Prompt: A small group of Portland residents is offering to raise money to fund the special assistant to the mayor after it was eliminated from the budget by the City Council. But the city manager says that the effort would likely be rebuffed, since the council has already deemed the position to be unnecessary. Peaks Island resident Timmi Sellers asked the city in a May 18 email how residents could earmark a donation to pay for Jason Shedlock’s salary, which would have been roughly $69,000 next year. Jason Shedlock, assistant to the mayor, speaks to the council before its vote terminating

his position this month. He said that listening to people talk about him was like "watching your own funeral." Staff photo by Derek Davis Related Headlines Portland Mayor Strimling says he may veto budget over council’s vote to cut his assistant Sellers, who was impressed that Mayor Ethan Strimling and Shedlock recently attended a meeting on Peaks Island to hear concerns about the loss of mainland parking, said in an interview that she was moved to act after watching the emotional debate leading up to the City Council’s May 15 vote. “I was pretty shocked at the viciousness of the personal attacks on the mayor after he explained very carefully why the position was so important to him,” she said. “I had voted for the mayor’s position and I want it to be successful. I consider one year a short time for this to be evaluated.” Sellers said she and a few other neighborhood leaders, who she declined to identify, were interested in raising money, but wanted to first check with the city about the legality before launching the effort. Residents are allowed make donations to the city. According to the City Council’s rules, donations in excess of $5,000 must be accepted and appropriated by the council, which voted 6-3 to eliminate the position, partly because it was unpopular with their constituents. “The Council’s decision to eliminate the funding for the position was not because the City could not afford it, but because they felt that the position was redundant and no longer necessary in its current capacity,” City Manager Jon Jennings said in an email to Sellers. “Given their decision above, it does not seem likely to me that they would accept a donation for this purpose, and I take my direction from them.” After receiving the city’s response,


Prompt: BRADENTON, Fla. — Because players move around so much via trades and free agency, it is not unusual to see a rainbow of different teams’ equipment bags around the clubhouse at the start of spring training. Ryan Vogelsong spent the past five seasons with the San Francisco Giants. But when the he reported to Pirates camp on Monday, Vogelsong toted a black-and-gold bag — the same one he used when he pitched for the Pirates in 2006. “I’ve come to realize that you don’t close doors,” Vogelsong said. “Did I ever think I’d ever come back here? Honestly, no. But

when the opportunity was there, I was really excited about it and I took it.” The Pirates logo on Vogelsong’s decade-old bag is faded and outdated. The Giants likely thought Vogelsong’s career — he will be 39 in July and spent part of last season in the bullpen — had reached that same point. “I kind of knew what direction they were going to be heading in the offseason, and I knew my time there was probably coming to an end,” Vogelsong said. “When you go home for the offseason, you digest and try to start thinking about the future. I tried to pick out some places where I thought I could fit in and help, and (Pittsburgh) was definitely on the list.” In mid-December, Vogelsong signed a $2 million contract to fill a back-end spot in the rotation. The right-hander can make up to $3 million more through performance bonuses. As he chose a landing spot, Vogelsong’s priority was finding a team that would put him in the rotation. When A.J. Burnett retired and J.A. Happ signed with Toronto, the Pirates needed a starter. There is some irony in Vogelsong’s return to claim a rotation spot. During his first five seasons with the Pirates, he made 70 of his 103 outings out of the bullpen. Although he said he is “receptive” to going to the bullpen this season if necessary, Vogelsong made it clear he wants to start. “I just feel that at this point in my career and at my age, having a regular routine is better for me,” he said. “My body still feels great, my arm feels great.” Vogelsong doesn’t have much competition for a job behind the trio of Gerrit Cole, Francisco Liriano and Jon Niese. General manager Neal Huntington repeatedly has said top pitching


Prompt: 49ers receiver Jeremy Kerley steps into the right slot Video: Inform video embed Bold predictions: 49ers at Panthers Kristal Kerley’s hands were shaking before kickoff Monday at Levi’s Stadium. Her husband, wide receiver Jeremy Kerley, was about to make his 49ers debut, 15 days after he’d arrived in a trade. It was a prime opportunity to revive a solid career that had gone south. After 182 catches in five seasons with the Jets, he was released in March. After five months in Detroit, he was dealt to the 49ers for a backup guard, Brandon Thomas, who is on the Lions’

practice squad. Now, he was suddenly the 49ers’ primary slot receiver and kick returner in the season opener against the Rams. But had he adequately digested the playbook? Would he have rapport with a quarterback he just met? Would this be a bright beginning or the latest dead end? “When I first sat down, I was nervous and I was shaking a whole lot,” Kristal Kerley said. “It’s one of those things where he’s going to do good and the fans are going to love him. Or, if he makes too many mistakes, they’re going to be mad and I’m going to have my mama-bear, wifey claws out because I can’t have anybody attacking my husband.” The good news for the Kerleys: Kristal’s claws were kept under wraps. San Francisco 49ers' Jeremy Kerley against Los Angeles Rams during NFL game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Monday, September 12, 2016. San Francisco 49ers' Jeremy Kerley against Los Angeles Rams during NFL game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Monday, September 12, 2016. Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close 49ers receiver Jeremy Kerley steps into the right slot 1 / 3 Back to Gallery The home fans loved Kerley, who led the 49ers in targets (11), catches (seven) and receiving yards (61) in a 28-0 win over the Rams. Kerley, who also returned two punts for 11 yards, played 54 of 81 snaps and provided one of the 49ers’ biggest offensive plays: His diving 18-yard catch on 4th-and-6 in the second quarter sustained a touchdown drive that gave the 49ers a 14-0 lead. “We picked the guy up two weeks ago and he had seven catches,” head coach Chip Kelly said. “If we picked him up


Prompt: Are we on the verge of creating artificial intelligence capable of finding answers to the world’s most pressing challenges? After steady progress in basic AI tasks in recent years, this is the vision that some leading technologists have for AI. And yet, how we will make this grand leap is anyone’s guess. Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Alphabet (formerly Google), says AI could be harnessed to help solve major challenges, including climate change and food security. Speaking at an event convened in New York this week to discuss the opportunities and risks in AI, Schmidt offered no details on

how the technology might be adapted for such complex and abstract problems. Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google Deepmind, a division within Google doing groundbreaking work in machine learning, and which aims to bring about an “artificial general intelligence” (see “Google’s Intelligence Designer”), said the goal of this effort was to harness AI for grand challenges. “If we can solve intelligence in a general enough way, then we can apply it to all sorts of things to make the world a better place,” he said. And the chief technology officer of Facebook, Mike Schroepfer, expressed similar hope. “The power of AI technology is it can solve problems that scale to the whole planet,” he said. Eric Schmidt A steady stream of advances—mostly enabled by the latest machine-learning techniques—are indeed empowering computers to do ever more things, from recognizing the contents of images to holding short text or voice conversations. These advances seem destined to change the way computers are used in many industries, but it’s far from clear how the industry will go from captioning images to tackling poverty and climate change. In fact, speaking after his talk, Schroepfer was eager to limit expectations, at least in the short term. Schroepfer said that recent advances were not enough to allow machines to reach human levels of intelligence, and that two dozen or more “major breakthroughs” would be needed before this happened. And he said many people apparently had the wrong idea about how rapidly the field was moving. “People see one cool example, and then extrapolate from that,” he said. The event, organized by New York University as well as companies leading the effort to harness artificial intelligence, including Facebook and Google, comes at a delicate moment for academic researchers and companies riding the wave of progress in AI. Progress seems


Prompt: Image caption Zack Davies attacked Dr Sarandev Bhambra on 14 January A man has been found of guilty of attempted murder after attacking a dentist with a machete and a hammer in north Wales. Zack Davies, 26, targeted Dr Sarandev Bhambra at a Tesco store in Mold, Flintshire, in a racially motivated revenge assault for the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby. Davies, of Mold, admitted wounding with intent but denied attempted murder. He was convicted at Mold Crown Court on Thursday. He will be sentenced on 11 September. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption "We are in

no doubt that had the racial disposition of this case been reversed this would be reported as an act of terror" - Dr Tarlochan Singh Bhambra, Sarandev's brother Dr Bhambra was walking down an aisle in the store on 14 January when he felt a "huge blow" to the back of his head from the 30cm (12in) machete. During the trial, shopper Leanne Jones said she heard the words "white power" and said Davies was acting "like a lunatic" as he hacked Dr Bhambra with the machete. Another witness heard Davies say: "Come here, this is for Lee Rigby". Image copyright PA Image caption Fusilier Lee Rigby, from Middleton in Greater Manchester, was murdered outside Woolwich Barracks Dr Bhambra suffered two cuts to his scalp which went down to the bone and a cut to his back which went down to the muscle. The injury to his left hand caused major nerve, artery and tendon damage and he was in surgery for five hours. Dr Bhambra told the jury that former soldier Peter Fuller saved his life when he intervened during the attack. Image copyright North Wales Police Image caption Davies attacked Dr Bhambra in Tesco using a machete and a hammer The court heard items associated with white supremacy and Nazism were found at Davies's home, including banners, swastika badges and Combat 18 stickers. He also said he was "absolutely fascinated" with Islamic State and described the British man known as Jihadi John as his inspiration. Gareth Preston, senior prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service Wales, described Davies as a "dangerous young man whose distorted and racist views led him to commit a terrifying act of violence". He added: "Such was the level of violence involved that, were it not for the extremely courageous actions of ex-serviceman Peter Fuller,


