Prompt: This was my first redditgifts exchange and I couldn't be more pleased! I'd heard stories both good and bad about gifting experiences, but nothing was enough to keep me from the allure of adding to my small but growing pint glass collection! I told my future gifter about my burgeoning craft beer geekery, and specifically asked for something local so that I could get an idea of the beer scene in another part of the US. Hence my excitement when, a few days later, a large box was on its way from pretty much the other side of the country

- and my gifter told me that he'd specifically tried to adhere to my wishes. Woot! I was expecting the box on Friday, and literally kept peeking out the door of my apartment to see if something was waiting for me in the lobby. Finally at 6pm I had to leave my house for the weekend, so of course the tracking info now tells me it was delivered at 6:20. Ohh, UPS. But never fear! I returned home on Sunday to find an expertly packaged box, which originally looked to be comprised exclusively of packing peanuts, but was actually full of awesome instead! I opened everything too quickly to get unpacking pictures, but attached to the box was a note from my gifter telling me to enjoy some of his favorite local beers. Wait, there's beer in here?! Must. Open. Box. Faster. First out was a sweet pint glass from Stone Brewing - a personal fave that I've yet to visit, but I will be sure to enjoy some Stone out of this new glass! It was promptly added to my pint shelf (see photos) for maximum show-offage. Then - holy crap - a six pack! 2 cans each of three different local IPAs from my gifter's home of NM. Included were (from left in the pic) La Cumbre Elevated IPA, Santa Fe Brewing Happy Camper IPA, and Marble Brewery's Marble IPA. Marble is the only one of these I'd even heard of before, but being on the East Coast means I have three new beers to try! I'm already planning a lovely evening with the SO where we will smoke cigars and enjoy some IPAs. Also now I know that NM has some serious brewing going on! Thank you so much to my amazing gifter (with a very cool


Prompt: 0 It’s finally happening. The long-awaited, oft speculated, seemingly impossible ‘Evil Dead 4’ is actually happening – it’s just coming in the form of a TV series. In the picturesque town of Auckland, New Zealand director Sam Raimi, producer Rob Tapert and star Bruce Campbell are rolling cameras on Ash Vs. Evil Dead, the Starz TV series that has allowed the creative trio to further the demonic misadventures of their cult hero, Ash Williams. Hail to the king, baby. Yesterday afternoon, I jumped on the phone for a conference call with Raimi, Tapert and Campbell to chat about diving back

in to their beloved franchise and get some details on what fans can expect from this new incarnation of the Evil Dead universe. They shared a ton of great info, but before we get into that, check out this first look image at the guys reuinited with ‘The Classic’ – the 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Ash drove in the Evil Dead films (and which has appeared in almost all of Raimi’s films to date). Without further ado, here are the 23 things you should know about Ash Vs. Evil Dead: The series takes place in an alternate universe that exists after Evil Dead 2. In Raimi’s words, “ It doesn’t really exist in the exact same universe. It’s a slightly altered universe. It takes place somewhere in an alternate universe after Evil Dead 2.” In Raimi’s words, “ So does that mean Army of Darkness is stricken from the timeline? Not exactly. Raimi explained (kind of), “ Army of Darkness, does it exist? Well, certainly Ash went through that experience. W e’re not referencing specifics from that, but he certainly has that in his memory.” Raimi explained (kind of), “ Ash Vs. Evil Dead will feature new Deadite designs, and entirely new entities altogether. According to Tapert, “We certainly will play to what we once did with D eadites , even through the remake, but we’re trying to expand the universe…We will encounter Deadites , which are very different from other forces of nature out there, and then we expose the audience to new entities that were not yet presented in the Evil Dead universe. According to Tapert, The action takes place in the modern day. Raimi said, “It takes place in the here and now with Ash thirty years later; what he’s become and what he’s going to have


Prompt: A drawing shows a woman having her arm prepared for minor surgery. (Print by Abraham Bosse via National Library of Medicine) What’s the best way to treat prostate cancer? What are the benefits and risks of different rehabilitation options for survivors of stroke? Unfortunately, the answer to these and similar questions often is: Nobody knows. The United States spends $3 trillion annually on health care — much of it funded by taxpayers through programs such as Medicare — yet only a limited amount of information exists about what treatments work best for which patients. Although estimates vary, some experts think

that less than half of all medical care is based on clear scientific evidence. The good news is that the federal government is now making a significant investment in health services and patient-centered outcomes research to identify waste and improve the safety, effectiveness and quality of care. The bad news is that House Republicans are trying to abolish one of the main agencies carrying out this research, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and cut the funding of another, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). The puzzle is why. One possible reason is that Republicans oppose taxpayer funding of all scientific research as a matter of principle. Yet the same House Appropriations Committee draft bill that targets health services research also provides a $1.1 billion increase in the budget of the National Institutes of Health. A second possible reason is that Republicans are uninterested in evidence-based policymaking. But both Democrats and Republicans argue that better information is needed to make government more effective. For example, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) recently introduced the Evidence-Based Policymaking Commission Act of 2015 to evaluate the effectiveness of federal programs. What makes the situation even more perplexing is that evidence-based medicine has a solid Republican pedigree. Perhaps the most important advocate of an increased federal role in paying for research on the clinical effectiveness of treatments has been Gail R. Wilensky, a Republican economist who served as George H.W. Bush’s Medicare director. In 2008, former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) published an op-ed with Billy Beane, the “Moneyball“ general manager of the Oakland A’s, and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) in which they lamented that “a doctor today can get more data on the starting third baseman on his fantasy baseball team than on the effectiveness of life-and-death


Prompt: Sevilla FC 4-0 GNK Dinamo Sevilla dominated against the Croatian champions Dinamo, with the confidence that comes from having won every home game this season. They found it tough at first, but slowly the chances came. Steven N’Zonzi’s glanced header was pushed on to the crossbar and soon after birthday-boy Vitolo had a goal-bound header hacked over the bar. Sevilla coach Jorge Sampaoli was his usual animated presence on the touchline until Franco Vazquez found Luciano Vietto in the area. The Argentine worked an opening and from a narrow angle fired home in the 31st minute. It was his first

goal in the Champions League this season and made him the club’s top scorer with five in all competitions. When Dinamo’s Petar Stojanovic picked up a second yellow card just before halftime it left Sevilla utterly dominant. Sergio Escudero doubled the lead in the 66th minute, driving into area off the left flank, playing a one-two with Vitolo and burying a shot inside the far post. N’Zonzi grabbed a third with a header from a corner and at the end substitute Wissam Ben Yedder rounded off the scoring at the back. The victory left Sevilla top of Group H with 10 points, two ahead of second-placed Juventus. Legia Warsaw 3-3 Real Madrid Real Madrid had the lion’s share of the chances but were unable to capitalise on their dominance as they were held to a hard-fought 3-3 draw by Legia Warsaw. Madrid took the lead after just 57 seconds when Gareth Bale spectacularly volleyed in from outside the area, the club’s fastest-ever goal in the Champions League. Zidane’s side dominated play from that moment on and extended their lead in the 35th minute when Karim Benzema slotted home Bale’s pass from inside the box. Legia fought back, however, and halved the deficit before half-time thanks to Vadis Odjidja’s nicely-taken solo effort. The second half was a very open affair with chances at both ends but it was Legia who struck first, Miroslav Radovic shooting low into the bottom corner to equalise just before the hour mark. Real Madrid continued to apply the pressure but the hosts took a dramatic late lead in the 83rd minute through Thibault Moulin’s neat finish from the edge of the box. The stage was set for a famous win but Mateo Kovacic drew Real Madrid level just two minutes later, ensuring that the visitors took


Prompt: (Twitter/Dan Scavino Jr.) The former security guard from rural Illinois walked into a tent behind the Lincoln Memorial and gave a bear hug to the man who would soon become the most powerful leader in the world. “Hey, Donald Trump,” said Shane Bouvet, with all the casualness of a 24-year-old. The president-elect beamed back: “This is the greatest guy.” The unlikely meeting occurred after Trump said he read a profile of Bouvet in The Washington Post and was impressed by his story. Bouvet, a struggling single father, had spent nights working and days volunteering on Trump’s unlikely presidential campaign. The

volunteer efforts earned Bouvet an invite to an inaugural ball. But just weeks ago he was unsure he could pay for a proper suit and shoes to wear for the festivities. A friend stepped in and bought a suit and got the shoes donated. Now, improbably, it was the night before the swearing-in and Bouvet had picked his way past the Secret Service and was hanging out with the president-elect, top Trump advisers Reince Priebus and Stephen K. Bannon and the first-lady-to-be Melania Trump. The meeting occurred in a holding room just minutes before Trump was to take the stage for pre-inauguration concert at the Lincoln Memorial. Tears welled in Bouvet’s eyes. Trump signed an autograph for Bouvet. Then, they decided to call Bouvet’s father in Stonington, Ill. [In donated suit and shoes, a Trump supporter comes to Washington] “Hey, Dad,” Bouvet said with the call on speakerphone. “I’m with Donald Trump.” “Hey, Don, you have a great name,” Trump laughed, complimenting Bouvet’s father on the name they shared. “You have a good boy.” Donald Trump and Shane Bouvet from Illinois, in Washington on Thursday. (Justin Jouvenal/The Washington Post) After the call, Trump signed an autograph for Bouvet’s 4-year-old son. Trump asked Bouvet if he was still with the mother of his child. Bouvet said no, and the thrice-married Trump said, “That happens.” Then he looked at the autographs he had scribbled, and made a prediction: “After that, she’ll have you back. You’ll be a great celebrity.” Eventually, Trump and his staff posed for photographs with Bouvet and offered him a round of applause. At the end, Trump put his hand on Bouvet’s back and told an aide, “Send him a check for $10,000.” Bouvet broke down and cried. With that and a round of goodbyes, an aide ushered Bouvet


