disease in fruit and vegetable plants, and Pseudomonas fluorescens modified with a number of different Cry delta-endotoxin genes from different subspecies of Bacillus thruingiensis (Bt). The modified P. fluorescens cultures are killed by heat pasteurization and provides a persistent biopesticide preparation that degrades much slower in sunlight than Bt. Neither the people selling nor those using the preparations are necessarily aware that the microbes are genetically modified, however. Even organic farmers may be using them inadvertently. The legume symbiont, Sinorhizobium meliloti, is tremendously important for fixing nitrogen from the air into plant roots and the soil. Legumes signal to the bacterium by exuding flavonoids from their roots, activating the expression of nodulation genes in the bacterium, resulting in the production of Nod factors that regulate the formation of nitrogen fixing root nodules [1]. The S. meliloti genome has been fully sequenced. It is unusual in containing three chromosomes (or a chromosome and two very large plasmids), all of them contributing to the symbiosis with the plant roots [2]. The genetically modified commercial strain (RMBPC-2) has genes added that regulate nitrogenase enzyme (for nitrogen fixation) along with genes that increase the organic acid delivered from the plant to the nodule bacterium. It also has the antibiotic resistance marker genes for streptomycin and spectinomycin [3]. The commercial release was permitted in spite of concerns


Prompt: It was the last week of June back in 2014, and the Astros had just finished up a six-game road trip in which they went 1-5, standard fare for a team that was just less than a year removed from a 2013 season in which they had to pick their teeth up off the floor 111 times, a 51-111 debacle that had many baseball insiders talking about the Astros’ “bottoming-out” rebuilding method as an affront to the game. Attendance and TV ratings, both microscopic at the time, indicated that the last thing on anybody’s mind in Houston outside the walls

of Minute Maid Park was “Hey, exactly what season do you think the Astros will eventually win the World Series?” Yet on June 24, Sports Illustrated declared, on its cover and in its feature story for that issue, “The Houston Astros: Your 2017 World Series Champs!” It seemed, at best, an odd proclamation about a team that was already 14.5 games out of first place in late June that season, even if SI was giving itself and the Astros a three-year cushion to pay off. As it turned out, the magazine may have been on to something. Continue Reading Related Stories Are You Ready For Some Baseball? After a nondescript 70-92 finish in 2014, the adolescent Astros hit baseball puberty in 2015 and shocked the world, finishing the regular season 86-76, defeating the Yankees in a wild-card game in Yankee Stadium and pushing the eventual World Champion Kansas City Royals to within six outs of elimination in the ALDS. Now, here comes 2016, and the rest of the baseball world, having witnessed these Astros, is wondering, “Are they all grown up now?” Last Thursday, in fact, Sports Illustrated published its baseball preview issue and decided to move its original 2017 title forecast up a full season, placing the target squarely on the Astros by predicting they would win the 2016 World Series. So not only do the Astros have to overcome the Texas Rangers; they also have to overcome the Sports Illustrated jinx. But who should be more nervous, the Astros over that dreaded magazine maloika or Sports Illustrated over picking a young team with just one season back on the relevance landscape, a team that almost ran out of gas in going 7-15 during the first few weeks of September last season, a team with a revolving door at


Prompt: The Bazar (lobby market) is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Discover an extensive selection of souvenirs, snacks and drinks, pizzas, and toiletries. The Vitality Fitness area is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and free of charge for all hotel guests. Our Junior Suites are including complimentary access to the Vitality Spa & Pool. Enjoy an extensive selection of modern spa facilities during your stay. We try to minimize the use of plastic in our hotel. Therefore, the bathroom in your room has been equipped with Fair-Trade shower gel and shampoo in a

sustainable and refillable package. Our Junior Suites are also equipped with additional amenities and toiletries. In your room you will find a water boiler, a selection of different teas and coffee, which you can use free of charge. Apart from complimentary water upon arrival, we have left the minibar empty for your convenience. This allows you to fill up your minibar with your own products or products purchased at the Bazar (lobby shop) Store your personal belongings safely in the (laptop) safe in the closet in your room. The innovative temperature control system in your room ensures a constant supply of fresh air and allows you to adjust the room temperature to your liking. Our exceptional 737 cockpit Suite offers abundant room including a real Boeing 737 cockpit. The luxurious and sophisticated suite captures the essence of a real plane. The 737 cockpit Suite allows you to host private meetings. The stylish work table and ergonomic chairs, with seating for up to 12 people, are located in a scene that gives the impression of a real airplane. The work space allows you, in combination with the free high speed WiFi, to get work done. Stay seamlessly connected to your work, network and home. The 737 cockpit suite features a Corendon King size bed, where you can recharge yourself. Your bed is dressed in pure white cotton sheets topped with luxuriant high loft pillows and a lightweight duvet. Relax on the comfortable bed even when you’re not asleep. Use the perfectly placed reading lamp or relax and watch TV on our 42” flat screen TV. The spacious and modern bathroom is everything you need to pamper yourself. Our 737 cockpit Suite provides you with a large bathtub, a separate rain shower, audio speaker system and infra-red light. Make sure you use


Prompt: Manitoba drivers who hit and kill a cyclist often end up simply paying a fine. A Global News investigation found multiple cases where the driver was never criminally charged. Instead the person was charged under the Highway Traffic Act (HTA) and the offence often resulted in a few thousand dollars fine. RELATED: 87 year old Winnipeg cyclist identified as victim of Friday’s crash Leslie Freudenberg, 87, was an avid cyclist. But in July 2016, his passion got him killed. Freudenberg was struck by a piece of heavy machinery. “He was riding his bike down a cyclist pathway and was crossing

the street,” his son-in-law, Keith Johnson, told Global News. “A piece of heavy equipment was being transported down the street and didn’t have a full view for the driver. He didn’t even know that he actually hit my father-in-law.” Freudenberg was killed instantly. The 34-year-old driver was never charged. Instead, PCL Construction, the company that owned the truck, is going to court for not providing a clear view to the driver. The Manitoba Justice department said the maximum penalty the company will face is a $2,000 fine. “I guess the cruel nature of all of that is the fact that the family has never really been given the opportunity for closure at this point,” Johnson said. “We’ve paid the ultimate price in losing a family member that we’ll never get back.” This scenario – a pedestrian or cyclist is hit and killed and the driver receives a light penalty – is playing out across the country. Global News has spoken to many families from coast to coast who are outraged that careless drivers aren’t facing stiffer fines after hitting and killing their loved ones. WATCH: Life is cheap: Trudi Mason recounts harrowing story of losing her friend to a pickup truck Trudi Mason of Lethbridge, Alta. was cycling with her best friend when a truck hit the both of them. Mason’s friend died. Mason says the court process ignores the fact a person was killed. The family feels Freudenberg’s death could have been prevented had PCL followed equipment protocol. Instead, the incident happened as the driver was moving the heavy machinery from one end of the street to the other. “Les’ death hasn’t been taken seriously,” Johnson said. “It’s the worst slap in the face that we could ever experience. It just further denies any closure that the family has


