Prompt: Senator Bob Corker, Republican from Tennessee, has criticized Donald Trump on some issues and said he would not run for a third term. WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Bob Corker is always one to speak his mind, and the Tennessee Republican’s new free agent status should make President Donald Trump and the party even more nervous. The two-term lawmaker isn’t seeking re-election. That gives him even more elbow room to say what he wants and to vote how he pleases over the next 15 months as Trump and the party’s leaders on Capitol Hill struggle to get their agenda on track.

Corker, a fiscal hawk, is holding the GOP’s feet to the fire on tax legislation, declaring that he’ll oppose any measure that increases the national debt by a single cent. Republicans hold a narrow, 52-seat majority in the Senate, and just three defections would torpedo the top priority in their partisan push. Advertisement Corker delivered a stinging rebuke of the Trump White House after the president’s provocative tweets undermined Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis with North Korea. Corker said Tillerson, along with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and White House chief of staff John Kelly, are ‘‘those people that help separate our country from chaos.’’ Get Today in Politics in your inbox: A digest of the top political stories from the Globe, sent to your inbox Monday-Friday. Sign Up Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here And Corker, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, will be at the center of what may be a stormy debate over the future of the Iran nuclear agreement. Trump’s hostility toward the deal, forged during the Obama administration, has stoked concerns he’s aiming to dismantle the international accord despite Europe’s objections. While Corker considers the deal badly flawed, he’s opposed to scrapping the agreement outright. ‘‘You can only tear these things up one time,’’ Corker said. ‘‘It might feel good for a second. But one of the things that’s important for us is to keep our allies with us, especially our Western allies.’’ On Sunday morning, Trump went on a Twitter offensive against Corker, saying that he was “largely responsible for the horrendous Iran” deal and that he “didn’t have the guts to run” for reelection. Senator Bob Corker "begged" me to endorse him for re-election in Tennessee. I said "NO" and he dropped out


Prompt: The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was held during the period 14–25 February 1956. It is known especially for First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev's "Secret Speech", which denounced the personality cult and dictatorship of Joseph Stalin.[1] Delegates at this Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union were given no advance warning of what to expect. Indeed, proceedings were opened by First Secretary Khruschev's call for all to stand in memory of the Communist leaders who had died since the previous Congress, in which he mentioned Stalin in the same breath as Klement Gottwald. Hints

of a new direction only came out gradually over the next ten days, which had the effect of leaving those present highly perplexed. The Polish communist leader Bolesław Bierut died in Moscow under mysterious circumstances shortly after attending the 20th Congress. The congress elected the 20th Central Committee. Secret speech [ edit ] On 25 February, the very last day of the Congress, it was announced that an unscheduled session had been called for the Soviet delegates. First Secretary Khrushchev's morning speech began with vague references to the harmful consequences of elevating a single individual so high that he took on the "supernatural characteristics akin to those of a god." Khrushchev went on to say that such a mistake had been made about Stalin. He himself had been guilty of what was, in essence, a distortion of the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism. The attention of the audience was then drawn to Lenin's Testament, copies of which had been distributed, criticising Stalin's "rudeness". Further accusations, and hints of accusations, followed, including the suggestion that the murder of Sergey Kirov in 1934, the event that sparked the Great Terror, could be included in the list of Stalin's crimes. While denouncing Stalin, Khrushchev carefully praised the Communist Party, which had the strength to withstand all the negative effects of imaginary crimes and false accusations. The Party, in other words, had been a victim of Stalin, not an accessory to his crimes. He finished by calling on the Party to eradicate the cult of personality and return to "the revolutionary fight for the transformation of society." The speech shocked delegates to the Congress, as it flew in the face of years of Soviet propaganda, which had claimed that Stalin was a wise, peaceful, and fair leader. After long deliberations, in a month the speech


Prompt: Tuesday's election results were pretty good for progressives. The retirement of that windbag chameleon Sen. Arlen Specter is long overdue, and pro-labor forces were able to push Sen. Blanche Lincoln into a runoff in Arkansas. Even the big tea party win in Kentucky has its bright side. Count me as one lefty liberal who is not the least bit unhappy with the victory by Rand Paul in Kentucky's Republican primary for the U.S. Senate. Not because it might make it easier for some Democratic Party hack to win in the general, but rather because he seems to be a principled

libertarian in the mold of his father, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, and we need more of that impulse in the Congress. What's wrong with cutting back big government that mostly exists to serve the interests of big corporations? Surely it would be better if that challenge came from populist progressives of the left, in the Bernie Sanders mold, but this is Kentucky we're talking about. Rand Paul, like his dad, is worthy of praise for standing in opposition to the Wall Street bailout, which will come to be marked as the greatest swindle in U.S. history and which was, as he noted on his website, an unconstitutional redistribution of income in favor of the undeserving rich. "Federal bailouts reward inefficient and corrupt management, rob taxpayers, hurt smaller and more responsible private firms, exacerbate our budget problems, explode national debt, and destroy our U.S. dollar. Even more importantly, any bailout of private industry is in direct violation of the Constitution. It is a transfer of wealth from those who have earned to those who have squandered." Of course the joker in the deck is the word principled before libertarian, and, as many online commentators have noted, Rand Paul is a bit more inclined to waffle on an interventionist foreign policy than is his father. While he would have insisted on a declaration of war before the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan or Iraq, he argues that Afghanistan, where the 9/11 attack was planned, was a legitimate target but that Iraq was not. In either case, as he insists correctly, a congressional declaration of war was constitutionally required: "If I had been in the U.S. senate I would have stopped them and said no more, we will have a vote. We will declare war with Afghanistan. We will declare war with Iraq. I


Prompt: This article is over 7 years old Major rights holders claim search engines make it 'difficult' for people to find legal music and films online Google and Bing accused of directing users to illegal copies of music Google and other search engines "overwhelmingly" direct music fans to illegal copies of copyrighted tracks online, a coalition of entertainment industry groups has told the government. In a confidential document obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, lobbying groups for the major rights holders claimed Google and Microsoft's Bing are making it "much more difficult" for people to find legal music and films

online. The private document, obtained by the free speech campaigners Open Rights Group and shared with the Guardian, urges the government to introduce a voluntary body that would remove rogue websites from internet search results. The proposals were made to the culture minister Ed Vaizey as part of a series of consultations on internet piracy between rights holders, search giants and the government in November last year. The nine-page document was submitted on behalf of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), the UK body for the music majors, the Motion Picture Association (MPA), the Premier League, the Publishers Association and the Pact, the film and TV independent producers' trade body. Privately, rights holders said there is a "spirit of optimism" between the entertainment groups and search engines as they attempt to usher in more legal media sites, including Google's own fledgling music service. Google has in the past year stepped up efforts to remove copyright-infringing content, launching a fast-track removal requests form and filtering terms "associated with infringement". However, the rights holders claim in the document that "as time goes on, the situation is getting worse rather than better". "Consumers rely on search engines to find and access entertainment content and they play a vital role in the UK digital economy," the rights holders state. "At present, consumer searching for digital copies of copyright entertainment content are directed overwhelmingly to illegal sites and services." The entertainment groups want Google to "continuously review key search words" and "effectively screen" mobile apps on Android smartphones in an effort to combat illicit sharing. The document claims that 16 of the first 20 Google search results for chart singles link to "known illegal sites", according to searches by the BPI in September. In an attempt to persuade the government to clamp down on search engines,


Prompt: A Controversial Symposium The International Symposium on Information Theory is not known for its racy content or politically charged presentations, but the session at Cornell University on October 10, 1977, was a special case. In addition to talks with titles like “Distribution-Free Inequalities for the Deleted and Holdout Error Estimates,” the conference featured the work of a group from Stanford that had drawn the ire of the National Security Agency and the attention of the national press. The researchers in question were Martin Hellman, then an associate professor of electrical engineering, and his students Steve Pohlig, MS ’75, PhD ’78,

and Ralph Merkle, PhD ’79. A year earlier, Hellman had published “New Directions in Cryptography” with his student Whitfield Diffie, Gr. ’78. The paper introduced the principles that now form the basis for all modern cryptography, and its publication rightfully caused a stir among electrical engineers and computer scientists. As Hellman recalled in a 2004 oral history, the nonmilitary community’s reaction to the paper was “ecstatic.” In contrast, the “NSA was apoplectic.” The fact that Hellman and his students were challenging the U.S. government’s longstanding domestic monopoly on cryptography deeply annoyed many in the intelligence community. The NSA acknowledged that Diffie and Hellman had come up with their ideas without access to classified materials. Even so, in the words of an internal NSA history declassified in 2009 and now held in the Stanford Archives, “NSA regarded the [Diffie-Hellman] technique as classified. Now it was out in the open.” The tension between Hellman and the NSA only worsened in the months leading up to the 1977 symposium. In July, someone named J. A. Meyer sent a shrill letter to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, which had published Hellman’s papers and was holding the conference. It began: I have noticed in the past months that various IEEE Groups have been publishing and exporting technical articles on encryption and cryptology — a technical field which is covered by Federal Regulations, viz: ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations, 22 CFR 121–128). Meyer’s letter asserted that the IEEE and the authors of the relevant papers might be subject to prosecution under federal laws prohibiting arms trafficking, communication of atomic secrets and disclosure of classified information. Without naming Hellman or his co-authors, Meyer specified the issues of IEEE’s Transactions on Information Theory journal and Computer magazine in which Hellman’s articles appeared. Meyer concluded ominously