Prompt: New Zealand drug-trafficking accused Sharon Armstrong has admitted she knew of a secret package hidden inside her suitcase, but insists she believed it was nothing more than confidential papers. Ms Armstrong, 54, a former Maori Language Commission deputy chief executive, was arrested on April 13 after Buenos Aires Airport police allegedly found 5kg cocaine hidden in her suitcase. Ms Armstrong has said she did not know about the drugs and was tricked by a man she met online. She is being held in a medium-security women's detention centre in Ezeiza, about 30km southwest of Buenos Aires. She made a private

court appearance on Thursday, where Judge Daniel Petrone ruled he would proceed with a full investigation court appearance, dashing any hopes of an early release. Yesterday she told the Herald on Sunday an online boyfriend who lives in London, who she had been dating for six months, tricked her into being a drug mule. "He said that it was documents and a contract. I don't know any more about it and I didn't ask. I just thought it was really important and that the contract was worth a lot of money." Armstrong refused to say how she came into possession of the suitcase, but it was understood the switch was made with the case she brought from New Zealand just before she attempted to board a British Airways flight to London on April 13. She said she did not notice the 5kg of cocaine. If convicted, Ms Armstrong faced at least eight years behind bars. Speaking to NZPA from jail last week, Ms Armstrong said she needed help but was reluctant to talk about her case because she feared for her safety. "I'm just a little bit concerned that this might be a lot bigger. I've never been involved in anything like this ever before." She refused to name the man who she said scammed her. "I'm not wanting to protect him, but I'm not prepared to name any names for fear of any retribution." Ms Armstrong said reports she was carrying four driver's licences when arrested were wrong. She told NZPA she had three licences -- New Zealand, Australian, and Cook Islands -- with her at the time. She said the Australian licence was for when she visited family, and the $10 Cook Islands licence had expired. Staff from the New Zealand embassy in Buenos Aires had visited her


Prompt: Day two of Government Shutdown 2013 offered America plenty of surreal moments, from the brief and ridiculous re-emergence of the Grand Bargain, to the sight of multiple members of a universally reviled governing body offering to give up their paychecks as if they thought it was a move worthy of a medal. But nowhere did Salvador Dali's clocks warp and melt under the heat of sustained stupidity as badly as they did down at the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. Yesterday, it became pretty obvious that if you wanted to catch the eye of any Beltway reporter to

discuss what you were enduring during the shutdown, you had to go on down to this memorial to make your case. Unfortunately, that's where many members of Congress decided to while away their day as well. As Ryan Reilly reported, heroic members of Congress turned out to boldly grandstand at the memorial, pretending just as hard as they could that its temporary closure was the most dire effect of the shutdown ... for which ... they voted. Yes, that was by far the most surreal thing about it. Gawker's Tom Scocca turned the best phrase about the whole mess, describing those lawmakers as committing "an act of civil disobedience against themselves." But Mark Segraves, reporting for NBC News' Washington affiliate, managed to capture the howler highlight of the Great World War II Memorial Bleat-n-Repeat -- Rep. Randy Neugebauer's (R-Tex.) Wednesday confrontation of a poor park ranger on the scene -- who was doing nothing more than her job -- blaming her for the closure he voted for and telling her that she should be ashamed of herself. Seriously, this actually happened. Per Segraves: "How do you look at them and ... deny them access?" said Neugebauer. He, with most House Republicans, had voted early Sunday morning to pass a funding measure that would delay the Affordable Care Act, a vote that set up a showdown with the Senate and President Barack Obama. With the parties unable to agree on how to fund the federal government, non-essential government functions shut down Tuesday. "It's difficult," responded the Park Service employee. "Well, it should be difficult," replied the congressman, who was carrying a small American flag in his breast pocket. "It is difficult," responded the Park Service employee. "I'm sorry, sir." "The Park Service should be ashamed of themselves," the congressman said. "I'm


Prompt: Police say the New York police lieutenant who killed himself at Floyd Bennet Field on Thursday morning, apparently used another officer's gun to commit suicide. According to reports, Lieutenant Michael Pigott's suicide note indicated that he was afraid of being charged for the death of a man in Brooklyn who died after he authorized the fatal use of a Taser stun gun on the naked psychiatric patient. The officer was remorseful and distraught. He apologized and sought the family's forgiveness. Then he married father of two sons and a daughter, went to his unit's headquarters Thursday morning and shot himself

to death, just hours before the family laid the victim to rest. The suicide marks another tragic turn in a case that has raised questions about the use of Tasers by the nation's largest police force. Authorities say Pigott directed a fellow Emergency Services Unit officer to use his Taser on 35-year-old Iman Morales as he teetered on a Brooklyn building's ledge on September 24. The 50,000-volt shock caused Morales, a troubled psychiatric patient, to topple 10 feet headfirst onto the sidewalk, killing him. Officers had radioed for an inflatable bag as the incident unfolded, but it had not yet arrived when Morales fell. After the episode, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly ordered refresher training for the NYPD's Emergency Services Unit on how to deal with the mentally ill, and appointed a new commander of the unit. Pigott, a 21-year veteran who lives in Suffolk County, told a reporter earlier this week that he was "truly sorry for what happened." Pigott was one of two officers disciplined by NYPD commanders for violating Taser-use guidelines. "The lieutenant was deeply distraught and extremely remorseful over the death of Iman Morales in Brooklyn last week," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "Sadly, his death just compounds the tragedy of the loss of Mr. Morales." Pigottt was stripped of his gun and badge and assigned to a job with the department's motor vehicle fleet. Police say the officer who used the taser, Nicholas Marchesona, was placed on desk duty. The Brooklyn district attorney's office and the NYPD are investigating. Pigott's suicide came on what was his 46th birthday. According to the Post, he placed photos of his wife and kids next to him before taking his own life. "This is horrible," said Morales' aunt, Ann DeJesus Negron. "I mean, for me personally, I know it's horrible because


Prompt: Dear readers and friends, now, that’s a change from the usual “hello everyone” and the Star Trek title – must mean something significant, yes? Well, unfortunately, it does. I am quitting working on For the Record, completely. The reasons for these are numerous, but the most obvious one is that I was hired by My.com, the producer of Armored Warfare, to become a content manager and a sort of historical advisor (minus the epic hat) with a hint of community management. My contract prevents me from doing anything, that would benefit My.com’s competition and unfortunately, running a Wargaming news blog

is exactly the kind of thing that is prohibited. I wasn’t expecting this to come so suddenly (in fact, I was counting on running the blog for at least another month to take it all nice and slow), but the resolution of the situation came rather swiftly and I cannot wait – I’d be in breach of my contract. Don’t worry though, I won’t leave you without any info, there is a contingency plan (see below). There are other reasons as well though and I do feel like I owe you a longer explanation though, so here goes. This decision is not new. Some of you might remember that I was considering quitting completely as early as in the autumn of 2014. Wasn’t a good time for me really – along with some health issues, by that point FTR was practically a fulltime job (which didn’t change until today) and no matter how easy it might seem to an outsider, running the blog to any standard was completely exhausting. Another price, even more serious one, was the complete lack of any “life”, a price I was willing to pay, but I am no longer – I found someone very special in my life and suddenly found myself in a situation where I had to choose between my private life and working on FTR. Until today, I chose the latter, but I cannot do that anymore. But that’s not nearly everything. For a long time, I was doing FTR mostly out of sense of duty, as there was unfortunately no true goal to the entire endeavor. While the FTR numbers between 2013 and 2014 practically doubled, recently, the growth generally just stagnated. I believe that as it is now, FTR has reached its limits, there is nowhere to expand – in


Prompt: A vicious underground social media war is rocking a City Council race in the Brooklyn ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Boro Park — and the nastiest blows are in Yiddish. Waged largely on private WhatsApp groups, the fight between Kalman Yeger and Yoni Hikind is largely hidden from the general public. The combatants are largely anonymous, with no official ties to the two campaigns. The result is cross between a hip hop beef and a meme war, with partisans trading diss tracks and web videos that bash the other side without any accountability. “This is possibly one of the most nasty and

personal campaigns I’ve seen,” said Michael Fragin, an Orthodox political analyst. Yeger partisans have anonymously drawn attention to Hikind’s unmarried status, which is unusual among Orthodox Jews of his age. Meanwhile, Hikind supporters passed on false claims that the progressive Palestinian activist Linda Sarsour is backing Yeger, which she has denied. WhatsApp An anonymous pro-Yeger meme circulated on Boro Park WhatsApp groups. Share Pinterest Email “The WhatsApp has taken over the political discourse,” said Jacob Kornbluh, a member of the Boro Park community who works as a political correspondent for the news website Jewish Insider. “The campaigns feel that in order to drive the message, they have to invest in this… You can never trace to where it came from.” The campaign is the latest proxy skirmish in the long-running feud between outgoing City Councilman David Greenfield and longtime New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who were allies before splitting bitterly years ago. Greenfield announced in July that he would leave the City Council at the end of the year to run a nonprofit. He passed on his Democratic party line to longtime political operative Kalman Yeger, who was able to bypass a primary contest. Dov Hikind’s son, Yoni Hikind, who has worked as a social worker and therapist, announced his candidacy soon after. Hikind is running on the “Our Neighborhood” party line. The race has sharply divided Boro Park, already splintered into countless small Orthodox factions. Yeger is seen as the institutional choice. Leaders of the Hasidic group known as Bobov 48, so named for the street where their headquarters is located, back him, as do heads of many local Orthodox yeshivas. But other smaller Hasidic groups back Hikind. Yet the real action has been on social media and in Yiddish-language pamphlets and fliers away from the eyes of


Prompt: Arthur Paul Pedrick (3 September 1918 – 15 August 1976)[1] was a prolific British inventor who filed for 162 United Kingdom patents between 1962 and his death in 1976.[2] or 1977.[3] His inventions were notable for their humour and almost complete lack of practical applicability. Personal life [ edit ] Very little is known about Pedrick. He worked for many years as a patent examiner at the United Kingdom Patent Office but that it was only after his retirement that he began filing patent applications for his inventions. The Patent Office has stringent restrictions on improbable gadgets, but Pedrick's familiarity

with the process enabled him to satisfy the requirements and get his applications granted. During this period he was resident in Selsey, Sussex, England, according to his patents. Sometimes his residence would further be listed as "One-Man Photo-Electric Research Laboratories", or "One Man Think Tank Nuclear Fusion Research Laboratories", and so forth.[citation needed] These laboratories were staffed by himself and a ginger coloured cat, sometimes referred to as "Ginger" although it is not clear whether this was actually his name. Ginger was of great help to Pedrick in developing his inventions.[3] Unfortunately, it is recounted in some of the patents how Ginger was unable to secure financing to put the inventions into practice. His patent for laser induced fusion[4] includes these autobiographical notes: It is my personal experience based on a severe bout of Dive bombing by Stuka dive bombers in a light cruiser HMS "Dido", in 1941, evacuating mainly New Zealanders from Crete, who had been sent in by the late Sir Winston Churchill, but who, after the battle with the Nazi paratroops had made the island untenable, Admiral Cunningham, the Naval C in C in Alexandria, realised must be got out if possible, that the surface warships just cannot survive attacks by large numbers of aircraft, on their own, and it is only the chance of fate that I happened to be in After Engine Room of the ship, when a bomb came down on B turret and created a carnage of twisted steel and bodies forward, that I am writing this now, but the memory of the experience still gives me a "nightmare" at times. I have suffered all my life even from a by product of the 1914–18 war even if I was born after it. It is a personal fact that my father was a