Prompt: Government spending restraint will be a drag on Canada’s economic growth in 2013, according to an analysis by CIBC World Markets. That finding is at odds with one from the Bank of Canada, which sees the country’s real GDP getting a slight boost from government spending. Real GDP measures growth after inflation has been taken into account. To arrive at its conclusion, CIBC economists took projections from the last federal budget as well as those from the four biggest provinces. It then adjusted the figures to strip out such things as transfers to households and added back capital spending. "Our

analysis points to yet another drop in real expenditures, with no major offset from planned tax reductions," says CIBC chief economist Avery Shenfeld. Shenfeld estimates that real government spending will drop by 0.9 per cent in 2013/14. For the 2013 calendar year, he says that works out to a drag on real GDP of 0.2 per cent. Bank of Canada's growth forecast 'too high' "That doesn't look like a big deal, until one contrasts it with the 0.3 per cent boost to growth in the Bank of Canada forecast," Shenfeld says. "The result is that the Bank’s forecast could be about 0.5 percentage points too high, enough to make the difference between growth being above potential, requiring interest rate hikes, or as in our forecast of 2.0 per cent growth next year, not fast enough to narrow the output gap and call for monetary tightening." In April, parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page said his office's analysis of federal spending plans also led him to conclude that government restraint would be a drag on growth. "The [Parliamentary Budget Office] expects that restraint and reductions in government spending on programs in Canada will act as a drag on economic growth and job creation, pushing the economy further away from its potential [GDP] and delaying the economic recovery," the report said. The PBO report projected that spending restraints and cutbacks will reduce economic output by 0.3 per cent this year, climbing to 0.88 per cent in 2014. The PBO’s analysis was sharply criticized by Conservative MPs as being "too pessimistic." In its last monetary policy announcement in July, the Bank of Canada said overall government spending was expected to contribute "modestly" to growth in 2013 – the finding that CIBC takes issue with. In that same announcement, the central bank slightly lowered its


Prompt: Margaret Thatcher and her chancellor Sir Geoffrey Howe were behind a politically toxic plan in 1982 to dismantle the welfare state, newly released Downing Street documents show. She later attempted to distance herself from the plans after what was described as a "riot" in her cabinet. The proposals considered by her cabinet included compulsory charges for schooling and a massive scaling back of other public services. "This would of course mean the end of the National Health Service," declared a confidential cabinet memorandum by the Central Policy Review Staff in September 1982, released by the National Archives on Friday under

the 30-year rule. Nigel Lawson, then the energy secretary, said the report by the official thinktank on long-term public spending options caused "the nearest thing to a cabinet riot in the history of the Thatcher administration". In her memoirs, Thatcher said: "I was horrified when I saw this paper. I pointed out that it would almost certainly be leaked and give a totally false impression … It was all a total nonsense," claiming the proposals were never seriously considered by her or her ministers. But the 1982 cabinet papers show the politically explosive paper was discussed at a special half-day extended cabinet discussion on 9 September that year. They show that Thatcher and Howe had been encouraging the CPRS thinktank to come up with such long-term radical options since February that year and that Howe continued to defend them even after the cabinet "riot" described by Lawson. As part of that revolt a watered-down version of the CPRS paper was leaked to the press, provoking Labour accusations that Thatcher had a secret agenda to dismantle the postwar welfare state – a charge that continues to echo down the years. Thatcher responded by famously promising in her 1982 Conservative party conference speech in Brighton that the NHS was "safe with us" – a claim that every Conservative leader since has felt compelled to repeat. But the papers show the revised version of the CPRS paper that was leaked was mild in comparison with the original set of proposals – and that Thatcher's horror had more to do with the prospect of a leak than with the nature of its contents. The leaked version proposed introducing education vouchers, ending the state funding of higher education, freezing welfare benefits and an insurance-based health service. But as John Sparrow, the merchant banker Thatcher had


Prompt: “The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea,” said President Donald Trump on Tuesday morning during his maiden speech before the United Nations General Assembly. “Rocket Man”—Trump’s new nickname for North Korean supremo Kim Jong Un—“is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime.” If there is a war on the Korean Peninsula, as appears increasingly likely, what happens after the guns go silent? The reconstruction of the Korean nation, after more than a century of

tragedy and division, would be one of the most difficult and expensive projects in history. The cost of rebuilding the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, as the North calls itself, is beyond the means of Seoul. There are South Korean estimates ranging from $50 billion to $229 billion. Add in rebuilding the South, and the tab can soar to over $5 trillion. Yet the real cost is the suffering of more than 25 million North Koreans. Many tell us they would try to move north in the event of the destruction of the Kim regime so Beijing is worried about the influx of refugees in its northeastern provinces. It does not appear, however, that Chinese officials are especially concerned about the ability of the People’s Liberation Army, backed up by the People’s Armed Police, to close the border with the North. After all, that border is defined by three natural boundaries: the Yalu and Tumen rivers and an active volcano, Mt. Paektu. In any event, it is unlikely that North Koreans want to leave their fate to the hated Chinese when they can more easily walk across the Demilitarized Zone, the strip of land separating the two Koreas. In an era of considerably less tension, north-south corridors in the border area were de-mined. Refugees, therefore, merely have to stroll south—to be with other Koreans—along safe paved highways and railroad tracks. That means, if North Korea were to be “totally destroyed,” the first job of South Korean and U.S. troops would be to stabilize the population of North Korea. The South Korean military would likely execute “stabilization operations that will focus on two key objectives: establish security and restore essential services with the intent to keep the Korean population fixed in their villages receiving essential support to minimize the humanitarian crisis,”


Prompt: Cycle Oregon was canceled Thursday because of wildfires in central and southern Oregon, where the weeklong ride had been scheduled to be held. The fires pose too big of a safety threat for the 2,000 riders and hundreds of support staff, Cycle Oregon executive director Steve Schulz said in a statement issued Thursday afternoon. The ride had been scheduled to start Sunday, Sept. 10, in La Pine and end back in the Deschutes County community on Saturday, Sept. 16. What would have been the 30th anniversary ride marks the first time the event has been canceled. "Fires are impacting five

of our seven days with smoke and air quality levels ranging from unhealthy to hazardous," Schulz said in the statement. "Previously designed alternate routes are now affected with fire and smoke from both new and existing fires." The statement noted that statewide "forecasts for the foreseeable future are for more hot, dry and windy weather with an associated increase in fire activity and smoke production." Schulz said ride officials made the decision after consulting with the Oregon Department of Forestry, the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Oregon Department of Transportation "and others, and conducting on site personal meetings with Incident Commanders at the fires." Schulz noted the "situation is unprecedented in Cycle Oregon history; we are in uncharted territory." He said the organization would communicate with riders by Wednesday about next steps including, presumably, a refund process. In an interview with The Oregonian/OregonLive, Schulz said the decision to cancel was made Thursday morning after a meeting with the nonprofit's staff and its board members. At the meeting, Schulz described his visits with firefighting operations leaders as well as the Oregon Department of Transportation. Firefighting managers made clear to him that "if we went down there we're just getting in the way," Schulz said, and that "they would prefer that we not be there." Before reaching the decision to cancel, the staff and board explored creating a seven-day supported ride in parts of the state not experiencing wildfire and where the organization has experience staging a ride. While Cycle Oregon has earned a reputation for effectively dealing with logistics, creating a seven-day ride a week in advance was deemed impossible. On top of that, there was the unpredictability of a lightning-caused fire erupting at any new location. In 2015, wildfire forced the rerouting of Cycle Oregon in


Prompt: New USC survey finds region’s escalating home prices hindering senior-level recruitment LOS ANGELES (April 11, 2017)– Housing costs are deterring top-talent from entering the Los Angeles job market, and leading to higher costs in recruiting and retaining employees, according to a new survey released today by Raphael Bostic, a USC Price School of Public Policy Professor and the newly appointed head of the Atlanta Federal Reserve. Bostic led a team of USC researchers in surveying major L.A. employers accounting for nearly 200,000 jobs in key sectors including utilities, healthcare, education, government, engineering and finance. The resulting report, The Affordable Housing