Prompt: Back in his mother's arms: Parents' joy as they are reunited with son after FBI shot survivalist captor DEAD in Alabama bunker raid Five-year-old Ethan is talking and laughing with his mother as he spends a precautionary night in hospital Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65, who allegedly stormed a school bus and took Ethan hostage for a week is dead FBI hostage teams used high-tech military surveillance equipment to monitor the survivalist Alabama State Senator Harri Anne Smith relieved for the rescue of Ethan and said 'Mom has been incredible, she has been so brave and has always known her son

would be brought home safe.' It is not known whether Dykes was killed by FBI agents or committed suicide The survivalist believed that aliens were being kept by the U.S. government, and they were threatening to take America's weapons Mugshot: Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65, the suspect in the standoff, was killed by the FBI Hostage Rescue Team The five-year-old boy held captive in an underground bunker for seven days has been reunited with his mother. The emotional reunion came after FBI agents stormed the Alabama bunker in which the child had been held and shot his captor dead. Ethan, the child at the heart of the Alabama kidnapping crisis, spent his first evening of freedom playing, eating, laughing and joking around with his favorite toy dinosaur. The ordeal came to a dramatic conclusion at 3.12 p.m. on Monday as FBI agents believed the little boy to be in 'imminent danger' and breeched survivalist Jimmy Lee Dykes's bunker. Speaking this evening Sheriff Wally Olson, who has been on the site almost constantly since Ethan's abduction and the shooting of school bus driver Mr Charles 'Chuck' Poland, said: 'He's a very special child who's endured a lot and by the grace of God he's okay.' He added that, speaking as a parent himself, 'It is a relief to reunite a mother with her child.' That longed for reunion took place at Flowers Hospital, where Ethan was taken following his rescue. He arrived sitting up on a stretcher. Steve Richardson, FBI Special Agent in Charge of the agency's Mobile, Alabama Office said: 'I have been to the hospital and he's doing fine. He's laughing, joking, eating..doing the things you would expect a normal five or six year old to do.' Scroll down for video A photograph of 'Ethan' the five-year-old hostage who was


Prompt: The restaurant had been particularly busy that night, and I was starving. At the time, I was working as a server to put myself through grad school in a whimsical little eatery where the joke was that “in order to be hired, you have to at least be a little curious.” As the night slowed, I wandered downstairs to the kitchen in search of some abandoned nosh, and as I stood in the hallway munching on some chips, one of my coworkers walked by, ran his hand seductively across my waist, and instructed me to remember that “straight skinny is

gay fat” with a judgmental glance at my deep-fried snack. Such is the body conscious world of gay men. Our subculture teems with adages like this one that declare our allegiance to the gods of Youth, Physique, and Sex. “Straight skinny is gay fat.” “No fat, no fem.” “Twenty-five is the new forty-five.” These phrases represent the pervasive undercurrent of unrealistic body norms and expectations that runs rampant and unchecked in the gay community, surfacing with every shirtless bartender’s chiseled pecs, every headless six-pack flaunting itself on Grindr, and every media portrayal of a gay man as the modern-day Adonis. Physical appearance has indeed become a central factor to the contemporary gay man’s sense of self, and we are beginning to crack beneath the burden of its expectations. According to the research literature, gay men display significant rates of body dissatisfaction, body image disturbances, and disordered eating behavior to a degree that closely aligns with those of straight women. Gay men are more likely to diet, fast, vomit, and over-exercise to alter their physique, and a gay sexual orientation has been identified as a specific risk factor for eating disorders in men. And, to be fair, we come by our physical preoccupation naturally. Historically, appearance cues have always been the medium gay men have used to identify each other, and as a minority group, gay men face the challenge of being socialized into the majority culture’s masculine muscle ideologies, while also balancing the expectation of thinness within the subculture. Individuals who are sexually involved with men, furthermore, tend to be more focused on appearance due to the common belief that men place higher priority on a partner’s physical form than women. What this seems to have developed into, however, is a hyper-image-focused culture that organizes and defines each of its


Prompt: No one at Nabisco’s corporate headquarters in New York City had any idea why members of the National Organization for Women were lined up outside. It was the fall of 1971, and the manufacturer best known for their Oreo and Chips Ahoy! snacks had not made any obviously sexist advertisements or taken any particular political stance. They sold cookies. Then they read the signs: “Sick toys for children make for a sick society.” That May, Nabisco had attempted to diversify by purchasing Aurora Company, the West Hempstead, New York model kit maker best known for their plastic kits of Frankenstein’s

monster, the Wolf Man, and other horror film icons. The cheap plastic toys came in pieces and could be glued together and painted. Unknown to Nabisco, Aurora had recently branched out and begun offering entire model kit dioramas. Instead of a single figure, consumers could buy detailed “sets” for their monsters to interact with. There was a guillotine, a razor-sharp pendulum, and a laboratory; a female protagonist, referred to in the copy as “the Victim,” was scantily-clad and ready to be dismembered, beheaded, or trapped in a spiked cage. Kids could also opt to have Vampirella, the top-heavy villain licensed from Warren Publishing, operate the winch and pulley while her plastic captive was shackled to a table. Each kit also contained a comic, which instructed builders on how to assemble the torture scenes for maximum enjoyment. A narrator named Dr. Deadly seemed to opine on the appeal of the Victim once she was fully assembled. “Now that you’ve gotten her all together, I think I like the other way. In pieces … yesssss.” In addition to Fig Newtons, Nabisco realized it had also been peddling tiny torture racks. Z1DO4U via YouTube Since its inception in 1952, Aurora had seen enormous success by exploring the horror genre. As television came into prominence and late movies screened the classic Universal monster films of the 1930s, a new generation of monster buffs had been nourished. Kits featuring Dracula, the Mummy, and even Godzilla were cheap to produce and sell. (Many models retailed for just 98 cents.) Having the consumer construct them with contact cement and model paint gave them a sense of accomplishment. Aurora held contests for custom kits, highlighting winners in monster magazines. By the 1960s, they had started noticing that a lot of submissions revolved around expansive, morbid scenarios: a mad


Prompt: HAPPY DAY! *****We've reached our initial goal of $25,000 which means everyone who pledges at the $35 level or higher receives DOUBLE the number of listed limited edition signed and numbered hardcover copies of the Quantum Roleplaying Game! So right now if you pledge $42 for U.S. addresses or $47 for International addresses (which now includes shipping) you will receive TWO COPIES of the game! What a deal!***** HAPPY DAY AGAIN! *****We've reached our final goal of $36,000 which means (1) one 24" x 36" full color folded poster world map of Quantum will be shipped with every single pledge

order $35 and above. While there will be a map of the world inside the Quantum RPG hardcover, it will be a black & white map and obviously won't be bigger than a single page. This 24" x 36" poster world map will not only give you the world in amazing full color, but it will be large enough to include a wide variety of extra map tags to add both a little mystery to the world and ensuring that all locations generated during design show up on the poster map.***** ABOUT THIS PROJECT The Quantum Roleplaying Game™ is Infinite X Studio™'s first game. The game is a reflection of more than 30 years of RPG gaming and nearly 10 years of writing and game design on the part of Infinite X Studio's founder and President, Joshua J. Frost. Josh's passion for gaming and RPGs in particular is hard to explain in words (and much easier to explain by watching his hyper exuberance during a game session) but know that he wants Infinite X Studio to produce only the highest quality, best-designed, and most enjoyable RPGs possible. It is our dream that we can reach out to both seasoned and new gamers with this project and help us raise enough money to bring the Quantum Roleplaying Game to hundreds of game tables around the globe. Our Kickstarter goal is only set at $13,000 and this covers the barest minimum of costs to write, design, layout, produce art, edit, develop, print, and ship the game. The total funding goal is comprised of 10% Kickstarter fees and Amazon fees, 50% artist, layout, design, editing, and development costs, 10% promotional costs, and 30% printing costs. Should we raise money beyond the $13,000 target, several things will happen: At $15,000, we give most of


Prompt: A Hobby Lobby store in Antioch, Calif. The privately owned company is seeking a religious exemption from Obamacare’s contraception mandate. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images The Supreme Court wisely decided Monday not to hear the appeal of a New Mexico photography studio that didn’t want to take pictures at a gay wedding for religious reasons. Good call. The owners of the studio lost in state court because New Mexico—like some states but far from all—has a law protecting against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. By taking a pass, the Supreme Court seems to be saying: This is a

state-by-state issue at the moment, and there was no need for us to interfere with the balance New Mexico has opted to strike between religious rights and the rights of gay people. But claims in the name of religious liberty are very much alive in other cases, some involving gay customers, and also at the Supreme Court in the pending decision in the Hobby Lobby case. The craft store, as you may have heard, is challenging the requirement in Obamacare that employer-provided health insurance include coverage for certain forms of birth control. The link between fundamentalist objections to birth control and to gay weddings makes the meaning of religious liberty one of this year’s biggest legal battles. I’ve tried to defend a version of religious liberty that balances religious rights against the costs they impose on other people. (My views are heavily informed by the work of a group of scholars including Brooklyn law professor Nelson Tebbe.) In a couple of thoughtful posts, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat responded that my defense of religious liberty is really no defense at all, arguing that it doesn’t concede “an inch to actual-existing dissenters.” I’m only in favor of pluralism for the “truly powerless,” he says—the Amish, as opposed to evangelicals. Other conservatives have also weighed in, and they don’t like my conception of religious liberty either. This is deep and important stuff. So here’s Round 2. The Hobby Lobby case pits the religious freedom of a business that employs 13,000 people against the rights of its female workers to comprehensive preventive care. The idea that such care should include coverage for birth control comes first from Congress, which mandated preventive coverage when it passed the Affordable Care Act. And it comes from the Institute of Medicine, which has plenty of research


Prompt: There is no shortage of things to protest when it comes to this small Middle Eastern country. From the raging war next door, to its repercussions, to the rampant corruption, human rights abuses, the disappearance of elections, rising unemployment, emigration, crippled institutions, and pollution -the grounds are endless. However, when one looks at Lebanon, protests are virtually non-existent on a large scale at least, not since the 2015 garbage-fueled summer demonstrations -which were an exception to the rule- died out. At every turn of events we witness as those directly impacted take to the streets in small numbers. It is

a rarity to see any significant form of consequential solidarity on the advent of crises. Take the kidnapped Lebanese soldiers debacle and the resurfaced waste management disaster for instance. The only protests that occurred related to these issues were those organized by a handful of citizens even though the repercussions of said crises are wide-reaching. In a bid to better understand what has been repeatedly described as a self-induced state of perpetual sleep, I revisited some studies pertaining to cognitive behavior in high stress environments. While I may not be an expert in the field, these models that I am about to present certainly struck a chord. Dissociation: The Hidden Epidemic This seemingly somnambulistic behavioral pattern as exhibited by many Lebanese when it comes to civil rights may in large be due to what psychologists refer to as dissociation. Dissociation is “an adaptive defense in response to high stress or trauma characterized by short or long term memory loss and a sense of disconnection from oneself or one’s surroundings.” (After all how many times have we questioned our attention span and our collective memory?) According to Marlene Steinberg and Maxine Schnall, the authors of “The Stranger in the Mirror: Dissociation – The Hidden Epidemic,” dissociation is a defense mechanism employed to detach oneself from the emotional stimuli that victims have been or are continuously being exposed to. In other terms, it helps us cope with stressful situations, which may otherwise feel overwhelming. Dissociation can happen in varying degrees, from mild to aggressive. In fact it is so wide-ranging that many of us remain oblivious to our very own dissociation -a vital part of our ingrained survival system. Ever driven a car to a destination only to realize upon arriving that you cannot remember a large part of your trip? That’s