Prompt: An iPhone app that teaches you proper cunnilingus technique – A new app called Lick This offers to “train your tongue” in the art of oral sex because “practice makes pleasure.” However, to use the app, you have to be willing to lick your phone screen. If you're concerned about germs (which wouldn't be unreasonable, because our phones are covered in them), I guess you could wrap your phone in Saran wrap first. If you’ve always wanted to get past second base with Siri, this app may be your dream come true. The most realistic sex dolls money can buy

– Forget blow-up dolls, a company called Sinthetics is now offering “life size, fully articulated, anatomically correct” sex dolls (or “manikins” as the company calls them). These are probably the most life-like sex dolls money can buy (check out some sample images on the Sinthetics website), and they can be completely customized to your personal likes and (if applicable) fetishes. Breasts and penises come in all sizes, you can say where you want hair and where you don’t, and you can even give your new friend things like tattoos, piercings, and tan lines. Oh, and elf ears and monster eyes are options too. Manikins start at $5,500, but if you want a completely custom body or head, expect to spend quite a bit more. Pleasure your partner (or yourself) with remote-controlled underwear – blueMotion, developed by OhMiBod, is a set of vibrating panties that you can control from your smartphone via a Bluetooth connection. An app on your phone lets you control the speed and intensity of the vibrations. Learn more here. And, no, I don’t know when the wi-fi model is coming out! Turn ordinary household items into dildos in an instant – Have you ever looked at an object around your house and said, “I wish I could turn that into a dildo?” If so, Dildomaker is the device for you. It quickly and easily transforms everything from vegetables to hot dogs to candles into dildos. It works kind of like a pencil sharpener: just stick the tip in, crank the device, and presto! A perfect dildo every time. Check out a few examples here. The robot that helps you masturbate – Finally, for that guy in your life who thinks masturbation is just too much work, here is a prototype of a robot that can literally give


Prompt: 21 September 2015 Hamilton Zoo’s male Sumatran tiger Oz will not be euthanized following the death of Zoo Curator Samantha Kudeweh yesterday (20 September, 2015). Lance Vervoort, Hamilton City Council’s General Manager Community, says although Samantha’s death is a tragedy for the wider zoo family and international wildlife conservation community, senior zoo staff have ruled out euthanizing Oz. “We’re aware there is a lot of interest and speculation around how we manage Oz now, and I want to assure the public and zoo supporters that he will not be put down,” Mr Vervoort says. “Although there is an inherent risk

for zoo professionals who manage big cats like Oz, there is no wider ongoing risk. There is no reason for us to put Oz down.” Mr Vervoort says the decision not to euthanize Oz was made by zoo senior staff today. They have advised the Ministry for Primary Industries – the Government agency responsible for overseeing zoo and wildlife park operations in New Zealand – of this. “This is our call, and the decision on Oz rested solely with us,” Mr Vervoort says. “Oz is a significant animal for his species. He is the father of our two cubs, and he is vital to the ongoing breeding programme to conserve this rare species." Mr Vervoort says the widely held view among zoo professionals was that Oz’s attack on Samantha was in line with his natural instincts. Hamilton Zoo will reopen on Thursday, and Mr Vervoort says some of the zoo’s five Sumatran tigers will be on display. No decision has been made on whether visitors to the zoo will be able to see Oz. Mr Vervoort says the zoo’s popular Tiger Talks, Eye 2 Eye and Face 2 Face encounters for all species have been suspended until further notice to allow zoo staff time and space to grieve for their friend and colleague. Those aspects of the zoo experience will be assessed on a weekly basis. Mr Vervoort says Hamilton Zoo will not be commenting on tiger management procedures until all investigations have been completed. “We’re firmly focussed on supporting Samantha’s family, the zoo team, and make sure we conduct thorough and complete investigations into this tragic incident.” Mr Vervoort says Hamilton Zoo’s phone lines and social media channels had been inundated with messages of support from around the country following Samantha’s death. “Our team is still coming to terms


Prompt: In seeking to comply with new record-keeping requirements from the National Archives, Hillary Clinton turned over thousands of pages of her personal e-mails to the State Department, officials said. (John Woods/AP) Hillary Rodham Clinton was not the first senior government leader to conduct official business on personal e-mail, a practice that — while discouraged — apparently became widespread enough that Congress tightened rules on its use late last year. The Federal Records Act prohibits official business on private e-mail accounts unless the communications are copied and turned over to the National Archives within 20 days. The new oversight is part

of the government’s evolving policy on how to archive the massive volume of electronic communications created in a digital age of e-mail, tweets and Instagram. It follows a flurry of disclosures that several Cabinet-level officials — including former Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson and former health and human services secretary Kathleen Sebelius — used private or secondary government e-mail accounts. The continuing use of non-official accounts for official business has attracted congressional inquiries amid questions about transparency. On Wednesday, the head of the small office that investigates chemical accidents is scheduled to testify at a House committee hearing on an inspector general’s report that he and two deputies discussed internal disputes about agency operations on private e-mail accounts and did not preserve them. Several large agencies, including the EPA and the Defense, State, Treasury, Interior and Homeland Security departments, said their senior leaders restrict all government business to government e-mail accounts. John F. Kerry is the first secretary of state to rely on a government e-mail account, officials said. Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail address that she used while secretary of state reinforces everything people don’t like about her, argues The Post’s Chris Cillizza, and is very dangerous to her presidential ambitions. (The Washington Post) The EPA “discourages the use of private e-mails,” an agency spokesman said. “Our policy is to forward e-mails initiated from and received by private e-mail accounts to government e-mail accounts to create a record in the EPA e-mail system within 20 days.” A Treasury Department spokesman said Secretary Jack Lew conducts official department business on government e-mail. “Treasury policy is that employees should conduct official business through their official treasury e-mail accounts. The policy recognizes that there are situations in which an employee must use a personal e-mail account for work purposes. In those circumstances,


Prompt: NEW YORK (MainStreet) - The amount of pot purchased annually by Americans is an estimated $50 billion, but and only $2 to $2.5 billion of it is purchased legally, according to a Wall Street report. That's because although legalization of marijuana is sweeping the nation, sales of the plant-based drug will continue to be sold on the black market for some time. "There are conservative states that are not putting this on the ballot in the near future," said Scott Greiper, founder and president of Viridian Capital & Research. "They are far away from legalizing despite the allure of revenues

of marijuana sales." Some $10 to $15 billion is expected to comprise legal sales in the next three to five years. "States that are currently legalizing are slow rolling it in order to regulate the use and ensure a chain of custody, compliance and tracking," Greiper told MainStreet. The Viridian Cannabis Industry Report and Stock Index revealed that publicly traded marijuana stocks increased 848% in the first quarter of 2014 when Colorado legalized recreational use, but the sector has since dropped, ending the first nine months of 2014 with a 147% gain. "We see a shake-out coming as lofty valuations come down to reality, questionable operators are forced from the industry and the real winners in the sector become apparent," Greiper said. "This will accelerate the movement of more traditional capital sources into cannabis stocks." About 60 marijuana related companies have gone public since 2012 when only 13 were listed on the exchange compared to 70 currently listed on the pink sheets. "There's a lot of disbelief in the prospect of the management capability of public companies," said Michael Swartz, analyst with Viridian Capital & Research. "To bridge the gap and bring credibility, we've issued this research report that landscapes the industry so that institutional investors have an understanding of how marijuana companies are being valued to access the capital markets." The top performing sectors of the Viridian Cannabis Stock Index include consulting services with returns of 665.5%, biotech at 339% and 135% for infused products. "With broker, banker and analyst licenses with the SEC and FINRA, we transact all of our investment banking transactions through Pickwick Capital Partners, which allows us to act as an investment banker to these public companies," said Greiper. Leading publicly traded consulting companies include Medbox (MDBX) and United Cannabis Corp. (CNAB). "Entrepreneurs wanting to


Prompt: Conservative industrialist Charles Koch declined to back Donald Trump in last year's election. (Patrick T. Fallon for The Washington Post) INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Leaders of the influential Koch network on Sunday expressed opposition to President Trump's ban on refugees and immigrants from Muslim-majority countries, saying the executive order is not in keeping with their aims to build a free and open society. “We believe it is possible to keep Americans safe without excluding people who wish to come here to contribute and pursue a better life for their families,” said Brian Hooks, the president of the Charles Koch Foundation,

who is co-chairing a weekend conference of donors who help finance the Koch operation. “The travel ban is the wrong approach and will likely be counterproductive,” he added. “Our country has benefited tremendously from a history of welcoming people from all cultures and backgrounds. This is a hallmark of free and open societies.” The statement represents the network's first public critique of Trump since his election victory. President Trump signed an executive order to halt U.S. entry for refugees, migrants and foreign nationals for 120 days starting Jan. 27. Fiery protests and lawsuits made for a tumultuous weekend. Here's what you need to know. (Dalton Bennett,Erin Patrick O'Connor,Katherine Shaver,Monica Akhtar,McKenna Ewen/The Washington Post) Last year, Charles Koch, the conservative industrialist who leads the network, was sharply critical of Trump's proposal to ban Muslim immigrants from the United States, calling the idea “antithetical to our approach.” He called the suggestion that Trump might require Muslims to register “reminiscent of Nazi Germany.” Koch did not weigh in on the ban Saturday night as he greeted 550 wealthy donors gathered in a courtyard under stately palm trees at a desert resort here. The 81-year-old billionaire, who pointedly declined to endorse Trump in last year's presidential election, praised the network's work in helping Republicans maintain their majority in the Senate and their support for state officials around the country. He expressed optimism about what the group will be able to accomplish in the coming year, saying, “We may not have an opportunity again like we have today.” [Koch network to spend $300 million to $400 million on politics, policy in 2018 cycle] In the 2018 cycle, the network aims to spend $300 million to $400 million on policy and political campaigns — up from $250 million during the 2016 elections. The money will be