Crisis in Los Angeles: An Employer Perspective, released in partnership with the Los Angeles Business Council, focuses on how the high cost of housing in the region has affected employers and puts forth key recommendations. “This study shows that high housing costs are burdening our leading employers, either by having to develop special hiring packages, or subsidizing transportation and relocation costs,” said Bostic. “Though we have yet to see a critical mass of businesses priced out of the region, this is an area of concern. There’s ample evidence to show that the time is now to implement strategies to reduce housing costs.” Nearly 60% of employers surveyed cite the region’s high cost of living as impacting employee retention, and 75% cite housing costs specifically as an area of concern. The impact of high housing costs is most apparent when employers try to recruit top talent: 64% of employers report that they include cost of living when negotiating hiring packages for high-level employees. “It’s concerning that high housing costs could lead to Los Angeles losing its competitive edge in recruiting top talent. That would be devastating to our economy,” said Mary Leslie, president of LABC. “This survey underscores the need to think outside the box and tackle our city’s high cost of living problem.” To address the strain on L.A.’s limited housing supply, the report recommends examining successful employer-sponsored housing projects, such as the LAUSD affordable housing apartments completed in 2016. It also makes a strong case for investing in higher-density housing at a range of prices near key transit centers. Other recommendations include: reducing parking requirements for new development, identifying single-story buildings that could be modified to support housing, exploring innovative transportation solutions, and encouraging employers to engage with community and government groups around housing construction projects that could benefit


Prompt: The Outlaw Josey Wales is a 1976 American revisionist Western DeLuxe Color and Panavision film set during and after the American Civil War. It was directed by and starred Clint Eastwood (as the eponymous Josey Wales), with Chief Dan George, Sondra Locke, Sam Bottoms, and Geraldine Keams.[3] The film tells the story of Josey Wales, a Missouri farmer whose family is murdered by Union militants during the Civil War. Driven to revenge, Wales joins a Confederate guerrilla band and fights in the Civil War. After the war, all the fighters in Wales' group except for Wales surrender to Union officers,

but they end up being massacred. Wales becomes an outlaw and is pursued by bounty hunters and Union soldiers. The film was adapted by Sonia Chernus and Philip Kaufman from author Forrest Carter's 1972 novel The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales (republished, as shown in the movie's opening credits, as Gone to Texas).[4] The film was a commercial success, earning $31.8 million against a $3.7 million budget. In 1996, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress for being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Josey Wales was portrayed by Michael Parks in the film's 1986 sequel, The Return of Josey Wales.[5] Plot [ edit ] Josey Wales, a Missouri farmer, is driven to revenge by the murder of his wife and young son by a band of pro-Union Jayhawker militants. The murderers were from Senator James H. Lane's Kansas Brigade, led by Captain Terrill. After grieving and burying his wife and son, Wales joins a group of pro-Confederate Missouri Bushwhackers led by William T. Anderson and fights in the Civil War. At the conclusion of the war, Captain Fletcher persuades the guerrillas to surrender, saying they have been granted amnesty. Wales refuses to surrender. As a result, he and one young man are the only survivors when Captain Terrill's Redlegs massacre the surrendering men. Wales intervenes and wipes out most of the Redlegs with a Gatling gun. Senator Lane forces Fletcher to work with Terrill in tracking Josey down and puts a $5,000 bounty on Wales, who is now on the run from Union militia and bounty hunters. Along the way, despite wishing to be left alone, he accumulates a diverse group of companions. They include an old Cherokee named Lone Watie; Little Moonlight, a young Navajo woman; Sarah Travers, an elderly


Prompt: Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks. SECULAR Syria has long been one of the freest places in the Middle East to practise religion. But a recent crackdown on Christians, about a tenth of Syria's people, is causing jitters. Several buildings that hold Christian services have been closed for not being officially sanctioned as churches. Foreigners serving Protestant churches have been told their visas will not be renewed because of a decree banning them from working for injeeli, as Protestant churches are known. In the summer several church camps were cancelled. The

measures have been taken solely against the Protestant churches, which cater for refugees from Sudan and Iraq and expatriate workers, as well as for Syrians. Tens of thousands of Iraqi Christians have fled to Syria since attacks on them following the American invasion of Iraq in 2003; recent massacres have sent others packing. Syrian officials say the measures have been taken because the offending churches have been proselytising, often with the help of foreigners. The World Council of Churches acknowledges that since the invasion of Iraq an influx of refugees into Syria has encouraged foreign evangelists, mainly Americans and South Koreans, to spread the gospel. American outfits such Reach Global, the missionary arm of the Evangelical Free Church of America, admit to giving cash and theological support to Christians in Syria, to the extent that they are officially allowed to. But independent local churches, all of them licensed by the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon, have been hit, too. Father Nadim Nassar, a priest, says that tension in the region has made life harder for all Protestant groups. “Protestantism has long been viewed as an extension of the West and all Protestant groups have been affected by a backlash against them.” But the main reason for the clampdown is that Orthodox and Catholic leaders, disgruntled by the success of these new churches, have complained to the government. Converting Muslims to Christianity is illegal, but the churches have also had an understanding that they should not woo each others' members. Enthusiastic Protestants seem to have flouted that unwritten rule. “We have enough churches—but the Protestants are stealing our sheep,” says an Orthodox pastor, who asked not to be named. The government does not discriminate against Christianity in particular. It wants to keep Syria secular and religiously harmonious. Moreover, it


Prompt: #1 *Note, when referring to the Vezina Trophy from the time frame of 1927-1981, the criteria for winning was that it went to the goalie on the team with the fewest goals scored against it in the regular season.* Honorable Mention: Glenn Hall (Mr. Goalie), Turk Broda, Harry “Apple Cheeks” Lumley, Gump Worsley, Ed Giacomin (Fast Eddie) #3 – Johnny Bower Nickname: “The China Wall” Position – Goalie When he wore #1 –His entire career: 1954-57 with New York Rangers, 1959-70 with Toronto Regular Season Stats – 552 GP – 250 W – 195 L – 90 T – 37

SO – 2.52 GAA Known primarily for – His Hall of Fame Induction, four Stanley Cups and two Vezina trophys Background – Born 11/8/24; 5-ft-9, 170 lb Johnny Bower was not always known as a legendary NHL netminder. From 1945-58 he played in just one NHL campaign (1953-54) and was unable to convince teams that he was capable of playing at the highest level. It wasn’t until the 1958-59 season that he was finally able to lock down a job with the big club. Toronto claimed him in the Inter-League draft of 1958, and he would go on to play in 12 seasons with the team. He came into the league at 33 and was able to lead his team to the Stanley Cup Finals six out of nine years. Out of those six times, the Leafs emerged victorious four times, winning the Stanley Cup in 1962, 1963, 1964, and 1967. In the 1966-67 season, Bower and #1 (see below, he wore #30 this year) teamed up in the crease. Bower went 12-9-3 while #1 went 15-5-4 in the regular season. By this time he was 42 years old. In 552 NHL games played, he won 250 games, including 37 shutouts. His career GAA was 2.51. In 592 AHL games he won 359, including 45 shutouts. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1976. His number has been honored (but not retired) by the Maple Leafs since 1995 (March 11th, the same day they honored Turk Broda’s #1.) #2 – Jacques Plante Nickname: “Jake the Snake” Position – Goalie When he wore #1 – 1953-1963 (Montreal), 1964-65 (With New York Rangers), and 1971-73 (With Toronto) Note: He wore #30 in the 1969-70 campaign (With St. Louis) and #31 in 1973 (With Boston) Regular Season Stats – 971 GP