Prompt: The Somali-born Minnesota police officer alleged to have shot and killed an unarmed Australian woman on Saturday had been lauded by Minneapolis’ mayor and feted by the local community when he joined the force in 2015. “I want to take a moment to recognize Officer Mohamed Noor, the newest Somali officer in the Minneapolis Police Department,” Mayor Betsy Hodges wrote in a Facebook post when Noor began serving the city. “Officer Noor has been assigned to the 5th Precinct, where his arrival has been highly celebrated, particularly by the Somali community in and around Karmel Mall.” In fact, The Washington

Post reported that community threw a party for Noor – the first Somali-American officer to serve in the precinct. Minneapolis is home to one of the nation's largest Somali communities. “He came to the United States at a young age and is thankful to have had so many opportunities,” Thomas Plunkett, Noor’s attorney, said Monday. “…For him, being a police officer is a calling.” Abdikadir Hassan, a local community leader, told The Minneapolis Star Tribune that Noor was a role model. “He is inspiring to young people in the community,” Hassan said. “He is very supportive and good with the kids. He is such a lovely guy.” Noor, 31, attended Augsburg College in Minneapolis and earned a degree in business administration, management and economics, The Star Tribune reported. But despite reportedly viewing the police force as his “calling,” Noor took a winding road to the department’s door. He first had jobs in residential property management and as the general manager of a hotel, according to The Star Tribune. In his short time with the Minneapolis Police, Noor has had three complaints filed against him – two that are still open. The other was closed and Noor wasn’t disciplined. On May 25, a woman accused Noor of assault and battery because he “grabbed her right wrist and upper arm” and inflamed a pre-existing shoulder injury while officers were forcibly removing her from her home and bringing her to a hospital. Noor, who spoke Somali at home, divorced his wife in December, but documents obtained by The Star Tribune also suggest he was a workaholic. An evaluator was reportedly sent to observe Noor and his son together for an unspecified reason and concluded Noor had an “even keel and calm demeanor.” But questions continue to surround Noor’s alleged actions on Saturday night.


Prompt: Introduction The Internet can be a scary place with its billions of users, but modern smartphones have a way to let you leave your mark - the selfie camera. That's exactly what the Sony Xperia XA Ultra is all about. It's one of only two phones to feature optical image stabilization on the front-facing camera. And what a camera it is - a dedicated LED flash and a large 1/2.6" sensor of 16MP resolution. That's the same sensor size and resolution as the main camera on the Galaxy S6! The rest of the Xperia XA Ultra is quite similar to

the smaller XA, which (it is no secret) is our favorite looking phone of the new Xperia X line. Aside from the screen, of course, Ultra is Sony speak for a 6" screen. It has a higher resolution, 1080p, which makes it sharper to boot. And slender it is too - the narrowest 6" phone in our database, despite its metal sides. Sony Xperia XA Ultra key features Monster of selfie camera: 16MP 1/2.6" sensor, optical image stabilization, LED flash Narrowest phone with 6-inch screen 6" 1,080 x 1,920px LCD with 367ppi, Mobile Bravia Engine 2; 2.5D scratch-resistant glass, oleophobic coating Android v6.0 Marshmallow with Xperia launcher MediaTek MT6755 Helio P10 chipset, octa-core 2GHz Cortex-A53 CPU; Mali-T860MP2 GPU; 3GB RAM 21.5 MP camera with 1/2.4" sensor; 1080p@30fps video recording and hybrid autofocus 16GB of built-in storage and a microSD card slot Single and dual-SIM variants LTE Cat.4 (150Mbps); Dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n; A-GPS/GLONASS receiver, Bluetooth v4.1, FM radio with RDS Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic 2,700mAh non-removable battery (Pump Express 2.0 charging supported) Main cons Tiny battery for the size, and not particularly efficient 28nm chipset No fingerprint reader OIS on selfie camera, but not on the main camera. Go figure No increased water protection The front-facing camera on the XA Ultra is impressive, more impressive than the main camera on the small XA. So the back camera had to be upgraded too, it got a 21.5MP sensor (1/2.4" Exmor RS IMX230, if you're keeping score). We don't want an Oppo F1 Plus situation where the selfie cam is better than the one on the back, do we? The Ultra model also gets an extra gig of RAM and a bigger battery too, but that's where the differences end. It's the same chipset, same software, even the battery isn't


Prompt: U.S. needs 'to do right' for immigrant children: official WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top U.S. official said on Sunday the U.S. border is not open to illegal entry into the country, but acknowledged the government does need to be sensitive to the tens of thousands of migrant children flowing into detention centers. More than 52,000 unaccompanied minors from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras have been caught trying to sneak over the U.S.-Mexico border since October, double the number from the same period the year before. Thousands more have been apprehended with parents or other adults. "We have to do right

by the children, but at the end of the day, our border is not open to illegal migration and we will stem the tide," Jeh Johnson, the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday. Johnson said that the government administers deportation proceedings to illegal migrants seized at the border, including children. But he added that the government is looking at being more flexible toward the children seized at the border. "We are looking at ways to create additional options for dealing with the children, in particular, consistent with our laws and our values," Johnson said. Johnson repeated the stance, taken by President Barack Obama last week, that the president would take executive action to revamp the U.S. immigration system. "There are a number of things the president and I, within the confines of existing law, can do to fix the broken immigration system. If Congress doesn't act, we will," Johnson said. Johnson would not answer a question on the Sunday show pertaining to whether the U.S. government would deport the current wave of Central American children, saying only that U.S. authorities would stem the tide, and that deportation processes are commenced against illegal immigrants. U.S. immigration officials say the crisis is being driven by a mix of extreme poverty, gangs and drug violence in Central America, as well as rumors perpetuated by human smugglers that children who reach the U.S. border will be allowed to stay. Critics say that the Obama administration has not moved quickly enough to address the problem. Representative Henry Cuellar, a Democrat whose congressional district includes a stretch of the Texas-Mexico border, said on CNN's "State of the Union" program that 48,000 people, including 9,700 children traveling without parents, were detained on the Texas border in May. "We should have


Prompt: On November 1, 1959, Montreal Canadien Jacques Plante becomes the first NHL goaltender to wear a full facemask. Montreal Maroon Clint Benedict had worn a leather half-mask for a brief time in 1930, after an errant puck smashed his nose and cheekbone—but it blocked his vision, he said, and he took it off after only a few games. By contrast, Plante wore his mask from then on. A few seasons later, his idea began to catch on, and soon almost every keeper in the league wore a mask. Plante had been practicing in his white fiberglass mask all season, but

the Canadiens’ coach, the legendarily difficult Toe Blake, wouldn’t allow him to wear it during games. But on November 1, Plante simply put his foot down. Barely three minutes into that night’s game against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden, ace right winger Andy Bathgate wound up and fired a backhand shot from only a few feet away. It cracked Plante across the face, splitting his lip from the corner of his mouth up into his nostril. Blood was everywhere. He kept playing for a few minutes, and then went into the locker room to get stitches from the Garden’s Dr. Kazuo Yanagisawa (who, reporters said, could “stitch a wound, smoke a cigar, and play gin rummy all at the same time”). He was gone for about 20 minutes—an unusually long time for locker-room stitches at a hockey game—and when he returned to the ice he was carrying his cream-colored mask. Blake had pitched a fit about it, the newspapers reported, but Plante insisted. “If I don’t wear the mask,” he said, “I’m not playing.” ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website Teammates, opponents, fans and reporters mocked Plante mercilessly about it, but Plante didn’t care. “I already had four broken noses, a broken jaw, two broken cheekbones and almost 200 stitches in my head,” he pointed out. “I didn’t care how the mask looked.” And the truth is that Plante was such a good goalie that it almost didn’t matter what he did. (Case in point: Plante always knitted his own underwear and stocking caps, saying that knitting was the only thing that truly soothed him. “Someday,” he said wistfully, “I’m going to learn to knit with my feet.”) He won the Vezina Trophy, the NHL’s goaltending prize,


Prompt: The economic pessimists are winning the argument in the U.S. Treasury bond market. Yields on Treasury issues have fallen across the board Monday to their lowest levels in more than a year as some investors continue to seek a haven. The 10-year T-note yield (charted below), a benchmark for mortgage rates, was at 3.04% at about noon PDT, down from 3.11% on Friday and the lowest since April 2009. The two-year T-note was at 0.63%. That’s about half the yield investors were demanding as recently as April 5. Traders say some investors are taking their cue from budget-cutting promises made

over the weekend by the world’s wealthiest nations at the G-20 group summit. The biggest countries committed to slashing their budget deficits in half by 2013. The more the industrialized nations talk about reducing spending, the greater the risk that the global economy tilts back toward recession and deflation. At least, that’s how new bond buyers see it, said Tom Di Galoma, head of U.S. rates trading at Guggenheim Partners in New York. “This is carryover from the ‘double-dip,’ deflation outlook” that fueled heavy buying of Treasuries last week, Di Galoma said. The 10-year T-note yield was 3.24% a week ago. Economist Paul Krugman has been leading the pack of analysts warning about the risk of sinking into a new morass if governments and central banks pull back on policies to boost the economy. “We are now, I fear, in the early stages of a third depression,” Krugman wrote in the New York Times over the weekend. The first two U.S. depressions were in the years following 1873 and in the 1930s. The stock market wasn't buying the bond market’s grim message Monday. After slumping last week, stocks were up modestly with about an hour of trading to go. The Dow Jones industrials were up 42 points to 10,185. Some of the fresh demand for Treasuries is tied to end-of-quarter book-juggling, as banks and other financial players look to bolster their balance sheets with liquid securities, traders say. But buyers also must be betting that the raft of economic data this week won’t tell a story of a stronger recovery that could fuel a sudden snap-back in interest rates. A tepid report Monday on May consumer spending helped bolster the econ bears’ case. On Friday the government will report on June employment trends. The private sector is estimated to have