Prompt: https://iwandered.net/temples-of-mrauk-u-burma-myanmar/ The alarm rang. At 5:30 in the morning, my mind was still in a murky haze having arrived in Mrauk U just a few hours before. The entirety of the previous day was spent traveling by plane, boat and jeep and yet there I was, up and on the go once more. in a dreamlike state… Burma’s Rakhine state, where Mrauk U is located, is closer to Bangladesh than to Yangon. The roads here are so underdeveloped that an 80 km road trip between two points in the state takes almost 5 hours. We decided to take a longer

but less bumpy route, and went on a 6-hour journey by boat after we arrived in Sittwe, the administrative center of Rakhine state. Sunrise At 5:30 in the morning, I found myself scaling some unknown peak in utter darkness, with the faint luminance of a flashlight guiding the way. A closer peek revealed a golden pagoda at the top – the Shwetaung Paya, from where the sunrise views of Mrauk U are said to be legendary. “This better be worth it,” I muttered to myself. The air was a lot colder than what I remembered from when I had arrived. Surely, it wasn’t what I expected for the tropics. By the time we reached the top, the first sign of daybreak had arrived. I could make out a fog forming in the lower altitudes while the sky turned dark blue and later into purple. What happened a few minutes later was perhaps the most magnificent sunrise I have seen in my entire life. The landscape in Mrauk U in Burma’s restive Rakhaing state at dawn is a mishmash of cauliflower fields and village huts surrounded by the morning fog and punctuated by hillocks with several centuries old stupas – it’s a dreamlike scene made even more apparent by the fact that I was still only half-awake on this pre-dawn hike. The sunrise view also served as my orientation to the scattered temples of Mrauk U. There were about 700 in the horizon, and I would only be able to visit a handful. How to Go to Mrauk U One of the things that has deterred many travelers and kept Mrauk U mainly off-the-radar despite its ability to give Angkor Wat a run for its money is the long hours involved in getting there. You can basically look at a few


Prompt: This is the bizarre moment an Asian woman praised Pauline Hanson by comparing her to both Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler. The woman's gushing praise of the controversial One Nation leader was captured in an interview with ABC's The Link presenter Stan Grant. He spoke to residents of New South Wales in a segment that aired on Friday night asking them what they think of Ms Hanson. While one man dismissed her as 'too anti-everything,' an Asian woman – who was not named – was filmed in a shopping centre as she heaped praise on Senator Hanson. This woman heaped

praise Pauline Hanson in an interview with The Link - comparing her to Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler 'Pauline Hanson is straightforward,' she said. 'She's sincere, she's not a hypocrite. If she doesn't like you, I don't like you.' The woman continued to compliment Ms Hanson by comparing her qualities with two other nationalistic politicians she admires - the current President of the United States and the leader of Nazi Germany. Speaking about why she likes Ms Hanson, the woman continued: 'Just like Trump. I like Trump. Donald Trump is sincere. 'He's sincere, straightforward. If he tells you you're not okay, you're not okay – not okay for America. You're destroying our country.' The unnamed woman described the One Nation leader as 'sincere' and 'straightforward' While some called Ms Hanson (pictured) 'too anti-everything', the woman continued to compliment her Asked if she would like to hear more Trump-inspired rhetoric in Australia, she replied: 'Yes, yes.' She added: 'See like that speech he had yesterday, that was great. Yes, it sounded like Hitler, but you know, Hitler loved Germany.' Later on the programme, American political analyst and author Thomas Frank said the woman's comments were 'alarming'. 'Oh my goodness, well, it sounds like you're going to get your own Donald Trump here soon,' he told Mr Grant. 'That's a little bit alarming. 'Everything those people said, you take out the accent and some of the slang and that's exactly the kind of thing you heard from Americans during the last election cycle.' The woman compared Ms Hanson to other nationalistic politicians Donald Trump (pictured left) and Adolf Hitler (right) Ms Hanson has said that Australians are calling out for a 'strong leader' like Vladimir Putin Meanwhile, Ms Hanson herself recently praised a controversial leader – Russian President Vladimir Putin. She insisted


Prompt: Vice President Joe Biden is known for his speeches. But there is one particular speech Biden gave that I've never forgotten. I remember seeing it on TV, half-listening, and then, all at once, realizing Biden was saying something I had never heard him say before, something I had never heard any politician say before. On May 25, 2012, Biden spoke to families of fallen soldiers and described the appeal of suicide. "I probably shouldn’t say this with the press here," Biden said, "but no, but it’s more important, you’re more important. For the first time in my life, I understood

how someone could consciously decide to commit suicide. Not because they were deranged, not because they were nuts, because they had been to the top of the mountain, and they just knew in their heart they would never get there again." It's a startling speech — and it's particularly startling to hear Biden give it. Biden is America's most happy-go-lucky politician. The internet delights in pictures of him eating ice cream cones, flattering grandmothers, smiling that big smile. The Onion has created an alternative-universe Biden, a guy who loves crushing beers while washing his Trans-Am shirtless. But the real Joe Biden doesn't drink. There's too much alcoholism in his background. And the real Biden isn't as carefree as his public persona suggests. The real Biden buried his wife and one of his children before he turned 30. But somehow, he keeps smiling. When you think of what Joe Biden's endured and what he's like, he seems to get something right about life that most of us don't. — Michael Grunwald (@MikeGrunwald) May 31, 2015 In 1972, a week after Biden was elected to the Senate at the age of 29, his wife and daughter were killed in a car crash. They had been out Christmas shopping, and they were hit by a tractor trailer. His sons were also hospitalized. It wasn't clear that they would survive. If they did survive, there might be brain damage. In his book What It Takes, the late Richard Ben Cramer described the scene that confronted Biden at the hospital: The doctors came out to find him: "We lost Neilia and the baby." The boys were still being worked on— broken hips, legs, arms. Beau was all cut up, and Hunter— concussion. Doctors weren’t sure ... brain damage possible. They’d have to transfer Hunt— another


Prompt: It's a valid question: why is it that the United States has long refused to launch air strikes or other military action against the Islamic State (ISIS), the extremist group responsible for untold suffering and destruction in Syria, but is happy to bomb ISIS now that it has pushed into Iraq? Why is it okay to attack ISIS on one side of the largely-hypothetical Syria-Iraq border, but not okay to do on the other side, particularly given that ISIS is doing way more harm in Syria than it is in Iraq, and is only able to attack Iraq at all

because of its huge haven in Syria? It turns out, though, that there are legitimate reasons for bombing Iraq and not Syria. And while there are arguable cases for attacking ISIS in Syria, it is also true that the distinction matters a great deal, and that the Obama administration's approach isn't as hypocritical as it might look at first glance. Here are six reasons why. 1) Bombing Iraq is about preserving the status quo; bombing Syria would be about changing the status quo, which is much harder and more open-ended Obama ordered air strikes against ISIS in Iraq focused on the narrow goal of defending Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region. Kurdistan had been mostly secure until ISIS began pushing into the territory about a week ago; it's got a stable, pro-American, oil-producing government. Obama's strikes are meant to help Kurdistan defend itself, and to preserve the status quo of a secure Kurdistan. The strikes are very clearly not about trying to change the larger ISIS war in Iraq, or to help Iraq retake the vast ISIS-held swathes of territory. In Syria, there is no "good" status quo to defend. Any strikes against ISIS there would be about pushing the group back from Syrian territory it already controls, so that more moderate Syrian rebels could seize it. In other words, the air strikes would be about changing the facts on the ground in Syria, rather than preserving them. Obama seems willing to use force when he can protect something good — a stable, secure Iraqi Kurdistan — but not to try to fix something bad. He doesn't want to "own" the outcome, get dragged into a potentially long engagement that could easily escalate, or risk sending the conflict spinning in an unpredictable new direction. So the US approach to Syria and Iraq


Prompt: ESPN legal analyst Roger Cossack explains possible reasons why Ronald Gasser, the man named as shooting Joe McKnight, was released from custody and has not been formally charged. (2:17) The shooting death of former USC Trojans and New York Jets running back Joe McKnight in a New Orleans suburb was a "road rage" incident that started on a nearby bridge, a sheriff said Friday, as he urged against a rush to judgment and defended his handling of the case as the alleged shooter was released overnight. McKnight was shot and killed Thursday afternoon in the community of Terrytown, just across

the Mississippi River from New Orleans. Authorities have identified 54-year-old Ronald Gasser, who stayed at the scene, as the shooter, and he was released overnight, sparking criticism. Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand said during a news conference on Friday that the altercation that ended with McKnight's death started on a nearby bridge -- possibly when one of the two men cut the other off -- and then proceeded into nearby streets in the New Orleans suburb. He did not say which driver cut off the other. Authorities said Gasser shot McKnight three times through an open window from inside his car with a semi-automatic handgun while McKnight was standing outside. Normand said witnesses observed a "heated verbal exchange" between Gasser and McKnight before the shooting. However, Normand said that one witness account, which indicated Gasser was standing over McKnight when he fired a shot, was factually incorrect and "did not happen." Normand said three casings were located inside Gasser's vehicle, and coroner Gerry Cvitanovich said Friday that McKnight had wounds to his left hand and entry wounds to his right shoulder and the right side of his chest. Gasser stayed at the scene, relinquished his semi-automatic handgun to officers and was taken into custody and questioned, the sheriff said. No guns were found outside either vehicle. According to The Times-Picayune, Gasser told police he was the shooter. Normand said later Friday in a news release that the man who shot McKnight was involved in a 2006 altercation at the same intersection, during which he chased down and struck another male driver, who had observed a truck driving erratically and called a phone number on the truck and spoke to a man later identified as Gasser. Gasser and the 51-year-old man got into an argument on the phone, according to the