Prompt: Building a startup is marathon, not a sprint. A marathon that doesn’t have a definitive route, and no roadmap for what you’ll encounter on your way. In many ways, founding a startup requires the same training strategies as running a marathon. 1. Take long runs on the weekends Marathon runners take long runs on the weekends, in addition to their training throughout the week, just like many startups begin as part-time weekend projects while the founders are still working full-time. There’s a passion burning that’s driving them to pursue it, but making the exit from corporate without a well thought-out

plan is scary, unsustainable, and perhaps even foolish. You want to shape your project enough so that you don’t to end up with buyer’s remorse. Quitting your job and then feeling that you’ve made a huge mistake will not result in good things for you, and especially for your startup. You wouldn’t buy a car without test driving it, and you wouldn’t buy a house without making sure the foundation is stable. You want to find out if your idea has traction, and what better way than to pretend you’re running the marathon on the weekends. 2. Go slow When training for a marathon, runners usually go slower than their marathon pace. This is because consistent training at a slower pace results in better running. Even during the race, runners start slow so that they don’t tire out too quickly. In building a startup, it’s important to keep this pace to avoid burnout. Burnout has negative effects on everything from your health to your job performance. While building a startup, you want to be focused and clear headed, not running on fumes. And going slow also allows you to notice opportunities that come up on the way that you might otherwise miss if you only had the finish line in mind. Go slow and refine your ideas because you have a long way to go. 3. Train on hills Marathon runners train on hills because the incline helps them prepare better. They intentionally create resistance just so that running the actual marathon will feel easier. In a startup, you simply need to embrace hills because there will be a lot of them along the way. Each challenge is an opportunity for learning, and the learning never stops. Of course, the learning curve will be steeper in the beginning, but just


Prompt: Without completing the statutory public hearings in Odisha and Chhattisgarh, Environment, Forests and Climate Change Minister Prakash Javadekar has done away with a stop-work order against the Polavaram dam, allowing construction work to resume. He did so at the personal request of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and without informing Odisha and Chhattisgarh. Also, the orders of the environment ministry have not been put in the public domain. The project is expected to displace about 200,000 and affect 300 villages, according to the 2010 environmental clearance order which uses data of

2001 population of these villages. The population over the decade and a half has risen considerably. It is to irrigate about 300,000 ha of agricultural land, store 550 million cubic metres of water and generate 960 Mw of power. The project is to be built on the Godavari in Andhra Pradesh. But the water is expected to inundate many tribal villages in Odisha and Chhattisgarh, too. Construction has to be carried out for the project in these states, too. A July 3 letter by Javadekar to Naidu, reviewed by Business Standard, reads: "I have your letter dated April 25 regarding continuation of works of the Indira Sagar Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh. I have got the matter examined in my ministry... with the anticipation that the pending public hearing will be resolved through discussions and persistent engagement with Odisha and Chhattisgarh, my ministry has taken the decision to keep the 'stop-work order' in abeyance for a period of a year. A copy of the office memorandum in this regard is enclosed for your information." The letter attaches executive orders from joint secretary Biswanath Sinha, dated June 23. It says, "This ministry has decided to keep the stop-work order in abeyance for a period of a year." It conceded public hearings hadn't been carried out in the two states and that both had approached the Supreme Court against the project and the verdicts were pending. The order is marked to principal secretary (irrigation) in the Andhra Pradesh government. Baijendra Kumar, principal secretary to the Chhattisgarh chief minister, told Business Standard, "We have not been informed of this order. We have filed a plea in the Supreme Court against the project. Mandatory public hearings have not been conducted in the state. Sometimes, they say four villages in our state will be submerged


Prompt: ISRAEL blackmailed President Clinton with phone-tapped tapes of his steamy sex talks with Monica Lewinsky, a blockbuster new book charges. The price Clinton paid for the silence of the Mossad spy agency was calling off an FBI hunt for a top-level Israeli mole allegedly installed at the White House. The allegation appears in “Gideon’s Spies – The Secret History of the Mossad,” written by respected author Gordon Thomas and due out next week. Asked for comment, White House spokesman P.J. Crowley replied, “The only thing I can possibly say is we’ll skip the book and wait for the movie.” Israel

has denied conducting spying operations in the United States. But hints about the Mossad connection to Sexgate surfaced in evidence given to independent counsel Kenneth Starr last year. Lewinsky testified under oath that after a session of heavy petting and oral sex in the White House, Clinton told her that a foreign embassy was tapping the two phone lines in her D.C. apartment. She said Clinton advised her that if she was questioned about their phone-sex sessions she should claim that they knew their calls were being bugged – and were joking to make the phone-tappers look silly. Starr did not pursue the matter, as far as the public record shows, and Lewinsky apparently accepted Clinton’s story without asking for details. But author Thomas says Danny Yatom, Mossad inspector general, succeeded in tapping Lewinsky’s phone and amassed some 30 hours of sexually explicit conversations between the president and Lewinsky. Thomas says Tel Aviv used the tapes to stop the probe of an operative code-named “MEGA,” who was, and could still be, deep within the White House. “So far as anyone knows, the Israeli agent MEGA – a much more important spy than the imprisoned CIA traitor Jonathan Pollard, and probably his controller – is still in place at the White House,” Thomas said last night from London. “There was a flurry of high-profile counterintelligence activity which lasted as long as the bioleverage” – that is, blackmail – “took to work.” His book – which coincidentally is published by St. Martin’s Press, like Andrew Morton’s “Monica’s Story” – claims the decision to use the Lewinsky tapes reaches high levels in Israel. Israel’s Committee for Central Intelligence, meeting in emergency session, decided to play dirty by exploiting Monica’s steamy chats as a way of protecting their White House “asset,” Thomas said. “FBI


Prompt: Efforts are on to shape Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency, into the world’s spiritual capital and turn the city’s blatant juxtaposition of life and death into high-voltage commerce. The move, claim those in the know, would possibly help the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government acquire stronger secular credentials and deflect the seemingly endless uproar over cow politics. The department of tourism of Uttar Pradesh, along with top officials in Varanasi, is putting in place a host of plans that will bring members of different religions to a common platform, and turn one of the world’s oldest cities into an ideal

spot for global religious travellers. According to the World Tourism Organisation, an estimated 300 to 330 million pilgrims visit the world's key religious sites every year. If this happens, hopefully by the end of this year, Varanasi will be India’s new God’s Own Country, the city being the home to a little over 100 mosques, scores of churches, a popular Buddhist pilgrimage and the highly popular temples of Lord Shiva and Hanuman. “You have to stand on the Manikarnika Ghat to get a feel of the city, and its spirituality. Varanasi is about life, death, respect and religion, the idea is to make it a centre for all religions, and tell visitors that its not all about sadness. The idea is to turn it into a city of liberators,” says Awanish Kumar Awasthi, principal secretary to Adityanath. He is working feverishly on the project, which also includes ensuring the city is free from power cuts and traffic snarls. Linked to both Mecca and Jerusalem, Varanasi is one of the world's oldest cities. “The amalgamation of religion in one city is unique in the world and this will be garner great traction among Indian and global tourists,” says Awasthi. This, in some ways, is the second step. The first happened last year when Varanasi was named as one of the world’s “Cities of World Music” under the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. “The city’s rich musical heritage is famous the world over, its a great tag for Varanasi,” the city’s mayor, Ramgopal Mohle said in an interview. Mohle said the UNESCO tag had already provided a fillip to tourism, helping artists and musicians from Varanasi to visit countries that are a part of this network. Nine cities — Glasgow in the UK, Hanover and Mannheim in Germany, Ghent in Belgium, Hamamatsu in