Prompt: Three prostitution cases have been thrown out this month by Hennepin County judges and the Minneapolis city attorney, who said Minneapolis undercover police investigators went too far. The officers’ sexual contact with the female suspects also drew a sharp denunciation from the county’s chief public defender, Mary Moriarty. “Do citizens want officers behaving in this manner?” Moriarty asked Wednesday. Two of the cases were dismissed by Hennepin County judges in rulings that found the officers’ actions constituted “outrageous government conduct.” The third was dismissed by the Minneapolis city attorney in light of one of the judges’ rulings. On Wednesday, Minneapolis

police said the department has discontinued such undercover investigations pending a full review of its policies. The department declined to comment on the specific cases. None of the three officers involved in the cases is under internal investigation. As far back as 2009, the Minnesota Court of Appeals had addressed such conduct by Minneapolis police when it reversed a prostitution charge, citing similar pre-arrest behavior. At the time, then-Chief Tim Dolan asked for an internal inquiry on how the investigation was handled. In the first of the three recent cases, Moriarty’s office learned of the conduct as it defended a woman charged in March with four misdemeanor and gross misdemeanor charges of prostitution and illegal acts at a massage business, including exposure and unlawful touching. The city attorney’s office said at the time that the case was prompted by community complaints about possible prostitution activity at a south Minneapolis business. When assistant public defender Briana Perry received the case, she e-mailed Moriarity the 36-minute audio recorded during the encounter between officer Steven Lecy and the woman at the massage parlor, saying she found the officer’s behavior “just disgusting.” Moriarity sent the case to City Attorney Susan Segal and asked for a dismissal, but Segal declined. On the recording, after nearly 30 minutes of small talk about tattoos, the weather and his broken hand, Lecy, who also compliments the woman’s anatomy, interrupts the massage and asks the woman if she wants him to flip onto his back. She begins touching his genitals as part of a naked “body-to-body” massage. Lecy can be heard moaning. A few moments later, he says the words “repeat customers,” code to backup officers that it’s time for an arrest. They then enter the room. Moriarty said Lecy arrived two hours late for this week’s dismissal motion


Prompt: In a week of things that only happen with guns and in America, add yet another to the list. In Rock Hill, South Carolina, Americans’ propensity for leaving semi-hidden deadly weaponry around like it’s a Hanukkah present allowed a 2-year-old to grab a .357 revolver and shoot his grandmother in the back. The toddler’s great-aunt was taking him for a ride in her car, and naturally there was a revolver in the back pouch of the seat in front of him, where he could reach it and shoot his grandmother, who was sitting in the passenger seat. “There could be

some child neglect or some unlawful conduct towards a child charges based on the age of the child and leaving the gun within reaching distance of a young minor,” said Rock Hill Police Chief Mark Bollinger. The operative phrase is “could be.” If the grandmother or great-aunt had put the toddler in the back without a car seat, you can bet your ass there’d be charges. If they’d put a shot of whiskey in front of him, same deal. Or if they hadn’t fed him or left him in a hot car, or perhaps, if he were five years older, just let him walk less than half a mile to a playground. But a gun within reach, nah. Not in the America where we’re electing cast members from Buckwild to represent us in Congress. Tea Party ignoramuses think a gun fetish is just a lifestyle choice and National Rifle Association (NRA) bullshit and legalistic bribes are tantamount to Solomonic judgments. For here again, as with the campus shootings in Oregon, Texas, and Arizona, or the execution of a reporter on live television in Roanoke, Virginia, the NRA is clearly culpable. It has lobbied against every attempt to require that guns be stored with safety locks and told parents not to use them. It fights against the requirement or even existence on the market of smart gun technology that would allow only the owner of the weapon to use it. It has fought mandated training and the kind of personal liability insurance requirement that tends to make people more careful with their deadly weaponry. No, the NRA pushes on kids its inane Eddie the Eagle, a cartoon character who’s supposed to convince children to get an adult when they see a gun. It’s been proven to work about as well as


Prompt: At 75, Kollock-Wallace has the posture and muscle tone of a person half her age. She credits a lifetime of physical activity that began when she was a girl in South Carolina. “I have been an athletically inclined person from birth,” she says. “I think I came out kicking.” All the more reason, says longtime Brownsville resident Bettie Kollock-Wallace, to provide better infrastructure for the many area residents who ride bicycles for transportation and exercise, and for the many more who want to but are scared to try. The physical distance between a famously contested Prospect Park West bike lane

in Brooklyn's upscale Park Slope neighborhood and the city's newest lane, on Brownsville’s Mother Gaston Boulevard, is only about three and a half miles. But the economic gap is huge. Brownsville remains one of the poorest neighborhoods in New York City, with a stubbornly high crime rate . A new stretch of bike lanes debuted in Brooklyn this week, but this time they're not being met with outrage or protests. After retiring as an educator, Kollock-Wallace threw herself into a variety of fitness pursuits – becoming a certified physical trainer, learning how to swim and teaching others to do the same as a volunteer at the local recreation center, and riding her trusty 20-year-old Royce Union bicycle. But the attitude she got from drivers on the street bothered her. “People do not respect bikers,” she says. “They have a tendency to resent them.” Friends and neighbors who might have been interested in riding with her were put off by the hostile environment. “A lot of people have fear of the traffic,” she says. Bettie Kollock-Wallace worked for two years to bring bike lanes to Brownsville. (Sarah Goodyear) So she set out to do something about it. Kollock-Wallace serves as the chair of the local community board, a position that has allowed her to advocate for improvements in the neighborhood she's called home for 40 years. One of the improvements she wanted to see was bike lanes. So, back in 2011, she started pushing. “You see, some of us bloom when we’re old,” she says with a mischievous smile, referring to her role as a community advocate. “You have to either have to have a lot of energy or be a little bit crazy, and I’m some of both.” The new bike lanes are just one of many efforts by neighborhood


Prompt: I'm interested in the weather. Who isn't? We groom for the atmosphere. Daily we apply our mothers' prognostics to the sky. We select our garments accordingly; like flags or vanes we signify. But I'm interested in weather also because cultural displacement has shown me that weather is a rhetoric. Furthermore, it is the rhetoric of sincerity, falling in a soothing, familial vernacular. It's expressed between friendly strangers. I speak it to you. A beautiful morning. You speak it back. The fog has lifted. We are now a society. To say insincerity is foreign to weather is precise. Weather is the

mythic equilibrium of the social, rising and falling in the numbly intimate metres of the commonplace. For a long time the rhythm's opaque to the stranger. Haltingly you begin to sing, during the long cab ride from the airport, the long chorus of place. You enter a new weather, an unfamiliar system of sincerity. You learn it by example. You begin to adjust, to settle; put in order; regulate. But you are a spy in sincerity. The real knowledge of weather is indigenous. Should it come as a surprise that Britain's most profitable television export is not costume drama but weatherporn? Weatherporn. An atmospheric condition dallies with some lives and we drink its lusty spectacle from the screen. Description pries up, frees itself, briefly phatic, expresses a gestural plenitude, framed by but untied to the sociality of objects. This loosening is diction as rhythm. It crosses borders. The weather becomes a flickering social prosody. As it abstracts into rhythm it becomes commodified, universal. Really. It was a fireball, right through the front door, and out the back. It's real. It's mythic. It's wild. It's a vernacular. It's didactic. It's boredom. It's ceaseless. It's a delusional space. Stacy Doris says "In terms of geographies and nationalities, the best bet for poetry is delusional space. . . Any poetry that doesn't somehow begin in a realm of wild fantasy is not worth the writing." This weather's the wild fantasy. It seizes us. Together our faces tilt upwards. A wild dream of parity must have its own weather and that weather will always have as its structure an incommensurability. If each forecast is a fiction I prefer to add to that fiction alternate delusions-- a delusionary politics that describes current conditions as it poses futurities. I mean it. Here is want I want


Prompt: Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Despite the pledge on emissions, there are still areas of disagreement, reports Carrie Gracie China and the US have unveiled new pledges on greenhouse gas emissions, as the leaders of the two countries met for talks in Beijing. US President Barack Obama said the move was "historic", as he set a new goal of reducing US levels between 26%-28% by 2025, compared with 2005 levels. China did not set a specific target, but said emissions would peak by 2030. The two countries also agreed to reduce the possibility of military accidents

in the air and sea. The news came during a state visit by Mr Obama to Beijing, which followed a major Asian regional summit. It is the first time China, the world's biggest polluter, has set an approximate date for emissions to peak. The two countries together produce about 45% of the world's carbon dioxide. The unexpected announcement is a bid to boost efforts to secure a global deal on reducing emissions after 2020, to be finalised next year in Paris. "We agreed to make sure that international climate change negotiations will reach an agreement in Paris," said Mr Xi, speaking to reporters after the announcement. Roger Harrabin, BBC environment analyst This agreement between the great polluters is a landmark in the battle against one of the world's most intractable problems. For years the US feared if it cut emissions, energy bills would rise - and divert jobs to China. Now the relationship is switching, from "we won't if you won't" towards "we will if you will". President Obama's offer is based on cuts in carbon emissions from coal power (a policy the Republicans threaten to reverse). China's offer to peak emissions is a long-awaited decision. Its emissions trajectory is now similar to Europe and the USA, just further behind because it still has so many people in poverty. Scientists will fear this agreement is not yet strong enough. But it does show leadership - and it sends a powerful signal to financiers that investing in dirty fuels for the future is becoming a risk. Follow Roger on Twitter 'Slow, peak then reverse' The new goal from the US is up from a previous target to cut emissions by 17% by 2020, compared with 2005 levels. In September, China told a United Nations summit on climate change that it would