Prompt: In 1969 Senator Ted Kennedy recognized via the success of Medicare that the only rational solution to our challenges with health care was to offer it as an option for everyone. Indeed, he spent most of his career fighting for Single Payer, which is why I was quite confused when Democrats hailed the passing of Obamacare as the fulfillment of the Senator’s legacy. Obamacare is not single payer. It is not even universal health care. Obamacare is largely an insurance mandate that preserves the status quo and enriches the pockets of insurers and drug companies. More and more people are

finding that they can not afford insurance even with the subsidies Obamacare provides and in many cases the plans’ deductibles are so high that the insurance is rendered useless. I bet that if Senator Kennedy were alive today he would be disappointed in Democrats for reaching for so little when they had a presidential mandate and control of both houses of Congress. Now, buoyed by extreme popularity during the 2016 election cycle and the failure by the GOP to provide an alternative, Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced his Medicare for All bill with a bevy of noteworthy co-sponsors. Nearly all of the Democratic 2020 hopefuls have signed on to co-sponsor the bill and there is a similar bill making its way through the House. And, all of this is great but the fact still remains that Democrats are in the minority in Congress and do not control the White House. Trump has pledged to veto the bill if it were to pass, a myopic pledge considering his recent willingness to do deals with Congressional Democrats. So, he is willing to alienate his base over DACA, the debt ceiling and the budget, but not to fulfill an actual campaign promise of universal health care? If the Trump administration were to do a little research they would discover that Single Payer is not only wildly popular on our side, but also becoming more popular everyday on his side. I remind you that Vox found in a health care focus group of Trump voters that half of the participants preferred Single Payer- a system like Canada’s as they put it. Various members of the Alt-Right have called for Single Payer, advisors who are supposedly close to Trump have called for Single Payer and most importantly Single Payer would be of huge benefit to


Prompt: Get the biggest Aston Villa FC stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email Coach Shay Given has tipped Jack Grealish for a bright future – but warned Villa and Ireland not to demand too much too soon from the teenage rookie. Grealish made his senior debut in the claret and blues’ penultimate match of last season and hopes to be a regular member in the first-team squad next term. Given believes Grealish has the potential to star for club and country,

providing there are realistic expectations of what he is initially capable of. The 18-year-old winger helped keep Notts County in League One during an encouraging season-long loan before making his Villa bow with a two-minute cameo in the 4-0 defeat at Manchester City last month. Ireland manager Martin O’Neill has already watched Grealish in action with a view to possibly promoting the under-21 star to the senior squad for his first full cap. And Roy Keane’s imminent arrival as Villa’s assistant manager will give Grealish an opportunity to regularly impress the international coach at Bodymoor Heath each day. Given, whose future at Villa remains uncertain, reckons Grealish is ready for more action with Villa next season, but is concerned the start of Ireland’s Euro 2016 qualifying campaign in September could come too soon for him. “Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane have been going to the games, but they haven’t found too many new players,” said Given. “They have a real talent in Jack Grealish. He was in our last couple of squads for the end of the season at Villa and he never looked out of place. “But he is still very young and you wouldn’t want to be pinning your hopes for the European Championships on a teenager. He has a big future and hopefully he will get more games at Villa next season. “He is one for the future, but September is too soon for him.” Given, who was promoted to a coaching role in Paul Lambert’s backroom team towards the end of last season, is keeping his options open about his future at the club. With Keane expected to be confirmed as Lambert’s assistant manager this week, Given, who has two years left on his contract, could be free to concentrate on reviving his playing career, at


Prompt: Australia has had an active civil space program since 1947 but has much to learn if it is to capture a bigger share of growing billion dollar global space industry. The potential size and scope of the Australian space sector compares well against several other space nations, notably the United Kingdom and Canada. But both those nations have more effective space sectors that are centrally administered by a single government body, whereas Australia space activities are not strategically managed by a central entity. In particular the UK has recently adopted an agency approach to managing civil space activities, after decades

of committee administration. There are lessons for Australia in the approach that the UK took in creating its agency. Australia’s space exploits Australian civil space activities are currently overseen by the Department of Industry’s Space Coordination Office (SCO), which last year replaced the Space Policy Unit. The SCO is tasked with coordinating all of Australia’s national and international civil space activities. Working in conjunction with the SCO is the Space Licensing and Safety Office (SLASO) which implements regulatory and safety regimes for space activities within Australia or involving Australian contributions in international programs. The SCO drafted the Satellite Utilisation Policy, Australia’s most recent space-focused government policy. Its original intent was to develop a policy that will: […] articulate a comprehensive national space strategy and facilitate better coordination of space activities across Government. But the realised policy falls short of being a space policy, as it considers only the use of space-derived data in the Australian context. It does however highlight Australia’s dependency on internationally provided space data (for weather forecasting, land management and position and navigation services). It also hints at Australia’s vulnerability in securing the continuation of these services, as most are provided free through time-limited international agreements. These government bodies exist to facilitate the activities in space of outside parties. They do not initiate or manage space programs in their own right, and have no capacity to sponsor such programs. Our failings in space Australia’s approach to space activities is passive and regulatory. It does nothing to create or grow them to take advantage of new opportunities. In fact, this passive strategy may even put off Australian efforts to keep up with international competition. There are two basic areas of the space sector where Australia is failing: strategic oversight and development of nationally important space services strategic investment


Prompt: China's top judicial authorities on Tuesday issued a new judicial interpretation for laws on criminal cases related to environmental pollution in an effort to address pollution problems with harsher punishment on polluters. The interpretation, which was jointly released by China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) and Supreme People's Procuratorate, effective Wednesday, offers detailed standards for the conviction and sentencing of criminals involved in environmental cases. SPC spokesman Sun Jungong said at a press conference in Beijing Tuesday that the latest interpretation, with lower benchmarks for convictions, would help with the work of judges as it is more precise and practical, compared

with the previous one released in 2006. The interpretation lowers some benchmarks for conviction, which, Sun said, means more polluters will be targeted. The document lists that a person can be convicted if he or she is responsible for pollution that seriously injures a person, while the previous benchmark stated that the pollution had to have resulted in death. Pollution activities which force the evacuation of over 5,000 people or poison more than 30 people will be defined as crimes, according to the new interpretation. The latest interpretation has added new activities as criteria for the crime of impairing the protection of the environment and resources. For instance, discharging, dumping or treating radioactive waste or waste containing infectious disease pathogens or toxic substances into sources of drinking water and nature reserves will be considered as such a crime. Sun explained that the new criteria would convict the offenders not only for the damage they do but also for the practice of polluting. According to China's Criminal Law, those convicted of such crimes will face a maximum prison term of seven years plus fines. "This is a sign of progress of the Chinese judiciary in fighting against environmental pollution, as it can help to prevent pollution from the beginning by giving potential polluters a warning," Wang Jin, an environmental law professor with Peking University, told the Global Times on Tuesday. The document lists that those who discharged hazardous substances repeatedly after having received administrative punishments more than twice within two years could be considered as breaching criminal laws. Wang said such criteria could be regarded as a supplement to the current administrative punishment, which mainly includes fines and warnings by local environmental authorities. China's law did not have a clear stipulation of what activities could result in such criminal charges, said


Prompt: Though Daum didn’t have a booth at this year’s E3, I managed to snag some time with Black Desert PR/Marketing Manager Rick van Beem. Given some of the recent rumblings about delayed content and PvP changes, I thought it was a good opportunity to learn about how the publisher feels about current game events. Serving two kinds of customers I don’t personally play BDO regularly, not because I think it’s a bad game — in fact, I usually gravitate toward PvP-oriented sandboxes — but because the original PvP game pitched made decisions that made it less appealing to me. I

don’t fault the game with that, and I still think it has some interesting sounding features, but balancing the different tastes isn’t easy. The recent karma changes in PvP perfectly highlight that difficulty. BDO‘s death penalty never seemed very harsh to me, but that’s because I’m used to much worse; my first PvP experiences in an MMO resulted in lost items, stats, and having to find my way back to my friends and hunting spot. I assumed that in light of the big new PvP content, the developers wanted to curb player actions from random killing to something a bit more structured, but apparently the two are unrelated. Van Beem’s admittedly “more of a solo player doing quests and crafting” than a PvPer, but he’s still enjoying the game for what it is. He also mentioned that solo PvE play is also what a lot of his customers live and die for and that while being killed while AFK is part of the nature of the game, so is being AFK in the first place. In fact, Van Beem tossed out the idea that maybe the game should protect AFKers, especially as the game already has systems that promote AFK play, such as auto-running to your quest location and auto fishing. I’ll let you readers hash that out in the comments, but for the love of sand, try to keep it clean. Lessons learned I spoke a bit with Van Beem about what the studio has learned with its first launch in the west. First, for those who aren’t aware: Daum actually works more with Pearl Abyss than with its Korean counterpart in terms of localization, though the two still share different strategies and ideas. Daum EU can give suggestions, and Pearl Abyss is listening, but at the end of