Prompt: This article is over 2 years old Five men arrested in north Queensland with a tinnie after travelling from Melbourne in an alleged bid to engage join radical fighters in Syria Five Australian men who police say attempted to take a tinnie, or small dinghy, to Indonesia in an alleged bid to engage in foreign incursions in Syria have been arrested in north Queensland. Rapid radicalisation: the case of Numan Haider shocks family and experts alike Read more The Australian federal police arrested and detained the five men in a car north of Cairns on Tuesday. They had travelled from

Melbourne to Queensland by car, towing a seven-metre long vessel with them which they intended to sail overseas from “the top of Australia”, police said. The men, aged between 21 and 33, have not been charged. Deputy commissioner of Victoria police, Shane Patton, told a media conference in Melbourne that all of the men were from the city. He also said the seriousness of the case should not be downplayed. “I want to be perfectly clear,” he said. “This is a serious attempt by five men who are of security interest to us, who have had their passports cancelled, attempting to exit Australia so that they can make their way by boat. “Ultimately we’re investigating the intention to possibly end up in Syria to fight.” He said Australia had a responsibility to stop the men. “I’m sure there’ll be people sitting at home saying ‘why didn’t you simply just let them go and take their chance in the waves and Syria? We can’t do that. We can’t let Australians leave Australia and support terrorism anywhere. “If they had made it to Syria and managed to return to Australia, they could have come back with increased knowledge of explosives and weaponry, and may have become more radicalised,” he said. The men were “very committed” to getting to Syria, he added. “They’ve gone all the way from Melbourne, all the way to far north Queensland, these people were absolutely committed in their attempt to leave the country.” Australian Federal Police assistant commissioner Neil Gaughan said the men had been under investigation for “a number of weeks”. “They were in a boat that was seven metres long. They were committed, obviously very committed,” Gaughan said in Melbourne. The men remained in custody in Queensland and would be interviewed on Wednesday. Alex Jones, a


Prompt: Some 40 years ago, Prince Philip visited the South Pacific island of Vanuatu with his uncle, Lord Montbatten. The visit was largely unremarkable, except in one key way: a religious sect was born that views Philip as their god. Matthew Baylis recently chronicled that visit and the religion, which thrives even 40 years later, in his new book "Man Belong Mrs. Queen: Adventures with the Philip Worshippers." "They had a jolly old time. They wore hawaiian shirts, they swam in lagoons, they took part in rituals. They sat on plastic chairs with 'throne' chalked on them. They rubbed noses with

Tahitian lovelies," Baylis said. Baylis grew up in the Liverpool area, some 9,800 miles away from Vanuatu. But he, too, was fascinated by the Duke of Edinburgh, even hanging up a poster of the Prince on his bedroom wall. When he was an anthropology student, he traveled to the South Pacific island nation to find out why the prince generated so much interest. "In general, they [Prince Philip and Lord Montbatten] showed themselves to be very, very different from the colonial officials of which the people of that area had had the most experience," he said. "They showed themselves to be easy going, rough and ready, all-action guys and that's exactly the kind of man who they most admire in that part of the South Pacific." Why Prince Philip? Baylis said the prince's visit coincided with the island's preparation for independence from the French and the British. "People were casting around for allies, in the turmoil in these pre-independence years," Baylis said. The village of Tanna "felt it needed a symbolic and significant relationship with some sort of outside power in order to help them. So, at the same time that Prince Philip was there being a rough-and-ready, all-action kind of guy, these people were thinking 'we need to find someone who can be a patron and a figurehead for us.'" And thus, a movement was born. As a whole, said Baylis, the South Pacific islanders view foreign visitors in a very significant way. For example, on the island of New Hanover in Papua New Guinea, the islanders revere President Lyndon Johnson, whom they invited to represent them in Parliament. "It was a quite deliberate slap in the face to the Australian authorities who were ruling the area quite badly," Baylis said. Baylis said the Tanna village holds a ceremony


Prompt: CLOSE Anheuser-Busch InBev sealed a deal months in the making to acquire its biggest rival, SABMiller, for $105 billion. Video provided by Newsy Newslook Belgium's Anheuser-Busch InBev, which owns Budweiser and is the world's largest brewer, has agreed to buy No. 2 SABMiller of Britain for $107 billion. (Photo11: Joe Raedle, Getty Images) Anheuser-Busch InBev on Wednesday formalized a deal to acquire its British-South African rival SABMiller for $107 billion, creating a gigantic global beer company hoping to reach deeper into developing markets. The companies had been weighing a deal since mid-September, with SABMiller rejecting several overtures from the Belgian-based

AB InBev before accepting the deal. It still faces approval by regulators. The acquisition gives Budweiser maker AB InBev access to many emerging markets. SABMiller gets 35% of its revenue from Latin America and 34% from Africa. “We've admired this company for a very long time. The company has a strong portfolio of brands," AB InBev CEO Carlos Brito said on a conference call. "Together, AB InBev and SABMiller create a truly global business." AB InBev will pay about $67 per share in cash for most of SABMiller's stock, though shareholders can also elect to receive alternative compensation involving a mix of cash and stock. As part of the deal, Molson Coors will buy out SABMiller's 58% stake in their joint venture, called MillerCoors, in a deal valued at $12 billion in cash, reflecting an effort to appease regulators concerned about the combined giant's size. Together, a combined AB InBev and SABMiller would control almost 30% of global beer sales. Brito declined to estimate the combined company's global market share following the sale of MillerCoors, saying that most of its business "is done through local brands." But the combined company will have total revenue of about $64 billion, excluding SABMiller's joint ventures. Brito told investors that the two companies have a "largely complementary" footprint and that the new company will "take its place as one of the leading consumer products companies." He said the company would seek expeditious regulatory approval and hopes to close the deal in the second half of 2016. SABMiller's London-listed shares were up 1.9% after the announcement. AB Inbev's shares rose 0.8% in Brussels. AB InBev is betting that it can leverage the broader footprint to pursue growth opportunities in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. It also expects to save $1.4 billion per year by