Prompt: Image copyright Moray Council Image caption Graham Leadbitter said he did not want the issue detracting from campaigning A Moray women's group which has a man on its board has left the Scottish Women's Aid network as the appointment does not comply with its rules. Graham Leadbitter, a councillor, has worked with Elgin-based Moray Women's Aid (MWA) for many years. When Scottish Women's Aid (SWA) said it breached its conditions, the board of MWA decided it would not change its set-up, and resigned. MWA said feedback was positive. SWA said women-only boards mattered. The Women's Aid network supports women, children

and young people who have experienced domestic abuse across Scotland. 'Positive comments' Mr Leadbitter told the BBC Scotland news website: "I have been a member of the Moray Women's Aid board for about eight years, it's not been a secret, but the SWA spotted that and they said that did not comply. "The MWA board discussed the issue and agreed they did not want to change the set-up. It should be based on ability rather than gender. "So MWA indicated they would withdraw their affiliation. MWA is an independent organisation and felt it was the best route. "I would not want the issue to detract from the very good work women's aid groups do. If it opens up debate about how you can address inequality then that's maybe not a bad thing. "I have had positive comments about the position we have taken." 'Challenge inequality' The SWA said in a statement: "We're sorry to confirm that Moray Women's Aid are no longer members of the Scottish Women's Aid network and we wish them all the very best as they continue to provide vital services for women, children and young people experiencing domestic abuse across Moray. "Women are often excluded from making decisions about issues that predominantly affect women's lives; just look at the decision-making tables around Scotland. "Less than 35% of members of the Scottish Parliament are women; women are only 25% of councillors and 36% of public boards. We believe Scotland aspires to be equal, but we are not there yet, and the reality is unless we take action, the playing field will never be levelled." The statement added: "Women-only boards are important for Scottish Women's Aid, because we recognise that in Scotland historically and currently women are not equal, and do not have the same opportunities and experiences


Prompt: Mr. Friedman and Ms. Epstein have been civilly divorced since April and share custody of their daughter, but they are still married according to Jewish law. And without a get neither he nor Ms. Epstein can remarry within the faith. She is considered an agunah, or chained woman. Although the majority of men in Jewish divorces grant their wives a get with little fuss, the husbands who refuse — it is estimated there are several hundred agunot in the United States today — can provoke a clash between religious folkways and secular divorce law. Usually these conflicts are resolved quietly,

within the religious community. But Ms. Epstein’s frustrated supporters took to the streets. Like most marriages that end badly, this one began hopefully. On April 23, 2006, Aharon Friedman of Brooklyn married Tamar Epstein, seven years his junior, of suburban Philadelphia . The next year, they had a daughter. According to court records and interviews with Ms. Epstein, her lawyer and Mr. Friedman, who refused to be quoted publicly, Ms. Epstein said in March 2008 that she wanted a divorce. Her husband said he hoped to reconcile but the next month, she moved with their daughter to her parents’ home in suburban Philadelphia. Photo Both parties wanted their divorce resolved by a beit din, a Jewish court. But both also availed themselves of civil court: Mr. Friedman to get an emergency order to have his daughter returned to Maryland (it was denied), and Ms. Epstein, thereafter, in a countersuit for divorce. Both have since filed numerous other civil motions in a messy case. An Orthodox rabbinic court in Baltimore still had not ruled when a Maryland civil court heard the case, in June 2009. It issued its custody order two months later, and in April 2010, the divorce became final. Advertisement Continue reading the main story All parties have said that Mr. Friedman is angry about the custody order, which grants him three weekends a month with his daughter, two of them in Philadelphia, beginning at 6 p.m. on Fridays. As a religious Jew, Mr. Friedman will not drive from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday — so he cannot see his daughter until Sunday. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive


Prompt: Image copyright AFP Image caption China's defence minister Chang Wanquan has suggested drills for "maritime rescues and disaster relief" China has proposed joint maritime drills with South East Asian nations in the hotly contested South China Sea in 2016. Beijing is currently hosting an informal meeting for defence ministers from the region. China's Defence Minister Chang Wanquan has suggested drills for "maritime rescues and disaster relief". China's reclamation activities in the sea in recent years have raised tensions with its neighbours. The Philippines and Vietnam, in particular, have overlapping claims with China. China's proposal comes a week after the US

announced it was considering sending ships to an area of the South China Sea China has claimed for itself, a suggestion which sparked strong words from China. Read more: What is the South China Sea dispute? The suggestion for joint drills was made on Friday at a meeting with defence ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) regional alliance. The drills would be one way of achieving the aim of "jointly solving disputes and controlling risks", China's defence ministry said in a statement. The offer "indicates potential for the conflict to de-escalate" and if Asean states agreed, the drills would be "a confidence-building measure that can ease tensions", military studies research fellow Daniel Wei Boon Chua, of the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, told the BBC. William Choong, senior fellow at think-tank II-SS, called it "a conciliatory effort at blunting the bad press" and "to tamp down the temperature when you have US Navy ships possibly sailing in." But he felt that the drills would be "unlikely" to take off, "because I don't see any concerted buy-in from Asean on joint patrols," he said. Asean has had internal disagreements on a co-ordinated response to China on the South China sea dispute. Image copyright AP Image caption China has been reclaiming various islands and reefs in the area including Mischief Reef China has been accused of militarisation and illegally expanding its maritime claims by reclaiming land around island reefs and building airstrips and structures on them. The US has called on China to halt such activities. Vietnam on Tuesday alleged that China was constructing two lighthouses in the Spratly islands, and said it "resolutely rejects and vehemently protests China's action." The country saw anti-Chinese protests last year over a Chinese oil rig in a disputed area.


Prompt: Can we have morals without religion, or have morals developed solely through religion, or been given directly by God? What would we expect the world to look like, regarding morals, if there was no god – or if there was one? Are atheists less moral people? There are many reasons why believers fear atheism and atheists. Some are merely threatened by differing world views, some have been indoctrinated to such a degree as to believe that atheists are pawns of Satan, and some are somehow worried about being tempted “down a sinful path” or to waver in their faith. All

of these fears are self-centered and are not concerned with the greater good of the human species. One fear, that many believers share is, however, concerned with all of us and our common future. If morals stem from God and can only exist with God as the enforcer, what will our society become if God is removed from the picture? If we assume there is no divine judgement in the end and act accordingly? There are several aspects to this discussion, and I must admit (as I probably will in many posts) that I cannot treat the subject in full depth, nor can I hope to include all views and arguments on the matter. I can only try and make the subject engaging for anyone who has not thought about it before or maybe bring some new arguments forth. There are 4 questions to consider in this discussion: 1) Did morals come from God? Or the belief in God? 2) Could morals appear without the belief in God? 3) Are our modern moral values based on the religion with which we grew up? 4) Can we, as individuals, have morals without God or the belief in God? In the following I will try to touch upon each of these issues, but I will not be able to thoroughly discuss them. I aim only to give food for thought, and where necessary some references to more material. 1) There can be no doubt that in most societies, morals and dictated social behavior are closely linked to religion. The Abrahamic religions have the ten commandments in the Old Testament of the Bible as a very clear example, and the Quran has many passages explicitly describing laws. Examples can also be found in non-Abrahamic religions, such as the concepts of dharma and kharma


Prompt: Sunset Foods makes big investment in Libertyville hello Bursts from power tools pepper the conversation, but John Cortesi is unfazed by what he considers the sounds of progress. "We're going to really improve and enhance the shopping experience here," says Cortesi, president and CEO of Sunset Foods, a 76-year-old family-owned chain of groceries with five locations. This one has anchored the Butterfield Square shopping center on Libertyville's northwest side since 1998. Seated at a table in the grill area, just steps from where a small bar that will serve craft beer, boutique wine and appetizers is taking shape, Cortesi highlights

various aspects of the most extensive store renovation at this location since it opened. "It's due," he says. The improvements will include a full-service floral section with trained designers, revamped liquor department with a separate entrance, outdoor seating for 75 beneath a cedar trellis, expanded offerings for a variety of foods, and prototype elements, such as the beer and wine bar, and "build a burger" feature. "We're trying to improve the experience in all our locations," Cortesi said. "We want our store to be a place for people to meet their friends, have dinner, an appetizer." The estimated $1 million renovation in Libertyville could serve as a template for future improvements at the other Sunset locations. There is no specific plan or schedule set, although the Northbrook location is being evaluated, he said. Periodic changes are part of any business model. However, the landscape in Libertyville would appear to warrant some urgency, given the pending arrival of Trader Joe's on the south end of town and the continued success of Mariano's Fresh Market across the street from that site in Vernon Hills. "Most supermarkets find they need to refresh their stores about every seven years. The degree of the refresh often depends on the competitive environment," said Jon Hauptman, a partner with Willard Bishop Ltd., an industry analyst firm in Barrington. Planning and approvals for the Libertyville store, as well as for the landscaping and signage of the shopping center, were in progress well before the Trader Joe's announcement last February. "Improvements are necessary to compete in today's marketplace," Cortesi said without directly addressing the competition, which also includes a Jewel-Osco store. He described Sunset as a "very niched" business noted for its high-end service, such as online shopping with curbside pickup and quality products. Sunset shoppers can expect several