Prompt: It’s not their fault. Miles from it. Yet, as always, they stand before the microphones, lights and cameras and own it. Daniel and Henrik Sedin, aged 36 and ticking, bear the weight of a franchise misguided. The four shutouts in five games, the seven-game losing skid, the league-worst offence, the pucks that bounce along the opposing goal-lines but refuse to trickle Vancouver’s way — they carry it all. They spin it positive, they dig for a bright side, and they play through the pain. “It’s heavily on our minds. It’s been that way throughout our careers. We think about it

before every game: We know we’re going to have to score goals,” says Henrik. “It’s something you think about all day, every day. “When you’re away from the rink you try to think of other things, but… we take a lot pride in scoring. If we’re not scoring, we don’t want to put pressure on anyone else to score.” Want to stream all 82 Canucks games this season? Sign up for Sportsnet NOW The Canucks captain and 2010 Hart and Art Ross Trophy winner leads the club in points (five), and brother Daniel is one behind. But when ownership is dreaming playoffs and you’re the franchise players with the offensive-zone starts and cushy power-play time, the pressure hits you hardest. “Our line needs to step up. Me and Hank. That’s what we’re here to do. That’s on us,” says Daniel. “Look nowhere else. It’s up to us to get things going.” It’s admirable, the Sedins’ proprietorship of Vancouver’s ineptitude, especially when they say all of this sincerely without a trace of woe-is-me. Certainly it’s not the twins’ fault that their employer failed to fill out the rest of the top six with finishers, that marquee free-agent signing Loui Eriksson is goal-free in 11 games, or that ownership is reluctant to embrace the type of rebuild that has fans buzzing about the future of Canada’s other sub-par rosters, the ones in Winnipeg, Calgary and Toronto. “That’s a fun team to follow,” Daniel says of the Maple Leafs, whose kids get the Canucks at the visitors’ low point on Hockey Night in Canada Saturday. How anti-fun is Vancouver’s offence right now? There is a bigger discrepancy between the Canucks’ 1.45 goals per game and the second-worst NHL offence (Los Angeles) than between any other two adjacent teams on the list. Vancouver ranks


Prompt: Bitcoin Price Soars to New Record High at $1425 The price of bitcoin is at record highs on May 1, reaching $1425 on the Bitstamp exchange, after breaking the previous all-time high at $1350. A move above the peak reached in the market mayhem accompanying the SEC’s ETF decision indicates that a long-term target for bulls has been validated at $1719.97. The monthly timeframe is shown below, with April’s candlestick displaying bullish dominance with a Marubozu, suggesting that it may be an optimal time to enter into a long position on bitcoin. After see-sawing around $1163 in February and March,

a clear break of the $1163.00 handle has been achieved in April, pointing to a move toward $1829.20 over the remainder of 2017. Also, notice that the Ichimoku cloud and converison line (blue) are moving higher as compared to the previous month, suggesting that the market will continue to trend higher for May. Week on week volume has been growing for the past 21 days, pointing to further gains ahead, as shown by the chart below. The next target for buyers will lie at the 161.8 percent Fibonacci extension level at $1719.97. Also, notice that the Awesome Oscillator is following the price, establishing a breakout this week from the previous peak of the Oscillator at 346.25 during the week beginning March 13. This confirms the breakout will lead to further gains and gives a strong probability the market will reach $1719.97 over the long term. The daily chart for BTC-USD is shown below. Notice the sharp graident of the conversion line, which is almost vertical, suggesting strong bullish momentum. Also, we see that the Market Facilitation Index is green, suggesting that traders should follow the market momentum and try to buy in into the ongoing uptrend. However, we may see some short-term correction. For example, the market has almost reached the Fibonacci extension level at $1432.44 and may turn back down to support at $1321.12. However, a break above $1432.44 will open up resistance at $1543.76. Bitcoin has been rising recently as the SEC announced it will reconsider the ETF decision for the cryptocurrency. Bats exchange submitted an appeal on March 23, asking the regulator to revert its position. If the decision is reversed and a bitcoin ETF is given the go ahead, this would bring fresh capital into the cryptocurrency and consequently push its value much higher, so the


Prompt: Japan's exports have also declined amid economic contraction [File: EPA] Japan's economy has slipped into recession after a worse than expected performance for the first quarter of the year. The economy contracted sharply in the first quarter, as factory production and consumer spending declined in the aftermath of the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami. Real gross domestic product - a measure of the value of all goods and services produced domestically - shrank at an annualised rate of 3.7 per cent in the January-March period, the country's cabinet office said on Thursday. The result marks the second straight quarter

that the world's third largest economy has lost steam and undershoots an annualised 2.3 per cent fall forecast in a Kyodo News agency survey. While there is no universally accepted definition of a recession, many economists define it as two consecutive quarters of GDP contraction. Others consider the depth of economic decline as well as other measures like unemployment. Japan's magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami left more than 24,000 people dead or missing, and wiped out entire towns in the hardest-hit areas. Damage is estimated at $300bn, making it the most expensive natural disaster in history. It damaged factories in the region, causing severe shortages of parts and components for manufacturers across Japan, especially automakers. A crippled nuclear power plant caused widespread power shortages that added to the difficulties faced by businesses and households. Seijiro Takeshita, director of Mizuho International, told Al Jazeera that recovery may take a long time because clean-up efforts were taking so long. Consumer spending falls Japan's factory production and consumer spending both fell the most on record in March. Exports in March went south for the first time in 16 months. Companies are reporting lower earnings and diminished outlooks for the rest of the fiscal year. Toyota, Japan's biggest automaker, said last week that its quarterly profit tumbled more than 75 per cent because of parts shortages after the tsunami. As of May, the crisis cost the company production of 550,000 vehicles in Japan and another 350,000 overseas. Toyota is expected to lose its spot as the world's top-selling automaker to General Motors this year. Even before the disaster, Japan's economy was shaky. In a historic shift, China overtook the country as the world's second largest economy last year. Japan struggled to address a slew of problems including years of deflation, a rapidly ageing and shrinking


Prompt: Articles It is hard to believe that just three weeks ago the entire corporate media was in uproar over Syria; specifically, about the need to 'do something' in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack in Khan Shaykhun, Idlib, Syria, on April 4. Guardian commentator George Monbiot summed up the corporate media zeitgeist: 'Do those who still insist Syrian govt didn't drop chemical weapons have any idea how much evidence they are denying?' Monbiot linked to evidence supplied by Bellingcat, an organisation hosted by Eliot Higgins. In a 2014 letter to the London Review of Books, Richard Lloyd and Ted

Postol, described by the New York Times as 'leading weapons experts', dismissed Higgins as 'a blogger who, although he has been widely quoted as an expert in the American mainstream media, has changed his facts every time new technical information has challenged his conclusion that the Syrian government must have been responsible for the sarin attack [in Ghouta, August 2013]. In addition, the claims that Higgins makes that are correct are all derived from our findings, which have been transmitted to him in numerous exchanges'. Professor Postol, a professor emeritus of science, technology, and national-security policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has an impressive record of fearlessly debunking propaganda. For example, the Pentagon declared the Patriot missile system no less than 98% successful at intercepting and destroying Iraqi Scud missiles during the 1991 Gulf War. After careful examination, Postol found that the Patriot's success rate was rather less impressive: 'It became clear that it wasn't even close to intercepting any targets, let alone some targets.' (Postol, quoted, Great Military Blunders, Channel 4, March 2, 2000) Postol has now challenged a White House report on the alleged chemical weapons attack in Idlib. He notes: 'The only source the document cites as evidence that the attack was by the Syrian government [air force] is the crater it claims to have identified on a road in the North of Khan Shaykhun.' But Postol claims that the White House's photographic evidence 'clearly indicates that the munition was almost certainly placed on the ground with an external detonating explosive on top of it that crushed the container so as to disperse the alleged load of sarin'. He adds: 'I have reviewed the document carefully, and I believe it can be shown, without doubt, that the document does not provide any evidence whatsoever that the


Prompt: Picture by Swiss Metro Soon Switzerland could get holes like the famous Swiss cheese: If everything works out for the planners of the "Swissmetro", than by middle of this century the metropolitan areas Zürich, Bern, Lausanne, Geneva und St. Gallen should be connected through a Tunnel system, that is breathtaking in the true sense of the word. A maglev train without wheels should, similar to the already activated Transrapid in Shanghai release the aboveground commuter traffic in a low pressure-duct of 6 meters. The advantages of the idea are evident: Traffic jams, accidents, weather capers and a lot more force

the traffic planers to perennially new extensions. Bigger tunnels have to be dug for the traffic, bridges are rebuilt or broadened. Speedier railway systems are run, which have to be protected by game fences and only save a few minutes time as well. All of that is becoming more and more costly through environmental regulations, mile long winding detours and abutter oppositions. A long-distance-subway would not only be environmentally sound compared to present traffic systems, it could also be dug dead straight, like an air-line distance of a plane in a depth of a 100 meters (under the groundwater table), because neither mountains nor difficult site would present an additional barrier. Swissmetro-Vice President Dr. Vincent Bourquin in the Interview: "Digging such a tunnel system over hundreds of kilometers is naturally not so cheap. But according to an international study the Swiss metro system is more beneficial over long distances than freeways and railway lines with all their constructional and legal problems." Picture by Swiss Metro Once built, such a subway could not only snow-and ice-free outrank the traditional Swiss railway, but also rank before aircrafts with half of a sonic speed on short distances. Dr. Vincent Bourquin: "Our Vacuum-Metro and the aircraft are quite alike in many points: During normal air pressure in the tunnel sections our wheel-less Railway-Torpedo would be on the way with approximately 200 km/h. If one reduces the air pressure, lowers the air resistance, in such a way that a partial-vacuum is produced, the train can be much faster – with up to 600 km/h. Airplanes take advantage of the same trick by ascending into huge height, because the air pressure is lower there. There aircrafts fly speedier and save more fuel as well. Therefore the Swissmetro would be provided with the same over centuries proved