Prompt: But the woman was found not guilty of another charge of making false accusations. Several other charges were dropped by the prosecution during the July trial, and the woman pleaded guilty to possessing a prohibited weapon; capsicum spray. The man, then a guard at Alexander Maconochie Centre, spent about four months locked up in Goulburn jail after the woman alleged he had bashed and sexually assaulted her twice. But police became suspicious when she then made allegations about his family members, including that they had attacked and burgled her. In one incident, she triggered a duress alarm and claimed to

have been run off the road and attacked with a knife. She showed police a superficial cut on her hand as evidence of the violent confrontation. Police went to the scene and discovered a steak knife that matched a set the defendant had at her home. She was put under covert surveillance, and police found evidence to suggest she had been lying about her ex-boyfriend's family. In another incident, she claimed the family had burgled her home and stolen her iPad. The tablet computer was found on the verge in front of the family home the next day, but a check of a GPS tracker on the woman's car showed she had visited the property the previous evening. CCTV footage mounted near her home showed the family had not been to her property. Officers then re-investigated other allegations she had made in the past, finding the woman had accused a friend's father of sexually assaulting her in 2008. She was under the age of 18 at the time of the alleged false accusation, and the court suppressed her name as a result. During the trial, the prosecution argued the motive for the deception had been greed, as the pair had been locked in a family court dispute over property at the time of the allegations. In making her findings, Ms Walker agreed that greed could have driven the behaviour, but also said revenge, after being dumped by the man, and attention seeking behaviour could also be a factor. Upon the findings of guilt, prosecutor Anthony Williamson applied to have the woman's bail revoked. Mr Williamson argued the woman was a flight risk as she now faced a stint behind bars. But defence lawyer, Michael Kukulies-Smith, said his client had no history of breaching bail and the risk could be managed


Prompt: “There is no right answer. Cream or jam is fine.” So says 34-year-old Tingting He, in answer to the question of which to spread on the scone first in a British cream tea. It’s a relief to learn that I haven’t been doing the wrong thing all my life. We’re in the Essex tea room of an upmarket British jam maker and on the table before us is a plate of fluffy scones, a bowl of clotted cream and miniature jars of strawberry jam. Tingting may be Shanghainese but she’s giving me a lesson in the British tradition of afternoon

tea. As brand ambassador for Tiptree Farm she delivers the same lecture in China’s top hotels. Her home country may claim to be a communist state, but it has a healthy appetite for the branding and rituals of the British ruling class. Tingting brings Chinese buyers for a tour of the Tiptree fruit farm. Tingting He and Carrie Gracie “It’s refreshing for them. They’re paying for the countryside with the birds singing. There are lots of rumours about Chinese food sources, so the quality gives them peace of mind. And also they know the Royal Family has issued us with a royal warrant. That gives them another level of security.” It’s easy to see why Chinese visitors might enjoy the tour. Tiptree exported its first jar of jam in the late 19th Century and still has some of the rambling walled gardens and ancient orchards of that era. Inside the jam factory, the scent of simmering strawberries gives way to a hot wave of orange marmalade. And then the heady spices of the Christmas pudding room. Tingting says she loves the tradition of setting light to the brandy. She thinks she can sell Christmas puddings in China. People like something festive, a good gift over Christmas or Chinese Spring Festival. It’s special, unique. They’re very curious and open-minded.” British food is not fabled in China. But on a state visit to the UK in 2015 the Chinese president was filmed eating fish and chips. And walking between pallets piled high with jams and chutneys, Tingting is excited about China’s new breed of gastronomic adventurers. “The more they read and travel and encompass different food cultures, the more they try new things. Blueberry jam is something they are willing to try. Cheese and redcurrant jelly. At the start they found it


Prompt: Andrew Cohen, PhD (right) and Eric Wait (left), are giving microbiologists an interactive look at the cells they're studying. For hundreds of years biologists have studied cells through the lens of a microscope. With a little help from a team of engineers at Drexel University, these scientists could soon be donning 3-D glasses in a home-theater-like lab to take their own fantastic voyage into the petri dish. Dr. Andrew Cohen, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering in the College of Engineering, is leading a group of researchers who are developing software and hardware that will enable biologists to

better track and study the movement and multiplication of cells. Their goal is to enhance the current visual data that these scientists are working with so that it’s easier to identify changes in cells over time –information that is key to studying the abnormal cell proliferation that causes cancer and also to using stem cells in regenerative medicine. “This type of imaging is so important because it allows us to see and measure relationships between cells and their environment,” Cohen said. Cohen, whose background includes developing operating systems support for computer games, has developed a program called LEVER –short for Lineage Editing and Validation program- that can identify, tag and track live cells, capturing patterns of motion and cell division, using sequences of microscopic time-lapse images. His work was recently published in the journal BMC Bioinformatics. Typically the process of tracking cell lineage over time requires biologists to watch the time-lapse images and note by hand when the cells multiply –creating a graphic representation of cell division over time called a “lineage tree.” It can take a researcher several tedious hours to create a tree. The LEVER software lets the researcher work with the computer to delineate cells, color code them and denote the exact moment of their division. LEVER is easier and more accurate than processing the data manually and also provides more data than what can be obtained by hand. “It’s like Photoshop for cell biologists,” Cohen said. “The software outlines cells and blood vessels, keeping track of them as they’re dividing and moving around one another. This provides a wealth of information on the patterns of cell shape, motion and division. Visualization of the 3-D microscopy data together with the analysis results is a key step to measure and ultimately understand what drives these cells.” With an


Prompt: Nick Friedell looks at each player on the Chicago Bulls roster and how they fit in for the future. Jimmy Butler played 221 out of a possible 240 minutes in the Heat series. Dennis Wierzbicki/USA TODAY Sports 2012-13 salary: $1,066,920 | Age: 23 | Season stats: 8.6 ppg, 4.0 rpg Season recap: After struggling to find a consistent place in Tom Thibodeau's rotation for the first couple months of his second season, Butler flourished toward the middle of January when Luol Deng went down with a hamstring injury. By the end of the season, Butler was being counted on to

play 48 minutes a night and be a defensive presence for a Bulls team that advanced to the second round of the playoffs. In a short span, Butler has become revered in Chicago for his work ethic and has quickly become an integral part of the organization's future. He has worked hard on his jump shot over the past year and has become much more consistent from beyond the arc. He is also one of the most solid defenders on the team and is routinely counted on to slow down the other team's best player, especially when Deng is on the mend. Season highlight: Butler had 21 points and 14 rebounds and played solid defense on LeBron James for 48 minutes in a surprising Game 1 win over the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Butler played 221 out of a possible 240 minutes in the Heat series. Season lowlight: Butler scored just four points and missed two crucial free throws in the waning seconds in a loss to the Dallas Mavericks on March 31. He was just 1-for-8 from the field in 44 minutes. Final grades: Regular Season: B Postseason: B+ Notes: The Bulls don't want to move Butler, especially given that he has a couple more years on his rookie deal before an extension is likely hammered out, but he has become one of the team's most valuable assets. The Bulls don't want to move him but they would if it was part of a package that brought another star to Chicago. Quotes: "It brings a smile to my face, obviously," Butler said in April of being a possible two-guard of the future. "But I try not to get too caught up in the future because it's not promised. You never know what could happen. Right now


Prompt: The article was written by Ayush Singh Tip Ranks #4 Financial Blogger – Senior Analyst at I Know First. NXP Semiconductors Stock Apple suppliers like NXP Semiconductor have struggled over the last few months. Apple suppliers like NXP Semiconductor have struggled over the last few months. The risks of falling iPhone sales are blown out of proportion. NXP Semiconductor has a diversified business model that’ll offset the drop in iPhone sales. The growth and potential of connected cars make NXP Semiconductor undervalued. I Know First has a bullish view for NXPI stock movement for the mid and long term. Due

to the falling year over year sales of the iPhone 6S, Apple suppliers have taken a beating this year. Most Apple suppliers are down considerably from their 52-week high levels and NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) is no exception to it. NXP Semiconductor is trading about 30% lower from its all-time highs and although the stock has struggled recently, it has fared better than many other peers. I think shares of NXP Semiconductor are undervalued, which is why I think investors should consider adding it to their potfolio.s An amazing performance NXP Semiconductors is the largest rival of STMicro. In 2015, the company had gone through a trifling drop of around 17 percent. (Source: NXPI data by YCharts) However, the company faced nearly the same headwinds which knocked down STMicro, but it grumbled up by acquiring opponent chipmaker Freescale previous year. By acquiring Freescale, the company became one of the biggest manufacturers of automotive electronics worldwide. In 2015, the company’s automotive sales, including the first month of Freescale, surged 17 percent on a yearly basis and accounted for 22 percent of its revenue. The company still anticipates that percentage to reach approximately 36 percent throughout the first quarter this year, and it could turn into a major growth engine as sales of connected cars increases. Sales of protected interface and organization, high-performance assorted signal devices, and secure connected cars all displayed huge sales growth the previous year. Since sales of connected cars are expected to sky rocket in the future, I think NXP Semiconductor is currently undervalued. (Source: Business Insider) Just before closing NXP’s acquisition of Freescale, the company had projected all those sales to post y-o-y drops. Moreover, the joined company’s huge size could allow it to exploit economies of scale to destabilize less significant competitors like STMicro. Consensus forecasts that


Prompt: Sometimes, a bra can look too small when it fits well, because the strip of fabric/elastic under the top of the lace is too tight across the top of the breast. European bras, in particular are nearly infamous for this. If you have firm breast tissue, your breasts will fight against the elastic and shape the bra. Not all of us are that lucky. Soft tissue molds to the shape of the bra, so the elastic pulls down over the top of the breast. If the bra is not a full coverage style, it will not sit against the breastbone,

but actually against the breast tissue, causing the breasts to bulge out of the top of the bra and give the appearance of a bra that is too small. This seam is put in place to pull the top of the cup closer to the chest and prevent the bust from spilling out. That’s probably just fine for someone who is predominantly full on bottom, but someone with a more even or full on top shape will run into this problem pretty consistently in European bras, so I’m going to talk about how to fix that. Tools You’ll Need: 1 seam ripper & 1 pair of scissors. Seriously, that’s it. Difficulty Level: Easy. Seriously, a well behaved toddler could do it. The bra I will be performing this alteration on is the Samanta Hana (A122 cut) in 70I. Samanta is a Polish brand, and I will refrain from discussing the finer points of the style in detail, as the brand has already been broken down quite well by Miss Underpinnings, but I will say for the purpose of this post that I would refer to this as a mesh balconette. As you can see above, the bra looks too small on close up. I’m clearly bulging out the top of the cup. If you look closely at the top center, you can even see my bust trying to escape through the gaps in the lace. What may not be obvious in photographs is that there is actually plenty of room in this cup for me, but the top of the cup is being pulled down very tightly across the top of my breast, causing me to quadboob even though the bra actually fits. This is the problem: This seam is slightly elastic, and so makes the top of the cup