Prompt: MY JOURNEY, FROM MIKE POWER TO JOHN BUCKLEY, from investigative journalist to drug designer, started six weeks earlier. To understand exactly how access to designer drugs has changed—to see exactly how easy it is to commission, purchase and import powerful new compounds that are beyond the reach of the law—I decided to get one made myself. I chose to focus on the Beatles’ drug, phenmetrazine: a nod to the cultural significance of Prellies and their illustrious user base. How easy would it be to get a legal version made? What procedures would it take, what roadblocks would be put in

the way? I phoned a contact with expertise in chemistry and asked if he could think of a simple molecular tweak that would produce a new version of phenmetrazine that would be totally legal. Yes, he said. The change would be trivial. What might its effects be? “A fantastic anorectic if you want to lose weight, and an effective stimulant.” The search began for a laboratory that would make a one-off sample. I decided that I would present myself as a legitimate broker for a UK-based pharmaceutical firm. Taking on my new identity, I posted a buying request for the drug on various public websites that broker deals between individuals and small pharmaceutical manufacturers. Dozens of emails came back. Not all of them were genuine. Some of these early responders were blatant scammers: Cameroon and Ukraine do have chemical industries, but those who work in them tend not to be able to offer large amounts of totally new, extremely rare drugs the very next day. My search headed to India, where three firms offered to synthesize the drug for me. On closer examination, though, none of them seemed up to the task—and they were all asking for very large sums of money, well beyond the actual value and difficulty of the compounds we were requesting. One priced the job as high as $10,000. After weeks of constant searching for a decent lab, one of my contacts sent me the URL of a site in Shanghai that, on the surface of things, has nothing to do with legal highs, analog drugs, or any gray-market activity. They sell organic chemicals on international markets to people in many industries, and offer pharmaceutical drugs to legitimate importers. But insiders in China who prefer to remain anonymous say there is little accountability or oversight of


Prompt: Apocalypse the Risen Campaign Setting is a post-apocalyptic fantasy horror RPG based on Earth, twenty-five years after the fall of society, in an event known as the Rise; when demons rose to power and the Risen dead first appeared. This game is being offered in both Dungeon and Dragons 5th Edition and Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Compatible system formats. Apocalypse the Risen thrusts you into the role of a resolute survivor, forging through the ashes of humanity on an Earth besieged by demons and the dead—known as Risen. Twenty-five years after the collapse of society, humankind and their new allies now

fight back. You are a survivor of the Light battling the forces of Darkness. Players in this world take on the role of a hunter relied upon by your colony for resources and protection. You may be human or one of three other races new to Earth. Your colony is your home and responsibility, but soon you may discover the world smaller and filled with even more wonder than you could imagine. Channels cut through the ether quickly spanning great distances, shortening travel and adding to discovery. Darklands form in places of great sorrow or suffering. Supernatural energy and radiation twist and collide in great storms sweeping across the landscape. You stand against demons, Risen, mutated beasts, and desperate people who look to destroy those you love. Apocalypse the Risen Campaign Setting will be printed as a full color hardback book including detailed page layout and spot finish touches on the cover. Cover examples and spread layout mock-ups below: Cover Mock-up Option (Logo Placeholder) Cover Mock-up Option (Logo Placeholder) Leather Cover Mock-up 5E Maverick Layout - Click for Full Character Class! PF Maverick Layout - Click for Full Character Class! Click the links below for an in-depth look at the Apocalypse the Risen: “Campaign” Stretch Goals – Increased book content! Like a horde of Risen feeding on the living, the content within the Apocalypse the Risen Campaign Setting grows as these stretch goals are unlocked! Backers with this stretch goal category will receive all unlocked campaign setting content including in the book. “Adventure” Stretch Goals – From the Journal of Dr. Dobrin, from adventure hooks and places of interest, to short stories from the point of view from our iconic heroes. All unlocked stretch goals will be included in PDF layout, written from the viewpoint of renowned archeologist Dr. Nicholas


Prompt: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1883-1966) – mythologised in popular imagination as ‘Veer Savarkar’ – not only refrained from participating in the freedom struggle after the British released him from prison on account of his relentless pleas for mercy, but also actively collaborated with the English rulers to whom he had declared his loyalty. At the time when Subhas Chandra Bose was raising his Indian National Army to confront the British in India, Savarkar helped the colonial government recruit lakhs of Indians into its armed forces. He further destabilised the freedom movement by pushing his Hindutva ideology, which deepened the communal divide

at a time when a united front against colonial rule was needed. Post independence, Savarkar was also implicated in Mahatma Gandhi’s murder. Such is the man who was declared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be “the true son of Mother India and inspiration for many people”, in his Twitter salutation to Savarkar on his birth anniversary on May 28 last year. In 2015, commemorating Savarkar on his 132nd birth anniversary, the prime minister bowed before a portrait of the Hindutva icon in remembrance of “his indomitable spirit and invaluable contribution to India’s history”. Finance minister Arun Jaitley was quick to follow up on the act. “Today, on birth anniversary of Veer Savarkar, let us remember & pay tribute to this great freedom fighter & social-political philosopher,” he tweeted. And somewhere in the stream of Twitter accolades from numerous BJP ministers that followed, the TV anchor Rajdeep Sardesai joined the chorus, albeit with a caveat. While he disagreed “with his ideology”, Sardesai said he honoured Savarkar’s “spirit as freedom fighter”. A freedom fighter he definitely was, for a certain period in the first decade of the previous century, long before he’d begun articulating the notion of Hindutva. Savarkar was then an atheist and a rationalist, who had started out on a revolutionary road to rid India of her colonial yoke, asserting: “whenever the natural process of national and political evolution is violently suppressed by the force of wrong, the revolution must step in as a natural reaction and therefore ought to be welcomed as the only effective instrument to re-throne Truth and Right.” On sailing to England to study law in 1906, Savarkar founded the Free India Society to organise Indian students studying in England to fight for independence. In a famous declaration before the society, he said: “We must


Prompt: Recently by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.: The Fascist Threat The downgrading of US debt this summer didn't have huge economic consequences, but the psychological ones were truly devastating for the national elites who have run this country for nearly a century. For a State that regards itself as infallible, it was a huge blow that market forces delivered against the government, and it is only one of thousands that have cut against the power elite in recent years. Another recent example was the vanishing of the much-vaunted Obama jobs bill. He pushed hard for this scheme for a month. He

made an FDR-like national speech that attempted to whip up a public frenzy. He promised that if the legislature passed his law, supply and demand for workers would magically come together. We only need to agree to spend a few hundred billion more! Well, the bully pulpit has become the bull-something pulpit. It seems that hardly anyone even took the speech seriously as a political point. It was reviewed and treated as the theater that it was, but the universal reaction to the specifics was a thumbs down, even from his own party. No, Obama is not FDR. This is not the New Deal. The public will not be browbeaten as it once was. The polls show a vast lack of even a modicum of confidence in political leadership, the failures of which are all around us. The longer the depression persists, the more the rebellious spirit grows, and it is not limited to the Wall Street protests. Poverty is growing, incomes are falling, business is being squeezed at every turn, and unemployment is stuck at intolerably high levels. People are angry as never before, and neither political party comes close to offering answers. The State as we've known it — and that includes its political parties and its redistributionary, military, regulatory, and money-creating bureaucracies — just can't get it together. It's as true now as it has been for some twenty years: the Nation State is in precipitous decline. Once imbued with grandeur and majesty, personified by its Superman powers to accomplish amazing global feats, it is now a wreck and out of ideas. It doesn't seem that way because the State is more in-your-face than it has been in all of American history. We see the State at the airport with the incompetent bullying ways of the TSA.