Prompt: Contributing to GHC via Phabricator zw3rk Blocked Unblock Follow Following Dec 21, 2017 About two weeks ago I gave a talk on “Contriubting to GHC via Phabricator” at the local haskell.sg Meetup. Sadly the microphone died after a few minutes into the recording, and as such the video has no audio for most of the talk and is pretty useless. As the topic might be of interest to those who could not attend, I’ll write down the content of the talk as good as I can. Phabricator?! Let’s start with what Phabricator is, Phabricator is the code review tool GHC

uses. It was originally developed at Facebook by Evan Priestley, who has since founded Phacility, Inc where the development of Phabricator continues. Phabricator is not just used at GHC, it is also used for other projects like LLVM, the Wikimedia Foundation, FreeBSD, and a many more. I will now try to demonstrate the usage of Phabricator for a simple change (with many pictures!). Creating an account When visiting phabricator.haskell.org, this is the first screen you will be greeted with. We will proceed to open an account so we can do something useful. Upon clicking the “Log in” button you will reach the Log In form. While you can register a new account, I would suggest to use on of the available alternative account connectors. For this example, we’ll use GitHub. It will pull some username and Real Name from GitHub, but you will still be required to provide an email address. With the account we could not start reviewing other peoples code, or even submit our own code for review. So let’s do this next. I have a change in my tree Phabricator is not really concerned how your local tree looks like. It essentially only cares about differences. So you can go wild with your local branch management; use git however you like. For Phabricator try to think in patches (differences) instead of commits. For the following example, I’ve been working on cross compiler related issues and while doing so, I usually accumulate lots of different fixes in my branch. As such I now have some commit ( c93b5bbf1c adds -latomic to ghc-prim ) somewhere in my history, which I’d like to get into GHC proper. Let’s go ahead and create a new branch from origin/master and cherry-pick the relevant commit onto it. You could do this however you


Prompt: Русский English | Deutsch Blog Concepts Studios Milestones Archive 1981 Citroen Xenia (Coggiola) 1981, Citroen, Designed/Built by Coggiola, Frankfurt81, Trevor Fiore Tags: Concepts Citroen Xenia Concept, 1981 Citroen Xenia Concept, 1981 Citroen Xenia Concept, 1981 Citroen Xenia Concept, 1981 Citroen Xenia Concept, 1981 - Interior Citroen Xenia Concept, 1981 - Interior Citroen Xenia Concept, 1981 - Interior Citroen Xenia Concept, 1981 - Interior Citroen Xenia Concept, 1981 Citroen Xenia Concept, 1981 Рисунок А. Захарова - Citroen Xenia, 1981 Images: Concept Car Central; Mario Buonocunto Concept Cars Page Rating: 36 -16 +52 Comments ( ) Trevor Fiore was responsible for the

"break monocorps" Xenia. Fiore envisaged it as a GT for the year 2000. Unfortunately the concept was not developed any further. Throughout the eighties, Citroën turned down the idea of a single volume car, notwithstanding the success enjoyed by the Renault Espace. Indeed, PSA turned down the idea when Matra first showed them the idea, based on a BX platform. It was not until the launch of Evasion/Synergie that Citroën produced an MPV. The fashion in the early eighties was for motor manufacturers to display scale models of concept cars rather than vehicles that could actually be driven and Citroën was no exception.Trevor Fiore was responsible for the "break monocorps" Xenia.Fiore envisaged it as a GT for the year 2000.Unfortunately the concept was not developed any further.Throughout the eighties, Citroën turned down the idea of a single volume car, notwithstanding the success enjoyed by the Renault Espace.Indeed, PSA turned down the idea when Matra first showed them the idea, based on a BX platform.It was not until the launch of Evasion/Synergie that Citroën produced an MPV. The four-passenger Xenia was designed for the American market. With clean lines and loads of glass, the Xenia was also safely-designed, with a straight body line set over the car's 168-inch length and 40-inch height. At the rear, the taillights were placed very low on the rear bumper, under the large glass hatch incorporating the car's name in large letters. The windshield was extended down onto the cowl line for increased visibility. Also continuing this theme were side windows continuing downward. At the base of the windshield were solar battery cells which produced energy for the entertainment system and comfort features when the car wasn‘t running. All four pear-shaped seats were divided by a central transmission tunnel. All instruments were in visibility of only


Prompt: Six-time Olympic medallist Clara Hughes told an audience in Thompson March 16 that she thought winning her first Olympic medal – a bronze medal in cycling at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta – would quiet the feelings she had carried inside her since childhood, the idea that if she was the best at everything it would cure her family’s dysfunction. But it didn’t. article continues below Hughes was speaking at a public event in R.D. Parker Collegiate’s Letkemann Theatre as part of the eighth-annual Hope Forum, an event put on by the Hope North Suicide Prevention Committee in Thompson to

promote life and encourage frank, open discussion about mental illness and mental health. Tied with Cindy Klassen as Canada’s most-decorated Olympic athlete, with medals in multiple summer and winter games in cycling and long-track speed skating, Hughes might seem like the ultimate example of a person who’s got it all together. But the fact is, she earned those medals despite, and in some ways because of, her own mental health struggles and those of her family. “You can learn to manage, you can learn to cope and you can thrive with it,” she said of mental illness. “Four of those Olympic medals of the six that I won came after my first bout of depression, came within other relapses into depression.” A Winnipegger, Hughes told the crowd, which rewarded her with a standing ovation at the conclusion of her speech, that she remembers when she hid in a closet in her Elmwood home as a child, anticipating that her alcoholic father would come home and the family would come looking for her and they’d have a night as a nice, normal family. She fell asleep waiting for him to get back and when she awoke, the sounds she heard were not those of a happy family but of arguing parents. “I sat in that closet that night and for the first time felt a sense of hopelessness and worthlessness and failure and I was five and I know I’m not the only person in this room that has felt that,” said Hughes. Her sister, who has bipolar disorder and depression, sought solace in the streets and was sent to juvenile detention at the age of 13, spending the rest of her teens in custody and group homes, away from her family. Hughes was travelling down that same path, smoking a


Prompt: In a very special gesture,President @EPN personally drives @narendramodi to a restaurant for Mexican vegetarian fare pic.twitter.com/fF4WWQvUy2 — Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 9, 2016 Bonding over bean tacos! President @EPN and PM @narendramodi share a meal pic.twitter.com/ckmsmpjWo7 — Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 9, 2016 PM ends by quoting Octavio Paz “I can understand what it means to be Indian, because I am Mexican” Says its true the other way too. — Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 9, 2016 NEW DELHI: PM Narendra Modi's cup runneth over in Mexico City today.He got a rapturous welcome from the Indian community in Mexico City.

Then, he got President Enrique Peña Nieto's "positive and constructive support" for India's bid to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).And to top it all, Peña Nieto personally drove PM Modi for a vegetarian dinner to Quintonil , one of the world's top 50 restaurants of 2015.The PM and Peña Nieto "Bonding over bean tacos!" tweeted external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup.Modi is the first Indian PM to go on a state visit to Mexico, since former PM Rajiv Gandhi's trip in 1986.And to be sure, there must have been a lot more than bean tacos on the table. President Peña Nieto certainly picked well for the PM, a strict vegetarian.When theworlds50best.com put the restaurant at number 35 in the world last year, it specifically mentioned its vegetarian fare."Though meat is a feature on the tasting menu, (Chef Jorge) Vallejo aims to highlight the value of fruit and vegetables, as much for their flavour as for their nutritional value. Dishes on the tasting menu include huazontles, a green vegetable that vaguely resembles broccoli, with chiapas cheese and red tomato, and nopal cactus snow," the write-up said.Quintonil has also been lauded for being environmentally conscious. A large part of the reason for India wanting NSG membership is so it can move forward in its effort to stem climate change.The restaurant then was perhaps a perfect venue for Modi and Peña Nieto to chat more about the latter's ''constructive'' NSG support."With a strong commitment to reducing the ecological footprint of its food, Quintonil also sources much of its produce from its own urban orchard. While the majority of food in Mexico travels on average some 2,500 km from origin to plate, at Quintonil much of it is picked on a daily basis and travels just 30 metres."Foodies waiting to see if Swarup


Prompt: TAGUIG, Philippines – (UPDATED 1-Oct-14 19:33) A video showing Bonifacio Global City guards restraining a Caucasian man at the corner of 5th and 30th Avenue in BGC at 5:24PM on Saturday September 27 has been uploaded to YouTube in what can be considered a classic case ofpolice brutality.The video shows an un-armed Caucasian man wearing a light-colored polo shirt, khaki shorts, and blue sneakers being manhandled by at least seven uniformed officers while another one lay still, just a few meters away. Initially he was being restrained by two Bonifacio Global City guards, and two more quickly join the fray.A

marshal wearing only the standard black and orange guard uniform(no reflector) can be seen punching the Caucasian man in the stomach. A few seconds later he is surrounded and being forced onto the floor, his body pink and sore and his clothes all torn.In the confusion, one of the guards can be heard saying “posasan mo!” (cuff him) while the white keeps on saying “I’d like you … I’d like you … yes … it’s okay … it’s okay”.At the end of the video, one of the guards can be seen approaching the cameraman while shouting “hoy! putang ina mo ah! huy bakla!” (hey! you son of a bitch! you faggot!).Bonifacio Global City, Taguig contains a very high presence of expatriates from other countries due to the presence of business establishments and BPO (business process outsourcing) companies.Just two best friends on vacationAccording to our source, the two are English best friends Sam & Chris. Sam is a BGC resident and Chris is staying for vacation.Here’s what happened before this incident:The English men’s names are Sam & Chris, two of the nicest people I’ve known in the city. Sam is a resident of BGC & Chris is his best friend who’s here for vacation. Sam just wished to use his skateboard and have fun that Saturday Afternoon Sept 27. They initially played in front of Banana Republic along fifth avenue, two lady police women approached them and nicely told them that they can’t use the board in that area and they instructed them to play at the park instead, which they did.At the park, a lady marshal the one shown in the video with a proud look at 1:16 stopped them rudely unlike the police women. As per Sam’s sharing, in their country they look up to their police officers as