Prompt: Tropical peat swamp forests, which once occupied large swaths of Southeast Asia and other areas, provided a significant “sink” that helped remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But such forests have been disappearing fast due to clear-cutting and drainage projects making way for plantations. Now, research shows peatlands face another threat, as climate change alters rainfall patterns, potentially destroying even forested peatlands that remain undrained. The net result is that these former carbon sinks, which have taken greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere, are now net carbon sources, instead accelerating the planet’s warming. The findings are described this week in

the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, in a paper by MIT Professor Charles Harvey, research scientist Alexander Cobb, and seven others at MIT and other institutions. “There is a tremendous amount of peatland in Southeast Asia, but almost all of it has been deforested,” says Harvey, who is a professor of civil and environmental engineering and has been doing research on that region for several years. Once deforested and drained, the peatland dries out, and the organic (carbon-containing) soil oxidizes and returns to the atmosphere. Sometimes the exposed peat can actually catch fire and burn for extended periods, causing massive clouds of air pollution. Tropical peatlands may contain as much carbon as the amount consumed in nearly a decade of global fossil fuel use, and raging peat fires in Indonesia alone have been estimated in some years to contribute 10 to 40 percent as much greenhouse gas to the atmosphere as all the world’s fossil fuel burning. Tropical peatlands, unlike those in temperate zones that are dominated by sphagnum moss, are forested with trees that can tower to 150 feet, and peat fires can sometimes ignite forest fires that consume these as well. (Peat that gets buried and compressed underground is the material that ultimately turns to coal). Harvey and his team have found one of the last undisturbed tropical peat forests, in the nation of Brunei on the island of Borneo. “We found this site that still has peat growing,” he says, partly because that petroleum-rich nation has been able to resist the economic draw of the palm-oil market. “It is remarkable how much the peat forests are just gone everywhere else.” By studying this undisturbed tract, he says, the researchers were able to see how peatlands function under normal conditions, to provide a baseline for


Prompt: Many plastic products contain hazardous chemicals that can leach to the surroundings. In studies conducted at the University of Gothenburg, a third of the tested plastic products released toxic substances, including 5 out of 13 products intended for children. "Considering how common plastic products are, how quickly the production of plastic has increased and the amount of chemicals that humans and the environment are exposed to, it is important to replace the most hazardous substances in plastic products with less hazardous alternatives," says Delilah Lithner of the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at the University of Gothenburg. Plastics exist

in many different chemical compositions and are widespread in the society and the environment. Global annual production of plastics has doubled over the past 15 years, to 245 million tonnes in 2008. The plastic polymers are not regarded as toxic, but there may be toxic residual chemicals, chemical additives and degradation products in the plastic products that can leach out as they are not bound to the plastic polymer. Plastics also cause many waste problems. In her research, Lithner studied the toxicity of 83 randomly selected plastic products and synthetic textiles. The newly purchased products were leached in pure (deionised) water for 1-3 days. The acute toxicity of the water was then tested using water fleas (Daphnia magna). "A third of all the 83 plastic products and synthetic chemicals that were tested released substances that were acutely toxic to the water fleas, despite the leaching being mild. Five out of 13 products that were intended for children were toxic, for example bath toys and buoyancy aids such as inflatable armbands," says Delilah Lithner. The products that resulted in toxic water were soft to semi-soft products made from plasticised PVC or polyurethane, as well as epoxy products and textiles made from various plastic fibres. The toxicity was mainly caused by fat-soluble organic substances. Lithner also studied the chemicals used to make around 50 different plastic polymers and has identified the plastic polymers for which the most hazardous chemicals are used. They were then ranked on the basis of the environmental and health hazard classifications that exist for the chemicals. Examples of plastic polymers made from the most hazardous chemicals are certain polyurethanes, polyacrylonitriles, PVC, epoxy and certain styrene copolymers. The results are of great benefit for further assessing environmental and health risks associated with plastic materials. The thesis Environmental and health


Prompt: My husband and I have long joked that he is more feminist than I. When Sara Hurwitz was first ordained as Maharat, he was much more comfortable with the idea of female clergy than I was. I have never felt an urge to wear a tallit or tefillin. I did not like some of the changes instituted by my former rabbi to increase the role of women in formal ritual, because I felt it served a broader agenda rather than reflected the wishes of female congregants. I was skeptical of R' Avi Weiss and YCT's claims of 'open orthodoxy' because

some of the ideas being generated by that institution seemed to push change simply for the sake of change. It seemed to me at the time that YCT's leadership was overly aggressive and unnecessarily alienating much of the established Orthodox world. In a way, I was proud of being un-feminist (not anti-feminist), because I was truly comfortable in both my femininity and my religious observance.I should clarify that I never had an issue with the idea of women wearing tallit or tefillin in non-Orthodox services. The bulk of my objections were not halachic. The neighborhood I lived in had one Orthodox shul, one Conservative, two Reform, and possibly more that I'm forgetting. It bothered me that women who might feel more comfortable than I would in a Conservative or Reform minyan would come to an Orthodox one and wear a tallit. It seemed disrespectful. After all, I would not go into a church and loudly proclaim that I do not believe in Jesus. So why must someone come into my holy space and proclaim that they don't share my beliefs?I don't feel that way anymore. The two largest influences have been motherhood, and recent statements by Orthodox institutions and individuals.First, on motherhood. I rarely get to daven anymore, and when I do, at least half my attention is on the clock, because it is inevitably almost time for one of my kids to eat, nap, or go to the potty. Or I'm distracted because I'm expecting my older son to come looking for me. My children take up my mental space even when they don't need anything. So I deeply envy any woman who can daven with true kevana. I still don't have a desire to wear tallit or tefillin, but I admire the dedication and devotion of the women


Prompt: The average Australian city is home to 32 threatened species, according to a study recently published in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography. “The finding was surprising because we generally write off cities as ‘lost causes’ when it comes to conservation,” says Pia Lentini, a research fellow at the University of Melbourne’s School of Biosciences and a member of the study team. “We tend to imagine that threatened species are only found in far away national parks or remote areas.” Not so, Lentini and her colleagues found. In fact their study, the first continent-scale analysis of threatened species and cities,

suggests that urban areas are disproportionately rich in threatened species compared to non-urban areas. The researchers compiled data on the distribution of Australia’s 1,643 land-dwelling threatened species, including 1,215 plants and 428 animals. They compared these maps to the locations of Australia’s 99 cities that have more than 10,000 residents. They found that 503 threatened species, or 30 percent of the total, have distributions that overlap with urban areas. This includes 25 percent of listed plants and 46 percent of listed animals – species like the koala, grey-headed flying fox, swift parrot, Carnaby’s black cockatoo, green and gold bell frog, and lots of orchids. Some species are heavily dependent on urban habitat, in fact. For 51 of the species, at least 30 percent of their range falls within urban areas. And eight threatened species, all plants, are entirely confined to cities. For example, the Nielsen Park she-oak is found only within metropolitan Sydney, and the fringed spider-orchid only in a rapidly developing part of Melbourne. Each Australian city contains a different suite of threatened species. About half of the species, or 258, are found in only one city each. But all 99 of the cities are known or likely to be home to at least one threatened animal, and 88 of them are known or likely to harbor threatened plants. Sydney contains the most threatened species, with 124 found there. Even more striking, the researchers found that acre for acre, urban areas contain more threatened species than do non-urban areas, leading them to dub cities “hotspots” for threatened species. As an extra test of this finding, the researchers also created “dummy” cities equivalent in area and in the same bioregion as each of the 99 real cities. True cities contain more threatened species than dummy cities, they found. In some


Prompt: HBO’s comedy “Silicon Valley” makes fun of the way even boring startup tech companies adopt the same mission statement: “To make the world a better place.” But serial entrepreneur and former Microsoft executive Alex Garden isn’t shy about stating his new company’s path to making the world a better place—through pizza. It’s not just any pizza, though. Zume pizzas are made by robots, and they’re cooked in pizza ovens inside delivery trucks. Alex Garden (right) treats me to the finished product. More “One of the founding principles of this company is that every American has a right to a healthy

meal they can afford,” he told me. “If you look at pizza, what is it? It’s high-quality bread, and high-quality organic vegetables, and meats and cheeses. All of these things are things that are good for you in moderation. And the number of calories really is a function of how much sugar is in the food. Zume Pizza is half the calories per slice, roughly half the cholesterol and half the fat, of any of the national leading chains.” How? “The main reason is sugar,” says Garden, whose pizzas range in price from $10 for a cheese to $20 for a pineapple express. “We don’t put any extra sugar in the sauce. We don’t put any extra sugar in the dough. And we let our dough age for 24 hours; during that process, the fermentation of the dough further reduces the sugar in it.” He also has much to say about where he gets his ingredients—directly from the providers, without the warehouses and distribution channels that, say, Pizza Hut (YUM) or Domino’s (DPZ) employ. He uses software—predictive algorithms—to know what he’ll need when. He makes his sausage and tomato sauce in-house. But that’s not the most headline-grabbing feature of Zume pizza, which was founded in 2015 and currently delivers in Mountain View, California, and surrounding areas. The biggest feature is the robots. The robots Inside the Zume kitchen, robots are displacing more human workers every passing month. These days, one robot presses out the dough into the familiar flattened circle; a second and third (Pepe and Giorgio) squirt tomato sauce or white sauce onto each pie; a fourth (Marta) spreads the sauce around (“perfectly, but not too perfectly,” Garden says). Humans apply the toppings, but then a fourth machine (Bruno) scoops up the pizza from the conveyor belt and delicately