Prompt: BREAKING: Donald Trump Attorney Looking for Homeless Woman Beaten By Hillary Clinton Supporters in Hollywood The attorney for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is looking for the homeless Black woman seen on video being attacked by a mob of Hillary Clinton supporters as she protected Trump’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame after it was sledgehammered by a Clinton supporter earlier this week. Before: After: Michael Cohen, Trump Organization EVP and Special Counsel to Donald J. Trump, spoke out on Twitter Friday evening about Mr. Trump’s desire–before it was known to him that she was attacked by the Clinton

mob–to present an unspecified gift to the woman. Cohen said he had a friend in Hollywood looking for her. After learning she had been attacked, Cohen promised she would have “the last laugh on these thugs.” Cohen told a supporter to not contact the Trump campaign about the woman but to DM him on Twitter with any information as to her whereabouts., indicating this is a personal matter for Trump. .@DiamondandSilk @realDonaldTrump someone please help me locate this woman as Mr. Trump has a gift for her… — Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) October 28, 2016 “[email protected] @realDonaldTrump someone please help me locate this woman as Mr. Trump has a gift for her…” .@aGirlisN0one @DiamondandSilk @realDonaldTrump Someone please help me find this woman. No person should ever be treated this way!!! — Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) October 28, 2016 “[email protected] @DiamondandSilk @realDonaldTrump Someone please help me find this woman. No person should ever be treated this way!!!” .@can_texplain @DiamondandSilk @realDonaldTrump I just had a friend who works close by look but she is not there. If someone sees her, DM me — Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) October 28, 2016 “[email protected]_texplain @DiamondandSilk @realDonaldTrump I just had a friend who works close by look but she is not there. If someone sees her, DM me” Soon after Cohen responded to posters on Twitter who informed him the woman had been attacked and prayed for her to be found and helped. Cohen stayed engaged in conversation with the posters over the course of several hours Friday night. “@MichaelCohen212 @DiamondandSilk @realDonaldTrump they assaulted her!!” “[email protected] @YouTube with everyone’s help, we will.” .@IamBruceRussell @natashalarebel she will ultimately have the last laugh — Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) October 28, 2016 “[email protected] @natashalarebel she will ultimately have the last laugh” .@can_texplain @DiamondandSilk @realDonaldTrump no one should be


Prompt: New weekly report from Ben. Just came out. Full one to be released on Thursday. The only part I’m waiting to see confirmation is that of the arrests (Podestas, et al.). We shall see. “There can be no doubt whatsoever that the worldwide purge of the Khazarian mafia now has reached a tipping point of no return, with arrests and purges in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. “In the Middle East, Iran-linked Hezbollah now effectively rules Lebanon after Saudi puppet Prime Minister Saad Hariri was forced to resign. His resignation was followed by the purge of hundreds of princes, generals,

religious leaders, and others by de facto Saudi King Muhammad bin Salman. This purge was especially important because it cut off one of the last major remaining sources of Bush/Clinton mafia money and power… Pentagon sources…: “The Saudi purge of the Bush-Clinton pedo terror faction…is timed to the Paradise Papers leak, “The ramifications of these leaks, arrests, and purges reach out in many directions… Trump Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross (child) has been implicated. So has Canadian magnate Stephen Bronfman… These names are just the tip of the iceberg.” ————————————————————————— Purge of Khazarian mobsters intensifies as Trump is kept safe in Asia By Benjamin Fulford, White Dragon Society, November 6, 2017 There can be no doubt whatsoever that the worldwide purge of the Khazarian mafia now has reached a tipping point of no return, with arrests and purges in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. In the Middle East, Iran-linked Hezbollah now effectively rules Lebanon after Saudi puppet Prime Minister Saad Hariri was forced to resign. His resignation was followed by the purge of hundreds of princes, generals, religious leaders, and others by de facto Saudi King Muhammad bin Salman. This purge was especially important because it cut off one of the last major remaining sources of Bush/Clinton mafia money and power. Many of the princes purged were homosexually bonded with members of the Bush family and their top lieutenants when they studied in the United States, according to confessions of Kay Griggs, wife of a Skull and Bones Society member, and others. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp_i1F-1lcA This is how Pentagon sources described the unfolding crackdown: “The Saudi purge of the Bush-Clinton pedo terror faction—including [Osama Bin Laden’s brother] Bakr bin Laden and anti-Trumper [Prince] Al-Waleed bin Talal—is timed to the Paradise Papers leak, https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/05/paradise-papers-leak-reveals-secrets-of-world-elites-hidden-wealth?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_New_Post …the arrest of Tony Podesta, and the surrender of Hillary


Prompt: Both of these are fixable -- the first problem can be fixed by intercepting NM_CUSTOMDRAW and forcing it to return 0, thus restoring the built-in redraw code, and the second one by sending another LVM_SETTEXTBKCOLOR message to restore an opaque background color. With these two fixes, the C# app runs as smoothly as the C++ app. I don't know why the WinForms team chose such poor defaults. The way I ended up debugging this involved parallel C++ and C# apps. Both were fairly vanilla apps made using the built-in app wizards, the C++ one containing a dialog with a list

view, and the C# one being the same but with a WinForm. Okay, I'll admit that the C++ one was more annoying to write, because programming a Win32 list view directly is a lot of gruntwork. However, out of the box, the C++ app updated much more smoothly and didn't flicker madly. I'll spare you the debugging details -- which include ILDASM, WinDbg, Spy++, two instances of Visual Studio, and tracepoints in x86 assembly while debugging in mixed mode -- but I managed to figure out what was going on. The WinForms ListView is indeed a Win32 ListView with heavy subclassing, but it turns out the poor performance is caused by two bad design decisions on the part of the WinForms team: Therefore, I had to sit down tonight and figure out how you could make a standard Win32 ListView update so slowly that a 1541 drive could almost keep up with it. It seems that a perpetual affliction of .NET WinForms-based applications is slow and flickery repainting. Part of the problem is .NET's insistence on using GDI+, which is not hardware accelerated to any useful extent. That still doesn't explain why so many controls flicker all of the time, even though they're based on Win32 controls that don't have the same problem. Today I hit this problem yet again in a tool, this time with ListView. It drives me absolutely nuts to see a system with a 3GHz Core 2 and a GeForce 8800 take four seconds to redraw a list view that has three columns and a hundred entries when I drag a column, and even worse, flicker the entire time. Comments Comments posted: Custom draw (WM_NOTIFY, NM_CUSTOMDRAW) != Owner draw (LVS_OWNERDRAWFIXED, WM_DRAWITEM) pingpong - 15 09 09 - 22:18 Use a DataGridView instead, it sucks much less.


Prompt: So, here it is — several years (necessitated by several twists and turns in the development stages) after it was initially announced, Grant Morrison and Yanick Paquette‘s Wonder Woman: Earth One hardcover graphic novel is finally in our hands (or mine, at any rate — and maybe yours, too, but frankly I have no idea about that), and I guess the question on everyone’s minds is a pretty simple one : was it worth the wait? Having just read the book yesterday you’d think I’d be able to provide a definitive answer to that, but the truth is I can’t

(hey! What sort of a critic am I, anyway?) simply because, well — I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it yet, apart from harboring a vague sense that it marks something of a wasted opportunity . Uncertainty isn’t an entirely atypical reaction for any Morrison-scripted work, to be sure, but usually for reasons other than those I’m about to offer here. With previous projects like The Invisibles, The Filth, The Multiversity and Animal Man (to name just a handful), it often took several reads to get a solid “handle” on the full breadth and scope of everything our favorite shaven-headed Scotsman was throwing at us from the admittedly deep well of his imagination, but what’s perhaps most disarming about this particular book is how absolutely straightforward it all is. Really. Everything’s right there on the surface. Which isn’t to say that many well-nigh-legendary Morrison works such as All-Star Superman, WE3, or his runs on Batman and Action Comics haven’t essentially been fairly easy to get a full grasp on the first time you read them, either, but they all at least betrayed some level of ambition in terms of either telling a very traditional type of story in a new way, or getting us to look at familiar characters from a hitherto-unconsidered point of view. By contrast, Wonder Woman : Earth One seems perfectly pleased to simply tell an adequate story that tinkers with the Princess of the Amazons’ formative years around the margins a bit, and to leave it at that. Of course, the entire enterprise may have seemed considerably more ambitious back when Morrison’s proposal was first accepted (at the expense of an earlier one from Greg Rucka that had been “green-lit” by DC editorial, helping to precipitate Rucka’s departure from the company — except now


Prompt: The Tablet Longform newsletter highlights the best longform pieces from Tablet magazine. Sign up here to receive bulletins every Thursday afternoon about fiction, features, profiles, and more. 1. After a few years in Jaffa and her settlements and in Jerusalem and her study halls I decided to go and see the Land—the Kinneret and Deganya kibbutzim and their inhabitants, who have added two settlements to the existing thirty-seven. I had too little money to hire a donkey to ride on or a wagon to travel in, but I had plenty of time, so I decided to make my way by

foot. I timed the trip to celebrate Lag Ba’Omer in Meron, because I still remembered something of what I had heard in my childhood about the spectacles and wonders witnessed on Lag Ba’Omer night at the tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. I placed a loaf of bread and some olives in my pack, took my walking stick, and locked my door. I placed the key on the windowsill behind the blinds, so if a friend came to visit and found me away he could still find the key, open my room, and find himself a place to rest. It was the custom in the Land in those days that a person could always find lodging with a friend—if not a proper bed, then at least a floor to sleep on and a roof above his head. I departed Jaffa and walked nine hours to Hadera. Arriving at night, I found a place to sleep at a roadside inn leased by an Arab. I bathed my feet in hot water, rubbed them with olive oil, ate some of my bread and olives, spread myself out on the straw up in the loft, and slept soundly until morning when I was woken by the shouts of the Arabs and the screeching of their camels. I wanted to climb down from the loft but I could not find the ladder, which the innkeeper, fearing I would skip out on the bill, had removed. I called out for him with seventy different names used by Arabs, until I hit upon his name. He brought the ladder and I climbed down. I went out to the courtyard and washed my hands and face, drank two or three mugs of black coffee, and paid the lodging bill, hot water bill, and coffee bill, then headed