Prompt: Mayor Rob Ford and Councillor Doug Ford are being taken to court by Toronto resident and activist Jude MacDonald for allegedly violating the Municipal Conflict Of Interest Act. This is the second time the mayor has faced such charges but the first go-round for his brother. In the application, filed in Superior Court by lawyer Tim Gleason, MacDonald alleges that the Fords improperly mixed their personal and public interests by speaking and/or voting on a slew of council items that directly or indirectly affected clients of their family business, Deco Labels and Tags. The identities of nearly all of Deco's

clients remained a well-kept secret until this past summer, when Globe reporters viewed an internal list. The majority of allegations in MacDonald's application stem from the paper's resulting story that highlighted several instances in which the Fords advanced policies that aligned with their clients' interests. Porter Airlines, for example, was among the firms that have reportedly contracted printing from Deco. And not only was Mayor Ford the salesperson listed on the account, according to the Globe, but Deco "salespeople - including the Fords - receive commissions whenever one of their accounts places an order." As chief magistrate, Ford has taken a very active interest in facilitating Porter's request for jets at the Island airport and has never once declared a conflict on the matter. (It's worth noting that if John Tory were to become mayor, he would very likely have a conflict on the same issue.) Other alleged conflicts include: • voting on a motion pertaining to an industrial wastewater treatment program in which both Deco itself and one of its clients were enrolled; • voting on and advocating against a new set of "healthy vending criteria" for vending machines in rec centres that would have adversely affected Deco client Coca-Cola; • voting on and advocating against a ban on the sale of bottled water at City facilities that adversely affected Deco clients Nestlé Canada and Coca-Cola (which produces Dasani); • and voting on and advocating for the appointment of Darius Mosun - chair and CEO of Deco client Soheil Mosun - to the board of the Toronto Parking Authority. If either or both Fords are found to have violated the Act, the judge must declare their seat(s) vacant and may disqualify them from holding office for up to seven years. (It's not immediately clear how the first, mandatory penalty


Prompt: Another movie from the daily sketches series - another animal, this time a lot smaller :D On the movie I will show you how to draw such birdie from the very beginning to the end, maybe my techniques will become useful to you in your own creations. Also I'd like to encourage you to upload your drawings to YourWorks gallery (you can do that after logging in)! Lately few new drawings showed up and it makes me very happy :D Such small bird is a great exercise so watch the movie and try it out yourself! Of course if you

have any questions, I am waiting for comments, I'd be happy to give additional explanations. ..:: DOWNLOAD VIDEO-TUTORIAL ::.. The one for download is in much better quality, bigger resolution and without speed up, so you can see clearly what I am doing in each step. Just download it, watch and try to draw the bird yourself! At first I just try to grasp the base shape, only after I can see it, I add new layer and sketch all the details. I am not trying to be very precise while drawing, sketch is a bit messy and lines are pretty chaotic but what counts is that all the elements are on correct places (like eye, beak and so on). Then on separate layers I paint base colors with hard brush. I just divide the whole drawing into few layers, trying to simplify it. Opacity of my sketch is lowered, because it was too disturbing. And I paint background with soft brush. Low opacity for the brush makes blending colors easier. For each layer on which I've painted some base color with a hard brush, I add new layer and turn it into a clipping mask (you can do that by right-clicking chosen layer and picking this option from the menu). I also copy the sketch and turn it into a clipping mask too, so that I can use those lines while painting the bird. Parts of the sketch will become part of the painting. I color my birdie with a brush you already know from the previous tutorial, you can download it from HERE. You can see that sometimes I use very small brush and scribble something on bird's head, and sometimes I use bigger one, with smaller opacity and cover larger areas. With small elements (like beak) I


Prompt: Scotland’s independence bid may have failed, but the affair revealed powerful grass-roots support for a Scottish state. Although Catalonia’s referendum on independence, originally slated for Nov. 9, has been canceled under Madrid’s opposition, Catalonians appear determined to hold some sort of vote on that date to express their sentiments anyway. Further afield, Russian speakers in Ukraine seem to have spoken their mind. Given the chance, perhaps the Basques, the Northern Irish, Flemish, Corsicans, South Tyroleans, Bosnian Serbs and others would give it a shot too. And across Europe, nationalist, anti-EU parties are on the rise, led by politicos who want

beefed-up borders, fewer foreigners and more state revenue (or even territory) for their particular volk. Is 21st century Europe reverting to the destructive, small-minded nationalism that triggered World War I and put the continent on a road to ruin a hundred years ago? And could the European Union’s vision of a united transnational Europe be out of step with the average European burgher? One could be forgiven for concluding as much. But Europe’s not imploding. Nor is the EU’s greater vision out of kilter with the zeitgeist. Rather, the relationship among Europe’s nations, states, regions and shared institutions is in flux, and the rash of secession-minded movements underscores the necessity that it change more profoundly and rapidly. Two nationalisms First, let’s take a look at nationalism itself. There are two kinds of nationalism (and nations), namely the civic and the ethnic varieties. Both herald from the time of the French Revolution of 1789, when the people of Europe began to band together with their neighbors as one (nation) to demand rights and sovereignty. At a time when kings and empires ruled the day, the nation was a new form of identity linking people who shared language, a home region and culture. This progressive, liberating nationalism laid the foundation for our modern democracies, most of which are in nation-states. Modern nationalism took two routes. One was the ethnic nation, infused with Romantic notions of seamless racial communities bound by blood, territory and destiny. In the world of ethnic nations, one nation is always superior and destined to rule over territory as well as other peoples. As intellectuals such as the British historian Eric Hobsbawm and German philosopher Hannah Arendt argued, the nativist ethnic nation was at the root of the 20th century’s terrible bloodshed. In power, ethnic nationalists inevitably pursue authoritarian


Prompt: In cities around the U.S., there’s a growing awareness that streets are meant for more than just cars, and in fact, that streets should be safe places no matter what form of transit you choose, whether you’re a pedestrian, cyclist, bus rider, skateboarder, or pogo-stick jumper (okay, maybe not the latter). The National Complete Streets Coalition puts out a measure every year on just how well cities are doing at forming so-called “complete streets” policies that consider these various modes of transport as equals in transportation planning. This year’s list shows marked growth in cities adopting this progressive way of

thinking about transit. (We covered last year’s list here.) In 2013, according to the coalition’s report released today, 83 jurisdictions adopted complete streets policies–making it a total of 610 that have done so over the years. “The majority of policies are in smaller suburban communities again this year. I think those are good things. There’s this mischaracterization of the complete streets idea as applying to big cities,” says Stefanie Seskin, deputy director of the coalition, a project of Smart Growth America. Here is the group’s ranking of the top 10 complete streets policies in 2013, based on metrics including vision, design, and clear performance measures: Littleton, MA Peru, IN Fort Lauderdale, FL Auburn, ME Lewiston, ME Baltimore County, MD Portsmouth, NH Muscatine, IA Piqua, OH Oakland, CA Hayward, CA, Livermore, CA, and Massachusetts Dept. of Transportation (tie) The top community, Littleton, Massachusetts, got to number one for its clear look at how the idea of complete streets would work for them, how it would be implemented, and how it could work with other jurisdictions to make sure streets were safe beyond the 9,000-person town’s small borders. Last year’s list included many cities in California, this year, there is much more geographic diversity. “It really speaks to the breadth of what’s happening here,” says Craig Chester, with Smart Growth America. One interesting development, says Seskin, is that more and more policies, such as the one recently created by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, are considering public health as a primary motivation. The growing awareness that transportation can be about promoting active lifestyles, and not just getting from Point A to B, is leading to a broadening of the policy conversation, she says. Another positive change compared to last year is that more policies adopted include specific steps of actions to take,


Prompt: LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin zoomed past $11,000 (£8,185.5) to hit a record high for the sixth day in a row on Wednesday after gaining more than $1,000 in just 12 hours, stoking concerns that a rapidly swelling bubble could be set to burst in spectacular fashion. After soaring more than 1,000 percent since the start of the year, bitcoin rose as much as 15 percent on Wednesday, but by mid-afternoon in New York, the virtual currency was trading at $9,500, down 3.7 percent on the day on Luxembourg-based Bitstamp BTC=BTSP, one of the largest and most liquid cryptocurrency exchanges.