Prompt: Get Answers Select a school, and find out more about its practices: Select school Abilene Christian University Agnes Scott College University of Akron University of Alabama University of Alabama–Birmingham University of Alaska–Anchorage University of Alaska–Fairbanks University of Alberta Albion College Allegheny College American University Amherst College Anna Maria College University of Arizona Arizona State University–Tempe University of Arkansas–Fayetteville Auburn University Babson College Ball State University Barnard College Bates College Baylor University Bentley University Berea College Berry College Boise State University Boston College Boston University Bowdoin College Bradley University Brandeis University Brigham Young University University of British Columbia Brown University Bryant

University Bryn Mawr College Bucknell University University at Buffalo–SUNY Butler University University of Calgary California Institute of Technology California Polytechnic State University University of California–Berkeley University of California–Davis University of California–Los Angeles University of California–San Diego Carleton College Carleton University Carnegie Mellon University Case Western Reserve University Catholic University of America Centre College Chapman University University of Chicago University of Cincinnati Claremont McKenna College Clark University Clarkson University Clemson University Colby College Colgate University College of the Atlantic College of the Holy Cross College of the Ozarks College of William & Mary College of Wooster University of Colorado Colorado College Colorado School of Mines Colorado State University Columbia University Connecticut College University of Connecticut–Storrs Cornell University Creighton University Dalhousie University Dartmouth College Davidson College University of Dayton University of Delaware Denison University University of Denver DePaul University DePauw University Dickinson College Drew University Drexel University Duke University Duquesne University Earlham College Eastern Kentucky University Emory University Fairfield University Florida Atlantic University Florida State University–Tallahassee University of Florida–Gainesville Fordham University Franklin and Marshall College Furman University Gallaudet University George Mason University George Washington University Georgetown University University of Georgia Georgia Institute of Technology Gettysburg College Goucher College Grand Valley State University Grinnell College University of Guelph Gustavus Adolphus College Hamilton College Hampton University Harvard University Harvey Mudd College Haverford College University of Hawaii–Manoa Hendrix College Hillsdale College Hobart and William Smith Colleges Hocking College Hofstra University Hope College University of Houston Howard University University of Idaho University of Illinois Illinois Institute of Technology Illinois Wesleyan University Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis Indiana University–Bloomington University of Iowa Iowa State University Ithaca College John Carroll University Johns Hopkins University Kalamazoo College Kansas State University University of Kansas–Lawrence Kean University University of Kentucky Kenyon College Lafayette College Université Laval Lawrence University Lehigh University Lewis and


Prompt: The British public wrongly believing most rapists are men ‘in a balaclava in a dark alley’ has been blamed for a slump in conviction rates for sex assaults. The country’s top prosecutor warned that ‘out-of-date myths’ had to be tackled to persuade victims to have confidence in the criminal justice system. New guidance will be sent to police to stress that most rapists know their victim and urge them to focus on what steps a suspect may have taken to gain consent for sex. New guidance for police and prosecutors seeks to dispel the myth that most rapes are carried

out by strangers in dark allies The Crown Prosecution Service said its new national rape action plan will tackle the barriers that rape cases. It has been devised by Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Alison Saunders and Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt, the national policing lead for adult sexual offences. Mr Hewitt chaired a taskforce to investigate a fall in the number of cases of rape referred by police to the CPS and the numbers of successful rape prosecutions. The pair called for a renewed challenge to tackle the ‘persistent myths and stereotypes’ they believe have a negative impact on cases. In a joint statement they said that their six-month investigation had uncovered ‘pervasive myths’ about rape that exist among not only some police and prosecutors but also among society as a whole, the Independent said. They said: ‘Despite efforts to raise awareness, many people still believe a rapist is a man in a balaclava in a dark alley, and a victim is a woman who shows her fear through fight. ‘That is very rarely the case - most rapists know their victim, many victims do not physically fight and the trauma of being raped will affect each victim differently. ‘There is an urgent need to change the discourse on rape. Our police officers, our prosecutors, our courts and our communities must reject the out-of-date myths and acknowledge the realities of rape. We also need to debate and understand the fundamental issue of consent.’ Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders said the focus of cases should not be on the credibility of the victim Last month the CPS and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism revealed that there were 2,300 rape convictions in 2013, down from 2,433 in 2010, while 129 fewer rape suspects were convicted in 2013 than in 2012. In


Prompt: Ultra-loved Steve Harvey’s career may be in ultra-trouble. The famous TV host has been accused of some very ugly behavior. A two-month investigation into the Family Feud host has apparently uncovered evidence of some racist ranting that, if true, cannot be ignored. “Spit on white people,” Harvey allegedly said, as per Freedom Daily. A former employee of Harvey’s, Joseph Cooper, claims to be in possession of tapes of several racial rants and has filed a $20 million lawsuit against Harvey. Cooper says these types of outbursts were commonplace from Harvey. According to Cooper, Harvey isn’t just anti-white—he is anti-American. “I

don’t give a s**t about America,” Cooper accuses Harvey of saying. Cooper says that he has 120 hours of recordings from a 20-year span of Harvey’s career, going back to 1993 and his early stand-up days. He alleges that this was a pattern of behavior rather than mere isolated incidents. Harvey is arguably one of the greatest African-American stars in both radio and television. The Steve Harvey Show, Family Feud, and Little Big Shots draw tens of millions of loyal listeners and viewers on a daily basis. So, with an empire valued at some $100 million, he has much to lose. Harvey is not taking this news lying down and has issued a counter-suit against Cooper. The suit claims that Cooper is seeking to extort and coerce money from Harvey. Harvey is asking for $5 million in damages. On this matter, Harvey’s lawyer has said, “Virtually every time Harvey was hired for a television show, [Cooper] would contact the owners or principals to inform them of potentially embarrassing material and/or tapes and attempt to have them influence Harvey to pay for the tapes.” Interestingly, court documents appear to show that Harvey admits to the rants, saying that at times he was edgier than others. “I didn’t have to concern myself with branding or imaging or anything. You could just say — I thought I was funnier,” Harvey said. Cooper alleges that on one tape, Harvey says it would take an hour and a half to explain how badly he hates white people. He says that Harvey regularly called white people “honkeys.” Special grace is often offered to comedians over these kinds of matters. Indeed, the edgy nature of their work is often what makes them funny. However, racism is unacceptable. Imagine if a white comedian was saying he hates black


Prompt: Life is about to become more difficult for countries trying to censor access to foreign websites. A system dubbed Collage will allow users in these countries to download stories from blocked sites while visiting seemingly uncontroversial sites such as Flickr. Collage relies on a well-established technique known as digital steganography, in which an image file is changed to encode the hidden message without obviously affecting the appearance of the image. A prototype version is due to be unveiled on Friday, 13 August. Steganography normally requires specialist software, but Collage is designed so that anti-censorship activists and readers can publish and

download the hidden stories without any specialist skills. A publisher or activist can, for example, use Collage to copy news stories from a website and embed the articles into Flickr images in a process that is almost entirely automated. In the prototype, stories from the BBC news site are used, but in principle any web content could be hidden. Collage can hide as many as 15 news articles in just seven medium-sized Flickr images. Advertisement News feeds Once the material is embedded in a Flickr image, anyone with Collage can download it and extract the stories. A censor attempting to monitor traffic from a prohibited site would only see the reader visiting Flickr, which is not generally blocked by web censors. Collage is able to identify which images have been used to hide material. All the would-be reader has to do is click on the date they are interested in; the stories appear a few minutes later. “It all happens in the background,” says Sam Burnett at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, part of the team behind Collage. Burnett has designed a Flickr upload tool that links with Collage and embeds content that publishers or activists want to make available. Collage can also be easily extended so that stories are embedded in other photo-sharing sites. The idea is to spread material across numerous sites that host user-generated content so that the activity of someone running Collage appears much like that of any internet user and the censors cannot just block access to Flickr. Collage does, however, rely on the goodwill of Flickr users, who will have to provide access to the images where the articles are to be hidden. Burnett is relying on opposition to censorship to motivate people to use Collage. “We’re betting on people getting a


Prompt: Mother-son love dominates households the world over, but especially in India. (Ask anyone married to a desi man if she feels like the other woman.) One of the standout episodes of Room 104, the new Duplass-helmed HBO series, makes great use of this phenomenon. Titled “The Internet,” it’s set in 1997. Our only visible character, a harried, wannabe novelist, is locked for nearly the full half-hour in a phone call with his mom. Anish needs his manuscript sent to him, in a bad way. He’s got a life-changing meeting with an agent coming up, a book to finish, and of

course, he forgot his laptop. Actor Karan Soni paces the dinky motel room for which the series is named in a sweat, walking his oblivious mom through the mechanics of email with a growing frustration in his voice that betrays just how deep their relationship is. Featuring only Soni and Poorna Jagannathan as his mother, the scene manages to do a lot with a little. From nearly her first line, Jagannathan establishes her character as one we haven’t seen rendered so well before: the loving but passive-aggressive, alternately icy, and helicoptering desi mom. Jagannathan’s character seems almost at times to be trolling Anish, so hypnotically layered is her cadence. To pull it off, Jagannathan told Vulture by email, she channeled her own, super-sweet mom, as well as her split attitude toward her 11-year-old son. When he talks, “There’s a part of you that is in wonder and amazement and so much love, and then there’s a part that’s totally bored and needs to just reach for the wine.” Both actors were born in India — Soni in New Delhi to a middle-class family, while Jagannathan is the daughter of a diplomat. Her accent gives away the upper-crust, Brit-lite India that she belongs to, though her character’s origins are notably humble. But that inconsistency doesn’t detract from her possession of the role. The Duplasses are known for encouraging improvisation, and she sprinkles her rejoinders with “beta” and “raja” — the latter, meaning prince, less known than the former, which means son. The episode — not written with Indians in mind — wasn’t meant to be a model of representational politics at work. Soni took the part a day before shooting, after the original actor dropped out because of a conflict; Jagannathan came in the day of to fit his casting. Still,