Prompt: Your browser does not support HTML5 video tag.Click here to view original GIF Last weekend, my friends and I went camping at a private spot in Big Sur that has the only fresh water swimming hole in the area. It’d previously been off-limits, but thanks to a new service called Hipcamp, anyone can now book it online. How’s it work? Advertisement The actual sunset you will actually see from camp. The Best Campsite In Big Sur Betty Withrow has lived in the mountains of Big Sur for 43 years. She’s six miles down a rough dirt road, in a little

hollow it takes serious effort to find, even with a map and directions. With mature apple, plum, fig and avocado trees, not to mention the redwoods that surround her property, it’s about as close to heaven as you’ll likely find on god’s green earth. Advertisement And now, you can visit her there to go camping. We did just that, organizing a group of 15 people (the site’s maximum) from San Francisco and Los Angeles and rendezvousing there to celebrate July 4th. We’ve camped in Big Sur a bunch, first down in Limekiln State Park, which like everything at sea level is crowded, cold and damp. Then, on top of Prewitt Ridge, which is gorgeous, remote and warm, but does get crowded on big holiday weekends. Advertisement By booking Betty’s place, a bit downhill from the Ridge, we bough ourselves complete seclusion and privacy, positively luxurious facilities (by camping standards, anyways) and that sweet, spring-fed swimmin’ hole. While the Ridge a mile or two away was so crowded people had to turn around and leave and where campfires are currently banned, we knew we had our own spot reserved, complete with a permissible fire pit, kitchen, spring water and camp kitchen. If you haven’t been to Big Sur, it needs to be on your list. Rugged mountains come crashing down into the sea, covered in oaks up top and redwoods as you get lower down. Somewhere in between the ridges covered in golden grass, persistent marine layer clouds and rocky coast line there’s real magic. No better sunset exists anywhere on earth. So, it’s a popular place to visit and camp. Along the Pacific Coast Highway, you’ll find private resorts like Treebones, a few state campgrounds and a couple little turnouts where people park RVs. All of them are crowded, none


Prompt: DigitalGlobe is enlisting the crowd to scan and tag images of more than 1,200 square miles of ocean for any visible evidence that could help locate the Malaysia Airlines 777 aircraft that went missing this weekend. The Longmont-based earth-imagery company deployed its FirstLook service on Sunday, directing two of its five satellites to snap photos of the area in the Gulf of Thailand, where investigators suspected the plane may have crashed, and then activated its crowdsourcing platform, Tomnod, on Monday afternoon. Flight MH370, with 239 people on board, lost communication while on its way to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. The

missing plane continued to perplex investigators from around the globe three days later. “If there is something to see on the surface (of the water), we will see it. But the question is if we are looking in the right area,” said Luke Barrington, DigitalGlobe’s senior manager of geospatial big data. As each new theory led to a new dead end, the company recalibrated its action plan based on the Malaysian government’s new area of focus, north and east of oil slicks reported soon after the plane went missing. DigitalGlobe activates FirstLook — used by emergency-response agencies in natural disasters, manmade crises and human interest scenarios — about twice a week, while Tomnod is used more selectively and for different reasons, Barrington said. “We try to use the crowd wisely and not tire them out,” he said. “The story here is much more about the search than it is about the response. This whole feeling of not knowing, the lack of information or ability to do anything, we have seen time and again, is why people want to get involved.” Within the first hour Monday afternoon, the Tomnod map had 60,000 page views with more than a thousand tags. Ten minutes later, that was up to nearly 2,000. Barrington said that the crowd actually directed the company on this particular crisis, asking for them to deploy Tomnod. “The people who come to Tomnod are very motivated to solve problems,” Barrington said. “I would say we will have up to 10,000 contributors on this one.” DigitalGlobe is not the only earth-imagery company capable of delivering high-resolution images, but is arguably the U.S. industry leader. “There are an awful lot of assets up in orbit,” said Marco Caceres, senior space analyst at The Teal Group. “There’s dozens of earth observation satellites and


Prompt: Comments You're not logged in, you must Login to your account to post a comment. If you do not have an account, you need to Register to comment. It's a free and quick process. There comes to a point where a player has reached a certain level that they cannot plateau any higher. Now they are desperately doing worse, not as confident as before, and their drive is slowly drifting away. You practiced your combos in the training room, you beat the computer senseless a million times, and you have exposed yourself in a tournament environment. What else is missing?

Why am I doing worse? It’s an easy answer that most people don’t realize. Your love of the game is lost. All you want to do now is to win and prove yourself to the community that you’re a top player.This is a very common situation for lots of players, but having love for the game or for your character will show a lot more signs of improvement than someone whose only interest is to win. If you look at the player DJ Huoshen on how he play and how he reacts to things. You can tell that he loves to play with the team he uses; Felicia/Skrull/Taskmaster. He loves this game and he takes the game as it is. He understands that the game is cheap and his characters have a high chance of losing but he makes it work and still comes out on top. Why? Because he loves to play the game. He doesn’t just care about winning. Winning is nice but staying true to your heart means a lot more and that’s where winning matters the most.This obviously doesn’t mean that if you pick the character you like, you will win all your matches. There are broken things in every game that will just prevent your success.Phoenixbut as long as you tried your best and your love in the game will be there, you will have a much more clearer outlook on things and what little things to improve on for your next match, tournament, and etc.If you look at the way Japan plays, they just stick to one character. Something that every country is doing now. The reason why they stick to one character is because usually that’s their favorite character and of course you want to be the best with that character. Japanese players


Prompt: In California, where there are nine festivals devoted to lavender alone, you’re never far from something that needs celebrating. But sometimes an event or theme or setting is so attractive, you might want to make a weekend or even a week of it. Here are 10 in 2018 worth a look. Mendocino Crab, Wine and Beer Festival: This scenic hamlet on the north coast draws visitors with a variety of festivals throughout the year, but its crab fest is one of the best of its kind, thanks to its all-you-can-eat cioppino and crab feeds, a crab-cake cook-off and the area’s

excellent local wines and beer. www.mendocino.com (Jan. 19-28) ScotsFestival on the Queen Mary: When you remember that Mary was Queen of Scots, it’s obvious why the famed ship, built on the bonny banks of the River Clyde and now permanently moored in Long Beach, is home to the state’s most unusual gathering of the clans. Expect all the usual competitions, music, games, haggis-eating and whisky-tasting opportunities, plus a Robert Burns Supper. www.queenmary.com (Tentative dates: Feb. 17-18) Palm Springs Modernism Week: What began as a single showcase now draws lovers of midcentury-modern architecture, design and culture from around the world for 10 days of activities that include film screenings, lectures, symposiums, art events, home tours, martini parties and even an ode to the beloved Airstream travel trailer. Sign up early enough and you can rent a gem of a private midcentury home. www.modernismweek.com (Feb. 15-25) Like our Facebook page for more conversation and news coverage from San Jose, the Bay Area and beyond. Pebble Beach Food and Wine: This is the younger sister of Aspen’s famous signature culinary festival, but with even better wine. Set on one of the most prestigious stretches of coastline in the country, the event draws thousands to sample offerings by more than 100 celebrity chefs and 250 wineries. Enjoy culinary demos, grand tastings, special events — such as last year’s Southern Breakfast with Hugh Acheson — while taking in sumptuous views. www.pbfw.com (April 5-8) Paso Robles Wine Festival: Anchored in the Downtown City Park, with additional events hosted by wineries in the nearby rolling hills, this four-day eating and sipping extravaganza includes winemaker dinners, live music and barrel tastings. Buy tickets to the Grand Tasting early. www.pasowine.com. (May 17-20). Valhalla Renaissance Faire: Renaissance fairs can be found closer to home, but why not hang out with


Prompt: Julia Greenshields is back for a brief stay in her hometown before rejoining the Rugby Canada national women’s program in B.C. Where is she spending most of her free time during her two-week stint in Sarnia? On the rugby pitch, of course. “It keeps me busy, it keeps me in shape while I’m here anyways,” she said. “I like keeping on grass, especially when it comes to injuries to help rehab and stay fit while I’m here. You learn when you coach, too.” Greenshields, 23, has been helping out various local sides, including the Sarnia Saints U14 and U16 boy’s

teams that brought medals back from a 7s tournament in Oakville last weekend. On Tuesday at Norm Perry Park, she was offering some tips to the U18 girls. She took in one of their matches last week and noted a need to work on tackling, staying in a line defensively, and passing. “Something to work on,” she said. “They’re young.” Greenshields played for the Saints for a few seasons until moving out to Victoria – that’s where Rugby Canada centralizes the national teams – and has remained based out of the west coast since January 2012. The former Queen Elizabeth II and St. Clair student was eligible but ultimately wasn’t selected to be part of the Canadian Pan Am Games 7s entry that won gold over the U.S., partly due to a recent sprained ankle she suffered in practice in April. With the aid of rehab and an ankle brace, though, she’s back in action now. In Victoria, her schedule usually consists of six-days-a-week training featuring sprints, skills, weightlifting and general conditioning. “Long days for us,” she said with a chuckle. The national team competes in a series of tours in locations such as Dubai, Atlanta, Brazil, China and London. The most recent tour stop she participated in was in Amsterdam in May with the developmental side called the Maple Leafs. There they won the championship, defeating Ireland in the final. “A really cool experience,” she said. Carded as a Canadian player, Greenshields has played with both the main team and the developmental side at times. Overall, Canada’s women are ranked second after New Zealand, she added. Despite the fact Greenshields plays 7s, which will be in the 2016 Olympics, she is still able to pass on some useful tips to Sarnia’s 15s sides, such as the U18 group. “It’s


Prompt: By Wild Wild here again, and I’ve got us another battle report in preparation for Crucible. For this tournament Rhyas’ full Rearguard theme list was in, as was Thagrosh the Messiah with the Archangel. The tournament was also notable for us as being the final event before we go to Crucible, and several of us were preparing, including two of my opponents. Once again, I forgot to take pictures, but luckily for my 2nd round, Anthony from Frozen Kommander was my opponent and took pictures of the end of each turn starting from his 1st turn. Check out his youtube

channel here. That out of the way, time to go over the two lists I’m running. List One: Rearguard theme force, Tier 4 • Rhyas, Sigil of Everblight • Succubus • Nephilim Soldier • Typhon • Shredder • Blighted Nyss Swordsmen 10-man • Swordsmen Abbot and Champion • Blighted Ogrun Warspears 5-man • Blighted Warspear Chieftan • Blighted Ogrun Warspears 5-man • Blighted Warspear Chieftan • Blighted Nyss Shpeard • Warmonger War Chief • Warmonger War Chief Coming in at 50 points, Rearguard acts as not only my infantry list, but also my “Hold the Line” list. There are 3 major points to this tier. The first is at Tier 1, Stealth for the entire army turn 1. This alone wouldn’t sound so bad if Tier 4 didnt exist: All Blighted Ogrun models gain Advance Deployment. That’s 14 models 13-16” already in from the board edge….and stealthed. Heavy Infantry no less. Tier 3 is the icing on the cake, allowing Rhyas to place her Upkeep spells Occultation and Rapport for free before deployment. Standing in at FURY 5, this allows her to have both spells out and cast Dash out on Turn 1, allowing with proper placement her entire infantry army a SPD Buff. Her warbeasts don’t benefit, but since Typhon and the others are acting as a second line along with the Swordsmen, this is not an issue. Now the other list: List Two: Thagrosh the Messiah • Thagrosh the Messiah • Archangel • Succubus • Carnivean • Shredder • Shredder • Shredder • Spawning Vessel • Blighted Nyss Hex Hunters • Bayal, Hound of Everblight And here is my secondary, the beast heavy Thagrosh list. With the inclusion of the Archangel and the Carnivean, Thagrosh has the Hex Hunters as advance forces, though it does have skornergy in