“As many seasoned traders know all too well, anything that rockets higher, tends to fall down faster when the time comes, and the time will come,” James Hughes, chief market analyst at FX broker AxiTrader, said. Bitcoin topped $10,000 for the first time in early Asia trading, before surging above $11,000 less than 12 hours later to reach $11,395. Bitcoin’s rapid ascent has led to countless warnings that it has reached bubble territory. But the warnings have had little effect, with dozens of new crypto-hedge funds entering the market and retail investors piling in. (For a graphic on Bitcoin price rockets, click reut.rs/2zPekGm) London-based Blockchain.info, one of the biggest global bitcoin wallet-providers, told Reuters on Wednesday that it had added a record number of new users on Tuesday, with more than 100,000 customers signing up, taking the total number to more than 19 million. The evidence suggests that few of the users are buying bitcoin to use it as a means of exchange, but are speculating to increase their capital. “What’s happening right now has nothing to do with bitcoin’s functionality as a currency – this is pure mania that’s taken hold,” said Garrick Hileman, a research fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School. Hileman, who last week gave a lecture to the Bank of England on the risks of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, also flagged the risk of the whole market collapsing entirely. “There’s always the possibility that some fundamental cryptographic flaw that we can’t solve craters the whole space, or that regulators unite and decide this represents systemic risk and actually could trigger the next financial crisis,” he said. “EXIT RAMPS” Created in 2008, bitcoin uses encryption and a blockchain database that enables the fast and anonymous transfer of funds outside of a conventional centralised payment


Prompt: So the Fed’s decision to permit high unemployment for an extended period rests on his shoulders. As he has explained many times, the Fed has alternatives. It could announce that it would keep its benchmark rate at zero for a few years, which would probably hold down long-term rates. It could say that it was comfortable with higher inflation for a limited period of time, given how low inflation has been since 2007 and how high unemployment is. Above all, Mr. Bernanke could make clear that he considers years of widespread unemployment to be unacceptable. He has not done so,

and he has yet to offer a satisfying rationale. Instead, he has said that more aggressive action brings risks. And it does. Low interest rates have the potential to spark inflation, by enticing millions of households and businesses to borrow money and causing the economy to overheat. Higher inflation could, among other things, increase borrowing rates for the United States government and worsen the deficit. But it’s worth keeping in mind that just about every decision involves some risk. Simply stating that more aggressive action brings risks is not a good argument against that option. Photo Economists sometimes like to describe choices in terms of a concept known as expected value. The expected value of a decision is the odds of each possible outcome multiplied by the benefit (or cost) of that outcome. If you make an investment that has a 90 percent of breaking even and a 10 percent chance of earning you $5,000, the expected value is $500. Now extend this concept to the Fed’s decision. The consequences of being too aggressive and creating an inflationary spiral are undeniably serious. But the odds still appear quite low. Put the two together, and you get an expected cost that is not high enough to be dictating Fed policy. One of the best guides to future inflation is recent core inflation — that is, inflation excluding food and energy prices, which bounce around a lot and often do not translate into big changes in other prices. Despite the uptick in core inflation, it has still risen at an annual pace of only 2 percent over the last three months. On only a few other occasions over the last 40 years has it been so low. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by


Prompt: by · Every outdoor adventure attracts some type of douchebag that challenges everything you find sacred about the wilderness. This guide won’t help you handle yourself in such situations but it will help you identify the type of douchebags that you may encounter in the wilderness, and give you a fighting chance at heading down the OTHER trail. ID #1 – The Denim Adventurer I’ve found that technical gear is much less important to me than I had previously thought. But there are still limits that I just can’t cross. Denim as adventure wear is one of those. I’ve had

friends join me on the trail wearing their favorite blue jeans. Not one has returned to the trailhead after a big day of hiking without regretting the decision. But occasionally I meet someone on the trail that will comment on my REI Adventures Pants by saying something like “Boy, you wasted your money on those. My jeans can go anywhere your pants go.” While that may true, I am certain that my level of comfort is far greater than theirs. Jeans aren’t wilderness ready. Of course, there is also the performance aspects to be considered. A crazy afternoon downpour may reveal the shortcomings of your pant selection. Denim may not be the worst apparel decision ever but it most certainly isn’t the best one you’ve made, douchebag. ID #2 – The Know-It-All I like to engage other hikers and backpackers on the trail. My wife has concluded that I’m actually a better person when I’m on the trail. But on every adventure I encounter the “been there, done that” guy. You’ve likely crossed paths with someone like this before in the wilderness. You greet each other and he asks where you’re headed. You share your destination, maybe a peak or a backcountry landmark, only to prompt a response like “Yeah, I’ve done that. It’s alright.” I appreciate feedback from those that have gone before me. The response doesn’t necessarily make them a douchebag because not everyone enjoys the same pursuits. Most of the time, I will dismiss the response. But the douchebag label applies if your new “friend” fits into multiple categories from this list. Often, the evidence is just too overwhelming to support reasonable doubt. ID #3 – The Shuttler The National Parks alone spend millions of dollars each year on wilderness rescues. Those in need should be given


Prompt: Mani Shankar Aiyar, who wears his bleeding heart liberalism for all things Pakistan on his sleeve, found himself in a combative situation with an unlikely panelist when he appeared as the guest of a television channel in Islamabad on Thursday. Currently on a private visit to Pakistan, Aiyar perhaps reckoned it would be sweetness and sunshine all the way, given his reputation as a "friend of Pakistan". But he had not counted on the fact that the host of the news program would invite Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, who founded the Lashkar-e-Taiba and masterminded the November 2008 Mumbai terror attack (and

now heads the Jamaat-ud-Dawah, which fronts for the baned LeT) to be his fellow panelist. If that visibly bothered him, Saeed's hate-filled rantings against India rankled even more. Saeed said that he disfavoured the grant of Most Favoured Nation trading status to India, given that there many unresolved issues between the two countries, including - ahem! - Kashmir. Saeed then accused India of not being serious about resolving problems with Pakistan - and said that Indians in general were reluctant to acknowledge the very existence of Pakistan. Aiyar counterjected to claim that he accepted Pakistan "one lakh per cent". Even that mathematical stretch didn't seem adequate, so Aiyar said India did not want Pakistan to be split up or be destroyed. "We want Pakistan to be strong, prosperous and we want friendship with Pakistan. We want to face the world shoulder-to-shoulder with Pakistan and not oppose each other." Aiyar then claimed that Saeed was part of a "small group" that opposed better ties with India, whereas in fact ordinary people in Pakistan wanted relations between the two countries to grow. "There are," he said, "some persons like Hafiz Saeed in our country who do not want things to move forward but thankfully the ordinary people want our ties to improve. We can improve our relations irrespective of what his (Saeed's) opinion is." Watch the episode on YouTube: But the point, Mr Aiyar, is that those who oppose normalisation of relations with Pakistan have a very small expectation of Pakistan: stop sending terrorists into India and setting off bombs in our cities. Give up your blood lust for Kashmir, and your patronage of jihadi snakes that are now turning on their own masters in Pakistan. And unlike Saeed, those in India who want normalisation of relations to be put off until