Prompt: Chapter Text The world turned upside down on a Tuesday. Thomas had been sitting at his computer, looking at pictures of other peoples’ cats. There was a brief moment of unaccustomed weightlessness, followed by a lurching feeling as he started falling. He hit the ceiling half a second later, denting the plaster and hurting his head. He lay there for a moment, rubbing his scalp, which was bleeding profusely in the way that minor head wounds sometimes did. Thomas let out a groan and moved slowly. When he looked up, he saw his cat, Bartleby, staring at him. From the

floor. “Help?” asked Thomas. His cat meowed. He placed a hand on the ceiling, where he’d cracked the plaster. Bits of it fell past him, to where his cat was sitting. Bartleby, having seen enough, sauntered out of the room. Thomas stayed where he was. He touched the wound on his head, causing his fingers to come away bloody. He stared at them for a moment. There was enough blood for it to drip down; it fell toward the ceiling for a few brief fractions of a second, then reversed direction and fell toward the floor. Thomas looked up at the plaster and blood next to his computer chair, which had fallen over. Everything in the room was sitting just where it had been. Thomas did what any savvy young person would do in a time like this; he pulled out his smartphone to consult the internet. Unfortunately, when he pulled it from his pocket, he suddenly realized that it was trying to get away with him, fleeing toward the floor. If he’d been prepared, it would have been no work at all to keep it in his grasp, but while he had decades of practice keeping a phone from falling from his grasp, he had no experience whatsoever with keeping a phone from falling up. The whole concept of gravity had been sundered into two pieces: the objective (everything in the world) and subjective (just Thomas). This would have been a pleasant epiphany had it not immediately followed his phone crashing into the ground. He winced when he saw the shattered screen. The internet wasn’t going to be any help. It was unlikely that the internet would have been any help anyway, since Thomas was certain that he would have heard about it if anyone had ever had their


Prompt: How Rise of the Tomb Raider is forging a gaming icon. Camilla Luddington is frowning seven different ways. She's an experienced actor, so each frown carries its own nuance and meaning: defiance, confusion, vulnerability, fear. She's filming in a Los Angeles facial capture studio for her role as Lara Croft in the forthcoming Rise of the Tomb Raider. Since the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot, Luddington has provided the basis for the face and voice of one of video gaming's most recognizable characters. A few days later, some 350 miles north of L.A. in the offices of Tomb Raider developer Crystal

Dynamics, Senior Technical Artist Jon Robins leans into his monitor and carefully studies the Luddington footage. "Making a human being is the most challenging thing when creating video games." He notes how light bounces off the ridges on Luddington's forehead, how her eyes move in a slightly different fashion for each frown, how the lines around her eyes transfer to the particulars of her smile, the angle of her cheekbones, the jut of her chin. He imports the images into facial engine models of Lara Croft. The mesh of her face represents thousand of data points. Robins manipulates blend shapes in order to tweak Lara Croft's expressions, each designed for a specific moment in the game — for a flash of peril, a quizzical exchange of dialog or an internal moment of self-reflection. He is tasked with making Lara Croft look as human as possible. She must seem like a real person while also being an action hero. She must convey both power and vulnerability. She must be visually and emotionally appealing to the player. She must seem like the same Lara Croft we have known for two decades. As Croft shows a variety of on-screen emotions, Robins sits back in his office chair and gazes at her face. He frowns. Something isn't right. It takes a moment for him to articulate the problem. There's a woman on his screen but she isn't Lara Croft. He's looking at an actor. He's looking at Camilla Luddington. Lara Croft is gone. Remaking Lara Croft video New horizons Rise of the Tomb Raider is the first Lara Croft game made specifically for the current console generation. It’s a timed exclusive for Xbox One (and Xbox 360), due out on Nov. 10. Rise of the Tomb Raider picks up after the events of the


Prompt: A new staffer faces disciplinary action after a tweet from the Atlanta City Council’s verified account created a political firestorm early Wednesday. The erroneous tweet, which indicated Mayor Kasim Reed vetoed a measure intended to reduce penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana, was pushed out to thousands of the council’s followers just after 6 a.m. — nearly 12 hours after he signed the legislation. Good morning #Atlanta. We received an email overnight that the Mayor VETOED our marijuana legislation for less than one ounce. More to come — Atlanta City Council (@ATLCouncil) October 11, 2017 The city recalled

the tweet about 47 minutes later, but by then, nearly every major outlet in Atlanta had published the news. RECALL: Mayor did not veto marijuana legislation — Atlanta City Council (@ATLCouncil) October 11, 2017 And while city officials could not be reached for comment, Reed quickly responded online. In a string of tweets, he blasted journalists and blamed the mix-up on City Council President Ceasar Mitchell, who hopes to succeed Reed as mayor. Look at the source folks. It's just another political stunt by the Ceaser Mitchell & the AJC. Here my response on @V103Atlanta at 8AM. https://t.co/3M5mfQADwr — Kasim Reed (@KasimReed) October 11, 2017 He later went on The Ryan Cameron Morning Show with Wanda Smith on radio station V-103. “I’ve been interviewed by journalism students at Grady High School that know to call the source,” Reed said. Council spokesman Dexter Chambers called into the program to set the record straight. The error, he said, was made when the unidentified staffer read an email from the mayor’s office. The staffer, however, did not read which bill was vetoed by the mayor, according to Chambers. “Ryan, we have policies and procedures in place that were not followed,” he said. “She assumed it was the marijuana legislation. That was not the case.” The mayor actually vetoed the sale of a portion of land to Hapeville, according to the council. CORRECTION: Mayor's veto was regarding the sale of a portion of land to Hapeville, GA — Atlanta City Council (@ATLCouncil) October 11, 2017 “President Mitchell did not have anything to do with this,” said Chambers, who did not specify how the new staffer would be discplined. Reed didn’t buy the explanation and said he questioned if Chambers should remain in his post as the head of communications. “This was intentional,” he said.


Prompt: Web comics are a great way to get some much-needed downtime and inspiration, and are a nice, creative way to fill a break in work. Web comics are free and easily accessible, and there are plenty of great ones out there. In this article, we've picked some of the best web comics to explore. Some of the world's most well-known fictional characters were born through the medium of comics. The likes of Batman, Superman and Spider-Man have all won the hearts of successive generations of readers – to such an extent that, despite the rise of the internet, the printed

comic industry is still booming. If you're inspired to create your own, take a look at our guides to how to create a comic page, and how to colour comics. Nedroid (pronounced 'NEH-droid') is a web comic by artist Anthony Clark. He has his fingers in a few different comic pies, but is best known for a goofy comic series featuring Beartato – a potato/bear hybrid, of course – that has been running since 2006. James Squires is an illustrator based in New Zealand who describes himself as a 'delusional comic person, coffee drinker, cat owner'. He's the artist behind web comic Moonbeard. These surreal, standalone cartoons often feature surprising twists, and they're well worth a browse. You can also browse his work via his Instagram feed. Webcomic Name first appeared in July 2016 and swiftly became a firm favourite. It's the work of UK-based artist Alex Norris and it never fails to amuse us with its excellently naive artwork, blobby characters and simple jokes, usually topped off with Webcomic Name's staple 'oh no' punchline. It shouldn't really work but it very much does, every single time. Anne Szabla's Bird Boy follows the story of Bali, a 10-year-old Nuru boy who is keen to prove his worth to his tribe. After being banned from the ceremony that would make him an adult, he stumbles upon a legendary weapon and must flee across a dangerous land of gods, men and beasts to prevent it falling into the wrong hands. The story was picked up by Darkhorse comics and has been compiled into graphic novels Bird Boy Volume 1: The Sword of Mali Mani and Bird Boy Volume 2: The Liminal Wood. With a thumbs up from Mike Mignola, it's definitely worth checking out. Canadian comic artist Kate Beaton, blended her expertise


Prompt: Author has written 4 stories for Frozen, and Harry Potter. 1-27-18 Update: So...um...hi everyone. I don't have much in the way of excuses as to my absence from active posting, other than spending the last few years recovering from trauma. January 5, 2016 I attempted to take my own life. My other half and I both. Suffice to say, the world we woke to after failing was a bleak and traumatizing one. I won't go into details so as to not trigger anyone who may have had similar travesties occur. Let me say that its been two years and I'm

still struggling with my depression and loss of passion. But. I am writing again, after ages of being unable to even open a word document, I'm writing again. I WILL finish While I Sleep, that's my first goal. I also have over a dozen fics in-progress on my computer that I've been touching on for a while now. A few one shots, but mostly multi-chapter fics. Most of them are Elsanna, but some branch out into Final Fantasy XIII and even Strange Magic. All yuri stories. That being said, I cannot promise anything concrete. I am trying my best to finish While I Sleep, but I refuse to do like these other authors who rush their endings just so they can be done with it. We all deserve better than that, and if I ever get to a point where I can't finish a fic, I will abandon it rather than rushing out a BS ending. I appreciate every one of you who have stuck by my side and given your support. You've all been so wonderful, and I hope I can deliver some quality work to you soon. Love and light, Ariel 10-4-15 Update: So I think its time I stop hiding and brush this thing off. First, let me apologize to everyone for the horrendous absence this year. My ability to focus on my writings and maintain my passions for the development of the stories sort of just died off. And along with that we have had a very busy year at my work and that has sort of killed my muse. BUT! I just ground out 4600 words on Chapter 4 of While I Sleep and got it posted and the overwhelming outpouring of support from my readers has revived my muse and given me such a