Prompt: One of the best things about beer gardens is getting your brew in one of those giant mugs that seem tailored specifically for Vikings or professional wrestlers. These enormous old-fashioned steins hold enough beer to fuel an entire afternoon of relaxation and camaraderie—and if you use them often enough, your drinking arm will get noticeably bigger than your other arm. In recent years, beer gardens inspired by their nineteenth-century predecessors have been returning to American cities. These places are often named with some variation of the classic German "biergarten," and are characterized by open spaces, big tables, and large crowds

during Sunday afternoons. Alongside classic cocktail bars, the new beer gardens draw inspiration from the past to create a modern drinkscape drenched in nostalgia, and create a lens for understanding America's drinking past. America's first beer gardens appeared in the nineteenth century, courtesy of a wave of German immigrants. America's gardens closely resembled their counterparts in the Old World, which were sprawling establishments conducive to lazy Sunday afternoons spent with family or striking up conversations with friendly strangers. Germany's beer gardens were originally created after brewing was banned during the summer months due to repeated brewery fires. Breweries responded to the ban by digging cellars near riverbanks to keep their beer cool until they needed it in summer and to give their lager-style beers the proper conditions to ferment properly. Breweries cooled these cellars further by scattering gravel on the ground and planting leafy shade trees. It wasn't long before tables and chairs showed up in these pleasant environs, and the beer gardens grew to host thousands of people who congregated to listen to music, discuss politics, play chess, or just lounge about in the sun. American beer gardens followed suit, offering a stark contrast to saloons and taverns that were often dark and dingy places designed for grouchy old men to take quick slugs of whiskey. American beer gardens helped German immigrants preserve part of their identity and heritage, but also introduced other Americans to a more relaxed form of drinking while offering a space to hold athletic events, as well as civic and religious functions. The rise of beer gardens in America coincided with the opulent industrial and economic advances of the Gilded Age, and their style reflected that. The gardens built by brewing giants such as Frederick Pabst and Frederick Miller to promote their brands were the


Prompt: Target’s anti-union video for employees -- which previously drew ridicule for strained and earnest delivery, kitschy and melodramatic graphics, and sub-par production values -- appears to have gotten a makeover. The newer video, reviewed by Salon (but which is not being re-posted for legal reasons), echoes or repeats verbatim many of the lines from its predecessor, which Gawker’s Hamilton Nolan posted in 2011 and mocked as “shitty propaganda” with “the production values of an eighth-grade educational film.” Gone are the switch to black-and-white (to depict a unionized universe); the trippy image of $20 bills stacking up against a shifting red

background (to represent union dues), and the sight and sound of a slamming door (to portray being cut off from communicating directly with management). An actual Target executive no longer makes a cameo to stiffly set forth Target’s stance on organizing; instead, the two stars of the new film ("Dawn" and "Ricardo," replacing "Doug" and "Maria") make all points on his behalf. Advertisement: But the message is much the same: Narrators tell employees -- whom union organizers charge were required to watch the video in mandatory meetings -- that right now, “We put people in jobs because they’re well-suited for them, not because of the day they happened to get hired.” If a union came in, “chances are they would change our fast, fun and friendly culture, with their way of doing business.” Workers are warned that “this is a very competitive business that we’re in,” and that “If Target faced rigid union contracts like some of our competitors, our ability to serve our guests could suffer dramatically – and with fewer guests, what happens to our team?” Even if they vote union, they’re told, “Management doesn’t have to agree to any union demand.” The video closes with a pledge that “there are always people you can talk to,” and a list of five places to take your questions: “Supervisors/leaders”; “Human Resources”; “Chat Sessions”; “Best Team Survey”; and “Employee Relations and Integrity Hotline” (not listed: rank and file co-workers). The Target video, “Think Hard: Protect Your Signature,” was shown to Valley Stream, N.Y., Target employees in the lead-up to a 2011 unionization vote, according to the United Food & Commercial Workers union. Target was compelled to turn over the video as part of the National Labor Relations Board’s investigation of alleged illegal union-busting prior to that election, in which employees


Prompt: Over the last 24 hours on Twitter there was a perfect example of how mainstream fake news happens. Of course, it’s an old story – on Wednesday, a lazy article claimed Corbyn had asked no questions on Brexit in PMQs (Prime Minister’s Questions) even though the reporter knew that Theresa May was making her Article 50 statement after PMQs, to which Corbyn asked many pointed questions – but the fake news stuck in the minds of some, perhaps many. Similarly, the nonsense about Corbyn ‘failing’ to declare part of his income in his tax return was thoroughly debunked immediately after

it was claimed – but just a couple of days ago, mainstream publications like the Evening Standard were repeating it as fact. Lazy journalism or malicious – either way it’s inexcusable. Today’s example started with an ill-phrased Twitter comment yesterday by Buzzfeed journalist Marie Le Conte in which she complained about slow responses by Labour to requests for quotes from the leadership: Others jumped in, ready (or keen) to reinforce the apparent point that Corbyn’s comms team is slow and, presumably, ill-organised: Within half an hour, Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘LOTO’ (Leader of the Opposition) head of communications, Matt Zarb-Cousin, responded quickly to make the point that he, well, always responds within half an hour: To her credit, Ms Le Conte was quick to backtrack and clarify: However, in the interim, a host of ‘journalists’, no doubt happy to have a ready-to-eat Corbyn-kicking/Labour-bashing story on hand, had already started to spread the original, misleading comment as ‘news’. Sam Coates of the Times appears to have been fastest: Quickly followed by a ‘Who’s Who’ of anti-Corbyn/pro-LibDem journalists and hacks: That vital ingredient in the anti-Corbyn fake-news soufflé – the self-serving blairite malcontent(s) keen to stir the excrement – wasn’t absent for long. In this case, it was one of the worst, Neil Coyle, who was quick to capitalise: Once word got around about Matt Zarb-Cousin’s response and Ms Le Conte’s subsequent correction, other journalists, including right-wingers such as Guido Fawkes – plus one or two of those who’d jumped on the wrong bandwagon, to be fair to them – acknowledged it: Not the odious Coyle, of course. But the narrative of incompetent/inefficient comms at Jeremy Corbyn’s office was already set – and anyone who didn’t catch the later corrections or who only followed those who failed to correct will still be carrying the


Prompt: REG REAGAN runs the rule over every NSW and Queensland player ahead of Game II and he hasn’t held back! NSW Sub-type: comment CAPTION: NSW Sub-type: comment CAPTION: NSW JARRYD HAYNE Says the turning point in his career was being shot at six years ago at Kings Cross. He says, ``It taught me the importance of speed and evasion’’. DANIEL TUPOU Going into this Origin II camp, Laurie Daley urged the young man to talk more and he actually did... Then he was encouraged to talk less! JOSH DUGAN Son of Queanbeyan grog monster, `Dave Dugan’. Dave recently went to

give blood and when they drew it out, it formed a head. A man after my own heart. MICHAEL JENNINGS Is having his best season in years for the Roosters. Which isn’t saying much because his previous four years were pathetic. Boo Bailey artwork Source: The Daily Telegraph WILLIAM HOPOATE Recently returned from a Mormon mission where he broke the Mormon record for most Bibles sold. William said the secret to his selling success was kindness, as well as taking his father John, just in case they were considering not buying. JOSH REYNOLDS A typical rough, tough Western Suburbs boy. Was homesick all week in Coffs Harbour and had trouble sleeping. Eventually Laurie Daley had to stand outside his hotel room window and fire a handgun, just to make him feel at home. TRENT HODKINSON Has a huge phoenix tattoo emblazoned across his chest to remind him of all the injuries he’s overcome, and also a cellmate he became particularly fond of during a stint in Long Bay prison. NSW Origin stars Josh Dugan, Jarryd Hayne and Will Hopoate. Picture Gregg Porteous Source: News Corp Australia PAUL GALLEN When the great Bob Fulton labelled Paul Gallen a possible future Immortal, Gallen said it was his proudest moment. No-one has had the guts to tell Paul that Bozo was joking. ROBBIE FARAH Was at the centre of all the post-game celebrations at full-time as coach Laurie Daley turned Robbie upside down and used his nose as a yard glass for teammates to drink out of. AARON WOODS Last week, he put his Leichhardt house up for sale. The real estate guide described the house as, ``Just like its footballing owner, large, ugly and rather empty upstairs’’. Unsung heroes of the NSW Blues Origin team Beau Scott and Ryan Hoffman. Picture Gregg


Prompt: Energy development is the field of activities focused on obtaining sources of energy from natural resources. These activities include production of conventional, alternative and renewable sources of energy, and for the recovery and reuse of energy that would otherwise be wasted. Energy conservation and efficiency measures reduce the demand for energy development, and can have benefits to society with improvements to environmental issues. Societies use energy for transportation, manufacturing, illumination, heating and air conditioning, and communication, for industrial, commercial, and domestic purposes. Energy resources may be classified as primary resources, where the resource can be used in substantially its original

form, or as secondary resources, where the energy source must be converted into a more conveniently usable form. Non-renewable resources are significantly depleted by human use, whereas renewable resources are produced by ongoing processes that can sustain indefinite human exploitation. Thousands of people are employed in the energy industry. The conventional industry comprises the petroleum industry, the natural gas industry, the electrical power industry, and the nuclear industry. New energy industries include the renewable energy industry, comprising alternative and sustainable manufacture, distribution, and sale of alternative fuels. Classification of resources [ edit ] Open System Model (basics) Energy resources may be classified as primary resources, suitable for end use without conversion to another form, or secondary resources, where the usable form of energy required substantial conversion from a primary source. Examples of primary energy resources are wind power, solar power, wood fuel, fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas, and uranium. Secondary resources are those such as electricity, hydrogen, or other synthetic fuels. Another important classification is based on the time required to regenerate an energy resource. "Renewable" resources are those that recover their capacity in a time significant by human needs. Examples are hydroelectric power or wind power, when the natural phenomena that are the primary source of energy are ongoing and not depleted by human demands. Non-renewable resources are those that are significantly depleted by human usage and that will not recover their potential significantly during human lifetimes. An example of a non-renewable energy source is coal, which does not form naturally at a rate that would support human use. Fossil fuels [ edit ] Fossil fuel (primary non-renewable fossil) sources burn coal or hydrocarbon fuels, which are the remains of the decomposition of plants and animals. There are three main types of fossil fuels: coal,