Prompt: Bass Fishing Heating Up in Cooler Weather by Tom Lester Old man winter has finally awakened and cooler temperatures are here and holding steady. For quite some time, we fall bass fishermen have been anxiously awaiting a cool down that would in turn our lake water temperatures lower. Although, today is the first official day of winter, the water is cooling off nicely. It's time to go fishing. Personally, I love fall pattern bass fishing. It is the time of year bass gorge themselves with food getting ready for winter. When they are filling themselves up, I like to be

on the water catching 'em. Generally speaking, if you can find them, they are pretty easy to catch, and catch and catch. As the water cools down on our lakes, the shad (one of Mr. Bass' primary dishes) move into the creeks and guess who is following right behind them? That's right, ole man bass. Now that we've got 'um cornered and hemmed up in the creeks, its time put your boat in the water and get ready for some fun. I generally start out on the points of main creeks. It is a good place to find bass that are moving into the creek or coming out. They will literally "stack up" on the points as they move around to feed on the shad. My bait of choice on the points is a Norman's crankbait. My overall favorite is the Deep Little N (DLN) in any of the numerous shad colored patterns they have on the market. The Deep Little N crankbait is a medium diving bait that works really well when the fish are suspended off of the points. It is also about the same size as the shad this time of year. It has good action and sound with the built in rattles. I use 10-12# CXX P Line year round, when cranking. My friend, Eric Talley of Corsicana, TX, turned me on to using the smaller lines. I'm glad he did because it has greatly improved my numbers since I switched. The smaller line allows the bait to dive deeper and have a better action than the larger lines do. If you are like I used to be, using 15-20# line while fishing a crankbait, try sizing down your line. I bet you catch more bass, like I did. I know what you're thinking; what if


Prompt: The Pokémon franchise is copyrighted to Game Freak These Pokémon has been designed and drawn by me, please do not use without my permission, thank you. (See? This time I have a good title)Anyways, I wanted to remake my chestnut-based Fakemon, so I did just that. Enjoy!-LV.30->-LV.45->***Welcome to today's lecture about the wonderful creatures of this world known as Pokémon! My name is Professor L0kiice, and today we are going to look at the evolutionary family of the Shelled Pokémon, Chinquell!Chinquell are born without eyes and are thus, unsurprisingly, completely blind. And much like the more violent dragon Deino, these

Pokémon use their mouths to compensate for their lack of eyesight. However, unlike randomly biting things, Chinquell utilizes a more delicate manner of finding their way around. With their tongues protuding out of their mouths, Chinquells find their way around by their delicate sense of taste, thus they are excellent for tracking things, assuming that they know the special "taste" of what they are supposed to be tracking first. But since they lack limbs, a Chinquell in the wild never travels far from its birthplace before evolution. Because of their inability to move very well, they are quite often sitting ducks, something that makes their fully evolved form, Dracastan, one of the more protective parents of the Pokémon world.As Chinquell evolves and becomes Castemisa, they gain a set of eyes as well as legs. And even though they have a new sense to fully explore, Castemisas still use their tongues more than their eyes. Having legs gives you the benefit of being able to wander pretty much everywhere you like as well as to get away from attackers. But seeing as Castemisas have to carry around a heavy shell, they aren't going to outrun many things. That is what said shell is actually for, protection. With sharp spikes on both sides of its body, Castemisa is one tough nut that no-one in their right mind would attempt to crack, at least not with their mouth.But what does Chinquell and the other's of its evolutionary family eat? It depends, as the Pokémon reaches its higher stages of evolution, its food-intake becomes more varied. Since Chinquell mainly stays in its nest, it is usually fed by its mother or father, who usually brings home the game of the day that they have hunted. As Chinquell becomes Castemisa, it gets a bit more


Prompt: It started with the oven. In Singapore in 2001 I bought a used Sharp R-8H50(B)T Rotisserie combination microwave and convection oven from my buddy, Tuck Wai, for S$200. Say what you will about the Sharp Corporation, which is struggling, but that oven was The Bomb. It followed us from Singapore to Beijing to Shanghai and back to Beijing, proving its worth repeatedly in a country where most apartments don’t have ovens. It even survived one front panel change. It was the best S$200 I ever spent in my life. Tuck always regretted selling, a sure sign of a good deal.

Earlier this year the panel started to fail again, and no transplants were available. It was a protracted death, like a person with progressive organ failure. One by one, over the course of a couple of months, the buttons stopped working, slowly narrowing the list of things the oven could do. First we lost the grill. Then the convection function. Then the microwave time entry. The last gasp was the quick start. Goodnight, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest. Anyway, I’m not superstitious, and I don’t generally believe in portents, but if the death of our trusty Sharp Rotisserie isn’t a sign that change is in the wind, what is? So after eight and a half well-documented years in Beijing and 17 in Asia for me, we’re moving back to Palo Alto in January. I’m going because my company has asked me to move to the Silicon Valley office, very near where I grew up and where most of my family still live. For a long time I resisted the idea of moving back to the United States. My self identity is largely based on being “the one who’s in Asia.” I was 27 when I left the US in 1995, six months out of graduate school and in most measurable ways a complete doofus. My personal and professional development has pretty much all been in Asia, and most of my friends and virtually all of my experience and network are out here. Which, when you think about it, seems like a really good reason to do something different, even if that something is going home. Sometime in the last year or two my previously steadfast resistance to going home started to soften. Last May, when my boss proposed I come back to Sunnyvale, which


Prompt: The NFL reached Peak No Fun League this season, the result of another attempt to crack down on the kind of insidious, soul-draining behavior that threatens to undermine the fabric of the game. In other words, spontaneous joy is out. So are most forms of celebration and darn near every ounce of shade players toss at one another. Taunting penalties have spiked, at one point up more than 200 percent compared with last season. Unsportsmanlike conduct penalties have risen, and ejections have nearly tripled last season's total. How to make sense of a world scared straight? For your convenience, ESPN

offers this handy tool. Flag or no flag? You make the call. We'll tell you if you're, uh, right. Josh Norman, Washington Redskins | Bow and Arrow Norman pretends to shoot a bow and arrow. He's holding neither a bow nor an arrow, but you get the point. Think of him as a modern day Robin Hood. He steals from the rich and gives to the poor. This is a penalty because it is close enough to a "machine-gun salute" that is explicitly banned in the NFL rulebook. Penalty? Yes! Antonio Brown, Pittsburgh Steelers | End Zone Twerking Everybody's doing the twerk, including Brown. But that's a big no-no. Nobody twerks in the NFL. Nobody. In the view of league officials, it's a sexually suggestive dance that involves gyrations, both of which are explicitly banned in the NFL rulebook. That's a penalty every time. Penalty? Yes! A cartwheel is dramatic and draws attention to the individual who is, well, cartwheeling. But surprise! It's not illegal according to NFL rules. (Wait until next year. Ha!) Sanders didn't violate any of the known restrictions. It wasn't prolonged or excessive. It wasn't sexually suggestive. It had no gyrations, and the only parts of his body that touched the ground were his hands and feet. Good job, good effort! Penalty? No! The Lions added a cheerleading squad this season, and all Golden Tate wanted to do was support it. So after a touchdown earlier this season, he jumped into the mix, borrowed a pair of poms and joined in the dance. No penalty! He was on the sideline, after all, and outside of the field of play. He was free to do darn near anything that didn't spur an all-around brawl. Penalty? No! Andrew. Hawkins. Decided. He. Wanted. To. Be. A. Troll. (Good. Natured.


Prompt: Muncie police car (Photo: File photo) MUNCIE, Ind. – City police said a Muncie man created a disturbance in the northside Goodwill store on Saturday, in the process choking a store clerk, breaking an officer’s hand – and proclaiming himself to be God. Khaliad Sulaiman Bilal, 24, of the 3700 block of North Tillotson Avenue, was arrested on preliminary counts of strangulation, intimidation, battery, battery on law enforcement, resisting law enforcement and disorderly conduct. However, Bilal – also alleged to have threatened to kill several people in the store – was admitted to IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital rather than

taken to the Delaware County jail. Police were called to the store – at 5035 W. Hessler Blvd. – about 1:30 p.m. after receiving a report of a man “fighting with customers and staff.” Witnesses – several of whom took cellphone videos of the incident, according to police reports – said Bilal at first “aggressively approached” those inside the Goodwill store, “trying to preach to people and also putting his hands on customers.” They said he became increasingly agitated, “screaming about being Muslim and how he was going to kill everyone including the police,” a report said. During the disturbance, a 50-year-old store clerk was allegedly battered and strangled by the Muncie man. That woman told police Bilal “grabbed her by the throat and applied pressure” after he became upset “while trying to covert (her) to Islam.” Bilal allegedly fought with officers when they arrived, and continued to do so after being shocked with an electric stun device, repeatedly kicking at officers after he was handcuffed. One officer’s hand was broken during the melee. After the Muncie man was placed in an ambulance, Bilal was asked to identify himself and said he was God, an officer said. Earlier, while still in the store, Bilal had said several times “that he was the Prophet Muhammad and told us that we were going to hell,” an officer wrote. According to a probable cause affidavit signed Monday by Delaware Circuit Court 1 Judge Marianne Vorhees, after he is released from the hospital, Bilal will be held in the county jail under a $10,000 cash bond. Also Monday, additional preliminary charges – of battery on law enforcement and resisting law enforcement – were lodged against Bilal after he allegedly repeatedly struck an IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital police officer in the face. The officer