Prompt: UPDATE 29th June 2016: EA has said it's looking into the FIFA Ultimate Team chemistry glitch that hit the headlines this week. Community manager Rob Hodson took to the FIFA forum to say EA was on the case. Here's the statement: Thanks to the FUT community for raising awareness of a potential fitness and chemistry inconsistency in some FUT items. After hearing this, our teams were in over the weekend and continue to thoroughly investigate the information. We will keep you informed with updates from the investigation. Our commitment to a fun, fair and secure experience in FIFA is ongoing,

and as a community your feedback helps us achieve that goal. A special thanks for your continuous efforts across all channels. Wondering what all the fuss is about? The video below provides a useful summary. ORIGINAL STORY 27th June 2016: The FIFA community reckons it's exposed a "chemistry glitch" that proves a long-running theory about Ultimate Team handicapping. One FIFA player believes he's proved the chem glitch through the use of a skill move. Users on the FIFA subReddit have picked apart the way the football game works and believe they've proved a troubling glitch that might have been a part of the series for years. A summary: users reckon they've proved FUT includes handicapping - that is, teams comprised of highly-rated players feel sluggish. They reckon FIFA has been buffing low rated teams and nerfing highly rated teams without telling players. Now for the detail: this has to do with chemistry. In FUT, by playing cards in particular positions you can increase your chemistry stats. High chemistry can boost the stats of players. A low chemistry can nerf them. Chemistry is important for FUT because it can give you the edge in a match. Theoretically, anyway. FUT players believe the most expensive cards in the game do not attribute this chemistry-related stat boost properly, and it's this glitch that makes the players feel sluggish in comparison to cheaper cards which do attribute the chemistry stat boost properly. Right, now for the working out. FIFA players believe chemistry does in fact work for day one cards (normal versions of cards), but does not work properly for non-day one cards, even more expensive, better versions of the same day one cards. This is why the belief is that some expensive upgraded cards are actually worse. The FUT community is in uproar


Prompt: 5 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard Growing up, I always wondered how an entire nation could go mad. I was thinking about Nazi Germany, and millions of good, decent Germans, seeming to lose their minds for Hitler and National Socialism and its repressive brutality. I never thought I was see it for myself. It would be a long time, I told myself, before a nation would lose itself again as Germany had in the 30s. Then came the 2008 elections and the Tea Party. It is painful and shocking to witness people you would assume to

be as rational as you flip on Fox News and – as Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar used to say on Wayne’s World – go “mental.” It turns out people can absolutely believe impossible things and they can be quite fanatical about it. The facts are right there; I can see them plain as day. Why can’t they? Fox News is absolutely part of the problem. Everywhere you go, it’s on. It’s like a national propaganda channel. Joseph Göbbels would have wet himself at having such power in his hands. People sit in restaurants all across the nation and listen to lie after lie – all unsubstantiated and invented out of whole cloth – pass the lips of Fox News commentators. Imagine how much easier would have been Hitler’s job if he had been able to do the same, rather than standing on street corners giving speeches and passing out leaflets. All the Tea Party represents is repackaged fascism. The message is the same: real Americans instead of real Germans and familiar enemies, like Muslims instead of Jews (they share a hatred of gays); out-of-control paranoia and conspiracy theories like stabs in the back and betrayal; the view of women (real American – aka white women) as breeders of a master race; and a mission from God to restore the nation’s greatness. America for Americans is no different than Hitler’s Germany for Germans. They even have the same overblown sense of nationalism: Deutschland über alles and American exceptionalism share a low-brow wavelength. Nor is it a coincidence that both National Socialists and Tea Partiers happen to be white and predominantly male. I really thought I would get through my life time without seeing it for myself. I wish I had, because though it helps me understand how it could happen,


Prompt: Video (00:49) : After a rally outside the State Capitol, some protesters marched in downtown St. Paul, blocking some traffic. A protest that started with about 100 people at the Minnesota State Capitol grew quickly Wednesday night as it moved first to John Ireland Boulevard then to downtown St. Paul. Protesters, who chanted and carried signs, blocked some downtown streets. Their ranks grew as they marched west on University Avenue, blocking both sides of the street and shouting expletives about Donald Trump in English and Spanish. The group, which peaked at about 300 people, circled back downtown and, at 10:35

p.m., were at St. Anthony Avenue and Marion Street, St. Paul police said. Officers were there directing traffic, but not interfering with the protest. There was no violence, police said. The protest was one of several in U.S. cities in the wake of Tuesday’s election of the GOP candidate, notably in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Detroit and Portland, Ore. “This is about what’s going to be done in our name,” said Peter Rachleff, a former Macalester College professor. “We’re all responsible. We’re better than this.” Bobbie Scott said, “I’m here because I feel I have to be here. Other work will come later, but for now, I’m here.” Gallery: Trump protest at the Minnesota Capitol Gallery: Trump protest at the Minnesota Capitol Callia Blake, 17, and her 15-year-old friend aren’t old enough to vote yet, but came out to protest Trump’s ascension, too. “This guy, he’s a rapist, he just is awful,” she said. “I can’t take that; I can’t do it.” JoAnn Hendricks, 67, was there with her friend, LaVonne Ellington, 80, who served as a poll watcher on Tuesday. “LaVonne and I didn’t vote for Trump. I’m not a ‘Trumpladite,’ ” Hendricks said. “That’s why we’re here. We didn’t know what else to do. I’m really sad.” Earlier, at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, some students had a shouting match over the election. Students were struggling to digest the results of one of the most bitter presidential elections in memory. “I guess it’s really setting in right now,” said Sam Wondimu, 20, a U health services major who was one of dozens of students gathered around a single laptop at the Black Student Union, watching as President Obama spoke about Trump’s election. “There’s a considerable amount of sadness,” Wondimu said, and “I guess a bit of


Prompt: Wednesday’s domestic cup match presents a unique challenge for Ottawa Fury FC, one that the club has not yet faced in 2015: speed, all over the pitch. That is the x-factor that FC Edmonton will bring to the midweek cup fixture tomorrow at TD Place Stadium. While Ottawa has certainly had a positive start to its spring campaign, with four points of a possible nine to start its season, it hasn’t faced teams with the kind of game-breaking speed and athleticism that the Eddies possess. With the likes of Sainey Nyassi and Lance Laing on either flank, Eddies boss Colin

Miller is sticking to his tried-and-true method of fielding athletes. Eddie Edward and Kareem Moses offer similar displays of athleticism on the flanks of FCE’s back four, and can pose offensive threats occasionally. When Fury FC and FCE met in the first round of last season’s Amway Canadian Championship, everybody highlighted a strong second leg at home as the key to the Eddies’ victory. Of equal importance, however, was their ability to draw the first leg in Ottawa. Miller was visibly ecstatic after the 0-0 result in last year’s first leg, and will likely be looking to do the same thing tactics-wise on Wednesday. Expect FCE to play defensively, but use the flanks heavily on counters. Young Hanson Boakai may slot into an Eddies lineup he has yet to truly crack in 2015. The 18 year-old’s slicing runs and quick feet gave Ottawa nightmares in last year’s Canadian Championship fixtures. Things are certainly trending in the right direction in Edmonton; Sainey Nyassi picked up NASL Player-of-the-Week honours this past weekend, and the Eddies rallied to defeat the visiting Ft. Lauderdale Strikers 3-2. English midfielder Ritchie Jones has two goals in three games, and appears to have settled into the game on this side of the pond. From a Fury FC perspective, this year’s edition of the Amway Canadian Championship represents a shot at not only redemption from last season’s first round exit, but a chance to earn the respect of potential MLS opponents. FC Edmonton managed to put a scare into the Montreal Impact in last year’s second round, and Marc Dos Santos’ side will be hoping to do the same if they can advance past the Eddies. Romuald Peiser will likely carry the captain’s armband again on Wednesday, as skipper Richie Ryan was ruled out for at least the


Prompt: This amazing chickpea pattie recipe comes from my Mama (thanks mama!). The recipe is an adaptation of a traditional Punjabi dish made with potatoes called “Aloo Tikkis” (meaning potato patties). I try not to eat too many potatoes and so I asked my Mom to make it with chickpeas. She did and it was delicious. 🙂 This chickpea pattie recipe is filled with indian spices so get ready for your mouth to explode with spicy amazingness! Ingredients for Chickpea Pattie Recipe 1 cup dried chickpeas, soaked overnight (or 2 cans of 15 ounce chickpeas) 2-3 green onions 1/4 cup chopped

fresh cilantro 1/2 tsp coriander powder 1/2 tsp garam masala 1/4 tsp of chat masala, optional 1/4 tsp of chilli powder, optional 1/2 of a fresh green (or red) chilli, optional 1-2 tsp of freshly squeezed lemon juice salt, to taste (I used about 1/2 tsp) 3 tbsp of ground chia + 1/2 cup water 4 cup greens (baby spinach, kale, etc.), optional Directions for Chickpea Pattie Recipe Combine the 3 tbsp of ground chia with the 1/2 cup of water in a bowl and set aside. Wash & cook the chickpeas until they are super soft (you will have to mash them by hand, so the softer they are the easier it will be for you). Once the chickpeas are cooked, drain any excess water and set aside. Grease a baking sheet and preheat oven to 400. Chop the green onion, fresh cilantro and greens, if using, and set aside. Now it’s time to use your mom arms, yoga arms or if you are like me, your slightly weakling arms. 🙂 With a potato masher (or fork if you don’t have a masher), mash the chickpeas. You want to mash them just until you can’t see any more whole chickpeas. You still want them to keep their form. You don’t want to use a food processor because they will get too soft and won’t form properly into patties. Add all of the spices and the chia mixture to the chickpeas and mix with a spoon until everything is nicely combined. Using a 1/3 measuring cup, scoop up the chickpea mixture and place onto your greased baking sheet. Use your fingers to flatten your patties until they are about 2-3 inches thick. Bake at 400 for about 30-40 minutes, flipping them mid-way through. Enjoy them in your salad, in your