Prompt: I complain a lot on this blog about traditional approaches to teaching music theory. Fortunately, there’s a better alternative: Everyday Tonality by Philip Tagg. Don’t be put off by the DIY look of the web site. The book is the single best explanation I know of for how harmony works across a broad spectrum of the world’s music. Tagg brings an ethnomusicological approach to music theory. Rather than starting with a particular theoretical approach and trying to fit it to different kinds of music, he derives generalizations from different kinds of music as they are practiced. Tagg’s model of harmony

is less tidy than the standard classical theory text, but so is the world he’s describing. Common-practice tonal theory classical theory was invented to explain the European classical canon, not every kind of music in the world. Tonal theory focuses on harmony to the exclusion of nearly everything else. The problem is that the academy teaches this theory of a particular aspect of the music of a certain time and place as if it were the foundation for understanding any kind of music. Euroclassical tonal theory is fine for explain large-scale linear harmonic structure over the course of sections and movements of classical works, but it fails when you try to apply it to the static, loop-oriented harmonies structures of most of the music that people currently listen to. Tagg gives the example of “La Bamba.” On its face, the chord progression to “La Bamba” couldn’t be any simpler: I, IV and V, over and over. A classical theorist looks at that and says, it’s tonic, subdominant, dominant, repeat. But “La Bamba” doesn’t feel like a narrative of being at rest, then mild tension, then more extreme tension, then being at rest again. The chords go by too fast and with too many repetitions for that. The song isn’t a linear narrative. It feels like one continuous mood. Tagg explains: Explaining something as common and as ostensibly simple as the La Bamba chord loop (as in La Bamba, Guantanamera, Wild Thing, Pata Pata, Twist & Shout etc.) in terms of tonic, subdominant and dominant had for some time struck me as about as productive as using theories of combustion to explain electricity. And yet some music scholars still try to apply Schenkerian notions of harmonic directionality to tonal configurations in which notions like ‘dominant’ and ‘perfect cadence’ are at best


Prompt: By Alexi Lalas At 15, wrestling was not my thing. Singlets and those lace-up shoes that looked like ballet shoes seemed like a silly way to spend two hours of my then-still-short life. However, pretty girls and rock music were an easy sell. Definitely worth $6.50 at the Showcase Cinemas in Pontiac, Michigan, a few miles from where I grew up. But Vision Quest, even two and a half decades later, is about a lot more than pretty girls and rock music. It’s about more than wrestling, for that matter. It’s about the teenage desire to live a life with

meaning, even for a moment, and about the ambition that small-town reality tries to put in a headlock and pin before it has a chance. Based on Terry Davis’s solid 1979 novel, the story is simple enough: Louden Swain, played by Matthew Modine, is a high school wrestler in Spokane who decides to wrestle the state champion. He wants more from life than what his father and his teachers have. He wants greatness, not the usual. He wants to know that he has it inside himself to be something. In short, he’s Holden Caulfield in a singlet. And he wants a woman, not a girl. Of course, the woman arrives, in the form of Carla, a mysterious and beautiful drifter, played by Linda Fiorentino, who rents a room at the Swain house. And we’re off. Modine hits a good balance of awkwardness and pretention as Louden, and Fiorentino is able to overcome some hellacious hair to still look thoroughly smokin’ hot. How many of us sat at home wondering if it’s true that a pair of good-looking hands will get us a woman like that? Michael Schoeffling, fresh off of playing Jake Ryan in Sixteen Candles, provides needed doses of comic relief as Kuch, Louden’s simpleton sidekick. As does Elmo, the line cook played by J.C. Quinn, who gives a memorable monologue about a soccer game in a faraway land that, for obvious reasons, resonated with me. But Vision Quest isn’t a coming-of-age chucklefest like Can’t Buy Me Love and Weird Science. It’s a gritty, emotionally honest movie whose texture and authenticity set it apart from its teen-flick contemporaries in the same way The Outsiders was different than Risky Business. The other differentiating factor that made Vision Quest hum was an unstoppable soundtrack. All killer and no filler. Tunes that


Prompt: I was in Cleveland the day LeBron announced he would be taking his talents to South Beach. I’ve performed music in Cleveland more times than I can count. One of the things I enjoy about touring is getting to meet sports fans of all different teams, and walks of life. In that one day I gained more respect for Cleveland as a fan base than I have for any other in my life. The sense of absolute misery that overtook everyone – from gas station attendants to elite music promoters and executives – was overwhelming. Even dogs walked around aimlessly,

looking like they had been recently kicked. Cleveland is a city that lives vicariously through their professional sports franchises. Win or lose (and there’s been a lot more “lose” both recently and historically) the fans there take it personally. I love that about them. Now, the Cleveland Browns are at a crossroads. Coming off a disappointing 4-12 season in 2011, the organization is faced with a monumental decision: What to do at quarterback, the league’s most vital position. My friends, my loyal readers, my fellow students of NFL sickness; it is here you will learn that whatever road Cleveland takes from their present situation into the wild blue yonder will come through Central Texas. Browns QB Colt McCoy needs little introduction around these parts. While at the University of Texas, he broke nearly every Longhorn single-season and career QB record and took home 13 of 15 major QB awards his senior season as a Heisman and national championship finalist. McCoy is tough, gritty, smart, elusive, and accurate which makes up for his “so-so” arm strength. After being drafted in the third round and getting to start in spot duty in 2010, Colt came into the 2011 season as the Browns’ starting QB in a West Coast system that many close to the team thought he was beginning to get a good grasp of. The Browns’ season went on to be hampered by brutal injuries along the offensive line, a constant merry-go-round freak show at the running back position, and a complete lack of playmaking ability at WR. McCoy was lost for the season to a concussion suffered in Pittsburgh during week 13 via an illegal James Harrison hit. When the dust settled on the Browns’ 2011 season, only three numbers really mattered, though: 4, 12, and 0. Four wins, 12


Prompt: Get the Recipe Easy Oven-Cooked Pulled Pork More Sandwiches Tips and tricks for making the best sandwiches at home. The easiest way I know of to ruffle the feathers of food-minded folks mounted atop high horses is to refer to some sort of vegetable preparation as "bacon." Second is to speak ill of a regional specialty that ought to stay regional (here's lookin' at you, cheesesteaks). Coming in a close third? Suggesting that pulled pork can be prepared via any method other than low-and-slow in a smoke-filled barbecue. I used to count myself among those rankled by that third one.

My experience with indoor pulled pork was limited to the extra-wet and extra-sweet variety, braised in a slow cooker like a beer-bellied vacationer who accidentally fell asleep in a hot tub of bottled barbecue sauce. How could it ever compare to the tender and moist—but never wet—texture of real barbecue with a dark crust, a rich and smoky flavor, and a lovingly crafted sauce? Easy: It can't compare, and it shouldn't compare. Just as it's perfectly possible to love both grilled steaks and pan-seared steaks, or grilled burgers and burgers smashed on a griddle, it's okay to enjoy pork shoulder cooked both outdoors and in-. The two dishes are similar but completely different foods that can both be appreciated on their own merits,* without involving a slight to your man- or womanhood. * That said, I am working on a method for producing real barbecue-style pulled pork at home, complete with smoke ring and bark, which will show up in the follow-up volume to my first book. Stay tuned! But, just as there are great burgers and poor, not all indoor pulled pork is created equal. My goal with this recipe was to come up with a technique to produce pulled pork that shreds into large, tender chunks that are moist but not wet, with a flavor that balances sweet molasses, bright vinegar, heat, and just a hint of smoke. Oh, and I wanted it to be darn easy to boot. Going Dutch Most simple pulled pork recipes involve dumping a pork shoulder into a slow cooker, adding some bottled barbecue sauce and stock, and letting it cook until the pork falls apart. There were two simple and obvious upgrades that could be made to this method. First was to ditch the slow cooker and use a Dutch oven placed


Prompt: YONHAP / EPA South Korean swimmers are headed to the islets known as Dokdo in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan, and which are claimed by both countries, on Aug. 14, 2012 * UPDATE: South Korean media report that the team of swimmers reached the islands at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday — six and a half hours ahead of schedule. The entire relay reportedly took 48 hours and 30 minutes. Tensions are rising once again over the tiny islands, known as Dokdo in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan, and claimed by both countries, with the latest spat coming at a

bizarre intersection of pop culture, sports and politics. This week dozens of South Koreans are holding a relay swim of 220 km from the South Korean coast to the islands in order to reassert the nation’s sovereignty over the disputed territory. The swimmers, led by pop singer Kim Jang-hoon, are scheduled to arrive in the early afternoon of Aug. 15 — a day that marks the 67th anniversary of South Korea’s independence from Japanese colonial rule. Their swim follows a visit last Friday by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak — the first ever by the country’s top leader — which prompted Japan to summon the South Korean ambassador in Tokyo and to recall its top diplomat from Seoul. Japan also suggested that it might take the territorial dispute to the International Court of Justice. (MORE: Why South Korea Is in an Uproar over Intelligence Sharing with Japan) The islands are located in the gulf between the two countries — known as the Sea of Japan by Japanese and the East Sea by South Koreans — and are about the same distance from each. Seoul and Tokyo have been playing tug-of-war over the ownership of the islets for decades; South Korea stationed a coast-guard detachment on the islands in 1954 and has administered the islets since then. Despite their size, ownership of the islands is important for more than just national pride; they lie in rich fishing grounds and are near a seabed that could contain vast natural-gas deposits. The latest dispute flared up late last week at the Olympics, when Korean soccer player Park Jong-woo displayed a political sign saying “Dokdo Is Our Territory” after the country won the bronze-medal match against Japan. The International Olympic Committee, which prohibits political statements by athletes, withheld his medal, barred him from participating