Prompt: Beijing Sets Deadlines for Bitcoin Exchanges - Customers to Withdraw Funds Quickly Beijing has ordered all affected bitcoin exchanges to post a notice of their closure by midnight on Friday. Now, the exchanges are urging customers to withdraw their funds as regulators have also set a deadline for them to come up with plans to allow withdrawals “in a risk-free manner.” Also read: China’s Regulatory Crackdown Forces More Bitcoin Exchange Closures Exchanges Ordered to Announce Closing Dates Chinese authorities have ordered Beijing-based cryptocurrency exchanges to stop trading and allowing new registrations as of Friday, according to a government notice, which

was verified by Reuters. “The notice was signed by the Beijing city group in charge of overseeing internet finance risks and circulated online.” The notice read: All trading exchanges must by midnight of Sept. 15 publish a notice to make clear when they will stop all cryptocurrency trading and announce a stop to new user registrations. China’s top bitcoin exchanges have already complied. Btcc announced that “Btcchina will completely shut down its exchange businesses on September 30th,” the company tweeted. However, the only businesses affected are those relating to Btcchina; other Btcc businesses are unaffected as “Btcc is a separate company from Btcchina,” the company noted, adding that “Btcc Pool, Btcc USD Exchange, Btcc Dax, Btcc Mobi, & Btcc Mint are not affected by this change.” Huobi and Okcoin made similar announcements on Friday, stating that they are closing on October 31. Huobi announced that new user registration and CNY deposit service have already stopped, stating that: The actual closing of CNY trading will take place on October 31st. We will close all CNY to cryptocurrencies trading one asset at a time. Okcoin similarly posted a notice on Friday, outlining its closing policies. The company emphasized that the only service closing is the RMB trading business. The rest of its businesses are not affected. “Because regulators have not announced that bitcoin and digital assets are illegal, Okcoin will actively explore, strive for, expect to continue to provide Chinese users with compliant digital asset services,” the company wrote. Many others have also announced their closure such as Viabtc and Yobtc. Another exchange C2CX announced that it will close on September 30. Customers Urged to Withdraw Funds Quickly The regulators have additionally instructed the exchanges to come up with plans of how customers can withdraw their funds, Reuters reported. “Platforms should also


Prompt: In 2008, I thought John McCain deserved to lose, but this did not mean I believed Barack Obama deserved to win. What McCain represented was four more years of George W. Bush-style "conservatism," and that meant an increase in the size of government and more spending. Voters rightly saw McCain as an extension of Bush and rejected his brand of Republicanism. In 2012, I believe Barack Obama deserves to lose. Everything I detested about Bush, Obama has expanded upon. Today, the debt is even larger, the federal government is even bigger, the executive branch is even more powerful, and both

the entitlement and "national security" states have grown. Despite having an edge in the polls, Obama's actual approval rating is not high. Many, perhaps a majority, of Americans would like to reject Obama. However, they are just not sure Mitt Romney deserves to win. I share their concerns. In their first debate, Romney kicked Obama's ass. This is not debatable. After all, when liberals like MSNBC's Chris Matthews are angrily frothing at the mouth over Obama's lackluster showing, the winner is clear. The winner of a debate is generally the person who sounded better, looked better, spoke with more authority, and commanded more respect. In essence, the winner is the candidate who comes across as more presidential. And that was Romney. But there was one thing that Romney and his winning personality promised on Wednesday night that the hard numbers indicate he cannot deliver: he cannot reduce the deficit with his plan. If Obama said anything that was true, it was this: "When you add up all the loopholes and deductions that upper-income individuals are currently taking advantage of, you don't come close to paying for $5 trillion in tax cuts and $2 trillion in additional military spending." He later added, "It's math, arithmetic." Romney protested that he was not asking for $5 trillion in tax cuts — which I think is too bad. And in the governor's defense, Obama's relentless rhetoric about "loopholes" and "deductions" for "upper-income individuals" could be true — or it could be the same, tired, class warfare drivel the Democrats have been peddling for as long as I've been alive. But that "$2 trillion in additional military spending" is something Romney did not even attempt to protest. For me, whatever hope I had that Romney would be a dramatic improvement over Obama was not dashed


Prompt: It’s a glaring misuse of our legal system against Dr. Marion “Mollie” Fry and her husband, civil attorney Dale Schafer. After more than half a decade of litigation and three years of appeals, the couple have been given until May 2 to turn themselves in to authorities to serve five years in a federal prison. It started when the police raided their Sacramento home in 2001, finding 34 plants. Well below the 90-plant limit established by the local city ordinance for cardholders such as themselves, the couple thought they were on safe legal ground. Dr. Fry, having gone through a

radical mastectomy, decided to grow her own cannabis to offset the many complications she was experiencing from chemotherapy. Schafer suffers from hemophilia and a wrenched back, and is under constant care. He has also chosen to treat himself with medical marijuana. Fry and Schafer also grew for patients of Dr. Fry’s, who also sought the relief provided by cannabis. The couple never grew more than 44 plants at one time. Trying to be transparent and forthright during this time, they tried to enlist the aid of local officials, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, and the Eldorado Sheriff’s Department, to show the local law enforcement community the positive aspects of their endeavors and of medical marijuana. This was all well and good, but in the process, their staff was charging TEN WHOLE AMERICAN DOLLARS for the delivery fee. The couple was raided again. “We fired anyone who wasn’t following the code of the law,” Schafer said. “We weren’t selling the medical cannabis to my patients,” Dr. Fry said. “We had staff and were charging $10 for delivery only, and that’s a common practice today.” Then the absurdity of their trial kicked in. “The judge wouldn’t allow any medical evidence. They wouldn’t let us tell the jury I was sick, or that I was a doctor,” Fry said. “They wouldn’t allow that I was helping sick patients. “Ironically, two years before the raid, local authorities asked me to tell them who of my patients were ‘really’ sick, and who wasn’t. I told them it wasn’t my job to police my patients, and when I was in the thick of helping people, I knew it was the right thing to do,” she said. “Cannabis helped me immensely when I was going through cancer.” Dr. Fry is a product of seven generations of doctors


Prompt: Summary As circuits and electronic components become more complex, visual circuit building tools are more difficult to use effectively. If you wish that you could just write your circuits in Python then you’re in luck! Dave Vandenbout created a library called SKIDL that brings the power and flexibility of Python to the realm of Electrical Engineering and he tells us all about it in this weeks show. Do you want to try out some of the tools and applications that you heard about on Podcast.__init__? Do you have a side project that you want to share with the world? Check

out Linode at linode.com/podcastinit or use the code podcastinit2018 and get a $20 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers. They’ve got lightning fast networking and SSD servers with plenty of power and storage to run whatever you want to experiment on. Preamble Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great. I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the show. Your contributions help us make the show sustainable. When you’re ready to launch your next project you’ll need somewhere to deploy it. Check out Linode at linode.com/podcastinit and get a $20 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for running your awesome app. Visit our site to subscribe to our show, sign up for our newsletter, read the show notes, and get in touch. To help other people find the show you can leave a review on iTunes, or Google Play Music, and tell your friends and co-workers Join our community! Visit discourse.pythonpodcast.com for your opportunity to find out about upcoming guests, suggest questions, and propose show ideas. Your host as usual is Tobias Macey and today I’m interviewing Dave Vandenbout about SKIDL, a library for designing and validating circuit layouts. Interview Introductions How did you get introduced to Python? Can you describe what SKIDL is and the problem that you were trying to solve when you first started it? Most of my experience designing circuits has been done using a graphical tool. If you are using Python for the entire layout does it become difficult to understand the overall circuit without the visual representation? Is there a way to generate a circuit diagram from the SKIDL code for a visual reference? It seems that there is a substantial amount of


Prompt: The Foreign Affairs Department is advising Canadians to avoid travel to South Sudan. In an advisory issued late Monday night, Foreign Affairs also urged any Canadians still in the war-torn nation to get out as soon as possible. Earlier Monday, civilian helicopters evacuated U.S. citizens from Bor, which has seen bouts of heavy machine-gun fire, but 3,000 citizens from countries including Canada, Britain and Kenya remain trapped there, a top UN official said Monday. Toby Lanzer, the UN's humanitarian co-ordinator, said Australians, Ugandans and Ethiopians are also among 15,000 total people seeking protection at a UN base in Bor, a

city that could see increasing violence in coming days. The death toll from a week of violence in South Sudan has likely surpassed 1,000 people, though there are no firm numbers available, he said. The number of internal refugees has likely surpassed 100,000, said Lanzer, who is seeking urgent financial assistance from the international community. "I can't afford any delays from donor capitals right now," he told The Associated Press in a phone call. "Never has there been a greater time of need in South Sudan." Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is urging the UN Security Council to add 5,500 troops and police to the 7,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission in conflict-wracked South Sudan. Ban proposed in a letter to the council obtained Monday by The Associated Press that the troops be transferred from UN missions in Congo, Darfur, Abyei, Ivory Coast and Liberia along with three attack helicopters, three utility helicopters and a C-130 military transport plane. France's UN Ambassador Gerard Araud, the current council president, said he expects the council to vote Tuesday on a resolution authorizing the transfers. Bor is the city where rebel forces fired on three U.S. military aircraft on Saturday, forcing the Ospreys — advanced helicopter-airplane hybrids — to abort their evacuation mission. On Sunday the U.S. evacuated Americans by civilian U.S. and UN helicopters. The U.S. over the last week has evacuated 380 Americans and 300 others from South Sudan, which has seen vicious, ethnically targeted violence pulse through the nation. Military commanders loyal to the country's ousted vice-president have defected and say they are now in control of regions that hold lucrative oil fields. Lanzer, who spent the weekend in Bor, said the city is experiencing tense, sporadic clashes and "fairly consistent gunfire and heavy machine-gun fire." Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs says about